God, our Father, ask you to go kindly upon us. Help us to understand and discover that our obligation and responsibility in life is not verbal, rather an opportunity. Lest we pass through life miss the goodness which you put there for us. We ask this in the name of the Lord. Amen. I mentioned this morning that there are almost indefinite ramifications in the principle that the ultimate moral impurity and the ultimate responsibility for anyone who has gone through a liberating experience, in any way, saving experience, is to use that freedom that God used to bring freedom to others.

[01:19]

One will be held accountable for this use of freedom. and what will be held accountable according to the exact measure of that freedom. And so it is impossible to determine now who is more or less guilty. And it is so difficult to know who is more or less free. There are some people who commit crimes who have hardly any freedom. Many crimes are not safe. Many sins are not correct. Very important, I think, for us non-criminal people to understand that. Because most crimes are committed by people who have very little freedom. People who have been betrayed. Most spectacular crimes are usually

[02:25]

We should look at the childhood of some of these people. God knows what has happened to them. He knows. And He knows also about the freedom of those others who sit in former television sets and clap their tongues at these criminals. These delinquents, why don't they crack down on them? These three people. Well, God will ask them one question. What did you do? The three of these people. What did you do to give people more confidence? To deliver them from their fear and anxiety? so that they would not be driven to violence. Well, there's a place for you.

[03:36]

It's your pit and shell. No, I think it's very clear. And, you know, it's impossible for us, I think, we're very free people here. I know this crowd of boys, free. Man, good parents, good teachers, good friends, good community. We've had a lot of love and care and affirmation. Oh, we're not completely free. We want to hang out with you. But relatively speaking, we are very free people. And it's impossible almost for us to understand how unfree some people are. I acknowledge this, and you understand this for me. A man was picked up in Florida for having committed murder. He was supposed to have killed a gas station operator for a robbery attempt.

[04:38]

He was taken to the police station and he signed a confession. I killed him. Well, some time later, when he was waiting to be executed, Somebody else invested his time. Most, unfortunately, convenient development. But also lethal at this point. Then an enterprising journalist began to check into this thing and found that there were all kinds of inconsistencies in this man's version of what happened. Well, to make a long story short, it turned out he had not done it. But the interesting question is, If he had not done it, why did he confess and sign a confession that he did it? It's inconceivable to us. Well, he said, when they asked him that, he said, no. His policeman picked me up.

[05:39]

He took me to the station. And he said, you criminal, you dead. And the man in the basement of the desk started to say, you did it? Well, the lawyers said, you did it. My lawyers thought I did it. Chief lawyer, I did. I went up to that courtroom and they all said, you did it. So I must have done it. I must have done it. Well, you know, to me this is a frightening thing. And it's too historic, unfortunately. But there are people who are so unsure of themselves, so much in bondage, they don't even know for sure what they did or done. That's going to be for God to understand. God's going to be very merciful on these people. Even though they may be, you know, perverted, punished.

[06:44]

I don't say they shouldn't be punished, I'm just saying it's not quite that simple. But we have to ask ourselves, under our use of freedom, do we care for the wayfarer, the widow, the orphan, all the vulnerable people? Or do we take advantage sometimes of their vulnerability and their weakness? Do we allow this destructive competition to destroy the possibility of community action? opposition. Well, if I harm this person too much, that'll put me in jeopardy. I'll lose too much if that person gets too strong, so I won't bother with anybody too much. No, we have to ask for freedom.

[07:45]

And so I would say that The great sin, common sin, the ultimate sin, is to be free, and not to love. Now that's something to say if I'm not loving Jesus, that doesn't mean going out and holding hands. And maybe it's not even that, but loving is a very vital understanding, a very tender man. Preach after 13 of Paul's letters to Pilate. Nothing in the earth down to my final mature law. Love is not resentful, love is not irritable, love does not rejoice in evil, love rejoices in the good. I can't make a movie out of that. That tantrum, it's odd things, that kind of thing, very ordinary things. Resisting temptation to not to find goodness in others and so forth.

[08:47]

Well, we'll talk about that more. So the great sin is, of course, to have freedom, which is a gift, and to, one, not to use it among others into freedom, not to use it as a source of freedom. And there's another sin which is very close to this one. It needs to be mentioned, I think. That is, it is sinful to be in bondage and not allow oneself to be loved. It's very possible. No alibi. It is not true that everybody wants to be loved and wants to be free. Not in a responsible way. Everybody wants to be loved as a child is loved. Love will run away. As soon as one begins to sense that, well, now wait a minute, if I am loving the freedom, I'm going to have to start loving people, I think I'll pass.

