Homily for Tuesday
26th Week of Ordinary Time
Oct.
3, 2023
Zech
8: 20-23
Luke
9: 51-56
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
 |
| Prophet Zechariah (James Tissot) |
“Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech 8: 23).
The prophet
Zechariah foretells some kind of a general conversion to the Lord. “Many peoples and strong nations shall come
to seek the Lord of hosts” (8:22).
They’ll be drawn to the Lord by evidence, by seeing God at work in the
lives of his people.
Jesus shows us how
to evidence God in our lives. He shows
it negatively by rebuking his fire-breathing followers. After all, he’s meek and humble of heart (Matt
11:29). He doesn’t break a bruised reed
or snuff a smoldering wick (Matt 12:20).
Yet he’s stalwart
and firm. He’s just predicted his
passion a 2d time (Luke 9:44). Now he’s
“resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (9:51), where his predictions
will be fulfilled, where he’ll meekly but courageously surrender his life to
show us the extent of God’s love and thus draw all people to the Lord, as he
also predicted: “When I am lifted up
from the earth, I’ll draw everyone to myself” (John 12:32). Before the Last Supper, “having loved his own
in the world, he loved them to the end” (13:1)—which can mean either till the
end of his life or to the utmost extreme of love. I think John means both readings.
“Many peoples
shall come to seek the Lord” if they see the evidence in our lives, evidence of
the meekness of Jesus and of his loving self-sacrifice.
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