Have you ever heard of a fight breaking out in a line of people waiting to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? A deacon friend of mine, assigned to Catholic parish in St Paul, told me that he would be sent out by the priest to break up fist fights among the elderly parishioners who were in line for confession. There was a certain protocol established by the parishioners for getting into line, and if that protocol was violated, violence would erupt among the elderly participants. Woe to the visitor to the church who didn’t know that he or she was unknowingly budging in line. It sounds ludicrous that people seeking reconciliation with God would act contrary to the reconciliation they were seeking with God.
This story illustrates what Jesus is telling us in the Gospel today. Continuing on his message of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us, Jesus is urging us the necessity of examining our own sinful behavior before we start in on the sinfulness of others. This self awareness is wonderfully lived by Pope Francis. When asked the question, “Who are you?”, Pope Francis always answers, “I am a sinner.” Jesus emphasizes that we need to become self aware of our own sinfulness, our own need for conversion. Not a one of us lives perfectly the Great Commandment of loving God with all our heart, mind and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It is important for us to be self aware of that which gets in our way of loving God and loving our neighbor, and to commit ourselves to trying each day to love God and our neighbor better.
If we do not work at this self awareness, then no matter how self righteous we may appear to others, we are no more than the whitened graves (sepulchers) by which Jesus described the Pharisees. We look good on the outside, but are filled with dead bones and rot on the inside. To be blind to our own sinfulness is, in the end, self-betrayal. We only fool ourselves, and our lives end up being as futile as getting in a fist fight with others in line as we wait to go to confession.
