Homily for the week of January 30, 2011

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time , 2010

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13

Psalm 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Matthew 5:1-12a

The passage which I just read from Matthew’s Gospel is one of the most often quoted and used by Catholics and persons of other religions, and of no religious affiliation. It is often referred to as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain. The part that I just read today is also referred to as the Beatitudes. You will also hear parts of this Bible reading for the next seven weeks. There are 9 Beatitudes. They form a summary of all of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and therefore should be an outline as to how we should live as Catholics. Jesus tells us about 9 ways by which we can be happy. If you do this particular action, then you will be blessed by this.

On this particular day Jesus decides to climb a small mountain so that he could see all those who came to hear him, much like Moses did when God gave him the 10 commandments. There were many people around when Jesus began teaching on this particular day. They were ordinary persons like you and me. He wanted his message to be for everyone. Jesus sat down. Sitting down was the normal position of a teacher at the time of Jesus. So by sitting down Jesus is emphasing that these beatitudes are to be learned by us. Jesus was not just have an ordinary conversation with us.

For most of those to whom Jesus spoke, the Beatitudes were very strange and always new teachings. But also for many of you, they may be strange. How can we be happy if we are poor, if we are sad, if we are hungry, if we control our desires, if we try to make peace, if we are persecuted?

The Beatitudes are like the rungs or steps on a ladder which Jesus has arranged in exact order. Each step builds on the foundation of the previous step, each leads to the next, and each one is necessary to get to the next one. We can’t divide them up keeping those we like and leaving those we don’t care for to others.

The beatitudes name the ways in which peoples’ happiness is threatened such as poverty, grief, hunger, war and persecution. Jesus does not advise that those so afflicted simply wait for a reversal of fortune in the hereafter. To be poor in spirit is not to accept poverty as an inevitable state of life but rather to find one’s wealth in God, to trust in God’s care for the poor and to seek righteousness, which rectifies the unequal distribution of goods so that all have enough to thrive.

In the beatitudes, Jesus sets out the guidelines as to how we are to live as Catholics. The beatitudes are sometimes said to be the Christian equivalent to the Ten Commandments. What is immediately striking about them is their style of expression. They are not commands. They are not negative. Rather, they celebrate the essential qualities found in the true followers of Christ.

The top rung of the ladder is the Beatitude: BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, FOR THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Each Beatitude begins with the word BLESSED or HAPPY or LUCKY and followed by the verb IS. If we follow the beatitudes, Jesus tells us, weARE truly blessed by God and we will be God like -- not that we WILL BE like God.

But why be happy if we are poor? Those who were “poor” at the time of Jesus were not those who had little or no money. Rather “The poor” were those who had lost their honor. Widows and orphans were the most common example of people who had lost their status and thus their honor. Widows and orphans were the poor. In order to get out of poverty the widows and orphans tried to restore their honor by getting married again, or through attaching themselves to an extended family.

Following Jesus’ instructions is indeed unnatural. That’s why we need supernatural help to do it. We might think that Saints like Anthony or Francis or Augustine or Theresa or Brother André of Montreal were “born that way”? They were not. The only way they, or any one of us, can possibly live according to the Beatitudes is if we let God’s Spirit dwell within us and take charge of our lives.

All of the Beatitude blessings describe a spiritual attitude or action. If we do this, then we will be rewarded by this. All, that is, except one. The last Beatitude says: Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me….your reward will be great in heaven.

The Beatitudes are intended to be imitated. How often have young boys and girls tried to imitate the athletes in their school or elsewhere whom they admire. At an early age a child often tries the skills or lifestyle of others they have witnessed. But they soon realize that just wanting to be an outstanding basketball or football player does not happen overnight. Athletes just don’t play in the Super Bowl because they want to. Their football skills are not gained overnight but as a result of training and discipline for many years.

So is it, too, with our spirituality and religion. Because the beatitudes do not come naturally to the more selfish and fearful side of ourselves, we have to work at them conscientiously. Today, the pursuit of mercy, peace, or gentleness, which are the foundations for peace and justice, can seem so difficult that we don’t want to even consider doing them. In fact, compared to the Beatitude, the 10 commandments may seem a lot easier.

