Homily for the Week of September 25, 2011

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time A, 2011

Ez 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21: 28-32

The word attitude usually refers to our view of the world. No two of us have exactly the same attitude. This is best illustrated by an old story once told about an ancient Persian Religion teacher and his son, who were walking along a country road behind their donkey who was constantly nibbling on grass. A man, seeing the teacher and his son perspiring profusely remarked: Look how foolish they are, walking instead of riding.

Hearing the remark, the teacher and his son climbed on the donkey and rode to the next village. There they heard an old man exclaim: They ought to be ashamed making that poor donkey carry two riders. Then the teacher got off the donkey and walked beside while his son rode the donkey to the next village.

Then the teacher heard the comment: Poor old man. That boy should be ashamed, making his poor old dad walk. Then the Teacher got on the donkey while his son got off and walked.

Finally another villager made this observation: Look at that old man riding while his son has to walk. How cruel!

The attitude of the villagers discloses how they view the world of the old men, the young boy, and donkeys, but also it teaches us that the old man really had no opinion of his own concerning this situation. He merely reacted repeatedly to the comments of those around him.

In our Gospel Jesus makes the comparison with the behavior of the spiritual leaders of his time, and those who saw themselves as good. They could say to Jesus "Yes, Lord," but they had no need to change their way of life. It was really the so-called bad people, the tax collectors and the impure women, who truly heard the words of Jesus and acted upon them.

There is something in all three of today's readings that speaks to us of promises kept, of walking in truth, of recognizing our dependence upon God and of not merely giving lip-service to God, of not thinking that just because we keep to the rules we are safe. All three readings give us information about standards. What standards do we live by?

You probably can point to few people who seem to promote one set of standards, while they live by another. You might also be able to point to a few people who come off lacking standards that they actually live by. For example, you might have one friend who claims to believe in chastity which in church but doesn't follow through on his belief in his life, and another friend who dresses provocatively and claims not to believe in God's teachings on chastity but does remain chaste in practice .

Some of us may see the same dynamics happening in some areas of our own life. Sometimes we might promote our Catholic faith even though we know we are struggling to live up to it. Other times, we might be living according to our Catholic faith but not want to admit it to others. Whenever we proclaim our Christian values, we run the risk of looking hypocritical by falling short of them. But when we don't express our values to others, we may lose an opportunity to teach others about our faith. Some days we might be more like the son in the Gospel who said to his Dad I will not, but afterward changed his mind and went. Other days we might be like the son who said to his dad I will, but did not go.

Do we love our enemies providing they are hundreds of miles away. Do we decide to get rid of our bad habits and addictions only when the doctor tells us that they will kill us? Do we feel guilty or ashamed of what we are doing only when someone happens to see us? Many of us may say Yes to these questions.

In the Lord's Prayer, we say "Your will be done." How often we repeat these words, but how hard it is to accept what happens today in our own lives! The measure of the way we keep our promises to God is mirrored in the way we keep them to others. If we try not to make unremarkable promises but know that if we give our word then we must keep it, then we are walking in the truth. The more our faithfulness mirrors God's own, the more we are able to share God's great love with the world.

When do you find it difficult to keep your promise? In prayer, invite Christ to listen to your difficulty and to give you the gift of understanding your difficulty.

No matter how close we are to God, we all have need of repentance, how might God be calling you to repent? What new level of faithfulness might God be inviting you to?

Homily for the Week of September 18, 2011

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Isaiah 55: 6-9

Psalm 145

Philippians 1:20-24

Matthew 10:1-16

A wonderful Internet story tells of a woman who celebrated her 100th birthday. Her three sons wished to make the occasion special and the gifts extravagant. The first son bought his mother a 15-bedroom mansion. The second son gave his mother a Rolls Royce limousine complete with a fully compensated chauffeur. The third son wanted to present his mother with something very different. Knowing that his mother was very religious, he bought her a special parrot. The highly expensive parrot had been trained by a monk over a period of 15 years to recite the entire Bible. Anyone could name a chapter and verse and the parrot would respond with the correct quotation. 

