Once again, Deacon Mick knocks one out of the park, this time for the Solemnity of Christ the King. I did not get his text, but click on the audio file below to hear his homily.
[Click on the arrow to hear a recording of the homily.]
33 Sunday C
Last week I chatted
about the priest and the rabbi waving a sign saying, “The End is Near!”
Today in the
gospel we hear the people asking for a sign from Christ. It’s all the more important to them given that
he has just told them that their national symbol, the very dwelling place of
God in their midst, will be destroyed. Such
an idea is pretty startling. It’s like
those apocalyptic movies where the aliens blow up the U.S. capitol building and
the White House.
Then Jesus goes
on to talk about the end of the age, and the need for perseverance in the face of
trial and tribulation.
This is tough
stuff to listen to. Try starting a
movement gand gathering disciples by saying, “You will be hated by all because
of my name.” See how far you get.
Sometimes discipleship
may not seem very glamorous. But it is
always worth it. As the saying goes, “Working for the Lord doesn’t pay much,
but the retirement benefits are out of this world!”
So, the world
will come to an end, but in the meantime we are here. What should we be doing?
The life of any
parish revolves around three actions—the celebration of
the liturgy and the other sacraments; the formation of
disciples; and the proclamation
of the gospel in
word and deed. Of these, the celebration of the liturgy is preeminent. The
Fathers of the Second Vatican Council made this abundantly clear when they said
that the liturgy “is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is
directed; at the same time it is the source from which all her power flows.” (Sacrosanctam Concilium,10)
It follows then
that the well-conceived and well-rendered celebration of the liturgy should be
the first priority of the parish. Intentional discipleship begins with
intentional liturgy. For this reason, earlier in the year I called together the
coordinators of the various liturgical ministries to form the Liturgy
Committee. Their task is to assist the
Pastor in planning all aspects of the liturgies that will take place in the
parish throughout the year.
One of the
things that became apparent in our first meeting was a pressing need for recruitment, training, support and
appreciation of
all liturgical ministers. Our sacristans do a wonderful job, but all too often
they are scrambling at the last minute to make sure that all the ministries for
a particular Mass are covered. People are very generous and most are able to
pitch in on such short notice. Nevertheless, it is a matter of critical
importance that needs to be addressed. The first step is to invite members of
the congregation who feel called to place their gifts at the service of the community
in the litrugy.
To this end, we
are having a “Mini
Ministry Faire” for
all liturgical ministries this weekend. In the Gathering Area after Mass are
really nice folks who can tell you all about their ministry and answer any
questions you have.
So how do you sign
up? In your hymnal and in the pews this weekend, you will find a bookmark with an invitation to participate.
On it are listed all the liturgical ministries in the parish. I ask that you take a moment to look it over, pray a little prayer of discernment, and then check the box that best applies for the ministry that speaks to
your heart. There are three options:
Interested: You are interested in this ministry and would
like more information, such as its training requirements and time commitments.
You are not signing up for the ministry at this stage, just asking for more
information.
Continuing: You like being a part of this ministry and
would like to continue to serve for another year. Make sure you check the box,
just because you have been doing it for many years, we will not assume you want
to continue.
Leaving: Life happens. Sometimes change is good. Maybe
you have been doing this ministry for a while and just want to try something
new. Maybe you need a break. Checking this box is a simple way to
“un-volunteer” with dignity.
[The story of “Gladys”
and the linens at Holy Family.]
Once you have
discerned your choice(s), simply place the bookmark in the collection basket when it comes around or in the basket in the Gathering
Area. If you would like
more time or want more information about a particular ministry, please stop by
their booth at Mini-Ministry Faire.
Commitment forms
will be collected through the end of November. At that point, we will compile
the lists in the office and the coordinator of that ministry will be contacting
you in mid-December. Liturgical trainings will take place after Christmas and
be finished by Ash Wednesday. Typically, training is offered once a weekday and
repeated on a Saturday. Make-up sessions are held later if you can’t make an
earlier one.
Commitment to
any liturgical ministry is for a period of one year.
Someone has
asked that if they have been involved in a ministry for some time, do they need
to sign up again and do they need to come to the training. The answer to the first question is “yes.” First, your renewed commitment is a liturgical
act of offering your gift of time and talent to Our Lord and to the parish
family. That is you it should be put it in the basket at offertory with the other
gifts, if at all possible. On a more
practical note, lists need to be updated every year and recommitting for the
coming year helps us do that in the simplest possible way.
