Following or Walking with the Lord

Homily for Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint John Henry Newman wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. God has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do God’s work.”

These words very neatly summarize the content of today’s readings. Both readings speak of following or walking in the way of the Lord, a path which is different for each of us. Solomon is told by his dying father, King David, to “Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God, following God’s ways.” He was to rule his people in a way that honored God and benefited his people. Then, in the Gospel, Jesus sends the Twelve to preach repentance, drive our demons and cure illness – literally walking the path that Jesus has walked in the opening chapters of St. Mark’s Gospel.

We have an advantage over both Solomon and the Apostles since Jesus is with us on our path. We can call upon Jesus at any moment to reinforce our mission or to guide us through difficulties. We also have centuries of Church teaching to fall back upon. We have the example of the saints who have gone before us, men and women of faith who all recognized that they had been given a task, a mission. Those of us who are members of religious communities can look back in our own history to find examples of faith-filled men and women who overcame many adversities to establish God’s reign in this place and in this time.

An essential ingredient in this way of life, in following this path, is the virtue of humility. It is important that we recognize that the mission we have been given is not ours, but God’s. If we allow our successes to go to our heads, we will sin against pride. If we become discouraged at our failures, we lose sight of the fact that the pages of the Scriptures are full of such failures which all prove to be part of God’s plan. Jesus’ death on a cross would be seen by some as a failure of gigantic proportions, yet God turns this seeming failure into the ultimate success.

It is that success that we celebrate in our Eucharist each day and for which we give thanks.