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God
Alone Remains
January
22, 2006 Homily
1
Corinthians 7:28-31
Fr.
George Smiga
The
apostle Paul, together with the entire early church, believed
that Jesus would return in a matter of months. Paul believed
that the world would come to end in his lifetime. It is for
this reason that Paul can write the rather peculiar words
that we heard in today's second reading to to the Corinthians:
From
now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had
none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning,
and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and
those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those
who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with
it.
Why
does Paul speak this way? He believes that the time is short
and the present form of the world is passing away. So if in
a short time the world will be gone, Paul advises the Corinthians
to practice now for that new world: to live as if they did
not have spouses or possessions, joys or sorrows. For shortly
Christ would come and then there would be a new creation.
Well,
Paul was wrong. The world did not end in a matter of months.
Two millennia later, we are still waiting for Christ to return.
So it is understandable to question whether the words that
Paul wrote to the Corinthians still have any validity for
us. Why do we continue to proclaim these words as the word
of God? I would suggest to you that the words of Paul still
have a relevance to our lives because the present form of
the world is passing away. Even if this is not true
in the cosmic sense that Paul understood with Jesus coming
on the clouds of glory. The world is passing away in the personal
terms of our own lives.
Our
lives are passing away. Are you in the sixth grade? You won't
be next year. Are you in your thirties? That's not going to
last. Are you married? You will eventually have to say goodbye.
Do you have a job? You won't be working it forty years from
now. In the foreseeable future someone else will be living
in your house. Your health and your energy, these too are
fading. There is nothing, nothing in our lives that will always
remain the way it is today. This is undeniable fact. Yet we
do not like facing it because the recognition that our world
is passing away can lead to anxiety and depression. We can
begin to worry, “How long before my marriage or my job ends?
How long before I lose my possessions or lose my health? How
long before I will have to say goodbye to what I love?” Recognizing
that our lives are passing can indeed lead to depression.
But
there is another option, another way to view and to cope with
the passing nature of our lives. It is the way that Paul recommends
in the second reading, and it's called detachment .
Detachment seeks to live life with the recognition that nothing
in life will be here forever: not our spouse, not our job,
not our health. All these things are things we only have for
awhile. And since all things are passing, everything in itself
is insufficient. There is nothing that is enough, nothing
which will satisfy forever—with one exception. The one exception
is God. Only God is sufficient. Only God will last. This is
why the way of detachment is recognized by Christians and
other religious people as a path to God. Because as we let
go of the things that are insufficient, we recognize the One
who is sufficient. As we detach ourselves with the things
that are passing away, we encounter the One who will remain
forever. When our health and our spouse are gone, when our
possessions no longer bring joy, when our work is done, God
will still be there. God alone remains.
Detachment
then is a way of practicing what eventually will be demanded
from us: letting go of everything which does not last. The
remarkable thing about detachment is that it does not make
us love the world less, but more. Men and women of detachment
love more deeply and rejoice more sincerely, for they see
all things, all of their relationships, all of their possessions,
as what they really are—passing gifts from a God who alone
remains.
Paul
then is calling us to practice detachment. To love the people
and things in our life deeply, but realize that they are only
with us for a while. To realize that anything we try to hold
on to—anything—will slip through our fingers, with one exception.
This is the good news. For the one thing that is sufficient,
the one thing that will always remain is ours. God is ours.
We can surrender ourselves to God today, and we can hold on
to God's love. This is why people of detachment are people
who are secure, peaceful, and joyful. For they know that although
the world is passing, they can hold on to God today—and they
can keep on holding forever.
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