THINGS HIDDEN FROM THE WISE

Homily for December 6^th, 2018: Luke 10:17 -24.

          The seventy-two have just returned from their missionary journeys to tell Jesus: “Even the demons are subject to us” (Luke 10:17). Jesus responds with the spontaneous hymn of praise to his heavenly Father which we have just heard: “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” The wise and learned are those who fail to respond to Jesus, because they feel no need for God. Jesus’ disciples are the childlike, whose hearts and minds are open to the Lord.

          Who are today's wise and learned? They teach in our elite universities; they run the great foundations, with names like Ford, Rockefeller, and Gates. They dominate Hollywood and the media. With few exceptions they consider the killing of unborn children whose birth might be an inconvenience to be a wonderful advance in humanity’s ascent from ignorance and superstition to enlightenment and freedom. They charge those of us who consider abortion for any reason a crime and a grave sin with waging a “war on women.” They look down with patronizing scorn, disbelief, and hatred on those who insist that life is precious at every stage: in the womb, but also in old age, when Grandma’s mind has gone ahead of her, and her meaningful life is over. When we contend that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman; and that re-defining marriage is an injustice to children, who have a right to a father and a mother, they denounce us as bigots.

          Who, on the other hand, are today’s childlike? We are! We pray in this Mass that our merciful and loving Lord may keep us always so: aware that we can never make it on our own; that we are dependent every day, every hour, and every minute on the One who came to show us what the invisible God is like; who always walks with us on the journey of life; and who is waiting for each one of us at the end of the road – to welcome us home!

 

JOB RECEIVES AN ANSWER

Homily for October 5^th, 2018: Job 38,1,12-21; 40:3-5.

          For some days now our first readings have been taken from the book of Job. It is one of the great books of the Bible, and unlike any other. Like Jesus’ parables, Job is fiction – it’s a made-up story. But like many made-up stories – Shakespeare’s plays, for instance – it contains profound truth.

          The book introduces us to a devout and God-fearing man, Job, whom God has blessed with a wonderful large family and earthly riches in abundance. Within the space of hours, he loses everything. Why? That is the central question throughout the book: why do bad things happen to good people?   

          Job’s so-called Comforters visit him to tell him, in various ways, that it all makes sense, if only he will think about it. Their pat and comfortable arguments are typical of the answers given throughout history, and still today, by the self-appointed Defenders of Faith who look out upon a black-and-white world, in which there are no mysteries. Job rejects all their arguments, and demands, again and again, a one-on-one confrontation with God, who has at least permitted, if not caused, all the tragedies which have befallen him.

          In today’s first reading Job finally receives what he has been demanding. God speaks to him directly. He gives Job, however, not what he has been has been asking for – an answer to what is called the Problem of Evil – but rather a series of challenging questions. ‘Where were you, Job, when I was creating the earth, the sea, and everything that is?’ God’s questions shock Job into realizing that he cannot dispute with God. God lives on an infinitely higher plane. “Behold, I am of little account,” Job acknowledges. “What can I answer you?” Tomorrow we shall hear more of Job’s response: “I have dealt with great things that I do not understand,” Job says; “things too wonderful for me to know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.”

          At the book’s end, God rebukes Job’s Comforters for denying life’s mysteries. And by restoring Job to good fortune he rewards him for acknowledging mystery. God gives us no answer to the Problem of Evil, why bad things happen to good people. He gives us instead something better: the strength to go on despite unmerited suffering and even the most terrible tragedy.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Homily for October 4^th, 2018: St Francis of Assisi.

        Why does a gifted young man, son of a wealthy merchant, decide, on the verge of manhood, to exchange his privileged life for literal obedience to Jesus’ words to the rich young in the gospel: “If you would be perfect, go sell all that you have and give to the poor . . .  After that come and follow me”? (Mk 10:21, Mt. 19:21). That, in brief, is the story of the man we celebrate today: St. Francis of Assisi.

         Born in that central Italian town in about 1181, he was given the name John in baptism. When his father returned from a buying trip to France, he started calling his infant son Francesco; in English “Frenchy” or Francis. The boy’s youth was much like that of rich young men the world over, with one exception: Francis was always generous to the poor. One day in his early 20s, he encountered a leper. Though Francis had always had a horror of people with this disease, he was moved to stop, get off his horse, and kiss the leper.

          Praying one day in the tumbledown church of San Damiano, Francis heard the painted figure of Christ on the cross say to him: “Francis, do you not see how my house is falling into ruin? Go and rebuild it for me.” Some time thereafter Francis gathered costly fabrics from the family business, loaded them on his horse and sold both the cloth and the horse in the market. Returning to San Damiano on foot, Francis offered the proceeds of the sale to the priest, for the renovation of his church. When Francis’ father sued to regain his property, the case came before the bishop of Assisi, a man named Guido. He told Francis that he had cheated his father and must make restitution. Whereupon Francis withdrew and returned to court carrying the expensive clothes he had been wearing, and clad only in his underwear. From henceforth, Francis said, only God would be his father. 

          This was the beginning of a life as a wandering hermit and preacher, living in literal obedience to Jesus' words in the gospel. At his death in 1326 Francis had inspired over a thousand men to follow him. Francis never intended to found a religious order, and possessed no ability to organize it when it came. What he did have was the example of a gospel oriented life that continues to inspire people today – most recently the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires who, on his election as bishop of Rome on March 13^th of last year took the name of Francis as a sign of his determination to serve the poor. So we pray in this Mass: "St. Francis, pray for Pope Francis, pray for us. Amen."

 

NEVER LOOKING BACK

Homily for October 3^rd, 2018: Luke 9:57-62.

          Three potential disciples come to Jesus. The first pledges total loyalty: “I will be your follower wherever you go.” The man’s good will is obvious. With his unique ability to read minds, Jesus sees a potential defect in the man’s stated willingness to serve. He may find the road more difficult that he has reckoned: “The foxes have lairs, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

          The next recruit responds to Jesus’ call, “Come after me.” There is something he wants to do first, however. “Let me bury my father.” An important duty for Jews, burying the dead has been taken over by Christians as the last of the seven corporal works of mercy. When Jesus calls, however, this takes precedence over all else. “Let the dead bury the dead,” Jesus tells him. “Come away and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

          The third recruit, like the first, volunteers for discipleship: “I will be your follower, Lord,” he says. But like the second man, he sets a condition: “First let me take leave of my people at home.” With seeming coldness, Jesus tells him he is not truly qualified: “Whoever puts his hand to the plow but keeps looking back is unfit for the reign of God.” Jesus’ message to all three is the same: the Lord’s call takes precedence over all else. Is that possible? For some it is. Let me tell you about one.

          She was born in Albania in 1910 and baptized with the name Agnes. As a young girl she was fascinated by stories of missionaries in India. At age 12 she decided to join them. A Jesuit told her that the Loreto nuns, based in Dublin, worked in India. At age 18 Agnes, not knowing a word of English, journeyed to Ireland to become a Sister of Loreto. She would never see her home, or her mother, again. After only 6 weeks, she was sent to Calcutta, where she received the religious name Teresa, after the then recently canonized French Carmelite whom we shall commemorate tomorrow.  In the years following she became a teacher and later Principal of a girls’ school.

          On a train journey in 1946, she received what she called “a call within a call”: to leave the security of the convent to live among and serve the poor. Slowly former pupils and others joined her. At her death in 1997, at age 87, the Missionaries of Charity, whom she had founded, numbered over 3,800 in 122 countries – and that in a day, when in the United States alone, over 1000 Sisters left the convent to pursue other paths. Another thousand have joined the order since.

          Toward the end of her life Mother Teresa summed up her life in a single sentence: “I am but a small pencil in the hand of a writing God.” Happy are we if we can say the same.  

GUARDIAN ANGELS

Homily for Oct. 2^nd, 2018: Holy Guardian Angels.

          Today’s memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels reminds us of an important truth of our Christian and Catholic faith. The world in which we live, which we entered at birth and which we shall leave at death, is surrounded by another world which, though we cannot see it, is every bit as real as the world which we see, touch, hear, and feel. This other world is spiritual. It is the world God, the angels, the saints, and our beloved dead. Though invisible, this spiritual world is not only as real as the visible world all around us. It is in truth more real than that world. For the world we see is passing away. The unseen, spiritual world is not passing away. It is eternal. Moreover, this spiritual world is our true homeland. St. Paul tells us this when he writes in his letter to the Philippians that, because of baptism, “we have our citizenship in heaven” (3:20).

          The Catechism says: “The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal [that is, not bodily] beings that Sacred Scripture calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith” (No. 328). And the Catechism goes on to quote St. Augustine, who says that “angel” is the name of their office: it tells us what they do. Their nature is spirit; in other words, they are not bodily but spiritual beings. “With their whole beings,” Augustine writes, “the angels are servants and messengers of God.” (No 329) They appear often in Scripture. The angel Gabriel told Mary, for instance, that she was to be the mother of God’s son. The Catechism quotes the 4^th century Greek Father, St. Basil, who writes: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life” (No. 336).

          Whenever, then, we are in danger; whenever we are strongly tempted, it is a joy to know that we can pray with confidence: “Holy guardian angel, protect me and keep me safe! Amen.”