Sunday Homily 11-7-10, 32nd Ordinary Time (next to last of the year)
Readings: 2 Maccabees 7, 1-14; Psalm 17, Lord, when Your Glory appears, My Joy will be full; 2 Thessalonians 2, 16-3, 5; Luke 20, 27-38.
Intro to Readings
Our first reading somehow got past the censors. It is from the Second Book of Maccabees. This is the only Sunday in the entire three-year cycle of readings that we have anything from this book. It is about the martyrdom of a family of seven brothers and their mother. I suggest the only reason this reading was selected is because the number seven also appears in the gospel story. If you want to learn more about this period in Jewish history, Wikipedia has more than enough information to satisfy most.
Paul is writing to the Thessalonians in our second reading.
The Gospel reading from Luke has Jesus finally in Jerusalem. Remember that a major part of Luke’s gospel has Jesus on the great “Journey to Jerusalem”. Today Jesus is in the temple trying to answer one of those imponderable questions. “Who gets the bride in heaven?” The folk who ask the question, the Sadducees are only heard from in Luke in this passage. They were a group of ultra conservative Jews who only accepted what was written in the Torah and refused all of the oral tradition. They actually disappear following the destruction of the temple.
I am keeping these comments brief because I want instead to talk about the sacraments in the homily.
Homily
I would like to begin by reading from Chapter 3 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy from the Second Vatican council.
“The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God; because they are signs they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called 'sacraments of faith.'
They do indeed impart grace, but, in addition, the very act of celebrating them most effectively disposes the faithful to receive this grace in a fruitful manner, to worship God duly, and to practice charity.
It is, therefore, of the highest importance that the faithful should easily understand the sacramental signs, and should frequent with great eagerness those sacraments which were instituted to nourish the Christian life.”
Many of us last studied the sacraments in CCD class and perhaps a review will be helpful. There are seven sacraments. As the council reminds us, the sacraments are a source of grace. The easiest way for me to understand what that really means is to say that the sacraments help deepen my relationship with God thru a community action.
If we go back to the very beginning of the Old Testament and the Book of Genesis, in the story of the creation of the world we have this concept of God speaking and then something happening. God said, Let there be light, and there was light. I find a similar pattern in each of the sacraments. We have a liturgy of the Word, followed by an action of some sort, whether it is pouring of water, or anointing with oil or an exchange of promises. The sacrament of Penance when celebrated as a communal service also fits into this.
So we can say that each of the sacraments has Word and action. I also like to divide the sacraments into two main groups. One group is about joining, namely Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, and the other group is about special circumstances or situations, namely, Marriage, Ordination, Penance and Holy Orders.
One of the challenges we have today is to be able to understand the symbols used. Symbols are a funny thing, because in themselves they can have one meaning, but when an object is used as a symbol it points to something else, and unless you are part of the group using that object symbolically you can too easily fail to understand what is intended in the symbol.
But the most important aspect of sacrament is that it is a community action. We seem to have drifted from the original concept of God’s People, to that of individual relationship with God. But the whole history of the Old Testament was that of a people, a community in relationship with God. And the New Testament continued that notion. The early church was a community of believers. I think we need to begin with that reality when discussing the sacraments too. They are community actions, not individual actions. In fact none of the sacraments can be celebrated, and notice I use the word “celebrated” in isolation or on ones own.
In future homilies I would like to delve into each one of the sacraments in detail, but let's not forget, while we talk of the seven sacraments, we acknowledge that almost any action/activity which brings us closer to God deserves the title sacrament.
Picture 1: Mass beginning
Picture 2: Offertory with Grace & Marsha
Picture 3: Carol & Marilyn
Picture 4: Jan (The photo taker) & Curtis & Charlie