Homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

We have three very interesting readings today, all of which give us an unique perspective on life and how we should live it.

In the first reading, one which is very rich in ideas, we again have a writer, who writing under Isaiah’s name, but is not Isaiah, is  speaking during the Babylonian exile period. Surprisingly his first advice is “Remember not the deeds of the past.”  That seems so strange to us, especially in these times when churches seem to be moving backwards and only remembering the deeds of the past. The Roman church, in particular, especially seems to have an eye on the past right now and is seeking to go back to a time before Vatican II, often refusing to look at anything which disrupts a very traditional point of view.

I don’t think that the Biblical writer is telling us not to have memories, not to have traditions, but he is saying not to live in those memories.  The Bible is a book for all time, but must be made in to the ‘living Word”. What was true for the early writers, their world view, their knowledge of geography and history, their local traditions, are in themselves, no longer relevant to us today.  But the Bible is the Word of God, and we need to see the relevance.  Making it relevant means seeing it anew. Seeing it fresh.  Being open to the spirit. Saying “yes” to alternate ideas. Testing them out.

 

We can get stuck in the past instead of the present, and when you get stuck in the past, you are not living. All living involves change. We can’t live in the present or plan for the future if our eyes are glued to the past. So the first thing the writer is saying is “live in the present, enjoy the opportunities that today brings, enjoy the community about you and continue to change and grow. The Hebrews in Babylon needed to stop moaning and remembering what their past was like, and live in the present. They need to accept the opportunities of that time and look forward to the freedom that will be theirs again someday.

In a way, that closely ties in with Paul’s idea of saying “yes”. There was a Jim Carey movie called “Yes Man” in which Jim’s character is stuck in the past, and is not open to any present opportunities.  He has ceased to really be alive.  His life is going nowhere and the operative word in his life is “No”.  He signs up for a self-help program where he is told that he must say “yes” to absolutely everything that comes his way, and when he does, broad comedy results. But, he starts to live again, to be open to the opportunities that are always confronting us. No longer stuck in the past and afraid of trying anything new, he becomes fully alive again.  St. Paul tells us in today’s reading from  Corinthians to do the same thing but, our ‘yes’ has to be to God.  Just as Jesus said “yes” to everything his Father willed for him, we must also say “yes” to the opportunities that are open to us. Jesus says: Not my will, but yours be done.”

St. Paul says: “For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes”. For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen” to the glory of God.” Amen can be translated: Yes, Lord. And what happens when we say “yes”. He sends the spirit to our hearts as a first installment. He brings us closer to the kingdom.  He allows us to experience the kingdom here on earth.

In the Gospel reading today, which continues with the series of miracles that Jesus performed, we see a group of people who refused to say ‘no”. Having heard of the healing powers of Jesus, this group of men wanted to bring a paralyzed man to Jesus to be cured. They were told, no, they couldn’t get into the house. There was no more room.  But they refused to accept that “no”.  They wanted a “a yes”. They banded together and found a way to get the paralyzed man into the house to meet Jesus. By working as a group, a community, they solved the problem. And as a result, Jesus also was able to “Yes”. Jesus healed the man inside and out: he forgave his sins, and took away the paralysis.

All of us are sometimes paralyzed as well. We are paralyzed when we live only in the past, when we refuse to accept change in our lives, when we carry guilt and shame with us and are afraid to let Jesus enter our lives.  That is when the community, this group of people here today, become so important. This is the importance of community. The community can give us the strength, it can help us find the way to Jesus, help us to say “yes” and then Jesus can say “yes” to us. By letting go of our past through the forgiveness of God, by letting the community help us and strengthen us, we can live in the present, enjoy the present and say “yes” to the many wonderful things that come our way each day, open to helping others, open to hearing the word anew, open to putting aside our prejudices and fears, and experience a little bit of the kingdom of God here on earth.  We can then say, like the crowd at the end of the Gospel reading: “We have never seen anything like this!”

And this is the Good news that Jesus has for us today!

 

Fr. Ron Stephens, St. Andrew’s Parish, Warrenton, VA