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Two-Minute Homily by Fr Peter Dillon for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023.
“It might be challenging to look at new ways living our faith, but if we don’t open ourselves to these challenges how we can expect God to speak to us in this ever changing world.”

• Two-Minute Homily Transcript

  Two-Minute Homily Transcript

  Author: Archdiocese of Brisbane

  One of the sad things I hear from time to time is the way that some married couples refer to each other in unflattering terms. “Better get home to the trouble and strife”, he says. Or she might say, “he wouldn’t work in an iron lung”. Now, some of it might be spoken in jest but
  it might also be hiding some element of truth.

  We all get into patterns and scripts we speak about people that we are familiar with. Even people we profess to love. And eventually that sort of mud sticks and it gets more and more difficult to rekindle the deep feelings that drew them together in the first place. The relationships that began with such joy and promise begin to lose their flavour and lustre. In other words, their salt and their light.

  Happens also for priests who may find themselves doing the same thing, the same way for many years only to realise that they are stuck in a rut that seems too deep to get out of. Equally with our faith life, we can allow it to drain of vision and hope. It’s a case of familiarity not so much breeding contempt, as lethargy. The minute we start to say, “this will do” is the time that colour starts to fade.

  We might have been saying the same prayers for years or tuning out at certain parts of Mass while we sit in the same seats because it is all too much trouble to change. What we do is we settle for ‘okay’ rather than ‘the best’. Our faith then starts to become bland and so what can make it “salty again?”

  It might be challenging to look at new ways living our faith, but if we don’t open ourselves to these challenges how we can expect God to speak to us in this ever changing world. All of us need to look and listen for new ways of being faithful people. Taking on new actions and attitudes that will keep us alert to God’s voice. If a married couple or priest thinks that this is the best it will ever be, then surely the interest and energy will eventually fade away.

  So it’s not simply about change for change sake, but for life’s sake. The life of our relationships, the life of our faith. A life full of flavour and light. A faith alive.