26th Sunday Year B - Homily 3

Homily 3 – 2012 

I think that it’s true enough that our major political parties seek to present themselves as family-friendly.  Yet invariably, economic interests trump family welfare.  The reality is that many families, perhaps most, find life pretty tough going most of the time.  It can be hard, for example, to have quality family time together.  Financial pressures, the need to pay off the mortgage, can mean that one or both parents have to work long hours or irregular hours - with the result that they're rarely home together.  Work can at times be pretty difficult to find, particularly personally fulfilling work - so many are forced to accept casual or part-time jobs with inadequate remuneration and little security.  All of that makes for stress.  Add to that the fact that families these days come in many shapes and sizes - two-parent families, one-parent families, single mothers, blended families, serial fathers, etc..  And Catholic families are no exception to this generalized picture.  I remember, over thirty years ago, being surprised at the number of children in the local parish school whose experience was not that of the stable nuclear family.  Each of these various home situations has its own particular stresses and strains - inevitably worked out on the children involved.

Today the Church observes Social Justice Sunday.  This year the Social Justice statement focusses on [you might have guessed by now!] the family; and invites us to reflect thoughtfully on our present situation with a view to seeking better ways of living together.  Rather than just compiling a wish-list of practical suggestions, its primary thrust is to ask us to step back and to reflect.  Are we happy with the ways our culture keeps developing? We have become a consumer-oriented, consumption driven society.  In the light of the recent Global Financial Crisis, we were urged to spend more - on anything! and it seems to have worked, at least in the short term.  But might our consumer society be really good for us as individuals or as families?  What sort of people does it tend to make us?

We have become a society fuelled by competitiveness - keeping up with the Joneses - needing to have the latest of everything, and more and more of it.  Is that contributing ultimately to our welfare as individuals, and to our mood as a society?  The influence of the culture we are immersed in, its values, its ever-changing priorities and its fashions is very strong - the more so since we are hardly conscious of its operation.

Today’s Gospel is perhaps relevant - another example of Jesus’ radical questioning of generalised attitudes.  He challenged the status quo of his day because he saw through its emptiness and deception.  Last week’s Gospel dealt with society’s fascination with “Who’s the greatest?”  This week’s: Are they in step, or out of step? One of us, or rocking the boat?  Jesus’ response, for all its hyperbole, was: “Don’t swallow it!”  Think twice about what you choose to grasp, the path you follow, what looks attractive.

How can we become more reflective, more alert, more aware of how we’re being subtly swept along by currents that don’t lead to genuine life to the full?  In the midst of a day that is already too full, already too exhausting, we need to prioritise time to contemplate, to pray.  One more thing! that, surprisingly, clears the mind, simplifies everything, brings life into perspective, and eventually sees us gleefully letting go of what we have come to see as not necessary at all.  Check with someone who does it!