Jeremiah
17: 5–10; Psalm 1; I Corinthians 15: 12–20; Luke 6: 17–26
This
is the homily prepared for St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, to be give by
Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, February 17, 2019.
“FROM RAW MATERIAL TO FINISHED PRODUCT”
(Homily
text: Luke 6: 17–26)
Throughout
this past week, I’ve been thinking about rocks and stones, and about raw
materials being shaped into a finished product.
My
concentration on rocks stems from my wife’s continuing interest in them, for,
you see, she is the daughter of a geologist. All her life long, she’s been
influenced by her father’s profession. This fascination continues to this day.
It’s easy to understand, then, why she will stop and pick up a rock when we go
on our parish bike rides along the rail-trail (by way of gentle reminder, the
first one of the 2019 season is just a little over two months away, on the last
Saturday of April). She’ll put her trophy on the rack on the back of her bike
and bring it home so that she can line the flower bed behind the house with it.
Another manifestation of her fascination with rocks and stones has to do with
our move to Pennsylvania nearly four years ago. She once said, “Pennsylvania is
the only state I’ve ever been in where, when the sign says, ‘Fallen Rock”,
there will actually be fallen rock.” (Well, that may – or may not – be true,
I’m not sure.)
Earlier
this week, my wife, who loves old movies, was watching “The Agony and the Ecstasy”,
the story of the painting of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo in the
sixteenth century. Though this movie dates back some years, it does an
excellent job of depicting Michelangelo’s early life, when he was known not as
a painter, but as a sculptor. The movie took great pains to show how enormous
blocks of stone were cut out of the formations they were formed in, and then
how they were transported from the quarry to the shop where the carving would
begin. At one point in the movie, Michelangelo is looking at a large block of
stone, and he says, “This is Moses.” (It was Michelangelo’s conviction that the
figure that would rise out of the stone was already present in the stone.)
The
process of carving the stone so that a fine statue would emerge was a long and
laborious one, one that – without modern tools – took a very long time to
accomplish. We, today, are the beneficiaries of that process, for we are able
to enjoy the beauty of the finished products of such work. Consider, for
example, the statue of David which can be seen in the city of Florence in Italy
today. That statue is the work of Michelangelo.
If
we think about it, just about every object we make use of in our lives is some
sort of a finished product. (I’d guess that there are very few that aren’t.)
And each of those objects started out as some raw material or another, or
perhaps a collection of raw materials, that were fashioned into its finished
state. Given the fact that we don’t see the creative process by which raw
materials are shaped and fashioned into a final and useful state, it might be
easy to think that such things simply appear on their own. I suspect many of us
give little thought to the manufacturing process that takes place.
Jesus’
teaching, known in Luke as the “Sermon on the Plain”, sets before us today what
are known as the Beatitudes.
(Luke’s
version differs from that which is found in Matthew’s Gospel account, chapters
five through seven. The question naturally arises as to why there are
differences between the two. One explanation might be that Jesus gave such a
teaching on two different occasions…there are differences in the description of
the setting, for example, which might lead to such a conclusion: Matthew tells us that Jesus delivered His
teaching on a mountain, while Luke tells us that it took place on a level
place, a plain. It is possible, then, that Jesus gave two different teachings
on different occasions. But it’s also possible that Luke’s sources – he was not
an eye witness to Jesus’ teaching, after all – remembered different aspects of
what Jesus said. The actual answer remains a mystery.)
The
version of these sayings should be of interest to us, for Luke tells us that
Jesus sets out a series of blessings. Then, the Lord sets out a series of woes.
There are four of each.
What
might Jesus’ purpose be in going about His teaching in this way?
Perhaps
the answer is that Jesus wants to transform the raw material of our hearts and
minds into a beautiful finished product which reflects God’s nature and God’s
desire for each of us.
So
the process begins. It begins in much the same way that an artist like
Michelangelo would go about chiseling away at a block of stone, removing the
excess and the undesirable material in order that the beauty of the statue
which is contained therein is revealed.
Jesus
begins, then, with the ultimate goal in mind: “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are
hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you
shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and which they exclude you
and revile you and spurn your name as evil.”[1]
Along
the way, the process of transformation won’t be easy. In fact, it is
unpleasant, as unpleasant as if a block of stone had nerves and could feel the
digging of the chisel, making its way into the stone with each hammer blow:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to
you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for
you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so
their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Our
Lord is telling us that we’d better allow the refiner of souls to reshape us
into God’s image, an image that will be different from that which the world
puts before us as being desirable. It is true that God’s ways are different,
vastly different, from the ways of the world.
Transform
us, then, Lord. Take the raw material of our hearts, minds and souls, and bring
forth from them a beautiful and finished product which reflects your glory.
AMEN.
