The Stuff We Find Tough

+ J. M. J. + 

Homily Outline for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

A theme from last Sunday continues today: Jesus prepared his disciples for His Passion & Death.  He spoke to them of the Kingdom, He performed works of power & wonder, & He also told them of His suffering & death.  This theme was present in the Old Testament, but not always embraced or understood.  Indeed, it is never easy to embrace or underst& this reality that our Savior & King saved us by His own suffering & death.  He rose glorious & victorious, but only after passing through apparent defeat & every sort of agony.

The world’s attitude toward this truth is vividly portrayed in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom:

Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings….let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.

 

This attitude is common on the internet & in the news, & even among our own friends: “These Catholics, with their high teaching, look at THEIR faults & weakness, let’s see if they really live what they believe.”   Very often, due to our own weakness & sin, we come up short in the eyes of the world. The world often has plenty of excuses to ignore the truth we seek to proclaim by our lives.

By our baptisms each of us received the joy & sacred duty of preaching the Gospel by our lives in every place that we are: our homes, our offices, our hunting camps, our locker rooms, our restaurants, our schools, & even our volleyball courts & football fields.  When people observe us, our lives, our deeds, & words—what do they see?  Do they see what the Apostle James describes: “jealousy & selfish ambition… disorder & every foul practice.”  Or, do they see us striving for purity, gentleness, & mercy even in the midst of our own weakness & faults?  Do they see us striving for the fullness of the truth?  Or, do they see us picking & choosing the parts that are convenient & to our liking, & ignoring the rest?  If people do not see a resolve & a daily effort to live the fullness of the Gospel in us, well, they won’t see it anywhere.

In particular—do we pick & chose which parts of the Church’s teaching we follow?  This is widespread & disastrous here in the U.S.—the idea that the teachings I dislike or find inconvenient can be freely discarded. Some have called this “cafeteria Catholicism”: grab the chips & the hotdogs, but skip the spinach & the broccoli!  We shouldn’t do this at the supper table, & it’s just as harmful for us in our faith.  The Ten Comm&ments are NOT pick & choose, & neither is the Church’s teaching.  The teachings we find the most difficult are the very same places the Lord is calling us to conversion & growth.

Let me emphasize: this does not mean any of us is perfect, nor does it mean that our living of the Gospel is only effective if we’re perfect.  We ARE called to holiness, to perfection, but that is a lifelong & daily journey.  What people MUST see in us is not perfection, not a lack of struggle, but quite the opposite… they must see us fighting—literally fighting, struggling—every day to grow better, seeking every day to open our lives up wider & wider to God’s infinite grace. The saints are NOT those who had no faults or never sinned; saints are men, women, & children who never gave up, who kept seeking the Lord’s grace & mercy, who rejected the voice of discouragement & the status quo, who constantly turned back to the Lord.

This struggle to embrace the fullness of Christ’s teaching is evident in our Gospel. Having revealed His passion & death, a struggle that preceded His victory, the disciples do not underst&.  The extent of their incomprehension is dramatically revealed when Jesus discovers that they’ve been fighting among themselves about their own status.  What the Apostle James described later is already at work:

Where do the wars & where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill & envy but you cannot obtain; you fight & wage war. 

St. James is speaking to an early CHRISTIAN community, & we can see that this was already present among Jesus’ closest followers, & of course it is present in our hearts today & among us.  The disciples had not absorbed what Jesus had said, & so were occupied with their own prominence rather than with laying down their lives.  Jesus places a child in their midst as a model & a challenge:

If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all & the servant of all…. Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; & whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.

We have a sacred & urgent mission, & the world needs the Gospel now more than ever.  Our enemy seeks to draw us into internal division & discouragement & attacks us daily with temptations & lies.  The path to eternal life & glory passes through the Cross.  May we ask the Lord for the courage to live undivided lives, the courage to embrace the fullness of His teaching, especially the parts that each of us find most difficult.

+ A. M. D. G. +