Homily on the 24th Sunday after Pentecost.
“Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Lk 8:46
For the past several weeks I have slowly been dealing with the jungle that once was my vegetable garden. Unfortunately from time to time, life gets overwhelmingly busy with work, family and other obligations that must be tended to. Hence, certain things tend to get out of hand rather quickly - an example being my vegetable garden.
In all, it has been three weekends that I have been tackling the great task of weeding and pulling out old vegetation that no longer produces fruits. Out with the old in with the new.
Thus, yesterday as I was pulling out the last of the weeds, I thought to myself - our lives 1 `````````````````````````````````` get like this from time to time. We get busy, pushing things aside when all of a sudden life is full of weeds.
It is then that we take a step back, assessing the situation and slowly but surly begin the cleaning process; which takes time given the amount of neglect, however we make a start which is the important thing.
For example, I have neglected my prayer life for the past two months for reasons I won't go into but the pressures of life being one.
Thus, the minute I abandoned my spiritual life everything went south, meaning, nothing was going well for me. I began to fall into a quasi depressed state; finding myself becoming irritable and intolerable towards everyone. I began to resemble the typical old bitter man that complains about everything and dislikes everyone.
Therefore, going back to the weeds in the vegetable garden, the moment one starts to remove weeds or impediments from life, the clearer things become and the soil may be seen once again.
I have slowly returned to my normal self and my prayer life is back on track so to speak.
This has not been an easy homily to write because I have put myself out on the internet and have exposed myself for who I really am and my struggles; knowing also that there may be some who will judge me but I don't mind.
However, I truly believe that someone out there will truly benefit knowing that even priests struggle with life in the same way all people do. Also knowing that it is ok to fall and get up over and over again. It is part of our human fragility, so one must never despair; as long as we have God in our lives, All things are possible!
Just because God has called me to serve Him as His priest, does not mean that I have special exemptions from mental illness, sickness, anger, pride, passions and so on. We are all equal in the eyes of God! He loves each one of us the same! If He didn't, He would not have stretched out His arms on the cross for us. The only thing that differentiates us from one another is our function within society or in the Church setting.
Some are priests others are chanters. Some are doctors others are veterinarians. Some are cleaners others are CEO's of mega corporations! Just because our roles differ doesn't mean one person is more important than the other.
Therefore, know that we are not alone on the pilgrimage we are on. We all work towards the same goal - salvation and eternal life to worship the All-Holy-Trinity for eternity amongst our Fathers and Mothers of the past, the communion of Saints!
Through the intersessions of the Theotokos, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us. Amen
“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Lk 8:48
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