The Heart of the Matter

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.

 

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent - December 19, 2010

Did you hear in our second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans that his purpose in life was to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, which includes us, who are called to be holy.  What does this obedience of faith look like.  Let’s dive into it and see what the example of St. Joseph has to tell us about “the obedience of faith.”
    St. Joseph, the Gospel tells us, “did as the angel had commanded him and took . . . into his home” Mary who “was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”  This was a man who yielded to what Scripture calls “the obedience of faith.”  
    Betrothal was not like today’s falling in love, then living together, then deciding to be engaged before maybe a wedding.  Betrothal was the initial phase of the marriage process that involved not just the two people who became betrothed.  In fact, love was not really part of the equation.  Marriages were arrangements to join extended families, not individuals.  Brides did not expect love, companionship or comfort.  Both partners understood that their union was arranged for the political or economic betterment of their families.  True, it was hoped that the couple would learn to love each other, but they really had very little say.
    The entire process was a ritualized progression arranged by the parents to remove a woman from her family.  The groom’s father offered to the bride’s father goods or services to win the woman he wanted for his son.  The bride’s father made the final decision.  This is where the custom comes from of the prospective groom going to the father to ask for the hand of his daughter.  Surprisingly enough, this happens today more often than we might think.
    It was the women, though, of both families who negotiated the contract, to be certain that neither family would be shortchanged. Once that was done the final say was given by the patriarchs of both families. 
    It was in this stage of negotiations that today’s gospel refers to.  During a betrothal the couple did not live together, but they were set apart for each other.  In Mediterranean society of that time, a rigidly gender-divided world, men and women had very little contact, even for a betrothed couple.
    If some problem developed during the negotiation process, that would lead to the demise of the prospective marriage, there would be great shame involved, and a formal divorce action would have to be undertaken.  If a pregnancy occurred, with the prospective groom’s not being the father, the groom would have the legal right to return the bride to her father and expose her to being stoned to death for adultery.
    If on the contrary all was well, when the negotiations were concluded, the wedding ceremony consisted in the ratifying the contract by the patriarchs and a formal procession of the groom leading the bride to his father’s home.   We catch a glimpse of this in Matthew 25 where we read about the 10 wise virgins and the 10 foolish virgins who were to be ready to welcome the groom as he led his bride home.
    Now, understanding the betrothal and wedding process, Mary’s being with child presented this just man, Joseph, with a terrible predicament that is only resolved by a dream in which “the angel of the Lord commanded him” to take his wife into his home.
    This is what we call “the obedience of faith,” a very rare commodity, but something we are all bound to as baptized and confirmed Catholics.  By that I mean this: God has revealed to us, not by a dream, but by the deposit of faith given to the Church, what truth is and what true freedom is, and that freedom can only be arrived at by “the obedience of faith,” giving full assent to the teachings of the Church, not a cafeteria Catholicism that chooses what to accept. 
    This expectation falls quite hard upon our ears nowadays.  In fact, “the obedience of faith” is like a “stumbling stone” to many of our contemporaries, especially in our society which so rightly places a high value on personal freedom.  But Joseph’s witness, and the consistent theme throughout the gospels, is that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self surrender that is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, Jesus tells us, do we truly find ourselves.  Not by seeking self, but by seeking to obey God.
    True freedom, which comes from an attitude of being obedient to our Faith, unleashes within us a new way of seeing reality, such that Joseph could believe his dream and believe in the virginal conception of the Child to whom he would give the name Jesus. By naming the Child, Joseph made Jesus his son and therefore, Son of David, fulfilling the prophecy that a son of David would be the long awaited Messiah.

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Advent - 12/12/10

Isaiah says, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes . . . to save you.”

Today is ‘Gaudete’ Sunday, from the Latin, ‘Rejoice’ Sunday. Remember that Advent is the season of preparing for the two comings of Christ: His first coming which we celebrate with great fanfare on the 25^th of the month, and His second Coming, which will come at the end of time when Christ will come as our judge, or as we say in the creed, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”  So, Advent is a serious season and includes the Church’s invitation to seek out the Sacrament of Penance so as to be prepared to celebrate Christmas worthily, and so as to be ready should the Lord return unexpectantly, as He said He would.  [Don’t forget our Penance Service on Monday evening, at 7:00 PM.]

