Homily for 11th Sunday Ordinary Time/B/2012

I still love Lucy!  Yes, after all these years one of my absolute most favorite TV shows is I Love Lucy.  Lucille Ball is the most amazing comedic actor of all time.  In one of the many episodes that I just enjoy, Lucy accompanies Desi to the eye doctor because it is believed he has vision problems.  It turns out that it is Lucy who has the eye problems and has an unusual reaction to the eye drops.  For hours she can’t see and of all times for this to happen; she has to dance in front of a huge audience.  The dance she must perform: the jitter bug.  And she does it; without being able to see.  You could say she stepped out in faith.  Of course the skit provided nothing but comic hijinks.

We may know a little something about eyesight and vision, especially as we grow older.  These glasses I depend on were not needed once upon a time and every year I need to increase the level of magnification.  We truly take our vision for granted.

As people of faith, our vision is always strong because we walk by faith not by sight!

St. Paul reminds us of this very statement in today’s second reading.  It was a reminder to the people of Corinth who were anxious for the second coming of Jesus and needed encouragement to carry on, in this world, until He indeed comes again.  Walk by faith, not by sight.  And what is faith?  Elsewhere in Scripture we are told that faith is assurance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen!  But faith is also being totally dependent on the will of the Father and our humble recognition that God, not us, is in control!

This may have been on the mind of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading of the two “growing” parables He presents.  In most of the stories related to crops, and in my limited experience of having a vegetable garden, there is some form of cooperation by the “farmer”.  The seed is sown, soil is tilled, weeds are pulled, and man may have to water when the skies don’t yield rain.  Yet in these parables it is as if man is just not needed.  In the first parable Jesus says that even if man simple sleep and wake, day after day, still the seeds sprout and grow.  The farmer knows not how!  What is Jesus teaching here?  Perhaps Jesus knew that too many of His followers were getting a little too puffed up; a little to enamored with self importance.  We, ourselves, struggle with that too this very day.  The image of the seed producing fruit with little help from man is that reminder: God is in control, He is Lord of creation, which means Lord of our very lives!  It is also a reminder for us to be patient with God’s plan.  We want to dictate time.  In God’s time and in God’s way; that is the lesson of the parable.  Another lesson is that of obedience.  When things don’t go our way or when we loose focus on God being in control; we become disobedient; doing things our way, not God’s way.

Consider the mustard seed.  Jesus tells us the tiniest of seeds that grows into a grand plant.  So grand is this plant that the birds find shelter in her shade.  Consider the Church.  Started with a small band of followers she is 1 billion strong today in every continent and every nation.  Sometimes she grows quickly, sometimes very slowly.  Sometimes the Church faces challenges and obstacles; still she endures.  And she endures so we may find rest in her shade.

Some think today that the Church is growing too slowly, not getting with the times, not forward thinking.  That would be a prime example of walking by sight and not faith.  That would also be putting “us” in charge not God.  We are about to enter into the Fortnight for Freedom and we have heard the request of Archbishop Aymond.  From June 21^st through July 4^th we all are called to pray for the end of the current persecution our Church is enduring at the hands of our own federal government.  We can add efforts to fast, offer our works of charity and other forms of spiritual support in this effort.  Perhaps we may even be encouraged to engage our own Congressman and Senators and let our voice be heard.

But remember, we walk by faith not by sight and the parables Jesus shares today?  Have we helped create our own mess?  As Catholics, do we walk by faith when being faithful to all she teaches us, especially being truly Pro-Life, supporting official Church teaching on artificial contraception, staying strong in resisting all efforts to redefine marriage?  Do we walk by faith in supporting Catholic teaching on immigration, the death penalty and the proper role of a nation in caring for her poor?

Do not cave in to the walk by sight mentality.  Do not put your faith in the media, the political parties or any other social construct that does not support the will of God and the authentic teaching of Holy Mother Church.  Walk by faith, not by sight.

Lucy did it, even when her eyes were prevented from seeing.  You and I can do much, to affirm that God is in control, and the Church affirms His teachings because we walk by faith, not by sight.