A homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 3, 2023
Jer 20:7-9, Rom 12:1-2, Mt 16:21-27
What if maybe, just maybe, Linus was right?
What if, even just once, Linus Van Pelt’s pumpkin patch was the most sincere in the whole world?
What if everything the “Peanuts” character believed about The Great Pumpkin was not a cockamamie fairy tale?
Would the kids have stopped laughing? Would the adults have stopped making the muted cornet “waa-waa” sounds?
Would everyone everywhere have started to believe?
We’ll never know about the cartoon character’s ultimate fate (other than he continually missed out on trick-or-treating), but we do know about ours.
Our fate — and our ancestors’ over millennia — is wrapped up in radical beliefs. Unconventional beliefs. Even — dare I say it — abnormal beliefs.
Beliefs that heaped ridicule on the earliest prophets, all of whom may or may not have pleaded with God the way Jeremiah does in today’s first reading.
Beliefs that led to martyrdom for Jesus’ closest disciples.
Beliefs that led to the crucifixion of Jesus himself.
Beliefs that even today run counter to the selfish and xenophobic culture that surrounds us.
And we, as Catholics, as Christians, as members of the entire human family, are expected — commanded! — to embrace at least some of these beliefs and to evangelize them.
Now, we’re used to having people we perceive as a bit odd be the ones to own and propagate anything out of the norm. We call them kooks. We call them artists. We call them musicians and singers and dancers and actors. We call them writers.
But do we call them us? Ourselves? Can we?
Hmmm.
Do we call these flakes seers? Prophets? Speakers of truth to power? Not so much. They’re not like everybody else. They get laughed at. They’re scary, or at least a little scary. They’re out of the mainstream.
But who’s to say the mainstream always flows in the correct direction?
Conversely, how do we know that we have the strength to buck the tide if we choose to spread the Word? If Jesus chooses us to spread the Word … because Jesus did.
Our loving God does not want us to be lemmings. God does not want us to be sheep. God gave each of us individuality. God gave us unique gifts and skills and talents and, beautifully, the ability to weave our fibers into the tapestry of all humankind. We can singularly inspire faith and hope in people, and we can join in community action to be inspirational on a far greater scale.
All because Jesus had the strength to buck the tide. His example and especially his Spirit strengthen us to continue his work.
God’s hand is always at our back, especially as we near the mainstream’s rapids.
So what are some of these oddball beliefs, Ayn Rand be damned?
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- We should preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, we should use words.
- We don’t have to like ’em, but we do have to love ’em.
- Equal rights for all does not mean fewer rights for any individual.
- We each have two ears and one mouth; do the math.
- Enlightenment, like the flame of a candle, is meant to be shared. Passing the flame to someone else does not reduce our fire.
- We have to leave the place better than we found it.
- If we have no prayer besides Thank You, that is enough.
Not everyone has the fire and the fortitude to stand up against the bullies and fake prophets and false gods of the 21st century. Not everyone can stand on a street corner wearing a rainbow wig and carrying a placard proclaiming John 3:16 or Matthew 25:40. God bless and keep those who do.
But God also blesses and graces all of us who live Matthew 5:3-12, The Beatitudes.
Perhaps more simply put: The source of all love fills every heart we touch in our well-lived everyday lives with more than enough love to pay forward.
How weird is that. How countercultural. How Christlike.
Let’s buck the tide.
