HOMILY WEEK 21 05 – Year II
Faith expressed through Love:
Memorial of St. Augustine
(1 Cor 1:17-25; Ps 33; Mt 25:1-13)
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For St. Paul, in the first reading, what is more important than even baptism?
The answer is proclaiming the Gospel. He says he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel, to entice everyone to believe in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God.
For Jesus, in the Gospel, what is the most important thing?
It is to be alert, ready, by a life of service.
We are left with a clear message: believe in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God, and express that faith by a life of dutiful, selfless service to our brothers and sisters.
The Gospel demands some explanation. The lamp can stand for faith in God, and in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God. However, that faith means little if it is empty, not active. The oil stands for our love, for expressing our faith in Jesus by our love for others. We are to not only love God, but also to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. That is the complete lamp at work – oil providing the flame of love that makes the lamp useful. To have both the lamp and the oil is to live the Great Commandment that Jesus gave us: love God with our whole being, and then love our neighbour as we love ourselves.
Some people tend to want only the sensational in their lives, to have God work miracles for them, to have extra-ordinary phenomena as a sign of their faith. Jesus actually resists this when he says that it is not those who say, “Lord, Lord, open up for us,” who will enter the kingdom.
On the contrary, it is those whose faith leads them to actually put aside any desire for the extra-ordinary, who are able to see Jesus in the daily needs of those around them, their own children, co-workers, employers, fellow believers, and even their enemies, the people they don’t like.
Doing the little things, the things for which we don’t get much recognition, the things that others don’t like to do – that is the stuff of which the kingdom of God is made of. Those who do their chores, who offer to help, who volunteer, who do an honest day’s work – these are the giants in the kingdom of God.
Within a marriage it means the small considerations, offering to make sacrifices for the other, taking the time to meet each other’s emotional needs, sharing feelings humbly and honestly, doing things for each other, sharing the household tasks, understanding the pressures that each spouse is feeling. This is what must have been happening in the Holy Family, the model of married life.
One couple I know decided to each have a part time job so that they could share the raising of the children. One was a nurse and the other a bus driver. The nurse worked halftime, and the bus driver by the nature of the job had time for the kids. Theirs was a happy family home. They were living the readings of today.
Today the church honors St. Augustine, who lived these readings in his own inimitable way. Born in North Africa, St. Augustine lived from 354 to 430. He went to university at Carthage to study rhetoric but became interested in philosophy and literature instead. Searching for an answer to the problem of evil, he became a follower of Mani, a Persian prophet, whose philosophy promised to explain all that exists. While at Carthage, Augustine took a mistress and they had a son, Adeodatus.
Augustine taught in North Africa for several years and then opened a school of rhetoric in Rome, moving to Milan in 384. There he heard the sermons of Bishop Ambrose and became convinced of the truth of Christianity, abandoning Manichaeism and returning to his Christian faith. He and his son, his mother Monica, his brother and some friends withdrew from the city to live a simpler life based on the evangelical counsels and to prepare for the sacraments; his mistress returned to Africa. At Easter 387, Augustine was baptized by Ambrose and he and his entourage went to North Africa. His mother died later that year and Augustine’s son died in 389.
In 391, the people of Hippo, near his hometown of Targaste, insisted Augustine become ordained. Priest and ascetic, he established a religious community and began preaching. In 396, he became bishop of Hippo, where he spent the rest of his life.
Augustine founded a community for women headed by his sister. A letter addressed to this community concerning the principles of the religious life (usually referred to as the “Rule of Augustine”) has become the basis of the constitutions of many religious communities. During his lifetime, Augustine successfully defended the Christian faith against several heresies. He died on this day in his 76th year, as the Vandals besieged the city of Hippo.
These events and many more are recounted in Augustine’s Confessions, a classic of spiritual autobiography. His other writings include City of God, De Trinitate (On the Trinity) and De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine). Some of his favorite themes include grace, the Trinity, Scripture, history and the journey to the mind of God. He is one of the greatest Fathers of the Church, known as the Doctor of Grace.
The Eucharist calls for deep faith in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God at work among us. It makes present the love of Jesus on the cross for us, and transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. It also missions us, sends us out to put our faith in Jesus into positive actions of love by caring for others and doing good to them.
As we celebrate today, then, let us pray for faith in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God, and the power to express the faith through selfless acts of love in the ordinary events of our everyday lives, as did St. Augustine.
