Fourth Sunday of Advent Cycle A December 18, 2022

 Fourth Sunday of Advent   Cycle A                  December 18, 2022

Today’s readings on this Fourth Sunday of Advent present us with a contrast between two men, each of whom is asked to do something risky and difficult, with very different results.

          First we have our first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah.  It involves a King of Judah known as Ahaz.  The events depicted in this reading took place around 735 BC.  It was not a good year.  The situation was one of international politics and conflict.  The superpower in the Middle East back then was the Kingdom of Assyria.  The Assyrians were a mighty military force, and utterly ruthless.  Historians call them the Nazi’s of the ancient Middle East.  And they were conquering all the countries around them. 

          One of the countries in their path of conquest is the little Kingdom of Judah, where Ahaz is King.  His idea is to play ball with the Assyrians and make an alliance with them. 

          Now the Prophet Isaiah goes to the King to urge the King NOT to make an alliance with Assyria.  Because when they allied with Assyria they would have to accept and worship Assyria’s gods.   Isaiah’s message to King Ahaz was rather than ally with Assyria, to trust in God for help.  Follow God, trust in God, and God will deliver you from this powerful and aggressive kingdom of Assyria. 

          But Ahaz doesn’t want to do that.  He is a realist.  Ahaz can see how strong the Assyrians are, their thousands of warriors, their war horses and chariots, their latest technology in siege engines and so on. He is impressed by their might.   So the Prophet Isaiah, to bolster Ahaz, says ask for a sign.  Let God show you His power.  Our reading states: “Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!” 

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The Prophet wants Ahaz to ask for a sign so he can trust in God alone and not get entangled with the Assyrians. 

          But Ahaz plays phony piety and false humility and states “I will not ask!  I will not tempt the Lord!”  Ahaz does not want to take the risk of trusting in God’s protection and care, and so he doesn’t want the sign.  He wants to follow his own plan of trusting in political and military power. 

Needless to say, it ends badly.  Ahaz brings in worship of false gods, institutes slavery, tramples justice, oppresses the poor to pay the Assyrians, and leaves the Kingdom vulnerable to attack.  Under his successor, Hezekiah, the Assyrians besiege Jerusalem, but that is another story. 

          In any case Ahaz will not put his trust in God, and things go badly wrong.

          Now let’s jump ahead 735 years, in the same part of the world, to a carpenter named Joseph who is betrothed.  Joseph is so happy.  He is to marry Mary, his sweetheart.  But a terrible thing happens.  Before they actually get married, Mary gets pregnant.  What a shock!  What a disappointment!  Poor Joseph can hardly believe it!  Mary is the last person he would have suspected of fooling around.  But the evidence is there, and so Joseph decides to call off the wedding.  However, Joseph still has feelings for Mary, and he is a good man who doesn’t want to make trouble for anyone, even if they have disappointed him like Mary has.  So he decides to divorce her quietly, with no fanfare, very simply, to not expose Mary to shame.   An awful day.

          Then he goes to sleep.  In his sleep he has a dream; a crazy dream.  An angel tells him it is alright.  That Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit,

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and that she will bear a son who will save his people from their sins.  And finally, that Joseph should not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.

          The next morning Joseph awoke.  What did he think?  What did he feel?  What’s he going to do?    He could have gotten up and said to himself, “oh man, what a weird dream!  I have to go easy on the jalapeno matzohs.  They give me such crazy dreams.”  

Joseph, like Ahaz, could have ignored the call from God.  Like Ahaz, Joseph was being called to take a big risk, to do something that would look foolish from the outside.  Joseph was being called to make a great act of trust in God’s care and concern for him.  Joseph knew God would not leave him hanging, and so the Gospel succinctly says: “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”  Joseph did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him in a dream.  Joseph, unlike Ahaz, was open to the crazy, if demanding, ways of God.  And it is good for us that he was. 

          So two men asked by God to trust and do something that in the judgement of the world was crazy, something wild, something foolish.  Two different responses with two very different outcomes.

          What about us?  Do we act more like the hard-bitten political realist Ahaz, or more like Joseph the crazy dreamer?  Are we so responsible that we don’t respond to God’s call?

          How willing are we to take a risk in trusting God’s call to us?  Perhaps a call to volunteer for some ministry at church?  But, it might mess up my weekend schedule.  I am too afraid to read in public, what if I drop the chalice, I’m not holy enough to do that. 

 

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Today’s readings urge us: Take the risk!

