Sunday homily: What kind of Christian are you? There’s an ancient practice of putting Christians into three groups: beginners, intermediate, and advanced. It’s not just a Christian practice, but we do this in other areas. If you go skiing, they ask “what kind of skier are you?” The beginners run the hills the green circles, the intermediate take the blue square hills. Then comes the black diamond hill: it’s the most exciting, the most exhilarating run. So it’s only for the advanced. Did you know that God wants all of us to be ‘black diamond’ Catholics? We’re not all there yet, are we? We recognize that the biggest group is beginners. Many Catholics only make their run at Mass when it snows, during Christmas time. It’s no surprise. If we don’t believe that the living Jesus, true God and true man, comes to meet me personally at each Sunday Eucharist, then we’re barely getting started; we’re beginners. So there’s a big difference between where we are and where God wants us. And where does he want us? He wants us to be advanced, black diamond Catholics. He been wanting that for years, even from the days of the Old Testament. Back then he had Moses give the message: Don’t stay beginners. Love me with all you’ve got. Here is how he said it in the book of Deuteronomy: “This is the first commandment, ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength!’” There is God telling us: you’ve got to be an advanced disciple. Wow. God has bigger plans for me than I have for myself. So how do we get there? How do we become ‘black diamond’ Catholics? It’s not just age, or experience. We know this; we’ve met old people who aren’t saints, but experienced sinners. It’s not too late, let’s pray for them and help them finish this life well. And we’ve met young people, who are filled with holiness. They have very few years, but are very close to Christ. Let’s help them stay close to the end of their lives. If it’s not age or experience, what about knowledge. Does knowing a lot about God make you an advanced Christian? No. And I tell this as someone who knows a lot about God, because I have studied about him for years. But there is a big difference between knowing about God and knowing God himself. I have so much to learn. It’s like a parent who takes a child to the doctor. The doctor knows a lot about the child, but the parent knows the child. They love that child and are experts. Then maybe love is what makes us advanced Christians. Almost, but not quite. We can love wrongly, we can love badly. This is what we call sin. We can love our sins more than God. And that is the reason why we don’t become the advanced Christians God wants us to be. We settle for less, instead of seeking God more and more. And there’s the answer to how to become an advance Christian: First, you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to want Christ, more than anything. Listen to St. Josemaria talk to us about this: You tell me, yes, that you want to. Very good: but do you want to as a miser longs for gold, as a mother loves her child, as a worldling craves for honours, or as a wretched sensualist seeks his pleasure ? No? Then, you dont want to. (The Way 316) So let’s want it, really want to be an advanced Christian. Let’s tell the Lord now: “Today, Lord, I want it. Make me a black diamond Christ. Who would expect it? I’m the worst you have to work with. So I’ll be your greatest miracle.” That’s the start: the desire: It moves us from sinner to beginner, from beginner to intermediate, and keeps on moving us until we’re advanced: experts in knowing and loving and serving God. We want it because Christ wants it. He’s been trying to draw us up higher for years. We can spend years moping around on the bunny hills of life; so we forget about the exhilarating adventure of being a ‘black diamond’ Christian. And because we forget so easily and so often, Christ has to repeat this message throughout history. He complained to St. Margaret Mary, that his Heart loves us so much, yet we love him so little in return. And if only we turned back to his Heart, what would we find? “Sinners will find in my Heart the source and an infinite ocean of mercy. Lukewarm souls will become fervent. Fervent souls will quickly rise to great perfection.” (revelation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary) Right there in the Heart of Christ, coming in a few moments to you at this Mass, within your reach, we find room for the beginner, the intermediate, and the advanced. And so Christ is proclaimed today, just as Philip did years ago. Now we pray to receive the Holy Spirit, as Peter and John did years ago. Come Holy Spirit!
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 14:14:06 +0000