TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 SEPTEMBER 2022

 

          Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem.  On the way, he has been announcing that the Kingdom of God has arrived.  He is the promised Messiah.  He invites everyone to respond and follow him.  He offers a special invitation to the poor the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  These people may be on the fringes of society.  But they are first in the kingdom of God.  The great crowds who are traveling with him have taken that first step.

            Today, he tells those great crowds that they need to take the next step.  If they are to become authentic disciples, they must consider the implications of their choice.  They must put Jesus first, even before family members.  The Greek text uses the word “hate” not to tell people how to feel about their family members, but to love them less than loving Jesus.  Knowing that his journey will end by dying on the cross in Jerusalem, Jesus insists that they carry their crosses.  Finally, he tells authentic disciples to renounce their possessions.

            Philomen became a disciple of Jesus Christ when he and his family were baptized in Ephesus.  In his letter to Philomen, Saint Paul challenges him to take these same three steps as an authentic disciple.  Philomen has a slave, Onesimus.  The slave had run away from the family and had sought refuge with Paul, who is in prison.  Paul had welcomed him and found him useful.  In fact, that is exactly what the slave’s name means.  Paul had baptized him.   No matter how useful Onesimus may have been to Paul, the Apostle knows by law that the slave belongs as property to his master.  So, he sends Onesimus back to Philomen, reminding him that his status has radically changed.  He is no longer just a slave.  He is a baptized brother in the Lord Jesus.

            In the first century, Onesimus is a valuable financial asset to the family.  Paul tells Philomen that his discipleship puts the Lord Jesus ahead of the needs of the family.  Paul is aware that Philomen and his family will bear a heavy cross if they welcome Onesimus back as a brother in the Lord, instead of a slave who takes care of so many family details.  Paul invites Philomen to renounce Onesimus as one of his possessions.

            We have no idea how Philomen responded to Paul’s letter.  Maybe he recognized the new dignity of his slave as a brother in Christ and welcomed him back.  Maybe he punished him severely and put heavier burdens on him for running away. 

            However, we can listen to Paul’s words and ask ourselves about the quality of our discipleship.  Do we put Jesus ahead of all our relationships, even spouses and children?  Paradoxically, those bonds can be strengthened if we have the faith to put Jesus first.  Are we willing to carry the crosses that come to us, especially those crosses we endure in living our faith?  Do we express gratitude for the many material blessings God has given us and share a portion of them with the poor?  Or do we hoard them, thinking that they will save us?

            Jesus invites us today to reflect on the quality of our discipleship.  His demands can be frightening.  But they also have the power to free us.  Saint Paul challenges us, as he challenged Philomen, to see Christ in everyone.  In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, people from Africa were brought to the new world against their wills and forced to be slaves.  Christians who owned slaves saw them as less than human.  Slavery may have ended with the 13^th amendment.  But the temptation to regard people of other races or people who different from us as less than human remains.  In our polarized society, we are tempted to regard those who disagree with us in the same way.  As faithful disciples, we are called to treat people of all races and those who live on the fringes of society with dignity and respect.

 

 

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SOLEMMITY OF SAINT PIUS X

28 AUGUST 2022

 

          Those dining in the home of the leading Pharisee are not interested in gaining wisdom from this itinerant preacher from Galilee.  They are more interested in seeing what kind of guest he will be.  They are ready to refute whatever teachings they find against their liking.  Instead of choosing the lowest places where they might listen humbly to his words, they choose the places of honor to demonstrate their superiority and high standing in society.  They are puffed up and complacent in being recognized as important people.

            Their behavior brings Jesus to tell this parable.  He is concerned with more than polite behavior at banquets.  He speaks of the virtue of humility, which Sirach recommends in the first reading.  Sirach advises us to conduct our affairs with humility.  Humility is the polar opposite of the sin of pride, the first of the seven deadly sins.  Prideful people are so self-absorbed that they do not see the need to listen to anyone else.  They fail to see the need to reach out to those who cannot repay them for any kindness they might offer.

            The Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the old law given at Mount Sinai with the new law given at the waters of baptism.  In encountering God, the Israelites experienced a distant God whose blazing fire kept them from touching the sacred mountain.  When we were baptized, we approached Mount Zion to become part of the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.  Sprinkled with the saving blood of Jesus Christ, we have become believers in a kingdom which is both now and not yet.

