Friday, February 28, 2014

"ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE FOR GOD."



Homily for March 3rd, 2014: Mark 10:17-27.
          “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God,” Jesus says. Note the effect of these words on Jesus’ disciples. Mark tells us that “they were amazed at [Jesus’] words.” Why? Because their Jewish faith told them that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing. Jesus had just contradicted a fundamental teaching of their faith. No wonder they were amazed – and no doubt totally confused as well.
          Their confusion is clear from the disciples’ question: “Then who can be saved?” By responding, “For men it is impossible,” Jesus is saying that while we cannot be saved without effort on our part, human effort alone is insufficient. Salvation is always God’s gift. That is the meaning of the second part of Jesus’ answer: “All things are possible for God.”
          The whole second part of our gospel reading is Jesus’ commentary on the man who has asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ response to the man’s question, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor,” is personal to this particular man. Because of the man’s earnestness, Jesus recommends renunciation. To most Jesus recommends not total renunciation but detachment – not clinging to what one has but living with open hands and an open heart: being a Giver rather than a Taker.
          Which are you? If you are a Taker, I’ll promise you one thing. You will always be frustrated, because you’ll never get enough. It is only the Givers who have joy in their hearts – the joy which, like salvation, is the gift of God, the giver of every good thing.
          This still leaves us with the question: If salvation if God’s gift, what is the point of all our sacrifices and good deeds? The answer is simple: they are our grateful response to everything God gives us. And if life has taught me anything, it is this. Grateful people are happy people.

PUTTING GOD FIRST



8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Isaiah 49:14-15; Matthew 6:24-34.
AIM: To show that God=s providential care is experienced most by those who live with generous trust in him.   

AZion said, >The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.=@ Those were the opening words of our first reading. Have you ever felt like that? You pray, and the Lord seems to answer with silence. In that first reading the whole of God=s people ask whether God cares. In one of the most beautiful verses of Scripture, God answers their plaintive question. ACan a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even if she should forget, I will not forget you.@
Scripture portrays God as our father many times over. God=s loving care for us includes qualities usually regarded as masculine: strength, power, sternness in discipline, and generosity in reward. But God is more than a father. Here he speaks as a mother. His concern for us includes qualities we think of as feminine: gentleness, tenderness, and warm, protective love.
Jesus continues this theme in the gospel. God=s tender concern for us, his children, exceeds that of the best father and mother combined, Jesus says. He knows our needs before we do, even as a good mother senses in advance the needs of her baby. Even nature shows God=s loving care for everything he has created, Jesus tells us. Look at God=s handiwork in the flowers, his care for the birds. Do you suppose for one minute, Jesus is asking, that you are of less value than these? If so, you have little idea of your true worth in the eyes of your heavenly Father.
AStop worrying,@ Jesus says. ADo not be anxious.@ Is he telling us not to work and plan for the future? Of course not. The people to whom Jesus was speaking in today=s gospel lived hard lives. They had to work longer hours than almost any of us. Moreover, they lived close to nature. When they heard Jesus speaking about the wild flowers, and the birds, they understood. They knew that there are few creatures who work as hard for their living as the average sparrow, flying back and forth innumerable times to build a nest; foraging for worms and other food, and then flying back to the nest to feed its young.
What do you worry about? Some people worry about basic necessities. In our rich and comfortable society others worry not about necessities but about luxuries. They think they must have everything bigger and better. They want to Amake it big.@ Some die of heart attacks in the attempt. Others burn out on their way up and never have time to enjoy the fruit of all their worry and toil. 
Has your job or your career become an end in itself? Do you ever take time to relax, to be with your loved ones, to enjoy God=s beautiful world, to read a good book, listen to some fine music B to pray? If not, don=t you think it=s time you started B before you burn out, or burn up?
ANo one can serve two masters,@ Jesus says. AYou cannot serve God and mammon.@ Mammon is money and possessions. Money is a wonderful servant. It enables us to do so much good: for the people and causes we love, to help those in need, to satisfy our own needs. But money is a terrible master. Are you being mastered by what you have, or would like to have? If so, you are not rich B no matter how much you have accumulated. You are poor.
If that is your problem, then start today to put God first in your life. For instance, instead of giving to Church and charities the loose change left over after you have taken care of your necessities and as many luxuries as you think you can afford, how about deciding to give God and his poor the first share of your income B a truly grateful, generous share?
When you do that, you are making a faith-decision. You are trusting that what is left over after giving God Ahis@ share will be enough for you and your loved ones. People who make that faith-decision discover that what Jesus says in today=s gospel is literally true: AYour heavenly Father knows all that you need.@
Lent starts on Wednesday. Here’s a suggestion. Why not think and pray seriously about putting the Lord first in your life – yes, and in your budget as well. I decided to do that almost sixty years ago. It has brought me so many blessings – yes, financial ones as well – that frankly, I can’t afford to stop.
Some years ago I submitted a sample of my handwriting to a graphologist for analysis. One passage in his report interested me especially: “You are not particularly thrifty; your plans for conservation and use of money may be somewhat haphazard. But you are certainly not worrying about money, for your debt frustration is one of the lowest I have ever seen.” I smiled broadly when I read that. I knew the reason. God had the first claim on whatever money I received from any source. I found that what was left over for me was always enough, and more than enough.   
Once you begin to put God first in your life, in all areas of life B including the one so important to most of us today, money B you are fulfilling Jesus= command in today=s gospel: ASeek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.@ When you start doing that, you make a wonderful discovery. All the things you previously spent so much time fretting and worrying about are taken care of. And you make another beautiful discovery: God can never be outdone in generosity.
ASeek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides.@ That is Jesus Christ=s personal promise to you. And when Jesus Christ promises something, he always keeps his promise. 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

"THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."



Homily for February 28th, 2014: Mark 10:1-12.
          In today’s gospel reading Mark gives us Jesus’ teaching about marriage and divorce. The second creation tale in Genesis presents marriage as something established by God in creation. “A man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife,” we read there, “and the two of them become one flesh.” (Gen 2:24). Hence the teaching, that this one-flesh relationship once established, is permanent and can be dissolved only by death, comes from the Lord God. It is not some legal burden imposed on people by the nasty Catholic Church, to limit human freedom and make people miserable  -- as many people in today’s secular society believe.
          In today’s gospel Jesus’ critics ask him how this teaching about the indissolubility of marriage can be reconciled with the provision in Jewish law for the ending of marriage by divorce which we find in the 24th chapter of the book Deuteronomy. This says that a husband who finds what the text calls “something indecent” in his wife, can write and hand to her a bill of divorce and send her away. And that ends the marriage. The text makes no provision for a wife who wishes to divorce her husband. Divorce came about, Jesus tells his questioners “because of the hardness of your hearts,” in other words because of human sin.
          This leads to an almost classic dilemma. The Church has two duties which conflict with one another. There is first the prophetic duty, to proclaim in season and out that marriage is indissoluble and terminable only by death. The second duty is pastoral: reaching out in loving care to people whose marriages go on the rocks. These two duties often conflict with one another, which puts the Church in a bind.


          The problem has become so urgent that the Church right now, under the leadership of our new Pope Francis, is engaged in a profound study of the whole question. Cardinals from all over the world, who were in Rome last week for the creation of new cardinals, started the discussion. A synod of bishops from the whole world in Rome next October will continue the discussion, trying to decide how the Church can best fulfill its two duties: to preach the truth about marriage; and to care for people whose marriages fail. They need all the support in prayer that we can give them. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"IF YOUR HAND CAUSES YOU TO SIN, CUT IT OFF."



Homily for February 27th, 2014: Mark 9:41-50.
AIf your hand causes you to sin,@ Jesus says, "cut it off. ... And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. ...  And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.@ How can Jesus say such things? He is not encouraging us to maim ourselves. He is using hyperbole: deliberate exaggeration for the sake of effect. We use hyperbole all the time. In my early childhood a dearly loved aunt used to say to me, when she thought I was over-eating: AJay, if you eat any more, you=ll burst.@ At age five I had never heard of hyperbole and couldn’t have told you what the word meant. I knew I wouldn=t burst. But I had no difficulty understanding that my aunt wanted me to ease up on the food intake.
What is Jesus= real point? He is telling us that if we are serious about being his followers, our commitment to him must be total. We must be willing to sacrifice even things as dear to us as hands, feet, and eyes. Taking Jesus= language literally would make God into some kind of sadistic monster. The God whom Jesus reveals is a God of love.
But this raises a further difficulty. How could a loving God condemn people to the eternal punishment indicated by Jesus= words about going Ainto Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire@? Gehenna was well known to all Jesus= hearers. It was a deep ravine outside Jerusalem, previously the site of idolatrous rites in which children were made to pass through fire. It thus became a symbol for hellfire. Hence the difficulty B
How can a loving God condemn anyone to eternal punishment B to hell? The answer may surprise you. God does not condemn anyone to hell. If there is anyone in hell B and the Church does not tell us whether there is, while firmly insisting, with the Bible, that hell is a possibility and a reality B then it is because they have freely chosen hell for themselves. The Catechism is clear on this point: ATo die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God=s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called >hell.= ... God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end.@ (Nos. 1033 & 1037, emphasis supplied.) The judgment that God will pronounce on each one of us at the end of our lives is not the adding up of the pluses and minuses in some heavenly account book. It is simply God=s ratification of the judgment we ourselves have pronounced by the fundamental choice we have made throughout our lives. 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

"WHOEVER IS NOT AGAINST US IS FOR US."



