Thursday, August 8, 2013

God revolutionizes the world: Daily Mass Homily--Wednesday, August 7th, 2013


            God blows away human expectations.  In a sense, God is revolutionary in His goodness.
            In Numbers the Israelites check out the land they are to inherit.  They come back scared, thinking it would be impossible to take that land as the men there were bigger, stronger and more numerous.  Yet they eventually did.
            In the Gospel, a non-Jewish Canaanite woman approaches Jesus, begging him to heal her daughter.  Jesus seems cold, if not mean, in his response.  At first “he did not say a word in answer to her” and when he did respond he said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  And to call this woman a dog!  Dogs were not domesticated in Israel—when we hear this we shouldn’t think of a cute puppy, but a large varmint.
            Yet we know Jesus never sinned.  Jesus is not insulting this woman—simply receiving her presence was already breaking Jewish law—rather, he is providing an avenue for her to express her faith.  She did and her daughter was healed.
            God continues to work in revolutionary ways beyond our human conceptions today, especially through His Church.  Many think we are old-fashioned or even bigots.  Yet Christ’s Church does nothing less than revolutionize the world.  Imagine finding someone on the street and telling them, “I just received Jesus’ Body and Blood in what looked like bread and wine.”  That would blow their mind!  Or consider the high divorce rate in our country.  Some complain, “What?  The Church teaches I must be faithful until death!  No divorce?”  Or remember that our Church for 2000 years has been the biggest supporter of the poor, hungry, homeless, sick and weak in the entire world.  We go against societies that leave such people behind and treat them like Christ.
            God wants to revolutionize our world today.  We must have faith—like Joshua, Caleb and the Canaanite woman—in God and in our Church to do this.

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