Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C
given at St. Patrick' Church in Wareham, MA
by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL
Whenever there is a natural or man made disaster there is always a chorus of people, often Christians, but also Muslims, and Jews, declaring as if inspired that the the evil is a result of the victim's sins.
In the Gospel today Jesus definitively rejects this sentiment, saying, do you think that it was because they were greater sinners that you that they suffered?
Suffering is a result of sin, but my suffering, or prosperity for that matter, is not a direct result of my sins or merits.
It teaches us that by forsaking my will, my desires, my dreams and plans, for the objectively better divine plan that promises eternal happiness and life, our sufferings will be like a fire that purifies precious gold. This is why Jesus went to the cross for us, not as a trade: one perfect good deed in exchange for all the bad we have done, but to show us both how much God loves us and wants to forgive us and how we, once forgiven, can truly become God’s sons and daughters.
Jesus shows us on the cross that true love is giving completely of yourself by accepting our life as a gift together with it the sufferings it entails and giving it all back to the Father in gratitude.
It’s like we are playing ball with Our Father who art in Heaven. Except the ball is our life, our very existence. God gives us the ball, and at first like a small child we are cautious, we don't want to throw it back to Him, but when we do, He takes that simple ball and enlivens it with the joy of His love, His continuing presence and interest in our life.
We suffer because we don’t want to give up the gift of our life. This gift is precious to us and we worry that by giving up all or even some of our life, we might lose it forever It hurts to sacrifice because we are afraid to trust God, afraid to lose that little piece of existence that we have. But as we read today in the scriptures God’s love is so gentle and good to us. The more we give, the more we suffer, the more we love the more our good God give us in return.
We believe that suffering is necessary for love and that what we lack in suffering in this life,
must be made up when we die, because just like exercise, suffering is a natural part of getting our supernatural muscles strong!
Many do not understand this Catholic doctrine of suffering and the doctrine of purgatory that logically stems from it, They don’t understand how a loving God, could ask His chosen people,
to undergo suffering and purification. But this is like asking a loving parent how they could take the risk of letting their tender baby to grow up! You do it, you take the risk, not in spite of your concern but because you love them!
I think the origin of the idea of the need for suffering and purgation comes from the very nature of our God, revealed in splendor in the Book of Exodus today. How does God reveal Himself to Moses? A burning bush! At first thought we all think, so what, Moses needs to get out more. But Moses tells us that this bush was unique because while it burned it was not scorched nor destroyed. The burning bush, along with the mysterious name of God, a name which to this day observant Jews will not utter, reveals one of the key mysteries of our Catholic faith.
Who should I tell the Israelites has sent me, Moses asks? Not about to go and tell them a burning bush made me do it.
God replies, I am the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. But for Moses this is not enough, he didn’t want to know who God was in relationship to his people, Moses wanted to know who God is in Himself!
And so Moses presses the Lord, daring to ask God His Holy Name.
For God to reveal His name to us, was an unthinkable act of love for the Jewish people and yet He does, opening up the mystery of His very being to the heart and mind of man.
The passage in Exodus that we read today is so important because this is one of the very first announcements of the of eternal life which God had planned for us, foreshadowing the Christian faith.
In Exodus today, man, who until now had no access to the mystery of God and knew him only as a mysterious voice is introduced to the unknowable God and invited to contemplate His very being.
I am who am! Tell the people that “I am” sent you, God says to Moses.
This statement, which we don’t understand because in fact it is ultimately an unknowable mystery, shocked the ancient world and tells us that God is not like us.
Why do we exist? Because of …. For a reason… We are caused.
Why does God exist? Because He is pure existence itself.
What is so shocking about this Revelation is how close it comes to the definition of the true God reached by the Greek Philosophers, an yet how different.
Aristotle defined God as the first mover and subsistent being, but posits that unlike the pagan gods of Greece the true perfect God could never be interested in us, imperfect as we are.
The God of the burning bush reveals Himself as perfect being, but also as perfect love, completely interested in His creation and gentle with it! Thus St. Paul says (Heb 12:29); “Our god is a consuming fire.” God consumes the bush with the fire of His Spirit and yet does not harm His creature. The image of the burning bush makes me thing of a strong and roughed Father who is so uncharacteristically gently with his newborn child.
And so we return to the idea of suffering and purgatory.
Friends before the Revelation of the Living God all of us shared the destiny of all created things. As we heard at the beginning of Lent: Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,but by revealing His name to us God changed our destiny and gave us the promise that the ultimate futility of mortal life was not for us the end.
Only perfect being, goodness, truth and love last forever every partial love fails in the moment of trial; all lies eventually fall apart in the light of truth; a partially good thing is also partially evil; and something that exists because of another thing or being also contains within it the seeds of its own destruction, of non-being and annihilation. All creation is subject by nature to decay and corruption. Our existence is on loan and eventually that loan will come due. However, by telling us His name God gave us an eternal project and the promise that like the bush we too will be consumed by the fire of the spirit and yet left unburnt! God wants to purify all that leads to decay in us with fire! That is the task of Lent; really it’s the purpose of our whole life!
The good God allows us to suffer in this world and undergo the purifying flames of purgatory because He wants us to be perfect so that we can enjoy eternity consumed but unharmed by the flames of God’s love. Praying, fasting, and almsgiving are ways of speeding up that refining process because they are freely chosen ways of suffering because of our love for God
We don’t know what heaven will be like, St. John tells us, but we do know that we will be like God, for we will see Him as He is!
Use this time of Lent to strive for perfection by honestly evaluating your life, confessing your sins,and getting back on the road to holiness.
Jesus says in the Gospel: I came to bring fire down on the earth, and how I wish it were now kindled.
We must all be consumed by the fire of God’s love for us, suffering the pain of loosing our false self so that our true glory may shine. The question is will we embrace the fires of purgation in this life or suffer in them in the life to come?
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