Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
July 17, 2016 11:00 am · Father Dan Vanyo
In the first reading we hear the Lord shows up with two Angels, appearing as men, which they continue to do even in our day. And Abraham recognizes and shows hospitality, and he moves very quickly, he doesn't hesitate. Sarah can you make some cakes, or flour little dealies, tells the servant to kill the steer, and serves them. Rest, stay here, hospitality. I leave that to you to do a little self reflection. How good are you about hospitality. And if you can use some improvement, take that to the Lord in prayer. When someone asks you for help, do you always tend to find an excuse, do you always hesitate, is it always inconvenient, do you kind of keep people away from your house. What ever it may be, can you improve in hospitality, I leave that with you. Because it is definitely should be something that we should be able to do well as Christians.
The second reading St. Paul states, in sometimes confusing words, and I'll read the whole verse:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his body, which is the church
Is he saying that the Lord's death was insufficient for our redemption? Lacking in the afflictions of Christ. No he is not, he is not saying that the Lord's death was somehow insufficient to redeem us and open up the gates of heaven so that we might have eternal life. He is not saying that, that would be heretical to think that. God died, that was sufficient for the redemption of all mankind. It is God who we are talking about. So what does he mean? We have trials of life. Everyone knows that. We suffer in this lifetime, some of it is brought about by ourselves, other suffering is brought about by other people who commit evil against us. We need to keep that straight. We encounter that in life, we know that. Another type of suffering is as we try and grow in holiness, the Lord may give us a trial for our purification, or so if we witness joy in our suffering someone else may see that and say, "How can you be joyful with cancer." And they start thinking, and maybe they become closer to Jesus. It may have nothing to do with us sometimes. And sometimes it can be for both us and the other person, usually that's the case. You get the idea. Different reasons for suffering.