Friday, January 12, 2018

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?"


Homily for Jan. 14th, 2018: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. John 1:35-42.

AIM:  To challenge the hearers to deeper conversion.

                                   

          “What are you looking for?” Jesus asks the two disciples of John in the gospel reading we have just heard. This question is Jesus’ first recorded utterance in John’s gospel. Andrew and his friend are not really certain what they are looking for. They may have followed Jesus out of mere curiosity. Asked who they are looking for, they answer with a question of their own: “Where do you stay?”  Jesus’ response is hardly less challenging than his original question: “Come and see.”

          Though Andrew and his friend do not realize it, in accepting Jesus’ invitation they pass from curiosity to discipleship. “Disciple” means a follower or a learner. The gospel writer tells us that the two “stayed with [Jesus] that day.” The added information, that it was “about four in the afternoon,” is significant. In Jewish time reckoning the day begins not at midnight or at dawn, but in the late afternoon. The Church reckons time in the same way – one of the many ways in which we remain linked to Jesus’ people, the Jews, our elder brothers in faith.  That is why we can have the first Sunday Mass late Saturday afternoon. For the Church that is when Sunday begins.

          Many scripture scholars believe that when John tells us, “It was about four in the afternoon,” he is telling us it was a Friday. Four o’clock on Friday afternoon was the beginning of the Sabbath, when all unnecessary work and travel were forbidden. This would mean that, when they accepted Jesus’ invitation to “come and see” where he stayed, Andrew and his friend would have had to stay with Jesus overnight, and all the next day as well, since that was the Sabbath.

          What they said on that Sabbath, and what they did, we do not know. It is clear, however, that those twenty-four hours in Jesus’ company changed the lives of Andrew and his friend. For as soon as the Sabbath restrictions are past, Andrew hurries to find his brother Simon and give him momentous, almost unbelievable news: “We have found the Messiah!”

          To encounter the Messiah, the anointed servant of the Lord, foretold by all the prophets, was the hope of every devout Jew. Few really expected the fulfillment of this hope, however. That seemed about as likely as our chances of winning the lottery.

          We have already noted that in accepting Jesus’ invitation to “come and see,”  Andrew and his friend passed from curiosity to discipleship. In carrying the unbelievable news of his new Master’s true identity to his brother Simon, Andrew moves from disciple to apostle. For “apostle” means “one who is sent”: a messenger, even an ambassador.

          It is not difficult to imagine the excitement with which Andrew imparted his momentous message to his brother Simon. I have compared it with the excitement one of us would feel at winning the lottery. Jesus would use a similar comparison.  The kingdom of heaven, he said once, was like a man finding buried treasure in a field; or like a merchant discovering a pearl so perfect that he was glad to sell all he had to possess it.  (See Mt. 13:44-46.)

          Into this deceptively simple incident the gospel writer has compressed a process which, for most people, takes far longer than the twenty-four hours recorded here. It is the process of moving from curiosity about Jesus Christ to discipleship; to becoming his apostle, or messenger, to others.

          The process began, for Andrew and his friend, with Jesus’ challenging question, “What are you looking for?” Jesus is asking each of us this question, right now. What are you looking for? Why have you come here today? Is it simply to fulfill a legal obligation? to get your card punched? What are you looking for in your life? Is it “the good life” advertised in glorious technicolor on our TV screens and in the magazines? Have you found the pursuit of that life satisfying, and fulfilling? Or is it your experience that the good life, as defined by our contemporary hucksters, is not really all that good? Is there still an emptiness inside you that you cannot fill, and longings that remain unsatisfied, try as you may?

          So what are you looking for? You may not know it, but at bottom you are looking for love. You want a love that will not let you go, that will not let you down. You yearn for a love that will not cheat or deceive or frustrate you; a love that will fulfill the deepest longings of your heart, your mind, your soul. That is what you are looking for. That is what I am looking for – and what every one of us is looking for.

