Homily for Thursday, Week 20 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
20th Week of Ordinary Time

August 21, 2025
Jgs 11: 29-39
Matt 22: 1-14
Ps 40: 5, 7-10
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

The Return of Jephthah
(Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini)

The book of Judges recounts stories of Israel’s repeated infidelities, of the Lord’s allowing them in consequence to be harassed and oppressed by their enemies, and of his repeatedly raising up tribal leaders known as judges to deliver them when they finally turn back to him.

The judges by and large reflect their times and culture.  Like Jephthah today, they’re stirred up by the Spirit of the Lord (Jgs 11:29) to save one or another of the Hebrew tribes.  But they remain flawed heroes.  So Jephthah is ready to practice human sacrifice, one of the grievous practices of the nations round about Israel that for a very long time tempted them to infidelity.

It took many generations for Israel to be converted to the Lord in spite of prophets and good kings like David and Josiah.  Jesus was still calling for their repentance 1,200 years after Jephthah, and one could argue that still today they need a conversion to respect for human life.

You and I aren’t exempt from the temptations of our time and culture.  We’re vowed to God more profoundly than Jephthah and his daughter were, yet our conversion to the ways of Jesus remains incomplete.  Tho we’ve accepted the King’s invitation to his Son’s wedding feast (Matt 22:2), we’re not yet fully garbed for it (22:11).

So each day we recommit ourselves to our Lord Jesus.  Each day we make a fresh start to follow him.  We pray that he give us ears open to obedience (Ps 40:7), that he help us to greater fidelity to his ways and make his law our constant delight (40:9).