St. Dominic Catholic Church

Homilies

You Are Mine and I Am Yours 2021-10-3 Fr. Roberto

 

 

Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B 
Fr. Roberto Corral, OP
St. Dominic Church, Los Angeles, CA
October 3, 2021

Title: You Are Mine and I Am Yours
Theme: God continually chooses us and surrenders to us, and he wants us to choose him and to surrender to him. 
Readings: Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12

When I was a young man in college, I dreamed about getting married someday, and I believed that God had created one person that would be perfect for me, and that I was destined to marry. My soulmate was out there somewhere, and my job was to find her. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? Prince Charming, destined to find his one and only princess. Fortunately, I no longer believe it because a number of years ago, I heard a great talk that helped me to see things differently, much more realistically, and that simply made more sense to me. 

What I have come to understand and believe is that there is not just one perfect person or soulmate that God made for each of us; rather, there are any number of people we could choose to be together with and be happy with for the rest of our lives. But, the catch is, when we do commit ourselves to a person for the rest of our lives, we are saying to ourselves and to that person, “Out of all those other possible relationships with people I could be happy with, no matter who pops into my life in the future, I choose you above all the others, and I give myself to you and to no one else. You are mine, and I am yours, now and forever.” 

Do you understand the difference between this and thinking there is only one soulmate for you in the whole world? To me, this is not just more realistic, it is also ultimately more romantic because it means that it is not only God or fate or luck that is responsible for your happiness and for your staying faithful; it is up to you to choose your mate and to give yourself to him or her, not just once, but over and over again. This means you have to choose and give yourself, even when you don’t feel like it, and even when they don’t deserve it. That is because, in its essence, true love is not simply a romantic feeling; true love is a choice; it is a decision, and it is also a surrender, a giving of self over and over.

This is the love our first reading and our Gospel speak of today when they say, “the two of them shall become one flesh.” This is what the Bible calls “covenant love.” And, this covenant love has two very important aspects to it. First, it involves choosing: “I choose you; you are mine,” 
not in a possessive way, but in a way that says “you are the one for me.”And second, covenant love involves surrender: “I give myself to you; I am yours.” Both of those aspects are essential and continually needed – choice and surrender – otherwise, it is not covenant love, it is not true love.

Now, the thing is, this covenant love is the love God calls us to have for everyone, not just our spouses or partners, but also our parents and children, our family and friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies. And that is because God wants all the loves of our lives to be based on and to reflect the foundational covenant love he has for all people. God loves all people, but he especially offers his covenant love to us who are baptized as Christians, because at our baptism, God says to each one of us: “I choose you; you are mine.” And, at that moment, he gives us our deepest and truest identity that no one can take from us; we cannot even take it from ourselves. He says to each of us at our baptism: “you are my beloved child now and forever.” 
And then, with incredible humility, God also says to us at that moment: “And I am yours; I give myself to you, now and forever.” In this way, God models for us, from the very beginning of our Christian life, the covenant love he calls us to: a love of continual choice and continual surrender – “you are mine, and I am yours.” 

And the fullest and most powerful expression of God’s covenant love for us is the cross (point to crucifix). My brothers and sisters, that is God, that is Jesus, saying to you and to me, again and again, “I choose you. I surrender myself to you. I do this for you. You are mine, and I am yours.” This theme of covenant love, a love of mutual choosing and mutual surrender, and the image of Jesus on the cross are great ways to summarize and complete the four weeks of this preaching series, “Surrender to Win.” In the first week, we began with the theme of “Everything Belongs” where we were challenged to accept that everything that happens in our lives – the good and the bad – is God’s will for us. But more than simply accepting everything, Jesus on the cross shows us that we are also challenged to choose God and surrender to him precisely during those times when we are on our cross, when we are suffering, and say to God, 
“Lord, even in this difficult moment, you are mine, and I am yours.”

In the second week, our theme was the true greatness that comes from surrendering to Jesus by dying to our ego, our false self, and choosing our true self that is God’s life within us. 
In other words, we are challenged to surrender our false self to Jesus and let him take it to the cross, nail it there and vanquish it so that he can give back to us our true selves, who we truly are in him. Last week was about letting go and letting God. Again, God’s covenant love and Jesus on the cross call us to choose to hold on to God more than anyone or anything, and to surrender, to let go of even good things that we can cling to and make too important in our lives. 

So, here we are today, and I am saying that God’s covenant love has to be the foundation of our lives if we want to win at life and find the peace, freedom and happiness. As I mentioned when I began this preaching series, it is based on a book that changed my life a few years ago. 
The title of the book is, “Into Your Hands, Father – Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us.” That book helped me to work through a difficult time in my life by abandoning myself, by surrendering to God more fully and trusting more deeply in his covenant love for me. 
And it has made a tremendous difference in my life. 

This is the same covenant love God offers to each one of us by choosing us and by surrendering to us again and again, in spite of our weaknesses, mistakes and sinfulness. At every moment of our lives and in every situation we experience, God says to each one of us, “You are mine, and I am yours, now and forever.” So, my brothers and sisters, surrender to this covenant love, surrender to God, surrender to win.

I would like to finish this homily and this preaching series by giving you a chance to choose God and to surrender to him today, once again, or for the first time. 

So, for those of you who wish to do so, I invite you to repeat the following prayer after me. 
It is the Prayer of Abandonment written by soon-to-be Saint Charles de Foucauld that has been on your homily reflection guides each week of this series. If you would like to do this, I invite you to stand if you can, whether you are here in church or online, and repeat the prayer after me. You may close your eyes and open your hands palms up as a sign of surrender if you wish:

Father, I abandon myself into your hands // do with me what you will. 
Whatever you may do, I thank you: //I am ready for all, // I accept all.
 Let only your will be done in me, //and in all your creatures //
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
 Into your hands I commend my soul: // I offer it to you // with all the love of my heart,// 
for I love you, Lord, // and I need to give myself, //
to surrender myself into your hands // without reserve, //
and with boundless confidence, // for you are my Father. // Amen.