Let's Try and Remember Who We Are
Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, February 23, 2025
I intend this to be a short and heartfelt homily. Short because if I start waxing eloquently at length I might get lost in a passion or two. There are times and places for that, but not here and now.
At trying times like these it is necessary to commit ourselves more deliberately to the Gospel. I have learned the hard way that the only things we can trust are those that take us, as a wise teacher once said, into the realm of the Infinite. And when we come to Liturgy we sing the hymn that invites us to do that. "Laying aside all earthly cares." Not just earthly care, but all cares, even spiritual ones so that we may become empty and free, as free as we were intended to be. As free as God himself is free. Laying our cares and attachments aside must become a daily practice. It is the practice of freedom, of awakening, and the practice of prayer.
The parable of the Good Samaritan has a hidden message. Hidden to most, but not to all. The amazing Fr. Nicholas Steinhardt tells us that the difference between the Samaritan and the priest and Levite is that only he knew how to see. He could not walk by the wounded man without helping in the most radical and sensitive of ways because he saw the one important task before him, to help the man. And, as we heard today, the wounded neighbor is Christ. This, too, is our preeminent concern as Christians.
The way to clear-sightedness runs to the Cross. The Lord tells us that we must deny ourselves, take up the Cross, and follow him. We cannot see clearly until the windows of our perception are cleansed and that calls for death to self, to fear, to desire, to attachment, to delusion, to untruths. If we try and create our own "alternative truths" (as some do) we make of ourselves anti-Christs. When we only have regard for ourselves, we leave no room for God. As Meister Eckhart wisely said, 'God cannot visit us unless we are not home." Selflessness is godliness.
In my parish in Orinda there was a family, the Friesens, that stood with us through thick and thin. It was a rather dark time. One day Dr. Friesen handed us a gift. It was a vacation at the Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. With it came his platinum credit card. He told us to use it as we wanted. No limits. The gift included a dinner at The French Laundry, a fine and world-renowned restaurant in the Napa Valley. We felt kind of like the poor wounded man must have felt as he was being cared for in the Inn. Kindness is a powerful healer. And we always be kind.
There is so much confusion, fear, and uncertainty now that it has become a dense fog that has very nearly blinded us to the message of Christ. Sisters and brothers, we must throw off the blinders of ideology, wealth, and the desire for power and open our eyes and our hearts to the suffering of our neighbors. That is the paramount concern.
On the Last Day we will be judged for only one thing as we learned from the Gospel reading today. How did I treat my neighbors. All of them in the glorious diversity that God has made. What in the world is wrong with diversity?
Meister Eckhart, to me the greatest Christian mystic of the West, has many wonderful things to teach. He was a student of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as most medieval mystics were. Perhaps that may lend him some credence for those who need that. In this age of the politics of division and hatred it would be good to listen to his words, "Love will never be anywhere except where equality and unity are..." And without love, both inclusive and radical, there is only darkness. The words of the song from the musical "Oliver" come to mind. They pose a question. "Where is love?"
One of my dearest friends and counselors told me once to avoid the dark and the cold and move towards the light and warmth. The light and warmth come from God. We know this. And also from people who seek and embrace him. I share this with you because it seems there is a growing darkness around us. Still, here is a hopeful truth. If it were not for the light we could not see the darkness. So even in the Valley of the Shadow of death there is light or else there would be no shadow.
Today the blinding fog is made mostly of the love of money and the pursuit of power. The Lord had something to say about both. "The love of money is the root of all evil." It really is. And when offered all the kingdoms of this world by Satan the father of lies (and they were most certainly not his to give anyway) Jesus said an emphatic no to the desire and love of power. Both tie us to ephemeral things that are already in the process of passing away. If we want to spread our wings, we must cut the strings.