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Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary-
Homilies |
"Following
the Lord to Live in His Light"
Homily for the
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Jonathan L. Reardon
February 6, 2011
Year A
Under the Emperor Nero around the year 64 AD the first wave
of Christian persecution began. The Christians living in Rome
were afraid for St. Peter, their bishop, and encouraged him to
escape. So, Peter disguised himself and followed back streets
out to the Appian Way. As he passed the city gate Jesus himself
appeared to him, walking right past him into the city. Shocked,
Peter fell to his knees, and asked: “Domine, quo vadis?” –
“Lord, where are you going,” Jesus answered: “I am going into
the city, to be crucified again.” Peter asked: “Lord, will you
really again go to be crucified?” “Yes,” Jesus replied. St.
Peter got up, turned back to the city, and said: “I will return
and follow you.” Jesus smiled and disappeared, leaving only his
footprints in the cobblestones on the road. At that moment St.
Peter understood that God was calling him not to flee from the
cross, as merely human wisdom would advise, but to follow in
Christ's own footsteps and give his life for the faith. And
Peter did indeed die in that persecution; he was martyred by
being crucified upside down – because he did not deem himself
worthy to die in the same manner as Our Lord.
It's not easy to build our lives on God's grace, because our
faith doesn't always make sense in terms of merely human wisdom.
It’s not easy to go against the grain of society, to swim
against the current. But isn’t this what Our Lord is exhorting
us to in today’s Gospel?
Our Lord’s words today come at the tail end of the Sermon on the
Mount. The sayings about salt and light are St. Matthew’s
formulations of sayings found also in the Gospels of Mark and
Luke. They serve to define the identity of those who follow
Christ faithfully. That identity is firmly rooted in Israel’s
identity as the Chosen People but it also has significance for
the whole world. “The salt of the earth, the light of the world,
the city set on a hill,” – images that are understandable and
visible to all and have rich, symbolic meaning. Salt gives
flavor to food, makes it pleasant and preserves it from going
bad. It is a symbol of divine wisdom. In the Old Testament it
was prescribed that everything offered to God should be seasoned
with salt, signifying that one making the offering willed that
his sacrifice be pleasing to God. The creation of light was
God’s first mode of operation when He called the universe into
being. It is a symbol of the Lord Himself. In contrast,
darkness, symbolizes disorder, death, hell and evil. In these
sayings, then, Jesus calls His followers to be a light to all
nations, to bear witness to His name in all circumstances, to be
His presence in the world. Perhaps St. Peter called to mind this
saying of Jesus when Our Lord appeared to him. Perhaps he
realized that it would be through his death that the light of
Christ would shine through him to all those living in Rome at
the time, and indeed to Christians all over the world. That
could not have been an easy decision to make – he must have
realized though, how many people would be inspired to do the
same for Jesus by looking to his own example.
There is in our society a disturbing crisis – the number of
Christians who are afraid to bear authentic witness to Christ
and to be an inspiration to others. There is a false mentality
that our relationship with Jesus is solely a private matter. In
one sense it certainly is – we have to know Christ on a personal
and intimate level – but that knowledge of Him must be rooted in
love and spill over into our words and deeds – into our everyday
lives. One has only to make a good and thorough examination of
conscience to know this fact – that person is able to see that
when he sins, those faults not only have affect on his own
personal relationship with God but how he has affected the lives
others. Today, Christ speaks and acts through us because we bear
His name; we carry His light. If we believe that our faith in
Him is a private matter then that light is hidden and cannot
shine on others. Christ, therefore, cannot work through us
because we will not let Him. The question is, then, how do we
let His light shine, how do we make Him known in our world, how
can we be a light of inspiration for others? The prophet Isaiah
tells – feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless
– the first 3 of the corporal works of mercy. The rest are: give
drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, free those in captivity,
and bury the dead. The corporal works of mercy are ways in which
we can humbly follow Our Lord because we realize that through
these actions we become a light for others, we see in them the
image of Christ Himself and they see in us the God who cares for
them.
For us, this means sometimes making tough decisions that seem
strange to modern man but for us means being Christ for others –
being light and not darkness – self-less and not selfish.
Because in the end, as Pope John Paul II once said: “He needs
you. In some ways you lend Him your face, your heart, your whole
person, when you are convinced, dedicated to others, faithful
servants of the Gospel. Then it will be Jesus Christ who
attracts people.”
Like St. Peter, then, we need to get on our knees every day,
gaze upon Our crucified Lord, and say to him: “Domine, quo vadis?
Where are you going, Lord, where do you want me to go? How can I
be your light?" Let us pray that the grace of God given to us in
the Holy Eucharist may strengthen our hearts and make the words
of St. Paul our own – that our faith might not rest on human
wisdom but on the power of God.
