HOMILY, TUESDAY 19TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
ST CLARE, MEMORIAL
“Clare was born in Assisi in 1193. At the age of 18 she ran away from home in order to join Saint Francis and his followers. She founded the Poor Clares and led a life of remarkable discipline, holiness, prayer and poverty. She was canonized in 1255, only two years after her death.” [Ref. Daily Missal].
Ezekiel 2:8-3:4, Matthew 18:1-5.10.12-14
Bonafide members of the kingdom of God do not seek after position, but humbly seek for every opportunity to serve either as a leader or as a follower. We must not be in a leadership position before we render service to the society. Though some people may use their service to the society as a bait to get a leadership seat, a true leader is he who sees service as part of his or her normal life. A true servant should possess childlike qualities.
The Lord said in today’s gospel, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”Matthew 18:3
Like children who depend on their parents for sustenance, we must depend on God as the centre of our life. We must trust in God’s absolute power to direct the affairs of our life. Our joy should not be in the pride of our positions in the church or in the society.
St Clare left her family to be at the service of the poor. Her trust in God’s providence made her embraced voluntary poverty for the sake of others.
If our life is full of the desires for human prestige, we will lack the humility of those who come to the rescue of the most abandoned people in the society; people who have no one to care for them. We need humility to serve.
PRAYER
O God, whom your mercy led Saint Clare to a love of poverty, grant, through her intercession, that following Christ in poverty of spirit, we may merit to contemplate you one day in the heavenly kingdom. Though our Lord Jesus Christ your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
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