A Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

​+ With war continuing in Eastern Europe and winter approaching, the disruption of energy supply lines and the severe price increases this is causing across the economic spectrum has whole populations worrying about how they can keep warm this winter, let alone what they shall be able to eat or drink or even to wear. The birds of the air may not have these anxieties, but modern urban populations who are dependent upon commerce and economic stability for the basic needs of life most certainly do. What, then, does Our Lord teach us in the Holy Gospel of this Mass?
 
His teaching is clear: “O men of little faith…Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” This doctrine may seem a little overly pious, naïve even; faith does not pay bills!
 
Or it may not seem to. There was once a Prior of a new monastic foundation who, amidst all the material demands of its establishment expressed concern to his Cellarer about how they were going to pay all the bills. “Don’t you believe in God?” came the swift rebuke. “He will provide.” He did. He has. He continues so to do. For whilst monks and monasteries must needs deal with material realities, their duty—which is nothing other than the duty of every Christian—is first to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is to place first things first and to know that the act of faith in so doing shall be richly rewarded by Almighty God.
 
How do we seek the Kingdom of God? What must we place first? For the monk this is clear: the bell, the “voice of God” calls him from his work or slumber to his choir stall to sing the praises of Almighty God. His superior calls him to undertake this or that work, whether it be of great importance or of little, and thereby to offer to Almighty God the pleasing sacrifice of holy obedience. And indeed, the cloister of the monastery and the Rule call him to that ongoing conversion of life, to that detachment from the things of this world, to that crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and desires, and to live and to walk by the life and light of God the Holy Spirit as St Paul so eloquently urges us in this morning’s Epistle.
 
Whilst not all Christians have the benefit of a cloister, a bell and a Rule, we all have the clear traditional precepts of the Church which require that we faithfully and fruitfully participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation, that we make a good confession at least once a year, that we receive Holy Communion worthily at least during the season of Easter, that we observe the fasting and abstinence required of us and that we provide for the material needs of the Church according to our means. These precepts—which are too often unknown —provide a bare minimum if we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Fervent daily prayer and conscientious attention to the duties of our particular vocation in life are similarly indispensable. The voice of God calls every baptised person to at least these.
 
So too, speaking through His apostle St Paul, Almighty God calls us to that conversion of life which lives according to the truth that if we engage in “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like” we “shall not inherit the Kingdom of God,” and that rather, nourished by the God’s healing and sustaining grace received in the sacraments we are called to practice “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
 
This is all well and good and indeed true, we may say, but how does it pay the ever-increasing bills? Prayer, the worship of Almighty God, the conversion of my life from one of vice to one of virtue may certainly be good things to pursue, but they do not put money into the bank!
 
If there is one lesson that Our Lord wishes to teach us through the Holy Gospel today it is to have faith in the Providence of Almighty God. With all the technology at our disposal we plan and budget and forecast with great industry and intelligence, often only to increase our anxiety. In spite of our enormous (faceless) governmental systems of social care we panic when they are unable to meet the demands of the moment. The birds of the air mock us. The lilies of the field rebuke us. And Almighty God weeps: “Have faith,” He cries.
 
If we do have faith, if we do seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, if we do convert our lives so that they bring forth the fruits of the Holy Spirit living in us, we shall live as Christians and joyfully assist those in true material need (cf. Acts 2:44-45). In and for the love of Christ, we shall seek out those who suffer and do what we can to alleviate their distress. The concrete workings of God’s Providence in our day are our responsibility. The goods over which we have been given stewardship are at our disposal for use unto the Glory of Almighty God and for the salvation of souls.
 
And if we accept that responsibility, if we become the instruments of His Providence in our times, we ourselves shall not want for anything. All that we truly need, and more, shall be ours—as we are taught in the Holy Gospel this morning.
 
For an increase of faith, for the courage and resolve further to covert our lives, and for the increase of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our daily actions, let us beg Almighty God in this Holy Mass—for in the Providence of Almighty God, there are many who depend on us for all that He wishes them to receive. +