Homily for Thursday, Week 7 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
Week 7 of Ordinary Time

Sir 5: 1-10
Mark 9: 41-50
Feb. 27, 2025
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Pope Francis confessing, 2014
(L'Osservatore Romano)

“Delay not your conversion to the Lord” (Sir 5: 8).

I’m sure none of us relies on his wealth (5:1), and it’s unlikely we rely on our strength (5:2), at least not in physical strength.  There’s danger that someone might rely on his moral strength, or his perception of moral strength, like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable of the 2 men who went up to the Temple (Luke 18:9-14) or like conceited Lancelot in Camelot, who introduces himself with a boast of both physical and moral prowess.  In Stanza 4 of his song "C'est Moi":

I’ve never strayed
From all I believe;
I’m blessed with an iron will.
Had I been made
The partner of Eve,
We’d be in Eden still.
C’est moi! C’est moi! The angels have chose
To fight their battles below,
And here I stand, as pure as a pray’r,
Incredibly clean, with virtue to spare,
The godliest man I know!
C’est moi!

Sir Launcelot & Queen Guinevere
(James Archer)

There’s a sound spiritual reason why we begin the Eucharist with a confession of our sins, why we make annual retreats—such a luxury priests and religious have, but not many “ordinary” Christians, and we may need them more than the “ordinary” folks lest we become conceited Lancelots.

All of us still need conversion to Christ.  We’re on the way, thank God’s grace for that!  But we don’t yet measure up to the image of God seen in Jesus Christ, the perfect human being; in Paul’s words, we have still to “attain mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13).

The Book of Ecclesiastes cautions us:  “There’s no man on earth so just as to do good and never sin” (7:20).  But St. John gives us this hope:  “If we acknowledge our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins” (1 John 1:9).

Jesus urges us today to commit ourselves entirely to God, not to allow any temptation to endanger our relationship with God (Mark 9:43-48).  “Delay not your conversion to the Lord.”  To quote Paul again, words we’ll hear next Wednesday:  “Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).