WEEK 21 05 HOMILY – Year II
Faith expressed through Love
(1 Cor 1:17-25; Ps 33; Mt 25:1-13)
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For St. Paul, in the first reading, what is more important than even baptism?
The answer is proclaiming the Gospel. He says he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel, to entice everyone to believe in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God.
For Jesus, in the Gospel, what is the most important thing?
It is to be alert, ready, by a life of service.
We are left with a clear message: believe in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God, and express that faith by a life of dutiful, selfless service to our brothers and sisters.
The Gospel demands some explanation. The lamp can stand for faith in God, and in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God. However, that faith means little if it is empty, not active. The oil stands for our love, for expressing our faith in Jesus by our love for others. We are to not only love God, but also to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. That is the complete lamp at work – oil providing the flame of love that makes the lamp useful. To have both the lamp and the oil is to live the Great Commandment that Jesus gave us: love God with our whole being, and then love our neighbour as we love ourselves.
Some people tend to want only the sensational in their lives, to have God work miracles for them, to have extra-ordinary phenomena as a sign of their faith. Jesus actually resists this when he says that it is not those who say, “Lord, Lord, open up for us,” who will enter the kingdom.
On the contrary, it is those whose faith leads them to actually put aside any desire for the extra-ordinary, who are able to see Jesus in the daily needs of those around them, their own children, co-workers, employers, fellow believers, and even their enemies, the people they don’t like.
Doing the little things, the things for which we don’t get much recognition, the things that others don’t like to do – that is the stuff of which the kingdom of God is made of. Those who do their chores, who offer to help, who volunteer, who do an honest day’s work – these are the giants in the kingdom of God.
Within a marriage it means the small considerations, offering to make sacrifices for the other, taking the time to meet each other’s emotional needs, sharing feelings humbly and honestly, doing things for each other, sharing the household tasks, understanding the pressures that each spouse is feeling. This is what must have been happening in the Holy Family, the model of married life.
One couple I know decided to each have a part time job so that they could share the raising of the children. One was a nurse and the other a bus driver. The nurse worked halftime, and the bus driver by the nature of the job had time for the kids. Theirs was a happy family home. They were living the readings of today.
The Eucharist calls for deep faith in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God at work among us. It makes present the love of Jesus on the cross for us, and transforms bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. It also missions us, sends us out to put our faith in Jesus into positive actions of love by caring for others and doing good to them.
As we celebrate today, then, let us pray for faith in Jesus as the wisdom and power of God, and the power to express the faith through selfless acts of love in the ordinary events of our everyday lives, as did St. Augustine.
