Saturday, November 2, 2013

"NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD."



Homily for Nov. 4th, 2013: St. Charles Borromeo.
          Today’s saint, Charles Borromeo, was born in 1538 in a castle on the shore of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. His father was a count, his mother the sister of a future pope. From birth, therefore, Charles was surrounded by privilege and vast wealth. Remembering Jesus’ words about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God (cf. Lk 18:24), we would hardly expect that a child so privileged would become a saint.
          Though handicapped by a speech impediment, he became a doctor of both civil and canon or church law at age 21. Shortly thereafter his maternal uncle was elected Bishop of Rome, taking the title of Pius IV. The new pope soon made his nephew, then only 22 and not yet ordained priest, a cardinal and bishop of Milan in northwest Italy – a classic case of nepotism. Ordained a priest at age 24, Charles was detained by his papal uncle in Rome, to assist in the government of the Church. Only two years later was he able to enter his diocese, which had been without a resident bishop for eighty years.
          During the only 18 years which remained to him, Charles worked tirelessly for Church renewal and reform, despite embittered opposition from the civil authorities in Milan, and many of the clergy. At one point one of his priests actually discharged a gun at his bishop. The assassination attempt failed due only to the primitive nature weaponry in that day. When the plague broke out in Milan, causing most of the clergy and civil officials of the city to flee, Charles remained behind to nurse the sick personally.
Exhausted by his labors, Charles Borromeo died at age 46 in the night of November 3 to 4, 1584, having spoken the Latin words, Ecce venio – “Behold I come.” Just seventeen year later, the then reigning pope, Paul V, declared him a saint.
Charles Borromeo is a singular example of what the angel Gabriel told a Jewish teenager named Mary, when she asked how she could possibly be the mother of God’s son: “Nothing is impossible for God” (Lk. 1:37).

Thursday, October 31, 2013

ALL SOULS' DAY



Homily for All Souls’ Day 2013.
          Yesterday, on All Saints’ Day, we reflected that we are never alone. I told you what Pope Benedict XVI said at his installation of Bishop of Rome in April 2005: “Those who believe are never alone B neither in life nor in death.@ God never intended us to be Lone Rangers, I said. In baptism he made us members of his great family, the Catholic Church. He wants us to support one another. One way we do so is by praying for one another.
          Our present Pope Francis is quite different from his predecessor. Yet he proclaims the same gospel. Here is something he said only last Wednesday. “The communion of Saints goes beyond earthly life, it goes beyond death and lasts forever. This union among us, goes beyond and continues in the afterlife; it is a spiritual union that stems from Baptism is not severed by death but, thanks to the Resurrection of Christ, is destined to find its fullness in eternal life. There is a profound and indissoluble bond among all those who are still pilgrims in this world - among us - and those who have crossed the threshold of death to enter into eternity. All the baptized down here on earth, the souls in Purgatory and all the Blessed who are already in Paradise make up one great family. This communion between earth and Heaven is brought about especially through intercessory prayer.”
          Intercessory prayer (also called suffrages) refers to our prayer for the departed, and to their prayer for us. He is what the Catechism says. “The Church in its pilgrim members [that is in us who are still alive], from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them. Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them but also of making their intercession for us effective.” (No. 958)
          This is what we do in a special way on All Souls’ Day.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

"WHAT WILL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST?"



Homily for Oct. 31st, 2013: Rom. 8:31b-39.
          “If God is for us,” Paul writes in our first reading, “who can be against us?” This rhetorical question introduces one of the greatest testimonies of personal faith in the whole of Scripture. 
          Personal witness or testimony has a prominent place in the worship of Evangelical Protestants – too prominent, some would say. Catholics shy away from it. We’re not comfortable speaking publicly about our personal faith. Handled properly, however, personal testimony has unique power.
          “Christ intercedes for us,” Paul writes. How encouraged we should be to know that his work and prayer for us did not end with his resurrection and ascension. From his place at the Father’s right hand, Jesus continues to bring us and our needs to his Father’s attention. Who could be a more powerful advocate for us than the One who laid down his life for us?
          Continuing his rhetorical questions, Paul asks, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” The unspoken answer to this question is clear: Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love; nothing in either heaven or earth.
          “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
          What an eloquent testimony to personal faith those words are; what a powerful aid to confident hope when we are down and discouraged. And how fitting were the words we spoke in response: “Thanks be to God.”
          We pray in this Mass that, when appropriate and needed, the Holy Spirit of the living God will give us words to testify to our own personal faith.

"ZACCHAEUS, COME DOWN QUICKLY."



