Fr. Adam Voisin's Stuff
Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Our first reading is from the book of the prophet Isaiah, who's prophesying in the 700s BC. And at this time, Israel is being threatened, in particular, by two neighboring, very large, warring hostile nations. To the north wheat, northeast is Assyria, and to the southwest is Egypt, and they're at war with one another, and there's Israel, which is basically the size of a postage stamp, caught right in the middle of them. And by this point, Assyria has already raided the northern region of Israel, and Israel is facing an existential threat. People are afraid, as you may imagine, they're terrified, they're anxious, they're angry, because there would be people there in Israel who have had family members and friends. Already killed in this conflict that they're caught in the middle of. So that's the context. That's the context in which Isaiah utters the words that we just heard. "Say to those of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear. Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.'" In other words, God is still present. Even though everybody is afraid and angry, God is still present. He sees everything, and he's still with them, and he's the one who can come and save them. They're not going to be saved by different political alliances and trying to figure this out on their own. It's going to be God who will save them. And these words apply to the people in those days, but I think they apply all through history. They apply to us as well, when we are fearful, when we've been hurt, when we're anxious, when we're afraid, when we're threatened by somebody, when we've been harmed by another, and wounded by another. We can still hear those words. "Be strong, do not fear. I am with you. Here is your God. He will come with vengeance." You know, when we're hurt by another, what do we want to do? We want to get the vengeance. I want to get revenge. I want to settle the score. I want to get justice. I need to teach the other person a lesson, not to do that again. So I will get the revenge. But here, God is saying no. The vengeance comes from him, not from us, and he's able to do it in a better way because, well, God is all seeing. He is all knowing and all good. So he's able to exact justice in ways that we're not able to. And yet, it's so easy. And when we've been hurt, I know you've been hurt by others. Maybe you've had that desire for revenge, you know, to settle the score, to teach the other person a lesson, to do the dole out the justice. But God says, "No, that's my job. That's my job. Yours is to dole out the love, not the justice." And if we give in to that, the desire for revenge, to get our vengeance, well, it doesn't really lead anywhere positive. If we brood on that dwell on it, we know what that's like. We know that it can consume our mind, our thoughts, our heart, and can destroy your relationships. In other words, we become like an ego of Montoya in The Prince's Bride. If you know, you know. It can be all destroying. Consume all of our thoughts. And if we give in to that, well, we're giving it to what the devil wants. That's what he wants. He wants us to get revenge, to exact the justice. And God says, "No, no, no. That's my job. You give out the love." He tells us that exactly, doesn't he? Remember in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, "Remember to hate your enemies and get revenge on those who persecute you." He didn't say that. He said, "Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Let your blessings come down on the good and the bad, just like God does." Remember, he says, "If you come to worship, you come to the altar and you realize you've got something against your brother, go leave your gift at the altar first. Go. Be reconciled. Then come back in worship." And yet we come to worship with a chip on our shoulder against someone that we're still angry with. Anger is just the devil's cocaine. He loves us to be angry. We play into his hand. And notice what happens. We have that desire for revenge to get back at the other person. Usually the way it looks is I look at myself and I see, "Yeah, I've suffered an injustice. I've been wronged to buy another." And that means I'm right. That means I'm the good person in this equation. The other person is the bad person and they have to fix everything up. And maybe right now, when you think of someone that has hurt you, done some injustice against you, there may be someone doing that same exercise right now, thinking of you. Because we heard others too, right? We're not innocent here. We're not justified to get up on our high horse and say, "No, I'm always the good person. I never do anything bad to anyone else." That's not the way it works. We're human. We're fallen. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Saint Paul reminds us. And we know that. And we heard each other. And if that's the case, if I've wronged others, I've been unjust to others, and I know I have. I know others have harmed me too. It goes both ways. But if I'm on the side who's done the harm, well, remember, vengeance is God. Say, what does the Lord say? Vengeance is mine. Say it the Lord. So we're on the receiving end now of God's justice. Say, "His vengeance." So what's the solution? Well, Jesus gives us the solution. Love your enemies. Pray for those who periscope you forgive. Be reconciled. If you come to worship, you have a chip on your shoulder, leave your gift at the altar. Go be reconciled first. Forgive one another. And we throw ourselves at the mercy of Jesus, realizing, "Yeah, I'm not perfect either. I need His forgiveness. I need God's forgiveness. I need the forgiveness of others as well." You know, it's so beautiful. Every time we gather for matters, every single time, right at the beginning, as a community altogether, we say, "Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy." Or we say, "I know I've sinned through my fault, my own fault, my most grievous fault. We beat our breasts." Acknowledging, "Yeah, no, I've sinned to. I've sinned to." And this is where I think Jesus wants us to be, in that place of humility, realizing, "I'm not perfect either. Others have done things to me, and I've probably done things to others. Not probably. I know I have." And to be what? To be? What does He tell us in the beatitudes? "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the me." "Blessed are the old school of peacemakers." And this is the path of peace, eh? The path of revenge, getting the vengeance on our own? Well, that's not the path of peace. The path of peace is the path of love. Can I give you some difficult homework to do? Think of that one person who's wronged you. Maybe there's more, but maybe you can think of one person in particular. And do something for that person, something positive, something good. Maybe there's nothing you can do in the physical world. Maybe sometimes reconciliation is just not possible. It's not possible because the other person is unwilling, or whatever it may be, or the wounds are too deep. But maybe it is. Maybe it is. Or maybe there's nothing you can do. Or maybe the other person's dead. The person who's harmed you. At the very least, we can pray for that person, eh? What did Jesus say? "Pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies." Those words are not optional for us. And we remember that God is the one who's going to sort everything out. He knows that we've been hurt. He knows we've heard others, too. He sees it. He knows it. He's not saying that that hurt you've experienced doesn't matter. He's not saying it doesn't exist. He's not saying you shouldn't be hurt by it. He knows all of that. But he's giving us the right answer, the solution, to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us. When we say trust in God, we're supposed to trust in God, eh? When we say that, we mean a lot of things. There's a lot of different ways in which we trust God. But I think one is right here. Can you entrust to God that thing that someone has done that's hurt you, that injustice that you've suffered? Can you give that to God? Can you entrust that to God? And then hear God, our loving father, say, "You know what? I'll take care of that. I'll take care of that." That's not for you to take care of. I'll take care of it. We can give that all to God and know that like he was what the Israelites is with us to in those times when we're suffering or have been hurt by others. And we can hear him say, Isaiah said, "Say to those who are of a fearful heart, be strong, do not fear. Here is your God. He will come with vengeance with terrible recompense. He will come and save you."