First Sunday after Epiphany, Sermon #1, by Bishop Geremia Bonomelli, D.D.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind; that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. For I say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behooves to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided to every one the measure of faith. For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office: so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. – Romans 12:1-5

Such are the first five verses of the twelfth chapter of Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In the preceding chapters the great apostle reasons profoundly and at length on the grace of God, and the freeness of His gifts, adding that no one should boast because of those he has received; then in these verses he comes down to practical life and touches upon truths most necessary to every. Christian, no matter what his state or condition. You will kindly listen to them and meditate upon them.

“I beseech you by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service.”

There are two qualities conspicuous in the Letters of Saint Paul, which, while they seem opposed one to the other, are admirably combined in him; namely, strength of language and tenderness of affection, the fearlessness of an apostle and the heart of a father. As an apostle he might command; but instead he prefers to beseech and supplicate, calling his brethren his spiritual children. He beseeches and supplicates by the mercy of God, the highest, sweetest and most precious of all motives, and by the tender love God bears us, which is so characteristically a divine attribute. I beg you, my friends, to note the difference between human or civil, and religious or sacred authority. The former has to do with external actions and is enforced by power; the latter enters into the sanctuary of the conscience, rests upon persuasion, and takes on the character of paternal authority. Hence sacred and ecclesiastical authority, although true authority and far superior to civil or human, as a rule shrinks from force or compulsion or the exercise of power, in this obeying the words of Christ and of His first vicar, who warns us against exercising authority after the manner of kings, who domineer, telling us that we are all brothers and that he who commands should be as he who obeys. Saint Paul, who was imbued with this spirit of Christ, writes:” Brethren, I beseech you.” The Apostle does not command, he entreats. This sublime and beautiful idea of authority was brought on earth by Jesus Christ.

My friends, would it not be wise and saintly in us to follow the example of the Apostle and beseech and entreat our brethren whom we might command? Possibly if we did we should be more promptly and cheerfully obeyed.

What does the Apostle beseech and entreat his brethren to do? He beseeches them to offer their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Many sacrifices, such as oxen, lambs, and other animals were offered among the Hebrews and also among the Gentiles. The Apostle protests that such are not the sacrifices we should offer to God; offer, he says, your very bodies. Must we, then, kill our bodies to give honor to God? No, that is not necessary, and to do so would be a crime; our sacrifice, in contrast with those of old which pleased not God, must be a living sacrifice. There is no need of wounding or killing the body to offer this sacrifice, but we must wound and, if possible, kill the passions, which find lodging in the body. We must kill pride and avarice, luxury and gluttony, anger and all other wicked tendencies that war against the spirit, and then we shall have offered a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

There have been, and there are still, some who misinterpret certain passages of Holy Scripture and say that to adore God in spirit and in truth, the outward acts of the body are of no avail and may be a sort of hindrance to the worship of the spirit. Saint Paul says in the text that we should present our bodies a sacrifice to God; therefore an external and material service also is pleasing to Him. And such is the truth, for is it not united to the spirit and inseparable from it? And how are the body and its acts offered up except by the spirit? And is not the body also God’s gift? Why, then, should it not be offered up to Him, thus, if I may so say, giving Him back His own gift? Certainly, He wants first of all and chiefly the sacrifice of the «heart and of the will, but not without the sacrifice of the body, which must follow that of the spirit.

But this is not all; the Apostle demands another sacrifice, the “sacrifice of a reasonable service What is this reasonable service or sacrifice? We have a body and within that body we have wayward passions; above the body is the soul, and the highest and supremest faculty of the soul is the reason, of which we are so jealous and so proud. We must also sacrifice the reason to God, for it, too, is His gift. But how? By faith. When the mysteries of faith are presented to us, our reason protests; it is irritated and disposed to rebel, and because it does not comprehend them it feels a sense of humiliation and annoyance. But mysteries are imposed upon us by God, who speaks to us through the Church; we should accept them and believe them with the utmost certainty, though we can not comprehend them as they are. By a supreme effort and borne up by grace we say to almighty God: “I do not comprehend what Thou lays upon me to believe; I submit my mind; I make a sacrifice of it; I believe.” This sacrifice of the mind, following that of the passions and the will, is the noblest man can offer, and we make it every time we say: “I believe.”

