ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

16 JUNE 2024

 

          In his second letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul defends his ministry.  After he had left, critics have stood up to debate his authority.  They have criticized his preaching.  They have dismissed his abilities and trashed his reputation.  In response, he points to Jesus, crucified and risen.  Just as Jesus was criticized and rejected, Saint Paul faces the same treatment.  Like Jesus, he is sustained by the same power of the Father, giving hope.  He walks by faith, not by sight.

            In this letter, he uses three metaphors.  First, he describes his physical body as a tent.  While the Lord may dwell in a huge mansion in heaven, Paul’s tired and weary body is more like a tent.  It is temporary, not permanent.  His second metaphor is that of clothing.  He has put on Christ when he was baptized.  In his travels, that clothing has been torn and worn out by those who reject his message.  So, Paul longs for a new body, a “new set of clothes” given by Christ to those who die with him.  Finally, Paul uses the metaphor of “home.”  As Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul has been confident in his strong relationship with the Lord.  But, he longs for a home where he will see the Lord face to face.  Once he has died, he will see face to face the Savior he has loved.  For Paul, this is the profound joy of the Gospel.  This hope has sustained him through all the troubles of his ministry.

            In the Gospel, Jesus also uses metaphors to give his disciples hope.  He tells parables that are agricultural.  The first connects the Kingdom with a reality understood by his rural listeners.  The Kingdom is like a seed planted in the earth.  It has already been planted in their midst.  Even though his disciples must work to cultivate the kingdom, it continues to grow on its own.  As the kingdom will continue to grow and yields its fruit, it becomes more visible, like the blade, the ear, and then the full grain.  The kingdom of God will continue to grow in human history, until the grain is ripe and ready for the final judgment at the end of time.  It is God’s work, not ours.

            The second metaphor is that of a mustard seed.  The mustard seed is tiny annual that has been sown into the ground.  In the first century, farmers would have recognized its medicinal properties.  Despite its tiny size, it puts forth large branches.  In this parable, Jesus assures his small band of disciples, as insignificant as they may be, that they will continue to grow and become a powerful sign of the Kingdom of God.  In fact, the growth of the Kingdom will attract converts from every nation to become like birds dwelling in its shade.

            When Saint Mark wrote his Gospel, these parables provided hope for its first readers.  They were being persecuted for their faith in Christ and found his passion and death difficult to understand.  His parables did for them what Saint Paul’s metaphors did for him.  No matter how much opposition they faced, no matter how many difficulties they endured, the Risen Lord remained with them and continued to remind them of the Kingdom already in their midst.

            The parables of Jesus and Saint Paul’s metaphors remind us that the Kingdom of God is in our midst, even when life becomes difficult, and tragedies and losses make us wonder whether the Lord is in our lives.  They speak to us fathers on Father’s Day.  They encourage us to persevere in our vocation, even when we do not see results.  They remind us that the Lord can continue to work through us, if our children rebel and hurt us.  They remind us that the Lord can still work through us, even when we fail.  One of the surest signs of the Kingdom of God is the Lord’s mercy when we need it.  These parables and metaphors speak to all of us disciples of  Jesus Christ.  We can see more clearly the presence of the Kingdom when our weary bodies (our tents) and our tattered clothing (our baptismal garments) seem to be unraveling.  We have a home waiting for us, when the Lord comes to gather us and allow us to see him face to face.

TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 JUNE 2024

 

          As a faithful Jew, Jesus knew the truth contained in the first two chapters of Genesis.  He knew that God created the world out of love.  God created human beings in his own image and made them stewards of the beauty of creation.  God intended an intimate relationship with men and women.  God told our first parents not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  God was not withholding anything from them.  They are not creators.  They are creatures.

            Jesus also knew the truth contained in the third chapter of Genesis.  Satan slithered into a world of intimate relationships and lied to our first parents.  Satan convinced them that God was withholding something from them.  In eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they expressed their pride and became separated from God.  Realizing their nakedness, they then separated themselves from each other by blaming one another for their predicament.

