A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. Jesus raised his eyes to his disciples and said to them, blessed are you poor. The reign of God is yours. Blessed are you of hunger. You shall be filled.
Blessed are you who are weeping, you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men hate you, when they ostracize you, and insult you, and prescribe your name as evil because of the son of man. On the day they do so, rejoice and exalt, for your reward shall be great in heaven. Thus it was that their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you rich, for your consolation is now.
Woe to you who are full, you shall go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, you shall weep in your grief. Woe to you when all speak well of you. Their fathers treated the false prophets in just that same way. And this is the gospel of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. There's a very close connection between this excerpt from Saint Paul's letter to the Colossians this morning and our Lord's beatitudes, as we call them. Their beatitude has to do with happiness. In speaking to the Colossians this morning, Paul urges them to be intent on higher things, to seek those things that are above and not those things that are below.
That's absolutely contradictory of the way we naturally are inclined. Absolutely contradictory of it. Just as contradictory as what our blessed lord says this morning in these beatitudes, which means his way of life as opposed to the world. Just listen at one or two of them. I don't pretend to be able to explain these things, but some of them are perfectly clear.
We can take them to heart. Woe to you, our lord says, when everybody speaks well of you. One of the things we like most and work hard is to be well spoken of, to have, as we say, a good reputation. Christ says, woe to you. Woe to you.
This is just another just another expression of his very simple statement, my kingdom is not of this world. And when this world, as we're using that phrase, and I think it's pretty well understood, read the post, read the New Yorker, listen to the commercials on TV, look at the advertise advertisements, you will know what we mean by the world. When that world takes you to it embraces you, as I've said many times, watch out. You're in trouble. You're in deep trouble.
When the media comes out in praise of what sometimes we look upon as a great and flattering remark, beware, the chances are we're on the wrong course. Because in many instances, the church of Jesus Christ is loved for the wrong reasons. I remember arguing one day, when I used to argue, and those days are not over, in regard to religion. And I made this statement, if what you say is true, then let's let's get rid of all this nonsense that we call religion. And the man, the young fellow turned to me and said, that's impossible.
He was a young Yale student. I was traveling with him in Europe by his choice, not mine. And I I said he said, you can't say that. Well, said, you heard me say it. He said, but you can't.
I said, well, why can't I? He said, because religion keeps us civilized. He loved religion because it kept him civilized. He loved the cathedrals of Europe. It it was culturally enriching.
Nothing like having being culturally enriched. But Christ didn't come to make us culturally enriched. Matter of fact, he said, my king is not of this world. Can anything be clearer than that? If that is true, then if the world loves you, beware, you're in trouble.
The red lights are flashing. The buzzers are going off. You can't escape this. Now when Paul notice, Paul was a smart man. Paul was the most intellectual of all the early apostles.
And the second thing remember about Paul, he says explicitly that what he teaches, he got direct from God. Have you ever noticed that? He said, didn't get this from the other apostles. I have it direct. And Saint Paul is saying, Be intent on the things that are above.
Seek the things that are higher. That doesn't mean we spurn the things that are lower. It doesn't mean that we are going to separate ourselves from the things that are not of heaven. I tell you again, there have been down the centuries, there's always been this movement that you have certain utterly sincere. But remember, you can be tremendously, hideously mistaken and be sincere.
Hitler was sincere. I've never heard him being accused of insincerity. But we have to pay tribute to a person who is sincere for that for what it's worth. It has nothing to do with truth, of course. So what I'm saying is, we are not called upon to despise in any real sense the creatures of God.
We need them. If we're going to be intent on the things above, how are you going to do that? How are you going to seek the higher things, except in some way by using the latter which Christ and his heavenly father have given us, and that's his world. His world. His world.
But remember, his world is not of this world, if you follow me. I always think of this when I'm out on the bay at night, and you're sailing for a lighthouse, and you know that where where Cove Point Lighthouse is flashing. Now your intent on that lighthouse, you better had be intent on it. But does that mean you can be completely separated, completely detached, completely out of touch with what your surroundings are? Is that possible?
Well, anyone who's tried to do it's crazy. They won't be out there very long. You have to take, even while you're intent on cold point light, that light flashing in the darkness, that's your that's your goal, that's the higher things. You're intent on that, but that doesn't mean you are unaware of everything that's around you. You have to be aware and you have to use them, the wind, the waves, the velocity, the drift.
You have to be aware of all these things if you're going to be intent on the lighthouse. You can't disregard the environment in which your little boat happens to be situated, even though you know you have to be intent on that lighthouse. And whoever's at the at the wheel better be intent on the lighthouse, but at the same time, they have to be aware of everything around them. Is there something is there an object out there floating? Is there is there an obstruction?
You cannot disregard your milieu, the world in which you live, and move, and have your being. And let me tell you where you're going to work out your salvation. You're not going to work out your salvation in a vacuum. As I've said many times, in the time of saints Jerome and Augustine in the fourth and the fifth centuries, you had a tremendous movement into the Nile Valley, where men and women who were taking some of these sentences out of context, literally abandoned families, gave up everything, sold all their possessions, and fled into the Nile Valley and became hermits. Is that what we're all called upon to do?
Some may be called. We do have a saint library, but they are the exception. And all those people that we look upon as exceptional, that all they were trying to do was God's will for them. They never tried to impress that upon anyone else. Although, some did, and it was Rome who stepped in and said, cut out this nonsense, literally.
And so this text of Saint Paul, to be intent on the things that are above, seek what is higher, take it to heart. It changes your life. It is the one thing that absolutely separates a follower of Jesus Christ from what we call the human secularist. The human secularist who who is in love, enraptured with this world, who knows the good things, who wants them, who labors hard to get them, who appreciates as we say the finer things, who pursue culture and all of these lovely wonderful things, and all circumcised by time and space. And on their deathbed when they look back, what have they to hold on to?
What have they to hold on when all of that leaves them? And it doesn't have to be your deathbed. Doesn't have to be your deathbed. And so, de intent on the things that are above, which means you must be conscious and properly value the things are around you. That's where the opening prayer of this mass.
Do not spurn God's creatures. You need them. It's in and by and through them that you will work out your salvation. It's only in the milieu of God's creatures in this world that he made that is good and beautiful and true. It is only in that that you will be intent upon the higher things.
That is your vocation. You have been called upon it. Be intent, as Paul said to the Colossians, on the things that are above, but don't despise the things around you that you need to be intent upon the things that are above. In the name of the father, of the son, of spirit. Amen.