Homily: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

        When I moved into the rectory 4 years ago for my pastoral year (just like Seminarian Dan), I was soon given the nickname of “The Butler.” This is because I was constantly answering the door, cleaning up, setting the table for guests, serving food and drinks and other various and sundry tasks. The other day, when I walked into the room, someone said “Hey, it’s the Butler." Fr. Bill corrected them and said “That’s Fr. Butler now.” Often times transitions into new roles can be really difficult. Ezekiel speaks of bringing a message to a people whose hearts were hardened and our Lord Himself experienced this in the Gospel passage today.

  “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place.” Meaning, everyone respects a messenger of God, except those to whom he or she is familiar. The job of a prophet is never easy. Nevertheless, we are all called to be prophets of sorts in our own lives. This isn't an easy calling, though it is not an impossible calling. We can meet the greatest resistance from our own families and friends, and that sort of rejection can destroy our zeal if we let it. But we must remember that despite our apparent weaknesses, God and do great work. 

  St. Paul speaks directly to this reality in his letter to the Corinthians. Now, the community at Corinth to whom Paul was writing, was an especially difficult community. If you ready the letters to the Corinthians, they never seem to get it. Despite Paul’s efforts, those in Corinth were constantly fighting amongst themselves and getting into trouble. So Paul understood what it was like to try to share a message with a people who would reject it. He speaks of this “thorn in the flesh” that the Lord placed upon him. We do not know exactly what this “thorn” was, but part of it may have simply been the great difficulties he encountered with the church at Corinth. Similarly, we may feel like the Lord is not listening to us when we plead for help; when we are really struggling to live out our Christian life and share the Gospel message with those closest to us. However, we must remember that God writes straight with crooked lines. Sometimes, he allows to experience difficulties and appear as weak, in order that we may be reminded of our complete dependency on Him and the Grace He bestows upon us. 

  So how do we develop the proper attitude and disposition in those times of difficulties? Well, we can turn to the Psalm we heard today (Psalm 123). The psalmist presents a completely dfferent attitude than we here in the other readings. It is an attitude of humility and trust. The psalmist writes:

To you I lift up my eyes

who are enthroned in heaven—

as the eyes of servants

are on the hands of their masters.

As the eyes of a maid 

are on the hands of her mistress,

so are our eyes on the Lord, our God,

till he have pity on us.

     This is the disposition we must adopt when we encounter struggles in our lives. Especially when we feel overcome and powerless in the face of conflict. We must place our trust in the Lord. He really does love us and cares for us. St. John of the Cross, the great mystic of …experienced the difficulties of living a live of missionary discipleship and summed it up beautifully, so I leave you with His words:

     “Though the path is plain and smooth for [those] of good will, [those] who [walk] it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty, if [they do] not have good feet: that is: courage and a persevering spirit.”