6th Sunday After the Epiphany
25th Sunday after Pentecost – November 14, 2010
(Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 1: 2-10)
(Gospel: Matthew 13: 31-35)
St. Paul heaps praise on the Thessalonians for the fervor of their faith, their prayers, their work, their charity toward others, their constant hope for the return of our Lord Jesus. But his praise of the Thessalonians contains a rebuke to us today. They were recent converts from paganism, we are the descendants of 2,000 years of faith. Most of them were baptized late in life, most of us were baptized shortly after birth. The main occupation of the Thessalonians was serving the living and true God by serving their neighbors. Our hope is exactly the same as that which made their hearts so fervent. So why is it that our faith is not like theirs in its generosity? We love this present life as though we think it will never end.
We pass on to the next generation a very different “Christianity “from that which our Saviour established, which the apostles preached, and which the pagans of the first ages thought they were bound to purchase” and keep even at the cost of their lives. (Guéranger: The Liturgical Year)
In today’s Gospel our Lord teaches us through two parables what we should believe about His Church. His Church is His kingdom, that begins here on earth and is perfected in Heaven. What is the grain of mustard seed that is hidden in the ground, unseen there, but finally sprouts and grows to become a tree and spreads its branches, and is largest of all the herbs? It is the Word of God, hidden at first in Judea, trampled on by man to the point of being buried in a tomb, but finally rising triumphantly and spreading rapidly to every corner of the world.
The grain of mustard seed is buried in the ground as Christ was buried in the tomb. The mustard seed appears as the least of all seeds, as Christ appeared as the least of all men, hated by many of His own people, hanging in defeat on the Cross. But the mustard seed blossoms forth from the ground, as our Lord did from the tomb on Easter Sunday. The mustard plant then shoots forth branches and grows into the greatest of all herb plants. Christ also sent forth branches through the preaching that began on the first Pentecost. Barely a hundred years after Jesus was put to death His Church had spread far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, to become the greatest Tree of Faith in the world.
During the past two thousand years every effort has been made to uproot the Tree of Christ but without success. In the cold of winter, sap stops flowing through the branches of a mustard tree, but in the Church, whenever one branch grows cold in the faith, the life-giving sap of faith flows into another branch. Even when one branch of the Church has broken off to go out on its own, such as Martin Luther and today’s Modernists have done, another faithful and obedient branch grows in its place. An example of this is found in 13th Century Italy which was plagued with secularism and lack of faith. The new and faithful branch that sprung up was the Friars Minor, the Franciscans founded by St. Francis of Assisi.
The birds of the air who come to dwell in the branches of the Tree of Christ are the souls of those who are seeking the eternal goods of a better world. If we are faithful and obedient Christians we will find our complete rest and safety only in the shade of the Tree of Christ, which is the Catholic Church.
In the second parable, the woman represents the Church, our mother. It was the Church that, from the beginning of Christianity, took the teaching of her divine Master, and hid it in the hearts of men, making it the leaven of their salvation. The three measures of meal which the woman leavened, are the three great families of mankind that came from the children of Noah, Shem, Japhet and Cham, the fathers of the whole human race. It is to our advantage to love the Church, which through the leaven of faith has made us children of God.
But many of us do not love our Church, and our faith has grown cold. We love this present life as if it is never going to end. St. Paul, in today’s Epistle reading, praises the Thessalonians (Greece, northern end of the Aegean Sea) for the fervor of their faith. Only a short time before Paul wrote this letter to them, the Thessalonians were worshipping idols, but they had become so earnest in the practice of the faith that St. Paul was filled with admiration of them. These people were among the generations that for two thousand years have handed the faith down to us. Christ calls us to hide ourselves among the people of the world. Just as He gave leaven the power to change the dough, He has placed His faithful followers in the world to share their knowledge of Him and by doing this to change the world.
Twelve Apostles leavened the whole world. Even today, in this age of unfaithfulness, there are enough of us to leaven a thousand worlds. What made the Apostles so great? What was the power they had to leaven the whole world? It wasn’t the miracles they performed. It was their rejection of wealth and their contempt of vain glory, their turning away from the things of this world that drew down on them the grace of the Holy Ghost and this caused others to listen to them and to believe what they said.
Christ used signs and wonders. He threatened us with the pains of hell, and promised us the Kingdom of Heaven, and He gave us wonderful laws and counsels all to the end that in our lives we would be like angels, that we would be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
We might ask: why don’t we see more miracles today. Well, St. Chrysostom shows us how the beauty of a good life can help others more than miracles. He asks: if Christ gave us a choice between raising people from the dead or dying in His name, what would we choose? Clearly, if we have a strong faith in everything Christ told us, we would choose to die in His name. Yet the first is a miracle, and the second is merely a good work. And what if someone offered us a choice of either turning dirt into gold or, instead, just regarding all gold as dirt? The first is a miracle and would draw people to us who want this power for themselves, as Simon the Magician came to the Apostles, and the love of wealth would be increased in them. But if people see you despise gold as though it were nothing but dirt, they would in part become healed of the disease of loving gold.
It is from a life that is scrupulously and uprightly lived that miracles arise. He who lives a worthy life draws grace upon himself. The supreme virtues we should strive for are charity, patience and almsgiving. St. Paul said: “Be zealous for the better gifts. And I show unto you yet a better excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12: 31). He did not then go on to speak of miracles, but of charity, the root of every good work. If we have charity, and the wisdom that flows from it, we have no need of miracles; but if we do not have charity, then miracles will avail us nothing. +++
Next Sunday is that last Sunday after Pentecost which brings the Liturgical Year to a close.
The First Sunday of Advent, November 28th, ushers in the season of hope as we prepare for the coming of the Messiah whose birthday we celebrate on December 25th.
(Thanks to Abbot Guéranger and St. Chrysostom for today's sermon.)
We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass
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