The mother sent thank-you notes to each of her sons for their gifts, but she wrote something a little more special for her third son. She wrote that she was grateful for the mansion given to her by her first son, but that she only really lived in one room. She was also grateful for the Rolls Royce and the chauffeur, but at her age she rarely went anywhere. Continuing her note to her third son she said, “You always know how to give the most practical and useful kind of gifts. That was the most delicious chicken I’ve ever eaten!” 

Jesus tells a story that was common for first-century Palestinian employers, like the man in today’s story, to go to the marketplace to hire workers. It was where jobseekers always gathered. Nevertheless, the employer in Jesus’ story breaks the mold in a few key ways. On the same day he repeatedly visits the marketplace to hire workers, instead of just once. He goes there at 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m., and again at 5 p.m.  The workers all agreed on their pay for the day. When he paid the workers at the end of the day, those who worked the longest expected more pay. But the man said, “I paid you what we agreed. If I want to be generous, I can.”  

Of all the stories of Jesus, today’s is the most unusual and the most uncomfortable. From our human point of view, there appears to be an injustice in paying workers who had worked only one hour the same amount as workers who had worked an entire day. From a certain point of view, especially in Jesus’ day, it was unjust to compensate workers differently. In our country the law demands equal pay for equal work. If all the workers in the story received the same amount, those who worked only one hour were paid a vastly higher hourly wage than those who had worked all day. 

The pay for the first workers is an example of retributive justice, meaning that a person is paid according to the work done. Since the first workers had done more work than the late arrivals, by their reckoning they had a right to expect more pay. God’s justice, however, is very different. It works in an entirely different way, a way that makes us uncomfortable. 

According to our sense of retributive justice, we believe not only that pay should be equal to the work performed, but that in our judicial system punishment should be equal to the crime.  For us, “retributive” does not mean that the punishment should fit the crime. What we think of is “retribution,” punishment that carries a sense of revenge. We not only want to “get even,” we also want something more: we want revenge. With this attitude, unfortunately, it becomes almost impossible to grasp the meaning of God’s love. 

We are concerned with our rights far more than with our generosity. We are concerned far more with our rights than with our opportunities to serve. We prefer punishment to rehabilitation. We are happier with having a criminal be severely punished rather than with doing something to help prevent that criminal from offending again. We prefer not speaking to a person again rather than attempting reconciliation. We prefer movies where the star forgets the law and gets his or her own revenge. 

The man hanging on the cross next to Jesus was a real criminal. By his own admission, the criminal deserved his fate. He had lived his life in such a way that even he recognized that being put to death was just. With his recognition of Jesus as Lord at the last minute, his reward in heaven became the same as the greatest saint that ever lived. Are we prepared to experience this in heaven? Are we prepared to see our worst enemy standing next to us before the throne of God when we have tried hard for a longer time to live good lives? 

If an lawyer or any of us reads the fine print in the hiring of the various workers in today’s Bible story, we will find that the first-hired and longest-laboring workers agreed to work for the usual daily wage. Yet, rather than accepting what was agreed upon, they expected more. 

What does it mean to be fair?  God is much more fair to us than we can imagine. In family life, there are times when children may think parents are unfair. Parents have many hard decisions to make, and children learn when they are included as much as possible in the

decision making. 

God is not like human beings who persist in holding a grudge against those who wrong them. Rather, God always remains near to those who call upon him.  What God offers each and every one of us is glory in His Kingdom. Will this be enough for us? Will we be satisfied? Is the usual daily wage acceptable to us? God is generous in all things, even in offering forgiveness. Will this bother us, or do we take comfort knowing God’s generosity and mercy? Jesus said “The last shall

be first.”  We are all workers, working our way into heaven at the end of our life.

