Homily 19th Sun Ordinary Time 8/8/10

8/9/2019 Homily 19th Sun Ordinary Time 8/8/10

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Saint Junias House ~ A Sacramental Christian CommunityAn Ecumenical Catholic Communion Ministry

(The unfaithful) servants master will come onan unexpected day and at an unknown hour and

will punish the servant severely(Luke 12:46)

19th Sunday in Ordinary TimeAugust 8, 2010

Reading 1: Wisdom 18:6-9

The night of the passover was known beforehand to our fathers,that, with sure knowledge of the oaths in which they put their faith,they might have courage.Your people awaited the salvation of the justand the destruction of their foes.For when you punished our adversaries,in this you glorified us whom you had summoned.For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrificeand putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.

Reading 2: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19

Rev. Martha-Junia+ [Martha Rogers]Phone 714 606 4365

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Brothers and sisters:Faith is the realization of what is hoped forand evidence of things not seen.Because of it the ancients were well attested.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a placethat he was to receive as an inheritance;he went out, not knowing where he was to go.By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country,dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise;for he was looking forward to the city with foundations,whose architect and maker is God.By faith he received power to generate,even though he was past the normal ageand Sarah herself was sterilefor he thought that the one who had made the promise was

trustworthy. So it was that there came forth from one man,himself as good as dead, descendantsas numerous as the stars in the skyand as countless as the sands on the seashore.

All these died in faith.They did not receive what had been promisedbut saw it and greeted it from afarand acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth,for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland.If they had been thinking of the land from which they had come,they would have had opportunity to return.But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one.Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac,and he who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son,of whom it was said,

Through Isaac descendants shall bear your name.He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead,and he received Isaac back as a symbol.


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Gospel Reading: Luke 12:32-48

Jesus said to his disciples:Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.Sell your belongings and give alms.Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,an inexhaustible treasure in heaventhat no thief can reach nor moth destroy.For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

Gird your loins and light your lampsand be like servants who await their masters return from awedding,ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.Blessed are those servantswhom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.And should he come in the second or third watchand find them prepared in this way,blessed are those servants.Be sure of this:if the master of the house had known the hourwhen the thief was coming,he would not have let his house be broken into.You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,the Son of Man will come.

Then Peter said,Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone?And the Lord replied,Who, then, is the faithful and prudent stewardwhom the master will put in charge of his servantsto distribute the food allowance at the proper time?Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.Truly, I say to you, the master will put the servant

in charge of all his property.But if that servant says to himself,My master is delayed in coming,


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and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants,to eat and drink and get drunk,then that servants master will comeon an unexpected day and at an unknown hourand will punish the servant severely

and assign him a place with the unfaithful.That servant who knew his masters willbut did not make preparations nor act in accord with his willshall be beaten severely;and the servant who was ignorant of his masters willbut acted in a way deserving of a severe beatingshall be beaten only lightly.Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted withmore.

Homily

These are very powerful readings today and we have to reread them in lightof both Jesus time and our own. On one level, they may seem very strangeto us and we wonder what in the world (or what in heavens name) can theypossibly mean to us today? They are quaint stories but havent they losttheir relevance? Do they have any meaning for us now? This is a longer thanusual written homily but I pray it will pull together some deeperunderstanding for you.

There are a number of directions we could go, but I will focus on a theme ofliving out of faith. The idea of faith has been much bandied about, andabused by those who smugly consider themselves to have a corner on themarket of what it means to be faithful. And it is also abused by those whoridicule and denigrate the faithful as somehow believing in pie in the skyand out of touch with the real world. There are errors in thinking at both endsof this continuum. Some define faithful, or having faith as a beliefsystem, adhering to a set of doctrinal beliefs with which they identify and aparticular tradition that is observed. And this approach has its merits and itsplace in our spiritual path, as we shall see, but it also has its limitations. Iwould also suggest that there is nothing whatsoever that is pie in the sky

in what Jesus has to tell us, because he lived in the real world and what hehad to say is still relevant.


