SPEAKER_00: There's a sentence in today's gospel that I think human beings have been saying for two thousand years.
SPEAKER_00: If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, well, Jesus is speaking to the people who have built beautiful monuments to the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: They honor them, they decorate their tombs, they speak reverently about them, and then they say, If we had lived back then, we would never have treated the prophets the way our ancestors did.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if I had been there, I would have known better.
SPEAKER_00: If I had been there, I would have recognized Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: I would have listened to Jeremiah, I would have stood up with the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is having none of it.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is very easy to recognize a prophet once he has been dead for five hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: It's much harder when the prophet is standing there right in front of you telling you something you do not want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And that may be one of the great illusions of the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: We imagine ourselves faithful in situations we have never had to face.
SPEAKER_00: We read scripture knowing how the story ends.
SPEAKER_00: We know Moses is Moses, and we know David is David, and we know the prophets were right.
SPEAKER_00: We know Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: We know Judas is about to betray him.
SPEAKER_00: We know Peter is about to deny him.
SPEAKER_00: And because we know all of that, we instinctively place ourselves among the faithful.
SPEAKER_00: We imagine that if we had been standing in Jerusalem on Good Friday, surely he would have been there with Mary and John at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: But there's much better way to find out.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how we're living now.
SPEAKER_00: Because character is not something we suddenly acquire when a heroic moment arrives.
SPEAKER_00: We bring into the great moments the person we have been becoming in all the little ones.
SPEAKER_00: That is why today's first reading is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Paul says something remarkably practical to the Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them, Look at how we lived among you.
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to present ourselves as a model for you so that you might imitate us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul doesn't simply say, Listen to what I preach.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says, watch how I live.
SPEAKER_00: Watch how I work, watch how I carry responsibility, watch whether I burden other people unnecessarily.
SPEAKER_00: Watch whether my life actually corresponds to the gospel that I'm proclaiming.
SPEAKER_00: That is Christianity with the excuses removed.
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul says something that can sound harsh.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the word unwilling.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not condemning the poor.
SPEAKER_00: He's confronting Christians who had apparently begun using their expectation of Christ's return as an excuse to abandon their responsibilities and live off everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, no, I'm not going to have that.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting for Jesus is not an excuse to stop living responsibly.
SPEAKER_00: Faith should make us more faithful to our duties, not less.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly the first reading and the gospel belong together.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus condemns people who build monuments to holiness while refusing conversion in the present.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, then make your life the evidence, do the work, carry your responsibilities, live what you say you believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's a temptation in religion to admire holiness instead of becoming holy.
SPEAKER_00: We can read books about saints, we can visit their shrines, keep statues in our homes, quote them, celebrate the feast days, and all of that is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: But Saint Francis does not need another admirer.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Therese does not need another admirer.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Paul doesn't need another admirer.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus Christ certainly does not need another admirer.
SPEAKER_00: No, he calls disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And discipleship is proved in ordinary life.
SPEAKER_00: How do I treat people when nobody important is watching?
SPEAKER_00: Do I keep my word?
SPEAKER_00: Do I do the work that belongs to me?
SPEAKER_00: Do I apologize when I'm wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Do I forgive when I have been hurt?
SPEAKER_00: Do I tell the truth when lying would be easier?
SPEAKER_00: Do I pray when I don't feel like it?
SPEAKER_00: Do I remain faithful when nobody applauds?
SPEAKER_00: Because those little decisions are answering a much larger question.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I becoming?
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us back to Jesus' image to the whitewashed tombs.
SPEAKER_00: A tomb can be magnificent on the outside and still contain death within it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not interested in decorating the exterior of our lives while something inside of us is dying.
SPEAKER_00: He wants truth all the way through.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps today we should stop asking, what would I have done?
SPEAKER_00: What would I have done if I had lived in that time with the prophets?
SPEAKER_00: What would I have done if I had walked with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What would I have done if I stood beneath the cross?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's only one way to answer those questions.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what I'm doing today.
SPEAKER_00: Because a person who will be faithful to Christ in the extraordinary moment is being formed right now.
SPEAKER_00: In thousand ordinary moments when almost no one is watching.
SPEAKER_00: Do not simply admire the saints of yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Become the saint God is asking for you to be.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.