Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/082210.shtml

“Praise the Lord all you nations;
Glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
And the fidelity of the Lord endures forever.”

Do we believe the lines above? In the first reading, the Lord speaks through Isaiah and prophecies about the time when Israel will be broken, and the Israelites scattered as fugitives throughout the world. If we were the Israelites, and had lost the Promised Land promised to us by God, could we still say “steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever?” Can we say that after someone we love has been killed, or we have been crippled by disease? Can we praise God when we are at our lowest?

That is what the readings are about today. When the Israelites are scattered, they make brothers and sisters of the strange nations of the world because they can still praise God as Good News when they have lost everything. They keep their faith when they have nothing else, because they can preach with the faith of Abraham; the faith that proclaims the promise and the victory of God even in defeat.

It is easy to be gracious when we are winning. When we make lots of money it is easy to tithe. It is easy to love when we are loved back in return. It is harder to love under discipline. When we were young and punished for our mistakes, we didn’t run to hug our parents. We sulked and ranted and wailed because we thought it was unfair. Why would we give love when we receive none in return?

But we are called not to be children any more. We experience pain, and must learn to love it as discipline for our love. Jesus says we must strive to enter through the narrow gate, and many will not have the strength for it. We will learn the strength necessary through suffering, “that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.”

And our strength will move mountains. The faith that suffers willingly is the faith that will convert the stranger. Martyrs are the greatest evidence of things unseen because they endure the ultimate price with the love of God on their lips. The God whom you will not abandon under pain of death must be a magnificent God.

We are called to be martyrs, because we will all suffer. It is not enough to love Jesus only in the good times. Jesus clearly says he does not know those people, even when they tell him “we ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” We cannot assume salvation, because salvation does not assume us. Many are called but few are chosen.

Let us be strong. Let us encourage each other in faith. It is inevitable that we become discouraged, but let us take courage in the fact that He is our God, and we are His people. Always and forever. Let us be confident in the victory that Jesus has already won for us, and proclaim it to the nations even in the depths of our poverty, of wealth, of spirit, of peace. Because that is the faith which will move hearts, which will bring brothers and sisters out of the nations as clean vessels for God. Who, in turn, will preach the kindness and fidelity of the Lord to the world, until we make a prophecy of the psalm:

Praise the Lord all you nations;
Glorify him, all you peoples!