Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Though I don’t play, I love watching golf. Lots of people make fun of me for this, saying things like watching golf is like watching the grass grow. And I will admit that, on a Sunday afternoon after Masses, I do tend to doze in and out of watching the final rounds, but I attribute that more to my fatigue than to the game itself. Probably my favorite golfer is Jordan Spieth. He seems like a nice man, went to Catholic schools, and plays quite well. Watching him play, even on tv, makes golf look so easy, though, from having tried to just hit the ball, I know golf is anything but easy!
Our life in Christ can sometimes seem like golf: the pros make it seem easy, but to the rest of us it’s quite hard. Maybe we look at the saints and feel that they have set the bar terribly high, and those standards are not something that we could ever do. But Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that “[His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden light.” Living under the kingship of Jesus is something which is not meant to be a heavy burden on us.
I mention kingship because our first reading is a prophecy about the king, the Messiah, which was fulfilled in Jesus. We hear this passage from the prophet Zechariah each Palm Sunday as it is fulfilled in Jesus entering His city, Jerusalem, on a donkey. The donkey was not a sign of dominance for king (that would have been a strong horse), but a sign of humility and easiness. A king who rode on a donkey came not to enforce his will by brute strength, but to invite people into his kingdom for its good.
Kingship also reflects that we owe our life to someone else. As Americans we’re not so keen on monarchies and royalty (unless it’s the Kennedys or the younger British royals), but there was a relationship between king and subject, where they worked together to promote the kingdom. We owe our life, really everything, to Christ, as I preached a few weeks ago. And Christ our King, for His part, gives us everything we need to be saints, to be holy men and women, to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, so that we enter the kingdom of heaven.
But there is a prince working to undermine the kingship of Christ, and that is Satan. He wants us to switch our allegiance to him. St. Paul talks about that in our second reading. When he encourages us not live according to the flesh, St. Paul means everything in us that is fallen, that gives in to the temptations of the devil. Sometimes those temptations can be in our very flesh and blood, like the temptations to gluttony, sloth, and lust. Sometimes they are more in the heart like greed, envy, or hatred, or even in the mind, like pride. But they are not of the Kingdom of God; they are not the work of the Holy Spirit, who continues the presence of Christ our King in us.
Sometimes living the life of the Kingdom of God seems so hard, and living the life of obedience to Satan seems so easy. After all, Satan lets us do whatever we want, because it enforces our selfishness, which keeps us from God. Let’s be honest: it’s sometimes hard to make it to Mass, especially when sports, or even just vacation, is going on; it’s sometimes hard to hold back on amounts of food or even certain types of food, so that our stomach becomes the deciding factor in our life; given our sex-saturated culture, it can be very difficult not to engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage, not to ask for or send inappropriate pictures on Snapchat, not to live together before marriage; it can sometimes be hard not to hate or even simply hold a grudge against someone who has done something that we don’t like, or to speak ill of that person to others. It can often seem very easy to give in to these and so many other temptations, and it can seem very difficult to live a Christ-centered life.
In the midst of those challenges, Jesus still says, “‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.’” Living for Jesus makes for an easier life, and a life that prepares us for heaven. Living a life where we give in to our temptations makes life much more difficult, and prepares us for hell. A life spent trying to be a saint helps us to be more and more free; a life spent following our fallen passions wherever they lead us enslaves us. Who lives the better, freer life? The people who want the newest Lebron shoes, a Go-Pro, the newest phone, or Fidget Spinner, and who see if they really need it, and then, if they do, earn the money and buy it? Or the people who steal it, get caught, then go to jail, then maybe can’t get the job they want, and are restricted to working less satisfying jobs?
Life in Christ, a life lived by the Spirit of God, can seem tough and difficult, especially when we’re not living it. And certainly sometimes following God’s will entails challenges and having to say no not only to bad things but also to lesser goods. But just like watching Jordan Speith play golf, the more we live the life of Christ, the easier it becomes, and the easier it looks to others. And the more others see a Christ-centered life, the more they will want that freedom for themselves where they live in the Kingdom of God.
