Homily for the week of June 27, 2010

HOMILY, 13TH SUNDAY, YEAR C, 2010

As an old man walked the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Finally catching up with with the young man, he asked him why he was doing this. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," said the old man. "How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said.

Our three readings today tells us that followers or disciples of God and Jesus must make a difference. Followers of Jesus are like volunteers.

We are given a check list and examples of what Jesus expects from those who volunteer for him. The first condition is to be homeless. That does not mean a person who travels the streets, but a person always willing to keep on doing more. Such an attitude changes the way we see things, and we do things. It is best expressed in the words of Peter: I WILL BE YOUR FOLLOWER WHEREVER YOU GO.

The next condition is that our religion must be practical. Religion must link our faith and our life. So often there is a split between the faith we profess in church and the way we conduct our daily lives. It must also be based on our commitments in life. Single persons, married persons, and priests are all challenged to be spiritual, but we come to that spirituality in different ways. For instance, when a man and woman decide to marry each other, they must say goodbye to their past understanding of themselves as single persons. Their married life together will no longer mean I, but We -- no longer Me but Us. Too often couples get married thinking that the 50/50 approach to living together will keep them together. But, they soon discover that this approach will soon lead them to devour one another as St. Paul mentions. Marriage means that both husband and wife give 100% to each other all the time. It is a vocation which requires total dedication. And this is only possible with unselfish love.

The next condition is that Jesus must be number 1. Many of those whom Jesus invited to be his volunteers had excuses, none of which were bad in themselves, but they showed a lack of priority. Some excuses were:

We must bury the dead person,

I'm not ready to turn everything over to the Lord yet.

I'll be with you some day, but give me a little more time.

Those who follow Jesus will be known by whether or not they leave all things behind, and do this immediately. It does not mean neglecting responsibilities of family, jobs, and other persons. But it implies a detachment from all that would prevent us from being willing to follow. We must be a person like Elijah who felt called and responded, ready to enter into the mystery of those who travel without knowing the destination.

Paul scolded the Galatians because they were wavering in their faith. We are called to live lives of integrity and freedom. But freedom isn't free, as the soldiers who fought our war of independence discovered. It can only be found in obedience to Jesus. It is the freedom to serve others. To some, such a "law" will be nothing but a restriction, a straitjacket to personal freedom. Before Jesus came laws did not make us free. They were restrictive. They were telling us don't do this or don't do that. With Jesus we don't only avoid bad things, but we are asked to do good things. Before Jesus laws were more concerned about how a bridge was built; but with Jesus, the quality of our faith is where does the bridge get us.

The lessons of today is that God's call must be answered without reservation or questioning. Today, right now Jesus is asking us to answer the invitation he issued years ago. He wants our wholehearted, joyful response.

For Jesus, freedom is not doing what we want when we want it and how we want it.

We are not offered a freedom from something.

We are offered a freedom for something.

Our freedom is a choice we make: do I want to live my life for myself, or do I want to live my life for God? In the end that is the only free choice that matters. That is also the choice that my conscience or your conscience makes for us when we have to choose between good or bad. We are free to choose. Let us choose Jesus who will set us free.

We honor this weekend young women and men who are taking a new turn in the road of their life as they graduate from the various high schools represented by our parish. They have had the opportunity to not only know about the world but perhaps, more importantly, to know about themselves. While we honor them, we also honor those many persons who helped to transform them from young boys and girls into young adults. These include their parents, their teachers and their role models and their religion. All of these have given them love.

Like the starfish, it is only in this way that we will be brought back to the water that gives us life.

Homily for the week of June 20, 2010

TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, YEAR C 2010

Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1

Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

Galatians 3:26-29

Luke 9:18-24

Charles Schultz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip was with a few friends and asked them these questions:

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.

3. Name the World Series winners of the last ten years.

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

But here is another quiz.

