topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
09 July 06


 

Last evening, I watched a rerun of the television series, Frazier Crane.  There was something important Frazier had to tell his brother, Niles.  Frazier had to take a risk, however, because he wasn’t quite sure how Niles would respond to what Frazier had to say.  After telling Niles what was on his mind, Frazier said, “I hope you understand, Niles, that I told you this because it’s important.  I’m your brother, Niles, and I told you…because...well...I love you.”

Have you ever found yourself in the position of having to relate something important or difficult to someone you loved, not sure about how that person would respond?

Parents oftentimes have to do this raising their children.  Husbands and wives oftentimes have to do this to raise their spouse.  (No, just kidding. “To perfect one’s spouse.”)  And, when they do, parents as well as husbands and wives oftentimes aren’t exactly sure how a child or spouse is going to respond.  After rehearsing various formulations and anticipating various responses, they go ahead and say what needs to be said…because they love the child or spouse.

The selection from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel concludes with what is, for me, a rather surprising statement.  What the text states is: “Whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.”  What I find surprising is the use of tense in this statement.  The present tense speaks about the people, “they are a rebellious house.”  But, the text continues: “They will know that a prophet has been among them.”  The future tense describes when the people will realize the errors of their ways.  The past tense tells us that it will only be in retrospect that the people will realize this, long after their rebellion and its negative fallout.

“Good gracious,” some of you might be wondering, “has Fr. Jacobs gone mad?  So what about the use of verb tenses?  What difference does it make?”

Well, last time I was tested, I hadn’t gone mad.  And, my intent this morning isn’t to use my homily to provide a lesson in English verb forms.  My purpose instead is to describe the difference this use of tense makes and what it means that is what I believe to be terribly important for us.

One clue concerning what the use of these three tenses may mean is found in today’s Gospel.  God sent Jesus—the “incarnate Son of God,” the “Word of God made flesh,” and the “One who was like us in all things but sin”—to the kind of people God was describing to the prophet, Ezekiel.  As the term was used in today’s first reading, these people are “rebels” who have grown “hard of face” and “obstinate of heart.”  These people have revolted against God, the text states, “to this very day.”

Have you ever experienced this type of person?  Someone you have told time and again what is right and what is wrong?  Someone whose face becomes like stone when you confront him or her with the fact of one’s self-chosen rebellion?  Someone who refused to listen and whose heart has become hardened by years and decades of stubborn intransigence?  Do you remember how it all started when you had the courage to speak the truth—God’s word—to this person?

Furthermore, when you’ve raised the issue, did you suddenly discover that you became the problem and that you really aren’t all so perfect yourself?  You’re asked: “Who made you God?  Who elected you guardian of right and wrong?”  Or, this person rejects you altogether.  “Get out of here!” you’re ordered.  “You’re no longer welcome here, so don’t come by to visit and don’t telephone me!”  Even worse yet, beyond these personal indignities, perhaps you’ve suffered abuse or even violence at this individual’s hands.  What compounds the pain of this ridicule, indignity, and perhaps even pain, is that you really do love this person and raised the issue only because love impelled you.  There was no personal agenda or selfishness behind what you said.

Today’s gospel tells us that this is the very type of rejection Jesus experienced in his hometown.  Having done nothing more than to teach the people what God sent him to teach, here’s what Jesus’ family, friends, relatives, and neighbors had to say about him:

·       “So, Mr. Smarty-Pants, where did you get all of this knowledge from?  Note: this question is actually a challenge.  Jesus spoke God’s word and it cut right through their stone faces and hardened hearts.  Terrified that Jesus saw right through them, the people chose to attack Jesus’ credentials rather than to deal with the truth.

·       “What kind of wisdom has been given him?”  Note: instead of dealing with the facts, the people get increasingly snide and more personal in their attacks, in effect saying, “Since you don’t have the credentials to teach us in this way, just what gives you the right—what wisdom do you possess—to tell us we should listen to you?”

·       “Is he not the carpenter’s son, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  Are not his sisters here with us?”  Note: In effect, the attack has become more bitter.  “We know who you are!” the people say.  “You’re just one of us…” and, furthermore, “…no better than any of us.” 

The text continues: “They took offense at him.”

Jesus may have been popular and famous because of the miracles he worked.  But, when Jesus taught God’s word to the people of his hometown—the people of Nazareth—as well as what God’s word meant for them in terms of how they have rebelled against God, they no longer believed in the “hometown boy done good.”  In fact, the text tells us that Jesus was “amazed at their lack of faith.”

However, their rebellion didn’t stem from what Jesus taught.  No, they heard what Jesus said.  But, the people of Nazareth refused to listen because they decided, in their rebellion against God, that Jesus had nothing of value to teach them.  The excuse for hearing but not listening?  Jesus’ family, relatives, friends, and neighbors believed they knew Jesus all too well.

Indeed, for bringing God’s word to a people who were in open revolt against God, Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deeds there.”  That’s when Jesus said: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”  And, from that point forward, things don’t get any better for Jesus.  This scene is only a foreshadowing of the ultimate pain, suffering, and rejection Jesus will experience.