Do you have to
come to the training even if you’ve been doing a ministry for years? Again, the answer is ‘yes’. By and large things are set up pretty good
here, but there will be some minor changes for every liturgical ministry to
bring us into conformity with universal and particular law. Also, at each training there will be a number
of resources given out. These are essential
for your success in your ministry.
We’re going to make
it as easy as possible to come to a training.
As I mentioned, each ministry will have at least three opportunities,
one during the week, one on a weekend and a make-up session later.
As I said,
someday, this beautiful church that we worked so hard to build so many years
ago will not be standing, and we will be quite happy about that, because it means
the fulfillment of all our hopes and desires.
In the meantime,
we are here.
I thank you in
advance. Through the joyful and intentional celebration of the Sacred Liturgy,
may we draw closer in communion with Christ and with one another as we
celebrate these sacred mysteries.
After a torrential rainstorm, a priest
and a rabbi are standing next to the road with a sign that read: “The end is
near!” Not too much later, a big pickup
truck comes roaring by. They start waving the sign excitedly. As the truck
passes by, the driver yells out, “You stupid religious nuts! Go home!”
And he careens around the bend. Three seconds later, there is the sound
of screeching tires and then a big splash.
The rabbi turns to the priest and says,
“Do you think we should have written, ‘The bridge is down!’?”
As I promised last week, we see the
Sunday readings taking a decidedly eschatological turn. That is, we are invited
to contemplate the “last things” that will occur at the “eschaton” – the end of
the age when Christ will come again in glory, the world as we know it will come
to an end, and all things will be fulfilled in the person of Christ. Given the
scale of the transformation, it is a bit scary in one sense, but also very
exciting in another.
The disconcerting thing is that we don’t
know when it will happen. Thus, we need to be vigilant. On the first Sunday of
Advent we will hear Jesus say, “Be watchful!
Stay awake! You do not know the
hour when the Son of Man is coming.”
(Mt. 25:13) In the meantime, we need to get our lives in order. We need
to experience conversion.
So let
us look at the idea of conversion. There
are things I would like to emphasize this week:
Conversion involves the whole person
It takes time.
It is a process.
Conversion
involves the whole person, intellectually/emotionally, physically, and
spiritually. These three aspects of
mind, body and spirit are the essential components of our humanity. They are like a three-legged stool. We are at our best when all three are in
balance. They are the three components
of any authentic experience of conversion.
Second,
conversion is a process. As I mentioned
last week, conversion is that process by which we realize that God is God and
we are not. We are not self-sufficient. As Aquinas said, we humans are
dependent beings. We did not create ourselves. We owe our creation to God as
well as our continued existence.
Notice that I use the word “PROCESS” very
intentionally. Conversion is not a “one and done” kind of thing. Even a quick study of the great saints can be
quite revealing. The conversion of St. Paul took at least nine years. Similarly,
that St. Francis took at least seven.
So how does it work? As you will hear
many times in the coming months and years, there are seven steps of conversion
into intentional, missionary disciples.
Pre-evangelization,
evangelization,
Initial
Conversion/Intentional Discipleship,
Initiatory
Catechesis
Adherence
Ongoing
formation
Mission
Discipleship
In the
interest of time, I’m going to just get us to step 4 today.
Pre-evangelization. First there has to be a favorable environment
that encourages an openness to the gospel message. Within the parish family, amongst ourselves,
this is where a vibrant social life and community building come into play.
Senior dances, youth hikes, parish picnics, CHAOS and other fun stuff. Really,
if church isn’t fun, then we are doing it wrong. In Muldoon and Nunaka Valley and wherever
else you might be, this means being a good neighbor, being involved in the
local community, serving on community councils, the Thanksgiving Blessing, Outreach,
and whatnot. As I mentioned in my first
homily, our job as a parish is to become so much a part of our neighborhood so
that they cannot imagine life without us.
Pre-evangelization.
The second step, evangelization, is the sharing of
the content of the faith and introduction to the encounter with the Risen
Christ, manifested in the life of our parish family. It is an intentional invitation. This might be on an ACTS retreat, or a parish
or diocesan pilgrimage, or during the liturgy.
Or it may be a simple invitation to a neighbor to come with you to
Church one day.
The
third step is Initial
Conversion/Intentional Discipleship. At a certain point, the Holy
Spirit moves, and there is that “aha moment” when everything comes into
focus. This is unique and different for
every person. For some it is when they are at their best, for others it is when
they are at their worst. Most of us are
somewhere in between. It has been described various ways. “Seeing the light”; “bottoming out”; “being
saved” are just some of the ways that people have tried to describe it. This is
when our priorities change and we being to order our lives around Christ and
stop expecting him to order his life around ours. Many people can point to the exact time or
moment that this happened. For others,
it may have been more gradual, or just the environment in which they were
raised. Regardless, at some point, we take
the good news to heart and make it our own. At this stage we may not be able to
articulate it all that well, but we want to.
That
is why conversion cannot stop there. Otherwise we are simply bumper sticker
Christians. True conversion involves moving into ever deepening communion with
Christ and His Church.
This is where initial and initiating catechesis comes in. The wonderful thing about being Catholic is
that we don’t have to figure it out on our own.
We have a 2000-year intellectual history of thinking about, pondering
and coming up with effective ways of articulating the faith the comes to us
from the apostles. This has been
compiled into a marvelous compendium called the Catechism of the Catholic
Church. The various means of Faith
Formation here in the parish are all based on this document, whether it is
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Faith Journeys, adult Bible study, or any of
the myriad of other things going on, and especially in the Sunday homily. This is where we are informed and inspired so
that as St. Peter says we are “always ready to give an accounting of the joy
that is within you.”
I’ll get into Adherence, Ongoing
Formation and Missionary Discipleship later, but this is enough for
today.
For now it is enough to realize that conversion
involves the whole person – mind, body and spirit. Also, it is a lifelong-ongoing process. It involves the reordering of our priorities
and placing Christ in the center of our lives. It means intentionally engaging
with the parish in the sacred assembly, in one’s household, and in small groups
that will support and deepen our desire for ongoing communion.
Sure, it takes time. But we have to start
somewhere. Why not here? Why not now?
A friend checked out this humble blog last week and commented on how she enjoyed reading the homilies. I mentioned to her, “You know, you can listen to it too.”
“What?” she said.
“Yeah,” I replied, “Just click on the play button on the audio file. Right under the title of each post. It’s that little black triangle right there. ”
“Oh, my goodness! Well, will you look at that! Who’d have thought.”
31 Sunday C – Conversion, Repentance, Reconciliation
I enjoy bumper sticker theology and pithy
church sign sayings. Sometimes they incorporate different eras of pop culture.
Who would not be moved by: “The fact that there is a ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and a
‘Highway to Hell’ tells you a lot about anticipated traffic patterns.” They may
be exhortative. What self-righteous
church goer would not be knocked off their pedestal by: “Acting perfectly in
Church is like dressing up for an X-ray.”
They may also take an eschatological bent. This one for passing
motorists: “Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to meet him now.” Some of them are just darn good
theology. My favorite is one reminiscent
of one of Pope Francis’ early talks: “The Church is a hospital for sinners, not
a rest home for saints.”
In the next few weeks, you will note a
decided shift of emphasis in the readings.
As we near the end of Ordinary Time, the Church invites us to get our
spiritual house in order so that we may be prepared for the glorious second
coming of Christ at the end of the age.
Fall is a great time to get rid of
clutter in one’s life. And the staff
will tell you that I hate clutter.
Clutter is one of the great evils that plagues the Church.
How does physical clutter start?
Like all insidious vices, it starts with
an immediate need. “I have need of this item, so I will put it here, in this
place, so that I may have ready access to it.”
Or perhaps: “I have need of this now so I will put it here. I will put it back when I no longer need it.”
But the item does not get put back. And there it remains. Soon other items gather near it as if by force of gravity. Eventually, the space that it occupies is no longer recognizable or useful for its original purpose, and it has taken on a life of its own.
Let me tell you a story.
May 5, 1996, was a momentous day in the
life of St. Patrick Parish. Do you know
what happened here then?
– We dedicated the new church building.
It was a glorious day. All the priests of
the Archdiocese were here, several bishops, and every member of the parish.
About an hour or two beforehand, the
Pastor, Fr. Steven Moore, realized that there was no table on which to set the
programs for the liturgy.
He turned to his young associate, Fr. Leo
Walsh, and said, “Leo, run over to the rectory and get one of the sofa
tables. We’ll use that to put the
programs on. We can put it back when we
are done.”
So off the young associate dutifully ran
and grabbed the sofa table, a nice piece about a foot wide and four feet
long. We put it in the middle of the
Gathering Area and it worked great.
But the next week, we had no table on
which to put the bulletins, so the table remained so that we could use it for
that.
One week turned into two, and two into
three. Months went by and the table
remained.
In due time the young associate was
reassigned, but he returned every few years and sure enough every time he
looked in the Gathering Area, that sofa table was still there with various
items laid upon it.
Years went by, and in God’s good
providence, the young Associate returned, but this time as Pastor of St.
Patrick Parish. Upon his arrival, he
gazed into the gathering area, and sure enough, that trusty sofa table stood
resolutely in the Gathering area, now covered with hymnals and bulletins and
children’s activity sheets and whatnot and surrounded by many other tables and
racks of various shapes and sizes…
And the little sofa table was happy.
And there it remains to this day…
This, my dear friends in Christ in St.
Patrick’s Parish, is how clutter happens.
Spiritual
clutter follows the same dynamic. Fall is a great time to clean up one’s
spiritual house.
The first step is to remove any and all
obstacles that come between us and Christ.
I’m talking about sins.
In my 25 years of priesthood and 55 years
of life, I have never seen anyone who purposefully set out to sin mortally. Usually, it begins with one, small seemingly harmless
venial sin, but that leads to another and to another and another…eventually, disaster
looms.
The current sloppy weather, gives us
another good example. Think about this
the next time you are driving and you notice a little speck of mud on your windshield. Now a single speck is not that big of a deal,
but soon there is another here, and then another…here a speck, there a speck,
everywhere a speck, speck…
Eventually, you cannot see the road in
front of you and if you don’t take corrective action, disaster looms.
So it is with spiritual clutter.
When we stand honestly before Almighty
God, we have to admit that wherever we are on the moral spectrum, we all are in
need of conversion, repentance, and reconciliation. I’ll go more into each of these in the weeks
to come, but for now a short introduction.
Conversion is the initial moment when we
turn back to God. The Greek word for
this turning back is “metanoia.” It’s a
navigational term. When they were
traveling across the desert, sometimes they would get off the right path. So
they had to “turn back” to get back on track.
Conversion is that initial turning back to the Lord. When we realize that things are out of whack
and we need to get back on the right path in life. We see that when Zaccheus changes course to
intercept Jesus on the road in Jericho.
When our heart turns back to the Lord,
repentance for sin is the next logical step. We realize that some of our
actions or inactions have harmed our relationship with God, self or others. We need to set those aright.
Zaccheus does this in a big way. (“Half of what I own I give to the poor and if I have extorted anyone in the past, I pay them back fourfold.)
Also, I am comforted by the insight from the Book of Wisdom that reminds us that we typically don’t get hit full-force by all of our sins at once, but rather that God will “rebuke offenders little by little.” (Wis 12:2). The Holy Spirit is very kind to us. There is only one who has taken all of our sins upon Himself at once. For the rest of us, the Holy Spirit only gives us what we can handle at any given time. So don’t get to distraught if after about three months of getting back into regular confession that a big nasty sin from your past will come to mind. It is actually a sign of spiritual maturity. That is the Holy Spirit saying, “Okay, now that you have progressed to this point in your spiritual life, let’s get this one reconciled too.”
Reconciliation is the process by which are
restored to communion with Christ and His Church. This involves a good examination of
conscience, sacramental confession, absolution, and satisfaction of one’s
penance.
Again, we see how Christ restores Zaccheus to the community of Israel. “Today, salvation has come to this house. For this one too is a child of Abraham.” Zaccheus is restored and reconciled to the community of believers by Christ, and so are we.
Yes, fall is a great time to get rid of the
physical clutter in one’s life. In her wisdom, the Church invites us to get rid
of the spiritual clutter as well. Christ
will most definitely come in glory at the end of the age. Let us get our spiritual house in order. The Church is a hospital for sinners, it is
not a rest home for saints. Let us be
moved to conversion, repentance and reconciliation so that we may be prepared as
we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, it’s been a good week here at St. Patrick Parish. I’m still living with my mom, but we have found another really nice house not too far from here and we the deal may be done by the first of December. Kind of reminds me of a story.
One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church.
He replied, “I’m not going.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“I’ll give you two good reasons,” he said. “(1), they don’t like me, and (2), I don’t like them.”
His mother replied, “I’ll give you two good reasons why you SHOULD go to church: (1) You’re 59 years old, and (2) you’re the pastor!”
This week, Our Lord gives us a very good
example of that in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. In the
Jewish mind of first century Palestine, you could not get a more diverse
comparison. The Pharisees were seen as those who studied the Law of Moses and
tried to live it out to fullest. They were held in highest regard. On the other hand, tax collectors were seen
as collaborators with the Roman occupational government and enriching
themselves by their position. They were
despised by all. So at the outset of the parable, the sympathies of the crowd
would very much have been with the Pharisee and very much against the tax
collector.
But Jesus turns that notion on upside
down. In the parable, it is the arrogant
Pharisee whose prayer is fruitless and the tax collector who goes away
justified. The reason is clear. The Pharisee is honest, but arrogant; the tax
collector stands honest and humble.
Can humility be so easily perverted?
Absolutely. There is one kind which is particularly insidious. Sometimes it is
a wisp of subtle, underlying cynicism. At other times, it is a pervasive sense
of accommodation to a make-shift solution. Most often it is an expression of undeniable
frustration. Or the ubiquitous, “That’s just the way it’s done around here.
In Psychology, this phenomenon is called
“learned helplessness.” Fr. Dan spoke to this a couple of homilies ago when he
gave the example of the elephant that remains tied to the stake because he does
not believe he has the strength to pull it out.
Oddly enough, even when things are out of whack, and even when we know they are out of whack, we are oddly resistant to change.
[Here I told the THE THOU ARE EAGLE STORY. Really, it’s best just to listen to it on the audio file.]
And so my
dear friends in at St. Patrick Parish, I have but one question for you…
Are you chicken?
or are you eagle?
As Christians, we are never helpless. In
the power of the Holy Spirit, we are a light on a lampstand, the salt of the
earth, the city set on a hill. We were created to be great saints, right now,
right here in 99504.
You don’t see many real lepers these days. Treatment with sulfite-based medications in the 60’s, and now antibiotics such as dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine allow for the cure of Hansen’s disease, as leprosy is more properly known. Today, the disease and the stigma that accompanied it are almost completely unknown…almost.
Believe it or not, the United States still has a leper colony located at Kalaupapa on the Island of Moloka’i in Hawaii. Of the 8000 people that were forcibly sent there beginning in 1865, six of the 16 surviving patients still remain. The youngest is 79 year-old Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa. Boogie was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease at the age of 18. He was taken from his family, and sent to Kalaupapa in 1959. While other former residents have gone to live on the mainland or elsewhere, Boogie and five of his fellow patients have chosen to stay. Kalaupapa is the only real home they have known.
I met Boogie a few years ago when I went to Kalaupapa at the invitation of Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu. In the course of our visit, I stopped by the only library and bookstore of the town. Boogie was standing by the counter greeting people as they came by. He was a very jovial fellow. Still, the disease had not left him untouched. He was bald as an egg, his hands were affected by the disease, and one of his feet was in a modified boot. He had a voice of pure gravel that emerged from a radiant smile. When he saw me, his eyes lit up and he said, “Hey are you a priest?!”
“You bet!” I replied.
“Say, could I get a blessing from
you?”
“Sure,” I said. Then I said the priestly blessing over him, planting my hand firmly on his bowed forehead as I finished. He dutifully made the Sign of the Cross and then vigorously shook my hand. “No loss of strength there,” I thought, as my knuckles cried out for mercy.
“Hey, thanks a lot, Father!” he said. “Thanks for coming.”
When I think back on my encounter with Boogie, I am struck by his final words of gratitude more than anything else. Here is a man who by the standards of the world, has every right to be bitter and resentful. Instead, he radiated a spirit of joy and gratitude. Other residents shared with us that one of the things we needed to tell people was the essential role that the Church played in their lives on Kalaupapa. It could have been a dismal place, but instead their faith gave them dignity and hope. They chose to be grateful.
There is a lesson to be learned here. The intentional disciple is intentionally grateful. The grateful heart cannot be bitter or resentful, even in what might otherwise be the worst of circumstances. Such is the power of the Gospel.
So how
to you get there?
Gratitude just doesn’t happen
Rather,
it has its origins in a more seminal virtue, namely
HUMILITY.
You
don’t get to be grateful without first being humble.
So,
what is humility anyway?
I
have found that humility is simply this:
to know yourself without illusion before Almighty God.
That means acknowledging without apology,
everything about you that is right and true and beautiful and just.
At the same time, it also means
acknowledging all that is broken and self-centered and sinful, without
sugar-coating it.
Thus understood, we can begin to
understand the primary temptation against authentic humility.
The first temptation is to downplay our gifts with pointless and dishonest self-denigration or a misdirected interior sense of worthlessness. Few people have spoken more eloquently about this than Marianne Williamson in her book, Return to Love (Harper and Collins, 1992). She says:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not
serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure
around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us;
it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light
shine,
we unconsciously give other
people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.”
Amazing insight, isn’t it? Marianne Williamson. A Return to Love.
The second temptation is like the first,
namely a kind of smug presumption on the mercy of God characterized by a lack
of honesty about the seriousness and the impact of our sins on others. We might say things to ourselves like, “Well,
I’m only human.” or “It really wasn’t all that bad.” or “Well, nobody really
got hurt.”
How does this temptation work? A short story helps illustrate this dynamic.
The devil was speaking with his demons
about how they might be able to misdirect more souls from grace. The first demon spoke up and said, “I know,
Boss, let’s try to convince people that there is no heaven! That way they will lose all sense of hope and
turn away from virtue.”
The devil replied, “No, that will not
work. There will always be people who
believe in heaven, try as we might we cannot snuff out hope completely. What
else have you got?
The second demon spoke up, “I know, Boss,
how about we try to convince them that there is no hell? That way they will think there are no
consequences for their actions, and we can steal a few souls that way.”
The devil replied, “Better, but still not
enough. Sinful actions have immediate and eternal consequences. Some will still
repent. We need to do better. What else have you got?”
The third demon thought for a moment and
then said,
“I know, Boss, let’s convince them that there is a heaven and there is a
hell…but not yet!”
“Ahhh…” the devil replied, “Now we are
getting somewhere.”
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we
come to realize that our sins really are that bad, they do have consequences
and yes people get hurt. There is an
immediacy to our need for confession and reconciliation. St. Paul tells us as much when he says, “if
one part of the body is hurting, all the other parts feels its effects.” (1Cor 12:26) There is no such thing as a
private sin.
But when we come honestly, humbly before
Our Lord, the miracle of faith is this: Christ
looks at each of us and says, “Yes, I know everything about you that is right
and true and beautiful and just, because I put that there when I created you.
And
yes, I know all of your sins…ALL of them.
(Yes, even that one.) because it was for them that I died on the Cross, Rejoice.
You are forgiven. You are free.”
My
dear friends in Christ, when we understand what we have been given, when we
understand what we have be FORgiven, what response is appropriate? What response is even possible, save
gratitude?
Meister Ekhard, the great medieval mystic
once said, “If you only prayer that you can muster is ‘Thank You,’ it is
enough.
Did you know that the word Eucharist come
from the Greek word, “ευχαριστία”
which means “Thanksgiving?”
Therefore, in this sacred assembly, let us give thanks to the Lord Our God, for it is so very right and just. It is here that we are gathered; it is here that we proclaim the Word; it is there that we break the bread; and it is from here that we are sent into the world to proclaim the Good News with grateful hearts, founded on an authentic humility.
The grateful heart cannot be contained. You were not made for mediocrity. Our parish is not made for mediocrity. You were made to be a great saint! Please, please, please. Do not settle for anything less.
Hello, blogosphere! I did not preach to the parish this weekend, but I did start a column in the parish bulletin. I think I’ll put these in as well. Let me know what you think.
How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. Then the LORD answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.
Take a good look a the reading from Habakkuk in this week’s scriptures. Now, think about your own prayer life, how often have you used these or similar words: “How long, O LORD? I cry for help, but you do not listen!”
These words of Habakkuk are in the scriptures because at some time or another, every disciple has experienced shouting, pleading, and sometimes ranting at a Silent God.
There are many reasons for this I suppose. One might be that too often we pray “MY will be done!” instead of “THY will be done.” But I think this is not so common.
Rather, I think it is because in our insta-gram, fast food, give-it-to-me-now, culture we are not very good at waiting. We want it right done right, we want it courteously, and we want it NOW! For reasons we often do not fully understand, waiting irritates us.
And yet, as Christians, waiting is an essential element of the faith. We await the coming of Christ in glory at the end of the age. As we here in the Embolism at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “…as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
There is a great difference between waiting with great irritation and waiting in joyful hope. Often times there are many things in the background that we are unaware of that the need to happen before the good stuff can happen. For example, I’m told that the cone of certain pine trees will lay dormant for decades and will not germinate until a wildfire burns the husk and activates the seed. It may be urban (or more precisely “arborial”) myth, but the point is well taken.
In the same way, I have found that so much of prayer is simply waiting on God. And I have learned that if I am willing to wait long enough, insight always comes…always.
Finally, it is important to remember that God has three way of answering prayers: a) “Yes.” b) Not Yet”, and c) “I have something better in mind for you.”
Today
I will talk about – Wealth, Poverty the
Middle Class and the Kingdom of God
Jesus
spoke in parables for a reason
They can be interpreted on many levels
Literally – real weath and real poverty
Spiritually – rich in faith, poor in
spirit
Analogically – rich man as the pharisees,
Lazarus as the people of Israel
Today I will be looking at the parable in
the literal sense.
Also, when someone remains unnamed in a
parable, the listener is invited to see themselves in that role.
From our earlier meditations, we know
that wealth in and of itself is neither sinful, nor virtuous,
Poverty in an of itself is neither sinful
nor virtuous
Being
somewhere in the middle class is neither sinful nor virtuous
Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of King
Wenceslaus, who ruled an empire,
on Friday we will celebrate the feast of
St. Francis
who renounced all wealth and lived and died in abject poverty.
Both and many like them are celebrated as
great saints.
So, what’s key?
If wealth or poverty is neither virtuous
nor sinful, what was the Rich Man’s sin?
Was it that he did not feed Lazarus with the scraps from this table? Not really.
Was it that he did not bath his wounds so that he might be healed? No so much…
No, the Rich Man’s sin was that he did
not even SEE Lazarus. He was blind to the reality of another man who was right
on his doorstep. He had the means, but he did not have the vision.
Wealth, in and of itself is neither virtuous
nor sinful, but wealth at the service of the gospel can make all the difference!
By the same token, poverty in and of itself is neither sinful nor virtuous, but
poverty lived in service to the gospel can make all the difference.
It’s not being rich or poor or somewhere
in between that matters…It’s what you do with it. None of us is without the
means the to live the truth of the gospel, to proclaim it in lives of faithful
service of the gospel
But to do so, we see, pray, discern, and
then to act as we are able.
I’m not sure what has been going on in
this town since I left for Italy three years ago, but we have a marvelous gift
in that it is virtually impossible to drive through town without seeing the
poor.
This
believe it or not, is a marvelous gift. What do I mean?
Well, let me tell you about the first time
I ever met Mother Teresa, now know as St. Teresa Kolkata
(actually, it’s the only time I ever met
Mother Teresa)
It was while I was in the seminary in the
mid-1990’s. The seminary was having an in-house silent day of reflection on the
Compassion of Christ. There was a morning, an afternoon and an evening
conference.
At the afternoon conference, at the end
of his talk the spiritual director the house said, “Gentlemen, the dress code
for Vespers this evening is formal. We
have a very special guest coming.”
Now we had all been on enough high school
retreats by this time and so we laughed among ourselves and said, “Oh yes! Jesus is coming!”
But then he continued and said, “Mother
Teresa is in Rome. We have invited to join
us for evening prayer and she has accepted.”
Not that was something different. So we said among ourselves. “Are you going to dress up? Do you think she
is really coming?”
Well, we did and she did.
She
entered the room and we all stood up out of respect.
Then she knelt down to pray.
So we all knelt down to pray.
And
at the appropriate time during Vespers, the rector invited her to speak.
Now the first thing you noticed about Mother
Teresa was that she was only about 4 and a half feet tall. Apparently height is neither virtuous nor
sinful either.
The second thing is that she liked to
talk and there was no one in that room
who was going to try to silence her.
We were all anticipating what great
pearls of wisdom might come from the mouth of the saint.
And this is what she said to us, “My
young brothers, you who want to be priests, you must love the Lord your God
with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength…and this is how I
have done it…”
And then for the next 45 minutes she just
told us stories about things she had done and how God had opened her eyes to
see the poverty on the streets of Kolkata, and she had found her vocation in
serving Christ in the poorest of the poor. She did not do it to get
noticed. In fact in the middle of her
talk she said: “You know, I would rather bathe a leper than talk to the press.”
And as she continued, we all noticed that
there was really nothing all that extraordinary to what she was doing, nothing
any of us could not do.
No, the great wisdom of Mother Teresa is that she did very ordinary things, with an extraordinary love, and she did it without compromise.
Near the end she said to us, “People are always
saying to me, Mother Teresa, I want to come to Kolkata to help you serve the
poor. And I always say to them, ‘Don’t
come. You find the poor in your own
neighborhood and you serve Christ in them.’”
If we have eyes to see, we do not have to
look very hard to find the poor in our town.
How shall we serve Christ, by serving them?
I encourage you to read my column in the bulletin
this week. In there I note with great
interest how three private entities have pledged over $40 million over the next
five years to address the problem of homeless in Anchorage. That is quite a lot of resources. Time will
tell if it will make a difference.
But what about you? What about me? What about all of us as the parish family of
St. Patrick? What shall we do…such as we
are – wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between?
We may not all be called to extraordinary
things, (Although I am convinced some in this room are.)
But we are all called to see, to pray, to
discern, and then to act as we are able.
[The Story of the Boy and the Starfish.]
Perhaps it is something as simple as washing
feet at the Brother Francis Shelter, or to bring food for Clare House, or to
donate clothes, or to fund a worthwhile project…
No,
it’s not so much doing the extraordinary things that will get us to heaven, but
rather doing very ordinary things with an extraordinary, uncompromising love.
Deacon Mick Fornelli – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Howdy, Blogosphere! This week Deacon Mick Fornelli gave one heck of a good homily at St. Pat’s. With his permission, I share it with you now.]
There are times, I think
we all have the inability to focus
so we do things to help bring the focus back.
Channel surfing is something we probably all do.
I know I do and it drives Michelle a little crazy.
We use the TV remote control to
run through all the 6-700 various cable & Internet channels
trying to focus or commit on one .
Our life can become like that.
It’s called compartmentalization.
One channel is about family life.
Another is our job.
Another is our Church Life.
Another is our social life.
Another is our political life.
Every day maybe even every hour
we switch from one channel to another
and never connect them.
The truth is that ——- a Catholics, we are called
to focus on only one channel in our life
it’s the channel to be followers of Jesus
wherever we are and wherever we go.
Our first reading
from the Old Testament prophet Amos
gives us a snapshot
of some merchants/money changers in a synagogue service,
bored to death.
They’re waiting for the service and the sabbath
to be over so they can go back
to what they did best ——
and what they did best was cheating and shortchanging people.
This was their version of compartmentalization.
They separated their religious duties
from their business or work life
and separated both of these from their family life.
This example of the lack of living ones faith
is a constant subject of so many of Jesus’ homilies.
If we are going to be true followers of Jesus
then being a follower of Jesus should affect
how we raise our family, how we do our job,
how we vote, how we spend our leisure time.
There is no time-off from being an intentional disciple of Christ.
Unlike those merchants in the synagogue that Amos describes,
our faith should influence and impact everything we do.
In fact,
everything we do should be a way of serving the Lord.
In his Letter to Timothy in today’s second reading,
St. Paul writes that
we should pray for kings and all those in authority.
That is something we Christians should not forget.
We should hold up all our leaders in prayer,
even those for whom we did not vote
or even those we opposed.
The kings and leaders in St. Paul’s time
could be extremely brutal. Yet,
Paul says that we should still pray for them.
My friends, —— There is power in prayer.
Prayer can change the world.
Finally, we have the Gospel parable of the devious servant.
It’s unclear why
homilists find this parable so puzzling.
It’s relatively evident that
the Lord is praising the man’s ingenuity
and He says that the children of light
should be as thoughtful and resourceful
when it comes to the matter of salvation.
Jesus tells us
we need be just as clever
in planning for a secure future for ourselves,
and it’s not just for the few years we spend on-earth that
we have to provide ———— but more importantly
also for our time in eternity.
Our life in this world is temporary.
Eternity is forever.
So —— do we apply the same ingenuity
the same thought and planning
to our own spiritual life as we do to other areas of our life?
Many people put more effort
into taking care of their body
than they do in caring for their soul.
Some people who don’t think twice
about spending hour after hour at a gym to stay in shape
have difficulty spending an hour in church
or even 10 minutes a day in prayer.
Many people spend more time studying the stock market
and taking care of their portfolios
than they do deepening their faith.
Many people put much more thought and effort
into buying a car or the newest computer or the latest iPhone
then they do in seeking the will of the Lord in their life.
Many people spend more time
in planning their career here on earth
than their future in eternity.
I believe, the point of this parable is straightforward.
The manager used his position
and even the fact of his termination
to take care of his future.
Do we use events in our life
— both positive and negative —
that happen to us as a way of coming closer to the Lord?
My friends, what we do with our wealth,
our time; and our resources
says a great deal about our priorities,
and the seriousness of our fidelity to Christ.
Stop channel surfing!
The stock markets goes up and down.
Wealth can be taken away by a medical crisis.
Popularity comes and goes like the seasons.
Careers come to an end and the company continues without us.
The high fashion of one decade
is the joke of the next.
Neighborhoods change
and old landmarks are replaced.
Our bodies weaken and our appearance changes.
But our soul,
unlike every other investment we make,
lasts forever
and it’s our ticket to eternity.
The call of this parable is to
take as much care of the spiritual side of our life
as we do for the material side.
The call of this parable tells us to
avoid compartmentalization, to avoid channel surfing
by letting our commitment to our faith
and our love of Jesus Christ
shape everything we do.
Quite simply —- It calls us to focus on
and show the same ingenuity,
planning and effort in our spiritual life
as we do in our material life.
My brothers and sisters,
have absolutely no doubt
the best decision we will ever make
is the investment in and the care
we take of our immortal soul.
