August 8, 2022
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) on August 7, 2022 at the Paulist Center in Boston. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Wisdom 18:6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; and Luke 12:32-48.
Today, Jesus refers to cultural practices that we now consider archaic and contrary to the values of the gospel itself. Some of the phrases may even be triggering – mentions of servants, masters, and abuse. But the main point of Jesus’ analogy of the master and the servants is that those who knowingly live contrary to the gospel will have to account for their transgressions., those who are ignorant will not be held to the same level of culpability, and those who do the right thing will be rewarded well beyond what they deserve.
Jesus twice uses the phrase “gird your loins.” I think the equivalent today would be “put on your work clothes.” The point here ties to the main theme of all our readings today – especially the Hebrews reading – on the idea of faith. So today, as we listen to our readings let us ask ourselves: how has our faith changed the way we live our lives? Let us ask God for mercy as we continue our journey of discipleship.
The year was 2004. Three years before, I had felt the call from God to explore becoming a priest, but my discernment with the Diocese of Pittsburgh had come to a dead end. So, at the age of 30, I quit my engineering job, moved back home with my parents, and decided to take a cross-country road trip. As I prepared for this trip of a lifetime, I was excited, but I questioned if this was really a good use of my money.
Before I went on the roadtrip, I did something else that I had never done before: I made an 8-day retreat. In my first conversation with my retreat director, he said something along the lines of, “You are giving so freely of your time to God, and God will not be outdone in generosity.”
Faith is a word that we use a lot, but we don’t often stop to think about what it really means. The life of faith consists of two steps. First, God generously invites a person into a relationship. Second, the person responds to God’s invitation. The steps are never in the opposite order. God starts the process; we respond. Faith is not just an intellectual assent that Almighty God exists and that Jesus Christ is our savior. Our faith re-orients the very way we live out our days. Even though I couldn’t recognize it yet, my spiritual director understood that my retreat and roadtrip were my way of responding to God’s invitation to a deeper relationship.
Our second reading from Hebrews explores how Abraham is the exemplar of acting in faith. God invited Abraham to step out of his tent, look up at the stars, and count them if he could. God promised to make Abraham a father of nations, to give him the entire land of Canaan, and to make his descendants as numerous as the stars. If we go back and read the entirety of the 15th chapter of Genesis, it seems likely that God invited Abraham to count the stars during the daytime, not at night. [Pause.] I have no idea whether Abraham understood that the stars were still up there during the day, but either way, he would not have been able to count them! [Pause.]
Abraham remained faithful to God’s promise, even though God did not fulfill it in Abraham’s lifetime. Abraham only fathered one child with Sarah, Isaac, who in turn had two sons of his own. When Abraham died, the only portion of Canaan that he owned was a cave in which he had buried Sarah. He was not the head of a sovereign nation. It took another 400 years until Abraham’s descendants to become numerous, 500 years for the land of Canaan to be possessed by the Israelites, and 700 years for the nation to become truly sovereign.
God’s promises to Abraham were consistent with the first part of our gospel passage, when Jesus assures us: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” Jesus exhorts us wherever our treasure is, there also our hearts will be. God always delivers on his promises, even if we cannot see any measurable progress as we await their fulfillment. God will not be outdone in generosity!
As for me, 2004 was one of the most amazing years of my life. It was the year that I took my big leap of faith, the closest I’ve come to setting out like Abraham into the unknown. After that remakrable 8-day retreat, I went on a life-changing 43-state, 83-day, 20,000-mile road trip, filled with new adventures. On day 5, I passed right in front of the Paulist Center while exploring the Freedom Trail. On day 83, I spoke with Fr. Dave O’Brien at the St. Thomas More Newman Center at Ohio State, who suggested that I get in touch with the Paulist vocation director, a priest named Ed Nowak. I think you know how that story ends!
The Holy Spirit gives us faith, the ability to trust in God. We may occasionally get hurt when we place our trust in other human beings, but God’s fidelity to us is something infinitely more reliable than our fidelity to one another.
God has destined all of us for heaven. For many of us, there will be gifts in the here and now from orienting our lives towards heaven and eternity. But as long as we have the faith to live facing heavenward, God’s bountiful treasures will be awaiting us when we arrive there.