HOMILY WEEKDAY 17 05 – Year I
The Power of Ritual and Faith –
Memorial: St. John Mary Vianney
(Lev 23:1-37; Ps 81; Mt 13:54-58)
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It is common to think love supports marriage. Often, however, it is the other way around – marital commitment will support love, especially in tough times.
The readings today bring together two important aspects of faith: ritual and trust.
The first reading from Leviticus introduces both. God tells Moses, “When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest … bring a sheaf” (Lev 23:10). Notice God says “when” you come into the land, not “if.” There are many things in life we can’t control – only God can make accurate predictions about what will and won’t happen.
Ever faithful to God’s own promises, God knew the Israelites would enter the Promised Land. All God asked for in return was their trust, demonstrated by an offering of a “sheaf” of wheat. This sheaf was to come from the first fruits of their harvest – the very first ripening of grain. They weren’t to wait until they had gathered all of the harvest; they were to show their trust that God would bless the rest of the crop.
It is the same for us. We can find it hard to trust when we, or our loved ones, struggle with life despite our prayers. So how can we bring a sheaf or continue to trust in God? By recalling how faithful God has been in the past. We can use our personal history as a starting point, and then proclaim with the psalmist, “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness” (Ps 27:13) In any moment, we can bring a sheaf of trust to God.
God then outlines for Moses a series of rituals or appointed festivals they are to celebrate as times of holy convocation, including the feast of unleavened bread and days of atonement, as well as burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day.
These rubrics remind us of the power of ritual, ceremony and gestures that go beyond words to influence and bring about change in one’s life, to create a liminal space in one’s life in which change and transformation can take place.
Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr has a vision to change the world in five generations, starting with men. Aware that young men were in trouble because they were uninitiated, not blessed by their elders, and self-initiating in dangerous ways (drinking too much, driving too fast, having sex too soon), he created Illuman with other concerned men, with the goal of creating a critical mass of older men who would then initiate younger men into what it means to be a man today. Within that umbrella, MALES (Men as Leaders and Elders) conduct MROP (Men’s Rites of Passage) consisting of teachings, sharing groups and powerful rituals that help knock young men off the path of remaining warriors all their lives, to the path of deeper relationships, more contemplative prayer and finally, becoming Kings or wisdom figures.
That was God’s vision for Israel, to transform them into God’s chosen people, a process of initiation, complete with rituals: the Red Sea crossing, Mt. Sinai, the Passover, First Fruits, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Booths, etc.
Jesus also had a vision for Israel: Their infidelity to the covenant and flirting with the false gods of money, fame and power had changed rituals into mere ceremonies, and institutional religion into belonging systems that maintained the status quo instead of liminal space that truly transformed. Jesus came to reveal who God really was but ran into unbelief and ended up on the cross which he transformed into our most profound revelation of God as unconditional love, mercy, humility, forgiveness, compassion and total non-violence.
Today, the Church honours St. Jean-Baptiste Vianney, who was a specialist in the area of transformative faith. The name of this French priest may be unfamiliar to many but his title is known around the world: the Curé of Ars. He was the son of a peasant farmer, and a slow and unpromising candidate for the priesthood: he was eventually ordained in 1815 on account of his devoutness rather than any achievement or promise.
St. Jean Vianney
In 1818 he was sent to be the parish priest of Ars-en-Dombes, an isolated village some distance from Lyon where most of the people were not interested in religion or God. He remained there for the rest of his life because his parishioners would not let him leave. He was a noted preacher, and a celebrated confessor: such was his fame, and his reputation for insight into his penitents’ souls and their futures, that he had to spend up to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. People would cut pieces from his clothing and his hair as he walked by. For 30 years he served all who came to him: people were healed and converted, and many were given appropriate words of wisdom or advice even before they had explained their predicament.
When he died in 1859 at the age of 73, John Vianney already had the reputation of being a saint. He was canonized in 1925 and is patron of parish priests. The tens of thousands of people who came to visit this obscure parish priest turned Ars into a place of pilgrimage. The French State recognized his eminence by awarding him the medal of the Légion d’Honneur in 1848, which he sold and gave the money to the poor. A group of us attending an Oblate renewal program at Aix-en-Provence in France were privileged to celebrate the Eucharist in his small chapel, sit in his confessional, and view his uncorrupted body on display in a glass casket behind the altar!
Before he died for us, Jesus in turn gave us a ritual, a new Passover, the Eucharist. Ron Rolheiser OMI claims the Eucharist is our greatest act of fidelity. Celebrating the Eucharist with faith is transformational. It is a ritual container that sustains our faith; transforms us into the Body of Christ, and sends us out to be the presence of Christ in the world.
