Fourth Sunday of Advent Cycle C December 19, 2021

 Fourth Sunday of Advent Cycle C   December 19, 2021

So image you are sitting at home, minding your own business, as I assume you always do, when you get a phone call.  And the person calling  claims to be an agent for Adelle, or Samuel L. Jackson, and that this famous personage wants to come and visit you.  When are you home?

Assuming you are not like me and respond, “who?   Never heard of them”, but that you actually know who Adelle and Samuel L Jackson are, how would you feel?  You probably would be in disbelief.  Another scam?   But once you became convinced that this was not some trick, nor a publicity stunt, but that this famous person really wants to visit you, and specifically you, how would you feel?      //

Probably pretty excited, amazed and elated.  Wouldn’t you?  Who am I that Adelle wants to see me?  Who am I that Samuel L. Jackson wants to visit with me?

That is what we see happening in our Gospel today to old Elizabeth.  Elizabeth, with holy wisdom, sees very clearly beyond the surface appearances to what is really happening.  She states: “How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

It is, after all, one thing for a popular entertainer to want to come visit you, but really another thing all together that the Mother of God wants to come and visit you.   As fantastic as a visit from Adelle or Samuel L Jackson would be, a visit with Mary, the Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, would be in an all-together different class. 

And yet, we have that opportunity in prayer.  All we have to do is open our hearts and our minds to prayer, and we can be present to Mary in the “Hail, Mary”.  The Rosary is a visit with Mary.    //

Elizabeth goes on to state something very important.  “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” 

While Elizabeth speaks this specifically to Mary, I believe that Elizabeth is really annunciating a general spiritual principal.  “Blessed are you who believe that what was spoken to you by the Lord will be fulfilled.”   Blessed are you, everyone of us here, who believe.  Who believe that what Jesus spoke to us will be fulfilled.  That Jesus will save us from our sins, from eternal death, from a meaningless, pointless life, and save us for the fullness of beauty, of truth, of love, of eternal life.  Blessed are you who believe that was spoken to you by the Lord will be fulfilled.

Christmas is around the corner.  We celebrate the coming to earth of the Christ Child.  Not a movie star nor and entertainer, but the Savior, the very Son of God, comes to us, and it is fantastic, mind blowing.  Jesus comes to us, and it is wonderful.  Truly, we are blessed!

Come, Lord Jesus!  

First Sunday of Advent Nov 28, 2021

 HOMILY    First Sunday of Advent   Cycle “C”                                       November 28, 2021

           Picture if you will, the scene Jesus paints in today’s Gospel: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.”   Oh my!  Doesn’t that sound like fun? 

          Then it gets better: “People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”   

          It really sounds pretty awful.  It doesn’t sound like something I would want to come in my lifetime.  It can wait for a couple of more centuries, just like we hope the next big New Madrid or San Francisco earthquake, or the next freeze and power outage waits for a couple more centuries to occur. 

          Then Jesus says something unexpected, surprising: “But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. “

          Jesus is telling us this is something to look forward to, to anticipate, to eagerly long for.  One of the earliest Christian prayers we have, in Aramaic, Jesus’ own language, is “Maranatha”, which means, “Come Lord Jesus!”  In other words, “Bring it on!”   Our ancestors in the faith eagerly looked forward to this happening, and awaited the Second Coming with eager anticipation. 

          Why should we look forward to such upheaval, dislocation and destruction?  Don’t we have enough disruption and distress already?  Because, Jesus tells us, “your redemption is at hand.” 

          Redemption.  What is that all about?      

Many years ago when I was a little boy living in St. Louis, my Mother used to save something called S & H Green stamps. 

 Anyone else remember them?  I used to lick those things and stick them into books.  And after you had filled up a bunch of books with these green stamps you would take them to REDEMPTION center where you could “redeem” the stamps for household goods and other merchandise, like a camera, or towels, or pots, or stools, and so on.  In other words, you got a reward or a prize. 

          Redemption has to do with getting the goodies.  So, Jesus tells us, when all these disasters happen we should stand erect and raise our heads, because our redemption is at hand!   We are about to get the goodies, the reward, the pay off, the prize.  OK!

