Homily for Bro. Michael Binkley Memorial Mass

Homily for the Memorial Mass
for Bro. Michael Binkley, CFC

Nov. 4, 2021
2 Cor 4: 7-11, 16-18
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, New Rochelle, N.Y.    

“We hold this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4: 7).

Antique oil lamp from the Holy Land

St. Paul’s words have been put into a beautiful hymn by John Foley and the St. Louis Jesuits.  We religious strive to make them the beautiful lyrics of our lives.

The treasure that we hold is the light of the Gospel, as Paul brings out in the preceding verses, e.g., “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6).  The treasure is the Gospel that saves us, and the Gospel that we preach, or have preached, to others.

The earthen vessels in Paul’s immediate context were fragile everyday clay lamps used for household light.  But we human beings, formed from the clay of the earth like Adam, also are earthen vessels—fragile, subject to affliction “in every way,” to perplexity (4:8), to hardships of every sort in living the Gospel and in proclaiming it.

When the Gospel functions as light, then, it’s because of the “surpassing power of God” (4:7).  If we practice some measure of virtue or if we’ve known some success in our efforts to evangelize or catechize, it’s due to “the life of Jesus manifested in our body” (4:10).

And it’s the “surpassing power of God” and “the life of Jesus” that “renews our inner self day by day” (4:16) and that will, finally, bring our mortal flesh to life again (cf. 4:11).  This is our faith that enlightens the world despite our frailty.  This is our prayer for our brother Mike.