[09:56]

So I really think this is part of that very interesting conversation between Jesus and Peter, when Jesus tried to wash the feet of Peter at the Last Supper. Jesus said, you'll never wash my feet. Oh no. You're the master, understand? I'm the servant. And next, later on, I'll be the master of the servant. So we've got to keep these things distinct, because I want to be a master someday. In effect, I was very human. Peter was human above all. He said, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus said, look, if I don't wash your feet, we're not friends anymore. He said, well, I don't want to make a big issue out of it. Go ahead, wash my feet, wash my whole body then. Well, no, Peter, for goodness sakes, it's a symbolic action. Only your feet didn't see what. Oh, okay. Now, I think Peter discerned very clear. If I allow this Lord and Master to wash my feet.

[11:12]

What does that mean? Well, that means I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life washing feet. I'm not going to ever graduate from this school where I'll get my feet washed. No, I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life washing feet. There is no such thing as graduating from servanthood. No, I won't buy that. Then he said, yes, all right, I understand. Then Jesus said, do you know what I have done? If I have washed your feet, would you not also wash the feet of one another? Exactly that. And so, when one understands that being loved means being free for service, one can very well decide, fine, well, the easy way out of that is not to be loved. No, I'm sorry.

[12:13]

I guess we are. But to understand I'm unlovable. Goodness sakes. Unfortunately, there are people like that. They challenge you to try to love. Try to do something. I don't mean love in a gushing way. None of the nice to them. I really think that this is the kind of tragedy and worse. If you run across this sort of person, you have to keep trying in spite of everything. Well, I think the person who has slipped into this philosophy ought to know it's indisagreeably simple. You get that defensive attitude, nobody's gonna love me, nobody's gonna try to make a line, no good. Nobody's gonna convince me otherwise. That prevents the very possibility of freedom. And to the extent that one is responsible for that, and one can be to some extent, that too is sin.

[13:16]

Now, how does one translate freedom into loving? Well, of course, it all depends on the nature of the bondage. How one loves another person into freedom, depends upon the nature of that person's violence. The first thing, of course, is to be aware that there is violence. It allows for a lot of possibility of it. Then you try to find some way to deal with it. But to speak in a kind of a general way, I would say that the first obligation of freedom is to choose freely and give the benefit of the doubt to goodness in life. Choose freely to give the benefit of the doubt to goodness.

[14:23]

Most of life is a mix. I'm not quite sure what is the clear reason. I know I'm not the only one that proportions are exactly right. I think I'm like 10% everybody knows good. Even the Ennichi pagans. Sunshine after a lot of rain. What happens along with a lot of sunshine? Vacation after a lot of school. Enough food after hunger. Everybody knows that's good. Then there's about 10% that hardly anybody can redeem. Think of the inconstantly evil, pure and simple. I think there's about 80% that said things. Some days it seems like 70, other days like 85. It don't matter. But the great majority of situations I have faced, well, It is simply not possible to look at that and say, oh, that's good, of course.

[15:34]

No. Because it's not good. It's not simply good. But it is possible to choose to look at the good side of it. To see the goodness in it. to give the benefit of the time to goodness, to be prejudiced for the goodness in life. I think in the beginning, when one has perhaps only a little bit of freedom, it means simply to be ready and open for goodness, to allow goodness to be. And so, it counteracts that tendency to reject favors and compliments, or at least not to receive them in a way that is helpful and useful. It is spoken, ready for goodness to manifest itself.

[16:43]

And when one becomes a little more free, and by the way, receiving this goodness that is offered is a classic way to acquire more freedom, And when one becomes a little more free, then one gets a little more courageous. Begin to actually seek for goodness. To seek for it. Look out there at it, brothers. Oh goodness there, as far as I can see, the chorus will almost have a Greek chorus over beside saying, There is no goodness, it is all evil. That's always there to remind you. one of these problems of doom. So, you have to kind of put that out of your mind, and look, and begin to search around for good reason. Turn over stones, looking for it. And then finally, when one is an expert at that, one acquires

[17:50]

a kind of deep conviction, because this kind of search will usually be successful. This will lead to a deep kind of conviction, which can then deal with that 10% that seems beyond redemption. And that conviction is knowing, being certain, that goodness underlies everything. Witness is under the surface of everything, even though it does not always appear. I think this is what St. John heard during that text to me recalling the old liturgy of mid-Sunday. Old maids would not come back that day on which it would. The biggest declaration of revenge in the world will be that of God's love. This is the victory that conquers the world out of faith.

[18:56]

World, for John, is this philosophy of negative, pessimistic, cynical outlook. This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. There are so many examples of this. Pope John XXIII, I recall that he was lying with cancer, inoperable stomach cancer. We gave a talk at a seminary at one of the colleges in the world. And he said, every day is good. That's a lot of easy things to say when you've got this thing in your stomach. Good for living and good for dying. Now, you don't say that in the last month or so of your life.

