Our Purity, Christ's Power

(Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B; This homily was given on January 31, 2021 at the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, Italy; See 1 Corinthians 7:32-35 and Mark 1:21-28)

 

In our second reading for this morning, St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, we listen to the Apostle’s foundational teachings on celibacy and virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  He talks about the unmarried man or unmarried woman being "anxious about the things of the Lord" and how to be pleasing to Him, while the married man or woman is also concerned with the anxieties of the world and how to please his or her spouse.  

It can happen, however, that this basic distinction in St. Paul’s teaching can be misunderstood.  Sometimes an interpretation can suggest that there are two different “levels” of chastity here, one for the celibate and another for the married man or woman.  People may consider that a priest or a religious sister or brother, or consecrated virgins, are called to a higher level of purity.  Of course, that is simply not true.  

In His “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus teaches us in the Beatitudes that ALL are called to purity, and that it is in fact a condition for eternal life and the beatific vision: “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Purity of heart is something much broader than we imagine, for it has to do with the way we see and love God and those around us.  It is an integral part of how we live and relate to God and others. 

This is the comprehensive sense that St. John Chrysostom uses to interpret the Gospel we listened to this morning.  Jesus enters the synagogue in Capernaum and begins to teach.  Suddenly He is confronted by a man with an “unclean spirit.”  Chrysostom asks the question of why the devil is impure or unclean.  Certainly it is not some defect of his sexuality because he does not have one; he does not have a body.  Chrysostom reasons that the evil one is unclean because of his impiety and because he withdraws from God; he recognizes the holiness of Jesus Christ, but he is not moved to charity.

For the person who is pure of heart, the holiness of Christ inspires love and devotion; they are moved to charity.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in describing purity of heart, indicates that it “refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God’s holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith” (CCC, #2518).  The pure of heart definitely strive to integrate their sexuality and to live the virtue of chastity, but they recognize that it involves much more than that.  By attuning their will and intellect to the holiness of Christ they are also moved to become more charitable and to love the truth revealed by God.

How does purity of heart become rooted deeply within our souls and how do we grow in this essential virtue that leads us ultimately to the eternal vision of God?  There is a powerful example for us in the Gospel we heard this morning.  Jesus enters the synagogue in Capernaum and teaches the people.  St. Mark relates, “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22).  When they listened to the truth revealed by God they were moved to astonishment; they loved the truth that Christ was offering to them.  

The second thing that Jesus does that purifies the heart is to address the unclean spirit directly and perform an exorcism:

Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet!  Come out of him!”  The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

—Mark 1:25-26

Jesus Christ has the power to drive away the unclean spirit and bring the soul deeper into purity of heart.  He created us for this purity, and greatly desires to give it to us when we seek Him out for it and attune our intellects and wills to Him.

The late Fr. Gabriel Amorth was the chief exorcist of Rome for many years.  He would say that there are two things that frustrate the work of the evil one more than exorcism.  They are sacramental absolution and preaching of the word of God (he takes the Eucharist as a given).  

With sacramental absolution, a person who is perhaps in the grip of sin and has lost the state of grace is suddenly healed and receives the forgiveness of God.  By a humble acknowledgement of that need for forgiveness and a heartfelt confession of sin, sacramental absolution is given in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the soul is restored to the state of grace.  It is an amazing and wonderful work of the power of Christ to drive away evil and draw the person towards purity of heart.

The second thing Amorth mentions is a bit curious: the preaching of the word of God.  For the most part, the reviews of people in the pews show that our preaching is rather unsatisfactory and boring.  Why should the devil be any more impressed?  But Amorth is referring to the faithful preaching of the truth of the Gospel, something every priest is called to do.  When that powerful message of salvation through faith in Christ and the Christian life is preached with all the passion it deserves, souls are changed.  Amorth says it sets up a force-field of faith, an environment in which the virtues of the Christian life can grow and bear fruit.  Evil has no place in that environment, and so the soul grows ever closer to God and in purity of heart.

Where is Jesus Christ calling us to experience His power more completely in our lives this week, as He drives away evil and restores us to the fullness of the Christian life?  We seek the grace today to be attuned to the holiness of God in our intellect and will, and to be set on fire to embrace charity, chastity and love for the truth that God reveals.

Change and the Kingdom

 St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

(Third Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B; This homily was given on January 24, 2021 at the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia in Rome, Italy; See Jonah 3:1-10 and Mark 1:14-20) 

How well do you handle change?  Change can be exciting and a very positive experience.  Sometimes, though, change can come unexpectedly and we might receive it as a real trial.  If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would it be?

