Before I reflect on the readings, I want to thank all of you for coming to help us celebrate how all of you are family to us. Despite the weather, it was a wonderful day of visiting and joyful reunion. Thank you.
And, as we thank you, it is also important to thank all our members, family and friends who I believe are with us in that great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. So, I am going to ask each of you to connect with one of these who are filling this chapel unseen, yet present. Welcome that person or persons. Let each of us spend a quiet moment in conversation with them. Recently, Ron Rolheiser in the LCWR summer Occasional Papers said “I really believe that the most neglected doctrine in Christianity is the Communion of Saints that doctrine basically tells us that the deceased are still alive and that we can have vital communication with them…” He goes on to say he read a poem about a father leaving instructions for his sons for what to do after his death he tells them, “You’ll have my number so occasionally dial me up and leave a message.” Let’s dial them up and leave a message, give a greeting, welcome them. Let each of us spend a quiet moment in conversation with them. This Communion of Saints binds heaven and Earth. We have bound heaven and Earth.
And so now, as a larger cloud of witnesses, we can reflect on the three parables we have heard today. I am reflecting on them in reverse order. The leaven. How can we be leaven?
Leaven is in small doses in baking. Small acts of kinship can make the gospel real in people’s lives. There are no excuses for not being leaven because it is not large acts but small ones. A Jesuit I once heard preaching on retreat in Wernersville said, “Be where you are and invite God in.” Good advice: invite the leaven of God’s grace into our lives. But what if we also invite that God out? What if we share that grace through simple quiet acts as a graced people who are mystics. Yes, all are mystics. Matthew Fox says,” Deep down, each one of us is a mystic. When we tap into that energy, we become alive again and we give birth. From the creativity that we release is born the prophetic vision and work that we all aspire to as our gift to the world. We want to serve in whatever capacity we can. Getting in touch with the mystic inside is the beginning of our deep service….”
“Mysticism is about the awe and the gratitude, the letting go and the letting be, the birthing and the creativity, and the compassion—including healing and celebration and justice making that our world so sorely needs….” We are called to be mystics and leaven in the bread of people’s lives wherever we are, whatever our circumstances. Be where you are and invite the God you meet out into the circumstances of your life. And invite God out into the lives of those you meet.
Now to mustard seeds, the smallest of seeds. For us, the mustard seed is hope. And Saint Dominic is said to have said, “We must sow the seed, not hoard it.” In whatever way we can, we are challenged to sow the small seeds of hope in actions of listening and justice, compassion and attention. In times of sadness and joy. We need to sow seeds and let them grow into the trees of kinship. We cannot hide behind age or circumstances, behind ability or fear. Mark Batterson has written that “sowing mustard seed is a daily thing where you seize those little mustard seed opportunities and then see what God does.” Step out intentionally. Planting can be an arduous act or just a simple tossing of seeds. Let our seeds of hope be abundant even if we don’t see the growth. The trees will come, places of kinship and justice where all are welcome because there are no others under God. And our God embraces all and has shelter for all.
The parable of the wheat and the weeds makes good gardening sense. It may also make good psychological and spiritual sense. It teaches that good and bad do coexist in the world and can influence each other. Letting the two grow together makes good agricultural sense. Letting both grow allows for a rich harvest because the wheat will be clearly recognized since in early stages of growth the tares or weeds look much like wheat. This would have made sense to Jesus’ audience. And makes sense to us since the good is put in barns and the weeds burned. So, we can interpret this as the good will go to heaven and the bad to hell. Perfect ending, but no. Greg Boyle S.J. has said recently in an interview with James Martin S.J., that he believes hell is empty. You see, Greg believes there are no evil people, just mentally ill ones, abused ones, traumatized ones, addicted ones, and on and on.
As you may know, Greg Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries, which is the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world operating for over 30 years. If anyone could be said to see evil, he could. Yet, he truly believes that evil is a social construct to hide the reality of brokenness that can be healed through compassionate acceptance. Seeing each other as God does.
This is difficult for me, and I would think for some of you. No hell? No bad people just damaged people? I am not easily convinced of this. I am a lover of Dante’s Inferno. I know who I assume is in each of those nine circles. I also assume where those I categorize as evil in these present times will fit in these circles. I mentally assign them there. Empty hell? No way.
Then I remember another literary favorite: Portia’s famous speech in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice –
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath… and then further on she continues
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
This God of mercy is unimaginable to us. The God of mercy is foreign to us because God’s heart is infinite. God’s mercy might just have an empty hell. This is something to ponder. The weeds not burned and goats not sent to eternal fire, this is compassion we cannot imagine. Now before some call the Vatican Dicastery on Doctrine on Greg, Jim, and I; note these men are not challenging any teaching on hell. Rather they are challenging our spiritual eyes, our spiritual hearts that force us to see with eyes of a compassionate God who might just be merciful enough to have an empty hell. This posture gives these men the ability to minister, to do what they do: accompany gang members for Greg and the LGBTQ community for Jim. What if this is how it is? What if compassion and mercy do call us to this unconditional love? What way of being in the face of evil does this challenge us to? What graces do we need to respond to to mimic this kind of God? This is a God who loves unconditionally. This is the challenge for those who have ears to hear. Can you love unconditionally? Remember what Matthew Fox said about mystics and our mystical call. Is it not to mimic our God? The God of unconditional love. This is the God who teaches with leaven, mustard seeds, weeds and wheat. This is the God who might have an empty hell and a vision of the goodness of all. This is the God who challenges, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear? How are your ears?