A Homily
2019.03.03 – (The Eighth Sunday in Ordinary
Time) C
First Reading – Ecclesiasticus
27:5-8 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
91(92):2-3,13-16 ©
Second Reading – 1
Corinthians 15:54-58 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Acts
16:14
Alternative Acclamation –
Philadelphians 2:15-16
The Gospel of Luke – 6:39-45
©
(NJB)
This
is the way of things.
Our words go out from us like seeds, and
return bearing fruit. They are the product of our thoughts, they reflect what
is in our hearts. Even when we try to use our words to conceal our feelings,
they tell the story without our consent.
The truth will out; like fractal geometry, the
pattern will carry forward.
The things we say matter as much as the things
we do. Our words are actions, they can move mountains.
Discretion is the hallmark of wisdom, and
circumspection, is its ally.
Be mindful!
How you speak matters as much as what you say.
Listen
to the psalmist.
It
is good to give thanks to the creator, and to be mindful of God’s eternal
mercy.
God
is merciful to everyone; to those who have God’s name on their lips, to those
who speak no word of God at all, even to those who curse God.
God
loves each and every one of us, both in our humility and in our folly, the wise
and the ignorant alike; God loves us.
If
you sing praises to God in recognition of all God’s works, and give thanks for
them as the psalmist does, know this; among God’s works are all of those with
whom we quarrel.
God
does not have any favorite children, nor does God love any one person above
another.
Be
mindful.
When
you are reaping the rewards of the blessed, it is not because you have been
blessed. There is no guarantee that that the just will flourish, and no
guarantee that the unjust will perish. God does not interfere in our lives, the
rain fall on the just and the unjust alike.
Though
God does not intervene in the course of human events, not directly, God does
promise to right all wrongs and to do so with justice in one hand and mercy in
the other.
God’s
correction comes in the spirit of love, and never to the detriment of any of
God’s children.
The
works of the wicked will pass away, but the wicked themselves (by that I mean
all of us) we will be reborn as servants of God; as brothers and sisters in
Christ.
No
one is lost.
Listen!
Sin is not the cause of death. The death of
our bodies is a part of God’s plan.
God is the author of death. God made us mortal
and death is a natural part of life. Do not fear death. Fear of death is a
function of a lack of faith.
The apostle blames the law as the cause of
sin. He is wrong. It is not laws that cause us to sin, it is desire. We sin on
account of our brokenness, we sin because we fear.
Be mindful of what the apostle teaches, he is
often wrong, and he is wrong on this.
Though we cannot see into the next world, we
feel it. We know the next world is there, we were made for it, we continue in
it according to the will God.
Everyone continues.
The death of our bodies is not the death of
ourselves. There is no finality in it, there is no judgement that leads to our
destruction. It is a passage, like a mist, we pierce the veil and find
ourselves renewed.
Never forget; God hears you, God
will make the journey with you.
Having
set aside fear, take joy in
the work that is in front of you. Be content that you have found purpose today;
purpose in carrying out the mission of divine love, in fulfilling the ministry
of Jesus, following in his way.
If the service you give the world, is not a
service to your sisters and brothers, to the widow and the orphan, or to the
stranger among you, then it is not God’s work you are doing, it is an exercise
in vanity.
God’s work is always in the service of the
living.
Listen to the words Luke ascribes to Jesus,
and know this: the blind can lead the blind that is what we do hear earth. We
are all walking in the dark. Be humble, the truth eludes us all, teacher and disciple
alike.
None of us are the equal to Jesus the Messiah,
to Moses the Lawgiver, to Mohammed the Prophet, none of us are equal to Gottama
the enlightened one.
Our stories cannot match theirs. We are
ordinary women and men, they are figures of myth, the archetypes we aspire to, our
stories will never equal theirs, we are not meant to live up to their epic
example.
They are meant to lead us, we are meant to hear
their call. All of us will fail at some point or another, most of will fail
many times over, even daily through the course of our lives, that does not mean
we are meant to stop trying,
Do not shun the hypocrite as much as your own
hypocrisy.
Be mindful.
If it falls to you to correct your sisters or
brothers, do so with a spirit of love, and humility in full cognizance of your
own errors.
Listen!
Luke recalls the teaching of Ecclesiasticus.
Our words go out from us like seeds, and
return bearing fruit.
Our words are the product of our thoughts, they
reflect what is in our hearts. Even when we try to use our words to conceal our
feelings.
The truth will out; like fractal geometry, the
pattern of our words, both what we hoped they would reveal and what we hoped they
would conceal will carry forward.
Discretion is the hallmark of wisdom, and
circumspection, is its ally.
Be mindful!
How you speak matters just as much as much as
what you say.
First Reading – Ecclesiasticus
27:5-8 ©
The Test Of a Man is in His
Conversation
In
a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a man appear
in his talk.
The
kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a man is in his conversation.
The
orchard where a tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit, similarly a
man’s words betray what he feels.
Do
not praise a man before he has spoken, since this is the test of men.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
91(92):2-3,13-16 ©
It is good to give you
thanks, O Lord.
It
is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to
proclaim your love in the morning
and your truth in the watches of the night.
It is good to give you
thanks, O Lord.
The
just will flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a Lebanon cedar.
It is good to give you
thanks, O Lord.
Planted
in the house of the Lord
they will flourish in the courts of our God,
still
bearing fruit when they are old,
still full of sap, still green,
to
proclaim that the Lord is just.
In him, my rock, there is no wrong.
It is good to give you
thanks, O Lord.
Second Reading – 1
Corinthians 15:54-58 ©
Death is Swallowed Up in
Victory
When
this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature
has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is
swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your
sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So
let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Never
give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the
Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be labouring in vain.
Gospel Acclamation – Acts
16:14
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open
our heart, O Lord,
to
accept the words of your Son.
Alleluia!
Alternative Acclamation –
Philadelphians 2:15-16
Alleluia, alleluia!
You
will shine in the world like bright stars
because
you are offering it the word of life.
Alleluia!
The Gospel of Luke – 6:39-45
©
Can the Blind Lead the Blind?
Jesus
told a parable to his disciples: ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both
will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully
trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the
splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can
you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your
eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out
of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the
splinter that is in your brother’s eye.
‘There
is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that
produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do
not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws
what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is
bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his
heart.’
The Eighth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
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