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The Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Words and works are front and center in today’s readings. And both of them -- words and works -- are an important part of our faith. In the reading from Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let hem be a pendant on your forehead.” The words Moses was referring to were, of course, God’s words, the sacred words of the Law. Some of the more observant among the Jewish people took Moses’ injunction so literally that they actually wrote the words of the Law on pieces of parchment and wore them on their wrists like a bracelet or dangled them before their eyes on things called phylacteries. Jesus spoke of these when he took the Pharisees to task for caring more about external rituals than internal observance. But the point was well made: God’s word is important. It needs to be with us at all times, always before our eyes. In the gospel, Jesus talks about words, too. “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them,” he says, “will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” It’s important to know what words Jesus was referring to here. He was referring to all the words of his teaching as set forth in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. We’ve been listening to that sermon for the past several Sundays, now. It began with the Beatitudes in chapter 5 and ends with today’s passage in chapter 7. And a challenging sermon it has been, to say the least! Let me remind you just how challenging. Five Sundays ago we heard the Beatitudes which turned everything upside-down for us, reminding us who are the truly blessed in God’s kingdom, and who they aren’t. And they’re not the ones we might expect. The Sunday after that we were told to be salt and light in our world – in other words, not just to blend into the landscape of life, but to stand out: to make a difference. The following Sunday we were told to love not just our neighbor but our enemy, and not to strike back when injured but to turn the other cheek. And last Sunday we were told not to waste our time on fretting or worrying but to trust in God’s loving care for us. So, there you have a little summary of those “words” that Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that we are to listen to. All of them, of course, not just some of them! But listening to them is not enough. We are to act on them, too, Jesus says. We are to translate words into action. Simply mouthing words like, “Lord, Lord!” will not be enough. We are to put flesh on those words by doing the will of our Father in heaven. And that is where the rubber meets the road. It’s where words become works. For some time now, I’ve been reading a collection of homilies given by Archbishop Oscar Romero, the legendary bishop of El Salvador back in the 1970’s. Romero’s life is a story of words becoming works. As a young priest, Romero knew all the right words and he spoke them piously and convincingly. So well did he speak them, in fact, that he gained the favor of Church leaders and was called to become a bishop. Then something changed. Romero began to realize that pious words were not enough -- that the gospel couldn’t just stay within the walls of the church. As he looked at the society around him he became more and more aware of the profound injustices that permeated his beloved country: the government, the military, and the propertied class. The poor were pawns in their hands and were being trampled upon, and dissenters wee routinely silenced and would mysteriously disappear, the victims of torture and death squads. As he awakened to these rampant injustices, Archbishop Romero could no longer ignored them and he began to speak up and speak out forthrightly, his ministry moving from the priestly to the prophetic. In doing so, he knew very well that he was taking his life in his hands. And he was. Eventually, in April of 1980, while celebrating Mass in his Cathedral, he was gunned down by government-sponsored assassins. Words had become works for Archbishop Romero. No longer content to let the words of the gospel dangle before his eyes like the phylacteries of old, he let the words come to life in his own life. Doing so cost him his life. Romero was like the wise man of the gospel who listened to the words of Jesus and acted on them, building his house on rock. The rains did fall and the floods came and the winds blew. The powers that be vilified him and did everything they could to discredit him but he withstood the storms and maintained his calm and serenity, fearlessly preaching words of hope to the poor and confronting their oppressors with the truth. And while it might seem that they are the ones who got the last word, it is clear that the people of El Salvador were really the ones with the last word as they rose up to call him a martyr and claim him as their saint. My friends in Christ, words were not enough for Romero, and they can’t be for us, either. Words must become works, for “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Father Michael G. Ryan |
