"GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD . . . "

Homily for Sept 14th, 2013: Exaltation of the Cross. John 3:13-17.

At the center of every Catholic Church in the world is a cross. The cross hangs around the necks of hundreds of thousands of people in our world who give no other outward sign of being religious. Teachers of young children report that when they offer the youngsters a selection of holy cards and ask them to choose one, time and again children choose the picture of Jesus on the cross.

Why is the cross so important, and so central? Why, after two thousand years, has the cross lost none of its fascination and power?  The best answer is also the simplest: because the cross is a picture of how much God loves us. AThere is no greater love than this,@ Jesus tells us, Ato lay down one=s life for one=s friends@ (John 15:13).

AGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son,@ we heard in the gospel. It was the most God had to give. That is why the cross is at the center of every Catholic Church in the world. That is why the cross is also at the center of the Church=s preaching. Many people associate the words Apreaching@ and Asermon@  with a list of Do=s and Don=ts: all the things we must first do or avoid before God will love us and bless us. Yet the gospel is supposed to be good news. Is it good news to be told that God won=t love us until we have kept enough of his rules to show that we are worthy of his love? That doesn=t sound like very good news to me. It sounds like horribly bad news.

The gospel is the good news that God loves us just as we are, right now. How much does God love us? Let me tell you. A few years ago we had a 3-year-old Chinese girl, Doris, in our parish pre-school. I often went to meet Doris when she was dismissed from school. Together we would stand at the front door, waiting for her mother. How excited Doris was when she spotted her! She would run across the school yard as fast as her little legs could take her, to her mother=s waiting arms. It was heart-stopping. Beautiful as that was, however, it doesn=t begin to compare with God=s love for us.

The One who hangs on the cross, to show us God=s love, says elsewhere in this gospel according to John: AI am the light of the world@ (8:12). And in the continuation of today=s gospel he tells us that our eternal destiny is being determined, even now, by how we react to his light: "Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God" (John 3:20f).

Are you walking in the light of Jesus= love? Or do you fear his light because of what it might reveal in the dark corners of your life which, like all of us, you try to keep hidden? We all have those dark corners. Now, in this hour, Jesus Christ is inviting you to put away fear. Come into the bright sunshine of his love. Once you do, the fire of Christ=s love will burn out in you everything that is opposed to his light. Then the reason for your fear will be gone. Then you will have no need to hide. You will be home. You will be safe: safe for this life, but also for eternity.

AWhoever believes in [Jesus Christ] will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their words were evil.@

The eternal destiny of each one of us is being determined by our response to the light, and love, of Jesus Christ.  He is waiting for your response, right now.

THE SPLINTER IN A BROTHER'S EYE

Homily for Sept. 13^th, 2013: 1 Tim1:1-2, 12-14; Luke 6:39-42.

          Have you ever thought about how much easier it would be to prepare a list of sins for someone else to confess – especially if that other person was someone of whom you’re highly critical – than to list all your own sins? That would be much easier, wouldn’t it?

That’s what Jesus is talking about when he says in today’s gospel: “You notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own.” He is warning us about something we’re all guilty of at times: being alert for even small faults and sins in others, while overlooking much more serious sins of our own.

          The Lord has given us the remedy for those sins: the sacrament of penance, or confession. One advantage of sacramental confession is that it forces us to confront our own particular sins, not to be content with simply confessing that we are sinners in general. And in confession the priest has an opportunity to help us with our own particular sins and difficulties. So many people today feel that they’re “just a number.”  In confession we’re not just a number. The priest is there for you personally, as a unique individual. But first you must come.

          Speaking for myself, I can tell you that without the sacrament of penance, or confession, I would not be a priest today. What a relief it was in the difficult years of adolescence – and more than a relief, a deep joy – to be able to go to a priest, tell him my sins, hear the words which assured me of God’s forgiveness; and then the beautiful closing words: “Go in peace, the Lord has put away all your sins.” Those words touched me so deeply that I still say them today, at the close of every confession I hear.

