Homily:
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
In the world of advanced studies, there are generally two
categories of persons: those who generate knowledge and those who apply that
knowledge. If you look at the degree
offerings of major colleges and universities, you’ll often find degrees both in
“mathematics” and “applied mathematics”, “physics” and “applied physics”,
“chemistry” and “applied chemistry”.
This is evidence of what I am saying: that in the world of advanced
studies, there are two categories of persons, those who are concerned just with
knowing things, and getting to know more about those things, and those who are
concerned with applying this knowledge of things for some purpose.
And both of these are necessary, right? Certainly there is value in knowing
things—such as the principle of gravity—because it increases our awe and
appreciation of a world that has been so wonderfully made and simply helps us
to exist in it. But what if that’s all
we had? Just knowledge of the fact that
gravity exists (and perhaps why it exists)?
A whole world of technology wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t tried to apply
that knowledge towards some purpose.
Almost any mode of transportation that we use today fundamentally relies
on an understanding of the principle of gravity for it to work. Knowledge, therefore, is necessary! But knowledge without application—that is, without
action—tends to be something lifeless.
This principle of applying our knowledge to purposeful
action is something fundamental to the Christian life and our readings today
reinforce this. In the reading from the
book of Deuteronomy Moses is giving his last instructions to the people whom he
has led through the desert for 40 years.
He will die soon and he wants these people to remember the most
important things. So he tells them, “If
only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments
and statutes that are written in this book of the law… [which are] not too
mysterious and remote for you … No, it is something very near to you, already
in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” In other words, he’s saying: “You already
know what God demands of you, but it isn’t enough just to know it! You must also apply it to your lives and live
by it.”
This is also the lesson that emerges from the episode that
we recounted today from Luke’s Gospel.
There, Jesus was confronted by a “scholar of the law”—in other words,
someone focused on “knowing things”—who wanted to test Jesus on his knowledge
of the Law. Deftly, Jesus doesn’t engage
his debate, but in turn tests the scholar on his knowledge of the Law. The scholar having answered rightly, Jesus
agrees with him; thus demonstrating both Jesus’ knowledge of the law and that
he does not see himself or his teaching as being above the law. The scholar was not satisfied, though, so he
asks a follow-up question: “But who is my neighbor?” At this point, Jesus decides not to give him
a “book” answer, but rather to enlighten the answer with an application: the
parable of the Good Samaritan.
Notice in this that only implicitly did Jesus answer the
scholar’s question: “Who is my neighbor?”
The robbers’ victim—the person in need of mercy—is implicitly identified
as every man’s “neighbor” when Jesus asks the scholar “Which one of these was
neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” and the scholar replies “The one who treated
him with mercy.” In doing this, Jesus
did two things: 1) he identified as our neighbor anyone whom we find in need of
mercy and 2) he demonstrated that knowledge of who our neighbor is and what our
neighbor demands of us is not enough, but rather that we must also apply that
knowledge in action if that knowledge is going to be worth something. The robbers’ victim was neighbor to both the
priest and the Levite, but only the Samaritan was neighbor to the victim
because he not only acknowledged him as his neighbor but then acted on that
acknowledgement.
Let me restate this once again, lest it get lost: knowledge
is necessary! First we have to
acknowledge what is true and which truth demands the most of us. For the believer it is that God is supreme
and therefore we must love him with our whole selves. Then, that Man is made in the image of God
and therefore is due great honor, that all men are created equal and therefore
demand equal treatment, and, thus, that we must love our fellow man as we love
ourselves. Then, however, we have to act
on that knowledge. "See how one acts towards his neighbor?", Jesus
asks, "Go and do likewise … and you will live."
My brothers and sisters, this is not complicated. Remember what Moses said: "It is
something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have
only to carry it out." But it isn’t
necessarily easy, is it? If it was easy
there wouldn't be any of the violence that plagues our world, right? Because of sin, however, that which, by
nature, should be easy for us has become difficult to practice. Thus, we have to work hard to love both
ourselves and then our neighbor.
Now, so we don’t forget that first part, let me say a word
about loving ourselves. We love
ourselves when we do what's truly best for ourselves: purging sin from our
lives, building disciplined lives of prayer, pursuing truth, goodness, and
beauty, and taking care of our relationships.
Notice that “loving ourselves” doesn’t mean “do what is most pleasurable
for ourselves” (though the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty ought to be
pleasurable), but rather “do what is best
for ourselves”, disciplining our bodies when necessary in order to ensure that
our hearts remain pure. Loving our
neighbor, then, requires that we do what is truly best for them, too: helping
them in their need and supporting them as they also strive to love themselves. The prayer service for fighting the drug
epidemic in our community was a great example of putting aside our projects and
desires to do something for our neighbors in this community who are suffering
because of drug use and abuse.
My brothers and sisters, in giving us this year of mercy,
Pope Francis hopes to do what Jesus did for that law scholar that day: he hopes
to remind us of who our neighbor is (that is, anyone in need of mercy) and he
hopes to move us to be neighbor to them by "treating them with mercy",
which is the same Mercy that God has already shown to us: who, seeing us
assaulted by Satan to the point that we were left for dead, did not pass on the
other side, but came close to us, sending us Jesus to dress our wounds and to
take us to a place (that is, the Church) where we could be healed and
recover. We must, therefore, go and do
likewise. This is the great "missa"—or
"sending"—that we receive at the end every Mass.
Thus, the question we must confront today is this: Will we
allow our lives to be interrupted to care for others? Like it or not, “yes” is the answer that
Jesus expects of us. Our work this week,
therefore, will be to become more aware of and, thus, to respond to the
opportunities to give mercy that God's providence places in front of us. My brothers and sisters, through this
Eucharist, the love and mercy of God—Jesus, himself—comes to us and dwells in
us. May our knowledge of this inspire us
to open our hearts to others so that his love and mercy might spread and grow
among us.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – July 9th & 10th, 2016
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