ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

High Mass, Trinity XV

Fr Ivan Aquilina

“Father, it is very difficult to be a believer in this day and age, more than it ever was before”. I hear this statement quite often. I tend to pause after it. It is a statement that is part true and part false. It is difficult to be a believer, true. But it is as difficult as it always was, no more no less.

Our first reading comes from the book of Wisdom. This was the last book to be written in the Old Testament collection of books, some fifty years before the birth of Our Lord. It was written in Egypt, and it was written for a purpose. The Jews in Egypt were surrounded by pagans. They were living in a new society; conquests in science were opening up to people the beauty and mystery of the world. They were surrounded by a variety of philosophical systems and religions that offered alternative outlooks on the meaning of life. These Jews were surrounded by a cosmopolitan and individualistic mentality in which scepticism and dissatisfaction with traditional ideas was the order of the day. For the Jews of Egypt this produced a real crisis of Faith, which faith many Jews silently abandoned replacing it with paganism, secular philosophies or superficial versions of their own making. Does not this sound painfully familiar?

If the Book of Wisdom was written in a context similar to ours as a response of Faith we might well want to listen to it attentively and see what we can learn from it. The text placed by the Church in front of us today is very telling. It shows us why the believer is unpopular at best and at times persecuted. On a superficial level the believer is seen as an obstacle to progress. Looking beyond the surface the believer is seen as a reproof because of the way of life. The believer is constantly tested and the response will show the strength of the believer’s faith. This happened to Jesus and it must happen to us, those believers who feel that they are not tested, from within and without, they should start worrying. So our response to our culture is to be one of faithfulness to our calling, as St James puts it: “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”

Today’s gospel unites us with Jesus as he starts his final journey towards Jerusalem. Our Lord predicts his own passion, in fact for the second time. For the new disciples this is hard, human nature tends to push aside what is hard, so they do not understand or do not want to understand. This is shown in the fact that as soon as Jesus predicts his passion the disciples start an argument which shows them miles away from the path that he is pointing to. Jesus responds patiently, he sits down and starts again; he teaches that his followers do things differently from the world. In his kingdom the greatest is the servant. Leadership is exercised in service. To drive the point home Jesus places a child in the midst of them. Why a child? In the culture of Jesus a child had no legal status; a child was helpless: equal to a servant. Jesus asks his followers to receive in his name an insignificant person without any hope of reward. If we receive such a person than we will receive God, as Wisdom says, the God we boast to call Father. We are than called to a life of service which consists of self-denial that goes all the way to Calvary. However as we act and live in his name than even the most difficult struggle becomes a source of grace or as George Herbert tells us, drudgery becomes divine.

Indeed the Christian life is difficult to live. The author of the letter of James knew this. The new Christian community was experiencing this and reflecting upon it. This letter of James is part of that reflection. One of the responses offered by St James is spiritual warfare: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you”. Such resistance is made up of faith, prayer, fasting and peace. James also calls us to humility and to the purity of Wisdom from above: a life free from jealousy or selfish ambition.

We live in the world but do not belong to it; we enhance it by our life and contribute to it by constantly pointing to our heavenly city, by living the life of Faith always open to reason.

When the going gets tough and understanding is difficult James exhorts us to joy, endurance and a faithful response to the God that grants us freedom. We are really free when we are faithful to God and renounce any compromise with the apparent wisdom of this fleeting world. We are to draw near to God and He will draw near to us, and if God is with us who can be against us?