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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

Ordinary Time

God Is Always ISO (In Search Of)

The interaction today between Moses and God serves more as a contrast than a parallel with today’s Gospel. When God informs Moses of plans to start over again with Moses alone, and to let his wrath “blaze up against” the people for worshiping a golden calf, Moses has to remind God of the covenant’s promises.  God does relent. In contrast, Jesus embodies the mercy of God, who sent Jesus for our salvation. 

Jesus was sent to search out the one sheep who wandered off, to turn the house upside down to recover the misplaced coin, and to welcome back that deliberately lost son, allowing him the time to “come to his senses” and the freedom to choose to return home. Jesus is not the placating voice, tamping down  God’s fiery anger, but the Father’s obedient Son, doing the Father’s will by reaching out with mercy and compassion. As Paul writes, Christ came into the world to save sinners. We put our trust in this. 

We can see ourselves in any of these roles: one who wanders off, or becomes accidentally lost, or deliberately goes away—all of which leads to our being in a place we don’t belong, sometimes in a condition we are ashamed of. We can even be the one who doesn’t go off physically but whose heart is far from the  Father, living our lives in bitterness, anger, resentment, or a refusal to forgive.  Christ tells us his Father can’t wait for us to end up back where we belong—in our Father’s embrace. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Do you need to be reminded of the Father’s great love for us all?
  • Does God need you to seek out someone who has wandered off, or even gotten deliberately lost? 

Responding to the Word

Forgiving God, we join St. Paul in saying thank you for giving us Christ as a source of strength. May the words of Christ continue to move our hearts into knowing and trusting your love more deeply. Thank you for giving us a place at your table. To you be honor and glory.

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Scripture Study for

After the people make themselves a molten calf and worship it, God accuses them of being stiff-necked. It is probably here more than anywhere else that the greatness of Moses is seen. He pleads for the preservation of the people of whom he is a member. He first insists that the Israelites are God’s very own special people, delivered from Egypt. It would be a shame to destroy them now. He then appeals to the promises that God made to the ancestors. How could God possibly renege on them? God listens to the entreaty of Moses; God does relent;  God does give the people another chance. 

Paul’s words open with an expression of gratitude for God’s goodness toward him. He admits that previously he had hunted down and stood in judgment over the followers of Jesus. For this reason, he is a perfect example of one who deserves punishment at the hands of God. He stresses his sinfulness so that he can emphasize God’s mercy. He insists that the greater his own failure, the more remarkable is God’s success in him. In fact, according to Paul, that is the very reason that God took the passionate persecutor and transformed him into an apostle. Paul’s own change of heart reveals the breadth of Christ’s patience. 

The Pharisees and scribes had criticized Jesus for keeping company with tax collectors and sinners, people who were considered social outcasts. They maintained that Jesus’ association with them contaminated him as well. In contrast,  Jesus saw this association as an opportunity for opening the reign of God to all.  Using parables, Jesus drew lines of contrast between the religious leaders and those the leaders have marginalized. The stories depict the extravagant solicitude of the shepherd and the woman to demonstrate the extent to which God will go to rescue even one lost individual. The parable of the prodigal son contrasts God’s openness to repentant sinners and the closed-mindedness of those who consider themselves faithful.

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The Cost of a Re-Newed World

Does Jesus really mean this? Hate my parents? My siblings? My spouse and children? Hate myself and spend my life carrying “my cross”? “Give up all possessions”? Is this another example of Jesus’ hyperbole, like when he said, “If your hand offends, you, cut it off. If your eye leads you to sin, pluck it out”? What are we getting ourselves into, if we follow Jesus? 

We are getting into the most radical commitment of our lives—to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are committing to him and his mission to bring new life to the world, and to bring all our relationships into our life in him. We commit to work at having that mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. 

We are getting ourselves into bringing about a re-newed world, where a  new sense of family moves us beyond blood ties, a new sense of self takes us  beyond personal fulfillment, a new sense of relationship to possessions carries  us beyond “shop, shop, shop.” 

