Root Reasons

Learning how to be a light to the nations

04/04/2023

Is 49:1-6 Hear me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name. He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory. Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God. For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength! It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

A few weeks ago I gave a marriage enrichment retreat at St. Raphael Church in Springdale (I mentioned this before). The purpose of the retreat was not to give practical advice on how to improve your marriage. Rather, the retreat tried to help couples discover the root reason to get married in the first place, namely, to personally experience and publically express the love of God to the world.

You see, marriage is not a private business between two people. That is why marriages, and even divorces, are listed in the daily newspaper. In other words, marriage is a public institution for the common good of society. Your marriage affects me, and your divorce affects me, too. I am convinced that most of the problems we face in society – drugs, gangs, school shootings, etc. – can be traced back to how we live our vocation to marriage.

And the root reason to get married, and stay married, is not just to help society, but ultimately to show the world the love of God. How does your marriage show the world the love of God? Well, each family is a miniature version of the Holy Trinity. How so? Just like we believe that God is one and yet also three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), so every human family typically has a father, mother, and children. And if they are a Catholic family, they have 20 children.

Scott Hahn captured this truth by a humorous saying: “The two become one and the one is so real that nine months later, you have to give it a name!” That is, you have a baby. In other words, the root reason you get married is to reflect, as in a miniature mirror, the love and life beating in the heart of the Holy Trinity to the whole world. That is why Isaiah said in the first reading: “I will make you a light to the nations.”

Yesterday, all the priests of the diocese gathered in St. Andrew’s Cathedral for the Chrism Mass. And in a sense, the purpose of this annual gathering is for us priests to get back to the root reason we became priests in the first place. And surprisingly, it is the same root reason that you got married, namely, to show the love of God to the world. Now, priests are normally not married, so we cannot use the same method as you. So, our manner of displaying the love of God is not through marriage but rather through ministry.

And that ministry is expressed eloquently in the three oils that were blessed by the bishop at the Chrism Mass yesterday: the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and the oil of Chrism. In other words, by using these three oils in our ministry the people of God – indeed, the whole world! – glimpses God’s love poured out in the Person of Jesus Christ. Every time you receive a sacrament, you meet Jesus. Just like marriages are for the public good, so priests exist for the public good. But in our case, that public good is the sanctification of the human race.

How do these oils help us priests in our ministry to sanctify the world? Well, the oil of the sick helps us know Jesus is close to us when we are seriously sick. I had viral meningitis in 2003, and Bishop Sartain came to the hospital to anoint me. I was not miraculously healed and able to run home. But I did feel as if Jesus was holding me in his arms, and that everything was going to be okay. I met Jesus in the hospital that day.

When I baptize a baby I put the oil of catechumens on his chest. Some babies cry when I do that, other babies fall asleep, and others try to fight me at that moment. But the parents know that their baby is meeting Jesus, and becoming another Jesus – a Christian! – by that anointing and that baptism.

And in a few weeks 87 teenagers will be anointed with the oil of Sacred Chrism on their foreheads by Bishop Taylor. They have taken Confirmation classes for two years prior to receiving that sacrament. Why? So that they know they are meeting Jesus on that day by means of that oil. Every time you receive a sacrament, like at this Mass, you are meeting Jesus in a profound personal encounter, and we become more like him.

It may come as a surprise to many people that married people and priests are in exactly the same business: to show the love of God to the whole world, “to become a light to the nations.” Married people show that love and light by their marriages and having babies, for the increase of the human race. Priests show that love and light through our ministry, especially with these three oils, for the sanctification of the human race. It is always good to reflect on the root reasons we do things.

Praised be Jesus Christ!