            As fully divine and fully human, Jesus knew the reality of evil and the lies of Satan.  As a baby, his parents had to go into exile in Egypt to avoid the murderous rampage of King Herod.  Herod had lied to the Magi about his intentions to worship the newborn king of the Jews.  As an adult, Jesus spent forty days in the desert to prepare for his public ministry.  There, he resisted Satan’s lies and refused to allow him to slither into the relationship between his Father and him.  He realized that he would become the offspring of Eve’s descendant who would crush the head of the serpent.  With that realization, he began his mission of defeating Satan’s power.  That is why he worked so many of his miracles casting out demons from possessed people.  His miracles were intended to be signs inviting people to believe in him and his mission.

            Instead, his casting out of demons gets him in trouble.  His natural family travels from Nazareth to his new home base in Capernaum to try to protect him.  They have heard the rumors that he is out of his mind and do not understand what he is doing.  Hostile scribes are sent from Jerusalem to do an investigation.  They are part of the religious leadership who are threatened by this uneducated rabbi from Galilee.  They are adamant in their refusal to believe in him.  They are antagonistic and accuse him of being in league with Beelzebul, the prince of demons.

            Jesus easily refutes their accusations.  He acknowledges that Satan is very strong and that Satan continues to slither into people’s lives to wreak havoc with relationships.  But, Jesus is stronger than Satan and will eventually defeat him with his death and resurrection.  Jesus invites those caught in Satan’s lies to acknowledge the truth of his lies and repent.  Anyone who sees the light shining through his casting out demons can repent and be reconciled.  However, he warns the scribes that they are in danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  In other words, if they persist in such willful blindness and refuse to repent, they choose to close themselves to the forgiveness the Father offers them through him.

            Then Jesus turns his attention to his human family.  He does not condemn them for their inability to see.  Instead, he widens the definition of his family.  Anyone who becomes a disciple and does the will of the Father are brothers and sisters.  The model for doing the will of the Father, of course, is his own mother.

            As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are brothers and sisters.  Satan continues to slither into our lives to weaken and destroy relationships.  Jesus invites us, as his family, to open our eyes to see the ways in which we buy into Satan’s lies and fail to live as the family of Jesus Christ.  He invites us to repent and stop blaming other people for the divisions we experience.  Satan is alive and working hard in our deeply divided world.  Jesus wants us to look beyond what divides us to see what unites us in him.  

 

THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

2 JUNE 2024

 

          Moses gathers his people at Mount Sinai.  They have been rescued from Egypt by the bloody sacrifice of the lambs when they prepared their first Passover Meal.  Moses reminds them that they had not escaped through sheer luck.  God loves them and has delivered them.  Now God cuts a Covenant with them.  They are his people.  So, Moses relates to them all the words and ordinances of how they must respond as members of the Covenant.  They respond with one voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has told us to do.”

            Then Moses seals the Covenant by sacrificing young bulls.  This may seem odd to us.  But, for the ancient Hebrews, blood has a sacred significance.  It represents the source of life.  Sprinkled on the altar, blood signifies God’s presence.  The twelve pillars supporting the altar represent the twelve tribes of Israel.  Then he sprinkles the blood on the people themselves.  The Israelites are now blood brothers and sisters with God and with each other.

            In the temple in Jerusalem, priests would sacrifice animals to mediate the Covenant and remind people of their relationship with God and with each other.  The blood of those animals represented the source of life.  In their individual Passover meals in their homes, participants would drink four cups of wine indicating their communion with God.  Jesus and his disciples would have sung Psalm 116 (our Responsorial Psalm today) in their Passover meal at the Last Supper.  Jesus takes the fourth cup, the cup of consummation and says, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.  Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.”  This fourth cup will be consummated on the cross when Jesus does the will of the Father.  He is the Suffering Servant who gives his life for many – including Simon Peter, who will deny him, and Judas Iscariot, who will betray him.  When Jesus dies on the cross, his final words are “I thirst” and “It is finished.”  With those words, he cuts the New Covenant with his blood.

            The fourth cup that was consumed on Calvary is what we share in this Eucharist, the Memorial of the Last Supper.  We are blood brothers and blood sisters with Jesus and with each other.  We eat the Body of Christ broken for us on the cross.  We drink the blood of the covenant when we drink from the Precious Blood.  Saint Thomas Aquinas helps us to understand that we are not cannibals.  The bread which we see and taste has been transformed into the Lord’s Body. The wine which we see and taste has been transformed into his blood.

