Wrestling, Plowing, Serving

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Jesus challenged us last week to take up our crosses and follow Him, to lose our lives for His sake so as to save them, offering them in service and in truth. He doesn’t pull the punch as He continues the challenge, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” These words are very apt in light of our celebration this week of the 4th of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s birthday. 237 years ago our Founding Fathers declared that our nation was free, using the familiar words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” From that moment to the present, our nation has proudly proclaimed itself a nation of liberty and of freedom.

From the beginning, though, that idea of freedom has always been in peril of decaying into the simple absence of restraint, a lack of limits, or even a denial any limits or boundaries exist. Sadly, the Supreme Court’s two decisions last week bring us closer to a national redefinition of marriage, a redefinition that focuses on the desires of adults at the expense of the protection and nurture of children. [For basic facts on those decisions: 12-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-courts-homosexual-marriage-decisions ] It seems that our culture imagines we can make our own rules for everything, and that our own impulses and desires set the standard for all things. In stark contrast, our Scriptures this Sunday call us to an authentic freedom, an authentic liberty, which is always freedom for what is good, true, and beautiful, a liberty oriented toward God.

In our first reading, Elijah is about to be taken up into heaven, his prophetic service to the Lord nearly complete. God calls him to anoint a successor, Elisha, who will carry on the work of calling the People of Israel back to God. He throws his cloak over Elisha’s shoulders as he is plowing, symbolizing the yoke and burden of authority that Elisha will bear. Elisha surrenders his livelihood and his past… he takes the tools of his trade, the yoke and the oxen, and uses them to provide a feast for his people.

Authentic freedom does involve surrendering the past, whatever it contains, into God’s hands. We must be rooted in tradition and history, otherwise we are blown about rootless by whatever storms happen to come along. Nevertheless, this rootedness, being grounded, must also leave us free to embrace God’s often-surprising call, free to follow His voice. Jesus calls us forward into service, into conversion, into growing freedom as we imitate His self-emptying.

Let me give you a simple image. I was a wrestler in high school, and I can vividly remember the nervousness and excitement I always felt stepping out on the mat to do battle. Although you often warm up in several layers of clothing, you wrestle only in a singlet, a very simple one-piece garment that leaves you completely free to use whatever moves, strength, speed, or stamina that you have developed. You step out onto the mat grounded in long hours of practice and drill, but also free move and respond in any way necessary. There are very specific and concrete rules governing a match. Without them it would be an ugly brawl, no sport. And, yet, within those boundaries, there are infinite possibilities.

On some level, the image of a wrestler might help us to grasp what true freedom is. St. Paul emphasizes that this is at the heart of the Gospel:

Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.

Christ went resolutely to Jerusalem, to the Cross, and He calls us to follow Him. He sets us free, free from sin, and this freedom is for service in love. In Christ, with the aid of the sacraments, in our daily prayer, we are equipped to embrace the truth and to serve. We are progressively freed so as to struggle against temptation and selfishness. We are freed for Christ, for truth, for goodness, and for beauty. We are freed and equipped to seek God’s will for us, and then to embrace it and follow it, wherever it leads. In the word of the Psalm, ‘I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you. O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.”’ God must finally be our choice… God is our portion, our cup, our target, our standard. When we choose towards God, our freedom deepens. When we choose away from God, we abuse our freedom, and become progressively enslaved to sin.

This vision of authentic freedom, freedom in Christ, freedom for service and truth… this has never been easy to live, it has never been easy to embrace. In our own time it goes almost entirely against the grain. Our world is allergic to commitment, allergic to self-emptying and self-gift. We WILL NOT LIVE THIS CHRISTIAN VISION BY DEFAULT! We will not put our hands to the plow and keep them there by accident. If we do not resolve and choose today, and again tomorrow, and each day for the rest of our lives, we will be carried along by the desires of the flesh that St. Paul warned us about. That current leads not to freedom, but to slavery; it leads not to peace and a heart full of joy, but to bitter emptiness.

We prepare our hearts now to approach this altar from which we receive Him who set us free. We receive the Body and Blood of the God-man who said, “Lord, may this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done.” May this infinite and precious gift of Jesus’ Body and Blood bring us to true freedom, and to everlasting life.

+ A. M. D. G. +