"YOU HAVE EATEN BUT NOT BEEN SATISFIED."

Homily for Sept. 24^th, 2013: Haggai 1:1-8.

          “The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord,” the people of God tell the prophet Haggai in our first reading. It’s the oldest excuse in the book for failing to do something we know we ought to do. ‘Postpone it,’ we say, ‘the time is not ripe.’ The excuse is so old, in fact, that we have a name for it: procrastination.

          God’s people have come back to Jerusalem from decades of exile and oppression in Babylon. The Temple, the dwelling place of God on earth which was destroyed long ago by their enemies, is still in ruins. But the people are doing just fine, thank you, living high off the hog in their rebuilt paneled McMansions.

          Haggai challenges his people. Are you really happy? “You have sown much, but have brought in little. You have eaten, but have not been satisfied. You have drunk, but not been exhilarated [he’s talking about drinking wine]. You have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed. And whoever earned wages, earned them for a bag with holes in it.”

          What’s the reason for all this frustration? The people have looked after themselves. But they have neglected the Lord God. The first thing we owe Him is worship. That’s why the Church asks us to come to Mass on the Lord’s day. ‘But I don’t get anything out of it,’ many say; or 'Mass is boring.’ The proper answer to such complaints is: “So what?” We don’t come for moral uplift, for a nice warm feeling inside, to be entertained by lively music or a sparkling homily, or to rejoice in human togetherness. Those things may happen, or they may not. But they are not the reason why we come. We come to worship! To praise and thank God who gives us all that we have, and all that we are – sin excepted: our sins are all our own. We come, in short, not to get, but to give.

          And all experience teaches that those who get most are those who give most generously, never thinking of themselves, but only of the Lord God, who gives us always so much more than we deserve.