            As members of that kingdom, humility is the most important virtue.  The Latin word “humus” (which means “earth”) reminds us that we are people formed from the clay of the earth.  As creatures created by God, we embrace the virtue of humility when we are gentle, courteous, and considerate of others.  Humility is the ultimate act of faith in which the believer abandons the self to the will and care of God. 

            Today we celebrate the amazing parish that God has given us.  We are a vibrant parish blessed from God.  Our annual celebration makes these gifts very visible. At the center of what we do this weekend, we gather to hear the Lord speak to us and be fed with his real presence at this Mass.  The Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives of faith.  We saw the power of our community of faith at the Flyin’ Lion race and walk this morning.  We will enjoy our great fellowship as we share food and drink after Mass.  But in celebrating our many gifts, we must remain humble.  We are humbled when we recall at every Mass that we are sinners who fail to live our baptismal promises more often than we care to admit.  We have not earned our God-given gifts.  God has freely given them.  Our many gifts do not make us better or superior than any other parish.  Instead, the Lord insists that we share our many gifts with those who cannot repay us – the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  These groups could not be priests or Levites at Mount Sinai. 

            Beginning this weekend, we are adopting the theme of encounter as a parish for this year.  Encounter has two dimensions:  encountering Jesus and encountering others.  Both of these tasks demand humility from us.  The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that God has reached out to encounter us.  We, in turn, must have the humility to seek God out in loving response.  In that humility, we reach out to seek those who need us, not because we are better, but because they are one with us at the Lord’s Table.  These encounters have the power to change us more perfectly into the people God is calling us to be.  We are part of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.

 

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

21 AUGUST 2022

 

          Someone asks Jesus a question that has been haunting disciples for centuries:  “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  Jesus does not answer the question directly.  The key to his answer lies in the fact that he is making his way to Jerusalem.  In the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus begins his life in Jerusalem.  His parents present him in the Temple when he is an infant.  They find him in the Temple when he is twelve years old after searching for him for three days.  Saint Luke structures his Gospel on the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem.  When Jesus will enter Jerusalem, he will enter through the narrow gate of his passion, death, and resurrection to accomplish what the many sacrifices in the Temple could not accomplish:  reconciliation with the Father and the destruction of the power of death. 

On the way, he announces the Good News of the Kingdom of God to everyone.  In effect, he is fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah who promised that God would invite everyone to realize his saving power on his holy mountain, Jerusalem.  On his way to Jerusalem, those who are first in villages and towns reject him.  The religious authorities, especially the scribes and the Pharisees, challenge him and ignore his invitations.  Those who are regarded as sinners and the poor peasants listen to his teachings and believe in him because of his miracles and healings.  Some have even left their families and belongings to join him on his journey as disciples.

Jesus directs his answer to us, his disciples who have joined him on our pilgrimage to the new and eternal Jerusalem.  He speaks to us every Sunday in his Word.  He feeds us with his Body and Blood, inviting us to recognize the signs of his presence in our daily lives.  In our pilgrimage together, we must do everything possible to remain his disciples as we walk as pilgrims with him.  He reminds us that we must enter that same narrow gate that he entered. 

The Letter to the Hebrews gives us some insight into our pilgrimage.  The Letter was written to those Christians who had been practicing their faith for a long time.  As a result of their faith, they were experiencing persecution and prejudice.  The Letter reminds them that the pilgrimage of faith is a marathon, not a sprint!  The Letter encourages them to see their pain and difficulties not as punishment from God, but as discipline.  The author uses the term “discipline” four times to encourage them to see these difficulties as training, correction, and guidance to help the listener to continue to walk faithfully the pilgrimage of faith.

The Letter speaks to us on our pilgrimage.  We find it difficult when we suffer prejudice or even persecution from others for living our faith.  We are often tempted to pursue the wider gate of taking care of our own concerns instead of dying to them and attending to the needs of others.  We find it easier to pursue our daily tasks instead of setting aside time for the discipline of daily prayer.  We tend to protect the precious talents that God has given us to take care of our own needs instead of putting ourselves in humble service of others.  It is always easier to enter the wide gate of accumulating possessions, lots of stuff, and positions of power instead of sharing a generous portion of our wealth with the poor.

