Sunday, August 5, 2018

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - August 5, 2018


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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