Towards the end of Paul’s life, as he sat in prison, he wrote to Timothy, saying: “I am already being poured out like a libation. . . I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6). A libation is a sacrifice, a singular act of giving something over to God, for His glory and praise (Nowlin, June 26, 2019). Saint Paul was “being poured out like a libation,” because he opened his heart to God and lived his life as a complete and sacrificial offering for Jesus. It is the life that he encouraged all Christians to live, urging us “by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. . . that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).
As I reflect on this, I remember fondly my Ordination to the Sacred Order of the Diaconate. I recall kneeling before Bishop Vasquez who handed me the Book of the Gospels and said to me: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” Although I made a promise to live a life of obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church, and the Bishop, before the assembly of the people of God, at my Ordination, it was not the first time that I opened my heart to God and made such promises.
In fact, all of us opened our hearts to God and these promises at our Baptism, when we were “buried with Christ Jesus into death so that. . . we might live in newness of life. . . [we are] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” We recall these words from the Order of Baptism:
“Almighty ever-living God. . . make [this child] the temple of your glory, and to grant that your Holy Spirit may dwell in him.”“This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.”“Almighty God. . . now anoints you with the Chrism of salvation, so that you may remain members of Christ, Priest, Prophet and King, unto eternal life.”“Receive the light of Christ. . . this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly, so that your child, enlightened by Christ, may walk always as a child of the light. . .”“May the Lord Jesus. . . grant that you may soon receive his word with your ears and profess the faith with your lips, to the glory and praise of God the Father.”
Pope Saint Paul VI once said: “Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man’s teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead” (Homily, November 29, 1970).
This is the life that we are called to live as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ the Redeemer who extends his saving hands to us and says to us: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:24-26). Jesus commands us to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). The love of God must be first and foremost in our hearts, even if, for instance, it means following the will of God and embracing the vocation that He has called us to in life rather than the careers or vocations that we may want for ourselves or our children.
These are the conditions of discipleship, of being faithful followers of Christ. And, like with all of his teachings, Jesus does not back down on these conditions but double-downs on them. Jesus knows how essential it is for us to understand this for our salvation, so much so that, despite the importance of family in human relationships, Christ still says to us: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Make no mistake about it, though. Jesus is in no way telling us not to love our families. After all, the central mystery of the Incarnation is that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). However, even as a child, Jesus knew that his first priority was to do the will of his Father in heaven while being obedient to his parents. Recall the time when Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for three days and when they found him in the temple, Jesus’ response to their anxiety was to ask them: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).
In the event of the finding of the child Jesus in the temple, we learn that when our hearts abide in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, God teaches us how to love our families as He loves them. As much as Mary and Joseph “did not understand what he said to them. . . [and Mary] kept all these things in her heart,” they loved and supported Jesus in the vocation that God the Father had laid out for their beloved Son (2:50-51). Jesus “advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man” precisely because of their love and support (2:52). Mary and Joseph understood then what Jesus would later teach about encouraging and nurturing the vocations of loved ones: “whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple - amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.” It is as Jesus says: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
Today’s readings invite us to open our hearts and homes to God for “when he comes to us he can stay here,” because “we believe that we shall also live with him.” The readings invite us to reflect on our response to Jesus’ call to discipleship as baptized Catholics, to lose our lives for his sake so that we may find eternal life with our Lord and our God in heaven because we “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Only then can we look on our lives, as Saint Paul did, and say: “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me. . .” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
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