25th Sunday Year B - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2009

About six glossy advertising brochures came with the Hamilton Spectator this week-end - all urging us to get more things, or to upgrade and get better things. I presume that such brochures work - they say that advertising sells.  Sometimes, I know, it works on me, over time persuading me by promising greater efficiency, or greater convenience. It can make me restless. And the more it works on others - the more people get “this or that” - the more “this or that” becomes desirable for me.

But the ads also promise more than increased efficiency or comfort. They promise prestige, or acceptance, or the possibility of a bit of one-up-manship, or a more beautiful body (that will never be beautiful enough, though), all geared to making me feel someone, and to making others envious of me, one way or another. It can be dangerous; but it is so much part of the culture - so much taken for granted - that we don't necessarily notice it.

As St James said in today's Second Reading: ‘Wherever you find jealousy or ambition, you find disharmony ...’ And he went on: ‘Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn't it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves?’  I don't know about wars and battles, but there is a lot of anger floating around in our world - domestic violence, street fights, mindless vandalism, endless litigation (it's always someone else's fault!), violent verbal attacks on internet discussion boards. Our nightly news bulletins are filled with endless conflicts, arguments and confrontations.  It would appear that so many people must live lives of ceaseless envy, relentless rivalry, constant resentment and simmering anger.

So much for St James. Then we had the Gospel. Perhaps the disciples' Who is the greatest? reflected something of the same mindset.  By contrast, the Gospel also gave us Jesus, tranquilly able to say: ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death ...’ You can almost hear him saying: So what? What incredible composure, detachment and inner freedom!  How come? Where did he get it from? Certainly not from the competitive, rivalrous, and insecure people who filled his world. Jesus didn't shape his sense of identity by working out how he compared with others. He got it by believing that he was loved, loved by God: ‘You are my Son, my beloved; my favour rests on you.’

Most people in our world don't believe they are loved; don't believe they are loved unconditionally. Perhaps, they aren't, most of them. There's not much consistent, unconditional love in our world, anywhere. Except by God, and most haven't heard that, or haven't been interested enough to listen, or haven't been able to believe it.  Personally, I don't think any of us believe it easily. For me, personally, it has been a lifelong journey - not there yet - but the journey keeps on getting better.

St James spoke of wisdom as something that makes for peace, and is kindly and considerate; it is full of compassion and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it... St James spoke of wisdom. I think that the same can be said about the creative effect of God's love.

This can all sound a bit like motherhood. But finding ourselves increasingly able to be that way consistently and inclusively is a whole other way of experiencing life.  Jesus believed that it was the only way to a radically re-formed, and radically life-giving world.