Damned if you do

September 18th was the ninth anniversary of my ordination. Since I work with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary I asked if I might assist at mass. Fr. Shawn agreed and suggested that I preach. The post that follows is my homily from that day. It is on the gospel of the day, Luke 7:31-35.

 

 

The phrase “you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t” must have come from this gospel.  Jesus describes to his detractors their own hypocrisy, and to his followers, then and now, the cost of discipleship.

 

To be a Christian, to listen to the will of God, to live the life and walk the walk, to be the prophet proclaiming good news to a world not willing to listen, brings with it a measure of sacrifice.  If we follow Christ we can expect to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered and in some cases killed.

How we react to persecution, regardless of how subtle or how overt, is the true test of our faith. As that first reading tells us, “we must know how to behave in the household of God.” We must know how to behave as HIS children not fighting evil with evil, fire with fire but overcoming evil with good, hatred with love, hard-heartedness with forgiveness; to speak out for Christ, to cry out for justice in an unjust society without regard of the cost.

In 404 AD an Egyptian monk named Telemachus visited Rome and the Coliseum. He was appalled at the savagery and the bloodshed that he witnessed in those Gladiatorial games. As an eyewitness to the injustice of it all he was moved to cry out for it to stop “in the name of Christ.” The crowd became enraged and he was stoned to death right there.

Three days later the Emperor Honorius stopped the gladiatorial games for good.

Speaking out that day as the Lord’s prophet in the Coliseum; being the  voice of one “crying out in the wilderness,” cost Telemachus his life, yet in doing so he defeated evil with good and saved countless other men their lives in that very arena and others arenas throughout the empire.

As we are fed by God’s word and by his precious body and blood let us go forth from this place today courageous as lions but gentle as lambs changing the world by proclaiming to all who will listen the love of God poured out to all humanity in Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord. And let us do so regardless of the cost.