          But what we turn in – or redeem - is not books of stamps, but our lives.  And more specifically, the quality of our lives:  how compassionate we were, how generous, how honest, how concerned for others, how respectful, how gracious and filled with gratitude we were, how loving and so on. 

          Now some are going to have more “stamps,” if I can put it that way, to redeem than others:  they will have more good works, more time in prayer, more faith and hope and love – in short a holier life - to redeem.  And of course they get a BIGGER prize. 

          So if we are smart, we really should be striving to acquire more of these spiritual “stamps” to put it crassly.  So in our second reading today we hear St. Paul tell us: “Finally, brothers and sisters, we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us how you should

conduct yourselves to please God  - and as you are conducting yourselves –  you do so even more.” 

Even more???    Yes.  St. Paul says that you are doing OK, but YOU CAN DO BETTER.  You can live even more in God’s way, and please God even more. 

          St. Paul is urging us to be spiritually ambitious;  to set our sights higher; to strive for an even deeper life in Christ.  We should not be satisfied with what we have achieved, but rather seek even greater life in Christ.  For St. Paul, in the spiritual life ambition is a great thing.  And as we begin this new liturgical year, this first Sunday of Advent, St Paul is urging us to greater accomplishments, to live more completely in Christ.  Just “as you received from us how you should conduct yourselves to please God - and as you are conducting yourselves - you do so even more.”

          Or as St. Paul tells us in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: “Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.” (12;31)  Paul is encouraging spiritual ambition!

The example of redeeming stamps for merchandise can only take us so far in understanding redemption, and pretty soon it starts limping, hobbling and breaking down.  Because what we get is not some object like a toaster or a pan, but rather something infinitely better: eternal life – that is, the fullness of life, complete life, total life.   No more worrying over political arguments at Thanksgiving dinner, but reconciliation, peace and harmony with our own selves, with all other people, with all of creation, and more importantly with God.   

Redemption is about life – the fullness of life for which we all long.

          As we begin this new season of Advent, of waiting for the coming of Christ at Christmas and more importantly waiting for His Second Coming in glory, the Church urges us to seek after the fullness of life by striving to welcome Christ more fully and completely into our hearts and all of our lives.           That is something to strive for.  Be ambitious!  

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B October 24, 2021

 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle B      October 24, 2021

In our first reading today from the prophet Jeremiah we heard, “Thus says the Lord: Shout with joy for Jacob!”

And our Psalm Response today, I am sure you will recall:  “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”     We are filled with joy!

Are you filled with joy?   Not happiness, not just good feelings, but something a little different, a little deeper.  Filled with joy!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see a lot of joy around these days.  If you listen to the news, or follow tweets on social media, or pretty much listen to anything, you get a lot of divisiveness, a lot of stress, a lot of anger, a lot of unhappiness, lots of accusations and blaming, lots of dire warning and threats, lots of hand wringing and bemoaning the awful situation in the world: the economy, relations with China, the on-going pandemic, worries over inflation, supply chain snafus, political idiocy, a hopelessly degraded environment, stubbornness, obstinacy, and just plain mendacity and meanness.  //  Am I right?

What we are living in can spiritually be diagnosed as BLINDNESS.  Not physical blindness, but emotional, relational, and especially spiritual blindness.   People are blinded by their own self-interest, by fear of others who are different than themselves, by fear of losing what they have, by fear of change, by fear of losing control:   FEAR.   Fear causes spiritual blindness.

In the Gospel we just heard Jesus heals a blind man.  This guy, Bartimeaus, was physically blind.  But he was also emotionally and spiritually blind.  He is a stand-in, a representative, for each one of us.  Not so much in physical blindness, but in all the other ways we are blind: emotionally, psychologically, socially, and especially spiritually.  Blindness comes in many forms. 

This is why Jesus asks that odd, and seemingly otiose, question.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  The guy is blind, what does Jesus think, he wants a hot stock tip?  Of course he wants to be healed of his blindness.  But Jesus asks, I think, in order to make Bartimeaus face and own his blindness.  He cannot be healed until he realizes and admits that he is blind.

And for us, we cannot be healed of emotional, psychological, and spiritual blindness as long as we keep denying that we are wandering around in the dark like blind people.  We have to recognize our need and admit our need for salvation, for Jesus.  Jesus can’t heal us until we drop our pride, our false self-sufficiency, our attitude of “I can do it on my own” and don’t need help, don’t need saving. 