1. List a few teachers who helped you get through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

This is easier because the people who make a difference in our life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

Charles Schultz’s beautiful insights eloquently underscore the Gospel message: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal.” On this Father's weekend we might try reclaiming a treasure we have been neglecting. There is no shortage of evidence that our society has been experiencing a crisis in fatherhood. Tragically, more than one-third of children in United States do not live with their fathers, and this number is growing.

On this Father's Day Weekend what if a father should ask his children: “Who do you say that I am?” How well do we know our fathers? One man speaking of his father’s death said that he learned more about his father in the days surrounding his father’s funeral than he had learned in a lifetime. The son knew his father only from his own experience. What he could not know or appreciate is who his father was in the eyes of other family members and his many friends. Our society desperately needs faithful fatherly witnesses.

In a recent conversation a man talked about his father. He knew that his father had studied to be a musician but became a builder because there was no money in music to raise a family. He did not know that his father had occasionally directed the city’s symphony. He did not know that his father had wanted to go to the seminary to become a priest, but his father would not let him. The man had always been jealous of his father’s independent spirit and his successes in business. What he did not know was that his father was jealous of him and his son's own success.

He recalled his father as being very caring. He did not know that his father had insisted that the children be fed and in bed before he got home from work. The father had certainly changed, but the man had no perspective to see it. The man was upset that there were so many things he had never known about his father. There were so many things he had never asked his father or even thought to ask.

Regrets such as these should be remembered so that we can prepare ourselves to answer if Jesus should ask us, “Who do you say that I am?” There is so much to be learned, so much to be experienced. We assume a great deal, but rarely do we test our assumptions or let them drop away so that some new understanding might shed more light on who Jesus is.

Some in the crowd might say that the real Jesus is really Elijah. and again the crowd hits on a good answer. Elijah represented one of the great prophets. A prophet was a person who was considered an inspired teacher. The way that Jesus talked and taught made him a good candidate to be Elijah. And then others in the crowd thought that Jesus might be one of the prophets of old come back. That sounds good because these prophets talked about sin and forgiveness and conversion and the Jews had been shaken up by them.

But when asked of the crowd for their opinions, then let's turn to the disciples, those who claimed to be followers of Jesus. WHO DO YOU SAY THAT JESUS IS, we ask them.

So Peter answers first. And Peter answers: You are the Son of God. Peter got it right. And after Jesus was known to be the real Jesus, then he could be treated differently, like the real crystal glass, and those who claimed they believed in him would have to act accordingly.

Our own mission depends on how we answer Christ's question. Who do we say is? Put another way, what is our image of Christ? What is our image of God? My image of God can be of a distant, punishing God who is always waiting to find out my faults and condemn me. Or God can be an abstract concept with no relationship with real people. God can also be a close friend, loving and uplifting, particularly when I need someone to care. But does my God challenge me, asking me to live out the same pattern that we see in Jesus? And when God makes this challenge does God leave me on my own, or is God my companion on the journey, not asking me to do anything except what God has already undertaken?

Jesus is our model for everything. There is only one Jesus. He showed us not only that he is came do show us all: happiness, care, answer to our problems, salvation, future home, but also that that he wants to be with us inspite of all. Today and always we invites us to a change of heart. Where in your life do people most need to know Christ? How are you showing him to them? Thank Christ for being with you and loving others through you.

Homily for the week of June 13, 2010

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2010

2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13

Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11

Galatians 2:16, 19-21

Luke 7:36—8:3 or 7:36-50

What do you do when you know you have hurt someone deeply or when you become aware that your patterns of life choices cause great harm to others? Sometimes you can kiss and make up with the hurt person. But at other times it is not possible to repair the damage to the ones directly affected. Even when the person you hurt forgives you, you still search for how to express the love and joy that come from being freed from guilt. Each day the newspapers tells us the story of someone who smashed a window, dropped a baby, took a gun, or broke someone's neck because they were angry at someone. Forgiveness seems so uncommon. But it always was. Today’s Gospel captures a scene in which a woman who was known as a sinner, and who had experienced forgiveness, pours out her joy and gratitude toward Jesus in a elaborate demonstrations of love.

