G.K. Chesterton said: Christianity is a faith that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. There is a deep truth in these words. Christ isn’t afraid to shake us out of our comfort zone, to call us into a deeper relationship with Him. Any parent knows that sometimes true love is tough love.
The first reading last Sunday concludes that God:
…. granted Wisdom….. thus the paths of those on earth have been straightened and men….saved by Wisdom (cf. Wis 9:13-18).
The Wisdom granted by God is Jesus. He provides the fullness of revelation from God. The Lord has not left us in the dark. The pieces of advice in today’s Gospel really ask the same thing of us, we should be free from all attachments to be able to give ourselves fully to Jesus. We all need the material necessities of life, but we should not let possessions possess our hearts, instead see them as simply a means to the end, our eternal home in Heaven. When God has first place in our lives, we are capable of truly loving others, because love comes from God. The Saints are those who loved God above all things and loved others with that same love. For example, St Teresa of Calcutta when holding a sick baby or nursing a dying person, loved Jesus in that suffering person. She lived a life of total detachment and love.
Prayer is the food to give us strength to follow Jesus in the detached way he asks of us. Prayer is our daily companionship with Jesus and He purifies and strengthens us interiorly to follow Him.
In the second reading we see the close friendship between St Paul and Onesimus who was a runaway slave. St Paul had converted Onesimus and had thus become his spiritual Father. So, this Father’s Day is also a special day for Priests who are spiritual fathers. It is good to call a Priest Father. Jesus is like a great doctor of our souls. He is like a surgeon who uses a scalpel to cut away deep-seated tendencies and the even deeper roots of sin and selfishness. Some pain and sufferings will come to all of us during our lives. Just as a surgeon, has to make certain cuts and inflict pain to remove a cancer or cyst or whatever needs to be removed, Jesus will send crosses to purify and prune us in order for us to become more detached from our own judgements and ideas and bear fruits of holiness. How we respond to the crosses He sends is all important. If we resign ourselves and offer them up, they are invaluable for our growth in holiness and for the good of others, for the cross is salvific. The crosses God sends could be for example, sickness or caring for a sick member of the family, or caring for an elderly parent or suffering injustice due to our religious beliefs. The Saints of the Church longed for crosses because they knew the value of the cross in purifying themselves and in saving souls. In today’s world many people find the cross abhorrent and avoid it at all costs, taking the comfortable path instead. A huge problem in the Catholic Church in our days is poor catechesis, people can’t really love what they don’t know and understand.
Doctor Peter Kreeft, a Catholic philosopher, talks about being a faithful Christian and carrying one’s cross. It is through suffering and sacrifice that Saints are formed. They are formed in the furnace of innumerable trials. This has always been the case going right back to Abraham.
Doctor Kreeft says that the devil has developed a vaccine against religion. A vaccine is a little bit of the virus, but not too much. So, a little bit of religion can make a person resistant to a lot of religion. This vaccine is called: Religion Lite and those who have become immunized say they are spiritual, but not religious. They are cafeteria Catholics, that is, they like to pick and choose what to believe of the Faith and what to reject. They like a little bit of religion but not too much. This is a huge problem in today’s Church where so few attend Sunday Mass. In the 2021 Australian Census 20% of the Australian population identified as Catholics and only 8.2% attend Sunday Mass. These figures have been on a steady downward spiral since the 1970’s. Prior to that the Church in Australia was strong and there were many vocations and flourishing Religious Orders.
When the faith is watered down and stripped of the cross, religion cannot transform us. This is what the devil wants. He wants lukewarmness or religion lite. We all need to be serious about our faith and strive to get rid of the weeds of sin, which grow up around our hearts and steel the nutrients that are meant to feed the virtues such as wisdom, courage and generosity. The sure way to be rid of these weeds is regular Sacramental Confession, at least monthly. Consecration to the Immaculate Heart, daily recitation of the Holy Rosary, Scripture reading, Eucharistic Adoration and making the Holy Mass the centre of your life. This means not just on Sunday Mass but also weekdays where duties permit. Let’s aim for holiness, which is given only to those who earnestly strive for it, through prayer, accepting one’s cross and regular reception of the Sacraments. Two great modern day were canonised today: Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. They are models to emulate and patrons of youth. Let’s ask them to help us aspire to lives of detachment and holiness. Saints Carlo and Pier pray for us!