Homily for the Week of August 30, 2009

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY, 2009

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5

Second Reading: James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Many great things have been done in the name of religion, but also many bad things have also been done in the name of religion. All religions can be guilty of encouraging their followers of causing great harm to others. For example, over 1000 years ago the Catholic church organized Crusades to go to Palestine and get back that country that had become Muslim. Many were killed in the name of religion. In more recent times some Muslims organized under Al Quaeda or Hassbellah, or countries like Iran and Syria use air planes and bombs to attack the infidels living in places like the United States or Lebanon. All of these will quote the Koran as authority for their actions. We also have many Catholic cults who teach what they call the truth about Our Blessed Mother or some saint.

The Gospel I just read finds Jesus having the same problem with a group of religious fanatics called Pharisees. The Pharisees were more concerned about what the laws were, rather than why the laws are followed. The Pharisees were actually good people and probably very holy. Getting everything just right was very important to them. But they were more concerned about the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

The Pharisees have been noticing that Jesus and his disciples do not keep the Jewish traditions. These “traditions” were added practices. They were not the laws. There were all kinds of traditions affecting every aspect of their lives. Many of them had to do with how and when to wash your hands and cups and saucers. These were purity laws that were to be used in the temple. The washing of hands was not done for hygienic purposes. They didn't even know about germs and bacteria. Washing the hands was a religious ritual meant to prepare the priest for offering sacrifice. Priests today wash their hands in a ritual way as part of the Preparation of the Gifts. The Pharisees insisted that this ritual be done in the homes as well as in the temple. Jesus was not doing away with the teachings of his Jewish religion. He was doing away with certain customs or rituals which had been started by certain persons in the name of religion.

Catholics believe that our faith or our religion is based on the words of the Bible and Sacred Tradition. However, many ceremonies or rituals were added to our worship over the past 2000 years. For instance, those of us who started to learn our religion before 1965 remember the many changes in our Mass. We had altar rails. The altars and the priest faced the back wall. There were side altars. Most people came to communion twice a year: at Easter and at Christmas. The anointing of the sick was called THE LAST RITES. When a priest came, then it was sure the person was dying. These changes had nothing to do with why we go to Mass. They were about what the priest and people do and don't do at Mass.

To understand Jesus better, imagine Jesus having very dirty hands from having been working in his garden. His disciples are seated at the side of the garden at a picnic table. They too have been helping Jesus pull weeds. They had also pulled and plucked their noon meal, peeled the onions, washed some beans and were enjoying themselves while listening to Jesus discussing thoughts with the scribes and Pharisees. At the same time these persons were complaining that Jesus was too liberal. But their religion consisted of lots of rituals. They believed they would go to heaven if they followed all these rituals. They made the rituals equal to the law. By so doing they were neglecting justice and charity.

Following Jesus does not no mean acting religious, but rather it involves being like Jesus. All the religious behavior in the world cannot cover up a mean and unloving heart. I think we all know religious people who are really very nasty inside and we all know unreligious people who would give us the shirt off their back if we needed it. Which of these is truly religious? Jesus calls us to a happy medium where both our behavior and our heart are centered on him.

Using the law as a straightjacket to condemn others or reducing the law to mere external observance is not what Jesus asks of us. Jesus came to move our hearts to love. When we love, we go beyond the law and live in union with Jesus. Like him we live a life of service to God and others. Being truly religious means we serve others with a joyful heart.

As Americans, we have a love/hate relationship with law. We want the law to be enforced on others, but we want laxity for ourselves. If someone is speeding and cuts us off, we want to know where the police officer is who will ticket that person, but if we do the same thing we will have a dozen excuses for the police officer not to write us a ticket. We also want the law to be specific, and at the same time we don't. We want a clear speed limit so we will know how fast we can go. Once the limit is posted, however, we then want to know how far over the limit we can go before we risk getting a ticket. We often do the very same thing with the moral law. We might condemn another while forgiving ourselves for doing nearly the same thing. There is a saying that goes: "If you can't take it, don't dish it out." Whatever you do to someone else, you should be willing to have it happen to you.

