Homily for the Week of July 31, 2011

18TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, YEAR A 2011

Isaiah 55:1-3

Romans 8:35, 37-39

Matthew 14:13-21

This week Catholic News Service had a news article about a champion middle distance runner by the name of Lopez Lomong. Lopez is one of the lost boys of the Darfur region of Sudan who arrived in Syracuse in 2001 He was adopted by Barb and Bob Roger of Tully near Syracuse. Lopez was one of Sudan's lost boys driven from their villages during their country's civil war. When Lopez was 6 years old he was abducted by the army. He escaped through a hole in the camp wall and fled to Kenya where he was arrested and placed in a refugee camp run by Catholic missionaries. When he was 16 years old he and about 3,800 other lost boys were resettled in the United States through Catholic Charities. Lopez went to Tully High School where he helped to lead the cross country and track teams to sectional and state titles. A few years ago he won the national 3000 meter title. Lopez says he is considered one of the lucky children as thousands of boys from Sudan drowned, were eaten by wild animals or were shot by military forces. He says: “I realize that nothing in this world is free except God.”

Like Lopez Isaiah in our first reading today tells us that what God has to offer is free. There is no cost -- not even a hidden cost. We can't pay anything for what God has to offer us even if we want to pay. Forgiveness is free. God’s love is free. What God has to offer is beyond our imagining. What God has to offer is satisfying. Despite the graciousness of God we let things get between us and Him. Perhaps we should begin to see the extraordinary within the ordinary and see that even though we keep sinning, God keeps on forgiving. This is extraordinary.

We live in a society that sometimes chooses material things over human beings. Some children have so many toys or clothes or options that they get confused and hyper trying to make choices. We often think that a car, a cell phone, a computer, a good salary, of being a top student or athlete will make us totally happy. But we soon find out that happiness comes from none of these.

We are told today by Isaiah that God has already given us everything to make us happy. God says: ALL YOU WHO ARE THIRSTY COME TO THE WATER. YOU WHO HAVE NO MONEY, COME WITHOUT PAYING AND WITHOUT COST. WHY SPEND YOUR MONEY FOR WHAT IS NOT BREAD; YOUR WAGES FOR WHAT FAILS TO SATISFY?

The experience of hunger, poverty, sickness and death can make it seem as if God has forgotten us. But in all of these God continues to love and protect.

Right now God gives us everything we need for happiness. Why don't we know it and feel it? Because we are looking off in the distance rather than within ourselves in our heart and spirit. Happiness does not come in going on a shopping spree or drinking spree, but in taking a new look at what we already have -- even if it might be hunger, sickness, loneliness, misunderstandings, anxiety. Religion or faith does not take away our problems; but a strong faith shows us a new way to see things, not a new way to obtain things.

In our Gospel selection for today Jesus gives us an example of this. Jesus teaches us what real happiness is, and how it brings us true love. Jesus meets a large crowd, hungry, sick. His heart goes out to them with pity. His friends suggested that he send the hungry crowds away so that they could buy some food. They wondered why he bothered with them. Assuring His disciples that there was no need to send the people away, Jesus told them to ''give them some food yourselves.'' Needless to say, they were astonished. They had very little for just themselves. Jesus took their food, ''and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.''

This feeding takes place in our life every day if we only believed it did. If he did it for the crowds of 2000 years ago why wouldn't he do it for us today? God wants happiness for us just as he did for those of the Gospel story. This happiness and generosity comes about with the help of caring persons, like Barb and Bob Roger of Tully, who are willing to be like Christ.

We need someone who will be able to bring the bread of Eucharist to persons to help them to be bread for everyone. We need committed lay persons, committed families. But we also need young men and woman who will make it their lifetime commitment to be available to serve the needs of both the bread givers and the Eucharistic bread receivers. That is why that today some men and women still offer their lives to serve others as missionaries.

We cannot miss the allusion to the Eucharist. Jesus gave to the disciples, and the disciples gave to others. Those others gave to still others. And today we still receive and give. It should be noted that ''they all ate and were satisfied.'' What God has to give is always satisfying. Not only is it satisfying, God is so generous that there is always more than is necessary. What God gives us is complete, there is nothing lacking. And there is still more. Our Lord stays with us always in this blessed Sacrament, remaining with us not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always!

Homily for the Week of July 24, 2011

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution that annexed Hawaii on July 7, 1898, making it the Territory of Hawaii, a possession of the United States.

In 1993, with the support of Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Congress passed a joint resolution, called the “Apology Resolution,” that was signed by President Bill Clinton on Nov. 23, 1993. The resolution apologized “to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on Jan. 17, 1893...and the deprivation of the rights of Native Hawaiians to self-determination.”

The driving force behind the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands was monetary. Hawaii had massive sugar and fruit plantations that were owned by only five corporations. The plantations had been begun largely by missionaries who went to Hawaii in the mid-1800s to convert native Hawaiians to Christianity. Many of the missionary families became very wealthy.