          Perhaps you have grown weary with looking and think the search is hopeless. You are wrong. There is someone who can satisfy your deepest longings.   His name is Jesus Christ. Now, in this hour, he is challenging you with the same question he put to Andrew and his friend: “What are you looking for?” He is inviting you to come and stay with him. Accepting that invitation is the first step in becoming Jesus’ disciple – his follower and his friend.   

          That is wonderful – and beautiful. But it is only the beginning. Jesus Christ wants you to become his friend, his disciple, his follower, so that he can make you his apostle: his messenger to carry the all-consuming love which he offers you here to those to whom he sends you: his sisters and brothers – yes, and yours too.

"I HAVE COME TO CALL SINNERS."


Homily for January 13th, 2018: Mark 2:13-17.

          “As [Jesus] passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the customs post. Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed Jesus.” There is no Levi in the gospel lists of Jesus’ apostles. Scholars assume, therefore, that this Levi was identical with Matthew, whose call is described in the ninth chapter of Matthew’s gospel.

There, and here as well, he is identified as a tax collector. He was not the kind of tax collector we know today, a civil servant. In the Palestine of Jesus’ day the Roman government of occupation entrusted the collection of taxes to tax farmers, as they are sometimes called, who bid for the right to collect taxes. In doing so, they enriched themselves by extorting more than was required. They were hated, therefore, for two reasons: for preying on people financially; and for serving the despised Roman rulers of the land. 

          Jesus speaks just two words to Levi: “Follow me.” Without hesitation, Levi gets up and follows Jesus. Other disciples of Jesus have already done the same, when, at Jesus’ command, they abandoned the tools of their trade as fishermen, their boats and nets, to follow Jesus. What motivated this immediate obedience? I think that if we could have questioned any of them, Levi or Matthew included, they would have replied: “There was something about this man, Jesus, which made it impossible to say no.” 

          As a parting gesture Levi invites his friends to dinner at his house, with Jesus as the honored guest. As we would expect, many of those friends were Levi’s fellow tax collectors. Others were simply “sinners,” as the gospel reading calls them: Jews, like Levi, who did not keep God’s law.

Observing these disreputable guests, the Pharisees, proud of their exact observance of God’s law, ask Jesus’ other disciples how their Master can associate with such social outcasts. Jesus overhears the question and answers himself: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous [by which Jesus means ‘people like you Pharisees’]. ‘I came to call sinners.’

What is the message for us? If we want Jesus’ loving care, we need first to recognize and confess our need. And the first thing every one of us needs from Jesus is forgiveness.

Thursday, January 11, 2018

'WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS."


Homily for Jan. 12th, 2018: Mark 2:1-12.
          “Child, your sins are forgiven,” Jesus says as he looks with tender love at the paralyzed man lying before him in today’s gospel reading. Jesus is not saying that anyone who is ill is being punished for sin. But his words suggest that Jesus saw in this particular man a spiritual burden that needed to be loosed before the man could be healed physically. 
          “We have never seen anything like this,” the onlookers exclaim in astonishment as they see the formerly paralyzed man pick up his mat and walk. For Mark, the gospel writer, the true miracle, however, is not the man’s physical cure, but the spiritual healing of forgiveness. 
          Perhaps you’re thinking: “What is so miraculous about forgiveness? Don’t we forgive others every day?” Thank God, we do. Between our forgiveness and God’s, however, there is this great difference. When we forgive, there is always a memory of the injury done, a “skeleton in the closet.” The wrong needs only to be repeated, or one like it, for the memory to be revived.
          God doesn’t have any closets. And even if he did, there wouldn’t be any skeletons there. God’s forgiveness is total. “Your sins I remember no more,” God tells us through the prophet. (43:25) Here’s a story about that.
A pious woman, given to visions, went to her bishop to tell him that God had asked her to tell the bishop to build a shrine to Jesus’ mother Mary. The bishop was understandably skeptical. “Go back to God,” he told his visitor, and ask him to tell you my worst sin as a young man. If the Lord gives you the correct answer, we’ll see about building the shrine you propose.” When the woman returned, the bishop asked her: “What did God say was my worst sin as a young man?” The woman replied: “He said he couldn’t remember.”
          It’s only a story. But it is based in reality – a reality that is the real miracle in this story of the paralyzed man: that there can be, that there is, a forgiveness so complete that not even the memory of the sin remains. Jesus brings us this total forgiveness. The one who brings us this forgiveness is the Son of the God who tells his people, through Isaiah: “Your sins I remember no more.” (Is. 43:25)

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

'YOU CAN CURE ME."