Paul was inviting Philemon to enter into this new world. Philemon’s slave,  Onesimus, his “property,” had run away, a capital offense, punishable even by death. Paul asks the slave owner to take back the slave as a brother in Christ. One wonders what a different world we might have if this short letter (only twenty-five verses) had been read, preached, and heard yearly over the centuries. 

So count the cost, know what’s at stake, and commit this day to Christ the Lord. 

Consider/Discuss

  • What tower are you building? What battle are you willing to engage in for the sake of the kingdom of God? 
  • Do you love and trust Jesus enough to follow him daily? 

Responding to the Word

All-wise and all-knowing God, give us a share in your wisdom and the courage to commit to building up your kingdom in our world. Give us the strength to fight against all that is evil and destructive of your creation. Send your Spirit that we might live more fully in Christ.

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Scripture Study for

Wisdom insists that no one can fathom the mind of God; no one can know  God’s will. Yet, we are required to live in accord with that will. The wisdom tradition states that frequently we discover new things about our world and our lives even before we have an understanding of our discoveries. It also acknowledges that there is a dimension to human beings that seeks a wisdom beyond that achieved by reflection on experience alone. The realization of human limitation prompted the author to exclaim that we will attain the wisdom we so sorely seek only if God bestows it upon us. 

Paul’s Letter to Philemon is a personal appeal to Philemon to accept back with no recriminations a slave who had escaped his household and his control.  Though Paul does not criticize slavery itself, he does suggest a way of relating with the slave that will eventually undermine the philosophy that undergirds slavery.  Since he taught that in Christ there are no longer slaves or free persons, but that all are children of God, he relies on Philemon’s own understanding of mutual brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ to transform his attitude toward Onesimus.  Now he challenges Philemon to witness to his own belief in this teaching. 

Jesus explains the cost of discipleship. He insists on three conditions for true discipleship. His followers must subordinate everything to commitment to him,  even the closest family ties. They must also be willing to bear the suffering that following him will entail. The burden will differ from person to person, but the requirement is the same—wholehearted commitment. Finally, they will be called on to relinquish all their possessions. Total commitment to Jesus requires the willingness to give up the comfort and security of a stable family life, as well as the willingness to spend all one has on that venture. Whoever cannot make such a wholehearted commitment cannot be his disciple.

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Good Advice or Good News?

Sirach’s call to act with humility in our affairs connects nicely with Jesus’ words to take the last place rather than the place of honor in the dining room. Humility scores more points with others than presumption or pride, even with God. But  Jesus is offering more than good advice. 

Keep in mind that Jesus was at dinner with Pharisees and lawyers, and that he has just finished healing a man with dropsy who was right in front of him, and it was the Sabbath. Jesus could never seem to stop working on the Sabbath, even  in front of people “observing him carefully.” 

Jesus then tells them a parable, that is, a story with a punch, one that upends the expectations of the listeners. Jesus is proclaiming how things are to be in the kingdom of God—and for those who work to bring about God’s kingdom come about even now. In the Kingdom, the last will be first; in the Kingdom, the least will be honored and feted; in the Kingdom, generosity will replace entitlement. 

God’s plan is not to duplicate Mt. Sinai with its gloomy darkness and fearful words, but God’s dinner parties will take place on Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, with angels in festal gathering, and the chosen all shining and joyful.  Those in attendance will know they are there because of the blood of the Lamb that won them mercy before the throne of God. We prepare for this by showing generosity now. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Can you hear good news in today’s Gospel, how living in the kingdom can start even now? 
  • How does today’s Gospel shed light on what Sunday Mass is about? 

Responding to the Word

Generous God, you have invited us to the table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist, where we are nourished and where we learn what it means to live as children of the Kingdom. Thank you for this generous gift. May it continue to shape our lives.

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