What hill will I die on?

Homily

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

30 January 2022

AMDG +mj

What hill will I die on?

Jesus didn't die on every hill.  Neither can you.  He said no to Satan's temptation for Him to fall from the parapet of the temple.  Today He escapes the hill in his hometown of Nazareth.  Jesus didn't die on every hill.  You know what hill He chose.

You get to die once, and for all.  If you get to choose, what hill will you die on?  Please don't be a person who tried to die on every hill.  So, which one is it?

Jeremiah and Jesus both are able to courageously speak prophetic words that must be said, knowing God will deliver them from the hands of those that hate them.  Yet both prophets will eventually die, and it is there that they speak the ultimate words of their life.  

St. Paul knows what this perfect word is that must be spoken.  The perfect word is love.  Jesus is destined to die on the hill where He says that perfect word with his entire life.  From the cross Jesus says I love you.  

What hill will I die on?  I keep feeling in prayer that Jesus is wanting to suffer more in me, so that I can feel the compassion He feels for His people.  It's not a hill I'm excited to visit.  

Yet it's a hill where I can give all of myself.  It's a hill where I can say I love you.  It's the same hill that Jesus died on.

I wonder if you're being invited there too.  I can't die on every hill.  The question is this:

What hill will I die on?