A Homily – The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Ezekiel 17:22-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

This reading from Ezekial conveys a message of hope. It is a prophecy for the whole of creation inasmuch as it is a prophecy for Israel.

Understand this.

It can be difficult to separate the particular from the universal, but that is what we are called to do when we engage this text. When Ezekial suggests that God is active in the world, causing one thing or another to happen according a divine plan…he is in error. God, the creator of the universe, God does not intervene in our affairs.  

God made us, and all that is free from coercion.

Nevertheless, he points to God’s purpose in creation, expressing the profound hope the entirety of what is, moves according to the divine plan.

The reading concludes with a classic trope, depicting God as one who reverses the fortunes of the proud and lifts up the lowly. Do not take this to mean that God acts with the capriciousness of a tyrant. God is not a king or a lord; rather, God is a friend and the parent of us all.

We should not interpret this motif as meaning, God will do as God wills in regard the lofty and the lowly, but that all things and beings, great and small, exist within the universe of God’s concerns.

Be mindful.

It is good to give thanks to the creator, and express gratitude for God’s mercy.

God is merciful to all.

God shows mercy to those who have God’s name upon their lips, and to those who speak no word of God at all. God shows mercy even to those who curse God.

Divine mercy has no limits.

If you sing praises to God in recognition of God’s good work in creation, know that among God’s good work are all of those who quarrel with God...and the church.

Know this.

God does not have any favorite children, nor does God love one person more than any other.

Know that there is no guarantee the just will flourish, and no guarantee that the unjust will perish. God only promises to right all wrongs and to do so with justice as tempered by mercy and love.

The works of the wicked will pass away, as will the works of the just, and the wicked themselves will be reborn as servants of God; as brothers and sisters to all…this is the hope expressed in the gospel.

Consider the words of the apostle, and do not be led astray.

Remember the name Immanuel; Remember that God is with us, there is no place we can go where we are not in God presence.

Trust in this and let your confidence in God blossom from there.

Understand this.

The apostle allowed his dualistic view of the world to shape his faith, rather than his faith to shape his view of the world, which would have allowed him to dispense with dualism.

Though he should not be faulted for his world view, it is one he inherited from his cultural milieu, nevertheless we have a duty to challenge him on it.

Know this.

We are not on trial here, Jesus is not a lawyer and God does not sit before us as a judge.

What we may expect from the God at the end of our lives here on earth is grace, we are called to have hope in God’s love and to expect healing; for God knows what we suffer here, just as God knows the secrets of our hearts.

God knew these from the beginning and God said that it was good.

Be mindful.

The greatest commandment is love, love is the whole of the law.

To follow Jesus in the way we must one another and to give of ourselves to one another.

The love that we are called to is not the love we call desire, though to desire and be desired is an experience of great joy. We are called to move past the love we have for family and friends, because to love in that way is only a short extension of the love we have for ourselves, insofar as we see ourselves in the faces of our mothers and fathers, we see our ambitions as tied to the ambitions of our friends…we are called to love with greater dynamism than that.

We are called to love to the point of selflessness, to love even those who work against us, we are called to love our enemies, to forgive those who have hurt us and done us harm, to feed the stranger and protect them…we are called to do o in emulation of the divine.

Jesus taught with parables, he used analogy and metaphor, not because he wanted to keep the truth from people, or because he wanted to cloak the secrets of the universe in mystery, but because the subjects he spoke to: God and the nature of reality, are inherently mysterious in and of themselves.

Remember.

God comes to us as a friend, a brother, a sister, a parent.

God is a gardener, and the fullness of God exists in each seed that is sewn, as in the bush when it is grown; from sewing to harvest it is one and the same thing.

Understand this.

The gospels are replete with propaganda, their authors wrote from a place of vanity suggesting that they themselves were given special teaching by Jesus. They want you to believe something about them and their relationship to Jesus that is not true. Even with their privileged position as the people who were closest to Jesus while he lived, they were unable to understand the crucifixion, both before or after his arrest and trial. It was Judas, Iscariot, one of the twelve, who sold him out, and in the aftermath the other eleven abandoned him, leaving only his mother and a handful women to remain by his side.

They never understood his mission, though they could have, if they had been able to set aside their vanity and listen for awhile.

First Reading – Ezekiel 17:22-24

I Will Plant a Shoot on the High Mountain of Israel

The Lord says this:

‘From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain.

I will plant it on the high mountain of Israel.

It will sprout branches and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.

Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every winged creature rest in the shade of its branches.

And every tree of the field will learn that I, the Lord, am the one who stunts tall trees and makes the low ones grow, who withers green trees and makes the withered green.

I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16

Praise of God, the Creator

Lord, We Proclaim Your Love in the Morning and Your Truth in the Watches of the Night.

It is good to praise the Lord,

  and to sing psalms to your name, O Most High,

to proclaim your mercy in the morning

  and your faithfulness by night;

on the ten-stringed lyre and the harp,

  with songs upon the lyre.

For you give me joy, Lord, in your creation:

  I rejoice in the work of your hands.

How great are your works, O Lord,

  how immeasurably deep your thoughts.

The fool does not hear,

  the slow-witted do not understand.

When the wicked sprout up like grass,

  and the doers of evil are in full bloom,

it will come to nothing, for they will perish for ever and ever;

  but you, Lord, are the Highest eternally.

For behold, Lord, your enemies, how your enemies will perish,

  how wrongdoers will be scattered.

You will give me strength as the wild oxen have;

  I have been anointed with the purest oil.

I will look down upon my enemies,

  and hear the plans of those who plot evil against me.

The just will flourish like the palm tree,

  grow tall like the cedar of Lebanon.

They will be planted in the house of the Lord;

  in the courts of our God they will flourish.

They will bear fruit even when old,

  fresh and luxuriant through all their days.

They will proclaim how just is the Lord, my refuge,

  for in him there is no unrighteousness.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

We Want to be Exiled from the Body and Make Our Home with the Lord

We are always full of confidence when we remember that to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord, going as we do by faith and not by sight – we are full of confidence, I say, and actually want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord. Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him. For all the truth about us will be brought out in the law court of Christ, and each of us will get what he deserves for the things he did in the body, good or bad.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 15:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

I call you friends, says the Lord, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.

Alleluia!

 

Alternatively:

Alleluia, alleluia!

The seed is the word of God, Christ the sower; whoever finds this seed will remain for ever.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©

The Kingdom of God is a Mustard Seed Growing into the Biggest Shrub of All

Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’

He also said, ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’

Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.

 

The Gospel According to Mark 4:26-34 ©