A Homily for Sexagesima Sunday

+ Exsurge, quare obdormis Dominie? “Wake up! Why are you asleep Lord?” the Introit of this Holy Mass impertinently cries out in distress. “Arise, Lord, help us and deliver us!”
 
Be it the particular situation in which we find ourselves in respect of persevering in our personal vocation in life (or in respect of embarking upon that vocation) with the perennial need to uproot vice and grow in virtue, be it the situation in which our nation finds itself as it pursues increasingly secular and godless agendas, be it the situation in which the Universal Church finds herself as she seemingly obliviously slumbers on in the “toxic nightmare” of the process of Synodality obscuring her unique salvific mission to the world with undue emphasis on internal processes, or be it even our diocese and our good bishop who, as of tomorrow, are to be subject to an Apostolic Visitation (with all that we know that implies), the cry: Exsurge, quare obdormis Dominie? finds a rightful home on our lips and resonates profoundly in our hearts, minds and souls.
 
In many different ways and times it can be that the Lord seems to have forgotten us. We need His saving help, now! We know we must follow Him and persevere unto the end in order to be saved, but we just cannot do so alone. We are weak. We are wounded by our sins. As we read at Matins this morning, it may well indeed be time to build an ark (even a monastery) so as to survive the storms that rage within us and that threaten us from without.
 
After the substantial boast provoked by the relatively turbulent Church of Corinth which comprises the greater part of this morning’s Epistle, St Paul recounts his own angst over the thorn of the flesh from which he suffered and about which he protested to the Lord no fewer than three times, begging for its removal. Instead of being granted an ‘easier’ life so to speak, St Paul’s entreaty earned him an invitation to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Cross. “Sufficit tbi gratia mea,” the Lord said to him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
 
When the Lord seems to be sleeping, when everything and anything is going wrong in us and around us, He speaks these words: “Sufficit tbi gratia mea”. Indeed, through the Church’s Sacred Liturgy this morning He speaks them anew to each one of us in the situation that this Sexagesima Sunday finds us. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
 
The Lord’s grace, the strength and power of His Life and Love, made available to us by the Sacraments of His Holy Church and in different ways through prayer and the various sacramentals, is the constant help that He gives us no matter what dangers confront us. Our task, of course, is to open ourselves ever more to the worthy reception of His grace so that it may take root in our souls and direct and protect us in our daily combat with the world, the flesh and the devil, and bring forth an abundant harvest.
 
And this, of course, is precisely what the Holy Gospel of this Mass seeks to teach us in proclaiming to us anew the Parable of the Sower. For the sad reality is that, whilst Almighty God freely offers us all the graces we need, in many cases they are not able successfully enter into our hearts, minds and souls and enable us to live and grow as God wills us so to do. The world, the flesh and the devil reject God’s grace, they distract us from it. Our flirtations with them choke the growth of God’s grace and seek to kill and replace it with their seductive counterfeits.  
 
So, we have some gardening to do. We must prepare ourselves be that “good soil” which brings forth an abundant harvest. As we know from our gardens, large and small, weeds must be thoroughly uprooted lest they grow back immediately after our cursory attempts to remove them. It is the same with our vices. We may confess the sins they produce, certainly, but unless we do the hard work necessary to destroy their roots, they will continue their nefarious work. Perhaps that of which we need to repent and duly confess is in fact our sloth in uprooting our vices?
 
A prudent gardener prepares his garden beds well before Spring. Our ever-prudent Mother, the Church, calls on us on this Sexagesima Sunday to get to work in the garden of our souls, even before Lent, so as to aim for a better harvest. For whilst it may seem that the Lord sleeps and does not come to our help, the fact is that His grace is always available to us if only we remove the rocks and thorns that prevent its growth, and nourish it through daily prayer, the worthy reception of the sacraments and perseverance in our vocation. For that extra grace to get on with the gardening we know we need to do, so that the Lord’s power may be made manifest even in our weakness, let us beg Almighty God this morning at His altar. +