A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 

VS. THE CLING OF SIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “A Cloud of Witnesses VS.  The Cling of Sin.”

In today’s first reading from Hebrews we have a very interesting first sentence. It has this curious comment: “and sin that clings to us”.

I’ve preached on these readings for some 46 years now - so I want to be enriched by something that grabs or challenges me - that didn’t hit me before. That first sentence - rather long - is  just one verse: Hebrews - 12: 1. It grabbed me. Maybe it will grab you.

FIRST SENTENCE AGAIN

Let me read the first sentence again:

Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded

by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden

and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race

that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.

THE RACE

The author of Hebrews pictures life as a race - a run.

The author indicates a positive and then a negative.

A positive: keep your eyes on the great cloud of witnesses - around us - or above us - especially the Lord Jesus Christ.

The runner runs the race remembering that others - saints - good examples - have also run the race - and they made it. So keep moving

How many people have trained and run a 10 K race or a marathon - because someone else did it - and encouraged them to do it. “You can do it.” And as they run, when they run out of gas or have cramps or pains - or are tempted to quit,  hopefully they keep going because others have kept going. Keep picturing that cloud of witnesses.

So we have saints, parents, good people - good examples - who have done it - raised a family - kept the faith - and so we keep going.

For example, today we have the feast of St. Agatha - one of the 4 Early Church women saints we have for the cold months: Cecilia in November, Lucy in December, Agnes in January and Agatha here in February.

The first sentence also presents Jesus as part of the cloud of witnesses. It urges us to keep our eye on Jesus - to fix our eyes on Jesus to keep going like he did -  till we finish the race.

The Stations of the Cross in every Catholic Church are not just scenes from the end of Jesus’ life - but from our life as well - challenging us to make it our last station.

In today’s gospel we have scenes of 2 people who reached out to Jesus in their life. The woman with blood problems reached out to touch Jesus and be healed and helped. She is. And we have Jairus who comes to Jesus that he come and heal his daughter. Jesus does.

So the message is to keep our eye on Jesus and those other folks who have run this race before us. Those are the positive pushes for us to keep running the race.

Then there are the negatives:  the cling of sins that weigh us down -  that hold us back - the giving up - the negative voices - the lack of faith - the non reaching out to Jesus to keep going.

People often say, “I have the same old habits, the same old sins.” Don’t we all? The woman in today’s gospel has her problem for 12 years and in the gospel of John there’s the guy who was sick for 38 years.

CONCLUSION

So we have both those influences - the positive and the negative - the dynamic cloud of witnesses and  the cling of sin.

Message: The bottom line is this: it's in our power and with the grace of God to focus on the positive rather to let that static cling of sin - our past mistakes - or our present addictions to be our main drain.

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Picture on too:  Boston Marathon - found on line