2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church, Burns, Oregon, and Missions; January 14, 2024

Come, and you will see.
Jesus, the Son of God, invites the two disciples to intimacy of friendship with him, to share his life. This invitation, ultimately, is extended to all. Acceptance of the invitation leads, ultimately, to entering Jesus’ eternal dwelling place with the Father.

Nevertheless, the path of these two disciples to intimate friendship with Jesus did not begin with Jesus’ invitation, nor does the Christian life begin with the invitation to “come and see”. Rather, this invitation is truly given only to those who are already following Christ.

The two disciples, Andrew and possibly John himself, the author of the Gospel and the beloved disciple, had first been disciples of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had been preaching repentance from sin and expectation of the one to come, who would be incomparably greater than himself, who would baptize in the Holy Spirit. So Andrew and John had been seeking that path of purification of sin and were seeking the Messiah to come, who has now already come. They heard John the Baptist bear witness to Jesus as both the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (cf. Jn 1:29,34) The believed the testimony of the Baptist.

In today’s Gospel, the two disciples, after hearing the Baptist repeat his testimony, begin to follow Jesus. We can sum this up by saying, they believed the proclamation of the word of God and believing they acted upon their faith; they sought to “follow Jesus”. To follow Jesus is to seek to live as he lived.

This leads to the point at which Jesus turns, sees them following, and asks what they are looking for, to which they reply, Rabbi, where are you staying? That sounds like, “Where is your lodging for the night?” Nevertheless, we need to move beyond the immediate circumstances and ask where Jesus “stays” permanently, eternally, which is in the bosom of the Father. (cf. Jn 1:18). We can compare their question to the question of the rich young man who asks Jesus, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mk 10:17) Andrew and John are seeking the same thing, but unlike the rich young man, they have some sense that Jesus himself is the goal, that eternal life is found in Jesus.

Then comes Jesus’ invitation, come, and you will see.

The evangelist notes the time of day, which he have heard translated into our modern scheme of time keeping, which divides the day at noon. The ancient Roman scheme divided the daylight, from sunrise to sunset, into twelve hours. Literally, the evangelist tells us that Jesus’ invitation was given at the tenth hour. The number is significant and should bring to mind the ten commandments.

Indeed, Jesus had told the rich young man, If you would enter life, keep the commandments. (Mt 19:17) At the Last Supper he will tell his Apostles: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15) This is the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul and the condition for recognizing his presence. (cf. Jn 14:6). This is also the condition for having Jesus manifest himself to his disciples. (cf. Jn 14:21) It is, indeed, the condition for the indwelling of the Holy Trinity, the foundation for true intimacy with God in this life. (cf. Jn 14:23)

Let us remember that John the Baptist began his preaching with a call to repentance. (cf. Mt 3:1) Jesus did the same. (cf. Mt 4:19). The invitation to intimate friendship with Jesus is not given at first. Jesus welcomes repentant sinners, forgives their sins, leads them by the way of the commandments, and then “seeing them” following, he invites them to intimate friendship.

Now, there is another side to the coin. Jesus does not welcome everyone. Jesus calls everyone to repentance, but he does not welcome the hard-hearted sinners, who reject the call to repentance, who would justify their sins, who would claim that they are not sinners or that their sins are not really sins. That also means that pretending to have intimacy with Jesus, without keeping the commandments, is a path of illusion and self-deception. Further, when it comes to keeping the commandments, that must not be a matter of self-righteousness, but an act of love
of God. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God. (Mt 5:20)

There is, then, no way around keeping the commandments; that includes the 6th commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, which prohibits any use of sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman, and the 9th commandment, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. It is very necessary to speak about this today because there is a great deal of confusion on these matters, even within the Church.

The righteousness that goes deeper than the scribes and Pharisees reaches to the deeper demands of these commandments, recognizing even that whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Mt 5:27) The fulfillment of these commandments requires the virtue of chastity, which is possible for the baptized who beg the grace from God, through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. The virtue of chastity subordinates the sexual instinct to the reason, integrates it into the whole life of the person,
and allows the divine light to enter the soul.

In the early centuries of the Church, Christians stood out among the pagans, were a cause of great wonderment in the world, because of their chastity, because of the practice of virginity and celibacy, and because they maintained the holiness of marriage. These were indeed signs of their closeness to God; the walls of the temple protected the sacred intimacy that was hidden within.

We can think of the young St. Agnes, who, when her hand was sought in marriage, declared that Jesus was her true Spouse and she could give herself to no man; that betrayed her as a Christian and led to her martyrdom.

