Responding to the Word

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).

Today we hear about great news: God is closer to us than we could ever imagine.  Moses tells the Chosen People in the first reading, “‘For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?’”  And while that was true in its own way in the Old Testament, as God revealed Himself to His people, and gave displays of His presence while crossing the Red Sea, while fighting the pagan nations, and while giving the Law on Mount Sinai, it’s even more true for us because of Jesus, the Messiah, who is God-made-flesh.  Jesus is truly and full God, and yet truly and fully man.  God walked among us, spoke to us with a human voice, listened to us with human ears, touched us with human hands, and experienced everything we do, except without sin.

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.”

Doers of the Word

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

            I’m sure this has never happened with anyone here, but imagine a scenario where a parent tells a child to do something while that child is doing something else like watching TV, or playing video games, reading, or texting.  Then imagine that, lo and behold, that child does not, in fact, do what the parent tells the child to do (I know, this must be shocking for you that this actually happens in some families).  The usual response from the parent would be some variation of, “Why didn’t you listen to me?”

            St. James tells us in the second reading, that we are to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.”  We have been blessed with the greatest message of all time.  It started in the Old Testament, with the message that God had chosen a people, and had cared for them and brought them to a land.  And, even after they were enslaved, God freed them and returned them to that land flowing with milk and honey.  He game them laws so that they might be just and upright, and know the good to do and the evil to avoid.  This is what Moses is talking about in the first reading.

            And even “when through disobedience [humanity] had lost [God’s] friendship, He did not abandon [us] to the domain of death…Time and again [God] offered them covenants and through the prophets taught [us] to look forward to salvation.”  And then, “in the fullness of time [God] sent [His] Only Begotten Son to be our Savior.  Made incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he shared our human nature in all things but sin…To accomplish [God’s] plan, [Jesus] gave himself up to death, and, rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life.”  And the Church was formed, the New Israel, who was called to proclaim this Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus, which saves us from our sins.  And, in response to this love first shown to us in God, the members of the Body of Christ are to configure themselves to Jesus, by the guidance of the teaching of the Apostles and their successors who continue the teaching of Jesus in new times and new circumstances.

            That is the Good News that we received.  That is the Good News that we are to proclaim.  But are we just hearers of the Word?  Does what Jesus said apply to us, too: “‘Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;’”?    Week after week we hear the Word of God and we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior.  But does it change us?  Has the Gospel penetrated our hearts?  In the movie “Godfather III,” the cardinal who hears Michael Corleone’s confession pulls a small rock out from a fountain of water.  It is wet, of course, on the outside.  But he breaks the rock in two, and the inside is dry.  He says that the people are like the rock in the fountain.  They have been surrounded by the water of Christianity for centuries, but Christ, like the water, has not penetrated them.  How many of us are surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has no penetrated us because we are hearers of the word only, and not doers?

            St. James tells us that if we are hearers only, and not doers, then we are deluding ourselves.  If we think that being surrounded by Christianity is enough, then we have truly not heard Jesus, just as the child did not truly hear its parent.  At our baptism, a solemn promise was made for us, if we were infants, or we made it for ourselves, if we were adults: that we would reject sin and Satan, that we would believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that we would raise the child in the faith, and practice it ourselves.  This is the same promise that these families will make today for their children.  We promised to be doers of the word.  God, for His part, promised to assist us in that promise with sacramental grace which would strengthen us to do what we cannot without His help.  Have we lived up to these promises?  Have we, in the ways we are able, changed the world to better reflect the Gospel?  Or have we tried to let the culture change the Gospel to better reflect our world?  Have we been the salt of the earth, preserving our corner of the world in holiness of life, of have we lost our flavor? 

            For months we have been hearing from politicians how they have the right policies that will bring America prosperity.  We will hear how they will do x, y, and z to protect the poor, defend life from natural conception to natural death, to turn the economy around, etc.  And politics certainly has a legitimate role to play in implementing the Gospel.  But, before that can be effective, we ourselves must be converted.  We must be doers of the word, and not hearers only.  Because if we are truly doers of the word then we ourselves will guard against greed and consumerism and will hold others to that as well.  If we are doers of the word then we will assist the poor, truly helping them to use the gifts God has given them for their benefit and the benefit of society.  If we are doers of the word then we will stand up for the rights of the defenseless infant in the womb from the moment of conception and the elderly who are sick, both of whom can easily be exploited because they are the weakest members of our society.  If we are doers of the word then we will stand up for religious freedom so that we can truly practice our faith in peace, and not be compelled to do anything which is against the teaching of Christ and His Church.  “Dearest brothers and sisters:…Be doers of the world and not hearers only.”