Homily for Thursday, 9th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
9th Week in Ordinary Time

June 3, 2021
Mark 12: 28-34
Tobit ch. 6-8
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31).

Jesus lays out for us, with the help of one of the scribes, the 2 great commandments of the Torah.

Those commandments are evident in practice in the reading from the Book of Tobit.  E.g., Raguel shows his reverence for God by heeding “the decree of the Book of Moses” (7:11).  The sacred Scriptures are his guide.  He shows reverence for his neighbor by giving to young Tobiah what is his due (7:11-13).

Then Tobiah and Sarah reverence God by their prayer praising God and asking for his mercy, putting that before even the consummation of their marriage—altho Tobiah’s self-preservation also is a factor in that, given Sarah’s history.

Marriage of Tobiah and Sarah; Raphael binding the demon

(Jan Steen)

Yet Tobiah treats his new wife with reverence by seeing their relationship in a biblical context, under God’s lordship, and he doesn’t view Sarah as an object for his gratification:  “I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose” (8:7), and he prays for the welfare of them both.  He undertakes the sacred union of marriage with a pure motive, honoring his wife and God.

The saints we remember today also honored God and their brothers.  Joseph Mkasa and Charles Lwanga attempted to defend the page boys of the royal court in their charge from the abusive vice of King Mwanga, demonstrating love for their young neighbors.  All 22 martyrs—and 23 Anglican martyrs, too—proved their love for God by affirming their Christian faith and its insistence on chastity, even to the point of horrible deaths.  Most of them were burned alive.

Brothers and sisters, we serve one another in love by our patience with one another, our readiness to assist one another, our truthfulness with one another, and negatively by not speaking ill of one another.  We honor God by acting with the purest motives we can—that purity of intention urged on us as novices—and by our present circumstances such as physical pain, acceptance of our mortality, separation from active ministry.  Even here we have ample scope to love the Lord our God wholeheartedly, and our neighbor as ourselves.