To be healed by Jesus we first of all have to admit, to Jesus and to ourselves, our own deficiency, our need for salvation, our spiritual blindness.

Notice that Mark gives us a peculiar detail in the story.  When the crowd said to the blind man, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  the Gospel says: “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up and came to him (i.e.., to Jesus). “

He threw aside his cloak.  What was this cloak?  Could it be Bartimeus’ “cloaking device” to hide his weakness, his needs, his fears, his deficiencies?  Do we not use anger and condemnation of others as our cloak to conceal our weaknesses, our fear, our deficiencies?  //   Can you say “projection”????

To come to Jesus and ask for healing, we have to throw aside the attitudes and beliefs and ways of thinking that we use to hide our weaknesses and fears.  We have to cast aside the anger, the blaming, the prejudices, the accusing others of being the problem.  Only by casting aside these can we come to Jesus honestly and freely, to admit our need, and so be healed.

In the Gospel today, Jesus asks you, yes you, “What do you want me to do for you?”  

Well, if you are just fine, and all together, and the problems are all the other people, not you, then Jesus can’t heal you.  But if you cast aside the anger, the blame, the accusations, the demeaning of others, and come to Jesus as you are in your need, then Jesus can heal you.  And Jesus wants to heal you.

And once healed, you can join in the Psalm response fully and joyfully and with gusto: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

Jesus loves you and wants you to be filled with joy.  But to heal you, you must first throw off your cloak of excuses and blaming others, and come to Jesus as you really are, and ask to be healed. 

Then we can truly sing together the responsorial Psalm, and mean it for ourselves:  “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” 

HOMILY Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B Sept 25/26, 2021 at Horseshoe Bay TX

 HOMILY    Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle B  Sept 25/26, 2021   at Horseshoe Bay TX

{Show Box}   I  have here a BOX.  Anyone what to guess what is inside this box?   ???

          It is GOD.   I have God in a box.  Got is special on Amazon.  Just kidding.  Want to see??  Of course  you do!   (open the box – empty)     Awww.  It is empty.  Well, of course I don’t have God in a box.

          Everyone knows that you cannot put God in a box.  Except of course the people who keep trying to do that.

In our first reading God decides to give Moses some help, and appoints 70 elders to assist him.   68 of them show up at the appointed spot at the appointed time, at the meeting tent, fill out all the requisite forms, give proof of their Jewishness, etc, and the Spirit of God comes down on them. 

          But two of these elders, Eldad and Medad, perhaps with a touch of senility or the beginnings of Alzheimer’s, forgot to set their alarm clocks, forgot about the meeting, got intrigued in their favorite soap opera, whatever, and failed to show up at the meeting tent.

NONETHELESS, Eldad and Medad were on the list, and the Spirit of God came down on them too.  Even though they did not go to the meeting.

          Joshua, hearing of the and jealous of Moses’ prerogatives, tells Moses to stop them.  They haven’t done all the requirements.  They haven’t filled out the proper paperwork.  They haven’t taken all the required classes.  Spot them or this will get totally out of hand. 

          But Moses refuses to try and box God in. God is free to act.  And frankly, God doesn’t need all the paperwork. 

          In the Gospel we see something similar.  Some guy, NOT a part of the official disciples of Jesus, is driving out demons in the name of Jesus.  But he is not board certified.  He hasn’t completed EIM.  He belongs to some competing denomination.  And John tries to stop hi.  He tells Jesus, “we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”   It is interesting that John does not say, “because h does not follow YOU, “ but rather, he does not follow US.”  John is taking this personally. 

          But Jesus does not get upset, and tells John to chill. 

“Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.  There is o one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.  For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Both Joshua in the Old Testament and John in the Gospel are trying to put God in a box.  They are trying to restrict how God acts.  But God just doesn’t fit. 

          There is a lesson here for us.  When we think we have God figured out, and know what God is going to d and what God is not going to do, we are in trouble.  St. Augustine of Hippo a long time ago said, “whatever you think God is, that is NOT God.”  You can not box Gid in with our categories and concepts.  

