A homily, sort of, for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 19, 2023
Lv 19:1-2, 17-18, 1 Cor 3:16-23, Mt 5:38-48
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily /
To throw a perfume on the violet …/
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
If you haven’t heard this week’s selections from Scripture proclaimed in a house of worship, or if you haven’t used the links above to read them, please do.
There’s absolutely nothing I can add to make them more understandable or clearer. There’s no call to action I can write or shout from the rooftops that these passages don’t deliver.
Print them. Carry them in your pocket or in your heart and refer to their divinely inspired perfection often.
No, if I were to say anything else, I’d be painting the lily, as the Bard wrote in “King John” (even though everyone says “gild the lily.” That’s a totally different riff for a different day).
So: God bless us, every one.
And please remember: The 40 days of Lent start Wednesday with ashes, followed by fasting, praying and charity.
