Happy Are They Who Walk in the Law of the Lord

Homily for Friday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Today is Veterans Day, a celebration of the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. The celebration is kept on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year as the First World War came to an end at 11:00 AM on this date in 1918. Coincidentally, we also celebrate the memorial of St. Martin of Tours who spent years as a Roman soldier. However, sometime after his induction into the Roman army, Martin was baptized and subsequently left the Army for the life of a hermit and a disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers. In 371 he was acclaimed Bishop of Tours. He had been summoned by the citizens of this city to minister to a sick man. When he arrived, he was led to a church where he reluctantly allowed himself to be consecrated as the bishop.

Our response to the readings for this day comes to us from the lengthy Psalm 119, an acrostic psalm of twenty-two stanzas, each stanza containing eight lines and beginning with each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Throughout the psalm, almost each stanza contains a word that is a synonym for the Hebrew word “Torah” or “law” (promises, commandments, ordinances, statutes, words, laws, precepts, and decrees). The theme of the psalm is recorded in the very first verse, “Blessed are they who walk in the law of the Lord.”

The reading from the second letter of St. John reminds us of the need to remain in the Lord rather than straying from the path which is set by deceivers who mislead the faithful. In the Gospel reading for today, St. Luke reminds us that we must not become so taken up with the occupations and work of this world that we miss the second coming of Jesus. He reminds us by calling up the story of Noah and how only a few were saved from the sudden deluge because they ignored the Word of God preached to them by Noah.

Our prayer today in this Eucharist is one of thanksgiving as we are not only fed by the body of Christ but by the Word of God which constantly calls us back from the distractions of this world. Sometimes it seems like the commandments are a constraint on our liberty, but we know from experience that they provide us with a clear path toward God and life eternal.