          She is way beyond that.   So don’t try to put God in the box labeled “He” or “Male”.   Don’t try to put God in the box of “old” or “White” or “long bearded”.  That is not God.

God is free to act in ways that we don’t foresee, that we don’t expect, and even that we don’t like. 

          God’s definitive act in Jesus Christ was not at all what anyone expected in a Messiah.  And how God has acted in my life was certainly a surprise.  I wanted to be a lawyer.  But that would not have been nearly as exciting, nor nearly as much fun, as being a priest has been. 

          It is hard not to put our expectations on God and prescribe how God is supposed to act.  All of us have some of Joshua and John in us, and want God to conform to our expectations.  But that is just setting us up for a fall, for disappointment.  God is always free.  We cannot control God.  We cannot even understand God.  God is always up to something new.  

          A much holier and better way to approach God is the way that Mary did.  She did not put her expectations on God, but opened herself to freely and graciously accept God’s Will for her.   She trusted that God would not want for her anything but the very best.  And she was right. 

          And so Mary prayed, “Here I am, the maidservant of the Lord.  Let it be with me according to your word.”   For Mary knew, and understood, that God loved her and wanted only the best for her, even if it sounded crazy and weird and not at all convenient. 

          Also for us, God wants only the best; the fullness of everlasting life.  But we cannot control that.  It is God’s free gift.  And god has possibilities we cannot even imagine. 

          So don’t hamper God.  Don’t restrict God.  Don’t try to put God in a box.  It never works.

AMEN. 

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B October 3, 2021

 Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time    Cycle B    October 3, 2021

 

Our Gospel today contains a strict prohibition of divorce.  We often think of divorce as a moral failure and surely there’s something of that in every divorce because there is moral failure running throughout all of life.  We never love as fully as we should.  We hear words in the Gospel like “adultery” and we cringe. But divorce is far more than something personal. It is a social reality in which people’s lives undergo massive and traumatic shift.

          The first reading from Genesis shows us that marriage is about much more than human attraction or even personal commitment.  It is saying that man and woman were created for each other, and that this relationship springs from creation itself.  Some medieval theologians, probably following the thought of Jewish rabbis, asked the question as why God created the woman from the man’s rib bone?   They reasoned that if God had created the woman from the man’s head bone then she would be above him and his superior, and if God had created the woman from the man’s footbone then she would be below him and his inferior.  But God created the woman from the man’s rib bone to show that her proper place is at his side, as his equal and partner. 

          The story about Adam’s rib helps set up the main idea: each is bone of the other’s bone, flesh of the other’s flesh, blood with the same life.  From this dimension of creation, all human beings will be shaped by their birth and their upbringing. Our commitments to each other uphold, in fact, our existence.

 

          There is also a justice component to Jesus’ prohibition of divorce.  Just think of what it would be like to be divorced back in ancient times,         

particularly for the woman.  Jesus’ prohibition of divorce speaks against the abandonment of women by their husbands, an abandonment that left them doomed to be poor and homeless.  In that patriarchal society, women lived with the ever-present risk of a failed marriage, stuck in a society that made no place for them.

          But even beyond the issue of simple justice, there is a deeply religious reason for avoiding divorce.  For if marriage is founded in creation, it is also founded in God’s unconditional love.  For Christians in an explicit way, and for all humans in an implicit way, the ultimate norm of love isn’t what movies or novels say, isn’t what society tolerates, and certainly isn’t the smallness of our human hearts.  The love that God shows by bringing us into existence, by sending his Son who binds himself to us so closely he calls us “brother and sisters” as the second reading says, and by filling our hearts with the Holy Spirit—this is the measure and standard of all love.

When we think about marriage, we certainly have to mourn the tragedy when it sometimes unfortunately fails.  But more than that, we have to uphold the ideal of love stamped upon us by our very existence and faith.  These are the ideals that hold us together in our commitments.  Even more, they show us the kind of love which we have received in God and in which we should live.  A married couple, in loving each other in good times and in bad, when it is beautiful and even when it is rough and difficult and not pretty, learn the experience of love, and so come to know in very real and concrete human terms God who IS love.  

 

    If we all lived steeped in this unconditional and generous love of God, maybe our marriages, and creation itself, would be better sustained.

