Homily for Tuesday
20th Week of Ordinary Time
August 19, 2025
Jgs 6: 11-24
Matt 19: 23-30
Christian Brothers, St.
Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
Gideon's Call (Schnorr von Karolsfeld)
“Go with the strength you
have and save Israel” (Jgs 6: 14).
The book of Judges offers
us a typical annunciation scene. An
angel comes with a divine message for someone who has no standing and no
confidence and gives him a mission for salvation, with the assurance that God
will guide and help him. That’s “the
strength” he has.
“God doesn’t call the
qualified. He qualifies the
called.” You’ve heard that. You’ve probably experienced it. It’s our own vocation story.
God hasn’t called us to
religious life because of our talent, our social standing, or our merits. How many times have we looked at one of our
brothers and wondered, “God chose him?”
Not to mention superiors! He has
reasons and ways we don’t fathom.
If we’ve been faithful
religious, more or less, and if we’ve been effective apostles, more or less,
it’s because God’s given us the strength.
He’s always the Savior—of our souls and of the many souls whose
lives we’ve touched by his grace.
The Lord gives us a sign
that he’s with us. As Gideon brought the
angel an offering which was consumed by fire (6:18-21), so do we bring our
offerings to the Lord; but they’re transformed by the fire of Christ’s love
into his body and blood for our consummation, assuring us that his love
remains with us and his strength empowers us to resist our enemies—the enemies
of our souls. “For men this is
impossible,” that we should defeat sin and death, “but for God all things are
possible” (Matt 19:26).
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