Homily 681 – 5GL
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
March 29, 2026
Epistle:  (321-ctr) Hebrews 9:11-14 and (208) Galatians 3:23-29
Gospel:  (47) Mark 10:32-45 and (33) Luke 7:36-50

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Today’s Gospel is so fascinating to me, mostly because I identify so closely with James and John with this.  Maybe it is me alone, perhaps my background, but I like to think that Jesus and I have a special relationship.  It may be the most arrogant part of my character.

Maybe we all think like this, I don’t know.  We not only think this way about God’s love for us, but other relationships as well.  We crave to be special.

The three apostles, James and John along with St. Peter, were indeed special.  We generally remember their names, while perhaps excluding the betrayer, we can barely name the others.  Andrew is familiar, Thaddeus or Jude, Nathaniel or Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Philip, James the Less, Simon. Matthias who replaced the betrayer.

In seminary we were required to memorize the Apostles for one exam in one class.  Archbishop Michael said that no student could graduate until the Apostles were listed by memory.  But that was a long time ago, and we forget things over time.

What I think we have in common is that they are just like us – they wanted special treatment from God.  Now the story tells us that Jesus asks them if they are ready – and the guys are like, “Oh, yeah, Jesus, totally ready.”  Jesus then says “Good, because you will have to deal with a lot of stuff.  But as to that glorified position thing, that isn’t mine to give, so sorry guys.”

This sets us up to talk about St. Mary of Egypt.  No need to go with her back story – you will have heard her life read this past week, perhaps.  If not, go read it.

Instead of thinking herself special, like the apostles.  She made a promise, and only wanted one thing – to enter the Church and venerate the Holy Cross of the Lord.  And her deal, to the Mother of God, was that if she was able to venerate the Holy Cross, then she would renounce the world.

She will leave the world, and head into the desert.  She made good on that promise, going into the desert, alone, and spending the next 48 years there.  47 without human contact, and another year after her encounter with Zosimas.

This seems to be the opposite of what I would do, and what the Sons of Thunder wanted to do.  We look for good.  What St. Mary tells us is that we should be looking not for authority, nor for power, but for repentance.

She show us by her life that repentance is having nothing – nothing – but Christ.  Yet we don’t seek what she obtained.

She obtained communion with God.  She obtained knowledge.  She obtained the presence of Grace.  She really experienced what God intended humanity to be, in the garden of Eden.

Because whatever hardships she endured, however bereft of material good her life was, she had something much more valuable to her – the presence of her creator.  That alone was enough not just for survival.  That was her joy, that was her comfort.

She experienced in this life what we can only dream of.  We can’t even put into words how wonderful her life was.

We of course care nothing about her life.  We want comfort physically.  We want to be warm when it is cold, and cold when it is warm, and dry when it is wet and wet when it is dry.  We want our food prepared and delivered, so that our bodies, which will pass away and return to the dust from which they were created, can feel pleasure.

Yet Mary was crowned by not her flesh, but her garment of Christ.  The immaterial light, the uncreated light.  We are not told of it here – but I have no doubt that she had that covering as she wandered through the desert, instructed by angels in the hymns of the Church and the praises of God.

Although in the desert physically, she was in the Kingdom of Heaven, surrounded by the Angels, by our Lord, by the Apostles and by of course Christ’s Most Holy Birthgiver.

Which, by the way, is our goal as Christians.  She was where we aspire to be.  Or at least where we should aspire to be.

We don’t have to physically leave the world as St. Mary did.  We don’t have to travel around with Christ as the Apostles did.  But we most certainly do have to stop caring about what the world thinks of us.

The only way that happens is by destroying our pride and our will.  We must take the ego out of ourselves.  That part of us that is sensitive to criticism from others and the world is our ego.  And that is what we must abandon.  For us, as Christians, that is the world, that is the flesh, to use the word St. Paul frequently uses.

St. Mary shows us how to do that.  It takes effort, certainly.  She battled her demons, most specifically the memories she had from her early days.  That is the part that always strikes me, because I am also vexed by my past enjoyment of the pleasures the world can offer – food, drink, companionship, gratification, fame, power.

These are the things that I give up, like the farmer who discovers the pearl in a field, and gives up everything to acquire the field, that he may have that pearl, who is Christ.

I’m convinced that it isn’t just that we value the world.  I’m convinced that our dilemma is that we don’t value Christ enough.  We don’t desire Him more than anything.  That is the fundamental issue we face.

So as we enter the last week of Great Lent, and approach the Triumphal Entrance of Our Lord into Jerusalem, and the experiences of Holy Week, we can double down, refocus, reset our mind and resolve on our objective.

So that we, like Christ Himself, can experience the resurrection of ourselves, in that never ending life of the Kingdom to come.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!