The big heresy today is that each one lives for herself or himself, that we thrive when others leave us alone.  But everything about our lives, and everything about God’s Word and actions, keeps saying that the opposite is true.  Until we see how we are connected to each other, we are missing the fundamental starting point of life, the purpose of creation itself.  Our ultimate goal in not isolation, but eternal union with God, and in Christ Jesus, with every person and all creation.

AMEN.

Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B

 25^th Sunday of Ord Time    Cycle B 

 

          Anyone here know who Spike Jones is? There is an old Spike Jones routine, where in the middle of a musical number the phone rings: bringgg, brrring,  brrringgg.   The music stops, the lead singer picks up the phone - one of those old handsets – and says, “You don’t say!?  You don’t say!   You don’t say?” and then hangs up.  The chorus shouts, “Who was it?” and the lead singer responds, “he didn’t say.”  (uproarious laughter fallows)

          Two weeks ago I preached on the Gospel where Jesus heals a man with a speech impediment, and I reflected on some of the kinds of speech impediments that we all may suffer from. Not physical speech impediments but emotional, psychological and spiritual speech impediments, that keep us from speaking up, from speaking the truth, from asking forgiveness, for speaking for justice and against bigotry, from praying when we need to, and so on.

          And today in the Gospel we see the disciples with a speech impediment.  We heard: “Jesus was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” 
But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him.”  They did not say. 

          Were they afraid that they might look stupid if they questioned Jesus?  Or they did not want to appear to be kind of slow and not in synch with Jesus?  Anyone ever do that, hide your lack of comprehension or understanding by remaining silent?  

          Or, and this is most likely, they really did kind of understand what Jesus was saying but really did not want to know and have to face the hard truth of what Jesus was telling them.  So they did not ask, because they were afraid to question Jesus and have their fears confirmed.  They didn’t say.

          But when they get to home at Capernaum, and Jesus asks them a simple question, “what were you arguing about on the way?” they again are struck dumb.  The Gospel says simply “they remained silent.”   They didn’t say.  Presumably they did not want to admit that they discussing who among them was the greatest.  How embarrassing.    //

          What am I discussing on my way during this life on earth?  When I get home and Jesus asks me, “What were you discussing and arguing about on the way?”  What concerned you?  What held you attention?  What did you focus on during your life?  What pre-occupied you on the road of life?”   Will I be able to say, Oh, I preached the Gospel by what I said and did.  I was concerned with other people, trying to listen to them, help them, support and educate them.  I followed Your way, Lord.”   

          Ha, I wish!  Or when Jesus asks me or you or you or you, at the end of life’s journey, “What were you concerned about on the way?” will we be silent, struck dumb by shame and embarrassment, like the disciples in today’s Gospel, knowing we had been concerned almost exclusively with our own little selves?   //

          My sisters and brothers, Jesus is the very Word of God made flesh. Jesus is the fullest expression of God the Father, so full and complete that He is God.  As St John proclaims in the prologue of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”   Who better to heal us of our speech impediment, our focus on our own greatness and importance, and free us to speak the praises and glory of God, preaching the Good News of the Gospel by our lives and our words? 

          In the Gospel today the disciples (that is us!) are unable to speak, out of fear, of embarrassment, out of shame.  Jesus can heal us so that we can become Apostles and missionaries, like Peter and Paul, like Mary of Magdala and Phoebe, no longer silent and dumb, but speaking in word and in action the praises of God.

Speak out!

HOMILY 21ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE “B” August 22, 2021

 HOMILY     21^ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   CYCLE “B”                   August 22, 2021

 

          “Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

          What is this hard saying?   Well, just four verses earlier Jesus states: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

          This is presumably the saying that the disciples found hard to accept.  Now it is important for us to understand why they found it hard to accept.  On it’s face it could be that these disciples misunderstand Jesus by taking His statement too literally.  ¿Are they repulsed by the idea of physically eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking Jesus’ blood?  Are they misunderstanding Jesus as advocating cannibalism?

          I think that solution lets us off the hook too easily.  Because you see, WE know that Jesus is not advocating cannibalism.  We know that Jesus is speaking figuratively, or better, sacramentally.  We know that Jesus gives us His flesh under the form of bread, and His blood under the form of wine.  And so we know this hard statement is not about cannibalism.

