HOMILY WEEK 13 03 – Year I
Be the First Fruits of God’s Creation:
Optional Memorial of the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church
(Gen 21:5-20; Ps 34; Mt 8:28-34)
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“That we might be as the first fruits of God’s creation.”
That interesting quote from the gospel acclamation today becomes for us both a challenge and an invitation – to be pioneers in a new creation through fearless obedient faith.
For St. John in his gospel, the resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of a new creation, more awesome than the creation of the universe, as marvelous and scintillating as that is. That is why he often starts a passage with “It was morning (or evening) of the day Jesus rose from the dead.”
The starting point of participating in this new creation, of course, is always faith – faith in God including a prayerful relationship with God, and for us, an intimate relationship with Jesus as Son of God that leads to bold action building up this new creation.
Abraham, of course, is our father in faith, and we see him today in a prayerful relationship of listening to God. Hagar’s faith leads her to an answer to her prayer and survival for her and her son in the wilderness. For its part, the psalm reminds us that God always hears the cry of the poor.
Turning to the gospel, we are shocked to find that even the demons have a kind of faith in Jesus, even recognizing him as Son of God (which the Jewish leadership found blasphemous) and praying to (pleading with) him to be sent into the herd of pigs. How much more so should we put our total faith and trust in Jesus as the initiator of this new creation?
The second aspect of this new creation arising from the readings is humble obedience. Our faith must translate into action, or it is not truly resurrection faith. Throughout the bible, God has always expected an obedient faith that led to action.
As Richard Rohr puts it in his meditation on contemplation and action, “Moses’ experience of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6) links action and contemplation as the very starting place of the Judeo-Christian tradition. His encounter is surely an inner one, but it immediately drives him outwardly, as deep inner experience tends to do …. Immediately after Moses had his heart-stopping experience, YHWH said to him: ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt. Now, go! Tell Pharaoh to let my people go’ (Exodus 3:7, 10). God gives Moses an experience of an unnamable Presence, and it has immediate practical—and in this case socio-political—implications and direction – ‘Go make a difference, Moses!’”
It was the same with Abraham. God asked him to leave his homeland and set out to an unknown destination, and Abraham obeyed, as he also did when asked to sacrifice his only son. That difficult passage in the Old Testament is surely included solely for a prophetic purpose – to point to the real Lamb of God who would by the sacrifice of his life, open the way for us to participate in his new creation.
Interestingly, Jesus’ first words to the apostles is “Come and see” in the gospel of John and “Go to all nations” at the end, which they obeyed. His single command “Go” in this passage in response to the prayer of the demons, which they obey, liberates these pagan Gadarenes from their demonic state.
A third aspect of this new creation is freedom from fear. One would think the community would be overjoyed to see their two brothers set free from their terrible state. To the contrary, they come out full of fear and beg Jesus to leave their territory. What is this all about?
An all too common trait among we wounded and weak human beings is to cling to the status quo, fear change and the unknown, and even prefer the misery we know to the possibilities we don’t know that might demand something of us.
Good spirituality is all about letting go. Most people want more possessions, prestige and power, whereas Jesus is all about just the opposite – sharing, humility and equality. All the power struggles and often subtle efforts to control others in our society, and unfortunately even in the church, suggests that we still have not grasped this message that is such an essential part of Jesus’ new creation, and may even fear it.
Mark and Terri felt called to a life of greater ministry to the world. Overcoming their fear at this challenge to their comfortable lifestyle, they discerned this subtle call long and hard through prayer, scripture, life events and the counsel of others. Their first response was to sell their businesses, and eventually felt sure that the Lord was also asking them to sell their house and simplify their lives so that they could be freer to evangelize. Like Moses, Abraham and the apostles, they obeyed and now find themselves helping out the poor and respectfully evangelizing Muslims in the Middle East. Very gently, they point out how the Torah, the prophets and even the New Testament are books that could and should be part of a Muslim’s faith life. Certainly they are participating in the new creation of Jesus through fearless obedient faith.
This day is dedicated to the Christians martyred under the Emperor Nero. In the year 64, a great fire broke out in Rome. When suspicion fell on Nero, he accused Christians of having set the fire. The historian Tacitus wrote that while no one believed this, countless Christians were seized nevertheless, mocked and put to death in unspeakable ways.
The Eucharist, our greatest prayer and tremendous act of faith, calls us to obey the Word of the Lord that we hear, and to live out the Eucharist by serving our brother and sisters with our gifts and talents, and sharing the good news of this new creation in which we are participants.
