Friday, January 30, 2015

"WHY ARE YOU TERRIFIED?"


Homily for January 31st, 2015: Mark 4:35-41.
Jesus is sound asleep in a boat, in the middle of a storm B the only place in the four gospels, incidentally, where we find Jesus sleeping. It was the sleep of exhaustion after a busy day of healing and teaching. But it was also the tranquil rest of the only man in that boat who had no reason for fear amid the elemental forces of nature.
Though the disciples were experienced seamen, these seasoned fishermen turn in panic to their sleeping master, who unlike them was no sailor, with the reproachful question: ATeacher, do you not care that we are perishing?@ Without a word of reply, Jesus acts. AHe rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, >Quiet!  Be still!=@
Repeatedly the scriptures of Jesus= people ascribe the power over wind and wave to God alone. Jesus Awoke up, rebuked the wind ... The wind ceased and there was great calm.@ It was more than the stillness of nature. There was an eerie calm in the boat as well, as Jesus= disciples look at each other in amazement, each formulating the same question: AWho then is this whom even wind and sea obey?@ Remember: their scriptures told them that only God could do what they had just seen Jesus do.
The first to break the silence is Jesus. In this story which consists almost entirely of questions, it is now his turn. AWhy are you terrified?@ Jesus asks. ADo you not yet have faith?@ Mark wants us, his readers, to hear Jesus putting these questions not only to his friends in that boat, but to all his friends, ourselves included. 
From the earliest times Christians have compared the Church to a ship. Like the ark, which rescued Noah and his family from the great flood, the Church preserves us from the flood of danger and evil in the world. Time and again, however, our ship is buffeted by storms. Whenever that happens, it is easy to think that the Lord is absent B or at least indifferent. Like those first friends of Jesus in the storm on the lake, we cry out in fear. At the proper time B which is God’s time, not ours B the Lord banishes the danger, and with it our cause for fear. Having done so, he challenges us with the insistent question: AWhy are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?@
Jesus asks us the same question today. What better response could we give than the cry of another friend of Jesus in this gospel according to Mark: ALord, I believe. Help my unbelief.@  (Mark 9:4) 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

"HE SPOKE ONLY IN PARABLES."


Homily for January 30th, 2015: Mark 24: 26-34.

“Without parables [Jesus] did not speak to them,” Mark tells us. Why do you suppose Jesus chose parables as his favorite form of teaching? Well, who doesn’t like a good story? Stories have a universal appeal: to young children, but also to adults. But there is another reason why Jesus chose to teach through stories. Because stories are much easier to understand than abstract explanations. In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes: “Every teacher who wants to communicate new knowledge to his listeners naturally makes constant use of example or parable. ... By means of parable he brings something distant within their reach so that, using the parable as a bridge, they can arrive at what was previously unknown.”  

Moreover, stories have a way of grabbing not only our attention but our emotions. The second book of Samuel tells about David’s great sin: adultery with the wife of one of his generals. While his troops are in the field fighting for him, David is lounging around in his palace in Jerusalem. From the roof he sees a woman bathing one day. He sends for her and has relations with her. God sends the prophet Nathan to David to rebuke him. Nathan does so by telling the king a story about a rich man who is unwilling to sacrifice a lamb from his vast flocks to feed a visitor. Instead he steals a lamb from a poor man who is keeping the animal as a pet. In anger David cries out: “The man who has done this deserves death.” David is convicted out of his own mouth. “You are the man!” Nathan tells him. (2 Sam. 12:1-6)

Today’s gospel contains two parables. The first tells us that God’s kingdom is like seed that a farmer sows in the ground. It grows secretly. Most of God’s work is like that. We grow discouraged because our efforts to build and grow God’s kingdom seem to bear so little fruit – or none at all. Unknown to us, however, and unseen, God is powerfully at work. One day – if not in this world, then at least in the next – we shall witness the result of this secret growth: fruit as astonishing as the enormous bush that grows from the tiniest of seeds.

Teach us then, good Lord, to trust always in you: to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to look for any reward, but that of knowing that we do your will. All this we ask in the name of your dear Son, who died that we might live; and who now lives with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

    

 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.  1 Cor. 7:32-35.
AIM: To explain Catholic teaching about marriage and celibacy, especially for
          those currently without a spouse.
          “An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,” Paul writes in our second reading, “how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided.” And Paul goes on to say the same about unmarried and married women. But aren’t Paul’s words a terrible put-down of married people?
          To answer those questions we need to know about the situation in which Paul was writing. He was addressing people who considered marriage the only healthy, normal way of living. To such people Paul was saying: ‘Think again. The single life, especially when embraced for love of God, is something good and holy.’
          Our world is very different from Paul’s. Yet today, as then, most people assume that everyone must have a partner. I put it that way because, sadly, more and more people today consider marriage optional. Living with a partner without marrying, and only “as long as we’re in love,” is increasingly the norm in today’s society. When such conditional partnerships break up, it is often children who pay the heaviest price.
The Catholic Church rejects the assertion that everyone must have a partner. It affirms instead that everyone, married or single, should strive for chastity. “At  the moment of his baptism,” the Catechism says, “the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.” (No. 2348) This is done, the Catechism explains, in different ways. “Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single.” In support, the Catechism quotes the fourth century bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, who writes: “There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows. And the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others. ... This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church.” (No. 2349)
          In honoring celibacy the Church proclaims that the single life, embraced responsibly for love of God, is a good life – and a happy life. It is estimated that at any given point in time roughly a third of the adult population is without a spouse: either not yet married, separated or divorced, or widowed. It is a great disservice to such people to allow them to regard themselves as disadvantaged and somehow incomplete. To those not married, whether through choice or circumstances, the Catholic Church proclaims the good news: ‘Your life can be happy, fulfilled, and meaningful. As long as there is love in your life – love of God and love of others – you lack nothing essential. You can hold your head high.’  
          But the Church which honors celibacy also highly honors marriage.  Marriage is one of the seven sacraments. “On the threshold of his public life,” the Catechism says, “Jesus performs his first sign – at his mother’s request – during a wedding feast. The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.” (No. 1613)
          The Church condemns today’s liberated sexuality – expressed in the slogan, “If it feels good, do it” – because it is responsible for so much disappointment, so much loneliness, so much cynicism about the possibility of ever finding true love – and hence so much despair. It drags us down to the animal level. It deprives sexuality of the reverence with which all high cultures have surrounded it, because it comes from the hand of God, enabling us to participate in the divine work of creation.
          The Church also rejects what is today called “gay marriage.” Homosexual people, the Catechism says, “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” (No. 2358) This does not mean, however, that we can re-define marriage at will.  “Marriage is not merely a human institution,” the Catechism says, “despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries ...” (No. 1603) Marriage, in other words, is something given in the order of nature. It is not ours to reshape as we please.
          But what about Paul’s claim in our second reading that single people are more devoted to God’s service than the married? We must remember that Paul was writing for people who saw nothing good at all in the single life. Hence he points out that the freedom from family responsibilities which single people enjoy makes it possible for them to serve God and others in ways not available for married people. Moreover, Paul was writing a letter. Had he been composing a balanced treatise on celibacy and marriage, he would have had to point out a unique danger in the single life: the constant temptation to please not the Lord but one’s self; to sink into a comfortable and selfish bachelor life.    
          Even when we have said all this, however, we are still left with the question: Why celibacy? Specifically, why does the Church require this of her priests? Speaking a few years ago to seminarians at Conception Abbey in northwest Missouri, I answered this question as follows: Everything in this world is good, sex included, because it comes from God, who is pure goodness. Yet the goodness of everything in this world is finite. Perfect goodness exists only in another world: the world of God. It is one thing to say this. But people will never believe it unless they see examples of people who are actually living here and now by the standards of that other world. So when God calls a man to celibacy, he is asking him to live in this world as a citizen of another world, the world of heaven.
The Chicago priest, Fr. Robert Barron, who is widely recognized as the Bishop Fulton Sheen of our day, writes: “The mission of celibates is to witness to a transcendent form of love, the way that we will love in heaven. There, in God’s world, we will experience a communion (bodily as well as spiritual) compared to which even the most intense forms of communion here below pale into insignificance; and celibates make this truth viscerally real for us now. I believe that celibacy only finally makes sense in this eschatological context.”
I can hear someone objecting already: “How many priests are actually living by the standards of God’s world?” There are two answers to that question, and they are both correct. The first is, “Not all that many.” And the second is, “More than you would think!” Moreover, if we posed a similar question about marriage, asking how many married people truly sacrifice everything for their spouses, and for the children God gives them, we would get the same two answers. Failure to achieve the ideal is no reason to abandon the ideal, whether it be total love of God for celibates, or total sacrifice for others for married people. 
To achieve the fulfillment and happiness each of us is seeking, all of us, married or single, must put God first in our lives, others second, and ourselves third. That is not something we can do, over the long haul, by willpower alone. It requires faith – trust in a God whose love for us surpasses our wildest imagination, and whose love will never let us go. All of us, therefore, married or single, need to pray always: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:4)

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


Homily for January 29th, 2015: Mark 4:21-25.

          The short sayings which Mark gives us in today’s gospel immediately follow the parable of the sower and the seed, which we heard yesterday. Much of the seed the farmer in that story sows never comes to fruition. The parable describes the Church’s work in every generation. Despite the failure of so many 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 terribly unfair: “To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has 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. But 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. Help us to be messengers of your Spirit’s light to others.”

