Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Homily by Deacon Vitalii Leheta on the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 28, 2024
Our life is very short, and to the extent that we have made efforts to understand God here on earth, we will be close to Him in eternity. We are a kind of vessel that God will generously fill 100 percent in eternity.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Today, Mother Church gives us an example of perfect love, to which every person is called, and especially we Christians. Christ uses simple yet profound words when He says, ‘Whatever you want people to do to you, do to them also’ (see Luke 6:31). And here we can see the traditional thinking of the Jewish world, in which the rule of equality is in effect—the regulation of certain social orders that were established by Moses. Thus, through Moses, God conveys His orders ‘do not give more’, which are expressed through the decree ‘…an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an ear for an ear’ (cf. Exodus 21:23–25; Leviticus 24:17–20; Deuteronomy 19:21). God, who loves, wanted to reduce the power of evil that reigned in the cruel hearts of the wild tribes, so He gave these laws with the good of the chosen people in mind.
When we speak of the Law of Moses, it is not new. Similar laws existed in the tribes neighbouring Israel. Thus, by order of the Babylonian king Hammurabi, around 1750–1757 BC, certain rules of social life were written, which were called the ‘Laws of Hammurabi’ or ‘Code of Hammurabi’. Paragraph 196 of this law reads as follows: ‘If a person damages another person’s eye, then his eye must be damaged’ (see “Hammurabi’s Laws on the Types of Punishment in Ancient Babylon” §196). We know that Moses was born between 1391 and 1271 BC according to the Torah, the holy book of the Jews, and according to Jerome in 1592 BC. However, we do not reject the truth that the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in their original language, are inspired by the Holy Spirit and that Moses proclaims the will of God.
The call to love that we have heard today in the Gospel of Luke is simple and straightforward. But our Lord goes on to say, ‘…what merit is there in loving those who love you… and sinners do this’ (cf. Luke 6:32). And in these words, the novelty of Jesus’ preaching lies. When Jesus Christ came into this world, He said that ‘He did not come to abolish the law, but only to fulfill it’ (cf. Matthew 5:17). What do these already fulfilled words mean for us Christians today? These words reveal to us the truth about God and ourselves. This means that God is the best teacher for us. And God’s supreme nature is expressed through God’s pedagogy.
God, who is unchanging, reveals the truth of salvation gradually, as the people grow to understand it. In the same way, God reveals the truth about Himself to each of us gradually, in due time, as we can understand it. The Lord, like a wise teacher, does not impose something on us that is good, but only helps us to come to it and understand it. God is extremely patient and loving because He never gets tired of teaching again and again, repeating the same thing countless times in the hope that people will finally listen to His voice and follow Him. God, being unchanging, could not have taught the doctrine of forgiveness and mercy to a people of ‘hard hearts’ (cf. Mark 10:5) in advance, because the people would not have understood it, rejecting such a God. And when the people have learned the lesson for a long time, then the Heavenly Master continues to reveal another truth. That is why, initially, the Lord does not command, ‘Forgive the offender, love your enemies, and pray for them’ (cf. Matthew 5:44), but only reduces the massive abuses among the Jews. The harm that Jews did to each other was disproportionate. Thus, when one Jew gouged out the eye of another, the latter or his relative could kill the offender. In this context, the Lord could not speak of forgiveness because the chosen people of God would not have understood it. Only Christ, the teacher, who comes in the fullness of time, speaks another theme to the chosen people—the people of disciples. And this theme is: ‘How to become a perfect Christian?’ or ‘What is the road to holiness?’ And this road is opened through forgiveness and mercy. This road is the road of sacrifice and almsgiving. This is the path that all the righteous people of the Old Testament followed. The law of tithing, which was established by God but not cancelled by Him, is the law that continues to operate and through which we draw God’s blessing upon ourselves. It is a law that reveals to us another truth of God: that everything we have is in fact a gift from God. This does not negate the fact that we have also worked hard to acquire material things, but it does not negate the truth that we ourselves are God’s property. These words are closely intertwined with another passage from the Gospel: ‘Many are called, but few are chosen’ (see Matthew 22:14), but this choice depends only on ourselves, on our synergy—cooperation—on my choice and desire to be with God, which we express through concrete actions: prayer, tithing, a kind word, and other acts of mercy for body and soul towards our neighbours. As Psalm 90 says, ‘The age of man is 70 years, and if he is strong, 80 years; and most of them are labour and vanity, for they soon pass away and we are gone’ (cf. Psalm 90:10).
Our lives are very short, and to the extent that we have made efforts to reach God here on earth, we will be close to Him in eternity. We are a kind of vessel that God will generously fill 100 % in eternity. And each of us is a different form of vessel, so some of us are a small glass, vase, or pitcher, others a large barrel or other capacious vessel. And in heaven, God will fill everyone to the brim, depending on how much each of us can hold of God’s love. And this, in turn, directly depends on how much effort we have made here on earth to get closer to the source of love and goodness, which is our Heavenly Father.
Today we ask God for an end to the russian war in Ukraine and for a just peace in which our bleeding motherland will regain all the territories it had before the war began in 2014. O Lord, embrace all Ukrainian soldiers and wounded Ukrainian families in Your loving heart, and grant eternal rest and blessed memory to those who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of Ukraine. Amen!
