The Heart of the Matter

Homily for Sunday, September 9, 2012

Did you notice that in the Gospel today, Jesus was in pagan territory, in the district of Tyre and Sidon, in today’s Lebanon, and then left there to go into the district of the Decapolis?  The Decapolis was a region of 10 cities also in pagan territory, east of the Sea of Galilee.  Pagan territory.  

On the other hand, there is the Holy Land, which was not pagan territory.  What’s the difference between holy land, or holy ground and pagan land?  Do you remember the story of Naaman the Syrian who had leprosy during the time of the OT prophet Elijah?  He came to the Holy Land to seek a healing of his leprosy from the man of God; and when he was healed he took back with him to Syria a load of soil from the Holy Land so he could lay out the soil, bow down on it and pray to the God of Israel.  It was truly holy ground.  He had been healed in the Holy Land.

In Jesus’ day, the territory surrounding the Holy Land was pagan territory.  What did that mean then, and what does it mean to us today?  

The Holy Land was the land of grace, the land where God became man, the land where God in the flesh healed the sick, forgave the sinner, and even raised the dead.  And though the people of the Holy Land did not recognize the Word made flesh in their midst, they were a people who were accustomed to the grace of God at work in their lives.

Grace is the action of God, the gift of God’s self, most perfectly enfleshed in Jesus Himself.  So, in today’s Gospel Jesus goes to bring grace, the gift of God’s self, to the pagan territory that did not know God’s grace.  And in doing so he cured a man who was both deaf and mute: unable to hear and unable to speak.

Our land today, indeed our whole world, is becoming more and more a pagan territory, a land unaccustomed to the grace of God.

Let me describe what a pagan territory looks like in the words of Fr. Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest who was killed by the Nazis in WWII.  He calls pagan territory living “without grace.”  It’s to live gracelessly.  To live as if God does not matter and has nothing to do with our lives.  It’s to live without prayer, that avenue to allow grace to enter our lives.  Living gracelessly, living a pagan life, is to live without having the ears that hear the Word of God ushering into our souls the grace and love and mercy of God.  Living in pagan territory stifles our voice so we are mute and unable, and unwilling, to give God praise, because God is not a big thought in our minds.  That’s living without grace.  

What does living without grace produce?  A graceless life makes us live a pitiless life, leaving us little or no concern for those who are poor in the world because our preoccupation has become our own self, our own triumphs, our own pleasures, surrendering ourselves to our own whims and following our basic instincts.  This is indeed pagan territory, a grace-less way of life, a way of life that is not concerned about the common good, a self-centered life.  It also produces, Fr. Delp says, “an age of inexorable fate, a time of horror and violence, of worthless life and senseless death.”

In our pagan territory of today Jesus comes to open our ears to hear the Word in a new way.  He says to each of us, “Ephaphatha!  Be opened!”  Be open to the God whom you cannot see.  Be open to hear the mission this God of love is calling you to.  Be open to see life differently.  And when your heart has been touched by the Word of God, let your lips speak out His praise in such a way that the words on our lips match the passion of our love for our God who is so good to us.

Be open to bringing others to Him.  Be open to getting over our reticence that keeps us from speaking of Him, or speaking about our faith, as if our concern about what others think of us is more important than what we think of ourselves before God.  Let’s turn a new page in our relations with others; let’s be open to letting this God of love to work through us to reach the hearts of others who are deaf to the Word of God and mute in giving God praise.

A graceless world, a pagan world, cries out for the Lord to come into our territory and speak to us a word of life and love and mercy and compassion.  In our pagan word of divisiveness and bitterness and hostility and fear, the Lord Jesus is willing to come into the lives of all His people to bring them hope.  And He wants to use our ears to hear the cry in the hearts of His people, and our voices to speak to them of the grace to be found in Christ.  But first He says to us: Be open!

Homily for Sunday, August 19, 2012

“The days are evil,” says St. Paul to the Ephesians and to us.  Yet we are invited to live in wisdom, “trying to understand what is the will of the Lord.”

How can we know the will of God today?  It is searingly difficult to discover God’s will today mainly because the whole world seems to have forgotten that we are all born into the human condition which is seriously flawed.  We call this flawed condition the doctrine of “original sin:” we are all inclined toward selfishness, even at the expense of others.  

To paraphrase Ross Douthat in his book, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” we have turned the old sin of pride into “healthy self-esteem,” and vanity into “self-improvement,” adultery into “following your heart,” and greed and gluttony into “living the American dream.”

We have detached ourselves from our moral foundations and together we seem adrift upon a sea of limitless possibilities. As Psalm 11 says, “Foundations once destroyed, what can the just do?”  With our moral foundations destroyed, we seem to live today without a hint of even desiring to try to understand what is the will of the Lord.

Today I’d like to share with you the Gospel’s secret weapon in spiritual warfare so as to be able to discern the will of God.  This secret weapon is available to Catholics; I only know that this works for Catholics.  I don’t know about others.  It’s this:

If you, a Catholic who has been initiated into the Eucharist, find yourself wanting to miss Mass, if you see in your soul an absence of passion about receiving Holy Communion, then this is the secret weapon to alert you that you are falling away from the will of God.  In other words, you can tell you are getting into spiritual trouble if the sacrament of the Eucharist does not beckon to you and call out to from the heights of your soul.  

When this lack of passion for Holy Communion happens, it is a sign that the soul is so diminished that it cannot hear the Lord from within crying out, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."

Of course, it may be that even a Catholic never did believe the word of Jesus: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  

If you never did believe what the Catholic Church believes and teaches about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, then this fail-safe, secret weapon does not apply.  It really only applies to those who know the Lord, love the Lord, and clearly understand and believe that Christ’s flesh is true food, and his blood is true drink.

It’s all about love.  If our soul is in love with God, then surely we want to do His will, and surely we will crave His Eucharist.  Such love has brought us to the point where we have learned to trust that God always wants our happiness, that God can be trusted, that no difficulty in life can undo us because He is with us to guide us and help us find His will. 

The Eucharist is all about love.  God loves us; God desires us; God desires such intimacy with us that we can “take and eat, for this is my body.”  “Take and drink because this cup is my love poured out for you.”  Can you not see that finding something else, anything else, to be more important than the Eucharist, is like a red flag to the soul?  Remember, my friends, the Mass is the prayer of Jesus, it is the perfect prayer because it is His prayer.  And you cannot improve on perfection.

 

Homily for Sunday, July 8, 2012

Our reading from Second Corinthians today is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture.  I can’t tell you how often I have given it as a penance for someone in confession.  It is so full of hope!  It is such a radical invitation to think differently!

Just before these verses in Second Corinthians St. Paul has been telling us here about his extraordinary mystical experiences.  Now he picks up with his line about the thorn in the flesh to keep him humble: a mysterious ailment, or vicious experience of opposition, or some kind of struggle that left him begging the Lord to take it away.  

But the Lord’s answer to his request was a firm, “No.”  The Lord further says to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

Oh, what an insight into understanding that God does indeed sometimes say “No” to our requests!  This is a powerful Scripture for someone who says that God has not heard their prayers.  Not so!  God’s answer may be, “Not yet,” or a flat out, “No.”

Here is where the virtue of humility needs to come into play.  In humility we must remember that we cannot think that God must do what we tell Him to do.  After all, He is God.  We are not.

This takes humility.  So what is humility?  True humility, the humility of Jesus, ultimately leads to the point where we could say with St. Paul that we are content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, and persecutions.  Who in his right mind would be content with these things?

There are phases or steps to becoming truly humble.  No one is going to be full of himself and want to incur things like weakness, insults, hardships and persecutions.  On the other hand, if we empty ourselves of self and become full of Christ, then we will do as Christ has done, and then suddenly, or not so suddenly, we will see negative things as not so negative.

