Although, as you know, I usually begin my homilies with a question, today I’d like to start with a bit of history, personal history. If you’re an “old timer” here at CGS, you probably know I’ve been preaching in this church for twenty years. I gave my first homily here on April 8, 1984. This weekend will be the 203rd time some of you have listened to me preach. And yes, I do have a copy of all 203 homilies!
Every three years, I check to see what I said on the corresponding weekend of the earlier cycle of readings. Sometimes I re-work a theme I’ve used before. Often, I go off on a different tangent, since both the world and I have changed in the meantime. But today, I’m going to do something different. Today I’m going to begin this homily with the words I spoke on the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary time in the year 2001. That was the weekend of September 15th and 16th … 2001. I began with the words: “For each generation there is a defining question“. {I continued reading the homily I’d given on that date, until I reached the section addressing the originally proposed “Catechetical Sunday. I then continued:}
These are the words I used three years ago. I believe they are equally relevant, perhaps even more so, today. Three years ago, in 2001, I pointed out that on this Twenty-fourth Sunday of ordinary time, the dioceses of the United States had been scheduled to celebrate “Catechetical Sunday” – a day to honor those who teach us about religion, about God, about Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was to have been a day for teachers. Instead, it became a day for all of us. For all of us to live out our own lives as teachers.
● Teachers for our own children … for other children.
● Teachers also for adults … for all adults … for all peoples … Christian and non-Christian.
This weekend, on the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary time in 2004, in this part of our diocese, we are celebrating “Ministry Formation.” Here at Good Shepherd we’ve been the host for the Northern Diocesan Workshops for Eucharistic ministers, lectors, musicians, ushers, greeters, altar servers and those involved in our liturgical art environment. The focus has been on our community of worship, our community for the celebration of Emmanuel, the God who is with us.
We are once again reminded that we are a community called to live out our lives in the belief that nothing is every lost to the sight of God, our Father – our Father who keeps searching for us until he finds us. We are called to live in a time of acceptance … not of vengeance. We are reminded that in times of loss, or in times of restoration, we can become a victim, as did the elder son; victim to anxiety and outrage, or we can remember and live out the words of a loving father who whispers: “My child, you are here with me always, everything I have is yours.”
Three years ago, I concluded my homily with another set of questions. They continue to be relevant. Perhaps the true question is not: “where were you when …? but rather …. where are you now? Are you lost? Or have you returned to the arms of a loving shepherd … a loving father who awaits your return with his own open arms?
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 12, 2004
Ex 32:7-11, 13-14; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Lk 15: 1-32