Friday, September 26, 2014

"WHICH OF THE TWO DID HIS FATHER'S WILL?"

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.  Matthew. 21:28-32.
AIM: To show that our only claim on God is our acknowledgment of sin and our prayer for forgiveness.

On the day after Christmas 1958 Angelo Roncalli, who had become Pope John XXIII not quite two months before, visited Rome=s central prison.  A murderer asked the Pope: ACan there be forgiveness for me?@ The Holy Father responded by enfolding the man in his arms. No words were necessary. The embrace said it all.
AYou can=t come to me,@ Pope John told the prisoners. ASo I have come to you.@ He went on to tell them that he had some personal experience of jails: his brother had once been arrested for poaching. In the account of the visit which appeared in the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano the next day this remark was censored. The editor feared that readers would be scandalized to learn that a Pope=s brother had been in trouble with the law.
 Pope John=s experience with the Church Establishment, represented in this instance by the editor of the Vatican newspaper, was not unlike that of Jesus Christ. ATax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you,@ Jesus says to the religious leaders of his people at the end of this story about the man with two sons. He was addressing Athe chief priests and elders of the people@.  
Jesus= association with people of bad moral character (represented here by Atax collectors and prostitutes@) scandalized his pious critics. His acceptance of such people did not mean approval of their sinful lives, any more than Pope John=s embrace of the murderer implied approval of violent crime. By welcoming notorious sinners Jesus was appealing to the spark of goodness that was still in them as God=s children. He knew that kindness and love can break through the hardened human heart far more effectively than moral denunciation.     
Today=s parable of the two sons was Jesus= way of bringing home the contrast between the religious leaders, who rejected him, and the outcasts of society, who heard him gladly. To Jesus= hearers, living in a patriarchal society, the father in the story was a figure of unquestioned authority. His sons owed him obedience not merely because they lived in his house.  Obedience was also a sacred duty enjoined by the fourth commandment: AHonor your father and your mother.@ 
The first son=s response to the father=s request for help on the family farm was an in-your-face refusal of his duty which would have deeply shocked Jesus= hearers. ABut afterwards [he] changed his mind and went,@ Jesus tells us. The second son responds courteously and at once: AYes, sir!@   ABut [he] did not go,@ Jesus says.
Immediately Jesus confronts his critics with a question. AWhich of the two did what his father=s will?@ Jesus= critics give the only possible answer: AThe first.@ They are convicted out of their own mouths. AAmen, I say to you,@ Jesus tells them, Atax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.@   
The second son in the story, who told his father he was on the way to work and then failed to go, is like Jesus= upright critics. Proud to be members of God=s chosen people, they were confident that faithful performance of their religious duties gave them a claim on God which he was bound in justice to honor. They had forgotten that we never have a claim on God. God has a claim on us, and it is an absolute claim. AWhen you have done all you have been commanded to do,@ Jesus says on another occasion [and which of us has?], Asay, >We are useless servants. We have done no more than our duty=@ (Luke 17:10).
The first son in the story, who told his father there was no way he was going to work for him any longer, and later regretted his insolence and went to work after all, is like the depraved outcasts who heard Jesus gladly. Their lives proclaimed rebellion against God. But the welcome they gave Jesus showed there was still goodness in them. Jesus appeals to this goodness by his compassionate love. Perhaps, like the first son, they will yet feel regret and turn from the darkness of their wasted lives to the sunshine of God=s forgiveness and love. This hope is the basis for Jesus= stern warning to his hard-hearted and self-righteous critics: ATax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.@
For us the story contains a warning C but also encouragement.  Faithful performance of our religious duties is in itself no guarantee of salvation. Such obedience is profitable only if it brings us closer to others and makes us more loving people C and if it brings us closer to God. And the closer we come to God, the more clearly we shall recognize our remaining sinfulness and unworthiness of all the love he showers on us.  Jesus gives the same warning in the sermon on the mount: ANone of those who cry out, >Lord, Lord,= will enter the kingdom of God but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven@ (Matthew 7:21).
Who are those who cry, ALord, Lord@? Certainly not the declared enemies of Jesus Christ. No, we are the people who cry, ALord, Lord.@   Day by day, and Sunday by Sunday, we utter the Lord=s name: in petitions, intercession, thanksgiving, praise, and penitence. That is right and good.  The parable warns us, however, that if our piety does not bear fruit in our lives, we are still far from God. The warning is not for outsiders, for others.  It is for us, the declared followers of Jesus Christ.
If the story=s second son is a warning to us, however, the first son is an encouragement. As followers of Jesus Christ we have been taught that readiness to respond to God=s= call is a virtue, slowness or refusal a sin. We have been told not to complain, and to avoid the rebellious attitude which produces and nurtures complaints. Few of us, however, avoid these things completely. Often we are slow to respond to God=s call, coming to us through the teaching of the Church, through the inner voice of conscience, through the needs of a sister or brother whom we encounter along life=s way, or in the legitimate commands or requests of those in authority. Sometimes we refuse such calls altogether.
All that is, in the last analysis, of little account, Jesus is telling us.  What counts is not what we say, feel, or intend. The only thing that counts is what we do. Negative feelings, resentment of God=s demands or of the demands of others, are not important if, despite such feelings, we are still trying to do what we know is right. Indeed, being generous with God and others when this is difficult, in spite of the sullen resentment within, is of greater value than obeying God=s call in times of spiritual fervor and zeal.
God sees the difficulties with which we must contend. When we stumble and fall, and think we can rise no more because we=ve been down so often before, we need to ask God to do for us what we can no longer do ourselves. When we approach God in that way, we do have a claim on him: the claim of a sinner seeking God=s mercy.
Let me conclude with the verses of an evangelical hymn. If you have ever watched a Billy Graham revival on television, you have heard it sung softly by the massed choirs as people come forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ. It goes like this:
Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bid=st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just I am, though tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt
Fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yes, all I need, in thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am: thou wilt receive; wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because thy promise I believe; O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown, has broken every barrier down;
Now to be thine, yes, thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come.

