HOMILY WEEK 17 01 – Year II
Intimate Apparel and the Kingdom of God:
Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus
(Jer 13:1-11; Dt 32; Mt 13:31-35)
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How do you feel about associating intimate apparel with the kingdom of God?
The readings today invite us into a deeper, more intimate relationship with God lived out within the Kingdom of God.
In the first reading the prophet Jeremiah is instructed by God to take a loin cloth, bury it and render it useless, as a dramatic expression of the infidelity of Israel to that intimate covenant marital relationship God wants with God’s own people. God has to resort to using a shocking metaphor for the intimate relationship with God that God covets: “For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise and a glory.”
To God’s chagrin, they would not listen, and now the ruined loincloth represents the infidelity of Israel, because of their false pride, stubbornness, doing their own will, and above all, serving other false gods. The psalm response, taken from Deuteronomy, echoes that failure – they forgot God and all God’s teachings, and now God will let them suffer the consequences.
In the gospel, we see Jesus once again resorting to parables to try to get through to the Israelites what this intimate covenant relationship with God is all about – only Jesus now speaks of it in terms of the mystery of the kingdom of God that has been hidden throughout the ages and is now being slowly revealed by his person, his life, his teaching and especially, his passion, death and resurrection.
The mustard seed speaks of the mysterious, hidden way that God is at work in the world, turning small, insignificant events into events with great potential for good. One person who caught this was St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, with her teaching that God doesn’t expect us to always do great things, but rather, do small things with great faith and love.
The parable of the yeast is in itself somewhat surprising and shocking, as it seems the Hebrew people considered yeast unclean and impure, so the teaching here is that everything and everyone belongs – there is nothing beyond the scope of God’s love to bring transformation and relevance to our lives. As Fr. Mike, one of my brother Oblates likes to put it, “There is a place for everyone, and everyone has a place.”
In one mission, an elder asked me if he could speak after the homily one Sunday. To my surprise, he placed a bottle of whiskey on the altar as he spoke about his life as an alcoholic. Then he went to the tabernacle, took out the Blessed Sacrament, and placed it on the altar beside the bottle of whiskey, as he shared his conversion experience and new life in Christ to the shocked congregation. Then he took the bottle of whiskey, went to a window, and poured the contents of the whiskey bottle out onto the ground, as a dramatic prophetic gesture to us all of the importance of this new life ins Christ. To say the least, that was a lesson no one would forget!
Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus were siblings, and all three were friends of Jesus. In expanding this feast day by adding Mary and Lazarus to the day honoring Martha, the papal decree establishing this memorial reads: “In the household of Bethany, the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha., Mary and Lazarus, and for this reason, the Gospel of John states that he loved them. Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words, and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the One who humiliated death.” Their three-fold witness “in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in listening to him attentively, and in believing that he is the resurrection and the life” is celebrated this day.
The Eucharist is itself a dramatic gesture given to us by Jesus, inviting us into an always deeper, more intimate relationship with our God, through listening to God’s word, and communion with the body and blood of Jesus. What could be more intimate than that? May our celebration deepen our faith in God’s love for us and elicit from us a sincere, faith-filled response of fidelity to doing God’s will in our lives.