Let’s begin with baby steps into humility.  Assuming we are at least of the age of reason, we begin to learn humility when we think this way: not for all the money in the world, not for all the fame and honor possible, not for all the power I could have, would I ever consent to do anything to break off my relationship with God.  This takes humility because most people want to dicker with God on what is permissible and what is not.  The more our rearing makes us think we are entitled to everything we have or could have, the more we are reared in stoking the flames of a good self-esteem, no matter what we do, the less we will see the need for humility.  The less we will see that anything could actually be forbidden to us.  The less we will think that there just might be things we do that, in fact, alienate us from God.  We call these choices, actions and decisions mortal sins.  

So, the first step into humility says that there is no way on earth that I will ever do that.  This step is essential for salvation.  If we fail in this first kind of humility, it's time to go to confession!

The second phase of humility is where my love of the Lord has grown so much that I now realize that I don’t want even to do the least thing against God’s will.  I want to think and act as Christ does.  Therefore, I don’t want to commit even a venial sin.

Now the third phase of humility is the one Paul talks about when he says he is content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, and persecutions.  

Being content with hardships and weakness and insults seems masochistic, doesn't it?  So, since God obviously doesn't want to be masochistic, then there must be something else in this more perfect form of humility, don't you think?  What would that be?

Try this on for size and see what this does for you:

If my love for the Lord has grown so much, if the truth of the Incarnation dawns on me, then I see God in other people. I especially see God in suffering people.  It's as if Jesus has come back to earth and is on the other side of town, appearing in the form of someone who is weak, someone who is insulted, someone who is facing tremendous hardships, in someone who is being persecuted. And because I love Him, I want to be where He is.  And I don’t care what anyone thinks of my preference for the outcast.

I no longer want to be counted among the beautiful set, I no longer want to be numbered among the powerful or influential or wealthy or popular.  No, I now have come to see how vapid things like fame and wealth and power are, and now I want to identify with the lost, the confused, the sinner, the helpless, the forgotten, the very ones Jesus promises to be with.  And maybe, just maybe, He has chosen me to be His presence to those who are most in need of His mercy.  This is what true humility looks like.  

 

Homily for Sunday July 1, 2012

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Let me play with you a little bit to show how we let a frame of reference in our minds, and our presuppositions, color our entire view of reality.  Let’s look at today’s Gospel and let’s say some Republicans and Democrats from today are actually there in this Gospel story.  The Republicans’ world view might lead them to say to Jesus, “Those Democrats want you to refrain from curing both the dying little girl and the woman with the hemorrhages, because the Democrats’ attitude is to let the government take care of them!”

         “Oh, yeah,” say the Democrats, “Well the Republicans want you to let the little old lady and the little, dying girl fall through the safety net and just fall where they may.”

          Do you see that our presuppositions and preconceived opinions impact our view of everything?

          Today’s Scriptures suggest to me that we think about one of the most fundamental questions in life and take note of our presuppositions.

          The fundamental question is this: If God did not make death, who did make it?  Who or what made suffering?  Who or what made sickness and pain and injustice and sorrow?  If “God does not rejoice in the destruction of the living,” then why does it happen?  Why does a 12 year old have to die?  Or why does a woman have to suffer from hemorrhages  for 12 years and have no relief?

          The presupposition that our society makes today is that God is irrelevant to these questions.  Secularist thought would say that Biblical faith has no more to offer on these sorts of issues for thinking people, because the Bible has been found to be out of touch with the scientific world and has nothing accurate to say about our origins, or the origins of evil, or suffering or death.  Secularist thought has also tossed aside all the doctrine of the Church, so, the attitude now is: let’s instead find our own way to answer these puzzles in life.  And this frequently enough means that we simply avoid these questions as imponderable.

          Avoiding these questions, however, leaves us yielding to a diminished humanity, lacking in substance, living the precious gift of life on a superficial level.  