Just as I am, of thy great love, the breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above: O Lamb of God, I come.

"THEY WERE AFRAID TO ASK HIM . . . "


Homily for Sept. 27th, 2013: Luke 9:43b-45.
          “They were all amazed at [Jesus’] every deed,” today’s brief gospel reading begins. Immediately before this verse Luke has described Jesus’ healing of an epileptic boy, the only son of his father (9:38). The man has already asked Jesus’ disciples for healing, without success. The youth has an epileptic fit even as he is being brought to Jesus. The Lord heals the boy with a word and gives him back to his father. “And all who saw it marveled at the greatness of God,” Luke tells us (vs. 43a).  The opening words of our gospel today follow immediately: “All were amazed at [Jesus’] every deed.”  
          Jesus breaks into the people’s amazement to tell them something he wants them to remember. “Pay attention to what I am telling you” are the words we heard. What Luke writes literally is: “lay up in your ears these words. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” This is so jarring that the people do not understand it. “They were afraid to ask him about this saying,” Luke tells us.
          To understand this fear we must reflect that the miracle of healing which the people have just witnessed, indeed all Jesus’ miracles, kindled in them a desire for something we all want: a success story. Being betrayed into the hands of men certainly didn’t sound like success. No wonder the people were afraid to enquire too deeply about Jesus’ meaning.
          The day would come, however, when people would understand. After Jesus’ death and burial his women disciples, more faithful than the men, visit his tomb as soon as the Sabbath rest is over, intending to do what had been impossible Friday evening, when the Sabbath had already begun: anoint the Lord’s body. The women find not Jesus’ body but “two men in dazzling garments” (clearly angels) who ask them: “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here; he has been raised up.” And then, Luke tells us, the angels tell the women: “Remember what he said to you while he was sill in Galilee – that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” “With this reminder,” Luke writes, “[Jesus’] words came back to them” (Lk 24:4-8).
          We pray, then, in this Mass: “Open our ears, Lord Jesus, to listen to your words. And when we do not understand, give us patience to await the day when we shall understand, when we shall see you face to face. Amen”