Alas, these days, even in the Church, these commandments are regarded as “little commandments” as though there was no real harm involved in breaking them; their violation is not taken seriously and often falsely justified in the name of “love.” Yet, if we pay attention to St. Paul, in today’s 2nd reading, he speaks of the violation of these commandments, by the baptized Christian, as a violation of the temple of God, a sacrilege – one of the worst of sins.

The word “fanatic” has a rather negative connotation, though the related word “fan” does not. The root of both words derives from a word that would mean “temple guard”, a good thing. Perhaps people are guarding the wrong temples for the wrong reasons, while they readily suffer the violation of the true temple, for fear of being thought a “fanatic”.

Repentance, which is the condition for receiving God’s mercy, requires that we truly detest our sins, including sins against the 6th and 9th commandments. We cannot detest our sins unless we consider their true evil. Some may have confessed the sins of their youth, been forgiven, but never adequately detested those sins.

In this matter, before going more deeply into the supernatural perspective, presented by St. Paul, it will be good quickly to go over the evident destructiveness of the violation of these commandments on the natural level.

There are all the lies involved in the process of seduction, all the gaslighting, all the grooming. Indeed, it scarcely seems possible to violate these commandments without lying, either to oneself or to someone else. There all the ways people lead others into this sin (that includes by means of immodest clothing; true charity does not say, “that’s his problem”). There are all the intrigues arising from jealousy and envy, and all the anger, hatred, and even murder arising from betrayed or jilted “love”. Speaking of murder, we must not forget abortion.

These sins also dishonor parents, violating the 4th commandment. I’m old enough to remember when a young man or woman were expected to avoid doing anything that would bring shame upon their mother. Well, how about our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary?

These sins ruin families and lead to children lacking the care of a father and mother, committed to one another in marriage. Indeed, a child should be born from the love of married parents and enters life wounded if he is conceived in any other way.

These sins lead to the separation of what God has joined, not only in terms of divorce, but the separation also of sex and procreation through contraception. This has led to the new sexual “morality”: anything goes between consenting adults, just avoid pregnancy and disease.

Finally, we need to consider the supernatural perspective given us by St. Paul in the 2nd reading.

In the interest of detestation of sin it is worth adding a line that was omitted in today’s reading. Immediately after saying, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? St. Paul writes, Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? (1 Cor 6:15-16)

Sins against the 6th commandment violate the temple of God, which is the body of the baptized Christian. The body is a temple through the soul; through the body that is baptized, the soul becomes a temple; through the soul, in which the Holy Trinity dwells, through grace, the body is made a temple. Sins against the 9th commandment, looking at impure images, defiles the soul filling it with the pollution of impure images and desires.

The Psalmist laments: The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! Thy foes have roared in the midst of the holy place; they set up their emblems and banners; at the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes. And then all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set thy sanctuary on fire; to the ground they desecrated the dwelling place of thy name. (Ps 74[73]:3-7)

This is what the one who violates the 6th or 9th commandment does to his own soul. He makes himself the enemy who invades the temple; he invites the demons, enemies of God, into the temple.

These sins render the soul uniquely unfit for intimacy with Christ and the cut the soul off from holy communion; the person who is guilty of these sins who comes forward to communion, receives the outward appearance of the sacrament, but his soul is not nourished by the Body of Christ, rather he commits a sacrilege that adds sin to sin and must be confessed.

These sins blind and degrade the mind and exclude the person from spiritual reality, from holy things. St. Paul tells us that whoever is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with him. He is using the language that Genesis uses when it says that a man is joined to his wife and the two become one flesh. (Gen 2:24) There is a likeness between the bodily union of marriage and the spiritual union between the soul and God, only the spiritual union is a higher reality, that has nothing to do with sexual pleasure, and actually attains a far greater intimacy than the best of marriages.

In the Old Testament idolatry is likened to adultery and fornication; contrariwise we can say that fornication and adultery are forms of idolatry, pulling the fulfillment of a person’s carnal desire in the place of God. The sins against the 6th and 9th commandment effectively make it impossible for a person truly to hear Jesus’ invitation, Come and see. It is Jesus or your sin. You can’t have it both ways.

St. Paul, in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, urges them: Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light and darkness? What accord is there between Christ and Belial? … Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of the Lord. (2 Cor 6:14-15, 7:1)

And the Psalmist, O that Israel would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways [turning away from idolatry] … I would feed you with the finest wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. (Ps 81[80]:13,16) This this the gift of the Body of Christ in holy communion; this is true wisdom.

Come, and you will see!