         So, let’s dig in to ask, “If God did not make death, who did?”  Who  or what caused the 12 year old girl to die?  Who or what caused the 

widow to be plagued as she was for 12 years?  Where did all this suffering come from?

        The classical Christian answer has been that original sin is the cause of all suffering, including death.  The doctrine of original sin says that before the sin of Adam and Eve humanity was in Paradise with no disease, no suffering and no death.  When God made human beings He made us good and He gave us free will.  It is the misuse of that free will that has caused all the suffering in the world.

         How, you might ask, can things like famine and earthquakes and  wildfires be caused by the misuse of human freedom?  But alas, we do not tend to think of the history of the human race to be as long as it has been.  If just recent generations have caused such havoc as to change the climate of the earth, what would 60,000 years of human misuse of freewill have produced?

         Many people today do not accept the doctrine of original sin.  Death, they say, pre-existed the human race.  Long before the human race appeared, all life forms had cycles of birth and death and rebirth.  One generation of dinosaurs died and another replaced it until they were all extinguished.  One generation of plants lives and then dies and another generation replaces it.  So, the thinking goes, human life simply lives out the same cycle as the rest of the biological world.  And so the presuppositions build, that human life is just like any other form of life.  In this worldview there is no room to see humanity as the gory of God’s creative power.   And there is no room for the doctrine of a first sin.

           These presuppositions leave the human race with a very unsatisfactory result: that the human race is fundamentally flawed, that human beings are inherently contradictory so that everyone carries good and evil within themselves, that holiness is not possible or desirable.  

           We Catholics do not see the world or the human race in this way.  We know that we are fundamentally good, that we were made by the one and only source of all that exists, and that God is good, and that in Him there is no evil. For God made us in His own image.  He made us good; and even when we have misused our freedom and caused great havoc, He comes to save us. And still does today.  Just as He cured the afflicted woman and raised the dead 12 year old girl, so the Lord has given us the bright promise of redemption and immortality, such is His love for us!

 

Pentecost 2012

What a scene that first Pentecost must have been.  The Holy Spirit came upon them in such a powerful way that the huddled group of scared disciples of Jesus were suddenly breaking out of their hiding place and boldly going out into the streets and plazas of Jerusalem to fearless proclaim that Jesus Christ was indeed Lord and Savior and that, though he had been killed by crucifixion, he had risen from the dead, and that there is salvation in no other Name.

Oh for the same kind of release of the Holy Sprit in our day!  Oh for the same fearless proclamation today!  Oh that today’s world would be transformed by one generation of believers as was that generation of the Apostles!

Historically, however, the Spirit’s action has been more subtle than explosive.  Take for instance our own personal Pentecost, when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Chances are it was not explosive.  Chances are that it was a subtle transformation, like the change that happens in the Holy Eucharist.  Before the consecration the host and wine look as they are, just as after the consecration they look no different but by then they are the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior.

Just before the consecration, the priest holds his hands over the bread and wine and prays, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Like the dewfall.”  Have you ever seen the dew fall?  It happens slowly and invisibly, as does the transformation of the one who is confirmed.  In most cases, then, one’s own personal Pentecost is not so much like the first Pentecost, but is much more “like the dewfall.”

It helps, however, to know what gifts the Holy Spirit gives us when we are confirmed.  Remember them?  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll most probably recognize them when I list them for you, but what exactly are these gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence.

Let me unwrap them so that we may better grasp them and incorporate them in our daily lives:

Wonder and awe in God’s presence, also known as the fear of the Lord.  This gift of the Spirit does not make us afraid of hell, but makes so in love with God that we are appropriately afraid of ever doing anything that would separate us from God.

Reverence, also known as piety.  This gift leads us to see God in all the persons the Lord puts in our lives, and respect them just as we respect and love God.  Or, in the words of Scripture: “How can you say you love and God and do not love your brother or sister?”

Courage, also known as Fortitude.  This gift strengthens us against natural fear and imparts to our will an impulse to undertake without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, trample underfoot human respect, and to endure without complaint even prolonged tribulation.

