But the Greatest of These Is Charity

Quinquagesima

Feb. 11, 20181

“But the greatest of these is charity”

In the Name…

Michelangelo said, “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” This is a brilliant quote, not just because it was said by a brilliant man so many years ago, but because it describes the work of Charity; the Love of God, and God’s plan for us.

God intends to make us into a new creation, He is the potter, we are the clay. Yet, He has given us tools that we may take part in our own transformation. He has given us the tool of Charity - of love, and God’s love, if we receive it, must cause in us self-discipline. Charity transforms, it convicts, it confirms, it spurs on the conscience, it helps us to hear better the still small voice of God. Charity is greater than faith and hope but let us not forget the collect for the day; charity is the bond of peace and of all virtue.It is the wellspring of virtue, because Charity is from God.

Charity transforms us, it calls us to self-discipline, to asceticism. It is calling us this week to Lent. Has God’s Love shown you anything you should give up this Lent? Has it shown you anyplace within your soul that you should tend to? Pray for God to show you and He will, and this is His Love toward us. But let us not think that by being called to self-discipline we intend to do nothing but strip away at ourselves.

Michelangelo when he carved the great statues of David or of the Pieta did not just strip away the marble until nothing was left, he directed the carving with the proper tools, until the statue was completed. Self-discipline and fastingare indeed a stripping and chiseling awayof our egos and sins, but they are a directed chiseling removing what is undesirable and leaving our true selves. We are a work in progress, and God intends to strip away the undesirable and rough pieces of our false selves, so that we can be what He has created us to be, to bear His Image.

This is the true goal of Lent, not to just give up something, or to take on a discipline, but that this chiseling we volunteer ourselves for would be directed in such a way, that the image of Christ in us becomes a sharper image. If we call ourselves Christians, let us resemble Christ, this is what this Christian life is for. Fulton Sheen writes, “there is a potential nobility or even divinity in all of us, as there is a potential statue in a crude block of marble. But before the marble can ever reveal the image it must be subjected to the disciplinary actions of a chisel in the hands of a wise and loving Artist, Who knocks off huge chunks of formless ego until the new and beautiful image of Christ Himself appears.”

God intends to make in us His self-portrait. This is why when we are full of ourselves, we become grotesque and exaggerated expressions of our ego. But God intends to chisel through all of that, He intends to transform us through His charity, and uncover in us what we were created to be, we who are created in the image of God. This is why the Church teaches us to fast, to pray, and study the Scriptures, because the Church knows that these activities if done faithfully will help blur our egos and sharpen the image of Christ within us.

One suchteaching of the church which blurs our egos is that we fast before receiving Holy Communion.Whether we fast from midnight, or three hours, or one hour, or twenty minutes before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, we are taught to do this that we may become a worthier receptacle of Christ. That our pangs of hunger would be redirected towards the prayer that we are called to here this morning. That by putting our bodies under subjection for a few hours or a few moments we may better receive the Easter of Holy Communion this morning.

What good is it to receive the Body and Blood of Christ and not have Charity? The fact that we even deign to draw near to such a mystery in this Holy Communion requires of us that we must learn to fast and pray. For we pray “that He may dwell in us and we in Him,” “and here we offer and present unto Thee, ourselves, our souls, and bodies.” Why would we do this if it was not expected that we would grow more and more like Christ?

This is exactly what God expects. God intends to impress upon each of us the image of His beloved Son. He intends to make each of us His own self-portraits. Let us do all the work that we can, to help the great master artist of the universe to make us into the works of art that He has created us to be. That when this life is over, all that is left to be done is to polish, and to dust us off. And let us not forget that with this great mystery which we receive here every Sunday, comes great responsibility. We mustallow the Master to chisel and carve away at our egos and our sinfulness, that through His Diving Love for us we may become more and more like Him. Amen.

D.G.G.+