          Or maybe the Holy Spirit wants you to take the risk to be the first side to reach out to heal a rift with a neighbor or family member.  To risk forgiving someone who hurt you.  But what if I get shot down, what if I am rejected, what if I get taken advantage of, what if I get hurt again?    

Take the risk!

          Or perhaps for our college and high-school students here maybe God calls you to investigate being a religious sister, a brother or a priest.  Maybe God calls you to serve His people in the Church.   But that is not my plan for me life?    Take the risk!  It’s not so bad, believe me.

          Or maybe God calls you to be a teacher, or to marry that particular person, or to volunteer for a mission trip, or do something wildly generous, or to speak the truth when no one wants to listen, or in some other way to trust in God and take a risk.   Jesus took a great risk for us, offering His life on the Cross.  That was the ultimate risk.  And Jesus received the ultimate affirmation in the Resurrection.

          We read these stories in the Scriptures from thousands of years ago because God is still the same, and still acting in the same way today, after all those years.  Still alluring and inviting and calling us to follow in God’s way even when it looks crazy and ridiculous.  God is still calling you and me.   Take the risk.

AMEN. 

First Sunday of Advent. Cycle A November 27, 2022

 First Sunday of Advent.     Cycle A    November 27, 2022

 The word "advent" means a coming, an arrival.  We are expecting and looking for something to happen, or more accurately, for someone to arrive.   It is the liturgical equivalent of being parked at the cell phone lot at ABIA, waiting for your friend or family member to land.  It is a time of patient expectation. 

          On one level we are looking forward to the celebration of Christmas.   Since before Halloween, stores and commercial enterprises have put out their Christmas decorations.  We won’t do that here in church till December 24.   For weeks Christmas music has been playing on the radio.  We won’t sing carols and Christmas hymns till the 24^th of December.  We take this period of Advent as a time of preparation and expectation, but for something very different and far richer than a commercial Christmas.  

          Advent is the first part of the word “adventure”.  I hope this Advent will be for you an adven-ture of waiting and preparing for the coming of the Christ, both at Christmas, and more importantly at the end of time.

          The end of time.   When is that?   St. Paul in our second reading plainly states: “Brothers and sisters: You know the time;”   However, in the Gospel today Jesus seems to contradict St. Paul, when Jesus declares “For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” 

          Well, we do know the time in the sense that we have been warned.   St Paul warns us “it is hour now for you to awake from sleep.”  Getting up in the morning is NOT my favorite thing to do.  Maybe you jump up out of bed all excited to take on another day, but now being in my 70’s, I do not.  Anyway, it is now the hour for us to awake from sleep, the spiritual sleep of being dulled by routine and the comfort of the familiar. 

          It is that time in the morning just before the sun rises, when the sky is no longer black, but a dark blueish purple, hinting at the dawn to come.  We wear vestments that are blueish purple to distinguish this season from Lent, and also to allude or hint that we are far into the night, the sky is already slightly changing, the Son will soon arrive, and the new day, the day of the Lord, is coming.  “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.”  St Paul states “the night is advanced, the day is at hand.”    It is a new dawn.

          Being spiritually and ethically awake then, you will NOT be taken by surprise on the day your Lord will come.  The five people shot and killed at the Club Q last Saturday in Colorado, nor the four people murdered in Hennessey OK last Sunday, nor the hundreds killed in the earthquake and sunami that struck the Cianjur region in West Java, in Indonesia on Monday, nor the seven people murdered at the Walmart in Chesapeake VA, on Tuesday, nor the two people shot and killed in Houston on Thursday, did not expect to die that day. 

          As Jesus tells us in our Gospel today: “For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”   We just don’t know.  So we need to stay spiritually awake, ready to welcome the Lord when He comes to us, at the end of our life, or at the end of time. 

          For we do know, by faith, that the Day of the Lord is coming.  A day of liberation and restoration. A day with no more war: “They shall beat their swords into plows, and their spears into pruning hooks.  On nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”   A day of healing, a day of reconciliation, a day of wholeness and completion.  A day of Peace and Fullness. 

¡Come Lord Jesus!

Homily 32 Sunday of Ordinary Time C November 6, 2022

 Homily    32 Sunday of Ordinary Time C    November 6, 2022

Last week we had the Annual Catholic Services Appeal and I dutifully preached on it.  Thank you for all who have responded.  However, I wish it had been this week, because I have found the readings that the Church gives us this week to be extraordinarily difficult to preach on.  Oh well.

In the Gospel the Sadducees try their luck in trapping Jesus.  They present Jesus with a very odd question.   Seven brothers in succession all marry this one women.  None of them have any children, and one after another the brothers die.  Finally the women dies.  (Probably of exhaustion).  And the Sadducees want to know whose wife she will be in the Resurrection?  The Sadducees were the anti-resurrection party.  They did not believe in resurrection.  That is why they were “sad-you-see”.    ….

The Sadducees try to put God in a box.  But of course, you cannot do that.  God exceeds our logic and all our attempts to comprehend God.  As St. Augustine of Hippo said, “whatever you think God is, that is NOT God.”  God does not fit into any of our rules or plans.  No thought can even grasp God.  God is beyond all of our categories. 

That does not mean we cannot say things about God that are true.  In our second reading St. Paul tell us “But the Lord is faithful….”  And indeed God is faithful.  We can rely on God’s Word, Jesus Christ. 

St. John tells us “God is love.”  And that is also true.  But that still leaves a lot of room for exploration. 

All of us must grapple with the mysterious but real nature of God.  How do we know that there really is a God?   And more importantly, how do I know God’s Will for me?  Is God a figment of my imagination, or an actual reality that grounds and sustains all of reality?

          This is a question each of us must answer for ourselves.  We cannot rely on anyone else to answer this for us.  It is a deeply personal answer. And it is not a once-for-ever answer.  It is not the case that once you resolve satisfactorily for yourself the issue whether God exists or not that you are done and finished.   As we age and develop we hopefully outgrow the answers that satisfied us earlier, and so must continue to expand and deepen our understanding of God. 

And the thing is, there is no end to this process.  There is no point, nor can there ever be a point, at which we come to a full and complete understanding of God.  Such an understanding doesn’t exist.

One of my favorite theologians, Karl Rahner, said that the incomprehensibility of God is the blessedness of man.  I liked that so much that I put it on my ordination holy card.  The incomprehensibility of God is the blessedness of man.

The fact that we will never be able to fully understand God is our blessedness.  Because once we fully comprehended God, there would be nothing more to live for, nothing more to explore, nothing more to learn.  There would be nothing more. 

But we will never do that.  For all eternity we will go deeper and deeper into the unfathomable mystery of God, forever learning, forever exploring, forever grasping new insights and deeper understanding of the transcendent nature of The True, The Good, The Beautiful:  of the fullest and most mind-blowing reality of God, and ever deeper and deeper into love.  That is our destiny as members of the Body of Christ.  And it is wonderful indeed!  

As we sang in our Psalm Response today: “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.”  

AMEN. 

30th Sunday of Ordinary Time Homily October 23, 2022

 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time    Homily                                       October 23, 2022

            Do you enjoy hearing people brag and boast?   Me, not so much.  But that is what we have in two of our readings today.

In our second reading today we heard:  “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”   Remember that?

In our Gospel we just heard: “I fast twice a week and I pay tithes on my whole income.”

Both of these men – and of course it would be men – are boasting.   One is a great saint, for Paulists the greatest saint.  And the other is condemned by Jesus as a hypocrite full of hot air.

What is the difference?  More importantly, how can we distinguish the saint from the sinner?  In politics and on social media we hear a lot of boasting, especially in the campaign ads.  In the Church today we have competing understandings about liturgy and the mission of the Church.  How do we decide which are good, sincere people telling us the truth, and which are bags of hot air selling us a rotten deal? 

Well it ain’t easy. 

          The issue that makes the difference is how you look on everyone else.   The Pharisee in the Gospel despised other people, especially those who did not live up to his moral code.  The Pharisee says: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector.”   The Pharisee is using his accomplishment to separate and distance himself from others, and worse, to hold himself above others.   As the Gospel states, the pharisees: “were convinced of their own righteousness, and despised everyone else.    

          There are plenty people today, in the Catholic Church, who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise everyone else.         They especially despise Pope Francis for not being strict enough and adhering rigidly to Catholic doctrine, especially about sex.  Pope Francis’ pastoral outreach to the divorce and remarried, to gays and lesbians, to people of other faiths, and other cultural traditions, upsets and angers them.  You can find a lot of that upset and anger on the internet.  And I believe it is pretty clear that, like the self-righteous Pharisee in the Gospel, they despise others who do not come up to their high moral standards, especially around sex.

