Easter V

The Epistle St. James 1.22

Dearly beloved: Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer: he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth, what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful heater, but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Many years ago, I knew a man (who was about my own age, and whom I considered to be a friend), who talked very openly about how he was a “Christian”. Naturally, in the course of our discussions about his “Christianity”, he discovered that I was an adherent of the Catholic Faith; and as our conversations progressed he became quite amazed to discover that, in spite of the fact that I was a Catholic, I was a Christian as well!

Now, it didn’t take much for me to convince him that I was a Christian; all I had to do was recite the Apostle’s Creed; most of which he had no problem with (though his facial expression to “born of the Virgin Mary”, was priceless). But what was really interesting to me was how he responded whenever I would ask him this question; “how do you live out your Christianity”?

At first, my challenge seemed to fluster this man. Then he would talk about how he attended bible studies; how he tried to be nicer to people; and, of course, how he contributed financially to his church. But since I was at that time in my life, in a more sarcastic and skeptical frame of mind (believe it or not), I would press him further; “OK, but how have you really, personally been changed; and not only that, how specifically have you changed your life as a result of your acceptance of Christ”?

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer: he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth, what manner of man he was “. In other words, it is all well and good that we come here and listen to the Epistle and Gospel lessons, and perhaps even pay attention during the Sermon; but do those actions alone make us Christian? Our attendance at Mass, our dutiful reading of the Bible may mark us as identifying with Christianity, but is that all that there is to the Christian life?

Of course, as is implied in today’s selection from St. James’ Epistle, it is not. All too often, we are tempted to think that our mere attendance at Mass satisfies our responsibility as Christians. We are given to think as Woody Allen once put it in another context, “eighty percent of success is showing up”. But this is not how success is measured in Christian terms.

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer: he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth, what manner of man he was“. Here we must remember that in ancient times mirrors were made of defective materials; and so when one looked at their reflection, they saw a face full of imperfections. The temptation for one who beheld such an image was to dismiss these reflections and forget the imperfections that were exposed in the mirror.

But as Christians, we are forced to look into a perfect mirror; one that reflects with absolute clarity our imperfect state. It is this reflection, this stark presentation of our sinful condition that compels us not only to examine our lives in greater honesty, but to determine if we have truly been doing the work of God; and to know if we have been Faithful followers of His Word.

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful heater, but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed“. So when we say that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, it means that we have performed this self-examination and admitted in our hearts and minds that the imperfections that we see are not just a “trick of the mirror”. The reflection that comes back to us is a true one, no matter how disturbing it may be. But the next step, our reaction to this image of ourselves, is what makes all the difference.

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer: he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth, what manner of man he was“. This was the challenge that I presented to my friend. He had gone to church. He had attended some classes. He had even thought to memorize any number of Bible verses, which he would quote whenever he thought they could support his arguments.

But he had also been lead to believe that all he really needed to do was to speak the words, “I accept JEEESUS!”, and that everything would then be OK from there on out. And so when I asked him how he had changed his life as a result, all he could do was talk about his attendance at church or at Bible study or about his financial contributions (though, curiously, he seemed to be increasingly uncomfortable about this). He had not been taught, nor had he discerned, what it meant when I quoted to him from St. James; “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful heater, but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed“.

You see, to be a true Christian means that our conversion leads to a commitment to amending our lives; our response to the acknowledgement of our imperfections should be to grow, to become better, to the reformation of ourselves. We cannot simply be a “hearer of the word, and not a doer“, because if we are to claim that we are Christians, then we must also “looketh into the perfect law of liberty“; and when we do in all Faith, we can never be “a forgetful heater, but a doer of the work“.

The “perfect law of liberty” is of course, God’s Law; which has been revealed to us by His Holy Incarnation. If we claim to be Christians, we cannot look into that “perfect law“, the Mystery of the Incarnation, and deny its Truth. We cannot “continueth therein“, as Faithful Christians if we also “forgetteth, what manner of man “ we were.

And so, this was the challenge that I presented to my friend so many years ago; but it is the same one that we face today; “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer: he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth, what manner of man he was“.

Have we truly heard the Word of God, and have we truly determined to amend our lives in accordance with God’s Law; or have we simply made the minimal effort and then proceeded to act as we always did before? Have we thought that we are shown to be Faithful followers of Christ by our attendance at Mass or by our financial offerings to the Church, or have we admitted that even these contributions can never be enough? Have we thought that by simply “showing up” that we have completed our mission as a Christian people, or have we implored others to likewise explore, to seek, to look “into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein“.

This is the challenge that has been issued to us all; to show the world that we have changed ourselves, our souls, and our bodies; that we have become reasonable, holy, and living sacrifices unto God; that we have truly amended our lives as a result of the Sacrifice of Christ; that we have become “doers of the word, and not hearers only“.

This is the challenge that has been issued to us all; to confess the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others. To witness to these people how we have been changed by the Word of God, and to implore them to likewise examine their lives; so that they may come to recognize the impurities, the imperfections that persist in their mortal existence; to show how they may grow, become better and reform themselves; and finally, to show them how the path to Eternal Life has been revealed through the Mystery of God’s Holy Incarnation.

This is the challenge that has been issued to us all; to proclaim to the world that we are not “forgetful hearers“, of God’s Word; but rather that we are a people who have looked “into the perfect law of liberty“,and continued to work as disciples of Christ. This is our opportunity to tell all who would hear that by “being not a forgetful heater, but a doer of the work”, we are truly Christian.

Our response to this challenge is how we will show that we have beheld our “natural face in a glass“, acknowledged our imperfections, and by our Faith, amended our lives. It is our response to this challenge that we will know that our efforts will join with the Saints and Martyrs whose works were likewise “blessed in his deed “. It is our response to this challenge that will show how we have changed our lives because we are Christians.