August 7, 2022 (Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time)
/“Words of Life”
by Deacon John Kerrigan
[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]
The film director and comedian Woody Allen once reported, “I took a speed-reading course where I learned to read thousands of words per minute, by moving my finger down the middle of the page...then I read Tolstoy’s 1,800-hundred-page novel War and Peace in 45 minutes… It’s about Russia.”
This morning, let’s address a similar challenge, about summarizing the New Testament: were you and I able to pass along to the next generation but one word or sentence from the Christian Scriptures, what would it be? That’s right, a word or sentence that captures the heart of the text and fosters spiritual growth. No easy task. However, today’s Gospel passage offers some compelling starting points.
Here are three phrases from Luke’s Gospel that leapt out at me:
It opens with Jesus’ words, “Do not be afraid.” (That is, have courage.)
Further in the passage we hear, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Meaning, avoid attaching ourselves to those things that are fleeting, or put simply, to practice “detachment.”)
And then there’s, “From the one to whom much is entrusted, even more will be expected in return.” (In other words, live your vocation with purpose and passion.)
OK, so it’s nigh impossible to summarize the breadth and depth of the New Testament in a word or phrase, or even three sentences. However, if you and I were to write down these three words on an index card: courage, detachment, and vocation, and try to live them out each day, chances are we would capture many essential parts of the Christian Scriptures, and we’d live an examined life and experience spiritual fulfillment.
One person who did just that was the Patriarch Abraham. His life heads the list of those examples of faith found in Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. Abraham is admired because he acted with courage, practiced detachment, and lived his vocation with singleness of purpose.
Now, I have a special affection for Abraham. Why? Because like myself, he was a late bloomer. Our third child was born but two weeks before my 50th birthday! Abraham was roughly eighty years of age when he learned that he was to be the father of all nations. While Paul rather colorfully describes the old man to be “as good as dead,” Abraham’s reaction to God’s invitation was very different indeed. For the Patriarch replied quickly, “Yes, Lord.” Abraham obeyed “by faith.”
“By faith” he left his homeland and became a migrant. “By faith” he and his wife Sarah were able to conceive a child in their old age. As a result of his faith, he has been known forever as the father of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
Today, nearly 3,000 years later, do you know who else has the opportunity, like Abraham, to live out the virtues of courage, detachment, and embracing one’s vocation to the fullest? You and I do, that’s who.
We live in a complex, challenging time. We’re faced with inflation, the aftereffects of COVID, climate change, political and social divisions, excess individualism, and a host of other problems. However, for a little perspective, I think it’s important to acknowledge that you and I here in 2022 are better off than 99% of those who came before us. That said, so many people are looking for a better future and someone to trust.
Our situation is both different and similar to the flux and chaos found in today’s readings. So we are presented with a challenge: How can you and I act like Abraham, by being people of faith who manifest courage, detachment, and a love of our vocation? Put simply: how can we—like Abraham—take on the role of a bridge builder in our present day and age?
The answer might very well be found in the words of today’s Gospel. For bridge builders are people who have the courage to speak the truth in love, even when it’s uncomfortable, and perhaps even risky and dangerous.
Also, they are not attached to a particular political or social worldview. They have the capacity to appreciate nuance, to listen deeply to their conversation partners, and possess a willingness to ground their truth in God’s love, mercy, and justice.
And lastly, bridge builders give witness to the truth by their example. Observing their humility, others realize that these bridge builders’ lives are animated by a grand vision, a vocation.
Yesterday, I had the good fortune to attend an event here at Stanford, where former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith spoke to an auditorium of over 150 former college football players. In discussing his 16-year career in the National Football League, Smith talked about dealing with self doubt, and the importance of action, of a “what’s next” mentality. There were lots of heads nodding as Smith spoke.
Living courageously can be challenging, maintaining an attitude of detachment is countercultural, and focusing on your true vocation is hard. Our task is to support one another in taking that next step, in spite of self doubt along the way.
So, as we approach the table of the Lord this morning, let’s ask ourselves: this coming week, what “next step” can you and I take to build a bridge – large or small – by manifesting courage, exercising healthy detachment, or tuning into a fuller expression of our vocation as Catholics?
For if all Christian Scripture COULD be summarized in one word, perhaps that word is “action.”
