SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT
OUR LADY OF
REV. FR. RICHARD L. STAPP
From the Epistle: And the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus.
Although
often confused in the literature and cant of our modern society, the peace of
God and the peace of the world are not the same or identifiable one with the
other. The Peace of God is the deliverance from the tyranny of self. The peace
of the world is deliverance from the tribulations of the world.
Paul is
writing to the Philippians to encourage them in their faith and to give them
the proper spiritual framework with which to endure; and convert sacrifice,
failure, and disappointment into peace, hope, and joy. Therefore, as an
introduction to the understanding of the Peace of God, we should consider these
guideposts.
All of us
tend to be self-congratulatory when we do some good deed which reveals the
selfish motive underlying the act or the gift—since we are in the season of
giving. Paul considers that every genuine good deed done on behalf of others is
the result of the grace of God acting through the holy s ;
and Paul credits God for both the inspiration and the result. This attribution
of credit to God for the good provides Paul with continuous spiritual
inspiration leading to the total surrender of his life to God.
This is the
same Paul who had dedicated his former life to the killing and persecution of
Christians whose only crime was the profession of a faith at variance with his
own. Something for which Paul was deeply ashamed with a stain
of guilt that could not be removed. And Paul remembered himself as a
persecutor throughout his ministry until the end of his life. A remembrance
that was not neurotic expiation of guilt, as has been suggested in some
writings concerning Paul, but an incentive for him to be the faithful Apostle
of our Lord to the entire world. The answer of the gospel to all souls caught
in the web of a bad past.
It is
tempting to simply forget about those we have injured because it rightly invokes
our conscience making it unpleasant to dwell upon those things. On the other
hand, it is equally morbid, repellent, and pointless to endlessly relive end
regret those ugly things in life that represent the worst in ourselves.
We do,
however, need the memories with which to prod lax consciences and unseat
self-pride from the throne of our thoughts. The contrition excited by such
memories make us grateful for having been forgiven and provide us with
opportunities to surrender ourselves to God end his purposes.
Paul tells us
that the Lord is at hand end that we should be careful for nothing. This is
good advice and is the foundation of most of our psychological mantras for
depression and hopelessness; that is to say that worry is at the root of these
troubles. In other words, do not fret over things that may not happen. Live
according to the exigencies of the day; do not borrow trouble. This is a mental
discipline thought to produce good mental and physical health and insofar as
results are concerned has some distant kinship with faith. Accordingly, this
modern psychological prescription has been commingled with religious teaching
which says do what you can and entrust the rest of it to God. But, this
prescription has severe drawbacks. It ignores the divine impact that is the
effect of God in our individual lives and assumes God is not in control of
history. It places the self or humanity at the center of things at the expense
of everything else.
Our modern
world, following upon the social, political, and philosophical ideas of the
last several centuries, places its faith in the future as a substitute for
faith in God. This is an ethos that says humanity can establish a peaceful and
just world by eliminating, one by one, those social and political things that
give rise to conflict and material want. But, the fact is that a future does
not and will never exist that mankind cannot undo through our lust for power
and influence. The devotion of counterfeit spiritual resources for some fabled
tomorrow is foolery gone mad.
Paul's call
to be not anxious in the sense of the spiritual freedom of an inner life will
not do much to relieve the physical needs all of us have in our mortal being.
However, the acquisition of such a spiritual attitude will put concern for the
things of this world in second place. We can be anxious for our jobs and
families and future possibilities but if such concern is in second place it will
not drive us mad or interfere with those things we should care the most about.
Faith in God
being in first place provides the perspective with which to order all of our
life. Remember that there are two ways of dealing with some task or problem. As
humans, we must calculate the outcome and evaluate all of the circumstances.
This is common sense if we are to arrive at any proper resolution. On the other
hand we must have recourse to God. In God nothing is impossible. There are no
restrictions and human calculations at the end of the day do not mean anything.
