Homily for the Week of June 23, 2013

TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, YEAR C 2013 Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1 Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Galatians 3:26-29 Luke 9:18-24 Most of us have filled out application forms. We are asked to fill out forms when we look for a job, apply for college, want to get a drivers license, prepare to get married, get a credit card, and many, many more applications. Each of these forms want to find out who we are. Very often we have to name persons who know us well, so that they can give information about us. We then give the form to someone else who will read it and may even ask more questions about us. If this is expected as part of our life, then why should it not be part of Jesus' life? And it was. Jesus was an unknown. Yet he was doing things that had never been done before, like feeding 5000 with just a few fish and loaves of bread, and then collecting baskets of leftover crumbs. They had seen him place his hands on sick persons, who recovered. They heard that he could read the most secret thoughts in a persons life. They wondered: is Jesus for real? If Jesus were living today you can imagine how often he would be interviewed on the news. Photos and articles would be in our newspapers. He would have a web site, a facebook account, a cell phone, and so forth. But inspite of all this I am certain that there would probably be no more persons who would know him than did 2000 years ago. Sometimes good news travels slowly. Jesus asks: WHO DO THE CROWDS SAY THAT JESUS IS? At the time of Jesus many in the crowd thought he was some man from way back who had come back to life again like Elijah and Zechariah. Some thought he was a popular man called John the Baptist. Then Jesus gets personal. He then asks: WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?. So Peter answers first. And Peter answers: You are the Son of God. Peter got it right. And after Jesus was known to be the real Jesus, then he could be treated differently, and those who claimed they believed in him would have to act accordingly. Jesus then goes on to tell a little about why God sent him to us. He tells us that he will suffer and be rejected and be put to death to rise again on the third day. Those who follow him will have to accept a similar pattern of suffering. What is asked of Jesus will also be asked of his disciples. More important is how we answer Christ's question. Who do we say Jesus is? Put another way, what is our image of Christ? What is our image of God? For some their image of God is a distant, punishing God who is always waiting to find out our faults and condemn us. Or for some God is an abstract concept with no relationship with real people. Or for many in the younger generations God does not exist. God can also be a close friend, loving and uplifting, particularly when I need someone to care. But does my God challenge me, asking me to live out the same pattern that we see in Jesus? And when God makes this challenge does God leave me on my own, or is God my companion on the journey, not asking me to do anything except what God has already undertaken? These are not always easy questions for us to answer, but we have to answer as honestly as possible because in doing so we are not just making a statement about God's identity; we are also making one about our own. It really does not matter very much if all we do is to give back what we know about Jesus but have no desire to live as he lived. Being a follower of Jesus is expensive. Jesus tells us the cost: IF YOU WANT TO BE MY FOLLOWER, HE SAYS, YOU MUST FOLLOW IN MY STEPS. WHERE I GO, YOU GO; WHAT I DO, YOU DO, HOW I LIVE, YOU LIVE. If you believe that I am the real Jesus, son of God, then you must be willing to be rejected and considered an outcast. Instead of listening to or telling stories that embarrass or destroy the dignity of human beings, you must refuse to participate in such talk. At times we are Christians of convenience. When it is convenient to take up the cross -- a small one, a light one. Paul tells us today in the reading that ALL OF US WHO HAVE BEEN BAPTIZED IN CHRIST HAVE CLOTHED OURSELVES WITH HIM. You and I are the body of Christ. ALL ARE ONE IN CHRIST. What happens after Baptism or a conversion is that we again doubt that Jesus is the real Jesus. Some answer they are Catholic because it is a good insurance policy, just in case. In doing so we treat Jesus as a John the Baptist or an Elijah or like someone come back from the dead. It is most important, however, that we not throw up our hands in the greater number of those who wrestle with or do not believe in God or Jesus or even in religion. Pope Francis, at his first press conference with members of the worldwide press corps, he gave a silent blessing over the non-Catholics and nonbelievers in the press corps telling them: I respect the conscience of each of you. To be a follower of Jesus means that we treat everyone with compassion and respect. To be a follower of Jesus means that we take the time to listen to those who do not believe in Jesus or in God. Doing this will provoke us to examine our own religious faith.

