Harder and Easier

Making Lent harder so that we make loving easier

03/10/2017

Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples:  "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

          Here’s a little brain teaser for you this morning. Did Jesus come on earth to make our lives easier or harder? By the way, before you answer, remember this rule: whenever anyone describes a dilemma in which they force you to choose one of two options - either this or that - I always choose BOTH options! Instead of “either-or,” always answer “both-and.” That’s not just the more clever reply; that’s also the more Christian reply. So, the right answer to my earlier question would be Jesus came to make our lives both harder and easier. How so? Well, consider a couple of examples.

          Does Coach Nick Saben, head football coach at Alabama, make his players’ lives easier or harder? The answer is, “he makes their lives both harder and easier.” How? He makes their lives harder in practice but easier to win championships. I watched an interview with him where he explained his coaching philosophy. He said: “I make our players practice again and again. They practice not so that they get the play right, but so they cannot get the play wrong.” Ironically, by making practice harder, he actually makes playing football and winning championships easier Coach Mike Krzyzewski (or Coach K) is relentlessly hard on his basketball players, and anyone who attends Duke and plays for Coach K knows their life will be hard as heck. But that’s exactly why high school kids dream of playing for him: by making their practices hard, he will make their playing easy. And easy to win championships. Harder and easier.

          In the gospel today, Jesus gives a perfect case in point of “both-and” where harder leads to easier. He says: “You have heard it said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill’…But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” Clearly, Jesus, like Coach Saben and Coach K, is not making it easier for his disciples. Their holiness must be greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees: that’s a lot harder. They must practice love of neighbor not till they get it right but until they cannot get it wrong. Love of neighbor must penetrate into their hearts until they love not only in action but even in their desires. And this radical love – by the way, radical comes from the Latin word “radix” which means “root” – does not make it easier to win championships but easier to win heaven, the ultimate championship. Jesus came to make our life harder.  And easier.

          This is the same spirit in which we should look at Lent. For forty days we make our lives harder by practicing penance (giving up dessert or television), by adding hours of prayer (a daily Mass or the rosary), and alms-giving (giving more to church or charity). Are these things hard? Yes. Do we feel a little miserable? Yes. Do we sometimes want to give up? Yes. But it’s also very hard to play football at Alabama and basketball at Duke. But also remember how easy those players make it look on the gridiron and on the court. So, too, when you make Lent harder, you make loving easier; indeed, your love doesn’t stop at your lips but goes deep into your heart. It even changes your desires, not so that you get love right, but so that you can’t get love wrong. It becomes easy to love.

          The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the section on the human virtues, makes this astounding assertion, saying, “[The human virtues] make possible ease, self-mastery and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who freely practices the good” (Catechism, 1804). Did you catch that?  The virtuous life is characterized by “ease” and “joy” and “freedom.”  In other words, the purpose of Lent is not to give up chocolate for forty days, so you can gorge yourself on Easter Sunday and fall into a chocolate-induced coma. Instead, we practice penance during Lent not to so that we get the virtue of temperance right, but so that we cannot get the virtue of temperance wrong.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!