SOLEMNITY OF SAINT PIUS X (21^ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME)

23 AUGUST 2015

            For the last four Sundays, we have been reflecting on the Mystery of the Eucharist.  After feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish, Jesus has revealed that he is the Incarnate Word of God, come down from heaven for the life of the world.  He promises that his sacrifice on the cross will continue even after he has been raised from the dead and ascended to heaven.  Those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will live forever.

            Today, he asks for a decision, much as his ancestor, Joshua, had asked centuries earlier.  Joshua reminded his people of all that God had done for them in bringing them out of slavery.  Would they make a commitment to God, or to the false gods of the pagans?  Their response was clear:  we will serve the Lord our God.  The response to Jesus is not as positive.  Many of his disciples (those who had previously committed themselves to him) cannot believe that he is the Incarnate Word of God who can continue his Real Presence under the form of bread and wine.  So, they walk away.  In turning to the Twelve, he asks if they will leave.  Simon Peter speaks for them:  Where else can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.

            As we celebrate the Solemnity of our Patron Saint, Pius X, we look back at all the ways in which God has manifested himself in our lives and in our parish.  We may not understand any more than Peter did about how the Lord can be really present under the form of bread and wine.  But we believe in his Real Presence.  In gathering to celebrate the Lord’s Real Presence at this Eucharist, we give thanks for all that we have been given and all that we are.

            Like Joshua’s community, and like the disciples of Jesus, we are at a crucial time in the history of our parish.  After years of study, we have embarked on a bold construction project to ensure that our parish can sustain our community and serve its needs and the needs of the poor for years to come.  We see the visible signs of the construction.  I remain extremely grateful for the outpouring of generosity so far -- $12 million pledged.  Those funds have enabled us to begin the first phase of our project: the construction of the new church and the renovation of this church into a gathering space and meeting rooms. 

In the next two years, as this construction continues, we cannot forget the other needs outlined in our facilities study.  The Parish Education Center expansion will provide six more classrooms, including 3 rooms for our growing parish preschool, more restrooms, a multipurpose room for the school for the school cafeteria and youth ministry programs, and a dedicated space for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  We will continue to work on raising the $3 million needed to accomplish these goals.  I am also grateful to those who have set aside our educational needs to begin this first phase.  I am hopeful that all parishioners will take part in these efforts and will commit a sacrificial gift to this important project.

When Saint Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he knew the household code of the Roman Empire which brought order to families.  That code established the father as head, and clarified the roles of the rest of the family.  That included slaves, who were a part of every family.  Within the context of daily life, Paul urged the family to be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.  In other words, he tells everyone in the family to treat each other as Christ (the Bridegroom) treats us (the Church):   to lay down their lives for each other.  Living in this way has the potential to transform ordinary human existence into a living temple.

Saint Paul’s words apply equally to us today.  Treating each other as Christ would treat us can transform our ordinary lives and allow God to create a new reality.  I give thanks to God that you have remained in the parish, and not walked away in the light of our challenge.   Keeping the Eucharist as the source and summit of our parish life, we move together to equip this parish with the facilities we need to accomplish the motto of our patron saint:  To renew All Things in Christ.

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

16 AUGUST 2015

            At the end of our first year of Theology in 1971, one of my classmates talked about a Festival in Stratford, Ontario, which offered quality Shakespearean plays.  Since none of us owned cars capable of traveling that distance, one of the guys borrowed his father’s big Lincoln, and six of us made the trip for the first time.  We stayed in a cheap hotel for the first two years, until we found the Deer Park Lodge on the shores of Lake Huron.  For the past 42 years, everyone knows us there as “the American Priests” for a week in early August.  Over time, other priests joined our group, bringing its membership to 15. 

Last week, the remaining six of us made our annual trek to the Deer Park Lodge in Bayfield.  We traveled to Stratford (45 minutes to the east) for two plays on Wednesday and Thursday and enjoyed two dramas on stage:  THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.  However, the real drama continued to unfold offstage in our cabins.  We remembered the three members who have died.  We called our two professors who cannot join us because of their health.  And we talked about others who have lost interest or left the active ministry.  Because we are from different Dioceses, we brought each other up to date on current affairs in our lives.  We did most of our talking over the meals we shared.  Over the years, we have learned how to cook.  In sharing quality food (and pretty cheap wine), we laughed about the hamburger helper we used to make in the early days.  Within the context of shared meals, we became more grateful for all the gifts which God has given us over the years, and for all the ways in which God continues to bless us.

The Book of Proverbs personifies God’s wisdom as Lady Wisdom.  Lady Wisdom has built a house large enough for everyone, and she feeds all who accept her invitation with the best foods and the finest wines.  But she makes it very clear that only those humble and open enough to God’s Wisdom will be fed.  Over the years, my classmates and I have learned that lesson the hard way.  We have been humbled by our sins and failures.  We have become more grateful to the ways in which God’s grace has worked in our lives.  Years of experience have taught us that we need God’s Wisdom in our lives and in our ministries, because God’s wisdom always exceeds any ways in which we might have thought ourselves to be wise.

Jesus makes it clear that he is the Word made Flesh who is dwelling among us.  Moses may have been the mediator for God feeding the Israelites in the desert with manna.  Jesus is much more than a mediator.  He is that bread come down from heaven who feeds us with his own flesh and blood – with his very self.  Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has never backed down from the reality of the promise of Jesus in the Eucharist.  We may never understand how he can feed us with his real presence.  We may never comprehend how eating his flesh and drinking his blood will give us eternal life.  But he invites us to trust his promise.  Using the words of Saint Paul, we have to be careful about how we live, how we keep our baptismal promises.  Eating and drinking from the trough of possessions, experiences, titles, or any other passing reality will not bring eternal life.  Only living the life of Jesus Christ can draw what we are doing at this Mass into life that will never end.

When we prayed the psalm today, we stated that we have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord.  Adam and Eve tasted (experienced) the fruit of the forbidden tree.  Having tasted (experienced) their own arrogance, pride, and disobedience; they have seen the results of their choice.  Our Lord invites us to taste his real presence in the Eucharist, and to see the eternal life he promises, when we approach with humility and openness. 

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 AUGUST 2015

            As we continue to reflect on the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist, our Scripture readings remind us that God created us with a hunger and thirst that only God can fill.  Jesus reminds the crowds that God had offered manna and water from the rock in the desert as a sign of his power to satisfy their real hungers and thirsts. Jesus has been sent from God to fulfill that hunger and thirst at a level that Moses could never have imagined.

            Thomas Merton wrote a book which became a New York Times best seller soon after World War II.  That book, The Seven Story Mountain, was the autobiographical account of his conversion.  Not only did turning to God bring him to Baptism after living a rather selfish life, but it also led him to become a Trappist Monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.  As Merton continued to reflect on his conversion experience, he wrote about his continuing journey into eternity.  He wrote that we find God when we find our true self.  At one level, finding our true self is simple:  who we are, and always have been, in God.  Who we are in God is who we are forever.  However, that journey is difficult, because we are tempted to define ourselves in terms of what Merton called the “false self” – our reputations, titles, possessions, and other roles which ultimately pass away.  Merton does not define the false self as bad.  Rather, if we wrap ourselves with pleasures, experiences, titles, and accomplishments, there will be nothing left of us when we die.  We have failed to find God in failing to find our true selves.

            Jesus tells us that he is the Bread of life.  In believing in him, who feeds us with his own Body and Blood, we slowly and gradually find our true self.  We received our true self in Christ on the day when we were baptized.  To use Saint Paul’s term, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit.  In the ancient world, slaves were sealed with their master’s insignia, proclaiming that they belonged to someone.  Paul tells us that we belong to God, who draws us to find our true selves.  When we live our baptismal promises, we can let go of all those things that tend to tear apart at our true selves:  all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling, along with all malice. 

            That is why the Eucharist is so critical to our journey of finding our true selves, and ultimately finding the God who created us.  Jesus is very clear about it:  “I am the Bread of Life.  Whoever believes has eternal life.  Whoever eats this bread will live forever.  The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”  Jesus feeds us with this bread every Sunday (or every day for those who choose to come to daily Mass).  He feeds us when life is going well.  He feeds us in desperate situations, as God fed Elijah when he was running for us life from Queen Jezebel, who was trying to kill him for speaking the truth about the God of the Covenant.

