Much More!

A Homily for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025

We have not been entrusted with much. We have been entrusted with more! Therefore, more is required of us. But what exactly is this more?

Jesus, in our gospel today, speaks of an “inexhaustible treasure” that we each possess. He further tells us that no one, absolutely no one, can steal that treasure from us or destroy it. It is where the heart of who we are resides.

And we hear in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom: “For in secret the holy children of the good were offering sacrifice and putting into effect with one accord the divine institution.”

So, what is this more that is entrusted to us?

What is this inexhaustible treasure at the heart of who we are?

What is the divine institution we are called to put into effect?

I suggest it is all one thing: Human Dignity!

Human Dignity is Divinely instituted.

Human Dignity is that for which the holy children of the good are willing to sacrifice.

Human Dignity is the inexhaustible treasure where our hearts reside.

Human Dignity is the more we have been given and the more that is required of us.

There is a wonderful quote that is often attributed to Teilhard de Chardin, but I have yet to find it among his writings. It goes:

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.” Because, by the Incarnation of God in Christ, it is when we become fully human that we become fully divine.

So, we hear in St. Paul’s great Kenosis Hymn from Philippians, that Christ descended and was found human. God was found human so somehow it is in the human that we must find God. We need now more than ever to be found human and to find the humanity in all our brothers and sisters so Divinity might also shine through. This is the more entrusted to us. It is the inexhaustible treasure where our hearts reside. It is a divinely instituted gift. And it is that for which we, as “the holy children of the good,” must be willing to sacrifice.

As one scripture scholar has it, in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is repeatedly making the same point: Christians are called to guard, defend, protect, and treasure human dignity, but not by taking up the weapons of the world: Domination or Submission, Fight or Flight, Success or Failure. But instead we are called to be creative in the ways we seek to protect the treasure entrusted to us, the more, our own human dignity and that of our brothers and sisters. And we must remember the dignity of one does not exist without the other!

Our call is not to spiritualize away the current chaos of our world, but rather to humanize it. Because by behaving in ways that humanize we then release the power of the Spirit to act in our world. In the truly human the Spirit is set free!

Again, so much seems to be falling apart all around us. Hate seems to have the upper hand. Disdain for the vulnerable, marginalized, and weak is back in vogue. Structures we’ve depended on seem to be tottering on collapse. People are calling darkness light and lies truth. If you are like me you may feel utterly helpless! But, here’s the really good news: We are not helpless!

As the song goes: “We hold a treasure not made of gold in earthen vessels wealth untold.” We are called to be the guardians and protectors of that treasure… the divinely instituted human dignity that resides in the earthen-vessel-heart of who I am, of who you are and of who all our brothers and sisters are as well.

In any way, small or large, we can intentionally act to protect basic human dignity we can push back against what feels at times like a tidal wave of destruction, fear, and hate.

This is the more we have been entrusted with and the more at the heart of who we are; the more that is required of us. In the midst of the world’s difficulties it may not seem like much but it actually is much more!