Homily for the Sixth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year B

“Do Everything For The Glory Of God”

Reverend Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center

Sunday, February 11, 2024

The tendency to separate and isolate our religious life from professional life, political life, business life, family life, moral life, social life and other life we may have is quite strong today especially in a secular society like ours. Everyday, secularist minded people tell us, religious people, to bifurcate our life into departments, to bracket out our religion and make it a private affair that shouldn’t meddle into our other life. In explicit and subtle ways, they urge us to keep religion in our worship places or at home. They tell us, “When you are in Rome, behave like Romans.” Sometimes the phrase, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is misapplied to mean “What you are told in your church and what you do in your church should stay in your church.” So, outside your church, be free, be wild, live as you want. Are Christians immune to this subtle and obvious campaign to make their religious faith a confidential matter? Not at all. We are all susceptible to it. And many of us are already victims. How do you know if you are already a victim? I will tell you! You are a victim if in your social life, professional life, cultural life, political life, moral life, business life, you keep your religious life, the most basic tenets of your faith at bay. You are already a victim if when you are in the church for Mass or for any other religious activity, you put on the appearance of being religious; you speak and act like a godly person. But when you are out there in the world, your speech, behavior and attitude is off-putting. Your speech is littered with profanities, curses and expletives. In social events and workplaces, there is this dominant attitude of pride, arrogance and looking down on others. You are a victim if outside the church your behavior is erratic, reckless, out of control and out of order. It’s like watching light and day. By the way, centuries ago, the great St. Paul warned us to be careful of people who are self-centered, who are lovers of money, proud, abusive and having a form of godliness but denying its power to save them (2 Timothy 3).

What is the antidote to these tendencies? What is the cure for dividing our life into departments: religious and secular and keeping God at bay from our secular life? In our Second reading from 1 Corinthians 10:31, St. Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” That’s the cure, everybody. No matter where you are— home, workplace, in a party, in church, with your friends eating and drinking, if your words and actions are giving glory to God, you are authentic, and you are not a victim of the campaign pressure of secularists who want to rid society of God. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the Society of Jesus, shortly known as the Jesuits popularized the phrase, “For the greater glory of God.” That phrase is at the heart of Jesuit spirituality. What does it mean? It means that there is no such thing as a secular department of life that is not sacred; it means there is no part of our life that God is not found. So, in your professional life, political life, social life etc. God is to be loved, honored, served, adored and glorified. If you are a teacher, glorify God through your teaching. If you are a medical doctor, glorify God in the practice of medicine. If you are a fire-fighter, glorify God while working to put out fire. If you are a receptionist, a security guard, a nurse, a janitor, a handyman, a bus-driver, a land-mower, a snow-remover, whatever is your means of making a living, glorify the living God while performing your task. Do not keep God at bay. When you eat and drink and dance, do so with the mind of glorifying God. What does that entail? It means I will eat with moderation. I will drink with moderation. I will not make food or drink my god. Dancing is good, and when I dance, I will dance with moderation. I will actually dance like a child of God and not letting my dancing steps and moves become a temptation for others around me. Glorifying God will be uppermost in everything I do.

In the words of the great St. Irenaeus, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” What does it mean to be fully alive? Does it mean feeling lively? No! That’s just a feeling, which comes and goes. Does it mean having biological life? Being born and not aborted? No! It is far more than that, and more precious than biological life. But what does it mean? It is you and me fully alive with God’s life, supernatural life, the life that is stronger than death. It is the life we are not born with but receive by faith and Baptism. To Nicodemus, Jesus said, “What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). “Flesh” here means mortal life, natural life, for both body and soul; “spirit” means not just the human spirit or soul— everyone has that, but the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Check this out! We won’t make heaven by being born but by being “born again” as Jesus said. Our earthly parents only give us the life of the flesh, the mortal and natural life, but only our Father in heaven can give us the life of the Spirit, the immortal and supernatural life. This supernatural life, this life of God, which is given to us in baptism is to be maintained, sustained and kept alive by being in the state of grace, and not in the state of unrepentant mortal sin. But what is the glory of God? Glory means beauty and splendor, radiating like light. It is a kind of spiritual light. We can see the glory of God in the faces of the saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the great Pope John Paul II. We can see the glory of God radiating in the faces of our spiritual heroes. For some of us, they are our moms, dads, faith formation teachers, our priests, and so many people who allowed God to use them to minister to us. When this beauty and splendor and light of God find expression in your secular and religious life, God is delighted. What gives God joy is not only because you are naturally alive, but that you are alive in every sector of your life. What gives God glory is that in your professional life, political life, social life, family life, moral life etc. God is given his supreme place. God is found in them, and not kept at bay. So, whatever you do in every sphere of your life, do everything for the glory of God. 

Veni Sancte Spiritus!