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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

Solemnity

Scripture Study for

The story of Adam and Eve and the serpent suggests that the  inevitable result of human sin is alienation from God and from one  another. Instead of trust and confidence, the divine presence now  evokes in the humans fear and a desire to hide from the divine gaze.  Personal responsibility gives way to finger pointing and excuse  making. Ultimately, though, God recognizes the role of the serpent,  who has acted malevolently, taking advantage of human weakness  and naïveté to sow discord and distrust between God and humans.  God’s response is to sow discord between the humans and the  serpent. Whereas they had earlier trusted the serpent, now humans  will look upon the instigator of their ruin with fear and hatred. 

The reading from Ephesians focuses on divine gifts of election  and blessing. Divine election means that God has “chosen” the  human family to receive “blessing” in Christ, if they will accept it in  faith and hope. The election and blessing are a call to become “holy  and without blemish,” and also the power to become so. Election  and blessing also mean adoption into God’s household, an unearned  gift, “in accord with the favor of his will.” This re-creation of human  beings in Christ, being a pure gift of God, redounds to the glory of  God, whose benevolent, gracious will is always accomplished.

When Mary is confronted with the divine presence through  Gabriel, her response is at first puzzlement and then acceptance.  Explicitly told she has nothing to fear from Gabriel (or from God),  the Virgin believes that she has found favor with God and that what  God intends to do, God will be able to do. The child to be born to  her is the culmination of a longstanding divine plan. Jesus, as the son  of David, will inherit the throne God promised to establish firmly  and forever (2 Samuel 7:13). Mary receives this announcement of  the divine will, puzzling as it may be, with trust and acceptance,  allowing the divine plan for the human race to go forward. 

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Mary Watches Over Jesus as the Lord Watches Over Us

I have an elderly friend who took a hard fall. Now, nurses and family hover over her continually, watching for a brain bleed and signs of confusion. What will her future hold? 

I have a grandson who was recently born. His mother and father  look at him continually, beholding his tiny hands and feet and  admiring his shock of hair. What will this child be? 

In our reading, there is a lot of clamor surrounding the shepherds.  “They went with speed” and “they told everyone” and “all who heard  it were astonished”—it sounds like a lot of noise, doesn’t it? Like the  steady stream of visitors to the hospital, they ask, “What does the  future hold?”

In the middle of the shepherds’ commotion are these few words  about Mary: “She [treasured] all these things, reflecting on them in  her heart.” She is the quiet anchor in the center of the tumult. She  feeds the baby. She rocks him. He is near to her. In the midst of the  chaos, she gives a maternal gaze of blessing upon that infant child.  Like the Virgin of Guadalupe, she wraps her mantle around him.  And all of these experiences remain in her memory. 

This same gaze of blessing is found in the blessing of Aaron in  the book of Numbers. Watch over, keep, hover, safeguard—these are  all images of protectiveness and care. We too are watched over. It is  a blessed hovering, a nearness that we should not fear: The Lord bless you and keep you, watch over you; The Lord let his face to  shine upon you. Life can sometimes worry us. But no matter what  the future holds, a gaze of love enfolds us. We know Who holds our  future. 

Consider/Discuss 

  • Put yourself into the Gospel story as a townsperson or a friend of one of  the shepherds. How would you respond when he tells you this remarkable  story of angels and a baby in the manger? 
  • When a pregnant woman sits down with a group of older mothers, they  suddenly and naturally start swapping birth stories. To whom do you think  that Mary might have later told Jesus’ birth stories? What stories did your  mother tell about your birth? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

Hover over us, Spirit of God. We want to be independent. We  want to believe that we can succeed in life all by ourselves. Yet when  we were children, we needed a mother’s care. Today, we need your  care, too. We cry out from our hearts, “Abba, Father!” You are the  source of our elation. Stir us to taste more deeply the sweetness of  your love.

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Dividing Day

Every so often when I am driving, I see that old bumper sticker calling us to commit random acts of kindness. Good advice in light of the story of the Last Judgment.  Did you notice that the story makes no mention of many of the sins we usually  worry about as the basis for the Last Judgment? This is not to say such things don’t  matter. But the emphasis here has to do with getting out there and responding to  people really in need, basic needs relating to hunger, thirst, being a stranger—an  unwelcome immigrant? (that one is certainly ripped from today’s headlines!)— lacking clothes, needing health care (another relevant one), and being imprisoned. 

