St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

7/2/17 13th Sunday Ordinary Time (A) - Fr. Ambrose Sigman, OP

Love is one of those topics it is difficult to discuss. So much can be said about it. At its most basic, it is the movement of the will toward the good. This rather dry definition, though, hides within itself a fundamental reality about who we are as human beings, creatures made for what is good, and who have an innate desire for that good. This innate desire has burst forth from human beings into every area of our lives, inspiring the vast majority of our cultural output. So much can be said about love, seeing as there are so many ways to love, distinctions about who we love, what we love, and how we go about it. Today’s readings, though, reveal to us a particular way of loving, what we might call a sacrificial love, or that type love to which we are called as disciples of Christ, and this love will be my focus.

As in all things, we look to our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, as a model for our way of life as Christians. We know exactly where we need to turn when we reflect upon the ways in which we ought to love. As disciples of Christ, we look to the Master to teach us how to love. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, describes for us the love that Christ showed to his people. A love which offered itself for others even unto death, and this is the love into which we are baptized. In the Incarnation we find a God whose love for His creatures is so profound that He willingly took on human flesh, suffered and died for our sakes.  This central mystery of the death and resurrection of the Lord is a mystery of love; it is a love which is willing to sacrifice all for the sake of the beloved. God’s love for His people is poured out upon us like the blood and water from His pierced side. His love is poured out upon us in the waters of our Baptism, and in the graces which He continues to bestow upon His creation.

This love, though, demands from us a response. Just as God has loved us, so we must learn to love Him, and the people He has redeemed. We must learn to make a sacrifice of ourselves, in love, to God and to our neighbor. Our Lord reminds us of this in the gospel, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Every one of us is called to learn this lesson of sacrificial love, and to figure out how best to give our lives back to God as an offering of love.

This can be a difficult question for us to answer, though. I believe that when we think about the loving acts of sacrifice we can make for our brothers or sisters, we can tend to think of them in rather grandiose terms. Perhaps we think that this kind of sacrificial love is reserved for the great saints. That is something for people like St. Teresa of Calcutta, and others like her. Perhaps we think that such love is demanded only of priests and religious, who have already given their lives to the service of the Church.  But the truth is that Christ is a model for all Christians, no matter their state in life. All Christians are called to follow the example of Our Lord and to love as He has taught us. As St. Paul reminds us, " Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

What is it, then, that we are called to? Must we literally mount the cross as Jesus did? Hear what the Fathers of the desert had to say. “They used to say of one brother that, having made some baskets, he was putting handles on them when he heard a brother who was his neighbor saying, ‘What am I to do, for market day is almost here, and I have no handles to put on my baskets!’ He went and detached the handles from his own baskets and brought them to the other brother, saying, ‘Look, I have these left over; take them and put them on your baskets.’ He enhanced his brother’s work to the detriment of his own.” The sacrificial love of this brother is the love to which we are most commonly called. This is the love that the Shunemite woman displays in our reading from the Second Book of Kings. This woman offers space in her home and a meal to the prophet of God whenever he passes through her town. She offers Elisha this small act of kindness and generosity because she knows he is a holy man of God, and God, through the prophet, rewards her.

Christ, too, reminds us of this need for small acts of sacrifice, for these simple acts of love when he tells us, “And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

Sometimes, God asks us for the ultimate sacrifice, to give our lives for our brothers’ or sisters’ sake, but for the most part what He wants from us is our basket handles, or a cup of cold water. The great majority of the time He wants from us those small acts of kindness and self-sacrifice which enhance the lives of our brothers and sisters, even to the point of giving up our own desires and hard work. If we learn how to do these things with love, we can be assured that we are learning to love as we ought.

The fathers used to say, “The devil can imitate everything. As for fasting, he never ate; as for vigils, he never slept. But humble-mindedness and love he cannot imitate. So let there be a great effort on our part to have love within us.” God has revealed the love He has for His people in a great many ways, His care and concern for Israel, the ultimate act of love revealed in the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in devotions such as the Sacred Heart. One such revelation, one of the greatest, is the gift of His own Body and Blood given to us in the Eucharist which we will now celebrate. Let us, then, strive always to respond to that love in whatever way we can. Let us learn to make of our lives an oblation of love pleasing to Our Lord.