          But the disciples of Jesus’ day were not literalist dummies.  Just a few verses before this they understood perfectly well that Jesus was speaking figuratively.  When Jesus instructed them: Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,...."    The disciples responded: “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"  [John 6:27-28] They understood well that Jesus was not talking about physical food, but rather about doing the works of God.  

          So then, why did they get so upset that they turn away and abandoned Jesus?  I think it was not because they misunderstood Jesus in some literalistic repugnance to cannibalism, but rather something else.      

  They understood all too well what Jesus was talking about, and it was because they understood that they left Jesus.  Not because they misunderstood.

          For the “hard saying” they reacted to was what we would have heard in last week’s Gospel except we celebrated the Assumption of the BVM: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

          What is Jesus talking about?   If Jesus is not to be taken in a simplistically literal way, then how should we understand Him? 

          “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”  This is a statement about very deep closeness, about very intense union, about intimacy.  It is about being known deeply and completely by the Lord, and knowing Jesus closely.  For to eat something is to become one with it.  When we eat food it becomes a part of us.  In this case, in the Eucharist, as St. Augustine pointed out long ago, we become part of what we eat.  We become part of the Body of Christ.  The Life of Christ is in us.  That is intimate.

          And the thing with intimacy is that it is scary.   Anyone else here …?  It is threatening because intimacy makes us vulnerable.  You cannot be intimate in a suit of armor.  Genuine intimacy is also a lot of work.  To truly be intimate with someone you have to share your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your desires, your likes and dislikes, your very being.  You have to argue and laugh and cry and speak profoundly about who you are. 

          Genuine intimacy is difficult.  And yet that is what Jesus is talking about: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”   This is about intimate union, a deep personal closeness.  This is about love.   

 That is powerful.  And it is scary.  It demands a great deal of us, just as deep intimacy with any other human demands a great deal of us; in terms of honesty, in terms of being vulnerable, in terms of dependability and loyalty, in terms of commitment.  To eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood demands an absolute and thorough commitment from us, the same kind of commitment Jesus makes in giving us Himself.  It is to remain in Him and He in us.  That is POWERFUL.

           Commitment precludes options.  We belong to Christ now and He to us.  Commitment defines who we are: people who live in and for Christ.

          And a lot of us have a problem with such heavy-duty commitment.  So did those early disciples we hear about in today’s Gospel.  They weren’t just confused and so left Jesus over a misunderstanding.  No.  Rather they understood Him all too well, and so they are a challenge to us.  We are now presented with this invitation to radical intimacy with The Lord.   We too are tempted to pull back and walk away. 

          So Jesus’ question today is also addressed to us: “Do you also want to leave?”

The price of staying is steep.  The demand of committed discipleship is high.  But it is the only way to the fullness of life. 

          We answer with Simon Peter: “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.   We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Amen.

Homily for the Feast of the Assumption August 15, 2021

 Homily for the Feast of the Assumption     August 15, 2021

 

          Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.   I will be giving you a sermon rather than a homily.  For those who care about such liturgical trivia, a homily is a faith reflection on the readings from Scripture, whereas a sermon is a presentation on a dogma or teaching or a particular saint or some such thing.

          What is the Assumption of Mary all about, and why should we care?  Let us look at the official definition of the Assumption of Mary as promulgated by Pope Pius XII on Nov 1, 1950, which is in the life-time of a few of you here.  I was here, but "in utero" as they say.

          Pope Pius argued thus: “All these arguments and consideration of the Holy Fathers and of the theologians are based on the Holy Scriptures as their ultimate foundation, which indeed place before us as though before our eyes the loving Mother of God as most closely joined with her divine Son, and as ever sharing His lot.  Therefore, it seems almost impossible to think of her who conceived Christ, bore Him, nourished Him with her milk, held Him in her arms, and pressed Him to her breast, as separated from Him after this earthly life in the body, even though not in soul.  Since our Redeemer is the Son of Mary, surely, as the most perfect observer of divine law, He could not refuse to honor, in addition to His Eternal Father, His most beloved Mother also.  And, since He could adorn her with so great a gift as to keep her unharmed by the corruption of the tomb, it must be believed that He actually did this.”