While it is always interesting to watch other people being judged, it is not  something most of us enjoy experiencing ourselves—especially when it comes  to evaluating our moral lives. It is much easier to think of Jesus as the forgiving,  compassionate, tender shepherd who is out there looking for us than as the one  who comes in glory to judge and separate out the goats and the lambs. Who wants  to be counted among the goats? 

So, pick your area that will help you to be counted among the sheep. Food distribution, environmental concerns, immigration reform, clothing—include here  those nets that can save lives threatened by various issues surrounding health  care, or prison reform. Perhaps you thought this was one of those quaint stories  Jesus tells that seem so long ago and far away. The last we hear from the Gospel  of Matthew for this year invites your participation—now. The reason? When you  do something for them, you do it for him. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Have you had any experiences of being judged that proved helpful?
  • Can you bring together images of Jesus as both shepherd and judge?
  • Can you hear in today’s Gospel an invitation to a fuller life? 

Responding to the Word

We pray with confidence to the Father to whom all things will be handed over  by Christ, the new Adam, through whom we have become children of the king dom. We ask the Spirit to teach us to recognize the freedom that comes from sub jecting ourselves to God’s rule and serving, as Christ served, those most in need.

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Scripture Study for

The image of the good shepherd aptly characterizes God’s concern and personal intervention in the shepherding of the flock. The first reading describes how  God fulfills the role of shepherd primarily in two ways: by caring for the sheep and  by separating the good from the bad. Those who were responsible for the sheep  failed to carry out their responsibilities. They were not attentive to their charges  and so the owner of the flock steps in to shepherd the flock personally. The rest  of the oracle of salvation confirms this. The final scene is one of judgment, an  appropriate theme for the last Sunday of the liturgical year. 

Paul brings together several of his most treasured themes: the effectiveness  of Christ’s resurrection, human solidarity in Adam and in Christ, the sequence of  events surrounding the end of time, the victory of Christ, and the ultimate reign  of God. The reading carries us back through time to the primordial period of  beginnings, and then forward to the end of time and the eschatological age of  fulfillment. Every aspect of these events is grounded in the resurrection of Christ.  At the final consummation, God will be all in all. All came from God; all returns to  God. At the end, all purposes will be realized. All reality will have come home. 

The scene of the Last Judgment as it unfolds before us today is both sobering  and surprising. It is a scene of apocalyptic splendor and majesty, a scene of separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, a scene of reward and punishment. The  image of the shepherd separating the sheep from goats would have been quite  familiar to Jesus’ original audience. What is surprising is the reason given for the  judgment. It is not the accomplishment of some phenomenal feat. Rather, people  are judged on whether or not they meet the very basic human needs of others. The  scene is sobering because one gets the sense that there is no way of escaping it. 

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The Faces of Holiness

In an interview, the Dalai Lama talked about the importance of recognizing  one quality that all the world religions share as a common value—the virtue of  compassion. This virtue is held up for imitation by all the major religious tradi tions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. It helps us to view  each other with respect and appreciation. 

Today’s feast invites us to think about all the holy men and women who have  opened their lives to God’s grace and have embodied compassion in the world  over the centuries. From the early days of the church the names of the martyrs  were mentioned during Eucharist. Today we can remember all the holy ones who  have touched our lives—men and women, family and friends, canonized and  uncanonized saints over the centuries. 

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, written at a time of persecution, offers  us a symbolic vision of the end time when a multitude from every nation, race,  people, and tongue will be gathered together. These are the ones who have  been sealed as true servants of God and will sing an eternal song of salvation.  We hope to be part of that jubilant chorus. 

In the meantime, we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses who urge  us on to complete our task of living as beloved children of God, to live out the  plan of the kingdom Jesus preached in the Beatitudes, and to be a presence in  the world of God’s Spirit. 

Consider/Discuss

  • Who are some of the saints who have touched your life over the years? • Are there any “living saints” in your life now? 
  • Which of the Beatitudes best speaks to you as a way to holiness at  this time? 

Responding to the Word

We may give thanks to God for the call to holiness we have heard in our own  hearts and include the names of those who have shown us what it means to be  holy. Ask the saints to continue to intercede for us so that we will be faithful in  our efforts to bring about the kingdom of heaven.

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