Homily for the Week of September 11, 2011

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 9/11/11

Ecclesiasticus 27,30 - 28,7

Psalm 102,1-2.3-4.9-10.11-12

Romans 14,7-9

Matthew 18,21-35

Patriot Day is observed every September 11 to mark the anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States. The date falls on a Sunday in 2011, and this year’s observance commemorating the 10th anniversary of the attacks will be a cause of much reflection and remembrance.

Today’s Bible readings offer an uncomfortable, but clear challenge to us on this anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks: the challenge of forgiveness.

The first reading from the Book of Sirach reminds us to release or turn over to the Lord our anger and desire for vengeance, for it is God’s role, not ours, to punish those who have done evil. We are not to be vengeful; we are to forgive. “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’sˆvengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail,” Sirach writes. But as for us, we must forgive: “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.”

It is important to remember, however, that forgiving another does not mean absolving them of responsibility. To forgive another is to confirm that they have done wrong and are in need of forgiveness. Mercy does not cancel out justice or the need for conversion, but it does open up a path of charity that encourages and promotes conversion and justice. For the Catholic in the world, we live in mercy and we long for justice, but we entrust final justice always to God. As long as we believe in the power and mercy of God, we always hope for this.

Note that the reason given for why we should forgive, is that none of us are free of sin and guilt. We are all sinners, we have all done wrong. Yet, God forgives us, and so we must forgive others. God treats us with forgiveness, love and compassion, and we must do the same. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Again in the Gospel, the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, we hear the story of the master forgives the servant of his debt. The message is that God forgives us not because we deserve it, but because God is merciful. Yet, when that servant does not extend the same forgiveness to others, he gets himself into trouble, for he has not acted toward others the way the master acted toward him. We are called to forgive those who sin against us. Peter’s asks Jesus, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answers, “Not seven times but seventy-seven times” .

We have probably heard this instruction many times and we can sometimes take it for granted. It may be easy to apply to everyday situations: I will forgive you for leaving your dishes in the sink, being late to pick me up, forgetting my birthday, etc. But in fact, these everyday situations are ultimately about developing an attitude of forgiveness that can define our lives. Without that kind of attitude, what will we do about the really difficult situations in life:

…the spouse who cheats;

…how about the priest who abuses a child;

…the murderer on death row;

…the terrorists who plotted and carried out the attacks on September 11, 2001?

Our inclination may be simply to say that some things are too terrible to forgive. Certainly, it is only human that we must often go through a period of anger, bitterness, and mourning.

But there is great wisdom in Jesus’ words about forgiveness. Our human experience tells us that when we hold on to anger and hatred, it eats away at us. It can begin to change us and make us into persons we never wanted to be. In some ways, forgiveness frees the one who forgives from carrying that burden. We can let it go and entrust the other to God who is better able to deal with them.

Jesus is not urging us simply to be passive in the face of evil. We must still work to protect the innocent and to hold those who perpetrate crimes against humanity accountable. Forgiveness requires that we address the situation in a positive and loving way, instead of with fear and hatred.

This may be a hard message to hear, but Jesus’ words today are challenging us in a big way. When something that is dearest to us has been attacked, how will we respond? The Gospel challenges us to consider what a Christian response might be. Our response will have long-lasting implications on us as persons and as a society.

Remember, forgiveness does not mean doing nothing. We can pray, teach, engage in dialogue, and urge our leaders to work together for peace and to eliminate injustice. Our first responsibility on this anniversary is to pray for those who died in the 9/11 attacks. We must continue to pray for every family that lost loved ones. We must pray for every member of the military who has died in the war on terror and for their families as well.

Our second responsibility is to welcome the irony that the Bible readings given to us on 9/11 are about forgiveness. Given this contrast, we might be reminded that to live by our principles is our first and best weapon against evil.

