Friday, January 10, 2014

"BE ON YOUR GUARD AGAINST IDOLS."



Homily for January 11th, 2014: 1 John 5:14-21.
          “Children, be on your guard against idols,” we heard at the end of the first reading. It’s probably safe to say that idols hardly appear on the radar screens of most Catholics. Catholics who live in the Bible-belt are aware that fundamentalist Protestants charge us with idolatry because we have statues in our churches, and because of the prayers we say in front of those statues. Such charges don’t bother us because we know that we don’t worship the statues. Idolatry may have been an issue in Bible times, we assume, but not today. That is dead wrong! Idolatry means putting anything at all in the place that belongs only to God. Here are some examples.
People who live for thrills are worshiping the false god of pleasure. The American novelist Ernest Hemingway is an example. He lived for thrills: the excitement of battle in the Spanish Civil War, bullfighting in Spain, four marriages and goodness know how many affairs, big game hunting in Africa. The person who lives for thrills and pleasure is never fully satisfied. Is it so surprising that Hemingway ended by blowing his brains out? 
          People who center their lives on making money are worshiping the false god of possessions. How much is enough? a millionaire was asked. “Always just a little more,” he replied. Another very rich man said: “Anyone who thinks that having a lot of money will make you happy has never had a lot of money.”
          We’ve all heard of control freaks. They are worshiping the false god of power. They too are frustrated, because they can never get enough power. Finally there is the false god of honor. An example: Jesus’ disciples arguing at the Last Supper over “who should be greatest” (Luke 22:24). Friends, that argument is still going on. Pope Francis recently tried to discourage it by virtually eliminating the honorific title of Monsignor. Good luck, Holy Father!
          Friends, we’re not Puritans. Each of these things – pleasure, possessions, power, and honor – is good. They become bad only when we center our lives on them. Then they produce unhappiness and frustration. Because we can never get enough. There is only One who can answer our prayers. “He hears us,” our first reading says. The false gods cannot hear us: they are deaf, dumb, and blind. I leave you then with two questions. Are you directing your prayers to the one true God? Are you centering your life on Him?

Thursday, January 9, 2014

"IF YOU WISH, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN."



Homily for January 10th, 2013: Luke 5:12-16.
          The Bible commentators tell us that the disease of leprosy mentioned often in Scripture is not the same as leprosy today, which doctors call Hansen’s disease. In the Bible leprosy is any kind of disfiguring skin disease. People afflicted in this way suffered not only physically but socially and spiritually, as well. They were banned from public places. And since they were considered spiritually unclean they could not participate in Temple worship. Anyone who touched a leper became spiritually unclean as well.
          This helps us understand why the man we have just heard about in the gospel reading is so desperate. He “fell prostrate,” Luke tells us, and “pleaded” with Jesus, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” The man’s faith in Jesus’ power to heal is crucial. Faith opens the door for God’s action in our lives.
          Out of compassion with this social outcast Jesus responds at once. Reaching out across the boundary between clean and unclean, Jesus touches the man, saying: “I do will it. And the leprosy left him at once,” Luke tells us. Jesus has restored him to the community of God’s people. Jesus then orders the man to fulfill the provisions of the Jewish law by going to a Temple priest and offering sacrifice. Jewish priests were then also quarantine officials.
          The gospel writer, Luke, was what passed in those days for a physician. This is evident from the care he takes to tell us that the man’s cure was instantaneous. Note also what Luke tells us about Jesus at the end of the reading: “He would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” Luke’s choice of words makes it clear that Jesus did this repeatedly. Why?
          Jesus was constantly surrounded by people clamoring to get at him, to speak with him, to touch him. He needed those times of silence, alone with his heavenly Father. It was in those hours of solitude that Jesus nurtured the power to heal, to say to rough working men, “Follow me,” and have them obey him on the spot. And if Jesus, whose inner resources were infinitely greater than hours, needed those times alone with God, we are fools and guilty fools, if we think we can do without them.  

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

"WE LOVE GOD BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US."



Homily for January 9th, 2014. Letter of John 4:19-5:4.
          “We love God because he first loved us.” Isn’t that why we love our parents? If they were reasonably good parents, they loved us when we were still in the womb. “We talk to the baby,” a young father said, when his wife was expecting their first child. Asked what they said to the baby, he replied: “We talk to the baby when we’re lying in bed, about everything we did that day.” Already, before they have seen the little one who is the fruit of their love for each other, the bond of love is being woven.
          The little one comes into the world already loved. And this love is not just a matter of feelings. It takes flesh as it were, in the often arduous toil of caring for an infant. That is how each one of us learns to love: from our parents, mothers especially. In the tragic cases in which a child is unwanted, the ability to love is stunted, with often bitterly unhappy consequences in later life.
          Because we are imperfect sinners, God’s love for us infinitely exceeds our love for our children. But the priorities remain the same. If we have any capacity to love at all, it is because God has loved us first. Nor does God’s love for us slacken, let alone disappear, when we fail to respond to his love. In Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son the father never stopped loving his son after the young man left home. How do we know that? We know it from the fact that at the son’s return his father saw him “while he was still a long way off” (Luke 15:20). The father was looking for him. You don’t keep looking for someone you have ceased to love.
          “The love of God is this,” our first reading tells us, “that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” Really? Don’t we often think of God’s commandments as fences to hem us in? In reality they are signposts pointing us to a happy and fulfilled life. It is so that God’s love for us, given to us already in the womb, and continuing no matter how far we may stray from him, may be deepened and strengthened, and bear fruit in lives of generous service to God and others, that we are here. And so we pray to the One who is love: “Come, Lord Jesus!”     

JESUS' BAPTISM -- AND OURS



Homily for the Baptism of the Lord. Is. 42: 1-4, 6-7; Mk 1:7-11.
AIM: To show from Mark=s account of Jesus= baptism the meaning of ours.

AWho is this man?@ Jesus= contemporaries asked this question repeatedly.  People are still asking it today. Four details in Mark=s account of Jesus= baptism, which we have just heard, help to tell us who Jesus is. Each is deeply significant to anyone familiar, as Jesus was, with the Jewish scriptures which we call the Old Testament. The four details are:
C       the rending of the heavens;
C       the descent of the Spirit;
C       the hovering dove;
C       the heavenly voice.
1.       AOn coming up out of the water [Jesus] saw the heavens being torn open.@ Mark uses this dramatic expression to signal that Jesus= public ministry, which he is about to describe, will fulfill the prayer uttered long before by the prophet Isaiah.  We heard the passage six weeks ago on the first Sunday in Advent: AOh, that you would rend the heavens and come down ... Thus would your name be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old@ (Is. 63:19-64:3).
2.       From the opening in the sky, Mark tells us, Jesus Asaw ... the Spirit ... descending upon him.@  Mark=s words evoke the opening of our first reading, from Isaiah: AHere is my servant whom I uphold ... upon whom I have put my spirit.@  Jesus, according to Mark, fulfils Isaiah=s prophecy about a coming Aservant of the Lord;@  the one, Isaiah prophesied, who would Abring forth justice to the nations.@  Jesus does not do this with the conventional means of power politics, however.  He does it quietly, gently: Anot crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.@ Jesus, the servant of whom Isaiah wrote, acts upon people inwardly. He does not whip people up by propaganda or fiery denunciation. He gently molds us by the power of his example, wooing us with a love that will never let us go. This is what Isaiah meant by his words in our first reading: AA bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench.@
3.       The descent of God=s Spirit was, Mark writes, Alike a dove.@ This image of a dove fluttering over Jesus= head as he emerged from the waters of Jordan evokes a familiar verse at the beginning of the first creation tale in Genesis: ANow the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God=s spirit hovered over the water@ (Gen. 1:2, Jerus. Bible). The Catechism says: AThe Spirit who hovered over the waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation ...@ (No. 1224).
4.       Finally, there is the heavenly voice, proclaiming as Jesus comes out of the water: AYou are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.@ In our first reading Isaiah speaks of God=s Aservant.@ The heavenly voice at Jesus= baptism declares that he is more than a servant. Jesus is God=s Abeloved Son.@ 
Mark implies that Jesus alone perceived these four signs: the rending of the heavens, the descent of the Spirit, the hovering dove, and the heavenly voice.  Together they disclose who Jesus is. His identity remained hidden from the onlookers, however. Hence they continue to ask: AWho is this man?@ The whole of Jesus= public ministry, which Mark will now narrate, is intelligible only in the light of this mysterious event at the beginning, with it rich scriptural symbolism: the four signs which proclaim who Jesus truly is.
Mark also records John=s words before Jesus= baptism: AI have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.@ John=s baptism imparted forgiveness. His baptism of Jesus imparted power. At the Jordan Jesus received the Holy Spirit not just for himself, but in order to pass on this Spirit to others. To do so, however, Jesus would have to undergo another baptism which, he says, caused him Aanguish@: his baptism of blood on Calvary. (Cf. Lk 12:50.) At his baptism in the River Jordan Jesus left behind his hidden life a Nazareth to embark on his public ministry. This ended at Calvary. From the garden tomb nearby Jesus rose in the power of the same Holy Spirit whom he had received in baptism, to impart this Spirit to all who would become his sisters and brothers in baptism.
When each one of us was baptized there was (to use the language of Isaiah and Mark) a real Arending of the heavens.@ God=s Spirit descended on each of us, to lead us from the darkness of sin into the light of God=s love; to create us anew.
The Catechism says: ABaptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte [the one baptized] >a new creature,= an adopted son of God, who has become a >partaker of the divine nature,= member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.@ The Catechism also says that baptism gives us Athe power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit@ (1265-6).Over each of us, at our baptism, God said: AThis is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter.@ That is not what we are striving to become. It is what we already are: adopted children of God, partakers of his divine nature, members of Christ and co-heirs with him, temples or dwelling places of the Holy Spirit.
The whole Christian life C all our striving, all our praying, every attempt to be generous with God others C is our attempt to thank God for our high destiny, and for his great gifts, so far beyond anything we deserve. That lived thanksgiving will be complete only when the Lord calls us home, to present us to his Father.  When he does so he will repeat the words which recall those uttered at our baptism: AFather, this is your beloved daughter. This is your beloved son.@

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

"IT IS I, DO NOT BE AFRAID!"



