A Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 by Fr. James DiLuzio
Kate Chopin, a Catholic and early feminist writer of the late 1800’s, authored a short story entitled BEYOND THE BAYOU. La Folle, an African American Creole, is thirty-five years old. She lives alone, self-sufficient working her plot of land, but never crossing the bayou to engage with the world beyond her cabin. Yet she knows, that beyond a stretch of woods, the waterway that she sees is shallow, sometimes nothing more than wet sand. One could walk across it easily. Never mind! She was content, and pleased to welcome people who occasionally came to her home.
Twenty years before our story takes place, the son of the plantation owner for whom she worked, was wounded in a gun accident in the woods. He ran to her cabin for relief. She nursed the boy into recovery.
Now fully grown, this boy became the plantation owner himself, and, with life-long gratitude, visits La Folle often with his wife and children. She becomes exceptionally fond of his ten-year-old son whom she calls “Cherie.” Like his father before him, Cherie goes hunting with his rifle. And he, unlike his father, brings La Folle various game, and, in return, she bakes him cakes which they eat together.
One day, she hears his cries in the woods. Running to him from her cabin, she finds him gravely injured. His is a wound she cannot heal.
She picks up the ten-year-old and runs frantically across the bayou for the first time in her life toward Cherie’s family home on the opposite shore. Responding to her screams, the family takes the child from her just as La Folle collapses from exhaustion. The incident leaves her near-death, but in time she recovers.
Soon afterward, she walks across the bayou, now more casually taking in the scene, appreciating the breeze, the sounds of life all around her. She crosses to
see Cherie, who is improving, but remains in a state of recovery. When she arrives, his parents tell her he is
sleeping, but she chooses to wait. It is a Sunday morning, and our story concludes as La Folle sits on the front porch of the family’s house, gazing at the sunrise that hovers up and over the bayou, beyond the trees, above her cabin, smiling as she responds to the golden glow.
Lovely story, isn’t it? Sometimes it takes a harrowing event, but change will come. Change is inevitable sometimes because of, sometimes despite us. Through necessity or by sheer will, we must claim a new set of priorities for ourselves and others. Jesus tells us repeatedly, “Your vision has to change.”
The person with leprosy in today’s gospel was ready for change. He saw Jesus in ways that other people did not. And Jesus saw the sick fellow as others did not. One might say this alternate vision, distinct from the commonplace, brought about the person’s healing. Indeed, a different point of view can make a world of difference.
We have heard today’s Gospel dozens of times, haven’t we? And yet disciples remain startled that Jesus says to the man after he heals him, “Tell no one.” Why? Why would Jesus say that? The patient is healed. Reborn. Shout it out! Scream “Hallelujah!” No. Instead, Jesus says, “tell no one, “Because he is trying to convey our need to “To Wait.” “Tarry a little.” “To Ponder it.”
Remember all the nameless people in the Gospels are meant to convey EVERYONE. So, Jesus is saying to the man and to us:
“Think! This healing is not about You—even though it has begun with you. This healing is not about me—even though it comes through me. Your recovery is an experience of GOD. Everything is about GOD! It is a miracle, but miracles are not ends in themselves; they are beginnings. They are overtures to faith, hope, and love that originates in God.
So, when we hear a story of a Miracle, know that Jesus is inviting us to look at the world in new way. Miracles are meant to inspire us to new ways of living. Ponder that!
And while we are pondering this, the Gospel says Jesus tells the man: “Go show yourself to the priest.” In other words, “follow traditions, follow the religious laws and requirements of our faith, but know that even our practices, our rituals are not ends in themselves but God-decreed conduits for change, for something beyond the ordinary. They are vehicles of transportation to a heavenly realm – so that as Jesus lifts us up into a communion with the Saints, heaven comes down to earth, and we see God WITH US in all things.”
Because God is with us in Christmas and ORDINARY TIME, in miracles and in the mundane, we can see better, live better, choose better. Through sacraments and prayer and lives lived well, Jesus beckons us beyond the world of might makes right, of intimidation, judgments, and cruelty to transform it into the Kingdom of God.
Franciscan Friar and author Richard Rohr reminds us that the world operates at the lowest degrees of human nature. Societies often employ “the lowest level of motivations to get things going, particularly “rewards-and-punishments.” Jesus knew that this framework can only take us so far. True self-esteem and motivation must come from somewhere else. From someone else. Self-worth comes from God, and knowing each of us are part of God’s grandeur, and a plan for a better world NOW and in the Future, beckoning at every sunrise, at every horizon.
For only Christ’s love is true love. Only faith in Christ will motivate us to see the true goods there are in this world, and– yes, although there is a lot to discourage us, there is true good here. But we need to tend it, to help it grow. And what is not good, we need to change, and we can, and we will by the grace of God.
Making a better NOW is the Gospel. The Good News. Dying and Rising is The Kingdom of God. Although we may be afraid of it, it is Jesus’ power of true life. The only fulfilling life. The gifts of the HOLY SPIRIT are in us to reclaim, to activate today, tomorrow, and the next day.
It is time we see this world of ours as challenging but redeemable. We must LET LOVE HAPPEN. Lent is on the horizon. It is time for a CHANGE. We need to pick up our lifeless world and run with it. Go for the goal beyond the Superbowl. Allow the kingdom of God to take precedent NOW for a better future tomorrow. As you come to the Eucharistic table today, take and eat the Vision that is for you, for me, for everyone: the Kingdom of God is at hand.
frjamesdiluzio 