Homily for the Week of September 4, 2011

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2011

Ezekiel 33,7-9

Psalm 94,1-2.6-7.8-9

Romans 13,8-10

Matthew 18,15-20

Each year we Americans celebrate Labor Day as a national holiday to honor American workers. As we approach Labor Day this year, over nine percent of Americans are looking for work and cannot find it. Other workers fear they could lose their jobs. Many families have lost their homes, and others owe more on their homes than they are worth. Hunger and homelessness are a part of life for too many children. This year, it is less a time for celebration and more a time for reflection on hardships experienced by workers and their families. For Catholics, it is also an opportunity to recall the teaching of the Church on the dignity of work and the rights of workers.

A look back in American history gives us a picture of our country about 150 years ago when workers were treated poorly, wages were kept low, most workers lived in poverty, children were forced into labor Government laws either forbade or interfered with the efforts of laborers to improve their lives. In Chicago a peaceful rally was being held to support striking workers. Police officers and strikers were killed. The organizers of the rally were arrested. After an unjust trial 4 of them were considered guilty and died by hanging. Later all 4 of these men were found to be innocent.

A few years later a conflict developed between the railroad labor unions and the Pullman railroad car company at Pullman, Ill. It grew into a nation-wide conflict between the railroad labor union and the railroads. The railroad union had been fighting to create an eight-hour workday. As a result President Cleveland signed a law making Labor Day a national holiday.

Today, few of us are aware of the injustices and the blood spilled to gain the rights that workers now enjoy in the United States. Unions fought for the good of workers. In our political atmosphere today we have a hard time remembering where we have come from in terms of labor justice. Tomorrow, Labor Day, take a moment to remember that Labor Day was created to help us remember the cost of justice for workers.

In our first reading today Ezekiel was told by the Lord that he was to be a watchman for the house of Israel. He was to be a voice for God to keep people faithful, and to be a voice for justice, something that became lacking as people of wealth and power fell away from God.

In the Gospel St. Matthew records Jesus’ telling His disciples that they are their brothers’ keepers with a responsibility to point out the faults of others. The “fault” to be corrected was not connecting our faith with how we treat others. Like Ezekiel, the disciples are to call believers to faithfulness, but they were not to be righteous judges. Jesus put this task in the context of Christian love. We are not to be hardhearted as we pray in the Psalm response today. We are called to be a loving and joyful people who sincerely want to share what we have been given. We work with and within the community of faith. In the community, which means wherever two or three are gathered, we must remember that we speak because of Christ’s love.

Being afraid, however, makes us want to run the other way, How often have we not gotten involved because we were afraid of anger or rejection, fear of being hurt again. Those are all reasonable fears, but they account for only one side of the reality, because hidden in the heart of even the most hardened sinner -- right next to all the meanness -- is an untapped reservoir of goodness. That goodness can be drawn forth and made to grow. But first, that goodness has to be seen, and named and hoped in.

As teachers and coaches know, to fail to see the good in another, and not to tell the person of that goodness, means we fail to expect the good from another. When we do this we ultimately condemn that person to death. But to see and name the goodness of another, and to hope in that goodness, is to support one another and give the gift of life. There is not one of us who does not appreciate honest praise for the good that we have done. We all like to be appreciated.

Note that Jesus does not tell us to ignore the enemy. Rather Jesus ask us to love the enemy. But it is not the kind of love that allows others to remain just the way they are. Rather it is a love that is strong enough to help people to grow, to change for the better, and even to get them to seek forgiveness from God.

But what if we do all of this, and yet nothing seems to change between the two of you. Jesus tells us that then we are to pray for the person. Jesus says: IF TWO OF YOU AGREE ON EARTH ABOUT ANYTHING FOR WHICH YOU ARE TO PRAY, IT SHALL BE GRANTED TO THEM.

Why is prayer the best remedy after you have exhausted all human remedies? Because Jesus adds his own powerful prayers to ours. When we pray Jesus is in our midst. There is never any more powerful prayer than when we gather around His altar as we are doing today.