I want to begin by making a clarification: the opposite of pessimism is optimism and optimism is not hope. One can be a pessimist and still have hope. I know because c'est moi. My hope is in God and in God alone. In the person of Jesus, God became human. God is one of us! As Saint Paul notes in today's "epistle" reading, it was by becoming one of us that He was able to die and rise. Jesus conquered sin and death. This is my hope.
Hope is made manifest in reality. Every Spring is a resurrection. Every morning that I awake is a resurrection. Every dark valley I have passed through and come out the other side verifies my hope. It also enhances my trust in the One who walks with me through valley of the shadow of death, which is a poetic way of referring to the One who walks with me on the journey of life.
As unrelated as it might seem to the other readings, as is often the case during Ordinary Time, when the lectionary seeks to explictly connect the Old Testament reading to the Gospel, thus, more often than not, leaving the epistle reading to fend for itself, there is a connection between our passage from the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians and the Gospel.
Eternal life doesn't begin after physical death. To live on that basis is to wish more than hope. Rather, eternal life begins when, after having died and been buried in the waters of baptism, you emerge, come forth, arise. From that point forward, your life should look different, should be different, a change from how you previously lived, a life characterized by Jesus' teachings.
In short, as Christians, our lives should look redeemed. As Nietzsche intimated, too often Christians don't look or seem redeemed.
Lent starts Wednesday. Ash Wedensday to the First Sunday of Lent is kind of a Lenten warm-up period. Lent is the time to repent. While repentance starts with acknowledging and being heartily sorry for one's sins, it does not consist only or mainly of that. Let's eschew what Bonhoeffer famously called "cheap grace." To truly repent is to endeavor, with God's help, to live a more Christ-like life.
Like Job, Eccelesiastes, Proverbs, Psalms, the Song of Solomon, etc. Sirach is a wisdom book. As such, it contains divine wisdom. Our passage from this wisdom book urges you to be careful what you say, to be patient in tribulation, to pay attention to what others say and how they say it.
When it comes to judging, it is important to clarify things. First, we inevitably make judgments all the time. Guess, what, this is fine, even necessary. This even extends to matters of good and evil. Let's face it, you can't live very long without making a judgment. But, in ultimate terms, judgment belongs to God alone. Whether applied to yourself or others, what Jesus says is true: "from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks." Speech provides a basis for judgment.
Be measured and prudent even when, maybe especially when, you're speaking critically on some matter about which you care deeply. By all means, speak the truth, call out lies, do so courageously, stand up for the downtrodden, warn others not to eat rotten fruit, but don't hate. Don't let your heart be contaminated with poison. Trust me, I understand that living in a toxic culture increases the risk of spiritual cancer. But you can take measures to ensure you don't get sick.
Here are some of Jesus' prescriptions to protect you from the toxicity that frequently engulfs us: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, especially when the latter takes the form of serving others. Especially this Lent, we should all focus more on what we're taking up rather than what we're giving up. The moment we're living calls for much more than making ourselves uncomfortable in some piddling way.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are spiritual disciplines. These are fundamental to living a Christian life. Of course, disciples follow the disciplines taught by their master so as to become more like the master. Because these disciplines are aimed at making us more self-giving, more self-sacrificing, they are meant to make us more like Jesus. Living this way is meant to make you joyful, truly happy, not miserable. The extent to which practicing these makes you miserable is the extent to which you and I need to repent.
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