Homily- Wednesday of the 21st Week of Ord.
Time Yr. B. Fr. Udoekpo, Michael
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2 Thess 3:6-10, 16-18
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Ps 128:1-2,4-5
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Matt 23:27-32
Blessed/Happy Are those Who Fear the Lord (Ps 128:1);
The word of the Psalmist,, a song of ascent and of worship, of prosperity “Blessed/Happy are those who fear the
Lord (Ps 128:1), just heard today, sums up today’s scriptural lessons. To fear
the lord (yārē’ adonay), is a pregnant expression of hope in the psalms
and wisdom and prophetic literature. It means to obey him, keep the faith
tradition, listen to his exhortations and words of encouragement, love him, worship
him, and walk in his ways of peace, love, honesty, mercy, compassion, forgive,
doing to others what you which done to you. By doing so, we are blessed in many
ways(food, houses, clothing, family, children etc), especially life eternal!
What a beautiful psalm of prayer and invitation to worship God as a family! And asking him for blessings, upon us and our family and children and nation and on our human labor, work and livelihood Remember, the Psalms we read, pray and daily sing are a miniature content of the Bible. It is always, like putting the entire Bible, especially the Torah, in to music. And we know what the genre of music does to our souls. It elevates, catches attention, soothes and gives us joy!
In the first reading (2 Thes 3: 6-10, 16-18), St. Paul
continues his exhortation and words of encouragement to the church in
Thessalonica from where he stopped yesterday. Remember, as he preached and wrote to the
ancient Thessalonians, Paul is speaking to us today. He preached and tried to
steer the Thessalonians away from faithlessness, but towards ethics, morals,
and practical pursuit, during the interim of their waiting for the Parousia,
the coming of the day of the Lord (yom adonay).
As Jeremiah 29 would have encouraged his brothers and
disillusioned sisters in exile to go out and work, do business and cultivate
their land for livelihood, Paul in this passage encourage the church in
Thessalonica not to loose hope, not to walks in disorderly fashion, or be lazy or lukewarm, but to go out and work and labor for their living in peace,
ethically in a manner worthy of those who fear the Lord!
They must not be like the Pharisees, scolded and denounced
in today’s Gospel of Matthew 23 by Christ, for their lack of sincerity, lack of
fear of the Lord, or lack of focus on the essentials of faith.
Christ describes them
as “whitewashed tombs” (taphois kekoniamenois) “which appear beautiful on
the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of fifth.” Of
course, historically, we know “whitewashed tombs”( perhaps of the murdered
prophets as well 2 Chr 24:20-22) with which Christ compared the scribes and the
Pharisee were whitened so that pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate
Passover would not touch them by mistake and so become ritually unclean. What are
rather essential is not this externalism, but faith, trust in the Lord, hard
work, mercy, and kindness, love of one’s neighbor, fearing the Lord and walking
in his ways!
In other words, today’s prayer, “blessed are those who
fear the Lord,” that Christ and Paul remind us, in different ways, in today’s
scriptures, is a timely call to each and everyone us at this time in this
moment to rethink our essentials of faith, to re-examine how far we have gone
to remain in good relationship with God and with one another ( in spite of this
difficult time of covid-19).
Reflection Questions:
1.
In what ways have we “feared the
Lord,” and keep our faith traditions?
2.
In what ways have we concentrated on
the our essential of faith- peace, reading our scriptures, practicing mercy,
kindness, righteousness, justice of God, emunah, emeth, truth,
solidarity with the poor and the weak?
3.
What prevents us from keeping and
heeding the Lord’s words of exhortation and encouragements?
