Homily 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - February 12, 2023

 Readings can be found here.

I have a friend that loves bad puns and likes to twist common phrases.  Whenever you thank him for something, he’ll say, “You’re welcome, it was the least I could do”.  Then he’ll add, “And I believe in doing the very least.”  Don’t we all feel like that sometimes?  Going the path of least resistance?  Last week, I had a random conversation with my wife.  I was going to vacuum the house and was getting the things I needed.  She’d vacuumed previously and didn’t put things away as I expected.  One of the attachments was still connected to the vacuum hose.  I asked her to please not do that in the future.  She asked the natural question: why?  I was trying to think how best to explain why I didn’t like what she’d done.  And I found it easier to simply blurt out, “because it’s the rule.”  Immediately today’s readings hit me.

I was doing the very least thing it took to ask my wife to make a change.  For those that are parents, I’m sure you understand.  Our children ask us all kinds of “why” questions.  Like, why do I have to go to bed so early?  Why can’t I have dessert before dinner?  It’s easier to say “because it’s the rule” than to explain.  Especially with younger children, they may not be old enough to understand.  The scribes and Pharisees took a similar approach to the law.  To follow God’s commandments, the least thing they could do was follow it to the letter.  It didn’t matter what was in the heart of a person, just that they followed the rules.  To an extent, they were treating the people of Israel like children.  Jesus tells us that there is more to following God’s commandments.  We need to go beyond the letter of the law.  As Paul says, we need to seek God’s wisdom as people who are mature.

What is this wisdom of the mature?  Hopefully some of you were able to attend or watch the funeral of Bishop Clark.  Cardinal Dolan gave the homily.  During the homily, he spoke of three great qualities of Bishop Clark.  One of them was that he was always a close friend of Jesus.  Bishop Clark had a relationship with Jesus.  In our Gospel today, Jesus shows us that wisdom of the mature is about relationship.  When Jesus says “but I say to you”, he’s describing how we should relate to each other.  When we become angry with someone, we need to repair that relationship.  We shouldn’t treat others as objects for our desires.  Relationships are not something we should break lightly.  We need to treat others with honesty and respect.  To have good relationships with others, we first must have a close relationship with Jesus.

What is our relationship like with Jesus?  Is Jesus our close friend?  Think about the things we do with our close friends.  We tell each other how our day went.  We’re there for them during a bad breakup or death of a loved one.  We get them a cheesy gift on a whim because we just know they’ll love it.  We celebrate birthdays and holidays together.  When it comes to our close friends, we’re not concerned about any sort of rules.  We happily go above and beyond.  It’s the same with Jesus.  The closer we get to Jesus, the more we want to be like Him.  We’ll want to love others the way Jesus loves them.  We’ll want to spend more time with Jesus in prayer.  We’ll share our joys and our worries with Him.  We’ll talk to Jesus and listen for His response.  We’ll be able to see Jesus in others. We’ll want to go above and beyond for others as if they were our close friend Jesus.

We have a choice, to follow God’s commandments or go our own way.  Our psalm says if we listen to and learn from God, we will be blessed.  The way we learn God’s commandments is to be in a close relationship with Jesus.  How can we become closer friends with Jesus?  Are there relationships in our lives we need to improve or repair?  Perhaps, instead of considering the least we can do, we can ask Jesus, how can I do more.