HOMILY WEEK 32 03 – Year I
Grateful Servants of the Kingdom:
Memorial of St. Leo the Great
(Wis 6:1-11; Ps 82; Lk 17:11-19)
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“Because as servants of the kingdom you did not rule rightly.”
That quote from the first reading caught my attention for two reasons: one, it is the first time that I have seen it written, and two, it connects with my episcopal motto: Regnum Dei Intro Vos – The Kingdom of Heaven is Among You (lk 17:21). So, I have a vested interest in the Kingdom of God.
The readings today not only provide us with the invitation to be grateful servants of the kingdom, they also outline what we need to do, and what we need to avoid, to be good servants of that kingdom.
First, what we need to avoid: The author of Wisdom is quite clear on that matter as he chastises the leaders of Israel for their neglect – “You did not rule rightly (justly), or keep the law, or walk according to the purpose of God. That is what we need to avoid if we are to serve the Kingdom of God.
The flip side of that is the imperative of doing what these leaders did not do: act justly, keep the law of love and do God’s will. The book of wisdom adds the dimension of striving to be holy and being devoted to God’s word, while Jesus in the gospel stresses the importance of gratitude. There in a nut shell, is what it means to be a servant of the Kingdom of heaven.
To “rule rightly” is to act justly. Justice, on one level, is a right relationship with God, all other people in our lives, ourselves, and all of God’s creation. It means being honest and fair in all our dealings, and to do what we can to make sure that the needs of others, especially the poor, are met. It is injustice throughout the Old Testament that causes God the most grief, and that compelled Jesus to cleanse the temple.
Keeping the law means to keep the commandment to love, that I like to summarize as four levels: we are to love God with our whole being; love others as we love ourselves; love one another as Christ has loved us, and finally, love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart. All very challenging, for sure, but also very possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Regarding the call to be holy as God is holy, St. Therese of Lisieux claims genuine holiness is precisely a matter of enduring our own imperfections patiently. Paul Filbert, author of a book on the priesthood of the faithful, would say that “Holiness is not about our impressing God, but about God embracing us. God’s agenda is transformation through intimacy, not moral self-improvement for respectability. The agenda for holiness is in fact the ruling force of the Holy spirit within us.”
Jesus in the gospel recounts the story of the ten lepers that are healed on their way, and only one, a Samaritan, coming back to give thanks. A grateful person is a happy person. If there is only one prayer that we would say in our life that would suffice, it would be “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” We need to count our blessings, and thank God for them.
Did you ever wonder why it was only the Samaritan who returned to give thanks to Jesus, and how as a result, received not only physical healing, but salvation as well? “Your faith has saved you,” Jesus tells the Samaritan, who was despised by the Jews and accepted by the other lepers only out of dire circumstances.
Could it be possible that the Jewish lepers were prevented from returning to show their gratitude to Jesus, the new law, by their obsession with the written law? The Samaritan, not bound by institutional religion, was freer to respond to his healing with relational love, rather than legalistic fulfilling of a rule. Could Jesus be teaching us that love and mercy trumps rules and regulations?
Today the Church remembers and honors someone who also had clear gospel priorities in his life, St. Leo the Great. He was born to Tuscan parents, and his religious beliefs guided his entire life. As a deacon, he worked to bring peace to warring Roman factions who were leaving Gaul vulnerable to barbarian invasion. Leo is well known for his peacekeeping efforts, and especially for his encounter with Attila the Hun, persuading Attila not to plunder Rome. During another attack three years later, Leo was not so successful, though he did manage to save the city from being burnt. Pope Leo worked alongside the people to rebuild the city and its churches.
Pope from 440 until his death in 461, Leo is best known for his sermons on faith and charity. Always a strong opponent of heresies, his teaching has had a lasting influence on the life of the Roman Church. He is the first pope whose sermons and letters have been preserved in extensive collections. He was made Doctor of the Church in 1754.
The Eucharist is a banquet fit for servants of the Kingdom of heaven. Not only is it a foretaste of that heavenly banquet in the fullness of the kingdom, it brings together all the attributes mentioned in the readings: justice, love, doing God’s will, growing in holiness, attention to the Word of God and especially gratitude, for the word Euchariston means giving thanks.
May our celebration today empower us to work for justice, keep the law of love, do God’s will, strive for holiness, dedicate ourselves to God’s word, and do all of that with grateful hearts as servants of the Kingdom of Heaven.
