Homily: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Friends,
today, beneath the surface of our readings, is an idea that is absolutely
central to our faith and to salvation history.
Perhaps it might be better to say that this idea is a foundation stone
or a central pillar of our faith and salvation history, without which both
might fall apart. This idea is the idea
of covenant.
A
covenant is like a contract, except more profound. In a contract, two parties agree to an
exchange of goods or services, perhaps for a specified period of time, and
clearly delineate the details of what is to be exchanged. Contracts also stipulate what happens when one
party does not fulfill their responsibilities according to the contract. All of this is simple enough, right?
A
covenant, as I said, is like a contract in these ways, yet is more
profound. In a covenant there are always
responsibilities to be fulfilled and benefits to be gained. There are also consequences for not
fulfilling those responsibilities. What
makes a covenant more profound, however, is that the parties who enter into it
are also entering a familial relationship.
With a contract, when the contract term ends or it is mutually decided
to terminate the contract, the parties can go their separate ways. With a covenant, the parties enter a familial
relationship—that is, they become like family to one another. Thus, when the stipulations of the covenant
are broken by either party, it is more akin to a family betrayal than mere irresponsibility.
The
most common covenant we enter into is the covenant of marriage; when,
literally, two people from separate families become one family, uniting both
families together. Another way that is,
perhaps, a little less obvious is when we select godparents for our
children. Whether or not the selected
godparent is already part of a family, to become a godparent for a child of
that family bonds that person to that family in a special way and imparts on
him/her a special responsibility to care for that child spiritually. Hopefully you can see that a covenant, while
like a contract in certain ways, is both significantly different (in the fact
that it is much less legalistic) and much more profound.
Throughout
the Old Testament, we hear how, time and again, God entered into covenants with
his chosen people. The most basic
description of the meaning of this covenant is given there in the Scriptures,
when God is recorded as saying, “I will be your God and you will be my
people”. The responsibility on the part
of the people is to worship God alone and to follow his commandments. And on God’s part, it is to protect the
chosen people and to make their land fruitful to provide them sustenance. Truly this is a one-sided covenant in that
God does not need their worship and so doesn’t benefit, per se, from it
(except, perhaps, to delight in it). In
other words, God has nothing to gain and nothing to lose from this relationship,
while the people have everything to gain and everything to lose from it. Nevertheless, God enters into it with his
chosen people, the ancient Israelites, thus forming a familial relationship with
them.
This
idea that God has entered into a special, familial relationship with a chosen
people is central to our faith and to salvation history because faithfulness to
this covenant unlocks for us the fullness of faith and all the benefits of
salvation won for us by God’s Son, Jesus.
The ancient Israelites entered into and renewed the covenant through the
sacrifice of an animal. We entered a new
and eternal covenant that has no need of renewing (that is, through sacrifice)
when, in baptism, we died with Christ and rose to new life in him. What we see in the readings for today’s Mass
is how faithfulness is the central responsibility of both parties.
In
the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel describes how God, in his faithfulness
to the covenant, will take a tender shoot of the crest of the tree (the most
tender part of the tree) and plant it on a high mountain in the land of Israel,
where it will become a great tree to provide for birds everywhere. This was a prophecy promising a return from
exile in Babylon, to where the people had been exiled for their unfaithfulness
to the covenant. The people had fallen
into worship of false gods and so God took his protection away from them and
they were conquered by the Babylonians and removed from their land. God remained faithful to the covenant,
however, and so when the people, in exile, returned to worship him alone, God
revealed this prophecy through Ezekiel with the promise that he would return
them to their land and make them fruitful once again.
Then,
in the Gospel, we heard two of Jesus’ parables describing the kingdom of God,
both of which describe, in a way, how faithfulness to the covenant produces the
benefits that are promised. When the
farmer faithfully sows seed in the ground (that is, fulfills his responsibility),
it begins to grow without any intervention on his part. Rather, God makes the seed to sprout and grow
into a full-sized plant, which produces some fruit that can sustain us. Even the small mustard seed, when planted
faithfully, grows by God’s faithfulness into a large bush that provides shelter
for the birds.
Finally,
in the second reading, we heard Saint Paul describe how his faith in the
covenant promise of eternal life inspired his faithfulness to his service of
God on earth: that, although he longed to realize that eternal reward, he
nonetheless trusted God’s faithfulness and so remained courageously faithful to
God and to the ministry God gave him until his death.
Friends,
I describe all of this today to remind us of two things: 1) that, as baptized
Christians, we are in a covenant relationship with God: a familial relationship
that is not easily broken, with responsibilities, benefits, and consequences
when responsibilities are not fulfilled, and 2) that faithfulness to the
covenant responsibilities, not performance or achievement, is the key to
receiving the benefits that are our right as a result. The first point is easy enough to remember
(even if we don’t remember that it is called a “covenant”), but the second
point is easy to forget.
Friends,
God wants our faithfulness and trust in his faithfulness more than he wants our
success. As he showed when he returned
the Israelites from exile and in the parables of Jesus, God does not need our
successful production to bring forth his kingdom, only our faithfulness to the
tasks that he has given us: worshiping him alone and planting seeds for his
kingdom by following his commandments and living out the works of mercy. When we are faithful to these things,
trusting that God is faithful to his promises, we will see his kingdom grow
unexpectedly large among us by his hand.
Ours is to plant, to watch (that is, to accompany), and then harvest the
fruits of both God’s faithfulness and ours.
Let
us not overcomplicate the matter, therefore, thinking that we need to be clever
in how we live in this covenant relationship.
Rather, let us confidently renew our faithfulness to the simple (though
not always easy) tasks that we have been given—to worship God alone, to follow
his commandments, and to serve others by living the works of mercy—walking by
faith, that is, trust, that God will be faithful and will keep us safe unto
eternal life.
To
our fathers on this Father’s Day, I want to offer a particular
encouragement. Now, more than ever, we
need the witness of your faithfulness to fatherhood, which is this: to love
your children and your spouse and to be faithful to them, to lead your family
in prayer and to pray for them, to teach your family the faith and to give
example of living it out in your own life, and to courageously stand up for the
truth—both in your home and in the public square. If you do these things faithfully (even if
not always successfully), God will be faithful and will bless your family and
make it strong, and will make your family a fruitful blessing for others. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Friends,
as we all approach this altar today to offer our thankfulness for the covenant
we have entered with God, let us ask for the grace of humility to remain
faithful to it, in spite of our failings, and to trust that God, who is always
faithful, will lead us to our heavenly home.
Given in Spanish at St. Joseph Parish: Rochester, IN – June
16th, 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment