I often fill in for priests around the state, but during the week my full-time job since last summer has been working at the diocesan offices in Little Rock. One of the things I do there is work with our diocesan newspaper, Arkansas Catholic, as its theological consultant. Mostly that means I provide information or give an interview on various topics, but this past week, I had the chance to write a short reflection for an upcoming issue. It was about the legacy of St. Francis de Sales, and if you don’t know that name, I won’t go into too much detail here; you can read the article in the paper next week. Suffice to say, he was a wise pastor, a patient teacher, and a compassionate confessor – everything you want in a priest.
Reading about the life of St. Francis de Sales was inspiring, but it also made me very much aware of my own flaws and shortcomings as a priest. It’s hard to measure up to a literal saint, but reflecting on his life I can see more clearly how I *should* be. Perhaps you’ve experienced something similar in your own life – a friend that you wish you could be more like, or a coworker who can easily do all the things you can’t do, or even someone in your family who possesses the very gifts and characteristics that you most desire.
When it comes to the ways that we would like to improve, we might tend to think most often about those qualities that relate to our day to day. But we should also think about the spiritual dimension of our lives as well – about our identities as Christian believers and Christian witnesses in the world. In our psalm today, the psalmist says, “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” When God formed us in the womb, he created each of us with a purpose, with a particular plan to discover and fulfill in our lives. And by virtue of our baptism, that purpose finds its deepest meaning in the person of Jesus Christ and in the family of faith which is the mystical Body of Christ, which we call the Church.
This past Monday we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord – a feast that reminds us of these things, and that we normally celebrate on a Sunday. This year, it got bumped to a Monday for reasons that relate to the calendar that I won’t elaborate. But while we didn’t celebrate that feast day together this year, our liturgy today is still connected to those themes. We are reminded in these early days of Ordinary Time of a few important things: first, that each of our lives has been changed through the sacramental encounter we have with Jesus, beginning with our baptism; second, that through our encounter with Christ, we have been made holy and we are called to further holiness through a relationship with God and his Church; and third, that as part of that relationship, something is asked of each of us. Like the prophet Isaiah discovered in our first reading, the Lord has charged us to carry out his will, to be not only his servants but his beloved children, entrusted with helping bring his light to others.
And perhaps, as we begin a new year and a new season in the Church, we need to first honestly admit that often we forget these things and fall short of that higher purpose God has given us. We need to confess that we give into sinful temptations and tendencies, and we don’t always form ourselves and our families to follow the teachings of the Lord and of his Church, and we don’t give the best example to others of what it means to live a life of authentic faith. It is good to own up to our flaws and shortcomings as Christians, not for the purpose of feeling down and depressed, but instead to see how the Lord invites us to begin again.
 |
| Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Saint John the Baptist Pointing to Christ (c. 1655) |
In today’s Gospel, we are reminded again of the way in which Jesus comes to encounter us. When John the Baptist saw him in the desert, he said “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John the Baptist was a pretty holy guy – Jesus says elsewhere that, of those naturally born, no one was greater – but perhaps John was thinking in that moment, “Here comes Jesus, the One who takes away all my sins and failings, all the ways that I have failed to follow God’s will and not answered his call.” That’s the way that Jesus always first encounters us – to make us aware of our sins and shortcomings, and then to take them away, so that we can begin again, so that we can start anew.
Maybe this homily has brought to mind some of the ways that you want to start anew, just like I did when I was reading about St. Francis de Sales. But whether it’s in our family, or in our work, in our responsibilities, or our vocations, or the daily challenges and struggles that arise, we can be tempted to perfectionism – to think that it isn’t even worth trying unless we’re sure we won’t make a mistake. Pope Francis recently said, “Don't be afraid to make mistakes. We do not have to wait until we are perfect and have come a long way following Jesus to witness to him; no, our proclamation begins today, there where we live.” In other words, what’s important is that we make a new effort today, and with the Lord’s help another one tomorrow, and then each day onward until we find that we have, despite our sins and failings, accomplished the plan of God for our lives, just like St. John the Baptist, and St. Francis de Sales, and all of the saints who have gone before us in faith.
Friends, perhaps each of us can take the words of the psalmist as a point of reflection for today. Perhaps we can also say, “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” Let’s reflect upon where we need to encounter Jesus, to come before him and to let him come to us. In just a few moments, we will behold him, not as John the Baptist did but instead under sacramental signs. Together we can ask him to take away not just the sin of the world but our sins, and so help us to have the courage to begin anew today in striving for holiness. May the grace of this Sacrament help each of us to do all that the Lord asks of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment