A Homily for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

+ In this life Christians are by no means exempt from temptation and suffering. We experience the trials and difficulties and limitations of human existence as do our non-believing contemporaries—perhaps even more so as see Truth increasingly relativised and morality descend ever further into base subjective utilitarianism, most particularly in questions of human anthropology—the true nature of human persons, of sexuality and of the family—the respect and protection that is due to innocent human life from conception until the moment of natural death. Faced with a landslide of immorality on all sides, we rightly cry out with the Psalmist (as we do each Thursday at Prime): Usquequo, Domine…? “How long, O LORD? Wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” (Ps. 12:1-2) We seem ever to be fighting a losing battle…

Yet, suffer as we do, through her Sacred Liturgy our Holy Mother the Church addresses these words of Our Lord Jesus Christ to each one of us this morning: “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Let us ponder this a little. Historically these words of Our Lord underlined the unique privilege His hearers enjoyed: of being face to face with the definitive revelation of God in human history and of hearing His teaching in person—something that most certainly many prophets and kings desired to hear and to see, but did not. Perhaps those who first heard these words did not quite understand their import: they carry an enormous and quite singular assertion, one that even the most devout would find difficult, if not scandalous to accept: that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, the Saviour of all mankind.

Our Lord’s hearers did not have the benefit of His resurrection from the dead to ‘prove’ His identity, as it were. But we do. And we have the witness of the Apostles’ deaths as martyrs out of complete conviction that Jesus is the Christ of God. So too we have centuries of further martyrs and saints who lived this Truth amidst disintegrated social orders and persecution, all the while bearing the ordinary limitations and sufferings of human existence. They lived this Truth and they persevered unto the end in it, sometimes offering their blood as witnesses to it. In spite of any and every obstacle that was placed before them, they knew and lived from the reality that they were truly blessed beyond any care or worry to know Jesus Christ and to encounter Him living and acting in the One True Church He founded. Even more so, perhaps, than those who first heard the words of this morning’s Gospel, they knew that, when participating in the Sacred Liturgy, their eyes were blessed to see what they saw, and to hear what they heard—so much so that they could never renounce He whom they thus encountered.

This is—or should be—where we stand: here, as members of the Church, encountering Christ anew every Sunday here in the Sacred Liturgy of His Church, speaking to us through the inspired words of Sacred Scripture and coming to us in the most sublime manner possible through the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. Despite our wounds, limitations and sins, despite any form of persecution—be that by the gods worshipped by secular society, or be that from ecclesiastical ideologues who have fashioned their own gods—we are truly blessed, because here we taste and see what many prophets and kings desired but never knew: the saving love and mercy of Jesus, the Christ of God.

This singular grace is a privilege given by God for our salvation. We must cooperate with this gift and use it wisely. Indeed, the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14-30) teaches us that we must make good and profitable use of this great gift. It is not given for some form of miserly or gnostic self-satisfaction. No. In His Providence Almighty God has allowed us to be thus blessed in order that we might be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. (cf. Is 52:10) We are called not to sit contentedly guarding our privilege, but to make disciples of all nations (cf. Mt. 28:19), nothing less.

The Gradual of this Holy Mass appositely sings: Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore; semper laus ejus in ore meo. (I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall always be on my lips.) Appositely, the monastic office places these words of the Psalmist on the lips of each monk in the responsory of daily ferial vespers. For whatever burdens we carry to choir—our own, or those of our oblates and associates and friends and benefactors—our vocation is indeed to bless the Lord at all times, in any and every circumstance. We may endure great trials and our suffering may seem to be unbearable, but by the grace of our baptism we can and must seek to make the prayer of Job our own: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

Let us bless the Lord, then, as we approach His altar of Sacrifice. And let us be confident that in so doing we shall receive the grace of perseverance in fidelity to His ways that has been given to so many before us for their salvation and for the salvation of others. Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore!