19th Sunday Ordinary Time
Fr. Mark Gatto
Preached: August 11, 2024
Who influences you? Who do you follow? Who is a model that you follow for living your life? It is interesting to watch little children, they automatically behave as they see. They see their parents acting in a certain way, reacting in a certain way, and they just follow that.
In our social media world, we now have Influencers in various fields. Their goal is to get as many followers as possible. Why do people so easily follow an influencer? Who should we follow?
In England, there have been several evenings of violent protests following a stabbing death of 3 girls by a 17 year old. Some social media sites and some influencers spread false information saying this young man was an immigrant or even an illegal immigrant or that he was a Muslim. None of this was true. He was born in England and was not Muslim. But far right protestors were influenced to attack and threaten immigrants and refugees and people they assumed to be from elsewhere.
Who we follow matters. In our social media society, it is so important that we reflect carefully on who we are following. St. Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians tells us to “be imitators of God.” To be as beloved children of God. Are we sure that it is truly God who is influencing our behaviour, our way of life?
St. Paul also tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we are full of bitterness, wrath, anger, slander and malice. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we are causing divisions in the world, in our families, in the church.
To be imitators of God we need to follow Jesus. Jesus should be our influencer. Jesus should be the model we follow in our lives. Like little children we need to watch Jesus and follow his lead. How do we watch and follow Jesus? Jesus is the bread of life. We celebrate this Eucharist and receive Jesus in order to find strength to follow in his way. We listen to the Gospels and read the Gospels, watching how Jesus lives and acts in order to follow him and imitate him in our lives.
In our world today, the church has a crucial mission to be an instrument of unity and peace. This requires us to follow the lead of Jesus and not be influenced by those who want to create divisions and hatred among people.
When we are imitators of God, how will we act? St. Paul in that same letter to the Ephesians says, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,…”
Who are the influencers in your life? We need to have Jesus as our influencer. We are to follow Jesus in order to imitate God as little children. Reflect on who are the influencers in your life. We all need to watch Jesus, to follow Jesus in our lives. When we follow Jesus, the bread of life, we will be instruments of unity and peace rather than bitterness and division.
