Proclaim God’s Deeds: Homily for Sunday, January 19, 2025

Today’s readings all help us to see that God’s mighty deeds are all around us if we look with the eyes of faith. Moreover, we are all called to proclaim God’s deeds to a world in need of hope. Readings for today.

Proclaim God’s Deeds

One thing I learned as a teacher was the importance of making compliments specific. For example, instead of telling a person who might have performed in the play at school, “Nice job,” I tried to be specific, saying something like, “I really liked the way you delivered your lines in the scene where your character was with his mother.”

With an athlete who might just have lost the game they played in by a lot of points, I did not say, “Nice job,” but rather something like, “I really admired how you just didn’t give up even though the game did not go the way that you hoped.” An approach like this helps the recipient of these comments to be better able to believe them.

But how would we describe the spiritual gifts we have or the talents that God has given us? Have we ever considered how our gifts and talents, even those that do not seem spiritual, could be used to share our faith? In the first reading, we heard this, “For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent. For Jerusalem’s sake, I will not be quiet until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.”

But the challenge is, for me, that too often I might be willing to stay silent or quiet. And yet, the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel tells us that as followers of Jesus, we must go forth and share our faith. And the gifts and talents God has given us are meant to be used. We cannot be like the person who received the talent from the king, only to be afraid and bury it.

The list of gifts Paul presents in the second reading involve many ways our faith can be shared. Paul cites these gifts, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, varieties of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. It is typically not the case that any one follower of Jesus can claim all these gifts. And also, this list is not exhaustive.

For example, people can sing or play a musical instrument, lead a group, be the type of person that brings people together, builds community. But there are also practical gifts like maintenance or finance, care, concern, or teaching. The point is that all of these gifts are really meant to be used, to be shared, to, as we said in the psalm, “Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.”

These are the gifts and talents we have been given so that we will not be silent or quiet about our faith. For the truth is that each of us, indeed all people, were created for the purpose of sharing the good news. We were made to tell people the reason for our hope and faith, even in a particular moment, if we were not feeling very hopeful or faithful.

And we can better share this news if we seek to be grateful for all the things God has done in our lives. In different ways, each of the readings show forth how God’s presence is mighty indeed. That what we are promised by God is not just a little help to make us feel slightly better during difficult times.

No, it is nothing less than the blessing of the ultimate eternal relationship with Jesus. In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us an example of the importance of not being silent or quiet. His mother asks him to help those in the gospel we can only assume were friends or relatives of Jesus and Mary. While he initially seems to refuse to do something, he ultimately performs the miracle of changing water into wine.

A couple of asides. First, when Jesus refers to his mother as woman, this is not as cold or as distant as it might seem. It was a common word used in the time, a word which we have no equivalent for really in English in the way in which it’s intended. Second, in John’s gospel, one of the themes that’s important is this notion of hour.

The hour is symbolic of the ultimate revelation of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. In today’s gospel, Jesus refers to the fact that his hour has not yet come, and yet he shows forth a sign of who he is. When he heads to the garden of Gethsemane to be arrested, he at that time says that his hour has come.

I would like to suggest that right now is our hour. Now is the time where we need to be cooperators with God’s grace and show forth all that God in his goodness has done for us. And we know that showing forth what God has done for us is made visible both by our words, but perhaps more importantly, by our actions.

We live in a time where there are so many people who need to hear the good news. What better good news is there than the good news of Jesus? Can we share by the generosity of our actions and feed the hungry? Can we comfort the afflicted? Can we console those who mourn?

But perhaps more specifically, can we volunteer time or provide items for the Costello Center? Can we stand with those people who seek to escape desperate situations and seek hope for a new beginning? Can we be there for victims of domestic and other violence, helping them to summon the courage to take care of themselves and to allow themselves to be supported by us? Can we act in a way that those who feel broken or lost because of the death of a loved one receive comfort through our support, prayers, and concern?

Even if we cannot do all that we would like, can we seek to live the gospel in whatever way it is that God has given us the grace to do so?

In my short time here at St. Dominic’s, I have been edified by the number of people I have interacted with who are seeking deeper faith or to become Catholic, to make the commitment of marriage holy. But there are so many people who do not know that good news of Jesus that we have experienced. So as we heard in the readings today, God’s good works are all around us. God can help us to be the ones to make them known. Let us today pray in thanksgiving for all that God has done for us, and as we just sang a short time ago, to proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

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