The past two days, we’ve heard about people who wanted to be closer to Jesus. Father Francis talked yesterday about how the one thing that seemed to be in their way was the crowd. That’s important because Jesus also said yesterday in Revelation that He wasn’t looking for lukewarm people. He said: “I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” That should make us sit up and pay attention.
Jesus isn’t looking for people who are merely a “good person.” He’s looking for people whose soul is on fire for Him. The crowd wants us to be lukewarm Christians. The world around us doesn’t fancy a Catholic who stands out. They want a Catholic that looks like one of them. A Catholic whose beliefs mirror those around them and make them comfortable. We see that with the current climate in which a person whose faith is in line with Church teaching and evident in their life draws ire from the crowd, while another who supports beliefs clearly in opposition to the Church receives accolades and applause.
In case the lukewarm thing wasn’t clear enough, today, Jesus gives us a parable in the Gospel of Luke that makes it even more evident. It says the king’s fellow citizens “despised him.” The crowd doesn’t want Lordship. They don’t want a King. They want to live their lives the way they want to. Just like the citizens who declared, “we don’t want this man to be our king”, they want to be lukewarm. The crowd wants to have sin and heaven too.
Jesus doesn’t mince words at all. He says that when He comes back, the King will say, “Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.” That’s what being cold or lukewarm gives us. Jesus is making sure we know we can’t sit on the fence. We can’t just blend into the crowd and fit in. Our faith should make some noise. It should shout out amid the world, it should climb trees trying to rise above those blocking their view, and it should bow humbly in service before Jesus Christ, the Lord of our lives.
This parable is extremely important to us as we draw close to the end of the Liturgical year. The Feast of Christ the King, the very last day of our Churches year, reminds us that Jesus is coming back. We genuinely believe that. This parable speaks to each one of us right now, in this very moment to ask, because He is coming back in a moment in the Eucharist, right in front of us. So the next time you come to Mass and the Minister elevates Him before you, realize Jesus is asking you to be on fire for Him. Our Amen should be an answer to that call, a declaration that we want to be on fire, and prayer asking Him to help us burn with love for Him and each other.
A homily for Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time: November 18th, 2020