          Paul is talking in our first reading about his gratitude for God’s forgiveness when he describes the man he was before his conversion: “a blasphemer, a persecutor, an arrogant man.” He was acting, he says, in ignorance. But “the grace of our Lord has been abundant,” Paul says, “along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” We’re here to receive that abundant grace and that love from the One who is love himself: Jesus Christ.

JOY OVER ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS

The parable of the lost sheep, and the two which follow (about the lost coin, and the longer one about the prodigal Son), are Jesus’ response to his critics’ complaint: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Jesus’ association with such people was a scandal to his critics. To us, however, it is good news. We don’t have to gain a passing grade in some moral examination before the Lord will receive, love, and bless us. He welcomes us just as we are: not because we are good enough, but because he is so good that he wants to share his love with us.

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"GIVE, AND GIFTS WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU."

Homily for Sept. 12^th, 2013: Luke 6:27-38.

            “Give and gifts will be given to you,” Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, “a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing will be poured into you lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”    

Is that how we normally think of giving? Don’t we assume that when we have given something away, then it’s gone – and we are poorer? In reality, our gifts do not make us poorer. They enrich us.

Let me tell you about someone afraid to give: a mother of two grown children, a son and a daughter. The son is seeking priesthood, as a member of a religious order. His mother thinks her son’s decision will make her poorer. Every time he goes home, she cries in front of him, and begs him to leave. There is only one word for such behavior: spiritual blackmail.

I don’t know that mother. And I don’t want to do her any injustice. But I’ve wondered. When Judgment Day comes and the books are opened, will the Lord say to her: ‘Mary, I wanted to give you another son, and even two. And you would have been just as proud of them as you are of that son of yours who even now is offering Mass for the repose of your soul. But you said No.’

Contrast that nameless mother with other mothers, and fathers as well, who affirm and support a son’s decision for priesthood. On his ordination day they shed tears of joy and pride at what their son is doing. He’ll never give them grandchildren, true. But he will have countless spiritual children – far more than he could ever have through marriage.

Who do you suppose is happier -- yes, and richer? the mother who cries in front of her son and begs him turn aside from God’s call? or the parents who joyfully support that call, knowing that the measure with which we measure will be measured back to us?

Think about it.  

WHY DOES PAUL CALL GREED IDOLATRY?

Homily for Sept. 11^th, 2013: Col. 3:1-11; Luke 6:20-26.

          “Put to death the greed that is idolatry,” we heard in the first reading. Why does Paul identify greed with idolatry? To answer that question, we must ask another: what are greedy people hungry for? They hunger for one or more of four things: possessions, pleasure, power, honor. If only I could get enough of those things, the greedy person thinks, I’ll be happy. Experience teaches otherwise. The pursuit of any of those things leads not to happiness, but to frustration. Why? Because we’ll never get enough. “Whoever thinks that having a lot of money will make you happy,” a millionaire said, “has never had a lot of money.” 

Possessions, pleasure, power, honor are all good. They become bad only when we make pursuing them central in our lives. Then, whether we realize it or not, we are guilty of idolatry: worshiping a false god who cannot hear or answer our prayers. Only the God of Jesus can do that. No one has said it better than St. Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until we rest in you.”

That helps us understand Jesus' words in the gospel: “Blessed [which means happy] are you poor … woe to you who are rich.” This raises another problem: few of us here are poor. And even those who may be poor, by American standards, are still better off than millions in the developing world who will go to bed hungry tonight.

The rich upon whom Jesus pronounces woe are not only those with many possessions. Jesus’ words are a warning also to people of modest means who are fully content with their present, comfortable existence; who do not realize their need for God; and that what they do have is a gift from God for which they must thank him every day.

Moreover, even the materially rich can join those whom Jesus calls blessed or happy, provided that they share their goods with those in need, realizing that, like every human being, they stand before God saying in the spirit of the old evangelical saying: “Nothing in my hand I bring / Simply to your cross I cling.”

THE MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN

Homily for Sept. 10^th, 2013: Luke 6:12-19.

          “Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,” we heard in the gospel, “and he spent the night in prayer to God.” What Jesus was about to do was that important. It required a whole night of waiting on God in prayer.

In biblical times, mountaintops were considered especially close to God. Moses received the Ten Commandments atop Mt. Sinai. The dramatic contest between the prophet Elijah and the prophets of the false god Baal took place on Mt. Carmel. Our modern expression, “a mountaintop experience,” denotes a time when God’s nearness is clearly felt. Martin Luther King used the image of a mountain when he declared, shortly before his tragic assassination, to a rising crescendo of assenting shouts from his hearers: “I’m not afraid any more – Yeah.” “I don’t fear any man. – Amen!” “Because I’ve been up to the mountain. – Hallelujah!”

From his disciples Jesus chose twelve. Why twelve? Because God’s people was composed of twelve tribes. Jesus was establishing a new people of God. The twelve men Jesus chose to lead his new people were undistinguished. If they had one common quality it was mediocrity. About most of them we have only legends. And the lists of names in the different gospels don’t even agree in all cases.

The Lord God called each one of us, when we were still in our mothers’ wombs. “You did not choose me,” he says in John’s gospel. “I chose you” (15:16). The realization that our call, whether as Christians or as priests, originates not in our own choice but in God’s is reassuring. The man on the mountain knew what he was about when he assembled that first undistinguished group around himself over two millennia ago. Throughout history his choices betray a remarkable sameness. Success depends not on the capabilities of those chosen, but on the wisdom, power, and faithfulness of him who chooses us. It is only in our own minds that the issue is in doubt. 

SLAVERY'S BITTER FRUITS

Homily for Sept. 9^th 2013. St. Peter Claver

          “The mystery hidden from ages “has now been manifested to his holy ones,” Paul writes in our first reading. He is referring to the mystery of God becoming man in Jesus Christ. And Paul actually wrote that this was made known not to “his holy ones” (as our translation has it), but to “his saints.” In Paul’s day all the baptized were considered saints. They had been made holy, or sanctified, in baptism.

          We celebrate today a saint, in the modern sense of someone of heroic sanctity, who is of special significance to us Americans. St. Peter Claver was born in Spain in 1581. Following studies at the University of Barcelona, he entered the Society of Jesus at age 20. Encouraged by a Jesuit lay brother, Alphonsus Rodrigues, later declared a saint himself, Peter volunteered for service in the Spanish colonies in Latin America. He arrived in Cartagena/Columbia in 1610 and was ordained a priest six years later.

          The port city of Cardagena was a trading hub, with 10,000 slaves being landed there annually from West Africa. Peter Claver would spend the next 40 years serving them. It is estimated that in that time he baptized 300,000 slaves. Before doing so, he would explain the faith to them with the help of interpreters and simple pictures. He ministered also to the seamen who brought the slaves to the New World, and to slave traders and owners, urging them to treat the slaves as brothers. Ill and often ill treated for the last four years of his life, Peter Claver died on Mary’s birthday, Sept. 8^th, 1654. He was immediately acclaimed as a saint by the people of Cartagena, who gave him a state funeral.

          St. Peter Claver’s significance for us Americans is that we are heirs, whether we like it or not, of two centuries of  bitter cruelty to African slaves. You cannot practice injustice on such a scale and expect there will be no evil consequences. That millions of black children grow up in our society today without a father (with all the social damage this causes) is not unconnected to the willingness of slave owners to ignore the marriages of their slaves and sell them to different owners when this was financially profitable. With good reason, then, we invoke the prayers of St. Peter Claver today for compassion and justice for all people in our society, which is still paying the price for past injustice.