St. John Henry Newman, in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, writes:

“In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

The context here is important.  Newman is writing about the development of an idea.  We have a concept about what we understand to be the truth, but that idea has to be worked out and discerned.  There may be many misconceptions that need to be cleared away as we deepen our understanding.  Perhaps through a difficult struggle and many trials we begin to understand what God has revealed to us from the start. This is the sense of change that Newman is writing about.  

But that same quote could also be used to describe Newman’s own life: “Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”  We can come back to that in a moment.

I mention Newman and change this morning because in the Gospel Jesus Christ is challenging the people in Galilee—and you and me—to change.  It is the very beginning of His public ministry, and He addresses the crowds:

This is the time of fulfillment.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

—Mark 1:15

The Greek word in the Gospel for “repentance” is metanoia, and it literally means to change one’s mind or conception about the way things are.  It is commonly understood as a call to renounce sin and embrace the moral life.  It certainly involves that, but metanoia means much more.  If there is sin in our lives, we need to repent and surrender ourselves to God, but Christ is ultimately calling us to see the world around us differently.  He is challenging us to see God, to see the people in our lives and even to see ourselves in a whole new light.

At the Sea of Galilee he comes upon Simon and Andrew, James and John, who are fishing.  He calls them to leave that way of life behind and follow Him.  There is nothing wrong or sinful about fishing!  Our Lord is calling them to see everything differently and to act in a different way than they anticipated.  He is inviting them to embark on a journey that will change their lives—and the world we live in—forever.

Which brings us back to St. John Henry Newman.  When he was an Anglican priest in his early thirties, Newman came here to Italy with several friends.  They were touring the Mediterranean and seeking to deepen their intellectual understanding of the Christian faith.  At that time, though, Newman was struck by a devastating illness that almost took his life.  His recovery was a slow one, and he suffered greatly.  As he made the difficult arrangements of getting back home, he became convinced that God had spared him and was calling him to some significant undertaking.  

On the journey back to England Newman wrote what would become one of his best known and beloved poems, The Pillar of Cloud:

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene,—one step enough for me

Homesick and vulnerable, he was nonetheless wide open to whatever changes God was introducing into his life.  Within one week of landing on the shores of England, Newman and several colleagues formed what came to be known as the Oxford Movement.  It began for him as a theological pursuit to reacquire the doctrines and traditions within Anglicanism that had been seemingly lost down through the centuries.  Over time, however, Newman began to understand something different.  He sensed that God was calling him not to reform the Anglican Church but to leave it; Newman became convinced that God was calling him to convert to the Roman Catholic Church.  

This significant change in his life came at a cost.  Many of his friends within Anglicanism felt betrayed.  Some who had previously revered him and held him in great esteem no longer associated with him.  At the same time, there was a deeply embedded tension between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.  Many bishops and cardinals of the Catholic Church held Newman in suspicion and questioned the authenticity of his conversion.  Others were intimidated by his sharp intellect and did not always welcome him as a Catholic.  It was a painful transition for him, but Newman endured through many different challenges and changes.  In 1879 he was created a cardinal of the Church by Pope Leo XIII.  He died in Birmingham, England on August 11, 1890.  His essays, books and sermons continue to provide insight and inspiration to the Christian faithful.  Newman was beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI and canonized on October 13, 2019 by Pope Francis.

How well do we respond to the call of God through life’s many changes?  Are we also able to align our hearts with the vision that God has for our lives, especially when we experience those inevitable challenges and trials?

In conclusion, we can reflect for a moment on our first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jonah.  In that reading we hear one of the most remarkable accounts of change and repentance in all of Sacred Scripture.  After listening to the preaching of Jonah, the people of Nineveh completely changed the way they were living.  They humbled themselves before God and openly acknowledged their offense.  Next we hear of God’s response:

When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do them; he did not carry it out.

—Jonah 3:10

God repented?!  What a strange and surprising revelation!  Of course, Jonah is using anthropomorphic language to describe the mysterious workings of God.  There is no need for God to repent, nor does God ever change.  The essence of that passage is that God, who never initially desired evil for the people of Nineveh, nonetheless was determined to see justice done.  What He wanted was to bless them, to love them and grant them His favor, but their own evil actions had placed an obstacle before that.  When they repent, He is able to accomplish what He really desired all along, to give them His blessing and favor.  

Where do we place obstacles in the path of God’s plan for our lives?  God calls us this weekend to repent, to see ourselves, our lives and the world around us with new eyes, a new vision.  He calls us to recognize how very much we are loved by Him and how much He desires to bless us.  We ask for the grace to be transformed, to be changed by the grace of God and, like St. John Henry Newman, to see God’s plan accomplished in a beautiful way.  Today we open our hearts to whatever vision God has for us, because “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”