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16thSunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Terranova Hermitage
July 22, 2018
The Challenge of Belief, Hope and Love
(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Why Follow?
Why did so many people follow and gather around Jesus?
Today’s Gospel says that there were so many people that Jesus and his apostles did not even have time to get a bite to eat at the local carry out.
I think that the answer to the question of “Why?” takes us back to the basics.
What comes across to me is that these people believe in, hope in, and love Jesus – the basics: faith, hope, and love.
Here is why I say that.
To Believe, Hope and Love
These folks in the Gospel have nothing and no one in their life experience to believe in. They are ordinary, hard-working people, trying to keep body and soul together.
Historical evidence also indicates that they are made to feel like second-class, even low-class by the higher-ups. They have so often been disappointed and let down by the leaders in their society and religion.
So, they are open to believe in a God who is intervening into their world, in the way that Jesus is talking about. They are open, perhaps even eager to believe in Jesus, who seems so wise and compassionate.
These crowds gathering around him also have nothing to hope for. Fifteen percent of their children die at birth, 60% before they are teens, and their life expectancy is 35 years.
They work hard on farms and live under the occupation of the Roman army. They see no future for themselves or their country.
So, they are attracted by the hope Jesus is offering them, namely, that the meek will inherit the land and that their sorrows will be turned into joy. Yes, they are more than willing to hope in Jesus.
These individuals also need to feel the warmth and tenderness of love. They are so tired of not being treated with respect.
They do not feel valued or wanted. Their sense of self-esteem has hit bottom.
Little wonder they are attracted to a young man who tells them that every hair on their head is counted and valued by God and that God loves them no matter what.
So the crowds are moved to love Jesus in return.
Today’s Challenge with That
I’m wondering if, in some ways, today hasn’t become even more challenging to follow Jesus than it was then.
Today, perhaps all the knowledge and having it just a click away makes having faith more difficult. Every day we are discovering something new in the universe, in medicine and in technology.
We may become skeptical about anything that cannot be proven scientifically, making belief in God and in Jesus superfluous.
In our times, we may also have less of a need to hope. We get immersed in the latest smart phone or flat screen TV or whatever it is that glitters or attracts our attention.
We may simply live for today and have no real vision for the future so we’re less inclined to place our hope in God and in Jesus.
Finally, today we may be a bit foggy or unclear about love. We’re prone to give up on the commitment that is involved in loving, especially when the grass, as they say, seems greener on the other side.
We may also see love as just giving things and not ourselves and our time to our children and others, making us less inclined to love God and Jesus.
Our Choice to Believe, Hope, and Love
In the face of all these present day, concrete applications we might ask,“Is possible or even appealing for us to believe, to hope in, and to love God?”
To make a case for responding “Yes!” to the question we can say that science does not give us all the answers to the mysteries of life, that the really big questions of life and death remain a mystery. Admitting that, we are more inclined to say yes to a belief in God and Jesus.
When we look at the problems in life and in our world and sense that we are not fully in control, we can respond “Yes!” to the reasonableness to hope in God and Jesus.
And when we remember that all human beings have a longing for unconditional love, again we can respond with a full-throated “Yes!” to the love God in Jesus is offering us.
Even in our scientific, consumerist, and material-oriented culture it is possible and even attractive to believe, to hope in, and to love God.
This is both the invitation and the challenge that placed before us in today’s Gospel.
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