Memorial of St. Irenaeus (28 Jun 2018)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., close 8-day retreat
Acting on God’s Desire
This gospel selection concludes Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount; we began it at weekday masses earlier this month. It assembles sayings of Jesus into his programmatic announcement of the kingdom of heaven Jesus had come to proclaim.1 The image of kingdom does not speak to us as it did to Jesus and his contemporaries. Jesus’ image need not blind us to his intent. Jesus did not reverse God’s desire to welcome people into a sovereign relationship; today fewer people imagine God as a sovereign.
That fact challenged me: I’m a U.S. citizen, and I speak about monarchs in Canada. Canada’s relationship with the monarch of England is unlike mine: she is Canada’s queen, though her relationship with Canada has evolved. Does it help us appreciate Jesus’ intent? Two months ago Queen Elizabeth told the Commonwealth, “It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations, and…I am reminded of the extraordinary journey we have been on, and how much good has been achieved.”2 Her wish to continue to offer and to achieve good for the peoples of Commonwealth nations anyone can appreciate. To offer and achieve good our Creator and Redeemer desires, too. Jesus announced the divine desire in deed and word. Unlike any monarch Jesus is our access to divine desire.
His Sermon on the Mount announced the divine desire for each person, peoples together and all creation. The community to whom Matthew wrote his gospel heard risen Jesus speak directly to them. Retreat offers us rest, time, space and quiet to hear Jesus speak directly to us. The desires of God we hear Jesus announce were not of human origin. The desires Jesus announced were divine. Because they are God’s God is their measure. What God offered each of us through the words of scripture and the book of creation calls us to measure ourselves with God’s measure of compassion and kind care.
At the same time that retreat allows us to notice with keener clarity risen Jesus communicating directly to us, retreat also calls us to act on what we notice. I'll let Jesus say it: Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise [person] who built [a] house on rock. ...And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built [a] house on sand.
Jesus encourages us to act. Jesus interpreted in his person the desires God dreams for all people. What Jesus has given us on retreat is personal; it is not for us to keep private. Jesus gave us our retreat graces to help us join his mission. Each of us is pregnant with God’s graciousness. God’s graciousness given us is our personal part to play with God for our world: to use Queen Elizabeth’s phrase, God’s “sincere wish” for the sake of all creation.
I’m convinced retreat graces commence after retreat ends, and we return to our homes and day to day routines. I’m convinced that ours is to act on the graces lavished on us. We return on the Memorial of St. Irenaeus; it’s a grace for us because Irenaeus desired to win over those who scoffed at Christian truth; he was not compelled to prove them wrong. He is a great intercessor for us who have a felt-knowledge of God’s dream. God desires to win more people to God’s dreaming; God chooses us to make God’s dream more alive where we live.
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- Matthew 4.17.
- The Queen opened the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) with this brief address.
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Wiki-image Jesus traveling PD-US
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