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I was working on writing my homily several years back when the
telephone rang late Saturday afternoon. I answered the phone.
My
secretary, Peggy, was on the other end of the line.
“Hi Rich, Dennis (Peggy’s
husband) wants to know if you’re interested in
coming over for dinner?”, she asked.
“I’d love to, Peggy, but I don’t know if I can. I’m working on
my homily for tomorrow morning,” I said.
“Shouldn’t you be finished by now?” Peggy asked. “It’s getting close
to time for supper.”
“Well, it’s taking me a bit longer than I thought it would,” I said.
“What’s the topic?,” she asked. “Maybe I can help.”
“Okay, give it your best shot, Peggy,” I said. “Tomorrow’s
readings are about the virtue of humility.”
“Well, no wonder it’s taking you so long Jacobs!” (I bolstered
myself because Peggy always called me by my last name when she was
about to launch an attack.)
“How can you possibly speak about something you know absolutely nothing
about?”
Today’s words from Scripture remind us that God speaks to us most
frequently not in the way we’d like, those mysterious and awesome,
absolutely singular and unquestionable ways―like
bolts of lightning and thunderclaps―we’d like to believe are
the “regular ways” that God speaks to us. No, God normally speaks
to us through the voices of those people who are closest to us, like our spouses, parents, and children as well as our
siblings, relatives, friends and, yes, even our coworkers, like
Peggy.
But, let’s not forget there’s another side to this lesson from
today’s Scripture. It’s
seen in the person of Jesus, the prophet Ezekiel, and the apostle to
the Gentiles, St. Paul.
God has spoken to and breathed his spirit into each and
every one of us, setting us on our feet, and sending us to those who
have rebelled and revolted against God. And, God has said, “You
shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God!” We all already know
what God has said we must do—it’s been planted in our souls—and God
has sent us to speak those words to “a rebellious house.”
End of story. Period. We know what we are to say. We
know what we are to do.
God wants us to speak to those people so that they will hear God’s
word and turn away from sin. Now, it’s
just as the Nike advertisement states “Just do it!”
A couple of years back, a parishioner called to invite me to lunch
so that we could talk privately. At lunch, he revealed to me
he and his wife hadn’t gotten
along “forever” and he wanted some advice. That admission and
request struck me as somewhat strange because they regularly
attended Sunday mass together with their children. He then confided that
was having an affair with another woman and asked: “What do you
think God wants me to do?”
I really didn’t think. I just responded: “God wants you to cut off
the affair right now, renew your vows to your wife, and raise your
children as husband and wife.”
As if I hadn’t spoken one word, he continued: “I just wish God would
tell me what to do.”
“Well, God is telling you what to do,”
I said, “but you aren’t listening.”
“No, I heard what you said.” the fellow responded. “I want to hear
what God has to say.”
“You just did,” I said. “Haven’t you read the bible?” I asked. “If
God could speak through Balaam’s ass, God certainly can speak
through me. Are you listening?”
I don’t
know whether the fellow found that quip to be as uproariously funny as I did
(after all, Peggy, I was trying to be humble!). But, as
the bad situation turned out, he wasn’t
listening to me and it grew worse. The fellow
divorced his wife a short time later, married the other woman, and
they were divorced within a short time. Since the day the
fellow and I had lunch, I’ve never seen
him inside of church or outside of church.
God also wants us to speak to the members of our family in the same
way that God speaks to us through the members of our families.
Take your spouse, for example. Have you noticed that God has been
challenging you to get off of your duff and out of your mindless rut by doing
something to improve yourself? Have you ever thought: my spouse
doesn’t look like God; my spouse doesn’t sound like God; heck, my
spouse doesn’t even act like God, although it is true that my spouse
thinks he (or she) is God. Have you ever badgered yourself
wondering: “How could my spouse possibly know God’s will for my
life?” Wouldn’t it be so much easier were those words spoken by
someone other than your spouse? “Why didn’t God pick someone else?”
The answer is simple: Why should he?
Perhaps more difficult is when God decides to use a forthright young
child or a rebellious teenager to speak directly to parents.
I remember the four-year-old daughter of a couple who had just told
her they were going to divorce. It was such a dreadful scene.
The
young girl was crying her eyeballs out and, through her veil of tears, she
asked in the authority of God’s voice: “Why won’t my mommy love my
daddy?” Out of the mouths of babes! Isn’t that the truth? Aren’t
most marital problems that lead to divorce based upon nothing more
than the stubborn refusal to love and to do what love requires?
Perhaps most difficult for parents is when God decides to speak
through the voice of a rebellious teenager. Perhaps you’ve said one thing and
done another or corrected your teenaged son or daughter only to do the very
same thing a short time later. Maybe you’ve spoken about a
personality defect or personal shortcoming in your mother or father
or an in-law,
only to do the exact same thing. Sure as shooting, you’re quick to
hear: “Dad, you’re acting just like Grandma!” Aren’t those the moments
you wish God would talk directly to you and in private rather than
through the megaphone your teenaged son or daughter is using to
broadcast your hypocrisy for all to hear?
Today’s words from Scripture remind us that God most commonly speaks
to us through those who are closest to us and, in the person of
Jesus, the prophet Ezekiel, and the apostle St. Paul, that God wants
to speak through us to the members of
“that rebellious house.” However, we’d rather
that God speak through those mysterious and awesome, absolutely
unquestionable ways. Unfortunately, scripture seems to be
suggesting that’s just not how God operates.
We heard Ezekiel remind us:
God has spoken to all of us. God has breathed his spirit into all
of us. God has set on our feet. God is sending us to those who
have rebelled and revolted against Him. And, God has said, “You
shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God!” “Period. End of
discussion. Finito!”
as Uncle Buck said to his niece Mazie Russel.
And, because we are speaking God’s word, those to whom
we speak God’s word should listen to us. It might mean telling
someone to
end the affair. It might mean listening to a little daughter
who asks “Why
can’t my mommy love my daddy?” Or, like the rebellious teenager who notes a
parent’s hypocrisy.
To believe that God speaks to us through other human beings or to
other human beings through us is
pretty tough to accept, however. Because they are close to us,
we know their faults and foibles. We know their imperfections
and sins. We know them so well that we can honestly retort:
“Look at just who’s calling the kettle black!” This is
precisely what so deeply offended
the people about Jesus in today’s gospel. God became human—in the
flesh—of a man they knew, a man named Jesus from the town of
Nazareth. How could God possibly speak through him, the carpenter’s
son?
When God does speak to us through others—someone like Jesus who
is filled with a generous spirit—our reactions very often are tinged
with the same jealousy, selfishness, and meanness of spirit of Jesus’ own
people who themselves refused to listen to Jesus was because he
looked too much like one of them. And, when God speaks to us through others—someone like Jesus who
is filled with a generous spirit—our reactions may very well be tinged
with jealousy, selfishness, and meanness of spirit, just like Jesus’ own
people who themselves refused to listen to Jesus was because he
looked too much like one of them.
In the end, when the truth is made plainly clear, all of us will see
how God has been speaking directly to us all along in all of those
people who look just like us. As Ezekiel
said, “They shall know that a prophet has been among them.”
Too bad it will be after the fact...after we’ve
criticized them, ostracized them, or dismissed them from our lives.
Who is the loser here?
The
question today’s readings from Scripture presents us in order that
we might prepare ourselves for that day is: Will we
have heard and heeded God’s voice spoken through the prophets who
are among us?
On this Independence Day weekend, the words of Scripture remind us
that we discover our true freedom by being attentive to God’s
voice speaking to us about everything we ought to do so that we will fulfill our excellence as God’s sons and daughters. Let us
recognize, as St. Paul reminds us, that our strength is found in our
weakness, that is, by humbly heeding the voice of God speaking to us
through one another so that we turn from our sinful ways.
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HOMILY
