June 18, 2023
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061823.cfm
Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36—10:8
When I was growing up I wasn’t a fan of rules or instructions from my parents. I was a figure-it-out-for-myself type of kid. Well, here’s a story that illustrates how that often didn’t work out so well for me. Many many ages ago, when I was around twelve years old I went with my mom to the bank and sat in the car while she went in. Back then you actually had to go cash or deposit checks inside the bank as online didn’t exist yet. I was sitting alone in the car and there was this push-button cigarette lighter that cars had back then. Most young folks wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. Basically, you push the lighter in, it gets screaming hot, pops out, and you can light your cigarette with it. Yes, back then people also smoked a lot and smoked everywhere. I told you, it was many ages ago! I remember my mother once warned me not to play with it, it’s dangerous. I had to figure that out for myself. I pushed it in and quickly, maybe within 2 seconds pulled it out, and then, as you can guess I had to see if it was hot. I looked and it wasn’t blazing red hot so I put my finger on it quickly and yes indeed it was hot. As hot as a small sun! The nicely circular rings of the heated element quickly burned my finger and I had lovely reddish-black perfectly concentric circular ring marks on my finger. I put the lighter back and then noticed something. The car smelled like cooked finger! I had to get that smell out before mom came back so I rolled down all the windows, yeah, manually rolled them down. That’s not easy to do with a smoldering finger but I managed. Fortunately, by the time she got back, the smell was gone but my pained finger remained. Lesson learned, well, at least THAT lesson was learned.
Why did my mother have all these warnings and rules for me? Because she was some awful tyrant? No, it’s because my mother loved me and she had the wisdom to keep me safe. This was the same wisdom I clearly did not possess yet.
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
God also has His covenant rules, the ten commandments, and if we follow them it might not keep us from burnt fingers but it can instead bring us to eternal life. How can we not want that? God gives us these rules because He loves us more than we can imagine and wants us to be with him for eternity! God created us and He knows us better than we know ourselves! He knows what we need to do to remain happy.
How did the Israelites do with these rules? Well, if we jump ahead in the story we can see - not well. Moses took too long to come down so they built the golden calf and worshiped that instead. I won’t get into the details here but let's just say that wasn’t a good idea! - and the result for them was far worst than a burnt finger!
They were promised to be God’s chosen people, God’s priests, prophets, and kings. Time after time the Israelites fell to sin but God is indeed a forgiving and patient God and would give them chance after chance.
The final thing God did for them was to offer His own son as the perfect redemptive sacrifice!
But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him
The Israelites had one final chance as Jesus told his Apostles to announce the Kingdom of God to the Jewish people first:
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
They didn’t listen again and we know the rest of that story!
What about us? By our Baptism, we have that same promise the Israelites had, that of being a nation of priests, prophets, and kings - a holy nation! We do this through the Catholic Church. The Church is like a giant toolbox of things we need to take advantage of to get us into Heaven. I won’t name them all, just a few.
The Bible - It’s our instruction manual that God Himself gave to us. All things we buy these days have an instruction manual. I’m sure my mom’s old car had a manual telling you to be careful with that lighter, it gets hot! Who reads instruction manuals? Well, when it comes to our salvation the Bible is one instruction manual we DO want to read and study!
Confession - yes, like the Isrealites we will fall into sin from time to time and thanks be to God, we can ask for forgiveness when we offend Him! In Confession, we receive that forgiveness that only God and the sacrament can guarantee!
The Eucharist - this is the Source and Summit of our faith. It is our food for the spiritual journey. Far superior than the manna from the desert for sure!
Prayer - if we want to really know God on a personal level then we must talk to Him. We do that in prayer. It can be a rote prayer or a made-up prayer. Something as simple as “God, help the smell of burnt finger be gone from the car when my mom gets back”.
Humility - always be humble with others as well as when addressing God. God loves a humble heart!
Saint Augustine tells us:
It is not that we keep His commandments first and that then He loves but that He loves us and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace which is revealed to the humble but hidden from the proud.
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