LOVE ONE ANOTHER

A SERMON FOR THEE 4TH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

A very simple lesson today, contained in the very simple language of St. Paul’s Epistle.  Often, St. Paul’s words can be a bit obscure, and we have to give a lot of thought to what he’s saying so that we can figure out what to make of it.  Not so, today.  With a few simple sentences he explains that the Commandments four through ten (which deal with our relationship with our neighbor) can all be summed up in Christ’s second of the two great commandments, which is that we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Even the most simple-minded and uneducated peasant can understand the concept of love.  Indeed, the inhabitants of the mountain shacks of Appalachia probably have a far better understanding of the word “love” than, say, the valley girls of Beverly Hills.  Up in the Smoky Mountains, they know, for example, that “love” is not just that feeling of sentimentality that we’re supposed to indulge with chocolate-covered strawberries and Vermont teddy bears on St. Valentine’s Day.  That’s not real love of course.  I have a hard time imagining a starry-eyed hillbilly couple unwrapping their gifts by the romantic light of their kerosene lantern, as they toast each other with moonshine.  Ma and Pa have a far more realistic and godly appreciation of what it is to love another human being with all his or her foibles and imperfections.  It’s tough and gritty, rarely easy, and often downright unpleasant, where the closest laundromat is the local swamp, and the nearest fast-food take-out is also the local swamp.  Let’s face it, the California girls would last about as long as the whiff of Febreze they’d spray in the outhouse.  Sacrifice is not a word in their vocabulary, and yet, regrettably, it is they who represent the average American far more closely than the good folks up in the Smokies.

Our Lord himself told us that the whole of the law hangs on the two great commandments.  The first three commandments God gave to Moses can be summarized by loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength.  “Love God, then do as thou wilt.”  The other commandments are summed up by loving our neighbor, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Love thy neighbor, then do as thou wilt.  Because “love worketh no ill to his neighbor.”  If you truly love your neighbor as yourself, you will never jeopardize his spiritual welfare, you won’t even endanger his physical welfare without an over-riding reason.

Today’s saint is a resounding example of the kind of love we should have for our neighbor.  St. Blaise started out as a physician in Armenia, and he had plenty of opportunities in that profession for helping his neighbor.  He healed many, and the word spread that his success was based as much on faith as on science.  Many a cure was attributed to the miraculous intervention of God, and I doubt that the good people of Armenia were surprised when Blaise chose to refocus his attentions from the physical good of his neighbor to the spiritual.  And so it was that Blaise became a bishop.  More and more people flocked to him for his intercession and to be healed.  It is said that even herds of animals made their way to Blaise’s presence, and that he healed them too.  Eventually, the powers that be heard of his reputation, and as the enemies of God never tire of doing, they determined to destroy him.

Blaise was sent to a dark, dank and dismal dungeon, where little light managed to penetrate.  One good woman, a member of his flock, visited him and brought him two candles for him to provide a little light.  Images and icons of St. Blaise often depict him holding these two candles, and it is for this reason that we use two candles when we bless your throats today in his honor.

You may wonder why this wondrous physician and healer is particularly venerated as a patron of those with diseases of the throat.  The story is told that a mother brought her dying son to Blaise for healing.  He had swallowed a particularly nasty fishbone, which had lodged in his throat and was blocking his air passages.  He was slowly dying from this blockage, but Blaise of course was able, with the help of God’s divine power, to cure the boy and return him, healthy, into the arms of his mother.

Like all saints, Blaise was a reflection of the Light of the World, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.  Yesterday was Candlemas, when we are commanded by the Church to walk in procession holding our lighted candles in our hands, and bearing witness ourselves to Him who is the true Light.  Like many of the Church’s traditions, this one was discontinued after Vatican 2, and today, it is difficult for us remnants of Christ’s flock to travel to church on a weekday so that our traditions may not be forgotten.  But let us at least hold the figurative candles in our hands wherever we go, so that we may bring the light of faith, the light of hope, and the light of charity to these same neighbors.  They need to be loved just as we all do, and so few of them seek that love in the God who truly loves them more than anyone.  So many have forgotten God and his love, and it falls to us, not just saints like St. Blaise, but ordinary sinful yet sincere folk like us, to remind them of His love by showing them our own.