Homily for 11 September 2023 by Fr. Kevin Walsh

23rd Monday of Ordinary Time | The Anniversary of 9/11

Col 1:24-2:3, Psalm 62, Lk 6:6-11

Jesus offers love unreservedly in an atmosphere that tests his generosity. They watch to see if he would cure on the Sabbath.

9/11 stands in history as a day to remember hostility and generosity confronting evil with acts of care and hope.

The citizens of Colossae are being invited to become servants ready to make known the mystery hidden but needing to be revealed everywhere, all the time. God’s love is given to us to be given away especially when the circumstances are as Jesus experienced.

And when is it not like that? The imperfection of creation, of those made in the image and likeness of God is not hard to discover. How wonderful when people living their faith choose to live from this dignity and take up the way of Jesus, offering compassion, forgiveness, kindness and understanding in the face of jealousy, grudge holding and a flat refusal to disentangle from what impedes the grace of God from transforming our lives, taking us out of the “less than godly” to become much more godly.

Monastic living proposes that we remain centered on Christ at all times, while living in the midst of what is often less than ideal, bringing to the less than ideal, the divine love and grace we are constantly receiving. So what if Jesus heals on a Sabbath, he ceaselessly offers the transforming love of God to the world, and enables us to do the same.