Ordinary Time 7, 2023 - "Princes In Disguise"

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 7

February 19, 2023

Princes In Disguise

 

            When the Communists took over Russia during the 1917 Revolution, they tragically executed the entire royal family…except for the youngest daughter, Anastasia. Somehow, she reportedly escaped, and for the next seventy years many women came forth and claimed to be Princess Anastasia. One woman, named Anna Anderson, was particularly convincing, and actually brought a lawsuit to a German court to try to prove that she was the missing princess, who had adopted a new name and identity for her safety. The lawsuit dragged on for 32 years before a judge finally declared that she was not the real princess. To this day, it remains an unsolved mystery as to the disappearance of the princess.

            I’ve always found that story interesting, because we seem to have a fascination with royalty-in-disguise. Think of many older Disney movies – Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast. Think of the old fairy tale where the princess has to kiss a frog to turn him back into a prince. Our literature is awash with stories of princes and princesses hidden under common, unassuming disguises.

            Why is that? Could there be a profound truth at the heart of our fascination with hidden royalty? Perhaps we are seeing in these stories a deeper glimpse into our own identity as well?

            What do I mean? Well, what do you see when you look into a mirror? Perhaps someone who’s lonely, someone who has regrets, someone who made a mess out of life, someone who’s tired. Maybe just someone who is pretty ordinary – after all, I don’t think we have too many famous people here at St. Jude’s!

            But St. Paul says three powerful things about our identity in today’s second reading. He says that we are “the temple of God”, that “the Holy Spirit dwells in us” and that “we belong to Christ.” Through grace, this is who we have become: children of the King, which makes us princes and princesses in disguise.

            And if we are princes and princesses, we ought to live out our dignity! Listen to the powerful words of Pope St. Leo the Great: Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your King and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom. Do not drive become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

            Christian, remember your dignity! Remember Whose Blood has washed you clean, remember Whose life was given to purchase yours. Remember Whose son or daughter you are. With such a royal dignity, sin is beneath us – it is common, vulgar, when we are meant to live noble and upright lives. Sin is like playing in the mud when we will someday dwell in the heights of heaven. Just as it would be absurd to see Prince Harry eating from a dumpster, so it is equally absurd to see a Christian wallowing in the filth of sin.

            And it is in this light that we see Jesus’ words to “be perfect” For those of us who struggle with perfectionism, this Gospel can be a real challenge. Be perfect? I thought no one was perfect! Here’s where it’s helpful to go to the original Greek. The word is telos which means more than “perfect”…it also means “fulfilled, achieving its ultimate goal.” So what is the telos, the ultimate goal of a human being? To live out our dignity as sons and daughters of so noble a Father. We speak of people being “chips off the old block” or “she really takes after her father.” Likewise, we are to live the nobility of holiness precisely because we are the children of the all-holy Father, friends of the all-holy Son, and temples of the all-holy Spirit. All the riches of this world are just mud and filth compared to the glory that we are destined to partake of!

            Back in the early 1700s, when America was still being built up, a young aristocrat named Dimitri Gallitzin came to visit our country. He was the son of the Russian ambassador, a young man who came from a very noble background of riches, wealth, and high society. His parents were nominally Christian, but Dimitri had a real hunger for God and for living a better kind of life than that of a socialite. Arriving in America, he was amazed to see how many Catholics who lived in rural communities across the Thirteen Colonies had no access at all to the Sacraments. Moved at their plight, he told his parents that he was entering seminary to become a priest to serve the rural poor Catholics of this fledgling nation of America.

            This caused shock and horror to his family – he was giving up his inheritance? His wealth? His standing in high society? Yet Dimitri had found a higher nobility – the dignity of laying it all down for Christ. He became the first priest ever ordained in the United States of America in 1795, and spent his priesthood traveling through the mountainous regions of western Pennsylvania, bringing the Sacraments to isolated farmers and communities that had not seen a priest in decades. There were so few Catholics that one time he had to travel on horseback over 150 miles just to give someone Last Rites. He would travel for weeks on end to visit isolated families and communities to say Mass for them, often sleeping on bare floors or in barns on his travels. He became known as the “Apostle to the Alleghenies Mountains”, and is now on the path to potentially being named a saint – a man who gave up earthly nobility for the far more noble life of sacrifice for Christ.

            My friends, remember that you have a dignity that far exceeds the finest riches or greatest fame that this earth can offer. No, you are the sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; you were purchased with the Blood of God Himself; you are the inheritors of Heaven itself. Only a noble life of holiness could live up to such a royal destiny.

