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Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary-
Homilies |
"The
Path to Selfless Love: Obedience and Sacrifice"
Homily for the 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Jonathan L. Reardon
March 6, 2011
Year A
Before he became pope, even before he was ordained a bishop,
John Paul II used to spend a lot of time hearing confessions. He
was also a professor of philosophy in the Catholic University of
Lublin. The students there used to love going to confession with
him, for two reasons. In the first place, he was full of
compassion - he understood the difficulties involved in
following Christ, so he was gentle and encouraging as he gave
out spiritual advice. But, secondly, he was also full of wisdom.
And so, whenever they had moral dilemmas or complicated
problems, they would bring them to the confessional. There, Fr.
Wojtyla, the future pope, would help clarify their difficulties
and give trustworthy guidance. But even though he would
willingly converse at great length about dilemmas and
difficulties in the confessional, he would never force his own
will on the penitents; he would only point the way. Once he felt
that the person had honestly explained the situation and had
come to understand what was at stake, he would simply finish by
saying, “You must decide.”
The faith
that we profess to believe is also a decision. It is a decision
to follow to Christ, a conscious decision we have made based on
our experiences of grace and our knowledge of Him. But Jesus
points out to us in today’s gospel that even this decision can
be flawed.
In the
opening lines of our gospel reading the focus is on the exchange
Jesus – the just judge – will have with evildoers. Interestingly
enough, the sinners with whom this dialogue will take place are
not those we would expect – mass murders, militant atheists,
godless rulers, etc – rather he is addressing those people who
live their whole lives as professed Christians. These are the
people who cry out: “Lord, Lord,” they claim to do wonderful
things in His name, never do anything terrible and yet Jesus
says to them: “I never knew you.” The point is that religious
confession is no substitute for a personal relationship, a
personal friendship, with Jesus and the obligation to do the
will of God in our lives. If our creed and our conduct are not
in alignment, then our profession of Jesus as Lord is a not a
true confession, it is not a true submission to His lordship.
The mere fact that believers can do great things in the name of
Jesus is an exercise of charismatic grace but is no proof that
His grace has penetrated the heart. One goes on to his or her
life of faith in God yet on their own terms – never allowing His
grace to enter their hearts and never having a true and
authentic encounter with Him – never experiencing a divine
meeting. Again, Jesus is challenging us to go beyond the
external practices of faith, to reach beyond simply going
through the motions. He challenges us to meet Him; to encounter
Him. But yet, in order to do so we have to rid ourselves of our
self-interested attitudes and our selfishness. We must, in our
own private prayer, open up our hearts to let Him speak to us.
Therefore, two specific practices come to mind that can help us
become more selfless: obedience and sacrifice.
Obedience to the will of God is important – obedience to His
Word – found in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and in the
teaching of the Church – because it is the foundation of our
lives. Obedience is one of the most difficult of all the virtues
because it is one of the toughest to follow. Yet it is in
following the Word of God in obedience that leads to greater
devotion in our lives. And what is devotion? Committed love,
dedication, enthusiasm – this type of devotion means we are
passionate about doing God’s will, as St. Therese of Lisieux
once said: “becoming what He wants us to be.” It also involves
sacrifice – and I don’t mean just doing penance – I mean the
types of sacrifices that connect us to Christ’s own sacrifice,
those things that will bring about in our lives a more self-less
attitude – for at the heart of both the practice of obedience
and sacrifice is love. This decision we must make as followers
of Christ is not so much a decision to follow Him out of blind
obedience – not knowing the reason for our actions – no, this is
a decision to love and at the heart of this love lies our
freedom. As Pope John Paul II exhorts us: “Do not be afraid to
be holy! Have the courage and humility to present yourselves to
the world determined to be holy, since full, true freedom is
born from holiness. This aspiration will help you discover
genuine love.”
This Wednesday is Ash
Wednesday and we begin our 40-day journey of Lent. And so this
Lenten season, for reasons of love, may we have the courage to
put into practice the virtue of obedience, to make true
sacrifices that will break the mundane, routine practice of
faith and lead us to a personal encounter with Jesus, to true
devotion, and be transformed in mind and heart.