As we walk on this pilgrimage, we need to remember that the gift of salvation is a freely given gift from God.  We do not earn our salvation by doing good works.  But we have been given free wills.  We can choose to accept this gift by acting like disciples, and not by being disciples in name only.  The Lord freely offers this gift.  It is ours to receive it and enter through the narrow gate. 

 

 

 

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

14 AUGUST 2022

 

          When Jeremiah received God’s call to become a prophet, he tried to get out of it.  He argued that he was too young to be a prophet.  But God assured him that he would be a good prophet, despite his youth.  God promised to be with him to speak the truth to his people.  Trusting that promise, Jeremiah spoke God’s word faithfully.  It was a word that the people did not want to hear.  They ignored his call to repent and return to living the Covenant.  They argued that God would protect Jerusalem, the Temple, and the king, as God had done in the days of Isaiah.  Today, the king orders him to be thrown into an empty cistern, accusing him of being a traitor when he told him to surrender to the Babylonians.  Sunk into the dirty mud of an empty and dark cistern, Jeremiah is deprived of everything.  When the king changes his mind, three men drag him out to save his life.

            In today’s Gospel, Jesus shocks us with uncomfortable words.  He tells his disciples that he has come for division.  Instead of being the Prince of Peace proclaimed to shepherds at his birth, he speaks of dividing household units into enemies. As much as these words might shock us, they make more sense when we understand that Jesus is about to be thrown into his own dirty mud of an empty cistern.  He will know the fire of being betrayed, abandoned, and wrongfully judged.  He will be baptized into the fate of being executed like a common criminal.

            Jesus faces this terrifying fire and baptism trusting that the Father will not abandon him.  In his example, he is telling us that we too will sooner or later be thrown into a dark and muddy cistern.  We too must share in his baptism of fire.  That happens when we have the courage to speak the truth out of love to someone who does not want to hear it.  When we live as faithful disciples, we take the risk of divisions within our families.  That happens too often when people go through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and find opposition from their families.

            Some of you may find yourselves now in some kind of dark and muddy cistern.  We are thrown into those cisterns when we lose our health and face life threatening illnesses.  We find ourselves in those dark cisterns when we must face the death of someone we love, especially a sudden and unexpected death.  We find ourselves in those cisterns when marriages fall apart or when those whom we had considered friends betray us or walk away from us.  We find ourselves in those cisterns when we lose jobs or face financial ruin.  Cisterns come in many different forms and shapes.  But they are all dark, muddy, and frightening.

            The Letter to the Hebrews urges us to have the same trust in the Father’s love that Jesus does.  His trust is rewarded in the resurrection, when the Father transforms him by raising him from the grave in a much more dramatic fashion than the Cushite lifted Jeremiah from the cistern.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have experienced the same fire and the same baptism that we do.  We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

            When we are burned by the fire of the baptism described by Jesus, we find ourselves in a most vulnerable and utterly helpless condition.  When we find ourselves at the bottom, we begin to learn what people battling addictions learn when they go through a twelve step process.  We can learn that we need to depend on God, and not ourselves.  The Lord keeps his promise that those who die with him will rise with him.  That is at the heart of everything we believe as disciples of Jesus Christ.  This is what sustains us whenever we find ourselves in those dark and muddy cisterns, baptized into the fire of Jesus Christ.

 

 

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

7 AUGUST 2022

 

          The Letter to the Hebrews uses Abraham and Sarah to provide a visual description of authentic faith.  Abraham listened to God’s promise and went to a place utterly unknown to him.  He remained in that place, even though he and Sarah were resident aliens.  He trusted God’s promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore of the sea.  He trusted that promise even though he and Sarah were beyond childbearing age.  He continued to trust that promise, even when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son.  Abraham maintained his strong trust in God’s unconditional love, not out of fear, but out of love. 

            Jesus exhibits this same absolute trust in his Father’s unconditional love for him during his public ministry.  He continues to trust his Father, even when his closest disciples abandon him out of fear in the Garden of Gethsemani, and even when he faces a horrible and humiliating death.  The Father rewards his absolute trust in the Resurrection, Ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit.  In today’s Gospel, he tells his disciples to have that same trust in his unconditional love.  He assures us (his disciples today) that his kingdom is already in our midst.  He invites us to recognize that kingdom in the midst of our divided and sinful worldly kingdom. 

