Sunday, September 12, 2010

Homily – September 12, 2010 – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

+ The theme of our celebration today is the extravagant mercy of God. The one thing that God likes to do most is to show us a father's love and shower us with mercy – a lot of times even before we ask for it. We can count on the fact that he understands us completely – inside and out – with our true weaknesses, limitations, and sinfulness – and that all he requires for the unleashing of oceans of mercy upon us –is a sign of willingness to admit that we are in need of it. God will not force anything upon us – not love, nor mercy, not forgiveness. But if we want it – he is right there with it.

The people of the first reading – God's own people of the Old Testament times – were so absorbed in themselves that a lot of them probably did not even know that they were sinners; others maybe knew, but at that point didn't care; others would be obstinate to the very end. Moses had his hands full just holding back the hand of God's justifiable wrath – reminding him that he is a God of mercy – and that the distribution of mercy is what he did best.

What was it that made God so angry with them as to consider even withholding mercy? The only answer I can come up with is that it was a double sin against faith and charity – as these two always go together. Those whose faith is very weak also have a great deal of difficulty "getting out of their own way." They need to hang onto something, so they hang on to their own selves and their own egos. The one motivating good in their lives is themselves. This goes against the first commandment, and is also a sin against faith; making themselves a god, they displace the real God and have faith in no one but themselves; thereby they also, steal charity – goodness and good works that others are entitled to - because they want to satisfy themselves. This sounds a great deal like the people Moses was dealing with. But even this people could erase all of that selfishness by sincerely asking God to have mercy on them and to forgive them.

St. Paul in the second reading tells us that he was a very great sinner. He was persecuting the church and trying to stamp it out at its origins. But the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Christ came upon him in a powerful way – like a great flash of light – and Paul was never the same. His life turned from one of self-service and righteousness – to one of amazing surrender to God's will and grace so that charity could prevail – the charity that is life in Christ – life in the Church.

May our faith and our charity increase this day because we consciously seek God's mercy, love and forgiveness – he is so very willing to accept our sorrow and contrition and help us transform them into a life of living for and loving others alone. We have the wherewithal – the graces, the love and even the material resources to share - so that others who are in need – no matter where they are in our lives, or in the world – will have what God wants them to have – using us and our outstanding generosity!

No comments:

Happy New Year 202

  A Happy New Year to you all! I hope and pray I am able to keep this blog up to date now that we are entering into the New Year! I would li...