THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

26 JUNE 2016

          When Saint Paul brought the Gospel to the people of Galatia, he proclaimed a radical freedom resulting from faith in Jesus Christ.  However, his enemies accused him of giving baptized people the freedom to do whatever they want.  Paul responds to that accusation in today’s second reading.  He admits that the Law of Moses has much to offer.  But, that Law cannot save.  Only Jesus Christ can save.  Disciples of Jesus Christ are freed from the demands of the Law to live a much higher and more demanding law:  to love your neighbor as yourself.  Christ gave his entire gift of self for each individual person.  Loving others means that we give our neighbors that same gift.

            Saint Paul knows that living this freedom is challenging and counter cultural.  To make his point, he makes a distinction between flesh and spirit.  When he uses the term “flesh,” he refers to whatever we can perceive with our senses.  The flesh can draw us away from God.  If we work at freeing ourselves from the flesh, freed from whatever can enslave us, we can be truly free to be guided by the Spirit to follow Christ.

            Jesus offers us this freedom in today’s Gospel.  Leaving both his native Galilee and the false expectations of what a Messiah should do, Jesus sets his face resolutely to journey to Jerusalem.  It will be in Jerusalem that he will suffer, die, and be raised from the dead.  On his way, the people of a Samaritan village reject him, because Jews and Samaritans hate each.  James and John want to call down fire from heaven, as Elijah had called down fire from heaven centuries before to win the victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  But Jesus is very different from Elijah.  In rejecting their demand, he teaches them the same lesson he teaches us.  Do not bring hatred and vindication on those who disagree with you.  Do not despise others when they are different from us.  Use the freedom of being a disciple and move on.

            Jesus is honest with the next three people who want to follow him.  He cannot promise any sort of comfort or security to the first person.  The same is true of us when we choose to follow Christ.  He rejects the excuse of the second potential follower.  Jesus is not opposed to doing the corporal work of mercy of burying the dead.  But he will not tolerate delays in making a decision to follow him.  This potential disciple wants to wait until his father has died before making the decision to follow Christ.  He tells the third person to abandon the security of his family, much as Elisha had done, and keep his hand to the plow.

            These qualities, Jesus tells us, will make us fit for the Kingdom of God.  If we are fit for the Kingdom of God, we will be fit for the New and Eternal Jerusalem awaiting us at the end of time.  But that Kingdom is here and now, because it was established by Christ outside the walls of the ancient city of Jerusalem.  We are fit for the Kingdom when we know the freedom of being authentic followers of Jesus Christ.  Authentic followers are freed from the need to get revenge on those who disagree, because we trust in God’s judgment.  Authentic followers do not depend on comfort or security.  Authentic followers do not make excuses or delays in embracing the crosses that come from discipleship.  Authentic disciples do not look back and pine for the safety of the “good old days.”  We keep our eyes fixed firmly in hope to the future, trusting that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the light.

            We often define freedom as the ability to do whatever we want.  Jesus (and with him Saint Paul) defines freedom very differently.  When we yoke ourselves to the Gospel and the demands of discipleship, we will be truly and completely free:  free to love others as God has loved us, free to be fit for the Kingdom of God.

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

19 JUNE 2016

          In Saint Luke’s Gospel, Jesus always spends time in prayer before an important event.  Emerging from prayer today, Jesus reveals his identity.  First he asks his disciples the opinions of others.  He asks, not because he is curious, but because he wants his disciples to be aware of the common expectations of those awaiting the Messianic Era:  that he is John the Baptist or Elijah back from the dead, or one of the ancient prophets.  When he asks directly who do they say that he is, Peter gives the correct answer:  “the Christ of God.”  Even though he correctly identifies Jesus’ true identity, Jesus rebukes them and directs them not to tell this to anyone.

            Jesus has a good reason for giving this directive.  Having established his identity, he now talks about his mission as the Christ.  His mission is to give himself totally out of love, a mission that even his disciples will not understand until after the resurrection.  His mission will include suffering, rejection, and a humiliating and painful death on the Romans’ favorite means of execution.  His mission will have nothing to do with dominance or power or prestige.  His mission goes against the grain of the cultural norms of his time.  His mission is all about service, self-sacrifice, and a love that wills the good of the other as the other (Saint Thomas Aquinas).

            Then Jesus tells his disciples that following him will involve sharing in this same mission.  Maybe they will not suffer the horrors of a Roman execution – the dreaded cross.  But they will share in a daily dying to self if they follow him.  They must go against the grain of cultural expectations about what it means to love.  That is what Saint Paul talks about when he writes to the Galatians.  He reminds them that they obtained their truest identity in Christ when they were baptized.  It does not matter whether they are Jew or Greek, slave or free person, male or female.  They are one in sharing the identity of Christ.  They are one in sharing his mission of dying to self out of love for others.

