__ Click Here for Audio of Homily __
● Jeremiah 17:5-8 ● Psalm 1 ● 1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20 ● + Luke 6:17, 20-26 ●
Title: Hunger. Our Lady of Lourdes Feast Day
[__01_] This reading may sound both “familiar”
and “unfamiliar” to you, because it is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes which
many of us know better from Matthew’s Gospel.
Hunger is a blessing, a benediction and
benefit to you, to me.
Do
we see hunger as a blessing, as a benefit?
This Solemn Mass is also in honor of
Our Lady of Lourdes, our Blessed Mother who first appeared – as the figure on
the LEFT in this mosaic over the altar to Bernadette Soubirous – on the right.
[__02_] Bernadette is truly hungry – in a
desperate situation with her family who is very poor without necessary food and
money.
At 1 point Bernadette's father had stolen
some firewood – 1 plank of wood -- and this caused further trouble for
Bernadette's family. They were living in a basement, dungeon-like setup of a
home of a house in France. Things were bad.
On February 11, 1858 Bernadette herself was
sent out to collect firewood – LEGALLY, this time. They needed heat. And while on her way
Bernadette sees an image of someone she describes as the beautiful lady or the “petito
damizelo” in her dialect.
Bernadette’s demonstrates devotion to God and
her family amid her hunger. In her own way, Bernadette testifies that God
satisfies our hunger through the Good News of knowing Him and also in receiving
Holy Communion, even amid “rejection”
[__03_] Bernadette
of Lourdes is hungry for righteousness. And though she is rejected at first,
regarding her reports of the beautiful lady, no one can convince the very
humble not formally educated Bernadette that these apparitions didn't happen.
Finally, Bernadette is told to ask the
beautiful lady who she is and Bernadette is told the words inscribed above the
Blessed Virgin Mary again at the top left of the mosaic: “. I am the Immaculate
Conception”
It's notable that once Bernadette reports
these words -- “I am the Immaculate
Conception” --- that Bernadette becomes
more credible, more believable, more trusted, because as a young, not formally
educated, peasant, poor peasant, she would not have been familiar with the
term, “Immaculate Conception”
And after an extended interview with
Bernadette and investigations by the church, the operations were accepted and
given to us for our devotion, we are called to hunger and thirst for
righteousness.
Bernadette is hungry for righteousness. to
report what really happened despite the rejection, Bernadette's hunger moves
her in the right direction.
In what direction does your hunger take you?
Does my hunger move me towards God's righteousness or God's will or am I only
hungry to satisfy my own desires?
[__04_]
What will truly satisfy us when we are
hungry? Now I'd like to talk about hunger and righteousness. What do you really
hunger for? Is it food? Is it calories on a plate? Yes, I hunger for those.
We also hunger and thirst for righteousness
as Jesus also says in Matthew’s Gospel “blessed are they who hunger and thirst
for righteousness” (Matthew 5:__)
We hunger and thirst for righteousness, for honesty,
for truthfulness.
Here is one example where my hunger led me in
the wrong direction.
I was driving my car, and I drove around
somebody else on the right side in order to get ahead of the other driver
because I thought incorrectly
that the driver was stuck in a traffic jam.
I was completely in the wrong. Fortunately,
there was absolutely no accident, but the other driver was upset with me. I
wish I hadn't done it. But I was hungry. I was hungry to get ahead. I was
hungry for speed. I was hungry to get to my destination. That is what we
sometimes hunger for we hunger for material things.
So we're evaluating our hunger, whether it's
a diet or whatever it is. Sometimes we have to go back to the beginning and ask
what did I really want out of the situation. Where was I going? Where am I
going?
Jesus wants us to be hungry for righteousness
to be hungry for love and for him and to go in the righteousness - direction.
[__05_] Tomorrow is also
Valentine’s Day … a day we also might think of our desires, and remember that
love is also something we are craving – whether this is the love of your
spouse, your child, your parent, your friend, neighbor.
Pope Saint John Paul II – in his
writing about love, theology, responsibility and “theology of the body” reminds us that God gives us our bodies and
our physical desires so that we can grow in communion with him and with others.
[__06_] Christopher
West wrote - " If, as John Paul teaches, the body and it alone is capable
of communicating the mystery of God’s love to us; and if there is an enemy of
God who wants to keep us from God’s love – where, then, would ….
[the
evil spirit – Satan try to operate… he would try to mess with … or tempt us in
our desires for love and how many….people think that …. think that the body and
the gift of sexuality are the last places to look for the presence of
God?" ]
Christopher West:
“The
theology of the body – [and understading of our hunger] is a is not to make us
more “spiritual,” but to become more incarnational and to allow the Word of the
Gospel to penetrate our flesh and bones. When this incarnation of the Gospel
takes place in us, we see the Church’s teaching on sexual morality.
Both men and women – each in their own
way are called not to suppress but to cultivate their desires – their hunger –
to nurture and protect life and the lives of others,
To
respond to true hunger and righteousness.
[Christopher
West source:
https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/264/west2.htm#:~:text=The%20theology%20of%20the%20body%20is%20a%20scriptural%20reflection%20on,divided%20into%20two%20main%20parts.&text=The%20Pope's%20thesis%2C%20if%20we,the%20human%20body%20and%20sexuality.]
[__07_]
We are reminded to have hope in God when we are hungry, God's plan is
greater than our rejection. That is one of true righteousness. It is one that
helps us to recover and to
and
to know that we are loved.
Notre Dame de Lourdes, priez pour nous. Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us.
[__fin_]
No comments:
Post a Comment