"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT YOUR LIFE."

Homily for June 21^st, 2014: Matthew 6:24-34.

          “Do not worry about your life,” Jesus says, nor about what you will eat, drink, and wear. In Jesus’ day Galilee, where he spoke those words, was relatively prosperous. Were he speaking in a region of dire poverty, like many places in the Third World today, his words would seem heartless, and he would have spoken differently. The Greek word translated “worry” really means “be concerned about,” or “be preoccupied with.”

          Jesus uses examples from nature to encourage trust in God’s care. The people who first heard Jesus’ words lived close to nature. When he spoke about the birds, they knew how hard birds work. A collection of photos of birds’ nests that landed in my e-mail box recently showed intricate constructions that must have required weeks to build.

          Jesus goes on to speak about the beauty of nature, exemplified by wildflowers. His hearers did not live, like so many today, in concrete jungles They looked out daily on God’s handiwork. So Jesus tells them: “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do notworry  …”

          Here is what a man of science says about worry. Dr. Charles H. Mayo, one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota: “Worry affects the circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system. I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt.”

What is the cure for worry? I know none better than the message of an evangelical hymn: 

Cast your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace.

Oh soul are you weary and troubled? / No light in the darkness to see?
There's light for a look at the Savior / And life more abundant and free.

His words shall not fail you, He promised / Believe Him and all will be well
Then go to a world that is dying / His perfect salvation to tell.

TREASURE IN HEAVEN

Homily for June 20^th, 2014: Matthew 6:19-23.

          At a fund raising dinner for St. Louis University many years ago, the principal speaker was the then Chancellor of the university, Fr. Paul Reinert SJ. “They say you can’t take it with you,” he told the crowd. “But you can send it ahead.” The roar of laughter the more than five hundred people attending went on for a full minute at least.

          Laugh if you like, but this is what Jesus tells us to do in today’s gospel. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.”  

          A man of great wealth said once: “Whoever thinks that having a lot of money will make you happy has obviously never had a lot of money.” Jesus speaks about thieves who break in and steal. People of great wealth today have to worry about much more than thieves. If they have children they must hire guards to prevent kidnapping. They cannot keep fixed and regular hours, lest they themselves be waylaid and harmed. They must constantly worry about servants and other employees ripping them off and harming them financially or in other ways.

          “Store up treasures in heaven,” Jesus says. They cannot be lost. And you will be happy both in this life, and in the life to come. How do we store up treasures in Heaven? By doing good to others; by putting God first, others second, and ourselves last; by letting no day pass without spending some time at least with God in prayer. And we don’t need to wait for heaven to receive a reward. People who try to do those things are happy here and now – no exceptions!

Our life here on earth is sometimes compared to the weaving of a tapestry. It is woven from the back. Those working on it cannot see the pattern, or only dimly. That is because the pattern is visible only from the front.

One day, however, when the Lord calls us home, we’ll see the tapestry from the front. What looks to us now like a tangle of loose ends will be something wonderful. “How beautiful!” we’ll say. And then we’ll ask: “Did I do all that?” And the Lord God will answer: “Well, you did some of it. I did the rest.”

"OUR FATHER."

Homily for June 19^th, 2014: Matt. 6:7-15.

          With his gift of the Lord’s Prayer, the only prayer Jesus ever gave us, he gives us a pattern for all our prayer, especially private prayer. “Do not babble like the pagans,” Jesus says. The pagan gods of Jesus’ day were manipulative. They were in competition with one another. To get on their good side, the worshipper had to say the right words, and repeat them as often as possible. Forget all that, Jesus says. The God to whom you must pray is your loving heavenly Father. He “knows what you need before you ask him.”  

          When we pray our Father, and not my Father, we acknowledge that we approach God as a member of his people. We don’t have a private me-and-God religion. Three petitions follow, having to with God himself. “Hallowed be thy name” is the first. It means “may your name be kept holy.” God’s name is kept holy when we speak it with faith, not as a magical word to get his attention, or to con him into giving us what we want. We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to, for God acts in sovereign freedom.

          “Thy kingdom come” is a petition for the coming of God’s rule over us and the whole world. We are unhappy, and frustrated, because the world, and too often our own personal lives as well, do not reflect God’s rule. “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” extends this petition. In heaven God’s will is done immediately, and gladly.

          Four petitions follow which have to do not just with own needs, but also with those of our brothers and sisters in the family of God: for bread, forgiveness, deliverance from temptation, and victory over evil.

          Here is a suggestion which can help you to appreciate the Lord’s Prayer more deeply. Rather than just rattling it off, as Catholics mostly do, take at least five or ten minutes to pray it slowly, phrase by phrase, even word by word. Start with the opening word: “Our.” Ponder the full meaning of that word. Pray that you may be mindful not only of your own needs, but also of the needs of others -- your brothers and sisters. That could be your whole prayer for five or ten minutes. Move on the next day to the word “Father,” and on the day following pray over the words “Hallowed be thy name.” Practiced faithfully, and with patience, this way of praying the one prayer Jesus has given us will help you realize that the words are not just a pious formula. Rightly prayed, they bring you close to Him who tells us in John’s gospel: “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete” (15:11).

