Father Rick Bolte's Homily

B:18th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Paul tells us in the Letter to the Ephesians, “You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires.”  We are all born with and live with desires that are unfulfilled.  No one is completely satisfied with their life.  This is because we are limited beings who are created in the image and likeness of God.  We long for what is eternal.  Our satisfaction will only come when we can fully embrace God.

God is present and reflected in all creation.  Thus many things God created are attractive to us.  Sin is seldom about our overtly choosing evil though it may look that way from the outside.  We usually choose something that looks or feels good to us.  The problem is that we deceive ourselves about what is truly good.  Whether it is drugs, alcohol, sports, sex, work, or whatever, we choose what makes us feel good at the moment and makes tensions in life seem to disappear for the moment.  Others may see what we do as good or bad, but we usually deceive ourselves into thinking it is good or thinking others don’t notice.  With reflection we could see that what we do doesn’t help but generally makes things worse.  Sin is when we continue to allow ourselves to be deceived by these habits.

But change is difficult.  The Israelites complaining in our first reading from Exodus was used often by the Jews as a symbol of the tendency we have to backtrack in our efforts to change.  Like the Israelites in the desert, when we are trying to change to get closer to our “Promised Land,” we are strongly tempted to give us and go back to our old ways.  As they speak the unthinkable and actually say things were better as slaves in Egypt, we too may begin to think our old habits were better than the struggle to change.  To change and grow in the Lord means leaving behind our old ways and be open to new and better.  It leaves us in the desert where life’s tensions and emptiness feel strong and almost overwhelming.  Egypt is tempting. 

God gave the Israelites manna in the desert.  It wasn’t everything they wanted.  They were at the mercy of God.  Jesus is the bread of life.  It doesn’t quickly take away life’s tensions and emptiness.  Christ is present in the world through his church – us.  We encourage one another to persevere in our efforts to grow and change.  We witness by our lives that things can be better without giving into our deceptive desires.  We can show mercy, patience, and understanding to each other.  God enables us to be channels of his love and grace. 

Changing and growing are difficult.  We will always be tempted to go back to Egypt, those places where we ignore the reality that our habits that allow us to avoid life’s tensions do not make our lives better.  We can help one another through the desert of change by bringing God’s presence to one another.  In the Eucharist we celebrate that the Bread of Life is in our midst.  We bring the Body of Christ to each other.