SINNERS AND TAX COLLECTORS

Homily for January 19^th, 2019: 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.

"WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS."

Homily for Jan. 18^th, 2019: 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.” 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)

"YOU CAN CURE ME."

Homily for January 17^th, 2019: 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 thrilled by 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.”

"HE WENT TO A LONELY PLACE."

Homily for January 16^th, 2019. 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. 

"YOU HAVE KEPT THE GOOD WINE UNTIL NOW."

Jan. 20th, 2019: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. Isaiah 62:1-5; John 2:1-11.

AIM:  To show the significance of the miracle at Cana, and its fulfillment in the Eucharist.

 

Jesus begins his ministry in this fourth gospel, according to John, by changing water into wine. A miracle! But what does it mean? The story=s deepest meaning can be grasped only through its symbols. First, let=s recall a few modern symbols.

The cross is recognized worldwide as the symbol of Christianity, just as the star of David symbolizes Judaism, and the crescent Islam. A now largely defunct political faith also had its symbol, known worldwide: the hammer and sickle of communism. Our country=s flag is a symbol. When we see protestors burning the flag, we are offended. It is not just colored bunting. It symbolizes the country we love: not because it is perfect, but simply because it is ours.

The story in today=s gospel is full of symbols. We have time to consider only three: the wedding, Jesus= mother, and the transformation of water into wine.

1.       The prophet Hosea was the first biblical writer to use the love of a bridegroom for his bride as a symbol of God=s love for his people. Hosea used the symbolism of a wedding to show that God=s love for Israel was not the calm and staid affair of old age, but the ardent passion of youth. We heard the prophet Isaiah using this symbolism in our first reading, when he told the people: ANo more shall people call you >Forsaken,= or your land >Desolate,= but you shall be called >My Delight,= and your land >Espoused.=@     

Isaiah was telling his people that God wanted to share his life with them, as husband and wife share life with one another. This God who wanted to marry his people becomes flesh in Jesus. Hence it is altogether appropriate that the Lord's first public sign in John's Gospel takes place at a wedding. He has come that we may  have life and have it to the full. The Agood wine@ of the wedding feast at Cana is now the Agood wine@ of the Eucharist by which all of us become partakers of God's inner life.

At the wedding in Cana Jesus is not the bridegroom, however. He is only a guest. AMy hour has not yet come,@ he explains. When his hour did come, Jesus would seal his wedding covenant not with wine, but with his own blood. Calvary was the place of that marriage. There Jesus would show how passionately he loves us: enough to lay down his life for us. Thereafter the old nuptial or marriage symbolism was applied to the Church, which is called Christ=s bride.  (cf. Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 19:7f, 21:2 & 9, 22:17) 

2.       If the wedding symbolizes God=s love for his people, Mary is the symbol, at Cana, and at Calvary, of the Church=s faith and love. AThey have no wine,@ Mary tells her Son. Mary knew it was enough to state the problem. Jesus would know what to do. Even when Jesus’ response seems discouraging B AWoman, how does your concern affect me?@ B Mary=s confidence remains unshaken. ADo whatever he tells you,@ she instructs the servants.

At Calvary Mary would again be the symbol of faith and love, as she stands beside her dying Son to receive his final instructions. (Cf. John 19:26f) And Mary remains the symbol of faith after Jesus= resurrection. We glimpse her for the last time in the upper room at Jerusalem with Jesus= apostles and other relatives, united in fervent prayer before the promised outpouring of God=s Spirit at Pentecost. (cf. Acts 1:13f)

3.       The story=s richest symbolism, however, is the changing of water into wine.  Here, as elsewhere in Scripture, water symbolizes God=s precious gift of the Law to his people. The lifegiving wisdom enshrined in the holy books that we call the Old Testament satisfied his people=s thirst for knowledge of God, the ultimate author of those books. 

Now, at Cana, Jesus changes this water into the exhilarating wine of the gospel B the good news that God has visited his people by sending them his Son, to celebrate with them a wedding feast which symbolizes God=s passionate love for us.

AYou have kept the good wine until now,@ the headwaiter remarks in astonishment to the bridegroom after tasting the wine. These words are the key to the story=s deepest symbolism. If the headwaiter had known who provided the wine, he would have addressed his words to Jesus. His hour, however, had not yet come.  When it did come, on Calvary, Jesus would give himself totally; giving not wine, but his own blood, laying down his life for us.

Already, at Cana, the quantity of wine which Jesus provides is a symbol of this total self-giving. It was enough to keep the party going for a week! The gift reveals the giver. God does not measure out his gifts bit by bit. When God gives, he gives totally.

Is all that just a beautiful story -- long ago and far away? Don=t you believe it! Cana is here and now, at the Eucharist. At the table of the word Jesus satisfies our thirst for knowledge of life=s meaning with the wine of the gospel. At the table of his body and blood he strengthens us to live in accordance with the gospel B to live not just for ourselves, but for God and for others. Here, as at Cana, Jesus gives not only abundantly but super-abundantly. The gifts he offers us are beyond limit. We come repeatedly because our capacity to receive is limited.  

Here we invoke Mary, still today the symbol of faith and love, still saying to us what she said to the servants at Cana: ADo whatever he tells you.@ Here at the Eucharist God celebrates with us a joyful wedding feast, the symbol today, as always, of his passionate and unwavering love for us.

So much symbolism. So much beauty. So much drama. Do we realize it B and truly worship?    

A NEW TEACHING, WITH AUTHORITY

Homily for January 15^th, 2019: 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 of his day. 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.