A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ Catholics read Sacred Scripture in the Sacred Liturgy – at Mass, in the Divine Office and in the other liturgical rites. Indeed, in this context -which is the Bible’s “native habitat” as it were – the Word of God is alive and active at the heart of the living tradition of the Church, which we encounter in a singularly privileged and fruitful in the Sacred Liturgy. That is why the Church teaches that the liturgy is “a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition” (CCC 1124). And it is why, in respect of the Sacred Liturgy, even the highest authorities in the Church may act only “in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the liturgy.” (CCC 1125)

In this Holy Mass St Paul speaks to us: “Lead a life worthy of your vocation,” he insists.

Let us be clear: the epistle was not sung this morning so as to increase our knowledge of St Paul’s writings. No. It is sung this morning so that Almighty God, through his instrument St Paul, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, may address each and every one of us. And this He does, saying very clearly: “Lead a life worthy of your vocation.”

Who amongst us does not need to hear this exhortation? St Paul was writing about our baptismal vocation as Christians, but in placing this injunction before us in the Sacred Liturgy, the tradition of the Church challenges us to apply these words also to our differing particular vocations as Christians.

Our baptismal vocation requires of us all that St Paul lists: humility, patience, gentleness, forbearance, unity, etc. To that (non-exhaustive) list we can each add the fundamentals of our particular vocation, be we monks, parents, secular clergy or lay men and women serving in particular ways.

It may be that we have allowed vice to erode or even conquer virtue in respect of the fundamentals of our baptismal vocation. We may have gone down wrong paths in respect of our particular vocation, or perhaps have even refused to follow Christ in the living the life to which He calls me. “Lead a life worthy of your vocation,” God says to me in his Living Word this morning.

It is necessary, then, for each of us to examine our consciences in the light of God’s Word.

We would be remiss, however, to ignore what God’s Word teaches us in the Holy Gospel: to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. These two “great” commandments are well known. And yet we very often do not understand them at all because we forget that one is the consequence of the other. To love God necessarily comes first. And love of our neighbour is consequent to our love of God. To borrow the words of Frank Sinatra’s famous song about two other inseparable realties, “You can’t have one without the other.”

For if my life is consumed with love of neighbour but not of God, I am at best a social worker. When difficult situations arise my natural compassion and the activities it inspires may well have no objective point of reference. I may do, or counsel, what seems loving in that particular (but subjective) context. This is how, out of supposed love of neighbour, many justify sins and crimes against the sanctity of life, the God-given nature of human sexuality, the right to ownership and other freedoms, etc. It is perfectly clear why, out of simple human compassion, one could tolerate abortion or euthanasia or same-sex relations or the attempted change of gender. All of these things can, in certain contexts, appear to be the loving and compassionate thing to do.

However, if I love God first, if my love of my neighbour flows from my living worship of Him and is informed by His Word speaking to me in and through His Church today, I shall see such compassion for what it is: a falsehood which leaves people enslaved to their lusts and desires and which glosses over any manner of evil with a varnish of counterfeit compassion.

More importantly, my love of neighbour, when rooted in my love and worship of God, becomes prophetic: its witness calls others to themselves share in the life God. It shows forth the truth that suffering and evil are limited, and that they are not the ultimate end. It opens the gates of the prison of subjectivity to which so many are condemned and offers them the freedom, light and life of God’s Truth.

Yes, we must certainly lead a life worthy of our vocation. But we can only do so if we love God and the things of God – including His teaching – first, and ensure that our love of neighbour flows from and reflects that primacy. This is our baptismal duty, each of us according to our specific vocation in the Church. For the grace ever more faithfully to fulfill it, let us implore Almighty God before His altar in this Holy Mass. +

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