            Sometimes young people tell me that they get away from the habit of regular participation at Sunday Mass, because they don’t get anything out of Mass.  (Don’t worry, I felt the same thing when I was your age, when my parents dragged me to Mass.  My Dad would remind us that if we wanted a meal, we had to go to Mass).  Do you expect that you will get “something out of Mass” every time you come, especially when the homily is not so good!  We continue to set aside this hour and make Mass a part of our weekly routine, because it is easy to get caught up in our false selves, to think that those false selves define who we are, and forget where we are going. 

            As the Body of Christ, joined to others, we become what we eat.  The journey is long and filled with danger.  What the angel said to Elijah, he says to us:  “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”  Eating and drinking, we walk on this journey together to the God who created us, gave us our true selves, and wants us to be with him in eternity.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2 AUGUST 2015

            When the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, they were not treated as human beings.  As a result, they learned to distrust any authority figure, especially Pharaoh.  Slowly, they learned to trust Moses, as he pointed to the ten plagues as signs that God wanted them to be his free sons and daughters.  But when they ran out of food in the hostile environment of the desert, they slipped back into old patterns, lost trust in Moses, and wanted to return to being slaves in Egypt.  So, Moses used signs in the desert to regain their trust.  He instructed them to collect the secretions of insects as food before the sun became too hot.  They called this food manna.  Moses also taught them to gather quails exhausted from flying over the Mediterranean Sea for meat.  Moses called the manna “bread from heaven,” because it was a sign that they could trust in God as he taught them how to behave as free sons and daughters.

            Jesus used a sign to teach the crowds how to behave as God’s sons and daughters.  He fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish as a sign that they could trust his power to free them from whatever enslaves them.  But just as their ancestors could not look beyond manna as a sign that they could trust God, the crowds cannot look beyond the loaves and fishes to believe that he is the one sent by God.  They need to trust that he can free them from the slavery of sin and death.  They want him to give them another free lunch.  Like their ancestors, they see God as a Pharaoh who punishes when they are bad, or a Santa Claus who rewards when they are good.

            We gather for this Mass today, because we believe that Jesus is the Bread come down from heaven.  He feeds us with bread transformed into his Body and wine transformed into his Blood.  As partakers of the Mystery of the Eucharist, we are invited to take another step in trusting God.  But we cannot trust when we are living in any kind of slavery.  We can become slaves to almost anything – from alcohol to drugs to sex or food or bad habits.  We can be slaves to consumerism, believing that buying stuff will make us happy.  We can be slaves to popular opinion and become what others think we should become.  Television reality shows seem to take delight at the ways people can be enslaved and sell them as entertainment.

            Jesus invites us to take a closer look at our daily lives to admit the ways in which we might be slaves.  He invites us to trust him in our journey through the desert of recovery to learn how to behave as his sons and daughters.  Anyone who has gone through a twelve step program knows how difficult that journey can be.  The first step is to admit that I am not truly free, because I am enslaved to something.  With that honest admission, we take the next steps of learning that we can let go of whatever had enslaved us to a deeper trust in God.  Instead of seeing God as a Pharaoh who punishes us when we misbehave or Santa Claus who rewards us when we are good, we develop a faith in God who will always provide us with what we need.

            One important way of growing in this deeper faith is to open our eyes to see the signs of God’s love already around us.  The first sign might be the sun coming up in the morning.  In the light of a new day, as we open our eyes to signs of God’s love in the embrace of a loved one or the smile of a friend.  Kindness from a fellow worker can be a sign of God’s love.  Special occasions like births or baptisms or weddings can be powerful signs.  The sign might be the presence of our friend from Africa, who always lets us know how we can make life better for the people of his parish in Uganda.  When we become attentive to these natural signs of God’s love, as the ancient Hebrews became attentive to the food they received in the desert, we can approach the ultimate sign of God’s love in the Eucharist with a depth of faith that enables us to trust God, no matter what is happening.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

19 JULY 2015

            Jesus is teaching the apostles how to do healthy ministry.  He had sent them out to do the work he had been doing:  expelling demons, healing the sick, and proclaiming the message that the Kingdom of God had arrived.  When they return, they gather around Jesus to report on all they had done and taught.  But the joy generated by their accomplishments is tempered by some very bad news.  Herod had executed John the Baptist.  The one who had preached repentance, pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God, and baptized him in the Jordan River, is dead.  His death brings sorrow and distress for them.  It also brought a sense of gloom that what happened to John the Baptist could happen to any of them, when they choose to speak the truth.

