Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock

Homily for Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Today we hear a passage from chapter three of the Book of Revelation. Chapters two and three of the Book of Revelation form a distinct unit, composed of messages for the seven churches of Asia Minor. Using the number “seven” indicates that these seven messages are for all the Churches. Our reading today presents us with the message to the Church of Sardis and the Church of Laodicea.

Sardis was the capital of the Lydian Empire in Asia Minor, legendary for its great wealth in antiquity due to the gold in the region. The sacred author, identified as a man named John, uses five imperatives in his address to Sardis. The people are told to “wake up,” to “strengthen,” to “remember,” to “obey,” and to “repent.” These imperatives lead us to believe that the Church of Sardis was in critical condition. Drastic action is required if the church is going to recover from its near fatal condition. It must strengthen the weakened relationship with God that it enjoys. The remedy for the church’s recovery will lie in its ability to remember what it used to be and to return to that early commitment, to remember the teachings and traditions it had received and to obey them. Only by returning to the true message of the Gospel and obeying it can the church survive.

The final message is addressed to the Church of Laodicea, famous for its banking industry, its textile production, and its medical school. All three of these aspects of the city’s reputation are reflected in the message to the church located there. Laodicea is criticized for being neither cold nor hot; the people of this Church are lukewarm. This is a picture of a complacent and apathetic community without zeal or intensity. They are not criticized for any major heresy or immoral practices. Rather they are described as a church that is spiritually indifferent and smugly self-sufficient. In a very graphic picture, Christ says that he will spit them out of his mouth in disgust. The actual Greek verb used in this description is better translated as “vomit,” indicating that this self-satisfied and halfhearted community are enough to make Christ sick!

In both the case of Sardis and Laodicea, it is necessary to point out that despite the criticisms leveled against them, Christ also says that he loves them. In fact, that love is the basis for his words of warning and his threatened discipline of the Church. He punishes not from anger, but from compassion. At the end of the reading, the author uses a beautiful word-picture to indicate the intensity of Christ’s love. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” These words remind us that Christ’s love is best exemplified in the Eucharist which we are privileged to celebrate each day. As we draw near the banquet table, let us renew ourselves and recognize that the warnings and comforts that appear in these chapters are meant for us as well.