Homily for Thursday, 18 August 2016– Ferial

Thursday of the 20th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Ezekiel 36:23-38; Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19; Matthew 22:1-14

This homily was given at the chapel of Kateri House Women's Residence of St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Our Gospel reading today raises many questions for me: Why do the first slaves “invited to the wedding banquet” of the king decline the king’s invitation? Why do they not simply decline politely, but instead “make light of” the invitation, while some go so far as to mistreat and kill the king’s other slaves? Why is the king so harsh toward the unfortunate man who shows up at the wedding banquet without his “wedding robe,” casting this man “into the outer darkness, where there [is] weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

These questions are difficult to answer with only the information that Matthew’s Gospel gives us. Maybe the first slaves thought their master, the king, to be harsh, and so they had planned a way of opting out of attending his wedding banquet. And maybe they mistreated his other slaves out of added spite. The king’s slaves would seem to have been right about his harshness and short temper, if the king’s treatment of the man without a wedding robe is any indication of this.

Then again, maybe we are asking the wrong questions if we are wondering why the slaves behaved the way they did or why the king in Jesus’ parable is so harsh. After all, the king is meant to be understood as God. And God would not be unduly harsh toward his people, would he? Perhaps we interpret God incorrectly as harsh for destroying the slaves and their city after they had mistreated and killed other slaves. Perhaps God, the king, has reason to cast the man without his wedding robe “into the outer darkness, where there [is] weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

But maybe we are being invited to focus less on the apparently harsh actions of God; of the king, and more on our own choices before God and one another. Now, I am in favour of the belief in a loving and merciful God who gives sinners and even serious evildoers almost infinite chances to turn from sin. And yet all of us are created with complete freedom, which includes the freedom to accept or to reject God’s mercy; God’s gift of salvation; God’s invitation to the wedding feast, the Kingdom of Heaven definitively, as it were.

And so might we direct these questions not toward God but toward ourselves: If we are given an invitation to the wedding feast, will we choose to accept God’s invitation? Will we go “into the main streets” and invite still others, without partiality, to the wedding feast? Will we wear the wedding robe of salvation given us by the king, God, at our baptism, when we were first invited to “bring” the “dignity” of this garment “unstained into the everlasting life of heaven”?

Will we pray with the humility and penance of the Psalmist: “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord,” even if our creation and re-creation by God entails breaking down our sin; our acts against God; against love; against one another, in order to rebuild dignity with which we were first created? Will we listen to prophets, of our time or of old, who call us to accountability; to repentance when necessary?

These choices are ours to make, with the freedom God has given us to make them.

Homily for Saturday, 7 March 2015– Commemoration of Sts. Felicity and Perpetua

Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent

Readings of the day: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20; Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Has anybody here ever experienced making a bad choice, possibly even sinning, when somebody else, especially somebody in authority (a parent or grandparent; a teacher; your employer perhaps) knew you were about to make a bad choice but did not warn you not to make this choice?

What about the “Prodigal” Son and his father in today’s Gospel reading? What was the father’s first reaction to his younger son’s demand for his share of his estate? If I were the father in our Gospel reading, I may have thought: “This will not end well. My son will spend his share of my inheritance unwisely, will find himself in need, and then come home asking for a handout.”

As the eldest child of my family, I may have thought: “The eldest is usually the obedient, responsible type. The youngest is stereotypically playful and causes all the trouble. To give the youngest son a large share of the estate is probably not a good idea. I should warn him not to spend all his money irresponsibly.” In reality, I have made (and grown from) my share of irresponsible choices. My brother Eric, meanwhile, gives me many reasons to rejoice in him. He is, like the stereotypical youngest sibling, easygoing, funny, and even playful. But he is also very responsible and hard-working.

In our Gospel reading today, the father does not warn his younger son away from his irresponsible actions, as I probably would have were I in the father’s place. This father gives his younger son his share of the inheritance and watches him “set off to a distant country.” The father respects his son’s free will.

What sadness the father must have felt for his younger son! The years pass. The father worries about his son’s well-being: “It is not like my son to give no sign of life: No letters home; not even for birthdays and important holidays. Telephones, text messaging, and Facebook have not been invented yet for faster communication. Should I file a missing person report? I suppose I will need to wait… And wait…”

One day, the father sees a small shadow on the horizon. It gets bigger; closer. “It is my son! I thought he was dead; he was gone so long! Throw a party for him!”

“Wait a minute,” the responsible eldest son says to his father, “‘All these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders,’ and you want to put on this great feast for that wild little brother of mine”?

“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’” This is our God to us. God does not warn us when we are about to behave irresponsibly. No, God respects our free will, which is itself God’s gift to us; our share of God’s own free will.

And when we become lost by our irresponsible actions; distant from God because of sin, our Prodigal Father waits for us, ready to put on a great feast when we return home.