Homily

The faith that St. Paul preached, the Christian faith, was extraordinarily different than the other religions in the ancient world he lived in. Because the Christian religion taught that the highest and most important virtue a person can have in life is love. I will leave Judaism out of this comparison with other religions as a special case, and no time to discuss that now. But all the other religions of all the many peoples and nations of the known world would have found this teaching of Christ to be extraordinarily strange and something completely new and different. Although sometimes you might find some reference to some people who might declare that they loved a particular god, the gods themselves did not bear any love for those who worshipped them. They only asked that people honor them and sacrifice to them, and if they were in a good mood and looked kindly on your faithful petition and offering, they might grant your request. Or not. It would never cross the mind of most pagan worshippers to think they should love their gods. Serve them, honor them, pray to them, yes. But the gods, as a rule, never sought the love of human beings because that would be too intimate, too familiar, and too close of a relationship between the divine and the mortal. Love brings people closer to one another, it unites them in heart and mind and purpose. How can a god be a god if he or she does not stand high up, above the ability to be united with mortal men in any kind of bond of love, or even the idea that a god could or would lower himself to have such a relationship with mere mortals? It's the separation, the great divide between the divine and the human that makes a god a god!

The pagan gods sometimes took human form and interacted with people for specific reasons. But what a strange and unheard of thing to be told that Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, came down from heaven, and walked among men and women, not to be honored and worshipped while He did so, not to achieve something for himself, but instead to teach people how they ought to live. And, even stranger to pagan ears, to hear that Jesus became a man not to receive the sacrifices of the people, but instead to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. That He would declare His love for all people and bind Himself to such a relationship with mere human beings would have been something they could never imagine on their own. To declare that love would be the most striking element, the greatest virtue in the lives of His followers was something truly shocking for those who worshipped Zeus or Dionysius.

In today's epistle, St. Paul reminds the Romans of this greatest of all virtues, "Let love be sincere...." And please notice the dynamic type of love St. Paul writes about. Today when most people speak of love, they talk about it as a quality or feeling that they possess for another person. When someone says, "I love you," they typically mean that they carry within themselves an affection, a love for the other person. It's something I carry, I bear, I hold within me. That's not St. Paul's description. For him, Christian love in any way, shape, or form is not found in what a believer holds within himself, but it is shown by what a believer does. Love is not seen in what you carry, but in what you give of yourself. It is active, dynamic, full of energy and focus and always a pouring out, not a "holding onto" kind of love.

Notice how he describes love in the epistle today (and a little beyond today's reading): be mutually loving to each other as if family members, showing honor to one another and be the first one willing to show this honor. Contribute whatever you can to those who are in need, practice hospitality, don't treat people differently because of their social status or any other mark of difference. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, and do not think you are wiser or higher than any of your brothers or sisters in faith. And even more than this, do not repay evil for evil but try to live for all that is noble and honorable. Don't curse those who persecute you. And let me say, please notice that it would be one thing if St. Paul stopped there: don't curse those who persecute you. But notice he goes on. It's not enough just to courageously bear the hurts of your persecutors; you should also bless them! He says it twice: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them." St. Paul is not teaching that we can never stand up for ourselves or for our just rights. Of course we can. But even as we do so, we must offer a blessing even for those who seek to harm us, because the strength of God's love which has been given to us can only show its power when it is poured out, as Christ poured Himself out for all mankind, for all sinners, as unworthy as we are.

Even as St. Paul was writing to the Romans, the old pagan order was already doomed, for the followers of Christ were beginning to fill up the world with their love for the true and living God, and their active, dynamic, and life-changing love for their neighbors. That love was shown heroically by the martyrs, but that love was also exercised by regular ordinary Christian people, people like you and me. We live in a time when our faith is often scorned, our values and morals are rejected and our outlook on life is seen as medieval. But just as the pagan world was transformed by the love of Christ and His Church, so too can our current secular culture be changed by this same love which we bear for Him, and this same love which we do, which we do, for others. Let us practice at home so we're also ready to act in charity outside our home. It's a great little section to reflect upon, so I urge you to read Romans 12, verse 6 and read to the end of the chapter. And may it bring us encouragement to act in that love, for He has loved us, even in our sins.