Homily for Ordinary Time 3 - January 24, 2021

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 3

January 24, 2021

Just Passing Through

 

            Cardinal Dolan tells a great story about when he was in graduate school in Washington, DC and would frequently make the 800-mile drive back and forth between DC and his home in St. Louis. He would always stop off at a rectory about half-way through the journey and stay the night with some priest-friends. There was an older priest in the rectory who always impressed Dolan with his simplicity. His room only had a few books, a crucifix and a bed.

            One time, the future cardinal asked him, “Is this it? Is this all you have? How can you live with so few things?”

            The old priest replied, “If I go down to your guest room, I see that you only have a few things with you, and yet you are not lacking anything.”

            Fr. Dolan replied, “Well yes, but I’m just passing through.”

            To which the priest replied, “Aren’t we all?”

            We’re just passing through. This world is not our home. “The world is passing away,” St. Paul tells us in the second reading. We are only pilgrims here, heading to our true home.

            This basic truth – that this world is not our home – has profound consequences for us as Christians. Let me mention three.

            First, it will help us remain detached, in a healthy way, from whatever happens to us, both good or ill. In ancient Rome, when a conquering general would return from vanquishing a foe, the people of Rome would throw him a parade, give him lavish gifts, and praise him with celebrations and sacrifices. But as he would ride in his chariot through the throngs of thousands of cheering Romans, he would often have a slave in the chariot with him, whispering in his ear the words, “Sic transit gloria mundi” – thus passes the glory of the world. The general was allowed to celebrate, but the celebration was tempered by the realization that he, too, would someday be as dead as the men he conquered.

            That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy the good things of the world – but we don’t become attached to them. The promotion, the sports triumph, the nice car, the fancy vacation – we realize that these will fade with time. On the flip-side, we don’t become too despondent when bad things happen, too. The cancer diagnosis, the loss of a job, the rejection letter from our dream college, the romantic break-up – all these will also pass. So when Christians realize that the world is not our home, we receive good things with gratitude, and bad things with patience, knowing that both the good and the bad things of this world will someday be gone.

            Second, knowing that the world is not our true home helps us keep our peace when the world is going to heck in a handbasket. Over the past few months, many Catholics have expressed to me their concerns for the future of our country. And it is right to be concerned, because patriotism is a virtue and we have a duty to work for the common good of our nation. But we ought not lose our peace over what’s happening in our nation or our culture, because we are truly citizens of a better, more amazing kingdom, where the leader is Jesus Christ Himself. We’re just passing through America on the way to Heaven.

            Finally, knowing that we are pilgrims helps us to live for eternity. A few years ago I hiked “El Camino” – the ancient pilgrimage route from southern France, across Spain, to the bones of St. James in Santiago de Compostella. It was a pretty awesome – and exhausting – experience. 498 miles, over 32 days of walking. When making a pilgrimage like that, you have to keep moving. If you’re 200 miles away from your goal, you couldn’t just say, “Oh, well, I got close enough, so I think I’ll just set up shop here and make this my home.” That would have missed the whole point of the pilgrimage!

            In the same way, we must keep moving towards our true home, Heaven. How much time do we spend every day on stuff that doesn’t matter? There’s only one thing that truly matters – to keep moving towards God, to keep developing the virtues that make us more like Him. Everything else is passing away.

            My friends, this truth is fundamental to the Christian life: every Christian is a pilgrim, a stranger, a traveler looking for their true home. And that home is Heaven, with God for eternity – here on this earth, we’re just passing through.