Sunday, August 2, 2009

Homily – August 2, 2009 – Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

+ What powerful readings we have today at Mass! And how contrary to what the secular, worldly mind would think! Jesus tells us one thing today, in two different formats, so we get the message: do not work for perishable food (as though it were the be-all and the end-all of your earthly activities) as if collecting power, position, authority and money; homes, cars, boats and a variety of "things" were your chief goal and occupation in life. You will be sadly disappointed at the end of your life, if this is so! None of this will get you into heaven – at the moment when you truly arrive at the gates thereof – and knock on the door!

On the other hand, Jesus tells us to: work for spiritual food – with all of our might, all of our being, all of our energy, all of our ingenuity: this is and ought to be our chief and spiritual life's work! A great many people spend hours a day thinking about themselves and their appearance and their possessions and their projects and their plans, and their likes and their dislikes; going here, going there and everywhere – at a faster and faster, noisier and more chaotic pace: and all the while, their very real spiritual lives - that count so much more than the material and the physical - is slowly withering away and dying (if it is not already withered and dead) – and then when their lives around them start falling apart, said people wonder what happened! Jesus tells us today: CARING FOR THE SPIRITUAL LIFE WITHIN US MUST COME FIRST- everything else follows from that! "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his way of doing things, and everything else will be given to you besides!"

St. Paul puts it another way: BE TRANSFORMED BY THE SPIRIT OF YOUR MINDS! Wake up, mentally! Put on the new self that sprang to life at the moment of your Baptism; live with the Gifts of Confirmation, God's Way, in rightness of living, and holiness of life! Do the work of God which is: BELIEVING IN THE ONE HE SENT: JESUS CHRIST! It is a simple and complex as that! BELIEVING IN JESUS, and then LIVING LIKE WE BELIEVE IT! We make it complex by doing so much to block the inspirations that God gives us in order to come to fullness of belief! We sabotage our own salvation! We turn up the noise, the TVs, the IPODS, the cell phones, the clatter and chaos of modern living – and we can't hear God speaking slowly, softly and gently to us – all that we need to know about living productively life here, as a preparation for the Greater and more Glorious hereafter!

Not only does he speak to us in the Scriptures, in the homilies at Mass, in our private prayer time: but Jesus speaks most eloquently to us deep within our hearts immediately after we receive him in Holy Communion! Jesus is the Bread of Life, come down from heaven! Whoever eats this bread will live forever! When his heartbeat is in sync right next to our own, he reveals to us the secrets of the universe, the secrets of a happy life, and the secrets of what lies ahead for us in eternity! "We must be still and listen to God speaking": and then we must "obey and do whatever he tells us to do!"

We believe that Jesus is who he said he is: the very Bread of God's Life and Friendship for us come down from heaven! That is why we say "AMEN" when "The Body of Christ" is held up before us, and presented to us!

Yes, it is true, our relationship with you, Jesus, is the most important thing in this life – and everything, absolutely everything, follows from that!

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