Bishop Desmond Tutu was interviewed in the 1980s, the time of apartheid in South Africa. Responding to a question he said, “When the white people arrived, we had the land and they had the Bible. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ When we opened our eyes, they had the land and we had the Bible. And we got the better end of the deal.”

For the past two weeks and, finally, today we have been reading from the 13th chapter of Matthew, often called “The Day of Parables.” Jesus used these parables to teach about the kingdom of Heaven. On one level Matthew had to answer the early Christians’ questions concerning the Church and the Kingdom. If Jesus really was the Son of God, why were not all people turning to Christ? Answer: “The Sower and the Seed.” Why had not more people chosen to follow Christ? Why did some believers either become traitors or become a scandal for the rest of the community? Why cannot the community kick out someone who seems to be a problem? Answer: The parable of the “Wheat and the Weeds.”

There were many problems in the early Church to make members wonder whether pursuing the Kingdom was worth it. Today’s first two parables give us our answer. Pursing the Kingdom is worthy of great sacrifice.

The difference in the first two parables — the buried treasure in the field and the pearl of great price — is interesting. In the first parable, an individual going about his work finds a great treasure while digging. Finding the treasure was entirely accidental. Though accidental, once the workman realized what he had found, he sacrificed everything to possess it. The parable is not at all concerned about the legal issues involved. (What the workman did was probably legal.) What the parable wants us to see is the great sacrifice that was made to possess the treasure.

In the second parable, the merchant’s finding the beautiful pearl was not an accident. Pearls were the most highly regarded things of beauty, even more than gemstones. The merchant traveled the world seeking the most beautiful pearl ever, and he succeeded. Like the workman in the first parable, the merchant sacrificed everything he had to possess the pearl. The pearl would not put a roof over the man’s head or food on his table, but the sacrifice of everything for an object of great beauty was worth it.

It is easy to understand that Jesus is leading us to see that pursuing the Kingdom of Heaven is worth every sacrifice. Nothing should deter us. Are we pursuing Heaven, or are we pursuing something else?

What we pursue makes us who we are. What we pursue will either make us or destroy us. The pursuit of land and its wealth in Hawaii eventually led to the overthrowing of a long-existing kingdom in Hawaii. President Grover Cleveland, who preceded President McKinley, saw the injustice and tried to restore the deposed Hawaiian queen to her throne, but those pursing land and money won the day.

The dynamics in South Africa were not much different. Missionaries seeking to convert the native population discovered diamonds and other wealth. Corporations moved in, and apartheid was the result.

What do we pursue? Will it result in treasure or a pearl, or will our pursuit leave victims in its wake?

Homily for the Week of July 17, 2011

HOMILY: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16

Romans 8:26-27

Matthew 13:24-43 or 13:24-30

For the second weekend in a row we hear is Jesus telling stories involving farming and baking. He uses what are called parables. Parables are stories that help us to understand our religion. Parables are short stories about good and bad, about how we are to change our life. There about 40 of these parables in the Bible. Most of these stories, like the one that I just read, are based on farming. But as we listen to these stories, try to imagine that at the time of Jesus there was an in-group and an out-group. With these stories Jesus is trying to tell us that there is only one group: the group that believes in God and is trying to do what God wants them to do. God doesn't simply strike down all bad guys with a powerful hand.

What do you do when you find weeds sprouting in your garden or flowers? Do you pull them out or let them grow? How did they get there? So, why not get rid of the weeds? That is probably what most farmers and gardeners would do. But Jesus says: Let them grow together. God is the one who will make the necessary separation at the harvest time. Can't we see ourselves in that story. How often have you said to yourself: It is not what I want to do that I do, but it is what I do not want to do that I do? How can it be that when I want to be good I get tempted to do something bad. But there is also another problem. How often have we labelled some people as wheat and others as weeds in our life? The truth is that each of us are both.

Could it be that at times we do not know which are the weeds and which is the wheat in our life? Certainly there are times when we do know the difference. But it is so easy to give in to a temptation.

In the story about the mustard seed we realize that great things can come from the smallest. Jesus makes a comparison between the size of the seed and the plant that can grow to be 10 feet tall. This is how God works in our life. At first we may not notice God. We become impatient. But if we keep on praying, God will come into our life. He will change it. He will bring us happiness, because it is only our faith in God and Jesus that can bring us true happiness. Jesus is telling us that we cannot judge the value of someone simply from what we see; their greatness is in who they are. We are all mustard seeds waiting to grow.

How often do you read some serious articles on your faith or spirituality? A person would never get through school without reading, thinking about what they read and talking about it with friends or writing about it on tests. I am sure that a person who wants to be a qualified technician of any kind needs to be updated as technology changes. So too it should be with our faith and religion. We can not expect to grow spiritually by just standing still. It is then that the weeds will smother us.

