Homily for 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 23, 2022
Collect
Neh 8: 2-6, 8-10
Psalm 19: 8-10, 15
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Almighty ever-living God, direct our actions according to your good pleasure” (Collect).

The Church’s prayers often ask God’s help that we might lead holy lives, that we might think, speak, act, and even feel according to God’s desires.  So it is in our Collect today, in which we ask God to direct or guide or lead our actions.

Often we may believe that we speak or act virtuously because of our own innate goodness.  Not so, according to Christian teaching.  When we speak, act, even think virtuously, it’s because God’s grace is at work in us, and we respond to that grace.  If we are good, it’s by the grace of God.

Back in the 1960s—some of you may be old enuf to remember the 60s—comedian Flip Wilson (whom you can find on YouTube) had a famous catchphrase to explain all kinds of bad human behavior:  “The devil made me do it.”  We all know, of course, that the Devil can tempt us, but it takes our own decision to go along with whatever the Devil proposes.  Sin is our own choice.

And the opposite:  God prompts us to do something good, to respond with patience rather than anger when we’re offended, to help someone rather than to turn away.  God prompts us, and that’s grace.  God offers us the necessary strength or courage to act, and that’s grace.  And we agree to act; we listen to God; we follow his prompting.  That’s virtue.

When we respond to God’s grace in our hearts, when we allow him to “direct our actions according to his good pleasure,” then we “abound in good works,” then we behave virtuously.

Ezra Reads the Law to the People (Gustave Dore')

In our 1st reading today, from the Book of Nehemiah, we hear how the Jews received the law of God as it was read to them by Ezra the scribe.  The Jews had been exiled in Babylon early in the 6th century B.C., punished for the nation’s idolatry, oppression of the poor, sexual infidelity, violation of the Sabbath, and other sins.  70 and more years later, God allowed many of them to return to Jerusalem, and they were eager to please him, to do what he commands.  In ancient Israel there were no books, just a few handwritten copies of the Scriptures kept in scrolls; very few people knew how to read.  Educated scribes like Ezra had to do things like keep public records, draw up contracts—and read and explain Torah and the other sacred books.  Eager to please God, the people rejoiced to hear Ezra read the Torah to them and explain it.  “And all the people listened attentively to the book of the law” (Neh 8:3). 

We heard in the Responsorial Psalm that the Lord’s words are spirit and life; the law of the Lord refreshes the soul (Ps 19:8).  That’s true for us, as well, not only for the Jewish people of the Old Testament.  “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (19:9).  The “good pleasure” of God that the Collect speaks of is also our good pleasure, our joy.  Why?  Because God created us in his own image!  When we act virtuously, we’re acting according to our authentic nature as creatures of God.  When we act virtuously, we’re acting like the most perfect human being, Jesus Christ.  We can do that with God’s help, given to us by grace.  And it rejoices our hearts.

Sin, on the other hand, may give us immediate satisfaction; but that doesn’t last long.  It passes away like an addict’s high.  In the long run, sin leaves us empty, unhappy, with a sour taste in our mouths—whether our sin consists of deception, theft, sexual misconduct, seeking vengeance, arrogance, abusive words, or anything like that.

Joy comes from doing good, from speaking well, from humility, patience, kindness, self-restraint.  Amid the temptations and challenges of our daily lives, we certainly need God’s help to be virtuous.  And so we pray today that God “direct our actions according to his good pleasure that we may abound in good works” like his Son Jesus.