Homily- Tuesday of the 14th Week of Ordinary
Time Year B- Udoekpo, Fr.
v Hosea
8:4-7, 11-13
v Ps
115 3-7ab, 8-10
v Matt
9:32-38
Abundant Harvest that Needs More Good
Laborers
Each of us are sent into this world to serve in the
Lord’s vineyard as a faithful, hardworking and conscientious laborer who keeps
to the terms of the agreement. Even the answer in our Catechism to the question
“who made you/why did God made you?” speaks to this. He made us to serve him to
love, to know him, to abide with him, to listen to him, to obey him….! But how many times have not deviated from
serving him through so many means that are out there, through our neighbors,
obeying him, loving him, keeping to his covenant of love? Christ’s choice of
this agricultural language “the harvest is abundant but the laborer are few”
(Matt 9:32-38), must not have been by accident. He knew his disciples, mostly
who were from and of ancient and rural agricultural, farming environment would
understand.
So also was this ancient Israelites prophet for the
Covenant, known as Hosea, from the northern part/tradition of Israel, like,
Moses, Elijah and Elisha! In the first
reading (Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13) he challenged his brothers and sister in the
north, in Samaria to stop practicing and sowing idolatry. He warns, “When
they sow the wind, they shall read the whirlwind.” In other, words, our
actions have consequences! You don’t sow orange and expect to reap grapes!
As explained by Moses and by the Deuteronomists when we
obey the Lord, keep his words, listen to him, keep the covenant.... the Lord
blesses us with every good things we could think of in this life and after,
including, especially life eternal! Doing the opposite, “making many altars”
like Israel, having many gods, practicing idolatry, breaking the covenant, not
sowing love or common good, nor promote vocation to the priesthood, religious
life and Christian matrimonies, or family values, are counter-productive.
In sum, today’s scriptures challenge us to take break---
review and rethink the way we treat one another, in different parts of the
world and communities, especially the poor, the way we love God and our
neighbors (which is the summary of the law God gave to Moses), the way we keep
our faith in face of a tragedy (like covid-19) , practice the covenant we
established with God on our day of baptism and of various other sacraments,
irrespective of villages, communities and continents, color of the skin and
gender. Are we counter-productively given into inordinate materialism,
secularism or excessively non-Christian anthropocentricism with disregard to
care for nature and planet? The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so we ask the master of the harvest to send out more good laborers to his
harvest (Matt 9:38).
Reflection Questions
1.
Can we relate to the
language of the prophet Hosea? And which of the commandment are we good at, or
weak in practicing?
2.
What would I consider
as modern day idolatry?
3.
How do are relate
with other creatures, creation, humans, and non- humans- created by God?
