Words from Fr Billy HOMILY FOR NINETEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (A) Dear friends. It is good to be home again having spent the last three weeks in the holy land. It was a truly memorable experience. I wish to thank all of you who offered your prayers, support and solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza at the time they needed it most. Please continue to remember them as they seek to rebuild their lives from the rubble left behind. This weekend here in St Aidan’s we have our annual Patron weekend when we remember and pray for all those buried in the cemeteries in the parish. This year, a special treat lies in store as we hold a Festival of Flowers in the Cathedral that has as its theme: ‘A Celebration of Homecoming and Remembrance’. We hope as many as possible come to the Cathedral this weekend to view a spectacular display of colour and beauty. As we look around us at the wonderful arrangements, a question arises that leads into our Scripture reflection on the Sunday readings. The beauty that we see in the flower arrangements, who is responsible for it: God or human beings? The answer of course is both. God is the author of all life who makes the plants, flowers and crops grow. But what we see before us has been made possible by the work of human hands and human creativity that have shaped and arranged these flowers into the beautiful forms we see on display. The creation of this beauty is a perfect example of what can happen when God’s initiative and human co-operation work hand in hand. When humanity becomes a co-creator with God and works in partnership with God then great things can happen. In the second reading on this nineteenth Sunday of ordinary time, St Paul tells us that what he teaches is ‘in union with Christ’ and what he preaches emerges from ‘his conscience in union with the Holy Spirit’. Elsewhere he describes Christians as ‘God’s partners’ (1 Cor. 6:1). Here again is that sense of partnership that Paul has with the Lord who works with him. All he says and does is ‘in union with Christ’ and ‘in union with the Holy Spirit’. Paul knew that he was God’s instrument and that God is the source of all goodness, truth and beauty. But he also had an understanding that he himself was a chosen vessel of that grace and that God was working through him in a powerful way. In the Gospel story, we see Peter being saved from drowning by an intervention of Jesus who reaches out his hand and holds him above the surface of the water. Once again, the message of the story is one of being upheld and saved by joining our hands to his and putting our faith in the Lord’s guidance and strength. We seem to be always forgetting the importance of being partners with God and the strength that comes from being united with him. We can easily become too independent, self-sufficient and think that in order to be truly free I must leave all faith in God to one side. I, and I alone decide what is best for me. On the other extreme, we can become too passive or too submissive and think that God alone will solve all my problems and those of the world. We can think that this can happen and will happen without me or without me taking any responsibility for what I see happening before me. Take the example of peace in the world or a relationship that has been broken. The Christian does not just pray for healing and forgiveness: he or she helps make it happen as well. The same with the problem of world hunger. We don’t just pray for people who don’t have enough to eat: we do something to make that prayer come true. Of course God is at work through our actions. Sometimes he works despite our efforts and not because of them. However, the message is the same: prayer combined with action is a powerful force for good in the world that expresses the partnership that God wants to have with all of us. It can only be possible by believing God’s closeness to us in the Spirit and not if we have an image of him being far away. It is in this togetherness and unity that the real strength and power lies. The simple morning prayer sums it up: ‘Lord I believe there is nothing that you and I can’t handle together today’. Here is the unity with God known by Peter, Paul and all the saints. With this unity they overcame fears, doubts and achieved more than they ever imagined or expected. We can do the same. Yet we must always remember that the grace of God goes before us. When we don’t know what is the right thing to do, the Holy Spirit is always there in our conscience prompting us in the right direction always leading us to do what is right. In this sense, God is always the one who invites, who takes the lead and who shows us the way. Our faith in God is not the enemy of our freedom but neither does our faith dispense us from responsibility or leave us immature. As partners of God he has bestowed upon us a strength and a dignity that He is waiting for us to claim. As I heard it said lately: ‘the definition of a vibrant parish is one where every member has a sense of having something to contribute, of having a role to play’. There are thousands of flowers on display here today but the real beauty is seen in how they are arranged and are brought together. The beauty of these flowers arrangements is due to the co-operation of God’s creation and the human hands and minds that he also has made. It is a fitting example of what can happen when we become co-operators and partners of our active, creative and artistic God we call Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:48:11 +0000
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