Homily
for the
22d Sunday of Ordinary Time
James
1: 17-18, 21-22, 27
Holy
Name, N.R.
Aug.
29, 2021
“He willed
to give us birth by the word of truth…” (Jas 1: 18).
Today we
return to Mark’s Gospel for our gospel readings until the end of the church
year in November, and we begin a 5-week reading of parts of the Letter of
James.
In the 5
verses we read this morning, St. James, a kinsman of our Lord, teaches us that
we’ve been given a “perfect gift from above,” namely “birth by the word of
truth” (1:17-18). That birth is our
spiritual birth, the birth that Jesus speaks of to Nicodemus when he tells him
that we must be born again, born from above, born of the Holy Spirit (John
3:3,5).
We are born by the word of truth when we’re baptized, and the life of Jesus Christ, which we call grace, floods our souls and makes us children of God. This word of truth speaks to us of God’s love and of his desire that thru Christ we should inherit the kingdom of heaven.
St. James
urges us to “welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save
your souls” (1:21, and to “be doers of the word and not hearers only”
(1:22). That is, we are to be doers of
the word of truth, to allow God’s truth to show in our actions. James gives one practical example this
morning, “to care for orphans and widows in their affliction” (1:27), i.e., to
attend to the needs of the most vulnerable and defenseless members of society.
Jesus
Christ is the Word of God made flesh, the visible presence of God among
us. When he takes root in our souls thru
grace, thru our participation in Baptism and the other sacraments, he leads us
to salvation (cf. 1:21). That salvation
becomes visible, we might say, thru our good deeds, our lives of virtue, our
living like Jesus as best we can. It’s
hardly enuf just to hear what he says or just to read the Bible. We have to act on what we hear and what we
read.
God gave
us birth by the word of truth. Jesus,
God’s own truth, is to possess our souls and guide even what we think—take note
of his words in today’s gospel about the thoughts of our hearts (Mark 7:21-23)—as
well as how we act. If the word of truth
who is Jesus Christ is firmly planted in us, we will be virtuous.
We hear a
lot these days from public people about “following the science.” In a certain way, they’re saying, “Pay
attention to what is true.” Science is
one way of knowing the truth about our world and how we are to related to God,
creator of the world. So we’re urged to
“follow the science” on Covid-19 and on climate change. There’s wisdom in that. God speaks the word of truth thru the
realities of the natural world, including viruses, medicine, and the
environment. Pope Francis vigorously
affirms that.
It’s very
sad—tragic, in fact—that some who urge us to follow science willfully ignore
science when it contradicts their personal agenda. E.g., science teaches us that human life
begins at conception, and therefore an unborn child is a human being, not
merely a blob of extraneous tissue like a wart.
And God’s word of truth teaches us that all human life is sacred. That’s why we’re distraught when dozens die
in a flash flood in Tennessee, when thousands die in an earthquake in Haiti,
when hundreds die in an act of terrorism in Afghanistan or anywhere. Something precious, something sacred, has
been violated. Similarly, our guts ought
to be wrenched by the barbarous slaughter of abortion—which rejects the science
of biology, rejects truth.
It’s sad,
as well, that our political and media elites ignore the science of biology
concerning sex. Yes, the Bible teaches
us that God made human beings male and female.
But we know that without the Bible having to tell us so. Biology 101 tells us. Science tells us. Anyone who tells you that girls may exist in
a male body, or vice versa, isn’t following the science. They’ll even twist language to suit their
agenda, e.g., by speaking of “gender assigned at birth.” Gender isn’t “assigned.” It’s a given, a self-evident fact. And we all know it. No one less than Pope Francis describes transgenderism
as “demonic.” The Biden Administration
wants to compel doctors to give trans hormones and perform trans surgery on
people, even when doctors know it’s wrong for the person concerned, wrong on
the science, wrong in the doctor’s conscience.
That’s demonic.
In his
latest book, Abp. Charles Chaput, archbishop-emeritus of Philadelphia, writes
that “there are two great temptations that I’ve seen people struggle with over
my lifetime. The first is to try to
create life’s meaning for themselves, which translates in the end to no meaning
at all. The second is to live and die
for the wrong meaning, the wrong cause, the wrong purpose. The world is full of disguised and treasonous
little gods that demand our full attention and in the end betray our deepest
longings. But there is only one god, the
God of Israel. And only in him, as
Augustine said 1,600 years ago, can our hearts finally rest.”[1]
If we are
born by the word of truth—that’s our spiritual birth in Christ—we have to
reject falsehoods in our personal lives and in public life and public policy,
no matter what our friends, politicians, professors, school boards, Hollywood,
or the mass media may tell us. As
Christians, we align ourselves with truth—the truth of the Gospel, the truth of
science, the truth of the human heart, which seeks God, seeks beauty, seeks
goodness, and which strives, as St. James says, “to keep oneself unstained by
the world” (1:27).
1 comment:
Thank you for the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. Just wish more priests would have the courage to speak the truth and not hide behind what is politically correct. It's refreshing to hear the words spoken, since we are all "thinking" this same thing! Thank you Father.
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