We have
reached the pinnacle of material success in our modern world but civilization
is under constant threat from terror and hatred centuries old. The spiritual
insights of humanity revealed in the Bible and in our history are the only
permanent things that remain. Everything else and every empire that has gone
before is nothing but dust in the wind.
In everything
by prayer and supplication is not a call to unceasing prayer but reserving time
to concentrate upon God to the detriment of those things that detract from his
majesty and purpose which in turn produces in us a deep sense of gratitude for
a life that cannot justify itself by its own imperfect works. And, if our wants
expressed in our prayers are unanswered then we can know that they are
distinguished from what God wants by their very frustration. It is from the
serious exercise of prayer that our desires become exposed in those hidden
places of our hearts and we can examine our motives with God looking over our
shoulder; as in our opening collect in the Eucharist, Almighty God unto whom
all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom
no secrets are hid.
Thus, the
Liturgy of our Mass that we will celebrate here this morning, by symbolism and
prayer, gives prayerful expression to the Epistle for this Fourth Sunday in
Advent.
The Peace of God. The phrase with which we began this sermon
and with which we conclude the mass is manifestly distinguished from the peace
of this world. Religious peace is given of God and palliates the soul for
eternity. Worldly peace is manmade and temporal, directed primarily at physical
well being of humanity from which some comfort may be derived from existence,
however impermanent.
The quest for
world peace, or the relief from tribulation, has been the hallmark of all of
the lives of all of us present here this morning. Moreover, there is nothing
wrong with making the effort to reduce violence in human affairs to the lowest
minimum possible. But, when such violence is suppressed from time to time,
strife which gave rise to the violence never goes away. There is never any
permanent relief, either in our public or private lives, from change, decay,
decline, and death. Because the peace of the world is not too
much distinguishable from self-interest. God gave all of us free will
and with it comes that essential concern for self-preservation that puts us on
a collision course with the selfsame instinct in others.
The instinct
for self preservation and the exercise of our free will is, therefore, well
served in the effort to control the effects of our public and private passions
through the mediation of communities, societies, governments and the like. That
our individual good is inherent in the collective well being is undeniable.
The degree of
success to be realized in our quest for worldly peace, nevertheless, is
inextricably bound up with our understanding of another kind of peace
altogether. Because if the saving work of God in the
re-making of the human spirit is omitted in this process man, by himself, will
destroy any success. Reason cannot be the savior in the place of God. There is
no human reason that has ever existed that has not surrendered to personal bias
and corruption.
The Peace of God which passeth all
understanding is many things when translated to the individual Christian.
But above all it is (a) faith in God distinguished by humility which
understands that there is nothing one can boast about because pride is
dissolved in gratitude. It is also singleness of mind that knows life is for a
greater purpose than just existence for the sake of existence.
A life is
justified by such dedication that also recognizes one will be judged but that
judgment will be applied with the grace of forgiveness.
And, it is
with that same sense of humility and forgiveness that we must apply to our
judgment of others. In other words, our faith inclines us to be magnanimous
because we have achieved this state by remembering our own failures and using
those lapses to spur us to rededication.
And thereby
we pass into humble concern for others without indifference or the malice that
places the holder under the final judgment of God and banishment into outer
darkness forever.
Finally, the
Peace of God brings with it the contentment with being instead of having or
doing. Paul at the end of his mortal
life was in prison. He had nothing; not possessions or the physical freedom for
action. Thus his final relation with God was in just being himself. This will
be the same with all of us. Not necessarily in the sense of Paul's deprivation
and privation; but in the sense that the ultimate rest for the human soul is
the union of one's spirit with the Spirit of God. This consummation is not
achievable by any act that can be undertaken by a human being or any material
thing, but the selfless fleeing of the human soul into the bosom of God brought
about by the love of God for his precious creation.
Paul knew a
mystical ecstasy that was individual and intensely private; and arrived as he
was stripped of the things of this world just as our Lord was stripped on
Now, on the
threshold of the first coming of our Lord, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
the true spirit of Christmas and in the Rill understanding of Peace on Earth
and Goodwill toward men.