Who do people say that I am?

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday, August 24 2008
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

Who do people say that I am? As humans where do we find our identity and meaning?

In today’s first reading a man lost his job. I think all of us can relate to this experience or at least to the anxiety over the possibility of loosing a job.

When we are young a job is often just a means to an end, it is the way you get spending money, however as time goes on it becomes: the way you feed your family, a source of your identity, an affirmation of your human dignity, and it can often seem like it becomes a part of your essence, of the very fabric of who you are. And while younger people may not define themselves by a job—they too often do find an identity in what they do hobbies, sports, and social clicks. How often when we first meet someone do we define ourself by our occupation or interests?

The problem with this, as we see in the first reading and as we know from life is that things change. All you have to do is drive by the numerous abandoned mills here in NB to learn the truth that things fall apart and almost nothing lasts forever. Whether it’s a job, a hobby, or a sport, all these things can and most likely will someday be taken away from us and given to another.

Even if you seem to have job security TODAY, if your identity and meaning comes from what you do what happens when you get sick one day? What happens when the economic situation change? Or best case scenario, what happens when one day you will retire?

Then what? What happens to your identity when your job or hobby is over, or taken away from you and when you are force just to be, who you are?

Where do we get our dignity when we seem not to be needed any more?

This is a HUGE problem in our culture today, which so often gauges people’s worth materially by their quality of life or by their potential productivity and not based on the intrinsic value of each and every life.

In contrast to this materialistic value system Jesus reveals today the Gospel value system the good news, which we repeated in the psalm: that our God’s love is eternal and that he does not forsake the work of his hands.

We are the work of His hands and as St. Paul writes: from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. Our God reveals today that our value comes not from what we can do, from how smart we are, from how pretty, agile, strong or brave we are, but from the fact that we come from God that through God’s powerful love for us we exist and that we exist for God: that God has a plan for each of us.

Our dignity, value, and in truth happiness does not come from anything passing, from anything that can be taken away from us but from our identity and role in the plan of God, which can never be taken away from us?

So what is this plan?

In the book of Genesis we read that: God created Man and Woman, in the image and likeness of God He created them, and He declared that they were very good. Fundamental to God’s plan for all of us is being in his image and likeness, becoming like unto God. This means being holy as our heavenly Father is Holy. This means loving with our whole heart, the way God loves, loving not just in word but in deed by being in loving relationships with one another and with our God. These lifelong relationships—are fundamental to our identity—they are our true calling in life—our vocation.

Today I am here to tell you that our God has a plan for each of us! Young and old, strong and weak, it doesn’t matter. God is calling! This calling or vocation, comes from God and unlike jobs, vocations last forever.

They give us dignity, meaning, and happiness because they come from the same God who made us and knows us better than we know ourselves.

As we see in the question Jesus raises to the Apostles, Who do people say that I am? None of us are defined by what other people say about us by what we do, or who we associate with. Rather we are defined by, and our identity comes from who God made us to be.

In the case of Jesus, as St. Peter states, You are the Christ, the son of the living God. In life and in death from the first moments of his conception in the womb of Mary, this was who Jesus was made to be, and who he always will be. And as Jesus himself notes, this vocation, this calling did not come from Peter but rather from God Himself!

As Peter reveals Jesus’ identity, Jesus in turn reveals Peter’s vocation: you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church. Jesus calls Peter a rock—not because of what he would do but because this is the relationship Peter would have with the church God would build up the Church, using Peter as a foundation. Likewise, God has a plan for each of us, that is based not on what we can or might do, but on who we are!

So who are we? For all of us our vocations start with being sons and daughters not only to earthly parents but also of our heavenly Father. This vocation starts at our conception in our mother’s womb however while we all are sons in the Son, in Jesus we are all also called to be images of the Father—of divine parenthood.

Thus some are called to by holy by being natural parents, by being open to life and raising children for the Lord. In this way they become a symbol and icon of the love that God the Father has for us, his children. But parenthood is not just limited to those who are biologically parents rather many others demonstrate the love of God in single lives.

Some are called to spiritual fatherhood and motherhood Living as virgins and yet truly becoming parents to others by their loving concern for them—today we see this in the lives of so many religious.

Finally, a few men might be called like Peter to be rocks for the Church, to be the tools by which Christ builds up, teaches, and sanctifies His Church.

One thing that must be clearly seen is that vocations are not jobs, while they can be cast aside, because they are integral to who we are they can never be lost!

A mother, father, nun, monk, or priests remains what they are even if they abandon their children and forsake the title. And their children owe them respect and obedience even when they become old and needy of care themselves.

This is true because parenthood is a gift of self—a donation of your life to another that never ends—and thus can never be negated.

How God’s plan for each vocation will play out remains a mystery to us always. Truly God gives us the gift of our life and vocation, wrapped in the fabric of time as a mystery and a surprise both to our self and to the world. God’s plan for us does not determine what we do with our life As if we were some sort of pre-programmed machine but rather giving us direction, in freedom, He sets us free. His plan shows us in general terms—how he wants us to live. So that the genius of our free will has direction.

In my own life, I thought for so long that I would follow God’s plan as a married man; I wanted to find a wife, and to raise a family. So when I began to listen to His plan I was shocked to discover this vocation to the priesthood and to the celibate life it entails. I soon found out that when you follow God’s will your confirmation that you are doing what He wants comes quickly—in the form of a peace and joy that is unimaginable, that can only come from doing God’s will.

While I am not a parent in the natural sense as a priest I have been invited to be a part of so many families and to be a father to them—representing the Father and the Son.

Today I am here, a newly ordained priest, just two months ordained to tell you the Good News: God has a plan for your life and to invite each of you to consider it carefully.

Because following His plan is the only way to become who we were made to be the only way to find meaning in our life, and the only path to true happiness.

What we risk if we don’t listen to the voice of God is not the loss of a job, but the loss of the gift of ourselves to the world.

So as we God to the Altar today, ask God for the strength needed to listen for his call and act upon it and ask him for the grace needed to help others to listen.