(Deacon Bob’s Homily for the 8th Sunday Cycle C)

I want to look at 2 points in today’s gospel. The first is how absolutely essential it is that we bear good fruit, and the second is the importance of training for our spiritual growth. 

A few months ago, a very popular psychologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson had a conversation with Bishop Robert Barron, and one of the topics that came up was the decline of the Church. And Jordan Peterson said the reason you’re not attracting people to your Church is because you’re not giving them a compelling message that would make them want to join you. 

I think everyone would agree with that, and of course the million-dollar question is, what is the message. I think God has been allowing us to see it. And the message is simply this, without Him, we’re a mess. We see it all around. But we don’t want to just look out there – we need to look in here (our heart). Have I been a witness to the joy and peace that comes with being a follower of Jesus? In many ways this pandemic that we’ve lived through has been like a spotlight on our hearts. It’s revealed our heart to us. What do I really believe? 

I heard recently that for about the first 300 years of the Church, before she was granted legal status by Constantine in 313, the Church was growing by 40% every decade. One of the reasons was because Christians were different. They didn’t live the same as their pagan neighbors and their life was attractive. For example, when Rome would be hit with a pandemic, the normal thing that people would do is if a family member got the disease, you would stock up a bunch of food for him and then leave. If a person got sick, they would almost certainly die, and there was nothing that could be done for them, and so the wise thing to do was try to make them comfortable for the time that remained and get out before you caught the disease. 

The Christians didn’t do that. Not only would they not leave their family members who got sick, they would help their neighbors after their family members left them. Now, did some of them get sick and die? Of course. But they had a different view of life. They believed that thanks to Jesus, they were on their way to God in heaven, and in the meantime, while they were on earth, Jesus wanted them to love their neighbor as best they could. That’s what they did. And people noticed. 

Did you and I live through this pandemic in such a way that our secular neighbor would notice that we’re different? Did they see that we were at peace and could be joyful and loving even in the pandemic? This is not to make us feel bad but to know ourselves. A tree is known by its fruit. The early Christians showed their world that following Jesus was a better way to live. We can do the same. 

My son, Fr. Chris, was over for dinner last night along with a dozen guys from the Seminary, and he was saying how easy it is to evangelize now. Whether it’s on campus or at one of the pubs near Catholic U, he says young people now are so jaded, they see that the world is a mess, and that the titillation of the mass media and the internet is not satisfying and they’re looking for something more, and he says, we have the answer, the answer is Jesus, life in Christ, we just have to get the word out, but, and this is absolutely essential, the message has to permeate our life. They have to see it in the way we live and the way we treat people. 

So, how can we do a better job of living what we believe? This is where training comes in, and with Lent beginning this Wednesday, now is the perfect time to talk about training. In today’s gospel, Jesus said

No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.  

We train to be like Jesus. It’s like St. Paul said to Timothy, 1 Tim 4:7-9

Train yourself in godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 

Okay, what does that mean? What exactly is godliness? In a nutshell it means dying with Christ so that we can live in Christ. This is the gospel. This is the message of salvation. On our own, we have no hope. The way to life is to die to ourselves, die with Jesus so we can live with Him and love as He did. Again, St. Paul, 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried[a] therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Rom 6:3-4

I find this very helpful when I have to face difficult situations or do something I really don’t want to do. I constantly remind myself the goal is to die and live in Christ and love as He did. 

Now, this is hard. It requires an intense commitment. It’s like we saw in the Olympics. To be an Olympic athlete requires a very intense commitment, and we saw what’s possible. They were amazing. 

St. Paul uses that imagery of the athlete when talking about spiritual training. 

E.g., Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Well, I do not run aimlessly …27 but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 1 Cor 9:25-27

Now, I’m not suggesting that we pommel our bodies. But I like this verse because of how strong it is. It takes real effort. St. Paul again, 

Brethren, … one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:13-14

Forgetting what lies behind… many of us live with regrets from past failures. We need to let it go. That’s one thing I love so much about confession; we leave it there and start new. Today is a new day. 

Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Again, it takes effort, but the end, the prize, is life. This is the answer for the young people Fr. Chris was talking about. 

All of this is to exhort all of us to really embrace this Lent. We all know the 3 elements of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. A special word on prayer. All of us are heart-sick about Ukraine. We want to do something. Our Blessed Mother has told us many times in her apparitions that the rosary is a powerful weapon for peace. She says it can end wars. At Fatima she told the children to pray the rosary every day for an end to the war (WWI). Our Holy Father is asking all of us to pray and fast on Ash Wednesday for peace in the Ukraine. Imagine the power if millions of people all around the world do this. 

So, prayer, fasting and almsgiving and we need to do all 3 because they work together. We are training to be another Jesus, to love as he loved. 

The famous atheistic philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche once said the only Christian was Jesus Christ. Let’s prove him wrong.  God bless you my friends.