Homily for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Nov. 15, 2020. Gospel of St. Matthew 25:14-30 Theme: Earning High Returns on Your Investment
Today the Catholic Church is observing the “World Day of the Poor” which was first proclaimed by Pope Francis in 2018. Why a World Day of the Poor? Because one of the most common and basic teachings of Sacred Scripture, present from the beginning to the end of the Holy Bible, is that while God loves all people, he has a special place in his heart and in his Kingdom for the vulnerable, the lowly, the suffering and the powerless. We sum them all up with the designation of “the poor”. And to show his solidarity with the lowly, when God himself became flesh and lived among us as Jesus Christ, he chose to be born into a poor family and embraced life as an ordinary laborer; a resident of Nazareth and a member of the vulnerable and powerless working-class.
Our Holy Father is asking us to observe this World Day of the Poor by making sure that today’s gospel doesn’t just remain ink on a page for us. He wants it to but become a flesh-and-blood reality in our lives and not just for one day out of the year. He is asking us to embrace the way of Jesus and make an investment of ourselves, of our gifts, abilities and talents in the service of all who suffer poverty in any of its forms. Many think of poverty primarily in its material manifestation such a lack of food, employment and housing, but Pope Francis reminds us that there are also other - and in a sense deeper - forms of poverty that are much harder to relieve.
Mother St. Teresa of Calcutta used to say the very same thing. She would often remind those who live in wealthier nations and who do not think that they are poor that there are such things as emotional poverty and spiritual poverty. Emotional poverty is present where people are entrapped by such things as a lack of a proper and healthy sense of self-worth, loneliness, depression, anxiety. These things rob a person of the full and abundant life God that wishes them to have. And there is also spiritual poverty which keeps people ignorant of God and robs them of the hope and joy that could be theirs by knowing and experiencing God’s love. The spiritually poor are often trapped by addiction to substances or destructive behavior. Their deep inner poverty causes them to think that they can only be loved and valued according to what they can do or attain in this world. This often leads to deep unhappiness and the darkness of dissatisfaction with life. Mother Teresa used to say that these kinds of poverty are much worse to relieve than the physical and economic poverty she dealt with in the slums of Calcutta.
Doing what we reasonably can to relieve the suffering of the poor is a non-negotiable part of Christianity. Like the servants in today’s Gospel, we can respond to this in two different ways: We can do nothing, focusing on ourselves and our own well-being, just like the cowardly servant who buried his talents out of fear. Or we can take a risk and be like the responsible innovative servants who in their desire to please their Master made double on their returns. They were willing to step outside their comfort zones and take a chance. To help us also do this Pope Francis has reminded us of three spiritual exercises that enable us to let Jesus live and minister to the poor through us.
The first of these spiritual exercises is to take up the Gospels daily and prayerfully read them. We must let the power of the Gospel change our lives by pondering Christ’s words and absorbing them, reflecting on them in our hearts and allowing them to shape our outlook and behavior. By doing so, we will see that over time, day by day, step by step, we begin to take on a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at others, a new way of living and a new joy in serving.
The second exercise is to humbly and mindfully receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular basis. Confession removes the spiritual junk and obstacles that muddy our relationship with Jesus and others. It gets us, our egos, out of the way and lets Christ take over. It motivates us to do good for others as a way of making up for our selfishness.
The third way to real union with Jesus is to increase our faith in and devotion to his True Presence among us in the Eucharist. It means that we come to Holy Communion with hope and expectation, opening wide the doors of our hearts to Christ. This thoughtful and prayerful reception of the Blessed Sacrament is a way of saying to Him, “Come and live within me, touch the lives of others through me.” And the more we receive Jesus with this kind of faith and love, the more powerfully and effectively He can touch others through us.
So, let’s pray today, on this World Day of the Poor, for all who are suffering all forms of poverty in the world. But let’s also pray for the grace to become people who take a risk and put an end to our own emotional or spiritual poverty. Let’s ask for the grace to be willing to step outside the box, outside of our comfort zones, and do something that is a bit of a challenge for us. Let’s ask for the grace to make Jesus and his Gospel a meaningful reality in our everyday lives, remembering that He once solemnly declared, “Whatsoever you to for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.”
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