HOMILY WEEK 21 02 – Year II
Standing Firm and Holding Fast:
Optional Memorial of St. Joseph Calasanz
(2 Thes 2:1-3,14-17; Ps 96; Mt 23:23-26)
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There is a legend about St. Francis who claimed he would keep on hoeing in the garden if Jesus was coming that day.
In the readings today, St Paul invites us to do the same – to stand fast and hold firm in our faith.
Current doomsday and apocalyptic scenarios from time to time can be unsettling. How should we respond?
The first reading and the gospel combine to provide an answer. Jesus in the gospel chides the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and focus on external things instead of practicing justice, mercy and faith. He then invites them to clean the inside of the cup – to look within, repent, and go on a healing journey of conversion.
The first thing we need do is to hold fast to faith in God’s mercy and justice. That is our anchor. We need to believe in how much God loves us, and how merciful our God is. Pope Francis dwells on this. Rick Warren talks about how he used to watch his children sleep – their breathing, little chests going up and down. He derived pleasure just from watching his children sleep. They didn’t have to do anything – just be there, breathing and sleeping.
It is the same with God and us. We are God’s children. Imagine if you as parents love your children that way, unconditionally, without them having to do anything, how much more God loves us the same way. So, we must hold fast to God’s love and mercy, and be on healing journeys ourselves. Conversion is both a moment and a lifetime process. Justice for St Paul is a right relationship with God, others, ourselves and all of God’s creation. So, to hold fast to justice is to be sure that we are in a right relationship with God, an intimate relationship of loving obedience.
Second, we need to stand firm, trying our best to live the life that God has given us, doing God’s will, and not worrying about the future. God’s kingdom is at hand whether we are scrubbing pots, writing reports, driving carpools or hauling trash.
We need to develop our ability to find God in the normality of our everyday lives, and to live in the present moment. We need to be practicing mercy and acting justly in our world, especially by loving others and working for justice, unlike the scribes and Pharisees.
Each day offers the opportunity to draw closer to God, to mend broken relationships, and to care for God’s people. If we are trying to do this each day, our fears and worries will dissolve. We will grow in confidence that we are living each day to its fullest, and we will be more peaceful.
In fact, we may even be able to live out the words of Psalm 96, and rejoice and exult for joy that Jesus is coming again to judge the peoples with equity, to judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.
Today the Church invites us to honor St. Joseph Calasanz, who was born in a castle in Aragon, Spain, in 1556 and is often referred to by his Latin name, Calasanctius. At age 28 he was ordained, so concerning himself with religious reform that he was appointed vicar-general at 34. In 1952, he gave up his position and left for Rome, where he lived for five years as a pilgrim. Joseph became aware of the plight of poor children and their need for education. When he could not get permission for them to attend regular schools, he saw God calling him to do something himself. Using his inheritance, he set up free schools for the poor. From the community of teachers Joseph founded the Order of Clerks Regular of Religious Schools, which spread throughout Italy and beyond. Unfortunately, there as dissension in the order; a papal commission eventually dissolved the order in 1646. Joseph died in 1648, but his hopes were fulfilled in 1669 when the order was re-formed; it continues today, known as the Piarists or Scolopi. Joseph was canonized in 1767 and is patron of schools serving the needs of poor children.
The Eucharist is in its own way, an experience of holding fast to God’s love though Word and Sacrament, and standing firm in our commitment to be bread to the world.
May our celebration be truly an experience of holding fast to God’s love and mercy, and standing firm in our commitment to love one another and the world as Jesus has loved us.