This particular Sunday is intended for us to realize that we have great reason for joy because our Savior did indeed come and will soon come again in glory.  The emphasis is on Jesus as the savior.  “Here is your God, He come to save you.”

Let me compare our journey through life to snow-shoeing?  Life is part effort, part joy, part exhilarating, part exhausting, part adventure, part beauty, and life sometimes seems like an endurance contest. 

To go snow-shoeing you have to be fit, full of energy, and desirous of going through the effort.  Sometimes you may fall; and if you fall, no matter how tired you are, you have to get back up, even if the terrain ahead is uphill.  If you are not fit, you may get out into the back country and not have the stamina to continue on. If this happens, then what are you going to do? Sit down and give up?  That’s a sure recipe for disaster! 

Life is like snow-shoeing: fraught with the danger of being consumed by an avalanche.  And just as one should never go snow-shoeing alone, so one cannot go through life alone.  

Yet so many go through the adventure of life without the One who is the surest guide; and they even dance with dangers that can get us swept away by an avalanche of temptations our world puts before us.

Some people, on this journey through life, lose their way because the snow has covered the trails of those who have gone before and find themselves in unfamiliar territory.  This is the condition of the human race now as we are dealing with crises and problems our trailblazers did not tell us about.  We need a guide.  We need someone to save us from being lost, from getting exhausted and confused, and especially from losing our meaning of why we exist.  That someone is Jesus the Lord.

As we call upon Him and enter more deeply into a relationship with Him, we find that He sends people our way, like John the Baptist who sent his disciples to ask Jesus for themselves if He were indeed “the One who is to come.”  So, also in our journey through life, we too, each one of us, must ask Jesus if He really is the One to guide us, to lead us through all possible terrain to that place of peace and love where there is no more suffering or crying out in pain.

If we come to Him sincerely, He will take us by the hand and teach us to wait for the good things that are to come. And what He will teach us is the virtue described so beautifully in today’s selection from the Letter of James.

Patience is the virtue we most need to sustain the effort it takes to keep on the journey of a good Christian life.  Patience is indeed very difficult to master.  After all, we are used to living in an on-demand culture. We want everything now!  But a life well lived, a Christian life, a life that reflects our union with Christ, requires patience. Patience to bend our will towards the will of God. Patience to wait in silence for God. Patience with our own weaknesses.  And patience with those whom the Lord has given us as our companions on the path of life.

Impatience is perhaps the most confessed sin.  Who of us is not an expert in impatience?  So, how do we attain the virtue of patience?  It’s relatively easy if we are honest with ourselves: a daily reflection called an examination of conscience helps me see what have I done today, Lord, that requires me to ask You, Lord, to be yet more patient again with me.  If we are honest enough to see what I do to try the Lord’s patience, then I will be much more ready to be patient with other people’s foibles as well. 

To that end, let me again invite you to come to the sacrament of reconciliation as a way to prepare for the Lord’s coming again in glory.

 

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, 12/5/10

“You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee the wrath that is to come?”

Isn’t that a scary line from the Gospel?  Wouldn’t we prefer to hear loving and encouraging lines from Scripture, like: Thus says the Lord, ‘With an everlasting love I have loved you.’ Or even, ‘Repent and believe in the good news.”  Let’s not talk about “the wrath that is to come.”

But didn’t we just sing, “Justice will flourish in his time, and fulness of peace forever”?  How do you think we get to justice and peace if not by way of addressing the failures of justice and peace?  

Advent is the season of preparing for the two comings of Christ: His first coming at Bethlehem; and His second coming at the end of time.  Advent is the time to remember the reason for the Lord’s coming: to bring in the Kingdom of God, when “there shall be no harm or ruin” ... “for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord.”  

So, how can we prepare if not by taking stock of how we get in the way of the coming of the Kingdom. That’s why John the Baptist is doing there at the River Jordan as he shouts out, “Repent, for the Kingdom of  heaven is at hand.”

Repent!  Who wants to repent?  Who really wants to change their ways?  It’s far easier to see what’s wrong with society than see what’s wrong with me.  When we don’t take stock of our own lives, our own flawed attitudes and choices, then we don’t see things accurately and we so very easily slip into a sense of superiority over others, and we judge others, and we become instruments of injustice, heaping judgment and scorn on others but ignoring the beam in our own eye.  

Did you notice in the reading from Isaiah the emphasis on the fear of the Lord?  This is in the listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that received when we were confirmed: “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”

What is this “fear of the Lord” that we are supposed to take delight in? Ah, let’s go back and look at the comment of John: “You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee the wrath that is to come?” The whole concept of the wrath of God has to be carefully understood.

We must not think of the wrath of God as God’s throwing down thunderbolts on people He is angry with.  No, no, no.  God’s wrath can only be understood in the context of God becoming man to set us free from the hell we create for ourselves.  God respects our free will and will never force us to choose the good and to avoid choosing evil. So, we best understand the phrase “the wrath of God” as the way things are if we choose to mess up our lives.  Bad begets bad; and a lot of bad begets a dreadful result.  That bad result of those bad choices is what God in Christ came among us to resolve.  This is what we mean when we say that Jesus came to save us from our sins.  He came not only to point the way, but to be the way we can be lifted out of the results of our  poor choices.

Our problem is that we don’t really want to face up to our bad choices.  Therefore, we really don’t want to repent; and then we don’t get it why our lives get messed up.  A life messed up is the result of sin. That’s why Scripture says, “The one who says he does not sin is a liar.”  We have all sinned are in need of the Savior.

Now, for justice to flourish in our time and for the fulness of peace to begin, we must come to terms with the evil that we allow into our lives.  That’s why going to the sacrament of Penance during Advent is so important.  Each one of us either contributes to the advance of the Kingdom of God on earth, or we thwart the advance.  We thwart this advance of goodness and holiness by our giving in to the materialism of thinking our worth is determined by the things we have, and the secularism of staying silent when our whole society is crying out for meaning, meaning that only Christ can give. We thwart God’s advance into the heart of man whenever we make compromises with the good, when we give in to the desires of the flesh, whenever we settle for systems that beget injustice and oppression, and whenever we chip away at our business ethics for the sake of unseemly gain.

Oh, to be a person of character! To be restored to the state of grace! Oh, to be make a firm purpose of amendment!  These are the things John  the Baptist calls us to come to terms with as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.  To do this, I ask, implore, and encourage all of us to come to our Advent Penance Service on Monday,12/13 at 7 pm.   Give God the gift of a pure heart for Christmas!

 

Homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, 12/5/10

“You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee the wrath that is to come?”

Isn’t that a scary line from the Gospel?  Wouldn’t we prefer to hear loving and encouraging lines from Scripture, like: Thus says the Lord, ‘With an everlasting love I have loved you.’ Or even, ‘Repent and believe in the good news.”  Let’s not talk about “the wrath that is to come.”

But didn’t we just sing, “Justice will flourish in his time, and fulness of peace forever”?  How do you think we get to justice and peace if not by way of addressing the failures of justice and peace?  

Advent is the season of preparing for the two comings of Christ: His first coming at Bethlehem; and His second coming at the end of time.  Advent is the time to remember the reason for the Lord’s coming: to bring in the Kingdom of God, when “there shall be no harm or ruin” ... “for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord.”  

So, how can we prepare if not by taking stock of how we get in the way of the coming of the Kingdom. That’s why John the Baptist is doing there at the River Jordan as he shouts out, “Repent, for the Kingdom of  heaven is at hand.”

