My sister Rosita’s University classmates used to call her “the lady of sorrows” because she would often have body aches. About fifteen years ago, on one of my visits to her in Savannah, my older nephew Andrew was six years old. When I arrived, she started to feel sick. Andrew understood that we could not make any plans to go out. He complained to my sister, “Mom, you always pick the best days to get sick”.
This memory from my nephew came back to me when I attended the priest retreat in Wrightsville two weeks ago. It happened that on the second day I started to feel like I was getting a cold. On a different year, becoming seek during the retreat would not be an issue for me. This year I was one of the two priests who would be honored at the retreat banquet traditionally held on the last evening. At the banquet, priests retiring and celebrating 25th and 50th Ordination Anniversaries are honored. My nephews’ words were in my mind. I had picked the best days to get sick. Thankfully I was feeling better by banquet time. At the banquet the bishop presented me with a gift from the Diocese.
As I reflected on today’s readings over the past week, the words from the prophet Ezekiel my ordination anniversary and the gift from the diocese were especially on my mind. Through Ezekiel, God said to the people of Israel: “This says the Lord: You say, ‘The Lord’s way is not fair!’ Hear now, house of Israel: It is my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways that are unfair?”
I reflected on fairness. I thought about the fact that I was a seminarian for my home diocese in Colombia for six years. My home diocese did invest in me, though my family covered a good portion of the seminary cost. I remember the comment from a priest that was from the seminary in Colombia. When he found out that I was coming to pursue the priesthood in the United States, he said that it was not fair to my home diocese. There are many things in life that are not fair. When God is involved, we cannot say God is unfair.
The words from the prophet Ezekiel regarding the fairness of God and the unfairness of humans explained the way God’s mercy and justice work. These words from Ezekiel are paired with the words from the Gospel in which the Lord scolds the chief priests and the elders of the people. The Lord points out their inability to change their lives heeding the preaching of Saint John the Baptist while famous public sinners did respond and change.
Instead of elaborating on this theme of the unfairness of our ways and the fairness of God, I would like to reflect on the third commandment, namely, keeping the Lord’s Day holy. We keep the Lord’s Day holy by attending Mass and, if possible, not working.
Mass attendance has declined for many years in our country. There are many reasons why we should attend Sunday Mass, chiefly because it is the third Commandment. Fairness to God is for me one of the most compelling reasons. Let me explain. Time is one of the most precious gifts from almighty God. To say time is the same as to say life. Having time on earth is being alive.
Time belongs to God. God bestows this gift on us every single day that we live. When Sunday comes, God presents us with the gift of a new week of life. In the Old Testament God taught his people to keep the Lord’s Day holy. God was teaching them to return to him some of the time he had given them in the first place. They needed to be fair to the Lord and return to him a portion of that time.
Fairness is one of the most compelling reasons for attending Sunday Mass. This hour of our time is God’s hour; it belongs to him, and we cannot use it for anything else but for church. We must return this hour to the Lord by attending Mass exclusively. We should not make up our own way of worship because God himself has already given us the way He wants us to worship him.
Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us his grace to understand this principle of the Christian life and be fair to God almighty for the rest of our lives.