"WHY ARE YOU TERRIFIED?"

Homily for January 27^th, 2018: 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.

While Jesus is fast asleep, a storm comes up. 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 storms assault the Church, 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?@

What better response could we give to the Lord’s question than the cry of another friend of Jesus in this gospel according to Mark: ALord, I believe. Help my unbelief.@ (Mark 9:4) 

"HE SPOKE ONLY IN PARABLES."

Homily for January 26^th, 2018: 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.”  

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. 

    

 

"WHY ARE YOU PERSECUTING ME?"

Homily for January 25^th, 2018: Acts of the Apostles 22: 3-16.

          “Why are you persecuting me?” the voice from heaven asks the zealous defender of his Jewish faith, Saul, as he approaches Damascus. He is armed with letters from the religious authorities in Jerusalem authorizing him to track down and arrest members of this heretical sect who follow and worship a mere man, Jesus of Nazareth.

“Persecuting me?” Persecuting “my Church,” we could understand. But“me”? The words that Paul heard from heaven that day are the origin of his teaching that the Church is Christ’s body. What does that mean? Simply this. Since his return to his Father’s right hand in heaven, Jesus has no body on earth but ours. We are hands, arms, feet, eyes, ears, and voice for Jesus Christ. What a tremendous responsibility! But a tremendous opportunity a well.

Paul’s conversion is yet another of the Lord’s surprises. Which of us would have chosen an arch persecutor of the Church to be the first great missionary of the gospel to those outside the Jewish world in which Jesus was born, nourished and died?

Unlike Jesus’ other apostles, Paul was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ deeds and teaching. There is no evidence that Paul ever saw Jesus. In time, however, Paul became convinced that he had seen the risen Lord there outside Damascus. Here is what Paul writes in his first Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15.

“I handed on to you first of all what I myself received, that Christ died for us in accordance with the Scriptures, rose on the third day; that he was seen by Cephas [Peter], then by the Twelve. After that he was seen by five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Next he was seen by James; then by all the apostles. Last of all he was seen by me, as one born out of the normal course.” And then, remembering the man he had been before he saw the risen Lord, Paul adds: “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the church of God, I am not worthy of the name. But by God’s grace, I am what I am.” (verses 3-10)

As we celebrate Paul’s conversion today, we pray that like him, we too may give ourselves completely to the Lord. And we pray too that one day we may hear the Lord speaking to us tenderly, and with great love: “Well one, good and faithful servant. Enter into your master’s joy.”

SEEDS AND SOILS

Homily for January 24^th, 2018: 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 in the story 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 the pursuit of 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.”

MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY

MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY

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

class=Section2>

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.

Bishop 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)

"WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS?"

Homily for January 23^rd, 2018: 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 is part of the gospel. That is the good news.  

         

 

CHOOSE LIFE!

Homily for January 22^nd, 2018. CHOOSE LIFE!

            We're celebrating an anniversary today, one that is sad, even tragic, not happy. On this day 1973, just 45 years ago, our country’s Supreme Court, which in the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens and thus could not claim any rights under our Constitution, declared that unborn babies were not persons and could be killed at will. The Court did this by overturning as unconstitutional all state laws protecting the life of the unborn. Those laws had been passed by overwhelmingly Protestant state legislatures, many of them openly anti-Catholic. The bishops of our land have asked us to pray annually on this date, therefore, that legal protection for the unborn may be restored in our country; and to offer prayers of penance and reparation for this ongoing terrible crime, which to date has taken the lives of  more than 60 million pre-born babies.       

You may hear people claiming that Pope Francis has decided to de-emphasize our opposition to abortion. Do not believe them. Speaking in Rome on Sept. 20^th, 2013 to an international congress of Catholic doctors, Pope Francis said: “Every unborn child, condemned unjustly to being aborted, has the face of the Lord, who before being born, and then when he was just born, experienced the rejection of the world. And every elderly person, even if he/she is sick or at the end of his/her days, bears in him/herself the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded!” You cannot speak more clearly than that.

While we pray that legal protection will once again be extended to children still in the womb, we must realize that laws are of little use unless they enjoy wide support. The first thing necessary, therefore, is to change hearts and minds. To do this we must be known as people of compassion. This means showing compassion and support for women in unwanted pregnancies. To tell such women that there is a quick fix – just get rid of the baby – is not compassionate. Years and even decades later more women than we can ever know who chose abortion – often under pressure from selfish, irresponsible men – are still experiencing grief and pain.

Up until our Civil War we tolerated an evil no less cruel than abortion today: slavery. Today we are ashamed of slavery. When our people become as ashamed of the killing of the unborn as we now are of slavery, the battle for the defense of life will be over. That is what we pray for in this Mass.