Hidden Homilies

Being attentive to the signs drawing us closer to God

12/20/2017

Isaiah 7:10-14 The LORD spoke to Ahaz: Ask for a sign from the LORD, your God; let it be deep as the nether world, or high as the sky! But Ahaz answered, "I will not ask! I will not tempt the LORD!" Then Isaiah said: Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary men, must you also weary my God?  Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.

            I’m afraid that my homilies maybe becoming stale lately. Why is that? Well, more and more people are sending me “homily helps.” One person sent me some jokes by email saying, “Maybe you can use one of these in your homilies” apparently, my humor needs a little help. Another person said, “Come see this children’s movie with us, perhaps it will come in handy in a homily.” Other people recommend books I might be able to quote in a homily. Apparently, several people think I need some help with my homilies! And these people are right, the homilies can stand some improvement and I welcome their homily helps.

             But I also enjoy the fact that people are beginning to see that there’s a sort of homily hidden in everything. That is, everything in creation can be used as a sort of catapult to help the creature get closer to the Creator. A homily helps Christians to grow in their faith using story-telling and pulpit-pounding, examples and illustrations, metaphors and megaphones. People who send me homily helps are unwittingly understanding what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the “analogy of faith.” The Catechism urges, “Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By ‘analogy of faith’ we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation” (Catechism, 114). In other words, in all of creation, especially with the articles of faith, we find an inner coherence, a deep connectivity, that allows us to more between one and the other, and ultimately of God. Put it simply there is a homily hidden in everything.

            In the first reading today, the prophet Isaiah offers King Ahaz a little homily help, too. He says on behalf of God, “Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be as deep as the nether world, or high as the sky!” By “sign” Isaiah meant the analogy of faith, where all creation serves as a super sign ready to catapult the creature into the arms of his Creator. There is a homily hidden in the nether world as well as high in the sky. But Ahaz turned down isaiah’s homily helps. Nevertheless, Isaiah says: “The Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.” In other words, the greatest homily help in all human history would be the Incarnation, where God would become a man, the Word world became flesh, in the womb of a Virgin. King Ahaz needed some homily help as much as I do, it seems.

                My friends, today try to catch the hidden homilies all around you, that is, as the Catechism said, “Be attentive to the analogy of faith.’ First and foremost pay attention to the simple but significant signs of the sacraments: bread and wine, water and oil, male and female. The sacraments can catapult you from creation to the Creator. Be attentive to the stories of the saints: their struggles and sacrifices and successes – which also serve as hidden homilies that can strengthen your faith and virtue. Be attentive to the Bible, the great drama of the love story between God and humanity in two great Acts – the Old Testament and the New Testament – that also brings us in closer contact with the Creator. Be attentive to meals and marriages, to babies and birthdays, to songs and suffering, to pains and problems. Why pay attention to all these things? It’s simple: because there’s a homily hidden in everything, and you don’t have to come to Mass to hear one.

              Gerard Manley Hopkins, the great 19th century Jesuit poet wrote in his celebrated poem, the Grandeur of God, these lines: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God, it will flame out like shining from shook foil.” I want to thank all of you who have sent me homily helps lately, because you have shaken the foil of the world for me.

Praised be Jesus Christ!