Homily for Wednesday, 32d Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday
32d Week of Ordinary Time

Nov. 14, 1980

Titus 3: 1-7

I drafted most of this homily for use at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda, then found out that the 14th is an archdiocesan feast and couldn’t use it (see previous post).  But I did finish the draft for posting.

On Monday we began reading parts of St. Paul’s short letter to Titus, one of his young helpers mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

According to what we read on Monday from the beginning of the letter, Paul left Titus in Crete, left him in apostolic charge there, “to set right what remains to be done” (1:5)  The preaching of the Gospel is never finished.  There are non-believers to whom to make our Lord Jesus known.  Believers, the faithful, must be further catechized, sometimes corrected, always encouraged.  And so on. 

St. Paul hands over to St. Titus 

care for the Church in Crete

So Paul gives Titus some specific instructions about how to be a good pastor.  In our reading today, Paul instructs Titus on the way that Christians are to interact with the world:  with public authorities and with their pagan neighbors.

There are Christians today, and thru the ages there have usually been such Christians, who urge flight from the world.  One writer today calls that “the Benedict option”—not after our dear Pope emeritus, who very much engaged the world, but after St. Benedict, who fled dissolute Rome to become a hermit and wound up founding the Western form of monasticism with the idea that monks would live apart, work, and pray as they tried to live the way of Christ.*

No such teaching from St. Paul.  He wants the Christian faithful to be immersed in the world by submitting to public authority, to civil government, and to work for the common good of society, “to be open to every good enterprise” (3:1).  He wants them to be good neighbors to everyone (3:2).  Reading these 1st 2 verses today reminds me of what St. John Bosco used to say he aimed for in education:  to form honest citizens and good Christians.

Paul continues by reminding Titus of the personal history of himself and the Christians of Crete—all of them “once foolish, disobedient, deluded, hateful,” etc. (3:3) but then rescued from their sinful lives by “the kindness and generous love of God our savior” (3:4) and made “heirs in hope of eternal life” (3:7).  We might possibly read between the lines to find in Paul a suggestion that by “exercising all graciousness toward everyone” (3:2) the Christians of Crete will be making known to their pagan neighbors “the kindness and generous love of God our savior” that they have themselves experienced and will by the same mercy of God win over those neighbors.

Whether or not Paul’s hinting at that, he’s certainly urging us to live in and be part of society:  to obey lawful authority, to respect all persons, to be good citizens and good neighbors.  He’s certainly reminding us that if we’ve been possessed by our Lord Jesus Christ it is “because of his mercy” and “not because of any righteous deeds we had done,” not because we deserved God’s grace; and that requires humility on our part, an appreciation of God’s great, unmerited goodness toward us,” a goodness that we in turn must try to replicate toward other people.

And perhaps our goodness, impelled by “the Holy Spirit richly poured out on us thru Jesus Christ our savior,” will favorably impress our neighbors who don’t know our Lord Jesus, and at the least give Jesus a good name among them, and perhaps give Jesus an opening into their hearts.

* After composing and posting this homily, I came across an article in America (Fall 2018) that includes extensive give-and-take between Protestant philosopher James K.A. Smith and Rod Dreher, promoter of the "Benedict option": https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/10/18/james-k-smiths-theological-journey