Homily for Ordinary Time 4

Homily for Ordinary Time 4

February 3, 2019

Charity in Preserving Others’ Reputations

            Many of you remember, a couple weeks ago, the Covington Catholic media fiasco. For those who are unfamiliar with it, there was an incident that occurred at this year’s March for Life in Washington, DC. A viral one-minute video made its rounds on the internet which showed a group of high school boys from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky surrounding a Native American elder who was beating his drum. The boys appeared to be hostile and threatening to him, and one was smirking at him.

            Immediately, the media went into overdrive. Everyone from the Bishop to politicians to actors to media personalities condemned these boys’ seeming disrespect. Everyone was so quick to judge these boys and say that they were wrong for how they treated this poor, peaceful, elderly Native American. The media were quick to jump onto the “virtue signaling” bandwagon – showing the world how virtuous they are by condemning the sins of others. It got to the point that some of the boys in the video received the threat of expulsion from their school, and even death threats from anonymous sources.

            And then, the full video was released. It showed a completely different story. It showed that this Native American fellow had actually approached the boys, who were minding their own business, and gotten into their face and was hostile to them. Wow, how the story changed! Immediately everyone began their apologies. Within four days, the narrative went from “those evil, privileged, rich white kids” to “oh wow, they were the actual victims here”. Amazing how quickly things can change!

            Just like in today’s Gospel. At the beginning of the Gospel, everyone is praising Jesus. He is speaking eloquently, He’s beginning to do miracles, and everyone loves Him and is proud of Him…and then, He says something they don’t like. Immediately they turn on Him, and, much like the media outrage mob, try to destroy Him…literally this time, by trying to throw Him off a cliff.

            In today’s modern society, we can so quickly go from praise to criticism. Reputations are destroyed on a daily basis through the media – including social media – and it’s often good for us to reflect upon how we might be contributing to the destruction of people’s opinions through our comments, social media posts, and everyday conversations.

            There are three specific sins that we can commit in our words about others. First, there is detraction, which is revealing someone’s hidden faults without a good reason. Yes, perhaps Johnny got in a fight because he got drunk the other night, but does anyone else need to know that? If we know someone’s hidden faults, and it is not necessary to share them. Secondly, there is calumny, which is telling harmful lies about others. Sometimes we exaggerate the negative qualities of others – “Oh, she always does that, he’s such a jerk, I’d bet she’s got this fault or that fault” – and sometimes it’s a blatant lie about another’s qualities. Finally, there is libel, which is writing harmful things about others – and this includes social media and emails! In the high school, we call this “cyber bullying” – but it happens with adults, too!

            Our second reading speaks about love, and gives a very practical instruction about what makes an action “loving”. Let’s apply that to our words as well. When we write or say something about others, we should ask, “Is it patient? Is it kind? Is it rude? Does it put on airs? Is it envious? Does it rejoice in the wrong, or rejoice in the truth?”

            There are three areas I feel like we should be especially careful. First, with the people in our everyday life – coworkers, family, neighbors. How easy it is, when talking with others, to bring up their bad points or share how they’ve disappointed us! A lot of times we think we’re just sharing news, but does our mom really need to know about how our spouse has disappointed us? Does our coworker really need to know how the boss let us down? Sometimes they do need to know – but a lot of times, they don’t.

Second, when talking about political figures or celebrities. We tend to think that these people won’t ever see our comments or the articles we post on our Facebook wall…but do we forget that we’re talking about real people with real souls here? This was the problem with the Covington Catholic situation – pundits thought they could make all sorts of comments about these high school boys, assuming their motivations are bad and racist and hateful, forgetting that they are real high school boys who will read these comments. They forgot that only God knows their motivations. If we spent a minute praying for these celebrities or politicians or famous people, how would the world be completely different? I bet very few people pray, really pray, for Kanye West or Oprah, or even Donald Trump. We read all about their failures, we criticize them publically, but do we really need to? Our civil discourse needs to stop with the ad hominem attacks – especially from Christians!

Finally, we need to be careful in talking about members of the Church, especially clergy. Yes, there have been real scandals, but do we really need to read about them all the time? This past year, I fear there has been far more ink spilled about the negative things in the Church than all the good work the Church has been doing to lead souls to Christ, feed the hungry, educate the youth, and all the other works of the Church. We just need to check our motives for sharing bad news, which always spreads much faster than good news!

Jesus Himself experienced how quickly public opinion changes. He went from being loved to being despised within the course of one Gospel reading! But we are often responsible for how others are viewed, because of our words. Let us make sure all of our words are loving – both the words said with our lips, and the words we write on social media and elsewhere.