Repent!  Who wants to repent?  Who really wants to change their ways?  It’s far easier to see what’s wrong with society than see what’s wrong with me.  When we don’t take stock of our own lives, our own flawed attitudes and choices, then we don’t see things accurately and we so very easily slip into a sense of superiority over others, and we judge others, and we become instruments of injustice, heaping judgment and scorn on others but ignoring the beam in our own eye.  

Did you notice in the reading from Isaiah the emphasis on the fear of the Lord?  This is in the listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that received when we were confirmed: “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”

What is this “fear of the Lord” that we are supposed to take delight in? Ah, let’s go back and look at the comment of John: “You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee the wrath that is to come?” The whole concept of the wrath of God has to be carefully understood.

We must not think of the wrath of God as God’s throwing down thunderbolts on people He is angry with.  No, no, no.  God’s wrath can only be understood in the context of God becoming man to set us free from the hell we create for ourselves.  God respects our free will and will never force us to choose the good and to avoid choosing evil. So, we best understand the phrase “the wrath of God” as the way things are if we choose to mess up our lives.  Bad begets bad; and a lot of bad begets a dreadful result.  That bad result of those bad choices is what God in Christ came among us to resolve.  This is what we mean when we say that Jesus came to save us from our sins.  He came not only to point the way, but to be the way we can be lifted out of the results of our  poor choices.

Our problem is that we don’t really want to face up to our bad choices.  Therefore, we really don’t want to repent; and then we don’t get it why our lives get messed up.  A life messed up is the result of sin. That’s why Scripture says, “The one who says he does not sin is a liar.”  We have all sinned are in need of the Savior.

Now, for justice to flourish in our time and for the fulness of peace to begin, we must come to terms with the evil that we allow into our lives.  That’s why going to the sacrament of Penance during Advent is so important.  Each one of us either contributes to the advance of the Kingdom of God on earth, or we thwart the advance.  We thwart this advance of goodness and holiness by our giving in to the materialism of thinking our worth is determined by the things we have, and the secularism of staying silent when our whole society is crying out for meaning, meaning that only Christ can give. We thwart God’s advance into the heart of man whenever we make compromises with the good, when we give in to the desires of the flesh, whenever we settle for systems that beget injustice and oppression, and whenever we chip away at our business ethics for the sake of unseemly gain.

Oh, to be a person of character! To be restored to the state of grace! Oh, to be make a firm purpose of amendment!  These are the things John  the Baptist calls us to come to terms with as we prepare for the coming of the Lord.  To do this, I ask, implore, and encourage all of us to come to our Advent Penance Service on Monday,12/13 at 7 pm.   Give God the gift of a pure heart for Christmas!

 

Since we do not have a king in our day, how shall we understand this Solemnity of Christ the King? What are we to learn on this last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year?

Did you know that right after we were baptized with water, the crown of our head was anointed with Chrism, a perfumed olive oil that is consecrated every Holy Week? It’s used by the Church at baptisms, confirmations, and ordinations of priests and bishops. These words are using during this anointing at baptism:

“God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin and given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into His holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet and King, so may you always live as a member of His body, sharing everlasting life.”

If we understand what it means to be priest, prophet and king, then our lives would be transformed; and so would our image of ourselves; and our attitude towards others.

Since this is the Solemnity of Christ the King, let me focus right now only on what it means to be king and how Jesus is king.

In the Old Testament God did not want for his people to have a king. God himself wanted to be their king, as the one to whom the chosen people would look to provide order to society. His Torah, or Law, would establish justice and righteousness so that the people could walk in the ways of the Lord and live in peace and tranquility.

The chosen people, however, were won over by the all the surrounding cultures: all of them had a king. So God reluctantly consented. Occasionally extraordinary men would hold this office, like King David, the true epitome of a priest, prophet and king.

When David wanted to build a Temple for the Ark of the Covenant, even the great King David was told that there was too much blood on his hands, and his son, Solomon would be the one to build the Temple. But, because of David’s allegiance to the Lord, the Lord promised him that God would build a house for him, a lineage, and an eventual son, the anointed one, who would reign as king forever in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is this Son of David, the anointed one, the messiah, the Christ, whose very name, Jesus Christ, means Jesus the Anointed One, Jesus the King, a king of a universal kingdom that is so wonderfully described in the preface of today’s Mass, right before the Holy, holy, Holy:

"As king he claims dominion over all creation,
 that he may present to you, his almighty Father,
 an eternal and universal kingdom: 
a kingdom of truth and life,
 a kingdom of holiness and grace,
 a kingdom of justice, love, and peace."  

So, my friends, Jesus Christ, the King, is the One to Whom we look to provide order to our society and to our own lives. The order that Jesus brings to those who believe in Him is a rightly ordered life. We have a rightly ordered life when the center of our lives is Jesus. We adore not some idol, but the God-man, Jesus Christ, the he is King. When we have a rightly ordered life, centered on Christ, we have peace and tranquility; we have justice, love and holiness; and we spend our lives searching after the Truth and defending life.

You see, if God is the center of our lives, then all the other aspects of our lives will be in harmony. This is what Jesus does for us. He is the One who brings us out of darkness into light. Remember, Christianity is not a set of ideas or a philosophy. No, Christianity is a relationship with a Person; and that Person is Jesus Christ. When Jesus is the center of our lives, the King, the One most important person in our lives, then we experience wholeness, harmony, and a well-ordered life. This is what we call salvation. So, the challenge for us on this Solemnity of Christ the King, is to decide if we want to be like the good thief who recognizes that there is no one else to hope in; or do we want to be like the bad thief, who is bitter and sarcastic even to his very last breath.

Homily for Sunday, November 14, 2010

Have you been paying attention to all the prophets of doom that have been taking over the stage of our interpretation of the times we are living in?  Have you noticed that as our national debt increases to trillions of dollars never before dreamed of, we hear more and more dire predictions about the future?  It’s not just our debt that causes this string of dire warnings about a future that will be less wealthy, less educated, less able to handle the coming bad times.  It’s also a growing national awareness that we are too soft, too complacent, too fratricidal to face the stiff medicine that is needed to correct the path we seem to be heading on.

Doesn’t it all sound like the Prophet Malachi, “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch.”

And then Jesus paints a picture that is equally dire, a picture that looks like both the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world.  Yet He says, “By your patient endurance you will save your lives.”

How shall we interpret all of this?

Has there ever been a time when it hasn’t looked like the end is about to happen?  The political party out of power cries that the other party is destroying the country. The educational system isn’t what it used to be like. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  And on and on.

My brothers and sisters, every age sees the end of the world.  Every person sees, as their last act, the end of the world as death comes to claim them. And sometimes along the path of life, a person may see the end of their own personal world as a spouse or child dies, or a bankruptcy is declared, or as bills can’t be paid, or as a health issue steals the vigor of an earlier, healthier time, or as a major sin steals one’s innocence.  

Some people face such difficulties by giving up, like some of the Thessalonians who were so convinced that the end times had come that they stopped working.  As we heard in our second reading, Paul has to rebuke them to get back to work. So also, some people as they face severe hardship give up, lose their vitality, and they begin to decline, physically and mentally and spiritually, as they lose the virtue of hope.

Other people respond to the possibility that everything is about to come crashing down into some kind of collapse by maintaining their hope.  This is not a Pollyanna attitude of denying the harsh realities, but is comes from a deep down conviction that no matter what comes, I will trust in the Lord.   

There seems to be a contradictory statement in the Gospel that clarifies this for me: Listen to hear if you recognize the contradiction: “You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.”

How can you be hated and even be pit to death, “but not a hair on your head will be destroyed”?

It’s all in the attitude. If you are solid with the Lord, if there is no greater good to you than God, if you trust in God no matter what you, or the rest of the human race, have to face, then even suffering and death are acts of praise. It comes from the sure and certain hope that we will soon enough see the Lord in the clear light of eternity.

