A homily for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 7, 2019
It’s a school day, perhaps, or a workday, and you’re running late.
OK, that never happens, but try to imagine.
You bolt out the door, head for the steps and, Oh no!
Lunch! You forgot your lunch!
Or … raincoat. Or those papers. Laptop.
Oh, jeez … keys!
Think quick: What do you do?
You can buy lunch later; besides, you weren’t in the mood for avocado today, anyway.
The forecast said only 20 percent chance. That’s worth a gamble. Ditch the coat.
So off you go; maybe you can make up some time on the Parkway.
Gotta have those papers, though. The laptop? Don’t even think about leaving that. And keys? I sure hope the door didn’t lock behind you before you remembered.
In other words, these things are essential. Can’t do without ’em. Gonna be late? Oh well; doesn’t matter. It’s not just the American Express card that you don’t leave home without. Not these days, nope.
To win the rat race, some things are essential.
Let’s leave school and work behind for a second, and consider this:
It’s summer at the Shore once again, and for many of us, that means vacations and staycations. Trips and day trips. And those mean checklists.
Oil change, tire pressure, A/C working? Check. Beach towels, sunscreen, baby wipes, fruit snacks? Double-check.
Essentials.
“Essential” is an odd concept. It means different things to different people. It affects people in different ways, drives people in often vastly different ways.
Some people decide early in their lives what they consider essential; they set their goals and work toward them. For others, essential requires continual re-consideration. Experience brings wisdom, and wisdom defines how those people mold and reshape their lives to tackle the world’s challenges and succeed.
Essential.
When we strip our lives down to their essence, what do we have? What do we need? What is just stuff?
Relationships are essential. Jesus sent the 72 disciples ahead of him in pairs, as traveling companions, 36 essential relationships, to go and form additional relationships in the towns they visited. Those new, added relationships, built on compassion and hospitality, enabled the six dozen early preachers to go forth with no backpacks or hiking boots or even turkey jerky to sustain them.
Wherever they faced no compassion, no hospitality, they moved on, with a little pffft! of displeasure in their wake.
Compassion is essential. The word itself speaks of relationships: Com, as in community. Passion, as in the drive to right wrongs. To cure the sick and drive out demons, to try to ease pain of all sorts. Compassion to recognize and lift up those on the margins of society who have been denied hospitality.
So hospitality, too, is essential. For Jesus’ advance teams, hospitality meant room and board, without getting the best price ahead of time from Trivago. Often it meant an extended stay. And that was fine with the hospitable hosts.
We don’t need to open our homes – although, of course, we can – to show hospitality. Sometimes our mere presence with people, our opening our hearts, is hospitality in the way Jesus demands.
Perseverance is essential. Jesus’ team walked from town to town, preaching the Good News of salvation through repentance, which to many people must have sounded like carrot and stick, or a jewel of high price. Salvation – God’s eternal embrace, God’s everlasting light of love – is a joy of joys. But getting their acts together? That’s work. And, besides, many said, why should we sacrifice now for something we can’t see and which may not come after all?
On this, not a lot has changed in 2,000 years. Do we persevere when people diss our Christian ways?
Faith is essential.
Faith is essential, because believing that God’s grace will give us the strength and guidance to follow The Way does indeed open us up to receive that boost. To run the race, as St. Paul said; to keep our eyes on the prize.
Faith is essential because faith leads us back to relationships, back to the most important relationship of all, our original relationship, our relationship with the essence of love, our God and Creator, who gives us everything we need.
When we pilgrims travel with these essentials, we’re not actually traveling light. We’re packing the love of God, the Good News, and we have enough to share with the entire world. We’re not traveling light, but we’re traveling in the light, and God’s grace carries us forward.
