August 4, 2002

Father Owen's Homilies

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Aug. 4, 2002

My usual starting point for homilizing is with the first and the third readings. But this week the second reading, Paul to the Romans, seemed to attract me. Why is that?

I think it was because of an email I received from our Fr. Dan McCarthy who is in Rome studying Liturgy. He sent me an attachment of a picture of the church of St. Prisca. That church is across the street from a monastery where he is staying. Prisca is mentioned in the Book of Acts as an early Roman follower of Jesus. The early Christians offered Mass in her house, after work and during the evening meal. Those early days of the church really appeal to me. Paul’s Letter to the Romans came out of that atmosphere.

Why the appeal? I think because the Apostolic Age was kind of “free wheeling.” There were few guidelines, no New Testament, almost no Church organization. No red tape. The church was small but growing. There was a spirit of daring and simplicity. Best of all, the memory of Jesus was alive and well because many the preachers knew Jesus personally. They, too, had been converted. They were touched by the Love of God in Christ Jesus. They preached it. They knew that nothing would separate them from that love.

Listen again to the words of Paul. (Read Romans 8, 35-39). Paul is carried away with his love for Jesus who saved him! What is different between then and now? I think that was to have become satisfied with an intellectual appreciation of salvation. Perhaps we do not feel it in our hearts and our guts.