Sunday, July 15, 2007

It's no mystery--it's just hard (Sunday homily)

A lot of times we say that what God asks to do and to be,

is too mysterious, too hard to understand.
But most of that time, we know what God asks of us.
Most of the time, we also understand why he asks it.

We don’t need any explanation of the Ten Commandments—

they make sense.

There are some issues where we don’t see the reason.
For example, we all know a lot of people don’t see
Why it should matter to God
that a couple uses contraception.
Why should God care?

Well, there are reasons:
Marriage is an icon of God, who is a Trinity,
and is always life-giving.
God never holds any part of himself back.

Because marriage is a sacrament—it reveals Christ,
who completely emptied himself on the Cross.
Nothing held back.

There are reasons, but we may not find them convincing.

Now, may I pose this question?
Is it written somewhere
that God owes it to us to convince us?

See my point?
Maybe the fact that on some things,
we don’t fully see it—that doesn’t really change anything.

My brother got me on that once.
He said to me: “well, if it’s all reasonable and logical,
to be a Christian,
to follow every commandment—where’s the faith?”

Even so, many times, there is no mystery.

No mystery in the Gospel today.
What Jesus asks is very clear.

You don't even have to cross the road. Just stay on the path given you.
And it doesn’t matter if it is your family,
Or someone else’s; another American, or a faraway land.


It’s all the same.

Stay on your path, no matter how hard.

Some things God asks are mysteries.
But more than we may want to admit,
it is just too hard.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's nice to read that a priest actually gives a homily that talks about the church's teaching on contraception.
29 years ago when my husband and I were married, we were both 20 years old. I was in college fulltime and my husband was working fulltime and going to college at night. Many people suggested to us that we contracept. However, it kept nagging at me that the Church taught against contraception. We really didn't understand why at the time, but we blindly obeyed the Church's teaching in this way and we have never regretted it. God has a wondrous plan for all of our lives..there are great blessings to be gained from obedience.