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Homily (6th Sunday Ordinary Time - Year C)
Today's Gospel speaks of the Beatitudes, the Blessings.
We have all heard these passages before, some of us
100's of times, but have we ever really understood their meaning?
In the Gospel, Saint Luke draws a distinction in the
opening lines between “The Large Gathering of Disciples” and “The Great Crowd
of People.”
All of who came to either be cured of illness, or to
hear the prophetic words of Jesus.
If we can imagine a world with little scientific
knowledge, no antibiotics, and very few doctors, it is easy to understand the
motives of the crowd seeking healing.
There must have been a great many people willing to
grasp at any straw to be cured.
And a healer like Jesus, who seemed to have complete
power over any affliction, and could cure any disease with just the words from
his mouth, must have seemed like a gift from heaven to them.
These were people crying out in need, these were the
truly poor, and so often we read of how Jesus' heart went out to them.
The crowd of Disciples on the other hand, were those
who wanted to hear what Christ has to say.
They didn't especially desire a cure, perhaps they had
already received one, but they were more attracted to his revolutionary
teaching.
They wanted to know more, they wanted something much
greater than a healing, they wanted the key to eternal life.
Waiting patiently for Jesus to come down from the hill
where he had gone to pray, these disciples must have been hoping to hear more
words of wisdom and inspiration from him.
The atmosphere must have been electric.
Jesus had just finished the night in prayer, having
just selected the 12 Apostles, and now returning he focuses his eyes not on
poor, but upon His disciples to give them yet another teaching.
The teaching that the disciples waited so long to hear
must have come upon them as a bombshell.
To understand the significance of this teaching we must
first understand who these disciples were.
The disciples would probably have been the equivalent
of the middle class of today.
They were not hurting, they had no need for a cure,
they could afford to travel, and they had no hesitation waiting around to hear
Jesus speak.
These were no common people desperate for their next
piece of bread.
And Jesus says to them: Blessed are you who are poor,
hungry, and weeping.
What... They must have been shocked.
This was not the expected teaching.
These people were not poor, hungry, or weeping.
They must have been staggered to hear Jesus comparing
them so unfavorably to the surrounding crowd of the sick and poor who were
crying out for healing.
So, what was the message to the disciples, and what is
the message for all of us here today?
Jesus is telling us that the very values that we hold
so dear, prosperity, security, happiness, and everything we strive so hard to
achieve for our children and ourselves are practically worthless when it comes
to considering the values of the Kingdom of God.
It actually is poverty, starvation, and sorrow that are
at the top of his list.
And he goes on to say: “happy are you when people hate
you, drive you out, abuse you, call you a criminal, on account of the Son of
Man.”
WOW!
We crave respect, acceptance, honor, and
respectability, and Jesus tells us that the very opposite is what will gain us
the Kingdom of Heaven.
And even those welcome words of the gospel: “On account
of the son of Man”, doesn't give us much comfort.
We don't want to be unliked, persecuted, or laughed at.
In fact, we will do almost anything to avoid it; it
doesn't really matter on whose account it is for.
Isn't this really true about us.
We don't even need to hear the rest of the Gospel message:
“Alas for you who are rich, had your fill, or laugh, or
when people speak well of you,” We know that this actually means more of the
same.
And these are called the Beatitudes – The Blessings!
This is supposed to be Good News!
It surely is good news for the poor and the needy,
really good news for them, but is it good news for rest of us?
Now we have come to the core of the matter.
And the point is that the Christian life takes us where
we don't expect.
Sometimes where we don't want to go, and it demands a
very great deal from us.
It demands that we give up our cozy assumptions; it
demands that we take the harder road; it demands that we really do live for
others and not for ourselves.
These are difficult teachings and none of us ever
really manage to live up to them successfully, but we know in our hearts that
this is what Jesus desires.
This is real Christianity.
What Christ desires of us is so counter-cultural, if we
truly lived what he teaches, most people would think we have lost it.
Yet who are we to listen to: the world, or Christ?
In Closing, and Returning to the message of the Gospel and the message for us
today.
You must decide: Are you the poor, the hungry, or the
sick, that are to hear the reassuring message that you are blessed, and that
your reward will be great in heaven.
Or are you like the disciples, finding it difficult to
hear and believe Christ's words that your life is actually inferior to those
who seem beneath you?
