10 August 2025 -- 19th Sunday "C"
Wisdom 18:3-9; Hebrews 11:1-19; Luke 12:32-48
H O M I L Y
History, seen through human eyes, is almost always a nightmare. This is true today, as it was in the time of the prophets of the Old Testament and in the time of Jesus. There are always more scandals, oppression and aggression, more war and ethnic cleansing than we can imagine.
However, we must place all this in a broader context, in relation to the past, certainly, but above all in relation to the future. For while the past can help us understand what we are experiencing today, it is the future that gives meaning to what we are experiencing today. That is why Jesus invites us to be ready for the day of the final encounter with our God.
And this we can learn from our ancestors in faith, the people of Israel. God, as conceived by the people of Israel, was the God of the Exodus, of the Exile, of the Promise. The pagan conception of god was that of an immediate presence and led to a religion of idols. Israel had no idols; Israel worshipped the name of the God of the Promise, and this religion created a history — a sacred history that was less the experience of continuous change than the expectation of fulfilment. They always lived in the present, but what they experienced received its meaning from what was promised to them for the future; and their hope for the future was based on the love God had shown them in the past. Today's first reading, taken from the Book of Wisdom, tells us about the holy night of the Exodus, when the people of Israel were led out of Egypt by Yahweh.
Then, the Gospel reading alludes to the Great Night of Christ's Resurrection from the dead. Neither of these two nights was the end of a historical process. The Resurrection was not the end of anything. The empty tomb was not, as Hegel thought, a memorial of nostalgia. The resurrection of Christ, like the Exodus from Egypt, was an event that opened up the future, reaffirming and confirming God's promise.
The ultimate meaning of our existence is not to be found in the past events of the people of Israel, who came out of Egypt some three thousand years ago, or of Jesus, who came out of the tomb some two thousand years ago. This ultimate meaning is found in the resurrection of all humanity, in the total liberation of all human beings from the slavery of sin, oppression and war. This is why Jesus' call to be ready and vigilant is not a call to passivity.
It is a call to be actively attentive, a call to work personally and lucidly for the fulfilment of the Promise. We must not enter history backwards, looking back. What we are called to do is to build a future that will bring us closer to final and total liberation, by living our present authentically and responsibly.
We do not know exactly what the future holds for our society, our Church, our community. But we believe (in Faith) that there will be a future, and we know that this future is in God's hands and will be realized with our cooperation. And the foundation of this faith is that we know what God has been for us in the past.
Many of our plans have not worked out; many of our expectations have not been fulfilled. Like the disciples of Emmaus, walking together on the road, we often list those of our hopes that have not been realized. Faith in the presence of the Stranger walking beside us assures us that he is truly risen and that, sooner or later, with our participation, the final resurrection of all humanity will take place.
Let us celebrate this faith in the Eucharist, which we are now about to continue.
Armand Veilleux