OUR CONTINUOUS SACRIFICE OF PRAISE

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Titus 3:1-7; Ps 23; Lk 17:11-19

Joining the Perpetual Sacrifice

The Church is a sacrifice, just as God is the Supreme Sacrifice. By this, we mean that God, who is consecrated to himself because he is everything perfect, has called us to consecrate ourselves to him in love. Our consecration starts with our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, which initiates spiritual life in us and deepens as we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. As St. Paul’s letter to Titus has revealed to us the holiness of the family life, where each of us learns consecration by practicing devotedness to God through our devotion to each other in the family; the husband focussing on Jesus Christ, who teaches us consecration, practices that consecration by being devoted to his wife and children in love. Likewise, a wife sees Jesus Christ in her husband, consecrates herself to him, and devotedly commits herself to raising the children in the fear of God. The children, following and learning consecration from their parents, prayerfully devote themselves to the worship of God and obedience to his will through obedience to their parents. This process is what Paul refers to as the Gospel tradition but situated in Christian families. Thus, we concluded yesterday that the family is the first convent and seminary where we pass on the Catholic or sound Christian doctrine to the next generation, from the father to the sons and from the mother to the daughters.

The tradition is extended or widened in the local community of the faithful, as Paul explained in yesterday’s passage, through sound Christian doctrine and morality passed from older men to younger men and from older women to younger women. The Christian family is a basic unit and school of the sacred Christian tradition. We emphasise that the family is the original formation house for our religious men and women and the ministerial priests. When Christian families fail to pass on the sound Christian doctrine and moral character as a solid foundation, it becomes impossible for the formation houses and seminaries to complete the formation on a faulty foundation. Those called to family life must understand their moral obligation to transmit the Catholic tradition to their spouses and offspring. When they fail to understand their Christian vocation as a call to sacrifice, they fail to witness the Gospel to others. Most importantly, the family they constitute would be dysfunctional because they will not achieve the will of God due to their inability to give way to Jesus Christ in their lives. Dysfunctional families cause a corrupt society. 

The strength of the spiritual and moral formation received in the family and reinforced in the local community of the faithful impacts on society. If we do not witness the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Christian homes, we will not witness it properly in the local faith community. This deficiency would be apparent in our society, which cannot be transformed by imperfect witness of the Gospel. Paul informs us of the importance of Christian tradition in the society. “Remind your people that it is their duty to be obedient to the officials and representatives of the government; to be ready to do good at every opportunity; not to go slandering other people or picking quarrels, but to be courteous and always polite to all kinds of people.” A deep understanding of the goodness of God to us and what he sacrificed for us frees us to sacrifice ourselves in gratitude to him. To spare ourselves from this required Christian sacrifice means we have not comprehended the mystery of Christ and the Gospel in its profundity. Thus, Jesus would be bewildered in our case as he was that the ten lepers he healed did not come back to express gratitude for the gift of healing they received. Only a Samaritan deemed it fit to prostrate himself at the feet of Jesus Christ in thanksgiving. “Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.” Are we prostrating ourselves before Jesus in gratitude for the salvation he gave us? That is what our vocation to sacrifice means.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to understand that we were sinners when you brought us to life in your Son Jesus Christ and washed us by means of cleansing water of baptism and the Holy Spirit, you have generously given us, that we may offer ourselves in gratitude to do your holy will at all times. Through the same Christ our Lord.