Homily for Tuesday, 14th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
14th Week of Ordinary Time

July 8, 2025
Ps 17: 1-3, 6-8, 15
Gen 32: 23-33
Matt 9: 32-38
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“In justice, I shall behold your face, O Lord” (Resp. Psalm).

The psalmist—perhaps David when he’s fleeing from the unjustified jealousy of Saul—pleads with God for justice and for deliverance from his foes.

Jesus provides justice and deliverance for a possessed man brought to him (Matt 9:32-33).

In biblical terms, justice means more than having one’s rights upheld, as the psalmist prays for.  It also means being in a right relationship with God.  It means holiness.  Thus Jesus establishes justice by overpowering the demoniac’s possessor and by caring for the “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt (9:36).  He delivers from their foes those who flee to him (Ps 17:7) and allows them to see the face of God (17:15).  It is in Christ that we see the face of God. 

Jacob contends with an unknown assailant.  It’s a rather strange story that, admittedly, puzzles commentators a little.  But Jacob, renamed Israel (one who contends with God), perceives that he has wrestled with God: “I have seen God face to face” (Gen 32:31).  Because God has been with him thru all the troubles of his journeys—which was his prayer in yesterday’s reading (Gen 28:20-21)—he has prevailed.  God has justified him, i.e., supported and delivered him.

Our deliverance, our protection from the enemies of our destiny as God’s children, thus our right relationship with God is the work of Jesus.  In Christ, we can have the confidence to say, “In justice I shall behold your face, O Lord”—note the future tense.  As St. John writes:  our full destiny “has not yet been revealed.  We know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).  The justice of God shall envelop us in the mercy and the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ.