Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Over that last few weeks the second reading has been from the letter of St James. Because of our emphasis on the parish retreat and the related themes in the gospel, I chose not to comment on the readings from James. In the process we have sidelined some very practical and important ethical teachings from scripture. Briefly, let me recall a few important statements from these readings. I have to insert a caveat here. Some of James’ writings are all too direct and difficult to digest at first. He writes: “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” Last week we heard him say, “For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Sit here, please," while you say to the poor one, "Stand there, " or "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? Today we heard James say, “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Notice something about all these passages. They are about very practical things. They have to do with ‘works’ or how a believer conducts himself or herself in the world as opposed to merely having faith in Jesus Christ and claiming salvation. The relationship between faith and works is particularly significant in light of the gospel reading where Peter confesses his faith in Jesus by saying, “You are the Christ.” But when Christ talks about his impending suffering, Peter rebukes Jesus. It is as if Peter wants faith without works. Jesus follows this incident with his legendary words, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it." I hear Jesus say what James says: “I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.”
Based on James’ exhortations and Jesus call to take up our cross and follow Jesus, I would like to offer three points for us to think about.
1. How do we evaluate life? When is human life meaningful? Jesus presents the answer to these questions in a paradox. For Jesus, human life is meaningful when it is an instrument of the salvation that Christ has brought to us. In others words, a meaningful life is one that moves away from serving itself. This is counter-intuitional. For a disciple gain is in losing, rising is in dying and leading is in following. This does not mean that human pursuits in the secular world are meaningless. But rather, I think that Christ is saying that even our human pursuits and the financial, social and personal rewards we get from it must be intimately connected to salvation. If we do what we do merely for human gain then we have already gotten is what is due to us; then we have lost out on life. For e.g., if you are in the medical field it must be connected to the healing ministry of Jesus. If you are a teacher, it must be connected to preaching ministry of Jesus. If you are an engineer or work construction, it must be to participate in God’s creative work. If you work for the church or work within the home, it must be connected to building up of God’s communion at home and at church. To make this pursuit our primary motive is to ‘seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness,’ to ‘take up our cross,’ and to ‘lose our life for the sake of the gospel.’
a) Faith versus works. There are two approaches to reflecting on the relationship between faith and works: the first is that we do good works so that we are saved; and the other is that we do good works because we are saved. There are passages in the New testament that tell us that we will be saved because when we the fed the hungry, clothed the naked and visited those in prison, we did it to HIM – i.e., it is our works that will save us. Here is a danger though – that our works become a way of buying our own salvation. Is it not idolatry to believe that we can save ourselves by our works? On the other hand, faith without works is sloth. When James says, “I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works,” I think he is proposing that we do good works because we have already experienced salvation. Our faith must bear fruit and the fruits must bear witness to our faith. When faith and work interjects in this way, salvation happens.
b) Being church at home and home at church. Church and home must interject in the same way that faith and works must interject. At our retreat last week, we spoke about how our nuclear families and homes are set up in such a way that we become the victims of isolation both inside and outside our homes. And then we said that one of the best ways to be church at home and home at church was to build communion. I want to give you an example of this. There is an elderly lady in the parish who lives alone in her home. Her financial situation is precarious and she does not own a car. But a couple in the parish has taken it upon themselves to periodically provide food for her. Another lady who lives alone takes her out to breakfast after morning mass or sometimes lunch and dinner. Another lady drives her to mass every day. This is what we mean by being church at home. There was another woman here in the parish who was amputee. Some ladies got together (till she finally moved to Florida) and took upon themselves to bring her to church every Sunday. Here are examples off being church and home and home at church. Just as faith and works must interject, home and church must interject. They must become seamless in the life of a disciple.
- Fr. Satish Joseph