Homily: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Friends,
today our Scriptures present us with these wonderful words of consolation: that
God is a God of justice and that he hears the cry of those who are
oppressed. He “willingly hears” the one
who serves him and he “hears the cry of the poor”. In fact, Scripture says (in wonderfully
poetic language), “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest
till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds,
judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.” Interestingly, though, what this passage
doesn’t directly affirm is what does God’s “response” look like? In other words, when God “affirms the right”,
how does he do it?
This
is an important question because the answer that we ascribe to it will have a
profound impact on how we think about God.
What I mean is this: Many people believe that God is good and that,
therefore, when bad things happen to good people, God should respond and restore
to that good person what had been lost.
These same people also believe that a good God should not allow bad
things to happen to good people and that he should make it impossible to be
unjust. Because these persons expect all
of these things, they lose faith in God when he doesn’t seem to respond in this
way. We all know people who have made
this argument, right? “I cannot believe
in a god who claims to be good and all-powerful and yet allows such bad things
to happen, especially when they happen to good people.” What these persons fail to ask, however, is,
“What if I’m wrong about what I expect God to do?” And so, it is important that we ask, “When
God ‘affirms the right’, how does he do it?”
Friends,
the answer that God seems to show us is this: God “affirms the right” when he
give us power to remain faithful in spite of opposition and the temptation of
the depravity of others. Perhaps, on the
surface, this doesn’t sound like a great answer. “God, who is all-powerful and who loves
justice, is going to use his almighty power to overcome injustice by giving us
the power to persevere in acting justly in the world, even while those who
don’t believe in him continue to perpetuate injustice.” Even as I speak these words, they don’t sound
very convincing. I think, however, when
we look a little deeper, we can see that this is actually a much better answer.
Let’s
take a moment to remember that God is not only all-powerful, he is also
all-knowing. This means, of course, that
he not only knows everything that has happened and is happening throughout the
universe (even our own most secret thoughts), but that he knows everything that
will happen. This means that he sees the
ultimate end of all of our thoughts and actions in the world. He also knows that he created this world as a
means for us to know him, love him, and serve him in preparation for eternal
life with him. Thus, his goal in acting
in this world is not to eliminate injustice (though he does want that), but
rather that each of us persevere in serving him so that none of us loses the
gift of eternal life. He knows that, if
everyone in the world would persevere in serving him (which means, acting with
justice), that injustice would be eliminated; but that is not the goal: the
goal is that everyone would receive the gift of eternal life.
In
this light, it seems to make more sense that God gives us power to remain
faithful in the face of opposition and the temptation of the depravity of
others. Further evidence of this is in
our second reading today. Saint Paul,
writing to Saint Timothy, extolls God’s grace that has made it possible for him
to persevere in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in spite of great
opposition. He wrote, “The Lord stood by
me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed
and all the Gentiles might hear it.” Now,
at the end of his life, he is confident that he will receive from God the
“crown of righteousness”—that is, the reward for faithfulness, which is eternal
life. /// God does hear us when we cry out to him in our need; and he responds
by giving us grace (that is, power) to remain faithful so that we do not lose
the reward of eternal life. ///
Okay,
acknowledging that “God’s ways are not my ways” and accepting that the grace to
remain faithful is a wise response to the injustice we experience, what should
our response be? The parable in today’s
Gospel shows us that our response must be “humility”.
In
the parable, Jesus shows us that the danger in receiving the grace to remain
faithful is that we become proud and self-righteous. The Pharisee acknowledges God’s grace that
allowed him to obey the commandments and all the precepts of the Law of
Moses. Nevertheless, he looked down on
those who still struggled against sin as if God had privileged him over others
and so those others were lesser persons in God’s eyes. In contrast, the tax collector acknowledges
his failure to live in God’s grace and pleads for his mercy. He doesn’t try to excuse his sin or to accuse
the Pharisees for having it “easier” than he does. Thus, according to Jesus, the one who is
righteous in the world’s eyes goes home condemned for his pride, while the one
who is unrighteous in the world’s eyes goes home justified for his humility.
Therefore,
as we cry out to God to be freed from all the injustice in the world and
especially the injustices that we suffer, and as we receive from God grace to
remain faithful in the midst of oppression and temptation to join in sinful
behavior, we must remain vigilant against the temptation to pride and
self-righteousness. One sign that we are
falling into self-righteousness is when we begin to distance ourselves from
others. The Pharisee, in his prayer,
gave thanks that he “wasn’t like him”
(that is, the tax collector). He
identified himself as fundamentally different than the tax collector, thus
distancing himself from him. What the
Pharisee should have done was to pray for him—thus, spiritually drawing him close—since
he recognizes in the tax collector the fundamental weakness in human nature
that he himself shares.
Okay,
all this being said, is there a simple lesson that we can take with us
today? I think that the answer is
“yes”. As we give thanks today that God
does hear the prayers of those who strive to serve him, our task is two-fold:
to pray and to love. “To pray” is
obvious. If we believe that God hears
our prayers then we should never fail to turn to him in prayer. “To love” is also obvious, but its
application is nuanced. In particular,
we are called to love the righteous and the unrighteous—the faithful one and
the one still mired in sin (and everyone in between). This second part keeps us humble by pushing
us to stay close to all and to pray for those who struggle to remain faithful
(or who have given up on faithfulness, altogether), recognizing in them our own
weakness and inability to serve God faithfully without his grace.
Let
us, therefore, recommit ourselves today to live this simple formula for
holiness: to pray and to love. In doing
so, we too may come to the end of our lives able to say, with Saint Paul, that
we have “competed well”, “finished the race”, and “kept the faith”. And let us give thanks for the grace to
remain faithful, made available to us by the sacrifice of Jesus, which we offer
to God here on this altar.
Given in Spanish at Saint Paul Parish: Marion, IN – October
22nd, 2022
Given in Spanish at Our Lady of the Lakes Parish:
Monticello, IN and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish: Carmel, IN – October 23rd,
2022
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