Homily

There is an English professor of ancient Roman history, named Mary Beard, who has a four-part video documentary on the history of Rome. I like her presentation, but for the most part it seems she simply admires the ancient Romans and their culture, rather than also talking about the dark and de-humanizing elements of Roman life.

In the last video about the fall of Rome, she speaks of Christianity. She says that it is hard to know what was going on with the death of Jesus. Professor Beard tells us that the story of Jesus’ crucifixion “has been rewritten, reinterpreted and embroidered ever since His death.” Then she goes on to explain that after Jesus’ death “He was reinvented as the founding symbol of a new religion which attracted followers widely across the empire.”

Yet she never offers an explanation as to why this faith attracted followers so widely across the empire. She mentions of St. Paul and his travel and the letters he wrote to the churches in different cities. “Not all of it is entirely to my taste,” she says, as she reads from 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. “‘Man is the head of woman,’ Paul says. That’s never going to be my motto.” Of course not. But she doesn’t read the whole verse which says, “But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and a husband the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ.” She assumes Paul means that husband is better than, superior to his wife, but if that is true then it must also be that God is better than Christ according to this verse.

Of all the verses she could pick, even from 1 Corinthians, why this one? Why not 13:3? “If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” Professor Beard does not explain what Christians thought about themselves. Instead, she offers her interpretation of the Christian faith, and her own ideas about who Jesus is. I don’t think that is good enough for history.

Think of the kontakion for the feast of Theophany: You have revealed Yourself to the world today, and Your light, O Lord, has shined upon us. We recognize You and exclaim to You: “You have come and revealed Yourself, O Inaccessible Light.”

The most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is revealed at the baptism of Christ in the Jordan river. Jesus is revealed as true God, Son of the Father, and yet it is so very difficult for people to fully understand this revelation. It must have seemed impossible to believe that this man standing in the Jordan waters could be God Himself and in that inability to believe and understand this revelation, people loved and followed the Lord and people hated and despised the Lord all through His earthly ministry. Only after His resurrection and the gift of Pentecost could His followers fully grasp and understand what was shown to them at His baptism. No longer did they rely on their own ideas of who Jesus is. Instead, they could recognize Him as He truly is, just as the kontakion tells us. And they carried that understanding with them out into the whole world, even as we believe today.

Jesus understood how people would misunderstand Him and His teaching and that’s why He established the Church, a living body, His own body, that would believe, hold on to and spread His truth. And this is what the Church has done for 2,000 years. But it’s not an easy job. Right off the bat there were people who wanted to believe a Jesus according to their own terms. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul criticizes those believers when he writes, “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”

The early Church not only had to struggle against enemies on the outside, it even had to struggle with the wrong and false ideas of some people within the Church. It’s been that way since the very beginning as we read in the New Testament, and it’s been that way ever since, as we read in history. But the Church has never backed down from its divine mission to carry on the truth that was revealed at the baptism of Christ and the truth that He taught to His apostles and disciples, and the truth that is confirmed by the Holy Spirit Who safeguards the message of the Gospel. Many throughout history have tried to change that truth, but the Body of Christ could never turn against it.

Today, as in every age, there are people who reject the truth of the Gospel, not only those outside the Church, but also those inside. For those inside there are different reasons for not living in the truth. For some it is ignorance, for others it is the arrogance and pride of people who believe their understanding is superior to the teaching of the Church. But I think the largest group of those who fail to live by Christ’s truth is made up of people who think it’s too difficult and too inconvenient. They simply ignore what they do not like in Christ’s teaching and go their own without another thought. And, sadly, today it is considered bad form to ever try and help such souls come back to full faith. For many people it is completely acceptable to reject some of the teachings of Christ, but totally unacceptable for other people to reject their acceptance of wrong thinking and sin.

How many times I have heard the accusations made against people who stand up for the truth and for goodness, that they instead are unloving and hateful people. Under the strain of these accusations, we see people fold and give in to the wrong ideas and behaviors of other people. And it has to be said that we sometimes excuse ourselves from certain truths of the loving law of Christ because it’s easier, or less stressful or more pleasurable for the moment. As Christians it’s part of our daily duty to follow Christ according to His commandments, even though it is not always easy to do so. St. John tells us in his letter,

“For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.”

We fall short in living according to Christ’s revelation and His commandments, but let us not give up trying to be more faithful, and drawing closer to the Lord. Let us ask for pardon and for grace so that we can stand in the world as great witnesses to love of Christ for all of the human race, by loving God as we keep His commandments.