topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
08 August 04


 

Several years back, researchers conducted a study investigating whether there is any relationship between office workers’ attitudes and their productivity.  The data suggested that workers who view their home or social lives as lacking or who believe they have little to look forward to after the work day has ended grow increasingly bored, tired, and unproductive as the work day progresses.  In addition, the efficiency of these workers wanes well ahead of the work day’s end.  In contrast, the data suggested that workers who report having something to look forward to after the end of a long work day don’t grow increasingly bored, tired, or unproductive.  Furthermore, these workers operate at top efficiency right up until the end of the work day.

These research findings can perhaps help us to understand a little better what faith is and how it operates in our lives.  As Jesus’ disciples, these research findings can also help us to understand better how central faith is to our lives faith if we are to lead more spiritually and morally “productive” lives.

It may well be the case, for example, that those teenagers who view their lives as lacking in one way or another or who believe they have little to look forward to, grow increasingly bored and despondent.  “My life is so boring, there’s nothing to do” many of us have heard teenagers complain.  With little faith in what the future portends, these teenagers are looking only at the present and have concluded that anything of real value must be had right here and now, at this very moment.

To avoid these feelings of boredom, tiredness, and despondency, these teenagers oftentimes will compound their problems.  They might conclude that more material possessions will make them happy or that illegal and immoral activities and behaviors will increase their happiness.  Having concluded that these are the things that will make them happy right now, these teenagers conveniently overlook the fact that these activities and behaviors can also have the deleterious effect of destroying their lives and their souls as well.

Undoubtedly, this is not a productive way to live one’s life, forget about spiritually and morally.  And, we all know it.  Who needs to study the destruction so many teenagers—having no faith in their futures—have wrought upon themselves by such selfish and self-serving addictive behaviors?  Sad to say, the data are abundant.

So, too, with spouses.

Husbands and wives who view their marriages as lacking and deficient or who believe they have little to look forward to also grow increasingly bored and despondent.  “There’s nothing in this marriage for me,” these spouses will complain.  With little faith in what their future portends, spouses who have ensnared themselves in this trap look only to the present for their fulfillment.  Then, they conclude that they deserve what will make them happy and want it right here and now.

So, to soothe their feelings of boredom, tiredness, and despondency, these spouses—just like the teenagers I have just spoken about—also become involved illegal or immoral activities and behaviors.  While these may make these spouses momentarily happy, what they have neglected in their decision-making process is the obvious fact that these behaviors can also have the deleterious effect of destroying their marriages and families as well as their souls.

This also is no productive way to live one’s life, forget about spiritually and morally.  And we all know it.  Who needs to investigate the destruction these selfish and self-serving addictive behaviors have wrought upon so many marriages and families?  Sad to say once again, the data are abundant.

Like the office workers whose negative expectations about the future make them increasingly bored, tired, and unproductive, don’t we also become increasingly bored, tired, and unproductive when we possess little or nothing to believe in that uplifts our sights beyond the tedious boredom that seems to be so characteristic of daily life in any generation?

To deal with this fact of life from a spiritual or moral perspective rather than to engage in behaviors that threaten to destroy our lives and our souls, the author of today’s epistle provides an important definition: “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Hebrew 11:1-2).

Notice that the author doesn’t say faith provides answers, guarantees, or proofs.  No, faith involves making the choice to look toward the future and to take a risk to pursue that future based solely on a promise, namely, God’s promise, one without any proof whatsoever.  The choice in the present moment is to risk all for that future.  This is what provides the foundation for a productive spiritual and moral way of life and we all know it because, after all, God has breathed the divine law into our souls.  We may not want to admit this fact, but we know it all the same.

After all, isn’t taking a risk to pursue one’s dreams what growing up is all about?

A teenager looks toward the future and, catching a glimpse of that future, hopes to become what one’s vision portends.  With only a promise that one will achieve what one is striving after, one’s belief in this vision provides all of the power any teenager needs to overcome the obstacles, challenges, and personal limitations that stand in one’s way or will stand in one’s way.  Furthermore, as the teenager recognizes in small ways the realization of what one believes so deeply, doesn’t this provide all the evidence needed about all of those things the teenager doesn’t yet see?

Isn’t this also what falling in love and getting married is all about?

A young man and a young woman look toward the future of wedded bliss and, as they glimpse into it, they believe they can overcome their differences as well as the obstacles and challenges that will confront them.  When two people are in love, it seems nothing can come between them.  So, these two people dare to risk all for that collective future in which they place all of their belief.  Then, as the couple recognizes their belief being fulfilled in small ways—because, after all, there is not such thing as a “perfect marriage” and total “wedded bliss”—doesn’t this provide the spouses evidence of all those things they do not yet see?

And again, isn’t this what raising kids is all about?

When contemplating having a family and raising kids, does any spouse have all of the answers?  Does any spouse have a guarantee?  Does any spouse have any proof whatsoever that all of one’s devoted efforts as a parent will result in a healthy and mature as well as spiritual and moral young adults who are well-prepared to live their lives?  No, parenting begins with and is based solely upon vision of a future where all that one will do for a child will favorably influence and shape or, if and when necessary, save a child’s life.  And then, as parents see a child maturing as well as behaving morally and spiritually in small ways, don’t these parents recognize what they believe in?  Doesn’t this realization provide evidence of the things they do not yet see?