As with athletes or musicians or construction workers, the beatitudes must be practiced every day with the help of a coach, a spiritual fitness director or a respected worker. Yes, and as with athletics, starting out in practice can often be painful. The same applies to our spirituality. I suggest using one of the beatitudes for the next 9 weeks starting with the first. Take 10 minutes by yourself or with someone else to just be honest with yourself as to how you are doing with it; then another 10 minutes to place into your life some way in which you can practice it.

Homily for the week of January 23, 2011

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Isaiah 8:23..9:3

Psalm 27:1, 4, 13.14

1 Corinthians 1:10.13, 17

Matthew 4:12.23 or 4:12-17

There are few things that feel better than being chosen. First to be picked for kickball at recess, making the honor roll, landing the perfect job, being chosen to marry each other, choosing to give birth to your child. Very often we are dependent on others choosing us. Very often our happiness rests on others’ choices.

Today St. Matthew tells us a little about Jesus choosing his closest associates. He had been praying for a few days. Instead of going to his hometown of Nazareth, a sleepy village of a few hundred families, he goes to Capernaum, a bustling fishing town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was located on a very busy international trade route called the Way to the Sea that connected Damascus and Syria with Egypt. Jesus knew that he could reach a lot more people here by teaching and healing them. But first of all he needs helpers to do his work. So Jesus starts inviting.

According to the story, Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors, and other low class citizens to be his disciples. They weren’t particularly important people on the social ladder of the day. They were ordinary people with hopes and dreams, heartaches and suffering. They were very human, full of passions and sins and problems. Throughout the gospels, we are reminded of their humanity as they doubt, betray, and question Jesus. Still, Jesus accepted them and welcomed them into his life and his ministry.

Jesus finally choses 12 because there were 12 states in Israel. But being chosen also meant radical changes in their lives. They leave their occupation. There are also changes in their family relationships as the relationship with Jesus and devotion to his mission becomes their primary focus. James and John leave their father. But Peter makes his family home a hub for the mission, in which his family members play an important role.

How many people were sitting in the crowd the day that Jesus chose his twelve apostles? As the apostles were named, chosen, asked to join Jesus on his journey, surely there were others in the crowd who desired to join them, anxious to leave behind their old lives and take up a new adventure. But Jesus did not pick them.

Two thousand years later, Jesus extends that same invitation to each of us. Today’s Bible reading is a reminder that we don’t need to be perfect to be a follower of Jesus. We too are deeply human, full of passions and sins and problems. We should embrace the imperfections and the failures. We should be honest and bring our entire self to the table and offer our lives to God, however God wants to work through us.

One other thought: The disciples chose to drop everything and follow Jesus. Imagine that! A new guy comes to town preaching a new Gospel and asks you to join him and spread his message. What an incredible amount of faith that must have taken! I think we can all learn from that as well. Life is full of options and choosing the safe one isn’t always beneficial in the long run. If you take the time to listen, there may be a little voice leading you into the unknown. Though leaving your comfort zone seems daunting, choosing that road less travelled will always be an opportunity for growth.

We believe that every person has some unique call which God cries out to their heart. Sometimes it is not the call we want, and disappointment can blind us to the true opportunities which God places before us. It says in the gospel that Jesus “summoned those whom he wanted.” He then gave them the power to preach.

How often when you are not chosen do you give in to feelings of self-rejection or its reverse temptation: pride? Do not forget that God has given you a unique call for your life. Sometimes we are chosen and asked to leave behind everything we have; at other times we are asked to go back home to our friends and family. Even in rejection we can find a call.

There is an old saying which states: “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” Whether in the quiet of prayer or the gentle prodding of a beloved friend or even in rejection, in some way God is trying to point us in the right direction.

Our first reading today is by Isaiah. Isaiah tells us that THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT; UPON THOSE WHO DWELT IN THE LAND OF GLOOM A LIGHT HAS SHONE. I imagine most of us can think of somebody, some person who has come through our life at some point and to this very day, has left his or her mark on us. Perhaps it was a teacher or a friend or just someone who seemed to understand us better than most others. It could be a person who took time to listen to us when we needed it, and we were not judged by that person.

I think it would also be true to say that there are certain experiences that happen in our lives that change us for ever. If we had not been in this place at this particular moment in our life, met this person, accepted this job, decided to go to this particular school, would we be where we are today? There are just so many arbitrary things that happen to us in life, that we cannot predict what we will turn out to be, or what will happen to us. In one way or the other we are all controlled by the unknown.

