Turn (and re-turn) to the Lord

Homily for Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

“Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.” This consoling refrain from today’s psalm is so obviously the truth that it can, paradoxically, be overlooked. We can complicate things, can’t we? This isn’t to say that living the Christian life is easy, but it is simple: “The Lord is our salvation. In him is life, without him is death.”

We have been given everything. Everything around us in creation is a sign of God’s wonder and power; everything around us is a sign of God’s miraculous deeds. Above all of that, however, is the salvation offered to us through his Son, Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is one of movement. Love God, and love one another. Turn to the Lord in our need, and re-turn to the Lord – in need of his mercy and forgiveness – when we stray. God calls; we respond. We reach out to God in need, and God provides. We sin, fall away, repent, turn back. We return to the Lord, and God delights in us.

This is part of what Jesus is telling the people in the towns of today’s Gospel. They have seen all of the mighty deeds performed, but none of this has changed them or moved their hearts to repentance. It is as if they are simply enjoying a magic show to which they have a front row seat, without understanding that this is not sorcery but God engaging with them. God is being, in relationship with them. In the person of Jesus, they have in front of them the way, the truth, and the life. They have before them the one to whom they must turn, and re-turn – in repentance – in order to live.

We, too, have the Son of God before us. He is with us, among us; his spirit lives within us. His gift to us of faith allows us to respond to his invitation to life in him. His grace out pours upon us that we might have the courage to turn to God in our need, seeking forgiveness and mercy.