Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of
the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may
use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change
or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies
is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some
aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from
glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).
Divine Networking
According
to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word "networking" was first
used in 1967. But its reality extends as far back as the Old Testament. The
first networking I find in the Bible was in the days of Moses in the wilderness
as he led the people of Israel to Canaan, the promised land.
In
the eighteenth chapter of Exodus we have the story of how Jethro, Moses'
father-in-law brought the latter's wife and his two sons to join God's people
in the wilderness in their walk towards Canaan. The next day after his arrival Jethro
noticed that so many people went to Moses to consult him about this and that
problem. This was going on from morning till the evening. Jethro noticed that
Moses was overworked by attending to these people. He then advised Moses to
appoint able and God-fearing men who would be officers for groups of thousands,
of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. The people would bring their problems to
these officers and not to Moses. It is only when these officers could not solve
the problem brought to them that they were to consult Moses.
Here
was a perfect example of networking in the Old Testament. The starting at the
base is a group of ten, headed by an officer. Five groups of ten compose a group
of fifty which is headed by another officer. Two groups of fifties compose a
group of one hundred headed by another officer. Then ten groups of one hundred
compose a group of one thousand headed by another officer.
Jesus
used a similar pattern in the distribution of bread in the wilderness. In the
account of Mark, chapter 6, beginning with verse 34, the story is that Jesus
fed the people with bread and fish. He first told them to sit down in groups or
parties. Verse 40 gives us a picture of how the people sat down in the grass.
Mark says, "The people took their places in hundreds and fifties, neatly
arranged like flower beds." This was also networking.
Today
of course we are familiar with networking in business. There are uplines who
enroll us in their business. We are the downlines they enroll who become
uplines as soon as we have a downline, a group of people under us. The goods
sold in networking range from personal health products like soap and medicines
to appliances and other things. I buy something, like soap, from a networking
company. I like the soap. I recruit others to buy this soap. They get a
discount and I get my commission.
When
Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God he knew that he had only a
few years to physically live on this planet earth. Since he wanted his work to
continue even after he left earth physically, he established a network of
workers who would continue his work. And that is what happened as narrated in
the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 10. The beginning of this chapter
says that he chose twelve of his disciples to become apostles, persons whom he
would send to do the work for him and in his name. They were to expel unclean
spirits, cure sickness and disease of every kind.
Our
Gospel reading today is the end of this chapter 10 in Matthew's Gospel and it
describes another kind of networking, something very unique, something that
most of us are not aware of. I call this divine networking.
Let
us read once again this unique kind of networking. It starts in verse 40. Jesus
said to the twelve disciples whom he commissioned to do his work away from him,
"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the
one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive
a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a
righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives even
just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the
little one is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his
reward."
Notice
the lines of the network here. The disciple goes out to heal the sick. When the
people receive the disciple, they not only receive the disciple. Jesus says,
they also receive Jesus in the person of that disciple. The line does not stop
there. Jesus says, the people not only receive Jesus, they also receive the one
who sent him, that is, God the Father. So here we have four groups of people in
our divine networking. The people who receive the disciple, the disciples who
follow the command of Jesus to cure the sick, Jesus himself, and God the
Father.
The
next sentence is illustrated by our first reading. Jesus said, "Whoever
receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and
whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a
righteous man's reward".
In
our first reading we have the story of Elisha, the successor of Elijah. In
Shunem a well to do woman received him to dine with her and this woman asked
her husband to arrange a room for Elisha with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so
that when he came to that place again he could stay there. Sometime later
Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight. When Elisha asked what could
be done for her as a reward, his servant Gehazi answered, "She has no son,
and her husband is getting on in years." Elisha said, "Call
her." When the woman had been called and stood at the door, Elisha promised,
"This time next year you will be fondling a baby son."
The
rest of the story in the second book of Kings, chapter 4, tells us what
happened. The woman did bear a son and this son grew up and died of a heat wave
or sunstroke or something. And again Elisha gave a favor to this woman by
raising this boy back to life.
The
woman received a prophet and got a reward, a son and a resurrected son, a boy
who lived twice.
The
second reading also tells us of a networking. Paul is saying that what happened
to Jesus happened also to us and this is illustrated by baptism. Baptism is a
picture of burial, burial in water, because as our Catechism tells us the
meaning of baptism is immersion (1214). This signifies our burial with Jesus so
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might live in newness of life. When Jesus died, we died with him. We now, Paul
says, must think of ourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ
Jesus.
What
does all this tell us? It tells us that we are in a big networking activity of
God. God is networking with us. In networking there is a good that is passed
from one person to another. Otherwise it is not networking but pyramiding. In
the case of God, the good that is passed from one person to another is the life
of his Son Jesus. Jesus passed his life and authority to his disciples. Thus
they were able to cure diseases as Jesus did. His disciples passed this life of
Jesus to other disciples, who passed it still to other disciples, until this life
reached us, Jesus' disciples in this age and part of the world.
It
is now our turn to pass this life of Jesus to others who would be disciples of
Jesus. They are our downlines and we are their uplines.
It
is not primarily teachings that are passed around for us to understand and
observe. What is passed down to other disciples is Jesus' life. Paul says, as
Jesus lived, died and rose to a new life, so too we live, die with Jesus and rise
with him to a completely new life.
Our
life now is completely new, thanks to the networking activity of God.
Let
us pray as we bow our heads.
Thank
you, Jesus, for including us in your networking business, the business of
passing on your life to your disciples who passed this to other disciples until
it reached us. Thank you for this new life you have given to us by your death
and resurrection. And enable us to pass your life to others so that more and
more will know you and love you.
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Note
for the readers:
The
Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is
where our Lectionary gets the readings.
NAB
stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation
I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.
AV
stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as
the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature,
therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.
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