Homily for the Eleventh
Sunday in Ordinary Time
16 June 2013
16 June 2013
My
brothers and sisters, our readings today confront us with something so
powerful, yet so simple, that we have a hard time living it out in our own
lives. This, of course, is the notion of “mercy”. Our God IS a God of mercy. A
few days ago, Pope Francis reminded us of this when he said, “If we show our
inner wounds, our sins, [God] always forgives us.”
But
therein lies the difficulty for us: We choose, on some level, to keep our sins,
our wounds, hidden. And we keep them hidden from God, from others . . . we even
keep those wounds hidden from our very self! We don’t want anyone to know how
broken we are. To do so in our society would show how “un-American”, if you
will, we really are, because the pioneering spirit, that attitude of “there’s
nothing I can’t do” reveals the façade that our lives really are.
The
woman in today’s Gospel reveals something to us that is difficult for us as
Twenty-first Century Americans to remember and live out: we must become
vulnerable in our lives to truly experience the mercy of God. We need to push
our pride, our ego, our selfishness aside to truly experience the effect that
God has in our lives. That vulnerability, that openness to the workings of God
is the exact model the sorrowful woman in the Gospel is presenting to us. She
knew that she could not undo her sinful actions, but she could atone for them;
she could take personal responsibility for them.
Saint
Augustine of Hippo reminds us that “God created us without us; but He did not
will to save us without us.” The Catechism
of the Catholic Church goes on to teach us that “to receive [God’s] mercy,
we must admit our faults” (CCC 1847). Our faults
are our wounds. In fact, the word “vulnerability” comes from the Latin vulnus or vulneris, meaning “wound”. The more that we are able to show these
wounds, the more open we will become to receiving the mercy of God. The more we
become vulnerable, the stronger we become in the power of Christ. Saint Paul
summarized this perfectly when he told the Galatians, “No longer I, but Christ
lives in me.”
This
is not to say that we wear our hearts on our sleeves. Rather, this is the
opportunity we have to respond to the Lord’s challenge, “If you show Me yours,
I’ll show you Mine,” for He wants us to reveal to Him our woundedness, our
vulnerabilities, because it is only through opening our wounds to Christ that
we come to recognize how much deeper and greater are His wounds and His
vulnerability, because His love is that much greater and deeper. And it is from
those wounds – especially His pierced and Sacred Heart – does the gift of mercy
gush forth. It is that mercy which allows us to live in Christ, and for Christ
to live in us.
Father
Tom Acklin, a Benedictine monk and one of my seminary professors, once taught
me that to understand what it is to experience God’s mercy, we must desire to
know Christ and come to know that “the desire to share in His Passion is
already the union with Him we are seeking” (The
Passion of the Lamb, p. 8). This is just another way to say what
Saint Paul said: “I have been crucified with Christ.” It is in this union with
Christ, when we present ourselves at our most vulnerable state before the
Cross, that we experience the fullness of God’s mercy. Whether she knew it or
not, that’s what the woman was doing in our Gospel; that’s what King David was
doing in our First Reading.
Father
Acklin also taught me that “we must become vulnerable in the vulnerability of
[Christ’s] Passion. If we wish to receive Him and adore Him in the abiding
fruit of His love and His Passion in the Eucharist, where the infinite Son of
God lets Himself be exposed and gives Himself with unlimited vulnerability
under the appearances of bread and wine, we must ourselves become vulnerable
and live the passion of our vulnerability in the vulnerability of His Passion.
This is how all things will be made new, how every tear will be wiped away” (The Passion of the Lamb, p. 10).
God
avails His mercy to us at all times. We, however, need to FREELY CHOOSE to
accept that great gift. We cannot do so while we remain an island amongst
ourselves. We need to let go of the past! We need to admit to God, others, AND
OURSELVES that we are an imperfect person who loves imperfectly, and that it is
only through the grace of God that we can accept His great gift of mercy so
that we may freely give it away. We become vulnerable before God, others, and
ourselves so that we may fully experience the tender compassion of our God.
How,
then, do we seek God’s mercy? How, then, do we learn to become vulnerable? A
few ways:
1. Frequent
reception of the Sacraments, not just the Eucharist, but also frequent
reception and practice of the Sacrament of Confession;
2. Practicing
mercy towards those who have wronged us or done us harm;
3. Opening
our lives, our joys and pains, our celebrations and struggles, and placing them
before the Lord in daily prayer;
4. Becoming
that messenger of mercy towards God, others, and ourselves in our thoughts,
words, and actions; and
5. Knowing
and believing that we are a flawed creature of the Flawless Creator, and we
need – and need to desire! – His gracious gift of mercy all the days of our
life.
Our
God wants nothing more than for us to be in His Presence – both in this life
and in the next. His mercy will be given to us when we can move ourselves, our
pride, our ego out of the way, freely choosing to become vulnerable before Him;
placing before the Cross our passion united to His.
Blessed
Pope John XXIII encourages us with these words: “Every soul which presents
itself to the Lord for the last judgment has reason to fear. But the Lord’s
mercy is infinitely greater than our human weakness and covers it all in His
light and peace” (Letter to his nephew Battista, 13 December 1951).
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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