This is my homily for my last weekend at All Saints in Logansport. Next weekend (June 30-July 1) I begin my assignment as Pastor of the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Immaculate Conception in Lafayette. Please pray for me, for Fr. Jeff Martin (the new Pastor of All Saints) and for both parishes during this time of transition.
Homily:
The Nativity of John the Baptist – Cycle B
Friends,
we are very blessed today to celebrate this great feast of the Birth, or
Nativity, of John the Baptist. Every
year, this feast falls on June 24th, and the Church thinks it so
important that we celebrate this feast, that its celebration is not suppressed
when it falls on Sunday: which it does every six years or so. Thus, after only a couple more weeks of “ordinary”
Ordinary Time Sundays, we enjoy another special celebration.
So,
why does the Church consider this so important of a celebration? Well, certainly because John was such a
pivotal player in salvation history. He
was the herald (that is, the announcer or proclaimer) of the arrival of the
Messiah (the one for whom the Jews were waiting, who would usher in the
fullness of God’s kingdom); and so, his birth—and the circumstances surrounding
his birth—mark the moment that this crucial “pivot” begins. I could spend time unpacking for you how all
of those circumstances are meaningful (and if you’re interested, you might seek
out Bishop Robert Barron’s homily for today on the internet, as he explores
this nicely); but I’d rather focus on two points that today’s celebration seems
to make for us: 1) the amazing truth that God works through us, not around us;
and 2) that it isn’t how one begins one’s life that makes a difference, but
rather how one ends it.
First:
God works through us, not around us. One
of the things that gets overlooked in our celebration of saints is that God
didn’t need them. In the book of
Genesis, we read that God created everything ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing. And so the question arises: If God doesn’t
need us to accomplish his work, then why does he rely on us? In answering this question, we come to better
understand God’s plan. God created us,
not to be his slaves, or to be some plaything for his entertainment, but so
that he could share with us, his creatures, the eternal bliss of his divine
life. By inviting us to cooperate in his
work, he is inviting us to be united to him and to help others to be united to
him, too. Still further, our cooperation
in his work makes us feel loved and wanted by God; and his interaction in our
world demonstrates his love and care for us.
In the end: God works through us not because he needs us to make up for
something he lacks, but rather to unite us to him and so fulfill his plan for
creation.
The
evidence of this is right there in the Scriptures: in spite of the numerous
times in which God’s plan to bring salvation was thwarted by the lack of
cooperation from the men and women he called, God continued to call them. And, by many numerous persons who did
cooperate, he moved his plan forward.
Thus, we come to John: the one, in a sense, predestined to be the herald
of the Messiah (though nobody really understood that at his birth): one who
cooperated with God’s plan and thus helped make the fullness of God’s plan a
reality when he announced Jesus as the Messiah.
This,
in a way, brings us to our second point: that it’s not so much how we begin our
lives, but how we end them that matters.
You see, while John may have been predestined from birth for this work
that God had given to him, he was not predetermined. In other words, John could have chosen to resist God’s call or even to abandon God
altogether. Yet, he didn’t. Rather, he cooperated with God’s plan and announced
a baptism of repentance—a cleansing—in order to prepare for the coming of the
desperately anticipated Messiah. When
the Messiah appeared, he continued to call for repentance: so much so that he
was eventually killed by those in power whom he was condemning so as to silence
his voice. It is because of the way that
John ended his life—remaining a faithful cooperator in God’s work—that we honor
John and, therefore, his birth.
Therefore, like Isaiah, whose voice we heard in the first reading and
who faithfully cooperated in God’s work until the end of his life, John has
been honored far above his Jewish people and has become a light to all nations.
Friends,
these same things are true for us. You
see, God wants to work through us. And for
God, how he accomplishes his works is
just as important as what he
accomplishes. The what is growing his kingdom by uniting more men and women to
him. The how is through our cooperation.
For most of us, this means sanctifying our world and others through day
to day actions: such as, living virtuous lives according to the Ten Commandments,
loving God in our prayer and worship and through our love for our neighbor,
serving both their physical and spiritual needs and supporting their efforts to
grow in holiness. For some, this also
means preaching and teaching and leading others. For all, however, it is to discern how God
has called us to cooperate with his work—continuously, in every stage of our
lives—and then continuously to give ourselves to it.
By
continuously giving ourselves to the work of cooperating in God’s work in the
world, we will then be prepared to end our lives well. Friends, even if we've lived many years and have
never given ourselves to doing God's work, we can still respond. Many saints lived dissolute lives only to be
turned, finally, to God and to cooperate with his work. Some for only a small percentage of their
life span; but it was the most important part, the end: and it is the end of
our lives to which most people look to gauge what it was that we valued
most. Therefore, if we turn, even now,
to seek God and the work that he has given to us, he will bless our efforts and
we will not be disappointed.
And
so, what is the best way to end our lives?
I don’t think we can look for a better example than John the Baptist: who
ended his life by pointing towards Jesus.
Again, no matter how we've lived our lives up to this point, if we end
our lives having repented and cooperated with God's plan, and pointed away from
ourselves and towards Jesus, we will have finished well. (Which, of course, is what I hope you have
seen me do in my time here: to seek repentance and to help others do the same
and to point not to myself, but to Christ.)
You
know, not many of us had auspicious beginnings, like John the Baptist did. All of us, however, can have an ending like
his that leads to glory. And so I
encourage you: pray and listen for what God asks of you; then be courageous to
step out and do it, even if it means you'll be rejected; and trust that God,
working through you, will manifest his kingdom among us. Friends, this begins here, in this (and in every)
Eucharist, when we worship him with our hearts and are nourished by his Word
and by his Body and Blood.
John
the Baptist once said, "I must decrease, he must increase." As I “decrease” from your sight, may Christ
and his kingdom continue to increase among you.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – June 23rd
& 24th, 2018
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