Above you'll find a video of my homily for September 20, based on these readings. Below you'll find the text of my homily.
Every
time this parable comes up in the gospel, I think of when I was a child and my
father, after Sunday mass, would quiz my sister and me on that day's gospel and
the sermon - part of his efforts to get us to pay attention while we were at
church!
Well, many, many, many,
many years ago, after having heard this parable in church one week, I remember
my father saying, “You know, I would have figured Jesus to be more of a union
guy.”
My father was a Union guy.
At first glance, a
parable, like the one we just heard, may seem passé. Overly pious. Impractical.
Even just plain foolish. And on any or all of those grounds, we might be
tempted to dismiss this story as being out of date, to dismiss whatever message
it may have had over 2,000 years ago when Jesus first told it.
But we would dismiss this
parable at our own peril.
The message of Jesus may
be filtered through changing times and circumstances and expectations - but
remains the word and the message of Jesus. Our task is to discover its meaning
for our own times, for today.
The problem here is that
what Jesus proposes rubs rough against the egalitarian grain of our
sense of justice, fairness - against what we understand to be equitable.
So, what's a Christian to
do? How is a Christian called to respond when the Lord's sense of justice and
his merciful generosity make their way into the law of the land?
What are American Catholic
Christians called to do when their bishops offer (as they do) sweeping support
of public assistance programs for the unemployed?
What are we to do when our
bishops endorse (as they have) a greater welcome and openness to immigrants and
refugees at our borders.
How do we make sense of
all this as citizens of the reign, the kingdom, of God, AND, citizens of the
United States? And as people who, in their hearts, want to espouse both mercy
and justice?
As Christians, our task,
our first task, is to follow the teaching of Jesus - and to be faithful to the
commandment that we love God, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and love our neighbor as we would ourselves beloved.
(Mark 12:30)
That is our starting
point.
That is the starting point
for every issue, question, and concern that Christians face in the public
square.
And for Christians, there
is no other starting point.
The teaching of Jesus is
clear in today's parable:
• God is generous with his
mercy to lengths and depths beyond our imagination or comprehension.
• God is generous even
beyond what our sense of justice might suggest.
• Jesus teaches that God
chooses to love everyone the same: to love everyone with the same love, the
same mercy, the same generosity: in spite of when we show up; in spite of how
we accept and receive - or reject - his love. Even our rejection of God's love
does not keep God from loving us.
• It's never a question of
our deserving God's love. None of us, not one of us deserves the mercy
of God. Much less is there anything you and I could do to merit or earn God's
love. God's love and mercy are pure gift. And every one of us here tonight,
without exception, every one of us is a beneficiary of God's extravagant mercy
and love.
And this generous and
merciful love of God is the model for how we are called to love one
another, how we are called to love our neighbor. God's love is the model
and - for the Christian - is the starting point for all our deliberation
and decisions on matters personal, public, social, and political.
• The Constitution of the
United States is not our starting point.
• Campaign promises are not
our starting point.
• The platform of any
political party is not our starting point.
• Current law and policies
are not our starting point.
• The economy is not our
starting point.
All of these are factors
to be considered – yes – but only after we have rooted ourselves
deeply in the teachings of Jesus, his teachings about our love of God and love of neighbor.
And, of course, yes, Jesus
also taught, Render to Caesar, what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. (Mark 12:17) And that means we are obliged to
consider the constitutional, the political, the legal, the economic, in
seeking to understand how best we can love God and our neighbor in our
efforts to be faithful to Christ's teaching - always keeping in mind that love
is the first and greatest commandment. It is the highest law that
binds us.
We consider what
rightfully belongs to civil authority so that our efforts as Christians
might more effectively achieve the realization of the reign of God's
love and mercy in our midst today.
So, the words of Isaiah in
today's first reading, ring loud and clear here: Seek the Lord while he may
be found. Turn to the Lord for mercy, to God who is generous, for his thoughts
are not your thoughts. And his ways, not your ways.
God's thoughts and ways
are often very different from ours but each of us is called and held
accountable for making the ways and thoughts of God our own.
We gather every week in
the shadow of the cross, under the arms of Jesus, who, for our sakes, bore the
weight of our sins in the heat of the day. Many of us are late comers
showing up at the foot of the cross at the last hour of the day – and yet hoping
for, expecting, and receiving equal shares of God's mercy and love.
Whether we are among the
first or the last to show up in the vineyard, there's a seat for each of us at
the Lord's table, where Jesus will generously serve each of us - not according
to our faults or our sins, or when we showed up, but only according to the
generosity of his mercy and his love.
May the nourishment we
receive here in the Eucharist teach us to make the love of God and neighbor
our starting point in all things. And to make our own the
thoughts and ways of the Lord, our God.
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