Homily
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
8 July 2012
Daily Readings
As priests we get asked a lot why we move around so much. By that the question means - why do you travel and why do you get new assignments so often? Why don't you just stay put, and why doesn't the bishop just let you stay put? Well, if you have a priest you don't particularly care for, you might be asking the opposite question, but if you'll humor me, we'll stick tonight with the first question. Why do priests travel so much and change assignments so much?
The answer lies in the priest's commitment to celibacy and obedience. Although a spiritual father and a true shepherd, and so tied to a particular parish or mission that he is to serve, the priest also belongs to the greater diocese and indeed to the greater church, and has a prophetic dimension to his priesthood that he must fulfill. He does this in imitation of Jesus, who moved around very freely because he was celibate and poor, and so did not need to make major plans in order to move to the next town, but also because he had this prophetic mission to go out and proclaim the good news elsewhere. In tonight's Gospel, Jesus hits his hometown and does not receive a hero's welcome. In this case, familiarity breeded contempt, and Jesus' deeds and words were met with a complete lack of faith. In this Gospel story, we see the wisdom of moving priests in our Church's tradition. It is not proper for a priest himself to get comfortable and happy with his parish, nor is it proper for the parish to do vice versa with her priest. Although we do not take a formal vow of poverty as diocesan priests like our religious brethren, we are expected to be free enough from possessions to be able to move from parish to parish in short order, taking next to nothing with us when we go. This is in the end one way of avoiding the worst possible situation that we see in the Gospel, which is having a flock unable to listen to a prophetic word or see a prophetic sign, because they are too familiar with the prophet.
It is good to say, then, that a priest should be unattached to things and external circumstances and ready to move, in imitation of Jesus. In a word, a priest should be vulnerable and dependent, or as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, he should be filled with weakness. St. Paul gives great advice to the Corinthians that every Christian life should be marked not with self-sufficiency nor with conservative fear but with reckless love and profound vulnerability and dependence. St. Paul reminds us well that the security that we sometimes feel in the middle of our lives is mostly illusory, and the pursuit of it vanity. He tells us plainly that we are either in survival mode or prophetic mode. Survival mode is dismayed by every trial or curveball that comes our way. Prophetic mode welcomes all kinds of suffering as a means by which we attach ourselves to the things that really matter, and allow those things to shine forth from us. Survival mode tries in vain to make the middle part of our life last forever, while prophetic mode lives in the truth that how we started our lives, and how we will end them, vulnerable and dependent, is who we always are, whether we like it or not. In this light we see that St. Paul is not just telling us ironic things that sound clever, he is bringing the truth to light. It is when we are weak that we are living in the truth, and so are strong. It is when we are weak that we are strong in our relationships with God and one another, and these things in the end are all that matter.
We need look no farther for the perfect demonstration of this humility, vulnerability and dependence than at the Eucharist about to be made present to us here. If we pause for a moment to imagine what it costs our Lord to make himself fully and immediately present to us here tonight in the most obscure place and in the most humble of ways, we know our Lord is not afraid of weakness. May we grow strong only by wanting to receive him fruitfully tonight, helped by the intercession of our Blessed Mother, who first received him perfectly because she was aware of nothing but her lowliness. Amen.
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
8 July 2012
Daily Readings
As priests we get asked a lot why we move around so much. By that the question means - why do you travel and why do you get new assignments so often? Why don't you just stay put, and why doesn't the bishop just let you stay put? Well, if you have a priest you don't particularly care for, you might be asking the opposite question, but if you'll humor me, we'll stick tonight with the first question. Why do priests travel so much and change assignments so much?
The answer lies in the priest's commitment to celibacy and obedience. Although a spiritual father and a true shepherd, and so tied to a particular parish or mission that he is to serve, the priest also belongs to the greater diocese and indeed to the greater church, and has a prophetic dimension to his priesthood that he must fulfill. He does this in imitation of Jesus, who moved around very freely because he was celibate and poor, and so did not need to make major plans in order to move to the next town, but also because he had this prophetic mission to go out and proclaim the good news elsewhere. In tonight's Gospel, Jesus hits his hometown and does not receive a hero's welcome. In this case, familiarity breeded contempt, and Jesus' deeds and words were met with a complete lack of faith. In this Gospel story, we see the wisdom of moving priests in our Church's tradition. It is not proper for a priest himself to get comfortable and happy with his parish, nor is it proper for the parish to do vice versa with her priest. Although we do not take a formal vow of poverty as diocesan priests like our religious brethren, we are expected to be free enough from possessions to be able to move from parish to parish in short order, taking next to nothing with us when we go. This is in the end one way of avoiding the worst possible situation that we see in the Gospel, which is having a flock unable to listen to a prophetic word or see a prophetic sign, because they are too familiar with the prophet.
It is good to say, then, that a priest should be unattached to things and external circumstances and ready to move, in imitation of Jesus. In a word, a priest should be vulnerable and dependent, or as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, he should be filled with weakness. St. Paul gives great advice to the Corinthians that every Christian life should be marked not with self-sufficiency nor with conservative fear but with reckless love and profound vulnerability and dependence. St. Paul reminds us well that the security that we sometimes feel in the middle of our lives is mostly illusory, and the pursuit of it vanity. He tells us plainly that we are either in survival mode or prophetic mode. Survival mode is dismayed by every trial or curveball that comes our way. Prophetic mode welcomes all kinds of suffering as a means by which we attach ourselves to the things that really matter, and allow those things to shine forth from us. Survival mode tries in vain to make the middle part of our life last forever, while prophetic mode lives in the truth that how we started our lives, and how we will end them, vulnerable and dependent, is who we always are, whether we like it or not. In this light we see that St. Paul is not just telling us ironic things that sound clever, he is bringing the truth to light. It is when we are weak that we are living in the truth, and so are strong. It is when we are weak that we are strong in our relationships with God and one another, and these things in the end are all that matter.
We need look no farther for the perfect demonstration of this humility, vulnerability and dependence than at the Eucharist about to be made present to us here. If we pause for a moment to imagine what it costs our Lord to make himself fully and immediately present to us here tonight in the most obscure place and in the most humble of ways, we know our Lord is not afraid of weakness. May we grow strong only by wanting to receive him fruitfully tonight, helped by the intercession of our Blessed Mother, who first received him perfectly because she was aware of nothing but her lowliness. Amen.
1 comment:
Excellent answer to oft-asked question. An opportunity to be more Christ-like.
When you can, listen to Jenny Klement's #11, 'No Greater Love' - what if?
http://jennyklement.com/music
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