17 Pentecost
The Reverend Noel E. Bordador

There is a poem by a minister, Robert Fulghum, entitled, “Everything I Really Need to Know I learned In Kindergarten.” I am always captivated by that poem’s title. There is truth that early on in life, we learn how we ought to live our lives, how we ought to conduct ourselves, how we ought to be. One of the enduring life lessons I learned was taught me by a third grade teacher of mine, Sister Jovita, a young nun who I remember as someone who had a passion for playing a guitar and teaching songs; and one of these songs I learned I have never forgotten. The words of this song have stayed with me to guide me in how I ought to live my life. I now (roughly) translate it:  “No one lives for himself alone. No one dies for herself alone. Our lives belong not only to ourselves but that God calls us to share our lives with one another even as God shares his life with us.  By living and dying for one another the Lord abides in us.”

I think song captures in a rather positive way the seeming difficult words of Gospel we just heard. Jesus’s words in the Gospel today seem rather harsh but we need to go beyond the tone, and listen deeply to the enduring message, which is this. He meant to tell us that how we act, what we do, how we live our lives does not only affect us. But how we act, what we do, what we become, how we live our lives affect others, too. It is important, Jesus says, to realize that we have a deep capacity to bring joy and happiness and hope to others. And, we also have a deep capacity to bring suffering and pain to others. I do think Jesus challenges us to live with this awareness as much as possible.

The thirteenth century Saint Thomas Aquinas once said that the ultimate goal, the terminus, the end goal, the finis, of human life is what he called “beautitudo” often translated as happiness or bliss, a state of blessedness. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to be at ease in life. Everyone wants to feel blessed. What, then, according to Thomas Aquinas, constitute blessedness or happiness? Now, Thomas distinguished between beautitudo imperfecta (imperfect happiness) and beautitudo perfecta (perfect happiness). Some people are just plain happy when they could not be bothered with others. Some are just happy when they do not have to concern themselves with the welfare and well-being of others. Yet, Thomas Aquinas said that such happiness is not the happiness for which we are destined. That self-centered happiness is what he would consider beatitudo imperfecta, false happiness. He said that ultimately, our true and perfect happiness can only be obtained when we seek a deep knowledge of and loving God. And to know and love God ultimately means that with God’s grace, we come to live our lives adorned with virtues of divine life- divine virtues of truth, compassion, justice and charity. When our actions and decisions embody integrity in our lives, when we desire mercy, or what is just and fair, when we practice lovingkindness, then we come to resemble God. When we become loving we become the very image of God in which we were created. Conversely, when we live only for ourselves, when we do not strive for a life marked with kindness and compassion towards others, we are said to fall away from the very image of God. To be human then is to be like God, and to be like God is to possess the virtues of lovingkindness towards ourselves and others. To act otherwise makes us less Godlike and we degenerate into something less human and less Godlike. But, being kind and merciful do not always come easy especially we have an inclination to be self-absorbed. I learned however early on that life is larger than myself, larger than my concerns and needs and wants. Life encompasses all people, all beings, including and especially those who are less fortunate, those who suffer, those who are easy for us to overlook. This, too, I learned in kindergarten. One day, in religion class, Sister Dolores posed this question. “If you find a wallet with money in the street, what would you do?” Someone said, “Give it back to the owner.” “That’s a good answer,” Sister said. “But what if there is no name on the wallet?” she asked. Someone chimed in, “Wouldn’t you keep it for yourself, Sister?”  But Sister Dolores said, “I could… but it would be better to give it to the poor and the hungry.”  From this I learned a lesson that I, too, am my brother’s keeper, especially the least of my brothers and sisters, those in worst off situation than me.

I would like to leave you with words from the late Father Arturo Paoli, in his Meditations on the [the Gospel of] Saint Luke (1977, Orbis Books) who wrote: “The only sign of being touched by God is to be able to see yourself as a universal brother – and this means to be in communion with people and all beings. Compassion becomes the breakthrough between God and humans and the fullest experience of God that is humanly possible.”