Homily for Wednesday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 33RD WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME
2020
ANDREW THOMAS
One of the consequences when Cain murders his brother, Abel, is that Cain will become a restless wanderer. Nevertheless, even when we do good and avoid evil we live with a certain amount of restlessness. We all remember that popular line from St. Augustine:
“My heart is restless until it rests in you, O Lord.”
A general restlessness that we all experience is a certain consequence of original sin, dwelling in a broken and fallen world. Even Jesus who is God incarnate, completely free from original sin, was restless in this world because of the prevalent disorder.
Remember that Jesus said, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Consider paragraph 13 from the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes:
13. Although he was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God. Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, but their senseless minds were darkened and they served the creature rather than the Creator.(3) What divine revelation makes known to us agrees with experience. Examining his heart, man finds that he has inclinations toward evil too, and is engulfed by manifold ills which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things.
Adam and Eve, as king and queen in the very beginning, gave dominion to the serpent, enabling him to become prince of this world. In this fallen state we are all restless because our daily experience is filled with disorder because of this loss of grace.
The Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, came to restore order and to enable us to give dominion back to Him, who we celebrate as King of Kings and Lord of Lords this coming Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, because of his suffering, death, and resurrection, that has set us free from Satan’s dominion over us.
An important question that we must ask ourselves, however, is why are we restless?
Are we restless because we are those poor banished children of Eve?
All of us suffer from this restlessness.
However, we can also be restless because of the moral evils that we have committed, our own choices to sin.
What are our vices?
Is it gossip? I always have to get my point of view in there regardless of whether or not it disrespects my neighbor.
Is it gluttony? I always have to eat the richest of foods, and be at a restaurant.
Is it an addiction to alcohol, pornography?
Is it an anger and an unforgiveness that I refuse to let go of?
These vices can also cause our conscience a great deal of restlessness.
As we look at Luke’s Parable of the Talents, we are reminded that the graces we have received through baptism, the reception of the Sacraments, our prayers and good works, must be utilized in order to bring more souls to Christ.
Sin can delay us or prevent us from acting. The man who buries the coin is filled with fear. We are not referring to here the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is Fear of the Lord in essence that leads one to action. It is a fear of suffering that stifles God’s work.
Today is the Feast day of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. Who was from a noble family in Grenoble, France. She grew up right at the start of the French Revolution, and at 19 entered the Visitation of Mary convent against the will of her parents.
She took care of the poor and the sick, opened a school for homeless children, and helped underground priests administer the Sacraments.
She then went on to the United States and became a great missionary, joining there the Infant Society of the Sacred Heart. She founded the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi in St. Charles, MO, and later the first Catholic Indian school in Florissant, MO.
May her intercession this morning give us the courage to be faithful to our baptismal promises.
