FR. OLMAN’S HOMILY

08/12/2007

19 SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME, CICLE C

Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel “Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.  The kingdom is a gift.  The kingdom is God’s design and his plan of salvation for us.  The world was created so that the reign of God could mature in it.   The world is temporal and passing.  But the reign of God is eternal.  Mankind’s destiny is the reign of God.  The Son of God became man by the work of the Holy Spirit.  He reveals the reign of God as the destiny of mankind.  The Father has handed that kingdom over to Jesus Christ.  It is Christ himself who gives us the reign of God as our mission and goal.  From the beginning of his preaching, Christ proclaims this kingdom.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: the “Kingdom shines out before men in the world, in the works and in the presence of Christ.  To welcome Jesus’ word is to welcome the kingdom itself.  The seed and beginning of the Kingdom are the little flock of those whom Jesus came to gather around him.  The flock whose shepherd he is.  They form Jesus’ true family.  To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a new way of acting and a prayer of their own (764).

The Gospel of the reign of God is the confirmation of the divine work of creation.  God created the world for mankind, for all men and women,.  However, since the ultimate destiny of the person is the reign of God, he cannot live exclusively of the world.  He cannot live as if the world and temporal realities were his final goal. He cannot put his whole heart in the goods and riches of this earth.

We are like strangers and foreigners on the earth.  We must be like Abraham who obeyed instantly and courageously God’s call to set out for the Promised Land.  Through his generous response he grew in the knowledge of the God who called him.  He never wavered in his faith though he was subjected to severe tests.  Faith is a leap in the dark.  The man of faith like Abraham must set out into the unknown.  He cannot settle down in this world. 

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.  If a person’s real treasure, his ultimate aim in all his striving is something pertaining to his earth, the acquisition of money, fame, popularity, prestige, power; then his heart, the very centre of his life, will be completely absorbed in that worldly object.  All his activities including even the so-called religious will be subservient to this one goal.  On the other hand, if, out of sincere and humble gratitude to God, he has made God’s kingdom, his treasure, then, money will be a help, not a hindrance.

The Lord says today “you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour”.  St Philip Neri was kicking a ball around with some street boys when a pious person asked what he would do should he know he were to die shortly.  Philip Neri replied that he would go on playing for that was all he was