HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 03 02 – Year I
The Divine Dance:
Memorial of St. Lucy
(Zeph 3:1-13; Ps 34; Mt 21:28-32)
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The Trappist monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton taught that some people live “for” God; some people live “with” God, and some live “in” God.
The readings today invite us above all to live “in” God.
In the first reading, Zepahaniah is addressing the city of Jerusalem, accusing it of not listening, not trusting, not drawing near to God – not living “in” God, although they were certainly religious and supposedly living “for” God. He looks to the day when the Lord will establish a humble, honest remnant.
In the Gospel, Jesus addresses the religious leaders and tells them a parable suggesting that they are not doing God’s will. Their sin is refusing to believe in John or in him, and false pride and stubborn self-will. They were certainly very religious and supposedly living “for” God but in the end, were not living either with or in God. They were focused on keeping rules and regulations, but did not have an intimate personal relationship with God.
The situation seems to be the same today. While our pilgrimage group was in Israel some years ago, we were told not to use the Sabbath elevator, because it is programmed to stop on every floor of the hotel, because it would be work to push an elevator button. Our guide told us that the ultra-orthodox men spend all day studying the bible, while leaving their wives struggling to make ends meet and expected to bear children as long as they were able, which meant that area was full of large and very poor families. On the plane, there was a family that actually brought their own food on board to be sure that it was all “kosher.”
It was this externalism that Jesus tried to confront, at one point telling the Jews that it was not what they ate that made them unclean, but what was in their hearts. They were all about rules, and regulations and keeping laws, and neglecting their relationship with God.
How fortunate that we believe in Jesus, who summed up all the commandments into just two – love God with our whole being, and love others as we love ourselves.
Spiritual writer Richard Rohr OFM has published a book in which he writes about God as a divine dance, or perichoresis, an ancient Greek termed used by some of the Church fathers and mothers. We are invited, not so much to keep rules and regulations, but to enter into an intimate, loving relationship or divine dance with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is a challenge for those who choose to read the bible literally, because the word Trinity is not found in the bible. The reality of the Trinity, however, and the intimate relationship that we are invited into, is clearly taught by St. Paul, who often refers to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself often referred to the Father, himself as Son of God, and the Spirit that the Father would send us.
Our God is family, relationship, oneness, unity, intimacy, and love. Our faith in such a God is best expressed in terms of relationship and even a divine dance. In a sense, we and all of creation are a fourth member of the Holy Trinity, all connected and bonded within an intimate, dynamic, fluid and flowing relationship.
That is the image of God that the painter Andrei Rublev depicted in his famous painting of the Trinity, also known as the Hospitality of Abraham and Sarah. The three figures who appeared to Abraham and Sarah are pictured at table, in a delicate and gentle, yet loving and intimate relationship with each other.
Today the Church offers us a marvelous example of someone who lived a Trinitarian faith – St. Lucy. She was born in Syracuse, Italy, and martyred about 304. Details of her life have been lost in the ensuing centuries and now exist mostly in legends. All we really know for certain is that this brave woman lost her life during the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century. Her veneration spread to Rome so that by the sixth century the whole Church recognized her courage in defense of the faith.
Sigebert (1030-1112), a monk of Gembloux, wrote Sermo de Sancta Lucia, in which he described Lucy’s body as remaining undisturbed in Sicily for 400 years until Faroald II, Duke of Spoleto, seized the island and transferred Lucy’s remains to Abruzzo, Italy. It was later removed by Emperor Otho I in 972 to Metz and left in the church of St. Vincent. There is much confusion about what happened to her body after its stay at St. Vincent’s, but it is believed that several relics of her can be found in Rome, Naples, Verona, Lisbon, Milan, Germany, France and Sweden. During the Middle Ages, people suffering from eye trouble began invoking Lucy’s aid because her name is derived from lux (‘light’). She is also associated with festivals of life, especially in Scandinavia.
The Eucharist that we celebrate now, is itself always and at all times, a celebration of our Trinitarian God, as we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So, let us continue to grow in an always more intimate relationship with our God, enjoying the divine dance in which God invites us to participate.
