Friday, July 28, 2017

MARY AND MARTHA


Homily for July 29th, 2017: Luke 10:38-42.
It seems terribly unfair, doesn=t it? Even a child can see that it is not right to sit making pleasant conversation with a guest while leaving your sister all alone in the kitchen. Before tackling this difficulty it is worth noting that this is one of many instances in the gospels which show Jesus rejecting the second-class status of women in his society. In his day women were supposed to stay out of sight and appear only to wait on the men.
The story immediately follows Jesus= parable of the Good Samaritan. In that story Jesus contrasts the behavior of two members of the Jewish clergy, a priest and a Levite, with the behavior of a despised outsider, the Samaritan. Though he lacked the knowledge of God=s law available to the priest and the Levite, the Samaritan fulfilled the law=s spirit better than the legal experts. That parable shows the futility of a religion which has no consequences in daily life.
Today=s story of Mary and Martha turns that lesson around. It shows the futility of active service which, because it is not based on attentive listening to God=s word, and nourished by such listening, becomes mere busyness. When Jesus says to Martha, AYou are anxious and worried about many things,@ he is not criticizing her for performing the duties of hospitality, but for doing so without first attending to his word.

This story does not ask us to choose between being a Mary or a Martha. The true disciple of Jesus must be both. Mark=s gospel tells us that when Jesus called his twelve apostles, he called them for a dual purpose: Ato be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message@ (Mk 3:14). Both are important. If we ask, however, which has priority C the relationship or the work C then the answer is clear. Our relationship with the Lord must come first. If we are not willing to spend time with him, sitting at his feet like Mary of Bethany and listening to his words, then all our efforts to do his work are just spinning our wheels. Luke gives us this story to help us see that being with the Lord and listening to his word must be the basis of all we do for him. 

To people without faith, sitting at the Lord=s feet and listening to his words seems a waste of time. We who live by faith, however, know that the Lord loves to have us waste our time on him. Doing so is the best thing we can do with our time. It is the Abetter part@, as Jesus calls it in today=s gospel, which will not be taken from us. Spending time with Jesus Christ, opening our hearts and minds to his words, is the motive and source of all fruitful work for him and for others. Listening to Jesus= words we receive strength to live, as we shall receive also one day courage to die.       

Thursday, July 27, 2017

NOT FENCES, BUT SIGNPOSTS



Homily for July 28th, 2017: Exodus 20:1-17.
          Our first reading gave us the Ten Commandments. Are they out of date? Many say they are. Take the first Commandment, for instance, which forbids idols. “We don’t have idols any more,’ many people say. ‘That was just back in Greek and Roman times.’
In reality the worship of idols is still flourishing. They just have different names. Today’s false gods are pleasure, power, possessions, and honor. None of those things is bad. They become false gods only when we put them at the center of our lives. The person who craves any one of those false gods will always be frustrated and unhappy. Why? Because he’ll never be able to get enough.
          What about honoring our fathers and mothers? Many teenagers do all they can to break away from their parents. Do they find happiness? The question almost answers itself.
          “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.” When was the last time you heart God’s name spoken with awe and reverence?
          “Keep holy the Sabbath day.” Sundays today are hardly different from any other day. 
“You shall not kill,” the next commandment says. Killing of unborn children is widespread today. Those who defend abortion claim it is one of a woman’s sacred rights. When we defend the unborn, we’re called bigots and haters of women.
          “You shall not commit adultery.” We do so whenever we use the precious and God-given gift of sexuality outside of marriage, which is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. The Lord God alone knows the amount of human unhappiness caused by our misuse of sexuality. 
          As for stealing, bearing false witness, and coveting or desiring what others have, and we do not – there is no need to recite the statistics.
            Too often we think of the Commandments as fences, to hem us in. In reality they are signposts, pointing to the Giver of the Commandments, who alone can satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

SURPRIZED BY JOY.


17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.  Matthew 13:44-52.

AIM: To show the joy of Christian discipleship.

 

          In the middle years of the last century there was no more widely read or more convincing spokesman for Christian belief than C.S. Lewis. A professor of English literature at both Oxford and Cambridge who died in 1963, his books still sell briskly today. In his only autobiographical work Lewis tells how he moved from the formal Protestantism of his childhood in Northern Ireland to abandon all religious belief in his teens. Only in his thirties did he come back to believe, first, in God, and then to accept Jesus Christ as God’s Son. He called the book Surprised by Joy – a tribute to the wife, Joy Gresham, whom Lewis, a confirmed bachelor most of his life, married in 1956 when he was fifty-eight. The 1993 film, Shadowlands, tells the story of their marriage.

