Homily for August 17

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Scriptures for today's Mass)

Audio for homily


 

How often have you heard someone say,

   Well, it doesn’t really matter what god you believe in

      or how you name your god.

   It doesn’t really matter what you believe in

      as long as you believe in something, some god, some power.

Well, all three scriptures today do highlight the universality of God

and God’s love and grace.

• Isaiah reminds us that the Lord’s house will be a house of prayer

   - for all peoples.

• St. Paul is clear that although his own people, the Jews,

   have yet to accept the gospel

God’s covenant with them, his chosen people, is irrevocable.

• And here is Jesus,

reaching beyond his own mission to the house of Israel,

reaching out to a pagan woman whose interest is inspired

perhaps not so much by any faith

as much as personal desperation.

As ancient as these stories may be, they speak to us today.

In our own times, the universality of God’s love and grace

is easily accepted by many and in some cultures, by most.

So, does it not matter who or what you believe in

as long as believe in someone or something?

Is that so?

We need to try to look at this question from two vantage points

and the first will be more difficult for us than the second.

First, we need to try to see this from God’s point of view.

God is the creator of every human being

and knows every human soul and life  - intimately.

God loves every one of us long before we’re conceived,

before we’re born

and loves us regardless of what our beliefs are

– or what they are  not.

God’s love for us is greater than our belief in God

and God’s love isn’t given on account of our believing,

nor is it withdrawn for our lack of belief.

God. Is. Love.

But God’s love for each of us is a gift

and it is given out of God’s desire

to engage each of us in a relationship of love.

God loves each of us and asks for our love in return

and asks us to love one another as we are loved by God.

The universal gift of God’s love is given to each of us, then,

with expectations, responsibilities and demands.

In fact, we Christians say that this love is the LAW

by which we are to live.

And with that statement,

I’ve crossed over to the other vantage point

from which we need to try to understand

the universality of God’s love and grace.

There are thousands of religions and faiths and beliefs in the world.

But I’m a Christian believer speaking to other Christian believers.

• I believe in God, the creator of the all things visible and invisible.

• I believe in Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, who lived among us

and who suffered died and rose from the dead

so that you and I might have life forever.

• And I believe in the Spirit of God, living and moving in my heart,

and in your heart, and in all the world around us.

• And I believe that in communion with Christ’s Body, the Church,

we come to discern the truth, to grow in God’s love

and to serve those in need.

And in just a few minutes you will be joining me

in professing those very same beliefs in the Nicene Creed.

So, I believe, we believe, that the universal love and grace of God

- took flesh - and was born among us 2,000 years ago

and that the image that hangs over our prayer every week:

is the sign of how and how much God loves us

and of how and how much we are called to love one another.

While we believe that God’s love is universal

and that no human being lives outside or beyond

God’s universal embrace, we also believe that

in a unique, historical, physical, personal, and unrepeatable way

God revealed himself to the world, in the mystery of Jesus

and invited us to a life of faith, ruled by the law of love.           

We believe that the eternal God loves us

and has spoken to us and has saved us in Christ,

and lives among us in the Spirit.

And that gift of faith,

the gift of knowing God through Jesus and the Spirit,

in the sacramental life of the Church,

that is a gift beyond compare, an unparalleled gift,

a gift we’re called to treasure and to share.

And in light of what we have been given,

what we have heard,

and what we have received:

we who follow Jesus can never say

   It doesn’t really matter what god you believe in

      or what you believe in,

   or how you name your god…

We can not say that.

So much more that that is our belief, 

the belief of our ancestors and of our Church. 

This is the belief

for which our brothers and sisters in Iraq are, this day,

being persecuted;

the belief that gathered us together today in this church;

the belief we’re about to profess in the Nicene Creed;

the belief that leads us to find at this Table

the Body and Blood of Jesus 

in the Bread and Cup of the Eucharist.

This is the belief that is ours in Christ Jesus the Lord.

This is the mystery of our faith

and it does truly matter who we believe in,

what we believe

and how we name our God.

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