Thursday, September 25, 2014

A TIME FOR EVERY THING



Homily for September 26th, 2014: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11.
          I told you yesterday that the short Old Testament book Ecclesiastes, with its repeated refrain, “All is vanity,” is often called the most cynical book in the Bible. It brings us not good news, but the bad news that life is indeed empty, “vanity,” unless we center our lives on the Lord God. In the midst of this bad news, however, we come upon a passage that is like finding an oasis in a desert: the assurance which we heard in today’s first reading, that “There is an appointed time for every thing under the heavens.”
          In words of great beauty the author, called Qoheleth, a word of uncertain meaning, often translated “the Preacher,” says that there is “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh . . . A time to be silent, and a time to speak.”  
The full and rounded person makes time for each of these pairs of opposites. There are times when it is important to speak. At other times silence is more appropriate. When I entered seminary 65 years ago we newcomers were given a little book called “Principles.” One of them went like this: “The conversation of the brethren should help and cheer us, but God’s voice speaks most often in silence. Keep some part of every day free from all noise and the voices of men, for human distraction and craving for it hinder divine peace.” I’ve tried to do that in all the years since I first read those words.
About one sentence in this short reading, Bible scholars have been disputing for over 2000 years. God “has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into [people’s] hearts.” What is this “timeless”? I believe it is the sense, inborn in us though rejected by the book’s author, that there is a world beyond this one, and a life beyond death. It is for this that we are born and made: to serve God, our loving heavenly Father, faithfully here on earth; but beyond that to be happy with him forever in heaven.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

VANITY OF VANITIES, ALL IS VANITY!"



Homily for September 25th, 2014: Ecclesiastes 1:2-11.
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher. Vanity of vanities!’ Is that good news -- to be told that life is empty and without meaning, which is what those words are saying? Hardly. The book which begins with those words, Ecclesiastes, repeats them like a refrain. Ecclesiastes has been called the most cynical book in the Bible. It contains the bad news that we need to hear to prepare us for the good news brought to us by Jesus Christ.
The bad news is that life is indeed empty B Avanity,@ Ecclesiastes calls it B if we organize our lives apart from God. Is there anyone here who has done that? Probably not. Your presence here at a weekday Mass shows that God does have a place in your life. The question for us, therefore, is not: ADoes God have a place in my life?@ but rather: AWhat place does God have in my life? Is he at the center? Or have I pushed God out toward the fringe of my life?@   
As long as our lives are not centered on God – but on our own desires, our plans for a wonderful future, for possessions, pleasure, power over others, for recognition and fame – then we’ll never be happy. Why? Because if any of those things is central to us, our life will be organized around getting; and we’ll always be frustrated, because we’ll never get enough. 
The World War II British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill B not an especially religious man B said once: AWe make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.@ Churchill was right. Jesus says the same in different words: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35).
At the end of the day, there are basically two kinds of people: takers and givers. It is only the givers who find true and lasting happiness. No generous giver ever found life empty and meaningless –“vanity,” to use Ecclesiastes’ word. Giving people find life full of joy. And it was to give us joy that the Lord God sent his Him into the word who says in John’s gospel: “Live on in my love . . . that my joy may be yours and your joy may be compete” (15:9-11).

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

"TAKE NOTHING FOR THE JOURNEY."



Homily for Sept. 24th, 2014: Luke 9:1-6.
          “Take nothing for the journey,” Jesus tells the Twelve as he sends them out “to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He wants those whom he commissions as his messengers to travel light. They are to depend not on material resources, but on the Lord alone.
          Jesus’ words are especially relevant today. All over the world, forces hostile to the Church are rising. In our own country the government is trying to impose on Catholic organizations, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, conditions which we cannot, in conscience, accept. We are being asked, for instance, to pay for sterilization and abortion. In Ireland, unlike the United States a historically Catholic country, there is even an attempt to pass a law which would compel priests, in certain instances, to violate the seal of the confessional. TV entertainers air gross jokes about Catholic priests which they would not dare make about Muslim imams or Jewish rabbis. And the media show little interest in reporting studies which show that Christians are the Number One target of religious persecution in the world today.
          We rightly lament this tide of anti-Christian and anti-Catholic sentiment. But it has a good side as well. Whenever in its two thousand year history, the Church has been favored by the powers that be, whether financially or in other ways, it has grown spiritually flabby and weak. The Church is always at her best in times of persecution. When persecution is raging it is difficult, mostly impossible, to see this. Things become clear only when we look back. So let’s look back.
In recent centuries the most violent attack on the Church came in the French Revolution, which started in 1789 and lasted more than a decade. Thousand of priests were murdered under the guillotine. Most of the French bishops fled the country. Those who remained had to accept restrictions on their ministry which they justified on the plea that there was to other way to continue offering the sacraments to God’s people. 
As the Church moved into the nineteenth century, however, there was an explosion of religious vocations in France, and the foundation of an unprecedented number of new religious orders, for both men and women.
          When we grow discouraged at the hostile forces confronting us, we need to remember: God can bring good out of evil – and he does, time after time!

