This blog post is for my homiletics class homework and presented on March 12, 2019. I was assigned the readings and the Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent, Year C to give a "Homily" on to the class and then be critiqued.
This is the link to the readings, this blog will make more sense if you read those first.
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031719.cfm
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 / Philippians 3:17-4:1 / Luke 9:28B-36
Let’s jump into the Wayback Machine to go back in time and try to figure out what Abram was doing cutting in half a heifer, a she-goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon and then hanging out with the carcasses until after nightfall, because, after all, if we did this today animal rights activists would not be pleased, and rightly so! What Abram was doing is using a very ancient way to make a treaty. They would cut the animals in half and then walk between the halves of the animals and if either person later broke the treaty then may the fate of those cut up animals befall them! WOW, the visual that comes with this is NOT a pretty one! Sarai was a very tolerant spouse, I would not have wanted Abram’s bloodied garments in my laundry! I want you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine this…it’s a hot sunny day… you can smell the heat off of the desert sand… there is Abram, just chilling out... with the carcasses... waiting... there are many flies… buzzing... and the stench… and birds of prey... they are eating the remains. Was Abram some sadistic weirdo? Absolutely not! He was still patiently waiting for God to fulfill His part of this covenant ritual. Finally, after Abram falls into a trance and the sun sets the smoking fire pot and torch that represent God appears and passes between the halves of the animals. God has just fulfilled His part of this covenant with Abram. No pressure here, but Abram just entered into a covenant with the almighty!
There is another interesting thing with this reading from Genesis that we will notice only If we read this passage closely, paying good attention. To be completely honest here, I’m not clever enough to notice this myself, I first heard it from Mark Hart, The Bible Geek. We see God take Abram outside and say to him “look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can” and further tells Abram “Just so, shall your descendants be”, “as numerous as the stars”. But rewind for a second, we just talked about how later on that same day nightfall comes and Abram enters into a terrifyingly dark trance. God said to Abram, count the stars if you can. It was daytime! The author of Genesis is being quite subtle here! Abram could not count the stars in daylight at all but he trusted they were there just the same. He had faith in what he knew to be true, that the stars were in the heavens even though he could not currently see them! Abram first illustrated what we hear about much later in Paul in his letter to the Hebrews that “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Abram hoped in the covenant God promised him and trusted in his numerous descendants even though he could not see them.
This is a good point to segue into the Gospel on and it will make more sense why in a minute. Jesus chose Peter, John, and James to ascend the mountain with Him. Imagine that, first you are blessed to be one of the twelve chosen and now you are one of the three chosen out of the twelve. It is these three who get to see this glimpse of Jesus in His heavenly glory. This must have been an amazing experience for them to see Jesus’ divinity in this way. His alb looked like it had just been Oxi Cleaned 100 times over! The apostles, who had spent so much time one on one with Jesus, had no idea his divinity was present, yet hidden, in such a radiant way.
Much like Abram couldn’t see the multitude of stars in the daytime because the light of the one big star, the sun, hid them, Jesus’ divinity was usually hidden by his humanity while he walked the earth. He was 100% divine and 100% human all the time after all.
Again, this is not something I came up with on my own. When we read the scriptures and focus on what is going on, research it, ask questions, consult pastors, deacons, theologians of old, theologians of new, we will find some very interesting things are going on at such a deep level that it will be made crystal clear that it is indeed divinely inspired!
The other important thing we need to do with Scripture is to understand how it applies to us, today, so many thousands of years later.
The Holy Spirit led me to focus my application on the second reading and go from there, especially this: “Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their "shame." Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
First off, this is great inspiration for a diet plan and I indeed have been meditating on this scripture for a while because of that. As a matter of fact, as some of you already know, when I launch my browser I have a certain set of websites that open up in different tabs, the third is always a scripture passage link that is relevant for me. The past few months that third site has been to Philippians chapter 3, verse 19, what we heard in today’s second reading.
I need this reading to focus on my dining habits. To put it honestly, if fasting were a high school sport I would always be picked last! I’m not sure why but if there is food out I have this feeling like I deserve it. I am worthy of that slice of warm apple pie. I should have that lovely frosted piece of cake, I earned it. Those twinkies look just oh so fantastic the way that light hits them so….sorry, lost myself for a moment there. I try to blame my coworkers, always bringing in some box of processed sugar to eat, and eat it I do but the blame must land squarely on my lack of self-control!
