Homilies

St. John the Baptist Church, Northlake, IL – 9-19-04

(Mark 8:34-38)

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)

Today’s reading presents to us a paradox, I would say an oxymoron. Oxymoron,
a very interesting word, is explained in the Webster dictionary as “a figure of
speech in which two contradictory words are placed together for epigrammatic
effect, as sad pleasure, round square, hateful Christian and the like.” If you win,
you lose; and if you lose, you win. Doesn’t this sound like an ad for losing weight
and gaining good health? If we seek pleasure, if we attain pleasure on a short
term, we may be jeopardizing our chance of a more secure pleasure on the long
range. This certainly makes sense. So, this is not an oxymoron after all. This is
a fact of life. “No pain, no gain.” Without the Cross, there is no resurrection.

This is like a special kind of oranges we have in Lebanon. It is called the “sugar
orange - Laymuun seqqari.” It tastes sweet while you eat it; but it leaves a bitter
taste in the mouth, something like the taste of grapefruit rind. How could you
enjoy fully its sweetness, when you know that it is not going to endure, and the
end result may displease you? On the other hand, if you feel the discomfort of a
bitter medicine; yet you know of the good effect to come; then you would not mind
the hardship. Life is bound to have difficulties and contradictions, if we accept the
hardships of life joyfully with Christ, our hardships become an occasion of joy, as
St. Paul wrote: “I am overflowing with joy all the more, because of all our
affliction.” (2 Corinthians 7:4) When we seek ourselves, we are left on our own
and we lose ourselves. But when we forget ourselves and seek God, we find God
and, with God, we find everything, including ourselves. Adam and Eve, seeking to
be like God by eating of the forbidden fruit, lost themselves and brought upon
themselves and all their descendants utter emptiness. On the other hand, if we
empty ourselves in the presence of the Lord, we give God a chance to fill us.

God created us to inherit the kingdom prepared for us before the creation of the
word, as Christ tells us. The kingdom of God is the state of things where we are
happy and lacking of nothing necessary for our happiness. And how do we get
our true and eternal happiness? By carrying our cross every day and following
Him through the way of the Cross to Golgotha and to the tomb, before we reach
our glory as He did. He told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day
of His glorious Resurrection: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer
these things and enter into His glory?” Here is the sour sweet reality: If you suffer
you get well; if you refuse to make a special effort you wouldn’t reap the expected
fruit; if you sit and rest, you would not be able to reach where you are heading to
find a more permanent rest.

In every life, some rain should fall sometimes. If we accept it and offer it up,
carrying our cross with Jesus, we will be sharing in His passions, which lead to His
Resurrection. Our cross may be a sickness, which afflicts us and keeps
reminding us of our human condition and even of our mortality. Offer it up. Our
cross may be a difficult person we have to live with, a neighbor, a fellow worker,
even a husband or wife, or a child of ours who goes astray; offer it up. Our cross
may be a handicap in our studies if we are in school, or in our business; offer it up
to God who is capable of making strength out of weakness. We also have to
assume some acts of penance, fast and abstinence in due season. Let us
remember that the more we sacrifice, the more we suffer, the better we imitate the
Lord Jesus who suffered and died to lead us to His Resurrection.

To conclude, here is a puzzle for you – especially to the young people around
and to all those young at heart: “What is the thing which gets bigger and bigger
the more you take out from it and smaller and smaller, if you add to it?

--- Did you ever dig a hole in the ground? The more you take out of it and the
deeper it becomes. If you fill it, it gets smaller. We call this emptying oneself and
letting God in. It certainly bears repeating: The more we love ourselves, the less
place we have to love God and neighbor. Our Lord “emptied Himself, taking the
form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He
humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. ”
(Philippians 2:7-8) Let us imitate Him in His generous love and His devoted
service; and let us empty ourselves of our selfishness and let Him fill us with
energy and joy and enthusiasm to serve Him and serve each other. Helping
others helps us getting out of our emptiness and finding God. I heard an old
saying in a retreat a long time ago:

“I sought happiness and it evaded me.
I sought my God, and He eluded me.
I sought my neighbor and I found all three.’

May God direct our steps to love Him unselfishly by serving each other and
finding our happiness in love.

To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.