Sermon

That on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

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If there is one image that stands out during this season of Gesimatide and Lent, it must be the image of a garden. Have you noticed how many times we have  encountered gardens/vineyards throughout the readings from the Mass and the Daily Office lectionary? During the time of preparing our souls, the image and stories of gardens have sprung up everywhere.

From Morning Prayer this week, we have been reading in Genesis, listening to the creation account and God’s design for man to walk with Him in a perfect Garden. God Himself was the sower as all the soil of the garden freely produced food for man. But things did not go well. Because man desired the role of God, to be the Sower of all Creation, God allowed them their desire. 

The Gospel from last week, reinforced this very point! Do you remember the story? A master hires workers for his vineyard at different points throughout the day, but the ones who worked all day were not only discontent at their own payment, they were furious that the master would be so kind to all the other workers. They did not allow God to work his garden, but the men demanded what they wanted or thought they deserved (or what others deserve) upon God.

In the Gospel this week, God is again sowing seed–this time He is doing it to bring man back to Himself. In order to accomplish this, He gives Himself to man freely. Jesus tells us plainly that the seed in the parable is the word of God. So we understand that the seed is not just a thing, but Himself–it is Jesus.

But to any farmer hearing this parable, the sower sounds like a very reckless farmer. Here he is casting precious seeds not on the fertile ground he has prepared, but all over, even on paths and soil he knows is rocky and infertile. God desires so much the life of His creation that he spreads His love recklessly. He is an extravagant lover, hoping to give life to even the most sun worn and trodden land. And, in fact, He sent His only Son to bring his Kingdom to earth. Within the parable, the ground, of course, is our heart–either too tough to receive the Word or too distracted to nurture its grown. Or, the ground may be open to receive the Word of God and live in that fruitful relationship. But how do we prepare our hearts, then, for the Word of God? Like gardening, tending to your own soul requires time–it requires daily work of what might seem menial or simple tasks. I learned this the hard way.

One summer I worked on an olive farm on the Greek island of Lesbos. When I signed up for the job, I saw myself harvesting the olives and taking them to huge machines that press out the olive oil. Turns out that olives are not harvested in the middle of summer. And so for the month I was present, I would head out into the groves of ancient trees and spray the leaves with a natural bug repellent we had made. I realized quickly that in order to reap a large harvest, you must perform daily, menial tasks that slowly benefit the plants and soil. By cooperating with nature, great gains are to be made. But be careful: tending to the soul is NOT self help but giving ourselves over to let Christ work. Tending to the growth of your soul is the process of letting God speak to you, letting Him cast out your sin and growing virtue. You might think that your barren soul is too dry or full of weeds for God to use. You might think that your life is too full of suffering to be redeemed. Let me be clear: those are lies of the devil which pluck the Word of God from you.

Do not lose heart–Christ has sat in that garden of pain and suffering at Gesthemene as he took on the sins and evil of the entire world. It was this same person who also rose again from the dead into a new garden and has promised to be with His people, the Church.I urge you, then, for this Lent, to seek after the ways  in which God has promised to give Himself to us, which are the Sacraments. He has bound Himself to baptism when we are incorporated into His Body. He has bound Himself to confirmation when he gives us the gifts of the Spirit. He has bound Himself to receive our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and return it as His own Body and Blood so that we receive the innumerable benefits of the same. And He has also bound Himself to the Absolution within the Sacrament of Confession where we can quiet our consciences, be free from all sin that binds us, the worldly temptations and cares, and cast ourselves onto His mercy. These sacraments open your life to the Word of God and are the graces given to us in order that we might live through Him.  The goal, of course, is to open our hearts to the Word of God so that we may be the good ground, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

So fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

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St. Paul was not presumptuous concerning his own salvation — “I discipline my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, I myself should be a castaway.” It is also clear from the Epistle that St. Paul expected his material body to be part of salvation, but in light of its supernatural destiny, he understood that he was to behave responsibly toward his body. St. Paul did not despise his body, he did not wish to be rid of it, he did not hope for a disembodied salvation, but rather he was attentive to his body of flesh, he loved his body, and so he intelligently, reasonably, and responsibly imposed discipline, restraint, and self-control upon himself. And why did he do that? He says he did so:

So fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Paul speaks as a man, an apostle of Christ, concerning his own body and everyone else’s body in the context of personal salvation –- but he also speaks as teacher providing an example to his students, as a father providing an illustration to his children, or even as a coach instructing one of his potential contestants.

I control my body, and bring it into subjection…

What is the body brought into subjection to? When I say, “my body” what is the “my?” Is my body something like an automobile that has a “my” in the driver’s seat? Is the body just a component part of the human person? Certainly, there are those who believe that the body is the opposite of the soul, which is it not, but also that the body is our enemy. They believe the body is animalistic, earthy, corruptible, wild and dangerous, while the soul is human, heavenly, reasonable, incorruptible, in tune with God and free.