Monday, September 22, 2014

JESUS' TRUE FAMILY



Homily for Sept. 23rd, 2014: Luke 8:19-21.
          Jesus’ mother and his brothers come to visit him, our gospel tells us. His brothers? The word which Luke uses means “relatives” or “kinsmen.” From antiquity Catholics have believed that Mary had no other children but Jesus. Having given herself completely to God by responding to the angel’s message that she was to be mother of God’s son with the words, “Be it done to me according to your word,” it was inconceivable that Mary could give herself to another. This is why she is called “Mary ever virgin.” 
          Jesus’ mother and his other relatives are unable to get to him, we heard, “because of the crowd.” Those four words give us a glimpse of what life was like for the Lord on most days of his public ministry. He was constantly hemmed in by people shoving, pushing, shouting, trying to get his attention. This explains why Jesus retreated, whenever he could, to what the gospels call “a deserted place” – somewhere where he could be alone with his heavenly Father. 
          When Jesus is told that his mother and other relatives are trying to get to him through the crowd, he responds with words that sound like a put-down: “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” In reality the words are not dismissive. Can there be any doubt that Mary truly listened to God’s word and acted on it? Jesus’ words are extensive: they extend the limits of his family to anyone who truly listens to his teaching and acts on it – in other words, to us.
          God’s word comes to us in many ways: through Holy Scripture, read out here in church, or pondered over as we read the Bible for ourselves. God’s word comes to us also through the teaching of his Church, and through the still, small, but powerful voice of conscience.
          How better, then, could we respond to Jesus’ words in today’s gospel than with the simple prayer of the boy Samuel, when he heard his name being called as he was sleeping in the Temple: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:10).

Sunday, September 21, 2014

"TO THE ONE WHO HAS, MORE WILL BE GIVEN."



Homily for Sept. 22nd, 2014: Luke 8:16-18.
          The short sayings which Luke gives us in today’s gospel immediately follow the parable of the sower and the seed, which we heard on Saturday. Much of the seed the farmer in that story sows never comes to fruition. That parable describes the Church’s work in every generation. Despite the failure of so much of our efforts, some of the seed we sow falls on good ground, puts down roots, and produces not only an abundant harvest, but a super-abundant one. Jesus told the story as an antidote to discouragement.  
          In today’s brief reading Jesus continues to speak about the good news of the gospel. It is like light, he says, set on a stand at the entrance to a house for all who enter to see. Jesus is telling us that the light of God’s truth is given to us, like all God’s gifts, to be shared. If we don’t share the Lord’s gifts, we lose them. We can’t keep them unless we give them away.
          How do we share the light of God’s truth? We do so first of all and always by the way we live. St. Francis of Assisi used to say: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.” People must be able to see that we live by higher standards than those of the world around us, with its emphasis on getting rather than giving; and on repaying injuries according to the slogan, ‘Don’t get mad, get even!’
          Jesus’ final saying seems to be unfair: “To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” Jesus is saying that if we truly walk by the light of God’s truth, sharing that light with others – at least by the way we live, when necessary and when possible with words as well – we shall receive more light. If we keep the light of God’s truth for ourselves, we shall gradually lose that light until we find ourselves walking in darkness.
          Remembering how the Holy Spirit came to Jesus’ friends at the first Pentecost in the bright light of fiery flames, we pray in this Mass: “Lord, send us your Holy Spirit.”