31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C.  Wis. 11:22-12:2; Lk. 19:1-10.
AIM: To proclaim Jesus= offer of hope to the hopeless and salvation to the lost.
In 1985 the German tennis player Boris Becker set the tennis world on its ear by coming out of nowhere, at age seventeen, to win the Wimbledon tennis tournament. He won it again in 1986 and 1989. By age twenty-one Becker was a rich man, with a tax residence in Monaco and access to just about any luxury he desired. Yet he was unhappy, his life so empty that he contemplated suicide. AI had no inner peace,@ Becker said later. Many successful people who have ignored their inner life feel that way. J. Oswald Sanders, author of the book, Facing Loneliness, writes: AThe millionaire is usually a lonely man, and the comedian is often more unhappy than his audience.@ Jack Higgins, author of the novel The Eagle has Landed and other best-sellers, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: AThat it=s lonely at the top.@
The central figure in the gospel reading we have just heard has reached the top. But he is lonely and unhappy. As chief tax collector in Jericho, Zacchaeus was filthy rich by the standards of those days. He was not the kind of tax collector we think of: a salaried public official. He was the sole proprietor of a business enterprise. He had a contract with the hated Roman government of occupation to pay them each year a fixed amount in taxes. How he got the money was of little concern to the authorities. He squeezed his fellow citizens for all they were worth, pocketing whatever he could in the process. No wonder he was hated: first for his greed and strong-arm tactics; second for collaborating with the pagan Romans. For all his wealth, Zacchaeus was a lonely man: alienated from his own people and alienated too from God.
Zacchaeus had heard about Jesus, the wandering rabbi who enjoyed such tremendous popularity. What was his secret, Zacchaeus wondered? If only he could see Jesus, perhaps speak with him. But how could Zacchaeus mingle with the crowd gathered to welcome Jesus? These were the people he had milked year after year to amass his wealth. He hit on an ingenious idea. He would climb a tree. With everyone straining to see Jesus, no one would notice him. And he would have a good view. 
Someone does notice Zacchaeus, however. Then as now, climbing trees was for boys C certainly not something anyone could imagine a millionaire doing. How they must have jeered to see this hated rip-off artist up in a tree. It is not difficult to imagine Zacchaeus=s shame and embarrassment at being seen. The jeering stops, however, as Jesus looks up at the tree and calls out: AZacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.@ Zacchaeus was accustomed to being ostracized, especially by religious people. Yet here was a religious teacher actually saying he wanted to dine at Zacchaeus=s house. With a big smile on his face he hurries down. The crowd makes way for him as he goes to greet Jesus and lead the way to his house. 
Once there Jesus does not preach to Zacchaeus that he must repent or else go to hell. Jesus= non-judgmental and unconditional acceptance of Zacchaeus speaks more powerfully than even the most eloquent sermon. In full view of everyone at the table Zacchaeus stands up and says: AHalf of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.@ By giving half of his wealth to the poor and using the other half to repay the victims of his greed Zacchaeus= wealth was just about gone. Who needs money, however, when you have found a meaningful life?
Where had this greedy, grasping man suddenly got such generosity? He got it from the One who had called out to him in love rather than in condemnation, and who even then was sitting at his table as an honored guest; the One who loved Zacchaeus when he had done nothing to deserve love; and who in this way had made it possible for Zacchaeus to love others in return, out of gratitude. 
What better example could we have of the creative, healing power of love? What better demonstration that love is never lost when it is shared, but that it is increased? Love is contagious. It grows when we give it away. What clearer illustration could we have of the central truth of the gospel: that God=s love for us is always a free gift, never a reward?
The good, respectable religious people of Jericho are scandalized by the whole affair. AHe has gone to stay at the house of a sinner,@ they protest in tones of shocked indignation. What for them was a scandal is for us good news. Jesus is the one who Ahas come to seek out and to save what was lost.@ 
Those words are a statement of who Jesus is. Then, now, for all time, Jesus Christ is the one who does not look at what we have been, or even at what we are.  Instead Jesus looks at what, deep in our hearts, we would still like to be. He is the one who has come to search out and to save people without hope, the most abandoned, those most deeply entangled, like Zacchaeus, in webs of selfishness, self-indulgence, and greed.
AToday salvation has come to this house,@ Jesus told Zacchaeus. He is saying the same to us, right now. This is our great today. This is our hour of salvation. Jesus is here, calling us, inviting us to his holy table. He is reaching out to us in active, accepting love, though we have done little or nothing to deserve such love. He is here for no other purpose than to seek out and save people who, without him, are floundering, without hope, and lost.
Zacchaeus Awelcomed Jesus with joy,@ Luke tells us. We can share that joy. Because of Jesus Christ, and his love for us, life is not aimless, not without meaning. Our sins, our failures, our compromises are not the last word about us. The last word belongs to the One who tells us that he has come Ato seek and to save what is lost.@ No matter what others think of us. No matter what we may sometimes think of ourselves. There is One to whom we are infinitely precious. He is Jesus Christ: Son of man and Son too of God C our brother, our lover, our best friend; but also our savior, and our God!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

THE NARROW GATE



Homily for Oct. 30th, 2013. Luke 13:22-30.
ALord, will only a few people be saved?@ Jesus is asked in our gospel reading. The question was asked out of mere curiosity. Jesus never answered such questions. Here he turns to a different question B and a far more important one: AHow can I be saved?@ Many, he warns, will not be saved. People who are complacent, who think they can postpone their decision for God, will find themselves shut out from God=s presence. Many others, however, who do not belong to God=s chosen people, will be saved, Jesus says. APeople will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.@ God offers salvation not just to one people, but to all peoples. 
The lesson for us Catholics is clear. A Catholic baptismal certificate and attendance at Sunday Mass do not guarantee salvation. Our Catholic faith must produce fruits in daily life. If it does not, we too risk hearing one day the terrible words in today=s gospel: AI do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!@
AStrive to enter through the narrow gate,@ Jesus says. That Anarrow gate@ stands for every situation in which God=s demands weigh heavily on us and seem too hard to bear. Our trials and sufferings are the homework we are assigned in the school of life. Our teacher in this school is Jesus Christ. Whatever trials and sufferings we encounter, his were heavier. This is the Anarrow gate@ of which Jesus speaks in the gospel: the patient endurance of all the hard things that life sets before us. Jesus never promised that God would protect us from trials and sufferings. He promises that God will be with us in trials and suffering. 
Today=s gospel begins by saying that Jesus was Amaking his way to Jerusalem.@ For Jesus, our teacher in life=s school, Jerusalem meant Calvary. There he passed through his Anarrow gate.@ There he had his final examination in life=s school. John=s gospel tells us that Ain the place where [Jesus] was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb ...@ (19:41). In that garden tomb, hard by Calvary, the Lord=s heartbroken friends laid his dead body on Good Friday afternoon. From that tomb Jesus was raised on the third day to a new and glorious life beyond death. He had passed his final examination. He had graduated. For him there would be no more school, no more examinations, no more suffering.
Jesus invites us to walk the same road he walked. Here in the Eucharist,  he gives us the food we need for our journey. He invites us to make our way to Jerusalem, there to pass through our narrow gate to Calvary B but beyond Calvary to resurrection and the fullness of eternal life with him.     

"THOSE WHO BELIEVE ARE NEVER ALONE."



Homily for All Saints= Day
AIM: To help the hearers rejoice in our fellowship with the saints.
Eight and a half years ago, on April 24th, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI, now retired, began his ministry as Bishop of Rome with the Mass which he celebrated before a vast crowd in St. Peter=s Square in Rome. Three times that month, he told them in his homily, they had chanted the litany of the saints: at the funeral of Pope John Paul II; as the cardinals processed into the conclave to choose his successor; and at the beginning of the Mass which Pope Benedict was celebrating, when the response to the invocation of each saint was a prayer for the new Pope: ALord help him.@ 
At Pope John Paul=s death, Pope Benedict said, his predecessor had crossed the threshold of the next life, entering into the mystery of God. ABut he did not take this step alone. Those who believe are never alone B neither in life nor in death.@   We knew, the new Pope said, that the saints, Ahis brothers and sisters in the faith ... would form a living procession to accompany him into the next world.@
Two weeks later, Pope Benedict continued, as the cardinals gathered to choose the Church=s new chief shepherd, Awe knew that we were not alone. We knew that we were surrounded, led, and guided by the friends of God. And now, at this moment, weak servant of God that I am, I must assume this enormous task, which truly exceeds all human capacity. How can I do this?
AAll of you, my dear friends, have just invoked the entire host of saints, represented by some of the great names in the history of God=s dealing with mankind. In this way, I can say with renewed conviction: I am not alone. I do not have to carry alone what in truth I could never carry alone. All the saints of God are there to protect me, to sustain me, and to carry me. 
Is it only popes whom the saints protect, sustain, and carry? Don=t you believe it! The saints are truly sisters and brothers to every one of us. That is why we pray to them: not as we pray to God, of course, but asking them to pray for us.  What could be more natural, what more fitting? God never intended us to be Lone Rangers. In baptism he made us members of his great family, the Catholic Church.  He wants us to support one another. One way we do so is by praying for one another. Priests receive requests for such prayer all the time. AFather, please pray for my little granddaughter,@ a parishioner said to me recently. AShe is having a difficult operation to preserve her failing eyesight. If it fails, there is nothing more they can do.@  
If it is right, and natural, to ask our friends here on earth to pray for us, how much more fitting to ask the prayers of our friends in heaven, the saints? Being close to God, their prayers are especially powerful.
The saints are not remote figures in stained glass windows. In reality they are close to us. We enjoy fellowship with them. The letter to the Hebrews, after giving thumbnail sketches of the saints of the Old Testament in chapter 11, portrays them at the beginning of chapter 12 as spectators in an arena, supporting and encouraging us who are running now the race they ran here on earth. ASeeing, then that we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily drags us down; and let us look to Jesus, the beginning and end of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now set down on the right hand of the throne of God. 
People often ask: How many saints are there? There are reference books which list them. And the list is constantly growing. In reality, however, most of the saints are known only to God. That is why we celebrate All Saints= Day, honoring not only those we know, but the vastly larger number of those known only to God.  All Saints= Day reminds us that we are never alone: neither in life nor in death. 
When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and clouds seem to shut out the sunshine of God=s love, the saints walk with us. When we rejoice at some answered prayer, some great achievement, some unexpected blessing, the saints rejoice with us. For the saints, our sisters and brothers, are not only more numerous than we often suppose. They are also, in a sense, more ordinary. They faced the same difficulties we face. They never gave up. That was their secret. The saints are just the sinners who kept on trying. 
Each time we make a decision for Jesus Christ, we place ourselves on their side. They centered their lives on the Lord. He was their strength in life, their companion in death. He is the same for us. As long as we are trying to be true to him, he will give us what he gave them: strength to live, and courage to die.  

