22 September 2024 – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

by Fr Gerard Theraviam

I love little kids and so it is lovely to see Jesus bringing out a kid to the front so that everybody might see and invite them to say: If you welcome one of this little children in my name, you are welcoming me. And likewise, if you welcome me, you welcome not me but the One who sent me. His Father.

So children are, for us a lot of the time, unless they are being brats, children are people that we want to celebrate because young people are not just the future of the church but they are the NOW of the church. Don’t say they will have their time later. They should have their time right now.

But when Jesus was looking at kids at that point in time, children were nobodies. And maybe some of us who are older may remember when we were told: Children must be seen but not heard. And perhaps, you know, we were told: Keep quiet, let the adults speak. Today perhaps a different way of thinking has come about.

But at that point the child had no rights, the child was a nobody and so when Jesus showed them the child and said: If you welcome a child like this, they were looking at a child who they would not normally bother about. But Jesus is saying you need to bother about the last, the lost, the little and the least. And that child was an example to them of how important it was to be inclusive as a church, to include everyone who was somehow on the fringes, in the margins of society.

Today we see also that the disciples were struggling with this whole idea of who is the greatest. And that is very much the way that the world thinks, isn’t it? We are encouraged to reach to the stars, to be the top, to be the best. And yet, the difficulty can be the fact that what happens to those who do not have those abilities?

We can’t all be the best. We can’t all be the top. And we need to recognise that we should include everyone. All of us are part of God’s kingdom and we are all part of a machinery that does different things at different times. And not all of us can be the greatest. In fact if all of us thought we are the greatest, we will have a problem, isn’t it? We will have a whole load of egos causing problems because they cannot let go and think that they are the best and they won’t listen to others.

So here we are called to become servants. Because Jesus talks in terms of the children as being important while He also talks in terms of the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will put Him to death. And 3 days after He has been put to death, He will rise again.

We have heard of this before many times and we know it. But you know the cross sometimes still is scary for a lot a people. A lot of people don’t want to look at the cross because they are scared that ‘I don’t want that suffering.  I want to have joy always. I want to have an easy life. I don’t want suffering. Thank you very much.’

But the reality is that we can’t run away from suffering. Suffering is part of the human condition and it happens. It happens whether we like it or not.

And in our First Reading from the book of Wisdom, we see the man who is virtuous has suffering because others are jealous of him. And maybe when we live our lives in accordance to God will, that irks and irritates others who because their conscience is pricked, they say: Haiyo! That one is bad. That one is a lousy guy.

They will criticise us because we are living God’s ways and not the world’s ways. They want us to conform to their way, the world’s way. But NO! We are God’s people and we go on living the way we ought to rather that saying: Okaylah. You want like that, I do like that lah.

No! We go on because the Lord upholds our lives. I have God for my help. The Lord upholds my life and so I am confident to go ahead in the way that the Lord tells me so that I may do His will.

But the problem is sometimes it is not other people are jealous of us. Sometimes it is us that are jealous of other people. And when we see that, Saint James says: When you find jealousy and ambition, you find disharmony and wicked things of every kind being done.

Why are we jealous?

Sometimes it is because we think they have got something that I don’t have. And I want to be there in their place. But the reality is that if we look at ourselves, each one of us has things that other people don’t have. Each one of us is blessed and gifted in our own ways and we need not compare ourselves with others because God sees us as unique individuals with our own gifts, with our own talents and He allows us to continue to be the person that He wants us to be. And indeed He is refining us and making us more and more the person we should be.

And so if there is a thinking in terms of ‘I want to be better than them’, let us not be better than them. But let us all be better together.

You know I am reminded of one of these races, I think it was an Olympic race some time ago, where somebody fell down even though he was way ahead on the race. The next guy helped him out and pushed him and said: Go, run.

You know the idea was that he could have gone and become the winner but instead he allowed the other, the real winner who accidentally fell down, to go ahead and take his rightful place. Now that is the kind of attitude of saying: We are all winners. We don’t need to be number one.

And that is what the Lord is asking us to do. 

The other thing that comes out from James today is about peacemakers. When they work for peace, sow the seeds that will bear fruit in holiness. And you and I are called to be peacemakers. When we see jealousy, and we see things that are not right, we need to do what is necessary.

And a peacemaker is not the same as the peacekeeper. Because a peacekeeper sometimes is there to keep the warring factions away from each other. But when you take away the peacekeeper, then they start fighting again. We see that lots of times in history. In Afghanistan, that happened. The peacekeepers went on and then the warring started again.

But what is more important is to be a peacemaker and sometimes in order to make peace, we will be sometimes almost at war with people who do not see the need for peace.

And in our nation, we are called to be peacemakers, especially when there is a whole load of stuff that is going on. We see issues about race and religion and sometimes we keep quiet.

We don’t have to become big, loud, noisy people to say things that will incite others. But sometimes we do it is perhaps by the way we live and how we interact with our sisters and brothers of other faith and other races so that they can see that we are genuine people, wanting to recognise that we are all fratelli tutti.

All of us sisters and brothers because we share the fatherhood of one God, who calls us to be one.

And today we pray. We pray and we are told that why you don’t get what you want is because you don’t pray for it. And when you do pray and you don’t get it is because you have not prayed properly. You pray for something to indulge your own desires. James reminds us of that.

Today let us pray with sincere hearts. Not for things, not for becoming better or greater or whatever it is. That the Lord will use me whether I am in whatever situation He has put me to be His servant. Not to be the greatest but to be His servant, to serve the last, the lost, the little and the least.

We are all children of God. Let us be His children and look after each other.

Amen.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 22 September 2024