Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Readiness To Meet The Lord Begins Today

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Beloved in Christ, as the people of God, the family of Jesus crucified, we have all come together again to praise and to worship an awesome God. We have come, not only as citizens of the earth but also as citizens of heaven. We are children of the Kingdom, God’s Kingdom. Each of us has a dual citizenship: citizens of the already realized kingdom, that is the earth, and citizens of the not yet realized Kingdom of God. Therefore, to be able to make heaven, to be able to be part of the “not yet realized” Kingdom of God, we must live a good life; we must live a life of faith- faith in God. We must live a life of active demonstrable faith- that is, the kind of faith that speaks volumes and loud. Our very lifestyle here on earth must be Christ-centered if we have any chance of being part of this Kingdom of God. 

Today’s gospel stresses living a good life and being ready to receive the Lord when he comes again. Now, today’s gospel can be interpreted in two ways. In one way, it can be interpreted to refer chiefly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; but in another sense, it can be given the interpretation of the very moment when God’s Word enters into the life of a person and transforms the individual for good and prepares the person to meet the Lord. In the gospel, Jesus urges us to be ready for the Kingdom. The people of Jesus’ time expected the kingdom soon. The Early Christians also expected it soon. From time to time, certain individuals have also “prophesied” the exact day and time it would take place- that is, when Jesus will come and bring the world and all other earthly existence to a closure. But in the gospel of Matthew 24:36, Jesus says: “But concerning the day or hour (when the Son of God will come), no one knows, not even the angels of heaven...” Since no one knows when the end will come, since no one knows the day or the hour when eternity will invade time and accountability is demanded of us, we have to be ready at all times. We would like the Awesome Savior to find us with our work completed. In John 17:4, Jesus himself said to his Father: “I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do.” Therefore, do not let any good work be left undone. As you clean up your house and rid your garage of several years of junk, get rid of those junks in your life that are preventing you from growing in the Lord. Do not wait any longer! Get rid of that jealousy! Rid yourself of malice and hate and bad talk and lies. Don’t you want the Lord to find you at peace with all people? It would be a tormenting experience to pass through this world being bitter with someone. St. Paul, in Ephesians 4:26 warns us not to let the sun goes down on our anger. Certainly, we would like God to also find us at peace with himself. To be at peace with God is heaven and heavenly.

To stress the importance of being ready to meet the Awesome Lord, Jesus uses the example of a master who had servants- some of them were wise, while some were foolish. As soon as the master left the house to attend a wedding celebration, the unwise servant said to himself: “I will do what I like while my master is away.” But he forgot that the day of reckoning would come. Do you sometimes see yourself in this unwise servant? If you don’t, I do! There are many times in my life that I think of God, that I am aware of his presence, that I know that he is present. There’s a part of me that often times reminds me that God is watching me from a distance. But there is also a part of me that tries to rationalize and explain my wrong actions away. This part of me tries to make me to forget God, and when I wrestle with it, it tries to tell me that “God understands and he will understand my foolishness and wrongdoing.” Surely, God understands how weak and vulnerable we are. But he also understands how powerful and effective we could be in doing his will when we lean and cling onto him. If we really know what Christianity is all about we will know that there is no part of life where God, the Master is away. If God appears to be physically distant, he is never spiritually absent. He is spiritually present at all times.  

The part of us that often times tries to justify our wrongdoings, that tries to convince us not to think of God, that tries to make us to think that he is away or distant is the part that drove the unwise servant to also say: “My master is delayed in coming...” He allowed that part of him convince him that he has plenty of time to put things right before the master returns.  This is the fatal mistake that many young people make today. They keep postponing active relationship with God to later years of their lives. Going to church on Sunday and being active witnesses of Jesus Christ are considered to be old folks things. But there is nothing so fatal as to think that one has plenty of time. There is nothing absolutely wrong in serving God from youth. St. Augustine of Hippo had great enthusiasm for the created things of this world and it held him back from having a lively relationship with God. But in his thirties, he finally yielded to baptism and faith in God. And having breathed the fragrance of God’s Truth and Beauty, having found the peace he so desperately sought, St. Augustine exclaimed: “Late have I loved you, Beauty so Ancient and so New!” Having found God and experienced a great deal of satisfaction, fulfillment and peace, St. Augustine wished he had found him earlier in his life. 

In the gospel of John 9:4, Jesus says: “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming when no one can work.” I have often said that one of the most dangerous suggestions a believer can hear in his or her mind is: “You are doing too much in the church; you have done enough for God and for the Church.” Such thoughts hardly come from the Holy Spirit. When you hear such thoughts, resist it. The Evil One is trying to slow you down and ultimately overtake your life. When a child of God begins to give flimsy excuses why he or she cannot go to church on Sunday or why he or she cannot be active member of the church, something has gone wrong spiritually. One of the most dangerous days in a believer’s life is when he or she begins to use the word “tomorrow” and constantly apply it in matters of God. Remember, tomorrow never comes!