The Reign of God-HOMILY FOR THE 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME JULY 2022

HOMILY FOR THE 14TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Zechariah 9:9-10; Ps.145; Rom.8:9.11-13; Matthew 11:25-30

 _You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really dwells in you_ (Rom.8:9)

The Reign of God

Ordinarily, no one cares for or loves a child more than the parents. That is why a child is always happy to behold the return of the parents even though he or she may have been under the care of another. It is this joy that the liturgy of today calls us to experience because the Lord comes to reign over us. The readings of today talk about the reign of God and the effects of this reign both around and in us. In the first reading, Zechariah asked the people to rejoice because their king is coming. He used the phrase: “your king comes to you”. The one who comes belongs to us. This belongingness is God’s love for us; and so, we rejoice that at last we are in the safest of hands. God does not care for us as his leisure activity but as his primarily responsibility.

Zechariah went on to say that the Lord will come in a humble manner but with great victory. The humility of his coming calls for our vigilance. Big things are not difficult to recognize because their appearance is usually loud; only small things come anonymously. The Lord is the greatest yet he will come calmly. To recognize him, we must pay attention to little things; we must be concerned with details. The conscience serves as a moral guide. The extent to which a conscience is upright is the level to which its able prick us in our minutest errors. A dead conscience is that which fails to prick at the face of great misdeeds. Therefore, to behold the Lord’s coming means that we must be more conscious of those often neglected little acts of unfaithfulness. To behold the humble king will also mean to trust more those often overlooked ways he ministers to us: in the scriptures, in prayers, in corrections, in common sense, etc.

Zechariah symbolized the humble coming of the king as “riding on a donkey”. The Lord comes to give us victory. While horses are used for wars, donkeys are beasts of burden. But the Lord is giving us victory with a donkey. How do we understand this? Like a beast of burden, the Lord comes to take away our sins; he comes to wash us clean; to take our sins upon himself. By so doing, he brings us victory. It is a spiritual victory; a victory over sin and death that could only be wrought by the Lord himself; the best kind of victory to be won. It therefore means that our greatest enemy is the devil.

We are always fond of casting and binding the devil; some go the length of praying for the death of those who do not wish them well. But after such prayer, we go home to invite the devil and make him comfortable in our hearts when we dwell in sin. See, action speaks louder than voice. When we send out the devil with our voices but welcome him in our actions, the devil will rather dwell with us.

On this note, the second reading admonishes us not to live in the flesh but to live in the Spirit. It is not possible to live in both. To live in one is to have relocated from the other. The humble king comes not only to change things around for our good but to also dwell in us. In this letter to the Romans, St. Paul emphatically stated that living in the flesh is what displaces the Spirit of God from us. Sometimes when we are overwhelmed with the struggle against the sins of the flesh, we legitimize some falls with some self-convincing opinions. But we do not want to come to the conclusion that living according to the flesh means death. Again, telling ourselves that everybody is doing it, consoles and strengthens us negatively.

Beloved, the one who created us says to us that we are not debtors to the flesh. The flesh in itself is not evil; but living by the dictates of the flesh makes us selfish and animalistic. But then, the struggle is real. It is difficult to do honest business when bills are suffocating; it is difficult to practice chastity or faithfulness in marriage where distractions abound everywhere. How do we cope? We do not rise to the level of our wills but we fall to the level/standard of our lifestyles/routines. So, it is not enough to desire holiness or to truly regret ones sins, we must learn to carve out a live style that enables us to avoid occasions of sins and get busy with legitimate concerns. This requires humility. It takes humility to accept your weaknesses and avoid certain persons or places on account of your weaknesses. Often times, the pride of life suggests to us that we can “cook the food and not taste of it”. If Jesus could humble himself to become a “donkey” for our salvation, even more humbler should we be become if we must cooperate with this salvation. Dropping sinful habits begins with humility.

In the gospel reading, Jesus ask that we cast unto him our difficulties and concerns, and he will give us rest. Like the donkey which is a beast of burden, Jesus will not only take away our sins but will also give us a helping hand in bearing the challenges of life. When Jesus helps us, we will find rest for our souls. Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. By this, we learn that God will not give us a cross that is beyond our capacity. Our capacity here is not just our strength but also our ability to pray through all life’s challenges.

Let us bear in mind that the help of God will not always be in form of instantaneous miracles. Some divine help will mean the Lord walking down the rough road with us. That you are still walking along the rough path does not mean that your prayers are not being answered. See, what God promised us is victory. This presupposes a battle. So, our life’s battles do not contradict God’s love for us. If we remain in the Spirit, he will surely bring us to the promised victory.