Homily Notes Fourth Sunday of Lent
4th Sunday of Ordinary Lent, “Ambassadors of Reconciliation”
We are Ambassadors for Christ. How many of us feel that we are? We might feel like members of the church, but not like Christ’s official representatives in the world.
St. Paul’s notion of ambassadors revolved around his experience with the Roman empire. The Roman empire was divided up into provinces. Usually, there were two types. If a province was peaceable and cooperative with Rome that province was a senatorial province. The Roman senate administered such a province.
If, on the other hand, a province was rebellious then a legate of the emperor was appointed. Troops had to be stationed in the province. The legate or ambassador commanded the troops, kept order, collected taxes. The person in this position spoke with the authority of the emperor. We think of Pontius Pilate, who was the emperor’s representative in Jerusalem at the end of Jesus’ life, as someone who fulfilled this role. When Paul said we are ambassadors for Christ he was thinking of a man like Pilate who represented the emperor.
Do we represent Jesus to those we meet? In some instances, we may, like when we are doing charitable work around the community. Many of us have been on mission trips to poor areas around the world. When we go on such trips we work for free. We conduct ourselves in a compassionate manner. We probably live in community. We pray with those that we help as well as those we work with. All of this is usually an uplifting experience. We probably feel like Ambassadors for Christ at such times.
But Paul speaks of a very specific task that we engage in when he says we are legates of Christ. We are to be agents of reconciliation. When we hear that we might reject that thought. We might think I can build someone a house, but how can I help them leave sin behind? But we the words of Paul challenge us to take up a task. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. How do we go about it?
Recently, I was reading part of a book by Ronald Rolheiser that is entitled, “The Cross and Salvation.” He reflects on the whole idea of how Christians are supposed to be instruments of transformation. We are to handle conflict differently than the world at large.
He asks the question of whether Christians are to be people who are conduits of the emotions around us or whether we transform the emotions around us. Unfortunately, most people in the world are simply conduits. If we, for example, are confronted angrily by someone the normal response is to return that anger with an angry response. If we don’t return anger when we receive it, we often pass it on. Because of this, people around us might wonder why we are mad. Our anger can come out sideways. We have all been around someone who is fuming. We may wonder why, but we stay out of their way, so we don’t get hurt. We can be like a water pipe that just passes on what we receive. We receive anger so we pass it along.
But Christians are to be like water purifiers. We take in dirty water with all its pollution. We strain out the impurities, only then to we pass on the purified water.
Jesus has shown us the way, “Jesus took in hatred, but he gave back love. Jesus absorbed anger, but he emitted graciousness. Jesus felt the envy of other people but gave back blessings. Jesus sensed the bitterness of those around him, but he returned warmth. Jesus endured pettiness, but he was compassionate towards others. Jesus waded through chaos and brought peace to those around him. Finally, Jesus saw the sins of others, but he responded with forgiveness.”
Another way to put it is that Christians are to be shock absorbers in the world. We take a blow, but we disperse the negative energy. And that is how we are agents of reconciliation.
We all have been in situations where there is a lot of uncharitable talk. We can add our negative commentary. Or, we can try to simply listen while trying to point out more virtuous ways of acting and speaking. We know who the Ambassadors of Christ are in our midst. Such people are slow to speak. Such people are slow to judge. And they are quick to be empathetic. Can we be like that? If we can we will be Ambassadors of Christ.