Holy Communion is now available for viewing and home participation — video below. If you’d like to follow along and say your parts, click this link to print the program for use each Sunday. Note that the program changes for special occasions, as well as during Christmastide and Eastertide.
The text of today’s homily is presented at the bottom of the post. Yours in Christ,
Deacon Mitch
Today’s Homily
Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday 8/22/21
(Readings: Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b, Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, Eph 5:2a, 25-32, Jn 6:60-69)
Friends, today we are here together truly as brothers and sisters in Christ. St. Paul says to his Ephesian flock that this is ‘a great mystery’ that we are to be subordinate to one another as brothers and sisters in the family of the Church which is wedded to Christ. In the spirit of our brother and sisterhood, let’s collectively ponder and perhaps penetrate this mystery.
Together we read of Joshua addressing all the tribes of Israel, and how, in their view, God had guided them through all kinds of adversity, trials and tribulations. And therefore, they God their worshipful service. And that’s good – we should be thankful and serve God – but that transactional way of thinking can only take us so far.
It is indeed a hard teaching, a hard and painful pill to swallow, that we can serve God with our whole heart, soul and mind and still things can and often do go wrong. The workings of God, his plans and designs, are beyond our ability to comprehend. Our assignment is to internalize and elevate our behavior and our faith such that we are united in our thoughts, desires, actions and beliefs even when terrible adversity enters our lives. The Eucharist, the rite of bread and wine which Jesus emphatically stresses in today’s Gospel reading, is the act of accepting the living Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into ourselves at a level that is incomprehensibly deep – at once both physical and spiritual. The Church is wedded to Christ, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health” no matter what, even when tragedy and hardship assail us. And the Eucharist is the wedding feast we must all attend.
All of this is sewed up most beautifully in Mt 5:43-45.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,[o] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mt. 5:43-48