Homily for Tuesday, Week 11 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 18, 2024
1 Kings 21: 17-29
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Elijah confronts Ahab & Jezebel (Thomas Matthews Rook)

Yesterday and today we’ve read the story of Naboth from the town of Jezreel.  Naboth adheres firmly to the covenant between God and Israel.  His ancestral land is God’s gift, the sign of the covenant.  He can’t alienate that land, not even for the king.

His story is similar to the story of David and Bathsheba, in which the king covets something that isn’t his and murders to acquire it.  David had his prophet, Nathan, to confront him with his sin and provoke repentance.  The responsorial psalm (51) echoes that sin and repentance.

Ahab, too, repents.  But there are differences between him and David.  David was fundamentally good, a man at the Lord’s service, whereas Ahab “gave himself up to the doing of evil” (1 Kgs 21:25).  His repentance follows Elijah’s pronouncement of doom, but David’s followed the exposure of his guilt, preceding his punishment.  According to Ps 51, David pleaded for forgiveness and cleansing, but Ahab doesn’t explicitly confess his guilt even tho he does some penance.  Nor, according to the account, does he repent of his idolatry or of his wife’s complicity in evil.

Catholics are famous for our sense of guilt, even to the point of confessing things that aren’t sinful:  “Father, I missed Mass because I was sick.”  “Father, I was tired and didn’t say all of my prayers.”  But blessed are they who recognize genuine sin in their hearts, words, actions, and failure to act and who repent—at least out of fear of God’s wrath; but better, out of remorse at offending the Creator who has so richly blessed us, the Redeemer who’s given his life for us.