Homily for 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 18, 2023
Ex 19: 2-6
Rom 5: 6-11
St. Edmund, Edmonton, Alberta

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex 19: 6).

(Philippe de Champaigne)

At Mt. Sinai, the Lord gave Israel the commandments and the whole Law, which became known as the Law of Moses because Moses was the intermediary.

In today’s short passage from the Book of Exodus, God tells the Israelites why he’s chosen them, delivered them from slavery in Egypt, brought them to the sacred mountain, and given them the Law:  they are to be his “special possession, … a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex 19:5-6).

That is, by taking them to himself, into a special relationship, God consecrates them, shares his holiness with them, and empowers them to worship him as priests by offering worthy sacrifices.

The followers of Jesus have received the same call, the same vocation:  a call to be transformed by Christ, transformed from sinners into holy people who are fit to worship God in a priestly way.  “While we were still sinners,” St. Paul writes, “Christ died for us” and cleansed us by his blood (Rom 5:8-9).

We respond to God’s call and to Christ’s grace by worshipping God gratefully—which we do in the Eucharist, our act of thanksgiving, our priestly action as God’s chosen people in which we offer the perfect sacrifice:  the body and blood of Jesus, who died for us yet lives for us.

We also respond by living holy lives inspired by Christ.  It’s true that we’re sinners.  It’s true that we’re unworthy to share in his priesthood.  We confess before Holy Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy.”  But he makes us worthy:  “only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

Healed by Christ, empowered by Christ, we go from the Eucharist as his “kingdom of priests, a holy nation,” and we become the new laborers in his harvest (cf. Matt 9:37-38), proclaiming that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (10:7) because Christ is alive in us, and we make him present to our families, our neighbors, our colleagues at work and leisure.

Christ has freely and graciously taken away our sins and made us new.  We are “his people, the flock he tends” (Ps 100:3).  “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (10:8).  Go forth and be God’s holy people, loving him who proved his love for us (Rom 5:8), and joyfully making him known (cf. Ps 100:1).