Homily for Tuesday, 2 January 2018– Memorial of Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

Readings of the day: 1 John 2:22-28; Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; John 1:19-28

This homily was given at St. James Church, Vernon, BC, Canada.

How is it possible for us to discern that somebody, especially one whose task it is to communicate true and accurate information, to teach, or to preach, or simply to live our Christian faith truthfully and authentically, is actually doing so?

The first letter of John, from which we hear today, gives us a hint as to how to live truthfully, authentically, and faithfully ourselves, and how we might discern others who live this way. John says, “abide in him”; abide in God. What does it mean for us to “abide in” God?

To me, our readings today point toward humility as a key virtue toward abiding in God; toward allowing God to work in, with, and around us and not obstructing God’s work through our own pride or impatience. One of my brother Basilian priests has humility almost down to a mantra: “It’s not about me.”

John warns the disciples of his time of “the one who would deceive” them. Who are the most deceptive influences, the most distracting from and destructive of Christian faith, but anybody who would think and act as if our faith, and living it, is about them and not primarily about God?

In John the Baptist, our reading today from John’s Gospel gives us a standout example of humility. For John the Baptist, his ministry of baptizing in the Jordan, his faith and his living it out, is never about him but about God and about Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Could we imagine the temptation John the Baptist might have felt to attribute any success he had in his ministry to himself rather than to God? Instead, John the Baptist retreats to the wilderness, away from attention on himself that would detract from his contemplation of God, his heart-to-heart with God through his baptizing ministry. Still, the people seek out John the Baptist in that wilderness to be baptized. Ultimately, Jesus himself seeks out and finds John the Baptist, just as John announces himself as “not worthy to untie the thong on [Jesus’] sandals.” John never deceives those who tempt him to make himself out to be greater than he is: “‘I am not the Messiah’… ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ ‘I am not.’”

Sts. Basil of Caesarea and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops of the fourth century whom we celebrate today, are two more examples of allowing God to abide in them because of their humility. Together, as great friends to each other despite the power of their office as bishops, they worked to formulate the truth of the divinity of the Son and then of the Holy Spirit. They reminded especially the wealthiest of the faithful of their responsibility to uphold the dignity of the poorest. Basil and Gregory did all this while living humble and even austere lives themselves.

Basil, who is portrayed in icons with the dove representing the Holy Spirit, and Gregory knew and lived as though their ministry; their teaching was not about themselves but about God. John the Baptist lived and ministered in the same way. Their examples call us to the same lives of truth, faithfulness, and humility, so that God might abide in us and we in God.

Homily for Saturday, 21 February 2015‒ Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Readings of the day: Isaiah 58:9b-14; Psalm 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; Luke 5:27-32

Who does God call to follow in God’s ways, and how are we to do as God invites us?

Jesus answers the “who” question through his calling of Levi in today’s Gospel reading from Luke. Jesus says at the end of the meal scene: “I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” And Isaiah answers the “how” question in our first reading. How are we, all redeemed sinners who have been called by God, to respond to this call?

Isaiah gives us some practical ways in which we can respond to God’s invitation to us. “Remove from your midst oppression, false accusation, and malicious speech,” Isaiah says. “If [we] bestow [our] bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted,” then we will be living our calling from God; our divine vocation as baptized Christians.

This is not a vocation we somehow deserve. After all, let us return to Jesus’ call to Levi, a tax collector. We are Levi; we are all sinners, but we are all called to something; called to radical holiness by God. Like Levi, God calls us, “Follow me.” I recall especially Pope Francis’ words in the interview with America magazine a few months after his election as pope. The interviewer, the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro, asked his first question: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” Our pope responded, “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.” And later in the same interview, Pope Francis repeated, “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.” What a great Lenten message for us! Our pope; I; all of us are Levi. We are all redeemed and invited sinners. Do we “accept” God’s invitation in a true “spirit of penance”? How do we accept God’s invitation?

“Remove from your midst oppression,” Isaiah says. Still today, many are oppressed, even right here in our own country; our own communities. God, through Isaiah’s prophetic words, invites us to stand up for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death; to stand especially in favor of our society’s most vulnerable members. God invites us to raise the poor out of poverty; to stand for the rights of workers to a living wage; to stand against ideological divisions.

“Remove… false accusation and malicious speech.” This includes gossip and passive-aggression. Pope Francis continues to denounce gossip and the damage it causes to human relationships.

“Bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted.” Charity is nothing if it “costs nothing and does not hurt”; if it does not take us beyond ourselves; beyond our comfort zones, Pope Francis again said just days ago on Ash Wednesday. St. Basil also reminds us of how radical Christian charity is: “The [excess] bread you keep belongs to the hungry; the cloak you store in your closet belongs to the naked… The [extra] shoes” you store “belong to those who are barefooted; the money you keep hidden belongs to the needy.”

We are sinners, and yet we are redeemed. We are Christians called to radical charity; holiness. We are Levi. Jesus calls to us, “Follow me.”