Homily for January 11th, 2018: Mark 1:40-45.

          Lepers, in Jesus’ day, suffered not only from their disease, but also from exclusion from normal society. 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 also became spiritually unclean.

          This helps us understand why the man we have just heard about in the gospel reading is so desperate. He kneels down before Jesus, Mark tells us, and pleads with Jesus, “If you will to do so, you can cure me.”  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. Be cured.” The leprosy “left him immediately,” Mark tells us. Jesus has restored him to the community of God’s people. Jesus then orders the man not to publicize his healing. He did not wish to be known as a sensational wonder-worker. Instead he 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 man disobeys Jesus’ command. He is so grateful for his healing that he immediately starts telling everybody about it. Whether he reported his healing to the Temple priest, Mark does not tell us. What Mark does report is that the notoriety caused by news of this healing made it “impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in desert places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.”                

          People are still coming to Jesus from everywhere. They sense in him someone who can change their lives for the better. In that they are right. Jesus is the one, and the only one, who can give us healing from our self-centeredness, our addictions and bad habits. He alone can give us, beyond healing, what our hearts most deeply desire: happiness, joy, and peace so deep that it passes human understanding.

          First, however, we must come, as the leper came, with the prayer: “If you wish, Lord, you can make cure me.”

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

"HE WENT OFF TO A LONELY PLACE."


Homily for January 10th, 2018. Mark 1:29-39.

          In Jesus’ world there were no blood tests, X-rays, or microscopes. People thought that illness of various kinds was due to possession by demons. Today’s gospel portrays Jesus as one who has power over these supernatural forces of evil. Jesus too comes from the supernatural world. As God’s Son, however, Jesus has power over the evil forces in that supernatural world. That is why Mark, the gospel writer, tells us that Jesus would not permit these supernatural forces of evil to speak, “because they knew him.” Jesus did not want to acquire the reputation of a sensational wonder-worker. He was that, yes; but he was so much more.

  He banishes the life-threatening fever which has laid Peter’s mother-in-law low. And he drives out the demons in the many people who are brought to him for healing. Mark’s language shows that he is describing what we today call “exorcisms.” Freed from demonic possession, these people are healed at once. There is no period of convalescence. Peter’s mother-in-law, we heard, “got up immediately and waited on them.”

          Especially significant is the information that at daybreak, “Jesus went off to a lonely place in the desert.” Why? He needed to be alone with his heavenly Father. It was in such times of silence and solitude that Jesus acquired the spiritual power to heal; and to say to rough working men, “Follow me,” – and have them obey him on the spot. And if Jesus, whose inner resources were incomparably greater than ours, needed those times alone with the Lord, we are fools, and guilty fools, if we think we can make it in reliance on our own resources alone. That’s why we are here. To receive all the goodness, love, purity, and power of Jesus – our elder brother, our lover, and our best friend; but also our divine savior and redeemer.

And friends, when we have him, Jesus, we have everything. 

Monday, January 8, 2018

"A NEW TEACHING,WITH AUTHORITY."


Homily for January 9th, 2018: Mark 1:21-28.

          In today’s gospel Mark describes a typical day in Jesus’ public ministry. It is a Sabbath, so Jesus goes to the synagogue in Capernaum. The service consisted of readings from Scripture, psalms, prayers, and teaching. For this any Jewish man with sufficient scriptural knowledge was qualified. Ordination as a rabbi was not necessary. Jesus’ teaching was different, however, from that of the other teachers of his day. This is clear from his hearers’ reaction. “The people were astonished at his teaching,” Mark tells us. “For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”

          What was this “authority” that Jesus had, and other teachers did not? We see it most clearly in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, which begins Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. There we hear Jesus citing a number of the Ten Commandments which God had given to Moses. He introduces each with the phrase: “You have heard the Commandment.” Then, each time, Jesus says: “But I say unto you.” Jesus is not interpreting God’s law, like all the other teachers. He is speaking as himself the law giver. It was this authoritative way of speaking which astonished Jesus’ hearers.  

