Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings for today’s Mass are some of the most important of our tradition; they are passages that encapsulate much of what we believe and strive to live out as Christians. And one theme throughout these readings is that we are heirs. In this day and age, the image of inheritance is not as poignant as it was in years past. We are so used to our individualism and financial independence that we might find it difficult to imagine how much people’s lives in the past were driven by their inheritance or lack thereof. Those who came from wealthy, landed families, were assured of a continued standard of living, including prominence and stability. Those without inheritance were lost, left to fend for themselves in a world that gave them no regard. Theirs was a life of endless toil with little reward.
This image of inheritance is applied in our tradition by identifying God, the creator of the world, as also the Father of Adam and Eve, who were created in God’s image. Through their sin, however, they cut themselves off from the divine inheritance that was to be theirs. These ancestors of ours ought to have had an intimate relationship with their Father, one that was honest, open, loving – a continual exchange of love. Everything they thought, said, or did would have been in the form of a prayer. But by choosing to sin against God, they changed everything.
God might have left us in this situation: cut off from our original inheritance and left in a state of chaos and confusion. Instead, however, God loved us so much that he sent his only Son Jesus, that we might be redeemed and once again be brought into the promise of inheritance. In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are brought from that meaningless life of endless toil with little reward to the stability of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have been saved from being nobodies by becoming, instead, children of God and brothers of Jesus Christ.
This is an amazing transformation, as indicated by our readings today. The first, from Zechariah in the Old Testament, is interpreted Christologically by our tradition; “the one whom they have pierced,” we understand as Jesus (Zec 12:10). And though we mourn his death and the injustice that brought Christ to the cross, nonetheless we benefit and are purified through his suffering and death; we are washed clean in the blood of the Christ. In the sacrament of baptism, we are brought into Christ’s death that we might rise with him to new life; we put on Christ and begin life anew, as Paul explains in his letter to the Galatians featured today. We belong to Christ. Again, we see the theme of inheritance, of belonging. We are made heirs; we are not nameless nobodies but rather Christians, called by the name of Christ and living in the spirit of his life.
To be such an heir is a tremendous gift. God not only created us, but he redeemed us. He gave us a second chance to share in his divine life, to be a part of that continual love exchanged among Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But like all such gifts of inheritance, this one comes with responsibility and duty. We cannot sit idly by and watch our inheritance dwindle, nor can we spend it lavishly and unthinkingly on the things of this world. Instead, we are called continually to reinvest in this Kingdom, this inheritance, by dedicating our lives to furthering it. We say, “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and indeed, we should want to share the blessing of our inheritance with the whole world. In order to do so, we will have to follow the example of our divine and yet human brother, Jesus. We must take up our crosses daily and follow Him, spreading the gospel by living lives of love despite the afflictions and discomforts we encounter. We can witness to Christ, we can show ourselves as heirs of God’s kingdom, simply by living our lives well, joyfully and patiently, growing in holiness at every opportunity.
- Maria Morrow