Homily for the
16th Sunday of Ordinary
Time
July 17, 2022
Psalm 15: 2-5
Our Lady of the Assumption,
Bronx
“He who does justice will live in the
presence of the Lord” (Ps 15: 2).
The responsorial psalm praises the just person. In today’s liturgy it’s a response to the actions of Abraham, one of the biblical models of a just man, a man who strives to be close to God and carry out what God asks. That’s demonstrated in our 1st reading by his hospitality to strangers—who are in fact the Lord and 2 angels. These respond to Abraham’s graciousness by telling him that the promise which God made to him years earlier is about to be fulfilled: his wife will finally bear him a son.
The
psalm is for us more than for Abraham.
It promises eternal life to the just person: he or she “will live in the presence of the
Lord.” The basic question is, what makes
us just? How do we merit eternal life?
The
psalm identifies behaviors that a just person does, like thinking truthfully
(15:2), or doesn’t do, like slandering other people (15:3).
Other
faults brought out in the psalm include causing harm to someone (15:3); taking
up a reproach against one’s neighbor (15:3), which I suppose means gossiping
and publicizing someone’s faults for the sake of tearing down that person;
lending money at usury (15:5), which we could say means taking financial
advantage of people; accepting bribes, especially in the execution of justice
(15:5).
The
psalm also points to 3 positive behaviors.
I already mentioned truthfulness.
Another is “despising the reprobate” (15:4), i.e., looking down on
wrongdoers, not approving of evil actions, not honoring or celebrating criminal
or immoral behavior (e.g., drug dealing, human trafficking, adultery,
abortion). And there’s “honoring those
who fear the Lord” (15:4).
On
one level, these are very personal qualities.
Being a just person before God means being a man or woman of truth and
integrity, one who respects the reputations of others, gives reverence to God,
uses one’s resources fairly and compassionately, honors good people.
On another level, the psalm refers to all of
us, to society. Are our communications,
our mass media, our social media just and truthful in their reporting and their
opinions? Sex and violence sell
newspapers and generate box office ratings.
Do we promote violence and sexual immorality by what we watch, the video
games we play, the supermarket tabloids we read?
Are we as a nation compassionate toward the
needy—the victims of natural disasters, refugees from war, persecution, the
rampant violence in some countries, economic hardship? How is it that some Western societies,
including our own, practically reject refugees from civil wars in the Middle
East and gang violence in Central America but are far more welcoming to
refugees from Ukraine? Is there a double
standard there, a discriminatory standard?
Instead of despising the reprobate, to use the psalm’s words, do we
despise people who disagree with us in politics, practice a different religion,
or have a different-colored skin?
The mass media and so-called “progressive”
politicians, including our governor, have been giving loads of attention to
abortion for the last several months, mostly lamenting that in many states it
will become harder for women and their doctors to kill unborn human
beings. The psalm identifies the just
person, the one who walks blamelessly, as one “who harms not his fellow
man.” Killing a human being in the womb
is harm to that person, and nothing justifies it—not even cases of rape or
incest, which punish the innocent—the unborn—for the crime of the father. When did it become just to execute children
because their fathers are criminals?
Let’s concede that all of us act or speak
unjustly sometimes. Sometimes we resist
the truth, sometimes we’re not generous with our money or our time, sometimes
we pay tribute to behavior that’s wrong.
Sometimes we physically or emotionally abuse other people. Sometimes we abuse God’s name instead of
honoring it. The responsorial psalm
says, “He
who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord,” but all of us are sinners.
Yet that’s not cause for despair. Jesus Christ justifies us, that is, makes us
just before God. St. Paul writes to the
Colossians, “It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching
everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”
(1:28). We were washed clean and made
perfect in Christ by Baptism, and now, after Baptism, we receive the same
undeserved grace from Jesus Christ in the sacrament of Reconciliation—which
reconciles sinners with God, as the name says.
We can bring our falsehoods, infidelities, gossip, unjust anger, and all
our sins to Jesus and be cleansed, be made whole, be made just in God’s
eyes. We can’t do it ourselves, but thru
his cross Christ has done it for us. Perhaps
this was “the better part” that Mary was choosing as she sat at Jesus’ feet in
our gospel story this morning (Luke 10:42), letting the words of Jesus wash
over her and renew her. That’s what he
desires for each of us.
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