A Homily for Low Sunday

+ “These are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” Writing these words at the end of his account of the Gospel, St John explains to all generations exactly what the nature of the Scripture is. All that is written therein is written that we may believe, and more, that we will not need to put our hand into His side to believe.
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Belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, unlike all other worldly beliefs, is efficacious – by our faith we open ourselves to His Grace which is “victorious over the world”. It matters not what attacks the world may make against us: imprisonment, exile, or even violence and martyrdom, it can never conquer anybody who truly believes and proclaims that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”.

Easter the greatest of all feasts, the celebration of the Passion, Cross, death, and Resurrection of Christ-Jesus, establishes the standard by which Christ asks us to love. Our love for God and for our neighbour must make to be ready to die for them if, this should be necessary for salvation. But this is far from saying that all must sacrifice their lives for another. Rather it is to say that we must do everything in our power, without counting the cost, to bring Christ to those around us. There is the time and place when martyrdom is necessary; and there is the time to stand strong before the tyrant so “that not all will die” (I Maccabees 2:40-42), and the Truth of Christ shall continue to be lived, proclaimed, and thus bear abundant fruit.

In a culture where the gods to be served are “relativism,” and “progress;” where reality is often considered to be whatever I want it to be, we find that any talk of sin is the only true “crime” that remains. Whilst the secularist agenda may not yet consider the profession of Christianity a crime in itself; if that profession of the Name of Jesus is lived authentically admitting that there are moral standards which we all must strive to follow, the secular world is starting to demand retribution. Moral standards which, on falling below we must ask forgiveness from God, and seek to repair the damage that has been done by that failing. And certainly, to do what we can to avoid even the temptation of falling into that sin again.

Christ became man that we might live in Him, that we might be given the strength to truly love by His Grace. This love which comes from Him will help others around us to turn away from sinful habits they may find themselves in, to love according to truth. But not only to turn away from sin, but to become more docile to the Holy Ghost, recognising what good things we can do in the world around us and accomplishing them – even going beyond our comfort zone by His strength.

Never has God promised us an easy life, nor comfort, in this life. Rather he sends us out as sheep among wolves, “cunning as snakes and innocent as doves”, allowing the “Spirit of the Father to speak through” us (Matthew 10:16-20). This is the life that He gives us, the faith that He gives us which shall conquer the world if we but have the courage to allow Him to so act, to believe that He can do these things through us.

One of the hardest things possible is to believe in oneself, is to live in a humble docility to a superior, singing the praises of God, day and night. And it gets worse in those long periods of silence when one is confronted with one’s own weakness in the face of the perfection of God. Yet these are precisely the tools by which we conquer ourselves, overcoming the weaknesses of our flesh, and allow Christ to live in us (cf. Galatians 2:20) for this is what it is to have life in His Name.

As that life grows in us, it is no longer our weakness that confronts us, but by the magnificence of God’s Grace which works through us so as to enable us to do magnificent things – even the smallest of acts with the greatest love, for the salvation of souls. Moreover, these are then accomplished with a purity of heart that comes from the awareness that all good is accomplished by God’s Grace – which is well beyond what would have been accomplished by our own efforts.

Yes, God makes demands of each one of us, yet He asks nothing that He does not give us the grace to accomplish. In becoming man, God took upon Himself all of our weakness, sufferings, and temptation and endured the most gruesome of deaths for our sake, never Himself falling into sin.

 There is no suffering which is put before us that He has not suffered first Himself. He came to give us life, opening the gates of heaven to those who hope in Him. We should never be dismayed in the face of any struggle that may face us. Rather, by His Grace, we must respond with courage and faith. +