HOMILY
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle B August 26, 2018
"For
this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless
it is granted him by my Father."
Some are privileged to
believe. To some the Father grants the
great privilege of believing in Jesus.
But others, for reasons known only to God, perhaps are not called to believe. This may seem unfair, but we know God is
loving, and that God’s ways are not our ways.
This does not mean that
people who do not believe are bad people.
It does not mean that they are not saved. It does not mean that God doesn’t love them,
or love them less. But the fact is some
people do not believe, and this can be either because they have refused the
gift, or they never received it. At least
not yet. This is a great mystery.
In chapter 25 of Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus tells us the criterion of judgement, and what is required to be
saved. I was hungry and you fed me, or
you didn’t. I was naked and you clothed
me, or you didn’t. I was a stranger and
you welcomed me, … or you built a wall instead.
I was sick or in prison, and you visited me, or didn’t. The criteria for judgement are quite simple
and clear.
The judgement is NOT about
what denomination you belonged to. Nor
what religion, or any at all. Not what
prayers you prayed, what worship you participated in, what creed and doctrine
you professed, what theology you favored.
It is all about how you treat others.
That – according to Jesus – is the standard for judgement.
So those who do not believe
in Jesus, but still feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger,
help those in distress, will be saved.
Jesus teaches us that. As
St Augustine, the one from Hippo - not our St. Augustin of Canterbury - said long ago, “The church has those that
God does not, and God has those that the church does not.”
I believe that there will be
many surprises on the day of judgement.
Many who did not know Jesus, did not believe in Jesus, but lived lives
of compassion, service, integrity and love, will still be saved.
Nonetheless, to believe in
Jesus is a very great privilege. I repeat, to believe in
Jesus is a very great privilege. We are called to believe by
the Father, not because we are such upstanding and wonderful people, and not
even primarily for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole
world. The Second Vatican Council teaches us that the Church - the body
of those who believe in Jesus - is called to be a Sacrament of the salvation of
the whole world. A sacrament is a
sign that effects and makes real the reality it symbolizes. We are called to symbolize the salvation of
the whole world, the salvation won for us by Jesus. And by symbolizing it, we help to make it
happen. We therefore have a
responsibility to symbolize God’s Kingdom on earth and to do it well.
The grace, the gift, we have
received to be able to believe in Jesus, granted to us by the Father, is a
truly wonderful privilege. Again, it is
not given to us because we are so holy and good and deserving, but rather
because the Father has granted it. So,
Why us? I don’t know.
But the fact remains that we
are called to proclaim the love of God shown forth in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus, in all that we say and do and are. We are, in fact, to be apostles. And that is a wonderful privilege. It is a grace.
Two comments on this. First of all, this great gift of faith is not
an easy one. It can be tremendously
comforting. It can sustain us and give
us great strength. But it can also be
difficult, and hard to live out. We can,
and likely will, face hostility and persecution.
Living a life of faith is a
struggle. We have to accept the gift of
faith, interiorize it, make it a core part of ourselves, not just wear it on
our sleeves, and that is work. Many
times we are like the anguished parent of the sick child in the Gospel who
cries, “I believe. Help my
unbelief”. We waver between belief
and unbelief. Faith remains a
struggle.
Many are struggling now with
the horrific revelations about clerical sexual abuse in Pennsylvania over the
last seven decades. As bad as the actual
crimes of abuse, is the crime of cover up perpetrated by the Bishops. It is devastating. It challenges our faith. Not only in the particular Bishops involved,
but the whole hierarchy and the entire structure of the Church, and even the
action of God in the world. It is a
painful and difficult reality to square with our faith. And I don’t have any easy answer.
Conversely, as the gift of faith is not an easy one, so also the
lack of faith in those we love and care about is also a difficult burden. Especially when parents have struggled to
raise their children in the faith, to drag them to church every Sunday,
sacrificed to send them to Catholic school and religious education, tried to
model for them a religious life, and yet the child grows up to have no interest in religion.
They may be honest, generous, really good people, and have no hostility
towards faith, but also have no interest in religion. It just does nothing for them, and it is a
great sorrow for the parents for whom religion and faith, and a relationship
with Jesus, have been such central parts of their identity and their
satisfaction.
And
Jesus said,
"For
this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless
it is granted him by my Father.” That
remains fully true today.
“As a result of this, many of Jesus’ disciples returned
to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Many today no longer go to church.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, and now today to
us, ”Do you also want to leave?"
May we be open to the Holy Spirit leading us,
as the Spirit lead Simon Peter, and who answered
Jesus, "Master,
to whom shall we go?
You
have the words of eternal life.
We
have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
AMEN.
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