HOMILY FOR THE 31ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C
In the first reading from Wisdom, we hear, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for you would not fashion what you hate. How could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? (God) you spare all things, because they are yours, O Ruler and Lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! (Wisdom 11:24-25, 26-12:1)
Human beings like to compartmentalize things. We like to group things and people into neat, little categories. We also like to do this with God. It is easy for us to isolate God to a building that we visit one hour a week, making God a prisoner of a building. Then we walk out the door of a church, thinking we have left God behind in the church and that God has no relationship with anything or anyone outside the church doors.
In the reading from the book of Wisdom, it is written that God’s imperishable spirit is in all things. As the psalmist in Psalm 139 observes, there is no place to which we can escape without God already being there. What the author of the book of Wisdom makes it so very clear that God’s spirit is present in all created things, earth, wind, water, fire. There is not one thing in heaven and earth in which God’s Spirit is absent. There is not one thing in heaven and earth that God does not love.
As we get closer to the end of the liturgical year, it is important for us to open our awareness of God not only in all that is around us, but especially God’s presence within us and in other people.
This expanded knowledge of God in and around us must reflect the relationship we have with nature. Since God is present in all created things, to deface, to diminish, to harm our environment is an indicator of our relationship with God.
The hardest thing for us to swallow is the love that God has for all people. The author of the Book of Wisdom reminds us that God loves all things and loathes nothing, for how could God create anything that God hates. If God does not hate that which God has created, nor can we. God does not love exclusively. God loves inclusively. This is something with which many of us struggle. If we truly believe that God’s Spirit is present in all people, and there is not one person that God does not love, then we cannot use, cheat, or abuse people. If we truly believe that God’s Spirit is present all people, prejudice, racism, violence, hunger, and all want would be eliminated from our world.
In the familiar story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10), Zacchaeus has this moment in which his eyes are open to the presence of God in the people with whom he is in relationship. Zacchaeus realizes that in the way he has harmed others, he has harmed God. He needs to correct the harm he has done. He says to Jesus, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” For those who held Zacchaeus in contempt, Jesus quickly corrects them that God is present in Zacchaeus. “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.”
As we get closer to the end of this liturgical year, and the readings point to the time of Christ’s second coming, let us open our eyes like Zacchaeus to the presence of God all around us; in nature, and most importantly, in all people.
