Homily - 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A - 3rd September 2023

Homily

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

3rd September 2023

A year ago, I was encouraged by a fellow deacon to start using my talents as a filmmaker to produce a series of video homilies. There was a desire within me to want to make such videos, but I must admit there was also a lot of fear. In putting out these videos, I was going to be putting myself our there and stating to the world, I am a Christian, and a Catholic Christian at that. This was a discomforting thought. For years, I had been talking to people about my faith and we shared our experiences. I attended quite a few Alpha Courses. But the question always came back, was I prepared to openly confess my conviction in being a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ?

Jeremiah mentions how much he was mocked, each time he went out to say what God had told him too. Daily he was made a laughingstock, the butt of everyone’s jokes simply because he was overwhelmed by the spirit within him to proclaim God’s word, to tell the people of their sins. They had offended God through what they said, the actions they took against others, and how they refused to help those in need. Even Jeremiah had considered turning his back on God because of the daily insult he had to endure. In the end, the spirit within Jeremiah’s heart, drove him like a fire into action, the message had to come out.

Paul tells us to model ourselves on God, both in body and mind. We need to think the way God thinks. We need to know the boundaries placed there by God, so we can do what is right and what is good. The challenge to us is not to follow the way the world is tempting us, through social media, and entertainment. Our world today is full of confusion, which is designed to evoke our emotions, to stir us up without thinking. Often subjects come up we don’t want to get into, because the topic is too toxic to even want to contemplate. Yet, certain ideas are pushed around, and our emotions are played on to force us to take sides.

Peter was horrified at what he heard Jesus telling the disciples that he would go to Jerusalem, be treated badly by the temple authorities that would lead to him being put to death. He was so blinded by the idea of seeing his friend tortured and crucified, that he was made dumb, so he could not hear Jesus saying he would rise again on the third day. Satan had confused Peter to the point he was now blocking Jesus from fulfilling his mission. If we follow God’s way and not man’s, we will see Jesus in God’s glory with all his angels, and our reward will be based on how we act.

We are told that this generation has only an attention span of about 3 seconds, a bit like a goldfish, but where does this idea come from? On Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, we are given images for three seconds to look at, and then they are taken away. How many times have I seen an image of my grandchildren, where a picture tells a thousand words, yet I am only able to read 9 words. The other nine hundred and ninety-one are ripped away from me before I get a chance to read them. People stand in art and photography galleries gazing at a single image for hours, soaking up the expressiveness, the textures, the hidden meanings and much more as part of their process of getting inside the mind of the artist. Yet we are not being given the time to appreciate what is dished up in front of us and expected to consume in a moment. I know I get frustrated.

With such actions constantly bombarding us every waking minute, we can find we have no option but to switch off, everything becomes a blur, as our minds ore fogged up, unable to buffer the content before us.

If you have been trained in the creative arts, you will have spent years training and honing your craft and skills. Yet, we are heading into a time where AI can reproduce, in a matter of seconds, hundreds and thousands of images, without taking a break, copying the styles and actions of all these artists to the point where they cannot compete. Human ambitions have driven this race, robbing the creativity within each of these talented people.

God’s will is we should become co-creators with him. He knows the sacrifices creative people have made, to make their amazing art, to which the soulless artificial intelligence can only mimic without any heart. Jesus tells us that if we focus on worldly gains, we will lose our soul. We are encouraged to sacrifice earthly gains by prioritising the values that lead to an eternal life. The machines are only tools. If they become self-perpetuating, we may be fooled into believing we have no purpose, but this is a lie.

Jeremiah was encouraged not to give up, even though he was weary of the rejection. Paul tells us not to conform to the philosophies of this current age. Jesus reminds us that if we go our own way we will lose our souls, but if we can trust in him and place him at the heart of our lives, the sacrifices we make, will bring the reward we deserve.

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