A Homily for the Fifth Sunday after Easter

​+ Estote factores verbi, et non auditores tantum: fallentes vosmetipsos. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
 
These words of Saint James with which the Epistle of this Holy Mass confront us this morning bear much contemplation. ‘Do not deceive yourselves.’ the Our Holy Mother the Church warns us this morning. ‘You must not be idle spectators in respect of the Word of God—the Word of God Incarnate, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gloriously risen from the dead—you must allow Him to transform you and to act in and through you, thereby converting your life and that of others.’
 
We could do well to consider this a little more deeply, borrowing Saint James’ striking analogy of a man looking into a mirror and then forgetting what he saw. How often do we look in mirrors? How obsessed do we become with what we see? How much time and energy do we expend in attending to any defect we notice? How happy are we when everything seems perfect? Modern man is no danger of forgetting what he sees in a mirror!
 
And yet here we are, well into Eastertide, rejoicing with the Church as her Sacred Liturgy continues to celebrate and to contemplate the resurrection of Christ from the dead ever more deeply, and yet we still do not see the reality before us—or if we do, our actions suggest that we have either not understood it or have rapidly forgotten it. We would do well to place ourselves in the shoes of the women at the empty tomb, or of the apostles gathered in hiding, to whom the Lord appeared. They saw and (only eventually in the case of Saint Thomas) they believed. And they did not forget.
 
No, they did not forget. They got on with living out the radical transformation that seeing the Risen Christ brought about in the depths of their very beings, becoming the very pillars upon which the Church was built.
 
We who sing “Alleluia”; we who rejoice on Easter morning (and hopefully not only that Lent is over); we who see and hear and touch the Risen Christ here in the sacred rites of His Church daily and weekly, have we permitted ourselves to be transformed in radice—in our very roots, as it were? Have we gotten on with the business of living out that transformation in each and every circumstance of our lives? Or do we attend and even ‘enjoy’ the Church’s Sacred Liturgy and then conveniently forget her clear call to decisive conversion and action?
 
We cannot avoid the fact that we must be doers of the Word, and not simply auditors of it. We shall be judged not on how much we know about Christ, but on how we have responded to the fact that the Word of God became man, suffered and died on the cross in sacrifice for our sins and rose from the dead as tangible proof of the victory over sin and death that can be ours. We shall be judged on whether or not we get on with doing what is necessary.
 
What is necessary? What must I do? For each person the answer is different. In His Providence Almighty God calls us to serve Him in many complementary ways according to the gifts He has given us and the needs which only He can foresee. Of course, if I am seeking to know His will for my life I must be prepared to give myself wholly and utterly—radically, without reservation—to His will, be that in the lay, married, monastic, clerical or religious state: anything less would be at best unworthy and at worst idolatrous self-worship. And if I am already married, ordained or professed or otherwise clearly established in another particular vocation, I must equally give myself wholly and utterly to its radical living out in my given circumstances. Not so to do is, once again, nothing less than idolatry and selfishness.
 
But how can we do this? How can I, a sinner who is often weak, who is wounded and afraid, give myself totally to God’s will? How can I overcome my fears, my weakness, my wounds? How can I become the radical disciple of the Risen Christ that I am called to be, and to bear the fruit that only I can bring forth in my life?
 
This morning’s Holy Gospel contains five small words which more than adequately answer these questions: “Ask and you shall receive…” Do I believe in God? Do I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Then let us have the faith—here, now, this morning at this altar—to ask for the grace, strength and courage we each need to become and to remain the faithful and radical witness to the resurrection in our own particular circumstances whom, from all eternity, Almighty God has willed us to be!
 
But, my brothers and sisters, when we ask we must also be prepared to receive—to receive the vocation and responsibilities that Almighty God wishes us to bear. And then we must be prepared to get on with the doing of it, and not merely to think or talk about it, for—as Saint James insists—that would be to be fooling ourselves. +