Homily for January 8th, 2014: Mark 6:45-52.
          What began as a routine evening crossing of the lake soon turns into a nightmare for Jesus’ friends in their small boat. Small wonder, that they cry out in fear as they see a human figure approaching across the wind-whipped waves. It is Jesus. “Take courage,” he calls out. “It is I, do not be afraid!”
Like most people in antiquity, Jesus’ people, the Jews, regarded the sea as the domain of supernatural, demonic forces. To the Hebrew mind wind and waves were perilous: only God could master them. Repeatedly the psalms speak of God’s power to “rule the surging sea and calm the turmoil of its waves” (Ps. 89:10; cf. 93:3f; 107:23-30). By walking on the raging waves, and calming the stormy sea, Jesus shows himself to be acting as only God can do.
          This beautiful story speaks to each one of us individually. Somewhere in this church right now there may be someone facing a personal crisis: an illness, perhaps, your own or that of a loved one; a family problem; a humiliating failure; the sudden collapse of long held hopes, plans, and efforts. You are filled with fear. When you look down, you see only peril and ruin. But look up! Keep your eyes on Jesus. He still has power to save. 
          The story assures us that when the storm rages and the night is blackest; when we cannot see the way ahead; when we are bone weary with life’s struggle and our hearts fail us for fear, Jesus is close. He only seems to be absent. In reality he is never far from us. He knows at every moment the difficulties against which we contend. Across the storm waters of this world he comes to us and speaks the same words of assurance that he spoke to the terrified men in that small boat: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” 
          That is the gospel. That is the good news.

Monday, January 6, 2014

"GIVE THEM SOME FOOD YOURSELVES."



Homily for January 7th, 2014: Mark 6:34-44,
          As the sun starts to sink and the shadows lengthen, Jesus’ disciples approach him with an urgent request. “This is a deserted place and it is already very late; dismiss [the crowds] so that they can go … and buy themselves something to eat.”
          Jesus’ response surprises us: “Give them some food yourselves.” He was having fun with them – teasing them. Jesus knew perfectly well what he was going to do. Not realizing this, the disciples point out that what Jesus has asked them to do is impossible: all they have, the disciples say, is five loaves and two fish.
          Jesus has the disciples tell the people to sit down in orderly rows. Then he takes the loaves and fish, looks up to heaven, blesses these hopelessly inadequate supplies, and gives them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd. “They all ate and were satisfied,” Mark tells us, adding: “and they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.” But of course: there were twelve men doing the distribution.
          What does this tell us? Two things. First, when we entrust our pitifully inadequate resources to the Lord, they are inadequate no longer. Second, when the Lord gives, he gives not only abundantly, but super-abundantly. We come repeatedly not because the Lord limits his gifts, but because our ability to receive them is limited.
          The early Christian community loved this story. We find it told six times over, with variations, in the four gospels. We heard Matthew’s version last August. The reason for the story's popularity is clear. It reminded Jesus’ friends of what he does in the Eucharist. We offer him a little bread and wine – and these modest gifts come back to us transformed into his Body and Blood: all his goodness, all his love, all his compassion, patience, and purity. And when have him, we have everything!  

Sunday, January 5, 2014

'REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND."



Homily for January 6th, 2014: Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25.
          “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Jesus says at the beginning of his public ministry. Bible scholars tell us that Jesus uses the phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” in order to avoid speaking the name of God, which was forbidden to Jesus’ people. When reading a text which contained the word "God", they substituted “the Lord.” Jesus was actually telling the people that God’s reign was at hand. Hence, Jesus said in his teaching, they must repent. Repentance begins with the acknowledgement that we fall short of what God wants for us; and of what, deep in our hearts, we want of ourselves. 
At the beginning of the long interview with Pope Francis that was published all over the world late last September, he was asked: “Who is Jorge Bergoglio?” (the Pope’s name before he was chosen as Bishop of Rome). “He stares at me in silence”, the interviewer writes. “I ask him if I may ask him this question. He nods and replies: ‘I do not know what might be the most fitting description … I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.’”
The acknowledgement that we fall short is the necessary start of all repentance. Having made this acknowledgment, we must follow it up by telling the Lord we are truly sorry, that we want to do better; and that we know we can never do so without his help. Pope Francis, who helps us repent by identifying himself as a sinner, says often: "God never gets tired of forgiving us. It is we who get tired of asking for forgiveness."
Jesus, who is God’s Word – his personal communication to us – shows us God's readiness to forgive by calling as a disciple a public sinner like Matthew, the tax collector. Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son has the same message. The Father in the story (who is a stand-in for God) immediately forgives his shiftless son, who has wasted his money, freely given him by the father, in what the text charitably calls “riotous living.” Not content with that, he orders a banquet to celebrate his son’s return.
He is doing the same right now – for us. Because we are unworthy, we begin every Mass by asking forgiveness. And we pray before we approach the Lord's Holy Table: “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church.”