HOMILY WEEK 17 01 – Year I
Living In The Reign:
Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola
(Exodus 32:15-24, 30-34; Ps 106; Mt 13:31-35)
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“Regnum Dei Intra Vos” – “The Kingdom of God is among you.” That is my motto as a bishop. Taken from Luke 17:21, it is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus says not just that we are close to the kingdom or that the kingdom is near, but that it is among us. The Kingdom of God is the favorite topic of Jesus’ preaching. All the parables are about the kingdom of God. It made sense to me to choose that as my motto.
The readings today come together to teach us four important things about this reign of God: it is humble, powerful, inclusive and totally non-violent.
The parables in the gospel for today speak about the first three elements. Years ago I went to a seed terminal just out of North Battleford, my home town, to obtain some mustard seed. I was amazed to see how tiny they were – about the size of a carrot seed. To think that a seed so tiny grows into a tall plant, and that an oak tree was once just a small seed, teaches us how humble and small the workings of the Spirit usually are among us. The parable of the yeast teaches us the same thing – yeast is invisible yet makes a great difference in the dough.
The parable about the yeast also teaches us how powerful the Spirit of God is in our lives. That yeast permeates the whole batch of dough, leaving no part of it untouched. The reign of God should also permeate every part of our being, as in the end it is meant to permeate every nook and cranny of God’s creation.
The same parable teaches us about the inclusivity of the kingdom of God. It seems that yeast was considered impure, not worthy of being in a liturgical setting, thus the need for unleavened bread. That Jesus would include something considered unclean in speaking about his kingdom suggests that the kingdom is found where it might least be expected – among the poor, the lowly, the outcasts, the sinners, the rejected of society.
Richard Rohr, in his meditation for today, puts it this way: “René Girard (1923-2015), a brilliant anthropologist and master of cultural critique, held that Jesus is the most unlikely founder of a religion because he does not encourage any forms of sacrifice except the letting go of one’s own egocentricity. Religion normally begins by making a distinction between the pure and the impure and telling us to “sacrifice” the impure—so we can be pure. Given that premise, Jesus undoes religion by doing the most amazing thing: he finds God among the impure instead of among the pure!”
The non-violent aspect of the kingdom of God comes out of the first reading about Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. First, however, we need to be reminded that the Old Testament can only be authentically interpreted in the light of the New Testament. To illustrate this, we need to look at the incident of the woman caught in adultery (Jn 8:1-11).
In that passage, the Pharisees confront Jesus with the woman and remind him that Moses, in the Law, demands that she be stoned to death. Jesus responds by bending down and writing in the dust with his finger. Then he looks up, says that he without sin should cast the first stone, then bends down again to write in the dust with his finger. The Pharisees silently depart one by one, staring with the eldest. What is going on here? What was Jesus writing?
To understand this, we have to ask where else in the scriptures does someone write on something earthly with his finger? The answer is God, in the book of Exodus. God writes the commandments and gives them to Moses (Ex 31:18). Moses goes down the mountain with the tablets, finds the people in the camp committing idolatry (close to adultery), reacts violently, smashes the tablets (Moses is the first to break the Ten Commandments!), grinds the calf into powder and makes a liquid that he forces the people to drink (Ex 32:19-20). Moses then asks who is for him and who against, and about 3,000 people die that day (Ex 32:27-28).
Moses then goes back up the mountain, probably thinking he has given them what they deserved, only to be encountered by a God who teaches him that God is merciful, gracious, forgiving, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex 34:6). God then writes the commandments a second time (Ex 34:1), and this time Moses goes back down the mountain, takes the people where they are at and leads them one step further – a good pastoral approach.
What Jesus was teaching the Pharisees who were wanting to kill the woman in the name of Moses, was to learn what Moses learnt on the mountain – God is not violent. With Jesus there would be no violence, and there never was – to the point where he would freely offer his life on the cross relying only on forgiveness, the true nature of God.
St Ignatius of Loyola
St. Ignatius of Loyola, whom we honour today, is a good example for us of mustard seed and yeast spirituality. His incremental awareness while recovering from battle wounds that spiritual reading left him inspired for lengthy periods of time while worldly reading gave him brief moments of pleasure but left him sad, was the beginning of his whole approach to the discernment of spirits and the Ignatian Exercises. That small way the Spirit was at work in his life led to the foundation of the Jesuits and the worldwide ministry they are still carrying out as part of his legacy.
The Eucharist is itself a living out of these parables. Humble gifts of bread and wine are transformed by the power of the Spirit into the Body and Blood of Jesus. At this inclusive table, we are all equal – no one better than anyone else. And we share in the non-violent sacrifice of the one who revealed the true nature of God – merciful, compassionate, unconditional love, forgiving and above all totally non-violent.
May our celebration deepen our experience of this love of God and help us live in the Reign of God every day, as well as to help build up the reign of God in our world, one day at a time.