“And be not conformed to this world.” Having offered ourselves body and soul to God, it is impossible, the Apostle says, to give ourselves to this world. By the word age, used in text, Saint Paul means here, as elsewhere, the world with its passions and corruptions. The historian Tacitus uses the word age in the same sense in which Saint Paul uses it, saying: “What means the world but to corrupt and to be corrupted!” A splendid definition! No, we will not be votaries of the world, nor will we approve its maxims, nor follow its fashions, which are condemned by Jesus Christ; but “we will be reformed in the newness of our mind.” By these words Saint Paul entreats us to regulate our lives, interiorly and exteriorly according to the principles taught us by Jesus Christ in the Gospel. The new man Adam was just and innocent; new, because immediately created by God; but this new man was sadly changed and deeply corrupted by sin; Jesus Christ came to remake him, to renew him in Himself, illuminating his mind with the light of truth and creating in his heart a new spirit, the spirit of grace.

My brethren, are we like unto the world, or are we conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ? Our works will give us an infallible answer; they will tell us whether we are votaries of the world or disciples of Jesus Christ.

If we have a firm hold on the principles and truths preached by Jesus Christ, the second Adam, we shall be able, Saint Paul says, “to prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.” It will be easy to ascertain by the light of faith and of the eternal truths taught us by Jesus Christ, what is the will of God with regard to each of us; we shall know clearly what is good, what is better, and what is perfect or best, for this seems to be what Saint Paul means by these three words: the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. The Lord does not ask the same equally from all; as in the natural order there is a variety of gifts, so also in the supernatural or the order of grace, there is the same variety. Some are called to live in the world, others to live in the cloister; some are called to sanctify themselves in the midst of wealth and honors, in the exercise of power and authority, others in poverty, humiliation, and obedience; for God is the master and dispenser of His gifts and His is the right to determine the kind of life each shall lead, and it is for us to see and accept His will and to set ourselves generously and courageously to carry it out.

Saint Paul goes on to say: “By the grace of God that is given me, I say to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behooves to be wise.” There is a diversity of graces and a diversity of callings which God dispenses as He wills; to me He has given the grace and the ministry of the apostolate, and in virtue of this ministry committed to me I command you all and several without distinction to do what? “Not to be more wise than it behooves to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God has divided unto every one the measure of faith.” The interpretations of these words of Saint Paul are many and various, and while all are good in themselves, that given by Saint Basil and Saint Ambrose seems to me the most natural and the best. The graces of God are various and diverse, and various and diverse are the offices which He entrusts to men; let each one, then, confine himself to his own proper office and guard against interfering with that of another. Hence the words: “According to the measure of faith,” must be taken in a wide sense, as if the Apostle would say: Let every one keep within the limits of his gifts and his duties, whatever they may be.

This lesson, my friends, has many practical applications. God, who is wisdom itself and order itself, wills that everything shall’ be supremely orderly; but that everything may be thus orderly, that the earth may be an image of heaven and men may be like unto God, it is essential that every one shall keep his own place and discharge his own duties. When, my friends, does a piece of machinery work smoothly! When every single piece which belongs to it is in its proper place and does its proper work. Thus a family, a parish, a society gets on well when each single member is at his post, stays there, and discharges the duties of his office. Let us, my dear friends, try to put in practice the teaching of the Apostle and we shall be exemplary Christians and good citizens.

To illustrate this teaching, at once so beautiful and so natural, the Apostle uses a similitude quite common with him and easily understood by any one of even limited intelligence. “As in the body,” he says, “we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another

See the human body, says Saint Paul, it is only one body, but its members are many and various; there are eyes, ears, and tongue, head, hands, and feet, and so on; and each member has its own special office, of seeing, or hearing, or speaking; of ruling, or working, or walking; one body and many members, but these do not interfere the one with the other; the eyes do not try to hear, nor the ears to see, nor the tongue to listen; nor does the head obey, nor the hands walk, nor do the feet do the work of the hands; each member does its own work and the whole man moves on harmoniously. Thus, Saint Paul reasons, should it be in the body of Jesus Christ or the Church. Each Christian should regard himself, not as one isolated and apart, but as a member of one and the same body, and he should regard the common good as his own; then no one will invade the rights of another and we shall have in the Church, in the family, and in the individual the most perfect order, and with order peace, charity, and all the material well-being possible on this earth.

Happy would it be for the family, for the parish, and happy for society in its entirety if the great law set forth by the Apostle were faithfully observed.

- Bishop Geremia Bonomelli, D.D., Diocese of Cremona, Italy