Crossing the Chasm

Homily Outline for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18

Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

1 Corinthians 3:16-23

Matthew 5:38-48

 

            Not this past week, but the week before I had the privilege of spending a week with the monks of Holy Transfiguration Skete up in the Keweenaw... these are the monks who make all the good muffins, cookies and jam at the Jam Pot!  Unfortunately, they're not baking this time of year, so I didn't get to sample the goodies.  I really enjoyed my time with them, and I wanted to join, but they said my beard was too short, so I had to come back!  In all seriousness, it was a time of retreat, a time for prayer and reflection.  They live a very counter-cultural life of prayer, poverty, chastity, and obedience.  Not only do they live this out of the conviction that it is the vocation God calls them to, but they are also a sign of contradiction and a challenge to the world, and to us.

            This past week at Catholic Campus Ministry, Fr. Larry gave a talk about what it means to be countercultural in light of our faith, the introduction to a series of presentations on ways that our faith calls us to stand up for truth.  To be a Catholic Christian is not simply to counter or go against culture… in any time and place, in every generation, there are some aspects of the culture that are good, and others that are unhealthy.  However, in every time and place Jesus Christ calls us to march to the beat of His drum, the drum of truth and goodness and beauty.  This beat, which speaks to us in the Church, in the Scriptures, and in our own conscience, is what we are to use to measure our lives and decisions, to direct and guide our path.

            The portions of the Word of God that we have heard at this Eucharist are particularly challenging, especially when taken together!  What rhythm, what beat, what pattern does God call us to?  Listen to three quick quotes: Leviticus, “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”  First Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”  The Gospel of Matthew, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This sounds like a sustained theme, a consistent message, an entirely radical and countercultural approach in any age: Be Perfect… even, be perfect as God is perfect!  

            God calls us to be holy, to be perfect… I don’t know about your life, or even an average day in your life, but in my life, that sounds rather like a pipe dream!  When we hear this call from God, there is a great danger that the major disconnect between our brokenness and perfection can cause us to turn away, or to walk on past this call.  To whatever extent we are capable of looking into our hearts with honesty, we can’t help but notice a pretty big chasm between the confusion, pain, or even boredom we find there, and God’s perfect beauty and joy.

            What does this call to be perfect, to be holy, mean then?  Why even try?  I think we need to reject some common false images before we can zero in on holiness.  First of all, this does not mean that God wants us to turn in the accumulated result of our good works, like a term paper, in hopes that we’ll get an A!  To follow this call will cost us everything, but it’s not primarily our accomplishment… it is not so much work we do for God, but work God can do in us.  Secondly, this is not a call to “be a good person.”  Unfortunately, that can often imply, “hey, look, lots of people around me are worse!  God should be grateful at all the bad things I could have done that I didn’t!  Isn’t this enough, God, I mostly play by the rules…”  This is not what the Word of God is saying, but rather we are actually called to perfection, not just to be graded on a curve, and to do better than average.  Finally, the call to perfection and holiness is not a call to be spiritual perfectionist, to be obsessed with minutiae, to be judgmental towards ourselves and others.  It is not a call to be harsh and unyielding in our adherence to the Law of God.

            All three of these misperceptions stem from seeing this call primarily in terms of our own efforts.  If we are “Temples of the Holy Spirit,” that suggests that the very life and love of God dwells within us!  God knows to whom He speaks, He knows the mess in our hearts and lives, and yet He still calls us.  We look honestly into our brokenness not to court despair, but to open up to our need for a savior, the very Lord Jesus Christ who suffered, died, and rose again for us.  John Paul II, soon to be beatified, was very fond of quoting Gaudium et Spes #22 “Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”  This is from one of the four principal documents of the Second Vatican Council.  Christ reveals us to ourselves – as we gaze upon the Lord, we not only learn of God’s love for us, but we can begin to see the journey we are called to walk.  We are not starry-eyed with false optimism: we are not now perfect, we are indeed weak, we will make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean settling for now, for today, for the status quo.  Jesus Himself calls us deeper, and shows us what deeper looks like.  Ask yourself… Are you satisfied?  Ask God to give you a hunger and thirst for holiness.  What is locked up in your heart?  What old wounds are locked up that need to be unbound?  What lust, or bitterness, or envy needs to be washed away and surrendered?  Have you allowed yourself to believe that God still loves you in the midst of brokenness?  His love for us is perfect, unfailing, and faithful, completely undimmed by our lack of faith.  Can we embrace that love, receive it once again?  It is God’s unfailing love that will transform us if we accept and receive it each day, each moment.

            At this Eucharist we who are not yet perfect, we who hunger for holiness, we who are temples in need of sweeping will approach this altar.  The one who is perfect and holy offers us once again His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  The power and grace to transform our hearts comes to us now… will we embrace it and be transformed?