Weekly HOMILY for January 31, 2010: Love: Its Modeling and Empowerment

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
January 31, 2010

Love: Its Modeling and Empowerment
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


The Sign of Jonah

Shortly after World War II, a Lutheran minister wrote a play entitled “The Sign of Jonah.”

The play takes place in a Germany that is still reeling from World War II. A group of refugees are arguing about who is to blame for this horror.

Various people blame Hitler, the manufacturers of munitions, or others, and then, one man shouts, “God is to blame. He created this world and placed all this power into unworthy hands; He allowed all this to happen.”

And little by little everyone takes up the chorus: “God is to blame! God is to blame!” What happens next in the play is that God is put on trial and found guilty.

The judge says: “This crime is so serious that it demands the worst possible punishment. I hereby sentence God to live on this earth as a human being.”

The judge then directs three angels to execute the sentence. The first angel declares, “I’m going to see that God knows what it’s like to be obscure and poor; there will be shame about his birth.”

The second angel vows, “I’m going to see to it that God knows what it’s like to fail and suffer.”

And the third angel swears, “I’m going to see to it that he will die the most painful and humiliating death possible.”


God’s Love

The audiences who saw this play – The Sign of Jonah – and even we today, know that God has already served his sentence.

God has become human and lived on this earth as Jesus. And Jesus has suffered and died for us, out of love.

The message of the gospel, and even the underlying message of the play, is that God became what we are and experienced what we experience. And God has done this so that we can better understand who and what God is – that God is love itself, pure love, nothing but this outpouring of love.


Our Love

This, Sisters and Brothers, is the basis for Saint Paul’s classic description of love in our second reading.

Is it easy to be such a loving person? Definitely not!

How can we do it? How can we become this kind of person?

We can do this with (1) The example and (2) The empowerment of Jesus. Paul does not say it, but this is the grounding of all that he says here today.

Jesus is our (1) Example, model or template. And (2) His presence with us through the Holy Spirit and the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, is our empowerment or strengthening for doing this.


Archbishop’s Annual Appeal

This weekend, all celebrants in the Archdiocese are asked to speak at the Masses in our parishes.

Archbishop O’Brien has asked us to reflect on what is called the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. And what better way to do this than in the context of Paul’s passage on love today!

The Archbishop’s Annual Appeal invites us to help with the services and ministries that are beyond the level of any single parish. They are services that the Archdiocese itself leads and supports.

They include things like hospital chaplains, college campus ministries, assistance for schools and religious education programs in financially poor areas, homeless shelters, and relief to the impoverished and ravaged country of Haiti.

There is a full listing of everything that the Appeal supports in the flyer enclosed in today’s bulletin.


Some Specifics

Many of us have given to this Appeal in past years and some of us have already given this year.

On behalf of Archbishop O’Brien, I thank you very much for your generosity. And now, I will wrap up with just a few specifics.

First, each parish is assigned a goal or target that equals 9% of its annual offertory income. Our Lady of Grace’s target for this year is $46,000, but that is a target, and in the end, we give what we can give.

Second, I think it is fair to say that our giving to Our Lady of Grace comes first. The Archbishop does not want this appeal to hurt our weekly Offertory Collection.

Third, the parish Development Committee and I are recommending that we contribute to the Appeal an amount equivalent to 10% of what we give to the parish each year. So, if you contribute $1,000 a year to the parish, try to consider a gift of $100 to the Appeal and this gift can be made as a pledge and spread out over the next ten months.

Finally, each parish will receive back 25% of what it gives. So, 25% of what we as Our Lady of Grace give will be our share for special needs that we designate.

Our parish committees have decided to use our share for two equal purposes. One half for our sister parish of St. Cecilia’s in Baltimore City and one half for tuition assistance for parishioners going to Our Lady of Grace School. Regarding tuition assistance, the Archdiocese will match whatever we designate for this.


Conclusion

In conclusion I would ask each of us to approach the Archbishop’s Appeal as an expression of faith and of living the love that Saint Paul talks about today.

As always, I know that we will do our best. Thank you very much.