A homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2025
Genesis 18:1-10a, Colossians 1:24-28, Luke 10:38-42
Most of us have compiled or received (or both) a honey-do list, a tally of all the stuff that needs to be done around the house. The list challenges us (nags us?) to get off our duffs and wash the windows, schedule the car maintenance, call the exterminator and, oh yeah, give Rover a long-overdue bath.
Without making the house smell like wet dog.
Quite often, the lists grow more like zucchini in a New Jersey summer than basketball-size green melons. In fact, mine qualifies as a watermelon list.
And I do knock off items as time, energy and resources permit, even though the list never seems to shrink to only a handful. And that’s just everyday life.
So: How do any of us choose which tasks to tackle on any given day?
Mostly through our ABCs. We assign ABC ranks of importance or urgency to each of the jobs and tackle them in that order.
We assign priorities to them.
As Luke describes Mary, the sister of Martha, doing at the feet of Jesus. Mary chose a banquet of spiritual and social nourishment over a simple bowlful of whatever was on the menu.
Mary seized a fleeting opportunity, knowing that there was a good chance food would be in their house tomorrow, but the Messiah wouldn’t.
Mary prioritized.
Mary gave her hunger and thirst for knowledge of The Way an A priority, leaving humble victuals and simple beverages in the B or C slots. And clearing the table and washing the dishes definitely rated a C.
Mary realized what Paul later would write to the Colossians:
[I]t is Christ in you, the hope for glory.
It is he whom we proclaim,
admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
Mary learned some of the Good News, and likewise learned of her role, and Martha’s, and ours, in sharing that Good News as widely as possible.
Whenever we experience Christ in our lives — which is, or should be, a continual daily occurrence — we are commanded by the love of God to rejoice. To recognize Christ in the least among us, and to honor and uplift them. To recognize Christ in those who see Christ in us, and to let them improve our day, our year, our lives.
Being Christ and seeing Christ, through divine Wisdom, is our A-level priority.
But how does this outweigh fixing a hole where the rain gets in?
That’s where we apply a mature faith, a faith that’s not transactional. A faith that’s yes-and. A faith that does not silo different aspects of our lives into work life, play life, home life, church life, etc. life. A faith that is woven throughout every aspect of our lives.
A faith that is who we are, in everything we do, and not a faith that is something we do on Sundays, Wednesdays or First Fridays.
Those of us who vaguely remember driver’s ed class a half-century ago may recall the teacher saying something like, “You’ll be good drivers when you no longer have to think about stepping on the brakes. You’ll do it automatically.”
When we have prioritized our faith, when we have grown into a mature relationship with our living, loving God, when we have made every thread in the tapestries of our lives glow with faith, hope, wisdom and charity, when kindness and empathy are our way of life, then the same good-driver-type instincts take over.
And yet, even when aiming to be Christlike has become our lifestyle, we need the spiritual nourishment that the Eucharist, communal worship and prayer offer us. We need to actively choose this lifestyle daily, despite its now-instinctive nature.
Our daily waking A-level priority should be to chat with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Thank you, God, for another day and another chance to get it right, with your almighty help and in your holy Name.
Inshallah.
