Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Usually every week, a different day each week, I get a phone call. Recently it’s been more local numbers, like from Lansing, Detroit, or somewhere in the area. I answer the call, and this is what I hear: (long pause); and then: hello, could I please speak with Mr. Strouse? I think if you own a phone, you get those calls, too, unless you just let them go to voicemail (which they never leave, of course).
We’re used to that news, because we’ve heard it for almost 2,000 years. But it’s pretty shocking. God, who is transcendent, made Himself sensible and limited. He knows what it’s like to be born, to be in a family, to be poor. He knows the heat of the day and the cold of the night, the fatigue of walking all day and the joy of reaching a destination. He knows the cool splash of water, and having a great meal fill His stomach. He knows what it is to be loved, but also what it is to be rejected. And He knows what it is to die, to experience excruciating pain. In any experience we have, we know that God understands us, even better than we do ourselves.
And that’s a great comfort. When we’re sick, when we’re tired, when we’re lonely, when we’re supported by family, when we make a new friend, when we complete a job; all these things the Lord Jesus knows intimately. He never abandons us. And God desires to be so close to us that He gives us the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the co-eternal Son of God, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, so that He can dwell inside us, just like in a tabernacle here in the church. That’s great news!!
And yet, we can sometimes be like the telemarketers who call us but who don’t respond. God gives us this great gift, and we’re unresponsive, or, even worse, apathetic. St. James tells us today that we are to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” We’re often good at hearing. We often stink at doing.
We are part of the way that God’s work, the ministry of Jesus, continues today. The Holy Spirit gives us His gifts to continue the work of Jesus. God doesn’t need us, as if we didn’t exist nothing could happen. And yet God humbles Himself to allow us to bring His presence to others. He gives us His grace so that we can continue that closeness with His people. His Spirit fills us with His life (what we call grace) so that when His children are sick, tired, lonely, celebrating, making new friends, completing a job, etc., they feel His presence and His love through us. Sometimes, too, God wants us to challenge others with the power of His Spirit. When we see something happening that is not right, we are not called to be tattletales, but are called to address the wrong.
People are rightfully upset about the reports coming out that other bishops knew about Archbishop McCarrick and the evils he perpetrated, and yet they did nothing. There seems to be some evidence that even Pope Francis knew. And we are justifiably and righteously angry about that. But it should also become an opportunity for us ask if we have looked the other way in our own circumstances when we have seen evil done: evil like cheating or stealing from a company; greed; harassment; inappropriate jokes; and more. We have to be prudent about when to address wrongs and how to address them, but how often are we content to be hearers only of this message of repentance, and not doers ourselves?
God is close to us. He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. And Jesus makes Himself present to us in a special way by humbling Himself each day by becoming incarnate, once more, in the Eucharist, in His Body and Blood that look like bread and wine. But God, who strengthens us with His grace and His presence, wants us not only to enjoy His presence, but to spread it to others, to help others experience how close the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”