15th Sunday Year A - Homily 2

Homily 2 – 2008 

A hundred-fold return.  That’s something!  And it wasn’t even “genetically modified”!  Jesus was cryptically referring to human possibilities, human potential – what life could be like.  He had already given practical hints – the time he turned water into wine – hundreds of litres… when he fed with a couple of loaves of bread, a few pieces of dried fish, a crowd of 5000 men, along with, probably, a similar number of women, and children as well – and still had scraps left over…  when he helped the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to talk, the crippled to walk and the sick to get well.

But they were only hints, signs.  They weren’t the real thing – just a hint of possibilities.  Jesus dreamt of a world where people cared for each other..  where no one was excluded; where difference was not threat, but enrichment; where wealth and resources were shared.  The 100-fold would take shape as everyone related like that.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, where people don’t live like that, won’t live like that… Does our experience of the 100-fold depend on the co-operation of everyone else?  If that’s the case, it may never be more than a dream.

What was Jesus’ experience of life?  He worked for the Kingdom, and was prepared to die for the Kingdom.  Did he experience the Kingdom?  Perhaps, depending on how we define it, he didn’t.  But, as the Epistle to the Hebrews reflects, Jesus became perfectly human across life, particularly as he freely faced into death.  

John’s Gospel has Jesus talk about his joy, earlier in the very night that he was arrested. Jesus hoped that his disciples would experience his joy: that my joy may be in you, and your joy be complete.  The joy and peace – the simple joy and peace of being authentically human, which was Jesus’ experience – can gradually become ours as we discover his love for us, say “yes” to it, and allow it gradually to enlighten and empower us.  We can love with his love, love even those who see us, and treat us, as their enemies – and everyone else in between.

It’s a wonderful freedom, becoming increasingly aware of how much we instinctively categorise, label, differentiate and distance ourselves from and condemn different people.  It’s a wonderful freedom as we find ourselves wanting and able to relate to them differently, realising that God loves them with the same ease, the same love, that God shows toward us.  As that happens, it’s God at work in us, through the power of his Spirit, calling for our co-operation, but not our own initiative.

We know the experience only as we are slowly changed – and, if it is not the 100-fold, then at least it’s the 30-, or even the 60-fold.  It’s a taste of the Kingdom of heaven, and a step towards its becoming real, not only for ourselves, but, through us, as we learn to receive and to give, for everyone.