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In Christ we have the freedom to think through and choose our life pathwaysin the light of scripture. Our biblical interpretation is informed by history andlinguistics as well as todays empirical knowledge base and our experiencesduring lectio divina the process of meditating on and praying fromscripture. We are not bound to a magisterial authority to demand that we are

obligated to accept its interpretation. No, we are responsible to study andform our own conscience but in humility! We dont know it all! We can prayfor deeper understanding. But as we shall see, when we come to the limits ofour human wisdom and understanding, there is a jumping off point for faith.It is not a jump into irrationality as the New Atheists contend! For most ofus, it is a jumppast hyperrationality, because a main barrier to faith is ourtight hold on to the notion that we can and will understand everything byvirtue of the power of our own intellect.

Faith is not belief in a set of propositions. Faith is a process and todaysreadings can give us a window into that process. Jesus said, Do not be

afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give youthe kingdom.

What can we learn here? First of all, we are told not to be afraid. We areaddressed as his little flock. Thus, we are bonded to Him and dependenton trust in his providence or as Jesus says, he is pleased to give us thekingdom. In our modern day, we should be aware of our risk for acceptingsubstitutes in lieu of bonding to God and other intimate relationships. Suchdiversions will lead us down dead-end paths. We know today from apsychological standpoint that there are many common substitutes for truebonding where people get stuck an array of addictions or compulsions

which we can all name. We can each identify our favorite one! This iscommon knowledge in our world today. But even in ancient times, thisproblem was recognized. Certain preoccupations were a sure sign that onehad diverted from commitment to bonding and loving. Because trust is firstnecessary for bonding to occur, where trust fails, people get stuck in dead-end paths. In Jesus parables, these substitutes for bonding are depicted asthieves that come in the night and rob us of our first love.

And notice the conceptualizations of time. Last week, we spoke about howthe rich man wasted his time, entertaining himself with make-work of tearingdown perfectly good barns to build bigger ones, and this idea is againapparent in todays readings. One must watch and place ones primary trustin God, and not allow events of the moment to distract us. Those distractionsinclude wasting our time in trivial pursuits. But note, the disciples asked


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Jesus if his parable was intended for everyone or just the disciples. Heanswers them with yet another parable. It is instructive to compare them.

He switches from a focus on the servants awaiting their Lords return andwhether they are using their time wisely and making good choices to talking

about the good steward. The servant steward is explicitly responsible forfeeding and nurturing others. And Jesus tells us that where we act out ofignorance, our punishment is lighter than the one who deliberately misusesthe gifts s/he has been given. Perhaps the less mature disciples sometimeact out of ignorance. Jesus allows for such careless errors, but the stewardwho has assumed a higher level of responsibility cannot appeal to ignoranceso easily. And Jesus also tells us, Much will be required of the personentrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the personentrusted with more.

Just as his disciples in the first century were entrusted with more

responsibility for others, we have also been entrusted with so much. We arecalled to be watchful and ready, that is, to be alert and sensitive to ouropportunities to be in one accord with Gods kingdom which he has said ishis good pleasure to give us. To live out his pleasure, we give up whateverwill harm those who are vulnerable. Waiting for Christ to return means thatwhile we wait, we are engaged in building social structures that respect thedignity of all humans. We are not to become waylaid and distracted from ourgoals by temporal distractions. In our generation, the urge to be constantlyentertained can deflect us from building the kingdom. We are given a day toset aside for rest, which is important to health and well-being, but the othersix days are to be considered a precious resource to be invested wisely. Theachievements we aim for are greater realization of Gods kingdom here andnow.

