Homily: 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Friends, it is true that God himself
is the source of all grace, all light, and all hope and that if we look anywhere
else for stability in our lives, sooner or later, we will be deeply disappointed. In a sense, this is the point that our
Scriptures are making today. In the
First reading, the prophet Malachi is proclaiming a prophecy from God, calling
out the priests of the Israelites for having failed in their stewardship—for having
taken advantage of the gift of service that God had given to them and putting
it to their own advantage—and he calls them back to the basics. These priests have unsettled the stability of
the Israelite people by turning away from “the way” of God. Instead, they were striving to curry favor
with the people by showing partiality in their decisions. To this end, after proclaiming God’s
condemnation of them, Malachi proposes a fix: turning back to their common Rock
and adhering to his ways: "Have we all not the one father?” he
says, and “Has not the one God created us?" Yahweh, the Lord, is their firm foundation
and the priests need to keep them standing on it.
In a way, Jesus is trying to communicate
the same thing in today's Gospel. He is
explaining to his followers that the scribes and the Pharisees have lost touch
with the source and purpose of their service to the people of God. They have become conceited and self-centered,
thinking that their wisdom comes from themselves, instead of being a gift and a
stewardship from God, who is the source of all wisdom, goodness, and grace. Jesus is calling out the Scribes and
Pharisees and reminding his disciples that God is the Father of us
all; and that the rabbis and priests are simply his messengers, not
his managers. Therefore, Jesus
says, “Listen to their teaching, but follow not their ways, lest you turn from
God and lose your rock foundation.”
On the flipside, Saint Paul, in
today’s Second Reading, expresses his joy because the Thessalonians recognized
the message that he brought to them as being from God, not from him,
and so planted themselves firmly on that rock foundation. He learned the lesson from those ancient
priests and the Pharisees of the day (of which he was one!) and made sure that
those who heard the Gospel placed their trust in Jesus, the Christ, not in his messenger.
///
It's easy for us, though, isn’t
it, to forget this most important truth? It's easy for us to start expecting
fulfillment, happiness, and meaning to come from our achievements, our relationships,
our reputations, or any number of
other transient things. In the end
however, we have to recognize that true, lasting meaning and happiness can
only come from God.
Friends, as we accept and absorb this
truth, we will begin to experience a spiritual stability in our lives: an interior
peace that nothing can disturb, just like that peace described by today's
Psalm: "In you Lord…" the Psalmist writes as he describes his soul as
being like a little child in his mother's arms, "In you, Lord, I have
found my peace." This is the kind
of interior peace and stability that God wants to give us.
God wants us to have a sure
anchor in our storms, and he wants us to be able to help others weather their
storms too. And so we have to ask
ourselves, “How deep does my spiritual foundation go?” In other words, “Can I really repeat the
words of the Psalm with all my heart: ‘In you, Lord, I have found my peace’?” If not, perhaps a little bit of self-reflection may
be in order.
Friends, if we are not building our
lives on the foundation of God's love for us, of his passionate interest in us,
then we must be building on some other foundation. And so, what is it? It could be the false foundation of
our own achievements. We may be
thinking that interior peace and satisfaction will come once we reach a
particular career milestone (even retirement!), or get into a particular
college and earn a particular degree, or when we make a certain amount of
money. It could also be the false
foundation of pleasure. Here
we are vulnerable to all sorts of over-indulgences, each of which lead to
unbalanced lives. It could also be
the false foundation of popularity.
If we find ourselves disobeying our conscience and renouncing our
friendship with Christ out of fear of what other people will say or
think about us, then we will never experience the peace that only the Lord can
give.
Whatever it is, I hope that you will
begin to find the way out of these unstable foundations and the way towards the
peace that only God can give by taking part in our Parish Mission. To that end, I’d like to invite Mr. John
Leonetti forward to tell you a little more about this great opportunity. (John comes forward to introduce the mission)
As we continue with this Mass, let's
ask the Holy Spirit to give us two things.
First, the interior enlightenment to identify where our
spiritual foundations really are. And
second, the interior strength to start laying a new foundation, if we
need to, or to strengthen the foundation that we have: a true one, one built on
God’s wisdom, love, and grace.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – November 4th & 5th,
2017
No comments:
Post a Comment