A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ Obsecro vos…ut digne ambuletis vocatione qua vocati estis…” “I beg you to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, supporting one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
 
This exhortation of Saint Paul, which Our Lord addresses to each of us through the Sacred Liturgy of His Church this morning, is as timely as it is clear. For whom amongst us, whom in the Church, from the Pope and the bishops to the child in a catechism class, or a man or woman of any age, does not need to be reminded to live a life that truly corresponds to their vocation—against which the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil constantly mitigate in an attempt to drag us down to a base level of mundane conformity and ultimate despair?
 
This is fundamental. Do I live as a Christian each day, as one immersed by the Sacrament of Baptism in the mystery of the saving sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of God in human history, or do I ‘fit in’, being in effect no different to anyone else except, perhaps, the occasional discrete practice of religion? Is my daily activity, be it personal or professional, in public or in private, informed by my baptismal dignity, or is it no different to that of anyone else?
 
Saint Paul clearly experienced this problem with the Ephesians to whom he wrote this morning’s Epistle. He found it necessary to remind them of the humility that we must each practice, of that “lowliness and meekness” which are the sign of the grace of baptism at work within us. Not that we are to be backward in witnessing to the truth—and indeed in opposing falsehood and sin clearly and when necessary—but that in so doing we are pointing to Christ and His truth, to His grace at work, and not to ourselves.
 
So too Saint Paul called the Corinthians to practice patience. How many of us almost boast that this virtue is one for which we have no gift? Certainly, zeal for God and for the Godly things is the hallmark of a Christian, but so too is that disposition which patiently perseveres in their achievement—without ever giving up, to be sure, but without that stamping of the foot and clenching of the fist which indicate that it is me and my will, and not God’s Providence, in which I have faith.
 
The Corinthians were also exhorted to supporting one another in profound love and charity. Do we? We certainly appreciate receiving love and charity, but do we realise that it is our God-given baptismal vocation to provide loving charity to our fellow Christians when they need it most—according to their true needs and not my own pre-programmed availability? At times this is very demanding, but through Saint Paul Our Lord reminds us this morning that it is our vocation!
 
And we are instructed that we are to be eager to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity of the Spirit is not, of course, a Soviet-style uniformity in all things or a mindless conformity to every idea or policy of those in authority: that would be to abdicate our baptismal dignity and responsibility and to replace Christian discipleship with a sycophantry that saps the grace and light that baptism confers. No. Unity is maintained through unswerving fidelity to the Revealed Truth, to the right worship of the person of Jesus Christ, through adherence to His teachings faithfully handed down in Tradition and taught by the Church throughout the ages in the creeds and solemn definitions of the Councils, etc.
 
Preserving this unity in faith and morals—and indeed, in worship, within the bounds of the legitimate diversity of rites the Church has always enjoyed—is a live issue in our day. Some Church authorities wish to impose a uniformity of worship that would simply suffocate the Spirit. Others seem to wish to undermine fundamental moral teachings as well as the sacramental practices that reflect them. Venerable disciplines, it seems, have hastily to be dismantled because their demands are too great. The Church, it seems, must conform herself to the world.
 
We are right to be concerned and on our guard about this grave risk to the unity of the Spirit and to the bond of peace in the Church. In this respect Saint Paul’s advice to the Galatians seems ever more pertinent: “Even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8) Unity in the Spirit is not found in adherence to any person or his ideas or political programmes—be that St Paul, a pope, bishop, priest or any other person—other than the person of Jesus Christ Himself. In fidelity to Him and to His teachings, not to my preferences or interpretations, we truly live the vocation that is ours.
 
With this clear realisation, as we now approach the altar, and as we face the demands of the coming weeks and months, let us pray fervently in the words of the collect of this morning’s Mass, that we may shun all temptations of the devil—from whatever source they come—and that we shall faithfully follow the One True God in purity of heart and mind, for that indeed is the Chrisitan vocation to which we are each called. +