          Both of the men in today’s gospel were “surprised by joy.” In this the man discovering buried treasure, and the merchant finding “a pearl of great price,” were alike. In other respects, however, the two men were quite different.

          The first man is a day laborer plowing his employer’s field. As he walks back and forth over the familiar ground, the plow catches on what he at first takes for a rock. Investigation shows it to be a pottery jar filled with gold and silver coins. Before the days of banks, the best way to guard such a treasure was to bury it. Who had buried it, or when, he cannot know. He realizes, however, that this unexpected find can change his life, giving him the first financial security he has ever known.

          He realizes also, however, that he has a problem. The law of the day said that buried treasure belonged to the person on whose property it was found.  Rather than carrying off the treasure at once, and risk having the owner of the field challenge his right to possess it, the man carefully buries the jar again and finishes his day’s work. Later he scrapes together his meager savings and makes his employer an offer for the field. He is careful to appear casual about it, so as not to arouse suspicion. When his offer is accepted, the man is overjoyed. The purchase has cost everything he has. The treasure which is now his, however, is worth far more.

          The merchant is different. He is not poor but well off. And he is looking for treasure. He probably started collecting semi-precious stones as a youngster. In time what began as a hobby became his livelihood. Years of buying and selling have sharpened his eye, and refined his taste. He smiles now when he thinks of the worthless baubles that used to please him years ago. One day, walking through the bazaar, he sees a pearl so large, and so flawless, that it takes his breath away. He knows he must have it. It will mean the sacrifice of all he owns. But no matter.  When you have found perfection, no price is too high to pay.    

          “God’s kingdom is like that,” Jesus is saying. Neither of these two men thinks for a minute of the sacrifice he is making. Both think only of the joy of their new possession. Both know that the great treasure they have discovered is worth many times over what they are paying to possess it. 

          Must we pay a price to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ? Of course.  Sometimes that price is high. But when we think only of the cost of discipleship, we make our religion grim and forbidding. In these two little parables Jesus is emphasizing not the cost, but the infinitely greater reward. From the great chorus of Christian disciples who, like the men in these two stories, have been “surprised by joy,” let me quote two voices.

          The first is the late fourth century north African convert, later a bishop, St. Augustine. All through his twenties the intellectually brilliant Augustine wanted to be a Christian. But he found the price too high. He was unable to give up his freedom to live his life as he pleased. After God granted him the grace of conversion, Augustine wrote that what he had sacrificed for Jesus Christ was nothing compared to the treasure he had gained.

          “How sweet did it become to me all at once to be without those trifles!” Augustine writes in his Confessions. “What I previously feared to lose, it was now a joy to be without. For you cast them away from me, you true and highest sweetness.  You cast them out and instead entered in yourself, sweeter than all pleasure."                (Confessions ix.1)

          Then there is Fr. Alfred Delp, the German Jesuit who gave his life for Jesus Christ in 1945, under the tyranny of Adolf Hitler. In a farewell letter, written with manacled hands in his prison cell on death row but full of peace and joy, Fr. Delp wrote of his great discovery, and changed perspective. 

          “I know now that I have been as stupid and foolish as a child. How much strength and depth I have sacrificed in my life! How much fruitfulness I might have had in my work, how much blessing I might have given to others! Only the person who believes, who trusts, who loves, sees truly what human life is really all about. Only he can truly see God.”

          Let me conclude by recalling an event most of us can still remember: the tragic death in an automobile accident of the British Princess Diana on the last day of August 1997. The story was brilliantly told a few years later in the film The Queen. I saw it twice. For days television showed the public grief of crowds in London. Grief also fueled their protest that there was no flag at half mast over Buckingham Palace. Royal officials explained that the only flag permitted there was the Royal Standard, which is flown only when the sovereign is in residence. Since the Queen was in Scotland, the flagpole remained bare. Within days, however, tradition yielded to sentiment.  For the first time ever, the Union Jack flew over Buckingham Palace, and at half mast. 

          Why do I tell you that? Because we followers of Jesus Christ have a royal standard. On a field of red, the color of the Savior’s blood, the price of our redemption, is emblazoned in letters of gold the single word: “Joy.” It flies – or should fly – above the Christian heart, to show that the King is resident within.

"I AM COMING TO YOU IN A DENSE CLOUD."


Homily for July 27th, 2017: Exodus 19, 1-2, 9-11, 16-20.

“I am coming to you in a dense cloud,” God tells Moses in our first reading. Isn’t that how God normally come to us: hidden, obscurely? To some of the saints, God speaks directly. His message to the young Jewish zealot Saul of Tarsus was clear and direct: “Saul, Saul,” the Lord said to him as he was journeying to Damascus to arrest as many Christians as he could find: “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4).

