The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 21, 2007
12:45PM Meditation
Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
When, God willing, our Society is erected as a parish, we will be charged with developing a mission statement that describes what our particular calling is within the ministry of the Diocese of Scranton. I’ve not even made a draft of such a statement, but I am quite sure it will say something to the effect that our mission is to help reconcile our separated Anglican brethren to Mother Church. We are not the first Catholics to understand this to be our mission. More than four hundred years before the Anglican Use was conceived dozens of Jesuits and priests trained at the English college in Rome attempted to win England back to the Catholic fold. At the time it was illegal for an English Catholic ordained on the European continent to return to England to minister as a priest, and the penalty for this supposed crime was death. Anglicanism was the state religion. Catholicism was considered treasonous.
Dozens of English Catholic priests were martyred during the reigns of Elizabeth and James the first, while many others recanted and still more fled to the safety of the continent, where they were beyond the reach of the men hired to hunt and capture the priests of England. Martyrdom was the most honorable of these three outcomes, but the Jesuit Superior General still considered martyrdom to be a form of failure. He sent priests to England to minister to English Catholics, to be a witness to the faith in the face of brutal repression. He did not send priests to England to die. Therefore, he made it clear that the priests who were part of the mission to England had an obligation to avoid capture, lest the entire mission be compromised and the lay Catholics throughout the realm be deprived of the ministrations of a validly ordained priest.
Unfortunately for the Superior General, many of the priests in England were drawn to death as moths are drawn to the flame. They had heard of or seen for themselves the powerful witness of men being tortured and killed for the Faith, and they desired such glory for themselves, certain that their martyrdom would issue in their immediate entrance into paradise. But death was also an escape from the rigors of life as a missionary. Some priests welcomed martyrdom because it would save them from having to live in fear and loneliness, deprived of most human contact except for the hour during which they celebrated the Mass or offered Catechism. To serve as a priest in England during the reigns of Elizabeth and James meant one had to have a particularly strong constitution, as well as a strong desire to succeed in the mission. That is, they could not seek only the health of their own souls. They had to have confidence that their efforts and sacrifices were worthwhile, along with the hope that they were laying the foundation which future generations would build upon, even if it was not always easy to see the impact of their work at the time.
I relate this history to you because of today’s Gospel. In it we will hear Jesus say that he has come “to proclaim release to the captives” (Luke 4: ). The captivity of which he speaks here is our captivity to death, the certainty that each of us will one day die. The fruit of this captivity is desperation. Those who have no hope in the life to come, those who do not believe that Jesus has overcome death, are willing to squander what people of faith will not so easily throw away. Put another way, those without faith do not take care of their souls, because in their desperation they live only for themselves, committed to doing what is best for them regardless of the price others must pay for their selfishness. Whereas the person of faith pursues virtue looking to his own future and the future of others, a person captive to the certainty of death lives only for the present.
Though it might not immediately seem so, concentrating too much on the next life can have precisely the same effect. Christ’s victory over death in his resurrection from the dead certainly has obvious implications for the life to come. As he lives forever, so shall we who believe in him and serve him live forever. But Christ’s victory also has implications for this life, our mortal sojourn on this earth. God’s grace will not only transform this mortal life into eternal life. He will also transform our temporal works of mercy, so that they have everlasting effect, drawing more and more souls into the Kingdom He has prepared for those who love Him. Our purpose for this life can get lost if all we concentrate on is our death. If we are too eager to be martyrs so that we can get on the fast track to heaven, we can forget that our purpose is to serve our fellow man, so that more of our brothers can make it to heaven with us. Just as the desperate soul lives as if he has no concern for the future, so the over-eager martyr forgets that his patient service is an obligation to those who will come after him.
The over-eager martyr, in other words, has lost hope that his works can have any effect on the lives he touches. Unable to take the long view and see the gifts he has to offer for the building up of the Church, in seeking death he squanders the future as surely as he who has no hope in the life to come. Both are captives to their own desires, the former to his desire for paradise, and the latter to his desire for pleasure. Both fail, for they each forget that their lives are to be given to benefit others, not merely themselves.
What then does this have to do with our mission? Being free from the captivity to death means we are to have hope at every turn. In no circumstance are we to give up in our service to others. That service may indeed involve our death, but we know that it always involves a death to self. Because we have the hope of Christ, we do not have grounds to think that our service is for naught. Therefore, when we do not see immediate results from the service we render, we are not to think our works have not borne fruit. We have many examples to look to, not least of which is the example of our English Catholic forbears. Because they continued the mission in the face of incredible odds, in England more Catholics went to church today than Anglicans.
We could also apply this lesson to our nation’s fight with radical Islam. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it was not until 1683 that the Muslim advance was halted. That’s 230 years of struggle, but people fought on because of their faith. We can consider the fight to outlaw abortion, as well. Tomorrow some of our members will participate in the March for Life, on the 34th anniversary of the overturning of most restrictions on the unlimited abortion license. In 1973 the Catholic Church stood alone in their vociferous opposition to the Roe v. Wade decision. Today our numbers are joined by countless evangelicals, and step by step the tide is turning. By faith, people soldier on, refusing to give up because we know that our works by the grace of God will benefit future generations, as our witness saves life after life.
So do not give up, and do not long for death, and tell others the same. We were put here to serve, and our Lord created us, redeemed us, and sustains us for life. Long instead to discern how God has called us to serve Him, and that we shall have the fortitude to answer the call when we hear it.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.