Homily for Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 8, 2008
Hosea 6:3-6
Romans 4:18-25
Matthew 9:9-13

Have you ever asked yourself,
“What does God want from me?”

Maybe you’re asking that today, here at this Mass…

We might ask that question when we’re trying to decide
“what we’re going to be when we grow up;”
or, having grown up, we might ask that question
when we’re about to make life-changing decisions;
or, when we’re confused about things
and don’t know which way to turn;
or, when, like the Israelites, we’re having hard times
and begin to wonder if our sins have prompted God
to toss some roadblocks on our path.

(Well, roadblocks are everywhere and they often lead us
to question or strengthen our relationship with God
but they are part and parcel of our broken humanity
and God would be the last one to add obstacles to our lives
and the first to help us negotiate our way around and through
the things that make life’s journey difficult.)

But that question…
“God, what do you want from me?”

Actually, that question is answered in today’s scriptures – twice!
First from the lips of the Hosea
and then from Jesus’ own mouth, quoting Hosea, comes the answer:
“I want love! I want mercy! Not sacrifices! Mercy and love…

The rejection of “sacrifices” in both passages,
is rejection of the notion that what God wants of us
is the burnt offering of sacrificed animals (holocausts).

Of course, we don’t sacrifice animals to God anymore
so we might think this proscription doesn’t apply to us.
But we need to understand that the Israelites believed
that the forgiveness of their sins, their reconciliation with God
was achieved, was effected by just such offerings.

So the Lord is saying,
“You know the things you think I want?
The things you think will pacify me? move me to pardon you?
Well, that’s not what I’m looking for!
What DO I want from you?
What I want is mercy. What I want is love.”

And that’s what the Lord is saying to us, too...
If we hope to be forgiven, then we need to be merciful,
we need to forgive one another other
as we hope God will forgive us.
If we want to be reconciled with God,
then we need to love one another as we hope to be loved by God.

We can come to Mass every Sunday, and that’s a very good thing,
but if we don’t have mercy and love for one another…

We can pray a million Rosaries, and that’s a good thing,
but if we don’t have mercy and love for one another…

We can fast on the right days, salute the Pope
and believe everything the Church teaches,
but if we don’t have mercy and love for one another…
it’s all in vain!

What God really asks of us runs much deeper
and makes much greater demands on us
than what we might imagine God wants from us.

Let’s put a sharper edge on all of this, then:

- at home: in our fights, squabbles, arguments
resentments, grudges and disagreements at home,
it’s mercy and love that God wants from us;

- in the places where we learn and work, at school and on the job,
in any place where we want to succeed, do well, win, get ahead,
God looks for us to love those who don’t love us,
to forgive even those who won’t forgive us;

- in this or any town, in our neighborhoods and social circles,
God looks for our love and mercy in how we treat others,
and especially how we treat those we just don’t like;

- in our own parish,
when issues of turf and power and influence arise,
God cries out for us to treat one another with love and mercy,
lest our work in the parish
become the occasion of our sin and division;

- and in the war rooms of nations,
on the battle fields of the world
there is only one victory God desires
and that is the victory of mercy and love
-- and that is what God wants from us.

If it sounds like too much,
you can be sure the Israelites said the same thing
when Hosea spoke these words --
and we know the Pharisees thought this was too much
when they heard Jesus say the same thing.

But in all of these things, in all of these situations,
in all of these circumstances, in all of these relationships
there is, in God’s eyes, no other acceptable way
and there is nothing else God wants from us.

Look at the table where the Lord has gathered us.
The food here is a loaf of love,
and the drink is from a cup of mercy.

Jesus won nothing for himself in laying down his life:
it was all for us.

He was asked to surrender himself in love and mercy,
and he gave both without counting the cost.

He asks nothing more and nothing less from each of us.

May the sacrament of this altar open our minds and hearts
to learn the meaning of the Lord’s words:
“Love and mercy, I desire - not sacrifices...”


-ConcordPastor