            Jesus responds by inviting them to go away by themselves to a deserted place to rest.  At that deserted place, they would not only get some much needed physical rest.  In their solitude, Jesus can teach them and help them reflect on everything that had happened and make sense of it all.  In this solitude and reflection, they can receive a spiritual refilling.  Jesus wants to teach them that healthy ministry involves hard work with multitudes of people.  It also involves stepping back and taking time to listen to the Word and be renewed.

            However, this spiritual refilling takes a back seat to the needs of people.  The people of Galilee had been considered to be of little value to the religious authorities of Jerusalem.  They are hungering for direction, like sheep without a shepherd.  They crave the teachings of Jesus so much that they rush to the other side of the lake to “cut him off at the pass”.  Even though Jesus and the apostles are exhausted, Jesus has pity on them.  His pity is a compassion which is born out of sorrow for their suffering.  So, he sets aside his own needs and the legitimate needs of the apostles to rest, and teaches them.

            There are two lessons for all of us who hear God’s Word today.  The first lesson is for us who are called to minister in the Church.  Whether we are ordained, serve as lay ministers on staff, or as lay ministers in any capacity, we are called to serve the needs of the parish.  In order to be effective, we must set aside time for solitude and prayer, allowing the Lord to refresh our spirits.  However, the needs of the parish come first.  We might feel spent after celebrating so many funerals.  But, if someone else is near death, we must set aside any problems in our personal lives, and serve their needs.  That is why Jeremiah is so critical of the religious leaders of his time.  They were so busy taking care of their own needs that they ignored the needs of their people.  Like sheep, they were scattered and hauled into exile.

            The second lesson is for all who are disciples of the Lord.  Rejected by people of his home town, Jesus knows that the vast majority of the people living in the northern part of the Sea of Galilee understand that he can give them direction.  They realize that they have needs which only Jesus and his apostles can give.  The same is true of us.  We do not have all the answers.  In gathering here today to hear the Word of God, we are acknowledging that we need guidance and direction.  We admit that we are like sheep, not being able to guide ourselves.  We need the care of the Good Shepherd, and of those who minister in his name, to refresh our souls.

            After Jesus teaches this vast crowd of 5,000 people, he will take five loaves and two fish and feed them all.  Beginning next Sunday, we will depart from the Gospel of Mark and listen for five Sundays to the Gospel of John, helping us to understand how the Lord feeds us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  But for now, we focus on the Liturgy of the Word.  The Lord feeds us with his Word, challenging us to be good and healthy ministers.  The Lord feeds us with his Word, especially when we are honest enough to know that we are needy people.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

12 JULY 2015

            When Saint Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians, he shares his vision of faith.  Ephesus was an important port city in the ancient world.  With ships bringing in goods from around the Mediterranean Sea, Ephesus had a very diverse culture with many nationalities and languages.  Under the authority of Caesar, whom the citizens called “lord,” there was an emphasis on learning.  By studying the various philosophers and appealing to the correct gods, the Ephesians were searching for what was really important and what would really last.  Even today, the façade of the great library still stands in Ephesus.

            To this diverse and educated group, Saint Paul clearly states that God, the Father of Jesus Christ, is the ultimate meaning of life.  He calls on the Ephesians to let go of whatever they are currently worshipping and give their allegiance to the one God who had revealed himself in history to his Chosen People.  He insists that the real Lord is Jesus Christ, not Caesar.  Through Jesus Christ and through the Mystery of his death and resurrection, God has chosen us to be holy and without blemish to accomplish his will, drawing everyone to himself.

            These words form the beginning of one of Saint Paul’s most eloquent letters.  They remain more than a nice beginning.  They speak to us today.  We too live in a diverse culture.  We too pride ourselves on being educated people.  We live in a culture which emphasizes the individual and stresses the importance of making choices to form our lives.  We may not have a pantheon of statues of gods in a temple.  But, our culture tells us that the most important values involve living comfortable lives, making money, getting the best jobs, and being happy.

            Although these things are not bad in themselves, Paul insists that the source of our ultimate happiness lies in being in union with God.  He challenges us to take another look at our lives to see what we worship today.  We can easily put all our energies into pursuing those things in life which turn out to be false gods and which cannot last. 

