The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 26, 2007

Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

 St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Church, 1013 Wood Street

 Scranton, PA

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

When I went to Canada last month I passed through a border crossing between Vermont and Quebec.  The guard had a thick French accent, but she was very cordial, asked me a few questions, looked at my identification and let me through.  On the way back the American border guard did much the same thing, the only difference being that he was clearly a native English speaker.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that I could have crossed the border without going through a checkpoint, if I had the inclination to break the law.  I was up near the border for a week, and during my travels I discovered another border crossing between Vermont and Quebec.  But this crossing had no guards.  It had no gate.  As far as I could tell it had no cameras.  What this second border crossing had was a sign indicating at which point one had crossed the border, along with a sign in French and English telling me to report to customs.  The sign said I would be fined if I did not report to customs, but the possible fine was not what worried me.

What worried me is that our national border has at least one crossing where there is not a guard in sight, where anybody – smugglers, drug dealers, or terrorists – could enter our country completely unmolested.  Thus, I could have cared less that we would get fined because we accidentally crossed the border.  But I was worried that border security between the United States and Canada is so lax.  I drove back towards my rental on Lake Champlain wishing for border security that were strict.

This distinction between lax border security and strict border security will help me to explain the first virtue of discipline.  That is, we desire our border security to be strict because such a policy is more likely to prevent people who want to harm Americans from getting into America.  In this way strict border security serves to preserve life.  Lax border security will have the opposite effect.  If we have too little security at the border more of those people who wish to harm Americans will be able to get into the country.  In this way lax border security endangers our lives.

Discipline works the same way.  As the letter to the Hebrews says in today’s Epistle lesson, “[Discipline] yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).  Where discipline is strict we will witness an ordered life, one from whence chaos has been cast out, one in which peace reigns, and virtue is able to be pursued.  On the other hand, when discipline is lax life is in turmoil, nothing is guaranteed, insecurity reigns, and one cannot concentrate on pursuing virtue because he is caught up in just getting by.  Strict discipline allows life to flourish, and lax discipline often issues in the loss of life: people who grow up suffering no consequences for their actions attempt to live that way as adults and end up dying young.  Discipline preserves life.  Laxity endangers life.

Discipline is important for a second reason.  From discipline we learn that good things come not from passivity but by effort.  Jesus said, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).  Note that the two examples that Jesus gives in today’s parable involve people who have not actually made a moral choice, who have expended no effort to get into heaven.  They tell Jesus that they ate and drank in his presence and he taught in their streets, and that this ought to be enough for them to get what they want.  But Jesus describes them as ‘workers of iniquity’.  Far from making choices to do good, from making the sacrifices necessary to enter through the narrow door, these people have done evil.  We see that to receive the good that is heaven we must strive.  It is not enough to know who Jesus was, to have him around on holidays, and to listen to him preach.  We must actually demonstrate we desire what Jesus offers.  Good things come to those who work hard, to those who are disciplined.

Discipline has a third virtue.  Whereas laxity is based on the lie that love demands we never reprove poor conduct, discipline shows forth the love a father has for his son.  How often have we encountered parents who are lax disciplinarians because they do not want to be mean to the children they love so much.  Rather than give their children the punishments they deserve for their immoral actions, these parents let their children get away with murder, all the time telling us how much they love their kids.  This false love issues in the children suffering great pain, as they learn the world is not quite as lax as their parents were.  Paris Hilton is the poster child for this sad scenario, but all of us can think of examples of such false love that are closer to home.

In contrast, as I’ve noted, the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “The Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives…what son is there that his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7).   Good fathers are those who make sure their children suffer consequences for bad behavior, because they know that to allow them to live a disordered life will cause far greater suffering in the long run.  Laxity happens when people lose faith in the redemptive power of suffering, when people forget the lesson of the cross.  By Christ’s suffering we have all been healed.  We should then expect that to cure our wayward wills we will have to suffer discipline.  By such discipline our souls are guarded, as well, for we learn from the discipline of our parents to strive to enter that narrow door.  Their discipline has an eternal motive – parents who want their children in heaven with them will punish bad behavior, so that their punishment is temporary rather than eternal.

Finally, discipline teaches us that life is not all about us.  Discipline causes us to look beyond ourselves, to consider our obligations to our fellow man, to recognize that our actions impact the lives of others, sometimes quite negatively.  Discipline calls us back from our self-absorption, reminding us that God loves the people we hurt as much as He loves us.  If we desire to live we must see those people as readily as we glance in the mirror.  We must learn through discipline that we were put here to serve them, just as Christ served us with his very life. 

Therefore, even as the unguarded border crossing beckons, even though it looks so easy, remember that entering that way invites destruction.  You may not be worried about the fines you’ve been warned about, but I can assure you that the price for laxity is one you will not want to pay.  Take heed: seek out discipline, practice discipline, love discipline.  To be strict in this way is the difference between life and death.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.