Homily for Thursday of the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Theme: BE THE LIGHT OF CHRIST…..” When the light comes, is it to be put under a tub or a bed?”
By: Fr. Àngel CALDAS i Bosch
Homily for Thursday January 28 2021
Today, Jesus explains to us the secret of his Kingdom. He is even somewhat ironical when telling us that the internal “energy” the Word of God has —his own Word—, that communicative force that spreads all over the world, is just like a light, and that this light cannot go «under a tub or a bed?» (Mk 4:21)
Can you imagine someone so stupid as to place a lit candle under the bed? We Christians with the lights off or with the lights on, but with a ban on lighting us up! This is what happens when we do not place all our love and knowledge at the service of our Faith. How anti-natural of us to selfishly retreat into ourselves, by limiting our life to the scope of our own personal interests! To live under the bed! Ridiculously and tragically still :absents of the spirit…
On the other hand, the Gospel is a saint outburst of passionate Love that wants to communicate, that needs “to say”, and that carries along a demand of personal growth, of interior maturity and service to others. «If you say: Enough!, you are dead», saint Augustine says. And saint Josemaria Escrivà also says: «O Lord: let me have temperance and restraint in everything… except in Love!».
«Listen then, if you have ears!». And He also said to them, «Pay attention to what you hear» (Mk 4:23-24). But, what does it mean “to hear”?; what are we to hear? This is the great question we have to ask ourselves. It is an attitude of sincerity towards God that demands to know what we really want to do. And to find it out we must hear: we must pay attention to the hints of God. We have to enter into a dialogue with him to put an end to the “mathematics of measure”: «In the measure you give, so shall you receive and still more will be given to you. For to the one who produces something, more will be given, and from him who does not produce anything, even what he has will be taken away from him» (Mk 4:24-25). God’s accrued interests, are unpredictable and extraordinary, so as to stimulate our generosity.
In the Virgin Mary we will find the best example of how to answer God’s call.
Fr. Àngel CALDAS i Bosch
(Salt, Girona, Spain)