Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
Chapel of our Lord, Episcopal Church Center
Feast of Gregory the Great, March 12, 2020
May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I smiled when I got the rota for March. I get to preach on the feast day of Gregory the Great. A gift indeed. He was one of the thinkers I wrote about in my doctoral dissertation. I spent a number of years living with his life story and many of his writings. He is like an old friend, and so it is an honor to get to share some of my favorite insights and challenges of this great saint of our tradition with you today. And typical Holy Spirit, I also believe there is much of value to be found in Gregory’s life and writings for this particular time and place.
Gregory came from a prominent Roman family, and he eschewed that privileged life for a quiet monastic one. In that Gregory is an exemplar of faith, he knew that living a life of deep faith and devotion was more important the material wealth or political power. Although Gregory took his desire to live out his faith a bit far. He loved ascetical practices and followed them so strongly and faithfully that he ended up making himself ill for most of his life. In this, Gregory is an example of what not to do. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. Practicing piety is important. Being deeply faithful is important, but it does not need to be taken to the extreme of self-harm. In fact, that ends up being counter productive. Gregory accomplished much in his life, but he could have done even more if he had not been ill so much of the time.
Speaking of what not to do, Gregory offers us another model on that front in his commentary on the book of Job. Gregory spends a good deal of time focused on the behavior of Job’s friends. You know the ones? The ones who come to see Job when he is suffering and who sit around talking about how Job must have done something to deserve this. It is like they are trying to solve a logic or a thought puzzle. They are doing a clinical analysis of how this situation came to be, and they seem to have forgotten about the emotions and real suffering of their friend who is right in front of them. Job’s friends are exactly how we should NOT behave in the midst of suffering.
In the midst of the fears and realities of a global pandemic, this is a good reminder for us. There are plenty of narratives going around that play on fear or stereotypes or prejudice. Viruses do not obey the lines of division we human beings like to draw for ourselves. Diseases and the broader experience of suffering are universal experiences. While the realities of classism, sexism, racism, and all the other isms can mean that we experience suffering to varying degrees, no one is immune from it.
So, if we find ourselves thinking like Job’s friends or we find ourselves starting down the mental road of enumerating why we are superior to someone else (even if we are only doing so in our own head), we ought to pause and reassess. The Gospel for today is a helpful reminder. We are called to be servants. We are called to be humble. We are called to be kind. We are called to be generous. In case we were wondering, it is not about us. It is about giving of ourselves for the greater good. It is about following in the way of Jesus, offering ourselves, our gifts, our love to God and to the world so that everyone might be enriched by it.
So in this time of increasing fear, when it can be so tempting to give into narratives that promote division and separation, let us seek to be a force for love and compassion in our communities and the world. It will do our own hearts good, and it will do the world good. AMEN.
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