Deacon Michael’s Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time - June 25-26, 2022

Deacon Michael’s Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time (June 25-26, 2022)

 Readings for this Sunday can be found HERE

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For the past several weeks, coming out of the Easter Season, the liturgical calendar of the Church has focused our Sundays on some heady theology

…the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

…the nature of God in relationship on Trinity Sunday

…and Christ’s presence among us on Corpus Christi.

This week the implications of all that get pretty practical and down to earth. 

In today’s 2nd reading Saint Paul frames the challenge of everyday living as a disciple by contrasting freedom and slavery.

That’s appropriate enough for us right now

…sandwiched between 4th of July and Memorial Day

…where there is a lot of talk about the birth and defense of “freedom” and “liberty”.

Questions of “freedom” and “liberty” pretty much dominate our culture and politics

…as the events of this past week show.

For most Americans it means “freedom from”

…meaning freedom from imposed limits on what I can say or do.

When I can go and do, and have and be, what I want…then I am free.  

One strain of this freedom, now known as “expressive individualism”, has come quite strong in the past few decades.

Its highest “goods” are individual autonomy, pursuing happiness, self-definition, and self-expression.

These are paramount.

It is informative to understand here that “autonomous” is an Anglicized Greek word which means “having one’s own laws” and so being “a law unto oneself”. 

Whatever gets in the way of the will and desires of this paramount autonomous self

…such as traditions, religion, received wisdom, rules and conventions, social ties and obligations

…are seen as obstacles that need to be put aside or rolled over.

There is kind of a slippery slope downside potential in this that’s not hard to see,

…a cultivation of self-absorption and narcissistic preoccupation

…hurtful both to self, others and society.

We’ve all seen it. Maybe we’ve been there in one way or another.

This may seem like a new and cutting edge kind of problem, but it isn’t.

Though the specific facts, circumstances and social dynamics before us today might be new

…this is a very old tale.

Paul of Tarsus, writing in about the year 54

…is right in the middle of it with his discussion of freedom and slavery in today’s readings

…which he develops as a contrast between “Spirit” on the one hand and “flesh” on the other.

We need to be clear about what Paul means by these terms.

By “Spirit” Paul is referring to the life of grace, lived out through loving our neighbor as ourselves, serving others.

By “flesh”, he is referring to the opposite

…selfishness,

…using others so that they will love us, to stroke our ego,  meet our needs, fulfill our desires.

Paul uses a term that is translated as “flesh”  is the  Greek term “sarx” which is characterized by a “self-interested hostility to God”.

He is not specifically referring to sins of a sexual nature, though they are certainly included

…as matters of sex are universally prevalent and by their nature uniquely open to selfish exploitation and damaging manipulation.

So here we have two “ways of being” proposed and contrasted.

Reading on in Paul's letter immediately after the passage we heard this morning Paul provides a laundry list of what is “produced” by and through each “way”.

He sees life lived “in the flesh”, in this “law unto oneself” autonomous self-centered spirit, as yielding a lot of negativity.

After mentioning some expected sexual “sins of the flesh”, immorality, impurity and licentiousness

…Paul goes on to call out a number of others

…”idolatry, hatreds, rivalries, jealousies, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions and envies.”

All of which, “sexual” and otherwise, are perfectly destructive of genuine loving human relationships.

When everyone is a law unto oneself, these kinds of things multiply.   

Just look around.

Paul then offers us clues as to how you will know the Spirit is alive when you see it. 

He calls them the “fruits” of the Spirit

…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

When we see these we are seeing the Spirit present and at work.

So…two ways.

A life of self-preoccupation, where we are the “law unto ourselves” center and stars of our own dramas, closed in on ourselves, where “getting ours”, the fulfillment of my needs, wants and desires governs all and others have importance only as useful bit players to these ends

or…

…a life where the grace of God and the Spirit expands us and opens us up to a bigger world of sacrificial love

…free to love God and others as the Lord calls

…a call proposed at the heart of Christian faith itself.

In humility, we need to see that this tension runs right through the heart of each of us. 

Which way are we living in right now?

Which way will we choose going forward?