"WHY ARE YOU TERRIFIED?"

Homily for January 30^th, 2021: Mark 4:35-41.

Jesus is sound asleep in a boat, in the middle of a storm -- the only place in the four gospels, incidentally, where we find Jesus sleeping. It was the sleep of exhaustion after a busy day of healing and teaching. But it was also the tranquil rest of the only man in that boat who had no reason for fear amid the elemental forces of nature.

While Jesus is fast asleep, a storm comes up. Though the disciples were experienced seamen, these seasoned fishermen turn in panic to their sleeping master, who unlike them was no sailor, with the reproachful question: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Without a word of reply, Jesus acts. “He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet!  Be still!’”

Repeatedly the scriptures of Jesus’ people ascribe the power over wind and wave to God alone. Jesus, the gospel tells us, “woke up, rebuked the wind ... The wind ceased and there was great calm.” It was more than the stillness of nature. There was an eerie calm in the boat as well, as Jesus’ disciples look at each other in amazement, each formulating the same question: “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” Remember: their scriptures told them that only God could do what they had just seen Jesus do.

The first to break the silence is Jesus. In this story which consists almost entirely of questions, it is now his turn. “Why are you terrified?” Jesus asks. “Do you not yet have faith?” Mark wants us, his readers, to hear Jesus putting these questions not only to his friends in that boat, but to all his friends, ourselves included. 

From the earliest times Christians have compared the Church to a ship. Like the ark, which rescued Noah and his family from the great flood, the Church preserves us from the flood of danger and evil in the world. Time and again, however, our ship is buffeted by storms. Whenever storms assault the Church, it is easy to think that the Lord is absent -- or at least indifferent. Like those first friends of Jesus in the storm on the lake, we cry out in fear. At the proper time -- which is God’s time, not ours-- the Lord banishes the danger, and with it our cause for fear. Having done so, he challenges us with the insistent question: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

What better response could we give to the Lord’s question than the cry of another friend of Jesus in this gospel according to Mark: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:4) 

"HE SPOKE ONLY IN PARABLES."

Homily for January 29^th, 2021: Mark 24: 26-34.

“Without parables [Jesus] did not speak to them,” Mark tells us. Why do you suppose Jesus chose parables as his favorite form of teaching? Well, who doesn’t like a good story? Stories have a universal appeal: to young children, but also to adults. But there is another reason why Jesus chose to teach through stories. Because stories are much easier to understand than abstract explanations. In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI writes: “Every teacher who wants to communicate new knowledge to his listeners naturally makes constant use of example or parable. ... By means of parable he brings something distant within their reach so that, using the parable as a bridge, they can arrive at what was previously unknown.”  

Today’s gospel contains two parables. The first tells us that God’s kingdom is like seed that a farmer sows in the ground. It grows secretly. Most of God’s work is like that. We grow discouraged because our efforts to build and grow God’s kingdom seem to bear so little fruit – or none at all. Unknown to us, however, and unseen, God is powerfully at work. One day – if not in this world, then at least in the next – we shall witness the result of this secret growth: fruit as astonishing as the enormous bush that grows from the tiniest of seeds.

Teach us then, good Lord, to trust always in you: to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to look for any reward, but that of knowing that we do your will. All this we ask in the name of your dear Son, who died that we might live; and who now lives with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

    

 

"TO THE ONE WHO HAS, MORE WILL BE GIVEN."

Homily for January 28^th, 2021: Mark 4:21-25.

          The short sayings which Mark gives us in today’s gospel immediately follow the parable of the sower and the seed, which we heard yesterday. Much of the seed the farmer in that story sows never comes to fruition. The parable describes the Church’s work in every generation. Despite the failure of so many of our efforts, some of the seed we sow falls on good ground, puts down roots, and produces not only an abundant harvest, but a super-abundant one. Jesus told the story as an antidote to discouragement.  

          In today’s brief reading Jesus continues to speak about the good news of the gospel. It is like light, he says, set on a stand at the entrance to a house for all who enter to see. Jesus is telling us that the light of God’s truth is given to us, like all God’s gifts, to be shared. If we don’t share the Lord’s gifts, we lose them. We can’t keep them unless we give them away.

          How do we share the light of God’s truth? We do so first of all and always by the way we live. St. Francis of Assisi used to say: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.” People must be able to see that we live by higher standards than those of the world around us, with its emphasis on getting rather than giving; and on repaying injuries according to the slogan, ‘Don’t get mad, get even!’

          Jesus’ final saying seems to terribly unfair: “To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Jesus is saying that if we truly walk by the light of God’s truth, sharing that light with others – at least by the way we live, when necessary and when possible with words as well – we shall receive more light. But if we keep the light of God’s truth for ourselves, we shall gradually lose that light until we find ourselves walking in darkness.

