I don’t know if I would die for my faith
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 156
I wrote this homily four times, and never could get it right. Then, yesterday, I had a conversation with some younger men. They are at that point in their life where they are paying attention to how they think and feel. They are trying to lead their hearts and minds in the right direction.
As we spoke, these young men expressed the idea that,
“If we take our faith seriously, it should be the most important thing in the world. I don’t know if it is the most important thing for me. I love my wife and my children. I would die for them. I don’t know if I would die for my faith.”
In the first reading, from Maccabees, we heard about the time that seven brothers and their mother were tortured, and killed. King Antiochus did everything he could to persuade the family to abandon their faith. He used physical and psychological torture, bribes and promises, and the terror of death. None of the sons, or their mother, gave in. All of them died horribly, but they remained faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their hope in the resurrection was so powerful, that they were willing to die horribly.
In the Gospel, we see the Sadducees trying to trick Jesus. The Sadducees were priests, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants. They thought they were smart. They decided for themselves which parts of scripture they would keep, and which to ignore. They got rich by making compromises against their faith so they could get along with their Roman rulers. They were too smart to believe in the resurrection of the dead. They were too smart to believe that God is active in the world. For them, God spoke to Moses, then left people to do whatever they wanted. For them, the law God gave was to help people live a good life. For them, there is nothing after we die. They were too smart to hope. Jesus used the Sadducees’ favorite part of the scripture to explain that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and that yes, there is a resurrection of the dead. Sadly, very few of the Sadducees ever allowed their minds to change.
Sometimes, the disappointments of life tempt us to become like the Sadducees. We are tempted to be too smart to hope, and too cynical to believe. We are tempted to think that the scriptures were good advice for that time, but don’t really apply to us. Or, we decide that Jesus was a good teacher, but not the son of God. Or, we are tempted to fundamentalism, where we reject the teaching of the Apostles and their descendents, and trust only our own understanding. Maybe we decide this life is all there is, and forget about the resurrection.
None of us start out wanting to be cynical and jaded, but, somehow, it happens. Maybe we wanted God to help us, but didn’t get the result we wanted, so we lost faith. Maybe we see evil and suffering in the world around us, and lose hope.
Even if we are jaded and cynical like the Sadducees, in our hearts, that is not who we want to be. We want to hope. We want to believe. We want to be like the family in Maccabees. We don’t want to sell out, we want to love God so much that we are willing to even die for our faith.
But, most of us are not there yet.
I am no different. Like those young men, I want to be willing to die for my faith, but I am not sure my faith, hope, and love are enough. The story of the Maccabees is amazing. It is beautiful. But, it is so far beyond me. My faith, my love, and my hope are not nearly that strong.
You know what?
That’s ok.
It is OK to say that our faith, hope, and love are not enough.
It is better than just OK. It is good.
In the second reading, Saint Paul reminds the Thessalonians that God loves us, encourages us, and gives us hope. God strengthens us, and guards us from the evil one. God wants to direct our hearts to love.
Did you notice that?
God wants to strengthen our faith.
God wants to give us hope.
God wants to direct our hearts to love.
Faith, hope, and love are what we call the theological virtues. They are different from other virtues because they come from God, and they lead us back to God. They are not from ourselves. They are a gift.
Although they are a gift, we can cooperate with God’s desire to make them grow in us.
By thinking about their faith, hope, and love, the young men I mentioned are cooperating with God’s desire to help them grow in those virtues. By openly acknowledging that they are insufficient, these young men are growing in humility and integrity, which are like fertilizer for the virtues God is growing in the soil of their hearts.
One of the young men I mentioned shared that he has begun to understand that loving his kids, even when the kids are super obnoxious, has done two things. First, it has helped him learn to love better. By learning to love better, he doesn’t just love his family better, he loves God better. Second, it has helped him to be more thankful that God loves him, even when he is super obnoxious. He is cooperating with God’s desire to help him grow in love.
God is the god of the universe. God is the god of the Milky Way galaxy. God is the god of our solar system. God is the god of planet Earth. God is the god of the sky, of the sea, of the mountains, of the great rivers, of the vast prairies, of the deserts, of the tundra, of the forests, of the jungles. God is the god of everything.
But God says “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Of all the things God could choose, of all the things about which God could say “I am the God of…” – God chooses Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not perfect. They each failed, in serious ways. But they are men of faith. They keep learning more about God. Abraham learns about God as Father, and the source of fatherhood. Isaac learns what it means to be the son, and through him we get our first clear picture of the sacrifice God will offer – the son of God, Jesus Christ. Jacob struggles. He struggles with God, he struggles with his family, and he struggles with himself. Jacob learns what it is to rely on the Holy Spirit, instead of himself.
And God loves them, and chooses to identify as their God.
We, also, are not perfect.
We, also, fail in serious ways.
We, also, struggle with God, with our families, and with ourselves.
But that is not the end.
That is not the end, because the Father has loved us and given us encouragement and hope. The Father will strengthen us in everything good.
The Lord is faithful. He will strengthen us and guard us from the evil one. The Lord will direct our hearts to the love of God, and to the endurance of Christ. He will encourage us.
Because he loves us.
And God will raise us up on the last day, to live in joyful love with God and with all the Saints, and with all the children of God.
This is our faith.
This is our hope.
This is God’s love.