But that is not true. That is not reality. Paul is our teacher: one’s body is not one’s enemy, but the body to be a poor master of the person. Paul knows that man, body and all, is in fact the Crown of Creation; the most beautiful and glorious form of all of God’s creatures.

In Genesis we are told that God created all living creatures by fiat; he called them forth from the sea or from the ground — “let the earth bring forth cattle and creeping things and the beasts of the earth and it was so.” But He did not create man by fiat. No. God said, “Let us make man in our own image…” God is pictured as a Sculptor taking dirt into his hands and forming the body of man; then he is pictured bending down and “breathing into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The creature man is God’s Crown of Creation.

Paul knows all of that. But Paul is identifying a problem and he goes about dealing with it by focusing on the body. Paul knows that the body is strengthened by exercise and proper nutrition; and he knows that an athlete, in this case a fighter, trains his body; he practices bobbing and weaving, throwing a punch, and he learns that getting knocked down isn’t the same as getting knocked out — so you get back up!

What Paul is advocating, what he is actually describing very well, is spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is maturation as Catholics which work goes back to husbandry or farming or some other discipline.

But why do we need spiritual formation in the first place? Simply put, we need spiritual formation because of original sin. When Adam ignored God’s love for him and went his own way he brought upon himself and everyone else what the Church calls the Fall or original sin. Adam experienced four self-inflicted wounds that we have inherited. Christian Formation begins the healing of the wounds of the Fall. There are four wounds:

1) Blindness or ignorance, which has spoiled our intellectual capacity to form correct judgments about spiritual things. “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit.”

2) The second wound is “malice” and it is a wound to the faculty of the will. We don’t know what is good for us. A little child wants sugar. She will eat all the sugar you give her till she makes herself sick. When Mom says, “No more,” the child thinks that is mean. Malice lives by the motto, “I want what I want when I want it.”

3) The third wound is weakness which means the failure of will to muster a personal offense against evil. We have lost our capacity to be incensed by temptation to sin through the wound of weakness. The soul has lost its aggressiveness toward the difficult.

4) The fourth wound is what we call concupiscence. Concupiscence is the disordered desire for the gratification of sensual needs. Notice that the wound is the disordered desire; the wound is not sensual need itself. Now this is a wound that we experience in our body. People need and benefit from sleep, food, drink, warmth in winter, clothing, the caress of a loved one, physical exercise — and a little bit of sugar. Adam and Eve are presented as living a fully sensual life, enjoying the delectable (one of Thomas Aquinas’ favorite words) before the Fall. The problem is that what was once a gladdening, a happy part of life — after the Fall became an impulsive, driving force. St. Paul is teaching us self-mastery.

But here is the twist: St. Paul isn’t addressing the merely fallen man, is he? He is addressing Christians who have had their minds renewed by the Spirit of God in Holy Baptism. He is addressing Christians who have been infused with “heavenly virtues.” He is addressing the Children of God who have, by the grace of Christ, become “partakers of the Divine nature” and they are not at the beck and call of the oh-so urgent whimpering of sensual needs.

So Paul is actually showing us how to love ourselves. That little girl learns to love herself when she finally gets it that her Mom isn’t being mean. We learn to love ourselves when we finally get it that God only has good intentions for our life and that he has placed us in a universe that is on our side. And one way to do that, practically, is to detach a little bit and treat your felt need, sensual or not, like that Mom treated her little girl. Try being a good parent to your self.

Look to Holy Mother Church for help: in a few weeks all of us will be called to fasting and abstinence, to extraordinary acts of charity and exercises of devotion, to thinking less of ourselves and more of others. Appropriate the Sacraments the Church provides for you. If you have never taken advantage of auricular confession, you will find it healing to privately open up the grief of your heart to one of our priests. But listen: you cannot appropriate the Sacraments via a text message. You cannot email it or phone it up. You cannot do a drive through. And you cannot Zoom it. You will have to park your car and get out. You will have to do all of this, acts of charity, devotion, confession, abstinence, the Holy Communion — you will have to do this face-to-face, person-to-person — in our bodies of flesh.

This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

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Epiphany is the season of the manifestation of Jesus Christ. Each week is like another scene of a play when the curtain is raised, and we get to see a new backdrop on the stage, to study its details, get to know the characters a little better, and see how the story unfolds. We are now in the fifth act–the first was the Birth, the second the appearance before the Magi, the third his Baptism, the fourth his teaching in the Temple, and now the beginning of His Miracles. The curtain is drawing up again, as Christ comes center stage and begins his ministry. Our goal today is to understand this new scene, to see what the Gospel reveals to us about Christ’s identity.  To that end, I want you all to see how this miracle reveals the identity of Jesus as the Word, the Renewer, the Groom, and the Fulfiller. 