Now here we are beginning Lent and we all need to assess how and what we are doing. Lent is all about self-control. It’s still early in Lent and I haven’t been in the office much yet due to the canonical retreat but I need to set my mind, I need to be resolute each day. Today’s scripture is a nice nudge in the right direction and Lent is really a time to take our fasting to a professional level and this scripture can help us do just that. What’s nice is that the second reading not only tells us what to do but also why, because if we succeed: “He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.” The focus should be less on how hungry we are and more on the food that endures for eternal life. It is hard today in time to focus on the glory of Christ, there are so many distractions. Even Peter, God bless him, becoming fully awake wanted to set up three tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, possibly in reference to the feast of Tabernacles but the Gospel tells us he didn’t know what he was saying. That’s what I love about Peter, often he doesn’t know what he’s saying….but he says it anyway.
Here we are back to the present time where I try to make it to our adoration chapel as often as possible. I pray for that perseverance I need through Lenten fasts and sacrifices. When I go to adoration it is there I expect to see what I have endearingly called, faith fireworks. I don’t want to just sit staring quietly, I want lights, camera action!! I want that transfiguration moment that Peter, James, and John got, bright white lights, clouds, and the thunder that is the voice of God giving me commands like BEHOLD MY SON, DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU and stuff like that, but alas I often get nothing. On the canonical retreat I was reminded by a very wise priest that we are in good company with this “nothing” feeling, Saint Mother Teresa once said to a priest in adoration, “I feel nothing”. A simple yet very profound statement but how do we fight “nothing”? We fight “nothing” with “something”. Fighting nothing with perseverance is key and can also be rewarding. Fighting nothing with the knowledge that God isn’t in the wild winds, or the earthquake or the peals of thunder, no, God is often found in the quiet whisper, and it’s only during times of that nothing experience we will hear that whisper, that “nothing” where God can then speak to our hearts. To do this we must fight the noise, the technology, and the chatter of life. In information technology, we call that signal to noise ratio. How much noise of life gets in the way of the quiet signal of God? Even in adoration I sometimes bring the echoes of the noisy day there with me, it’s hard to shut that off but we need to persevere with our fight. Today’s Gospel is a good reminder of the true glory that is often hidden in Jesus Christ. In those seemingly dry spiritual times, we need to illustrate the trust that Abram showed all through his life, not just in the moments where God was so vibrantly present in the flame and smoke, but in the “nothing” times as well.
Perhaps “nothing” is the wrong term to use, perhaps “silence” is more appropriate as St. Teresa of Calcutta said:
“I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence – we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but he says to us and through us that matters.”
This is the link to the readings, this blog will make more sense if you read those first.
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031719.cfm
Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 / Philippians 3:17-4:1 / Luke 9:28B-36
Let’s jump into the Wayback Machine to go back in time and try to figure out what Abram was doing cutting in half a heifer, a she-goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon and then hanging out with the carcasses until after nightfall, because, after all, if we did this today animal rights activists would not be pleased, and rightly so! What Abram was doing is using a very ancient way to make a treaty. They would cut the animals in half and then walk between the halves of the animals and if either person later broke the treaty then may the fate of those cut up animals befall them! WOW, the visual that comes with this is NOT a pretty one! Sarai was a very tolerant spouse, I would not have wanted Abram’s bloodied garments in my laundry! I want you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine this…it’s a hot sunny day… you can smell the heat off of the desert sand… there is Abram, just chilling out... with the carcasses... waiting... there are many flies… buzzing... and the stench… and birds of prey... they are eating the remains. Was Abram some sadistic weirdo? Absolutely not! He was still patiently waiting for God to fulfill His part of this covenant ritual. Finally, after Abram falls into a trance and the sun sets the smoking fire pot and torch that represent God appears and passes between the halves of the animals. God has just fulfilled His part of this covenant with Abram. No pressure here, but Abram just entered into a covenant with the almighty!
There is another interesting thing with this reading from Genesis that we will notice only If we read this passage closely, paying good attention. To be completely honest here, I’m not clever enough to notice this myself, I first heard it from Mark Hart, The Bible Geek. We see God take Abram outside and say to him “look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can” and further tells Abram “Just so, shall your descendants be”, “as numerous as the stars”. But rewind for a second, we just talked about how later on that same day nightfall comes and Abram enters into a terrifyingly dark trance. God said to Abram, count the stars if you can. It was daytime! The author of Genesis is being quite subtle here! Abram could not count the stars in daylight at all but he trusted they were there just the same. He had faith in what he knew to be true, that the stars were in the heavens even though he could not currently see them! Abram first illustrated what we hear about much later in Paul in his letter to the Hebrews that “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Abram hoped in the covenant God promised him and trusted in his numerous descendants even though he could not see them.
This is a good point to segue into the Gospel on and it will make more sense why in a minute. Jesus chose Peter, John, and James to ascend the mountain with Him. Imagine that, first you are blessed to be one of the twelve chosen and now you are one of the three chosen out of the twelve. It is these three who get to see this glimpse of Jesus in His heavenly glory. This must have been an amazing experience for them to see Jesus’ divinity in this way. His alb looked like it had just been Oxi Cleaned 100 times over! The apostles, who had spent so much time one on one with Jesus, had no idea his divinity was present, yet hidden, in such a radiant way.
Much like Abram couldn’t see the multitude of stars in the daytime because the light of the one big star, the sun, hid them, Jesus’ divinity was usually hidden by his humanity while he walked the earth. He was 100% divine and 100% human all the time after all.
Again, this is not something I came up with on my own. When we read the scriptures and focus on what is going on, research it, ask questions, consult pastors, deacons, theologians of old, theologians of new, we will find some very interesting things are going on at such a deep level that it will be made crystal clear that it is indeed divinely inspired!
The other important thing we need to do with Scripture is to understand how it applies to us, today, so many thousands of years later.
The Holy Spirit led me to focus my application on the second reading and go from there, especially this: “Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their "shame." Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
First off, this is great inspiration for a diet plan and I indeed have been meditating on this scripture for a while because of that. As a matter of fact, as some of you already know, when I launch my browser I have a certain set of websites that open up in different tabs, the third is always a scripture passage link that is relevant for me. The past few months that third site has been to Philippians chapter 3, verse 19, what we heard in today’s second reading.
I need this reading to focus on my dining habits. To put it honestly, if fasting were a high school sport I would always be picked last! I’m not sure why but if there is food out I have this feeling like I deserve it. I am worthy of that slice of warm apple pie. I should have that lovely frosted piece of cake, I earned it. Those twinkies look just oh so fantastic the way that light hits them so….sorry, lost myself for a moment there. I try to blame my coworkers, always bringing in some box of processed sugar to eat, and eat it I do but the blame must land squarely on my lack of self-control!
Now here we are beginning Lent and we all need to assess how and what we are doing. Lent is all about self-control. It’s still early in Lent and I haven’t been in the office much yet due to the canonical retreat but I need to set my mind, I need to be resolute each day. Today’s scripture is a nice nudge in the right direction and Lent is really a time to take our fasting to a professional level and this scripture can help us do just that. What’s nice is that the second reading not only tells us what to do but also why, because if we succeed: “He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.” The focus should be less on how hungry we are and more on the food that endures for eternal life. It is hard today in time to focus on the glory of Christ, there are so many distractions. Even Peter, God bless him, becoming fully awake wanted to set up three tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, possibly in reference to the feast of Tabernacles but the Gospel tells us he didn’t know what he was saying. That’s what I love about Peter, often he doesn’t know what he’s saying….but he says it anyway.
Here we are back to the present time where I try to make it to our adoration chapel as often as possible. I pray for that perseverance I need through Lenten fasts and sacrifices. When I go to adoration it is there I expect to see what I have endearingly called, faith fireworks. I don’t want to just sit staring quietly, I want lights, camera action!! I want that transfiguration moment that Peter, James, and John got, bright white lights, clouds, and the thunder that is the voice of God giving me commands like BEHOLD MY SON, DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU and stuff like that, but alas I often get nothing. On the canonical retreat I was reminded by a very wise priest that we are in good company with this “nothing” feeling, Saint Mother Teresa once said to a priest in adoration, “I feel nothing”. A simple yet very profound statement but how do we fight “nothing”? We fight “nothing” with “something”. Fighting nothing with perseverance is key and can also be rewarding. Fighting nothing with the knowledge that God isn’t in the wild winds, or the earthquake or the peals of thunder, no, God is often found in the quiet whisper, and it’s only during times of that nothing experience we will hear that whisper, that “nothing” where God can then speak to our hearts. To do this we must fight the noise, the technology, and the chatter of life. In information technology, we call that signal to noise ratio. How much noise of life gets in the way of the quiet signal of God? Even in adoration I sometimes bring the echoes of the noisy day there with me, it’s hard to shut that off but we need to persevere with our fight. Today’s Gospel is a good reminder of the true glory that is often hidden in Jesus Christ. In those seemingly dry spiritual times, we need to illustrate the trust that Abram showed all through his life, not just in the moments where God was so vibrantly present in the flame and smoke, but in the “nothing” times as well.
Perhaps “nothing” is the wrong term to use, perhaps “silence” is more appropriate as St. Teresa of Calcutta said:
“I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence – we need to listen to God because it’s not what we say but he says to us and through us that matters.”
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