9th Sunday after Pentecost 29.7.07 Atonement
Our Lord weeps over Jerusalem, knowing its obstinacy and the punishment it is going to reap. If only they would repent, come to the party, then they would know happiness like never before.
So we sigh and weep over the current world, for much the same reason. It doesn’t have to be like this.
Some would argue that religion should be a cheerful affair and will not admit any kind of gloom. So we have to put a bright and breezy interpretation on whatever is happening.
Our Lord said once that there was a time for feasting and a time for fasting. When the Bridegroom is taken from them, that will be a time for fasting.
We agree that we should be joyful, cheerful, hopeful in general. But this cannot be in any sense a flippant denial of obvious reality. We cannot just say, Don’t worry, Be happy. We need to have at least a section of our lives where we are mourning for Jerusalem, weeping for our sins, and positively making atonement.
It’s as if in the Church, we have different tasks, and at any one time at least some part of the Church needs to be mourning, praying for mercy, atoning for all the sin going on.
This would restore some balance. Of course we can weep for sins without denying the joy of our faith, or the basic goodness of Creation. It is the goodness of God that we affirm when we lament that He is not known and loved.
Someone seeing a Christian weeping might say: So much for that religion; it obviously does not bring happiness. But that would be simplistic.
The weeping is part of the process of bringing things around to where they need to be.
We still have Good Friday, or indeed any Friday, as part of our whole scheme of things. We can stop weeping only when everyone stops sinning. We will not have complete happiness until that happens.
Granted we should not be gloomy and miserable beyond this precise theological sense. We cannot excuse grouchiness and grumpiness just on the basis that there are sins going on.
But a measured sense of grief, an awareness of the offended majesty of God, these are essential to the life of the Church. Thus we have Fridays and Lent, and psalms of lament, and constant asking for mercy.
Not least the Mass itself which is first and foremost a plea for mercy.
Is it not a celebration? Certainly, but we can never (not yet anyway) have ‘just’ celebration, because there is still the need for fasting.
Fasting, reparation, penance, weeping for sins – these are not just outpourings of emotion, but powerful spiritual weapons which will actually change what is happening. When we really get into the prayer we can change the course of events.
It would be an insult to God to expect Him to be happy with how things are now. We will pay Him greater honour by setting about fixing things. The first stage in that is focusing on what is wrong, and committing it to prayer. It is not lack of faith, just pinpointing the problem.
We might be tempted to feel overwhelmed by all the things that are wrong, but we submit everything to the infinite mercy of God.
The fact that in every age there have been atoners for sin, at least some people who have recognized the need (cf story of Abigail and David, 1 Kings 25 (or 1Samuel 25)), is what has kept this world afloat.
May it float a little longer and even start to sail a little bit, with the help of our tears of repentance.