            But he also tells us an unsettling truth.  At some time in the future, he will come again.  Disciples have been waiting for that second coming for over two thousand years.  He will come again for each of us when we will face our own individual deaths.  Instead of wasting time to speculate in fear when he will come, he wants us to wait in faith, in hope, and in love.  Waiting for his coming does not mean locking ourselves out of fear. Waiting involves action.  It involves getting rid of belongings which we do not need and giving alms to those who do not have enough.  Waiting means increasing our spiritual treasures instead of accumulating stuff that will end in death.  Waiting means that we will gird our loins.  In the ancient world, people girded their loins (lifted up their garments) to make it easier to move about in humble service to each other.  If we engage in efforts to form closer relationships with Jesus Christ, our lamps will provide a bit more light in the midst of a darkening world.

            If we assume this kind of waiting, we will not be acting out of fear.  We will respond out of the love and trust that characterized the lives of Abraham and Sarah.  The Lord who washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper promises that when he comes, he will have us recline at table in the heavenly kingdom and wait on us.  But he also tells us what we should fear.  We have reason to fear, only if we focus our efforts on our own perceived needs and ourselves.  We must trust the Lord’s promise that we will share in his rising if we share in his dying.

            We live in a world motivated by fear, greed, competition, and division.  In that world, it is easy to deny the reality of death.  Or, if we think about our own deaths or the end of the world, we waste time in utter fear trying to predict when and how those realities will happen.

            I spent the last week with my classmates in Canada for the Stratford Festival.  There are only five of us left.  In our hay day, there were 15.  Most have died or have lost their health.  It was the 52^nd year going to the Festival (after a two year break), and our 50^th year staying at the Deer Park Lodge in Bayfield.  At this point in our lives, we have become acutely aware of our mortality.  We talked often about the blessings we enjoyed over all these years and the departed classmates who had joined us. We thanked God for the blessings we currently enjoy in our lives.  We return to continue to be humble servants to our parishes.  But we were encouraged by the Lord’s advice about waiting.  We have learned to trust in the Lord’s unconditional love both now and in the future, whatever the future holds for us.

 

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

31 JULY 2022

 

          We have been hearing from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  In that letter, he has been reminding them (and us) of the implications of our baptism.  We have been buried with Christ in the waters of baptism.  But we have emerged to share a new life with Christ, intimately united with him and members of his Body, the Church.  Today, he tells them (and us) not to be complacent about our baptismal status.  We need to continue to live our baptismal promises.  We do that best by seeking what is above.  Saint Paul uses the present tense.  In seeking what is above, we need to think about what it means to be baptized into the Lord Jesus.  We need to be intent on avoiding whatever separates from Christ.  We need to set our mind on living the Gospel message and recognizing our baptismal unity.  There is no “us” or “them” in Christ.

            Jesus addresses a danger that we fact in living our baptismal promises – the greed that leads to idolatry.  We can become so immersed in ensuring a good life for our families and ourselves that we think that the value of our lives rests in what we possess.  In today’s Gospel, he is asked to resolve a family quarrel about inheritance.  It is a quarrel that many of our families have had to resolve to this day. 

He tells this parable about the rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.  The man regards his wealth as something he has produced on his own.  Instead of being grateful to God for the abundance he enjoys, he asks himself what he should do with his abundance.  He does not turn to God.  He decides to tear down his barns and build larger ones so that he can say to himself, “You have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, and be merry.”  There is no evidence whatsoever of sharing a portion of that wealth with others or setting some of it aside for future generations.  God demonstrates to him what Qoheleth warns in that first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes:  “vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity.”  The rich man discovers that his life is vanity – a vapor, a breath, something short-lived and futile.  Apart from God, human life means nothing.

            Jesus addresses this parable to us, disciples as we reflect on the implications of our baptism.  He reminds us that everything is a gift from God.  God gives us our lives.  If we prosper to provide comfortable lives for our families and for ourselves, it is because God has given us the opportunities and the skills to accomplish these things.  Qoheleth points out that everything belongs to God.  We are stewards of all of those gifts. 

