Sunday, November 17, 2013

Jesus announces our insurance policy

          As I was preparing this homily (especially given the weather today), I kept thinking about the episode of the Simpsons when the hurricane comes through Springfield and destroys only the Flanders' home.  Ned (the super-conservative Christian) had nothing to rebuild it with.  His wife explains, "No, we didn't have insurance.  Ned thought it was a form of gambling."

          Jesus, of course, is our ultimate insurance policy.  And so we can give without fearing loss.  Hopefully we can learn to trust him more and more!

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Homily Two: 33rd Sunday, Ordinary Time, Cycle C
          Just days before his installation, the newly appointed bishop was taking a quiet moment to observe and enjoy the beauty of what would soon be his cathedral church.  It had been renovated recently and so it seemed that every corner was gleaming with light and beauty.  As he walked slowly through the nave, a man, somewhat short in stature and advanced in age, well appointed except for his thin white hair, which was whisped somewhat messily over to one side, stood near the bishop and said, “You know, the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”  Hearing this, the bishop paused for a moment and glanced over his shoulder to see who had made the comment.  The man, smiling with a foolish grin, was standing some space behind him but didn’t say a word when they made eye contact.  The bishop assumed that the man was talking to himself, and so he smiled, nodded his head and then returned to his slow saunter through the church.
          A few moments later, the man spoke up again and said, “You know, the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”  Again the bishop paused and glanced over his shoulder at the man with the foolish grin standing some space behind him.  The bishop, quite familiar with the Scripture this man was quoting, was struck by what seemed to be a rather irrational thought: “might this man be some sort of prophet sent to give me a message?”  The thought made him quite uneasy.  Although he knew better than to ask “when will this happen?” and “what sign will there be?” he still felt compelled to find out more about this stranger’s purpose.  And so he turned around, approached the man, and asked him gently, “Do I know you?”  “I don’t think so,” replied the man.  “Do you know who I am?” the bishop asked.  “Of course,” the man said, “you’re our new bishop.”  Then, somewhat embarrassedly the bishop leaned in towards the man and asked quietly, “Are you some sort of prophet?”  Amused, the man replied “Oh, no.  I’m no prophet.  But I do have something important that I’d like to talk to you about…”  Well, as it turns out, the man was an insurance salesman who wanted to pitch the new bishop on a policy for the cathedral.  I think we can all agree that he had a great hook!
          The bishop may have breathed a sigh of relief at the man’s response that day, but Jesus’ followers in the Gospel didn’t get off quite so easy.  “Wars and insurrections, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom; earthquakes, famines, and plagues… all of these will happen first!” Jesus says.  “But you won’t have to worry about all of that, because before that happens you will be seized and persecuted, handed over to synagogues and prisons, and led before kings and governors to give testimony.  Even your parents, brothers, relatives and friends will turn you in.  And some of you (probably the lucky ones) will even be put to death.  Oh, and I almost forgot, just to make it a little more complicated, there will be a lot of folks who are going to try to convince you that they are from me in order to lead you into apostasy.  And, I hate to tell you, but there’s really no easy way to tell who’s legit and who’s not, so good luck with that…”  Having heard all of that, I don’t think that any of us would blame these folks for thinking that the prospect of being Jesus’ follower was pretty scary.
          Certainly, we can see many of these prophecies being fulfilled even in our own day.  There is no shortage of “doomsday” prophets in our midst.  Every few years, it seems, a new crop of prophets arise, claiming to have unlocked the secret to identifying when the days of destruction will come, and every few years many are convinced and are led away from the Church.  Without much effort, I’m sure that each of us could name a handful of places at least where “wars and insurrections” and “nations rising against nations” are occurring right now.  Tribal conflicts continue to arise in Africa and daily, it seems, the news tells us of religious sectarian violence that plagues the streets of towns and cities throughout the Middle East.  Speaking of the Middle East, persecution is a daily reality for Christians there, where their own countrymen, sometimes even their own relatives, attack them without respect even for their sacred spaces.  We saw this vividly a couple of months ago when violence erupted in Egypt once again and protesters took to attacking Christian churches, injuring worshipers and significantly damaging their ancient worship spaces.  I imagine that most of us would find it pretty easy to sympathize with those in the Gospel today and would ourselves conclude that the prospect of being Jesus’ follower is pretty scary.  Yet Jesus, in spite of his dark prophecy, helps us to see that the prospect of not being his follower is scarier still.
          The world’s justice, as we know, is merciless.  Subject to the world’s justice, we are left by ourselves and by ourselves, what power do we have against it?  God’s justice, however, is infinitely more powerful than the world’s justice, because it is mercy itself.  Subject to God’s justice, we find that we have an infinitely powerful advocate, Jesus Christ, who won for us redemption from all of our transgressions.
          With this strong assurance, we no longer have any need to fear the calamities of our world, because we know that “it will not immediately be the end.”  With Christ as our advocate, we no longer have any need to rely on our own power to overcome our adversaries, because Christ himself “will give us a wisdom in speaking” and our adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute it.  Subject to God’s justice, we no longer have any need to fear the hatred of others, even those closest to us, because we know that mortal death cannot destroy even one hair on our heads and that in persevering our lives will be secured.
          Liberated from our fears, we are then freed to live lives of abandonment.  When we subject ourselves to God’s justice, God’s justice, which is mercy, then permeates our entire lives.  And so, in big things and in small things, we can abandon our worldly selves to the mission God has entrusted to us: namely to live lives of holiness, to preach the Gospel in season and out of season, and the apostolate of charity.  Free and fearless should we be, because in abandoning ourselves to God’s justice we will, as Christ tells us, secure our lives.
          Now, does this mean that we can throw out our insurance policies altogether?  Of course not.  Our world is broken and accidents happen.  Insurance is a tool that equips us to deal with accidents better.  What it does mean, however, is that we do not need to fear the loss of the things of this world, and this leaves us free to focus on giving ourselves to the specific way that God has called each of us to fulfill his mission in the world.  Nourished by this Eucharist, may we go forward confidently to live the mission God has given to each of us in Christ, freely and without fear.

Given at All Saints Catholic Church: Logansport, IN – November 17th, 2013

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