Homily for Friday, 8 August 2014– Memorial of St. Dominic

Friday of the 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Nahum 2:1, 3, 3:1-3, 6-7; Responsorial Canticle: Deuteronomy 32:35cd-36ab, 39abcd, 41; Matthew 16:24-28

Are not the questions Jesus asks us in today’s Gospel reading strange? He asks, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”

We are led to answer “none” and “nothing” to these strange rhetorical questions. But then, in answering that there would be, of course, no profit in gaining “the whole world” and losing one’s life, or that nothing can possibly be given in exchange for life, we are led to examine our thinking.

As a parish community and as individuals we do countless great acts of love; acts of kindness; acts of witness to the Christian faith we profess. And yet, when we perform these good works, how many of us have ever thought, even subconsciously, “What will I gain from doing this? What is ‘in it’ for me?” Maybe more insidious even is to do good only because we should; because this will please God and others while perhaps giving ourselves a sense of accomplishment.

To please God and the people we serve, and even to gain enjoyment, praise, or wealth out of our service, are of themselves right motivations, and yet Jesus invites us to think beyond our own personal gain; to think even beyond doing right simply because we should.

We were created to do good works; to serve God through service toward one another, especially those most in need. To do good works is within our very nature as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. For us to understand this; to make this our motive for doing good instead of lesser motivations such as personal gain or even pleasing others or even God, takes a radical reset in ethical priorities.

We call this reset conversion. This conversion, for most of us, is not instantaneous but a lifelong process. This conversion will sustain us in times when doing good works, doing what is both God-like and befitting our human dignity as created in God’s image and likeness, does not bring us worldly gain; when instead it brings ridicule; when it involves being counter-cultural (not for the sake of being counter-cultural but because we come to know in our hearts that it is right; it is of God); when doing right means accepting suffering; our crosses in life.

“What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?” Our answers to these questions, of course, are “none” and “nothing.” Jesus’ invitation to faith; to discipleship; to self-denial; to “take up [our] cross and follow” Christ is more than profit and exchange, as good as these worldly priorities can be. Jesus’ invitation to us is one of conversion; of resetting our ethical priorities: Not just because we should, but because of who we are, created in God’s image and likeness and baptized into fellowship with and in Christ.