When we realize that we are stewards, then we can avoid the mistakes of the rich man.  We gather here every Sunday to give thanks to God for all the gifts we have received.  At Mass, we express our gratitude for the sacrificial gift that Jesus has given to us:  the complete gift of himself on the cross.  As stewards, we can commit to the stewardship of prayer, service, and sacrificial giving.  Good stewards dedicate a generous portion of time, talent, and treasure.  We can renew our trust that in giving away that portion, we are sharing in the dying of Christ.  But we can also renew our trust that the Lord will provide and give us a share in his resurrection.

The rich man makes his decision out of fear.  He fears for his own safety and quality of life.  That fear can become monstrous, because we all have an instinct to acquire more things.  Jesus reminds us that an abundance of possessions does not insure a good life.  We also know that acquiring more things simply leads to a greed that centers everything on ourselves and ignores the legitimate needs of those who are suffering.  Qoheleth is correct.  Life is a vapor – a vanity of vanities, unless we live our baptismal promises and center ourselves on Jesus Christ and our gratitude for all that he gives us in life. 

 

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

24 JULY 2022

 

          The disciples of Jesus have observed Jesus praying often.  He prayed before every major event in his ministry.  He prayed before calling his disciples.  He was praying when he was transfigured on Mount Tabor.  He prayed when Peter confessed that he was the promised Messiah. He prayed before revealing the truth about his suffering and death.  He prayed on the night before his arrest in the Garden.  According to Luke, Jesus uttered three sentences as he is dying on the cross.  Two of those three are in the form of prayer.

            The disciples ask him to teach them how to pray.  They have noticed that prayer for their master is the driving force, the renewing wind that renews him with strength and focuses his sense of mission.  They have come to understand that this type of prayer needs to be taught, and not just observed.  In response, he teaches the model prayer of all disciples:  the Lord’s Prayer.  It is a shorter and terser version than the one that we pray from the Gospel of Saint Matthew.

            However, the parable that Jesus tells after teaching the Lord’s Prayer can be confusing.  The man finally gets what he wants, because he is so persistent in banging on his friend’s door.  We might think that we can get anything we want from God by persistently pestering him with our prayers.  With this attitude toward prayer, asking, seeking, and knocking is like putting a coin in vending machine to get the desired object.  All of us know from our own experience that “the squeaky wheel does not always get the grease.”  We have prayed fervently for many good and worthy causes – like healing from cancer or some other deadly disease for a loved one.

            Jesus himself prayed fervently in the Garden that he be spared from a horrible death.  His prayer was not answered.  The key to understanding the power of the prayer of Jesus is the very first word of the Lord’s Prayer:  “Father.”  Jesus has absolute trust in the unconditional love of his Father and invites us to imitate that same trust.  In fact, we often miss the real meaning of the parable.  The father is reluctant to answer the door because he does not want to disturb his children, who are safely sleeping in their locked home.  All of us who have experienced the love of a father, or the love of one who has treated us as a father, understands this point.  Good fathers or father figures would never hand us snakes or scorpions.  How much more would the Father, whose name is hallowed, give us what we need?

            The other important element is the awareness that God’s Kingdom has come.  Fatal illnesses, tragic accidents, racism, wars, and all kinds of divisions continue to exist in the world in which we live.  However, God’s Kingdom is in our midst.  “Seek and you shall find” makes sense when we become more conscious that the gift of God’s kingdom has already been given to us.  There is nothing we need to do to earn it.  In that Kingdom, there is healing for grieving families and reconciliation for those who are divided.  There is sharing in the rising of Christ in the midst of our dying to self.  That is what we need to understand in hearing the prayer of Abraham.  It seems that he is bargaining with God in his failed efforts to protect Sodom from destruction.  What Abraham is doing is more complicated.  He is trying to balance mercy with justice.  In his prayer, he comes to understand the mind of God.  There is so much wickedness in Sodom that God’s justice must prevail.  But in his mercy, God delivers Abraham and his family.

            The Lord invites us to be persistent in prayer, trusting the Father’s unconditional love and looking for signs of the Kingdom in our midst.  We will receive our daily bread.  We know the Lord’s forgiveness of our sins and extend that forgiveness to others.  We can trust that we will not be subjected the final test, as Jesus persisted in denying Satan’s tests in the desert.