Centuries later God would speak no less directly to a young Italian named Francis, praying in a broken down little church just outside Assisi: “Rebuild my Church,” were the words Francis heard. Francis started to make repairs to the small building in which he had heard those words. In time, he realized that what God wanted him to repair was people: those who had entered God’s Church through baptism. Francis would spend the rest of his life at this task, telling his followers: “Preach always. If necessary, use words.”.

In our own time God spoke to a young religious Sister named Teresa, riding a train in India, giving her what Teresa called ever after: “an order: to leave the convent and live among the poorest of the poor, helping them however she could.” At her death a half century later the Missionaries of Charity, which Mother Teresa founded, numbered close to 4,000. Their numbers continue to grow today.

To most of us God comes “in a dense cloud”: through the still, small voice of conscience, through the words of Holy Scripture, through the needs of those whom we encounter along life’s way. How better could we respond to our first reading today than to repeat, as we go through the day, the words given to us by the Church during Lent in her daily Office of Readings:

“If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.”

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

"SOME SEED FELL ON GOOD SOIL."


Homily for July 26th, 2017: Matthew 13:1-9.
Most of the seed which the farmer sows is wasted. Only at the end of the story does Jesus tell us: “Some seed, finally, landed on good soil and yielded grain that spring up to produce at a rate of thirty- and sixty- and a hundredfold.” A Bible 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.”
          The parable is Jesus’ antidote to discouragement and despair. So much of our effort seems to be wasted. So much of the Church’s work seems barren of result. The Christian community for which Mark wrote his gospel was discouraged, as we are often discouraged.  They had been banished from the synagogue which they loved. They faced the same hostility as their Master.  Despite the rising hostility he could see all round him, Jesus refuses to yield to discouragement. He remains confident — and tells this story to give confidence to others. “Jesus is not only the sower who scatters the seed of God’s word,” Pope Benedict XVI writes. “He is also the seed that falls into the earth in order to die and so to bear fruit.” 
          Are you discouraged? You have made so many good resolutions. How many have you kept? You seem to make no progress in prayer. When you come to confession, it is the same tired old list of sins. You wanted so much. You’ve settled for so little. If that — or any of that — applies to you, then Jesus is speaking, through this parable, very personally to you. Listen.
          ‘Have patience and courage,’ he is saying. ‘Do your work, be faithful to prayer, to your daily duties. God has sown the seed of his word in your life. The harvest is certain. When it comes it will be greater than you can possibly imagine.  The harvest depends, in the final analysis, not on you, but on God. And God’s seed is always fruitful, his promise always reliable.’

Monday, July 24, 2017

SEEKING SERVICE, NOT HONOR.


Homily for July 25th, 2017: Matthew 20:20-28.

         “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,” Jesus says in today’s gospel. It is his response to the request made by the mother of the brothers James and John that he give them places of special honor in his kingdom. The petition may have come from the mother. It is clear, however, that she had the full backing of her two sons. For when Jesus asks if they can share the chalice of pain and suffering from which he will drink, the two brothers respond eagerly, “We can.” They have no idea, of course, what lies ahead for the Master they love and revere.

         It quickly becomes clear that the other disciples are equally clueless. They become indignant at James and John for staking out a claim before the other disciples can assert theirs. Patiently Jesus explains that this whole contest for honor is totally unacceptable among his followers. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” And immediately Jesus ratifies this teaching with his own example: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

          We all need a measure of recognition and affirmation. But if finding that is central in your life, I’ll promise you one thing. You’ll never get enough -- and you'll always be frustrated. Look, rather, for opportunities to serve others and you will find happiness: here and now in this world -- and in the next the joy of eternal life with the Lord who tells us, later in this gospel according to Matthew: “Whatever you do for one of these least brothers or sisters of mine, you do for me.”  

Sunday, July 23, 2017

"THE WORD BECAME FLESH."


