Homily for 22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

22d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 30, 2020

Rom 12: 1-2

Christian Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle

Blessed Sacrament, N.R.
                               

“Brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice…” (Rom 12: 1).

After a lot of Christian doctrine, we might say, that we’ve heard in the readings of the last 9 weeks, Paul comes to the practice of Christian life or to pastoral theology.  The 2 verses set before us this evening/morning touch on the topics of sacrifice and God’s will in our lives.

Landscape with Noah's thanksgiving sacrifice (Joseph A. Koch)

In the ancient world, the sacrifice of animals as well as of produce, and sometimes in some places even human sacrifice, was an important part of religion.  For the Jews, the Torah is full of ritualistic prescriptions about sheep, goats, bulls, doves, etc.  For Christians, the nature of sacrifice was dramatically changed.

1st, our sacrifice is Christ, offered “once for all” (1 Pet 3:18).  One meaning of the curtain of the Temple’s being ripped apart at his death (Matt 27:51) is that the nature of sacrifice is completely different henceforth.  Christ’s sacrifice is renewed every time we offer his body and blood “in memory of him” (cf. 1 Cor 11:24).

2d, Paul commands us to offer our own bodies “as a living sacrifice.”  In Jewish and pagan temple sacrifice, the victim was slain, its blood poured out and, sometimes, its body burnt as a holocaust.  We, however, don’t slay ourselves.  Rather, we offer ourselves alive; we offer ourselves in our daily activity—which the traditional morning offering prayer makes explicit.  Whatever good or bad comes our way—a fine meal, an illness, uncomfortable weather, a warm hug, wearing a face mask (those are uncomfortable, aren’t they!  but they show our love for our neighbor)—all those affect our bodies, and anything bodily we can offer to God; that’s what Paul’s urging.  It’s spiritual worship rather than a consuming physical sacrifice—altho it certainly can consume us when we put heart and soul into pleasing God in all our bodily actions:  liturgical ritual, athletic activity, manual labor, craftwork—it all becomes “a living sacrifice” when we present it to God as that.

Paul moves on with a command as vital today as it was ca. 60 AD:  “Do not conform yourselves to this age” (12:2).  When we’re born again in Christ (John 3:3), we’re transformed, and our lives have to be renewed, transformed, that we may live to please God.  It’s a serious fault in Christians when they become indistinguishable from the society and the culture around them—in art, education, politics, business, choices of entertainment.  Political correctness and “cancel culture” are all too ready to compel us to conform, to compromise what we believe, to bend the teachings of our Lord Jesus.  Vatican II and the Church’s social teaching go beyond Paul, perhaps, telling us that we should be transforming the culture, infusing Jesus into it, not by proselytizing but by public witness, by virtuous behavior, by our integrity and our joy.  As St. Peter exhorts us, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear” (I, 3:15-16).