Homily

Sunday, November 20, 2005, St. Josephs, Sweetest Heart of Mary

Christ the King: 34^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The King of Love Requires Followers of Love

The Prophet Daniel writes, “But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”[1] We also find written in the Gospel of John, “a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”[2] And we pray in the Creed every Sunday, as we will again shortly, “We believe… in the resurrection of the body.”

So it is at the end of time, every soul will be united to his own flesh, and great silence will rule over the Universe, for all men of all times will stand before the judge. We may wonder, “How will it go for me, that day, that hour? What will be my fate?”

This is the message of today’s homily: work to attain your salvation, and do so by love. Love God above all things, love your neighbor as yourself, nourish your love with prayer, fasting and almsgiving, go beyond human love by obtaining divine love which the sacraments give you, love by your virtue, love by your collaboration with God, love as an imitation of Christ.

The great risks in our day to understanding the Church’s teaching about love, risks to becoming like the goats, [3] are two. The first is theoretical, the influence of protestant theology which foolishly says that we are not saved by works, but by faith alone. The second is practical, saying that for us to be good Catholics, we simply need to dedicate ourselves to social services and empty philanthropy.

To the first problem, the erroneous teaching that we are saved by faith alone and not by works, I had to offer an answer recently. I was in Bowling Green university dealing with the Creed on Campus group, and one of the young ladies, very intelligent and with the best intentions, asked me about it. She had been Catholic but had been persuaded by someone in her teen years to leave the faith. She told me that we are saved by faith alone and not by works. St. Paul does say we are not saved by works, but he is explicitly and repeatedly referring to the works of the Jewish law. There are many proofs of the falsehood of thinking we can be saved without good deeds. For example, James teaches in his Epistle, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”[4] But no proof is so convincing as this passage of the Gospel, for all of the corporal works of mercy are stated (except for burying the dead). They were practiced, and the sheep gave food to the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, and visited the sick; therefore they were saved. Where these good deeds were omitted, the goats were condemned: for their deeds or lack of them.

The second challenge to true charity with God and neighbor is a more practical one, where we think it is enough to be philanthropists or social workers and this alone will earn our salvation. St. Paul does regularly discuss the need of faith for salvation all over his letters. Jesus teaches, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”[5]

A true act of charity is different from public social services in various ways. On the surface it may look the same: a hungry man gets food. The difference lies at what’s really happening. The public service uses paid employees, tax money, political force to attain what is often a political goal of certain individuals. The Catholic exercises freedom and the sacrifice of one’s self out of love for another for the sake of God’s glory. The public service is trying to attain the good of the state, to which individuals are subservient and a means to an end; the Catholic service procures the real good of each person. The public service offers no faith to the hungry man, and helps his body but abandons his soul; the Catholic service looks not only to the salvation of his flesh in time, but to the salvation of his soul in eternity. So it is that true Catholic charity greatly and intrinsically differs from philanthropy or social services.

Today is the feast of Christ the King, who is the King of Mercy and of Love. What a lie it would be for us to say we believe, hope and love him, yet we are not like him, for we show no mercy or love. The great criterion of our eternal judgment at the end of time will be that of love. St. John of the Cross states, “At dusk they will examine you on your love; learn to love as God wants to be loved and leave aside your condition,” your condition as man, he means, so that you love with God’s own Sacred Heart by grace.[6] Let us therefore be not goats, but sheep, who follow the Good Shepherd and know his voice. Amen.[7]