HOMILY WEEK 20 01 – Year I
Our Journey into Deeper Healing:
Optional Memorial of St. Stephen of Hungary
(Judges 2:11-19; Ps 106; Mt 19:16-22)
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Where are we at on our healing journey?
The readings today fit the two stages of spiritual growth described by St. John of the Cross – the Dark Night of the Senses, and the Dark Night of the Soul, and invite us to place our complete trust in Jesus, practice the spirituality of letting go, and follow him into the experience of eternal life.
The first reading today typifies the first stage. The author of the book of Judges complains that the Israelites, after the death of Joshua, lost their faith and strayed from their chosen path into all kinds of sin, doing evil, abandoning God, idolatry, relapsing over and over again whenever one of the judges died. They were in their early years of their journey, struggling with the Dark Night of the Senses, and in dire need of forgiveness. Only at the end of the reading is there a hint of their need for healing – that of their stubborn self-will.
The rich young man of the gospels, on the other hand, typifies the second stage outlined by St. John of the Cross. He has kept all the commandments and so does not come needing forgiveness. There is something else which is chipping away at his well-being, something he cannot explain but feels deep within: “I have kept all these; what else do I lack?”
The first thing he lacks is the proper attitude towards the gratuity of God’s grace. He is still locked into the mindset that he can somehow “have” or “earn” eternal life, which is impossible, because it is above all a free gift of the Holy Spirit that can only be given and received, never earned.
And when Jesus responds to his question, inviting him to sell all his possessions, we see revealed his other spiritual block – an over-attachment and over-identification with wealth and possessions. In a subtler way than the Israelites in the wilderness, he depends on material wealth to provide meaning and happiness for him. He needs to grow in his trust in the joy flowing from a more intimate relationship with a loving God, and practice the spirituality of letting go. He is struggling with the Dark Night of the Spirit or Soul.
We should not judge this young man too harshly, because in large part, he is us. John’s wife left him partly because of her dysfunctional family of origin, and partly because of her desire to have a large house and flashy car, while he wanted a simple lifestyle, to which he thought she had agreed. As he sorts out his life now, which has been marred by his own dysfunctional family of origin, leaving him afraid of rejection and trying hard to earn the affirmation of others, he has set his sights on two goals – a new relationship, and a better job.
His spiritual director, thinking those particular goals are too much in line with the thinking of the rich young man of the gospels, has encouraged him to place these two goals aside for the time being, and put his focus and energy elsewhere – on opening himself up to believing in and receiving God’s unconditional love for him through contemplative prayer and the Word of God, especially passages such as Isaiah 43:1-4 where God tells us we are “precious and honored in God’s sight” simply because God loves us. John is being challenged to “sell all he has,” put his trust in God and follow Jesus.
I remember myself as that rich young man. In 1976, two years after I was ordained, I attended a charismatic conference in Calgary. At the end of it, everyone else was dancing with joy and enthusiasm, while I felt inexplicably down, sad and puzzled. The next morning, the gospel was about the rich young man, and as I proclaimed it, I realized I am that rich young man! I had just spent the weekend with Jesus and his Body, the Church, and had come away sad.
But I did not know why. I had joined the Oblates, given up my patrimony, did not really own anything, was dutiful, prayerful, living a life of service – so why was I not happier? Part of the answer came during a Christian Ethics class on the masks people wear when the students told me my mask was the “Messiah.” That went along with my workaholism and “Mr. Fix-it” way of being (I would welcome people if they had a problem, but found it difficult to “waste time” just visiting if they didn’t). I realized my possessions, the riches I had to let go of, was my attitude of trying to fix people, of being the Messiah, of doing my will in God’s name, which T.S. Elliot actually named as treason in the play Murder in the Cathedral (“To do the right thing for the wrong reason, is the greatest kind of treason”). I was the rich young man struggling with my own Dark Night of the Spirit, and thank God I was able to surrender and let it go, which made a huge difference in my ministry from that moment on.
Today the church honors St Stephen of Hungary. Stephen and his father, the third duke to govern the Magyars, were baptized when Stephen was 10. In 977, when he was 22, Stephen succeeded his father and worked at uniting the Magyars. Having consolidated his position, Stephen obtained Pope Sylvester II’s approval for the proper establishment of the Church in Hungary. Stephen was crowned the first King of Hungary in 1001. He ensured that Magyars were trained as priests, churches were built, and the great monastery of St. Martin, begun by his father, was finished. He instituted reforms in religion, civil law and government. A deeply committed Christian, Stephen was very generous, often distributing alms. When his only son died in a hunting accident, Stephen’s life was made miserable by fights over the succession. He died in 1083, having united Hungary in politics and in religion, and was canonized in 1083.
The Eucharist is our greatest prayer and act of faith in God’s unconditional love for us, forgiving us and healing us through Word and Sacrament even as we celebrate. May it empower us to trust Jesus totally, practice the spirituality of letting go, and follow him into the experience of eternal life.