THIRD MASS OF CHRISTMAS:Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18.
AIM:   To explain the Incarnation and its significance for us.
It=s a strange gospel for Christmas, isn=t it?  Where, we ask, are the shepherds, the manger, Mary and Joseph?  Where is their child?  Instead of these familiar Christmas figures we have heard about abstractions: light and darkness, the Word becoming flesh.
Let=s start with another word: Aincarnation.@  It means Ataking on flesh,  embodiment.@ This building is the incarnation of an idea in the mind of the architect who designed it. It is the incarnation or embodiment too of the sacrifices that made its construction possible. Children are the incarnation of their parents= love. And Jesus is the incarnation of God. 
We cannot see God. Jesus shows us what God is like. That is why this Christmas gospel calls Jesus God=s Word. A word is used to communicate. Jesus is God=s word because he is God=s communication to us: not a lifeless, abstract statement, but God=s living and breathing utterance and self-disclosure.    
When we listen to Jesus, we hear God speaking to us.  When we look at Jesus, we see what God is like.  What do we see when we look at Jesus? We see that he preferred simple, ordinary people. He came to the world in a provincial village where nothing interesting or important ever happened. Jesus moved not among wealthy or sophisticated people, or among scholars and intellectuals, but among ordinary people. They were the ones who welcomed him most warmly. The rich and powerful and learned had difficulties with Jesus. Many were hostile to him. That was true then. It remains true today.
Jesus was of the earth, earthy. In his youth he worked with his hands in the carpenter=s shop. His teaching was full of references to simple things: the birds of the air, the wind and the raging waves, the lilies of the field, the vine, the lost sheep, the woman searching for her one lost coin, leavening dough with yeast, the thief breaking in at night. Those were images that everyone could understand. Jesus taught also in parables: stories so simple that they capture the interest of children; yet so profound that learned scholars are still studying them today.
In preferring simple people and simple things, Jesus was showing us what God is like. He who is God=s utterance and word, God=s personal communication to us, is saying through all the circumstances of his life that God loves humble people. God is especially close to those who feel that they are not in control of their lives; that they are the victims of circumstances; that their lives are a tangle of loose ends and broken resolutions.
In his earthiness Jesus shows us God=s love for this world and everything in it.  Often we think of God and religion as concerned only with some higher, spiritual realm.  That is wrong! God loves the earth and the things of earth. He must love them, because he made them. And God does not make anything that is not lovable. As John, the writer of today=s gospel, tells us in a later chapter: AGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son@ (Jn 3:16).

It is because God gave us his Son at Christmas that we give gifts to one another.  The greatest gift we can give cannot be bought in any store. You cannot order it from an 800-number or over the Internet. You cannot wrap it. You cannot send it through the mail, by UPS or Federal Express. It is the gift God gave us at Christmas: the gift of himself.  Even as a baby Jesus is God=s personal word and communication to us. In the words of our second reading, he is Athe refulgence [that means the shining forth] of [God=s] glory, the very imprint of his being.@

Look at Mary=s child: helpless, vulnerable, and weak, as all babies are. He is God=s way of saying: >This is how much the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, loves you; enough to be become tiny, insignificant, vulnerable.= Jesus, the personal utterance and word of God, is God=s gift to you. He wants you to share this gift with others. You do so when, like God himself, you give yourself to others: when, like Jesus, you too love the company of ordinary people; when, like him, you remain close to the earth and the things of earth.

In a few moments we shall be offered our greatest and most important Christmas gift: the body and blood of our Lord, of Jesus who is God=s personal word to each one of us. The consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist are Christ=s body and blood: all his power, all his goodness, all his love. He offers all this to us:

C         not as a reward for services rendered;

C         not because we are good enough (for none of us is);

C         but because he is so good that he wants to share his power, his goodness, and his love with us.

Jesus gives us this greatest of all gifts under one strict condition: that what we here receive, we generously share with others.      

"THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH."