            To use the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus is the high priest of the New Covenant.  He places himself on the cross, which becomes the altar of sacrifice.  As a priest, in persona Christi, I will pray the Eucharistic Prayer.  In that prayer, we praise or bless the Father for the sacrifice of Jesus made present on this Altar through our liturgical remembering.  In that prayer, we gather not only the bread and the wine.  We gather the sacrifices we make as blood brothers and sisters in our lives and join them to Christ’s perfect sacrifice.  That is why the presider prays that the Father accepts “my sacrifice and yours.”

            As the people in the desert learned, Covenants are a two-way deal.  The New Covenant with Jesus Christ has the same dynamic.  The Lord mediates the New Covenant with us by the shedding of his blood.  In return, we promise to die to ourselves and submit to the Lord’s will on a daily basis.  We become what we consume:  The Body of Christ sent from this Mass to be the Body of Christ serving the needs of our community and world.  To quote Saint Theresa of Avila, we are Christ’s feet walking in our community.  We are Christ’s hands reaching out to the poor.  We are Christ’s eyes, seeing people in need of the Lord’s mercy and kindness.

 

SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

26 MAY 2024

 

          In a sense, every Sunday is a Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.  At every Mass, all prayers are addressed to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.  During the ninety days ending with Pentecost, the Church focused our attention on the central Mystery of our faith – the Paschal Mystery.  The 40-day Season of Lent reminded us that Jesus was absolutely faithful to the will of his Father.  He endured the pain of the cross out of love for us.  The cross and death are part of the Paschal Mystery.  The 50-day Season of Easter assured us of the truth of the resurrection.  We ended those 90 days by celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That is why this Solemnity puts the Paschal Mystery into perspective.  By living the Paschal Mystery, we are invited to participate in the life of the Trinity, not only now, but after death.  In his Icon, the Russian artist Rublev pictures the three persons of the Trinity seated at a table, drawing our attention to the front of the table.  The triune Godhead invites us to have a seat at that table.

            We became disciples when we were baptized.  Disciples must live the Paschal Mystery.  My parents taught my brothers and sister and me that lesson on a daily basis.  It always amazes me how often parents and spouses must die to themselves, trusting that they will share a little more fully with each other in the rising of Christ.  We priests are disciples called to die to ourselves on a daily basis to focus our energies to share his rising with the people assigned to us. 

            When Bishop Pursley ordained me fifty years ago today, I promised obedience and respect to him and his successors.  Connecting that promise with the Paschal Mystery did not occur to me at the time.  I had my own ideas of what priesthood meant.  I preached at my Mass of Thanksgiving (remember – it was the 70’s!) and made the confident statement that our generation of priests would be building  build communities of people -- not physical buildings.  That seemed to be working for the first ten years, when I served in high school ministry at Marian High School, spending weekends at Saint Matthew Cathedral for the first five years and Saint Monica for the next five.  That is what I wanted to do for the rest of my priesthood.  When Bishop McManus told me that it was time to become a pastor, I argued with him as much as possible.  But, the promise of obedience and respect won that argument!

            The transition was extremely difficult, because I had to die to what I knew and loved:  high school ministry.  However, after pouting for a few months, it became clear that the role of a pastor is not such a bad thing.  I shared in Christ’s rising by being welcomed into the parish family of Saint Paul of the Cross in Columbia City.  They taught me how to be a pastor.

            Then Bishop D’Arcy announced my next death and assigned me to be pastor of Saint Jude in Fort Wayne.  I had to die again.  It took me a while, but the people of Saint Jude taught me how to be a pastor of a bigger parish, work with Associate Pastors, and be responsible for a school.  I loved being the father of that family for 13 years, until the next dying happened.  That is when Saint Pius got stuck with your first Diocesan pastor.  It was another difficult transition. It took me about a year to feel at home and stop mentioning Saint Jude in the Third Eucharistic Prayer.  But I love this role I’ve had for the last 23 years.

            Never would I have chosen any of these moves.  As painful as they were, the process of dying opened me to new forms of life that I could not have imagined.  Being a priest for fifty years has taught me the truth about the Paschal Mystery.  Of course, I have failed to die to myself more times than I care to admit and apologize to anyone I’ve hurt in failing to die to myself.  I am profoundly grateful for my vocation and trust that my next step in dying as pastor of this parish will bring new life.  As we disciples celebrate this Solemnity, we can renew our confidence that we are invited to take a seat at the table with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We do that by living the Paschal Mystery on a daily basis.

