A Homily for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

+ If there is one thing that the Pandemic of recent times has demonstrated very clearly it is that the world of today operates from the assumption that the human body must be protected at all costs from any discomfort or suffering—even when this requires the curtailing of peoples’ liberties and even their God-given rights.
 
The elevation of bodily health and human comfort as the supreme goods that are to be worshipped above all else—indeed before which everything else must be sacrificed—is a logical consequence of a prosperity and secular consumerism in which “I” and my desires are at the centre of everything I do and where the ultimate purpose of life is my success in gaining as much pleasure, influence and wealth as is possible. It is unthinkable, indeed intolerable, that a mere virus could threaten this. Death eventually may be inevitable, but it must be put off at all costs lest I fail to enjoy my due quotient of all that the world has to offer me.
 
The brutal reality of this secular consumerism—from which the Church, particularly during the Pandemic, has not always been immune—leaves no place for the spiritual, for the supernatural. Each day it devours what it can in its sensual pursuit of happiness, rendering the most intimate and sacred of human relations a mere commodity and regarding even human life itself as something disposable when inconvenient or uncomfortable, only to wake the following day with an ever-greater need for self-gratification. It sets out again in pursuit of the alluring mirage that betokens some form of temporary escape from the stark reality that death shall come one day, and that this world and its pleasures—indeed that “I”—shall thence be at an end.
 
Amidst this frenetic pursuit of palliative pleasure the one true Church of Christ today, as yesterday when Ceasars, Napoleons, Hitlers and other despots rushed to erect their monuments, proclaims the truth that, in the words of St Paul in the Epistle of this Holy Mass, “We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”
 
“If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” Whatever our vocation, whatever our activities, whatever pleasures we seek (legitimate or illegitimate) we would do more than well to ponder this truth.
 
In doing so we may be tempted to fall into the trap of thinking that “the flesh” refers exclusively to sexual sins. Whilst they are most certainly significant, we must not forget that there are seven deadly sins: pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth. All of these worldly and bodily temptations are precisely what their traditional name implies: they are deadly. If we live according to them we shall die.
 
However, if “by the Spirit” we “put to death the deeds of the body” we shall live, St Paul assures us. To this end St Benedict lists amongst his tools of good works “Not to fulfil the desires of the flesh,” (Rule, ch. 4) and teaches that humility involves both “checking…the desires of the flesh” and knowing that in respect of them, “God is always present to us, since the prophet says to the Lord: All my desire is before thee.” (Rule, ch. 7)
 
Thus chastened, the catechetical tradition of the Church teaches us to open our hearts and souls to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit—wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord—so that His Fruits may grow in us: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity. (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1830-32)
 
“This is all well and good and true,” one might say, “but it’s practically impossible in the world of today.” “Besides, sin has taken root in my life and has grown into vice. It’s too late. I’m too far gone” we utter in despair. Our loving mother, the Church, knows her children only too well—indeed she looks upon us whom the lures of the flesh have long-since ensnared with the determination of supernatural hope.
 
For whilst sin is sin and leads to eternal death, the Church exists to announce to we sinners that thanks to the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross our sins can be forgiven through Baptism into His Church and through perseverance in the life of grace—sustained, repaired and restored as necessary by means of the Sacraments He instituted for that very purpose. The Church exists to give us a glimpse and foretaste of life in Christ in the beauty of her Sacred Liturgy which, if it is to be true to its nature and purpose, must give glory to God, not man.
 
Indeed, knowing our plight, our loving mother, the Church, has prayed for centuries in the words of the collect of this Mass: “Bestow on us, we pray, o Lord, a spirit of always pondering on what is right and of hastening to carry it out, and, since without You we cannot exist, may we be enabled to live according to Your will.” As we continue the necessary battle to conquer the flesh and to live by the Spirit, let this prayer be ours, no matter how hard the fight may be: for if we are truly open to it, Our Lord Himself shall provide the grace we so desperately need. +