4th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Jesus' Two-Part Homily)
I remind you that this liturgical year that we are in has us using Saint Luke's gospel primarily for Sunday Masses. A couple weeks ago we focused on Jesus’ baptism, the starting point of his public ministry. As Saint Luke tells us, he then went to his hometown teach and to preach in the local synagogue. We heard about that experience last week, the first half of Jesus’ very first homily—we’ll call it that. Jesus spoke of how the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to free the oppressed. We were told that the people were amazed by his words, that they spoke highly of him.
Today’s Gospel gives us the second half of that first homily. As Jesus continued, his words and his message began to take a different tone. Where the first part spoke to something his entire audience was able to get behind, denouncing things that negatively affect human society, the change happened when suddenly his words came to be about the people themselves, making it clear that they were part of the problem. When Jesus started laying all that out, the people were no longer amazed, but instead were so offended and angry that they wanted to run him out to a hill and throw him off.
One thing all this made me think of was my first homily. I had just been ordained a transitional deacon, in my final year of seminary. So, my first homily was at a daily Mass there in the seminary, preaching for the first time to the rest of that community, comprised of numerous priests who served as faculty and seminary administration, but also the rest of my brother seminarians. It was a rather terrifying setting to preach, believing in my mind that every person there was critiquing, looking for reasons to fault my message and thinking to themselves about all the ways they could do it better.
Preaching in a parish setting is different—and gratefully so—especially when there has come to be a level of familiarity and even a basis of trust between us, as hopefully happens over time. But I also think about Jesus’ two-part message, one part that’s positive and affirming, but another part that’s got bite to it. No doubt, it’s important for us to be affirmed and to be reminded of good, positive things we’re doing. It’s important that we’re reminded of how much God loves us without condition, that there is inherent goodness in us that offsets our failures and deficiencies. But as Jesus’ first homily reminds us, it’s only half the message.
I think of God’s warning to the prophet Ezekiel: “I have appointed you a sentinel…When you hear a word from my mouth, you shall warn them for me.” God tells Ezekiel, if you do not warn them and they in turn, suffer from it, I will hold you responsible (Ezekiel 3:17-18). Sometimes I worry that when I die and face judgment, not only for whatever dumb and hurtful things I’ve done in my life, but also as a pastor and a leader to a faith community, that I might be judged for not having called out the ways we need to change and are called to something more, fearing the repercussions of entering areas that are not comfortable, but necessary. Perhaps it’s fair to say that if I never upset anyone, it may be because I’m only giving half of the message. The good news is—I guess—is I’ve had people want to throw me over the cliff on some occasions.
Some of the things we need to hear are challenging, and too many of them have been appropriated into the political divide—but they are important, in how we understand who God is, understanding who we are, and understanding how He calls us to live. Whether it’s talking about sex, marriage, immigration, gender, the sanctity of life, cohabitation, the proper place of guns in society, the Church’s response (or lack thereof) to sexual abuses, the roles of women in our Church, our nation’s military response, and so many other areas—these are all part of our moral life. We cannot avoid talking about them, just to maintain a false sense of peace.
Exercising my pastoral responsibility, I must prayerfully seek guidance from the Holy Spirit, to help me know the time and manner to speak any challenging messages. I must seek to do so in accord with what our faith teaches us, but I must also do so in humility and love—recognizing that God is calling me too to deeper conversion. While you may occasionally have the impulse to throw me over a cliff, I pray that the affirmation of God’s love and joy in us, along with these challenging truths ultimately help us all grow together in unity and deeper into this same Jesus.