            Be holy, as your Father is holy.

Ordinary Time 5, 2023 - "Stay Salty, My Friends"

 

Homily for February 5, 2023

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Stay Salty, My Friends

 

            In Jesus’ day, salt wasn’t just a flavoring. More importantly, it was used to preserve food. In the days before refrigerators and freezers, meat and fish would be salted to ensure a long shelf-life and prevent spoiling – almost like making beef jerky, which lasts forever at room temperature.

            And there is an element of this in the life of Christians, too. Christian lives of holiness preserve the world from total corruption. There is an ancient Jewish tradition called the Tzadikim Nistarim, which says that there are 36 hidden people in the world in every generation who sustain the world by their holiness. It is said in the Talmud (an ancient Jewish commentary on the Scriptures) that if the number fell below 36, the world would be destroyed because of its sinfulness. So these 36 holy people, unknown to the world, sustain it in the sight of God (Of course, the number 36 is richly symbolic – 3 persons from each of the Twelve Tribes, 3 persons because of the three-fold praise of “Holy, Holy, Holy”).

            One day, a person asked the early twentieth century Rabbi Abraham Heschel whether he was one of the Tzadikim. In humility, he responded, “Maybe, but what is preventing you from becoming one?”

            A very good question! What is to prevent us from becoming the kind of Christian who brings joy to the Heart of God? The kind of Christian whose life and holiness preserves the world from falling into total self-destruction?

            This Gospel comes in the midst of Jesus’ beautiful and challenging discourse called the Sermon on the Mount. Starting with the Beatitudes last weekend, we will continue reading this Sermon through the next several weeks. This Sermon on the Mount lays out a radical new way of understanding of our life in Jesus Christ. Love your enemies…don’t even look at a woman with lust…blessed are the poor, sorrowful, persecuted…pray and give alms in secret…radically trust God for every need…this is a revolutionary concept of life as a follower of Jesus Christ. One can live it fully, or one can live it half-heartedly. So Jesus leads off this sermon with the exhortation to live it fully – to be salt with full flavor, light with full visibility.

            But here’s the deal – we cannot live this dynamic Sermon on the Mount through our own efforts. This is only possible through Jesus Christ. It’s significant that “Light of the world” is the only title that is applied to both Jesus and us. Today He calls us “the light of the world” and later on, He calls Himself the “light of the world”. It’s much like the moon – it has light, but only reflected from the sun. So we too are light, but only because we are connected to Him, the True Light of the World. We are the candle, He is the bonfire which sets our candles aflame.

            “If you are who you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” said St. Catherine of Siena. A world of corruption is waiting for disciples who are unafraid to take Jesus at His words! Over the next few weeks, as we hear from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, hear His words – not just with your ears, but with your heart – and put them into practice! His Words are the best and safest way to become a saint – and not just a saint, but salt which preserves a corrupted world, light which shines in the dark fog of modernity.

            Back in the 1200s, the world and the Church was also in great disarray. Immoral clergy, corrupt leaders, apathetic laity…much like the struggles today. In response to such evil, some people wanted to live like that salt and light…but they did it in the wrong way. A group arose, called the Cathars (which means “the Pure”), who began to separate themselves from the Church and the world. They said that the material world, marriage, meat, and any type of fun was absolutely forbidden, and they believed that the Church was so corrupt that it was no longer the Church of Christ, so they set up their own parallel church full of “the pure” only.

            This became a pretty serious crisis in the church, because a lot of people were legitimately fed up with the corruption in the church and the political world. But into this situation came a young man named Francis, from a small Italian town, who gathered a few followers to live a life of total poverty. They then marched to Rome to seek approval from Pope Urban II.

            Pope Urban heard about this upstart group, and worried that this was another one of those Cathar branches who wanted to abandon the Church and the world. He had decided to refuse to even meet with Francis. But one night, he had a striking dream where he saw a giant church, teetering and toppling over. Suddenly, a thin man in a brown robe stepped forth and steadied the church with his hand, preventing it from falling. When the Pope awoke, he realized that it was Francis who had come, not to flee the world and the Church, but to renew and transform it, through his holiness. Pope Urban immediately called for Francis and enthusiastically approved his new order of brothers.

            Francis was the salt that preserved a mixed-up Church from falling into ruin. Rabbi Heschel was the salt in a century of confusion, and he invited others to join him. If you and I put Jesus’ words into practice, we too will be the salt and light in a world so desperate for authentic Christian lives. As St. Peter of Alacantra said, “Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.”

            Stay salty, my friends.