Homily Preview: 20OT-A

   I didn't have a Saturday night Mass this evening, and don't have a Mass until later tomorrow morning, so I am a little later in the homily prep process than I normally would be at this point.  Rather than having something of a text or even notes, I'm still at the mulling-it-over state of what I'll be preaching tomorrow.  I think I need to talk about mercy.  Here's some points that I think I need to find a way to connect and present tomorrow:

• We see the Canaanite woman approach Jesus three times, persistently begging his attention (Matt 15:21-28) and finally being rewarded for her faith-- the reward being deliverance from a demon that had hold of her daughter.  (...clearly an act of mercy.)
• The pope and our bishops have asked us to call to mind persecuted Christians around the world, and in particular in the Middle East where Christians are suffering nothing less than martyrdom, if not genocide, this very day.  In the fat and easy life we have here in the States, it is easy to forget that people are facing death for practicing the very same faith that somewhere between half and two-thirds of our faithful can't trouble themselves over by attending Sunday Mass.  In calling to mind the unity we all have as members of the Body of Christ, we implore God's mercy upon the suffering members, that they may be delivered from their cruel persecution under the boot of radical, militant Islam.  We also pray for the unity of all Christians to speak out and inspire our leaders to provide the humanitarian relief and security necessary to preserve innocent life and human dignity in these afflicted regions of the world.
• St. Paul proposes the power of mercy (Romans 11: 29-32) to draw all of the human family together around the One God.  While the "us" and "them" in Paul's context is Israel and the Gentiles, there are so many "us"es and "them"s that rage against one another... the waring factions in the Middle East, the civil unrest in Ferguson, MO, the polarized political parties, the haves and have-nots in the economic rat-race...  Paul suggests that our common need for mercy, flowing from the universal need that all men and women have for salvation (in that all have fallen short of the vision of God), actually unites us to one another:

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.

•  The Church has a deep tradition of reflecting on the language of mercy:

• The English word mercy shares the same roots as the French word, merci, which means "thank you", but even more historically refers to 'reward', 'giftedness', 'grace', or 'pity'.  So, to use the French word, merci, is to acknowledge that "I am gifted" by your act of kindness, pity, or grace you have shown me.  Further behind the French word merci lies the Latin merces which has the sense of 'reward' in the context of wages or pay.  A worker or retailer thus earns his living by selling merchandise at a market, which also shares this root.  Mercy in the English-speaking world is thus shaded by an 'economy' related to good and evils, justice and rights, reward and penalty.  Mercy is thus the forbearance of a just penalty by a gratuitous benefactor.
• But the idea of 'mercy' in scriptural and theological sources doesn't completely share its history with this line of meaning.  In Latin, 'mercy' is referred to as 'misericordia', which means, roughly, 'gentle heart'.  This parallels the Hebrew ideal of 'hesed' which specifically invokes covenental love... love which is not merely a contractual quid pro quod, but rather mutually-beneficial and life-preserving... resistant to betrayal and stronger than any sin.  (Remember, the first reading also takes us back into the idea of the covenant... 'follow the covenant and justice will be revealed' (cf Is 56: 1).)
• Greek takes a different turn, rendering mercy as 'eleos', from where we get the liturgical phrase, "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord have mercy"), at Mass.  'Eleos' has the sense of a healing balm, or flowing oil poured out as a gift of the Father upon his children.  I wonder if there is a connection between this idea and what we hear in Psalm 133, when we hear "Oh, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to live in unity: it is like precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down on the hem of his robe..."  Not only is the unity of brothers a grace and anointing from God, but the reference to Aaron implies a priestly (pontifical) reality coming from this 'anointing'.  Not only is the human family whole, but its wholeness is found in an orderly brotherhood under God our Father through as a result of this anointing (of mercy).  Aaron's own priestly role is to be a man of anointing (mercy) and unity, not unlike our own bishops and priests who pour out God's mercy on the Church and strive to unite all men and women in common worship of God.  There is also an implied pneumenological (Holy Spirit) reference to the power of the Spirit to bring all the scattered brothers and sisters of the Father into unity of language, faith, and love by this anointing.

• As you might imaging, the Angelic Doctor has a lot to say as well, but as it is 11:00 and I have to get some sleep, I'm not going to go down that road here and now.
• One must also acknowledge the extensive reflection on mercy put forward by St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy revelations.  What a devotion for our age, which is in such great need of the Lord's mercy!

And so, as is usually the case, I have a whole lot of stuff to run with, and this week, the ideas point to a central truth quite nicely... all the seemingly-disparate angles bending the light to a single, bright beam: we must urgently pray to God for mercy, not only for our (undeserving) selves, but even for our (undeserving) enemies, that we might be delivered from the misery of the Evil One who seeks to divide and conquer us.  Do we have the courage to ask for and the faith to work for a peace that this world cannot give?  What I am still looking for is a unifying theme or story or 'hook' that illustrates these truths in action... a biographical or historical vignette, the story of a saint, a small joke or familiar saying, an image from literature or media, an observation from human nature, or something else.  While I might use a thousand words to describe the technical way that this all works (as I have above), as a preacher I will be much more effective if I can provide a compelling image that can carry the weight of all these words without having to rehearse them all.  This is a 'homily preview'.  Tune in tomorrow, where God-willing, it all comes together, in 8-10 minutes or (hopefully) less.

Update, Sunday 08:30am:  I'm going to lead with a summary of the news stories this week on ISIS and Ferguson, and ask the question how did our world get this way, and what is the solution?  (Mercy!)  We have been permitted by the bishop to use the Mass formulary for Persecuted Christians and the Eucharistic Prayer III for Various Needs.  I really like the formulary for the propers as they do bring to mind and prayer our union with their sufferings very well.  Further, the formulary supports what I am going to say about our unity in God's mercy.  On the other hand, I don't particularly like the novelty of the Eucharistic Prayers for various needs.  Because I do not believe the sentiments expressed there are strong enough to overcome the disadvantage of its novelty, both in my presumaly-novice recitation of it and in the distraction I sense this causes the people (every time I have used an 'alternate' EP, I invariably get a question of where it came from and if it's 'approved'... as if I'd dare make one up on the fly!), I'm going to take a 'pass' from exercising that option.  I do like the preface to that prayer though, and if I can use it separately (I need to look up that is a legitimate use), I might just do that.