NB. The deacon is preaching this evening, but I thought I'd write a homily anyway. . .just to stay in shape.
6th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
St. Dominic Priory, NOLA
The
promise of heaven for good behavior and the threat of hell for bad
behavior is really all about social control. It's about using the
promise/threat of an afterlife to keep us in line while we're still
alive. Pie-in-the-sky, fire and brimstone – all
that nonsense. I
believed this lie when I was younger; that is, I believed the lie
that heaven and hell were just fables told to keep us peasants under
control. Back then, in my twenties, I thought everything was about
power and control. Who has it? Who suffers b/c they don't? Who
benefits from the system of religious myths and rituals? Now, have
ecclesial and political authorities used religion as a means of
social control? Sure. Anything humans touch can and will be twisted
to an evil end. That a hammer can be used to murder doesn't mean that
hammers are morally bad. That the Beatitudes can be used to pacify
the angry masses into believing that things will be better in some
fictitious heaven – well, that doesn't mean we are not blessed when
we follow Christ and work toward being perfected in him. “Rejoice
and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in
heaven.” Better yet: rejoice and leap for joy for your reward is –
right
now
– already great!
We
make a big mistake when we assume that we must wait for heaven to
receive our reward for being faithful followers of Christ. Sure, the
fullness of our reward will be great then
– no doubt! – but we start sharing in the Kingdom we've inherited
even now.
What is the Mass but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet? What is
confession but a glimpse into the Father's mercy? What is baptism and
confirmation but our first steps as heirs and members of the holy
family? Marriage makes the married couple a sacrament of Christ's
love for his Bride, the Church. And the sacrament of anointing brings
us directly into the healing power of God. Jesus preaches the
Beatitudes not to pacify us deprived peasants into a compliant
citizenry but to show us that our suffering now shapes us into
perfected vessels for his gifts. But. . .we
must suffer well.
We can suffer now with an eye on some distant reward. Or, we can
suffer now, suffer well, and benefit immediately from how we choose
to suffer. The sacraments help. Prayer certainly helps. Good works
always increase merit. But nothing beats loving sacrifice in bringing
us close and closer to our perfection in Christ.
There
are two components of loving sacrifice: surrender and gratitude.
Together these two result in obedience. Not mere compliance. But
obedience – truly loving God, listening to His Word, and following
His will. Surrender is about coming to know a simple truth: I
am not in control.
Never have been. Never will be. I was thrown into this world by my
parents. I wasn't consulted. No one asked for my permission to be
born. I didn't get a choice in my race or sex or anything else for
that matter. Yet – here
I am.
At some point, I started making choices. And at that point, I started
thinking (falsely) that I was in control. The sum total of my choices
up until I surrendered proved to be...less than spectacular. MUCH
less than spectacular, in fact. At death's door from an internal
staph infection at 34yo, I chose surrender. I let go of the wheel.
Did I occasionally snatch it back? Yes. Did I successfully drive my
life toward Christ when I did? No. Ended up in a ditch every time.
Age helps surrender b/c age helps you see the Real as it is...not as
you want it to be. Think of surrender as your first sacrifice. Your
intellect and will upon His altar, your contrite heart and mind
raised up and given over to be made holy. A sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving.
Giving
thanks is harder than we sometimes imagine. Saying “thank you” is
an admission of dependence. It's a confession of needing help. Once
you've surrendered, once you've offered your heart and mind in
sacrifice, the help you need is abundant and freely given. Turning
your prayer life toward gratitude deepens your humility, and you
begin to understand what Jesus means when he preaches about being
blessed. Blessed now, blessed then. Always blessed in thanksgiving.
The deeper you grow in humility, the easier obedience becomes. You
learn a new habit, or rather, you relearn an old habit in a new way:
faith. It's not just trust anymore, or hope, but a still, grounded,
rock-solid certainty that God's promises will
not be
fulfilled. BUT...they have already, always been fulfilled and you
participate fully in them. That's blessedness this side of paradise.
And with that blessedness comes the driving need to bear witness to
the gift you have been given, the gift you have freely received. When
you do, when you bear witness, you offer loving sacrifice. And you
grow closer to Christ. Blessed are those who die to self in surrender
and gratitude and become Christ for another.
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