Titus 3:8-15; Luke
8:5-15
There is so much
about our culture today that keeps us constantly in a hurry and distracts us
from giving the time and focus that are necessary to flourish as the persons
God created us to become. We want
answers for the deep struggles of our lives with the speed of looking something
up on the internet. We have lost respect
for the many years of preparation that it takes to develop expertise in so many
areas of life. The same is true of our disregard
for the pursuit of wisdom, which typically comes through the long experience of
a life well lived. We must be on guard
against becoming so accustomed to accepting quick, easy, and superficial
answers that we lack the patience necessary to bear good fruit for the Kingdom
of God.
That is why we all
need to concentrate our attention today on commemorating the 367 Holy Fathers
of the 7th Ecumenical Council, which met in Nicaea in 787. The council rejected the false teaching that to
honor icons is to commit idolatry, for it distinguished between the worship
that is due to God alone and the veneration that is appropriate for images of
Christ, the Theotokos, and the Saints.
The council’s teaching highlighted the importance of the Savior’s
incarnation, for only a truly human Savior with a physical body could restore us
to the dignity and beauty of the living icons of God in every dimension of our
existence.
We can be sure
that these matters are not trending on social media or the focus of influencers
who shape popular opinion today. Perhaps
we should take that as a reminder that our faith stands in severe tension with the
unserious culture in which we live. The 7th Ecumenical Council addressed
matters that strike at the very heart of how we embrace our fundamental vocation
to become like God in holiness in a world that so desperately needs the peace
of Christ. Too often, however, we think
that iconography simply has to do with wood and paint and is unrelated to the
question of whether we are becoming more like Christ and gaining the strength
to seek first His Kingdom in the midst of our world of corruption. The icons are not merely religious art, but
reminders that to become a truly human person is to become like Jesus Christ, Who
refused to accommodate His ministry to what was popular and easy in
first-century Palestine. That is why those who worshipped only the
fulfillment of their desires in this world rejected and condemned Him. After bearing their abuse with patience to
the point of death, He rose in glory on the third day.
Today’s gospel
reading addresses what it means to become a beautiful living icon of Christ
with different imagery. In an agricultural
society, Christ used the parable of the sower to call His disciples to become
like plants that grew from the seed that “fell into good soil and grew, and
yielded a hundredfold.” He wanted them
to become “those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good
heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
Not all who hear the Word of God will do so, even as not all seeds will
grow to fruition. Some never even
believe, while others make a good start and then fall away due to temptation or
“are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does
not mature.”
We do not have
to be experienced farmers or gardeners to see that this parable calls us to
fulfill our potential as those who bear the image of God. Our vocation is to become more beautiful living
icons of the Savior, but we diminish and distort ourselves when we refuse to become
who God created us to be. Plants must
grow and flourish as the kinds of plants that they are in order to become
healthy and bear fruit. Farmers must
care for them accordingly. The sun,
soil, moisture, and nutrients must be appropriate for that particular type of
plant in order for them to flourish. In
order for us to bear good fruit for the Kingdom, we must attend to the health
of our souls with the patience and focus of a careful farmer or gardener. We must do so in order to become more fully
who we are as living icons of Christ.
If, to the contrary, we become impatient and distracted for whatever
reason, we will not persist and will become unable to bear good fruit for the
Kingdom.
In today’s
epistle lesson, St. Paul urged St. Titus to tell the people to focus on doing
good deeds and helping others in great need.
He wanted them to avoid foolish arguments and divisions, “for they are
unprofitable and vain.” St. Paul did not
want the people to waste their time and energy on matters that would simply inflame
their passions and hinder them from attaining spiritual health and
maturity. He called them to care for their
spiritual wellbeing with the conscientiousness of farmers who are single-mindedly
dedicated to bringing in a bumper crop. If
they let down their guard to the point of being so consumed by pointless
controversies that they ignored basic disciplines like loving and serving their
neighbors, they would risk dying spiritually like a neglected plant overtaken
by weeds.
If we are to
become “those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart,
and bring forth fruit with patience,” we must refuse to allow distorted desires
of whatever kind to take root in our hearts and minds, regardless of what is
happening in our world, our nation, or our families. We must do the hard, daily work of learning
to trust and hope in the Lord as we mindfully turn away from fueling our
passions and instead invest ourselves in serving the living icons of Christ who
are our neighbors in practical, tangible ways. In order to bear good fruit for
the Kingdom, we must refuse to allow anything to distract us from sharing more
fully in His blessed eternal life. Unless
we struggle mindfully against these temptations, they will easily choke the
life out of our souls. Because our risen Lord has conquered even the grave
through His glorious resurrection on the third day, we must refuse to become enslaved
to our passions, which are all rooted in the fear of death, and instead focus
on becoming more beautiful icons of the Savior. That is the only way to know
true peace in this world.
Contrary to the immediate
gratification that we have come to expect in so many areas of life, to mature to
the point that we bear fruit a hundredfold for the Kingdom will take time. It
will take the patience not only of the passage of time but more importantly of repentance
when we find ourselves distracted and weakened by our passions and fall short
of our calling time and time again. Instead
of abandoning the Christian life when we do not get the results that we want on
our own timetable, we must accept the truth about ourselves with humility and redouble
our efforts to focus on “the one thing needful” of hearing and obeying the Word
of God. (Lk 10:42) We must ground our
daily lives in prayer, fasting, and generosity toward our neighbors in order to
gain the spiritual strength necessary to persevere and refuse to fall into
despair. Following St. Paul’s advice, we
must also take a close look at our lives to see if we are wasting our time,
energy, and attention on “foolish disputes” that simply inflame our passions
and distract us from patiently finding the healing of our souls. It is so easy
to be “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life” to the point that
we never mature and bear good fruit. With
the patient endurance of a careful farmer, let us tend the garden of our souls
each day and refuse to be discouraged by our failures or the appealing distractions
that are all around us. That is the only
way to fulfill our vocation to become beautiful living icons of Christ, the
fully divine and fully human Savior Who has brought life to the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment