29th Sunday Year C - Homily 3

Homily 3 - 2013

I find Jesus’ pointed question at the end of today’s Gospel quite challenging .. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?’  Did Jesus really think it quite possible, even likely, that no one would have faith when the present era comes to an end – whenever that might be.  His question leads me to wonder: How would we measure up now?

I like to think of myself as a believer.  Perhaps it is a question of “believe what?”  At times I wonder if I really believe Jesus? Or have I redefined and domesticated him, and believe really in my construct of Jesus?  According to the Gospels, Jesus burnt up a lot of energy proclaiming the Kingdom of God.  He did not just call people to it.  He said the “Kingdom of God was close at hand”.  Is that vision still operative?

What was his vision, his sense, of God’s Kingdom?  Basically his was a vision of a transformed world – where people would have a clear sense of their dignity and of the equal dignity of everyone; recognising that dignity as sourced from God’s unconditional love for the world and unconditional readiness always to forgive.  In line with that vision, Jesus saw people – individuals, communities, nations – interacting in partnership, not competitiveness or rivalry; and so in justice, love and compassion.  It would be a world without violence, a world of genuine peace.

Do I believe such a world is likely? or possible?  That translates to: Do I believe the message that Jesus preached? And ultimately, that boils down to: Do I believe Jesus? – Or did he get it all wrong?  If I really believed him, and hoped for what he hoped, I ask myself if I would be much more focussed than I in fact am on working passionately to build the world he dreamed of.  My life is quite comfortable, thank you!  There might be five million traumatised refugees in the world – but I am not one of them, and do not lose sleep over them.  There might be millions of people in our world who still go to bed hungry each night; but doing something about that is just too hard, too complex.  Closer to home, there are the homeless I don’t see, the victims of abuse of various kinds that I read about, the still disadvantaged indigenous people.

The Gospel today asked the rhetorical question: “Will God not see justice done…?”.  There is no doubt about God’s commitment – but God’s Kingdom depends on everyone’s active cooperation with the grace of God.  There are some people, thank God, working with God for a just world – magnificent, generous people.  But the rest of us, the rest of us believers?  Have we “lost heart”?

 “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”  Jesus saw the real danger of our losing heart.  So he told us: “Pray continually!”  To pray for what?  He told us that too: “Father, your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth …”.  If we were to pray that continually, we could come eventually to mean it and to pray it with passion – perhaps with a similar passion to that of the widow in today’s quaint parable.

Today is World Mission Sunday.  It is a good day to get under way once more, committing ourselves to shaping the Kingdom; and helping, in the many ways open to us, all those others around the world doing their bit to make God’s Kingdom a reality; and learning, all the while, to make our prayer: “Father, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth …”, until it becomes a fire burning within us.