Ancestral Heritage

Homily, 6-17-24; Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time:

In our first reading, it is tempting to focus on the behavior of the evil king, Ahab, and on his cunning and evil wife, Jezebel. But we can also look at Naboth and the importance he puts on his ancestral heritage.

When my father passed away five years ago, we sold my parents’ home. We had to find homes for many of their belongings. Most went to charities, but we each claimed a few items that were special to us or that we needed. One of my brothers took my dad’s table saw because he didn’t have one. And I claimed his band saw because I did not have one and none of my siblings had any use for it. Well, recently, my brother purchased a new table saw that better fit his needs and so he asked if any of the siblings would like dad’s old one. I hesitated because I didn’t have a great need—it was bigger than my portable one, but did I really need a bigger one. Last Wednesday my brother dropped it off in my pole barn because I decided I needed to hold onto something that was important to my father. It was part of my ancestral heritage. Like Naboth, I couldn’t let it go.

But more important than a vineyard or a table saw is the ancestral heritage of our faith. As Christians we have our ancestral heritage that goes back through our Jewish roots all the way back to father Abraham. As Catholics we also have our ancestral heritage that come from the apostles, from our early Church fathers, from the saints and martyrs, from a succession of popes, and from many councils with participation from the bishops, the successors of the apostles. This heritage is, or should be, precious to us, something that we should never consider walking away from or selling out. When people walk away from the Church because they do not see value in this ancestral heritage and instead choose things like money or convenience, it is a great loss.

Let us thank God for the gift of all those who have come before us to bring us the faith today. And let us make sure we do our part, to continue the ancestral heritage, by sharing the faith, especially with the next generation so that they do not sell out to the temptations of the world.

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