TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

FEAST OF SAINT PIUS X

27 AUGUST 2017

          Jesus leads his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a regional center of the Roman Empire.  The city was built beside a dramatic cliff face.  A famous spring emerged from the base of the cliff.  Before Roman occupation, the spring had been known as Panias, because it was the center of worship of pagan gods, especially the god Pan.  To this day, visitors can see carved niches which held the images of the pagan gods.  The city also had political significance.  Herod the Great named it after his patron, Caesar, who regarded himself as a god.  Herod’s son, Philip, changed the name to Caesarea Philippi, to bring attention to his power and control over the area.

            It is here, where civil governments and pagan gods competed for attention that Jesus asks his disciples his famous question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  They give him their Gallup Poll findings, each one identifying him with a dead prophet from the past.  But Jesus is more interested in their opinion, who they think he is. Simon Peter blurts out the correct answer, identifying him as the Christ, which literally means “the anointed one.”  In other words, Peter asserts that they cannot depend on the pagan gods to save them.  Nor will Caesar or any of his regional allies save them.  When Simon Peter adds to that title “the Son of the living God,” he identifies the true nature of the teacher to whom he has dedicated his life.

            Jesus points out that Peter could never have figured out his identity on his own.  He says that his heavenly Father has revealed his identity to Peter.  And so, he changes his name.  He is no longer Simon, but Peter (Petrus – rock).  On this rock (Petra), he will build his church.  And he gives to Peter the keys to the kingdom.  Peter will use those keys for the good of the Church. We see those keys pictured in the image of Saint Peter on our triumphal arch.  Those keys will open the gates to eternity.  The way to eternity will not be through the cave at Caesarea Philippi, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

            Today we celebrate our patronal feast, who was one of the successors of Saint Peter (pictured on the other side).  Unlike Shebna, who used the keys to the king’s palace for his own good, Pope Saint Pius X used the keys of his office for the good of the Church over a hundred years ago.  In fact, he complained to his friends about how they fussed over him and dressed him up with finery after he was elected Pope.  Today we ask his intercession, as we answer that same question of Jesus, which is addressed to us.  Like the disciples who gathered at Caesarea Philippi, we also live with forces competing for our allegiance.  The false gods today are more subtle than the pagan god, Pan.  Those gods might be wealth, or fame, or glamour, or pleasure.  All pagan gods promise ultimate happiness or success.  Political leaders make all kinds of promises, telling us that our complete allegiance to them will bring happiness or success.

            Just by gathering here at Mass on our feast day, we are acknowledging that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Some of us had a great time at Casino Night, and we will enjoy each other’s company at the picnic this afternoon.  The real challenge for us is to proclaim the identity of Jesus Christ outside of this church building.  We don’t have to carry signs or stand on street corners and harangue people.  All we have to do is to live our faith – to show others by our actions that love is stronger than hate, that putting ourselves last is the way to become first, and that dying to ourselves will give us a share in the rising of Jesus Christ.  Now that we are becoming accustomed to our new church, now is the time for us to realize our status as the Church of Jesus Christ and engage people to join us.  We remain as members of his Church, because we trust his promise that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against us.

TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

20 AUGUST 2017

            A careful reading of the Sacred Scriptures reveals God’s habit of calling certain people over others.  God chose Abel instead of Cain, and Abraham instead of Lot.  God chose David instead of Saul.  God chose the Israelites instead of the Egyptians.  The history of those choices is seen in the mosaics in the center aisle.  God made the first covenant with Adam, promising our first parents that he would never abandon them, even though they had abandoned him.  God promised Noah that he would never again flood the earth, and Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shores of the earth.  God promised Moses that he would remain faithful to his people, no matter what.  To David he promised that the messiah would come from his house, and he entered into the New Covenant with us through his Son, the Lamb of God pictured on the mosaic on the Altar.

            God did not choose any of these people because they deserved it or earned it.  In fact, all who have been chosen by God have sinned and not kept the covenant.  That is why Matthew begins his Gospel with Jesus calling the chosen people to repent.  Jesus calls them to conversion, so that they can respond better to God’s choice and be part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

            That is also why Jesus responds to this Canaanite woman in such a shocking and rude way.  After arguing with the Pharisees about what is clean and unclean, Jesus travels to an unclean territory – Tyre and Sidon.  God’s chosen people considered these pagan residents as dogs because of their cruel treatment.  When this pagan woman approaches him and begs him to help her daughter, she addresses him with the words any good Jew would have understood, calling him Lord, Son of David.  Not only does he ignore her, but he insists that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  When she persists, he says that it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.  With her sense of humor intact, she points out that even dogs get scraps.  Finally, Jesus responds with compassion and heals her daughter. 