Yet, if properly written and enforced, law is instructive, and not burdensome. The Law can gave us an identity, a sense of purpose, and a sense of meaning. It was clear that when we strayed from the Law we lose our sense of purpose and our identity. We have seen this happen in our economic crisis. As soon as financial institutions strayed from their rules, purpose and integrity, our economy tanked.

Each of us must find our ways to respond more generously o our life situation. It could mean overcoming a selfish relationship; or works towards protecting the rights of all persons, especially laborers whom we will honor next weekend; or being better prepared and having more enthusiasm for the coming to church or for our religious faith. We are called today, not so much to know the laws, but to live our Catholic way of life, especially, as we have come here to Mass. Let this time in church today be a time of prayer, and a time to unite ourselves with God.

Homily for the Week of August 16, 2009

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2009

Prv 9:1-6 · Eph 5:15-20 · Jn 6:51-58

There is a an old saying that proclaims: There's no such thing a a free lunch. Today free lunch refers more than a meal and food. It can be applied to work, to school, to doing our very best. The notion of a free lunch began about 100 years ago when saloons in the United States advertised a Free Lunch wen a person bought just one drink. It was quite a deal. If you spent 15 cents on a drink, you'd get a free meal valued at a dollar. Calculating for inflation, if restaurants today would make a similar offer, we would spend about three bucks on a drink and get a meal valued at $20. Of course, if we decide to have an additional drink, or decide we like the food so much that we want to to come back for supper, our wallets would remind us that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

A free meal is a pretty enticing offer, and it is bound to draw lots of interest. Such is the case with Jesus in St. John's Gospel that we heard today and have been hearing in the past few weeks. Let me briefly give you a summary of these weeks. Working with only five barley loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus feeds the very hungry crowd of five thousand. Having been given that free lunch, the crowd comes back for more, at which time Jesus reminds them and and reminds us that he is the source of lasting nourishment and that he isthe true bread from heaven that gives life to us and to the world. The people then began to complain and murmur. The offer of such a free meal is too good to be true. How can this man gives us food that will make us enjoy life after death, they asked?

They were doubting what Jesus said -- maybe like much of us can doubt what he is saying. So today in our Gospel Jesus says it again: I am the living bread that came down from heaven: whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. Think of how this might have sounded. Jesus had not yet suffered his passion and death. He had not risen from the dead. No wonder that people quarrelled and asked, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

Our Catholic faith gives us the answer to that question. Jesus gives us his flesh to eat in the Eucharist and Holy Communion. Because Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven, because he suffered, died, was buried and rose from the dead, we now are offered the abundance of life in the free meal of Holy Communion. But is there some fine print, some strings attached to our receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus? Maybe it is really true that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Without question, the gift of Jesus in Holy Communion is completely free. But what Jesus wants us to understand in His bread of life speech is that to receive Holy Communion is to receive his very life. Jesus repeats this theme today by saying: I am the living bread...whoever eats this bread will live forever...my flesh is for the life of the world...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you do not have life within you...whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life..just at the living Father sent me and I have lifebecause of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me..whoever eats this bread will live forever. There is a lot of repetition to help us understand and believe something very basic. When we participate in this Mass and in Holy Communion we share in the life of Jesus. The very first Christians found their unity in the breaking of the bread.

But there something more to this life. Jesus is trying to convince us that to share in the life of Jesus, we must share his life with others. We can't do it alone. Maybe that is the fine print of today's Gospel. The free meal we receive is meant to be shared. If Jesus has life because of God the Father, and we have life because of Jesus, that life which is our free meal must be given to others through us. Jesus cannot give his life to the world today and tomorrow if we who partake of that life are unwilling to share it with others. TheIntercessory Prayers that we will pray in a few minutes remind us of those with whom we are to share our life such as world leaders, the expectant mothers and fathers, the elderly, those who lead us in singing, young persons preparing to begin or go back to college, those persons who are stressed, those who are sick and dying, and those who have died. The last prayer that I will offer before I bless you at the end of the Mass also expresses this: By becoming more like Jesus on earth, may we come to share in his glory in heaven.

By becoming more Jesus this week -- by offering forgiveness or extending a helping hand, by a simple smile or a gift of our time are ways in which others will have a better life through us. Our lives lived in love and service here on earth will lead us together to the eternal banquet of heaven - a free meal beyond anything we can imagine.

Homily for the week of August 9, 2009

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, B 2009

First Reading: Proverbs 9:1–6

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15–20

Gospel: John 6: 51–58

Most of you have not seen a broom tree. And if you saw one I doubt if you would plant in your front yard. Yet if you were living with Elijah and Jesus in Palestine you would find many broom trees. The Broom Tree is more a desert shrub than a tree. It has long flexible branches, yellow flowers and forms a bush reaching heights of up to 12 feet. Broom bushes thrive best in poor growing areas and conditions and need little care. People travelling in the desert would set up their tents at night near bloom trees so as to be sheltered from the wind and protection from the scorching sun during the day. This is what Elijah did in our first reading when he was having a bad day and would rather be dead than alive.

Our Bible readings today as they have been for the past two Sundays are about food that keeps us alive. Christ came to offer us a chance to nourish ourselves in a way that will bring satisfaction to our lives. He was talking about spiritual food; the people who listened to him were thinking about physical food. Too many of those with Jesus were simply looking for some nourishment to keep them from being physically hungry.

The Gospel message is too often weakened by trying to make it fit and support our own way of looking at the world. Too seldom do we change our way of thinking and our way of acting to fit the Gospel. This is precisely what we witness in the beginning of our Gospel passage today as those listening to Jesus are being challenged to a new way of life. They were being encouraged to have faith in Jesus. Following Jesus requires not only information but transformation. We need to know certain things about our religion, but we also need to dospecific things to live as a religious person. Today I challenge you to look at your personal religious faith.

Those of you who are builders cannot build unless you have end result in mind. When it comes to forming our Catholic faith, we, too, should begin with the end in mind. So, just what does an adult Catholic supposed to look like? The answer is very simple: we are all to become saints. That means we are invited to be followers of Jesus

Very often I hear Catholics say: "I was raised a Catholic"; or, "I used to be a Catholic"; or, "I come from a Catholic family, and my mom is still a good one." Sometimes they are really saying, "Being a Catholic was a big part of my early years, and I'm glad it was. I thank God that I have a grounding in the Catholic faith, and that it's in my family genes. Unfortunately, I've drifted some, and I don't take it with the seriousness it deserves. Maybe I'll get back..."

And with a smile I will tell them: "Come on back." "We miss you, we need you. The Church is your family, and that means we'll always open up when you come a-knocking." However, realism forces me to admit that, most of the time, those who make such familiar remarks usually do not intend to come back. There are a lot of them these days. Recent studies show that one of the largest groups in American society today identifies itself as "ex-Catholics."

Our faith in Jesus Christ is part of our very birthright, our identity, our spiritual DNA. It's not some childish baggage that is discarded when we become "mature," or "grown-up." There's nothing more "adult," "enlightened" or "freeing" than our Catholic faith.

Ultimately, faith is a gift. This gift is offered to everyone, but too many of us do not cooperate with it. Jesus speaks of the Eucharist as the Bread of Life. We are told that unless we eat it we will not have eternal life. But those are just nice words unless we believe them.

Believing is something we do, not only we our heads, but also with our hearts. To believe is to place our trust in another. Until this happens what we have is not faith, but an idea. An idea becomes faith when it makes the leap from the head to the heart. But faith is not blind. It has to be reasonable. Our Catholic faith is based on the fact that God and Jesus can be trusted. When you receive Holy Communion and I say THE BODY OF CHRIST, and you answerAMEN, that means that you do believe that this host is not just a little baked wheat flour and water, but it is God. That is exactly what Jesus was trying to tell the people today. Living in a consumer society where minute after minute we are told that this particular product will satisfy us, we can be tempted to treat Holy Communion as if it were a product. We expect immediate satisfaction.

But it is more like Jesus embracing us, not only once but for a lifetime and for life after death. And though we sit in different pews our food comes from the same table, and in Holy Communion we are embraced by everyone. Receiving Holy Communion is not a ME AND GODexperience.

Elijah thought that he had made no difference despite all he had done. He did not want to commit suicide, so he prayed that God would let him die. God did not. God feed him under the broom bush.

So it is with each of us. At the very moment we are tempted to throw up our hands in disgust or sulk under our broom tree in self-pity, Jesus comes to us and says, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” When things go well, or when things don't go too well during the days of this week remind yourself that you are never alone.

Homily for the week of August 2, 2009

HOMILY: 18th Sunday 2009

First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Gospel: John 6:24-35

This week I read about Gloria, a young girl from Seattle. Gloria was born in 1996 and was like any other seven-year old. She enjoyed playing with her friends, dressing up, and watching “American Idol.” She and her family were practicing Catholics. Soon after making her First Communion Gloria was diagnosed with a cancer found only in young children known as neuroblastoma. Gloria immediately began chemotherapy treatments. Her father who was a high school basketball coach knew a reporter from a Seattle newspaper who printed some articles about her and her faith and trust in God. Why people asked what they could do for her, he would invite them to the house to pray with her. Very many did, and one day Gloria mentioned to her father that so many people started praying because of her illness. Persons of all religions would come to pray with her. This young girl brought people to God through her cancer. Gloria died on September 21, 2007 at the age of 11. Thousands showed up for her funeral.

In the Bible today someone asks Jesus: What can we do to accomplish the works of God? Gloria was given cancer and 13 years to answer this question. She and her family's faith brought them to see sickness as a means of completing the works of God. But each one of us must answer that question personally. What can I do to accomplish the words of God?

Beginning last week we are reading from the section of John's Gospel most often called the ''Bread of Life'' section. In it Jesus challenges us to ask ourselves what really satisfies us. He tries to offer us the bread that satisfies, ''the food that endures for eternal life.'' What John makes clear is that so many people, those who walked with Jesus and those who have followed since, continually misunderstand what it is Jesus offers.

The reading from the book of Exodus which we just heard shows us ourselves as we often are -- never satisfied. The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for some 300 years. They had prayed for deliverance, and God had delivered them. Now they find themselves in the desert. Water and food were scarce. They were thirsty and hungry. It was bad enough that they began to wonder whether leaving Egypt had been such a good idea. They were willing to go back into slavery just so they could have full bellies! There was no sense of patience for what was to come, no sense that despite the great miracles God had worked to gain their freedom that God would still take care of them.

The Psalm response suggests a question: Do we live on what God gives us or on what we try to get by ourselves? Are we satisfied with what God offers, or would we like to turn back to some period of our lives when we thought our bellies were full? Like a child who wants a cookie now, are we willing to settle for second best in order to get something now? Or, are we willing to trust God that if we take a little time we will end up with something far better?

Last Sunday we read how Jesus had fed 5000 persons with just a few loaves of barley bread. After the event, Jesus had to withdraw from the crowd because they wanted to make Him into something He was not. They wanted to make Him king because in a land that suffered constant hunger He had managed to feed them.

Again today we are told that this same crowd searched for Jesus, and found Him. They did not go in search of Him for what He really had to offer, they went to find Him to get another meal. Jesus desperately tried to tell them He had something much more satisfying to offer, but they never managed to hear Him. After all that He had done, they still asked for another sign for proof that He had more to offer than food.

And finally, what is our reaction to the gift of bread which Jesus offers us at every Mass? Does the plainness of a small wheat host prevent us from getting the real meaning of the gift? Does the fact that this communion is so easily available make it any less meaningful? Has it become a habit with me? Jesus reminds us that there is more to life than getting our stomachs filled. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD are words we pray very often.

God's goodness and abundance are all around us. Why don't we see it? Because we may be too concerned about what is next: the next meal, the next job; the next game; the next friendship. In this parish we can be thankful for the many joyful and kind families we have; for those who gives hours of their time to help; for those who come to help those in need. There is no room for jealously or competition among such a thankful community. Abundance, hospitality and gratitude are the qualities a Eucharist family.

John's Gospel is speaking of the Eucharist and faith in it -- meaning connecting ourselves to Jesus Christ, the real source of satisfaction. Satisfaction will never come unless we make God the source of it.