Monday, October 28, 2013

MUSTARD SEED, AND LEAVEN



Homily for Oct. 29th, 2013: Luke 13: 18-21.              
          The two little parables we have just heard in the gospel, about the mustard seed, and leaven, immediately follow the report of opposition to Jesus because he heals on the Sabbath. Jesus knows that his followers will also face bitter opposition. He tells the two parables to give them hope. They both say that God’s kingdom begins small and hidden; yet suddenly breaks forth with life, and is not confined to any single group.  
          Luke, the author of our gospel, was a city man and no farmer. He doesn’t know that his reference to a man planting mustard seed in his garden misrepresents the conditions of that day. Mustard bushes grew wild around the Lake of Galilee, the Scripture scholars tell us, not in gardens. They grow from tiny seeds to a height of 8 to 12 feet, far taller than a man. It is this growth which the parable emphasizes.
Leaven, on the other hand, is thought of in Scripture as something that corrupts. Even today observant Jews eat only unleavened or pure bread at Passover time – like their ancestors, who ate only unleavened bread as they prepared to flee from slavery in Egypt, because of the need for haste. There was no time to wait for the leaven to do its corrupting work. Was there a childhood memory behind this parable -- Jesus recalling his mother kneading dough with leaven? We cannot know. But it is not unlikely.
Despite all opposition and discouragement, Jesus is telling his friends, ourselves included, that, like both seed and leaven. God’s kingdom is at work secretly yet irresistibly. How fitting then, is our response to this brief gospel reading: “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sunday, October 27, 2013

"HE CHOSE TWELVE."



Homily for Oct. 28th, 2013, Feast of the Apostles Simon and Jude: Luke 6:12-16.
 From his disciples, we heard in the gospel, Jesus chose twelve. Why twelve? Because God’s people was composed of twelve tribes. Jesus was establishing a new people of God. The twelve men Jesus chose to lead his new people were undistinguished. If they had one common quality it was mediocrity. About most of them we have only legends. And the lists of names in the different gospels don’t even agree in all cases.
He calls these mostly quite ordinary men “apostles.” What is an apostle? The word means ‘one who is sent’ – like an ambassador, sent to another country to represent his country, and especially the head of state who sends him.
Who are today’s apostles? One answer is “the bishops.” We call them the successors of the apostles. Each one of them must have been ordained bishop by at least one previous bishop who is, as the books say, “in the apostolic succession.” That means that he too must have been ordained by a bishop who received his sending from a bishop who can trace his call back to one of the twelve originally sent out by Jesus and named today’s gospel.
In baptism and confirmation, however, Jesus has also sent each one of us to be his apostles, his messengers. How do we do that? You probably know St. Francis of Assisi’s answer to this question. “Preach always,” Francis said. “When necessary, use words.” How wise that is. Personal example is always more powerful than words. “What you are,” someone said, “speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
So what are we? In baptism we were made God’s sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, and heirs of his kingdom. The whole of our Christian life, therefore – all our prayers, sacrifices and good works -- are not a striving after high and distant ideals that constantly elude us. They are efforts to live up to what in baptism, we have already become. We come here, therefore, to receive, at these twin tables of word and sacrament, the inspiration and strength to be messengers of God’s love, and bringers of his light, to a dark and mostly unbelieving world.