23 February 2024 – Friday 1st Week of Lent (Year B)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

Now the motor, the engine, of a woman’s car died at the traffic light just when it turned green. She tried to restart but no luck. So what happens actually here in Penang. Meanwhile an impatient man behind her began honking his horn. Again and again she tried to start but no luck.

Now the man was honking persistently, non-stop beep, beep, beep. Not sure whether you have had this experience. The woman had it, had all she could take from him. She got out of her car, walked back to the man and said gently. What do you think she would have said? She did not take anything with her. She just walked.

“Sir, I will delighted to honk your horn for you if you will be kind enough to start my car for me.”

So, what impresses most in this story, what impresses us most in this story – the irrationality of the man or the ingenuity of the woman? You choose. When we get angry, do we act irrationally like the man or calmly like the woman?

At the beginning of the Gospel Reading, Jesus quotes from one of the Ten Commandments – You shall not kill. However, He goes beyond that Commandment by prohibiting attitudes and behaviours that could eventually lead to killing. He goes beyond that. And here, the focus is anger. He prohibits anger. 

Now let us not get confused. It is not the anger that is part and parcel of everybody’s emotional life. Don’t tell me none of you have ever got angry. No. He does not mean that. We get angry. We are talking we feel anger. So don’t come to confession and say “Father, I felt angry.” That is okay. What Jesus meant was this anger that we feel, by nurturing it, by keeping it, by letting it fester, by letting somebody else also nurture it like ‘batu api’, it can lead to destructive action. That is what He is trying to say. It can even kill.

This was the kind of anger that Cain had towards Abel, that led him to eventually to kill Abel. Now Jesus also warns. The three things today that He talks about relationship:
1. Anger.
2. Jesus also warns against insulting language such as calling someone fool or renegade.
3. We have heard that the pen is mightier than the sword. We have heard that before that what you write is stronger than even wars and whatnot.

And there is wisdom in that. But having said that, I think the tongue is even mightier than that. Don’t you think so? The tongue is very, very powerful. It can destroy people’s lives. Perhaps we have been victims of it as well.

Jesus is very aware of the potential destructiveness of this. And the deadly power of language. So how we speak to, how we speak about people will shape how we relate to them.

And finally He goes on to speak about the need to be reconciled with someone who has something against us. You know we might have expected Him to speak about the need to be reconciled with someone we have something against. He did not say that. He calls us to go out to the person who has something against us. Interesting.

He suggests that this work of reconciliation takes priority over the act of worship. Leave your offering there before the altar. In various ways, my dear brothers and sisters.

In this Gospel Reading and the lesson for us this evening is:

Jesus speaks about the importance of doing all we can, all we can, to build right relationships with others, with ourselves, with our family, with our community, in our parish, in our society.

Let us pray for this grace during this Mass.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

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