God Dwells in Our Midst

Homily for Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

“See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord.” This was the prophecy given by Zechariah six centuries before the birth of Christ. It would have been well-known to the Jewish people and was part of the traditional understanding of the coming of the Messiah. And yet, juxtaposed with the scene in today’s Gospel, we see how there are times when that which ought to be most clear to us in our sight is obscured by fear, doubt, or misunderstanding. The very one for whom God’s people have been waiting is in their midst – he has come to dwell among them – and yet they do not recognize him, nor do the disciples understand his words as we hear Jesus predict his suffering and death.

Both readings today are a powerful illustration of how God’s ways surpass our own understanding. While saying this is not news to us and may even come off as cliché, the truth is that it is good to be reminded of this from time to time. It is good to be reminded because we usually think of it only when things don’t go our way. We think that God’s ways are not our ways when things don’t go our way. How often have you heard it said, “Well, God’s ways are just not our ways,” when disappointment or tragedy befalls us. Rather. We ought to be mindful of and grateful for this very notion at all times and in all things. Everything that is good in our lives, the very fact that we exist, is because God’s ways are not ours – because they surpass and, in fact, go beyond our imaginative capabilities.

Only in God’s divine mercy can the fact of the Son of Man being handed over to men – to suffer and die for the salvation of all – be a good and miraculous gift. Only when we free ourselves of the need to rely on our own understanding rather than God’s can we truly see the One who has come to dwell among us – in the Eucharist, in the church, and within each one of us.