HOMILY LENT WEEK 04 04 Year I
Living Faith: Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Jerusalem
(Ex 32:7-14; Ps 106; Jn 5:18-47)
****************************************
Nikos Kazantzakis, the great Greek writer, tells a story of an elderly monk he once met on Mount Athos. Kazantsakis, still young and full of curiosity, was questioning this monk and asked him: “Do you still wrestle with the devil?” “No,” replied the old monk, “I used to, when I was younger, but now I’ve grown old and tired and the devil has grown old and tired with me.” “So,” said, “your life is easy then? No more big struggles.” “Oh, no!” replied the old man, “Now it’s worse. Now I wrestle with God!” “You wrestle with God,” replied Kazantsakis, rather surprised, “and you hope to win?” “No,” said the old monk, “I wrestle with God and I hope to lose!”
This story connects with the following reflection by Ron Rolheiser OMI: Classical spiritual writers like John of the Cross, when talking about the challenges we face as we walk the way of discipleship, speak about something they call, “The faults of those who are beyond initial conversion.”
What they highlight is this: We are never free from our struggle with sin. As we mature, sin simply takes on ever more subtle modalities inside us. For example, before initial maturity, what we’ve classically called the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, envy, lust, anger, gluttony, and sloth) express themselves in us in ways that are normally pretty crass and overt. We see this in children, in adolescents, and in the immature. For them, pride is plainly pride, jealousy is jealousy, selfishness is selfishness, lust is lust, and anger is anger. There’s nothing subtle or hidden here, the fault is out in the open. I would add that this fits in with the spiritual stage of the Dark Night of the Senses for St. John of the Cross.
But as we overcome these more obvious sins, Rolheiser points out, they invariably take on more subtle forms in our lives. So that now, for instance, when we’re humble, we become proud and self-righteous in our humility. For example, sometimes a new convert or someone in first fervour can be smug and judgmental. This more complex struggle with sin is what St. John of the Cross would call the Dark Night of the Soul.
The readings today connect with these insights. The sin of the Israelites in the first reading fits the first stage of sin – it is out in the open, crass, idolatry pure and simple, complete with a golden calf and coupled with stubborn self will. Only the intercessory prayer of Moses holds back the wrath of this Old Testament image of God.
The sin of the Jewish leaders in the gospel, however, is much more subtle and hidden behind legalism and religiosity (Jesus broke the Sabbath law and made himself equal to God). Their sin was unbelief, hypocrisy and a self-righteousness that covered over a smouldering jealousy. Ironically, they would be the last ones to admit to any sinfulness.
What does this teach us? I think the importance of mindfulness and self-awareness as well as the critical need to develop a genuine faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, Lord and Saviour. Through Moses, God had given God’s own people the tablets of the covenant. That covenant represented the personal, intimate relationship that God always desired with God’s own people. The covenant gave them identity (a holy people, a nation set apart), dignity and the invitation to an intimate relationship with God who is like a mother bending down to lift her child to her breast and her cheek.
There is here a call for us to not only nurture an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, and through him with the Father, but to also live the commandments that Jesus gave us: to love God with our whole being; to love our neighbours or anyone in need; to love ourselves and accept ourselves as beloved by God, to love others as Jesus has loved us, and finally, to love our enemies by forgiving them, blessing them and doing good to them.
Marlene was in a Tim Horton’s drive-thru where two lanes merged. The vehicle on her right cut in front of her, so she held back to make room for him. That caused the driver behind her to get impatient, honk his horn at her and give her the finger. Although greatly upset and angry at this rudeness towards her, she kept her cool, relied on her faith in Jesus, and on the spot decided her response would be to pay for that man’s order – $8.00. She put this incident on Facebook and received a ton of replies, all affirming her magnanimity and Christian charity that more than made up for that rude gesture towards her. What an example she was, of a personal faith in Jesus and a genuine living out of the commandments that he gave us.
The Church gives us another example today – St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who was born about 315. He became a biblical scholar and a cleric in the church of Jerusalem, a church troubled by many doctrinal controversies, including Arianism. Ordained about 342, he became bishop of Jerusalem in 350. His famous Lenten instructions, Catecheses, outline his beliefs and the theological traditions of the Jerusalem community. He died in Jerusalem in 387.
The Eucharist is very similar to that gesture of Marlene’s. After all the cruelty that humanity heaped upon Jesus, he simply forgave us and gave up his life for us on the cross to show us the depth of the Father’s love. That is what the Eucharist makes present every time we celebrate it.
May our celebration today deepen our faith in and personal intimate relationship with Jesus, and empower us to be faithful to him by living the commandments he left us.
