A Homily for Low Sunday

+ “All that is born from God conquers the world; our faith is this which is victorious over the world.”

By “the world” the Apostle is speaking here of the powers of darkness ever seeking to seduce man into the power of death. These words, however, are given as a reminder of what Christ has already accomplished and makes available to each of us, should we but follow Him. Summoning us out of the darkness (I Peter 2:9) through which the ancient enemy of man tries to seduce us, God’s call is given to us to bring us to the liberty of children of God.

St John is very clear about the nature of liberty. God is truth, he proclaims time and again throughout his Gospel and his epistles. There is no mincing of words. The Triune God Revealed fully in Jesus Christ is without comparison, nor can He be mixed with anything else. There is only one narrow road to salvation. This last section of his first epistle is entirely given to setting forth that it is only in the truth of God that we can be free from the snare, the grip of the evil one (I John 5:18) for it is only there that we can be freed from the chains of sin. Yet so often we fail to recognise God’s call to come to Him, to come into the light of His freedom. And more, we cannot recognise it alone.

Only by the grace of God are we able to know what it is that God is asking of us. Yet we need the Church to confirm for us what is in fact the authentic voice of God – which the seductor ever attempts to distort. It is through the sacraments that we have a guarantee of that grace; it is through the immense riches of the Church’s tradition and her teaching, in which we must completely immerse ourselves, that we can know the truth God has never failed to proclaim.

Living entirely out of the sacramental and doctrinal life of the Church gives the full scope to those final words of the epistle proclaimed at this holy Mass: “He that believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in Himself.”

This is the nature of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. They are given for the increase of our good, and thus through us to those around us. This is always an application of the truth of God to personal circumstances in which we are found. But there is never anything which can detract from the fundamental principles revealed in their entirety in the Person of Jesus Christ Incarnate. Rather, they lead to a every deeper integration into the majesty, the grandeur of God and the greatness to which He can bring us.

This is our faith. This is the victory over the powers of darkness and destruction. This is the freedom to respond to God. +