{"id":2787,"date":"2019-02-03T12:24:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T17:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2787"},"modified":"2019-02-03T12:24:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T17:24:47","slug":"4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

4<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15, 17
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-30
February 3, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This passage from 1 Corinthians is one of\nthe suggested readings for weddings.  I\nthink couples pick it as their second reading in about half of the weddings I\nhave done.  Do they pick it just because\nit talks about love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we first begin to discuss their\nwedding ceremony and what readings they might pick, I always try to point this\nreading out to them as one to think about what it is really saying.  It takes about \u201clove\u201d and \u201clove\u201d is certainly\nan important part of marriage but before they select it as their second\nreading, I just ask them to talk to each other and reflect on what it says\nabout love to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love can be a complicated thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? \nBecause we are imperfect beings. \nIn our imperfections, we don\u2019t always do what we know we should.  When someone we love and who we think loves\nus does something that hurts us, it hurts all the more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of loving someone is not wanting to\nhurt them.  Rather, we should desire to\nbe the ones who help them when they hurt. \nYet, again, we are not perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about God\u2019s love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe God\u2019s love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We tend to describe things in terms of our\nhuman experiences.  Our human experience\nof love is imperfect.  So, we might\nimagine God\u2019s love in the same way.  We\nmight think that it is possible for God to stop loving us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would be wrong to think that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As God told Jeremiah, He knew us even\nbefore He formed us in the womb.  From\nthe beginning of time, God already knew what we would do.  He knows what sins we commit.  It is because He loves us even when we sin\nthat our Father sent Jesus to die for us on the Cross.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many times have I said that we see\nJesus\u2019 love for us when we look at him on the Cross?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God knows what adversity we will\nface.  Even before Jeremiah began his\nministry, the Lord told him, \u201cThey will\nfight against you but not prevail over you for I am with you to deliver you,\nsays the LORD<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We like to think that having faith in\nJesus means everything will be easy. \nAfter all, Jesus himself says \u201cmy\nyoke is easy, and my burden light<\/em>.” \nThe thing is, He doesn\u2019t say we won\u2019t have any problems, just that they are\neasier with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why that Paul tells us that if we \u201cdo not have love<\/em>,\u201d we are \u201ca resounding gong<\/em>,\u201d that without love we\nare \u201cnothing<\/em>.\u201d  Love is what we are created for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love is what sustains us.  \u201cIt\nbears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things<\/em>.\u201d  It is God\u2019s love for us that never\nfails.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning back to marriage, it is to be a\nsacrament of love.  Does that mean it\nwill be perfect, that there will be no problems?  We would like to think so but the reality is\nthat marriage can come with its challenges. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I think of couples that I see that\naren\u2019t afraid to admit that, shall we say, \u201cthey don\u2019t always see eye to\neye.\u201d  Yet, you will see them do good\nthings for their spouse, not simply to avoid a fight but because they want\ntheir spouse to be happy.  There is love\nin that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also think of when I see a couple where\none of the spouses is dealing with a health issue.  The sick spouse is in the hospital.  That means the healthy spouse doesn\u2019t have to\nbe with them every moment to take care of them. \nThey could go and do their own thing. \nOf course, at times, they do need to tend to those other things that\nalways need to be done.  But they find\ntime to simply sit with their sick spouse in the hospital.  They want to be there for them.  They want them to get better.  They want them to be around for years to\ncome.  There is love in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t always easy to love.  It requires patience.  It means being kind when we don\u2019t want to.  It means letting go of our own interests to be there for the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our love seems weak, we can turn to\nGod as our \u201crefuge<\/em>\u201d and our \u201chope<\/em>\u201d that He will \u201crescue<\/em>\u201d and \u201cdeliver<\/em>\u201d\nus.  With God, \u201clove never fails.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year CJeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15, 17 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13Luke 4:21-30February 3, 2019 This passage from 1 Corinthians is one of the suggested readings for weddings.  I think couples pick it as their second reading in about half of the weddings I have done.  Do they pick it …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,11],"tags":[549,551,550,80],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-IX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}