You're not the boss of me: Homily for Friday, March 1, 2024

"You're not the boss of me." Maybe that is something you said to a brother or a sister. Or maybe to a friend when you are a kid. But do we say this to God?

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts.

Probably none of us like to be told to do something we do not want to do. But when it comes to God telling us what to do, we should listen.

You’re not the boss of me

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to hear what I don’t want to.” And there’s really a common theme in both of these readings. We have people who don’t want to hear what God is telling them.

In the first reading, it is the brothers of Joseph. In the Gospel, it is the Pharisees. And it’s easy to say, “Well, that was then. We understand because we know that Joseph is ultimately going to be vindicated in the end. Jesus is going to be risen from the dead, so it had a good ending.”

The much harder question, I think, for us to wrestle with is, “But how are we like the brothers of Joseph? How are we like the Pharisees? What things is it that God might be saying to us that we don’t want to hear? What is it in our life that God is calling us to accept that maybe we don’t wish to accept?”

Now there’s no specific answer. I can’t point and say, “Well, now these are the things right here. Just listen to these things because this is clearly what God is saying.” But the tendency is inside each one of us, at least I know it is in me, not to want to surrender to Jesus. Not to want to really say, “Lord, thy will be done.”

Because God might very well want me to do something that I don’t want to do. Or God might want me to do something that’s going to be very difficult. Or God might be calling me to accept a share of the cross.

You know, I’ve been thinking a lot these days about the words of Mother Teresa. You know, Mother Teresa was mentioned, I think I mentioned this in a weekend homily, but Mother Teresa was commended by someone for being successful. And she reacted very strongly against that and said, “I am not called to be successful. I am called to be faithful. And faithful I have been.”

I have a tendency to want to be successful. But maybe what God is really calling me to do, maybe what God is calling you to do, is to be faithful. To recognize that even if we put our heart and soul into something and it fails, that may be precisely why God called us.

That may be precisely the thing that God wants us to do. To help us to recognize that really everything we do is about what God does in us. It is about what God does through us. If there’s the American sin, I think it’s the sin of believing that we know exactly what is right for everybody else in the world. But the truth is, before we’re Americans, we’re disciples of Jesus Christ. And maybe what Jesus Christ is calling us to do is to recognize that we need to surrender to what He knows, because He is all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. And maybe in the surrendering to Jesus Christ, it is in that way that we discover our salvation.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.