Homily for September 14, 2025

In the absence of order, we will naturally find chaos. When a child is not told to put away his toys/make her bed/pour the milk carefully onto the bowl—we are bound to have chaos.   We tend to resent rules b/c they restrict what we can do—we’re not as free as doing whatever we want—but good rules restrict us from doing what is (ultimately) harmful to me and those around me. Those good rules bring about order and harmony.   The boy may not want to pick up and put away the T-Rex or Nintendo Switch b/c that means play time is over,   but when he does, family time is possible —it's often underappreciated at that age; gratitude may come decades later.   Even if there are long faces b/c screen time is over,   parents are at peace knowing that they’re looking for long-term order in their family. 

The same is reflected in the individual’s moral and spiritual life—at first it is quite difficult to stop something we’ve practiced for a long time (even if it causes harm): alcohol abuse, anger, gossip, pornography, resentment, envy.   Yet we know that there’s something better for us (our life has gotten out of order) but it’s more comfortable to stay where we are and avoid those things that limit my choices!

I think every problematic part of our life can be traced back to an evil done onto us or that we ourselves inflicted.   And, even if we don’t have control over that thing or the past,   there is an answer.   Christianity is unique (among other things) b/c Jesus chose to suffer and feel real pain. He chose to take upon Himself the consequences of our sins!   So, like Christ, we don’t shy away from pain!

It really goes against logic to celebrate the moment our Savior died, and yet, not only are we allowed to be glad for the crucifixion of Christ (but we celebrate b/c that moment marks the triumph of the Cross). We even boast with St. Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.   A contradiction in human terms, but wisdom in God’s eyes.   What we see in St. Paul here is that   (although he was a persecutor of Jesus/an arrogant man/a blasphemer/a murderer),   he re-ordered his life by placing the mercy of Christ first! Then, everything else came second.

Jesus dumbfounded Nicodemus when He said: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.   It’s not only the physical lifting of Jesus on the Cross that we may look to Him—that He came to save everything in heaven and on earth!   But, even more so, Jesus is telling us that unless we lift Christ in our lives, we will not be saved.

W/o exception, there’s something that each of us lift up in our life. I think we like to say, “God is first in my life,”   but ‘I better have things go my way or get out of my way,’   or that the moment someone makes me angry, I chew them out!   Unless the Son of Man is lifted up in my life, there will be disorder and chaos in my life.   It’s easier to notice the chaos when things are out of order at the lower level: b/w my work life and my family life or friendships:   I can spend so much time at work that I’m living to work, not working to provide for the household,   to the point of neglecting the very family I’m trying to provide for.    There is a dis-order in my life: I have placed my job or my friendships in the place where my family should be.   It’s much more severe in terms of where Christ, our God, is in my life.

If I don’t exalt Jesus in my life, then I will make idols of anything and everything else: my possessions/my bank account/my political party/my way of looking at the world/my comfort   —ultimately: me.   I exalt myself to the place where only Jesus should be.    It’s idolatry of the worst kind; not only idolatry of other things or other people—it’s pride.   And when I (or any other person or thing) have taken the place of God, we have fallen into the trap of “loving the creature and forgetting the Creator.”   That’s when we get off the rails. That’s when we see the violence that we witness in our country/in our schools/in our streets/across the world: killing innocent people.

Why?   At the most fundamental level,   it is all b/c Jesus (truly) is not the One Who is exalted/not the One Who is raised above anything or anyone else in their lives/in our lives.   When we get that order wrong: when we place creation above the Creator—we can get anything else wrong.

Just like it hurts for a child to put away their toys, to spend quality time with the family, or to avoid harmful behaviors,   (these do hurt at first; it’s tough).   But the right ordering of our lives is necessary for our temporal and eternal well-being.   If I place creatures before the Creator;   I will get what I want: I will attach myself to what fades away and not to Jesus who is the Alpha and the Omega/the beginning and the end.   He is the One who was lifted up for our salvation. And from there He gives us the graces we need when we look up to Him.   The question is: Do I lift Him up in my life above all other things?