THIRD MASS OF CHRISTMAS: Heb. 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18.
AIM:   To explain the Incarnation and its significance for us.
It=s a strange gospel for Christmas, isn=t it?  Where, we ask, are the shepherds, the manger, Mary and Joseph?  Where is their child?  Instead of these familiar Christmas figures we have heard about abstractions: light and darkness, the Word becoming flesh.
Let=s start with another word: Aincarnation.@  It means Ataking on flesh,  embodiment.@ This building is the incarnation of an idea in the mind of the architect who designed it. It is the incarnation or embodiment too of the sacrifices that made its construction possible. Children are the incarnation of their parents= love. And Jesus is the incarnation of God. 
We cannot see God. Jesus shows us what God is like. That is why this Christmas gospel calls Jesus God=s Word. A word is used to communicate. Jesus is God=s word because he is God=s communication to us: not a lifeless, abstract statement, but God=s living and breathing utterance and self-disclosure.    
When we listen to Jesus, we hear God speaking to us.  When we look at Jesus, we see what God is like.  What do we see when we look at Jesus? We see that he preferred simple, ordinary people. He came to the world in a provincial village where nothing interesting or important ever happened. Jesus moved not among wealthy or sophisticated people, or among scholars and intellectuals, but among ordinary people. They were the ones who welcomed him most warmly. The rich and powerful and learned had difficulties with Jesus. Many were hostile to him. That was true then. It remains true today.
Jesus was of the earth, earthy. In his youth he worked with his hands in the carpenter=s shop. His teaching was full of references to simple things: the birds of the air, the wind and the raging waves, the lilies of the field, the vine, the lost sheep, the woman searching for her one lost coin, leavening dough with yeast, the thief breaking in at night. Those were images that everyone could understand. Jesus taught also in parables: stories so simple that they capture the interest of children; yet so profound that learned scholars are still studying them today.
In preferring simple people and simple things, Jesus was showing us what God is like. He who is God=s utterance and word, God=s personal communication to us, is saying through all the circumstances of his life that God loves humble people. God is especially close to those who feel that they are not in control of their lives; that they are the victims of circumstances; that their lives are a tangle of loose ends and broken resolutions.
In his earthiness Jesus shows us God=s love for this world and everything in it.  Often we think of God and religion as concerned only with some higher, spiritual realm.  That is wrong! God loves the earth and the things of earth. He must love them, because he made them. And God does not make anything that is not lovable. As John, the writer of today=s gospel, tells us in a later chapter: AGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son@ (Jn 3:16).

It is because God gave us his Son at Christmas that we give gifts to one another.  The greatest gift we can give cannot be bought in any store. You cannot order it from an 800-number or over the Internet. You cannot wrap it. You cannot send it through the mail, by UPS or Federal Express. It is the gift God gave us at Christmas: the gift of himself.  Even as a baby Jesus is God=s personal word and communication to us. In the words of our second reading, he is Athe refulgence [that means the shining forth] of [God=s] glory, the very imprint of his being.@

Look at Mary=s child: helpless, vulnerable, and weak, as all babies are. He is God=s way of saying: >This is how much the Lord God, creator of heaven and earth, loves you; enough to be become tiny, insignificant, vulnerable.= Jesus, the personal utterance and word of God, is God=s gift to you. He wants you to share this gift with others. You do so when, like God himself, you give yourself to others: when, like Jesus, you too love the company of ordinary people; when, like him, you remain close to the earth and the things of earth.

In a few moments we shall be offered our greatest and most important Christmas gift: the body and blood of our Lord, of Jesus who is God=s personal word to each one of us. The consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist are Christ=s body and blood: all his power, all his goodness, all his love. He offers all this to us:

C         not as a reward for services rendered;

C         not because we are good enough (for none of us is);

C         but because he is so good that he wants to share his power, his goodness, and his love with us.

Jesus gives us this greatest of all gifts under one strict condition: that what we here receive, we generously share with others.      

"AN EVIL GENERATION SEEKS A SIGN."


Homily for July 24th, 2017: Matthew 12:38-42.  

          “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,” Jesus says. He is referring to the repeated demand of his contemporaries for a miracle so dramatic that it will force them to believe. But belief cannot be forced any more than love can be forced. Jesus’ miracles confirm the faith of those who already believe. They do not compel belief in those whose hearts and minds are closed to him and his message.

          Jesus then mentions two such confirming signs: Jonah, and the so-called queen of the south, Sheba. The book Jonah is fiction, not history. Like much great fiction, notably Jesus’ parables and Shakespeare’s plays, Jonah is the vehicle for important truth about God, humanity, and life. The sign of Jonah is not his survival in the belly of the great fish. It is rather the immediate repentance of the people of Nineveh – Gentiles without the gift of God’s law – in response to Jonah’s preaching. Jesus contrasts the swift response of the Ninevites to Jonah’s preaching with the failure of so many of his own people to respond to his message.

          The sign of Queen Sheba is different, though in one respect the same. Like Jonah, she came from afar, motivated however not by a divine command, but by the report that King Solomon possessed wisdom greater than that of all other rulers or sages. “There is something greater than Solomon here,” Jesus says. Who is the one greater than Solomon? Jesus! He not merely possesses wisdom: Jesus is wisdom personified. The further statement, “there is something greater than Jonah here,” means that Jesus’ message is more compelling than Jonah’s -- yet the people still do not respond. Jesus sums up by saying that the Ninevites and Queen Sheba showed a readiness to respond which his own people do not.

Are we responding? “I have come,” Jesus says in John’s gospel, “that they may have life, and have it to the full” (10:10). Are we embracing Jesus’ offer of life to the full? Or do we think of our faith as observing enough of the Church’s complicated rules and regulations to be able, on Judgment Day, to squeeze our way into heaven?

          Think about that. Better – pray about it.