A homily for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 10, 2022
Dt 30:10-14, Col1:15-20, Lk 10:25-37
What’s in your pocket?
If this were a TV commercial, you’d answer one way.
If this were “Let’s Make A Deal,” you’d answer another.
If you were being frisked, your answer would be something else entirely.
But this is none of those situations.
What’s in your pocket?
Do you have the keys to your home and car? Do you have a wallet, a coin purse, a billfold with cash and cards? Do you have the ID card that also serves as the door pass at your job?
Do you have a grocery list? A list of what you’ll need to complete your honey-do list?
Do you have a pair of athletic socks to change into when you meet your friends for a friendly game?
Or do you have lint? Dirt and pebbles? Maybe nothing, because there’s a hole in your pocket?
That’s how some of our sisters and brothers would answer the question.
We didn’t inflict that on them, or probably not, pray God. They probably didn’t cause their situations themselves, either, though some did.
The traveler beset by robbers in the good Samaritan parable certainly didn’t.
For any one of us, a temporary or permanent mishap or disaster could be right around the corner. For any one of us, so-called success in life may remain ever-so-close yet just out of reach despite our best efforts.
For any one of us, there could be a hole in our pockets.
But many of us in this wealthiest nation in history have a good (or at least decent) job putting food on our tables and a roof over our heads. Our transportation to and from work is safe and reliable. Our families are stable and loving. Our friends are supportive.
No holes in our pockets.
So: What else is in our pockets? What items of true value are in there … or should be?
Moses asks us to have something to remind us to obey God’s laws, which are good and keep us on the path home.
“If only…” Moses sighs. “If only…”
How modern does that sound?
And Moses goes on:
[I]t is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts…
Near, as in, it could be in your pocket.
What else?
How about something extra, a bit of spare cash in case somebody needs a hand up? You never know who you may encounter, and whoever it is, that person is also Christ.
How about something not in your pocket, something you intentionally left out, like your down-to-the-minute schedule? How about leaving a little room in your pocket — and time in your day-to-day — for an act of kindness or two? Fortunately, those acts don’t go bad, they don’t expire, so if you have leftovers today, you’ll have all the more for tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
In today’s Scripture passages, the notion of love and the word “love” get tossed around a bit. In today’s Scripture passages, “love” is a verb. An action verb.
The tokens of love we keep in our pockets should be verbs, too.
