Homily for
Ordinary Time 27
October 4, 2020
Grace Makes the
Fruits Grow
Many of
you probably have gardens. If you do, you know that it can be a lot of work.
One must till the soil, take the rocks out, fertilize it, plant, weed it, water
it…a lot of prep-work needs to go into farming if it is to be fruitful. But in
a sense, it is mysterious how a plant grows – there is something invisible that
causes it to go from a seed to a plant to the fruit of the plant. We prepare
the conditions for growth – but God alone makes
it grow.
This is
the same in the spiritual life – it is a cooperation between us and God. He
gives the growth by giving us grace – we cooperate by seeking out the sources
of grace. Let’s look at grace: what is it, why it’s necessary, and how to
obtain it.
First of
all, what is grace? A simple four-word definition: grace is God’s life within us. That should boggle
our mind! God wants to dwell in our souls? The all-holy One desires to make His
home in my poor, sinful soul! St. Theresa of Avila said that if we could see a
soul in the state of grace, we would be tempted to bow down and worship it. A
soul with grace means a soul where God lives within it – thus it is the most
beautiful thing in creation!
But why
do we need it? If I asked all of you how you get to Heaven, most of you would
give me the wrong answer. Most people would say, “Being a good person,” or
“Following the 10 Commandments.” Incorrect answer! We are called, not to be
good, but to be holy. What’s the
difference? We can be “good” on our own – we can only be holy by God’s grace.
All of us are already pretty “good” – and
we are holy, if we are in the state of grace – but we can always grow in
holiness by opening ourselves up to more
sanctifying grace. So the answer to how we get to Heaven is by living in God’s
grace and having Him dwell in us.
But how
do we obtain it? As it is a free gift, we can only ask for it from God. We can ask
through prayer and good works, but there are a few specific ways in which God
has promised grace to us – these are called the Sacraments!
We
should participate in the Sacrament of Confession monthly and the Eucharist
weekly, if not more often. These are the greatest ways to become holy!
Right
now, there are 32 companies racing to produce a Coronavirus vaccine, hoping
that the right medicine will save lives. But we already have a healing remedy
for the much worse spiritual sickness of sin, which, if left untreated, leads
to everlasting death. This remedy is the Sacrament of Confession. As Our Lord
revealed to St. Faustina, “When you approach the confessional, know this: that I
Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself
act in your soul. Here, the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy.”
Sometimes
we think, “Oh, I’m good enough, I haven’t done anything really terrible, why do
I need to go to Confession?” Do we only take showers when we’re completely
covered in mud, or do we shower more regularly than that? When we love God, we
want to remove anything that is
displeasing to Him, not only the big stuff. Regular monthly Confession cleans
our soul of everything, and gives us a serious dose of grace to overcome our
faults. Even Pope Francis confesses every two weeks! So every Catholic should
make a good, honest Confession monthly.
` In
addition to Confession, we should always frequent the Eucharist. If we wish to
be filled with grace, which is God’s life, then the best way is to be filled
with God Himself in the Blessed Sacrament! St. Philip Neri, a sixteenth century
priest from Rome, would watch to see if anyone from his Masses would leave the
church early, and if they did, he would send out two altar boys with lit
candles to accompany them to their house. He did so to remind people that they
literally became living tabernacles when they received Jesus in His True Body
and Blood.
Right
now we do not have an obligation to attend Sunday Mass. But that should not be
an excuse to miss it! How can someone grow warm if they stay away from the
fire? How can they see clearly in the dark if they walk away from the light? In
our Eucharistic Lord, we receive the fire of Divine Love, the Light of Christ,
the Source of our spiritual life. We should hunger
for the Lord more than for bodily food, and we should come to Mass out of a
deep desire for Him, not just out of
a guilty obligation.
Never
miss an opportunity to attend Mass! When we are lying on our deathbed, we won’t
wish we watched more TV, or scrolled more through Instagram, or spent more time
at the office. We will wish that we
spent more time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When we approach the altar
to receive Him, we must make sure that we receive Him worthily: we must be in
the state of grace and have no mortal sins on our soul. Just as I can eat a
peanut butter sandwich and it gives my body energy, it could kill someone with
a peanut allergy. In the same way, two people could receive the same
Eucharistic Lord with different effects: the person in the state of grace will
grow in holiness, while the person not in the state of grace will, as St. Paul
says, “eat and drink judgment upon themselves”.
Grace
can be more or less effective in our lives – it depends upon our openness to
receive it. If one person approached a waterfall with a bucket and another with
a shot glass, they would be able to take away a different amount of water, even
though the amount of water flowing is the same. So in order to increase our
capacity for grace, we must approach the Sacraments with love, preparation, and
desire to receive the Lord’s love and mercy. Stir into flame a passion for Him
– and He will come with an overflowing of grace!
So why
am I talking all about grace? Because our readings talk about a harvest of
grapes from a vineyard. God expects us to give Him a harvest of holiness, and
He is doing everything possible to nourish the vineyard of our soul through
grace. It’s up to us to take advantage of that grace through the Sacraments,
and to put that grace into action in our lives!
Thank you Fr Gill!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
Eileen Raleigh