            Saint Paul gives the same message to us.  We are united with one another through Baptism.  We emerged from the waters of Baptism clothed in Christ.  It does not make any difference whether we are men or women, young or old.  It does not matter what our skin color is or what our national origin may be.  Neither does it matter whether we are single or married, or what our vocation or occupation might be.  We share in the mission of Jesus Christ: to love as Christ has loved us, to will what is best for the other as the other.

            Loving as Christ loves us goes against the grain of our cultural norms and our fallen human nature.  We are always fighting temptations to take care of “number one” and put our own needs and interests at the center of everything.  Many temptations stand in the way of sharing in the mission of loving as Christ has loved us.  We are quick to judge and even quicker to gossip about coworkers or fellow students.  We are tempted to believe that possessions can fill the voids of our lives.  It is so easy to ignore those things that last and pursue those things that satisfy us and are gone too quickly.

            On Father’s Day, the Lord might be speaking directly to us who are fathers.  He commends us for the sacrifices that we already make for our families and encourages us to continue loving our families as Christ has loved us.  The Prophet Zephaniah talks about the Lord pouring out on us a spirit of grace and petition.  He invites us to admit the mistakes we have made as a way of accepting God’s mercy to change whatever needs to be changed to make us loving Fathers.  In a spirit of humility, we can gently do the same with the members of our families whom we love so much, inviting them to turn more firmly toward the Lord and his mission of loving others as he has loved us.

TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

5 MAY 2016

          Widows in the Ancient Near East did not have it easy.  In a man’s world, they survived through their connections with their husbands.  There was no safety net.  When the husband died, they found themselves at the bottom of society.  In the case of the two widows in today’s Scripture readings, the deaths of their only sons amounted to a death sentence for them.  In the case of both widows, God intervened to save them.

            Elijah had been staying with the widow of Zarephath during the drought caused by Israel’s infidelity.  She sees her son’s death as a punishment for her lack of faith in the God of Israel.  Elijah cries out in fear and stretches himself over the dead body of her son three times, begging God to bring the boy back to life.  When God responds to his cries, Elijah is affirmed in his role as God’s prophet, and the widow affirms her faith in his God.

            Nine centuries later, as he approaches the city of Nain, Jesus encounters another widow bringing her only son for burial.  Jesus looks with pity at the woman weeping and touches the dead body.  Jesus ignores the prohibition in Law of Moses against coming in contact with a dead body and expresses his deep compassion by touching the body.  Unlike Elijah who had begged God to hear him, Jesus speaks the words, “Young man, I tell you, arise!”  He gives the young man back to his mother, causing those who witness this even to glorify God.

            But Jesus’ action also causes fear to seize the crowd in the funeral procession.  Knowing the difference between Elijah invoking God and Jesus speaking the words on his own authority, they sense that a new day has dawned.  The long promised Messianic Age has arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel will continue to unfold, they will come to understand Jesus as the Suffering Servant and experience his passion and death.  This miracle points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of his power to transform defeat into victory, sin into forgiveness and mercy, and death into life.  The Lord’s resurrection is at the heart of all of our efforts to evangelize, to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.

            Yesterday, we witnessed an incredible event in the history of our parish.  Bishop Rhoades ordained two of our own sons, David Violi and Craig Borchard, to the priesthood.  Those of us who know them well are familiar with the stories of their growth in faith.  Having graduated from Purdue (David) and Notre Dame (Craig), both came to understand Saint Paul’s words to the Galatians.  Like Paul, they are convinced that God had called them to serve in the ministerial priesthood from their mother’s wombs.  They may not have had such a sordid history as Paul did in his persecution of the Church.  But, each has pursued his own path to answer God’s call.  Like Paul, they have spent much time in prayer and reflection.  Like Paul, they conferred with the successors of Saint Peter and the formation teams at the seminary.

            As ordained priests, they now begin their service to the Church.  At the heart of that ministry will be their consistent proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  They will proclaim that mystery every time they celebrate the Eucharist and administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  They will comfort people who are suffering when they give the Sacrament of the Sick.  They will provide consolation and hope in celebrating funeral liturgies.  They will not have to cry out in fear like Elijah.  They will perform their priestly ministries in the person of Jesus Christ, the risen Lord.  We have watched them grow in faith as members of our parish, and we are extremely proud of them and confident that they will be effective priests as they dedicate their lives to proclaim the Good News of Salvation in the ways they serve the people of our Diocese for the rest of their lives.