WITNESS TO JESUS | 26TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Here is the prepared text of the homily delivered by Bishop Larry Silva, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at St. Theresa Church, Kihei, for the parish patronal feast, and at St. Rita Church, Haiku, on the occasion of Confirmation and First Communion, and the installation of the new pastor.
One time I was visiting a parish, and the elders were telling me what a wonderful parish it was, with so many people involved in ministries. They did say, however, that they were concerned that the younger generation was not getting involved, and they worried what would happen when they were all gone.
Then I had a meeting with the young people, and they told me how much they wanted to be involved in the parish, but the elders would not let them. The elders seemed to have a grip on all the ministries, and although they said they wanted young people involved, their actions actually drove them away. The young people would hear things like, “Thanks for that idea, but we’ve always done it this way.” Or “We can put you on the schedule, but it’s already pretty full for months ahead with the regulars.” So it is, that, like the two sons in the Gospel, we can often say one thing, but do the opposite.
I can’t tell you how many times, as a pastor, I heard people say, “We need a Bible study.” Then we put a Bible study together, and no one comes! Or “We need to evangelize, to take the Gospel to people who have not yet heard it.” Then when we begin strategizing, the discussion always seems to come back to how we can better serve the people who already come to us. Then, of course, there are New Year resolutions, which we know we only keep for a couple of days, then it’s back to the same old same old! We are very much like these sons in the Gospel, who say one thing and do quite another.
Jesus is, of course, challenging us to first of all do the right thing, but also to correspond what we say we believe with our actions.
In a family, there might be a particular tension between husband and wife, or between parent and child. Everyone knows the right thing to do, but no one seems to be able to do it, so the problem just festers and becomes even more threatening to relationships. It is one thing to say we want things to change, but quite another to make the commitment to actually change them.
When I was a pastor, I would often hire staff members. I wanted them to be team players who could get along with other people well, who were collaborative in their demeanor. But over the years I found that anyone in the interview who loudly touted how collaborative they were and how highly they held this as a value, turned out to be the least collaborative people of all. There was a real disconnect between what they said and what they did.
We are all probably guilty of this duplicity in some way, but Jesus challenges us to a conversion. Changing means having to humble ourselves and having to give up something so that a relationship can be made right again. This is why Jesus, who is God, did not deem his equality with God something to be grasped, but who humbled himself to make himself a slave to us. He wanted to show us that he not only said he loved us, but he showed that love concretely by laying down his life for us on the cross. He changed the reality of matching words and deeds so that we could have the courage to follow him, matching our words about love with our actual deeds.
Jesus is the truth, and he was not sometimes “yes,” and sometimes “no,” but always “yes.” He spoke the truth and he lived the truth. He did this to show us that it is possible for us to leave behind our duplicity and our hypocrisy, and to live our faith with the harmony of word and deed, because this is the way of the God who made us, the way of the God who is love.
