Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2023

 

Homily for the 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023

 

Our 1^st reading talks about how we are to care for the poor.  And in our Gospel Jesus tells us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor.

 

In Matthew 25, Jesus says that we will be judged by what we do or do not do for the poor and vulnerable.

 

And so in the Gospel today, when Jesus said we need to love God with our whole heart, our whole mind and our whole soul, it means that sometimes God wants us to be with our family to experience God’s great love for us.

 

Other times He asks us to come to Mass to encounter Him here.

 

Other times He asks us to seek Him in the confessional, where God destroys all that stands in our way to His Love.

 

And sometimes He asks us to help those who are in need in our community, and around the world because when we help other people, we also find a great sense of peace.

 

And one of the thousands of things I love about the Catholic Church is what it teaches about virtues…the idea of virtues is that you have to do the virtuous action over and over and over again, but eventually you get better at it and you also start to realize “wait a second…I am actually happier and better at this act than I was 2 years ago”  It is why I love athletics…you lift and work out and run and over time you realize that if you stick with it, you see yourself get stronger and faster…no one is born an organist nor a concert violinist…but as you start to practice an instrument over and over and over again you discover that you become better and better at that instrument. 

So it is the same thing with coming to Mass….after I have made it a habit by even removing the possibility of missing Mass I start to realize “I am happier when I come to Mass”

Or with the poor…Mother Teresa never heard a voice from Heaven say “pick up the leper with worms on him and care for him” she just did it…over and over and over again, and as she inched a long through the years she fell more deeply in love with the poor and thus, because they are actually the same person, she fell more deeply in love with Jesus.

 

And so, it is good to be here with all you today as we welcome Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Universe, on our altar today at this Mass.  He promises to show up here and he promises to be present in the poor...may we seek Him where He is most intensely present!