May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
Today we are continuing our journey
through the Letter of James. This is our
fourth Sunday reading through this letter from Sacred Scripture. Three weeks ago we heard the proclamation of
the goodness and love of God who has loved us and has called us to be the first
fruits of all creation. Precious in the
sight of the Lord, we asked for the Lord to transform our voices so that we
could live fully the Amen that we proclaim when we gather for worship. Two weeks ago we heard the challenging words
that called us to reject the distinctions of earth, especially between the rich
and the poor, when we are gathered to celebrate the banquet of heaven. We asked the Lord to transform our eyes so
that we could recognize the face of Christ in the faces of our brothers and
sisters. Last week we meditated upon the
connection between the faith we profess with our lips and the works of faith we
accomplish with our hands. We asked the
Lord to transform our lives so that we could be recognized as companions of the
Lord Jesus. Today, in both the Letter of
James and our reading from the Gospel, we are challenged to examine our motives
and our goals. In these past weeks we
have begged to have the eyes of Christ so that we could be the hands of
Christ. Today we ask to put on the mind
of Christ and ask that our hearts may be configured to the heart of Christ.
“Where jealousy and selfish ambition
exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” This counsel from the Letter of James is not a
call to change our external behavior.
Each week we have responded to that call. This counsel from the Letter of James invites
us to an interior transformation.
Claiming as our own the dignity of our baptismal vocation as the first
fruits of creation, as a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to the Father in
Christ Jesus, today we invite the Lord to take possession of the minds and the
hearts that we have lifted up to Him. We
ask to be filled with the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle,
full of mercy and good fruits, that is constant and sincere. We ask for a mind and a heart that is focused
on Christ alone. We ask to live as
children in the household of God.
To live as children in the household
of God is the message of the Gospel today.
The disciples, having briefly taken their eyes off of Christ, began to
focus on their status on behalf of Christ rather than on their relationship
with Christ. Worldly ambition and
status, disconnected from humble service and childlike trust, are poisons to
the disciples of Jesus Christ. They harm
us from within. It is true, brothers and
sisters, that we have a responsibility to perform our work well. We have a responsibility to grow in Christ, with
the grace of Christ, into those persons that we were created to be. The counsel of the Letter of James and the command
of the Lord Jesus invite us to purify our motives. We are called today to examine the goal toward
which we focus our lives.
For the life of the Christian, there can
be only one goal. There can only be one focus
in which all other activities are included. Christ Jesus calls us to single minded devotion
with an undivided heart. For the life of
the Christian, the only goal, the ultimate goal, is union with Christ.
As we have asked the Lord to transform
our voices, eyes, and actions, so today we ask the Lord to transform our minds and
our motives. We ask in this Eucharist for
the grace of single minded devotion so that we may keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
We ask for the grace of childlike trust as
we live in the household of God. And we ask
for the grace to seek as the ultimate goal of our lives true and eternal union with
Christ Jesus.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe, NC
