Homily for Thursday, Week 27 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
27th Week of Ordinary Time

Oct. 9, 2025
Mal 3: 13-20
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Will Kane takes out Frank Miller and wins his girl (in High Noon).  Shane takes out Jack Wilson and rides off alone.  John Wayne takes out more high-powered bad guys than anyone can count.  Frodo destroys the ring and saves Middle Earth.  The Jedi take on the Empire and save the universe.

Reality is more complicated.  The prophet Malachi addresses the reality that evildoers prosper and God’s people hesitate to fear the Lord and listen to him (3:15-16).

Malachi
(Duccio di Buoninsegna)

Malachi, one of the last Old Testament prophets, is not a comfortable prophet.  Even after the Jews have been thru defeat, destruction, exile, and return to a ruined country, they aren’t completely faithful to their covenant with the Lord.  Malachi warns, “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven” (3:19),  and he promises “the sun of justice” will arise and God will put everything right, punish evildoers, and reward the just (3:19-20).

When John the Baptist was born, Zechariah prophesied, “You, child, … will give his people knowledge of salvation …, of the tender mercy of our God, by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow…” (Luke 1:76-79).  That “daybreak from on high” is the “sun of justice,” our Lord Jesus, the dawn that drives away the darkness of our lives, purifies our hearts, and shows us how to make the situation of men and women even on this earth more just and more tranquil.

At the end of one of his parables about persistence in prayer, Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8).  We affirm that on the Last Day we shall indeed “see the distinction between the just and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not” (Mal 3:18), and so we persist in fear of the Lord (3:20), in “keeping his command” (3:14), in the fundamental prayer of the Book of Revelation:  “Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20).