God continues today to send prophets into our midst and commissions them to speak God’s word to our rebellious house.  But, when these prophets speak God’s word, they shake us up, make us feel uncomfortable, and sometimes offend us.  Like the people of Nazareth, we hear these prophets but oftentimes we refuse to listen, especially when God speaks through people like our parents, family members, relatives, or friends.  Yes, we hear what they say because we react to it.  However, we don’t listen to what they say because we stubbornly refuse to allow it to change us.

“Familiarity breeds contempt” and it is true that the better we know people the more likely we are to find fault with them and maybe even grow to dislike them.  Taking them for granted, we allow ourselves to grow deaf to what they say and, as a consequence, we underestimate their capacity to do what God has asked of them, namely, to speak God’s word so that it takes root deep within and changes us.  So, the words go into the ears and are processed by the brain but they don’t go any farther, like descending down into our hearts where they would have the power to change us for the better.

Have you got the idea?

In each generation, God sends prophets to announce God’s word to rebellious people…and that’s all of us.  Upon hearing God’s word, rebellious people grow insecure, upset, angry, and even, irrational…and that’s all of us, too.  Rather than taking the message to heart, rebellious people seek to destroy the messenger.  Furthermore, rather than deal with the truth, rebellious people—again that’s you and me—will go so far as to eliminate the messenger instead of turning away from sin and experiencing gracious God’s offer of salvation.

So, what has all of this got to do with the use of the future and past tense in the selection from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, “They will know that a prophet has been among them”?  What has this go to do with our lives?  Note well: the future tense speaks about when the rebellious people will realize the errors of their ways…in the past.

Think about it.  How often have you found yourself saying, “If only I knew then what I know now”?

The implication is, of course, that had I known then—in the past—what I know now—in the present—I would have acted differently.  But, because of arrogance, pride, and stubbornness, rebellious people cling greedily to their ways and don’t listen to or allow themselves to be changed by God’s word.  Imagine this: if only Jesus’ family, friends, relatives, and neighbors knew then what they discovered only after they rejected Jesus, think of the miraculous deeds Jesus could have effected then and there on that very day in Nazareth!

How many times have we caught ourselves saying privately, “Gosh, my parents were right…”—note the use of the past tense—“…I should have listened to them.  But, I gave them grief instead.  I turned the house into a war zone.”  How sad!  The fourth commandment is very clear: “Honor your father and mother….”  Think of what could have been in our homes and in our relationship with our parents had we not hardened our faces and allowed our hearts to become stubborn!  Only now do we recognize what we did in the past, what we have forsaken in the past, and what we cannot undo.

If married, think of all those times you have allowed all of those things your spouse said that were true and needed to be changed but you instead allowed to interfere with forming a very deep, loving, and intimate relationship with your spouse.  But, now you say privately, “If only I knew then what I know now, I’d not have let all of those things get in the way.  I really shouldn’t have, but I did.”  How sad!  You weren’t forced to pronounce the vow, “I promise to love you, honor you, and obey you, all the days of my life.…”  So, what word is null and void?  Filled with grief and guilt over everything that might have been, these individuals rebelled and allowed sin to harden their hearts and to set their jaws like stone.  Only now do they recognize what they have done, what they have forsaken, and what they cannot undo.

This is precisely what we do when we choose to rebel against God’s word.  Think of all the miraculous deeds that could have been effected in our lives, in our homes, and in our marriages were we not rebellious and deaf to God’s word!  Looking to the past, scripture states, “They will know that a prophet has been among them.”  Yes, it’s obvious that we heard God’s word because we rejected what we heard.  Then, because of our rebellion, we stubbornly refused to listen to God’s word and allow it to change us.

The use of past and future tense in today’s scripture forces us to recognize a not-all-too-pretty picture…about ourselves.  We are those rebellious people.  We have revolted against the prophets God has sent to speak His word to us!

On the one hand, God’s word presents a harsh indictment of any of us who would ignore, belittle, or persecute those people God sends to teach us the truth about our lives.  While we may resent what these prophets have to say and we may stand the prophet in front of our verbal firing squad, we are in reality only indicting ourselves.  And, in the future when we reflect back upon the past, we will see what we’ve done.  The important lesson for our lives?  “Rebellious house: don’t impede those God has sent your way!”

On the other hand, God’s word also commends to us speak the truth even when we encounter resistance, ridicule, and persecution.  No one in his or her right mind would go out and apply for the prophet’s job.  It’s literally the kiss of death.  But, in the future, when the past no longer matters, we’ll see where we are.  The important lesson for our lives?  “Speak God’s word!”

Now, while that may make us feel guilty—and that’s a good thing because, as the psychiatrist Karl Gustav Jung wrote, guilt is “justified self-disapproval”—we need to remember that we live in the present, not in the past.  It is today—in the present—that God once again is sending prophets to speak His word.  All we have to do is to listen and allow God’s word to take root within and to change our stone faces and hardened hearts.

In the end, what matters is fidelity, whether it’s listening to the prophets God sends our way or speaking God’s word to those God sends our way.  When we listen to God’s word, we need not fear what will, in the future, be the past.  Why?  Because we will experience God’s mighty deeds having transformed us.  Then, in the future, we will have no regrets, no guilt, and no fear of the choices we’ve make…in the past.  And, when we speak God’s word, we need not fear the present.  Why?  Because we will experience the fullness of eternal life.

 

 

 

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