NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
7 AUGUST 2022
The
Letter to the Hebrews uses Abraham and Sarah to provide a visual description of
authentic faith. Abraham listened to
God’s promise and went to a place utterly unknown to him. He remained in that place, even though he and
Sarah were resident aliens. He trusted
God’s promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky
and the sands on the shore of the sea.
He trusted that promise even though he and Sarah were beyond
childbearing age. He continued to trust
that promise, even when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. Abraham maintained his strong trust in God’s
unconditional love, not out of fear, but out of love.
Jesus
exhibits this same absolute trust in his Father’s unconditional love for him during
his public ministry. He continues to
trust his Father, even when his closest disciples abandon him out of fear in
the Garden of Gethsemani, and even when he faces a horrible and humiliating
death. The Father rewards his absolute
trust in the Resurrection, Ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, he tells his disciples to
have that same trust in his unconditional love.
He assures us (his disciples today) that his kingdom is already in our
midst. He invites us to recognize that
kingdom in the midst of our divided and sinful worldly kingdom.
But he also
tells us an unsettling truth. At some
time in the future, he will come again.
Disciples have been waiting for that second coming for over two thousand
years. He will come again for each of us
when we will face our own individual deaths.
Instead of wasting time to speculate in fear when he will come, he wants
us to wait in faith, in hope, and in love.
Waiting for his coming does not mean locking ourselves out of fear. Waiting
involves action. It involves getting rid
of belongings which we do not need and giving alms to those who do not have
enough. Waiting means increasing our
spiritual treasures instead of accumulating stuff that will end in death. Waiting means that we will gird our
loins. In the ancient world, people
girded their loins (lifted up their garments) to make it easier to move about
in humble service to each other. If we
engage in efforts to form closer relationships with Jesus Christ, our lamps
will provide a bit more light in the midst of a darkening world.
If we
assume this kind of waiting, we will not be acting out of fear. We will respond out of the love and trust
that characterized the lives of Abraham and Sarah. The Lord who washed the feet of his disciples
at the Last Supper promises that when he comes, he will have us recline at
table in the heavenly kingdom and wait on us.
But he also tells us what we should fear. We have reason to fear, only if we focus our efforts
on our own perceived needs and ourselves.
We must trust the Lord’s promise that we will share in his rising if we
share in his dying.
We live in
a world motivated by fear, greed, competition, and division. In that world, it is easy to deny the reality
of death. Or, if we think about our own
deaths or the end of the world, we waste time in utter fear trying to predict
when and how those realities will happen.
I spent the
last week with my classmates in Canada for the Stratford Festival. There are only five of us left. In our hay day, there were 15. Most have died or have lost their
health. It was the 52nd year
going to the Festival (after a two year break), and our 50th year
staying at the Deer Park Lodge in Bayfield.
At this point in our lives, we have become acutely aware of our
mortality. We talked often about the
blessings we enjoyed over all these years and the departed classmates who had
joined us. We thanked God for the blessings we currently enjoy in our lives. We return to continue to be humble servants
to our parishes. But we were encouraged
by the Lord’s advice about waiting. We have
learned to trust in the Lord’s unconditional love both now and in the future,
whatever the future holds for us.
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