Homily for 18 Jan 2018

18 Jan 2018

(School Mass)

Jesus was pretty popular!  There were people coming from all over the place to see him—even from Jerusalem.  And that was seventy-six miles away from where he was. 

Friends were coming to see him, curious people, too; people wanting to hear him preach, people wanting to touch him and be healed; people just wanting things from him.  And then the Pharisees and the Romans wanted to come and see him, too…but they wanted to kill him. 

Jesus was getting surrounded by all sorts of people.  Imagine thousands of people all coming at you at the same time.  But, you know, Jesus didn’t have a problem with that.  It wasn’t too much for him to handle.  And that’s because he knew our psalm for today very well:

“In God I trust; I shall not fear.

Have mercy on me, O God, for men trample upon me;

all the day they press their attack against me.

My adversaries trample upon me all the day;

yes, many fight against me.

In God I trust; I shall not fear.”

At Mass this past Sunday, we talked about how if we want to be disciples of Jesus, then we want to try to be like him.  Jesus is our Teacher, our “Rabbi;” he’s even our hero.  He’s somebody we look up to and say, “I want to be like him.”

Well, part of being like Jesus is being able to say—from our heart—“In God I trust, I shall not fear.”  It’s easy for us to get overwhelmed by stuff: when there’s too much homework, or you don’t understand something; when there are a lot of chores to do at home; when you go off to high school and there’s a lot of peer pressure; or for adults, when you’re trying to juggle work and family and faith; or when we’re all just very busy and feeling like we’re being pulled apart.

If we want to be like Jesus, we want to be able to say—from our heart: “I trust in God.  No matter what happens, I trust in God…I won’t ever be afraid or worried.”  May the Lord help us to say it, and believe it: I trust in God, I trust in God.