TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

13 SEPTEMBER 2015

          We accept pollsters these days as part of the fabric of our ordinary American life.  Those running for public office rely on their standings in polls to make decisions about their campaigns.  But polls are not new.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus conducts a poll to seek public opinion about him.  Professional pollsters call this “an informal survey.”  His disciples come up with three results: John the Baptist come back to life, Elijah back from heaven, or one of the prophets.  Then Jesus turns the polls on them and asks who they think he is.  Peter, always one to blurt things out, gets the correct answer:  “You are the Christ (Messiah).”

            Jesus knows that his disciples accept the common understanding of the messiah as a hero who would free them from oppression.  Their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt, and then again in Babylon.  As servants of Roman rule, they want the messiah to ransom them from their slavery.  They are keenly fearful of the way the Romans use the cruel and humiliating tool of crucifying those who oppose them as warnings to others not to attempt a revolt.

            Jesus knows that his Father has not called him to be this popular kind of messiah.  Versed in the suffering servant songs of the prophet Isaiah and reinforced by his 40 days in the desert, Jesus has developed an unflinching trust that he can speak the truth about the Kingdom of God, even when the religious authorities oppose him.  God will not fail him.  He has been revealing this mission by his miracles and healings.  Even though the demons understand his true mission, his disciples do not.  So, now he openly tells them that he is the Messiah who will become a slave himself, humbling serving others.  He will endure the humiliation of the cross and pay the ransom for sin and free them from sin and death.

            Peter speaks for the rest of the disciples in telling Jesus that this is crazy!  But Jesus rebukes him in the strongest terms, calling Peter a demon and telling him not to tempt him to abandon his mission.  Peter and the other disciples would eventually learn the truth.  After the resurrection, they would eventually put their faith in Jesus the Christ before their own security.  They would deny themselves and embrace the cross with the same unflinching trust in God.

            Many Christians are living this message in a very literal way.  In the Middle East and in parts of Africa, those who profess their faith in Jesus Christ are losing their lives for the sake of the Gospel.  In areas controlled by the Islamic State, some are taxed heavily, others driven out of their homes, and many put to death.  They face these horrors with the unflinching trust that Jesus keeps his promise.  Those who share in his dying will share in his rising.

            This same message applies to us, who are disciples of the Lord.  Every time we keep our baptismal promises, we die to ourselves and trust that we will share in the Lord’s rising.  Saint James understands this dynamic.  He knows that our salvation is a gratuitous gift from Jesus Christ, who died to pay the ransom for our sins.  He knows that we cannot purchase our way to heaven with good works.  But he also knows that we must do more than talk about our faith.  We must become humble servants, die to ourselves, and respond to those in need.

            When I am done talking, we will profess our faith and recite together the Nicene Creed.  In praying the Creed, we express what we believe in words.  But we must translate those words into action.  We reaffirm our conviction that being humble servants will not destroy us.  Dying to ourselves may be painful and sometimes discouraging.  Carrying the cross of pain, rejection, or suffering may frighten us.  Watching others without faith get ahead may anger us.  But we express our unflinching trust that God will not fail us.  This knowledge is not the result of a pollster seeking our opinion.  It is the result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

6 SEPTEMBER 2015

          Jesus has great compassion for this man.  The poor guy has no sound, no voice, and no hope.  There was always something missing in his life.  He could never enter into conversation.  As a child, other kids probably made fun of him.  As an adult, those who knew him probably are embarrassed for him or because of him.  He is like a stroke victim whose voice has been affected.  He is in his right mind, but is paralyzed in expressing any of his thoughts.

            Saint Mark does not record this miracle so that we can marvel at a first century Helen Keller, as wonderful as coming to hear and speak might be.  Mark records this miracle for a spiritual reason.  Last Sunday, Jesus confronted the religious leaders of his own people to go beyond external observances and look into people’s hearts.  Today, Jesus goes to the Decapolis, the ten cities in pagan territory.  He signals that the Kingdom of God is meant for everyone who is willing to listen.  That is why he heals a man who cannot hear.  Jesus takes the man off by himself, away from the clamor of many voices.  He becomes very physical with the man, acting like many of his contemporary healers.  He puts his finger into the man’s ears, spits, touches his tongue, groans, looks up to heaven, and uses a word which means “be opened.”  Then he orders the people not tell anyone.  Jesus wants this parable of action to speak for itself.

            This parable of action is addressed to us.  The Word of God has great power.  God’s Word brought creation into existence.  God spoke his word to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to form a Chosen People.  God continued to speak through prophets like Isaiah, who assured his people that God would never abandon them, even when they refused to listen to his word.  Now, the Incarnate Word of God speaks to us.  We live in a world filled with many competing voices screaming at us day and night.  The confusing crowd of voices tells us that we can be happy if we own certain objects, or if we exclude this particular group of people, or countless other messages that promise happiness.  Jesus has taken us away from the crowd into this church.  Away from the crowd, he is very physical with us.  He speaks to us in the Word.  He feeds us with his Body and Blood.  He touches us through the Sacramental life of the Church.  He opens our ears and speaks his Word to us, inviting us to listen and reflect on his words.

