Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (c) 2010
FATHER'S DAY
June 20, 2010
We
just heard Jesus ask the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"
Today we celebrate Father's Day!
What if a father should ask his children: "Who do you say that I
am?" How well do we know our
fathers? One man speaking of
his father's death said that he learned more about his father in the
days surrounding his father's funeral than he had learned in a lifetime.
The son knew his father only from his own experience.
What he could not know or appreciate is who his father was in the
eyes of other family members and his many friends.
The
man knew that his father had studied to be a musician but became a
builder because there was no money in music to raise a family.
He did not know that his father had occasionally directed the
city's symphony. He did not
know that his father had wanted to go to seminary but his father would
not let him. The man had
always been jealous of his father's independent spirit and his successes
in business. What he did not
know was that his father was jealous of him and his own success.
He
recalled his father as being very caring.
He did not know that his father had insisted that the children be
fed and in bed before he got home from work.
The father had certainly changed, but the man had no perspective
to see it. The son was upset
that there were so many things he had never known about his father.
There were so many things he had never asked his father or even
thought to ask.
Regrets such as these should be remembered so that we can prepare
ourselves to answer if Jesus should ask us, "Who do you say that I am?"
There is so much to be learned, so much to be experienced.
We assume a great deal, but rarely do we test our assumptions or
let them drop away so that some new understanding might shed more light
on who Jesus is
The
end of the world is often presented as a frightening time.
We hear about tribulation, earthquakes, storms, and wars at the
coming at the end of time.
It is interesting, then, to read Zechariah as in our First Reading
today.
He
speaks not of a time of fright; he speaks of a time of lamentation
(regret). On that day we
shall see God as He really is.
Zechariah says that we "shall look on him whom we have thrust
through, and we shall mourn . . . On that day the mourning . . . shall
be as great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo."
What
was this mourning? Israel
had suffered a series of kings without faith, kings who had defiled the
Temple, kings who had led the people away from God.
Then, during the early years of Jeremiah's preaching, came young
King Josiah who was both a political and religious reformer and was
deeply loved. Israel went to
war, and at Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo, just 11 miles from
Nazareth; King Josiah was killed in battle.
The people of Israel were devastated!
For those old enough to remember, it would have been even more
devastating than our loss on the day President John F. Kennedy, Dr.
Martin Luther King, or Bobby Kennedy died.
Not only were great hopes dashed, but also a renewal of faith was
shattered.
Zechariah implies that the one thrust through died.
The people mourned for their king as one would mourn the death of
the first-born. Josiah's
death would have been an absolute catastrophe because there was no heir.
Without an heir to carry on the family bloodline, it was believed
that a person had no afterlife since people lived on through their
descendants.
Now
we are the ones looking upon the one we have pierced, that is, God.
What we will lament (regret) is our sins . . . the acts that
"thrust through" our God.
Our grief will be the sense that we have lost our future, our hopes, and
our dreams.
The
lamentation Zechariah speaks of is one that comes only after total,
absolute loss. But the story
does not end here. We learn
who God is. Once we come to
know God, we will grieve our sinfulness, but He will become a fountain
for us to wash away our sin and uncleanness.
When we come to know God this way, the Psalm response we just
sang comes to have a deeper meaning: "My soul is thirsting for you, O
Lord my God."
One
of the chief complaints today about our government is that government
does not listen to the people.
Sometimes this is true, but unfortunately, this is too often a
projection. We are the ones
who don't listen to each other.
We are bound and determined to get our way, and not just
politically, but in most other ways as well.
We are more concerned about
OUR WILL being done than
GOD"S
WILL being done!
Fathers, step-fathers, grandfathers, Godfathers have to teach their
children that we do not always get our way in life.
And, when it comes to God, we should not even want our own way.
We should want His way!
We must get to know Him so that our sins will not cause us to
mourn, lament, regret! Who
is Jesus? He is the one whom
we should long to know more closely, whom we should follow more closely!