Homily (notes) - 3rd Sunday of O.T.

 

TWO OF OUR CORE VALUES - Joyful Receptivity: God’s dreams are bigger than my own dreams.

Sacrificial generosity: Letting God interrupt my plans.

Two movie scenes where someone is hanging off a ledge being held by another: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE – LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING.

In both scenes, a person has to let go of something in order to be saved.

This is Jesus’ command for repentance. In order for us to be saved, we must let God change our plans and realize that we are not meant to be in control of our life.

JONAH, after resisting the hard call to go and help his enemies and then seeing how futile it was to resist God, had to let his plans change. He had to give over control.

SIMON (PETER) & ANDREW, JAMES & JOHN had to let their plans change. They had to let go.

IF OUR HANDS ARE FULL, WE MUST EMPTY THEM. If our hearts are attached to a dream, a plan, a goal, we must constantly put that goal into God’s hands. Surrendering is so difficult.

“give me the remote.” “give me the phone.” “Get off the computer.”

But surrendering is so rewarding. You don’t have to be in charge! You get to receive instead of feeling like life is only your own creation.

And God might drop a present into your hands. He might give you exactly what you gave Him. He might not.

Prayer of Thomas Merton – My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going….

Prayer of Abandonment, Charles de Foucauld – emphasizes our identity as adopted sons and daughters.

Father, 
I abandon myself into your hands; 
do with me what you will. 
Whatever you may do, I thank you: 
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me, 
and in all your creatures -
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul: 
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, 
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, 
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, 
and with boundless confidence, 
for you are my Father.

 

God's questions, our desires.

 

In the beginning of the book of Genesis, after creating man and woman, God walks each afternoon with them in the garden of eden. He spends time with them, and they stay close to him. After the tragedy of sin, we hear God ask them a question: "Where are you?" This is a good question for all of us when we are found to have wandered away from God by dabbling in sin.

Our Gospel, which begins, on purpose, with the same words of Genesis ("In the beginning"), also has an echo of that union with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the garden, as these disciples also are walking with God (though they do not exactly understand it). Then Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, turns to them with another question "What do you seek? What do you want?"

When God asks questions, it isn't because He doesn't know the answer. It's because we don't know the answer, or we ignore it, or we are lying to ourselves. One way or another, God wants us to look into this truth for a reason, ultimately for our salvation.

THE SEARCH - the book (and accompanying video series) invites us to look at those desires. This question of Jesus is the focus for video one (or ch. 1 of the book) and it is a great starting point for beginning conversations of faith with others you know - family or friends. If you have a good relationship with someone you want to share the faith with, this is a way to get the conversation started.

Examining our desires is a good way to examine our conscience.

It is also a good preparation for prayer.

But if you do it with God, it is prayer.

A simple process for this is to "pray like a pirate" ("Arrr...")

ACKNOWLEDGE  - examine your heart and face what you find there. Honesty. Courage.

RELATE  - tell God exactly what is going on and perhaps why you think it is there. Trust. 

RECEIVE  - let Him tell you what He wants you to hear, which might seem unrelated. Openness.

RESPOND  - share with God any response: thanks; request; cry for help; petition for others. End with love.

homily - Baptism of the Lord

Christian Identity.

Whenever you believe a lie, you give power the liar. This is hugely detrimental when it affects your self-image, your dignity, your person.

I'm not good enough. Or I'm not good. Or I'm not enough. I'm damaged goods beyond repair.

Letting these lies sit in your soul is like locking yourself up in handcuffs.

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NOT FOUNDED ON GOOD FEELINGS EITHER

When we are having good feelings in the spiritual life (consolations), C.S. Lewis says that we should …Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean that it is not the sensations that are the real thing. The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit which can’t usually be—perhaps not ever—experienced as a sensation or emotion. The sensations are merely the response of your nervous system. Don’t depend on them. Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too. But it won’t. It will be there when you can’t feel it. May even be most operative when you can feel it least.

…(Mere Christianity) Unless you teach your moods “where they get off”, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.

OUR IDENTITY HAS A FIRM FOUNDATION ONLY IN GOD.

Transformation of your mind, seeing the world in a whole new way, is not easy. It does mean a type of dying of the old self, but it also means the exhilaration of a new life being born in you.

It’s hard to describe this well, but sometimes we see this in movies, where people get some new piece of information that helps them to realize every assumption they had made about that person or that situation was all wrong.

The best one I can think of right now is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But it also happens in smaller ways in other movies. Ask me afterwards if you want me to tell you but it may spoil any films you haven’t seen yet. Citizen Kane, Sixth Sense, The Village, The Wedding Singer, Clueless, Clue, I Am David.

When this happens, these people experience a type of death of old self and come back to new life anew.

The Christian nowadays must do the same. The only way to survive as a Christian in our world is to die, mentally – to have your world view transformed – so that your identity is founded IN GOD and not in yourself or what others say about you.

The reading today ends with the words of the Father over the Lord Jesus. These words are huge and should be prayed about in depth for every one of us. Have you ever let these words, spoken over you in your Baptism, to sink into the core of your being? If not, then I’d say right now is a great time to do so.