A woman once went to the sacrament of reconciliation and confessed that she had been gossiping about others. As her penance, the priest instructed the woman to walk to the outskirts of the village in which she lived, taking a feather pillow with her along the way. The priest then instructed the woman to walk back home from the outskirts of town, releasing feathers of the pillow along the way. The woman followed the priest's instructions and returned back to her church the following week to tell of her journey.

The priest listened to the story of this woman, praised her for her obedience, and then gave the woman one last instruction. He said, "Now I want you to go back along the way, and pick up all the feathers of that pillow!" The woman was dumbfounded. The task was impossible. By now the wind had scattered many of those feathers miles away, out across the country. "Exactly," said the priest. "Now you see, what has happened as a result of your gossiping. It is impossible to call the words back again, once you sent them on their way. Be very, very careful what you speak, and especially what you gossip. It is generally impossible to repair that damage."

The reason I begin my homily with this particular story is not for your benefit but for mine. As is the case with most everyone in this room, one sin in my life of which I am very aware is the sin of gossip. I try to be aware when I am doing it and I certainly am aware during the times that it is being done to me. Whenever I focus on this particular sin in my life, I often turn to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter Six, verse 38, where I apply the following quotation to my life of sin as much as the author refers to this passage in the life of grace: "For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

For the sake of this homily, I began to research in the Sacred Scriptures the various references that apply to the subject of gossip and came up with the following passages that our Lord has provided for us on this particular subject. The scriptures say:

I will deal with them according to their conduct, and according to their judgments I will judge them; thus they shall know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 7: 27)

He who covers up a misdeed fosters friendship, but he who gossips about it separates friends. (Proverbs 17: 9)

Like a crazed archer scattering firebrands and deadly arrows is the man who deceives his neighbor, and then says, "I was only joking." For lack of wood, the fire dies out; and when there is no talebearer, strife subsides. (Proverbs 26: 18-20)

A great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is a small part… but it can be a world of evil (James 3: 5-6).

We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others. Such people we instruct and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and to eat their own food. (2 Thessalonians 3: 10)

As we return to the cycle of readings for the remainder of the Season of Ordinary Time, this particular subject of integrity, of living the Christian life like a person builds their house on solid rock, has resonated with me over the last few years, especially in the world of Christian behavior. I often think about a parent who tells their child to always be honest but does not tell the child what negative results will take place when they choose to tell the truth. Telling the truth might get a child punished for their behavior. Sometimes telling the truth will cause others to have ill feelings towards another.

In the adult world, to speak lovingly and honestly means that some people might take advantage of you or deceive you or gossip about you or mistreat you because you have chosen to live an open life, because you have chosen to become vulnerable to the world. To live an honest life can often be akin to playing poker with an open hand while others conceal theirs. I certainly can understand why others choose not to speak openly - Christ's life and the lives of many saints were shortened considerably by preaching and living the gospel message. It is much easier to stay silent than to risk a negative response by those in the world. This is the struggle that all of us have to face in the stressful situations with which we deal in life.

That said, I certainly feel guilty when I do not live my life openly and stand up for the teachings of the gospel. I certainly feel guilty when I have gossiped about others and I certainly get upset when others have gossiped about me. For me not to live a life of honesty and to spread malicious gossip about others in the world is to impugn another's reputation. In the life of faith, this violates the eighth commandment not to bear false witness against thy neighbor. In my own personal life, this has caused me many evenings of unrest in my life.

In reflecting upon this weekend's readings (which ironically is the first time I have encountered these particular set of texts since my ordination), I was reflecting on the times in my life when I have "tossed my own feathers in the air" (in keeping with the theme of my homily). When I was ten years old, I used to remember attending Mass each week and trying to be respectful and attentive at the liturgy, only to find out that as soon as I left the church and went into the parking lot, I reverted back to the same sinful condition that I had before I walked into church. My mother used to chide me when I would act in this manner. At these times, my mother used to get very mad and say to me, "You just received communion, so start acting like you just did!"

Years later, I think that my mother's sentiment applies both to my current life and to this life of today's age. I think about in my life how many times I have tossed feathers from the church to the parking lot after the Mass has ended and the amount of times people have confessed at the sacrament of reconciliation about the manner in which they, too, have "tossed their own feathers" in the parking lot and beyond. Even for the short amount of time that the Blessed Sacrament digests within a faithful person (some fifteen minutes or so), the question arises within all of us whether our lives have actually become holier with the presence of Christ within us or whether that presence has been taken for granted.

The theme that scripture scholars attribute to this Sunday's readings very much parallels the sentiments of my mother's words from thirty years ago. Today's gospel from St. Matthew provides a fitting conclusion to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount passage, as Christ summarizes the basic theme of the Christian life that he had preached to his disciples. For the faithful Christian, reciting the prayers and going through the motions of faith is certainly not enough. According to the scripture scholars of today's age, the Christian life is not just going through the motions but truly embracing and imitating the life of Christ. To them, when we do not live the Christian life, the result of such disobedience becomes greatly catastrophic for us.

It is this particular sentiment that none of us want to hear, because in today's age, we like to view our Catholic faith in much more positive terms. Less people wish to be challenged by God; most people wish to focus on the joys of love rather than the sacrifice and suffering that make this love possible in the first place. We are a society of pastels that do not tend to view the images and rules of faith in a "black and white" perspective. Sometimes, the world of pastels is justified; most of the time, our life of pastels attempts to rationalize ourselves away from the life of Christian behavior and causes us to enter this catastrophic life.

When we embrace the scripture readings like those we hear today, we are challenged to enter the difficult side of the gospel message that just doesn't tell us about the rewards of the Christian life but the results of those who do not choose to live this way. I know that I do not like to hear about being challenged by others. As Moses laments in today's first reading, our life of faith is a blessing and a curse: a blessing for those who follow the life of God and a curse for those who do not. What bothers me as a person of faith is whether I have become akin to blowing feathers around the parking lot or anywhere else I roam. Where I struggle as a pastor is whether I can teach our flock to avoid the spreading of the feathers in their daily lives as well and adhering to the words of the Book of James, Chapter Six, where he calls the wise and learned person one who shows his life of faith through humility, wisdom and good works.

This weekend, we begin the long haul of a series of twenty-six sets of readings that will carry us through the Season of Ordinary Time. As will be the case during the beginning of the summer months, we will see a drop off of Mass attendance here at the parish, sometimes due to vacations and out of town activities, other times through neglect of the Third Commandment. Those who do not attend Mass on a weekly basis will not have the opportunity to learn the type of Christian life that will permit them to enter heaven. The challenge in our lives is to remember that our God guides us just as much in the summer months as in the rest of the year and that God counts on us building a relationship with him during this season as a prerequisite for us continuing this relationship in the kingdom of heaven.

This relationship must start at this Mass, which our Second Vatican Council described as "the source and summit" of our Christian life. This Mass strengthens us to live the Christian life, both in the parking lots, in our homes and everywhere we breathe. The question we must pose to ourselves is whether we wish to continue building this house on solid rock by building a relationship with God or whether we choose to build a house on sand that blows away at the first gust of wind.

Our Prayer after Communion very well summarizes the theme of today's homily: "Guide us with your Spirit that we may honor you not only with our lips but also with the lives we lead, and so enter your kingdom." May we all learn to live the faith we profess and never toss feathers at the expense of others.

And this is our prayer.