          Remembering how the Holy Spirit came to Jesus’ friends at the first Pentecost in the bright light of fiery flames, we pray in this Mass: “Lord, send us your Holy Spirit. Help us to be messengers of your Spirit’s light to others.”

 

SEEDS AND SOILS

Homily for January 27^th, 2021: Mark 4:1-20.

          Jesus’ favorite form of teaching was through stories. We call them parables. Most of them are so simple that they can be understood even by children; yet so profound that scholars are still writing books about them. The parable of the sower and his seed occurs in three of the four gospels. At the most basic level, the story is encouragement in the face of failure. It is Jesus’ answer to the rising tide of opposition which his teaching and ministry provoked. Most of the seed which the farmer sows is wasted. Despite this waste, the story promises a “hundredfold” harvest. A modern commentator writes: “A 20-to-1 ratio would have been considered an extraordinary harvest. Jesus’ strikingly large figures are intended to underscore the prodigious quality of God’s glorious kingdom still to come.”

          Today’s gospel reading gives the story another interpretation. By speaking about the different kinds of soil on which the farmer’s seed falls, Jesus directs our attention to our role in the harvest. It comes from God, yes. But it requires our cooperation.

          The different kinds of soil symbolize the many kinds of people who heard Jesus’ message: in his lifetime, and still today. “Those on the path are the ones who have heard,” Jesus says, “but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved.” There are people like that in every parish, the world over.  

So also, for those on rocky ground. They receive Jesus’ words with joy. But they have no root, so in times of temptation, they fall away. The seed falling among thorns represent people unable to bring any fruit to fruition, because they are so busy with other things: anxiety, and the pursuit of the false gods of pleasure, possessions, power, and honor.  

The super-abundant harvest of which the story speaks comes only to those who internalize Jesus’ words, praying over them, and making them the foundation of their lives. In response, then, we pray: “Take hold of me, Lord. Help me to know that you are always with me; that I can find happiness only by fulfilling the purpose for which you fashioned me in my mother’s womb: to praise, serve, and glorify you here on earth; and so to be happy with you forever in heaven. Amen.”

"HERE ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS."

Homily for January 26^th, 2021: Mark 3:31-35.

          “The mother of Jesus and his brothers arrived at the house,” we heard at the start of today’s gospel. His brothers? The Church has always believed and taught that Jesus had no siblings. His mother Mary had only one child; which is why she is called “ever virgin.” Why, some people ask? Others ask, what difference does it make? It makes all the difference. Here’s why.

          Having given herself completely to God, when she told the angel Gabriel, “I am the servant of the Lord – be it done to me as you say,” it was impossible that Mary could give herself completely to a human husband. That is why Mary is “ever virgin.” The Greek word used by Mark and translated “brothers” was used in biblical times to designate not only siblings, but other relatives as well.

          More significant are the words Jesus directs to those sitting with him in the house: “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus widens his family circle to include all those who try to do his will – ourselves included.

          That too, friends, is part of the gospel. That is the good news.  

         

 

 

CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL

Homily for January 25^th, 2020: Conversion of St. Paul. Acts of the Apostles 22:3-16.

          “Why are you persecuting me?” the voice from heaven asks the zealous defender of his Jewish faith, Saul, as he approaches Damascus. He is armed with letters from the religious authorities in Jerusalem authorizing him to track down and arrest members of this heretical sect who follow and worship a mere man, Jesus of Nazareth.

“Persecuting me?” Persecuting “my Church,” we could understand. But “me”? Paul’s experience that day is the origin of his teaching that the Church is Christ’s body. What does that mean? Simply this. Since his return to his Father’s right hand in heaven, Jesus has no body on earth but us. We are hands, arms, feet, eyes, ears, and voice for Jesus Christ. He has no other. What a tremendous responsibility! But a tremendous opportunity as well.

Paul’s conversion is yet another of the Lord’s surprises. Which of us would have chosen an arch persecutor of the Church to be the first great missionary of the gospel to those outside the Jewish world in which Jesus was born, nourished and died?

Unlike Jesus’ other apostles, Paul was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ deeds and teaching. There is no evidence that Paul ever saw Jesus. In time, however, Paul became convinced that he had seen the risen Lord there outside Damascus. Here is what Paul writes in his first Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15.

“I handed on to you first of all what I myself received, that Christ died for us in accordance with the Scriptures, rose on the third day; that he was seen by Cephas [Peter], then by the Twelve. After that he was seen by five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Next, he was seen by James; then by all the apostles. Last of all he was seen by me, as one born out of the normal course.” And then, remembering the man he had been before he saw the risen Lord, Paul adds: “I am the least of the apostles; in fact, because I persecuted the church of God, I am not worthy of the name. But by God’s grace, I am what I am.” (verses 3-10)

As we celebrate Paul’s conversion today, we pray that like him, we too may give ourselves completely to the Lord and one day hear the Lord speaking to us tenderly, and with great love: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your master’s joy.”