          On the other hand, St. Paul doesn’t do that.  St. Paul instead gives God the credit for his righteousness.  St Paul recognizes just how much he is like everyone else; not how much he is unlike others.  In recognizing that everything is gift St. Paul admits that he is just like everyone else.  His accomplishments are not from himself, but are God’s gift.  He states: “But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, … The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom.  To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

          This is a very different approach from the Pharisee.  Paul is full of GRATITUDE.  The Pharisee is full of self-righteousness. 

          None of us chose to be born.  None of us chose when or where to be born.  None of us chose what kind of family with what economic advantages or disadvantages we would have.  None of us earned our health, intelligence or native abilities.  None of us provided for our childhood education, or what inspirations and role-models we would have in life.  None of us chose our gender nor our sexual orientation.  All that, and much, much more was pure gift. 

          In acknowledging our accomplishments we really are thanking God for wonderful gifts we have received.  But we also are recognizing our fundamental identity with all human beings, no matter how enriched or how impoverished, no matter how brilliant or how mentally challenged, no matter how agile or how crippled, for we do not start out on a level playing field.  It is all gift.  All of our accomplishments are fundamentally based on gifts we have received; gifts we did not earn, gifts we did not even deserve. 

          When we boast of our successes and accomplishments, we must boast of them as gifts, and recognize they are given to us by God to share.  The gifts we have in talent and abilities and advantages are not meant for us alone, but for all.  And when we boast we must recognize how all of us - no matter the color or nationality or religion or right handedness or left handedness or politics – all of us are all beneficiaries of God’s love.  And we are all one.  Our boasting is meant to bring us together, not to pull us apart.

          That is why the tax collector went home justified:  not only because he was repentant, but also because he recognized his fundamental humanity, the need we all have before God.  And in that, we all are the same.  AMEN.  

Homily 28th Sunday in Ordinary time Cycle C October 9, 2022

 Homily    28^th Sunday in Ordinary time   Cycle C   October 9, 2022

Our first reading and our Gospel deal with the healing of lepers.  In the time of the prophets and the New Testament, leprosy was a deadly and dreaded disease.   More on this later.

          When our Gospel opens, Jesus is in the border area between Galilee – which was Jewish territory - and Samaria, which was the area of the Samaritans.  The Samaritans were descendants of the northern ten tribes of Israel that were deported by the Assyrians, and they mixed a lot with pagans.  The Jews viewed the Samaritans as heretics, and the Samaritans viewed the Jews as enemies.  So, Jesus is in this tense border area.  We know about tense borders in our state.  That is the kind of place that Jesus is at, on the border.

          A group of lepers stand at a distance, raise their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master!  Have pity on us!”

          We are fortunate to live today when leprosy is not such a horrible disease as it once was.  We have effective medicines and means to deal with this terrible disease. So while leprosy is tragic, it is no longer hopeless. 

          Nonetheless I believe that the example of the lepers can instruct us today.  At the beginning of this Mass we stood and sang, “Lord, have mercy on us.” Just like those lepers in the Gospel.   “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.”  Not because we have leprosy, but because we have sinned and need the Lord’s healing mercy. 

          Jesus instructs the lepers to go show themselves to the priests.  When we sin, we also can go to the priests for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

          One of the lepers, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus to thank him.  He recognizes that Jesus is indeed the true priest, the real mediator between

God and humankind.  And Jesus says something very interesting.  Jesus asks: “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

          In Greek, the original language of this Gospel, the term “to give thanks” is “eucharistōn”.  Eucharistōn?   Does that remind you of anything?  Hopefully it reminds you of the word, Eucharist, which is what we are doing right now.  We are giving thanks, recalling what Jesus did for us on the night before He died for us.

          This Gospel story about the healing of the lepers is really about us, and our healing – not from physical leprosy – but rather from sin.  While this Gospel is frequently used on Thanksgiving, it really is not about gratitude, but about Jesus healing us from something even worse than leprosy, and that is sin.  And so this Gospel11214 applies to us all, because, regrettably, we all sin. 

We are gathered here to do eucharist, to give thanks to God for God’s saving action in Jesus Christ.  What Jesus says to the healed leper in the Gospel He says to us today: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”   And that is good news indeed!

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C October 2, 2022

27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle C       October 2, 2022

 In today’s second reading we hear from St Paul’s second letter to Timothy.  Timothy was a Bishop in Ephesus, appointed by Paul and apparently very close to Paul.   In his two letters to Timothy, St Paul is continually exhorting, prodding, encouraging, warning, urging, pushing Timothy to be forceful and faithful in preaching the Gospel.  So today we hear: “stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. What does it mean to “stir into flame?”  Well, if you have ever built a campfire, or lit a fire in a fireplace, you arrange the wood, start the fire and it burns well for a while.  But after about half an hour the fire dies down.  So you grab a metal poker, or a stick, and poke the fire, knock off some of the ash, move the logs around, so it flares up and has flames again.  That is what St Paul means by “stir into flame”.    Paul continues:  “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. “

          The fact that St Paul found it necessary to continually prod Timothy has led some Scripture scholars to speculate that Timothy was not an ideal disciple and assistant.  No one is sure exactly what Timothy’s problem was.   Perhaps Timothy was committed to the Gospel, but lacked ambition.  Maybe he was just a teeney bit lazy.  Maybe he was not a self-starter the way Paul was.  Maybe he was more of a go with the flow kind of guy and not attracted to working hard all the time.  Could be.  If so, then I could identify with Timothy, and perhaps a few of you could too.

          Or perhaps Timothy was committed to the Gospel, but rather timid: he did not like upsetting people, did not like rocking the boat and causing upset and consternation, he wanted people to like him, and he did not want to incur people’s hatred and persecution.  So, this is why Paul keeps exhorting Timothy to boldness and to action and insists on the cost of proclaiming the Gospel and the need to suffer with Christ.   If this is true about Timothy, then again I could identify with him, and perhaps a few of you could too.

          Or perhaps Timothy was committed to the Gospel, but had a hard time setting and keeping his priorities straight, forever distracted by the gnat-like cloud of many things to do, distractions and demands on his time and energy, forever being taken away by things of lesser account and not focusing his energy and time on what was really important.  So St Paul keeps calling Timothy back to the main task at hand, that is, preaching the Gospel, and not getting bogged down by meetings and fund-raisers and charity breakfasts and thousands of other demands on his time and energy.  If so, then I could identify with Timothy, and perhaps a few of you could too.

          In today’s reading St. Paul urges:  “I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.  For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. “

          Like St. Timothy, brothers and sisters, most of us need that reminder, we need to stir into flame the gift of God that we received at our Baptism and Confirmation.  We did not receive a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control.

Power: not in the sense the world understands power, as being able to be in control and to push my will onto others, but rather the kind of power Jesus showed us, the power to serve and to give ourselves away in love.

          Love:  not in the sense the world understands love, as a feeling, an emotional state you fall into, as something that takes control of us; but rather the kind of love Jesus showed us; the love that is a decision, a commitment, an act of will that does something and produces fruit in service, in care, in compassion, in forgiveness, in truth-telling, in love.

          Self-control: not in the sense the world understand self-control as repressing yourself and denial, but rather the kind of self-control Jesus showed us, the self-control that is the discipline to be true to your most authentic and deepest self, to the you God created you to be, to be thoroughly and completely integrated and authentic.

          “I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.  For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. “

          Of course, St Paul’s exhortation is today addressed to us.  We all know that we live in extraordinary, and often difficult, times.  There are major divisions in our world, our own country, in the church, often in our own communities and homes, and even in our own hearts.  Rather than poking the hornets’ nest, the temptation is lay low, not make a scene, and go with the flow. 

          But the truth of the Gospel is too important just let it slide by.  St Paul is urging all of us to “stir into flame the gift of God that you have received..”  Paul is urging us to BOLDNESS in living the Gospel fully, authentically, publicly, so as to give witness.  Do people know, by your actions, that you are a Christian?  Is there anything about your lifestyle that marks you as a follower of Christ?  If being a Christian were a crime, could any court find enough evidence of your Christian life to convict you?   Or would you get off because all you do is pay lip service to Christianity and not really live it? 

          Stir into flame the gift of God you have received!   A gift that empowers you to hold your tongue when you want to put another person down.  That empowers you to cheerful generosity to those in need.  That empowers you to speak the truth when it is unpopular and unwanted.  That empowers you to seek the good of others even at the expense of your own.  That shows forth the Spirit of Christ in your actions, words, and behavior. 

Be on fire with the Holy Spirit!     Amen.

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE C 09/11/2022

 HOMILY     TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   CYCLE C   09/11/22

            In the Gospel today we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Of the four Gospel writers, Luke is the only one that tells us this parable.  Why is that?  Why didn’t Mathew, Mark and John bother to tell us this story?  Did they not know it?  It is a pretty good story that you think would have made the rounds.

            Maybe the other Gospel writers left it out on purpose.  Maybe they didn’t like this parable.  That’s possible, because even though we call this the Parable of the Prodigal Son, I don’t think this story is really about him.   And the older son, while important to the story, is also not the real focus.  It is the father who is, I believe, the center of the story.  And it is a depiction of God that is highly unusual and rather unsettling.

            How are we to understand the story?  Remember the context.  In Jesus’ day society was very patriarchal.  One’s social, economic and even religious standing depended on your relation to the head of the household.  Respect for the father of the family was very great.  So it would have been shocking for the audience of Jesus to hear that the younger son should brazenly demand his share of the estate.  First of all he had no share coming to him.  Inheritance at that time followed the law of primogeniture, meaning that the eldest son got everything, and daughters and younger sons got zip.  This was kind of harsh, but it prevented small plots of land being divided into useless, tiny parcels.  So the younger son had no claim whatsoever.  And secondly, the younger son was effectively saying he wished his Father was dead, since that is when the inheritance would come into effect. 

            The only thing more shocking than the younger son’s atrocious behavior is the Father’s.  Instead of smacking the kid up the side of the head as he so richly deserved, the Father indulgently and foolishly gives the younger son half of his estate.  What!?!  Are you kidding?  That is totally irresponsible!      [NOTE:  This is not a parable about good parenting.]

            The younger son, egotistical twit that he is, is soon parted from his money and finds himself in dire straits.  Driven by hunger, if not by remorse, the younger son returns home in the hopes of finding a meal. 

            Meanwhile, the doting Father is yearning for the younger son, scanning the horizon for his hoped for return.  While the younger son is still a long way off             “his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.  He ran to his son,

embraced him and kissed him.”   In that culture, where the appearance of dignity counted for a great deal, to see the old man running down the road would be most exceptional.   That sort of thing was just not done.  It would have been undignified in the extreme.     

            Not letting the prodigal son finish his apology, the Father commands his servants to get a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, a robe for him to wear, and to kill the fatted calf for a home-coming feast. 

            That is the last we see of the younger son.  Has he really matured, or just been driven by hunger?  Probably the latter.  In any case the Father is a hopelessly irresponsible parent.   As one commentator writes, “Indeed, we might well wonder if the reason the son is impossible is that the father is so inept.” 

            Now the story shifts to the older brother.  He was supposed to inherit everything, but now half of the estate has been squandered away by his wastrel brother.  He got jipped!  In his anger he refuses to go into the feast.  Ever indulgent, the Father comes out to plead with him.  The older son states his case, that he has been dutiful and diligent but has not been rewarded, while this younger son blows off half the estate in parties and loose living and then he is given a hero’s welcome on his return.  It is unjust, unfair, and wrong to say the least.

            The Father never answers the just claims of the elder son.  Rather he states a deeper need, a deeper reason than strict justice.   “He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me always;  everything I have is yours.   But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.'"

            The Father operates by a different logic than what is fair, what is just.  And the Father is, of course, a stand in for God.  This is not a parable about repentance, certainly not about justice and getting what you deserve, but rather a parable about the incomprehensibility of love and the mystery of God.  God’s love just doesn’t make sense.  It is not fair. 

            God just doesn’t see as we see.  God doesn’t think like we think.  God doesn’t feel like we feel.    God loves.  Period.   That is what God does. 

            God loves in crazy, prodigal, even unfair and irresponsible ways.  But God loves.    It is unnerving, upsetting, unfair and even unjust.  But God loves.  That is what God does. 

He makes his rain come down on the bad and the good, shines his sun on the good and the bad.  That is the God Jesus knows, and that is the God Jesus teaches us about:  a crazy Father who loves first, foremost and always, even in the face of the claims of justice. 

            He loves.  That is what God does.  And we are to be like Him. 

            The younger son doesn’t deserve anything.  But God loves him.  The older son is uptight and focused on his rights, on what is due to him.  God loves him. 

            God loves.  God loves.  God loves.  That is what God does. 

Are the sons open to receiving God’s love?          Are we? 

­Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary time Cycle C Sept 4, 2022

 ­Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary time   Cycle C   Sept 4, 2022

 We have some tough readings today.   “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”  Well, that does not leave a lot of room for discussion.  Even tougher perhaps is this declaration: “anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”  How does that grab you?

          Our second reading today, from St. Paul, is not any better in terms of making a big demand.  You see, Paul’s big request to Philemon is asking him to accept back his runaway slave, Onesimus, as a fellow Christian and brother. 

          Did you like the readings today?  I find these readings hard to get my head around.  The demands are pretty straightforward and clear, yet what they ask – no, demand - is so counter to our usual way of thinking that it boggles my mind. 

          Our first reading was well chosen therefore when it asks, “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?”   It is mysterious, counter-intuitive, almost repulsive. …

          But what God conceives, and the Lord intends, is the fullness of life and love.  Life and love.   However, we are so constrained and restricted by fear, and by greed, and by possiveness, and the urge to cling to what we have, that we find it extremely hard to let go of what we concretely now have in order to open ourselves to receive something far better, richer, more beautiful, much more satisfying, and certainly more lasting. 

          In the second reading today St Paul, in prison, came across a runaway slave, named Onesimus, that lo and behold belonged to someone St Paul had converted to Christianity, a man named Philemon.   In the reading St Paul sends Onesimus back to his owner, Philemon, and asks Philemon to accept Onesimus back as a brother and believer in Christ.   Wow.        

          Could Philemon be that open, that daring, that trusting in faith, to let go of all the social conventions and rules about slavery to welcome back Onesimus, his run-away slave, as a brother in the Lord?  What would his family think?  What would his neighbors do?  He would be upsetting the whole social and economic order.  If Philemon welcomed back his slave Onesimus as Paul asked, how long would it be before all his slaves got religion????   The whole society would fall apart and change. 

          Paul is bold enough to ask, indeed demand this, because Jesus Himself made even bolder demands previously.  “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

          What do you think of that?   Sisters and brothers, we cannot just chalk this up to Jesus having a bad day and did not really mean what He said.  We cannot explain this away as simply Semitic hyperbole, a way of speaking exaggeratedly that does not mean to be taken literally.  Because it still means to be taken seriously.  Very seriously.

          It is a challenge.

          The challenge is beyond us.  I don’t think that any of us, or only very few of us, are up to it.  But it is doable because Jesus went there first before us.  The Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, emptied himself and took the form of a slave, and accepted death, death on a cross.   WHY?   Out of love for you and for me. 

          And that power of love is great.  Very great.   So great that when it is shared with us we too have the power to let go of everything and anything that holds us back from loving and living as the children of God, as brothers and sisters of Jesus, even to giving up our prized possessions to live more freely in the love of God.

          Philemon was asked to give up his relationship as Master to Onesimus his slave and accept him as a brother.   What is Jesus calling you to let go of?  to empty yourself of?  Not so that you will be empty, but rather that you will be open and free enough to accept the much, much better and truly wonderful gift God longs to give you, which is God’s own love, God’s own life. 

          To our ordinary and usual way of thinking, to our human ears, this forceful Gospel today does not sound like good news, but rather bad news: news of loss and deprivation.  Only the Holy Spirit can remove the veil of fear and greed from our souls so that we can see the beauty and freedom of living as the Children of God.  And that insight is a wonderful gift.  Be free. 

          God Bless! 

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle “C” August 21, 2022

 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle “C”        August 21, 2022

 Do you remember the responsorial psalm we just sang?   If you are like me and have a very short attention span, you may have forgotten it.  So let me remind you.   “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”   I like that because it is positive.   In this time of difficulties, woes and strife, we can certainly use some Good News.  Would you agree?  So it is good for us to sing, “Go out to all the World and tell the Good News.”

People really, really need to hear good news.  There is so much bad and depressing and sad news that it gets us down, makes us sad, and even irritable and angry.  Have you experienced that?   Of course you have. 

But to go out and tell the Good News you first of all have to hear the Good News.  Have you heard it?   Not just with your ears, but with your mind, and your heart, and even with your guts.  You have to invite in the Good News to come and live and thrive and flourish in you.  That is much more than just passive listening.  You have to open the ears of your heart and actively listen. 

Listening is not easy.  Listening is work.  It means pushing aside distractions, focusing on the Word of God, opening and being receptive to whatever God wants to tell you and not go through the agenda of things you want God to do.  And that sort of listening takes work.

It takes discipline.  Our second reading today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, tells us “do not disdain the discipline of the Lord.”  The Letter to the Hebrews instructs us: “At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” 

You need the discipline of quieting your concerns, your thoughts, your impulses, to rather attend to the Lord and listen.  //  Listen. 

And when you listen, and you hear the Good News of God’s love for you, and for every person on earth, and take that Good News into the core of your being, then you can, as our Psalm Response says, “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”  

This is not only, nor even primarily, a verbal telling of the Good News,  Much more powerful and effective is a silent telling of the Good News by living it out.  You need to look and act like you have heard Good News, the Good News of God’s saving Love for us in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. 

You should look and act with such conviction of God’s overwhelming love for you and for every person that other people will wonder what is up with you, what motivates you, what are you on? 

Because the Love of God, when you truly realize it, and genuinely live it, is a high.  The people I have known, who truly love God, radiate that Good News.  They shine.  They are illuminated.

Brothers and Sisters, there is lots and lots of BAD NEWS out there: in the world, in the Church, maybe in your neighborhood and your own family.  You don’t need to go looking for it.   It will come seek you out.  There is no shortage of bad news.

But we have GOOD NEWS.  The Good News of God’s love for each of us, and all of us together, in Jesus Christ.  And we have the privilege, and the responsibility, of proclaiming that Good News by our lives.  “So strengthen your drooping hand and your weak knees.  Make straight paths for your feet.”   Take to heart our Psalm response today:  “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.”               God bless! 

HOMILY Nineteenth Sunday of Ord Time Cycle C Aug 8, 2022

 HOMILY   Nineteenth Sunday of Ord Time  Cycle C  Aug 8, 2022

 If you are a fan of horror films, which I am not, you may have come across the phrase, “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”  Anyone ever heard that?     

Unfortunately, you do not have to watch horror movies to have this sentiment.  All you have to do is watch the news, which I contend is much scarier than any fictitious film.  Inflation, recession, monkey pox, war in Ukraine with the ominous shadow of nuclear war, runaway climate change with drought, endless days of triple digits, huge floods in the mid-West and Kentucky, growing tensions with China, widening splits in the Church, increasing violence and crime, …and oh yes, Covid.  It sounds sensible and realistic to be afraid, be very afraid.

However, Jesus, Who knows all about this stuff, in the first line of our Gospel today states: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock…”  

Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, does Jesus instruct us to not be afraid?   Is Jesus out of touch, overly optimistic, not based in reality?  No.   Jesus tells us why we are not to be afraid in the very next line: “for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”

The Father is pleased to give us, all of us, the kingdom.

I would like you to note two things:  First, the reason we can let go of fear is not anything that we have done.  It is not anything that we accomplish.  It is not our doing.  It is totally because of God.  “your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”  We cannot accomplish this, but neither can we screw this up. It doesn’t depend on us.  It depends on God.

Secondly, what the Father gives us is not any limited, partial, temporary benefit, something that will fade and pass, but rather the kingdom, the kingdom of God which lasts for all eternity. 

          God’s Kingdom is indestructible and enduring.  And the Father is please to give us the kingdom.  So says Jesus.

While this is wonderful, and totally is God’s gracious gift, it does require a response from us: a response of trust and hope.  Jesus tells us to start living the Kingdom of God.  “Sell your belongings and give alms.”   Jesus radically calls us to make real our hope, not in the things of this world, but in the promise of God.

Jesus goes on: “Gird your loins and light your lamps…”   OK.  ¿Are your loins girded?  Or girt?   What does this mean?  The NRSV translates this as “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.”  Girding your loins has to do with the long robe people wore in the time of Jesus.  Girding your loins means to tuck up the bottom of your robe into your belt so that you can move more freely and quickly.  Maybe you have seen me pick up the bottom of my robe when I go up or down steps to that I don’t trip on it.  Girding your loins means getting ready for action.

The point here is that we cannot simply sit on our virtues and wait for God’s Kingdom to come along on its own.  Jesus tells us “Blessed are those servants (that is us, we are the servants), Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.”

To be vigilant means to be prepared and ready for action; the action of building up the Kingdom of God.  And that starts by not living in fear, but rather living in hope.

Fear is very real and prevalent in our world today.  So many people turn to hate, to division, to drugs and alcohol, to violence and acting out, to crazy conspiracy theories.  At the root of this self-destructive behavior is fear.  People are very afraid, afraid that they are irrelevant, that they don’t matter, that they have no say or control over their future.  So they hate and kill and destroy to make themselves feel potent,    that they matter.

But Jesus tells us, “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock…”  

We have to do something about that.  Not by our words, but by our actions, living out our faith that God is pleased to give us the Kingdom:   the Kingdom of righteousness, the Kingdom of compassion, the Kingdom of truth, the Kingdom of love.  God’s Kingdom. 

So gird your loins for action.  Light your lamps against the darkness of cynicism and despair.  Let your light shine.  And know that in doing so you are truly blessed.  AMEN.