This is how Jesus can tell us, “By patient endurance you will save your lives.”  If we make the choice to see ourselves as yoked with the Lord, in a partnership with the Lord, walking by faith, not by sight, we will be just fine.  If we come to know that this is how life is: filled with ups and downs, dryings and risings, joys and sorrows, happy things and scary things, when this comes over us, we don’t lose our peace and our patient endurance.  

This is the peace that the world does not give.  This is the peace that only comes from Jesus Christ.  This is the meaning of that wonderful prayer between the Our Father and the Sign of Peace during Mass: Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, I leave you peace, my peace I give you. Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your Kingdom where you live forever and ever. Amen, and may the peace of the Lord be with you!

 

Homily for Sunday, November 7, 2010

What’s wrong with a little pork?  Yet the seven Maccabee brothers suffered torture and death rather that eat pork.  It seems like such a minor deal, doesn’t it?  What’s wrong with a little pork?  Yet for the Maccabees, eating the unclean food of pork was symbolic of repudiating their Jewishness. And this they would never do. So they died rather than violate their consciences.  

What’s the application to us today?

The pressure for us today is to abandon our faith. The pressure is so strong for us that many of us want to keep our being Catholic to ourselves. We avoid religious topics with our non-Catholic friends and co-workers. We do that for a variety of reasons: sometimes we don’t know our faith well enough so as to speak rationally and convincingly enough about this or that stand of the Church; or we don’t like being on the spot about religion; or our faith isn’t strong enough to know if we agree with the Church on this stand or that; or we are not willing to be so committed to our consciences that we will stand with the Church no matter what risks are involved in bravely standing up for our Faith.

About 150 years ago in Viet Nam Catholic men were subjected to immense tortures, and death, if they would refuse to stomp on a crucifix.  Imagine how people today could easily justify giving in to such pressure! Why, even without any possibility of torture, some Catholics today are heard saying, “I was raised Catholic,” which is code for, “but I don’t believe any of that anymore.”  

St. Paul says in our second reading, “Not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.”

You see, faith is contagious.  So is faithlessness.  Do you remember the story of St. Polycarp?   He was a martyr from the very early Church.  So early in Church history that, as a youth he used to sit at the feet of an elderly St. John the Apostle. When he was in his 80’s he was arrested and condemned to die for being a member of the outlaw group called the Christians. He could have repudiated his faith and then not have to suffer being burned at the stake. But he reasoned that, if after 80 years of fidelity to Christ he was now faced with repudiating Christ, then how on earth could he violate his whole life’s fidelity to Christ by avoiding martyrdom in his last years? And how could he give such a bad example to the young? The purity of his heart’s devotion to the Lord was such that, as he was burned at the stake, the smell was not that of burning flesh, but the aroma of bread baking in an oven.

Polycarp’s fidelity was similar to so many other early Christians who would rather suffer being thrown to the lions rather than violate their consciences and repudiate Christ.

Willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ can only happen if one takes seriously our belief in the resurrection of the dead.  There were many self-proclaimed messiahs who came along over the ages and even sometimes suffered death, but only one Messiah became the focus of a religion that has spread over the course of the centuries and across the globe.  The reason for this difference was that only one Messiah rose from the dead.  Only one Messiah appeared to disciples in such a convincing manner after death that they were willing to die for Him rather than keep silent about Him.  It is this belief in the resurrection from the dead that “will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.”

All through these 20 centuries there have been outstanding witnesses to our faith, people who were willing to die for Christ rather and deny Him.  And there were more martyrs for the faith in the last 100 years than during all the other centuries put together!

So, let no one of us here, therefore, ever be caught saying, when pressed on religion, “Well, I was raised Catholic,” as if to say, “but now I am embarrassed by that fact.”  Let no one of us here ever choose to stay silent when our Mother the Church is mocked. The Church is the Bride of Christ; and the Lord of Eternity chose to die on the cross for His bride, the Church. Let no one of us here be so weak in faith as to be silent and allow today’s version of stomping on the cross to take place in our presence.

Just as fidelity is contagious, so is infidelity contagious. So, “may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word,” and strengthen our resolve to being faithful to the Lord and to His Church even to our very last breath.