Homily for Friday, 11 July 2014– Memorial of St. Benedict

Friday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Hosea 14:2-10; Psalm 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14, 17; Matthew 10:16-23

Who among us enjoys walking or hiking? I am reminded of one experience of hiking when I hear the proverb that ends our first reading, from Hosea: “Straight are the paths of the LORD; in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.” If “the paths of the LORD” are indeed straight, we might ask, how would anyone, sinner or not, “stumble in them”?

This proverb makes me think of a hike I went on with my father and sister when I was a child. The hike was to a lake stocked with fish in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, not far from where I grew up in Edmonton. One section of this hiking trail is covered with small, loose rock chips or scree. To one side of the scree-covered section is a significant drop. When we hiked this trail many years ago, I thought nothing of this scree-covered section of trail, even crossing it while carrying our fishing gear. We took our time to cross it with sideways baby steps. A few years later, it was reported in the news that, sadly, someone had stumbled on the scree and fallen to his death on this section of the trail.

I wonder if, in light of the proverb we hear today from the prophet Hosea, “the paths of the LORD” may well be straight but, at the same time, covered in scree. “Sinners stumble in” these “paths of the LORD,” while “the just” walk in them with minimal difficulty. Perhaps we could imagine “the just” as small children with low centers of gravity who have little trouble crossing over the loose rock chips‒ the scree might be compared to temptation to sin with which we are all confronted‒ on “the paths of the LORD.”

Sinners (at some point in our lives, are these not all of us?) approach the scree, that is, temptation; maybe with the memory of past sin, with fear. This fear makes crossing the scree more difficult. We become that much more prone to stumbling, and our stumbles become more difficult from which to recover; to repent; to ask for forgiveness from those against whom we have sinned and from God.

The prophet Hosea promises great forgiveness and redemption for the people of Israel should they repent: “I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them.” God promises us the same forgiveness and redemption should we turn to our God who never tires of forgiving us; of leading us to salvation along “the paths of the LORD.” And yet do we not sometimes look at repentance; at receiving the sacrament of reconciliation if we have not for some time; at asking for forgiveness, as though this were scree across our hiking trail?

God invites us to cross the scree; to trust in God’s forgiveness; not to fear moments of temptation but to take sideways baby steps across the loose rock chips if necessary; to continue as repentant sinners on “the paths of the LORD”  that are “straight and in which “the just walk.”