Before we seek to purge others from our lives, we should look inward and find where good and bad are living besides each other inside us. In our families, in our churches and even in our politics, we experience the desire to purge, to judge, to cast out. We must resist. We cannot tolerate blatant evil when we do see it. The problem, however, is that not all evil — and not all good — is completely clear to us. We must be thankful that God is the final judge. The good and the bad must stay alongside each other--just like the wheat and the weeds. One must tolerate the other, but the activity of the Spirit will encourage a good and fruitful harvest in the end.

Jesus is also telling us today that even in the beautiful side of life, where we are in harmony with God, there is always the possibility of evil-- like fraud, blowing away a good name, oppression of the poor by a greedy government and many others weeds that somehow get in with the wheat.

Furthermore, evil cannot be eliminated by destroying everything that appears evil. Rather, we have to work through a life that is not perfect, knowing that the evil that lurks in the weeds is a constant reminder of our fallen condition and that only Jesus can guide us to be on the right road.

All of these stories point us to our need to prepare ourselves every day to meet God as our judge when we die. Yes, the future begins today; the heaven to which we hope to go some day begins today. Jesus, through these short stories, is trying to teach us that heaven must truly begin here in this life; here on earth. Jesus is also teaching us of God's forgiveness. He is telling us not to be less merciful and patient than God as we notice family members, friends, strangers and Catholics who don't always practice what they preach. Most of us can spot a hypocrite when we see one --unless it is our self. How many of us have wondered why God couldn't have created everyone to be as wise and generous and perfect as we are? Wouldn't that be splendid?

Just as trees or any plant grows gradually day to day without noise and even notice, so too do these Bible stories about how goodness and spirituality grows in us. It is not the size that is important but the desire to change. But these stories also teach us that God's church has plenty of room for everyone. Jesus has opened his father's house to everyone including the indifferent and the imperfect. So the next time that we ask God to condemn someone who has done something bad, let us remember our own weedy moments and be thankful that God is always ready to forgive us.

Homily for the Week of July 10, 2011

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

The Merriam–Webster Dictionary defines parable as “a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle.” This is how the majority of us read the parables of Jesus: short stories with a spiritual point.

The Gospel writers would not have defined a parable this way. Today and for the next two Sundays we will read the entirety of Chapter Thirteen of Matthew. Some give this chapter the heading, “The Day of Parables,” for there are several parables in it, and all are about the Kingdom of Heaven.

The literary form of parable in the Semitic world of Jesus has the sense of meaning a riddle. The word parable, as used in Matthew, is from Greek. On the one hand it means acomparison but in the form of a juxtaposition. The dictionary defines juxtaposition as “the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side.” The purpose is not so much for comparing how two things are similar; the purpose is to explore a contrast between the things placed side by side. Both the word “juxtaposition” and the word “joust” are derived from the Latin, meaning “close.”

Why this discussion on the meaning of parable? Jesus “spoke to them at length in parables.” For us to appreciate the depth of today’s parable and the ones to follow on the next two Sundays, we must know what Jesus was doing. Parables do not contain knowledge or a moral as we understand a moral tale today. A parable is intended to make the hearer look at something from a radically different point of view.

Matthew very carefully chose the placement in his Gospel of this parable and the ones to follow. He had to strengthen faith. Matthew was a Jewish Christian writing for Jewish Christians. A stumbling block for believers was the reality that not everyone was taking the teachings of Jesus to heart. Why weren’t other Jews embracing the Messiah? Worse, why were many of those who initially accepted Jesus as the Messiah quickly dropping their faith?

This had become a problem in Matthew’s community, and it remains one in ours. Matthew presents this parable completely within the context of a single community: Jewish Christians. We should do the same. We should keep it completely within a single community whether all of Christianity, just Catholicism, or even our own parish.

In the case of Catholics or even in the case of a single parish, many come to Church and yet do not believe. Although they are often present, why do they not believe in the Real Presence? If we have come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and our Redeemer, why are so many lax in their faith? Why do so many make coming to the Eucharist such a low priority? Why do so many, who once were “on fire” with their faith, disappear? The problem Matthew faced is a problem still.

Today’s parable is usually called “The Parable of the Sower.” In reality, it is “The Parable of the Seed.” The method of planting in Jesus’ area was to sow the seed then plow it under. In the parable, contrary to expectations, the sower sows the seed and leaves. The seed grows without any further intervention; therefore, the focus is the seed. The seed is not so much “The Word,” it is the Word of the Kingdom. The parables that follow over the next two weeks will draw out what the Kingdom of God is like.

Also contrary to expectations is the actual yield of the seed. Unlike today’s scientific farming, harvest yields in Jesus’ day and area were rather low. A seven-fold harvest would have been considered a good year. A ten-fold harvest would have been true abundance. A thirty-fold harvest would have been a miracle; it would feed a village for a year. A hundred-fold harvest would allow the farmer to retire and buy homes for his relatives and friends!

Today’s parable is told in the context of rejection of the Word of God and the Kingdom. It is a parable that gives hope and motivation for the faithful to stay faithful.

The seed that lands on the good soil will produce so abundantly that it will, in turn, cause people to take a second look at God’s Word. To allow this to happen, we have to grow in faith. We have to produce.