Homily: Twenty-fourth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Twenty-fourth Wednesday of Ordinary Time (1 Cor. 12:31ff) “Am I Loving”

First Corinthians chapter twelve is often read at weddings. The reading speaks poetically of love. But there are different types of love. There is love that is romantic love for example. There is the love that is charity. This section of Corinthians speaks more of charity.

We could use this reading for meditation. One thing we could do is to substitute God for love. When we do that, we read “God is loving, God is patient, etc. God, after all, is said to be love.

Very often people have a warped view of God. Some are deathly afraid of God. God is thought of as the one who judges us. God is looked upon as the all-powerful creator that could not possibly understand sinful human beings. But this is very far from the truth. Christians believe in a God that looks like Jesus.

Another way to pray over this reading is to replace our name with love. When we do this, it is a good examination of conscience. We realize that we fall short of the Christian ideal on most days of our life.

We strive to exercise the virtues that are listed in Corinthians. If we strive to become more virtuous, we are trying to become more like Jesus. Jesus is the gold standard. He is the model of who we want to be.

We will never succeed in exercising all the virtues we read about today. But the important thing is that we never give up on our pursuit of those virtues.

We will never be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, but Christians never give up. Why? Because to give up is to give in to mediocrity in our spiritual lives.

Reflection:

1.    What adjectives would I use to describe God? Am I happy with my picture of God?

2.   How many of the virtues listed in Corinthians are virtues I exercise every day? How would others describe me?

 Dear Parishioners,

            This Friday the Seton School children will honor our long-time assistant principal, Mary Cornelis. She retired in May. We could not have a party for her because she was having serious surgery. Mary is fully recovered now so we will be having a Celebration Mass at 8:30 a.m.

            I would invite anyone who would like to come to join us on Friday. There will be a reception afterward. Mary deserves great praise for her service to the church.

            May Our Lady of Peace pray for us,

            Fr. Mark