Homily
– Thursday of the 15th Week of Ordinary Time, Yr.B/Our Lady of Mount
Carmel- Fr. Udoekpo
v Isa
26:7-9,12,16-19
v Ps
102:13-14ab, 15, 16-18,19-21
v Matt
11:28-30
Awake and Sing You Who Lie
in the Dust (̍āfār, Isa 26:19)!
Today is the optional memorial
(to some, feast) of our Lady of Mount Carmel. It’s a feast that commemorates
the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Simon Stock, the superior general
of the Carmelite Order, in 1251. Mary, promised a special blessings to those
who wear the scapular.
One thing that usually
stands out for me each time I contemplate the life of Mary, the Mother of Jesus
and our Mother, is her humility, lowliness, expressed in every step of the way; before the
angel Gabriel she said “be it done to me according to your word.” In the magnificat,
in Luke 1:46-55 from her humble state, she thank God for raising the humble,
and the lowly.
It is this message of God
protecting, and saving the lowly, the humble, that we hear in the prophecy of
Isaiah today (Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19). Assuring Israel, Isaiah metaphorically
says “Awake and sing you who lie in the dust” (v.19). That Hebrew word ̍āfār (dust)
means, the poor, the humble, those who lie in the rubble, those who have
repented; it means the realm of the humble, those once persecuted, those who
once lost their land and the temple, yet kept the faith in diaspora, it means
the faithful ones, the righteous. Isaiah is telling them today, shaken afar
(get up from the dust) and rejoice, and celebrate! Perhaps, this will also remind
us of the ashes and the dust we humbly put on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday,
in a way!
It is this message of hope
and assurance that Christ invitingly says to us today in the Gospel “come to me,
all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest,” (Matt 11:28-30).
Scripture today challenges
us to re-examine how often we have humbled ourselves, in moment of seeming
difficulties, from the dust, from a humiliating position and when we think that
all hope is lost, and actually make our way back to the Lord in faith. No
matter the challenges, and dustings and humiliation we go through in this life,
if we keep the faith, there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. So
like Isaiah, “Awake and sing you who lie in the dust.” And let’s with the intercession our humble Lady of Mount
Carmel, return to Christ in faith, all of us who labor and are burdened in one
way or the other, especially during this difficult times of the covid-19.
Reflection Questions
1.
Could you think of
the few times we have forgotten to practice humility or of the fact that we
were made out of dust, and in dust we shall return?
2.
In moments of
difficulties to whom do we go to in faith matters?
3.
What prevents us from
mirroring Mary’s virtues, especially humility, in our dealings with our
neighbors?