            Once we can hear the Lord speaking to us, then we can begin to speak.  We often hear of the “New Evangelization,” a phrase used by the last three Popes.  As Catholics, we scratch our heads and ask what this means for us.  The “new” involves modern methods of communicating, especially those methods which are available through so much of social media.  To evangelize is not new.  Once our ears have been opened to hear the authentic Word of God, then we can speak the truth of our experience of God. We can speak of the word received from the Letter of Saint James that wealth and social status have nothing to do with the way God looks at people.  In hearing that Word, we are invited to act on it.  We evangelize not only by sharing our gifts with the poor, but also by welcoming them into our midst.

            During the fall, we are offering a number of opportunities to open our ears to hear a little more clearly.  We are offering two different series on marriage.  There will be a series on the Pope’s recent Encyclical on the Environment.  Take a look at the bulletin and the website for Bible Study sessions, RCIA, and other Adult Education opportunities.  They are designed to draw us away from the crowd, open our ears more attentively to God’s voice, and help us to speak of what we hear, especially to family members, friends, and neighbors.  At every Baptism, we touch the baby’s ears and mouth and say, “Ephphatha,” be opened.  We can open our ears to hear God’s Word, and then accept his grace to loudly proclaim it in a number of creative ways.

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

30 AUGUST 2015

            When Jesus responds to the Pharisees, he also responds to us Catholics.  In our religious observance, we resemble these contemporaries of Jesus in many ways. They regarded the Torah as the foundation of their faith and allowed a living tradition to guide them in living it.  We too accept the Word of God as the foundation of all that we believe.  We also have a living Tradition that emerges from the Word and guides us in our faith, with the teaching authority of the Church interpreting it.  The Pharisees developed 613 laws to serve as day to day practical guides.  We have the Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to guide us in living our faith.  The Pharisees were a lay group who did not limit holiness to the priests assigned to the Temple.  Like them, we see God’s call to holiness applying to everyone.  Their ritual practices helped them to maintain their identity.  So do ours.  We bless ourselves with Holy Water when we enter the Church.  We bow to the Altar.  We genuflect to the Tabernacle.  The ritual actions we take for granted sometimes baffle those who are just beginning the RCIA.

            Jesus does not criticize the Pharisees for having laws and traditions.  He criticizes them, because they have lost sight of the real purpose of the Law which we heard from the Book of Deuteronomy.  Moses stressed that the Law as a gift given by God to guide their lives toward greater holiness.  Once the Pharisees lose sight of this central purpose, their laws and traditions become so complicated that they need Scribes to interpret them.  As urban dwellers, they can more easily follow their laws and traditions.  They have better access to the water needed for purifications.  The disciples of Jesus are country people and travelers who did not have the same access.  They are fishermen who are handling dead fish all the time and cannot perform the purifications needed to make them ritually clean.  In his criticisms, Jesus goes to the heart of the matter.  The evils that defile us do not come from external sources.  They come from within.  He calls everyone to repent and accept the Kingdom of God to become holy.

            Unlike the Pharisees, we have accepted Jesus Christ and his call to repent and grow in holiness.  As the Letter of Saint James explains, we must be doers of the word and not hearers only.  Our living Tradition helps to be doers of the word and adjusts religious traditions for our growth in faith.  Like the Pharisees, we have traditions regarding the use of food.  There has been a long tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays to remind us of the Lord’s death for us on Good Friday.  However, after the Second Vatican Council, the Bishops, the living interpreters of Tradition, noticed that Catholics tended to abstain from eating meat only because it was the law.  They relaxed the tradition, limiting the law to Fridays in Lent.  When I received my First Communion, Catholics were required to fast from all food and drink (even water) from midnight.  That tradition caused us to distinguish regular food from the Eucharistic Food.  They relaxed the tradition to fasting for one hour before receiving Communion, as a way of encouraging the faithful to receive the Eucharist more frequently.   

            The Scriptures today remind us of the importance of God’s Law and the role of the living teaching authority of the Church to interpret and guide us in living it.  They also remind us of the purpose of all laws and teachings:  to help us to grow in holiness.  As Pope Francis keeps reminding us, that holiness involves care for orphans and widows – those who live on the fringes of society.  Guided by the teaching of the Church, we recognize those evils that defile us and turn more completely to the One who saves us in the Paschal Mystery.  Our laws and traditions guide us as we imitate that Mystery in our lives.

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.