Homily for 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 9, 2020

Rom 9: 1-5

Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people” (Rom 9: 3).

We come to a new phase in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  He’s already written about our participation in the death and resurrection of Christ and of the Holy Spirit’s working within us.  Now he takes up the mystery of God’s working in the Jewish people and the mystery of their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ.

These are Paul’s own people, and as he observes, also Christ’s people “according to the flesh” (9:5).  Both Jesus and Paul were Jews.  Paul feels this relationship, this attachment, very strongly, and he’s greatly distressed that his people haven’t responded favorably to the Gospel of Jesus, which he’s tried to preach to them—and which, of course, Jesus himself had preached thruout Galilee and Judea until his crucifixion.

Paul acknowledges Israel’s place in God’s plan of salvation and, indeed, in God’s love.  God adopted Israel as his own children, glorified them in multiple ways, made covenants with Abraham and Moses, gave them the Law as a guide, showed them how to worship him, made assorted promises to them for their well-being and salvation; and finally, sent Christ to the world thru them.  We Christians acknowledge the Jews as our elder brothers and sisters in God’s family; both the Vatican Council and St. John Paul II affirm that.  We acknowledge that they remain close to God in their fidelity to the covenant of Moses and the Torah.  And, unfortunately, in our day it still needs to be said that hatred for the Jews and any form of anti-Semitism is deplorable.  It’s as wrong as any other kind of racism.  It violates all that Jesus taught and what the Church continues to teach.

The other point in what we hear from Paul today concerns his willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of his people, even to the point that he would wish himself “accursed and cut off from Christ,” i.e., damned, if that would lead to the conversion of his “kindred according to the flesh” (9:3).  That would be the ultimate giving of one’s own life, i.e., one’s soul; but it’s an impossibility, as Paul implies:  “I could wish” it so, even if it’s illogical to gain souls by giving up one’s soul.

I never served in the armed forces, having entered the seminary in 10th grade.  But I’ve read many times that among soldiers, sailors, and Marines the closest bonds are with their immediate comrades, e.g., at platoon level, with the men and women they serve with, especially in combat.  Stephen Ambrose’s magnificent Band of Brothers testifies to that.  We hold in special honor those who risk their lives or lose their lives to save their brothers.  A ballad from WWII popularized by Burl Ives strikes me as emblematic of that:  the Ballad of Rodger Young, which, Wikipedia declares, “is an elegy for Army Private Rodger Wilton Young, who died after rushing a Japanese machine-gun nest on 31 July 1943, and is largely based on the citation for Young's posthumous Medal of Honor.”  That skirmish happened on the island of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands.  The 1st 3 of the ballad’s 5 stanzas read:

1. Oh, they've got no time for glory in the Infantry.

Oh, they've got no use for praises loudly sung,

But in every soldier's heart in all the Infantry

Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.

Shines the name — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

To the everlasting glory of the Infantry

Lives the story of Private Rodger Young.

2. Caught in ambush lay a company of riflemen —

Just grenades against machine guns in the gloom —

Caught in ambush till this one of twenty riflemen

Volunteered, volunteered to meet his doom.

Volunteered — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

In the everlasting annals of the Infantry

Glows the last deed of Private Rodger Young.

3. It was he who drew the fire of the enemy

That a company of men might live to fight;

And before the deadly fire of the enemy

Stood the man, stood the man we hail tonight.

Stood the man — Rodger Young,

Fought and died for the men he marched among.

Like the everlasting courage of the Infantry

Was the last deed of Private Rodger Young.

The sacrifice of self for others is truly a heroic act.  That’s what Paul was suggesting.  It is, in fact, what Christ did:  “No one has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  There are, we all know, innumerable men and women who do put their lives on the line every day.  May God bless and protect them all!

It’s unlikely that many of us will actually need to die for our friends or family or country.  But we are all challenged daily to sacrifice ourselves.  Jesus himself tells us that we must take up our crosses every day if we wish to follow him.  That may be the cross of private, personal suffering of some kind.  Very often, however, it’s a suffering, a cross, a sacrifice for someone else:  the work we put in to support our families, caring for a sick relative or neighbor, reaching out and assisting someone in need, standing up for the oppressed, the weak, and the unborn, holding to the truth when the truth is unpopular, biting our tongue before we speak unjustly or unkindly, wearing a face mask even tho it’s uncomfortable, etc.

Your own daily experience will reveal to you your own cross, your own opportunities to give of yourself alongside our Lord Jesus Christ.  May we all do that with quiet heroism for the sake of our sisters and brothers, for the sake of the people we march among, and for the everlasting glory of God.