Why are You Here?

Homily for the Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
Why are you here? On this glorious day at the beginning of summer, when school is out and the pools are open, why are you here, sitting on a hard pew, listening to some guy talk about a 2000-year-old book? When vacations are calling and relaxing on the front porch with a glass of iced tea sounds so good, why are you here, going through the motions of standing when everyone else stands and sitting when everyone else sits and kneeling when everyone else kneels? Why are you here? Because of an obligation, out of a sense of duty? Or to get uplifted, to try to find some meaning for your life? Or is it something else that draws you to mass every week, or every few weeks, or every once in a while? I imagine many of us would say that we are here because it is part of what it means to be Catholic – to join together each week to celebrate the Eucharist. We come here to listen to the word of God, to join together as a community, and to be nourished by Christ’s Body and Blood. But there is one danger in gathering together in this church, or any church, a danger that can sometimes be reinforced even by the way our building is set up – with straight rows of pews, all facing a central focal point, the altar. The danger is that we can easily become spectators at this celebration instead of participants. We can easily sit back and look at what is going on, without really taking part. Now, true, being here as a spectator is better than not being here at all. But the challenge of today’s gospel is to move from being a spectator to being a participant in the life of Christ.

Jesus gives us two opposing scenarios today: some people listen to his words but then don’t do anything about it. These are the foolish people who build their houses on sand. Others listen to the word of God and act on it – they are wise and build their houses on a solid foundation. Being a Christian comes with a certain level of spiritual maturity – most of us spend part of our lives just getting to know Christ, listening to his words, trying to understand how to become more like him. But, at some point, we have to move beyond just listening – we have to make the spiritual jump from being a spectator to being a participant, from listening to acting. One person says it this way: Christianity is everything you do after you say, “I believe.” To be a true follower of Jesus Christ means that we act on what we believe, we live out the command to love God and our neighbors, we try our best each day to do the will of God.

And that brings us back to the question: why are you here? What is the purpose of coming to mass each week? Based on today’s gospel, I’d suggest that we should be here first of all to listen to the Word of God, but then to ask for the strength and the wisdom to be able to take that Word and put it into action during the coming week. We’re here not just as spectators, but as participants in the life of Christ. And, really, that is what the Eucharist is all about. When we receive Christ’s Body and Blood in Communion, we receive the grace and the wisdom to know how to mold our actions and our lives so that they resemble Christ. We can’t do that on our own – we can’t be good Christians by ourselves – we need the grace of the Eucharist to help us. We are here because we know that we need God’s help and guidance each day of our lives. We leave from here and go into our daily lives, filled with the Christ's help and guidance. And after a week goes by, we realize that we need it again. To try to live like Christ, we need help, we need the weekly grace of the Eucharist, because we can’t do it alone. And that is why we are here.