June 26, 2022 (Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

“For freedom Christ has set us free.” Do you believe that? Or do you think there are too many rules? … A Dominican was at a meeting, and he was put on the spot. Wojciech Giertych is the Theologian of the Pontifical Household; he’s Pope Benedict’s and Pope Francis’ theologian.  

A mother asked him, “How can I convince my children of the truth of Catholic morality.” He went took to a blackboard and drew a little square. “Now inside that square imagine you have all the commandments. … Is that what Catholic morality is all about?” And everyone said, “Yes”. … Wojciech retorted with a surprising “No!” … He then drew a much, much larger square, and he said, “All that space is freedom. God isn’t very interested in commandments. All moral theology is about teaching you to be free. That’s the teaching of the Gospel.”  

Morality should liberate the person their fullness and God’s joy even now. ...  It was only during the 17th century that laws and rules were over-emphasized; it obscured the older virtue tradition that asked: What kind of whole person should I become, not merely, what should I avoid? … It’s easy to keep the Ten Commandments but fail miserably at the two that matter most. Yet some want to point the gun of damnation at your heads and force you to be good. A coerced virtue is no virtue at all. Where there is no freedom, there is no love, and without love what am I?  

St. Paul is on Wojciech’s side: For freedom Christ has set us free. …, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 

Americans often about bandy the word free; we insist on rights, even it kills, mars the planet, or leaves a swath of destruction. Freedom without responsibility is deadly.  

So, what is freedom?...  Google is handing for a definition:  freedom is the ability to move or act as desired. We are heirs of the Enlightenment if we say freedom is acting without constraint or influence. 

That idea is downright mechanistic, even Newtonian! I won’t recite Newton’s law of gravity but know that a satellite is captured in orbit by the mutual attraction of earth and satellite. Turn that force off for a moment and that satellite flies straight and free into deep space. Freedom is the absence constraint or influence. … But is that type of freedom really human? Can life be lived without influence or interconnections and still be human?  

The ancient world had a notion that flowed from their experience of slavery. The free person owns his own actions; the slave doesn’t. Freedom is not the absence of influence, but our freedom to choose between them. Since this is a Dominican parish listen to St. Thomas Aquinas.  

The free man is he who belongs to himself; the slave belongs to his master. Thus, whoever acts of himself, acts freely; but whoever acts on the impulse of another does not act freely. Therefore, whoever avoids evil, not because it is wrong but because of a commandment of the Lord, is not free.  

Notice Thomas is not complimenting such person; it’s slavery. He continues …  

he who avoids evil because he sees it is wrong, is free. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who perfects us from within by giving us a new dynamism that refrains from evil because of love, … such a person is free. His interior dynamism moves him to do what divine law [would] command.[1] 

The Medieval Church’s dictum was God moves by attraction, not by coercion. No wonder Jesus stops the threatening hand of James and John; he won’t let them call down fire from heaven. Yet how many times do our hearts erupt with fire? How many times do we want to force?… Jesus wants something else, a love that loves and freely chooses the good because one sees it is good.  

Pedro Arupe, who ministered to the victims of Hiroshima and later was the Superior General of the Jesuits, explained:  

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything. 

Today, three would-be disciples want to follow Jesus. … Great! … But Jesus throws cold water in their faces. He’s asking: Are you really sure? Do you love God, me and the kingdom so much? …. In moments of enthusiasm, religious fervor, or pangs of remorse, we imagine that we would say to Jesus: “I will follow you wherever you go.”  

Yet we want the American dream of comfort, security, and an SUV. They’re not bad in themselves, but what if it captures and commands my heart?  

We use stuff to prove to ourselves our worth, status and influence. Can you live without all the ego props? Not even family overrules. Elisha got to say goodbye to his family; Jesus doesn’t allow even a day’s delay to bid farewell or bury a dead father. “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Is there urgency in your living the Gospel?  

Did you notice Elijah flippant retort to Elisha request to bid his family farewell? “Go back again; for what have I done to you? … He as much as says: I didn’t ask you to follow me! … So Elisha does the dramatic; he burns his bridges! …. He kills the family’s oxen, uses the yoke for firewood, and gives the meat to his family’s servants. “Elisha is making sure that he can’t go home, now! How could he, after what he did to the family oxen and their yokes?”  (Eleonore Stump) He freely burns his bridges to make sure he goes forward. What are you willing to sacrifice for the kingdom? 

There is a slavery according to Paul that captures and demonizes us, but there is also freely chosen slavery that liberates your deepest self. If you love someone, really love them, what wouldn’t you do for them? When I freely love someone, I rush to give myself, my everything. Jesus did. Paul wrote, through love become slaves to one another. That’s a choice of love. 

Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, and social critic, pointedly noted that Jesus does not admirers, but followers. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how highly he prizes Christ, [but] he renounces nothing, gives up nothing, will not reconstruct his life, will not be what he admires, and will not let his life express what … what he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength, with all his will to [become] what he admires. 

Jesus is one determined man with that determined look; twice we are told he set his face to go to Jerusalem. His is an unwavering determination filled with intensity and urgency, he goes to Jerusalem to be taken up. … That’s a curious phrase for it is not the language of the cross, but his Jesus’ kingly enthronement in the resurrection and ascension. Jesus is called not to a fate to be endured, but to inaugurate what he preached. The Kingdom of God begins in Jesus’ resurrection and enthronement; it is here and now. We don’t recognize but its guise now is sometimes as small as a mustard seed or slimy as yeast. 

Your job, my job is to live God’s will now as it is in heaven. Bring a bit of heaven to earth by living it as a blessing for others.  

Every age knows religious stridency. And the reaction is the same! Anger! James and John want to be like Elijah. ….  “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” (No wonder these two were nick named “sons of thunder.”  

Now it’s their turn to be surprised and hurt: “Jesus turned and rebuked them …  “Jesus … rebuked them …” How did you think they felt?  

They were friends, who didn’t understand Jesus. They were his admirers, but their hearts hadn’t moved from habits of anger to habits of peace! Jesus was asking them to journey into the Father’s heart, whose judgment is forgiveness, whose gift is mercy, whose embrace is love. Will you love and freely follow Jesus? 

[1] In Rom 2, lec. 3; ed. R. Cai, no. 21