[Homily for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time]
What did Peter and Andrew see in Jesus when he called them?
What did James and John experience that made them leave everything behind to follow Jesus?
It almost sounds like love at first sight; they just knew. They just knew they had to abandon everything including family and personal security to follow Jesus.
It’s important to note that Jesus didn’t say “come, I will teach you something” or “come after me but you will have to stop doing this and that first.” Jesus called these men to follow HIM, to walk in his footsteps. He called them to enter into a relationship with Him.
Our faith is first about a relationship with a person, Jesus Christ. Once you fall in love with that person, you will do what he asks; you will listen and act out of love. It is not the other way around. Following a set of rules and regulations, following a moral code without love for Jesus leaves the heart empty. It leaves the person following a code of ethics without a purpose. It becomes boring, overbearing and unappealing; there is a loss of interest. Without love as its foundation, Christianity falls apart.
When a person asks, “what is Christianity?” we shouldn’t start with the Ten Commandments and precepts, but rather start with the greatest love story ever told: that the God who has created us has sent His Son so we may come to know Him and receive the forgiveness of our sins.
Love must come first. By falling in love with Him, he fishes us out from darkness and allows us to see the light. In the light we are transformed and we begin to live differently.
Last week we recognized the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade which legalized abortion in our country. From its handing down the Church has voiced its opposition to this decision. For years now thousands gather in Washington DC on January 22nd, standing up for the dignity of every human life from the womb to natural death. The Church has been and continues to be a defender of human life and will always speak up against abortion.
Many who oppose Roe v Wade however have grown frustrated since change has not come despite many promises from politicians. Roe v Wade is still the law of the land.
Many were confused when Pope Francis said a few months ago that we shouldn’t become obsessed with abortion, along with gay marriage and birth control. Some within the Church rightfully refuted saying “how can we not be obsessed with it, it’s human life we’re talking about here!”
I believe the Pope is giving us a new approach by directing us to the heart of the Gospel. Without love, hearts will not change. A heart that has not experienced the love of Christ will not be disposed to hear the truth or to act on it.
The pro-life message often falls on deaf ears because the heart that belongs to those ears oftentimes is hard as a rock. No matter how loud we yell into the megaphone, they will not listen.
The Pope is showing us another starting point: the conversion of hearts.
We must first aid others to have an encounter with Christ.
The Pope is softening hearts left and right through his words and actions. Because of him millions throughout the world (many of them are our coworkers, friends and family members) are curious about who Jesus is. Millions are encountering the love of Jesus through Pope Francis’ words and actions. By embracing a man covered with boils, a man rejected by society, the Pope has expressed Christianity in a way that thousands of theological dissertations will never express.
Pope Francis so strongly reflects the light of Christ that millions are finding in him a little bit of what the early apostles found in Jesus. It leads to a conviction of the heart and to an immediate reaction.
Experiencing the love of Christ leads to a conversion, and conversion will lead to a renewed heart that desires to do God’s will. Abortion will be banned in our nation the day the majority of hearts in our nation have an encounter with God’s love. Not before.
It will be banned not by a change in the political system, but through the change of people’s hearts.
The Pope says we must not obsess over abortion. We should rather obsess over winning over hearts for Christ. Obsess over spreading the good news so others may fall in love with the Lord. Obsess over being a missionary Church that always announces the Good News: that God has sent us His Son so that we may come to know Him and receive the forgiveness of our sins. Obsess over with making real the love Jesus has for others.
This will open hearts and these hearts full of love will do what Jesus asks, they will listen and act accordingly out of love. We have much work to do as a Church and as individuals. May Christ who nourishes us with His body and blood at every Eucharist deepen our love for Him, that we may become bearers of His light in the world and bring about the conversion of many hearts, one at a time.
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