EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C) HOMILY

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C) HOMILY

Rev. R. Christoph Sandoval, Deacon

Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption

JULY 31, 2022

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

“Put to death, the parts of you that are earthly: impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry.” These words of the Apostle Saint Paul and Saint Timothy his disciple in the Second Reading are inspired by the First Commandment---"YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE".

The first commandment condemns polytheism or the worship of multiple Gods. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities other than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, of silver and gold, the work of human hands. “They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. Their makers will become like them and anyone who trusts in them." These lifeless idols make their worshippers lifeless by the perverse worship of deities who inflame the desires of darkness and death in human history : Our God, however, is the "living God who imparts life and intercedes with the light of love in human history.

How many of us hear his voice in the proclamation of the Gospel at Holy Mass but harden our hearts by worshipping the spirit of Death in abortion and euthanasia and by refusing to offer parental or fraternal correction within among those in our families who practice infanticide and assisted suicide.

Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres an compulsive addiction in place of God, whether this be a disordered PASSION for political power, a disordered PASSION for pleasure, a disordered PASSION for prosperity, a disordered PASSION for possessions or a disordered PASSION for public recognition which are false gods that have manifested in the darkness our times. Jesus says, Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.

How many of us hear his voice in the homilies offered by Bishops, Priests and Deacons at ambos of our churches around the world but only harden our hearts by committing the sin of sycretism which imports the contagion of error and corrupting influences from pagan, new age and non-practicing Catholics who contaminate authentic Catholic worship and teaching and then by refusing to offer parental or fraternal correction among those within or families who have strayed into error.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from endless disintegration of our spiritual compass. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate spiritual search for God. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."

How many of us hear his voice deep within our conscience where we discover the law inscribed by God in our hearts which each of us has not laid upon ourselves, but which we must obey. God’s voice, ever calling us to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil desires.

Yet how many of us refuse to offer parental or fraternal correction to prevent spiritual, mental and physical deterioration among those within our families.

We choose instead to remain silent or offer approval to cohabitating couples who live together in a sexual intimacy without marriage, or when a married spouse is living a double life with another adult or when one of our beloved brothers or sisters has fallen victim to the pornography pandemic. The demons of the flesh---become their God of choice. No doubt our Lord Jesus who wept for Jerusalem weeps today for the loss of his children.

How many of us hear his voice in our Sacred Tradition of Catholic beliefs, practices and customs handed down to us from one generation to the next. Jesus in the Gospel is perfectly clear, Greed is the Golden Calf of the old and new testaments. As Lord instructs in our time and place to “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions. Thus, will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. The Gospel today teaches us today not to put trust in Mammon the evil pursuit of money as a false object of worship and devotion, but in "the true wealth" that is a relationship with Jesus Christ. "We are indeed – as St. Paul would say – 'poor, but capable of enriching many; as people who have nothing and instead possess everything.'"

How many of us hear his voice in the teachings of our Holy Fathers, the vicars of Christ but allow ourselves to be seduced by the Vicars of the Anti-Christ in our Culture of Death and their collaborators in the media which divert our attention and love from God for the love of money . As Pope Francis declares “Social media is anti-social, anti-human and anti-Christian when it is used to increase differences, fuel suspicion, spread lies and vent prejudice".

Yet how many of us refuse to offer parental or fraternal correction to those among within our families who continue to grab and hoard and live with greed instead of practicing almsgiving as "a witness to fraternal charity" and "a work of justice pleasing to God"?

As disciples of Jesus we must be reminded that nothing, not even our next breath, is our possession. This week’s responsorial psalm expresses the brevity of human life, how quickly we come and go. Quote: “You make an end of them in their sleep, the next morning they are like changing grass, which dawn springs up anew, but by evening wilts and fades.” Because of our short lifespans, we must focus our attention on the things that matter to the Lord, and not what world values. The message of this week’s responsorial psalm is the sooner we listen to the Lord, the more time we have to harvest true wealth.

True wealth is what is spiritual and eternal. Jesus came in order to give us of His riches. When we trust in Him we gain heavenly citizenship. That is what Saint Paul teaches in another of his letters: “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His self-giving love to us.

Now let us prepare ourselves to receive the Body and Blood of Christ with open hearts remembering the words of Pope Saint Leo the Great... “Our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ has no other end than to make us become that which we eat.”

And may you and I as faithful disciples of Our Lord Jesus Christ journey forward to proclaim with our own voice what we have heard. This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.