Homily for June 12

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Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
(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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