A delayed and brief homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 12, 2021
Is 50:5-9a, Jas 2:14-18, Mk 8:27-35
Though we believe the Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, not all of them are easily understood or digested. Not all of them have an immediately obvious application to modern life. Some can be serious head-scratchers.
Which is why we have homilies, among other reasons.
Occasionally, though, we hear a segment of Scripture that is perfectly simple and simply perfect.
And a long or tedious homily, as The Bard said in “King John,”
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily / To throw a perfume on the violet. . .. / Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
So, with apologies for missing this week’s normal posting time, but with no apologies for regarding today’s passage from the Letter of St. James as perfectly simple and simply perfect, I repeat his words from 2,000-ish years ago and pray that they find their way into every heart.
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, ”
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
’Nuff said.
For the love of God, and for the love of all God’s Creation, including ourselves, let us pray that, by this definition, our faith is alive and active.
Peace and blessings.
