(Twenty-sixth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given
on September 30, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Amos 6:1-7; Psalm
146:7-10; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-sixth Sunday 2019]
It’s not just a competition—it’s a fight!
That’s my message to you today in one line (of course, the
homily will be slightly longer than that!).
The word “competition” can describe many different types of
activities. A football game, for
example, is certainly a competition—but so is a game of scrabble or a game of
tiddlywinks! A fight, on the other hand,
is a very specific kind of competition, namely a VIOLENT ONE! A fighter’s intention when he enters the ring,
as we all know, is to knock his opponent out—to render his opponent
unconscious—to put his opponent into a physical condition where he’s incapable
of doing any more harm.
Now, why do I mention this today? It’s because of our second reading—that
passage we just heard from 1 Timothy 6.
First, a little background is in order. In the early 1990s,
a new version of the New American Bible was published. It contained a revised and re-translated New
Testament (for the most part, the Old Testament remained the same in both the
old and new editions).
This revised New American translation is the one that we
use for our New Testament readings here at Mass on Sundays. It’s been that way for a couple of decades
now.
I do not know who the translators were who worked on this
new edition of the New American Bible—I couldn’t tell you any of their
names—but I can tell you one thing about them with absolute certainty: when
they did their translating THEY DID NOT KEEP IN MIND THE DISTINCTION I JUST
SHARED WITH YOU BETWEEN A COMPETITION AND A FIGHT!
Look again at that text from 1 Timothy 6. There Paul says to Timothy (and, by
extension, to all of us): “Compete well for the faith”—or at least that’s how
it’s translated in this revised New American version.
“Compete well for
the faith” . . . Doesn’t that sound inspiring?
Isn’t that a powerful line?
Doesn’t it just make you want to go out and conquer the world for Jesus?
Well, if it does, God bless you—because it does absolutely
nothing for me! To me that line sounds
blah—and lifeless—and wimpy! It’s as if
St. Paul were comparing the spiritual challenges of this life to a game of scrabble
or tiddlywinks!
I like the way this line was translated in the older version of the New American
Bible—which is also the way it’s translated in the New Revised Standard Version
and the King James Version and just about every other English version that’s
out there!
It reads: “Fight the
good fight of faith!”
Now there’s a verse that has some power and conviction
behind it! There’s a verse that conveys
the real truth of what this life is about for the true believer! There’s a verse which makes it crystal clear
that ultimately this life is not a friendly game of tiddlywinks with satan;
it’s a fight of faith—a fight in which someone wants to knock us
out—permanently! This is why St. Peter
says in his first letter, “Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a
roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, solid in your faith.”
Now the good news is this is a fight we can win—by the
grace of God, through faith. (Peter
makes that clear in this verse; Paul certainly believed that as well.)
But to win the fight we’ve first got to know that we’re in a fight—a fight for our soul!
And the fight is not primarily with those worldly and
ungodly people out there who are actively promoting moral evils like abortion
and sexual promiscuity (although it definitely does include opposition to those
evils).
In my attempt to fight my “good fight of faith,” for
example, my most troublesome opponent is not the woman who wrote an unkind note
to me last weekend because I spoke the truth about homosexual activity and
transgenderism in my homily. My most troublesome opponents are not the folks at
Planned Parenthood or the pro-abortion politicians in our government who annoy
me constantly.
In my attempt to live out this Scripture passage from 1
Timothy 6 on a daily basis, my most difficult opponent is me!
And that’s the way it will always be until the day I die!
By the same token, your most difficult opponent in your
“fight of faith” (whether you realize it or not) is YOU!
You see, we each have a unique set of inner temptations and
inner struggles that are constantly pulling us away from Jesus Christ. These are the forces that we must constantly
fight against!
The inner temptations
relate to the 7 deadly sins: pride, lust, greed, gluttony, anger, envy and
sloth.
The inner struggles
we have are rooted in the circumstances of our lives and the defects in our personalities. Some
of us, for example, have to battle moodiness; some of us tend to make rash
judgments; some of us tend to lose our tempers easily; some of us tend to hold
grudges—those are just a few possible personality defects.
But don’t feel too bad, because even the great saints of
the past have had these inner struggles!
St. Paul had his “thorn in the flesh,” which he spoke about in 2
Corinthians 12; Thomas the apostle was prone to doubt; Peter’s weakness appears
to have been his hot temper.
For St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) it was the
spiritual darkness she had to deal with for many years. That
was one of the areas of her life where she had to fight her good fight of faith.
And it wasn’t easy, as we know from the things she wrote
over the years to her spiritual director.
But she did it—and she won!
She was victorious—through Jesus and his saving grace—in
her personal fight of faith.
We can also be victorious in ours—if we do what she and the
great saints did and go on the offensive in the fight! That’s key! We go on the offensive when we
make our relationship with Jesus Christ the most important relationship in our
life, and when we actively pursue the virtues, some of which St. Paul mentions
in this passage: “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and
gentleness.”
This, by the way, is the purpose of the ChristLife program
that we’ll be starting here at St. Pius in a few weeks. It’s designed to help you to go on the
offensive, and become a better fighter in your own personal fight of faith.