Faith-False gods-Golden Rule-St. Paulinus of Nola

HOMILY WEEK 12 02 – Year II

Three Lessons Toward Eternal Life

(2 Kg 19:9-36; Ps 48; Mt 7:6-14)

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“Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction.”

The readings today offer us three crucial lessons or teachings we are to live by to experience that eternal life offered us by God in Jesus: honor what is sacred; live by the Golden Rule, and enter by the narrow way.

In the gospel, Jesus first advises us to not give what is holy to dogs or throw our pearls before swine. This is Semitic language encouraging us to honor and revere what is sacred and holy, and not take it for granted. A recent pew survey in the United States shockingly revealed that 70 percent of Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That can easily lead to a casual attitude towards receiving communion, and treating it as if it was ordinary bread.

The same thing can happen to the Word of God – it can be ignored, explained away, and neglected quite easily. More critical, we can denigrate the value of life itself, considering a fetus just disposable tissue, and masking the reality of euthanasia with euphemisms such as medical aid in dying. This teaching of Jesus is just as important today as it was then – perhaps even more so in our sophisticated society.

Jesus goes on to remind us of what we know as the Golden Rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” This is part of the Great Commandment Jesus taught us – starting with the Grand Shema of Judaism to love God with our whole being, and equating that with the easily overlooked law in Leviticus 19:18 to “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Like St. Paul in Galatians 5:14, Jesus says this rule sums up all the law and the prophets. Every major world religion has some version of this rule. What is significant is that, important as the Golden Rule is, the Grand Shema of Judaism really completes this rule, with the prescription to love God first of all with our whole being.

Finally, Jesus encourages us to enter the kingdom of God by a narrow gate, for wide is the gate that leads to destruction. But what is this gate that leads to destruction, and what is the gate that is narrow and hard but leads to eternal life?

I really think the wide, easy-to-take gate is an over-attachment to the goods of this world we so easily idolize and turn into false gods. We then worship these false gods by giving our lives over to them. They are what I call the four P’s – possessions, prestige, power and pleasure. While these are all good in themselves as created by God, when we over attach ourselves to them, identify with them, and abuse them, they become false gods to which we can actually become addicted. Then we are essentially committing idolatry or breaking the first commandment God gave us: “I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before me.”

Spiritual writer Thomas Keating develops these false gods further as an inordinate need for safety and security, fame and prestige, power and control. These are actually the temptations Jesus faced in the desert and rejected, so secure was he in the Father’s love for him.

Actually, Jesus models for us just the opposite throughout his life and ministry. In the face of our lust for wealth and possessions, Jesus lived a life of simplicity and poverty. In the face of our lust for prestige and fame, Jesus lived a life of humble obscurity. In the face of our lust for power and control, Jesus lived a life of love and powerlessness, for love never uses force, dominates or resorts to violence. No wonder they rejected him as their Messiah! They wanted a Messiah who would offer them all three of these false gods – wealth, fame and power.

All we need do is look around us today to see how prevalent these false gods are in our world, and how much we need to hear this teaching of Jesus. It is becoming more and more apparent to me that the greatest of these false gods is our inordinate need for power and control. Whether it is  China exercising power over other countries through indebtedness and deception, the United States exercising power over especially Latin America for decades through economic imperialism and supporting dictatorships committing unspeakable atrocities, Canadian policies undermining the rights of the Indigenous peoples here at home, or even the extent of racism in so many countries – all can be seen to be an abuse of power and control over vulnerable populations.

The real answer is rather simple – believe in Jesus and live his values of simplicity, humility and the powerlessness of love. Fortunately, we have examples in the saints who can guide us. One such person is St. Paulinus of Nola, whose optional memorial we celebrated yesterday. Paulinus was born in Bordeaux around 353. A prominent lawyer who held public office while still young, he married a Spanish noblewoman and was baptized in 389, after the death of his infant son.

This devastating loss changed his life. Heeding the teachings of Jesus and espousing his values, Paulinus and his wife moved to Spain, where they began to divest themselves of their estates for the benefit of the poor. About 394, at the insistence of the people of Barcelona, he was ordained a priest. Moving to Nola, near Naples, Paulinus and his wife used their resources for good works, founding a semi-monastic community with a guest house for pilgrims to the local shrine. In 409, Paulinus became bishop of Nola, so he was one of the married priests and bishops of the early Church. He died in 431. Paulinus was held in esteem by many of the great saints of the period: Ambrose was his friend and he corresponded with Augustine, Martin of Tours and Jerome.

The Eucharist articulates all these teachings of Jesus. It is a sacred meal we treat with great respect. It mandates us to go out and live the Golden Rule, and it is certainly part of the narrow way of simplicity, humility and love Jesus valued so much. May our celebration today empower us to live out these values as did St. Bishop Paulinus of Nola and his wife.