A Homily for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

+ We each live in a definite moment of history. Others have lived before us and, please God, others shall come after us. So too, Our Blessed Lord became Incarnate at a definite moment in history. Before His Incarnation the patriarchs, prophets and kings of Israel served God—or strayed from His law—and after His sacrificial death on the Cross, His glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, the Church in her turn has sought to be faithful to her mission of proclaiming the Truth that He revealed and making available the grace and life that He won for us.
 
We are privileged to live in the epoch of the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ. Indeed, Our Lord’s words at the beginning of the Holy Gospel of this Mass apply to us directly: “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” We are privileged; more privileged even than Kings David and Solomon, or the prophets Isaiah or Amos—for we, with Simeon, have seen the salvation God has prepared for His people. (cf. Lk 2:30-31)
 
“Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!” The Greek word μακαριος (makarios) which is often translated as “blessed” (and sometimes as “happy”—but blessedness—beatitude—is much more than mere happiness, as happiness is understood today) conveys a sense of being utterly secure, of being out of the reach of mundane or lower concerns because one firmly belongs to the divine order. It is a word frequently on Our Lord’s lips, most notably what have become known as ‘The Beatitudes’ in the fifth chapter of Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
 
Therefore, we are blessed. Because we live in the age of the Church and because in and through her Sacred Liturgy we have seen and heard and been touched by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, we enjoy that divine security, that ‘untouchability’ by the world, that God-given safety which enabled great saints to persevere in the worst of difficulties and persecutions and that enabled martyrs—even in our own day—to shed their blood rather than to renounce the Truth that Jesus Christ is the definitive revelation of Almighty God in human history, the unique Saviour of all mankind.
 
To be blessed thus is a singular privilege and grace given to us by Almighty God in His Divine Providence. And it is given to each one of us for a purpose—for His purposes—and not for our own self-congratulatory satisfaction. Indeed, it imposes a duty upon us—many duties!—in the different circumstances in which we live and according to our particular God-given vocation in life.
 
This morning’s Gospel teaches us the fundamental principles: we must “love the Lord [our] God with all [our hearts], and with all [our souls], and with all [our] strength, and with all [our minds]; and [our] neighbour as [ourself]. And, in Our Lord gives us an application of love of neighbour in the famous and profoundly challenging parable of the Good Samaritan, which itself deserves much more consideration that we can give it here and which has very clear applications in the practical charity every Christian is called upon to give when needed.
 
There is no similar parable applying the first of these principles: the commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” but there can be no question that the Church has sought to fulfil this sacred duty through her devout, faithful and worthy celebration of the Sacred Liturgy from the very earliest of times—as the discovery of the ornate early house-churches and as the inventories of sacred vessels of considerable dignity confiscated by persecutors attest.
 
We are the blessed inheritors and custodians of the riches of the Church’s liturgical tradition developed out of and for the love of Almighty God—riches which sustain us in that blessedness of God and which nourish us and from which arise the practical charity which it is our duty freely and lovingly to offer the Samaritans of our times.
 
Indeed, blessed are we who are able to celebrate these treasures fully—particularly at a time when certain authorities seek to bury them or relegate them to museums as relics of a bygone age! Blessed are we who can live from the immense wealth of faith and prayer to which their ancient and venerable forms bear witness and which they convey to us living and active today! Blessed are we who are privileged to live from them each day in the monastic vocation! Blessed are they who, called to bear witness to the Truth of Christ in the world, can be sustained in their faith and good works by means of them!
 
Even if we think that our particular moment in history is not the apotheosis of faith and culture, to be thus blessed is, nevertheless, a God-given privilege and a grace, and at the same time it confers upon each of us most solemn duties. As we go now unto His altar, let us entreat Almighty God for the graces necessary faithfully to fulfil these duties though our unstinting love of Him, and through our practical love of our neighbour. +