Homily for 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Aug. 16, 2020

Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32

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

St. Theresa, Bronx, N.Y.
                  

“Brothers and sisters:  Just as you once disobeyed God but have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy” (Rom 11: 30-31).

Paul with pen in hand (Rembrandt)

We’ve been reading passages from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans for some 9 weeks now—and still have 4 weeks to go.  Over the course of several weeks, Paul presented the mystery of our relationship with the death and resurrection of Christ and our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  Last week he began to address the mystery of his own beloved people, the Jews, chosen by God, still dear to God, because, as he says today, “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (11:29).

Somehow, the fact that the Jews of Paul’s time had mostly rejected his preaching of the Gospel is a mystery.  Paul offers an explanation for how this fits into God’s plan, or at least how God will make it work out.  As Paul said several weeks ago, God makes all things work out for the good (Rom 8:28), in spite of any sabotage that human foolishness or human sinfulness might attempt.  Christ has conquered death, and so we know he’s also conquered sin.  Thru Christ, God will have mercy on humanity.

In Paul’s apostolic ministry, he habitually preached Jesus 1st in the synagogs wherever he went.  He turned to the Gentiles—to pagans—after most of the Jews rejected his preaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Christ.  He says today, “Their rejection is the reconciliation of the world” (11:15).  Their rejection of Paul’s preaching permitted him to preach instead to the pagans and so reconcile many more people to God thru their acceptance of the Gospel.

This doesn’t mean God now rejects the Jews.  Unfortunately—disastrously—many Christians believed so during the last 2,000 years.  But, Paul affirms, “the gifts and call of God are irrevocable.”  The 2d Vatican Council repeated this, and so did St. John Paul II.  It is the teaching of the Church.  God chose Abraham and his descendants, and his choice remains.

We who follow Jesus have to remember that, remember that Paul’s people are also Jesus’ people, remember that Jesus’ and Paul’s people are our elder brothers and sisters in God’s family, by God’s having chosen them as he has chosen us.

Paul observes that the Gentile Christians of Rome “once disobeyed God,” i.e., they were once idolators, impure and lustful, homosexuals, greedy, murderous, spiteful, gossips, scandalmongers, “insolent, ingenious in wickedness, rebellious toward their parents”—this catalog is from Romans 1 (vv. 18-32)—but they have now received God’s mercy thru the Gospel of repentance and reconciliation preached to them when the Jews refused to hear it.

Last week, you may remember, Paul voiced his distress that the Jews, his own people and Christ’s own people, haven’t accepted Christ (9:1-5).  Now he voices his hope that the Jews, seeing God’s mercy poured out upon the Gentiles, might turn at last to the Gospel, to the Good News of God’s mercy given to all men and women.  The psalmist today acclaims:  “May the nations be glad and exult because you rule the peoples in equity….  May the peoples praise you, O God” (Ps 67:5-6).  Paul hopes that the Gentiles may reveal to Israel the wonderful mercy of God.

Christians carrying out the works of mercy
(Master of Alkmaar, ca. 1504)

My sisters and brothers—that’s our charge today!  We live among a great many non-believers, people who are oblivious to Jesus Christ or who just don’t accept him.  By our lives, our words, our actions, our example; by our kindness, our generosity, our forgiveness, our mercy, we can make him known and make him believable.  The 1st generations of Christians converted the pagans of the Roman Empire by demonstrating their love for one another—by their charity, their chastity, their honesty, their integrity, their faithfulness to weekly worship and daily prayer.  “By virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.”  May you and I be living signs of God’s mercy offered to everyone.