Knowledge.  This gift enables us to evaluate created things at their true worth in their relation to God.  Knowledge unmasks pretenses, reveals emptiness and helps us put firth things first, and prize friendship with God above all else.

Understanding.  With this gift, the Holy Spirit helps us grasp the truths of our Catholic faith, and by understanding them, we are enabled to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them we are quickened to a newness of life.  With Understanding our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive.  Instead our mode of life bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is within us.

Right Judgment, also known as Counsel.  With this gift the soul is endowed with supernatural prudence, enabling us to judge rightly and promptly what must be done.  Right Judgment is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure, when faced with the innumerable concrete cases that face us in our daily affairs.

Lastly, Wisdom, the most perfect of the gifts of the Spirit.  Wisdom is the gift of discernment, enabling us to sort through the subtleties of the various movements within our souls, with an eye to picking up on very subtle deceptions of an evil spirit that would deceive us by pretending to be an angel of light. 

These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us in Confirmation.  Let us ask our Lord open them up and magnify them in our lives, whether suddenly or like the dewfall.

Pentecost 2012

What a scene that first Pentecost must have been.  The Holy Spirit came upon them in such a powerful way that the huddled group of scared disciples of Jesus were suddenly breaking out of their hiding place and boldly going out into the streets and plazas of Jerusalem to fearless proclaim that Jesus Christ was indeed Lord and Savior and that, though he had been killed by crucifixion, he had risen from the dead, and that there is salvation in no other Name.

Oh for the same kind of release of the Holy Sprit in our day!  Oh for the same fearless proclamation today!  Oh that today’s world would be transformed by one generation of believers as was that generation of the Apostles!

Historically, however, the Spirit’s action has been more subtle than explosive.  Take for instance our own personal Pentecost, when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Chances are it was not explosive.  Chances are that it was a subtle transformation, like the change that happens in the Holy Eucharist.  Before the consecration the host and wine look as they are, just as after the consecration they look no different but by then they are the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior.

Just before the consecration, the priest holds his hands over the bread and wine and prays, “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Like the dewfall.”  Have you ever seen the dew fall?  It happens slowly and invisibly, as does the transformation of the one who is confirmed.  In most cases, then, one’s own personal Pentecost is not so much like the first Pentecost, but is much more “like the dewfall.”

It helps, however, to know what gifts the Holy Spirit gives us when we are confirmed.  Remember them?  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll most probably recognize them when I list them for you, but what exactly are these gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence.

Let me unwrap them so that we may better grasp them and incorporate them in our daily lives:

Wonder and awe in God’s presence, also known as the fear of the Lord.  This gift of the Spirit does not make us afraid of hell, but makes so in love with God that we are appropriately afraid of ever doing anything that would separate us from God.

Reverence, also known as piety.  This gift leads us to see God in all the persons the Lord puts in our lives, and respect them just as we respect and love God.  Or, in the words of Scripture: “How can you say you love and God and do not love your brother or sister?”

Courage, also known as Fortitude.  This gift strengthens us against natural fear and imparts to our will an impulse to undertake without hesitancy the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, trample underfoot human respect, and to endure without complaint even prolonged tribulation.

Knowledge.  This gift enables us to evaluate created things at their true worth in their relation to God.  Knowledge unmasks pretenses, reveals emptiness and helps us put firth things first, and prize friendship with God above all else.

Understanding.  With this gift, the Holy Spirit helps us grasp the truths of our Catholic faith, and by understanding them, we are enabled to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them we are quickened to a newness of life.  With Understanding our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive.  Instead our mode of life bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is within us.

Right Judgment, also known as Counsel.  With this gift the soul is endowed with supernatural prudence, enabling us to judge rightly and promptly what must be done.  Right Judgment is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure, when faced with the innumerable concrete cases that face us in our daily affairs.