St. John the Evangelist is the only Gospel author who recorded the miracle at Cana. He was personally there, and this obviously stood out to him as a miracle that revealed deep truths. Jesus’ actions at the wedding of Cana are a window into his identity as the second Person of the Trinity, the Word by Which God the Father created the world. Think about the beginning of John’s Gospel! “[Jhn 1:1-3 KJV] 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” It is the Word of God who sustains all things–it is the Word of God who creates all things. This was as true in the beginning of Creation as it is now, as the Word sustains all creation moment by moment.

 Every vine that has ever existed was created and sustained by Him—every variety of grape, every single grape itself exists solely because it is God’s desire and delight that they be so. Augustine famously wrote: “When our Lord turned the water into wine, He was but doing the very same thing which He does every year in every grape of every vintage: the waters from above nourish the vine-tree, and are taken up into the fruit, and turned by His secret power into that juice of the grape, which becomes to us wine.” When we listen to the story in John’s Gospel, the event sounds so amazing, but equally amazing and miraculous, is God’s ever constant creative impulse to sustain the universe through His love. Every bottle that we enjoy takes part in this mysterious miracle: God has so designed the world that grapes hold within themselves this unique property to transform themselves into a marvelous substance that brings joy to a man’s soul. We should all stand in awe of Jesus Christ as Creator, the Word of the Father.

Second, this miracle reminds us that Christ is the great Renewer. There is a wonderful prayer that the priest says quietly over the chalice after he has poured in the water and wine. The prayer says, “O God, who didst wonderfully create yet more wonderfully renew the dignity of mankind, grant that by the mystery of this water and wine, we may be coheirs of his divinity who vouchsafed to be partaker of our humanity.” When 2nd person of the Trinity, the Word of God, took on human flesh at the Annunciation, the Word assumed true human nature and healed it from the wounds of the Fall. As we join Christ in our baptisms, our human nature is united to his perfect human nature. In other words, we are renewed, literally ‘made new,’ by his human nature. And because we are joined to his humanity, we get to partake in his divinity as well. This is all imaged for us in the miracle. He took water and renewed it into its full potential, perfect wine. As Christ changed the water into wine, something that is beyond water’s natural ability without the addition of grapes, so too he has renewed our very nature to something beyond our natural ability. He is the great Renewer.

We must ask ourselves, now, how does this happen? How did Christ choose to renew the world? The miracle at Cana again helps us understand this part of His identity–that is, his identity as the Groom. It is no accident in the Gospel of John that Jesus comes to a marriage to start his ministry of marrying His Bride, the Church. His work of redemption starts at a marriage, because he chose to unite himself to humanity as a groom unites himself to his bride.  The Venerable Bede, that great English doctor of Church, highlighted this point! He wrote: “Thus it was not by chance, that he came to a marriage celebrated on earth in the customary fleshly way, since he descended from heaven to earth in order to connect the Church to Himself in spiritual love. His nuptial chamber was the womb of his incorrupt mother, where God was conjoined with human nature, and from there he came forth like a bridegroom to join the Church to himself.” The miracle this morning helps remind us of Christ’s identity as the Groom to whom the Church is wed. He is our desire and through whom we are brought together to His Father. 

And when the Groom came to wed his Bride, the Church, he did so in a certain way. The miracle at Cana shows us that Christ’s work of redemption is tied together in the great story and he is the Fulfiller of that story. Because of Mary’s intercession on behalf of the family, Jesus takes the servants to the jars which were present for Jewish ritual purification. These jars (estimated around 130 gallons) would have been filled with clean water so that the Jews could wash their hands before and after the meal, thereby fulfilling the Levitical purity laws. When Jesus changed the water that was intended for ritual washing into wine, he symbolically ends ritual washing. The rabbis are clear that wine cannot be used for ritual washing. Jesus’ actions show that the way towards purity is not through outward actions but only fulfilled perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said later in John’s Gospel, He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. It is not through washing our hands we become pure but by the person of Jesus and our union with him. All the Old Testament laws and commandments and history are now made known in their full and highest meaning. The Passover is now Holy Communion; circumcision is now Baptism; the bronze serpent now the cross; Moses and the Prophets now Christ and His Apostles;we could go on and on. What we see now through this miracle is that Christ is the fulfiller. 

Let me conclude: for a moment in Cana at this particular wedding, the curtain was raised as Christ’s identity was revealed. The disciples’ eyes were opened, and they were able to see for the first time a little of what the Angels always see: the Creator of the universe sustaining and ordering his creation. When we read these stories, it is easy for us to imagine that they belong to a different age (this would never happen now) or we might hope that God would just show us a miracle. But as we learn about  the identity of Christ, we must understand that the state of reality is still the same. We live in midst of the same power that walked the roads to Cana–He is still equally near to us but we often lack the faith to behold it. Let us not forget to look for Christ’s work in the daily course of lives, to see his hand at work in our lives, in our joys and feasting, in our sorrow and fastings, at our homes and at our work. Let us pray to Christ to open our eyes and know that He is present with us. The Word of the Father, the Renewer, the Fulfiller, and our Groom is there with you, present, to continue the transformation of your life.