Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Homily
June 21, 2020 11:30 am · Sergio Muñoz Fita
This week we have returned to Ordinary Time, where we left off in February. So much has happened in the Church and in the world since then that it seems like an eternity has passed. Just as the liturgical calendar brings us back to normal after the extraordinary celebrations of Lent and Easter, I hope that this return to ordinary time is a sign that we will soon be able to return to our lives as they were before this catastrophe.
Today's Gospel and the first reading invite us to renew our trust in the provident hand of God. "Even the hairs on your head are numbered," says Jesus. If God protects and cares for the lives of little birds, how can he neglect his most precious work, us?
In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is surrounded by men seeking his doom: “All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. ‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him.’” However, the prophet does not fear his enemies because he is not alone: “But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.”
It is probable that in the last months we have sinned against the Providence of God, that in facing the difficulties of life, many of us have feared that we were fighting alone against adversity. Trust in God's Providence is a source of peace, takes restlessness away and make us children again. Whoever abandons himself to the Providence of our good Heavenly Father, lives unconcerned of all dangers. As Saint Thomas More wrote to his daughter Margaret from the Tower of London while awaiting the death sentence that led to martyrdom for his fidelity to the Church, “Nothing can come but that that God wills and I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best.”
Divine Providence is mysterious. It used to be defined as God's care for all his creatures, especially man. Clearly, no one can penetrate the mind of the Lord and know all the reasons behind the events of history. However, faith teaches us that the Holy Trinity protects us and that from everything that happens, God can bring good.
“The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history.“ These words of the Catechism (CCC 303) should allow us to face adverse situations with an attitude of subsidiary abandonment in the love of our Father: “But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Mt 6:33)
Saint Paul tells us that death entered the world because of sin. Christ, however, has brought us "the abundance of the life and grace of God". (Rm 5:15) The Christian must put all of his attention to faithfully living his love relationship with God: the practice of charity and self-denial (as the Lord will tell us next Sunday), his prayer life, and meditation on the divine Word. Nothing else should concern us because, as Jesus told us in the Gospel, we cannot fear those who kill the body.
In light, of what the Lord tells us in today's readings, I ask him to help us not to worry about anything other than pleasing Him. May the Church teach her children, with the words that Jesus gave us today, not to be afraid, to trust God especially in the most difficult moments and to know that Christ, our brother and our advocate before the Father, will defend on the day of judgment those who do not deny him in this life and remain faithful to his love to the end.