Not unlike the Disciples waiting to hear Jesus' words, they wanted to know the
key to eternal life, so is our desire as well.
Today we have heard it!
Are we listening?
Are we willing to hear and apply Christ's message to
our lives?
Do we truly desire eternal life?
Do we truly desire to follow Christ?
The Beatitudes are blessings only if we apply them to
our lives.
The Gospel message is the Good news for all who believe
that Christ is our Lord and Savior, for all who follow his way, and For All who
listen and respond.
Is
60:1-6, Mt 2:1-12
The Gospel today is rich with symbols:
• The
Journey,
• the
Personalities from distant lands,
• the
star, its disappearance and reappearance,
• the
gifts,
• the
difficulties,
• the
dream….
All
have a unique meaning, especially for Christians, and if contemplated can lead
us to where it led the Magi:
To
Faith in Christ.
Faith
is indeed a long journey, a life-long one.
This
Faith journey leads us from the security of the “Lands” we are familiar with,
to a far-off place where the rules of the game are very different.
It
requires courage to set out on such a journey when we could stick to the
comfort and security of home and “do just what everyone else does.”
It
requires us to persevere and continue the journey, especially when it is not
clear where we are going…. because with all real journeys of faith, more often
than not, the specific route and destination is unclear.
But
where does such faith come from?
I
think we all understand that it can’t be purchased, or even earned.
Faith
in Christ is a grace; or rather it is the grace of all graces.
A gift
given to us.
But
this gift is not to be kept for ourselves, it comes with responsibility.
I was
once told that to whom much had been given, much is expected.
We are
all called to share this gift.
And in
sharing this gift, this gift of faith, our primary responsibility is to be a
personal witness of what it contains.
We are
responsible for doing what we can in the sphere of our own lives so that the
light of Christ shines through us to others.
•
However, someone who is constantly bad-humored, or self-centered, or
continually sad, is not a sign that God lives within them.
• Nor
someone whose behavior and conversation is coarse and lewd and who profanes
everything he sets his eyes upon or turns his tongue toward, he is not a sign
that the sacredness and the beauty of God is within him.
• Nor
someone who destroys her neighbor’s reputation on a daily basis; She will not
inspire others to say, “Look how they love one another.”
• Nor
will someone who lives only to have more of the “stuff” of this world, be
likely to make people catch a glimpse of the world to come.
We
must honestly ask ourselves: “What or who do I represent to those around
me?
And am
I, a transparent window into what can be seen as the City of God?”
Today’s readings also show us that Christ is for all, for everyone.
And
that the church must be a city placed on a mountain top so all can see and all
can come.
This
church involves each of us.
Every
Christian, and more so, every Catholic, Is this church.
Each
one of us is the church in the sense of being the place where Christ dwells and
is to be revealed to those who do not know him.
So let
us ask ourselves,
“Do I
really believe that I am the dwelling place of God?”
“Do I
have such faith?”
Many
of us were born into a Christian family and it is difficult to appreciate how
great the gift of “Faith” actually is.
It is
easy to take for granted, and we often fail to exercise it.
And as
we fail to recognize and utilize this gift, it can grow weak, and then we are
only capable of short journeys with few or no difficulties.
Perhaps
we can’t even travel past the everyday obstacles to find Christ our Lord.
Whether
it is due:
• to a
health problem,
• or
that difficult sister-in-law,
• or
the way that particular priest celebrates mass,
• or
that particular habit my wife or husband has,
we
have such little “strength of faith” that we lose our way.
Many
people think of the New Year as a time for a new start, and for some it is, but
in reality, we have all been on a journey for years,
• and
we choose who or what we are searching for,
• who
or what we follow,
• and
who or what we desire.
The
Magi have shown us through example, that when Christ calls, and we focus on him
rather than on ourselves, we can persevere.
Even
at times when the star seems hidden, with faith, it will reappear, and as we
journey in faith, we will, come upon –
“The
Savior of the World.”
So in
conclusion……this gift of faith that has been given to each one of us awaits a
response.
And
like the Magi, God speaks personally to us as well, if only we will listen and
believe!
Rise
up in splendor, Jerusaelm!
Your
light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See,
darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the
Lord shines, and over you appears His glory.
Adapted Homily originally written by Msgr James P. Moroney.
I remember the day that Tom died, as Betty held his hand. She wept.
