Homily-
Tuesday of the 18th Week In Ord. Time, Yr B/Memorial of Saint John
Vianney, Priest
v
Jer 30:1-2,12-15,18-22
v
Ps 102:16-18,19-21,29,22-23
v
Matt 15:1-2,10-14
The Lord Will
Restore the Tent of Jacob,
The saint we
celebrate today, John Vianney was born at Lyons, France in 1786. He was
ordained a priest after a long process of formation and difficulties. He was
assigned to a parish in the town of Ars in the diocese of Belley, where he
cared and dedicated to his parish through preaching, mortification, prayers and
good works. He was very skillful and patient in counselling penitents, as a
result people came to him from far and near. He is the patron and a role model
for parish priests, in fact, priests and modern day prophets, called to be the source and bearer of God's message of hope for restoration!
Biblically,
prophets’ duties include, speaking and ministering on behalf of God and for the
people; as well promoting ethical conducts and social justice. They bear God's message of judgment, hope and restoration. They mediates
between the “heavens” and the “earth”; they straddles two worlds: that of God
and of the people, with passion, humility, courage, empathy and sympathy and
freedom etc
This is true
in the case of Jeremiah of Anathoth. In spite, his personal challenges,
youthfulness, suffering, persecution, he stood-tall for the people and on
behalf of God/God’s mouth piece. He presented the sins of the people to God;
asked for forgiveness, and brought God’s messages to the people- inviting them
to repentance and hope, as John Mary Vianney, did in France, during his years
and days of ministry. One the messages Jeremiah brought to the people was that “God
will restore the tents, the house, the land, the livelihood back to the Jacob
and his descendants.” What as message of hope and rebuilding and restoration (banah,
shub), as heard also in the mouth of the psalmist (Ps 102:17).
In fact, each
of us is called to be a beacon of hope, strength for one another. We are called to
care, intercede and pray for one another. For the Africans it is an underlining
principle of ubuntu, communal living (I am because you are), of kononia
in Paul and Acts of the Apostles.
Again in the
light of today’s scripture, Jeremiah ministry foregrounded that of Jesus, just
as that of John Mary Vianney would have looked back and learned from the
Master, Jesus. Jesus as evident in today’s Gospel, Matthew 15 cared for sinners
and the sick. His own idea of was not simply based on externalism, but internal;
“that which comes from the inner person, the heart is what defiles a person.”
Although, he gives everyone an opportunity to return to God, the father, that,
which the father, “has not planted will be uprooted,” which reminds us of the
parable of the “wheat” and the “weeds” etc we heard in the preceding chapters
of Matthew 13 and 14.
In other
words, God purifies us. He makes us whole, through his prophets and priests
from one generation to another. From the generation of Jeremiah, to that of
Jesus and to that of John Mary- Vianney.
The
dedication of these past generation to the cause of holiness, repentance,
obedience, hope, faith, peace and love challenges us look into our inward self
and pray for strength to imitate not only Jeremiah, but Christ and Saint John
Mary Vianney in managing our struggles, this covid-19, and our journeys, as a whole,
to the kingdom of heaven- with patient, penitent spirit and hope in the Lord,
who will restore the “tent of Jacob.”
Reflection
Questions
1. For the ordained
ministers/priests what have you learned from John Mary Vianney and Jeremiah?
2. Do we trust and
hope in the Lord who will rekindle and restore our once destroyed tents of
Jacob?
3. In what ways have
we brought hope to our despaired neighbors of member of our faith community, especially
in this challenging times of covid-19.