While most of us were baptized as babies, we have had numerous conversions of faith in our life. We are converted by the people that we spoke with, play basketball with, and ate with. Whether it is the volunteers that provide food and shelter for helpless and hopeless immigrants, or discusses the meaning of happiness in her marriage, our blindness is cured by the people that we meet. It is apparent through the readings today that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to a life of hope through the example in our faith in Jesus.

Homily for the week of January 16, 2011

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Isaiah 49:3, 5-6

Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

1 Corinthians 1:1-3

John 1:29-34

One of the world’s great circus is the one started over 100 years ago by the Ringling Brothers in Baraboo, Wisconsin. A few years later they joined the Barnum and Bailey Circus. During a tour of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, a man noticed that the big elephants were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. The elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. The trainer explained “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They think the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

In many ways we are like the elephant. Unless we take control of ourselves, our life is very much conditioned on how we have been raised as kids. It is difficult for us to feel free to do something other than what we have observed as little children. If we are brought up in a family where violence, abuse, bad language, poor example, lack of religion is an every day event, we may well become an adult whose life is the same. If we are brought up in a family where respect for self and others, where daily prayer and participating in Church every week is expected, we will accept this as part of our life. Little children can often be pawns in the life of their parents. They very often feel that they are to blame for the hatred and anger they see between their mom and dad.

Because of this it is easy for children to think that they live in two worlds -- in the spiritual and secular world. These two worlds are completely different, but we can easily cross from one to the other. As Catholics we should live our life in the spiritual world while being in the secular world. Our spiritual life lives itself out in the physical world. God expects us to manage that world. It is the world of our shopping, our work, our school, our vacations, but we must manage it according to our religious faith.

For example some parents may think that their child’s Baptism, First Confession or First Communion are once in a lifetime events like items on a list of things to do, like vaccinations. And because of this, some children never come back to church after they have received these sacraments because they hardly ever went to church with their parents before they received the sacraments. Religion and prayer at church have been completely detached from their day to day life.

A few minutes ago we were invited to respond: Here I am Lord, I come to do your will. Today’s psalm responses gives us words to respond to God’s called offered in Jesus. We are told today that John the Baptist and other disciples were near Jesus when he was baptized. In one way or the other they repeated: Here I am Lord, I come to do your will. Here I am may sound like an ordinary response of those who believe in God. But even those close to Jesus had a hard time saying it as Paul tells us in our second reading.

One of the prayers that most of us know by heart is the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer. Each time we say that prayer we say thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That leads us to ask the question we probably seldom ask, namely, what does our baptism mean to us, to the way we live our Christian life today? Most of us do not think much about the relationship between baptism and adult Catholic life. If anything, our baptismal certificate simply gave us the privilege of being able to receive First Holy Communion, Confirmation and even to be married as a Catholic.

But the more relevant question is this: what does it mean to be a baptized Catholic today? It means that we are qualified by our baptism to spread the faith among those with whom we are connected by social and professional ties and this obligation is all the more urgent since so many persons can only come to hear the gospel and recognize Christ through each of you. In other words, baptism cannot simply be thought of as a personal, private sacrament that assures us of "getting to heaven," or to have the right to the other sacraments. If our baptism means anything to us, then we need to be ready to share with others what it means to us.

By earthly standards, God's call may seem unpleasant and difficult. Jesus' surrendering of himself to God brought about death on a cross, something that we are not eager to face, but as long as we believe God is with us during our difficult times, we will have strength to endure whatever we meet.

We must remember that Baptism is not a private sacrament. Our religion was meant to be shared with others. We say to God that we are willing to do this when each day we often say to him: Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.

You have obviously noticed as you entered the Church that we are no longer in the Christmas season. According to the Church we are in Ordinary Time - a time of about 30 Sundays when I will be wearing green and I will be reading the story of Jesus as given by St. Matthew. The readings bring us back into reflection on the beginnings of our journey of discipleship. The liturgical cycle is not a circle that keeps us going around and around, repeatedly going over the same ground. Rather, each year, we approach the texts with freshness because our world is not the same as in the previous year and we ourselves have changed. Much as a couple, when celebrating their anniversary, retell the story of how they first met and fell in love, so the Gospel invites us to reflect on the beginnings of how we came to know Jesus.

Homily for the week of January 9, 2011

Baptism of the Lord, 2011

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7: Psalms 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10: Acts 10:34-38: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

There is a great time-shift in the Gospel. Today is the official conclusion of the Christmas season. Thirty years have passed in the life of Jesus since last-Sunday’s Gospel when the Magi were visiting the Holy Family at Bethlehem. Today we celebrate that day when Jesus’ cousin John baptized him in the Jordan River. Like you and I Jesus was baptized with water and the Holy Spirit.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord gives us an opportunity to reflect on our own baptism and what it means to us and for us. Our Baptism was the day in which we became a Catholic. We officially were given a name by our parents. Our parents and godparents promised for us that they would do all they could to help us be practicing members of the Catholic church. All of this was completed with water.

Just reflect, for instance, on the natural and symbolic power of water, that earthly substance we use in so many ways every day with a simple formula: H2O. Looking at water, we might think that it's the most simple thing around. Pure water is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Water is vital for all life on Earth. NASA has spent billions of dollars to determine if there is water on Mars. Where there is water there is life, and where water is scarce, life has to struggle. Our human body literally baths in water. Up to 60 percent of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, blood is 82 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water.

We drink water when we are hot and thirsty and we immediately feel strengthened. We take a shower after a hard workout and feel refreshed. We water the plant on our window sill and suddenly it perks up again. We toss our dirty clothes into the washer and out they come, clean again. Without drinking water none of us would be here today. We need it for survival. Imagine a day without water. But with too much water we can drown.

But water has another side. Without proper care we could die from drowning. We also see the power of water when a gentle river like the Saranac suddenly becomes a roaring torrent, overflowing its banks in the Spring. We have seen another aspect of water such as when an earthquake creates ocean waves that travel faster than a jet plane, and kills thousands of persons, or breaks the levees as it did with Katrina in New Orleans.

In all of these examples water speaks to us of comfort, soothing warmth, but it also naturally warns us of the deadly power contained within it. Water, of course, does not know that it has all this power. We humans are the ones who have found these qualities. In short, water is more than water; it is all those things we discover in it, for good or bad!

It is not unlikely then, that over many centuries we humans have also discovered a certain religious or spiritual meaning in water. In the Bible water has been both a symbol of death and of rebirth. The book of Genesis portrays a great flood which destroyed all human life except Noah’s family. And the Jewish people flee persecution in Egypt through the Red Sea which opened up for them.

The Jewish people had dozens of different washings which they observed practically every day, mainly to be ritually purified, They would wash when they came in contact with blood, or a dead body, or eating some forbidden food.

I'm sure we all have discovered from experience the spiritual power of water. I can readily remember my mother taking the holy water bottle in the summer when a storm was coming, and she would sprinkle the house with it. Whether the holy water by itself accomplished anything, I'm not sure, but my mother had great faith in holy water's power, and to be honest, our house was never destroyed by lightening.

Jesus is no longer a baby or a child but is ready to take on his mission as an adult. The Gospel account describes extraordinary occurrences. The heavens open and the Spirit of God descends like a dove; a voice from heaven identifies Jesus as “beloved Son.” Jesus had no need for baptism, and initially he objected. But Jesus insisted that it was important “to fulfil all righteousness.” and to prepare for his the work which God had intended for him.

While Jesus was being baptized, he experienced a mysterious call from God, telling him that he should consider himself, an anointed one, a specially called Son. In other words, it was at Jesus' baptism that he first learned his call, his vocation, because he immediately left the river and went out into the desert to reflect on what this mysterious call might mean.

Jesus came to this event by free choice and it was for him the beginning of the rest of his adult preaching and healing ministry. For most of us, it is often many years before we begin to understand the fuller meaning of what happened to us at our Baptism.

The feast of the Baptism of Jesus is a good time for us to consider our own baptism, the time when we too became beloved children of God. Baptism is the most precious gift we have received. We have been clothed in the Spirit. On this day of the Baptism of the Lord, it might be good for us to be thankful for our own baptism. Parents and godparents might again renew their commitment to raise their children to be aware of their baptism, and what it means to be a member of the church. It also should be a reminder not to put off Baptism of children.

At the end of our life we are brought into a Catholic church for a Catholic funeral. As the body is brought into the church the priest sprinkles the body with holy water, and then family members will spread a large white cloth over the casket, a symbol representing the baptism clothes which that person wore at Baptism -- most of the time many, many years before. This gives meaning to the words used at Baptism, with your family and friends to help you...bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.

