FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
9 July 2017
Homily
We went to elementary
school together.
I don’t get to see him much but our meetings set up comparisons–mile markers in my life.
If I had chosen a different life, this is what it could look like.
The last time we met, it was over dinner.
He spoke about walking in on his wife and another man –in his own bedroom.
I can only imagine how hard that must have been.
Hard because of course this was his second marriage.
After the first he swore he’d never let anyone get that close again.
He did, and then for this to happen again.
Well, it seemed a little overwhelming to me.
I have to say my eyes glazed over,I kept thinking to myself:
“This guy needs a break.”
Finally, he noticed my eyes had glazed over.
He said: “I’m sorry, I guess I’m just talking about my problems and not listening to any of yours.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said. “Yours seem worse.”
He got angry at that.
“That’s pretty arrogant,” he said. “To think that you’re better off than I am.
That’s like saying I need God more than you do.”
Well, of course that was not the point of anything I was thinking or meant to say.
And yet, that thought has stuck with me
–the arrogance of thinking others might need God more than I do.
Maybe that is what Jesus means when he speaks about the learned and clever missing the point.
And maybe that is why these wonderful passages are linked:
the learned and the clever missing the point,
and the universal call of labored and burdened to come to Jesus.
Maybe we all belong there–sooner rather than later.
I keep thinking this is a comforting passage–“Come to me,” some day I’ll need it.
Maybe I need it now but am too clever to see that?
What about you?
Do you live with a kind of hidden arrogance–
which denies any real dependence on God?