 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

SEEDS AND SOILS


Homily for January 28th, 2015: Mark 4:1-20.

          Jesus’ favorite form of teaching was through stories. We call them parables. Most of them are so simple that they can be understood even by children; yet so profound that scholars are still writing books about them. The parable of the sower and his seed occurs in three of the four gospels. At the most basic level, the story is encouragement in the face of failure. It is Jesus’ answer to the rising tide of opposition which his teaching and ministry provoked. Most of the seed which the farmer sows is wasted. Despite this waste, the story promises a “hundredfold” harvest. A modern commentator writes: “A 20-to-1 ratio would have been considered an extraordinary harvest. Jesus’ strikingly large figures are intended to underscore the prodigious quality of God’s glorious kingdom still to come.”

          Today’s gospel reading gives the story another interpretation. By speaking about the different kinds of soil on which the farmer’s seed falls, Jesus directs our attention to our role in the harvest. It comes from God, yes. But it requires our cooperation.

          The different kinds of soil symbolize the many kinds of people who heard Jesus’ message: in his lifetime, and still today. “Those on the path are the ones who have heard,” Jesus says, “but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved.” There are people like that in every parish, the world over.  

So also for those on rocky ground. They receive Jesus’ words with joy. But they have no root, so in times of temptation, they fall away. The seed falling among thorns represent people unable to bring any fruit to fruition, because they are so busy with other things: anxiety, and pursuing the false gods of pleasure, possessions, power, and honor.  

The super-abundant harvest of which the story speaks comes only for those who internalize Jesus’ words, praying over them, and making them the foundation of their lives. In response, then, we pray: “Take hold of me, Lord. Help me to know that you are always with me; that I can find happiness only by fulfilling the purpose for which you fashioned me in my mother’s womb: to praise, serve, and glorify you here on earth; and so to be happy with you forever in heaven. Amen.”

Monday, January 26, 2015

"HERE ARE MY MOTHER AND MY BROTHERS."


Homily for January 27th, 2015: Mark 31-35.

          “The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house,” we heard at the start of today’s gospel. His brothers? The Church has always believed and taught that Jesus had no brothers. His mother Mary had only one child; which is why she is called “ever virgin.” Why, some people ask? Others ask, what difference does it make? It makes all the difference. Here’s why.

          Having given herself completely to God, when she told the angel Gabriel, “I am the servant of the Lord – be it done to me as you say,” it was impossible that Mary could give herself completely to a human husband. That is why Mary is “ever virgin.” The Greek word used by Mark and translated “brothers” was used in biblical times to designate not only siblings, but other relatives as well.

          More significant are the words Jesus directs to those sitting with him in the house: “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus widens his family circle to include all those who try to do his will – ourselves included.

          That, friends, is part of the gospel. That is the good news.  

         

 

Sunday, January 25, 2015

"ASK THE MASTER OF THE HARVEST TO SEND OUT LABORERS."


Homily for January 26th, 2015: Luke 10:1-9.

          Jesus has already sent out his twelve apostles, telling them to “take nothing for the journey.” They were to travel light, trusting not in material resources, but in God alone. (Lk. 9:1-5) He chose twelve, because the old people of God had twelve tribes. The Greek version of Genesis, chapter 10, lists 72 nations in the world. Just as the sending of 12 apostles symbolizes the founding of a new people of God, so the sending of the 72 in today’s gospel symbolizes the mission to the entire world. Jesus sends them in pairs so that they can support one another. His messengers are not Lone Rangers. We depend on one another. Here too, Jesus tells his messengers to travel light: “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals,” Jesus tells them.

          But why does Jesus tell them to “greet no one on the way”? He does so because the message he entrusts to them is urgent. There is story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elisha sending a messenger to bring back to life the only son of a barren woman to whom God has given a son in answer to Elisha’s prayer. Elisha tells the servant: “If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer” (2 Kgs 4:29). The servant’s mission was urgent: exchanging greetings on the way would delay him. So also here, with the 72.   

          As an encouragement to his messengers, Jesus tells them: “The harvest is abundant.” But they must “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” There was a time when Catholic parents, mothers especially, were the primary recruiters of future priests. No longer. Ask any Vocation Director, and he will tell you: the major obstacle to priestly vocations today is parental opposition. How sad! In a day of small families, almost always the result of a conscious choice, parents want grandchildren. A son who goes to seminary and becomes a priest will not give them grandchildren. But he will have hundreds of spiritual children. That is why Catholics call their priests “Father.” Speaking for myself, I can tell you that I not only pray for priestly vocations. I tell anyone who will listen that priests who are happy are among the happiest men the world. I know, because I’m one.

          We pray in this Mass therefore, that the Lord will help many of our young people to hear and heed the call of the Good Shepherd, to serve him and his holy people as priests, religious Sisters, and Brothers.