Thursday after the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost

Dear students, dear faithful,

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, and likewise we commemorate a Polish blessed bishop and martyr: Bł. Bogumiła. In both of these saints we see many heroic virtues worthy of imitation. We see in their lives a model in keeping the commandments of God. Yet today, instead of concentrating on the lives of these saints, it would be also edifying to look exactly on the purpose of the commandments which God has given. us.

It seems rather odd, if you think about it, that so many of the commandments seem so negative: you shall not do this, you shall not do that. Seems all rather negative, rather boring. It would seem that since God is perfect, He wouldn't need to state everything in so negative a fashion. So it seems in so many things in life there are more things you shouldn't do than anything else.

Yet this is not true, and in fact it is quite the opposite. What we don't do, and what we shouldn't do, are actually more defining of who we are than anything else.

In fact, if you look at how a scientist begins a problem, he often begins his research by finding out what something isn't than talking about what it is. After all, if he knew what it was, he wouldn't need to study it. A scientist will often begin by eliminating certain things from his experiments. This is part and part of the scientific method: we eliminate those variables that change, so that we study only one thing at a time. For instance, like when we studied the effect of gravity we try to eliminate the difference in air resistance. We try to have both objects the same size and shape. We eliminate the different things that could influence our study in order to arrive at a basic truth of how gravity alone affects something falling. So a scientist will often spend a lot of time eliminating things, seeing what has no influence at all in order to arrive at the actual and precise cause of what he is observing.

The same is especially true with God. We can't see God, after all, and He is so perfect that we really don't have words to describe him. Even St. Peter, when he saw the glory of Our Lord on Mount Tabor, was at a loss of words, only saying "Lord, it is good for us to be here", and the gospel says "For he knew not what he said" [Mk 9,5], so overwhelmed he was with the vision. So when we study God, we don't really have words for Who He is, but rather for what He isn't: God is Im-mortal, Un-changing, in-finite and so on. We actually have to describe God by first finding out what He isn't.

The same is true in the moral life. The splendor and magnificence of what God has prepared for us is so great that St. Paul tells us: "That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him." [1 Cor 2,9]. It will be a life without end, without sadness, without suffering.  And the same can be said about the way to obtain eternal life. It is true that each of us knows in our hearts that we must seek good and avoid evil, yet the good we seek is infinite so it is difficult to express and describe in a positive fashion. So often, in the moral order, we look more about what we have to avoid. True, the ten commandments tell us to observe the Holy Days, but it will be often the observance of Holy Days that are outlined in a rather negative fashion: that we don't work on these days for example - this negative precept actually makes the Sunday different from all the other days when we do work.

Even in mundane things like going to school on the bus, or driving down a highway, often your path is defined by what you don't do: you don't get off at the first stop, but only on the second. You don't take this exit on the highway, but another you must take if you want to arrive at your destination. So in the moral life, in our search for perfection, it is sometimes very difficult to describe what perfection is like but much easier to know what it isn't.

We can see this in the example of the pagans who do not know God. They have a certain instinctive knowledge that God exists, that some higher power is ruling the universe that they ought to obey, but they really have no idea what God wants from them and so they give themselves over to all sorts of excesses. THe different superstitions and exaggerations which we see in the pagan religions are often because they really have no precepts - no commandments saying what they shouldn't do. They give themselves over to their passions and concupiscences with no restraint. A rational man however, is often characterized by the fact that he has the strength of will to say no to his lower passions.

It is exactly the absence of restraint that paralyzes and imprisons the poor soul that does not know how to say no. You have certainly seen people that think they are cool because they can break the rules, because they think they are somehow superior, because they are rebellious or whatever. But actually these people are slaves to their own passions and to others. It might seem fascinating at first, but actually their way of life is more and more limiting the further they continue on the bad path. They are slaves to the opinions of others, for they only do what they do so that others will somehow respect them. They do not have a personality but rather are completely governed by what others want them to do. On the contrary, the truly interesting people are often attractive for the simple fact that they don't do like others do.

What is more, the really interesting life is rather by following the commandments of God, not by disobeying them.

Just to take one example, you might wonder why it is that God tells us not to tell a lie. It seems rather so impractical - lying seems so easy and so much more efficient than telling the truth. AFter all, politicians lie everyday and they seem to have a lot of success. But actually, if you think about it, politicians are actually and most often the most unsuccessful of people, and it is because of their lies. No one believes what they say, and their promises are worse than empty air. You might think, for instance, that it is so much easier to lie and said you did your homework so you can be free and go out and play, but that one lie actually leads to less and less freedom. For the next day you have to tell another lie to hide the fact that you didn't do as you said, and then another lie to cover that one, and soon you even forget what you said. President Reagan was once asked how he had so quickly answers to the questions reporters asked him, for unlike other politicians he had very straight and simple answers to what was asked of him. He simply answered the reporter that the truth is so much easier to memorize. So it is in real life: lying might seem a shortcut to get what you want, but in fact it makes you a prisoner, leaving you nothing but an empty mind full of nonsense, and soon leads to the loss of everything for no one can be a friend of someone who has the habit of lying.

So my dear faithful and students, let us remember that the prohibitions that God gives to us are always for our good. The good God wants for us is so great that often we cannot understand it, and so God to help our weakness adapts His commandments that we can more easily follow them. Even if they seem negative to us, they are actually defining our course in life so we don't destroy ourselves. The same is true of your parents. They will often forbid you things that you think are so fantastic that you can't imagine why they wouldn't allow you to do it. And yet you have lived so little of your life, you have seen so little of this world that you really have no idea how harmful some things can be. Your baby brother for instance will want to touch the hot stove because it looks so interesting, and yet you can't let him do that or else he will lose the skin off his hands. He will also want to drink some cleaner or other poisonous liquid, not really knowing what it is except that it has a nice looking bottle. In the moral life there are likewise things no parent can allow their children to do, and the hurt that comes from being unsupervised is often much greater than just a burn - it can mean the loss of one's soul for eternity.

Yet life is not just negatives, this we know. There are so many things that we know to be good, but the problem is that we are often distracted by what looks good rather than what really is good. Nonetheless there are so many obviously good things to do that it really is a shame to waste one's time and energy trying out things that are doubtful and sinful. Especially remember that you will be often like whom you spend the most of your time with. If you have bad companions, you will end up being a bad person. You are, in the physical order, what you eat - if you eat bad food you will starve and maybe even die. So also we shouldn't fill our souls with stupidities and ugly things, but rather what is good, what is true, what is noble and what is truly giving us a glimpse of that infinite joy we will have in heaven.

So let us ask especially of that grace that will help us to realize what God wants for us, namely that we be happy for ever and ever. True, it is often difficult, often rather painful, but that is how life works. If you only learn that one lesson, of how life works, you will have learned everything. If however you have only learned how to be influenced by others and have them lead you by the nose throughout your life, then even with all the books and learning in the world, you will really have understood nothing. So pray that Our Lady might help us, show us like the Mother she is, the way to eternal happiness. Amen.