WE BECOME WHAT WE EAT

Corpus Christi Year A; Deut. 8:2-3,14-16; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; John 6:51-59.

AIM: To help the hearers understand the Eucharist better and celebrate it more

          fruitfully.

          Running like a golden thread through all three readings on today’s feast of the Lord’s Body and Blood is a common theme: food and eating. Each reading tells us something about the heavenly bread of the Eucharist, and how we should eat it. Our eating of this food should be continual, corporate, and contrite.

1.       The mysterious food called manna (a Hebrew word thought to mean “what is it?”) mentioned in our first reading, reminded the people who received it of their dependence on God. In giving the manna to his people during their desert wanderings, God commanded them to gather each day only enough for that day.  There was one exception. In order to observe the Sabbath rest, the people could gather a two-day supply the day before. Inevitably some of the people disobeyed God’s command by gathering more than they needed. The excess supply spoiled.   Making it impossible to hoard the manna was God’s way of teaching them that they could not live from their own resources. They remained always dependent on the Lord’s bounty.

          A similar principle applies to the heavenly food of the Eucharist. Like God’s people under Moses, we must receive this food continually. The Catechism says: “The Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even daily” [No. 1389]. Why? Is God’s gift to us limited? Of course not. When God gives, he gives not only abundantly, but super-abundantly. Jesus demonstrated this repeatedly. The quantity of water he changed into wine at the wedding feast at Cana would have kept the party going for a week. When Jesus fed the vast crowd in the wilderness, he didn’t give them just a snack. They all ate to the full, and there was food left over. 

          What is limited is not God’s gift, but our capacity to receive. It is something like fetching water in a cup from an ever-flowing spring. Though the water flows continually, the amount we can take away is limited by the size of the cup. Our need to come continually to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood reminds us of our dependence on God. We live not from our own resources, but from God’s gift.

2.       Our second reading tells us that our eating of the food God gives us in the Eucharist is not a private, me-and-God, affair. It is corporate. “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

          Ordinary food is converted, through the process of digestion, into substances which we need to build and maintain bodily strength. It becomes, in a sense, part of us. When we eat the heavenly food of the Eucharist exactly the opposite happens. We become what we eat. “What material food produces in our bodily life,” the Catechism says, “Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life” [No. 1392]. We, who have been made members of Christ’s body in baptism, become his members afresh in the Eucharist. The Catechism says: “Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ ... preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism.” [No. 1392]. Through the Eucharist we become people through whom Jesus continues today the works of love and compassion which he accomplished during his earthly life through his physical body. United with him in the Eucharist, we are united too with one another. That is why, before coming to the Lord’s holy table, we share with one another the greeting of peace. “Those who receive the Eucharist,” we read in the Catechism, “are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church” [No. 1396]. Our continual eating of the food God gives us is corporate.

3.       In the gospel Jesus tells us that his Body and Blood, given to us in the Eucharist, nourish us not only in this life, but for eternity. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” 

          As with other food, however, our capacity to benefit from the nourishment it contains depends on our condition when we eat it. A person who is gravely ill cannot benefit from a hearty meal. A spiritually sick person does not benefit from receiving Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. Essential to spiritual health is the admission that we are sinners. That is why we say, following the greeting of peace: “Lord I am not worthy ...” To benefit from the food the Lord gives us in the Eucharist, therefore, we must come with sorrow for our sins. The technical term for this sorrow is contrition. “Before so great a sacrament,” the Catechism tells us, “the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed’” [No. 1376].

          The capacity of Christ’s Body and Blood to nourish us is unlimited. Our capacity to receive nourishment, however, is limited by our consciousness of our need, by our contrition for our sins, and by our longing for the Lord’s healing and strengthening love.

          On today’s feast of the Lord’s Body and Blood the readings remind us of the conditions imposed by the Lord who gives us the Eucharist upon our eating of this heavenly food.  We must receive this heavenly bread:

—      continually, conscious of our permanent dependance on God;

—      corporately, rejoicing in our fellowship with all who share this sacred meal with us; and —

—      contritely, acknowledging our unworthiness, and seeking not a reward for good conduct, but God’s mercy and love.

          For those who are trying to fulfill these three conditions Jesus’ words in the gospel reading are fulfilled:

          “Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”              

ALMSGIVING, PRAYER, FASTING."

Homily for June 18^th, 2014: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.

          Continuing his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading about almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Traditionally associated with Lent, these religious practices are spiritually profitable at all times – provided (and this condition is essential) that they are done for God, and not to obtain human recognition and praise. The Roman stoic philosopher, Seneca, a contemporary of Jesus, makes the same point when he writes: “Whoever wants to publicize his virtue labors not for virtue but for glory.” Jesus says the same with his thrice repeated statement, “they have received their reward.” The reward he is referring to is human recognition and glory – and beyond that nothing. To receive a reward from God (and Jesus never tells us to be indifferent to rewards, provided they come from God) our good deeds must be quiet, if possible anonymous. Then, Jesus says, “your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

          Similarly with prayer. Jesus is speaking here not about public worship; he himself took park in such worship in the Temple and in synagogues. He speaks about private prayer: “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” The 4^th century bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, explains that Jesus is not talking about “a room with four walls separating you physically from others, but the room that is within you, where your thoughts are shut up, the place that contains your feelings. This room of prayer is with you at all times, wherever you go it is a secret place, and what happens there is witnessed by God alone.” (On Cain and Abel Bk 1:34)

          Fasting too must be secret, Jesus says. There are two reasons to fast. First, to strengthen our wills. Voluntarily denying ourselves food and drink that we may legitimately enjoy helps us to say no to pleasures that God’s law forbids. And the sacrifice which fasting requires strengthens our prayer for the things, people, and causes for which we pray. The Lord who sees in secret recognizes that the intentions for which we pray are so important to us that we are willing to forego hunger and thirst that they may be granted.

GOD IS NOT MOCKED

Homily for June 17^th, 2014: 1 Kings 21:17-29.

          Today’s first reading gives the conclusion to yesterday’s account of Queen Jezebel engineering the judicial murder of the poor man, Naboth, because he refused to sell his vineyard to Jezebel’s weak husband King Ahab. God sends the prophet Elijah to Ahab to rebuke him for the evil he has done, “urged on by his wife Jezebel,” the text tells us. Elijah had already confronted the royal couple when he defeated the four hundred prophets of Baal (the false god of whom Jezebel was a fanatical worshiper) in the contest atop Mount Carmel over who could call down fire heaven. (1 Kings 18) Addressing both Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah tells them that the evil they have done will bring even greater ruin on their descendants. Cut to the heart by Elijah’s words, Ahab repents so sincerely that God relents – but only so far as to say that the punishment promised by Elijah will be postponed. Even when God has forgiven the guilt of our sins, the consequences of what we have done remain.

King David had discovered this after his adultery with Bathsheba. Rebuked by the prophet Nathan, David repented sincerely and at once. Nathan tells him that God has removed the guilt of his sin. But the consequences remain: death for the child David’s adultery has produced; and chaos in David’s family thereafter, starting with the attempt of David’s dearly loved son Absolom to steal the kingdom from his father. (2 Samuel 12 & 18).

God is not mocked. Our sins have consequences, even after their guilt has been removed by sincere repentance. The college student who loafs and parties all semester and then, at exam time, goes to confession and repents, has the guilt of his sin removed. But not the consequences: ignorance of the subject matter, and a failing grade in the exam. These consequences are called by the theologians sin’s “temporal punishment,” because they extend over time.

"AN EYE FOR AN EYE . . ."

Homily for June 16^th, 2014: 1 Kings 21:1-16; Matthew 5:38-42.

In today’s first reading we heard the story of an injustice which cries to heaven for vengeance. King Ahab of Samaria, a man with absolute power over his subjects and already rich, as all kings were in those days, would like to upgrade his property by taking over the adjoining vineyard of his poor neighbor, Naboth. He could have simply confiscated it. That is what kings did in those days. Instead he offers compensation: a vineyard elsewhere, or purchase at a reasonable price. When Naboth refuses to part with his vineyard at any price, Ahab is so frustrated that he takes to his bed and refuses to eat.  

Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, is made of sterner stuff than her husband. “What are you,” she asks him in disgust, “a wimp? Leave it to me. I’ll get that vineyard for you.” She then writes letters to the authorities, sealed with the king’s seal, accusing Naboth of high treason. Her frame-up, as we would call it, succeeds. After a public show trial, Naboth suffers death by stoning. As the story ends, King Ahab is on his way to take over the now ownerless vineyard. ‘What an outrage!’ we think. But that is not the end of the story – as we shall hear tomorrow.

          In the gospel Jesus speaks about the question of how to respond to injuries received. Jesus’ words, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” are a quotation from the Old Testament, where they were actually a limitation on vengeance: only an eye for an eye, no more. Vengeance must not exceed the injury received. (cf. Deut. 19:21) A later Old Testament passage states what is sometimes called the Silver Rule: “Do to no one what you yourself dislike” (Tobit 4:15). Later in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus changes this into the Golden Rule: “Treat others the way you would have them treat you” (Matt.7:12). When we take the initiative in doing good to those who have injured us, we elevate the moral level, creating an atmosphere of positive good will.

          Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil,” do not counsel indifference to injustice. They are a strategy for winning – by shaming our adversary into better behavior. In modern times this strategy of non-violence, as it is called, has been used successfully by Gandhi in India, and by Martin Luther King in our own country. St Paul, writing before any of the gospels existed, shows himself fully aware of Jesus’ teaching when he writes: “If possible, live peaceably with everyone. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves; leave that to God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” (Rom. 12:18f)