Homily
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
23 February 2025
St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS
AMDG
What's my superpower?
Well, there are a lot of things I'd like to be good at. I'm sure you know the feeling. I'd like to be in better shape, to be able to play baseball like Bobby Witt, to know what it takes to get everyone to Mass, to be a world-class organist . . the list is endless. I'm grateful for all the gifts and talents I have, but never satisfied.
Yet today's Gospel says that I already possess the greatest superpower the world has ever seen, a superpower that far surpasses any I could ever achieve, hope or ask for.
I have the superpower of mercy. I can forgive. There is nothing greater. So says Jesus. Because I have received this superpower, Jesus commands that I use it. In case you didn't notice. the Gospel of Jesus admits of no exceptions. As I have been forgiven, so I am to forgive. It's what distinguishes a real Christian from a fake one. It's the ultimate thing that makes us children of God, not children of this world. It is what heaven is made of - forgiveness. It is what hell lacks - forgiveness. Hell instead is ripe with judgment. Jesus says to stop it, lest that be my destiny.
Pope Francis, who needs our prayers by the way, reminds us as the world's superpower, the most prosperous and free nation on earth, that our greatest power is not to dominate or control, but to serve and to forgive. Those without status among us are more than problems or criminals, they are the children of God whom the Lord wants us to redeem with His merciful love. Pope Francis reminds us that if we ever fail to see God and ourselves in the most desperate and vulnerable, we have lost our souls, and the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven. Even as we can applaud efforts to restore order and end dysfunction, we must grow even more in mercy and compassion, for that is who our Father in heaven is - merciful to all without distinction.
The world is moving fast, and it's only picking up steam. The Pope is sick, our Bishops are suing the United States for overdue contract funding for the legal settlement of refugees, while reminding the Administration that babies are great, but IVF is immoral, and while applauding efforts to restore the rule of law and ending dysfunction, while urging that all people be treated with dignity and compassion. The Gospel needs to be applied to the signs of our times, and those times are dramatic and explosive indeed!
Yet the most urgent reminder of today's Gospel is that you and I have been forgiven; therefore, the greatest superpower we ever will have is the capacity to forgive. To be a real Christian, no matter what the circumstances we find ourselves in, is to launch a pre-emptive strike into the world, and to echo the self-sacrificiing and merciful gift of Jesus. Nobody takes my life from me. I freely give it. Those who live the law of the gift know that the grace and mercy of Jesus conquers all things, and there is no fear of any enemy. For all is already given and forgiven.
What's my greatest superpower? It's the supernatural mercy of God that I have received, a mercy that turns the wisdom of the world upside down, the superpower that alone build the kingdom of heaven.
My greatest superpower is to forgiven even when I don't want to or have to. My greatest superpower is to always forgive, as I have been forgiven.
+mj
