A Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ As the Epistle of this Holy Mass makes very clear, St Paul was nothing if not a realist in respect of the daily living of Christian life. As the founder and concerned father of many particular Churches, he knew only too well that Christians in the world were not immune from contamination and sin;  – and let us be clear, the world in which St Paul lived was in many ways more hostile to the faith than our own.
 
St Paul’s advice to his people demonstrates a paternity that is as loving as it is wise: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
 
St Benedict, too, is patient and loving towards his sons who commit faults, even grave ones, devoting no fewer than seven chapters of his Rule (23-29) on how to deal with erring brethren. The abbot is instructed to implement these measures with “the greatest care and to exercise all prudence and diligence, so that he may not lose any of the sheep entrusted to him.” (ch. 27)
 
Temptation and sin is a reality with which we must all deal. St Paul and St Benedict knew this only too well. Neither baptism nor its sublime renewal in monastic profession renders us immune to either, though the cloister certainly serves to protect us in some respects. Christian life is messy. It is a gritty battle. It involves continual repentance, the ongoing demand of further conversion of heart, mind and soul, and daily perseverance in these tasks.
 
So too, the burdens – if not blows – that fall upon us at different times that are not of our own choosing, be they medical emergencies, ongoing physical or psychological illnesses, the loss of employment, grief at the loss of loved ones, harsh treatment by authorities from whom we rightly expect better, etc., can bruise us and weaken us, leaving us more vulnerable to temptation and despair. Many who once followed Christ no longer do so because they have suffered too much. They come to the point where they feel that they simply cannot go on. Perseverance in fidelity to Christ and to the teachings of His Church, they think, is simply too much for them. And so they choose no longer to even try.
 
My brothers and sisters, this reality abounds in our day. It is a reality in ourselves, in our families – monastic or otherwise. We know only too many relatives and friends whose lives no longer draw pure living water from its source, Our Lord Jesus Christ, but who drink from polluted streams that will make them sick unto death. And it is to this very reality that St Paul speaks to us this morning: “If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Monastic liturgical tradition has us contemplate this exhortation frequently through its use of its last sentence as the short chapter (reading) at the Office of Sext daily (outside of the seasons which have proper texts).
 
It is significant that – despite his somewhat underserved reputation for harshness – St Paul looks to the restoration of the sinner. He calls for a mutual bearing of each other’s burdens. He does not concern himself with outrage at the lurid details of the sins committed but prescribes gentleness and a healthy self-awareness that I, too, could very easily fall into sin.
 
The humility and charity St Paul demands of us here are fundamental. Without them our Christian lives become pharisaical, and our faith becomes little more than a gnostic cult. Monastic life lived without these virtues rapidly descends into a formalism that produces sycophancy. When this happens the grace of baptism or of monastic profession, in effect, dies. It is a sad fact that there are many dead monks and dead Christians walking around in our world today.
 
In the face of this reality, let us not forget what the Holy Gospel of this Mass teaches us: Our Lord can raise the dead! His pity for the widow of Naim can be extended to us in respect of those we know and love who have died to the faith of their baptism, to those who have died to the vows they have professed.
 
At this holy Mass, as we beg for the increase in humility and charity we need, let us not fail to ask for  the raising to life of those who have died to the life of grace, perhaps even through the humility and charity St Paul insists we put into practice. +