Homily for Ordinary Time 7 - February 23, 2020

Homily for February 23, 2020

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Natural Love And Supernatural Charity

            In 1955, a group of Christian missionaries sought to evangelize some of the untouched Amazon tribes. Five missionaries selected the Waodani tribe in the jungles of Ecuador to preach the Gospel. Over the course of several months, they air-dropped gifts to the Waodani people, trying to win their hearts. Finally, the following January, a missionary named Nate Saint and four others landed on a small Amazonian sandbar and tried to reach out in friendship with the Waodani.

            But the natives had never seen white men before, and were terrified by their presence. In fear, they attacked the missionaries and speared the five missionaries to death.

            But that was not the end of the story. Members of Nate Saint’s family wanted to carry on Nate’s mission, so they moved into the jungle and made contact again with the Waodani tribe. This time, the contact was peaceful and many members of the tribe converted to Christianity. In particular, one of the converts named Mincaye began a deep friendship with Nate Saint’s son, Steve – even serving as Steve’s godfather when the boy was baptized. Mincaye was one of the tribesmen who had killed the missionaries – and now, through the grace of forgiveness, he had become a friend and brother in Christ to the family of the man he had killed. A powerful testimony of loving your enemies – from both sides!

            This Gospel idea of loving your enemies is easier to understand if we make the important distinction between natural love and supernatural charity.

            Most of the time when we love someone, it is because there is something that draws us to them. Perhaps we have something in common with them, or we find them attractive. Perhaps they are nice to us, or maybe we have a good time with them, or maybe we’re related to them. Not bad things at all – we all need friends and family with whom we can share our lives.

            But there is a deeper kind of love – and that is supernatural charity. This means that we love someone simply because we see the Image of God in them. We love them because we love God, and in loving God, we love the people that God loves (which includes all of us!). We love them, not with our human affections, but with divine grace.

            The big difference is that natural human love is an affinity for someone because of who they are: their gifts, their personality, etc. Supernatural charity is love for someone, not because they are pleasant or attractive, but simply because we want to love like God loves – and we want to love who God loves, which is all of humanity – including those we wouldn’t naturally like.

            So let us ask two questions: who? and How?

            Who does this teaching apply to? I hope that you do not have any actual enemies. But all of us have people in our life we’d rather not be around. That person with the annoying laugh; that coworker who likes to argue politics; that classmate who’s just kinda weird; that neighbor who always seems angry; that in-law…enough said. These are the people we must love like God loves – it is not optional.

            So how? How do we love them? Do we have to be best friends with them? Not necessarily. Love is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as “willing the good of the other”. In other words, we seek to do them good. We don’t gossip about them. We return their unkindness with a smile. We find a way to bless them – perhaps going out of our way to share that snack, or offering them a kind word. Doing these things won’t feel loving, and you may not feel an affection for them. That’s okay – supernatural charity isn’t a feeling, but a choice to love as God loves.

            It helps to try to see these people like God sees them. God died for annoying people and boring people and mean people just like He did for you and me. God loves Hitler and Adam Lanza and that guy who cut you off in traffic in the same way that He loves you and me and Mother Teresa. God sees all human beings as His precious creation, as potential saints. Besides, sometimes we are the annoying people and the mean people and the ones who hurt others – and God never gives up on us.

            Ultimately it is only grace that allows us to have supernatural charity. We cannot do it on our own. I will close with a saint who lived this virtue quite well. Some of us may be familiar with the story of St. Therese of Lisieux. As a cloistered nun, she had a burning desire to be a missionary or a martyr, but suburban France was not a place to do either! So, in prayer, God revealed that her mission was to love – to do small things, all things, with great love.

            In her convent was a fellow sister who grated on her every nerve. Here’s what St. Therese said in her autobiography: “One of our nuns managed to irritate me whatever she did or said. As I did not want to give way to my natural dislike for her, I told myself that charity should not only be a matter of feeling but should show itself in deeds. So I set myself to do for this sister just what I should have done for someone I loved most dearly. Every time I met her, I prayed for her and offered God all her virtues and her merits. [In addition to prayer,] I tried to do as many things for her as I could, and whenever I was tempted to speak unpleasantly to her, I made myself give her a pleasant smile and tried to change the subject. After all this she asked me one day with a beaming face: “Sister Therese, will you please tell me what attracts you so much to me? You give me such a charming smile whenever we meet.” Ah! It was Jesus hidden in the depth of her soul who attracted me, Jesus who makes the bitterest things sweet!”

            What heroism! What supernatural charity! When Jesus says, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” this is what He means: see all people as God sees them, and love them as God loves them.