Homily: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
There certainly is a wealth of lessons
to be learned and insight to be gained from our Scriptures today. There always is, of course, but today there
just seems to be more to “sink our teeth into” than normal. Obviously I can’t cover it all in one homily,
so I’ll have to choose something. I
think that this year, in particular because it is an election year, it would be
good if we focused in on the reading from Saint Paul’s letter to Timothy. First, a little background on these letters.
Three of Saint Paul's fourteen New
Testament Letters are called his "Pastoral Letters". Two of these
were written to Saint Timothy and one to Saint Titus. Both Timothy and Titus were disciples of
Paul. Timothy's mother was Jewish and he had become a Christian through
the influence of his grandmother, Lois. Titus had no Jewish background at all;
he was a Greek convert from paganism. Timothy and Titus
each accompanied Saint Paul on some of his missionary journeys around
the Mediterranean and they also served as Paul’s messengers to
churches that he was trying to guide from a distance. At the time when the New
Testament Letters to Timothy and Titus were written, the two disciples
had stopped traveling with Paul and each had been made an overseer,
or "bishop", of a local church. The Letters contain advice and
instruction from Saint Paul on how to lead their respective
communities. In the passage we just heard, located near
the beginning of Saint Paul's First Letter to Timothy, many themes emerge:
themes that are as important for us today as they were for our
Christian brothers and sisters in the first century. Today, however, we’ll
just focus two of them.
The first has to do with the
Church's relationship with the world around it. In the first century,
the civilized world in which Christianity was taking root was still
pagan. The different cultures around the Mediterranean Sea had been forcefully
united under the Roman Empire. The Empire's fabulous wealth opened the door to
a pleasure-loving lifestyle among the rich and powerful. It also required
the spread of slave labor and the injustice and misery that went
along with it. Furthermore, it allowed for the spread and interaction of the many
different pagan religions native to each culture. At that time, in the midst
of this sea of paganism, Christianity was still only a tiny island.
In his instructions to Timothy, Saint
Paul lists as the first responsibility of those living on that “island” to
pray for the pagan “sea” all around them—especially for the "kings
and for all in authority"—the Emperor, the governors, and the other civil
leaders… many of whom had already begun to persecute the Christians. You
see, in Paul's mind, the Church was not only a boat journeying to heaven—or
an island of refuge in the midst of a hostile sea—but it was also God's chosen
instrument for the spread of a stable and prosperous society here on
earth, in which everyone could live a "quiet and tranquil life in all
devotion and dignity." And the primary way for the Church to do that, Paul
instructs, was through prayer.
Today, once again, the Church is
an island in a sea of paganism. The island is bigger now, but the
surrounding culture is still hostile to Christian values. So today it is still
our responsibility as God's ambassadors to pray for peace, justice, and
prosperity in society: which means, of course, to pray also for our leaders.
God wants our culture to be healthy and our society to be stable
and he chooses to use our prayers as channels for his grace to
achieve this end.
The second theme has to do
with the extension of Christ's saving mission. Jesus Christ came as
the Savior, but who exactly did he come to save? Did he
intend to save only some members of
the fallen human race? This is what some traditions of separated
Christianity have taught and still teach. John Calvin, for example, one of the
most influential figures in the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th
century, taught a doctrine called "double predestination". This doctrine
stated that from the moment when God creates a human soul, he
destines that person either to heaven or to hell, and nothing that the
person does can change that destiny. But that, of course, is not
true. As Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, "God our savior... wills everyone to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth."
When Christ offered his own life as
a sacrifice for our sins, he offered it as a sacrifice to atone
for ALL our sins, for the sins of every human being who ever
lived and who ever will live. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes to
Timothy saying that, "Christ Jesus... gave himself as ransom for all." God doesn't play favorites
and he doesn’t exclude. He offers the gift of salvation to every
single person and he wants every single person to accept salvation by
believing in and following Christ. But he won't force anyone to accept the
gift: because then it wouldn't be a gift at all. This is why it is
not a contradiction to say both that God wills the salvation of all people,
but that all people will not necessarily be saved.
And so, do you see now how important
it is that we pray for “kings and for all those in authority”? If we decide that some people don’t deserve
our prayers because we don’t think that they should receive the gift of eternal
life from God, then we have set ourselves against God’s will; and if we are
against God’s will then we ourselves are in danger of losing the gift of
salvation that comes to us from Jesus Christ!
And besides, are we any better than that dishonest steward about whom
Jesus speaks in the Gospel if we try to hoard the treasure of salvation for
ourselves, instead of praying that everyone would share in it? No, we’re not!
And so, in the Gospel reading, when Jesus
seems to agree with the master’s commendation of the dishonest steward’s
actions, it isn’t because he agrees with the steward’s actions, but rather it
is to make a point: that the dishonest are better and more committed to being
dishonest than the good are at being and being committed to being honest! And he makes this point to make a further
point: that is, that in order for the Gospel message to be received as
authentic, then Christians must live the faith authentically. My friends, this begins with charity; and
today Saint Paul teaches us that an essential part of charity is to pray for
everyone, without discrimination.
My brothers and sisters, our faith is
a vast treasure house of truth and light: a treasure that our world
so desperately needs today! And so today, as Christ comes once again
to nourish our souls in Holy Communion, let's thank him for
this priceless gift of our Catholic faith, let's pray for the
salvation of the entire world, as Saint Paul encourages us to do,
especially for the politicians and government officials that seem to be lost,
and let's renew our determination to follow Christ faithfully this week, so
that we might be authentic witnesses to the Gospel that lead all those around
us to the joy of eternal life.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – September 18th, 2016
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