Homily for February 26th, 2014: Mark 9:38-40.
          “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me,” Jesus tells his disciples who have found someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name who was not among his followers. “For whoever is not against us is for us,” Jesus explains. We find a strikingly similar incident in the Old Testament book of Numbers.
            During the 40 years’ wandering of God’s people in the wilderness, Moses calls together 70 elders of the people, who gather round the tent where God was worshipped. God comes down in a dark cloud and speaks to Moses. “Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,” the text says, “he bestowed it on the 70 elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.” (Num. 11:24ff.) Two of the 70 elders, named Eldad and Medad, didn’t make it to the assembly; but the spirit came on them nonetheless, and they too prophesied. An unnamed young man reports this to Moses; and his lieutenant Joshua urges Moses to stop Eldad and Medad.  Moses refuses. “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets,” Moses says.
          What is at issue in both incidents is what we call today tolerance. There is a great difference, however, in the tolerance affirmed by both Moses and Jesus, and the basis for tolerance today. Modern tolerance rests on the belief that there is no such thing as truth. There is your truth and my truth. But truth itself doesn’t exist, modern society says. Such a position would have been unthinkable to Moses and Jesus.
          Biblical tolerance is based on the belief that there is good in all people of good will, even if some of their beliefs may be mistaken. The Catholic Church holds that there may be a kernel of truth even in positions which may be mistaken. Hence we respond to people whose beliefs differ from ours not simply by condemnation, but by affirming whatever is good and true in their positions. This is what enabled Pope Francis, questioned aboard the plane which brought him back to Rome from World Youth Day in Brazil about people, including priests, with an attraction to their own sex: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” In the media frenzy which followed the Pope’s two conditions – searching for the Lord, and having good will – were mostly ignored. Pope Francis has said more than once that he is “a son of the Church.” He has changed no Catholic teaching, and does not intend to. 

Monday, February 24, 2014

"WHO SHALLL BE GREATEST?"



Homily for February 25th, 2014: Mark 9:30-37.
          “What were you arguing about on the way?” Jesus asks his friends after they had completed their day’s journey and reached the house where they would spend the night. “But they remained silent,” Mark tells us. On the way Jesus had told them he would be crucified and rise again on the third day. Even though Mark tells us that they did understand what Jesus told them, they clearly understood enough to be embarrassed when he asked them the subject of their conversation. For they had been discussing “who was the greatest.”
          Luke’s gospel tells us that they even argued over this at the Last Supper. (Lk 22:24) I’m sorry to tell you, friends, that this argument continues today. And we clergy are especially susceptible. Even canonized saints have engaged in the contest for position and honor. One of them was the 18th century French saint, Vincent de Paul. He decided to be a priest, even managing to get himself ordained several years before the minimum age, because he thought of priesthood as a career, rather than a service. Only years later did he come to realize his error, acknowledging it by writing: “If I had known what priesthood was all about, as I have come to know since, I would rather have tilled the soil than engage in such an awesome state of life.”  In an attempt to put a damper on this contest about greatness, Pope Francis recently put at least a temporary stop on the granting to priests of the honorific title of “Monsignor.” Well, Holy Father: Good luck!
Jesus responds to the argument about greatness by calling a young child to his side. “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me,” he tells his disciples. “And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is greatest.” We grasp the full meaning of Jesus’ action and words only when we know that he lived in a society which was anything but child-centered. In Jesus’ world children, like women, were supposed to be seen and not heard.   
When I entered seminary just over 65 years ago, we newcomers were given a book of “Principles,” as they were called, to guide our lives. One of them went like this: “Choose for yourself the lowest place, not because of modesty, but because it is most fit for you. There is always someone whose burden is heavier than yours. Find him out, and if you can, help him.”
I’ve never forgotten that. Nor should you. 

Sunday, February 23, 2014

"EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE TO ONE WHO HAS FAITH."




Homily for February 24th, 2014: Mark 9:14-29.
The boy who is brought to Jesus by his father is possessed by “a mute spirit,” Mark tells us. He is evidently both deaf and dumb, unable to speak. The symptoms Mark describes are consistent with what today would be called epilepsy. Jesus lived in a pre-scientific age. Illness was attributed to demons. That is not entirely false. Illness and death were not part of God’s original plan of creation. They entered the world as a consequence of human sin. And it was human sin that opened the door for the Devil and his dark power.  
Jesus’ cry, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you?” reminds us of Jesus' sigh before the healing of a deaf man in chapter seven of Mark’s gospel, which we heard just ten days ago. That sigh, and Jesus’ words here, are expressions of the Lord's grief over the consequences of human sin – in both cases illness.
The father’s detailed description of his son’s condition shows that he is in anguish over the boy. “If you can do anything,” the father cries out, “have compassion on us and help us.” Quoting the father’s own words, “if you can,” Jesus assures him: “Everything is possible to one who has faith.” Whereupon the man bursts out: “I do believe, help my unbelief!” His prayer for greater faith shows that he still has doubts.
As the story goes on, it becomes clear that even this imperfect faith is enough. It enables Jesus to cast out the demon and restore the boy to good health. Jesus’ words, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you: come out of him and never enter him again!” show that the healing is permanent. 
What is the story’s lesson for us? It tells us that what opens the door to God’s action is faith. And it assures us that this faith need not be perfect. Finally, the story encourages us to pray with the desperate father of this boy: “Lord, I do believe, help my unbelief!”