[20:18]

But you say that after having been accustomed to say for years and years and years, It sounds stupid sometimes. Some days it seems true. And we get in the habit of looking for the goodness in every day. Then at the end, when that evil day is in it, one can say, even that one is good. I don't know how, but I like this habit, and I can't break this happy habit of finding goodness in every day. And so, hey, Faith is not just reciting the Creed. Faith is an attitude toward life.

[21:19]

Faith is using one's freedom to preact. It requires the gift of God, of course. Freedom itself is a gift. Using one's freedom to look for the goodness that God has placed in creation. to liberate the goodness from its ambiguity. God uses freedom to liberate being from nothing, liberate Israel from Egypt, liberate Jesus from the grave. Our freedom expressed in faith looks at nothing and finds something. Looks at plainness and finds beauty. Looks at death and finds life. It is expecting goodness.

[22:24]

Now, you know, this seems so simplistic that one could say, well, it can't be that simplistic. Well, I think it is. One realizes all the implications of this. If you look at the great men of faith in the Bible, at least you will find that they were men who had a great deal of people in their lives, but who looked for and found goodness. Abraham, Moses, David, Stephen, They expected good things to happen. And because they were ready and open and looking and searching, they happened. And other people looking in the same direction saw nothing.

[23:28]

Because they had not acquired this expectation. One of the places where it is most difficult to look for goodness is in another human being. It's hard enough to look for goodness in the weather, in the landscape, in the newspaper. It's hard enough there. It's much more difficult to look for goodness, to search for goodness in another human being. And so we tend to allow ourselves to see the evil in others, to see their shortcomings, their faults, and begin to dwell on them. And then we grudgingly admit other things. Oh, this is noise, unfortunately.

[24:32]

And we are the losers because My salvation, my life, my very existence depends on these other demons. I cannot save myself, only they can save me. They can only save me if I make them strong enough to do so. I cannot give freedom to myself, only others can give it to me. So, why does he play this trick on us? If we can give, But we cannot change. We can receive, but we cannot change. The things we need most. For example, freedom. I cannot tell myself that I'm alright. I can't be myself. I'm a good person. Somebody else has to tell me that.

[25:35]

And to do it freely, which means to do it effectively, But one's got to give them freedom. If I never do it, it becomes very difficult for me ever to benefit from it. So what happens is, when I discover this, I try to use all my freedom. And of course, we will fail many times. I have to use all my freedom to make others as strong and free as possible. Then I'm going to give. knowing in faith that He will come, but not knowing when, or how, or from whom. And so I respect everyone. I don't know who has the gift that I need. I recall one time, I was born from a peer evaluation in a seminary, and one of the students came up to me and said, boy, this produced some unexpected results.

[26:41]

What do you mean? Well, deacons have been so nice to us. You know, when you get in that deacon gear, you don't have to afford not to be nice to the others. But now, all of a sudden, they're evaluated. So, good morning, how are you, and oh, sure. Well, we choose, really, very often, who we want to be nice to. But if we don't know, Who has the gift for us? Let's be actually nice to everyone. And I think if we look at salvation history, you will find that God puts the gift we need in the most unexpected ones. Pharisees did not look for it. That was their great mistake. They could not look for it in Jesus. I know, it's impossible. He works miracles on the Sabbath.

[27:44]

It's clear he could not be the one. Well, rules 1, 2, subdivision 3. No work on the Sabbath. No, they proved Jesus died. What do you have to give? We don't know, but often it is a person who does not fit our definition of Saga. He does not fit our definition of why the person God would have sent the gift with. Often the unexpected, the surprising, the unpromising, personal situation, precisely where the gift is, where the light is. So, a youth wants freedom. Love means to be ready for the goodness in the other person.

[28:48]

To search for the goodness in the other person. To refuse finally to be convinced that there is no goodness in the other person. It doesn't mean denying evil. It doesn't mean forgiving it. But it cannot obscure the good. Among the characteristics of love in chapter 13, for instance, is that it is not irritable. It is not touchy, hypersensitive. And what a quack it was, he was virtual director of a seminary, a musical double seminary. Translation, I liked Ronald Dodds. Not really a perfect translation, but it's good.

[29:52]

And there he says, love cannot be irritated. Let's not say it is not irritable, but cannot be irritated. I think ultimately it comes to that. Love cannot be convinced that someone is evil, or that evil has taken over a person. Cannot be convinced of that. And of course, in most cases, it is so easy to find the truth. It is evident. One must be ready for it, open to it, Then, as I said, when this happened, it was the old business of Catherine Dern upon the water. I am the one delegate. When I point out all this goodness that I see in my neighbor, first thing my neighbor becomes my savior, my gift.

[31:05]

And channel by which God makes salvation available to me in the fullness.

[31:13]

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