The Great And Perfect Gift From Above – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; September 1, 2024

All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.

These words of St. James are rich, dense, and inexhaustible. The scope of a homily allows only to bring forth a few highlights.

In the first place, all good comes from God, the Creator. Implied in this is that everything that exists, all reality, is at root good. Evil and bad have no positive reality; they consist in the lack of something that should be there. Blindness is the lack of sight in an eye that should be able to see; moral evil is the lack of right order in a will that should be directed to the good. By following the path of sin we diminish ourselves; while the path of righteousness leads to true growth.

Next, God is “above” not as Steens Mountain is above French Glen, but because his nature is higher and more excellent, infinitely so, than any created nature. There is, then also, a hierarchy of created natures, some are higher, or more excellent than others. The angelic nature is higher than the human, the human above the animal, the animal above the plant. There is also a moral order: the angel is better than the devil; the saint is better than the sinner, but also one saint is better than another and the Blessed Virgin Mary surpasses them all.

Further, because all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, these gifts come to us by way of intermediaries; created beings are given to share in the communication of God’s gifts; a hierarchy in the communication of good is built into the very structure of creation.

Now, in the measure that we grasp these things we will begin to realize that all we are and all we have is a pure gift from God, a good gift. In the measure that we grasp these things the fundamental attitude of our life – even in the midst of suffering – will be gratitude for the good received.

An agnostic grandfather of mine, before he died, despite much suffering in his life, affirmed that on the whole he was grateful for his life. He failed to recognize this as a gift of the God he did not know, but he did recognize his life as an undeserved good. Too often, in the midst of present pain and difficulty, we lose sight of that fundamental truth.

So far, though, I am only speaking about the good of the natural order. Much greater than this is the order of grace revealed in these two passages: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16) And, See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 Jn 3:1) The whole of the New Testament is about the Kingdom of God, the order of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. All this belongs to the realm of the things shown to us that surpass human understanding. (Sir 3:23) This is a great and perfect gift for which we should never cease giving thanks to God.

We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. (1 Cor 2:12)

These gifts can be summed up as grace and truth. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14) And from his fulness we have all received. (Jn 1:16) The greatest truth is the knowledge of the God and his kingdom given to us through faith. Grace is the life of the children of God in which we are given to share. The truth of faith and the life of grace are inseparable. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

In addition to gratitude, the gift of God calls for fidelity, in mind and deed.

In today’s 1^st reading Moses warns the people of Israel against either adding or subtracting from the commandments of God. In the Gospel Jesus condemns the falsification of God’s commandments in favor of human tradition.

Now, human tradition is a good and necessary thing, but it must not override God’s commandments; furthermore, besides human tradition there is also a divine tradition, which contains God’s commandments.

What happens, though, is that instead of taking care to receive the word of God and faithfully guard what we have received, we distort the word of God reducing it to the measure of our human understanding and using it for the justification of our own desires, turning a blind eye to what does not please us (subtracting) or adding an interpretation that distorts the meaning.

Just last Sunday we had two “difficult sayings”, one which is often subtracted, wives be subordinate to your husbands, as to the Lord (Eph 5:22), and the other, the words I have spoken to you are spirit and life, which is used to add a human interpretation that denies the reality of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

When we add or subtract what is merely “human” we lose the gift that comes down from above, from the Father of lights.

In today’s Gospel, we heard Jesus tell us that the things that come from within people are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. Who can say that their hearts are altogether free of these evils?

It is the gift of truth and grace coming from above, the gift of truth and grace in the Holy Spirit, that enters the heart, frees it from evil, transforms it, makes it to be instead a fount of good. Yet, it is not just God and me, in an invisible relation. Truth and grace comes from above hierarchically and through a visible, audible medium.

Faith comes through what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preaching of Christ. (Rm 10:17) And the one who preaches must be sent. (Cf. 10:15)

Nor is the word alone enough without the sacrament. Jesus commanded the Apostles to teach and to baptize. (cf. Mt 28:18-20) He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mk 16:15-16)

Nor does the sacrament ever exist without the word. The word is what is decisive in the sacrament. Pouring water is not enough for baptism; there must be the words (the “form”) “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Bread and wine are not enough for the Holy Eucharist; there must be the words, “This is my Body” and “This is the chalice of my Blood.”

Through the outward means of word and sacrament God would reach into the interior of our heart and so transform our lives, moving from the inside back to the outward actions of word and deed.

Just as we are made of body and soul, the outer and the inner needs to go hand in hand in the Christian life. Consider something like kneeling: kneeling before the tabernacle should express the inner attitude of adoration before Jesus, the Son of God, truly present in the Holy Eucharist; at the same time, kneeling helps teach and foster the inner attitude.

Sometimes, inside, we might not feel like praying, but if we just make a sign of the Cross, our inner disposition can change.

Be doers of the word, not hearers only.

When we hear the word of God in faith and when we allow grace to enter our hearts, the interior transformation produces an impulse outwards. Then, the love of Christ impels us. (2 Cor 5:14) The love of Christ impels us to master our anger and control our tongue. The love of Christ established us in the new covenant in which the law of God is written in our hearts (cf. Jer 31:33), in which Christ removes our stony hearts, that resist God, and places his Holy Spirit in us, giving us hearts of flesh, docile to God, desiring to walk in his ways, observing his statutes and ordinances. (cf Ez. 36:26-27)

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

This does not mean that specifically religious observance, worship in common, the celebration of the sacraments, reading the word of God and prayer, are unnecessary; this does not mean that religious observance consists only in performing works of mercy on behalf of those in need.

On the one hand we need to realize that without the transformation of the heart through grace, religious observance, whether prayer, fasting, or works of mercy, tends towards hypocrisy. (cf. Mt 6:1-18) The inner and the outer must always go together. If the outward action does not come from a heart united to Christ, it is an empty show.

On the other hand, without the outward work we can wonder if the inner transformation is real. This applies even to public religious observance. Can I say that Christ has transformed my heart if I have no desire to be part of his Church in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist? It applies even more to the practice of the works of mercy. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  (Jn 4:20-21) And St. James: What does it profit if a man says he has faith but has no works? … Faith by itself, if it has no works is dead. … Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (Jm 2:14,17,18)

Religion, as a gift from above, from the Father of lights, is whole, is Catholic, it embraces the whole of man, every aspect of his life, body and soul, interior and exterior, as an individual and in community, acts of religion properly speaking, in relation to God, and works of love and mercy towards our neighbor.