Fr. Callistus Homily

GOD'S LOVE IS BOTH UNIVERSAL AND PERSONAL

When my parents visited a couple of months ago, we were invited over for dinner by a wonderful family that I have been friends with for about four years. When we arrived and sat down their dog, Abby got all excited and was everywhere around us, my Parent touch her, they let Abby lick their fingers but I did not,  Don’t get me wrong, I love animals, I have had a dog before but I just was not comfortable with them licking my hands and face. Our host looked at me and said Callistus, In America when people say they love people, then they must love their animals also.  Friends, the reason I shared this experience with you is that everyone is created by God; everyone is loved into existence by God.  Consequently, when we say we love God then we too must love everyone he created in his image and likeness.   

In today’s Gospel, we hear that Jesus had been asked to name one commandment, but then he listed two. The shrewd Pharisees would have noticed this. In listing two commandments, Jesus was pointing out that you cannot separate loving God from loving one's neighbor. That's exactly what many of the Pharisees did every single day. God is our Creator and Savior; his love is both universal and personal, He loves the whole of Human race, but he loves us individually.  He loves every single human being so much that he gave his life on the cross to pay the price for each person's sin, to open the gates of heaven to every single person who is willing to follow him. If someone truly loves God with all their heart, it would be a contradiction not to treat one's neighbors - those very people whom God loves and suffered to save - with sincere and self-sacrificing respect. The old saying applies above all to God: A friend of yours is a friend of mine.

THE EXAMPLE OF ST. GREGORY

We see this truth; the truth of God’ love vividly at work in the lives of the saints, who gradually learned that Christian love is much more about what we decide to do than about what we happen to feel. A remarkable saint in this regard is Pope Gregory the Great, who died in the year 604 after 13 years in the papacy. He organized an army of volunteers to go through the streets of Rome daily to tend the sick, feed the poor, and place homeless families on farms around the city, which were leased to them for three generations. Every day, Pope Gregory fed twelve poor pilgrims, whom he insisted on serving himself. One day when he entered the dining room to feed his guest pilgrims, he counted thirteen pilgrims instead of twelve. When he asked about the extra guest, his astonished steward insisted that they only had the usual number. "I am sure I see thirteen!" the Pope insisted. As the meal progressed, Gregory noticed that the face of this extra guest kept changing: first it looked young, then the same face would suddenly look middle aged, then old, and back and forth. When he could stand the mystery no longer, Pope Gregory drew the strange man aside and asked him who he was. The stranger answered, "I am the angel whom God sent to you to prove your charity. Now, do not fear... God has sent me to be your guardian... Whatever you ask will be granted you through me."

CHRIST OUR MODEL FOR LOVE

            Similarly, the courage and self-forgetfulness of Christian love is most fully exemplified by Christ himself. He is our model of how to love God and love neighbor. First he left the comfort of heaven to come and be with us in this fallen, pain-filled, difficult world. Then he who had created the entire universe lived for thirty years in poverty and humility, making a living through manual labor. Next, he who was all-powerful allowed his enemies to humiliate him, unjustly condemn him, scourge him, crown him with thorns, and nail him to a cross. None of these experiences filled him with the delightful emotions or the warm fuzzy feelings we usually associate with love. They were hard for his human nature. They made him sweat blood and experience the deepest pits of sorrow and fear, as all the evangelists remind us in their accounts of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Let this cup pass me” My God My God why have you forsaken me”. Christ's entire career is an icon of what true love looks like in a sin-filled world: it is all about self-giving, and not at all about self-indulgence.

            This is why our Church; St. Mark has puts before our eyes this impressive image of the crucifix very visibly on our altar.   This is why when we came into church today, we signed ourselves with the Cross, this is why we started the Mass with the sign of Cross and we will end our Mass with the sign of the Cross. It is the symbol of God’s love for us.  It is the image of love, of Christ's love for us, and of the path we must follow to learn to love like him; a path that requires lasting courage more than passing emotions. This is the only path that leads to the joy we long for at the end of our life’s journey.

            Jesus himself told us, in the Acts of the Apostles; "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" (Acts 20:35). St Therese of Lisieux filled with love wrote, "Jesus flooded the darkness of my soul with torrents of light... Love filled my heart, I forgot myself, and henceforth I was happy."

STEPS TO LOVING BETTER

Love is what will fill our hearts and give our lives the meaning we so passionately long for: true, Christ-like love. There is no shortcut to learning Christ-like love. It's like learning to swim - you really have to jump into the water and get wet. The Holy Spirit is a great instructor, but he cannot make any progress unless we are willing to take the risk of diving in. So the first thing we need to do is to tell God that we sincerely want to follow his commandments and love like him - this is how we love God, by wanting what we wants. Holy Communion is the perfect time to make or renew this commitment. But after deciding to take the risk, we have to make sure there is nothing blocking God's grace inside of us, because without that grace, we can't make any progress.

The second step to loving like Christ is making frequent use of the sacrament of confession - God's power-washing system. Once we have decided to do our best and made sure that no sins are sapping our supernatural strength, we are ready to get to work. This kind of work is very simple but not easy. It starts by treating those people closest to us with sincere respect and kind attention. I absolutely agree that it is very hard to love some people whose ideas and beliefs differ from ours. I have struggled with loving our Muslim brothers and sisters because as a child growing up, all I saw them do was persecute Christians, burn down our churches in Northern Nigeria where my family resided at that time. I began loving them only with the help of God’s Grace. Brothers and sisters, we too could disagree with people in their political, moral or religious beliefs and still love them. But we must realize that this is possible with the help of God’ Grace.  We have to start with those close to us - with our family members, coworkers, teammates and classmates. The path of Love requires us to put God first others second and self third. (EPriest Website was very helpful in preparing this Homily)

Wednesday, Nov1st Is All Saints Day. The Day when we Celebrated the lives of the saints, I would like you to consider attending one of our Masses.

Thursday Nov. 2^nd is all Souls day. It is the day when we pray for all our loved ones who have passed.

There is also a Men’s Conference coming up soon, signup sheets are in the Narthex.