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(Scriptures for today's Mass)
Audio for homily
(The audio is from our 10:30 liturgy at which we baptized
William Michael, son of Diana and Michael. The audio in-
cludes two references to the baptism which are not in the
text below.)
There is someone who wants to hold you, to hold you close.
Someone who’s waiting to hold you close.
Someone whose embrace can be as tender as a grandmother’s
or as powerful as the biggest bear
hug you’ve ever known.
There’s someone who wants to hold you - and never let you go.
Someone who wants you to fall into those waiting arms
and allow yourself to know again,
as an infant knows,
the comfort, the surety, the
intimacy, the peace,
the embrace for which every human
heart
and every human body longs.
And those waiting arms are always open,
always ready and waiting to hold each
one of us.
Nothing you or I might say or do, or fail to do or say,
will close those arms to our
approach,
to our desire to be held.
Nothing I’ve ever done, nothing you’ve ever done,
could keep those arms from reaching
out for us,
welcoming us, beckoning us to draw
closer.
In fact, the greater our sins and failings
the more do these loving arms reach
out for us,
reaching to draw us out of our
hiding places,
from the corners of our shame, the
closets of our remorse,
- even from the depths of our
denial that we have sinned at all.
Those waiting arms reach first
for those farthest away from that
embrace
for which every human heart and
every human body longs.
I realize that I run a risk using this image of an embrace.
I know that some folks aren’t the “huggy”
kind
and that other folks choose very
carefully
the embraces they’ll accept.
But I don’t believe there are any here who don’t want
to be cared for,
to be accepted, to be welcomed, to
be called by name
and most of all to be
unconditionally loved for who they are -
if not on account of their goodness
then at least in spite of their
failings.
Such is the love, such are the arms, such
is the embrace
with which Jesus reaches out for
each of us
– and without exception.
Such is the love, such is the mercy
with which Jesus welcomed and
accepted
the woman in he met in today’s
gospel.
It seems she was a well-known sinner.
Simon, in whose house Jesus is dining, calls her a sinner
and Jesus himself acknowledges her
“many sins.”
Jesus knows her sins: the sins of which Simon speaks
and probably a few more Simon
didn’t even know about.
Jesus knows this woman better than she knows herself
and he loves her more than she
loves herself
and he forgives and welcomes her
love in return.
Jesus knows you and me, better than we know ourselves
and he loves us, more than we love
ourselves,
and he forgives us, and welcomes
our love in return.
Every one of us needs the open arms of Jesus
to embrace us and welcome us into
his heart.
In fact, the only way we can truly fall into his merciful arms
is by recognizing and acknowledging
our need for to do so,
which means admitting our faults,
failings and sins.
When I think I don’t need the Lord’s mercy,
when I think I don’t really have
any sins,
that I have nothing to confess,
- then I distance myself from his arms.
His embrace reaches out to us and opens up to us
precisely because he knows us so
well
and knows our need for his mercy.
And, lest we forget: the mercy Jesus offers us in his arms,
open and waiting to hold us
is exactly the mercy he asks us to
offer one another,
our arms open and waiting to
forgive and accept one another,
especially those who have offended
us.
He invites us now to draw near to his embrace.
He invites us to take a place at his table, at this altar,
in the shadow of his arms
outstretched for us on the Cross,
waiting to hold our hearts in his
love.
It’s at this table
where he not only puts his arm
around our shoulders
but where he gives his life for us,
his Body and Blood,
in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
There is someone who wants to hold you, to hold you close -
someone who’s waiting to hold you close.
Someone whose embrace can be as tender as a grandmother
or as powerful as the biggest bear
hug you’ve ever known.
There’s someone who wants to hold you - and never let you go.
Come to his table.
Ask for his mercy.
And fall into his arms.
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