Homily for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Jesus told his disciples a parable,
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thorn bushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.”-Luke 6:39-45
From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
There could scarcely be an image more fundamental and inclusive of all reality, created and uncreated, than this simple parable of a single sentence offered us by the Savior. These few words tell us about the inner life of God and of his outer work of creation; they tell us of the life and destiny of the spiritual beings he created in his image. The book of Genesis presents God speaking into being the world of men and angels and all the lesser creation, and then perfecting it by declaring it all very good. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made.” “He spoke and they came to be,” says the psalmist.
Yet there is a speaking from the heart that is even deeper, and infinitely so, than the vast expanses of created being, whether material or spiritual. St. John’s Gospel tells us that this mysterious procession—the speaking of a word—is the best way that God could find to express to us his own, inner, uncreated life. The infinite life of God in the Blessed Trinity is revealed as not created but eternally expressed: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So even before creation, God the Father eternally expresses his being, life, and knowledge by speaking the Word, his only-begotten Son, and recognizing him and his perfect reflection in his breathing-out the Holy Spirit. Good fruit indeed from the depth of the heart of the “One who alone is good” spoken from all eternity!
This is the deepest structure of all things whatsoever: a truthful speaking and a recognition of the lovable goodness of the truth: “Let there be… and God saw that it was good.” “This is my beloved Son in whom I delight.”
But there is still more, something that not only shows us God and his reflection in his intelligible, lovable creation, but that takes this loving reflection to what is for us an unimaginable extreme.
Genesis tells us that God made man in his image and likeness. St. Peter tells us that we have been made sharers in the divine nature by grace (2 Pet. 1:4). This means that not only are we created and loved by God through his word as his creatures, but that in a mysterious way we possess by our union with him by grace, by our adoption as his sons and daughters, an uncreated life!
This means, as St. Paul tells us, that before the world began, before all creation, we were already in God, in his Word as predestined to share his own life, to be partakers of his divinity. What this means is really hidden from us in this life in much the same way as the infinite, ineffable life of God is hidden from us.
The apostle tells us, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, what we shall later be has not come to light.” Our deepest, truest identity is hidden even from our own hearts. Paul tells us, “Your life is hidden in God.”
It is normal enough for a Christian to understand the life of heaven as seeing God as he is in his essence: the beatific vision. Has it occurred to us, however, that our entry into the sight of God in the Blessed Trinity will also be the first time that we actually meet our own selves as we truly are, coming from the infinite, loving designs of God?
All of the blessed in heaven, from Our Lady to all the rest, have had this experience of seeing themselves proceeding from the infinite creative Word of God and being given a real share in his divine life. We were created out of nothing by the Word of God, and we will have the thrill of perceiving what that means, and loving all of it for evermore.
Truly there are great mysteries in our religion, but there are mysteries not yet revealed which it will be our great joy to behold as we share in the life of the Father and his Word in the unifying embrace of the all-good Spirit.
How are we to guarantee our entry into this amazing life? Well, we must heed Our Lord’s warning in today’s Gospel to be humble and truth-telling in our judgments, not accusing our brethren and using our power of speech only to reveal “the good things men need to hear.” The Savior tells us that not a single idle word will go unexamined; that’s a bracing and fearsome prospect when we consider all the idle or even evil words we may have spoken! In our power of judgment and speech we mirror the divine image, so it is a terrible thing to misuse this power, an irreverence for the icon of God that we are meant to be.
Glory be to the Word of God who has revealed to us such good things, such holy and deep mysteries, but who at the same time has shown us that these mysteries have everything to do with the simplest concrete duties of our charity to each other. Let us ponder all this in the depths of the heart of the Savior as we prepare these last few days for a Lent full of good fruits!