Laetare Sunday 2014
For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free
From the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians:
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. 24 Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and shout, you who are not in travail;
for the children of the desolate one are many more
than the children of her that is married.” 28 Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now. 30 But what does the scripture say? “Cast out the slave and her son; for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brethren, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. 1 For freedom Christ has set us free;
A continuation of the Holy Gospel According to St. John:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberi-as. 2 And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
This year we have been blessed to participate in a study of the four characteristics of the dynamic Catholic. Matthew Kelly identifies them as prayer, study, generosity and evangelistic fervor. Since this is the fifth Sunday of March, and we have heard about these four, I will be focusing on a fifth characteristic that underlies and supports all four of the others. The dynamic and effective Catholic hates and flees from sin. We cannot become the best version of ourselves, we cannot be images of God as Jesus and Mary were unless we do what we or our parents promised for ourselves in Baptism: avoid sin. Why? St. Paul tells us the reason today–sin is slavery to evil. The more we sin, the more we are attracted to sin, and the less do we get any pleasure out of sin. Ultimately, that sin becomes a vicious habit we feel trapped in. In time, that sin becomes a personal hell on earth.
Why, if we are baptized, confirmed, have received first communion and professed faith in Jesus Christ, why do we sin? The sacraments give us what our first parents lost in the Garden of Eden. They bring us sanctifying grace, a participation in the divine life, that makes us pleasing to God and–because of the sacrifice of Christ which we celebrate every Mass–makes us fit to enjoy eternal happiness in the bosom of Christ. But we are still laboring with the moral effects of Original Sin. We are constantly distracted from the greatest good, God, by lesser goods, and hobbled by our own self-will. We are drawn away from good deeds and toward evil ones that, in our weakened state, seem pleasurable. We have a moral attention span measured in milliseconds. Spiritually, all of us are attention-deficit disordered. That’s why we come to Mass every week, or more often. It’s not because we consider ourselves spiritually wonderful. It’s because we know ourselves to be unbelievably weak, and we need the healing, strengthening power of Christ.
Laetare Sunday, “rejoice” Sunday, is also the Sunday in which our catechumens undergo what is called the “Second Scrutiny.” It sounds serious, and it is. For the men and women petitioning to come into union with us, this is the day of decision. The decision they are asked to make is to love God above all. There is a cost to this decision. It was a cost paid by Abraham, when God asked him to leave home and go to a land he did not know, and even to be willing to part from his only son, so that he might love God above all. The Blessed Virgin Mary made that decision when the angel visited her in Nazareth, and the cost were seven sorrows culminating in the death of her only Son, Jesus. Jesus Himself made that decision in the desert, after forty days of fasting. He heard from the adversary of man that He could have worldly power simply by renouncing the will of His Father, and that’s why after feeding the five thousand with miraculous bread, He fled from those who would force Him to take up that power and make Him king.
We make this decision, to love God above all, at the cost of our very lives. But, when we do, we gain everything that is worthwhile. When we bind ourselves to the will of God, it is not a blind servitude we accept. When we bind ourselves to the Father’s plan for the world, we are set free from the worst slavery possible–indenture to sin.
Today the candidates for full union with the Church hear what we all need to hear: all of us are in need. We are defined by our neediness. We need to develop a sense of sin and a revulsion for sin, a spirit of repentance, and the strength of will to live in freedom. In the prayer we call today’s Tract, David writes “the one who confides in the Lord is like Mount Zion, which is eternally immovable. . .mountains surround Jerusalem. So does the Lord surround His people both now and forever.” The prayers of David suffuse our Liturgy, morning, noon and night. But this great OT saint, described in Scripture as a man after God’s own heart, had what today would be called a sexual addiction. He tried to satisfy that yearning–which is really a fleshly substitute for the need we all have for union with God–with multiple wives. But when yet another woman presented herself immodestly to his vision, he yielded to the worst temptations, to adultery, and, in an attempt to cover up his sin, to murder. He paid for it with a terrible series of family disasters that ended in a kingdom-wide rebellion and the death of two beloved sons. Moreover, his addiction was carried on in the life of his son, Solomon, who had hundreds of wives and concubines and ended his life worshiping false gods with those wives. As David said in his repentance, “my sin is always before me.” With Paul, can’t we all ask “who will free me from this body of death?”
Of course, the answer is the grace of Jesus Christ. That grace is freely available to each of us through the ministry of the Church. For the little sins, our prayers of repentance, and especially frequent reception of the Eucharist will not only bring forgiveness of sin, but a gradual healing of tendencies to sin, of our bad habits. For the mortal sin, remember that there is no moral failing so bad that it cannot be forgiven and healed in confession.
I believe that the grace of Jesus Christ we receive today will also reveal to each of us those occasions of sin that can weaken our moral resolve. Do you gossip–tell tales about the moral failings of others? You know which companions stimulate you to become that kind of storyteller. They are not true friends if they lead you to evildoing. Have an honest discussion with them about the problem, and, if they won’t stop, charitably cut off communications until they do.
Let’s get real. Many men, and even women, have an addiction to pornography. It’s bad enough in itself, but also leads to what we used to call the “solitary sin.” It hurts you and it hurts the men and women it exploits, and it is destroying society. We really need to eliminate them from our homes. I don’t just mean the Playboy rags. There’s a famous “swimsuit issue” of a major publication that is nothing but pornography. TV is showing material with scenes that wouldn’t have passed any code even thirty years ago. A priest asked us at the Catholic Men’s Conference if there is any reason to have any premium channel on our televisions. I’ll ask you the same question. Books, video games, Internet sites need to be screened and taken out of your field of vision, and that of your children. Use the discernment that God has given you, and replace these sights and sounds with ones that will help you become the best version of yourself.
I can’t pretend that any of this is easy. I can’t find in my research any saint, canonized or not, that had it easy. But the rewards, in this life and certainly the next, are uncountable. You will be a better husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, employee. Your home and workplace will be more compatible with your spiritual welfare. And our society, now mired in corruption and self-absorption, can be made again an environment in which it is safe to raise children. The inexhaustible grace of the Man of Sorrows can make, if we cooperate, every day a Laetare Sunday.
