Homily for
February 26, 2006
Liturgical Year
B-Cycle II
8th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
By Fr. Joshua Nyoni
Topic:
Our relationship with God
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Reading I
Hos 2:16b, 17b, 21 - 22
Thus says the
LORD:I will lead her into the desert and
speak to her heart. She shall respond there as in the days of her
youth, when
she came up from the land
of Egypt.
I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in
justice,
in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity,and you shall know
the
LORD.
Gospel
Lk 11:29-32
While still more people gathered in
the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks
a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.
Just as
Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this
generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with
the men
of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the
ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater
than
Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh
will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the
preaching of
Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
prophet Hosea describes Israel’s
relationship with God as a marriage with Israel being
the bride and God the groom. A down
to earth image, for we are so familiar with marriage,
re-marriage,
divorce, unfaithfulness/faithfulness. Israel
had become an unfaithful bride, an adulteress. God, like a husband who
madly
loves his bride, was willing to take Israel back if
only Israel would
change. So as to win back his bride, God would take Israel away to
where "they first met so they can remember and recapture the love
they
had for one another in their youth". Usually, the desert is thought
of
as a place of evil, but Israel had met God in the desert and God wished
to take
his bride back to that memory, that innocence, that love.
This image, of marriage between Israel and God,
reminds me of what marriage counselors say about a normal marriage.
They say
that a normal marriage often goes through a four-phase cycle.
- First
is the "Attraction" or "falling in love" phase which eventually
flowers into marriage. For those that are married or thinking of
marrying, recall the days when you fell in love (what a joy! What a
beauty!), but I hope you did rise again after falling.
- The
second phase is the "Integration" or "Settling down".
This involves dealing with the day in and day out of
ordinary daily life. The challenge here is to keep the ordinary from
becoming routine and to keep the routine from becoming boring. The
danger here is to take the relationship for granted. (One good bit
of advice here to the married: Do you give each other surprises?
Surprises should be part of marriage - to continuously surprise each
other).
- The
third phase is that of the "Crisis" or "Bottoming out"- this
begins when one partner or both fail to meet the challenges. They begin
to take marriage for granted. This may lead into stormy waters. The
challenge here is to steer conflict into a constructive direction. At
this stage, sometimes communication decreases and resentment increases.
With professional help, the relationship may stabilize and remain
intact.
- This
brings us to the final phase; the "Maturing" or "Starting again"
phase.
Our relationship with God, we would say,
follows the same
four-phase cycle. It begins with a "falling in love" phase,
which flowers into a commitment to God. It continues with a "Settling
down" – facing or integrating our love for God into daily life. It
moves next to a kind of "bottoming out"- sometimes, God here
is seen as demanding and not loving. Finally comes the "Starting
again"
– we stumble back into God’s arms, receive his forgiveness, and are
drawn to
God with a new burst of love.
Today’s Gospel brings to our attention the
point of fasting. It is
preparing us for Lent. We seem to have lost this practice of fasting.
Fasting
helps spiritually: Remember Jesus saying "This is the kind that can
only be driven out by prayer and fasting" [Mk 9:29]. Early Christians fasted to
imitate Jesus’ own 40 days fast in the desert- so as to atone for sin
and to
seek God’s special help. Our Lord Jesus fasted and told us to fast : "The
day will come when the groom will be taken away from them. On that day
they
will fast." We Christians fast for the right reason, not to show
how
strong we are. We fast to achieve spiritual growth and to deepen our
charity to
others. St
Augustine
says : "Do you want your prayer to reach God, give it two things:
fasting and almsgiving."