+ Today we celebrate the feast of the “Doctor of Homilies” – St.
Peter Chrysologus: (born
380, d. 450). He was archbishop of Ravenna in Italy, the capital of the Western
Empire. “Chrysologus” in his name refers to the fact that he was “Golden-worded.” This title no doubt
was given him, in addition to the fact that he deserved it, because the Western
Church needed a suitable counterpart to the Eastern Church’s St. John
Chrysostom (“Golden-tongued”), although Peter was not as eloquent as Augustine
or Chrysostom himself.
His first sermon as bishop was
preached before the empress, who became a generous patroness. A large number of
his sermons survive. Their chief characteristic was that they were brief and to
the point. They are suggestive of careful preparation, warmth and zeal; and
they give us a good picture of what life was like in Ravenna at the time.
Most are homilies on the
Gospels and other parts of the Bible or exhortation to conversion and penance;
he gave beautiful explanations of the Incarnation, the Creed, the place of Mary
and John the Baptist in the great plan of salvation. Unlike many of his contemporary bishops, his
message was positive, trying to build up the faithful in love rather than to
frighten them into submission. He died in 450 at Imola, Italy and was declared
a Doctor of the Church in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII.
The readings that are included
in his mass celebration are particularly appropriate for our day in age. We are
living in classically dark times, and “the light of the Word of God” is the
only thing that can fully and forcefully pierce that blackness, with all its
inherent misdeeds, hatred, and anger.
Your words and mine, filled
with the “spirit of Christ” can be a beacon that can calms fears, reorients the
disoriented, and drains the cesspool of lies, high crimes and misdemeanors.
St. Paul tells the Ephesians
that his preaching and teaching was a
grace from God, and nothing of his own and that everything is on track in
the manifestation of the very mysteries of God, but that it needed his, and now
our conscious wording, speaking and acting, to make that which we know of as
“salvation history” proceed to its grand conclusion. This reading wonderfully
intimates that the “very principalities and authorities in the heavens” are
waiting for us to so act and speak to bring the Kingdom of God to life in the
here and now! WOW! what you and I think,
say and do, in association with the Church of God really does matter.
The gospel passage is a clear
as day: Jesus says quite simply but with razor sharp precision: a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree
bears good fruit, and a bad tree bad fruit. The two-tree metaphor then
includes: Truth / Lies; Calm / Chaos; Trustworthiness
/ Deception; Carefulness / Recklessness; Hope / Despair, Fear, Hopelessness.
If the “good tree” equivalents
point to Christ and his gospel, the “bad tree” equivalent points to the
bullish, vitriolic, and frightening persona of the prince of darkness and lies,
and deceptions: and that would be satan, and as he is not-so-subtly
commandeering our own President of the United States and his cohorts in crime.
But, over and above all this, the
wonderful “plan of salvation” is still and even more so in effect, on target
and intended for all people everywhere, and we pray that at least “many” of
them will respond and join “fully and forcefully in the “crusade for all that
can “right the ship of fools” and honor, respect and thank the “bark of Peter”
the Church for being here – and for being the infinite and eternal SIGN OF HOPE
that we all need today!
Amen.
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