Sunday, September 20, 2015

Homily: 25th Sunday in OT 2015 - "Be obnoxious to the wicked!"



The first reading was taken from the Book of Wisdom.  The longer title of the book is the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon.  Scripture Scholars tell us that it was written in Alexandria Egypt, making it different from the other books of the old testament, not only for where it was written, but because of the fact it was written in Greek, rather than in Hebrew. And it was the very last book of the Old Testament to be written, composed just about 50 years before the birth of Jesus. The theme of the book of wisdom is that wisdom leads to life, and wickedness lead to death.

The passage this morning is taken from a section of the book of Wisdom called “the speech of the wicked”.  This wicked person is lamenting that the wise ones, the righteous ones, are obnoxious to their wicked way of life.

There were a number of apostate Jews in Alexandria, those who had given up their Jewish faith in favor of the pagan practices of the Greeks. So this passage from Wisdom presents these apostate Jews plotting against those who had kept the faith: “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.” So here we have this wicked apostate complaining, because the just ones, remind them of what they left when they abandoned their faith. The just ones were making the bad guys nervous because by their good deeds they exposed the wickedness of the apostates to be foolish. The apostates Jews in Alexandria had probably adopted the Greek philosophy of Hedonism. The hedonist claims that comfort and pleasure are the most important things in life: anything that brings you pleasure is good, anything that takes away your pleasure, is evil. 

We live in a very Hedonistic culture don’t we? Instant gratification, instant pleasure.  And the Church is often attacked because she reminds our hedonistic culture that there is more to life than just seeking pleasure all the time. Christians are seen as obnoxious to the wicked, for we engage in many practices that Hedonists consider foolish: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, chastity, poverty, obedience, self-sacrifice, study, going out into the streets and serving the poor, patiently enduring suffering for the good of souls.

In a way, I think, the Word of God is giving us our marching orders this morning.  Be obnoxious, be obnoxious to the wicked.  Be so holy, take your faith so seriously, engage to the works of mercy so devoutly, that you make the wicked man a little nervous.  It might just cause him to rethink his life.
That’ll be my dismissal from Mass today (not really): “Go forth, and be obnoxious to the wicked…Thanks be to God”.  Become so holy that you are noticed. If the wicked are ignoring us, because they don’t us as a threat to their hedonistic ways, are we really living the faith? I we are blending in with the wicked, valuing the same things they do, they are we really on the path of life?
So, the wicked find the just ones obnoxious in the first reading, and what do they do? They begin to plot: “With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
The parallels here to the life of the Just One, the Lord Jesus, are obvious.  Why did the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day plot against him to torture and kill him? He had become obnoxious to them.  He told them that to inherit the kingdom of God, you had to repent, you had to not only be externally observant of God’s laws, you had need to transform your heart. And Jesus asked, you want heaven, you want a Messiah? You have to extend mercy even to those who persecute you, you have to treat as family even those who are of different ethnicities, you have to go and touch the leper and wash him clean. Obnoxious behavior for the pious Jewish Pharisee of the 1st century.

It became clear, pretty early on, that his ministry would end in his suffering and dead.  In the Gospel today we heard how Jesus had been walking with his disciples, and just like last week he speaks of his coming Passion: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” However, Jesus’ disciples do not understand what he is talking about…again.  Remember last week, Peter took Jesus aside after he explained that he would have to die, and rebuked Jesus for speaking of having to be killed.  Jesus then rebuke Peter saying: “Get behind me Satan, you are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings speak.”  Clearly, his disciples didn’t understand that the Messiah would have to die.  Yet Jesus makes it very clear that there will be no glory without the cross. 

The Christian disciple, like the Master, embraces the cross out of love of God; this is as obnoxious as it gets.  So many of us want to be called Christian, but are we willing to suffer for it. We stop praying, we stop going to church, we stop giving, when it gets hard.  And the rest of the world says to us, “what took you so long?”

But the Lord is very clear, If we want to be Jesus’ disciples, if we want to be a part of the community of Saints in heaven, then we too must take up our cross and follow after Him: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”.

Over the centuries the martyrs have taken the word of Christ seriously.  I think of Saint Paul Miki and his 25 companions who suffered martyrdom on February 5, 1597 on a hill overlooking Nagasaki, Japan.  The group was comprised of 6 Franciscans from Spain, Mexico, and India and 3 native Japanese Jesuits.  Among the 17 lay Catholics martyred there were catechists, doctors, simple artisans and servants, old men and innocent children.  They were forced to march 600 miles from Kyoto to Nagasaki, all the while mocked and spit upon by the soldiers for their Christian faith.  They, like the Lord, were all hung wooden crosses, and lances thrust into their sides. 

The Japanese government had been forcing the Japanese Catholics to renounce their faith, and Paul Miki and his companions refused to apostatize. 

While hanging upon a cross, Paul Miki preached to the people gathered for the execution: “The only reason for my being killed”, he said, “is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ… I thank God it is for this reason I die… After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

He was obnoxious to his captors and torturers, and he was persecuted for it.  But because he believed in Jesus’ promise, he passed the test, he won the race.


Be obnoxious to the wicked, embrace the cross; in a world grown dim, let your good deeds and love of Christ shine for all to see, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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