Homily for 7th Sunday Ordinary Time A 2014

The long and winding road that leads to your door
Will never disappear…it always leads me here
Leads me to your door

 

Another classic from the Beatles; that long and winding road that will never disappear! We all have been on our own long and winding roads.  It indeed is a long and winding road every time Wendy and I load up and travel to visit with #1 grandson.  Sometimes our long and winding roads lead us to family reunions, great vacations and new destinations. 

 

As people of faith, we are challenged to travel a long and winding road that leads to holiness over hate, and toward perfection in our Heavenly Father.

 

St. Matthew’s 5^th chapter gives us 48 beautiful verses, most of which we have heard proclaimed these past 3 weeks.  It has been a long and winding road of challenges imploring each of us to look beyond the law, beyond the rules, beyond the minimum requirements of discipleship.  This road invites us not to break the law and the rules, but to also love radically, practice compassion, forgive your enemies and show mercy.  Yes, this long and winding road we travel with Jesus calls on us to turn the other cheek, hand over that cloak, go the extra mile, give to those who ask and love our enemies; love and pray for them!  This is the scenic route, the one full of such exquisite beauty; the long and winding road of Jesus, that leads us to our Heavenly Father, who is perfection.

 

God the Father Himself wants us to be holy; He said so in today’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus.  Be holy like I am holy and He continues, love your neighbor as yourself.  This is right there in Leviticus, the rule book of the Old Covenant.  And Jesus perfectly fulfills the Father’s teachings and shows us the right path on the long and winding road of holiness and perfection.

 

Love your enemy, Jesus says.  But did the Scripture not teach us an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?  Misunderstood for centuries, let’s just say we can practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth as we understand it, but be prepared to walk around as a sightless, toothless wonder.  No, Jesus says love your enemy and pray for them.  This is radical, this is the path to holiness over hate, this is the journey of that long and winding road.

 

Just a couple of Saturdays ago as I was inside the walls of Rayburn Correctional Institute, one of our inmate retreat participants was called from the room.  When he returned, he was obviously emotional but to me he seemed joyful all at the same time.  After 20 years of no contact from his father, not knowing if his father even cared about him anymore, his dad was sitting in the visitor’s shack requesting to see his son.  We prayed with him and, as the retreat continued, we all awaited his return.  Upon his return, all he could tell us was that what he had waited to hear for over 20 years he indeed heard: I love you son, all is forgiven, and it won’t be 20 years before I come and visit again.  By the way, his dad just turned 80 years old.

 

For us here today, we are called to eliminate all hate and bitterness from our hearts; as hard as that may be for some us for this is the path to that long and winding road.  Each of us has a name, or maybe names on our hearts today that we are not reconciled with, perhaps we even have said we hate them.  Whoever they may be, family, friend, neighbor, co-worker, we are called to forgive them and love them and pray for them.  Each of us here today has our own enemy list too.  Maybe it is those we disagree with politically or socially, those who disrespect us, our families and even our country.  And yet that long and winding road challenges us to forgive them too, and love them and pray for them as Jesus does.  Yep, this week, we are challenged to think, to whom should I offer my other cheek, give my cloak, go the extra mile and forgive, love and pray for?  Write those names down today and with prayer and support begin the journey on that long and winding road toward perfection.

 

The lyrics of that great Beatles classic tell us that the road will never disappear as it leads us to your door.  All that is missing is our desire to love radically, forgive completely and choose holiness over hatred.  And that road indeed leads us to that door, and that door opens to our Heavenly Father, who is perfect. 

 

This is the road, long and winding though it may be, that I want to drive on  all the way to Heaven's door, come join me, the scenery is beautiful and the destination perfect!!