            Saint Paul encourages us to make sure that Jesus Christ is truly the Lord of our lives, trusting in the Paschal Mystery.  If we trust in that Mystery and recognize Jesus as Lord, then we can more easily embrace those crosses that seem to have the power to destroy us.  If we are willing to enter into the Mystery of the Lord’s dying by giving ourselves in humble service to others, then we can trust that we can share in his rising.  We can recognize those sacrifices we make not as burdens that oppress us, but as the means to free us to make better choices.

            Just as Paul knew that he had been chosen by Jesus Christ to spread this Good News to the ancient world, he wants us to see that whatever choices we make must be rooted in our awareness that God has chosen us in the first place.  Just as God had chosen Amos to speak the truth to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, God has chosen us to be his people and speak the truth in our culture.  Just as Jesus sent the Twelve to continue his work of teaching and healing, he sends us to do the same today. 

            We do not need a lot of stuff to carry on his mission.  In fact, too much stuff can get in our way and obscure the presence of God in our midst.  But we do need each other.  That is why Jesus sends the Twelve out in pairs.  In our culture, more and more people are saying that they are spiritual, but not religious.  They are implying that they can live and spread the Paschal Mystery on an individual basis.  We know that is not true, and that is why we are here today to celebrate the Eucharist.  It is true that where two or three are gathered, the Lord is present.  As Saint Paul tells us, the promised Holy Spirit guides us as God’s Chosen People.  The Holy Spirit is the first installment of our inheritance.  Together, we trust that installment.

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

5 JULY 2015

            The job of a prophet is never easy.  God called Ezekiel to speak the truth to his people in exile in Babylon.  He had to tell them the reason why they were in captivity.  They had rebelled against the Covenant and now were paying the consequences.  They certainly did not want to hear this harsh truth.  But, in time, they learned that facing the truth would bring them to repent and accept God’s gracious mercy, returning them to their homeland and rebuilding their lives.

            Jesus has a similar experience when he comes home.  His reputation has preceded him, and people had heard of the miracles and healings he had worked.  They are astonished when he gets up in the synagogue and gives them his amazing wisdom.  But they cannot believe, because he is too ordinary.  They had grown up with him.  He had no special training and was an ordinary laborer.  He had broken ties with his human family and had formed a new family of disciples who traveled with him.  In seeing his humanity so fully, they cannot recognize his divinity.  They cannot believe that he is the living Word of God.

            We have a similar problem in this family which is the Church.  We clearly see the humanity of the Church.  In the last fifty years, our Church has gone through many changes.  It is easy to walk away when those changes make us uncomfortable.  We can divide ourselves into certain categories, calling ourselves conservatives or liberals, digging in our heels to avoid those with whom we disagree.  We can change parishes, because we do not get along with the new priest or do not agree with the decisions of crazy pastors like me.  The scandals of the past decade have shaken the faith of others.  In seeing the very human face of the Church, we can become like those people of Jesus’ hometown.  We have problems recognizing the divinity behind the very human traits of our Church.

            When babies are baptized, they are anointed with Chrism, signifying that they have become priests, kings, and prophets.  As prophets, we are called to recognize the truth and speak it.  We do that best by remaining faithful to God’s presence in our Church and trusting that the Lord continues to work in our midst, even when we might be baffled by the very human weaknesses of our Church.  We depend on God’s grace to remain faithful and be open to the miracles which the Lord continues to work in our midst.

            Saint Paul can be very helpful in learning how to be a good prophet.  Saint Paul could easily brag about his accomplishments.  Scripture scholars estimate that he traveled 15,000 miles to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Paul was responsible for taking a movement within Judaism and making Christianity a worldwide religion.  But, instead of bragging about his many accomplishments, he boasts about his weakness.  He talks about having a thorn in the flesh.  We do not know what that thorn was.  It could have been something about his personal appearance.  It could have been an annoying quality that he hated about himself.  It could have been some habit that he could not break.  Whatever it was, he prayed that God would remove his thorn, just as Jesus had prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane that his Father would remove the cross.  In accepting his thorn, Paul learned the power of God’s grace.  In accepting his weakness, he learned that he had to depend on God’s grace.  It was God’s grace working through him and not his own gifts that allowed him to be such an effective prophet.

            Each one of us has our own thorn in the flesh.  There is some kind of defect that we cannot change and that drives us crazy.  When I can honestly admit my thorn, then I can more easily look beyond the very human qualities of the Church and allow God’s grace to open our eyes to his presence.  God’s grace is sufficient for me, as it is with the Church he has established.