How do you remember your school days? What were your teachers like? I
realise there are some people here who are still at school, some people have
now become teachers themselves, and others have retired from teaching. When
you think about your teachers, some might have been rather kind, whilst others
seemed to be in a bad mood all the time. Some were really good at explaining
things, whilst others were not. Some teachers had that presence which made
the class focus on what there were supposed to be doing – you really knew they
were in charge, whilst for others, this wasn’t so much the case. Some teachers
might have a certain reputation: perhaps Mr so and so is really strict and will
go through all your mistakes with a red pen, but you know that he will teach
you well and get you good grades in the end. I remember there was one teacher
in my secondary school of whom it was said: he doesn’t get angry, he just
gives an explosive dose of sarcasm instead. “I see. You missed the class and
didn’t copy up the work. What’s the matter? Don’t you have any friends?”
“A disciples is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will
be like his teacher.” If Our Lord is our teacher, then we have to be willing to
listen and pay attention! No skipping class or thinking we know better! We
live in a world where there are many “teachers” around, and I don’t mean
school teachers, but rather the world of media and also entertainment. When
you open a book, or watch a film, you are entering into the author’s world, and
what happens reflects the author’s world-view. Sometimes, people’s biases are
quite obvious. I remember reading a book set in the first millennium in
England, with a definite anti-Christian character. The pagans were the clever
people, whilst the Christians were stupid. Compare that with some of the
original Fr Brown stories written by the Catholic author G K Chesterton, where
Fr Brown, whilst solving various murder mysteries, is also challenging people’s
prejudices against the Catholic faith.
So in the Gospel passage, Our Lord is trying to correct some of the wrong ideas
and attitudes people have picked up from other “teachers”. For those that think
He is like a teddy bear, always meek and mild, it’s time to discover the real
Jesus. He’s implicitly calling people arrogant, because they think they are
perfect and can now go around and spread their own teachings, when in fact
they have serious blind spots in their own perception and behaviour. He even
calls them hypocrites. To be called a hypocrite means that your life is just an
act, like an actor on the stage. You give the impression of being like this,
whilst actually you’re not really like that at all. Elsewhere, in Matthew 23:27-
28, He says to the scribes and Pharisees:
“You ... are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but
inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption. In the same
way you appear from the outside like good honest men, but inside you are full
of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
At the time of Christ, one of the problems was a certain spirit of
permissiveness, which only outlawed the very worst. The Ten Commandments
say not to kill, not to commit adultery and so on, so as long as you don’t
literally do those, you are fine. But Our Lord said that it’s no good removing
the fruit and allowing the tree to grow; we have to remove the tree and even get
rid of its roots. Not only do we not kill, we have to look at eliminating our
anger against others, and that’s not just avoiding violence, or even being careful
how we speak to each other, but it even means purifying our thoughts; and He
takes the same approach with lust. The new standard is higher than the old!
We can find this all a bit difficult. As human beings, affected by Original Sin,
we do have sinful tendencies, we are inclined at times towards what is wrong,
and it’s a problem right from our childhood. St Paul writes that the problem
with the Old Testament is that whilst it’s very good at pointing out our faults,
it’s not always quite so good at helping us overcome them. Meanwhile, with
the coming of Christ, we are given the grace of God, through prayer and the
sacraments, to help us to begin to become more like Christ.
There is the saying “fake it till you make it”. If you understand it the wrong
way round, it can sound like just another way of being hypocrites; but it’s
different. The hypocrite doesn’t actually believe and doesn’t want to change;
the hypocrite just outwardly conforms to fit in with society. If you “fake it till
you make it”, then you are on a journey. “I don’t want to be like this. I want to
control my thoughts, control my tongue, and overcome the bad habits where I
just want to lash out.” We recognise that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. But
with God, we have a destination: not pagan Rome, but being Roman Catholics.
We just have to listen to our teacher. And listening means that we put His
words into practice. And that is how we come to bear good fruit.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk