Homily for the week of August 29, 2010

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010

Si 3:17, 20, 28-29

Heb 12:18-19

Lk 14:7-14

There is a saying that Pride is the cause of all evil. Pride is having an improper appreciation of or our own worth. It is believing that we are better than others, and always wanting to be noticed. It is one of the 7 capital sins. Although it is good to take pride in ones work or accomplishments. Our Bible readings today are about humility or being humble, which is the opposite of the sin of pride. Humility is one of the most difficult of virtues both to attain and to ascertain. With the Bible readings I want to reflect with you today how we can be more humble persons. Our first reading from the book of Sirach is very short but very direct. It tells us if we conduct our affairs with humility God will will find favor with God.

The word humility comes from the Latin word humilis, which means literally “on the ground,” or earth. So when we are advised to “humble yourself,” this is an invitation to be “grounded,” to be attentive to our connectedness with Earth. This involves as well our consciousness to be connected with all persons and all Earth’s creatures and with God. Sirach says that in humbling oneself one finds favor with God. In other words, through humility we gain proper consciousness of our place in relation to God.

But that was not the case with meals in the world of Jesus. They were surrounded and imbedded with many strict conventions. Many things were revealed by meals and the list of those invited.

Normally you would invite only people of equal social rank to come to your home for a meal. You could invite someone of a slightly higher social rank into your home, and if that person accepted, everyone would think that you had taken a ''step up'' in social rank. If you accepted a person's invitation, you were expected to return the invitation. To not return the invitation was a terrible rejection, but if your important guest did reciprocate, you ''had arrived.''

Where people sat at a meal was also an important decision. How closely a person was seated near the host revealed how the host perceived you. To be invited was already an honor, but once you arrived, where you were seated established yet another social rank. Even today we often do something similar especially at important meals such as for a wedding reception, or political banquet. We will seat certain people at the ''head table'' or seat a person ''with the family.'' With instant TV news reporting today every day we see examples of this seating at White House dinners.

This ranking system at meals is important for us to know about because Jesus' observations in the Gospel passage today make sense only in this context. Jesus noticed that some people were finding for themselves the best places at the table. He tells them that is not a good idea. It is better to be honored by being invited to the best place rather than simply taking the best place. But more importantly Jesus also says that when you hold a lunch or dinner, do not invite your friends or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, rather invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. . . . None of these would have been invited into homes to eat because the Pharisees at the time of Jesus believed that all these persons were not equal to them. T

But Jesus’ focus was not, in the end, on seating arrangements at dinner, His primary concern was not social etiquette, but humility in the face of divine judgement and the Last Day. He was really referring to heaven where all of us will be seated together. The clear implication is that the if we want to get to heaven we must not be self-seeking and prideful.

True humility comes from recognizing who we are in relation to God. Humility includes realizing the fragile and temporal nature of our lives here and now. It means recognizing the limits of our abilities and knowledge. The dominant secular culture says otherwise; it seeks in countless ways to push beyond the boundaries of morality, natural law and divine revelation — as if such madness will lead to anything but disaster and spiritual destitution.

It is easy to fall prey to false humility, pretending to take a lowly place in the hopes of receiving adulation and an invitation to come up higher. Or false humility can be manifest in persons whose self-esteem has never developed properly. True humility is grounded in earthy wisdom, a knowledge that all persons, no matter their circumstances, and all the created world share in an unbreakable interconnection of life given by God. We are equally loved and esteemed by the Holy One who desires the flourishing of all.

True humility is being able to accept our limits, to have a true sense of ourselves, of what our place is in society. Being humble does not mean putting yourself down, or deliberately thinking that you are the worst of all persons. Our Catholic religion says we are all made in God's image. True humility allows us to take honors, to receive awards and trophies as outstanding athlete or student or citizen, all of which are ways that God has allowed us to help someone else.

Each week you and I are invited to this table on which is placed the spiritual food of Jesus. We come here today with all of our differences: all ages, all ways of life, different levels of faith and spirituality; in physical strength and health. In fact we are each different from one another in very many different ways. But we are the same in one important way: we are all the same believing that this is Jesus and we are welcomed to this table. We are here in this place right now, because God has invited us to be close to him. Before you leave the church today say to yourself a short thank you prayer to God for his invitation.

Homily for the week of August 22, 2010

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: CYCLE C, 2010

Isaiah 66:18-21;Psalm 117:1, 2; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30

One of the beautiful things about little children is that they go through a stage of asking endless questions. As we read the Gospel for today we get the impression that many of those who asked Jesus questions were like little children. They were not really interested in the answers but merely curious.

Jesus, as a good teacher, answers every question. He does not give them or us a YES norNO answer. Jesus often does not give straight answers to questions posed to him. Today’s Gospel story, for instance, starts with someone asking him, “Will only a few people be saved?” It seems like a straightforward question about numbers. But Jesus perceives that the questioner and the others whom he was teaching were not really as concerned about the final head count as they were about whether they themselves would be included among the redeemed. Jesus seldom gives his questioners the kind of answers they expected. As today he usually answers their questions by telling them a story or by giving them an example. Jesus tells them a story about a man who locks up his house. He hears a knock at the door but does not open up the door. His example gives us an example of who are on the inside and who will stand weeping and grinding their teeth.

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus use to brag about being the chosen people. But Jesus is telling them today that there are foreigners that also will be saved. And even more surprising is that some of these, who once did not belong, will be appointed as religious leaders of the people. God calls them brothers and sisters. Jesus turns their thinking around by sayingTHERE ARE NO CHOSEN PEOPLE, THERE ARE NO CHOSEN RACES. To Jesus, being saved is a matter of EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. He reminds them of the words of Isaiah: I CAME TO GATHER NATIONS OF EVERY LANGUAGE. Being Jewish was no guarantee of salvation. People from every land and nation will be saved.

God it seems has a taste for all the folks that others don't like. God made a group of Hebrew slaves his chosen people. God's preference for those excluded from society goes against the grain. He welcomes those that society often shuts out or locks up.

But Jesus is telling us that not everyone is going to be saved. Furthermore, the opportunity to respond to Jesus' offer of salvation has a time limit. We can run out of time. Being a Catholic is no shortcut to salvation. Jews and Protestants and Muslims will be saved. What will save us, however, is by putting God first in our lives. Our Catholic faith teaches us how to be in tune with Christ.

Jesus invites each of us to be his personal follower not just admirers of Jesus. We are to be more than people who show up for church from time to time. We have to be even more than those who show up for church all of the time. Followers of Jesus are men and women, boys and girls, teenagers who practice their faith every minute. They are those who try their best to make spiritual discipline part of their daily life.

For several weeks many high school students from Saranac Central School and other local schools have worked out and practiced for the fall sports season. Growth in our spiritual faith can be compared to the development of an athlete. Training is hard, difficult and exhausting. But the more demanding the training, the more likely the athlete will be able to deal with the pressures of competition. A coach who would allow athletes to do whatever they want on and off the practice field is not coach, and the team would most probably lose all of its games. It is like someone who goes to the gym but only watches other people practice. Such a person is not considered a member of the team or prepared to make it to the finish line. Think of God as our coach in our practice of religion. God, however, is not a cruel coach, but a partner in our struggles for spiritual perfection. He pulls along with us. He holds our life together in his loving hands. To get to heaven we must stay in shape with the same intensity that we try to stay in shape to make an athletic team, or pass a test, or get a promotion, or pass a physical exam.

We ask Jesus: Will I be saved? Jesus reminds us that we will be saved if we are willing to follow Him and His teachings and commandments. Jesus presents Himself as the “narrow gate” through which entrance is, not won, or achieved, but offered. The “not strong enough” are those who through their own weakness of faith cannot hear and accept Jesus and His ways of living the human life. Each of us must try to get close to God. We must want to be good, but to be good means that we must pay a price. Some of us may find the price too high and go shopping elsewhere. Most of us, however, will want to walk the same road that Jesus walked. In prayer, in Holy Communion, in His words of the bible, Jesus provides us the food and the road map for our journey. At times it may seem like we are on a rough road with a lot of detours and dead ends, but each of us individually have been given our own road map. And so to the question:WILL I BE SAVED. Jesus replies: I WILL STRENGTH YOUR DROOPING HANDS AND WEAK KNEES." BELIEVE ME, I WILL CARRY YOU IN THE PALM OF MY HAND. Today let each of us promise to PUT GOD FIRST!

Homily for the week of August 15, 2010

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , 2010

Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16

1 Corinthians 15:20-27

Luke 1:39-56

Nearly everyone except the very young have had an experience of death. And for the very young the death of a pet is often their first reality of the fact that all things die. Belief in some kind of afterlife or rebirth has been a central aspect of most religions. What happens to us after we die? People in every age wonder whether this present life is all there is. Some bury food and favorite items with their deceased, believing that they will need such things in the afterlife. Some hold that people are reincarnated in another life on earth. Catholics place their hope in resurrected life, with Christ having already preceded us, then raising all who belong to him, as Paul assures the Corinthians in the second reading.

In subsequent verses of this same chapter, Paul speculates on what kind of body we will have at the resurrection. For Paul and other Jews of his day, there could be no existence without a body. Paul speaks of us having transformed, glorious, spiritual and imperishable bodies, bearing the image of the One who has preceded us in resurrected life.

Today we take one of those rare time outs to focus our Mass and our faith on Mary the Mother of Jesus, the woman who said to the angel of the Lord: LET IT BE TO ME ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD. Many of us may also use this as an opportunity ot get acquainted with Mary a little more. We know very little the Mother of Jesus from the Scriptures. She is mentioned in only about 10 places. She was a quiet and hidden woman. Yet to know and love Mary leads us to know and to love her son Jesus better.

Her Mother was Anne, her father was Joachim. She was born and lived in Nazareth. There is a tradition that says she the house in which she was born was also the house where the angel Gabriel asked her to be the Mother of Jesus. Elizabeth was probably her cousin, because the bible mentions that when the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, he referred to “Elizabeth, your relative.” Early Catholic church tradition mentions that wrote that Sobe, the mother of Elizabeth, and Anne, the mother of Mary, were sisters.

What we do know from the Gospel of Luke is that Elizabeth was married to a priest named Zechariah, and that she was of the tribe of Aaron. Luke tells us that they were Zechariah and Elizabeth were “advanced in years” and that Elizabeth was “barren” as she had borne no children. While Zechariah was serving in the sanctuary keeping the incense burning, Gabriel appeared to him “at the altar of incense” to announce that Elizabeth would finally bear a son and that Zechariah was to name him “John.” This is John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus.

Luke tells us that after Zechariah had finished serving in the temple, he and Elizabeth returned home where Elizabeth conceived and went into seclusion for five months. Luke quotes her: “This is what the Lord has done for me when He looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.” Six months later, Gabriel visited Mary and announced God’s request of her. As Mary’s pregnancy was just beginning, she went to Elizabeth to assist in the final weeks of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Mary probably stayed for the birth, helping to care for Elizabeth and Zechariah and their new-born son John.

It is our faith that Mary was conceived without the influence of original sin. With this freedom Mary was able to choose to live completely as God created us to live, that is, she lived a life of love. Yet, Mary was free to choose otherwise, as were Adam and Eve. Fortunately, unlike Adam and Eve, Mary chose God over all her personal wants or desires. This sense of humble love for God is given voice in Mary’s beautiful Magnificat which we hear today from Luke’s Gospel: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”

Our belief is that Mary, uncorrupted in life, remained uncorrupted in death. As a consequence of her holy life of humble service, she was “assumed,” that is, taken bodily into heaven. Although several legends exist, we have no details about Mary’s death, but the belief of the early Christians is that she was taken up into heaven. Through the grace of baptism, we have the hope of heaven, and we believe that our bodies will be raised at the end of time.

With Mary, we are called to be disciples and witnesses of the Christ story before us: As Mary welcomes the Christ child into her life despite its many traumatic complications, we are called to welcome the Christ into our homes and communities; as she journeys with her son to Jerusalem, we are called to journey with him and take up our crosses; as she cradles the broken body of her son on Good Friday, we are called to hold and support and heal one another; as she realizes the promise of her son’s resurrection at the end of her days, we are called to live in the joyful hope that death is not the end, but there is life in a place called heaven after death.

Homily for the week of August 8, 2010

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010

Wisdom 18:6-9

Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22

Hebrew 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12

Luke 12:32-48 or 12:35-40

Americans are a mix of nationalities. We Americans love genealogy. We work to learn the origins of our ancestors and take pride in our ancestry and histories. Quite often we will point out some of our own behaviors and identify them as being “inherited” from one of our backgrounds. One person is fond of saying that he inherited a seriousness about life from his German ancestry and a sense of fun and play from his Irish heritage. As a consequence, he jokingly says, he takes his fun seriously!

We do speak of other nationalities as if certain behaviors and traits are truly ingrained in them. We will say that “the French” or “the Germans” or “the Irish” say or believe this or that. For example, one story is that “The Irish forget everything but their grudges.” Of the Germans it is sometimes said, “If it makes a German laugh, it will give others heart attacks!” They invite us to ask the question, “What is a Christian like?” We might say, “That’s the Irish in her.” Does anyone ever say of us, “That’s the Christian in her”?

Context is always a good place to start. A poll from just a few years ago noted that the standard of living of Americans — at least until the recent burst of the economic bubble — increased every year since the 1950s. On the other hand, claims of individuals to “be happy” declined each year since the 1950s.

In many cases those born after 1960 have divorced spirituality and church. As the number of people participating in church has dramatically decreased since in the last 40 years, the number of persons interested in spirituality has increased. But for most of these persons the path of spirituality is not organized religion. Typical today is the 30-40 year old person who wants faith but not the church, asks the questions but not the answers, wants the truth but not the obedience. They struggle with direction in their lives. They do not know which way to go.

Until quite recently being a Roman Catholic meant that you went to church every week, prayed privately, and supported your parish. These were the minimum, but Catholics also did not eat meat on Fridays, prayed the rosary, and participated in various devotions such as benediction, the Stations of the Cross, litanies to the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart, went to church on First Fridays, read the lives of the saints, prayed for the souls in purgatory, and had a crucifix in a visible place in your home. All of these spiritual practices nourished our Catholic faith, but not necessarily the teachings of the Catholic faith. They were all taken from the life style of the Catholic monks and nuns who loved silence and lived in monasteries and convents. And surprisingly, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco was never condemned by these monks and nuns. These practices, however, gave a sense of direction to Catholics.

Just reading some of the comments of young persons on Facebook leads one to sense a lack of direction. They will often quote a saying from some unknown scientist with greater faith than in the words of Jesus. They are looking for direction. They are looking for spirituality and meaning, but not through church.

Death surrounded the peoples of the Bible. The average life span was only in the late 30s. Jesus, if He died at 33 as tradition suggests, would have practically been an old man in the community. Only one in 10 babies lived to be a teenager, and only about one of five teenagers lived to be an adult. Violence was the order of the day. People lived with death daily. It was into this world that Jesus said, ''Fear not.''

How do you know if you have faith? It is plain and simple: you have faith if you trust the word of someone else. When you accept what someone says on faith, you believe in what the other person is telling you even if you have not personally witnessed or seen it. Faith means to trust. Having faith means being able to live with unanswered questions -- sometimes tough questions. Faith gives you the courage to endure and survive without having the answers.

To Catholics, faith isn't something you find. Rather it is a gift from God. God offers faith freely to anyone and everyone, BUT IT MUST BE FREELY RECEIVED AS WELL. No one can be forced to have or to accept faith. And each person responds differently to his or her gift of faith - at different times, at different levels and in different ways. Some people reject the gift of faith, some ignore it, and some treat it like a new pair of shoes. Others cherish their faith deeply.

The Letter to the Hebrew tells us that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Faith is taking a step into the unknown and trusting God to work things out. Faith demands a way of thinking that is completely opposite to the expectations of people of the computer age. Faith says that we cannot find the answers ourselves. Freeing the heart from attachment to anything but God’s love and God’s realm is the first step in faith. It is then that we can experience the fire of God inside of us and shape our lives and our bodies in the way that Jesus shaped his.

Homily for the week of August 1, 2010

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2010

Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23

Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17

Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11

Luke 12:13-21

Nowhere in our Bible is having riches called sinful. Rather it is what one does with money that determines virtue or vice. No passage is concerned with whether possessing wealth is good or evil. Though called a fool, the rich man in the Gospel is called neither good nor evil simply because he had much grain and other goods.

In the Gospel story, however, the rich man with the bountiful harvest is shown to be isolated, oblivious of both God and his fellow human beings. He is self-centered. Rather than consult those whose lives are intertwined with his, he asks himself, “What shall I do..... I do not have space.... I shall tear down.... I shall store.... I shall say to myself....” The focus of his reflection is “my harvest...my barns...my grain...myself.”

The rich man’s self-centered plan for stockpiling and spending for his own enjoyment is interrupted by a startling apparition by God. “You fool!” comes the accusation, with the notice that this very night his life will be demanded. The critical question is: “All the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”

We must remember that our passages were written in what were, for the most part, non-monetary societies. While coinage was certainly used by the time of Jesus, wealth was not thought of in terms of money. Wealth was thought of in terms of two things: how many things did you possess (so that you could barter), or how much social standing did you possess? So, what the Scriptures ask us is our attitude toward possessions. Another way to ask the question of the Scriptures today is, “What is the purpose of our possessions?”

The Book of Ecclesiastes, written late in Old Testament history, reveals a development in understanding of divine retribution. Before, justice was thought of in terms of earthly rewards and punishments, but Ecclesiastes starts to look toward the future with God as the time when justice will be fulfilled, a theme Jesus rounded out.

Jesus is critical of the rich fool’s attitudes toward his possessions. God gave him all that he had, not that he might own them, but that he might be generous with his possessions. His wealth was his possession of vast amounts of grain — grain that would rot and spoil before he could ever use it. He thought only in terms of what his possessions could do for him. This is what God thinks of as being “rich.”

How do we know when we are truly wealthy? When we are free enough to be generous, when the happiness of others is more important than our wealth. Today I am happy to invite Tom Chitta to speak to you about the Foundation for Children in Need of India. Every two years the Diocese of Ogdensburg invites someone to come to parishes to inform us about the Mission Cooperation programs of the Catholic Church, and to receive our contributions to these programs. The second collection today will be to assist the Foundation for Children in Need.