Lastly, Wisdom, the most perfect of the gifts of the Spirit.  Wisdom is the gift of discernment, enabling us to sort through the subtleties of the various movements within our souls, with an eye to picking up on very subtle deceptions of an evil spirit that would deceive us by pretending to be an angel of light. 

These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us in Confirmation.  Let us ask our Lord open them up and magnify them in our lives, whether suddenly or like the dewfall.

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter - 4/22/2012

This time of the Easter Season in the RCIA process is a time called “mystagogia,” meaning a time to enter into the mysteries of the faith.  Without this part of the conversion process, the faith can remain a matter of knowledge of facts, teachings, and details of the commandments, the sacraments, the doctrines and the general expectations of what makes for a good Catholic.

There is so much more, however, that only comes to us after we have been baptized, and if we have been instructed in these mysteries.

As you probably know, the RCIA process is intended not only for converts to the Catholic faith, but also for the whole parish, especially through the various rites and scrutinies, in Advent and Lent.  So also with the Easter season, the time of mystagogia.  The invitation to the whole Church is to utilize this season so as to grow into the mystery of the faith.

So, let’s take today to look more intently into the process of spiritual development.  What does it look like if we take our baptismal faith with ever greater seriousness?  What are the stages of spiritual development.  After going through these, let’s each of us figure out where we are in our development, and where we want to be.

There are 4 stages of spiritual development:

Stage One looks like this.  The person in Stage One has not yet decided to turn his or her life around and heed the words of St. Peter in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles: “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."

People in Stage One are narcissists.  It’s all about them.  All the time.  They do not think that they commit sin; and therefore they have no need to repent.  The truth for these folks is that they think they can do anything, can improve themselves, pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  This narcissism (we used to call it pride) fuels all the vices of greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth.  They may say that they know God, but they do not keep His commandments, “and the truth is not in them.”  

The most we can do to help people in the first stage is to catechize them, teach them, warn them, in the hope that when God’s time is right, they “may turn to God and be saved,” as Scripture says.  In the meantime, they tend to not need religion, the sacraments or God Himself.  For these people the devil is hard at work to keep them right where they are.

And how does the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of these Stage One people?  Here the Holy Spirit will allow them to suffer the absence of God and the pain of feeling alienated from God.  Why does the Holy Spirit allow this?  To turn them around so as to trust in God, to hope in the future, and to be persons of love, and also, sometimes, to prevent people from destroying themselves.

Entering into Stage Two is marked by people starting to realize they need God.  They find themselves saying within their hearts short spontaneous prayers to the Lord: Lord, I need You.  Or, Lord, I desire You.  Or, Lord, I yearn for you.  Or, Lord, help me.  Or, Lord, turn this bad thing into something good.  Or, Jesus, I trust in You.  Or, Lord, save me.  The life of prayer takes on a new ugency; and it's only by a devout prayer life that one will progress spiritually.

For Stage Two people, they will know they are progressing in the spiritual life if they can see that their trust in God is increasing.  If they can see that their hope in the future is increasing.  And if they can see that their love of others is increasing.  Stage One people won’t even care about all of this.  For a Stage Two person, a sign that an evil spirit is toying with them is if they see a decrease in these virtues, and if they run into discouragement.  Discouragement is a sign that you’re off target and probably need to go to confession.  

Stage Two people will occasionally go back to Stage One thinking, perhaps becoming negative again, maybe even falling into old sins they thought they left behind.  But they still want to do God’s will in all things; and they will soon enough go to confession to let God’s grace turn their lives back to their path to "life on high with Christ Jesus."

People in the 3rd and 4th Stages will understand better than those in earlier stages the role suffering plays in the Christian’s life.  They will become familiar with a spiritual dynamic called the Dark Night.  That’s when a person has to be weaned off of worldly sensuality by various kinds of inner sufferings.  Being as attached as we are to sin, giving up these sins is a wrenching experience.  And many people, sadly, don’t want to go through the process until they face it in purgatory.  It’s a process of purgation, of being set free from all of our unfreedoms and from all of our addictions, so that we can be utterly free to be in complete union with God.  That complete union with God, also called the "mystical marriage" is the 4th Stage. It's like living on earth as if you were already in heaven.

