Homily for Ordinary Time 3 - January 25, 2015

Ordinary Time 3

January 25, 2015

The Desires of God

 

            St. Francis may be known as the patron saint of animals, looking cute as part of an outdoor birdbath, but he was a fiercely holy man. Yet he didn’t start out that way. He was a worldly playboy as a young man, someone who loved being the life of the party. Popular with the ladies, good-looking, athletic, and wealthy, he had everything the world could want. He spent his early days pursuing wealth and fame through the military. When he was in his mid-twenties, however, he was fighting in a battle against a neighboring town when he was captured and thrown into prison.

            His time in prison allowed him a chance to reflect upon his life. Francis started to realize that all of his money, all of his popularity – it all left him empty in the long run. What good was it for him to have all this, when he didn’t have any peace in his soul? He was always striving for something more. In his former life, his appetite for sex and money and expensive clothes was never satisfied – it had only grown more and more. And yet, his life seemed to have no purpose! When he was finally released from prison a year later, he realized that his whole life had to change in order for him to find happiness.

            He began to avoid the raucous parties and spend more time in prayer. Once, when his father (a rich cloth merchant) was away on a business trip, Francis sold all of his expensive cloth and gave the money to the poor. His new life consisted of prayer, penance, fasting and poverty – in a word, suffering. But it brought him more joy than his former life of pleasure.

            What do you think God wants for you? If you ask Joel Osteen, he would say God wants you to be rich and successful in the world’s eyes. If you ask most Catholics, they would probably say the opposite – God wants us to be miserable; after all, why else would He give us the Ten Commandments? I stopped into our fourth grade religious education class two weeks ago and asked the kids, “What do you think God does all day?” One precocious boy raised his hand and said, “I think He sits in Heaven, waiting for you to mess up.”

            What kind of God is that? I wouldn’t want a relationship with a “police-officer God” either. But what if I told you that God wants you to have greater joy, deeper healing, true peace? God is a good Father – and what father or mother among us wouldn’t want their kids to be happy and healthy?

            The problem is, we often don’t know what makes us deeply happy or fulfilled. And that is precisely why our readings today speak about repentance. We try to pursue this false type of happiness, which might tide us over for a moment, but ultimately leaves us empty. So Christ invites us to leave behind those empty pleasures and instead find true joy. That is what repentance is all about.

            For many of us, repentance is a negative thing – DON’T do your sins, GIVE UP your little pleasures. Yes, that is part of it – but it’s more like we’re giving up an artificial joy for a real one. It’s kind of like a little kid putting a piece of plastic in his mouth, and the parent takes that out and instead gives him a real lollipop. The kid will throw a temper tantrum for a while, even though the parent is really trying to look out for him so he doesn’t choke or eat plastic. Instead, the parent gives them a true treat, but the kid still wants the false one. This is the same with God – He urges us to give up our false happiness so we can have our hands empty to receive true joy – but we have to be willing to give up the false happiness of our sins.

            A defining moment in my life was when I was probably 14 or so. I had just come home from a school dance, which was tons of fun, but I remember sitting in my bedroom thinking, “Wow, that dance was great…but now what?” I just felt so empty, already striving and trying to figure out what the next thrill would be. My life was not yet built on the rock of my friendship with Christ, which provides a bedrock of joy that is deeper than just what happens to us. But in order to know Christ, I had to give up my sins, trading in the empty pleasures for true joy.

            Let’s take a practical example. Let’s say we are tempted to gossip and spread someone’s faults. Will that give us some momentary pleasure? Yes, I suppose so. But look at the results of that sin – we will feel guilty later, we will have ruined someone’s good name, and other people will trust us less. All bad effects –and they last a lot longer than the rush of pleasure. Is it harder to follow the right path? You bet. Does it cost us something; do we suffer a little while for following Christ? Absolutely. Does it lead to joy abundant? Without a doubt.

            I love what CS Lewis said about this: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased!”

            So when we hear Jesus crying out, “Repent!”, don’t think of it as a negative. He is inviting you into the fullness of abundant life that He offers. What does God want for you? It’s very simple – He wants you to experience joy – which requires that we give up the lies and false promises of our sins.