Homily for the
20th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
Aug. 14, 2022
Christian Brothers, Iona University, N.R.
St. Pius X, Scarsdale
Holy Name of Jesus,
New Rochelle
The collect or opening prayer of
today’s Mass points to the wonderful things God has prepared for those who love
him, then prays that we may attain what he’s promised.
The prayer echoes what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him; God has revealed it to us thru the Spirit” (I, 2:9-10).
We make a prayer of this hope because
attaining it is beyond our powers, weak, fragile, sinful people that we
are. We ask God, “Fill our hearts with
the warmth of your love.” Altho our
hearts yearn deeply for all that is good, all that is true, all that is
beautiful—all that will satisfy our deepest longings—without God’s help we
can’t attain that. We have a hint, a
revelation, of what God has promised us in the resurrection of Jesus. Unlike St. Paul, the other apostles, and the
earliest disciples, we haven’t seen the Risen Lord. We hope and pray for “good things which no
eye can see” here below, apart from a mystical experience such as some of the
saints have enjoyed.
So we pray that God will enable us to
love him in all things and above all things.
That’s the path, the way, by which “we may attain [his] promises, which
surpass every human desire.”
When I was a lot younger, my ideal of
heaven was an eternity of baseball and ice cream. Those would still be great, but they don’t
really measure up to the good, the true, and the beautiful, to what “surpasses
every human desire,” even such estimable goods as baseball and ice cream—not to
mention such lesser goods as wealth, prestige, power, and all the stuff that
human beings usually hanker for, all that stuff that always leaves us looking
for something more.
When John Bosco was nine years old, going on ten, he had the 1st of hundreds of dreams by which God revealed to him his apostolic mission among the young, the future of the Salesian Society, the future of some of his individual pupils, and messages for the moral guidance of the young. In this 1st dream, he found himself amid a crowd of children at play. Many of them were using foul language. Upset, little John leapt at the miscreants with both words and fists, he tells us. Then he was interrupted by the appearance of “a dignified man nobly dressed” with a white cloak and with a brightly shining face. This strange man called him by name and told him “to take charge of these children,” but to win them over “not by blows but by gentleness and love.” He was directed “right away to teach them the ugliness of sin and the beauty of virtue.” The noble man presented John with a teacher to help him do that, “a lady of stately appearance … wearing a mantle that sparkled all over as though covered with bright stars.” We understand, of course, that the strange, noble man was our Lord and the stately, star-bedecked lady was our Blessed Mother, who thruout Don Bosco’s life helped him teach youngsters the ugliness of sin and the beauty of virtue.
A life of virtue attracts most people,
people who behold virtue with open eyes and open hearts. Not everyone is so attracted, tho, as we see
in the princes of Judah, enemies of the prophet Jeremiah (ch. 38). Jesus, too, advises us that when we follow
him we’ll meet opposition (Luke 12:49-53)—as the Church is meeting in these
days from dictators in Nicaragua, tyrants in China, jihadists in Nigeria, and
secularists in Western society. Those
with closed eyes and selfish hearts have no use for Jesus or for goodness,
truth, and beauty.
If Jesus met violent opposition, we can hardly be surprised that we do. If people have hated Jesus, they’ll also hate his followers. But the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that “for the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God” (12:2). Jesus has revealed his Father’s love for us and teaches us how to respond to that love. He promises us who love him and follow him, faithfully pursuing the beauty of virtue, similar glory. He promises that we’ll bask forever in “the warmth of [God’s] love”—not August heat and humidity (there’s another place for that!).
When we’ve attained what God promises, we’ll be “rid of every burden and sin that clings to us” (Heb 12:1). No need for wealth and power, prestige and physical pleasure, or even for baseball and ice cream. Instead, we’ll be as warm and content as a cat on your lap. All our deepest longings will be satisfied, our most intense desires met. We’ll possess the joy for which God made us. We’ll be at peace, and if we’ve been mildly in love with Jesus and his Father, with Mary our Mother, then we’ll be madly in love with them, and our love will be returned more than anyone—parent, spouse, or best friend—has ever returned our love here below. The vision of God will surpass the most beautiful sunset or wilderness vista we’ve ever seen.[1] Knowing God face to face will surpass all the truth and knowledge we’ve accumulated and all we’ve wanted to know but couldn’t grasp. God has prepared “good things,” wonderful things, indescribable things “for those who love [him].” Our Lord Jesus helps us to love God, and his Mother also teaches us to love.
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