Our Baptism was both an event and a process. This brief Baptism ceremony began a lifelong process. We began to live as the beloved daughters and sons of God. The water poured over our heads at Baptism was a sign that all our life we need to be aware of the spiritually drowning waters of sin, and refreshing waters of goodness. Our baptismal certificate may be old, but we need to live our baptism every day.

Homily for week of January 2, 2011

EPIPHANY, 1/2/11 (little Christmas)

Isaiah 60: 1-6, Ephesians 3: 2-3, 5-6,Matthew 2: 1-12

Many people will say that HOPE is a hard to find today. Many ask where God can be found in so much of the world’s suffering and struggle. There are many times when failure, pain and destruction can seem overwhelming. In recent years, darkness, violence and fear seem to have won the upper hand in our world. The temptation to despair or give up can be all too easy.

From the beginning of time or history men and women have been travellers and walkers on the earth. For as far back as we can determine we have had the desire to go to another place, whether for food, for protection, for a home, for adventure, for shopping, or just to find out what lies beyond the next hill. We seem to be explorers by nature. We have a vision that we want to make real and a hope that we want to fulfil.

Think, for instance, of some of the classic travellers of our own times: like Lewis and Clark making their way across the vast wilderness of the United States reaching the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark began near St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1804 and returned there in September 1806. They travelled a total of about 8,000 miles across the Rocky Mountains, and down the Columbia and other rivers to the Pacific coast. They were brave and hopeful explorers. They were pioneers from the Midwest in hopes of finding a better life.

Or 160 years ago the Irish coming across the ocean to settle in what is now Cadyville and built this Church with their own hands. Think even of the astronauts of our own day, risking their lives in order to put a foot mark in the dust of the moon or Mars. All these people were visionaries. They had no idea whether they would ever reach their destination, but they were willing to travel in order to find out whether their hopes could be satisfied. In a sense, we might say that they were following the light of a star. That seems to be one common element of human life on this earth: We are not always happy where we are and we imagine that there is something which will fulfil our dreams by moving on to somewhere else.

So, we come to this festival of the Christmas cycle that we call by Epiphany or Little Christmas. It contains within its story something of what we have just been describing. It is a story of some individuals whom we call Magi, saw a star and heard someone was born in a far-off country whom they imagined would straighten out the world. They were determined to get on the road, to travel, to go find this person and show him reverence and respect. While we do not know how many Magi there were, there were at least three since they gave three gifts to Jesus. The magi were a type of astrologer. More than mere interpreters of the stars though, they were astronomers, highly educated and learned men who were also mystics.

The magi are important, but the gifts they presented are more important for teaching us about Jesus: Gold was a gift for a king, so Jesus is a king. Frankincense was a gift given a priest for offering prayers, so Jesus is also a priest. And myrrh was used to anoint the dead. King. Priest. Death. Just who is Jesus?

As far as we can tell the Magi story is exactly that: It is a story, but as with all stories, there is buried within it some lessons about God and our relationship with God. What did the early disciples of Jesus have in mind when they told the story?

The Magi are surely symbols of ourselves. They were clearly seeking after something. And their persistence led them to find just what they were seeking. They could have done nothing about their great longing. They could have tried to just ignore this painful desire. But instead they set-out on their journey. It was to be a journey full of uncertainty and danger. Finally, they found the Lord. God’s plan always has the unexpected/

Our journey towards God is a very difficult. For many of us it is not on a well paved road. It has detours, bumps, holes, low shoulders. It is a road that is often filled with garbage and left overs. Sometimes it takes a person many years to even find the right road. There is a saying that says: IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE. Why would we want to find God or Jesus if we have never heard of God or Jesus?

Because God has written on our heart a desire to see him and to know him. There is a built in longing for God. There is a built in longing for love and for happiness. That desire is there even when we ignore it. In each one of us here is a thirst for God and for happiness. So often we try to satisfy that thirst for happiness and love by loading ourselves with possessions and clutter. It is not that possessions are bad. The problem is that they are not good enough to give us love and happiness.

Silence and prayer are two sure paths for finding God within. There can never be an excuse for not making the journey within ourselves. A certain place to always find God without ourselves is in the poor and in the weak -- an elderly parent, a sick friend, a depressed neighbor. Our own weakness, is the very place where God can most powerfully enter our lives.

Like the Magi, our road to God is or change and a willingness to strike out into unknown territory. The star of Bethlehem is the light that will light up the road for us and guide us home.