          Let’s take this apart a bit to examine it more closely.  Notice how the Pope argues.  Since Jesus and Mary were so close on earth, and since Jesus is a good Son, and since as God He could do this for His Mother, then certainly, clearly, absolutely, Jesus must have done this for Mary. 

          Pope Pius here is not arguing from his head, but rather from his heart.  Jesus loved His Mother, and He could do this favor for her, so obviously He must have done it. This is the logic of emotions, of relationship, and of love.  It is not strictly logical, but rather truly human.  What loving, devoted, good son would not do this for his mother if he could?  And since Jesus loved His mother perfectly, and since as God He could do this, obviously He must have done it.    

          Our Catholic faith depends not only on the logic of the head, but also the realities of the heart.  Therefore, in celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we recognize and validate the force of emotion and love in the divine plan.  That is Good News, for Jesus not only loves His Mother, but all of us as well.  Jesus loves you, and Jesus loves me.  And so Jesus reacts to us not solely on an intellectual basis, not only on some scientific or mathematical calculation of merit, but also strongly on the emotional bonds between us.  And Pope Pius XII shows us that in the declaration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

          As I said at the beginning, this Doctrine was proclaimed on Nov. 1, 1950, which is rather recent in Church history.  This is a doctrine with a long history, but only recently declared.  So, the question arises as to why, at that point in history, was this doctrine proclaimed? 

          The English author, Graham Greene – who wrote the novel “The Sorrow and the Pity”, wrote an article in the British Catholic publication “The Tablet” that appeared on February 3, 1951, just a few months after the proclamation of the doctrine of the Assumption.  Graham Greene asks why, at this time, should the doctrine of the Assumption be proclaimed?  There was no heresy or effort to deny the doctrine so that it needed to be defended. 

THREE                THREE                THREE                August 15, 2021

           But Graham Greene, as an artist in touch with the mood and feeling and zeitgeist of his day, makes an interesting and valuable observation.  He wrote: “Catholics today cannot remain quite untouched by the general heresy of our time, the unimportance of the individual.  Today the human body is regarded as expendable material, something to be eliminated wholesale by the atom bomb, a kind of anonymous carrion.  After the First World War crosses marked the places where the dead lay, Allied and enemy:  Lights burned continually in the capitals of Europe over the graves of the unknown warriors.  But no crosses today mark the common graves into which the dead of London and Berlin were shoveled, and Hiroshima’s memorial is the outline of a body photographed by the heat flash on asphalt.  The definition of the Assumption proclaims again the doctrine of our Resurrection, the eternal destiny of each human body, and again it is the history of Mary with maintains the doctrine in its clarity.  The Resurrection of Christ can be regarded as the Resurrection of a God, but the Resurrection of Mary foreshadows the Resurrection of each one of us.”

          Graham Greene makes a good point.  As we celebrate today the Assumption of Mary, we are not only happy for her, but we see in her what we hope for as the final destiny of every one of us: the fullness of life in the fullness of our being, body and soul. And that is something to celebrate.  God bless!

Homily for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B Aug 1, 2021

 Homily for the 18^th Sunday of Ordinary Time  Cycle B   Aug 1, 2021

 

Do Be Do Be Do.    Is it more important, in following Christ, to do, or to be?

          In the Gospel we just heard the crowd following Jesus catches up with Jesus and they ask Him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”  It is a question about action, about doing.  And the crowd wants to do something.  Ever been there, just want to do something, anything?

          Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 

          Do you think of believing as an action?  As something you do?  Do you make a conscious choice about what you believe? 

          The crowd then asks Jesus, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?  What can you do?”   

          The crowd seems focused on actions, on doing.  They want signs, something physical and tangible.  They want actions.

          Jesus is talking instead about believing, more as a way of being than of doing.   Both being and doing are important, but it seems that the doing flows from the being, rather than the other way around.  The actions are the result of faith, not faith produced as the result of actions. 

          As I am now, by even the strictest definition, a senior citizen, it seems more and more to me that “being” – being a person of faith and fidelity - has become more important over the years, and “doing”, accomplishing things, checking off achievements, has become less significant or important.  Any other seniors here experience that?

          Doing requires certain abilities and competencies.  No one can do everything, and there are many who can only do very little.  People who are infirm, or sick, or disabled, or in some other way handicapped or limited, may not be able to do a great deal. 

But, they can be people of faith, even great faith.  They, and we, all can do what Jesus tells us is the work of God, that we believe in the one he sent.  Regardless of age, or talent, or handicap, everyone can believe in the one God has sent as our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

          At the end of today’s Gospel the crowd then asks Jesus to do something, to give them bread from heaven.  And Jesus gives them the wonderful statement, “I am the bread of life;” 

          Again, a statement not about doing, but about being.  “I am the bread of life.”   Jesus is the fulfillment of all our human hungers for meaning, for purpose, for love.  “whoever come to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”    //

          Actions are important.  We have to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk.  Otherwise, our faith is dead.  But Jesus is not only a support for our actions, He is the fulfilment of our longings and desires.  Today He assures us: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” 

          AMEN.

Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time July 4, 2021

 Homily for the 14^th Sunday of Ordinary Time    July 4, 2021

           In the Gospel we just heard, we are told “Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, ….”  Since St Mark earlier told us that Jesus came from Nazareth, we can presume he meant the town of Nazareth.  But Mark didn’t say “Nazareth” but rather “his native place.”   A little odd.

          The New Revised Standard Version translates this as “his home town”.  The Greek Orthodox Bible translates it as “his own country”.   So there is a little ambiguity about what St. Mark meant. 

          If we allow the insights of Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospel to guide us, then we know that Jesus really was born, not in Nazareth of Galilee, but rather in Bethlehem of Judea.  And if we really want to be thorough, we need to admit the Prologue of the Gospel of John that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  So in Jesus’ fullest, truest identity He was not from Nazareth nor Bethlehem, but from God.  He is the pre-existent Word of God, existing from beyond all time.  Jesus’ true homeland, we could say, is in God.  That is truly where Jesus is from and where He is most truly at home. 

          So, where are you from?  What is your true homeland?   What is your “own country?”

          Today we celebrate Independence Day.  Many of us were born in the USA.  Others may have become naturalized as citizens of the United States like Fr Rene Constanza, and so now this is your homeland.  Others may have other national homelands such as Mexico or Guatemala or the Philippines.  Bult like with Jesus, is that really true?  In the deepest sense, where is our true homeland?  Where do we most belong?  What is our ultimate citizenship?

 

TWO                    TWO                    TWO                    July 4, 2021

          Well, St. Paul in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians gives us the answer.  Paul states: “But our true homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.  By his power to rule all things, he will change our humble bodies and make them like his own glorious body.”  3:20-21

          Our truest, most basic and real homeland is union with Christ Jesus in heaven.  That is what we were created for, and what is our ultimate destiny.

          But that is not quite yet.  We have a period of time, short or long, before we go to our true homeland in heaven. And in the meanwhile, we are here, in Austin, in Texas, in the US of A, on earth. 

          There are two ways that we can be mistaken about our real identity.   One way is to so focus on our ultimate destiny that we ignore the real opportunities and obligations of living in the world.  As members of this great country, we have an obligation to engage in politics and civic life, doing what we can to ensure justice, seek peace, and benefit all of society, especially those most in need.  We are not hermits.  We are called to engage in the world, and work to make Austin, Texas, and the United States, lands of liberty and justice for all.  That is our sacred obligation.

          The other danger is the opposite, to become so focused and engaged in the here and now and so forget our true identity as children of God, as members of the Body of Christ, as people destined for eternal glory by the salvific work of Jesus.  It is all too easy to get caught up in the maelstrom of work and activities and politics and entertainment and be completely absorbed into the here and now, and to lose sight of our ultimate purpose and destiny.  That is a tragic loss.

THREE                THREE                THREE                July 4, 2021

 

          Therefore, let us celebrate the Fourth of July.  May we use this celebration of the birth of our nation as an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the founding ideals of our nation, that all people are created equal and are to be treated equally under the law. 

          Let us strive for the economic, personal and spiritual advancement of all our fellow countrymen.  But let us not forget that our true homeland, our ultimate destiny, is not in these United States, but in union with God the Father, in Jesus the Son, through the Holy Spirt. 

AMEN.