Where are you in these stages of spiritual development?  Where do you want to be?  And where do you think God wants you to be?  

 

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.

A Christmas Meditation - 2010

When I consider the heavens and the earth, the moon and the stars, what are we, Lord, mere mortals that we are? Yet you have made us little less than gods.  When I consider the wide expanse of the universe and contemplate the wonders that the Hubble Telescope has revealed to us about the far, far reaches of the universe, what I am that You think of me? Yet at Holy Communion I hold You in my hand! When I think of the billions of galaxies that there are, each one having billions of stars, what are we on this far flung planet, revolving around one average star in the massive expanse of all that is, that we merit the beauty of this blue, life sustaining planet that we call Earth?

And yet, on this Paradise of a planet You created human life and made us in Your own image, with complete freedom just as You have complete freedom.  It was indeed a Paradise: our first parents walked with You in the Garden of Eden in intimacy.  There was no suffering, no tears, no crying out in pain, even in childbirth, and no death.  But then, by our first parents’ misuse of the precious gift of freedom, paradise was lost.  We learned from our first parents how to abuse the gift of freedom.  Ever since Adam and Eve we have imitated them in choosing selfishness and fault-finding. The evils that came upon us were the result of our own injustices.

You, O God, did not abandon us to our own folly, but You spoke to us in fragmented and varied ways, though not clearly revealing Yourself to us until You appeared to Abraham and Sarah.  You gave them promises: children to number more than the stars, deliverance from enemies, and a Promised Land to be their own.  

As the Chosen People grew in numbers and landed in slavery, You sent a new leader to them, Moses, who led them out of slavery into the desert, to Mt. Sinai where You met them. Through Your servant Moses You gave to the Chosen People the gift of Law, the gift of bringing to the rest of humanity an understanding of justice, a sense of right and wrong, good and evil.  That very same generation, however, violated the Law and chose to adore a golden calf made of molten gold. And the law breaking, the acts of injustice, continued to happen.

Eventually You sent to the Chosen People a new leader, a king, David, who loved you with his whole heart. Though he sinned, he trusted in Your mercy and wrote many psalms as tribute to Your mercy and steadfast love. You gave him promises as well, one of which was the ongoing lineage of his house and that there would always be a son of his on the throne of David.

As the centuries multiplied, the prophets came to lure the Chosen People back to their bond with You, Lord. They named the idols and the injustices and the evils that had stolen the heart of the people away from You, their Lord.  Then the prophets gave new promises from You, Lord, that the Chosen People would indeed be a blessing to the whole of humanity, as You promised to Abraham.  They spoke of the coming a Messiah, a Son of David, who would set the people free not only from enemies, but also from their own infidelities.

Your promises were fulfilled in a manner far beyond imagination: You Yourself chose to be the fulfillment of those promises. You the Creator of all that exists chose to become one of us, the long awaited Son of David, the Messiah and Lord!  How is it that we should merit should an intervention?  Yet You relied on the assent of a 15 year old girl to fulfill Your promises and usher in Your loving plan of redemption and salvation.  No wonder we honor Mary and love her to this day!

In Jesus divinity took on human flesh and showed us how to live without fear.  You, Word Incarnate, became our salvation by enduring the cross and showing to all what we do to each other and what we do even to God Incarnate.  And by the power of Your resurrection, You prove that at the heart of the universe, that at the core of it all, is love.  So, we learn that "wherever there is love, there is God." And in You, O God of love, we find forgiveness for all of our iniquity.  This is salvation: forgiveness. 

When I consider all of this, what an extraordinary faith You have given to us, O Lord.  Grant that we may never take our faith lightly. And grant that we may be faithful to You all the days of our lives. Amen.