Oh, how she wept as she clung to his body in the hopes of somehow not losing the 39 years of married life they had lived and loved together.
The kids tried to console her, but it was of little use.
She just needed to cry until she couldn’t cry anymore.
The pain and the emptiness were much deeper than what I could ever have imagined.
She spent the next days and weeks longing for Tom more than she had ever longed for anything in her entire life.
She so wanted him to come back that every creak of the floorboard, and shadow around the corner, made her heart leap in hope.
Regrettably, time went by before I had realized it, it had been almost a year since I had spent any significant time with Betty.
She was still sad, but not as desperate as the last time I had seen her.
I inquired how she was doing and she told me about the day that made all the difference.
She said she had gone to Church and she was sitting all alone in the pew staring at the crucifix above the altar.
When all at once it occurred to her that it was not actually Tom for whom she longed, but God.
· The God who she prayed would forgive Tom’s sins.
The God who would keep her in his grace until the last day.
The God who had gone to prepare a place for Tom, and for her, and for all who loved others as he had loved them.
And her waiting for Tom was just a shadow of her deepest longing for God, her desire for love, and her desire to live in God and to know peace with him forever.
Don’t we all ache for God?
Don’t we all wait, waiting for something better, just like:
· The addict in the alley behind the Gas station who waits for a God who will come and remove all that enslaves him.
How about the single mother who waits for a day when she no longer has to work fifty-four hours a week, a night when she can sleep 8, a life when she will finally know the kids will be ok.
What about the soldier in the Middle East who waits for a morning when there are no more explosions, and every look is not feared as the precursor to an assault, and when he doesn’t have to bury his new best friend.
Or the old man in the nursing home who waits for the day he will no longer be alone, when pain will no longer be his most constant companion, and when he can once again rest in the embrace of her whom he loved.
What about the prisoner on death row who waits for a place where he will no longer be seen as evil, for a life that makes sense, for a time when love can be given and received, for the coming of a God who will love him.
What about the investment banker who waits for the day when he’s not gripped by the fear that he’s about to lose everything, for the day when he can count his value in the quality of his love rather than the size of his profit.
Or what about the little child who waits within her mother’s womb for a world that will welcome her, and parents that will love her, and a country who will protect her.
As Christians we should all realize and recognize that we wait in joyful hope, with baited breath, as we gaze toward the Eastern skies in expectation of the one who rises with healing in his wings…
But Exiled in a Babylon of our own selfishness, we cry out:
“Rend the heavens, O Lord, and come down to us!”
Yet he patiently waits for us in that confessional, ready to embrace us, pick us up on his shoulders, and carry us home to himself.
Still longing to be loved, orphaned by our infidelity and broken promises, we cry out,
“Why do you let us wander and harden our hearts?”
Yet he patiently waits on that altar, to feed us with himself and to make us sons and daughters of his Father, to live in us that we might live in him.
Still frightened that we have been abandoned, strangers in a strange desert, we cry out:
“Let us see your face and we will be saved!”
Yet he patiently waits for us in the poor, the sick, and the old, ready to console our frightened spirits.
Let us be honest, we all wait in joyful hope.
The part of us that is afraid to confess that secret sin.
The part of us that doesn’t think it’s possible to forgive what ‘that one’ did to us, or that God could really forgive me.
The part of us that cries in the middle of the night.
The part which feels empty and alone.
The part that’s overwhelmed and confused.
The part which amidst all the din and doubt waits…waits in silence for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ upon a cloud in all his glory.
My dear brothers and sisters:
This is a time for all of us to Wake up and to Get ready.
We are to be watchful and alert!
We are to go to confession, We are to celebrate the Holy and Sacred Mysteries like never before, and we are to pray; to pray deeply and honestly!
Also, we cannot forget about those around us.
We are to feed and care for the poor.
We are to go visit the prisoners and the old people in nursing homes.
We are to find the ones we have not yet forgiven and call them right now.
This is what the season of Advent is all about.
Making our hearts into mangers to receive our king, for He is coming.
There is but one ultimate question that we need to ask ourselves and ponder:
Am I ready…to stand before the One who is Truth Himself, the One who knows my heart completely, the One who has seen everything?
Am I ready to meet the Creator of the world, the creator of my soul?
Am I..
Truly..
Ready?
