Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear the evangelist St. Luke taking great pains to
name all of the religious and civil officials of the time.
He says, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor
of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip.
Tetrarch of the region of Etyraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high
priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John.
Now, the evangelist takes such great pains to name these civil and religious authorities
in order to confirm for us the historical truth of the gospel.
That these events, which he is about to describe, really took place in a specific time in history.
Now, he also does it to demonstrate that the prophecy of the patriarch Jacob, in Genesis
49, verse 10, was fulfilled.
That is, that prophecy that says that when the scepter was taken from Judah, that is,
that there would be no king.
For the Israelites, from their own tribe, that then the Savior would come into the world.
And so, he establishes this fact, and then says that the word of God came to John.
And so, we see that the evangelist, in this part of his gospel, is doing nothing more
than fulfilling his intention when he wrote the gospel.
As we see in the first lines,
of St. Luke's gospel, he tells us his intention, that he has followed all of these things closely
for some time past, and he intends to write an orderly account for us.
Why?
That we may know the truth concerning the things of which we have been informed.
Again, that we may know the truth, the historical truth, of all of these things which we have heard
about Jesus Christ.
His life.
His preaching.
His death.
And his resurrection.
So, here he presents to us the figure of St. John.
St. John the Baptist, the one whom we follow throughout this time of Advent,
who is meant to prepare us for the celebration of Christmas.
And he says that the word of God came to John, and that John preached a baptism of penance
for the remission of sins.
That he exhorts everyone to make paths straight.
Great for the Lord.
What does that mean?
It means to root out vices and sins.
And in their place, to practice virtue and good works.
This is the way that we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.
Now, this Sunday, I want to focus on a specific vice that St. Paul alludes to in today's epistle.
And that is the vice of humility.
Human respect.
And this is a very big obstacle, especially for Christians who are already practicing
their faith, who have a general intention to live an upright life, and even to grow
in holiness.
This demon of human respect, as the saints say, can be very, very difficult to crush
underfoot.
But we must do it if we want to make progress in holiness.
And so, what do I mean by human respect?
I mean that desire to please others, even at the cost of displeasing God.
So, the desire, we can say the disordered desire to please others.
It's disordered because it's at the cost of displeasing God.
Or, linked to it, the fear of displeasing others.
When the fear of displeasing God is absent.
That is human respect.
Now, St. Paul tells us in his epistle,
He's writing this to the Corinthians.
And he's telling them that,
Now, why does St. Paul say that?
It's a small matter to him.
Because he knows that the only judgment that is important is the judgment that he receives
from the Lord.
He says he doesn't even consider his own judgment of his own conscience, of his own self, to
be of any value.
But that which counts is the judgment that comes from the Lord.
Again, St. Paul knows that the judgments of men,
are more often than not, erroneous.
Why?
Because they judge by erroneous standards.
What does the world praise?
Who receives praise from the world?
Those who are beautiful.
Those who are talented.
Those who have some special ability.
Or who have achieved worldly success.
And who does the world,
consider good.
Again, how often times we hear people describe others as,
Oh, he's a good guy.
He's a good man.
And what do they really mean?
They mean, he's a likable man.
He has a charming personality.
But they don't really mean, he's good.
Because as our Lord says, God alone is good.
And so, whoever possesses God in their soul,
is in the state of grace.
Can be considered good, because of God.
And so they err by their standards.
They also err in applying certain standards.
How often someone would err,
in making a judgment about another person,
regarding their virtue.
Regarding their holiness.
Often thinking they're holier than they actually are.
Or, they can err with respect to defect,
thinking that somebody is more wicked more evil than they actually are presuming
there are impure motives for what they do
and so we need to be rooted in the truth as saint paul is rooted in the truth because the truth
will set us free from the shackles of human respect of being binded by human respect
in our words and in our actions letting that control us and what is the truth it is nothing
other than how god sees us as our holy father saint francis said what we are in the sight of god
is exactly what we are and nothing more and so the wise man
you
seeks only to please God. If we can please God, then what does it matter how everyone else judges
us? We don't have to answer to anyone else except to God. And what is, again, the epistle say about
the judgment of the Lord? Therefore, judge not before the time until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.
Now, this should be a cause for concern for the sinner, for the unjust. That is, those sins
committed in darkness, in hiddenness, those that no one sees, will be brought to light,
including the hidden intentions of hearts, the real motives for why we say this.
Or why we do that will be revealed. So sinners should take that into account and convert and
change. Well, it should be a cause of joy for those who live upright lives, even if they receive
misunderstandings and misjudgments from others. Because in the end, our good works will be
revealed, those hidden sacrifices that no one else sees.
Except for God. The hidden intentions of our heart, when things were perhaps misunderstood,
taken in the wrong way, and we were considered to have a bad intention behind what we said or what
we did. Those good motives, those good intentions, which were known only to God, will be revealed
on the last day. What a consolation if we seek to please only God.
And so what does God say about the worldly standards of praise? What does God say about
beauty? In Proverbs 31, he says that beauty is vain. That is, it is passing, and it's not worth
very much. And what about our talents, our abilities? Psalm 147 says that God takes no
pleasure in the runner's stride.
And that can refer to all of our talents, all of our abilities, successes, achievements. God doesn't
take any pleasure in that. And so what does he take pleasure in? Psalm 147 continues. It says,
the Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, and in them that hope in his mercy. The fear of the
Lord. That was the fear that I was talking about at the beginning of the homily. The fear of
displeasing God. The fear of displeasing God. The fear of displeasing God. The fear of displeasing
God. That's a good, healthy fear. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The fear of the Lord. The fear
of offending our loving Father. And then, if we happen to have offended him, what does it say?
And then, them that hope in his mercy. If we happen to have sinned and displeased God,
we can still please him by hoping in his mercy. And so in this way,
in a certain sense, all of the bases are covered. We can always please God.
And so may our Lady continue to prepare us for the coming celebration of Christmas,
the birth of our Lord, by rooting out our vices and sins, especially that of human respect,
and make us solely intent on pleasing God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Amen.
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