27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Oct. 8, 2017
Phil 4: 6-9
Visitation Convent, Georgetown
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, what is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is gracious …, think about these things” (Phil 4: 8).
The prophetic passage from Isaiah (5:1-7)
this morning is obviously matched with Jesus’ parable of the wicked vineyard
tenants (Matt 21:33-43). Both texts are
concerned with the return of a good harvest to the vineyard owner, and the
owner’s righteous anger when that return is denied to him. Both passages make the point that “the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel” (Is 5:7).
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| https://tvaraj2inspirations.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/ |
Tho
not directly tied thematically to those readings, the Pauline passage we heard
today informs us what fruit the Lord of hosts expects of us, the new Israel
created by our Lord Jesus. (You know, of
course, that during Ordinary Time the 2d readings are passages read
sequentially from the apostolic letters of the New Testament, while the 1st
readings, from the Old Testament, are chosen to illuminate the day’s gospel
reading.)
So
what does Paul tell us about the fruits God expects of us? He tells us to “think about” things that are
true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and praiseworthy. Assuredly, that’s not an exhaustive list of
Christian virtues, but it’s a good start.
The
virtues in Paul’s list seem fairly straightforward, altho we might comment on
some of them. The Greek word rendered as
“honorable,” for instance, suggests the reflecting of the holiness or the
reverence of the gods; thus, Paul speaks for things that reflect godliness and
not just “honor” in the sense used by our Founding Fathers in pledging their
adherence to the Declaration of Independence or by the Boy Scout oath.
“Lovely”
doesn’t carry the meaning we might intend when describing a garden or a child
as lovely; according to William Barclay, it means “that which calls forth love.”[1] The word translated as “gracious” relates to
speech and connotes something fit for God to hear, as distinguished, e.g., from
deception or vulgarity.
When
Paul speaks of “excellence,” he uses a classical Greek word, arete, the only time he does so in all
his letters. Barclay writes: “It could describe the excellence of the
ground in a field [maybe like that fertile field that Isaiah’s friend planted],
the excellence of a tool for its purpose, the physical excellence of an animal,
the excellence of the courage of a soldier, and the virtue of a man.”[2] Paul seems to be calling upon the Christians
of Philippi to think of all that is most noble in a human character.
So
Paul urges us to produce a good deal of fruit worthy of a Christian. He urges us to “think about these
things.” As you know, Jesus reminds us
that all our evil or virtuous behavior begins in the heart, the seat of our
desires. What we think about, of course,
tends to become what we either abhor or desire.
So we are to nourish our minds, our hearts, our desires by thinking
about truth, honor, justice, purity, love, gracious speech, excellence, all
that renders a person worthy of praise before others or in the sight of God.
Paul,
however, goes beyond thinking. He
proceeds to demand that we “keep on doing what [we] have learned and received
and heard and seen” (4:9). That is, we
have to turn our thoughts and desires into virtuous actions, virtuous
behavior. This, and not merely our
thoughts, is the fruit that the Lord is looking for from us tenants in his
vineyard. “Then the God of peace will be
with you” (4:9).
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| Paul in prison, writing one of his letters (source unknown) |
Note
that Paul proposes a model for imitation.
He’s not ashamed to point to himself!
“Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in
me.” (I hope most of us would be
embarrassed to do that.) Of course Paul
is very much aware of his being an apostle specially chosen by Christ to
proclaim the Gospel, and repeatedly he defends his words and actions against
various fault-finders, accusers, and false apostles. So we might excuse him from reminding these
early disciples that he was the one who brought them the Gospel in his words
and activity, in his general conduct and his physical sufferings (recall that
he and Silas were flogged and jailed overnite in Philippi—Acts 16:16-39).
For
ourselves, it’s important that we have models of Christian virtue to
imitate. We have especially wonderful
models in Jane and Francis—your house is adorned with multiple images of them
to remind you not just of great historical persons but also to stir you to
imitation—and each of us has a patron saint or saints to whom we ought to look
for guidance in what it means to be a faithful, fruit-producing friend of our
Lord Jesus. And I’m sure you know modern
Christians who are noble examples of fidelity—of excellence in virtue—whether
they be your companion religious, teachers, relatives, or friends. May they, as well as Jane, Francis, and your
patrons, encourage you to think about and to practice truth, justice, honor,
purity, love, graciousness, etc.
And
may the God of peace be with you!
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