Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Are you the sort of person that doesn’t like to throw things out? Do you prefer

to hang onto things, just in case they come in useful later on? Or do you prefer

to get rid of items that don’t have a use at the moment, and just buy what you

need later on? When I was getting ready to come to Thame I had deliberately

accumulated quite a few boxes, empty jam jars and so on, and quite a few of

them came in useful when I was packing things, and the rest I either put for

recycling or left behind for my successor. I also went through some of the

other items that I had, including lots of paperwork, and did a certain amount of

shredding to get rid of things that I had never really read again or needed and

were just taking up space.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness

be restored? [It can’t.] It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown

out and trampled under people’s feet.”

You can imagine Our Lord doing a check through the household of the

Church: where is there growth and where is there dead wood? Which trees are

bearing fruit and which ones only produce small, bitter ones? Who is being a

useful cardboard box and who is lying in a corner just taking up space? Our

Lord is very clever in the images he uses. What is salt supposed to do? It’s

there to preserve food, to bring out its taste and make it more pleasant, and it’s

supposed to go into the food, rather than sitting in a cupboard and ending up

going damp. As Christians, we are to uphold higher ethical standards, make

human society more humane and fun as well, and get involved in the world

around us.

Or take the idea of the light. We’re not used to having candles around the

house as our only source of light. I can remember when I went to World Youth

Day in Cologne back in 2005, the final big event was an outdoor gathering with

the Pope, with a night vigil, sleeping outside, and then a big Mass in the

morning. We had been given candles, and I used mine to light the way to get to

the tent where confessions were taking place (I wasn’t a priest at the time, so I

was going to confession, not to hear confessions). If you hold a lit candle just

in front of you, it actually makes it more difficult to see, because the bright

light affects your eyes and makes your pupils constrict. That was the mistake I

made, having little practical experience of using candles as torches. What you

need to do instead, is hold the candle up high, out of sight. Then the light

spreads further and doesn’t affect your eyes. Our lives have to be held high,

close to God so we can be of benefit to others. Not kept lower down, further

away from God, and become a nuisance and a hindrance to ourselves. St

Therese of Lisieux said that our love, our charity, “must shine out not only to

cheer up those we love best but all in the house” [end of quote] (The

Autobiography of a Saint, ch. 9). It’s by being closer to God that we can grow

in love of neighbour. Then, as the first reading says, by being righteous and

just, caring for those in need, we will bear witness to our faith and draw God’s

blessing down upon us. Part of the story of the founding of the Saint Vincent

de Paul Society is that it’s founder, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, was asked by

non-believers: you say you are a Christian, but what are you doing for the poor

in Paris? He saw they had a bit of a point, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the second reading, St Paul says that his method of evangelisation among

them was not through clever logical arguments, but through witnessing the

power of God. Our society at time lacks hope. Instead of adding to the

negativity, we can help restore people’s faith in humanity by the goodness of

our lives, with those good deeds not done for any hidden or selfish motives.

And if we help to restore their faith in humanity, we might sometimes even

restore their faith in God.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk