JESUS USES HYPERBOLE

Homily for August 8^th, 2020: Matthew 17:14-20.

          Today’s gospel reading gives us an example of Jesus using hyperbole. How so, you ask? Webster’s dictionary says that hyperbole is “a statement exaggerated fancifully, as for effect.” The American humorist Mark Twain was using hyperbole when he said: “The first time I ever saw St. Louis, I could have bought it for 3 million dollars; and it is the mistake of my life that I did not do so.” In Mark Twain’s youth 3 million dollars was like 100 million today. The statement is absurd – but also very funny, which is of course the effect Mark Twain was aiming at.

          Helping people understand the power of faith is the effect Jesus was aiming at when he spoke the words in today’s gospel: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move.” That is as absurd as Mark twin claiming he could have bought Louis for 3 million dollars. No one would expect a mountain to move on command.

          What Jesus is actually saying is that with faith we can accomplish the impossible. What is faith, anyway? Many Catholics would probably say: faith is the list of truths that we profess every Sunday in the creed. That is not wrong. But faith in that sense is properly called the faith.

          The primary meaning of faith is trust. Even in the Creed, we say “I believe in God.” To believe in someone is to trust that person. When we say we believe in God, we’re saying that we trust him enough to entrust our lives to him. Faith in that sense is not something that comes to us naturally. It is a gift. And the one who gives it to us is God.

          Each time we come here we are praying that through his two tables of word and sacrament God will deepen and strengthen our trust in him. We are like the man in Mark’s gospel who comes to Jesus asking healing for his boy, who suffers terrible convulsions. Jesus asks the man if he truly believes that Jesus has power to heal. “I do believe,” the father replies. “Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). With this gospel reading Jesus is inviting us to make that man’s prayer our own.  

"WHOEVER LOSES HIS LIFE WILL SAVE IT."

Homily for August 7^th, 2020: Matthew 16:24-28.

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,” Jesus says. “But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” What is Jesus trying to tell us? He is speaking about two kinds of people: the takers and the givers. Takers are the people engaged in what is called “the pursuit of happiness.” Some takers seek happiness through pleasure; others through amassing financial or material possessions. Others seek happiness by trying to gain positions of power; others still by seeking honor and fame.

All of those things – pleasure, possessions, power, and honor -- are good in themselves. They become harmful for us only when we make them central in our lives. That is what the takers do. They think that if only they can get enough of one or more of these four things, they will be happy. Always and inevitably they end up frustrated. Why? Because they can never get enough. As a man of great wealth said: “Anyone who thinks he will be happy if he has a lot of money, has never had a lot of money.” The takers, then, are those who lose their lives – through frustration at never having enough. The happiness they seek always and inevitably eludes them.

Who are those who, in losing their lives for Jesus Christ, find happiness and thus save their lives? These are the givers. They put the Lord God at the center of their lives. Remembering Jesus’ words in the parable of the sheep and the goats in the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, “Anything you do for one of these little ones, you do for me,” their goal in life is to serve. In doing so they discover that Jesus words are true: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35). That is the only saying of Jesus preserved for us outside the four gospels. Paul quotes it as something already well known in the Christian community.  

So, which are you? Are you a taker, or a giver? If you’re a taker, I can promise you one thing: you will always be unhappy and frustrated, because you’ll never get enough. You will always be wanting more and more and more. It is only the givers who find true happiness: the happiness Jesus is talking about when he says: “Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over will they pour into the fold of your garment. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

 

JESUS' TRANSFIGURATION

Homily for August 6^th, 2020, The Transfiguration: 2 Pet. 1:16-19; Mark 9:2-10.

          The mysterious event which we celebrate today, called the Transfiguration, gives a glimpse, however brief, into eternity. For a moment, before the descent of the cloud, the three friends of Jesus see their friend and Master transformed beyond anything they could have imagined. It was as if his humanity had no limits.

“We were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter writes in our second reading.” The Transfiguration is a manifestation of Christ’s divinity, for a moment breaking through the veil of his humanity. But it is more. It also shows us our potential to become divine.  

          If the goal of the spiritual life is to grow in likeness to God, then the more we progress, the more we participate in God’s own life. When our journey reaches its end, and we have been stripped of all the obstacles to holiness, God’s life will become our life, and we shall be one with God. Then our earthly pilgrimage beneath an often overcast sky will yield to the uninterrupted vision of God’s glory. We too shall shine with an unearthly light — the light that shines from the face of Jesus Christ: our Master, our Savior, our Redeemer — but also our passionate lover, and our best friend. We shall have reached our true homeland, the heavenly city which (as we read in Revelation) needs neither sun nor moon, “for the glory of God gives it light, and the lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21.23).

          As we journey onward to our heavenly homeland the words of an Evangelical hymn unknown to Catholics, can help us:

          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.

          Now, however, is the time above all for hearing. We listen for the Father’s voice and heed his command, as he speaks to us the words first uttered to those three friends of Jesus on the mountain two thousand years ago:

          “This is my beloved Son, on whom my favor rests. Listen to him.”

 

THE DEMON GONE

Homily for August 5^th, 2020: Matthew 15:21-28.

          Today’s gospel poses a question which we cannot answer. Why did Jesus initially refuse the request of a Gentile woman that he heal her daughter? It cannot be because Jesus lacked compassion. The gospels show that he was a man of total compassion. Did Jesus want to test the depth of this mother’s love for her sick child? If so, she passed the test with flying colors. Throwing herself at Jesus’ feet, she shows that she is out to win. Her daughter means everything to her. She refuses to take no for an answer.

Jesus’ words about the children being fed first seem to be a reference to his mission of feeding his own people first. When Jesus says it is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs, he is using traditional Jewish language. Jews in his day often referred to Gentiles as dogs. Jesus softens the word, however. The word he uses means not dogs but puppies. Even this does not discourage the woman. Without missing a beat, she comes right back with the remark: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” To understand what she is saying, we must know the eating habits of the day. Food was eaten with the fingers, which were wiped afterwards with pieces of flat bread that were then cast aside to be eaten by the household dogs.

          Or was Jesus testing the woman’s faith? If so, she passed that test too. For Jesus responds: “For such a reply, be off now! The demon has already left your daughter.” In Jesus’ day illness of all kinds was thought to be caused by demons.

          The beautiful conclusion of this moving story follows at once. “When the woman got home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”

          This desperate and nameless woman is a model of love and faith. We pray in this Mass for the Lord to give us her perseverance, and her faith.

 

 

                             

SHARING GOD'S LOVE.

August 4^th, 2020: Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14.

“Not what goes into his mouth makes him impure,” Jesus says in today’s gospel, “What comes out of his mouth makes him impure.” This statement would have shocked Jesus’ fellow Jews. Jesus’ disciples told Jesus that it had. “The Pharisees were scandalized when they heard your pronouncement,” they tell him. The Jewish dietary laws said that went into the mouth was important. Anything with blood in it, and all pork, were not kosher (forbidden). Jesus often set aside the law of his people. He healed on the Sabbath, for instance, when the illness was not life-threatening. That violated the Jewish law of rest on the Sabbath.

“What comes out of a person’s mouth,” stands for our behavior in daily life; especially for how we treat others. I am in my 92^nd year and, thank God, in excellent health and still active. But I live in an assisted living retirement home. Countless times every day there is a knock on my door. Someone is coming to give me medication, to take my vital signs, or just to see how I’m doing. During my daily morning prayers, I always ask the Lord to help me show gratitude and courtesy to everyone who visits me that day. I thank them for their visit. If the visitor is a woman, I call her “dear.” Each time I do that, it brings me joy. It clearly brings joy to others too. I told a visitor recently: “I thank God every day for the wonderful care I receive here.” Her response: “You make it so easy.”

Your life it completely different from mine. But you can do what I do. Ask the Lord each morning to help you bring joy to everyone you encounter that day. There are so many ways of doing that. Show them courtesy, thank them if they’ve done something for you. Speak words of admiration. Or just smile.

Those are all ways of sharing with others the love which the Lord God has for you. And always remember: you can’t keep God’s love – unless you give it away!   

"DO NOT BE AFRAID."

Homily for August 3^rd, 2020: Matthew 14:22-36.

          What began as a routine evening crossing of the lake soon turns into a nightmare for Jesus’ friends in their small boat. The storm which breaks on the disciples so unexpectedly this evening comes from just the direction in which they are heading. This explains why they are still far from their destination in “the fourth watch of the night.” Small wonder that they cry out in fear as they see a human figure approaching across the wind-whipped waves. It is Jesus. “Take courage,” he calls out. “It is I; do not be afraid.”

          One man in the boat is more impulsive than his companions. He no sooner recognizes Jesus than he wants to be with him. He will react in the same way upon recognizing the risen Lord on the shore after a fruitless night of fishing in the lake. (Cf. Jn. 21:7) It is Peter. “Lord,” Peter calls out, “if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” Jesus replies.

          Peter’s willingness to do the unthinkable enables him to experience the impossible. He climbs out of the boat and starts to walk to Jesus across the storm tossed waves. “But when he saw how strong the wind was,” Matthew tells us, “he became frightened. And, beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’”

          Jesus had a special role for Peter. He was to be the leader of Jesus’ friends and thus of the Lord’s Church. This terrifying experience was part of Peter’s preparation. Years later he would remember: as long as he had kept his eyes on the Lord, he was safe. When he looked down, and saw the danger, he began to sink.

          The story assures us that when the storm rages and the night is blackest; when we cannot see the way ahead; when we are bone weary with life’s struggle and our hearts fail us for fear, Jesus is close. He only seems to be absent. In reality, he is never far from us. He knows at every moment the difficulties against which we contend. Across the storm waters of this world he comes to us and chides us, as he chided Peter: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

          Happy if we today, in this hour, can respond to the Lord’s saving presence and power as his friends did in that boat. Happy if we too can bow before him in awe-struck worship and say, with those first friends of Jesus:

          “Truly, you are the Son of God!”