 

PENTECOST SUNDAY

19 MAY 2024

 

          The Jewish Feast of Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Passover.  In the first century, Jews would arrive on pilgrimage to Jerusalem from throughout the known world.  Like Catholics visiting the Vatican today, they spoke different languages.  But together, they celebrated the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.  They recalled that incredible event when a mighty wind shook the mountain.  Flashes of lightning revealed God’s presence.  In giving the law, Moses gave them the language to speak of their relationship with God and with each another.  At Mount Sinai they became aware that they were God’s chosen people.  God had freed them from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea.  God fed them with manna in the desert and would lead them to the Promised Land.  By observing Pentecost, faithful Jews celebrated the Covenant given to them by God and renewed their commitment to it.

            In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke tells us that the disciples are in one place together on the Feast of Pentecost.  That is in marked contrast to what happened to them after the Last Supper.  They had been scattered like rats when Jesus was betrayed and arrested.  On the birthday of the Church, all Christians are in one place, an impossibility today with billions of Christians.  Suddenly, there is a strong wind, much like the mighty wind which shook Mount Sinai.  Tongues as of fire appear to them.  They are driven out of the safety of that room to begin their mission of proclaiming the truth about Jesus Christ.  Jews from every nation and every language understand what they are saying.  They have received the Advocate promised by Jesus at the Last Supper.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they will speak the language of the Paschal Mystery fearlessly, putting them at odds with the languages of their contemporary culture.

            That same Holy Spirit is given to us, individually, and as a Church.  The Holy Spirit enables us to speak the truth about the Paschal Mystery.  For the last ninety days, we have reflected on how to behave as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Lent taught us that we must share in the sufferings, cross, and death of Jesus Christ.  The Easter Season has reminded us that our efforts to die with Christ will not be the end.  We will share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We too can speak the language of love in a world filled with hate, division, war, and revenge.

            There is a very popular book called The Five Love Languages.  It explains that saying “I love you” is not the only way to express authentic love.  The best communication happens when the recipient is fluent in one of the five languages.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.  When we were on pilgrimage to the Holy Land a couple of years ago, we visited the Church of Saint Anne’s near the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem.  That church has perfect natural acoustics.  Our group began singing the “Salve Regina.”  Even with our limited choral abilities, we sounded great.  Then other groups began to join in, with each group singing in their own language.  The singing united everyone in that church through languages and cultures.  It was a miniature version of Pentecost.

            Saint Paul reminds us that we need to live by the Spirit.  If we live by the Spirit, we can speak the language of love, even to those with whom we disagree on political or cultural matters.  If we are guided by the Spirit, then we can produce the fruits of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The Spirit can guide us as members of the Body of Christ to produce these fruits in a culture which badly needs them.

 

  

 

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

12 MAY 2024

 

          Today, the disciples find themselves in a place of uncertainty, in an in-between time.  They had left everything to follow him.  In their three years with him, they had listened to his teachings and witnessed his miracles.  They were convinced that he was the long-awaited Messiah.  However, their hopes were dashed when his life was ended by the cruelest tool of Roman occupation.  It seemed that Rome had won again in their work of domination.  However, he not only survived Rome’s power.  He was raised from the dead.  Saint Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that the risen Lord had appeared to them over the course of forty days.  That symbolic number  indicates that they had been given sufficient time to appreciate his incredible victory over death and to deepen their faith in his risen presence.

            In the Ascension, their risen Lord is taken from space and time to return to the right hand of the Father.  In this in-between time, they do not know what to do.  All of us have been stuck at one time or another in an in-between time.  Mothers, you know what the in-between time is like.  You have carefully nurtured your children, and now you have to let them go to school.  Or, you have invested all of your time and energy in your vocation of being a mother, and your adult child has left the nest to begin a new life.  Graduating students, you are in an in-between time.  You have completed your years of education.  And now you await the next step into an unknown way of living.  To be honest, I am in an in-between time myself.  I know what it is like to be the pastor of a parish.  I have no idea what it will be like to be a retired priest without that role.

