Homily for August
5, 2018
Eighteenth Sunday
of Ordinary Time
The Highest Good
Over the
centuries, God has given certain spiritual gifts to saints that we might find
unpleasant. For example, many saints have had the stigmata, which is the wounds
of Christ. St. Padre Pio is one of the most recent examples, from the early
1900s – when he was praying in the chapel one day, he saw light shoot out from
the Crucifix and enter his hands, feet, and side. He was overcome with pain and
fainted. Upon awakening, he was shocked to discover that he had the five wounds
of Christ. For the next forty years, he bore these wounds. Scientists and
doctors tested him, and found that these wounds were not caused by human
beings. He bled about a pint of blood each day – if an ordinary person lost as
much, he would soon be dead, which shows that it was truly miraculous! One time
a woman asked Padre Pio if the wounds hurt, and he replied with a twinkle, “Do
you think God gave them to me for good looks?”
Another
spiritual gift that God has given was the gift of surviving on nothing but the
Eucharist. For example, St. Nicholas of Flue (a 15th Century Swiss
saint) was given permission by his spiritual director to eat nothing but the
Eucharist for over twenty years. When he tried to eat other things, he would
get violently ill. His own fellow townspeople were so skeptical about this that
they once hired ten soldiers to guard his house continuously for a month, to see
if he was sneaking food at night, but they soon found that St. Nicholas of Flue
had truly eaten nothing that month except the Holy Eucharist, and survived as
strong as any other man.
Now, I
don’t know about you, but I think I would struggle to see these as “gifts”. If
Jesus appeared to you or I and said, “I’d like to give you a gift – please accept
My Five Wounds, which will cause you agonizing pain until the day you die,” we
might say, “Thanks, but no thanks!” Or if God asked me to refrain from food for
twenty years, I’d probably respond, “But Lord, I’m really gonna miss pizza and
ice cream!” We wouldn’t want these gifts because of the difficulty and the
cost, even though they would make us profoundly holy and make us more like
Christ!
All the
time, both in Scripture and in our lives, God offers us a higher good, but we
choose a lesser one. Our first reading features the Israelites who had just
been freed from slavery in Egypt. God did remarkable signs – the 10 Plagues,
the parting of the Red Sea – and now they are headed into the Promised Land, a
place filled with milk and honey, but on the road the people begin to complain.
“Man, slavery wasn’t that bad because at least we had good food!” God wanted to
offer them freedom; they preferred beef stew. Talk about choosing a lower good
over a higher good!
But the
same thing happens in the Gospel. Jesus had just performed a miracle that we
read last week – the multiplication of Loaves & Fishes to feed five
thousand people. The people are so excited that they try to make Him king, but
as He is not supposed to be an earthly political king, He flees to the
mountain. The next day they find Him, but Jesus goes right to the heart of
things: “You are not seeking Me because you saw the signs (in other words,
because you believe in Me as the Savior) but because you ate the loaves
(because you want free food).” Jesus wanted to offer them forgiveness for their
sins, a relationship with the Living God, and eternal life…and all they wanted
was more free food.
Free
food isn’t bad; it’s just a lesser good than the good that God wants to give
us. And how often do we choose the lesser good over the greater? God wants us
to be holy; we want to be comfortable. God wants to invite us into a living
relationship with Him through prayer; we’d rather watch TV. God wants to make
us rich in virtue; we’d prefer to be rich in our bank account. We so often
choose the lesser good over the greater good.
This is
a result of original sin called concupiscence.
Concupiscence means “dis-ordered desires.” In other words, we desire things we
know are not the highest goods! Because of original sin, chocolate seems more
appealing than broccoli, sleeping is more desirable than working out, wasting
time on the internet seems better than reading Scripture. Because of concupiscence
and original sin, our desires are disordered
(in the philosophical sense) because they are not “ordered” (directed) towards
the highest good.
So what
must we do? We must practice discipline
if we are to gain mastery over these unruly desires. The word “discipline” and “disciple”
are from the same root in Latin – if we wish to be good disciples, we must
discipline our desires. Our Church gives us several tools to grow in
self-disciplines – namely, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We pray so that we
can give Christ the firstfruits of our time and energy. We fast so that
physical pleasure does not take the place of higher goods. We give generously
of our time and money to others so that money does not become our god.
These
three practices are often recommended during Lent, but they are vital any time
of year, since the spiritual battle over concupiscence is never-ending. We are
daily tempted to choose a lesser good over a higher good. We are always tempted
to play video games instead of reading a saint book; to seek the comfort of the
couch over the discipline of doing the dishes; to seek the quick pleasure of
spreading a piece of gossip instead of the deeper joy of growing in Christian
charity.
Next
time we are faced with the choice to choose a lesser good over a higher good,
seek the higher, even if it costs. It takes discipline; it takes struggle. But
just like a determined athlete can enjoy a winning season only through
countless hours of practice, so a Christian can only enjoy the fruits of a
deeper relationship with the Lord through constantly denying oneself the lesser
good so as to possess the greatest good there is: life in Christ.
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