The Love Of Christ Conquers The Storms Of The World – 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; June 23, 2024

Modern man loves the beach and the ocean, but to the ancient Israelite the sea was a symbol of chaos and evil. Chaos and evil are opposed to goodness and order. Note well that “order” is inseparable from goodness and goodness from order, not a man-made, imposed order, but the order established by God through his work of creation and redemption.

In the physical universe there can be an appearance of disorder because we cannot grasp the purpose of such things as tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes, but we can grasp enough of the order of the universe to sense that everything must somehow fit in and have its place.

In the moral universe, sin consists of a disordered will, a will that chooses some apparent good over the true good, a will that is disordered in its priorities setting the lower above the higher, or a will that rejects the higher good for fear of losing a lower good.

The book of Job shows us the righteous Job, in the midst of suffering, questioning God, the God of right order and justice, about why he allows physical suffering and moral evil.

Today’s 1^st reading comes from the final chapters of the book in which God answers Job. We can sum up the answer as: “I am”, so trust me; I have created all things and provide for them, so trust me; I put a limit on evil and make it serve my purposes, so trust me. The third point is the hardest to grasp and accept, but it is guaranteed by the first two, God’s existence, might, and providence.

That is the message of the Old Testament, but today’s 2^nd reading, building on that foundation, gives us, in summary form, a much more powerful message: The love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

The love of Christ unites everything in the highest order, the order of all things to God; it is the bond of perfection. (Col 3:14) As the human heart, hidden in the body, draws life-giving oxygen from the lungs and pumps it to the whole body, so the love of Christ is the heart of our spiritual life, drawing in through prayer the grace of the Holy Spirit, the life-giver, and allowing that grace to transform our actions from within.

Head and heart must be united. So faith, which receives the teaching of Christ, the head of the body, the Church, must direct our actions, but that faith must be vivified by the love of Christ. Poor heart health impedes the functioning of the brain; a dead heart means a dead brain. When the heart dies, the body dies, the soul departs, and the order of life begins to disintegrate, the body decays and falls apart.

Yet, without faith there is no charity, there is no love of Christ, for how can we love him, unless we believe in him, the Son of God made man.

Further, for this message to impact our lives we must indeed be convinced that Christ died for all, and that includes each one in particular, which means that we must also be convinced that we needed Christ to die for us.

So long as someone thinks, “I am basically a good person so God will have mercy on me,” or “Yes, I commit sins, but it really isn’t that bad, why should God care about it,” or “why should I be involved with the sins of others, why should I have to suffer because of the sin of Adam,” then he will have no reason to think that Christ needed to die for all. Christ’s death on the Cross will make no sense, while his call to follow him on the way of the Cross will be repulsive.

To put it simply, if I think that I don’t need a Savior, then I will have no need for Christ, the Savior. If I think that I have no need of redemption, then I will have no need for Christ, the Redeemer.

Curiously, many people today talk about Christ, say they love Jesus, declare themselves to be Christian, but do not seem to think that they have any need for a Savior or Redeemer. Rather God is their nice friend who loves them just the way they are, so there is no need to confess their sins or change their life. Well, if that is the case, then despite your words, you do not know Jesus, because Jesus is the Savior, it is indeed the very meaning of his name. The angel said to St. Joseph, You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. (Mt 1:21)

Even the Immaculate Virgin Mary was redeemed and saved, for in view of the death of Christ and her relation to him, she was prevented from ever being touched by sin, prevented from falling, though by rights, as a daughter of Adam, she should have fallen. The gift of her Immaculate Conception does not mean that she was not redeemed, rather it was the most perfect manner of redemption. Christ died for all, even for his Mother, to preserve her from sin.

Thus far shall you come but no farther, here shall your proud waves be stilled. By God’s command the tide of evil and sin stopped at the feet of the Blessed Virgin and never touched her. Immaculate in her conception, Immaculate in her life, she stood at the foot of the Cross with full understanding, like no one else. She stood at the foot of the Cross knowing that her Son was dying for her, to preserve her from sin, and for all, to stop the tide of sin, to turn it back upon itself like the downward flow of the river Jordan. The Psalmist sings, The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back on its course … What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? … Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. (Ps 114[113]:2,5,7)

We need to be convinced that Christ died for all and none can teach us this lesson as can the Blessed Virgin, who stood at the foot of the Cross. We need to be convinced that the Cross of Christ is the supreme gift of God, who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16) None can teach us this lesson as can the Blessed Virgin, who also gave us her only Son, in Bethlehem and on the Cross. We need to be convinced, each one, that this love touches me personally. None can teach us this lesson as can the Blessed Virgin, whom Christ himself gave to us as our Mother, when from the Cross he said to the beloved disciple, Behold, your Mother. (Jn 19:27)

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. (1 Jn 4:10-11) If this truth, if this reality, enters our hearts and penetrates our bones and marrow, our life will be transformed, then like St. Paul we will find that the love of Christ impels us.

Now, that word “impel” could cause a bit of difficulty. Love is free, but if we are impelled it seems that we are being coerced, against our will. Yet, if we think about it, love is both free and a moving force; we freely give ourselves to love, but once we have said “yes” to love, that love moves us. If the love to which we have given ourselves does not “impel us” then that love has grown weak or died within us.

When a man and woman, standing before the altar of God, make their wedding vows, they freely commit themselves to love each other as husband and wife. Henceforth, that love to which they have given themselves must “impel” them.

It is not a matter of feelings. A man or woman may not feel like it but can think “she is my wife and I have pledged my love to her” or “he is my husband, and I have pledged my love to him”, “therefore I should do this, even though I don’t feel like it.” The impulse of love does not mean there is no temptation, nor difficulty, but rather it provides the strength and direction that overcomes the difficulty.

Nor does the impulse of love fail, rather it is I who fail to love. If someone decides that a marriage is over because “love died”, the love did not die a natural death, but one party or both, failed to keep giving himself to the love, refused the impulse of love. And, if the love is no more than human, that would be no surprise, because of ourselves we are weak, instable, and given to sin.

The love of Christ impels us. This is no mere weak, instable human love, this is the love of the Holy Spirit that Christ has poured into our hearts. (cf. Rm 5:5) This is the love that will truly overcome all obstacles, so long as we keep giving ourselves to it.

This love, is rooted in faith, if we are to give this faith to God, “there is need for the grace of God to anticipate and accompany the act, together with the interior help of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, opens the eyes of the mind, and gives to all sweetness in consenting to and believing the truth.” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 5) If we are to be impelled by the Holy Spirit, we must keep saying “yes” to his sweet impulse, an impulse that is not violent, does not force itself upon us, does not overcome us as a powerful emotion, but draws us by its gentle and delicate goodness.

But do we believe? Is our faith awake?

When our faith is asleep, then it is as if Jesus is asleep in our boat, while the winds and waves of temptation assail us, pouring into our soul, making it hard to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit. Then, we are plunged into turmoil, wondering why God, who says to the sea thus far shall you come but no farther, here shall your proud waves be stilled, does not still the tempests of our life.

Yet, if our faith is awake, Jesus is awake in our boat, and we will experience calm and peace even in the midst of the greatest storms, and the waters shall not enter our boat.

In a Psalm that is employed in Feasts of the Blessed Virgin: God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. There is a river whose streams [the sweet streams of the Holy Spirit] make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. (Ps 46[45]:1-5)

This is the faith that by the power of God’s love conquers the world and all its storms. (1 Jn 5:4)