We do not know her name or where she came from or any other details of her life. We do not know what kinds of sins she had committed, nor how she met Jesus. We do not know when or where it was that Jesus had forgiven her sins. St. Luke presents just enough information to allow us to hang ourselves with our tendency to assume and to judge. She was unescorted. She had let her hair down in public. Because no “proper” woman of Jesus’ day did these things, they suggest sinfulness in the area of sexuality. But we must remember that we don’t know the sin.

We have only one small slice of her life, a moment in which she takes advantage of the open door, and she enters the home of Simon to find the one whose kindness and love had set her free. Jesus and his friends had been invited to Simon’s house for dinner. As was the custom for dinner she finds the guests reclining on cushions, reaching into the center to partake of the food. She spots Jesus, and in an extravagant gesture of love, she mingles her tears of joy with precious perfume and anoints his feet.

This act is open to misinterpretation. Simon, the host, immediately harbors judgmental thoughts. He is certain in his knowledge that the woman is a sinner, and he is unaware of the forgiveness she has experienced. He is just as certain in his judgement of Jesus. Jesus cannot be a who he says he is. Jesus tells Simon a parable aimed at getting him to repent of his false judgement and to open himself to the forgiveness Jesus offers.

Jesus offers Simon a little story about two persons who owe money to demonstrate what exactly is going on here. Jesus forgives her and sends her away to her dignity by being forgiven for who ever she had been in the past. He sends her back to living without regret or shame. Of course the others at the table want to shout out about “justice!” The point of the parable is easy to grasp: great love flows from having been forgiven much.

Jesus offered forgiveness without even being asked for it! How are we to deal with this kind forgiveness? Something stirred this woman to seek out Jesus. In doing only this she came to experience a sense of forgiveness. When she found Jesus, she didn’t have to ask for forgiveness. She already had gratitude to express, something entirely different from having to beg for forgiveness. Simon and his friends were not pleased. They would have rather like to see the woman on hr knees begging for forgiveness. They just did not understand the true feeling of forgiveness. Instead, they got a lesson in how to love and how to show respect for human dignity.

We so often misunderstand God’s desire to forgive that we even think we hear the misunderstanding at Mass. At the beginning of Mass we hear and say, “Lord, have mercy!” Sometimes we hear it differently. We will hear instead, “Lord, we are sinners in need of your forgiveness. Lord, have mercy.” The two are very different and reveal our difficulty in understanding and responding to God’s forgiveness. The “Lord, have mercy” is an act of praise, and it is about God. We are to give praise and show gratitude for God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Almost everything around us challenges our notions of God’s mercy. We set up standards for others that are designed to make them failures. We destroy our heroes. We prefer to condemn them for their sins rather than admire their achievements. We won’t give others new chances in life. We judge and either don’t give others a chance to change or don’t allow ourselves to see that we were wrong. Yet, God forgives before we ask — and even when we don’t ask. In our first Bible reading we are told of how Nathan ask God to forgave an adulterous and murderous king David. This is the same David that gave us the 150 Psalms we use at every Mass.

This week ask Jesus to stop judging, and to expand your capacity to forgive.

Homily for the week of June 6, 2010

Feast of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, 2010

Genesis 14:18-20

Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Luke 9:11b-17

Five weeks ago 11 girls and boys were spiritually hungry. They sat in these front pews and made their First Communion. For many of us First Communion is the first time we join the older people in doing something they do. The photos, prayer books, holy cards and gifts we receive become part of our religion. Each one of you could tell a story of your First Holy Communion. Today is the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In Latin it is Corpus Christi. When we receive Jesus we call it Holy Communion. The prayer that you and I participate in is called the Eucharistic Prayer. But I wonder how many of you see Holy Communion as satisfying your spiritual hunger. Nothing else! No one else! God alone can satisfy it.

Last week we thought about the mystery of the Blessed Trinity that in God there are three persons. This weekend we have another mystery called the Blessed Sacrament. We believe that Jesus is present in the Holy Communion that we receive. It is not just bread but it is Jesus himself. Jesus told us one day: This is My Body given for you. this cup is the new covenant in My Blood poured out for you. If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you have no life in you.

From the time we enter the Church for Mass we invited to reaalize that God along sustains us. Throughout the rest of the week we are seduced by millions of messages that try to tell us that something else sustains us. Little by little we can give in to those who tell us that we will find happiness if we buy certain cloths, drive certain car,maintain a certain weight, have a certain body shape, live in a certain home, have a certain kind of job, make a certain salary, have a certain amount of sex, have a certain level of popularity. But holy communion or Eucharist reminds us that we can't sustain ourselves. Though there is nothing wrong in the things I mentioned, each time we are at Church for Mass we come to realize that only God alone sustains us.

During part of the Church’s history, there was such a devotion to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist that believers would hurry from one church to another just to catch a glimpse of the consecrated bread as the priest held it high during the “Elevation”. There was a sense of their being blest just by seeing. And if you could not be there the church bells would ring so that neigbors would join in prayer with those at Mass. That is why today the altar server rings the bell when I raise the host and chalice.

In the world of Jesus, the expression “body and blood” was a way of speaking of the whole person. In the ancient formula handed on to Paul and then to us, which we repeat at Eucharist, we are invited not only to receive the body and blood of Christ that is for us but also to “do this in remembrance” of him. “Do this” means not only to recall his words and actions at Eucharist but to imitate his whole manner of life. Moreover, “remembrance” is not simply to call to mind but to make present again Christ’s entrusting of himself to us in love.

In the Gospel, we see how easy it is to miss the moment when Jesus can feed us. The Twelve Apostles and the crowd have been with Jesus all day as he was teaching them about God and has restored the bodies of those who needed healing. With the day drawing to a close, the peoples’ physical needs now come to the fore. The Twelve Apostles suggest to Jesus that he send the crowd into the surrounding villages and farms to find lodging and food.

Instead, Jesus directs the Apostles to their own resources All they have is five loaves of bread and two fish. They are sure there is not enough, and they quickly jump to the option of going out and buying provisions. Jesus, however, takes the five loaves and two fish, looks up to heaven, blesses, breaks and gives them to the disciples to set before the crowd. There is plenty for all and then some. How did it happen? Did Jesus actually multiply the loaves and fish, or was it a miracle in which everyone was prompted to share with others what they had brought? A better question is: How do we reproduce the giving of our whole selves, body, mind and spirit, to the one who is the source of all nourishment so that we may be broken open in love for the life of the world?

Over the last 20 or 30 years, many Catholics have sadly moved away from the practice of their religion. Recently I met several people who introduced themselves as “reverts.” Raised as Catholics, they each spent years away from the Church, often looking for spiritual nourishment in various other religions. Each indicated that the key factor in returning to Catholicism was the Eucharist. “I missed the Eucharist,” one woman told me. “I hungered for it.”

Many ask themselves the question: Why go to Mass? Why bother going to Mass when we can worship God anywhere? The simplest of answer is because it is only at Mass that we can receive Holy Communion. From the earliest days of Christianity, men and women and children have brought their deepest needs to the Altar table of the Lord. This is why we pray for the those who have died at Mass, and we pray for ourselves. It is at Mass that we can receive forgiveness for our sins, we can hear the word of the Lord, and we can pray with and for one another. Each of us are here today because our personal belief in Jesus, in his word and in his communion. But there are many who have made their first communion and for one reason or another have felt no need for a second or third or more communions. Could it be that Jesus is asking you to invite them back?