Homily for the tenth Sunday of the Year - 06-08-08

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Homily for the tenth Sunday of the Year - Year A
Hos 6:3-6 - Rm 4:18-25 - Mt 9: 9-13
by Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen

God's great mercy

Hos 6:3-6

Hos 6:3, «Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his going
forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the
spring rains that water the earth.» 4, What shall I do with you, O
Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a
morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 5, Therefore I have
hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my
mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6, For I desire
steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than
burnt offerings.

The Prophet Hosea, whom we read today in the first reading, lived in
the middle of the eighth century before our era. If Jesus cites him
in this Sunday's gospel, it is not without reason: Hosea is the
Prophet of the extreme, the Prophet who wants to show the People of
God how great, immense, out of proportion is the mercy of the Lord
when faced with the multitude of the people's sins and the great
number of its infidelities. "For I desire steadfast love and not
sacrifice." (Hos. 6:6)

Of course, the mercy of God is not at all out of proportion. The mercy
of God is in proportion to God himself: it is infinite. This allows
us to understand that we cannot understand it! For that which is
infinite surpasses the capacities of our natural intellect, which is
finite. We must therefore go to a higher level: that of the
supernatural intellect, that is to say that of faith! Solely faith in
God allows us to understand, and above all to spiritually taste, how
great is the mercy of God.

Rm 4:18-25

Rm 4:18, In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should
become the father of many nations; as he had been told, "So shall
your descendants be." 19, He did not weaken in faith when he
considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was
about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of
Sarah's womb. 20, No distrust made him waver concerning the promise
of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22,
That is why his faith was "reckoned to him as righteousness." 23, But
the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake
alone, 24, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe
in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25, who was put to
death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Without faith, it is impossible for us to understand the least
fragment of the Love of God towards us. Without faith, we cannot
understand what are God's intentions for us and for every man and
woman called to serve the Lord on earth in order to reign with Him in
Heaven! Faith serves to reorient our life: the faith in Jesus Christ
proclaimed in the gospel is not destined to make us happy on earth,
but rather to give us, here below, the pledge of eternal Life, the
sole source of true happiness!

Abraham lived of this faith, and this faith justified him! Having
believed in the Word of God, Abraham received life from this same
Word, a Word that is a food, a food that inaugurates, in the one who
eats it, the very Life of God! "He who through faith is righteous
shall live." (Rom 1:17; Hab 2:4) However, Abraham lived before the
coming of the Messiah: he hoped, against all hope, for the coming of
the promised Messiah. So it was only in hope that Abraham lived of
the Life of God. A hope that, however, allowed him to taste by
anticipation how great is the mercy of God towards him and towards
all humanity...

Mt 9:9-13

Mt 9:9, As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew
sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me." And he
rose and followed him. 10, And as he sat at table in the house,
behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus
and his disciples. 11, And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to
his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and
sinners?" 12, But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13, Go and learn what
this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners."

Abraham left his homeland of Chaldea one day to follow the Lord on the
way to the Promised Land. Here, it is Matthew, the publican, or tax
collector, who is called to follow Jesus on the way to Heaven. I do
believe that if the gospel Jesus preached was meant to make men happy
on earth, the Lord would have left Matthew at his tax office, having
given him recommendations to be honest with all taxpayers. Instead of
that, Jesus tells Matthew: "Follow me." Which means: "Leave all of
that and attach yourself to me alone!"

All of us need conversion: all of us must reorient our life, through
faith, towards the higher realities. Let us not fear to leave
everything for Christ! When death will come, it will be necessary to
leave everything. So if we accept our death, we will be able to
merit, justly, eternal Life. Otherwise, do we not fear to be strongly
attached to all creatures, and first of all to ourselves? So then why
not act as if death were already here? Let us be detached from
everything! But, through faith, let us be strongly attached to the
Lord!

"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." We are the sinners
that Jesus sought. Let us ask Him for forgiveness! Let us love Him
with all our heart! Through Mary, may the most great mercy of God
overflow in our soul!

Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen

http://meynen.homily-service.net/

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