Thursday, May 4, 2017

Homily for 5 May 2017

5 May 2017

Sometimes you just want to stay in bed.  The alarm goes off, or you just wake up, but you don’t really want to get going—not yet.  The bed is too comfortable and warm.  But, you know, sometimes God is like the alarm clock; or God like the sun peeking in through the window saying, “It’s time to wake up.”  And what’s our response to that?

Well, we know St. Paul’s response.  The Lord woke him up with a big flash of light.  And St. Paul stepped outside of the status quo, and started living life the way God wanted him to.  Even Ananias—faithful servant that he was—was pushed by God to keep an open mind toward Paul.  God woke Ananias up a little that day, too; not just Paul.

And in the gospel, Jesus is trying to wake the chief priests up to the truth: “I am the bread of life; whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood will never die.”  Of course, as we know, they didn’t really want to wake up to that; they didn’t want to step outside what they knew; they wanted to stay just doing their thing.

God is sometimes like an alarm clock, trying to wake us up.  Sometimes he’s like the sunlight, pushing us to get out of bed, to step outside of what we’re comfortable with, and to try something new—not because it’s new, but because it’s where Jesus the Way is trying to lead us.  But, what’s our response to all that?

Every day is a new day, as far as God is concerned.  But we can’t experience that newness unless we get out of bed.  The new day won’t be ours to enjoy until we look beyond what’s familiar, and set our feet to follow God’s path for us.

Every day is a new day.  And God is our alarm clock.  The question is: Are we going to get up and see where’ll take us, or are we going to stay in bed, where it’s comfortable and familiar?       

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