19th Sunday Year C - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2007

Faith is in the air at the moment. Last week the Prime Minister had a meeting with his parliamentarians and concluded that, despite the poor poll results, victory for the party was still possible. “We can do it!” “Trust me!”

Where are you, as you look at the mess the world is currently in? - as you look at the Church, and wonder, Where have all the flowers gone! You hardly have to book your seat to be sure of having somewhere to sit during Mass. Statistical trends are not all that promising.

The Second Reading today from the Letter to the Hebrews provides an encouraging reflection on faith. Perhaps we’re a bit like Abraham – He was told to set out, and start off a whole new nation, with its own homeland for itself - and he didn’t even know where he was going! Start off a nation! and his wife had grown old, and they were childless! Then Isaac and Jacob – sharing their father’s hope that the land where they were – already settled and dotted with fortified cities and towns - would be theirs…. and they were still living in tents, after all those years!

We look at our world, and, like Abraham, we don’t know where we’re heading, and seem to have no plan to get there. There seems to be no next generation likely to carry us into the future… And no one seems interested in the treasures we believe we have

Where do we start? It helps to realise that our situation is not new. In fact, a cursory knowledge of history tells us that the Church’s usual experience seems to be crisis.

We follow a leader who says: Trust me! That’s what Jesus says.

Whatever about the Prime Minister, Can we trust Jesus? Do we trust Jesus? Do we believe him? He said … that the Kingdom of God is near at hand … in fact, he said: It’s among you! At times it can seem that there’s not too much in common between the world and the Church as we see them today and the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is about a world where people relate to other people from a profound respect for them – a world where other people are brothers and sisters, and not competitors and inevitable threats. Could it happen? Jesus believed it could. Can we, do we, trust him?

The world was just as bad in his day as it is in our day. He didn’t say: Once everyone loves like I do, it will be the Kingdom…. And then, wait for them all to change…. And then, get depressed when they didn’t. He believed that God’s Kingdom was near, so he at least acted accordingly. He treated the people who crossed his path with profound respect, such a respect for their dignity and capacity that he wasn’t frightened to call them to accountability – tough love!

Did it work? It did not look too successful on Good Friday night, or on the Saturday that followed. But Easter Sunday put a whole new complexion on things.

What does he ask us to believe about him? Ultimately, that his way is the only one worth giving a go! It’s not too complicated. He doesn’t expect us to have the answers, to know where we’re heading, to be able to do the impossible (Though what God can do is another matter!) He just asks us to trust him and, like him, simply to treat everyone who comes within our radar with profound respect – to love them.

The PM said: We can do it! When it comes to God’s Kingdom, can we? I don’t think we can - we don’t have to! We entrust the outcomes to God. What chance have we to love people? really to love them? – no exceptions. To do that, and really to believe that love can work, I think we have to let God change us.

Faith is a gift. So, ultimately, is love. If we hang around God, and keep closely in touch with God, God can change us. As the Letter to the Hebrews said: Faith is the guarantee of the realities that at present remain unseen.