In his letter to the Philippians(2:5) Saint Paul urges us: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” The mind of Jesus is revealed to us with substantial clarity in the Gospel this Sunday, where we continue to hear, as we did last Sunday, what is called the Sermon on the Plain.
In this sermon on the plain, which began with the beatitudes last Sunday, Our Lord recommends to us things that He did in the course of His own ministry, and above all while on the Cross. He loved his enemies, did good to those who hated Him. He blessed those who cursed Him, and prayed for those who mistreated Him (Lk 23: 34). When struck on the cheek, in the course of his interrogation by the High Priest (John 18:23), he effectively offered his other cheek as well. While on the Cross, he did not murmur when they first stripped Him of His clothes, and took His tunic (John 19:24). In other words, the best examples of what our Lord recommends to us in the Gospel today, is found in the course of His blessed Passion. The Gospel acclamation itself makes this clear:
I give you a new commandment, says
the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.
There is a small problem with His advice, however. No man would wish to die on the cross, even if it were for his own benefit, leave alone die for others. What Our Lord recommends is not natural to the human being. It is our natural desire to run away from hurt, to return the attack when attacked, to prepare a defence, or better make a pre-emptive strike when we know that someone is going to attack us.
But Our Lord recognizes this fact. In the course of His sermon, Our Lord recognizes the limits of natural virtue, i.e. the extent to which sinners, relying on their own goodness, can be virtuous. The limits of natural virtue are to love those who love us, do good to those who do good to us, and lend money only to those whom we know can be relied upon to return our money. He recognizes that the acts He is urging us to do are not the acts of sinners, that is, normal people in the natural order; he is asking us to be merciful, and perfect, like His Father, and for us to be supernatural. In other words, he is asking us to be divine!
In his first letter to the Corinthians, which we read today, Saint Paul acknowledges the differences between our natures and that of Christ:
The first man [Adam] was from the earth, earthly;
the second man [the second Adam, i.e. Jesus], from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
We, who are sons of Adam, are as Saint Paul indicates, natural, not spiritual. So how then are we, sinners that we are, going to reach the heights of divine compassion? Simply knowing, or having, the mind of Christ is not enough. We are going to need more than intellectual knowledge if we are to be able to act in a way that is against our earthly nature. Yet, in the same, first, letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul assures us that:
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
It is because Our Lord is compassion itself, that He does not leave us with knowledge alone, but provides us with His own nature, which He displayed to the fullest extent while on the Cross, so that we can become like Him. I am referring, of course, to His Precious Body and Blood, which allows us to gain his divine nature.
Listen to the words of Bishop Procopius of Gaza (ca. 465–70 AD –526/30 AD),
To those who still lack the works of faith and the higher knowledge which inspires them he [Our Lord Jesus Christ] says; “Come, eat my body, the bread that is the nourishment of virtue, and drink my blood, the wine that cheers you with the joy of true knowledge and makes you divine. For in a wonderful way I have mingled my divinity with my blood for your salvation.”
My dear brothers and sisters, I have a very earthy way to elaborate this idea for you. Have you not noticed that when you eat, or drink, cashew, the next day our sweat, our body, even our urine (!), smells of cashew? The principle of nature is that we become what we eat. And this is the principle through which Our Lord transmits His spiritual, or supernatural, nature to us. By consuming the Eucharist, in small steps we begin our process of partaking of His spiritual and divine nature. In other words, when our Lord calls us to practice the supernatural virtues which he demonstrated to us, He does not leave us without help to realize this otherwise impossible task. He offers His own body to help us become like Him, which is why Paul recognizes that Jesus Christ “the last Adam [is] a life-giving spirit” It is because HE is a life-giving spirit that for two millennia, the saints of the Church have been able to give up their lives and embrace the Cross, showing us how to be divine, even though, like us, they were born as sinners.
For this great gift He has offered us, to become divine, let us make the words of the psalm our own, as we say:
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my
being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget
not all his benefits.
(This homily was first preached to the faithful in Concanim on 23 Feb 2025 at the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda.)
(Image reference: The Communion of the Apostles, Luca Giordano, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)
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