Fidelity to the Lord

Homily for Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

The passage that we read from the Letter to the Hebrews today calls us back to ancient times, at least a thousand years before the birth of Jesus. It alludes to the Exodus of the Israelites, recorded in the Book of Exodus and remembered in many of the prophetic and wisdom texts of the Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, our responsorial today is taken from Psalm 95 which records a rebellion among the Israelites. Exhausted by their trek through the desert, hungry and thirsty, the children of Israel rebelled against Moses and God. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews uses this episode in an exhortation to fidelity among the members of this Christian community in Rome.

The Israelites were forced to wander in the desert for forty years because of their rebellion. They failed to remain faithful to the God who saved and cared for them. In effect, they wandered in the desert until they softened their hearts and opened themselves again to the mercy of God. In recalling this episode, the sacred author warns the disciples of Jesus not to grow weary and lose heart, not to harden their hearts and refuse to see all that God had done and was doing for them. Things looked grim as they waited for Christ’s return. If they kept faith with God and did not fall prey to the deceit of sin, they would be rewarded with the salvation promised by Jesus.

We can apply this idea of fidelity and trust in God’s mercy to the episode from St. Mark’s Gospel which we read today. We can see in the leper a person who has kept his heart open to God’s mercy. He did not give up, but trusted God to cure him through Jesus in whom he saw an agent of God’s love and kindness. How much he understood about Jesus and his mission is unclear. At the same time, we see that he trusts Jesus as he confidently asks for Christ’s help. It is that trust and his faith that brings him healing.

We all have dark moments - times of illness or disappointment or frustration. It is so important that we do not harden our hearts but remain open to the intervention of God in such times. Things may not work out just as we envisioned, but we will find that God’s generosity cannot be out done and that true blessings will be ours.