The Heart of the Matter

Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent - 2/26/2012

I’d like to begin this First Sunday of Lent with a very recent quote from Pope Benedict: "One great problem facing the Church today is the lack of knowledge of the faith, 'religious illiteracy.’ With such illiteracy we cannot grow. ... Therefore we must re-appropriate the contents of the faith, not as a packet of dogmas and commandments, but as a unique reality revealed in its all its profoundness and beauty. We must do everything possible for catechetical renewal in order for the faith to be known, God to be known, Christ to be known, the truth to be known, and for unity in the truth to grow."

There are many reasons for this state of widespread religious illiteracy but I am finding more and more young people wanting what they have not yet been given, the truths of our faith. One particular truth young people crave is how to have a clear conscience as described in our 2nd reading, from First Peter.  

We need to know that our conscience is that still, small voice in the back of our minds that enjoins us at the appropriate moment to do good and avoid evil, and judges our particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those what are evil.  We all know that removing dirt from the body cannot compare to having a right relationship with God which produces a clear conscience.

So, let’s look at what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about our conscience. It’s this, that deep within our conscience we discover a law which we do not lay upon ourselves, but is already given within, a law we must obey.  This voice of our conscience is always calling us to do what is good and to avoid evil. This voice sounds within our hearts at just the right moment.  This voice, our conscience, is a law written on our hearts by God.  It is written deep within our most secret core, in, as it were, our sanctuary.  In this internal sanctuary we are alone with God whose voice echoes in the depths of who we are.

If we are prudent and if we are sufficiently spiritually awake we will recognize in this still, small voice the voice of God. Then we will be able to recognize this nudge from God and withstand distractions that can deceive us that we are following our conscience, but in reality we may not be. 

A good conscience, which produces a clear conscience, enables us to assume responsibility for the acts we perform.  So, if we commit evil, the just judgment of our conscience will be an internal witness to the truth of the evil of our particular choice.  If all is spiritually well with us, and we can admit the faults we commit, the good conscience then turns us to the forgiveness that must be asked for, the good that must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with the help of the grace of God.

Another teaching of the Church on conscience is this: Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as to personally make moral decisions.  He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience, especially in religious matters.

In this process of detecting the guidance of our conscience we need to know that we can have “erroneous judgments” of conscience.  If a person takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin, such a person is culpable, or responsible for the evil he commits.

Therefore, we all have a moral duty to be informed and make enlightened moral judgments.  A well formed conscience is upright and truthful.  Since all of us live in a culture that is blind to good and evil, the education of our consciences is even more indispensable. 

The whole enterprise of having a clear conscience is not just a matter of self-esteem.  It is the voice of God, leading us from within to be in an ever deepening relationship with God.  Going against our conscience, and believing our self-deceptions, leads us further and further away from God and His grace.  An early warning system of the potential of losing grace is this: if we dismiss the priority of worshiping God and honoring the 4th commandment, then we are vulnerable to running amok and letting ourselves be led by an erroneous conscience.  On the other hand, living by a well formed conscience is the surest path to being at peace with ourselves and with God.  And don’t forget the role the sacrament of penance has to play in a good conscience.  

 

Homily for Sunday, February 12, 2012

Have you noticed that we Catholics have some things about us that make us different from other people?  This difference comes from the meaning we attach to the things we do.  For instance, for Catholics the meaning of the love between a husband and wife is tantamount to the love of God who alone can create, yet in His love He creates a totally unique, new human being through the love of the husband and wife.  This meaning transforms a bodily function into an act of God.  We therefore consider it very sacred and not to be used in a tawdry way.

The sacraments are other uniquely Catholic interpretations of life: the person who is baptized, confirmed and eucharist-fed is living in an encounter with the Lord Himself.  The one who is sick and given the anointing of the sick encounters the experience of sharing in the sufferings of Christ.  The couple who are married in a sacramental marriage encounter the the Lord in the very relationship they share as husband and wife.  The one who is ordained is an encounter with Christ for all those he serves, especially when he serves the people well.  And the penitent who approaches the sacrament of penance encounters the Lord who sets us free from our sins.

That last sacrament, penance, aka confession or reconciliation, is the one that especially bothers non-Catholics.  They think the Catholic Church dreamt it up.  But they know not its history.  They do not know this about the Old Testament days: that when one had committed an offense against God, that person would have to go to the priest and tell the priest what the offense was.  Then the priest would prescribe what was to be done, like purchase a dove or a lamb and have it sacrificed by the priest so that the unclean person could be in a right relationship with God and with the community of Israel.     

A big problem for people in those days was that any sickness, deformity or disease was seen as a punishment from God for some offense against God.  

To break that concept of God’s doling out punishment to sinners Jesus came into the community and was constantly healing people from all kinds of ailments and sickly conditions.

Yet in today’s Scriptures we see not just Jesus healing, in this case, a leper, but also He reinforces the need for the cleansed man to “go and show [himself] to the priest.” 

