Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Trusting that God fulfills his promises


Homily: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Friends, a dominant theme in today’s readings is that God fulfills his promises and that those who, therefore, place their trust in God are greatly rewarded.  In the first reading from the book of Wisdom, we are reminded that God promised the Israelites that he would lead them out of slavery in Egypt into a land that would be their own, where they would enjoy freedom and prosperity.  The sign would be the Passover, when God would send his destroying angels to eliminate the first-born throughout the land of Egypt but would spare the Israelites if their homes were marked with the blood of the sacrifice.  This command was not without risk.  The Israelites were not allowed to offer sacrifice to God in Egypt and so, if God did not fulfill his promise, the morning after the proposed “Passover” the Egyptians would see that they did, indeed, sacrifice to their God and so would punish them severely for it.  The Israelites, having seen the other signs that God had performed (the other 9 “plagues”), trusted that God would fulfill his promise and so made the sacrifice.  They were rewarded with their liberty.
In the second reading we go back further in salvation history to Abraham and recall that he, too, trusted that God fulfills his promises and so was rewarded.  Abraham was one of a certain people who lived in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans (modern-day Iraq).  God called him out of that land, however, so as to make of him the first of a new people, set apart for God alone.  Abraham set out, already advanced in years, yet without any children, trusting that God would fulfill his promises if he remained faithful.  Even after his wife Sarah conceived and bore him a son (through which this promise of “descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky” might be fulfilled), Abraham trusted when God asked that he offer his son as a sacrifice.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that Abraham “received Isaac back as a symbol”: a symbol that God, indeed, fulfills his promises.
Then, in the Gospel reading, we hear Jesus give stern warnings to his disciples.  “Be vigilant!  As my disciples, don’t waste time with worldly pursuits, but always be about the work that I am giving you!  You will not know when I return; and if I return and find you lounging around (or worse!) you will be severely punished.  But if you are found to be about the work that I have given you, you will receive a blessed reward.”  It’s the kind of warning that can make you sleep with one eye open, right?  It’s the kind of warning that gives rise to bumper-stickers that say, “Jesus is coming, look busy!”  The warning is not so much a threat, however, but a promise: for at the beginning of the reading, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, (how tender!) for the Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”  In other words, you don’t have to prove yourselves in worldly pursuits and conquests—the source of much fear and anxiety for us—but be about the work I am giving you, for the Father is ready to give you far more than the world can ever give: the fullness of the kingdom.  If I come and find you doing this work, great will be your reward!  The rest of the New Testament (Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles) demonstrate to us that Jesus’ disciples did exactly that: trusted that God fulfills his promises and so did as they were called to do.  Each that did has now found his/her reward in heaven.
Bishop Doherty’s pastoral plan for the diocese, Uniting In Heart 2030, is a challenge to each of us to exercise this kind of trust.  Paying attention to the reality that is before us, Bishop Doherty is courageously putting forth a plan that will take us out of our comfort zones, yet which contains a promise for future strength and prosperity for the Catholic Church in North-Central Indiana.  The question for us is whether we will trust in the Holy Spirit, who has inspired this plan—that he will fulfill his promises—and so set out on this journey of transformation.  Hopefully, we will see this challenge in the light of Jesus’ warnings: that this is part of the work that he has given to us and so should be found busy about it when he comes and so set ourselves to the work.  I am committing myself to it, including the personal work of transformation that it will require of me: trusting not only that our diocese and parishes will be stronger, but that I, too, will be stronger—that is, holier... more ready for the kingdom—when this work of transformation is finished.  I hope that each of you will join me in this work.
Saint Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, from whom we will hear at the end of Mass today, also trusted that God fulfills his promises and so set out to serve the elderly poor, in spite of all of the obstacles that she would encounter.  This order stands as a testament to the blessings that come from placing our trust in God and the power that our witness of trust has to move other hearts to do the same.  May the faithfulness of God, who never ceases to hand over his Son, Jesus, to us here in this Eucharist, inspire in us greater trust, so that we, too, may step out into the unknown: where the reward of God’s kingdom—the kingdom of reconciliation... harmony... PEACE among all people—will be found.
Given at Saint Mary’s Cathedral: Lafayette, IN – August 10th & 11th, 2019

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