“Be you all of one mind, having compassion for one another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, and humble…” By practicing those virtues, which St. Peter, in the Epistle today, recommends to us, we hereby become true disciples of Christ and therefore honour Him and give edification to others.

As I mentioned in my sermon last Sunday, words move but example compels. By our good example we lead others to admire Christianity, see the seriousness of our Faith and then want to become followers of Christ. Therefore, we render ourselves more worthy of God’s grace, favour & protection. So if for the sake of justice we are persecuted by evil men then we need not fear, because God is for us and will reward us with that final end – eternal life.

And yet our Lord gives to us a further instruction concerning our neighbour and our devotions to God. Christ says to us in the Gospel today by telling us that our justice is to exceed that of the Pharisees and if it did not than we would not enter the Kingdom of God. So in what did this justice of the Pharisees consist? Their justice consisted in only the external works of piety. On the outside they appeared all pious & holy but on the inside, as Our Lord said, they could be compared to whitened sepulchers: all white and clean on the outside but on the inside contained nothing but dead men’s bones. In their hearts these Pharisees cherished evil desires and corruption. They loved pride, envy & vanity and look for ways of vengeance and malice. And Christ is saying to us that true justice consists not only in external works of piety and devotion but most especially in a pure, sincere, and self-sacrificing spirit imbedded in a love of God & neighbour. Without this purity of intention then all our works, not matter how good, are only a shell without the kernel.

Christ also commands us that in order to love God then we must love our neighbour and seek to reconcile with him before approaching the altar of God. Since no offering or good work can be pleasing to God, while we live in anger with our brother or our neighbour because by doing this we live contrary to the will of Christ.

St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says: “Let not the sun go down upon your anger”(6:26). St. Augustine instructs us that if the person we have offended, is absent, and we cannot easily meet him, then we must reconcile with him in our heart. That is, we must humble ourselves before God and ask His forgiveness and make the resolution to make amends as soon as possible. However, if he is accessible then we should go to him and ask forgiveness and make an effort to apologize. And as God sees all things, our reconciliation should be sincere and permanent, in other words, we need to learn from our mistake and make the effort never to commit this offense again.

It was a custom, in the early Church, that the laity gave the kiss of peace to each other on account of the commandment of Christ, by which those who are present, are admonished to love one another with a holy love, and to be perfectly reconciled with their enemy before their reception of Communion.

So how do we make an effort to overcome our faults, in general, especially with regards to anger. Well the first and most effectual mean is growing in the virtue of humility. “Amongst the proud there are always quarrels and contentions” (Prov. 13:10). But amongst the humble their reigns peace, meekness & patience. For us to be humble we need, as always, to take the example of Christ. From Him there was neither guile found in His mouth and yet suffered great contradictions, persecutions and sneers from

sinners (Pet. 2:22). “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29).

A very good and effective means of overcoming our habit of anger and growing in the virtue of humility, or any virtue, is to think over in the beginning of the day what causes will be likely to draw us into anger or laziness or vanity at anytime during the day, and then to arm ourselves against it by a resolution to bear with patience anything unpleasant that may occur. We need to ask ourselves the questions: What can I do that will counteract my reaction to this situation; how can I achieve something positive from this and how can it benefit my neighbour and myself?

Finally, frequent prayer to God for the grace of meekness and patience. Although it may seem difficult and sometimes almost impossible to our fallen nature to be patient and overcome our sins, by the grace of God it becomes not only possible but easy.

So we pray to Our Lord at Mass today that we may make his virtues our own. In particular we pray for humility, patience, mercy & charity. So that by practicing them diligently, we may glorify God more, sanctify ourselves and thus become more worthy of His grace & protection.