The author of today’s epistle reminds us that life—and especially a spiritually and morally productive life—isn’t about having answers, guarantees, or proof.  Instead, life is about possessing a vision for the future that we can believe in.  This vision enables us to risk living our lives in accordance with a promise for which we have no proof other than that God has made the promise.  In addition, this vision allows us to see in so many small ways each day the evidence of those things we do not yet see.

In any generation—and, perhaps more so in this generation because it is so smitten with “grabbing for all the gusto” and having everything right here and now—choosing to walk the pathway of faith requires taking a great risk.

Walking this pathway might require taking the risk of being laughed at, mocked, and ridiculed.  Why?  Because someone chooses to believe in God’s promise that our lasting citizenship is found not here in this world but in God’s Kingdom.  Or, walking the pathway of faith might require taking the risk of being shunned and rejected for choosing to believe in God’s promise that He is present with us when everyone seems to have abandoned us.  To add insult to injury, those who mock us or abandon might be our own children, members of our family, or even a spouse!

As people of faith, all that we have available to contemplate as we consider taking the risk to walk the pathway of faith are the stories of those who preceded us along the pathway of faith.  If we reflect seriously upon these stories, especially as they were reiterated in today’s stories about the Jewish people and of Abraham and Sarah, or if we contemplate the story of Jesus’ life and death, we will see that those who have chosen to walk the pathway of faith first had to take a great risk.  And, what did they base their risk upon?  All they had was God’s promise.  And, in every instance, God has fulfilled His promise.

There is no proof nor is there any guarantee that following this pathway and adhering to its requirements will result in any one of us having an easier life or of getting into heaven.  But, as Jesus taught us in today’s gospel, “Take a risk, sell all of your belongings and give alms.”  What Jesus is teaching us as his disciples today is that, rather than to accept and cherish what our culture dictates we should accept and cherish, we must instead take the risk to walk the pathway of faith trusting only in God’s promise.  This counter-cultural stance carries with it the very high probability that we will be rejected for looking at our world through the prism of God’s promise, because we have neither the proof nor the guarantee that our faith will make any difference.  But, as we realize in so many small ways what we believe in and hope for, this provides all the evidence we need concerning all of those things we don’t yet see.

Walking the pathway of faith can be extremely difficult because each of us has been born into, developed, and now participate in a culture.  Unlike Abraham, Sarah, and Jesus, however, when we become more enamored with our culture than we do with God, we gradually grow blind to God’s promise and we gradually accept what our fellow citizens call “progressive” and “enlightened” outlooks and attitudes toward spiritual and moral matters.  We then find ourselves ignoring God’s promise altogether when we make important decisions and, because we desperately desire to “fit in” and to “be like everyone else” we push to the side what being spiritually and morally productive requires, namely, being the “genuine article” that God has created each of us to be.  Lastly, we compound these errors with one additional error, namely, we choose to become more “tolerant” and “inclusive” of attitudes and behaviors we know are clearly immoral and in violation of God’s law.

Interestingly, there is no way any one of us can “prove” that walking the pathway of faith is superior to the pathway being advocated by our culture.  All we can do is to believe in God’s promise that this pathway is one and only pathway toward the peace and the happiness for which our souls yearn.  While we may not know the future, we do have a vision of what it portends as well as a promise that is testified to by scripture.

Because God’s time is greater than our own, all of us and all of our ancestors participate in a larger stream of time where our sole purpose is to lay the groundwork for God’s future.  Like our ancestors, we most likely do not and will not experience that future.  After all, Moses never did into the Promised Land but only caught a glimpse of it.  Moreover, Mary bore God’s only begotten Son not only in her womb but also in her arms at the foot of the Cross.  Like Moses and Mary, our lives can serve as stepping stones for future generations if we live our faith and pass it on to the next generation.  Like Moses and Mary, this is our purpose, too.

However, we’d rather psychics and tarot-card readers tell us our future.  We’d rather foresee tomorrow’s winning lotto ticket number.  We’d rather know infallibly where to invest money in the stock market.  We even fantasize living in a world like Back to the Future where we’d have a catalog with all the winners from horse races to the World Series so that we could place sure bets.

In contrast to these and other such fantasies, discipleship requires being realistic about what being spiritually and morally productive requires.  Just as Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Mary, and Jesus had to be realistic about what being spiritually and morally productive required of them, so too, we must be realistic.  To achieve this end, we need faith, namely, to envision a future where the little things today provide us the “realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.”  Then, as walk along this pathway, we need not “be afraid any longer…” because “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

 

 

mail2.gif (2917 bytes)      Does today’s homily raise any question(s) that you would like
                   me to respond to? Mail your question(s) by double clicking on
               
    the mailbox. I will respond to your question(s) at my first
                   available opportunity.


   Double click on this button to return to the homily
                                         webpage.