Homily for February 5

Image source

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

Audio for homily

 
-->

So, for the second week in a row now,

we find a close relationship

between the daily headlines and the Sunday scriptures.

And this is all the more amazing when you consider that since 1970

our readings have followed a three-year rotation

and these texts just happen to the ones that come up every three years

on the Fourth and Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

                       

And that’s how we came to have these texts

this particular weekend in 2017:

a charge from Isaiah for us to share our bread with the hungry,

to shelter the oppressed and homeless, 

to clothe the naked and not turn our back on anyone.

- and if we’re faithful to these responsibilities, says the prophet,

then light shall rise for us in our darkness

and the gloom in which we find ourselves

will become like the light of the midday sun.

Jesus expands this image in the gospel, telling us

not to become the light of the world

or to reflect the light of the world,

but rather that we ARE the light of the world

and that our light must shine before others

so that in our good works, others will see the glory of God.

At best, it’s a kind of “holy coincidence” that two weeks in a row,

(in a  three-year rotation of scriptures)

readings such as these should come round so perfectly dovetailing

the news and headlines on our minds.

And that curiously, has the potential for making the preacher’s task

not easier but in some ways more difficult.

The preacher has to resist the temptation, here,

to find in the scriptures a plan or a policy to resolve the day’s issues.

Things just aren’t that simple.

The preacher and those who hear him

need to be careful not to use the scriptures to take sides

to advance one political agenda over another - or worse -

to target and take aim at one politician or another.

On the other hand, Isaiah is eminently clear

in how he calls us to care for our neighbor

and Jesus is equally demanding in calling us to be

the salt that seasons our society,

the light that illumines God’s will and work among us.

These scriptures might easily be written on placards for demonstrations

or embedded in editorial opinions -

which is to say, we might easily use these scriptures

to make judgments on the events of the times

and on the actors in the drama of daily news.

Certainly, there’s a legitimate time and place

justifying the use of the scriptures in just that way.

BUT… keeping in mind that many of us have heard these same readings       

every three years for the past 47 years,

or some 15 times since 1970, we might well ask

(before using these scriptures to teach and target others)

we might ask: what impact have these words had on us?

We might ask… 

- How does our presence, yours and mine,

season the lives of those around us?
Recalling that the human tongue knows four major tastes:

sweet, sour, salty, bitter ---

what taste do I leave in others’ mouths?

- What flavor do I bring to the culture I live in?

- Is my soul’s salt fresh? has it gone stale? become bland? useless?
Or do I over-salt and thus render what I try to season unpalatable?

- Do I need to heed the words of Isaiah and remove from my own mouth

any malicious speech, any hasty and false accusation?

- What executive orders have I issued and do I follow

to bar the entry of some into my heart, into my life -

keeping out some, even in my own family, my neighborhood, my parish,

or where I work or go to school.

- What walls do I build in my own life to keep out

those I don’t want to let in?

- Do I live in an invisibly walled community

that allows some in and very subtly keeps others out,

keeps them far away?

- What light, what warmth do I bring to my family and neighbors?
to my classmates at school? to my colleagues at work?

- Does my life, the light of my presence,

help others discover the beauty of what’s around us,

the truth of what’s to be known?

- Or do I shade and dim or extinguish the light others need,

light that should be coming from me

light to help others see, light to keep others warm.

These are hard questions at any time, regardless of the day’s news,

and certainly questions I need to raise for myself

particularly when I find myself I holding others accountable

to the scripture’s standards.

It’s this table and the Word we share here
that keep the salt of our faith fresh and alive.

It’s the light of this altar’s sacrament that reveals Jesus to us
and holds us in the warmth of his presence in the Eucharist.

Pray with me that the salt each of us is called to be
might begin to season the world around us,

beginning right at home.

Pray with me that the light we’re called to be  shine like Christ

in the darkness of our own times,

internationally and in our own personal circumstances.

Pray with me that, in conversation and debate,

malicious speech and false accusation

might be removed from our lips.

           

Pray with me that the hungry might share in our bread,

the homeless be welcomed to shelter we provide,

the wounded be healed and the afflicted satisfied:

and that light rise for us in our darkness

and our gloom become bright as the midday sun.

Tweet


 
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments