Luke 12: 16-21
Ephesians 2:14-22
If we look around the world today, we see so
much violence, hatred, and suffering.
Nations and peoples insist on their own way and often refuse to forgive
past wrongs or to work together toward a peaceful future. And the same is all too true of us in how we
look at our own society, as well as our families, friendships, and other daily
interactions with people.
In this season of Advent, of the
Nativity Fast that prepares us to welcome Christ at Christmas, we all need to
hear the good news proclaimed by St. Paul that the Savior is our peace. St. Paul stressed to the Ephesians that the
fundamental social divide of his time—between Jew and Gentile—had been overcome
in Jesus Christ. As the God-Man, He
united humanity and divinity in His own Person, bringing us into the eternal
life of the Holy Trinity by His cross and resurrection. No longer does it matter what our ethnic
heritage is, our nationality or culture, for all who put on Christ become
fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. With our Savior as the chief cornerstone and
the apostles and prophets as the foundation, we grow together into a holy
temple of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is truly the salvation of the
entire creation.
That is a very different
understanding of peace and reconciliation from what we hear from the competing
interests of the world. Throughout
history, powerful individuals, groups, and nations have beaten down their
rivals and then called it peace. Of
course, that approach eventually leads to disaster as the fall of the great
empires of the world has shown.
Brutality and vengeance inevitably lead to more of the same. And even those who are successful in
dominating others during their lifetimes cannot avoid the ultimate meaning and
purpose of our existence as those created in God’s image and likeness. Like the rich fool in today’s gospel lesson,
it is possible to trust in passing glory and comfort, but ultimately to lose
one’s own soul. Those who worship
themselves and the illusions of well-being that they have created succeed only
in diminishing their humanity and shutting themselves out of the heavenly peace
for which they were created. It is
possible to have everything in this life, but to be desperately poor before God.
This coming Wednesday, we celebrate
the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. The Virgin Mary was not wealthy or powerful
by any worldly standard, and the account of her elderly parents taking her to
the Temple where she prepared to become the living temple of the Lord surely
did not strike fear in the hearts of emperors or of rich, influential people. Her life was not focused on laying up
treasures for herself or indulging in passing pleasures. Instead, she chose the one thing needful : hearing and obeying the word of God. Indeed, she accepted personally into her own
life in a totally unique way the Incarnate Word of God Jesus Christ. And through her pure obedience, the Savior has
come to us all.
The Theotokos is certainly entirely
different from the rich fool. His life
revolved around his wealth; and when he had acquired enough, he was ready to
eat, drink, and be merry. The problem is
that God did not create us for a life dominated by worldly ambition or
unrestrained self-indulgence; instead, He wants us to become ever more like
Him. But if we refuse to do that and try
to find peace in trying to control others and in satisfying every self-centered
inclination, we become less than human.
We will become slaves to our desires and pleasures, which soon become
addictions, and which will soon make us miserable and separate us even from
those we love most in this life.
Of course, money, food, drink,
comfort, wealth, relationships, and other blessings have their place in this
life, but they are not to become what life is about. If we make them false gods, we will destroy
ourselves and lose them also because only God is God. No part of creation finds peace or
fulfillment unless it is offered to Him for blessing in accordance with His purposes
for it. And that includes you and
me. There is no path to the richness of
the Kingdom apart from obedience. At the
end of the day, our choice is clear and stark:
either to serve ourselves or our Lord.
The rich fool made one choice, while the Theotokos made another.
We follow the Virgin Mary’s example
not only when fast, pray, and give generously to the needy in the weeks lead up
to Christmas, but also when we are on guard for even the most subtle
temptations to place the world before God.
For example, even those who devote their lives to the service of others
for relatively little money and social standing can make a false god out of
their work. We can do the same thing
even with our families or our devotion to worthwhile projects or activities of
any kind. Especially dangerous is the
common temptation to use God for worldly power, as if Christ were somehow
useful to us in getting ahead in the world or bringing peace on our terms in
any area of life. Many people in our
society need to be careful today not to imagine God in their own image.
If we want to enter into the temple
with the Theotokos, if we wish to follow her example in becoming a living
temple of the Lord, we must be very careful not to confuse even the best things
of this life with the Lord Himself. The
problem is not with our many blessings, but with us. We do not yet have the spiritual strength to
discern perfectly how to offer the world to God, how to play our role in
sanctifying every dimension of who we are and what we do.
That is precisely why we need
fasting periods like Advent. If you are like me, “eat, drink, and be merry” is
not good advice for how to stay focused on welcoming Jesus Christ more fully
into your life. Just taking it easy
usually does not clarify our spiritual vision or increase our strength to turn
away from habitual sins that have become second nature to us. No, we need to wake up. We need to enter into the temple of God’s
holiness in a new way in the coming weeks by giving less time and energy to our
usual distractions and more to the things of God. We need to participate more fully in the
peace of the Kingdom by taking active steps to fight our passions and reject ways
of acting, speaking, and thinking that simply lead us further into the darkness.
We need to do our best to mend our
broken relationships with others, asking for and granting forgiveness to those
with whom we have become estranged.
Unfortunately, our world and society
are filled with people who embrace the darkness in one way or the other. Too often, you and I are among them. But instead of following the rich fool into
eternal despair, let’s come to our sense and follow the Mother of God into
eternal joy. We will do that in the
coming weeks by rejecting the lies that we have let take root in our souls
about what is most important in life.
Turning away from worldly obsessions and divisions, let us turn to
Christ as we prepare to receive Him at Christmas. The peace that He brought to the world is
available to us and to all peoples and nations, if we will only receive Him as
His mother did in purity and obedience.
Now is the time to follow the Theotokos into the temple as we get ready
to become living temples of the Lord when the incarnate Son of God becomes one
of us at His Nativity. For He alone is
our peace, our hope, and our joy. It’s
time to get ready for Him.
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