            In healing this woman’s daughter, Jesus follows the insights of the prophet, Isaiah.  Isaiah had spoken to his people in Babylon centuries earlier.  In their captivity, members of God’s chosen people had interacted with their pagan neighbors, and some of those neighbors accepted their faith and joined them.  Isaiah points out that God did not choose people so they could be better than anyone else.  Instead, God chose people to be instruments of his mercy, to share God’s love with people different from them.  That is what Jesus does in the Gospel.  He recognizes the woman’s deep faith.  He admires her perseverance and her humility to admit that she did not deserve to be chosen, any more than God’s chosen people had deserved to be chosen.

            We hear this message at time of great division in our country.  Instead of promoting hate, racism, and division, Jesus provides a very different message.  Instead of isolating ourselves from those who are different from us, he pushes us to look at those of different races or ethnic backgrounds as people created in the image of God.  Instead of acting out of fear, he challenges us to get to know them.  Instead of yelling and screaming at each other, he wants us to enter into an honest dialogue.  That is what Saint Paul did.  As a Pharisee, he regarded all non-Jews as dogs.  But after he had encountered Jesus Christ and was rejected by his own people, he got to know the Gentiles on a personal level.  Instead of condemning them, he proclaimed the Gospel to them and welcomed them as God’s chosen people in the New Covenant.  God has chosen us, not because we have earned his choice or deserved it.  He has chosen us to move beyond our comfort zone, to get to know those different from ourselves, and to enter into a personal dialogue inviting conversion and the Kingdom of heaven.  

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

13 AUGUST 2017

          The 14^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel gives us some valuable lessons about faith.  The chapter begins with Jesus hearing the news of the murder of John the Baptist.  Trusting in his Father and knowing that he will meet the same fate, Jesus triesto go off by himself to mourn the loss of his cousin and pray for strength.  But, he encounters a vast crowd, and he takes pity on them.  He leads them to a deserted place, proclaims the Good News to them, and feeds the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  Resuming his original intention to pray by himself, he retreats to a mountain and sends his disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee in a boat.  That is where we meet them today.  The disciples are caught in a raging storm.  Jesus waits until the fourth watch of the night to walk toward them on the water.  Peter wants to walk on the same watery surface, only to sink into the sea.  Jesus pulls him up, and calms the waters.

            In his unwavering trust in his Father’s presence, Jesus provides a model for our faith.  But we need to look at the faith of others in this chapter.  The crowd must have had some degree of faith, because they followed him into the deserted place, trusting that he would not leave them to starve.  The disciples had already committed themselves to following him.  But their faith wavers in the raging storm, causing them to think that Jesus is a ghost.  Peter demands further proof, only to sink into the water when fear causes him to take his eyes off Jesus.  After chiding them for their lack of faith, he accepts their profession of faith that he is truly the Son of God, the message that had been announced at the Baptism of Jesus and on the Mount of Transfiguration.

            We want to model our faith on that of Jesus Christ.  However, our lived faith is closer to of the rest of the people in chapter 14.  Like them, we follow him into deserted places, because we have a basic trust that he will not leave us to starve.  But like the Israelites who had followed Moses into the desert for forty years, we often complain and look for signs of his presence.  Like the disciples, we have committed ourselves to Jesus Christ.  But like them, we can easily despair when stormy waters toss us about – either the stormy waters of our personal lives or the stormy waters that toss the barque of Peter (the Church) about.  Like Peter, we think that we can walk on any surface that the Lord Jesus walked on.  But, we become terrified very easily, take our eyes off the Lord, and sink into the waters of doubt and despair.

            More than likely, the disciples thought that Jesus had abandoned them.  Why did he make them enter the boat, especially when there was always a chance of a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee?  Why did he wait so long before walking on the water to save them?  Why did he allow Peter to take those wary steps outside the boat, even when he knew the weakness of his faith?

            Centuries before, Elijah the Prophet asked those same questions.  After most of his people had abandoned their faith, Elijah proved God’s power when he defeated the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.  His expression of faith in God caused Queen Jezebel to send her soldiers to kill him.  After walking forty days to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai), he expected to find God in the spectacular signs that Moses and his people had experienced.  But God was not in any of those spectacular signs.  Instead, Elijah encountered God in a tiny, whispering sound (in silence).

            We too have our own expectations of how we can encounter God, especially when life tosses us about like that boat on the Sea of Galilee.  Our Scripture readings invite us to be open to the many ways in which we encounter the Risen Christ.  They also invite us to spend time in silence.  Jesus Christ will not abandon us, any more than he abandoned those people the 14^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.  Instead, he will calm the storms of life and raise us from the depths of our despair and doubt.  We have to be patient and keep our faith.