Homily from an evening Mass celebrated by Fr Richard for the Friday of the 4th Week of Lent
Readings: https://universalis.com/mass.htm or click here and click the page under "Readings at Mass"
Homily: Hope of life eternal
Over the last couple of weeks,
I’ve often thought to myself: what must this be like for an atheist? We know
that only a very small proportion of people who contract coronavirus die but,
nevertheless, current events have brought to the fore the reality of our own
mortality. They’ve made the words spoken to us on Ash Wednesday ever more a
reality: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
For someone who doesn’t believe
in eternal life, the thought of death could indeed be quite scary and lead to a
great panic. They could quite easily say along with the “godless” portrayed in
today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom: “Our life is short and dreary, nor is
there any relief when man’s end comes, nor is anyone known who can give release
from Hades.”
For us Christians, when the
Lord calls us, our death is not the end, but just the beginning. We long to identify
with the virtuous portrayed in the reading. If we strive always on the path of
virtue - those lasting habits by which we serve each other and come closer to
God – then we see our final end is eternal happiness. Our sure hope is that “holiness
will be rewarded”.
The true Christian is not scared
of dying because in Jesus Christ, we see everlasting life. We’re called to
imitate him in our living of virtue because he is truly God. The people of
Jerusalem in today’s Gospel can’t recognise Jesus’ Divinity. They see him just as
a man who’s come from a poor family in Nazareth. But Jesus reveals to us that
he’s not only fully human, born of Mary, but also fully Divine: He comes from heaven
above. He is true God and true man. And as the famous quote from St Athanasius
goes: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.” [St. Athanasius,
De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B.]
The liturgy is now pointing
us towards the Paschal mysteries – when the Incarnate Word dies and rises again
so that we may be able to follow him to the Father’s Kingdom. By our striving
for virtue with the help of God’s grace, we can demonstrate to others that life
on earth is but a mere preparation for the eternal life to come.
May our witness to Christ
lead non-believers to convert to him and to hope in him.
