Let us give the Holy Spirit permission to insult us

The priests are at the Annual Convocation with Bishop. I had the opportunity to lead Communion Service this morning at Saint Mary Cathedral. Below is my homily for the Wednesday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time (Year C - 10/12/2022):

Good morning. In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a great image of a cup that is shiny and beautiful on the outside while, on the inside, it was in dire need of being cleansed. Also, as we heard in his homily yesterday morning, Deacon Ron said that we can be like that cup - squeaky clean on the outside but what about our interior, what lies beneath, in the depths of our heart. The image that comes to my mind is of an ornately-carved wooden trunk or  armoire, seemingly beautiful and solid on the outside but cluttered, messy, and dirty when we open it and peer inside.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, while others may not know what is going on in our head or heart, God knows; and when He “explore[s] the mind and test[s] the heart” (Jeremiah 17:10), what would He find? Would He find thoughts in our head and feelings in our hearts that would lead us to “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry. . . hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness. . .”? Woe! to us if He does find these things in us because, as we all heard Saint Paul warns us, in his letter to the Galatians: “those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Now that we know what is at stake here - our inheritance: the kingdom of God - what are we to do? Well, the answer is right there, at the foot of the Cross, my sisters and brothers in Christ. In the tabernacle, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ waits for us with love and in him and through his Real Presence in the Eucharist, the “source and summit” of our Christian faith, we have reason to hope. We know that Jesus did not leave us orphans when he ascended to heaven to take his rightful place with the Father because he sent us the Holy Spirit.

You all may recall this verse in today’s Gospel when the scholars said to Jesus; “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” Well, let us give the Holy Spirit permission to insult us because, in doing so, the Spirit convicts our hearts and moves us to conversion. And when we turn to the Spirit with humble and contrite hearts, the Spirit of God “[crucifies our] flesh with its passions and desires.” In other words, the Spirit removes from our hearts those things that prevent us from inheriting the Kingdom of God and fills us with “the fruit of the Spirit. . . love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. . .” so that we may “live in the Spirit” and “follow the Spirit” and, when our earthly pilgrim ends, we may inherit the Kingdom of God.

. . .

Gospel of the Day

The Lord said:

“Woe to you Pharisees!

You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,

but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.

These you should have done, without overlooking the others.

Woe to you Pharisees!

You love the seat of honor in synagogues

and greetings in marketplaces.  

Woe to you!

You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,

“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”

And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!

You impose on people burdens hard to carry,

but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”