IMITATE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Imitate.”

That’s a message from Paul.

Right here in Ephesians 5: 1, he tells us to imitate God.

Question: how does one imitate God?

In 1^st Corinthians 11: 1, Paul tells the folks there to take him as a model. “Imitate me - as I imitate Christ.” 

That’s a bit clearer.

In 2 Thessalonians 3: 7 he’ says, “Imitate us.” He spells out what to imitate in the us. It’s,  “Work.”  It’s,  “Don’t freeload.” He says, “When we ate with you, we paid for our food. We hope you noticed that. We weren’t idle. We worked.”  I was taught to notice comments like that. Evidently, some people must have that as a complaint against traveling preachers.

In Galatians 2: 20, Paul tells us that “the life of Christ is in me and I am being crucified with Christ.”  Down through the centuries Christians have looked to the cross when they were carrying a cross.

So a message for today: reflect on the theme of imitation.

MIMIC

The word used for imitation in our Greek text is “mimeomai”.

We know the sound of that word - as in mimic - or imitation - or mimeograph. 

So it means to copy.

We’re born to mimic.

Yesterday I had four baptisms - and one little girl, “Elizabeth Ann” had this great smile - the whole time. When I saw that, I turned to see her mom’s face. She, her husband, the whole family were giving this baby their smiles or were they imitating Elizabeth Ann  and she was imitating them.

Education is all about being a mimic for starters.

Just watch kids and you’ll see imitation is the name of the game.

Kids in Chinese speaking homes are not speaking Lithuanian.

Just watch kids. They see their grandfather on a couch reading a book. They grab a book and sit in close to grandpa and start reading - even if their book is upside down.

Little kids imitate their older brothers and sisters.

Artists, actors, athletes, mimic other artists, actors, and athletes.

SO IMITATE GOD - CHRIST - PAUL - THE HOLY ONES

The book of Genesis starts off by telling us we’re made in the image and likeness of God.

How? For starters, be creative.

How? Keep the Sabbath, a day of rest.

But notice in today’s gospel, you can break the Sabbath, like Christ did, when it comes to caring and sharing with each other - even if it’s the Sabbath. The 10 Commandments were written in stone; the love commandments of Jesus were written with flesh and blood lips.

Paul tells us to imitate Christ. How? By going around and building up the body of Christ.

How? By handing over ourselves as a sacrifice for others and we’ll become a fragrant aroma. Nice.

How? By not being sinful or obscene or greedy or arguing or being in the dark?

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Imitate!”

Reflect upon the power of imitation.

Life imitates life all day long.

Look how the evening news programs are set up - one imitates the other - desk - words - what they cover.

Watch the TV commercials - for insurance, for cars, for medicines - they follow suit.

Now many CSI programs are there now?

The Catholic church has known this forever in giving us saints to imitate.

However if you want to sell your house, don’t bury yourself upside down in your backyard.