            Anyone caught in an in-between time can learn from the experience of the first disciples.  Like them, we need to pay attention to the two men dressed in white garments.  They were the same ones at the empty tomb on the day of resurrection who asked the question, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”  Today they ask, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?”  Their questions challenge the disciples to see this in-between time as a new beginning both for the risen Christ and for them.  They tell them to stop looking up to the sky and begin the mission of proclaiming the Good News they learned from the risen Lord.  The Kingdom of God is in their midst, and that the victory has been won by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            Of course, they will remain in the same messy occupation by Rome when they emerge from their in-between time.  That is why the risen Christ assures the disciples that signs will accompany their mission.  In their mission to proclaim the good news, they will have the power to drive out the demons of hatred and division.  They can speak the new language of love.  They can pick up the serpents of oppression and persecution.  They can drink the deadly poison of lies and fake news.  They can become instruments of God’s healing for the sick.

            They will be able to do all these things, because they will receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit will drive them out of their isolation in that upper room in Jerusalem and give them the courage for their mission.  As we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on each of us and on our Church next Sunday, we can have that same confidence.  The Easter Season has not changed our world.  We continue to live in the same world of division, conflict, lies and half-truths, war, and a general disrespect for the dignity of human life.  But we can emerge from any in-between time confident that we are not alone in our mission, and confident that we will succeed.  As the risen Christ promised, he is with us always.

 

 

 

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

5 MAY 2024

 

          The first Letter of Saint John tells us that God loves us.  God revealed his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.  Not only did Jesus take on human flesh, but he loved us so much that he gave himself completely by dying on the cross for us.  Because God loved us first and showed what that love looks like, God invites us to imitate his self-giving love by loving one another in this same way.  We come to know God in the way we behave toward God and each other.

            This is the message Jesus gives to his disciples at the Last Supper today.  Jesus call them friends, because they have remained with him for three years and have freely accepted his love.  He shows them how to love one another by washing their feet like a humble slave.  He promises that he will be present whenever they do what he does at the Last Supper – taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to them.  He will demonstrate his most incredible love by allowing himself to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God on the next day on the cross.  He commands them to love as he has loved them.

            He gives this same message to us at this Mass.  We became his friends when we passed through the waters of Baptism.  Boys and girls, you will go back to the Baptismal Font walking on your own legs.  When your parents brought you to the waters of Baptism, they carried you, with many of you crying.  Your parents and your godparents made the promises for you.  Now, you will renew those promises and bless yourselves with the water from the font.  As you were clothed with a white garment to demonstrate that you had put on Christ, you wear these white garments to connect you with your baptism.  Then, you will bring up the gifts of bread and wine and the sacrificial tithe and receive Jesus for the first time in the Holy Eucharist.

            The sacrificial gift of Jesus in the Paschal Mystery happened only one time.  Only once did he share the final meal with his disciples.  Only once did he give himself out of sacrificial love on the cross.  Only once was he raised from the dead.  Only once did he ascend to the right hand of the Father.  But those saving acts are made present at every Mass when we do what he told his disciples to do at the Last Supper.  After renewing your baptismal promises, we will take gifts of bread and wine.  In the Eucharistic Prayer, we will bless the Father for the sacrifice of Jesus made present here.  As we sing the Lamb of God, we will break the consecrated host.  Then we will give it to you.  Because we are doing what Jesus told us to do, those saving actions are made present as we remember.  You will eat the bread transformed into the Lord’s Body.  You will drink the wine changed into his blood.

            As friends of Jesus, we need to receive this Eucharist often so that we can love one another as Jesus has loved us.  Saint Peter understood the importance of the Eucharist in his life.  As a faithful Jew, he had never entered into the house of a pagan.  And yet, he followed the promptings of the Holy Spirit and dared to enter the house of Cornelius.  Not only was Cornelius a non-Jew, but he is also a Centurion who was part of the oppressive Roman occupation of his people.  In taking this risk, Peter baptized Cornelius and began to understand that the message of Jesus Christ must go to all people.  Peter realized that he was the instrument of God’s initiative to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

            As we receive the Lord’s body and blood, we need to trust that we will be strengthened to make difficult choices and embrace sacrifices to love as Jesus has loved us.  And boys and girls, you lead the way for us today!