Faithfully unfashionable: homily for the twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

A mile or so from where I live in Rome is a street called Via dei Condotti; there you can find the stores of Armani, Tiffany’s, Gucci—the highest high-end designers.  Sometimes I like to amuse myself by looking in the windows at the prices—a thousand dollars for a sweater, twelve hundred dollars for a necktie, twenty thousand dollars for a watch.  Of course, many of the stores don’t list prices because if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.  I’ve never gone inside any of these stores because they are usually guarded by a man with a shaved head, six inches taller than I am, with a black suit and a mouth that never smiles.  In fact, I think they’ve had the facial muscles that allow you to smile surgically removed.  

The owners of these stores would not be happy to read today’s Letter of St. James.  James says: don’t favor a person with gold rings over a person in shabby clothes.  Of course, sometimes shabby clothes are fashionable and expensive; having torn jeans means that you’re one of the cool kids.  What’s in fashion always changes because it’s not based on anything real.  A thousand dollar sweater won’t keep you any warmer than a thirty dollar sweater; a twenty thousand dollar Rollex tells the same time as my twenty dollar Timex.  Fashions based on wealth, prestige, and the most up-to-date style are like the leaves that you see on the trees this September day; next month they’ll be a different color; a month after that, they’ll be gone.

Even though fashion and prestige aren’t based on anything true and lasting, they can be used to hurt people in some very real ways.  I think of how hard it is for someone not to be one of the “cool kids” in middle school or high school.  Adults are sometimes just as bad; I can remember from my time here on the reservation that sometimes people are looked down on for being “too Native”; other times they may be looked down on for “not being Native enough.”  In either case, sometimes people can be treated quite unfairly.  

Today’s first reading from Isaiah is a message of hope to those who find themselves on the unfair end of things.  Be strong, fear not, Isaiah says, God is here.  Isaiah is not speaking only to those who are suffering because they’re not one of the cool kids, but also to those who suffer from physical sicknesses—the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mute.  In all these cases, people are suffering from serious, permanent conditions because of circumstances beyond their control.  Isaiah’s message of hope is that the presence of God will turn the world as we know it upside down: water will burst forth in the desert; the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the mute will sing, the lame will jump.  This is good news for those who suffer, but bad news for those who are comfortable with the way things are—if you just bought a thousand dollar sweater, it’s bad news when winter becomes summer.

So what does Isaiah want us to do?  Spend everything in your savings account now while you have the chance?  No.  What we have to keep in mind when reading passages like today’s is that fashions change, the rich go bankrupt, empires fall, our bodies age, but some things remain the same.  Those are the things to hold on to, those are the things to invest in.  And in the Gospel we see who it is that has power over sickness, power over the changing seasons, power even over life and death—Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

What does this mean for us?  Sometimes we Catholics can have a bit of an inferiority complex if we don’t feel like one of the cool kids.  We think we need to keep up with the latest fashions.  The problem is you can never keep up; when fashions change again you end up with a closet full of ugly clothes.  Our guiding question must be: “Are we staying faithful to Christ?” not “Are we keeping up with the cool kids?”  Sometimes we’ll be popular, sometimes we’ll be unpopular.  On judgment day, popularity won’t count for much. 

There’s one final consideration I’d like to add.  In today’s readings, it seems as though God seems to favor the poor over the rich.  This doesn’t mean that if your income is below a certain level you get into heaven, but if you get a raise—look out.  Thinking this way is, in fact, just as materialistic as being greedy.  It makes the criterion for judgment something worldly, not spiritual.  But God does seem to especially like to work through the poor, through the suffering, through the weak, and the reason is simple: it gives him an opportunity to show off.  Now when God shows off, it’s not the same as when we show off.  When we show off, we try to make ourselves look good and feel good.  God doesn’t have a self-esteem problem, so that’s not the reason.  When he shows off, it’s to give us faith, to help us to trust him.  Working through the poor, the unpopular, the weak shows that God is not limited by any earthly consideration.  And it shows that he loves even those we might think are not too attractive.

This also tells us something about how we should act as Christians.  We probably all know some “uncool kids”.  The kids nobody else wants to sit next to at lunch.  And I’m speaking of adults too.  When I was here on Rosebud several years ago, one of my favorite moments was a Sunday when we asked everyone to invite somebody new to church—we called it “fishers of men Sunday” or something like that.  So now I have a new challenge, a slight amendment to the first one.  Think about someone new to invite, but this time, don’t think of the obvious, the people you are closest too.  Think of someone you know who is suffering, who is left out; think of one of the uncool kids.  And invite that person.  Maybe they’ll come, maybe not.  But more importantly, you’ll be acting like God acts; you’ll be loving as God loves; and Isaiah’s prophecy will be fulfilled in you.

Readings: Is 35:4-7a; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37

St. Bridget’s Church, Rosebud, SD

2018