Sermon for the third Sunday after Epiphany
(with the commemoration of the feast of the
Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle)
Today is the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany but the Church also remembers the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul so I’d like to mention something about conversion, but particularly about how to achieve a true conversion, personally and for others, WHICH IS THE ESSENCE OF THE MISSION AND OF THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN BEING IN THIS WORLD: A “Conversio ad Deum et aversio a creaturis".
In today´s lesson we heard that St. Paul says an interesting phrase, that can seem enigmatic if we don’t look at the context: “But, if your enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head” (Romans 12:20).
“You will heap coals of fire upon his head”? What did St. Paul mean with this phrase? Well, in order to understand it we should go back to the Old Testament, to Isaias 6:6-7. In those verses we read: “And one of the Seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed”. Here we can see that the live coal that touched the lips of the Prophet provided purification. And that is a key factor we must take into account if we want to understand how to achieve a true conversion (again, personally and for others).
If we read the aforementioned verses in a superficial way we can think that the burning coals were a punishment, but, going deeply into the catechetical meaning of the text we can notice that they are actually more along the lines of burning off the impurity, and that by the action of STANDING STILL AND PERSEVERING IN DOING WHAT IS RIGHT even during the sufferings, persecutions and challenges that evil can cause us, we can change every day, for the better, the life of others and our own lives, which is precisely the root of true conversion (a permanent movement toward God, so we would be able to say, together with St. Paul: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
By growing in detachment and reacting with integrity, we can change for the better our own lives and the lives of our enemies.
Detachment. What an important concept! It is a fundamental characteristic of holiness. It helps us to focus ourselves on what is important, that “optimam partem” which Our Lord told Martha that was the NECESSARY ONE, and that St. John the Baptist pointed with his finger saying: “Ecce Agnus Dei” "Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui”. Without detachment, men become another Cain, an עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה, words that describes the pursuit of Cain´s life, which is traditionally translated as “tiller of the ground,” but contextually can be understood as a “servant” or “slave of the ground”, that is, of all material things.
Now, integrity is another important concept! Especially for a Christian! It´s so profound an ideal that requires an entire lifetime to engrave it in our hearts, and that -at the same time- can vanish so easily from our souls if we don’t make the daily effort of maintaining it; if we don’t take the daily challenges of life as opportunities for training it.
But what is integrity? It´s fundamentally unicity. Wholeness. Integration of every aspect of the soul in opposition to what the world constantly tries to cause in people´s lives: A SEPARATION, FRAGMENTATION, DICHOTHOMY in the innermost aspect of the human being. Not in vain is Satan also called “the devil”, a word that comes from the Greek, διάβολος / διαβάλλω which originally meant “the one that throws across” “the one that separates.” His most common temptation is the temptation to lie, to live in duplicity, in falsehood. That is why he is also called the “Father and Prince of Lies”. Therefore, he puts all his efforts into making human beings accustomed to being one person with some people and another person with others, to the point where even their own souls become fragmented. This fragmentation is the cause of so many evils for the children of Adam, evils of both a spiritual and a moral nature.
So, the pursuit of integrity is a fight we have to put in practice every day of our lives, not only in the apparently most decisive moments of our lives, like, for instance, those concrete moments when the martyrs of ancient times refused to burn even one grain of incense to false gods, but also in those small moments of life, even in the most intimate movements of our conscience and thoughts, because those thoughts become our words; and then those words become our actions; and those actions become our habits; and our habits become our character; and our character becomes our destiny, which means the place we are going to end. As Our Blessed Father St. Alphonsus said: “When the tree is cut down, where does it fall? It falls on the side to which it leans.”
Integrity is also the most elegant quality of a person. Integrity is the central part of what honorable people used to called “class”. Integrity also means that, even if you have the possibility to steal, you don’t steal, it means that if you’re walking down the street and the sidewalk is narrow, you step off and say, “Excuse me.” Integrity means that even when you’re paying the bill at a restaurant, you say “thank you” when the waiter brings the bill and then you leave a tip, and when he gives you the change, you say “thank you” again. When a person has that attitude, a person is truly elegant and truly rich.
In the Gospel of today we see Christ touching a leper and curing him. Also, listening to the pleas of a pagan and granting his wish. These are two great examples of the charity God had for humanity, charity that was precisely a demonstration of the forgiveness that brings true conversion, which is precisely why Christ said: “And I tell you that many will come from the east and from the west and will feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). The teachers of the law taught that God was immutable, that God never changes nor moves, but… How much did Our Lord move! How much did He annihilate Himself to descend from heaven to share with us the joys and troubles of this earthly life! How much did Jesus walk the dusty streets of Nazareth giving us the greatest example of detachment that ever existed! “Paulo minus ab angelis”, my dear Lord! “Paulo minus ab angelis” you have made man, but Christ, the man par excellence and the first fruit of mankind was also “made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor: that, through the grace of God, He might taste death for all”. Ergo, even if we are also “Paulo minus ab angelis” we are called in this life to detach ourselves from everything that keep us from letting Christ grow in us: That’s the true conversion.
“Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” said St. Paul, the former killer of Christians. St. Paul, who has so much to teach us about true conversion!
How can we not forgive our enemies from our hearts if the very Son of God forgave those who hated Him right at the moment He was expiring?
And, if that is so difficult, at least we must do it by showing, then, that we can still persevere in good work even with all the difficulties, challenges and envy around us. That´s also what it means: “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Yes, that certainly is a coal that really burns a lot over the head and ultimately moves to conversion, because true conversion is a task for a lifespan, where the “distacco” (as St. Alphonsus said) is the best way to fulfill the purpose of life which is that “He must increase, but I must decrease”.
