22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – B
September 1, 2024 8:30 and 11am
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
A Story
So, today is story day.
My homily will be mostly a story that, I think, makes a very good point – the point that Jesus is making in today’s gospel. So, here goes!
Angels of the Sabbath -1
In a small village, three friends — a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian — were farmers, and they farmed adjoining plots of land.
The Muslim observed Friday as the Sabbath, the Jew observed Saturday, and the Christian observed Sunday.
One Friday in the fall of the year, the Jew and the Christian finished plowing their fields just before noon. As he sat eating his lunch, the Christian noticed that the field of his Muslim friend was not yet ploughed.
He thought: “If he doesn’t plough today, it may rain tomorrow, and he won’t be able to finish his fall planting.” So, the Christian ploughed a section of his Muslim friend’s field to help him out.
In his adjoining field, his Jewish neighbor had the same thought. So, he also began plowing the Muslim’s field.
Without consulting each other, the two completed their neighbor’s plowing. The next day, Saturday, when the Muslim discovered that his field had been ploughed, he offered a joyful prayer of thanks: “Surely, God has sent his angels to plow my field while I observed his day of rest.”
Angels of the Sabbath - 2
Well, when the harvest season arrived, the fields of the three friends were flourishing.
One Sunday, the Muslim and the Jew were harvesting their crop. The Jew noticed his Christian brother’s corn was ready to harvest.
He thought: “If he doesn’t harvest today, he could lose his crop.” So, the Jew picked his Christian friend’s corn until it grew dark.
Unknown to him, his Muslim neighbor realized the same thing. Between them, they harvested all of their friend’s corn.
On Monday, the Christian came out to his field and saw that his crop had been harvested. He thought: “It’s a miracle; while I rested, God’s angels harvested.”
Angels of the Sabbath -3
Well, when the threshing season came, the Muslim and Christian were working on a Saturday while their Jewish friend was keeping the Sabbath.
As they finished threshing their own grain, the Muslin looked at the field of his Jewish friend. He thought: “If my Jewish neighbor doesn’t gather his grain today, the coming rain will wash it away.”
So, that afternoon, the Muslim threshed part of his Jewish friend’s crop. And, unknown to him, his Christian neighbor decided to do the same thing.
Separately, the two men threshed, bound and covered their Jewish neighbor’s entire crop. When the Sabbath was over, the Jewish farmer discovered that his grain had been threshed.
He lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed. “Blessed be the Lord of the universe for sending your angels while I kept your Sabbath.”
The Lesson
So, the lesson or take-away from the story is this.
Every religion has its own practices and rituals, its own prayers and symbols. But the value of all of these is not the acts themselves but their effectiveness.
Are they pointing to something greater than us? Are they pointing to the holiness of God within us and the love of God in our midst?
In our practices and rituals, in our prayers and symbols, God calls us to be “angels” of generosity and peace. In the story, the three farmers observed the sabbath on different days.
But that Sabbath observance still brought them together as a community of generosity and peace. So, may we embrace the practices and rituals, the prayers and symbols of our faith for what they are meant to be.
May we embrace them as powerful ways for doing what we can to create the Kingdom of God in our midst. That is Jesus’ lesson in today’s gospel when he teaches that it is not just externals that matter, but what comes out of our inner selves as a result of those externals.
________________
[The story is adapted from Stories for the Journey by William R. White.]
