We continue this latest message series that takes a look at our own life story and how it fits in with God’s bigger story of love, mercy and salvation. By the end of this series I hope that we can all take a step back from the busy-ness, chaos and challenges of our lives to see how the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit really guides our lives in the bigger story of God’s love. May we realize that we are part of a much bigger story that brings joy!!
HOMILY #1 REVIEW
(1) The story of our lives is important and meaningful. Our own personal story and journey matters. It matters to ourselves and those whom we love but they are even more important when seen in our faith perspective.
(2) We are not the central characters in our story. God does not work for us to make sure we have a great story. God is the central figure of our story and we are called to help live out that bigger picture of God’s saving work in our daily lives.
(3) We can only understand our lives fully in light of God’s bigger story. We will only find fulfillment, happiness and grace when we realize that our lives are parts of the bigger story of salvation—we play a prominent role in sharing God’s love that should influence the choices we make each day.
HOMILY #1 REMINDER
God accompanies us in our story as part of the bigger story of salvation. He does not remain separate from us but helps us along the journey. God has given us unique gifts through the Holy Spirit that are to be shared so that we can assist, support and encourage others in God’s story of love. We bring people closer to Christ and one another.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME
In this second homily of the series, the readings remind us that we are called, anointed and empowered to help make the story of God’s love real, tangible and transforming. God invites each of us to make His story our own—conversion is really allowing our story to flow into God’s and embracing the mission of grace in our daily lives. Again, we can only understand our lives and our story when we see the bigger story of God’s love and how we become key figures in His journey of salvation.
We see this quite clearly in the first reading from this weekend’s Mass from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah when we read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
Isaiah is a prophet of hope bringing light to the people of Israel but he is also speaking about the Messiah to come—Jesus. I think Isaiah is also speaking about each of us, who are called, anointed and empowered through our baptism to share the Good News and live the new story of eternal life.
WE ARE ONE BODY—LIVING ONE STORY
In the second reading this weekend, from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, we hear him say, “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.” This connects with last weekend’s reading where St. Paul mentions that we all have different gifts to share.
We are all members of the one body of Christ—part of the one story of salvation with unique and necessary gifts and stories that must be lived out in faith to bring light and joy drawing those around us to Jesus.
ONE TEAM—ONE ORCHESTRA
To live our lives to the fullest being part of God’s story of love means that we need to see ourselves as members of a team. We each have our positions to play, our responsibilities and duties based on our talents and abilities to be the very best we can be together. This means we have to work hard, communicate and allow each team member to do their job so that we can win. We need to accept our roles and give our best effort not for personal gain but for the greater good of the team.
Another way to look at it is musically. It is amazing to hear a wonderful orchestra play together. Each musician plays their own instrument not for themselves but so that together, people may enjoy a wonderful song. Each musician and instrument is needed to make the song what it is.
THE SPIRIT GUIDES THE STORY
How do we stay on track making sure that we always seek to be part of the bigger story of salvation? The Holy Spirit is given to us as a voice of grace, guidance, encouragement and healing. Come Holy Spirit!!
