A Homily for the 20th Sunday after Pentecost

+ There is nothing like a prison cell and the likelihood of execution, they say, to focus one’s thoughts. St Paul’s imprisonment certainly served this end, and his letters from prison to his Churches are a providential fruit of an otherwise undesirable situation. By the grace of God the Holy Spirit his words announce the Word of God to us today through their proclamation in the Sacred Liturgy.
​
The letter to the Ephesians, from which this morning’s Epistle is taken, was written, according to the tradition, by St Paul whilst he was in prison in Rome around the year 62 ad. This epistle is striking for its succinct practicality and its clear call to live a supernatural life in these “evil” times. Normally we do not insult peoples’ intelligence by repeating readings in vernacular languages, but this morning I beg an exception:

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ."
 
This homily could justly end here. St Paul has said more than enough. Our task – be we monk, cleric or lay man or woman – is to ponder and digest all that he has said, and all that Almighty God wishes to say to each of us through his words. We would do well to keep this text before us this week – as does the ferial Mass of the coming days – and to allow the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts and minds through it. For it has much to say.
 
However, as we know, Sunday Mass is not really ‘valid’ without a homily of sufficient length (and a collection), and so I must at least highlight two elements of this epistle, separated as they are by St Paul’s warning about getting drunk—advice that is clearly not out of date in our days.
 
The first is his opening injunction, to be wise, to make the most of the time, because the days are evil, and not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is for each one of us.
 
We have one life on earth and we must give an account of our stewardship of it. Our task is, then, to understand what Gods will is for us in this life, and to get on with doing it, without delay, without procrastination, without self-indulgent ‘other things’ to do ‘first’. How many times do people who believe that they have a particular vocation go off to do something else first (sometimes under the guise of ‘further discernment’) only never to return? We must make the most of the time given us. If we know God’s will, we must do it now.
 
To be sure, even when we are clear in respect of our vocation and are well down the path of living it circumstances can require further discernment and lead us in directions we never imagined. But in these situations, too, we can find the Lord’s will. What is necessary is that we have that wisdom of which St Paul speaks – a gift of the Holy Spirit, no less – and that we get on and do God’s will and not allow the evils of the day paralyse us—whether they arrive from without or within the Church or are the result of our own sin. For in evil days, we must always be proactive for the good, the true and the beautiful.
 
Faithful perseverance in our vocation, even in great difficulty, will bring us to experience the second element of the epistle I wish to underline—that state of being filled with the Spirit, of having psalms and hymns and spiritual songs constantly upon our lips, of singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts, of always and for everything giving thanks to God, and of reverencing one another for the love of Christ.
 
Men and women throughout the centuries have entered monasteries so as to live in this state more easily than is often possible in the world, and rightly, for monks and nuns are weak creatures who need the discipline of the enclosure and of the monastic rule. It is in living their vocation that they become strong, as monastic history more than ably demonstrates.
 
But through the Sacred Liturgy of the Church St Paul exhorts us all to strive for this state—it by no means the sole preserve of monastics. We are all called to the life in Christ which he describes. To achieve it we must know and do God’s will. We must make the most of our time on this earth in faithfully living it. Now. For the grace and strength to do so today, and to persevere in so doing tomorrow, we beg Almighty God in this Holy Mass. +

---