God's Presence

Homily for Saturday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries of one another bringing the word of God to the same people. However, whereas Isaiah was a native, Micah was an outsider.  Consequently, though these two men preached the same message to the same people, Micah was held in far greater contempt than was Isaiah.

Hard as it might be for us to understand, these people viewed the prospect of losing their land to an invading enemy as tantamount to losing their God. The land and the One who gave it to them were inseparable. The words of Micah which we hear this morning would have brought a particular sting: “"Our ruin is complete, our fields are portioned out among our captors, the fields of my people are measured out, and no one can get them back!" Thus you shall have no one to mark out boundaries by lot in the assembly of the LORD.”

The Church teaches us that God is present to us in three different ways. God is really present in each of us. When we gaze into the eyes of our neighbor, we should be able to see God. God is also present to us in God’s Word. When we listen to the Word of God and pray with it, we hear God’s voice. Finally, God is with us in the consecrated bread and wine of the altar. The covenant that we have with God is sealed in the body and blood of Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son. As St. Paul has told us, because we are triply blessed with God’s presence in our midst, nothing can separate us from God.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator