The Homily for Sunday 6 July.
I tried this week to write a homily that spanned both the Oform (Click for Readings) and Xform (Click for Readings) and so here is my effort.
Why are we here? Why give an hour? Why light a candle or kneel and pray? Why?
It’s not because we have assurance. It’s not because we have a guarantee. It’s not because there is some scientifically provable purpose… In a very real sense, there isn’t a reason that would convince the world out there. This is why there aren’t 500 people in the RCIA. This is why Catholicism and Christianity in general are ridiculed and insulted in the media. This is why some our children are bored and fight their parents about coming to Mass. We’re not here because of an assurance that can be quantified, we’re here as an act of faith and even more than faith, we’re here as an act of hope.
The Baltimore Catechism tells us that Hope is the virtue by which we firmly trust that God, who is all-powerful and faithful to His promises, will in His mercy give us eternal happiness and the means to obtain it. (BC 123) St. Paul says that Hope is a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: “Let us … put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thes 5:8) It affords us joy even under trial: “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation.” (Rom 12:12)
All in all Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; It properly orients us to the reality that our efforts here on earth are to store up treasures in heaven and that our primary purpose is not earthly fulfillment or satisfaction or success… Hope obliges us to trust firmly that God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it. (BC 202)
There are two ways to sin against the virtue of hope: Despair and Presumption.
A person sins by despair when he deliberately refuses to trust that God will give him the necessary help to save his soul. By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins.
A person sins by presumption when he trusts that he can be saved by his own efforts without God’s help, or by God’s help without his own efforts. (BC 208) “I can pull myself up by my own bootstraps” or “Jesus saved me, and there’s no need for me to take any responsibility for my actions.”
Presumption is quickly reaching epidemic proportions here in the United States… More and more we hear naive and false statements like “Well she was a good person so she’s in heaven.” Or “I committed this or that sin but I’m a good person, so it’s not a big deal.” This kind of thinking is an express ticket to hell. God doesn’t ask us to be good, he says that no one is really good except God. God asks us for humility and for repentance - this is the source of our Hope.
The Gospel message is that God forgives all and receives the one who asks to be received. “Nothing is more apt to confirm our faith and hope than holding it fixed in our minds that nothing is impossible with God.” (BC 174)
Practically, this means looking at the sins in our lives… Whatever those struggles may be – big or small – problems with gossip or addiction to drugs – we need to look that struggle right in the face, own up to them in the confessional and fix in our minds that nothing is impossible for God.
It is only the virtue of Christian Hope that allows us to rise above and see in our sins and struggles a way of growing in holiness that we may be sped along the path to holiness all the faster. Hope is fearless and that is what the Lord wishes for all of us… Let’s make this year of St. Paul count - let’s be a people of Hope - real, authentic, Christian Hope because nothing is impossible for God.