          Jesus’ deeds manifest the same authority, in particular his healings. People in that day attributed illness to possession by “demons”, invisible but powerful spiritual forces. In today’s gospel reading, as often in the gospels, Jesus’ very presence causes demons to cry out in protest. The presence of the One who is without sin alarms these evil spirits. “What have you to do with us?” a demon cries out in today’s gospel. “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” Jesus uses his spiritual power as Son of the all-holy God to rebuke and banish the demon. “Quiet! Come out of him!” Jesus says. And Mark tells us: “The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.”   

          Less dramatically, but no less authoritatively, Jesus continues to cast out demons today: addiction to alcohol, drugs, or sex; the relentless quest for more, and more, and more – whether it is money, honor, or power over others – a quest which never succeeds but produces only frustration and disappointment. If you see any of those things in your life, then come to Jesus. He still has power to heal. As the old evangelical hymn has it: “Cast your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in his wonderful grace. / And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of his glory and grace.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

JESUS IS BAPTIZED BY JOHN.


January 8th, 2018: 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.  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.@

MARY'S IMMACULATE CONCEPTION


“HAIL, MARY, FULL OF GRACE ... ”

December 8th, 2017: Immaculate Conception of the BVM.

Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians, 1:3-6,   11-12; Luke 1:26-38.

          Have you ever felt so ashamed of yourself that you wanted to run away and hide? Today’s first reading is about a man who felt that way. After disobeying God’s command, Adam hides, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the loving Creator and Father against whom he has rebelled. 

          When God pursues him and asks, “Where are you?” the man replies: “I was afraid ... so I hid myself.” He thought he would find happiness by ‘doing his own thing.’ Instead he finds only disappointment, frustration, and shame. Is there anyone here who has never had a similar experience? This simple story is no primitive folk tale. It is the story of Everyman – true to our common experience of life. If the story has a moral, it is this. We find happiness, joy, and peace only when we stop trying to run away and hide from God, and begin entrusting ourselves to him in faith. 

          The Church gives us, in Holy Scripture, a beautiful human model of this trusting faith: Mary, the mother of the Lord. The Catechism says: “By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity.” (No. 967)

         The gospels of Luke and Matthew tell us that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. That was a kind of religiously sanctioned engagement. Nowhere do we find any account or reference to Mary and Joseph marrying. Instead Luke tells us about the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to tell her she was to be the mother of God’s Son. To that Mary said “Be it done to me according to your word.” That was Mary’s marriage: To God, not to Joseph. Having given herself completely to God, it was impossible for Mary ever to give herself to a man. That is why she is called, and is, “ever virgin.” 

          All of this remained unknown to others, both at Bethlehem and later at Nazareth. To them, Mary was an unmarried mother. Yet Mary accepted this humiliation, trusting that it was God’s will for her.

          On today’s feast of the Immaculate Conception, we praise God for preparing Mary from the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb (which took place through normal human procreation) from that fundamental defect of human nature which the theologians call “original sin.” This defect means that we come into the world imperfect, not as God originally intended us to be. From this defect we are healed by baptism, when God reaches out and claims us for his own. In baptism we are reborn spiritually, becoming God’s children by adoption; and by his free gift, we are graced with the perfect human nature of our savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

          The Immaculate Conception means that Mary had no need for baptism. As the Catechism says, quoting the words of our second reading: “The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person ‘in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ and chose her ‘in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love.’” (No. 492)  

          Today we praise God for bestowing this unique privilege on Mary in order to prepare her beforehand to be the mother of his Son. That gift did not take away Mary’s freedom, however. For her, as for each of us, her acceptance by God – her salvation – was a free gift that required her cooperation with God, the giver of this gift. 

          As we honor Mary for her words of free assent, “May it be done to me according to your word,” we invoke her prayers that we may make our assent to God; that we too may say our “Yes” to God, as she did.