Homily: 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Although it may not seem like it, a jet engine is actually a
pretty simple machine. Now, you need to
know that, when I use the word “simple,” I don’t necessarily mean “easy.” I just mean, “not complex.” A jet engine is simple because it needs only
a few components to make it work: a compressor, which takes in air and
pressurizes it in order to accelerate it, a combustion chamber, in which some
of the air is mixed with fuel and is then ignited, which super-heats the air
and the air around it and accelerates it further, a turbine, which is driven by
the super-hot (and now super-fast) air and which drives the compressor, and an
exhaust nozzle, which focuses the direction of the air out of the engine, thus
making efficient use of its force. Just
four parts, that’s it. Pretty simple,
right?
Let’s focus on the exhaust nozzle for a minute. Its purpose is to channel all of that
super-hot energy from the accelerated, super-hot air and focus it in one
direction in order to provide maximum thrust from the engine. Without it, the exhaust would come out of the
turbine more like air coming out of a fan, spreading all over the place without
providing much forward thrust, thus wasting much of its energy. Installed improperly, it could turn the
thrust back towards the engine, thus making it not only inefficient, but also potentially
destroying it. Thus, I think that we can
agree that, even though it doesn’t do anything to help produce energy in the
engine, the exhaust nozzle is, nonetheless, an important part. ///
The Book of Deuteronomy, from which our first reading was
taken, documents Moses’ last speech to the Israelite people. After wandering for 40 years in the desert,
the people sit on the east side of the Jordan River looking out at the land
that God had promised them. Moses knew
that he wouldn’t enter the Promised Land, but rather that he would die before
God led his people across the river.
Thus, he took this opportunity to recount to them all that he had
learned from God on Mount Sinai about the covenant law.
And what does he say?
First he says, “Fear the Lord…” and “…follow carefully all of the Lord’s
commandments.” And why? Well, because the Lord promised that if the
people would remain faithful to his covenant, he would provide them with long
life in the land he promised them.
Stipulations and benefits: that’s the basic formula for a covenant. Then Moses adds something else. He says, “There is only one God, the God of
Israel. Therefore, focus your love on
him alone and love him with your whole being.”
In a way, Moses is instructing the people that love of God is the most
important thing and that being faithful to the covenant law is the way to
ensure that one does so with “all one’s heart, and with all one’s soul, and
with all one’s strength,” and thus to receive the long life in the land, which
God had promised to them.
In the Gospel reading today, Jesus recounts this teaching with
the scribe who had approached him. At
this point in the history of the Jewish people there were over 600 prescripts
of the Law that observant Jews were expected to follow. Therefore, it’s not surprising that a
scribe—an expert in the Law—was looking for advice on which of these commands
were the greatest. He wanted to know, “Why
are we doing all of this?” Jesus reminds
him of what he probably already knew in his heart: that the end of all
commandments is love—love of God and love of neighbor—and that the purpose of
every law was to focus one’s love on that end.
When the scribe spoke with understanding, Jesus commended him and
assured him in the promise of Moses: “You are near the Kingdom”. That is, “You are near the long life in the
land that God has promised you and for which you have been waiting.
My brothers and sisters, the same message applies to us,
today. Just like those ancient
Israelites, we are all called to fear God and to follow his commands closely. In doing so, we focus our love: both on God,
who calls us into relationship with him—a relationship governed by these
“covenant laws”—and on each other as we learn how to live, not for ourselves,
but for one another. /// The problem with some of the scribes and Pharisees was
that they became self-righteous in the Law; and, thus, what was meant to focus
their love and propel them forward, became an obstruction to love, leaving them
unable to move. When we become
self-righteous in the law, we allow the same to happen to us.
For example: have you ever looked at a friend, a co-worker,
or even a family member who you know is Catholic, but doesn’t regularly attend
Mass, and said, “You know, you’re probably going to end up in Hell if you don’t
go to church”? I know I have. In our defense, we are stating very clearly the
law and the consequences for not following that law, but are we not also being
self-righteous in the law? What if we
rather said to them, “Mass was beautiful today, I’m so sad that you weren’t
there. It is so important that we pray
together like that. I hope that you’ll
come and join us next week”? Wouldn’t
that be an example of allowing the law to focus our love more intensely on God
and our neighbor?
My brothers and sisters, the Church—that is, the Universal
Church—is a jet engine of God’s love.
We, its members, are the air that it pulls in. We are compressed and accelerated by the Word
of God. Here, in this particular church,
is the combustion chamber and the fuel that ignites us is the Eucharist. After being super-heated by the fire of God’s
love, we accelerate even faster and are propelled out into the world to thrust
all of mankind forward towards God. And
the law—the law of faith and the moral law, that is, the law of how we live
that faith—is that all important exhaust nozzle that helps focus our love—that
is, the full force of our love—on God and neighbor. Without it, our love is ineffective. Used improperly, our love becomes
self-focused, which not only makes it ineffective, but risks destroying us
ourselves.
My brothers and sisters, the full thrust of God’s love in
us, ignited and accelerated by the love that is Christ and which we receive in
the Eucharist, will lift us to find our destination: our place in the Kingdom
that God has promised us, but only if we allow it to be focused by following
all of God’s commandments. Therefore,
today let us commit ourselves to following God’s commandments more fully so
that all God’s children would one day enjoy the peace and joy of living in
God’s kingdom.
Given at St. Louis de Montfort
Parish: Fishers, IN – October 31st, 2021
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