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Hearts of Prayer: Sacred Liturgy - Homilies |
The Discipline of Faithful
Love
Homily for Sunday, August 262007- 21st Sunday in
Ordinary Time, Yr C
Fr. Joseph Rogers
Read other homilies by Fr. Rogers>>>
Is 66: 18-21; Ps 117;
Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk 13:22-30
Scripture is a unity, a single collection of sacred writings in the
Heart of the Church. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old; and
the Old is fulfilled in the New. Today, as we hear the Word of God,
we can see how the Old Testament illuminates our understanding of
the New: Isaiah 66 helps us understand and drink in the Gospel of
Luke.
The Gospel of Luke is determined. It has a straight and narrow goal:
Jerusalem. Whereas the Gospel of John commemorates three pilgrimages
of Our Lord to Jerusalem, Luke begins with the miraculous
intervention of the Annunciation in Nazareth and makes a highway
straight for Jerusalem. There is no deviation. Salvation comes to
all the nations, all the peoples of the earth, to us, from
Jerusalem, where the Lord undergoes his baptism, his exodus. In our
Gospel today the Lord receives a question, “Will only a few be
saved?” The question is quantitative; Jesus’ response is
qualitative: “Strive for the narrow gate.” Our lectionary uses the
words gate and door, but in the Greek they are the same word: thura,
gate. The master of the house arises and locks the gate. The Lord
says, “You will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the
gate for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you
are from!’” What is the house the Lord is referring to? The gate?
Who is the master of the household?
Isaiah 66 is the conclusion of the Book of Isaiah. It is written in
the Second Temple period: Israel has returned from Babylon, the
Temple is restored, the priesthood is again active and offering the
daily sacrifices and prayers, the land has been returned to the
people . . . and the prophet Isaiah sees that nothing has changed.
Despite the blessings of the Lord, the return to the land, the
restoration of true worship on Mt. Zion, Israel is still not a light
to the nations. She is more and more like her pagan neighbors. But
the prophet receives a light from the Lord: “they shall come and see
my glory . . . they shall bring all your brothers and sisters from
all the nations . . . just as the Israelites bring their offering to
the House of the Lord.” Through the tragedy of the exile Israel will
evangelize the nations. Those still dispersed from the Holy Land in
the pagan cities and towns will be vessels of the holiness of God to
the gentiles. They will return with pagan neighbors for true worship
in the House of the Lord – the Temple of Jerusalem – together
praising YHWH, the one true God, the God of the prophets, the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. My sisters and brothers, hear the scandal
of these words: “Some of these I will take as priests and Levites,
says the Lord.” Some among the nations will come to Jerusalem and
receive the most sacred trust of the Covenant: the priesthood! The
“master of the house” – the high priest – will allow non-Jews to
enter the Temple and offer worship! And some will not only enter . .
. but offer sacrifice on behalf of Israel and all the nations! This
is the context for understanding our Gospel.
The Master of the House has renewed Jerusalem. He is truly risen. He
invites us by our baptism to serve as new Levites and priests. We
come from the east and west, north and south and offer true worship,
the sacrifice of praise, sharing the Eucharistic table of the
Kingdom. And the Lord reprimands many of us who eat and drink at
this table, “I do not know where you are from.” He is not referring
to geography, my sisters and brothers. He is referring to our
personal relationship with him, to our sincerity of heart. Do we
come here from our heart? Do we come to worship God from our heart?
This is why we need to be blessed with “discipline.”
The Letter to the Hebrews is the most elegantly written epistle in
the New Testament. The Greek is highly refined, likely originating
from a well-educated rabbi, a “convert” to the Faith. At the center
of the Letter is the prophetic insight that Jesus Christ is the High
Priest of the New Temple, of the new and everlasting Covenant. Today
the author tells us that we have “forgotten the exhortation
addressed” to us “as children” and that we ought not “disdain the
discipline of the Lord or lose heart.” The author is quoting
Proverbs 3, which itself is referencing Deuteronomy 8. Discipline is
necessary to grow in faithful love, and faithful love means
suffering, but it is the road of union with God.
My sisters and brothers, in our culture, if we live the Christian
life, we must expect to suffer. As Christians we must expect the
world to oppose our faith because the world is ignorant of Christ,
but accepting this reality – receiving the blows of
misunderstanding, of living the Gospel and being ridiculed – we come
to see that what is “not a cause of joy but pain” brings “the
peaceful fruit of righteousness.” This is our training: humble,
often silent suffering as we try to live totally faithful to the
Gospel, to the Church, to all of her teachings. And this faithful
love is true worship, true righteousness, our dwelling within the
temple-grounds of Jesus Christ, Our High Priest who is merciful and
understands that we are weak. If we are faithful, if we trust in His
Mercy, the suffering we endure will be a blessing because it reminds
us why we are here, “where we are from.” The key to the gate of the
New Temple is his Mercy. So we ask him to open wide the gate:
“Steadfast is his loving kindness toward us, and his faithfulness
endures forever!” We come from His Mercy. Amen.
Fr. Joseph Everett
Rogers resides at the Pontifical North American College
in Rome studying for the
Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He is a Graduate of Notre Dame
University, with an MA from the John Paul Institute for Marriage and
Family. He was ordained a Priest on May 26, 2007.
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