HOMILY WEEK 21 03 – Year II
Attitudes of Genuine Faith and Sincere Love:
Memorial of St. Augustine
(2 Th 3:6-10, 16-18; Ps 128; Mt 23:27-32)
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“The last act is the greatest treason. To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
That statement, by T.S. Eliot, in his play Murder in the Cathedral, relates to the readings today, inviting us to have a correct attitude towards life and work, one of genuine faith and sincere love.
Our make-up as human beings involve the art of thinking, dealing with our emotions, and being aware of our attitudes underlying these emotions. An attitude to my mind is our habitual way of thinking, feeling and acting in our lives and in this world.
The scribes and Pharisees in the gospel have an attitude problem. They are doing many right things, like keeping all kinds of ritual regulations, but for the wrong reasons. Their main concern seems to have been “looking good” as opposed to truly “being good.” For that reason, Jesus had some harsh words for them, calling them out as hypocrites. The hypocrisy becomes most apparent as they were the ones who prided themselves on keeping the laws perfectly, yet Jesus accuses them of actually being “lawless” as they overlooked the greatest law of all – that of believing in him and selflessly loving others.
As our Israeli guide put it during a tour of the Holy City, her fellow citizens were not that concerned about loving others – their main question was what they needed to do to be a good Jew. That borders on the heresy of Pelagianism, the belief that one can earn heaven or save one’s self by one’s own efforts.
Along that line, Bishop Robert Barron offers this reflection on today’s gospel: One of the greatest dangers in the spiritual life is to fall into the trap of auto-salvation, the conviction that one can save oneself through heroic moral effort. The principal problem with such a strategy is that it results in the strengthening of the very egotism that one hopes to overcome.
What Jesus so vehemently critiqued in the Pharisees was just this kind of egotism: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones.” Sin is not a weakness that we can overcome but a condition from which we have to be saved.
This insight should allow us, at an elemental psychological and spiritual level, to relax and to surrender. What happens often in the hearts of sinners is a kind of tightening of the spirit as the mind and will strive to break out of the prison of fear. All of this stretching and straining serves only to throw the ego back on itself in a misery of failure and self-reproach.
St. Paul, in the first reading, is also dealing with an attitude problem among the people he evangelized – a negative attitude towards work. It seems that in the light of the Parousia coming soon, some of the early Christians were slacking off and doing just the opposite – making little or no effort to even earn their own keep.
That might also be a modern problem today, with many people seemingly having an “the world owes me a living” mentality, that somehow, I should not have to work, that someone will take care of me. That attitude can put a burden on our system of employment and taxation, leaving hard-working employers, farmers, business people feeling used and abused. St. Paul minced no words in his day – “Anyone not willing to work should not eat.”
I must admit that growing up on the farm certainly taught us a work ethic as young people – we all had chores to do from the moment we were able to do them – the boys on the farm mostly, and the girls in the house for the most part. My brothers and I were driving trucks and tractors by the age of twelve, and certainly had a sense of being valued and relied upon to contribute to the family’s well-being. I suspect young people today, especially in cities, are growing up somewhat deprived of that quality of life.
To be fair, I think that statement of St. Paul’s needs to be tempered by the reality of inter-generational effects of trauma that has affected many family systems, especially within Indigenous circles in the light of colonization and the effects of the residential school systems.
There are also two attitudes that need to be avoided – that of care-taking and enabling. Caretaking tends to help others with the often-hidden aim of gaining something from the activity, of looking good to others, as opposed to care-giving, which is truly altruistic and selfless. Enabling also looks good on the outside, but does not really help the other in the long run and at a deeper level may even be resented.
St Augustine
Today the church honours 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 makes present the truly selfless love of God in Jesus Christ, given to us to reveal to us the depths of the Father’s love for us. May our celebration inspire us to check our attitudes, to do the right things for the right reasons, and to lead lives of genuine faith and sincere love.
