12th Sunday 2020
Jeremiah 20:10-13; Romans 5:12-15; Matt 10:26-33
“Do not be afraid, for everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.”
“I beg your pardon Lord, but that is precisely what makes me afraid. I really would prefer to keep some things undercover: I definitely don’t want them revealed to all the world and his wife.
“You see, it’s all right for you, and your mother. You are without sin, but it’s different for the rest of us. And, come to think of it, it’s not just about sin. There are all the mistakes we have made throughout life, all the daft things we have said and done—things that make us cringe whenever we remember them. Are they going to be uncovered and made clear? And if so, will anyone cope?”
Leaving aside for now my conversation with the Lord, I recall that our relatively recently retired bishop, when he was new to the Episcopal purple, mentioned that, before being ordained bishop, he had been asked whether there were any skeletons in his cupboard. I didn’t ask him how he answered but I suspect that he said “No”, in which case I should then have asked him “Why not?”
Anybody who has put in a few years of life must have made a few serious errors, fallen flat on their faces at times. If anyone tells me that they haven’t, they are either the Angel Gabriel or a liar—or they haven’t properly engaged with life, haven’t committed themselves wholeheartedly to living in God’s world.
We are brought back to the account, which I mentioned a few weeks ago, given by the late Fr.Tony Pearson, of the advice given to him by his parish priest as he was about to enter the seminary to begin his studies for the priesthood. In a nutshell, the older man told him that, if he adhered very carefully to all the rules, he would end up as a bishop, before adding “and Tony, you’ll be NO BLOODY GOOD.” (Incidentally, the priest in question was Fr. John O’Connor, on whose personality, though not his appearance, Chesterton admitted to having based Fr. Brown.)
I have a sneaking suspicion that, with a few honourable exceptions, including our own present incumbent, that remains the criterion for selecting bishops. The powers-that-be want safe men, who will not rock any boats or cause any ripples, who will neither possess nor acquire any skeletons in their cupboards, and who will, in the words of Fr. O’Connor, be “no bloody good”.
Anybody who has married and raised a family, anybody who has lived a single life, anybody who has been a priest or a consecrated person for any length of time, indeed anybody who has genuinely entered adulthood, will have committed howlers along the way, and be likely to have acquired a cupboardful of skeletons.
As far as priests are concerned, the Holy Father has told us to live with the smell of the sheep, to get our hands dirty. If we have truly been involved in working for the Kingdom, we will have been up to our ears in the mess of people’s lives, and some of that mess will have rubbed off on us. To quote the aforementioned fictional Fr. Brown, any priest who has been doing his job will know more of evil than the great majority of the population.
Nor is it only priests. As the Church, we are the people of mucky feet, as Our Lord reminded us by washing the stains and the dust and the mud from His disciples in the context of His self-giving at the Last Supper. If we don’t have mucky feet, if we don’t have skeletons in our cupboard, WHY NOT?
Are these the things which Jesus says are to be made known? Maybe. But to whom are they to be made known? To ourselves first and foremost. We mustn’t kid ourselves, we mustn’t pretend to ourselves that our cupboards are skeleton-free. Firstly then, we must open ourselves to the searing light of Christ, allowing Him to illuminate the dark recesses of our lives, showing us the skeletons lurking in the corners, that we may bring them before Him, and allow Him to crumble them into dust. If they are matters of sin, we must bring them to the sacrament of reconciliation, allowing the priest to dispose of them in the name of the whole Church.
Should they be revealed to anybody else? That, I suspect, is a matter for God to deal with, unless of course they involve criminality. Jesus says that hidden things will be revealed, but we can leave the which, when, and how to Him. And remember those words with which we began: “Do not be afraid”. That revelation will be a matter, not for fear, but for joy in His healing grace.
