St. Joseph the Worker (May 1, 2019)
Col 3: 14-15, 17, 23-24; Mt 13:54-58
Deacon Larry Brockman
No matter who you are, God has a plan especially for you. God has gifted each you with the talents and personality that you have. It is up to you to allow God’s spirit working within you to sense God’s plan for you and to use the gifts you have wisely.
Of course, your parents and the environment you live in have a lot to do with it as well. But God had a role to play in that too, didn’t he? It was God’s will that you live right now- in this time and place.
Jesus was like you and me in every way in his humanity. It was God’s will that Jesus be born in the time and place that he was. And it was God’s will that Jesus grow up in a humble environment as the son of a carpenter. And yet, God also graced Jesus with special talents- the ability to know God the Father intimately; to discover who He was, the Son of God; and to embark on his 3 year Mission to preach about the Kingdom of God.
And through the Spirit, Jesus was able to discern that things had to change; people had to change because the message that God had passed on to His people through Moses and the prophets had morphed. Instead of loving God and neighbor with one’s whole heart, mind, and soul; the essence of being a Jew in Jesus’ time was adherence to the Mosaic law. Jesus preached repentance, which is a change in lifestyle to correct for deficiencies; and Jesus preached following in his own way of life to be in harmony with God, even if it resulted in suffering and pain. In Jesus’ case, it resulted in his death on the cross.
St. Paul does a great job summarizing what Jesus was trying to teach the people in this morning’s first reading. First and foremost, we must put on love. And, we must seek out and act on the peace that God gives us.
Sunday we learned Jesus’ greeting to the Apostles was “Peace be with you” in each of the post-Resurrection appearances. And that “peace” is the internal peace that comes with being in a right relationship with God. When your life is in harmony with God’s will, you are at peace internally no matter what is going on around you in the world. Such peace requires us to be strong; to be resolute; and to accept the realities of conflict in the world. It seems so ironic; but someone who is suffering from terrible persecution can have the internal peace of God although they are hardly at peace in the eyes of the secular world.
And we are to act from the heart. That means that whatever we do, we are motivated by the Spirit working deep within us such that we feel that it is the right thing to do. Our motivation is not just to comply with the law; but rather to fulfill the deepest sentiments of our hearts.
For example, we should go to Mass on Sundays not because we have to; but because we want to be with God and we seek the nourishment that are in both the Word of God and the Bread of Life.
And lastly, we are to be slaves of Christ. Yes, all of us are called to a servant role, to do God’s will. For most of us, that means we are called to be servants to those who are in our families. Serving the needs of our children and our spouses are our top priorities.
When Jesus stood up in that local synagogue and taught the people, He was at peace with his Father, he was doing the will of His Father, and he was using the talents that God had given him, talents that were above and beyond those that he had learned in his trade as a carpenter. Jesus spoke with authority, and his message was well structured and well thought out. But most importantly, Jesus was fulfilling the will of His Father to preach repentance and about the coming Kingdom of God. And Jesus was at peace when his own people rejected him.
This morning, we are all called to reflect on how we are living our lives. Are we in harmony with the will of God? Are we using the personality and talents we have been given to be servants of God? And are we at peace with all of that?