In the 2nd Reading in Hebrews, we learn more about what faith is and isnt.Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and convictionabout things we do not see. Fr. John Kavanaugh1 described faith as anact of seeing in trust. He told the story of spending a month with MotherTeresa in Calcutta years ago. After Mass one morning, he met with her andshe asked what she could do for him, and he requested that she pray for himto have clarity about his future. But in response, she said No. When heasked her why, she reportedly said that clarity was the last thing I wasclinging to and had to let go of. In surprise, he told her that she had always

1 The Word Engaged. 8/8/10. The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University.


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seemed to him to exude clarity. She laughed and said, I have never hadclarity; what Ive always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust.

Sometimes we are led in faith to envision what seem to be impossibilitiesand yet we are called to trust in their fulfillment, if not in our own lifetimes,

in the future, as we carry out our particular ministries. Sarah laughed whentold she would have a child in her old age and that she and Abraham wouldhave many descendants. I take this to mean that even on the downhill sideof my life I can still give birth to new hope by how I live my life. So anotherpart of faith is learning to trust that God will still fulfill his plan through useven when it seems so unlikely. We can take a risk for the kingdom, evenwhen we are as good as dead! Biblical heroes did not always live to see theirhopes fulfilled in their lifetimes. Moses died and did not cross over into thePromised Land. As our reading in Hebrews tells us, they saw it and greeted itfrom afar.

Faith, then, does not necessarily ease or end our confusion, quell our pain inthis life or even turn out happily ever after. Those of us who are less thancertain about the reality of the sweet bye and bye are not going to acceptfaith as a narcotic as its many critics of religion have suggested. No, faithdoes not bring any final clarity. Many died in faith, not obtaining what hadbeen promised, but they are the very ones that give us courage to build thenext stepping stones for those who follow us. In ancient thinking about time,we are in a caravan, with those in front of us who have passed on and thosebehind us, who look to us to lead the way. We look to the saints for ourinspiration and later generations will look to us.

John Pilch, a Georgetown University scholar in the ancient eastern biblicalcultures, commented that the peasants in Jesus time were intensivelypreoccupied with the present moment and their immediate survival needswhile today, Americans tend to so future-oriented that they discount thepresent. Thus, as we look at his parables, we can see that Jesus stressed theproper use of the moment but also anticipation of the future. Some peopleheld to the past, and some clung to future resolutions. And this is still truetoday.

Those whose faith is defined in the past will emphasize tradition. Thosewhose faith is defined in a future life will emphasize heaven beyond earth. Itseems that with each new generation of believers, Jesus statements tend tobe interpreted as in the past by those who hold on to tradition as the source


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of their identities. Or some look for so-called eschatological interpretationsand are more concerned about an indeterminable future; ones actions of thepresent are evaluated mainly in terms of the hope of future reward. Pilchsuggests that in his time, Jesus confronted the assumptions that people heldabout what is important by proposing an emphasis that ran counter to his

culture. It is in thinking outside the box of our own culture where we may begifted with new awareness and insight about our use of time.

Reginald Fuller has suggested that we can see at work in todays passagesthe process of re-working of understanding across subsequent generations.For example, the author of Wisdom speaks of the salvation history of Israeland retells it in light of his own era several hundred years later. There isreference to the first Passover at the first Exodus, which the patriarchsreceived and passed down to us -- Gods promise is carried forward in thefuture Exodus. And the promise of Easter builds on Exodus. Thus, thepromise of Exodus foreshadowed the promise to future generations. In the

communion of Saints, all generations are embraced to carry the hopeforward.

Hebrews suggests that we have hope in Christ, and as we discussed in aprevious homily, hope is not something where we wait passively forsomething to happen Gods will to be revealed to us. You may recall onAscension Sunday (7th Sunday in Easter, 5/16/10)2 we talked about hope:

So what is this hope? The Greek word is not a simple noun or verb, tohope. It is never used in that way. A composite word of hoping isused, to be the first to hope. Subjective hope is not ruled out here asa gift of the Holy Spirit but there is a different level of inference, hope+ discernment: Paul prays that God grant the saints discernment todecide which hope among various forms of hope will bedecisive for them. There is one hope, not simply inside us, but thehope of our calling, or the hope to which you have been called.(Ephesians 1:18, 4:4) It is God who calls, and calls forth to us in anact of creation and election: God elects us, and we choose tobe his people. The Gospel calls us forth to be created anew, wherenon-being becomes being, not beloved becomes beloved, not sharedbecomes shared.

2 Should you ever desire to review any of our previous homilies, they are on the website in

pdf files by date.


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Thus, in todays readings, we are called upon to become aware of theaspects of our time on earth that we each are prone to ignore or discount.We are each unique in that regard. Our first priority is our bond with God andhis people, discerning which among many goals or forms of hope will bedecisive for how we live our lives.

Are you one who thinks that the past is more secure and a surefoundation from which we should not deviate? Perhaps you think that wemust accept scripture and the understanding of it that has been passeddown to us and that it is dangerous or sacrilegious to interpret in the light ofour present-day understanding? Then Jesus may be calling you to becomemore fully aware of his ongoing creation in you and in the world which isunfolding before you this very day. He may ask you to reexamine yourpremises, to take into account how our spiritual forebears who gave us somuch insight but to discern their core message which still holds true for ourown day. We see how the early Christians shed certain Jewish practices as

not essential for new gentile believers. So, too, we become responsible torespond to the Holy Spirit, to flow fluidly to live out Christs salvation in ourworld today wherever that takes us -- not to stay frozen and immobile in theface of needs of others around us.

Are you a be in the moment, a whats-happening-now person?Then Jesus may be asking you to anchor yourself more solidly with wisdomfrom the past which we can access in scriptures. He may be asking you tolive out a hope that goes beyond your own life where you may not beimmediately rewarded with a visible outcome. He may be asking you tothink about the limits of spontaneity. Is it hard for you to seriously study to

understand the hard-earned wisdom of the faithful who lived before us? Areyou lacking in self-discipline to plan for future goals that will enhance Godskingdom?

Are you a live for the future person? Then Jesus may be asking you tobecome more fully attentive and aware of all that is going on around youright now, to become more spontaneous and sensitive to the needs that yousee right now not to be the rich man who was unable to see and thus toignore Lazarus during their lifetimes on earth as we considered last week.

Are you one who remains skeptical, a doubting Thomas as to thenecessity of faith? Are you more trusting of what is empirical, avoidantof taking risk, or disparaging of hope for what cannot be seen or maybe noteven realized? Your first step may be to acknowledge your limitations and to


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recognize that you dont have to know everything. You dont, as MotherTheresa said, have to achieve certainty before making a commitment ofhope, a hope that chooses which hope among various forms of hopewill be decisive for you. We can only act on what is right in front of us,and we must step out and risk in this present moment that we are given.

Then, and only then, will the next step become apparent to us. And onlyafter taking this first step toward faith will our awareness enlarge.

O Beloved, help us to open ourselves to you, to trust that you willshow yourself to us as we take that first step toward living out yourhope in our day and time. We pray for discernment of your will forus today, not for clarity . Amen.

Announcements

We have enjoyed Deacon Carol from Texas with us this past week. Another

old seminary friend, Bp. +Nina Paul, will be visiting over the weekend, 8/13 8/15/10, and she will be at our Sunday Mass next week.

I will be out of town from Sunday night, 8/16 through Friday night, 8/20, but Iwill be back on board for Sunday, August 22nd so Im not missing a Sundaydue to this trip. I will be going back to NC to visit with my 90 year oldparents. Please pray for me, as there are many family complexities.

And please remember that I will be at the St. Matts Womens Retreat in LakeArrowhead over the weekend of 8/27-8/29. Please attend Mass at St. Matts!For you sleepy heads, go to the 10:30 AM Mass instead of the 8 AM Mass! Onyour way out today, please pick up one of the blue sheets with map anddirections to St. Matts if you havent already taken one and put it in yourcar. The blue sheets are on the 2nd shelf on the cart by the front door.


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Documents

Homily 19th Sun Ordinary Time 8/8/10