What is Jesus teaching us about this need to present oneself to the priest?  We can see from the very early church that there was always a consciousness of the Christian’s need to remain pure, clean, unblemished, holy, and set apart from the ways of non-believers.  If one had committed an act that violated this noble calling, then such a person would confess to the priest or bishop what act was done, and then a penance would be imposed on the penitent as a way of repairing the damage that was done to that person’s relationship with God, but also that person’s relationship with the community that was struggling to live up to the calling given to the baptized.

Jesus could have told the leper, “Your faith has made you well.  Go in peace.”  He didn’t do that.  Why?

Leprosy or any skin condition like impetigo, ring worm, lice, and so many other conditions, were thought to be contagious.  So, the leper would have to live apart from the community until the condition somehow got healed.  When a healing happened, the leper was to go to the priest and show the priest his body.  If there was no more evidence of a skin problem, the leper would have to go through two weeks of purification rites and sacrifices before the community could take him back in and not be afraid of catching what he had.

Over the centuries of the church this same attention to dealing with the contagious element of sin was addressed through the need to “go and show yourself to the priest.”  Go, and fess up to what you have done to diminish the holiness of the community of faith, and diminish the luster of your relationship with God.

So, it is in the wisdom of the church that the Lord continues to give us this sacrament, this doorway into starting anew towards the Kingdom of God.  

If you are not aware already, the Catholic Church throughout the country is setting aside “leap day”, February 29th from 4:30 to 7:00 PM so that in very Catholic Church across the country the confessional light will be on for you, especially for anyone who has been away from the sacraments for a while.  And since Lent begins a week from this Wednesday do consider taking a leap of faith this leap day and “go show yourself to the priest.”  Let’s let God’s grace sweep us up into His great mercy.

 

Homily for Sunday, February 5, 2012

How are we to move among the people of our time?  If we are truly Christians, then we are meant to be salt for the earth, a light that shines, something different than the bumptious ordinariness of being swirled around by the events of our times.  To better understand our role in the world, let’s look at what today’s scriptures say about human existence.

In Job, we see what sadness is for some people who have forgotten what happiness is.  In such a state a person finds life to be a drudgery, with troubled and restless nights, feeling like an overworked slave who wishes simply for a few moments rest in the shade before returning to the drudgery of life. Sometimes so much oppression in life can make a person say with Job, “I shall not see happiness again.”

No wonder our psalm has us singing and calling upon the Lord who heals the broken hearted.

See also the Gospel’s account of the whole town gathering around the door of the house Jesus was in, bringing to the healer all those who were ill or possessed by demons.

Illness is a real downer, so no explanation is needed for those who seek out Jesus to be healed of their various illnesses.  An explanation is needed, however, to understand the 1st century expression of being demon possessed.  

In our society we ascribe the very same human reality not by calling the problem demon possession but rather: a psychological illness.  Which is better: to call a man demon possessed or schizophrenic?  Which is better: to say someone has AD/HD or to say such a person has a spirit that needs to be expelled?  Which is better: to identify persons with the problem they have, or to realize that a people’s problems are not the persons themselves but something that is weighing upon them like a burden that needs to be lifted off of them, or expelled?

So, our society’s tendency to equate the person’s problems with the very being of the person is not really accurate, and not helpful either.

We also do this labeling with illnesses as well, don’t we? I am a diabetic; not I deal with diabetes.  I am obese; not I have a battle with weight control.  And so on.

So, to appreciate Jesus’ expelling demons, we need to move out of our psychological framework and enter into another way of looking at things:  Jesus lifts off of us whatever weighs us down.  Jesus sets us free from whatever imprisons us.  Jesus graces us with the capacity to deal with anything.  Sometimes Jesus deals with us directly, like Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.  Other times Jesus intervenes in our lives and sets before us the people who are just right to help us, like St. Paul.

In St. Paul we see someone who had so identified with Christ that this identity changed his understanding of everything that happened to him in life.  If on some days his bringing Christ to the here and now situation was something he did only out of duty, then so be it, for he had been given this mission as a stewardship.  But if on other days he did so willingly, then he had the reward of doing exactly what he is meant to do.

Do you see how identifying with Christ changes our interpretation of what happens in our day to day experiences?  If I really believe that Christ lives within me and guides me in everything I do, then my moods don’t drive me into action, or out of action.  If Christ is my light, then I am not like a reed swaying in the wind; I am firmly grounded and in tune with the One who is our Master and Lord.

And can you see what happens to us who are firmly founded in Christ when faced with calamity like Job?  His plight was so bad that he thought he’d never see happiness again.  

For us who are so firmly set in Christ so as to identify totally with Him, no calamity, no distress, no tragedy, nothing in the past, nothing in the future can separate us from His love and from the peace that comes from this union with Christ.

For this peace to reign over our hearts, we must be people of prayer, like Jesus going off in the wee hours to spend time in communion with God.  When we develop our prayer lives, if even by simply being faithful to whatever it is we do for prayer, every day, then we indeed become a light shining in the darkness, and we will indeed be something very different than just being bounced around by the events of life.  We will live purposefully and meaningfully, as we bring Christ to the heart of Boulder and into whatever situation we encounter go this week.