Man do we need that Spirit of Fortitude!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Patronal Feast of St. Sebastian Parish

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a great joy to celebrate with you this, our patronal feast, the feast of St. Sebastian, martyr. In the life of the Church, each parish community is entrusted to the intercession, inspiration, and imitation of a particular saint or mystery of our faith. By God’s providence, love, and wisdom we have been entrusted to St. Sebastian, and so, since the founding of our parish well over 100 years ago, this relationship has grown. I’m afraid that in recent decades, in many communities, a vibrant awareness of that relationship with our patron saint has waned, and I was greatly blessed by my experience of Catholic life in El Salvador during the years I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Every man, woman, and child knew of their parish and town patron, knew when the feast fell, and celebrated it with joy! Every Catholic ethnicity from which we have descended, whether Italian, or Polish, or Croatian, or Irish, or German, or French… fill in the blank if I’ve missed your ancestors!... every place had particular devotions and traditions to the saints. Our glorious stained glass at the back of the Church pays homage to those traditions, and reminds us of their ongoing validity. In our own time, we are just as much, if not in even greater, need of the intercession and inspiration of the saints, and by our very baptism we are called to follow their example! And, thus, St. Sebastian has been entrusted to us, and we to him! This is why our patronal feast is very rightly, by the liturgical law itself, allowed to displace even the Sunday liturgy, with its proper readings and prayers.

Listen carefully again to our Collect, our Opening Prayer, as it gathers together the Church’s desire for us on this feast:

Grant us, we pray, O Lord, a spirit of fortitude,
so that, taught by the glorious example
of your Martyr Saint Sebastian,
we may learn to obey you rather than men.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

It is a wonderful prayer that places before us a great challenge… to truly ask for and desire what is offered to us on this feast, and then to live out of that grace in union with the Most Blessed Trinity.

Let’s begin where the prayer begins… a prayerful request for a spirit of fortitude. Let’s face it… to actually and authentically live our faith each day isn’t getting any easier, and sometimes it seems like the forces arrayed against us are mounting! St. Sebastian was a soldier in the Caesar’s Praetorian Guard, and a devout Christian. As he engaged in acts of charity, and as he encouraged other Christians to be steadfast in the face of persecution and martyrdom, we can only imagine he was aware of his own peril. In our own time, we mark very sadly this week the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and since that decision, well over 50 million children have been killed in their mothers’ wombs. On average, that’s something like 3500 abortions every day these 40 years. We see here how Blessed John Paul II was so on target in referring to the Culture of Death. It’s not popular to oppose the killing of unborn children, it’s not popular to offer healing and reconciliation to those who’ve had abortions… to offer reconciliation and healing it is necessary to admit that something bad happened! It’s not popular to promote Christian Marriage. It’s not popular to identify sin as sin and then to fight for virtue in one’s own life and in our broken world. And so, we truly need the gift and spirit of fortitude.

Our first reading is intense… the Greeks are trying to force the Jews to abandon their religion, and they have fallen to barbarous torture of 7 sons before their mother’s eyes. And, yet, with admirable fortitude, she encourages them:

Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them.”

We do not face such extreme circumstances in our country, as many of our brothers and sisters do in other nations at this very moment, but there is no doubt that to live our faith fully and authentically requires fortitude and courage. This must come not simply from our own resources but from God.

The call to be strong in our faith is not a call to be aggressive or violent towards unbelief or unbelievers. The call to be filled with fortitude is also a call to be filled with the Lord’s gentle mercy. Those who have had abortions must hear from us the truth that abortion is terribly wrong, but they must also hear the truth that God’s mercy is infinite, and they must find mercy in us as well. St. Peter gives beautiful advice on how we are to be ready to obey God rather than men:

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduce in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

A martyr chooses to follow God’s truth rather than the errors of men… a martyr chooses death rather than abandonment of God’s loving truth. We who may not face death must apply this to our own circumstances: Do we follow God’s truth without counting the cost? Do we love and forgive generously and freely? Do we speak of God’s truth in season and out of season? Do we acknowledge God before men, or do we keep silent?

The broken world in which we find ourselves today is full of men, women, and children who do not know the Lord, who have not encountered His Truth, who have not experienced His Mercy and Love. If they do not encounter God in us, where will they find Him? We are His Body, the Church, we are His Sons and Daughters, we are meant to be His voice, his hands, his feet. Terrible lies are working terrible suffering in our very midst… by God’s grace we must ask for the courage to fully embrace the truth, and then to act on it with love. On our patronal feast, on this feast of St. Sebastian, we ask God to fill us with the beautiful gift of loving fortitude, that we might follow St. Sebastian’s example, loving God and His truth without counting the cost. We prepare ourselves now to approach this altar from which we will once again receive the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ. All the grace we desperately need is about to be offered to us under the humble appearance of bread and wine.

+ A. M. D. G. +