25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bishop of Lake Charles
Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
“For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” Philippians 1:21
St. Paul speaks to us in the second reading of hope. This hope is rooted in the eternal life of heaven. How else could St. Paul say, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Philippians 1:21)? To go on living is “fruitful labor”, but he wants to “be with Christ” (Philippians 1:22,23). St. Paul is speaking of what the attitude of the Christian should be. The Christian is in the world but not of the world. The Church taught in Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council “that hope in a life to come does not take away from the importance of the duties of this life on earth but rather adds to it by giving new motives for fulfilling those duties” (#21). Christian hope enriches life by reminding the Christian that his true and lasting goal is yet to be fulfilled.
Have you ever created something? Perhaps you painted a picture, made a piece of furniture, or sewed something to wear. I remember when I was a child watching my mother sew. She had such a gift for this. She would make her patterns, measure and cut the cloth, and sit at the sewing machine and fashion whatever it was she was making. She was not a seamstress but like many a mother she knew how to do a hundred things. I recall when a child, my elementary school had, what was called, an industrial arts workshop. There we learned elementary drafting, how to work with plastic, wood, metal, and leather. It was fascinating for a child of ten or eleven to have this experience. Like my mother, no doubt, all the while you designed and fashioned the item, you had the hope of seeing it complete. The very work of creating, taking all that time, making all that effort, was truly a dying to self, but the hope of seeing the object you were making moved you on to completion.
This hope gave you the discipline to complete the task. I think this is exactly what St. Paul is speaking about. When he says, “Conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27a), St. Paul means the hope given by the gospel of Christ shapes our lives. The Philippians, for whom he originally wrote these words, were citizens of the Roman Empire. Not everyone living within the boundaries governed by Rome had the right to be called a Roman citizen. Only certain cities and only certain people enjoyed this title. The Philippians were justifiably proud of the name “citizen.” The Greek term used here and translated “conduct yourselves in a way worthy” has a specific meaning. It means “live like good citizens” (cf. The Navarre Bible, commentary on the Letter to the Philippians). In other words, we are citizens of heaven. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20) (5), St. Paul will say later in Philippians. If one lays claim to citizenship, then one must prove worthy of that dignity.
The hope that we have to be fulfilled in heaven, our true home, shapes our actions and lives now. A life without hope is no life at all. It is aimless, shiftless. I meander around, wanders as though lost. Only with a hope of finishing a garment could my mother sacrifice so much to complete it. Only with hope could a child of ten cut and glue and hammer together an object for which he had only a design. That hope gave discipline to life and ultimately a purpose.
To say that “our citizenship is in heaven” is not a pipe dream or fantasy. It is what gives us meaning as Christians, a meaning without which we are left only to materialism and secularity. A Christian is ultimately one who hopes, and that hope moves us toward a goal.