Homily for Friday, 19th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Friday
Week 19 of Ordinary Time

Aug. 13, 2021
Josh 24: 1-13
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel” (Josh 24: 1).

The Book of Joshua recounts the conquest of the Promised Land by the tribes that came out of Egypt.  We know the conquest wasn’t complete, historically or even in the biblical accounts

But it’s been complete enuf for Joshua to call the tribes to what today we’d call a summit meeting to renew solemnly the Sinai covenant.

1st, Joshua recalls all that God has done for Israel, from when he called Abraham until the present moment of their settling in the Promised Land with all its bounty.  God, in short, has done wonderful things for the welfare of these tribes that he’s made his own.

The Ark of the Covenant Crosses over the Jordan

(James Tissot)

2d, Joshua reminds them that all this has been the work of God:  “it was not your sword or your bow.  I gave you a land … cities … vineyards and olive groves” (24:12-13).  This, after other reminders of “what I did to Egypt” (24:7), “I save you from Balaam” (24:10), and so on.

God has done everything to save Israel and to prosper them.  Their proper response can only be gratitude to God and adherence to him in the covenant—which they’ll ratify in tomorrow’s reading, the continuation of today’s.

I suppose we can’t ever think enuf of how much God has blessed us—as Christians, as a free and prosperous people, for the families that raised us, for Don Bosco and our Congregation, for many more personal blessings.  Nor can we even think enuf of how we haven’t deserved or earned any of that; it’s all been his gracious gift.  Every day we exclaim, “Lord, I am not worthy.”  We respond with Eucharist, to start with, expressing gratitude thru the hands of our Lord Jesus, who can speak the words that heal our souls.

That, of course, isn’t sufficient response.  Our covenant response, our adherence to the Lord thru Jesus, is an all day, every day matter—as is our constant invocation of heavenly help, because we know we can’t manage a humble, fervent, faithful life without divine grace.  A little while ago, we heard St. Paul say (in the short reading at Morning Prayer), “I willingly boast of my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9).