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Homily:
3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
As most of you know I used to work as an engineer before I
entered the seminary to become a priest.
The first major product that I worked on was a “rear-seat entertainment”
system that incorporated a DVD player.
This was one of the first “mass-produced” in-car units and so it had its
fair share of problems early on; which also meant that I was getting plenty of
attention from my supervisors and from my customers. I had to work a lot of extra hours trying to
resolve these problems and I remember that I often said to myself: “What am I
doing all of this for? So some kid riding
in a minivan can watch a movie? This
doesn’t seem to add a lot of value to the world.” (A close friend would always remind me not to
underestimate the value of the few minutes of quiet that the video provides a
busy parent.) Through this I recognized
a certain restlessness in me. My life
had to be about something more. It was
this restlessness that eventually led me to begin to seek another path for my
life: a seeking that would eventually lead me to here.
“You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they rest in you.” Saint
Augustine of Hippo wrote those words in the first chapter of his
autobiography. He had converted to the
faith as a young adult after he spent many years leading a morally desolate
life and so he could acknowledge right up front this truth that he learned
through a life of experience: that the comfort of this world is fleeting and
that we will never find perfect rest in it; but that we will only find rest
when we are perfectly united to the Lord.
Therefore, he could conclude, hearts that acknowledge their true end
(“You have made us for yourself, Lord…”) will always be restless. Thus, restlessness with the affairs of this
world becomes a sign of a believer; a sign that leads them to live radically
different lives.
In our reading from the Gospel of Mark we heard the first
words of Jesus’ public ministry: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus is proclaiming that something radically
new is at hand: the time when all of God’s promises will come to fruition and
the reign of God will be restored forever.
Jesus’ next words show us what our reaction to such news ought to be:
“Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” In
other words, radically reorient your life and put your faith fully in God once
again. This, of course, reminds us of
Jonah’s proclamation to the Ninevites in the first reading in which he
proclaimed that the Lord’s wrath was coming upon them and to which they
responded by radically reorienting their lives and placing their faith in the
Lord.
Then, Jesus calls his first disciples. “Come,” he says, “and I will make you fishers
of men. He didn’t mean “hey, I need
someone with the skills of a fisherman to help me spread this good news”, but
rather he was calling them to a radically new life. Truly the Lord only knows what made them
respond immediately, but I suspect that there was a felt sense of restlessness
in their hearts that sensed a place of rest in Jesus. And so we see that in his prophetic
proclamation and in his calling of his first disciples Jesus ushers in a
radically new life.
And so, what does this radically new life look like? It begins with repenting and believing in the
Gospel, sure, but what does it look like in practice? Saint Paul gives us a glimpse in our second
reading. Corinth was a large,
cosmopolitan city and the Corinthians were known for being very “worldly”
people. And so, when Saint Paul
describes this radically new life, he describes it in terms of restlessness:
“let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, and those using
the world as not using it fully.” In
other words, it’s about remaining restless in the world, instead of resigning
one’s self to the world.
You know, when I look around I see a lot of resignation:
people who are trapped in their sinful behaviors (or, perhaps, in their tired
old habits) and who are miserable, but who, nonetheless, live as if that’s the
best that they can ever have. In other
words, they’ve resigned themselves to be of
the world. A person who remains
restless, however, accepts that he or she must live in the world, but refuses to resign to be of it. Remember the words of
Saint Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, Lord…” that is, not for this
world.
And so, how do we know if we are restless or resigned? First, we must examine our lives. Am I content in my daily struggles or do I complain,
as if my life would somehow be completely at peace if I could live without
them? If I have a job, am I content in
it or do I complain about the work and the coworkers that I must endure every
day? If I have a spouse and/or children,
do I live with them in peace, overlooking their faults, or do I complain about
them and treat them poorly? If I have a
house, a car, or other material things that are adequate for my needs, do I
give thanks for these blessings, or do I constantly dream about getting
something bigger and/or better? If I
seek contentment (that is, a sense of peace) through worldly comfort, then I am
of the world. If I am content in
reasonable discomfort, however, then I am living in the world, but am not of
it. Therefore, I sense the restlessness
that only perfect union with God can calm.
“Oh, Father, I think I’m more of the world than not! Now what?”
Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Radically reorient your life.
Turn away from seeking worldly comfort and believe that this radically
new life—known as the reign of God—is now at hand. Embrace this new life. Learn to accept disappointment in this world
as a way to embrace the restlessness that awaits its fulfillment in Christ
Jesus. In a phrase: Come after Jesus;
for life in Christ is the way. Do not be
afraid to leave everything behind; for it is all of this world, while Jesus is
the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
My brothers and sisters, I exhort you to be apostles of restlessness
so that the joy that radiates from gospel may shine forth from us and thus lead
others to turn and to seek their rest in Him.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – January 25th, 2014
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