Homily: 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
There once was a famous preacher who,
taking his cue from a famous journalist, would teach his students of the
importance of including real names of persons in their sermons. (It's ironic that I would begin my preaching with this, because I cannot remember the names of either the preacher or the journalist!) The journalist famously once quipped: “If I
printed names out of the phone book, people would read it just to see if they,
or if someone they knew, was included.”
Using personal names in a sermon, this preacher taught, will catch
people’s attention as they listen for whether or not they’ll either hear their
own name, or the name of someone whom they know.
Jesus begins his famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, utilizing this same
principle. Although he doesn’t use
personal names, he nonetheless names many of those who were following him as he
names many of the situations in which they were living. “Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are
the meek…” I can see many a poor
tradesman and many a homemaker in the crowd look up and say “Hey, that’s me!” “Blessed are they who mourn…” I can see a woman, newly widowed, perhaps,
look up and say “Hey, that’s me!” “Blessed
are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” I can see a zealot who wants nothing more
than to see the Roman occupiers expelled from Jerusalem look up and say “Hey,
that’s me!” And so on… Jesus knows to
whom he is reaching out and he wants them to know that the kingdom of God is
for them. And so, he calls them out “by
name” and shares how they, too, will be included in God’s plan.
Saint Paul didn’t have the Beatitudes
written down for him when he was on his missionary journeys. Nonetheless, when he wrote to the Church in
Corinth, he cited this Gospel principle.
The Corinthians, it seems, were beginning to think a bit much of
themselves and so Paul deems it necessary to remind them from where they
came. “Consider your own calling,” he
wrote. “Not many of you were wise by
human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” “Remember”, in other words, “that God did not
call you because you were a ‘mover and a shaker’. He called you because you were humble and
lowly.” Catching their attention in this
way, he can then remind them: “Blessed will you be if you remain meek and
humble, boasting only in the Lord, for the kingdom promised to you will be
yours.”
This, of course, has been God’s “M.O.”
for the longest time. The prophet
Zephaniah is calling out the ancient Israelites for the same thing. In the passage that we read today, the
prophet is announcing a pending tribulation for the people because of their
disobedience to God. He’s calling the “humble
of the earth, who have observed [God’s] law” to “seek the Lord”, in the hope
that the Lord, when the tribulation comes, will shield them from the suffering
that will befall this people. “Don’t be arrogant”,
he seems to be saying, “but rather seek justice, seek humility, and perhaps the
Lord, looking on your lowliness, will shelter you on the day of his anger.” Alerting the people in this way, he then
reveals God’s promise: that God will not wipe out his people completely, but
rather that he will leave a remnant from them: “a people humble and lowly, who shall
take refuge in the name of the Lord…”
This warning—"Seek the Lord"—comes
to us today and should be received as a warning for our time. I know that we have set ourselves on the
course to "make America great again", but we should remember that
prosperity is not to be pursued over righteousness before God. "Seek the Lord", as we read it in
today’s reading, is equated with "seek justice" and "seek
humility". These, therefore, are
the things that we ought to be seeking; because these will make America truly
great again.
My brothers and sisters, we must not
allow ourselves to be lured into presumption: that by our merits we are
"okay" with God. Rather, we
must continue to humble ourselves before Him: recognizing that all that we have
that is good has come from Him. In doing
so, we will keep from boasting in our own achievements and always give credit
where credit is due: to God, from whom all good things come. Providentially, this is a great point of
evangelization; because when we demonstrate what God has accomplished in us—not
boasting in ourselves, but in what God has done in spite of ourselves—we show
to others that they don’t have to have their lives completely together in order
to be chosen by God. Rather, they simply
need to humble themselves before Him, so that He can make them, too, into
something great. Just like it was for
Jesus when he began to teach the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount, and just
like it was for Paul when he was first proclaimed the Gospel to the people in
Corinth, this teaching can be very attractive for people who are struggling in
life, thinking that they have to earn God’s love before they can come to him.
My brothers and sisters, the Beatitudes
are commentaries on the reality of the human condition. If we cannot see that, it is because we are
blinded by the pride that says that we have to be successful, powerful, and
influential in life. Jesus’ teaching is
meant to contradict this pride: teaching us that by accepting this reality (and
the sufferings that inevitably come with it) we will be living the human
condition well, in humility and lowliness, and, therefore, that we will have a reward
of great joy in the life that is to come.
Thus, our task this week is to step
back and to ask ourselves: “Do I identify with any of these beatitudes?” In other words, at any point in the readings
did I look up and say “Hey, that’s me!”
If yes, then great! Continue to
seek the Lord by seeking justice and humility and giving all credit to the Lord
for any good that you have done and will do.
If no, then perhaps it’s time to heed Saint Paul’s admonition to “consider
your own calling” and to remember that, if you have been called by God, it is
because he saw you in your lowliness and desired to raise you up so as to show the
world that he doesn’t need the powerful to accomplish his will. Thus, you can recommit yourself to humble
obedience, boasting that God has accomplished great things through you.
My brothers and sisters, Jesus,
himself, became poor in spirit so that we might receive the kingdom of
God. As we offer this sacrifice of
thanksgiving for so great a gift, let us open our hearts to that same poverty
of spirit so that we might experience the fullness of that kingdom: both here,
under sacramental signs, and in the life to come.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – January 28th & 29th,
2017
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