February 4, 2024 (Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

“Kick Up Some Dust”

by Fr. Dominic DeLay, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

I always wonder if Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law because he was hungry. When he takes her by the hand and helps her up, a kind of mini resurrection, her fever leaves her and she waits on them. Some of us might prefer that he ask her to be one of the twelve, but we can say that he has healed and freed her so that she can be of service to Jesus’ kingdom of love and life in the ways she has available to her.

There’s more, though. The word translated as “wait on” is from the same word at the root of deacon. Literally, this word means to kick up some dust, a nice, earthy way to describe serving, like running an errand. Simon’s mother-in-law – Shall we give her a name? How about Dusty? – Dusty, healed and now vigorous, kicks up some dust in service of Jesus’ mission. This same word for service is used to describe those other women who followed and supported Jesus.

Jesus himself kicks up some dust in today’s story. After healing practically everyone in town, he gets up early the next day to go off to a deserted place to pray. His disciples manage to track him to tell him everyone is calling for him. But Jesus turns his back on such adulation. “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. It is for this purpose that I have come.” He kicks up some dust and keeps moving, “preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.”

For Black History month, Fr. Xavier has prepared a handout for each Sunday that recalls stories we might not have heard of. I came across in Sojourner magazine the story of Rose Robinson. That Greek word for kicking up dust that is the root of the word for deacon could also have been used of runners. Rose Robinson was a star high jumper who literally kicked up dust in competition and had a long career kicking up dust through activism.

Throughout the 1950s, she led “skate-ins” to desegregate a Cleveland skating rink. In 1958, she refused to represent the United States at a State Department meet in the Soviet Union, not wanting to be a pawn in her country’s attempts to whitewash its reputation for racist laws. In 1959, she remained in her seat during the national anthem at the Pan American Games. She’s considered the first to use that non-violent tactic for justice.

In 1960, she was sentenced to prison for not paying her taxes in protest against her country’s testing of atomic bombs despite the dangers of nuclear fallout. After her three-month hunger strike, the judge offered to commute her sentence if she paid the $386 she owed in taxes, but she refused. Her hunger strike drew national attention that resulted in her release, but her body was weakened enough to ruin her track career. She continued, however, to kick up dust through activism until her death in 1976.

How are we healed so that we can serve in our particular ways? Through our baptism, we who are Christians have been saved by Christ. Of course, salvation also means healing, as in salve or balm. Why has each of us been healed through baptism? How are we called to kick up the dust in service of the kingdom?

In fact, all the sacraments are sacraments of service. We are confirmed in our baptism to strengthen us for service. We regularly participate in the sacrament of the eucharist so that we might re-commit ourselves to service and be fed and strengthened. We ask forgiveness for our sins so that we can be free to serve. We’re anointed for healing so that we can be vigorous servants. We are married or ordained for service to the church and the rest of the world.

Jesus moved on, leaving adulation behind, to preach and drive out demons, and he calls us to kick up the dust and follow him. Last Sunday, Fr. Xavier suggested that racism and other destructive features of our society are demons. How can we together drive out racist laws, policies, systems, and practices from the soul of our nation and church, from Stanford? How can those of us who superficially benefit from racism, leave power and comfort behind and purge our own lives from reliance on it so that we and others might live in true freedom? What other ways are we called to leave behind adulation or routine to serve more freely and fully?

In today’s eucharist, let’s allow Jesus to heal and lift us up once again that we might follow him and serve one another in vigor. With Dusty, Rose, and so many others, let’s kick up some dust.