Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 26, 2022
Gal 5: 1, 13-18
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5: 1).

In a couple of weeks, we’ll celebrate Independence Day—with parades, outdoor recreation, barbecues, and fireworks.  Freedom is worth celebrating!

The Scriptures today show us examples of freedom.  Jesus sets out from Galilee toward Jerusalem, “resolutely determined” to go toward the fate that awaits him there, not afraid of his enemies and not slowed down by his less-than-wholehearted disciples.  He’s firmly committed to his teaching of mercy toward those who resist him and resolved that anyone who would follow him be totally committed (Luke 9:51-62).

God has directed the prophet Elijah to call Elisha to follow him.  Elisha listens to Elijah with total commitment, burning his farming tools, sacrificing his oxen, and saying farewell to his parents—all so as to go freely and completely with Elijah (1 Kings 19:16,19-21).

St. Paul urges the Christians of the province of Galatia in what is now central Turkey to “live by the Spirit” (5:16), to give themselves completely to Christ.  “You were called to freedom” (5:13), he reminds them.  Christ died to set us free from slavery to the Devil so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven.  The Devil exercises his power over us thru what Paul calls “the desire of the flesh” (5:16), desire that gives way to evil works, desire that enslaves us, desire that leads not to life but to death.

When Paul speaks of the flesh, he doesn’t mean only our bodies.  Sexual desires and sins might be the 1st thing we think of.  But notice how he chides the Galatians against “biting and devouring one another” (5:15).  Desires of the flesh include gossip and backstabbing, boastfulness and arrogance, resentment and seeking revenge.  The “flesh” includes all the deadly sins:  greed and anger, pride and sloth, gluttony and envy, as well as lust.

The 7 deadly sins (Bosch)

We know of people consumed by addictions, perhaps to drugs, alcohol, gambling, reckless spending, as well as to pornography, womanizing, and forms of sexual deviancy.  Right now we’re in Pride Month, a national frenzy celebrating people who are proud of their deviancy and demand public approval of it.  Someone addicted to drugs or anything else, or committed to sinful behavior isn’t free.  He or she is enslaved to evil.

All of us are sinners, of course.  All of us fall into—or maybe leap into—sin from time to time.  We feel rotten when we do, somewhat enslaved to those 7 deadly sins.  We need Christ’s grace to forgive us, set us free, set us again on the road toward heaven.

That’s different from glorying in our sin or not even recognizing it, from making our sinfulness into virtue in our minds, our words, and our behavior.  Making sin into virtue happens in many ways—ways of giving oneself over to “the flesh.”  LGBTQ pride is one form.  Acclaiming abortion as “health care” and “reproductive freedom” is another form.  The 1987 movie Wall Street proclaimed “greed is good,” and a lot of people give their lives to accumulate money; it’s another form of deviancy.  Demanding control over human life thru the use of stem cells, thru in vitro fertilization, thru surrogate motherhood, and over death thru euthanasia or assisted suicide are forms of making ourselves into God—the original sin put before us in the 3d chapter of Genesis.

The Spirit of Christ aims to set us free.  Who’s the truly free person?  St. Paul urges us to “serve one another thru love” (5:13).  No one is freer than someone who’s in love with God and with his sisters and brothers, eager to assist them and walk with them the way Jesus walked with his disciples.  Think of the freedom of St. Francis or Dorothy Day.  In Galatians ch. 5 Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit or the outcomes of our living in the Spirit rather than in the flesh:  not only love but also joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22-23).  Don’t we all want to live that way and to live with other people who practice those virtues?  Isn’t that liberating?  It’s Christ-like, and it’s what God created us for.  “For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.”