Homily for the Week of June 16, 2013

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2013 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13 Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11 Galatians 2:16, 19-21 Luke 7:36—8:3 or 7:36-50 From time to time we hear persons who complain that we don’t hear enough about the reality of sin. We are often reluctant to acknowledge something that is so obvious despite the seriousness of the matter. Anyone with cancer or another serious illness is foolish to refuse medical attention, yet we find ways to avoid seeing the cancers in our own souls. What do you do when you know you have hurt someone deeply or when you become aware that your patterns of life choices cause great harm to others? Sometimes you can kiss and make up with the person. But at other times it is not possible to repair the damage to the ones directly affected. Even when the person you hurt forgives you, you still search how to express the love and joy that come from being freed from guilt. Forgiveness seems so uncommon. But it always was. Today our first reading and our Gospel talk about sin and forgiveness. Our first reading on this Father’s Day tells us how a father’s sin led to the suffering of his own family and the family of others. It is about a man by name of David who became a great king, but he was not perfect. God had picked David to be king of Israel. But David wanted the Bathseba the wife of Uriah, so he arranges to have Uriah killed in battle in order to have her. David confessed his sin, and God forgave him. We know a great deal about David’s sins. In our Gospel today we have a small slice of the life of a sinful woman who spots Jesus. Jesus and his friends had been invited to Simon’s house for dinner. As was the custom for dinner she finds the guests reclining on cushions around the table, reaching into the center to take the food. She spots Jesus. We do not know her name or where she came from or any other details of her life. We do not know what kinds of sins she had committed, nor how she met Jesus. We do not know when or where it was that Jesus had met her before She was unescorted. She had let her hair down in public. Because no “proper” woman of Jesus’ day did these things, they suggest sinfulness in the area of sexuality. But we must remember that we don’t know her sin. What is clear is that her sins and reputation were public knowledge. Simon who had invited Jesus was somewhat concerned about what Jesus and the woman were doing. Simon was identified as a “lover of the Law,” Simon would follow it carefully, but he had not in terms of hospitality. The Jewish custom of hospitality dictated that honored guests like Jesus should have their feet washed. Another considerate act, anointing someone’s head with perfumed ointment, took care of unpleasant smells. Simon failed to offer the customary courtesies. The Pharisee, “the lover of the Law,” was not such a good practitioner of the faith. Simon may have invited Jesus into his home, not to learn of him or from him, but to judge him and condemn him. But the sinful woman, wordless and helpless, came to Jesus in order to kiss and anoint his feet. Simon harbors judgmental thoughts. He is certain in his knowledge that the woman is a sinner, and he is unaware of the forgiveness she has experienced. He is just as certain in his judgement of Jesus. Jesus cannot be who he says he is. Jesus offers Simon a little story about two persons who owe money to demonstrate what exactly is going on here. Jesus forgives her and sends her away. He sends her back to living without regret or shame. Jesus offered forgiveness without even being asked for it! How are we to deal with this kind forgiveness? Something stirred this woman to seek out Jesus. In doing only this she came to experience a sense of forgiveness. When she found Jesus, she didn’t have to ask for forgiveness. She already had gratitude to express, something entirely different from having to beg for forgiveness. Simon and his friends were not pleased. They would have rather like to see the woman on hr knees begging for forgiveness. They just did not understand the true feeling of forgiveness. Instead, they got a lesson in how to love and how to show respect for human dignity. Almost everything around us challenges our notions of God’s mercy. We set up standards for others that are designed to make them failures. We destroy our heroes. We prefer to condemn them for their sins rather than admire their achievements. We won’t give others new chances in life. We judge and either don’t give others a chance to change or don’t allow ourselves to see that we were wrong. Yet, God forgives before we ask — and even when we don’t ask. In our first Bible reading God forgaves an adulterous and murderous king David. This week ask Jesus to stop judging, and to expand your capacity to forgive.

Homily for the Week of June 2, 2013

east of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, 2013 Genesis 14:18-20 Psalm 110:1, 2, 3, 4 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 9:11b-17 We are all people who hunger. We hunger for fulfillment, for meaning, for happiness; but as the song goes, we too often “look for love in all the wrong places.” Today, on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, we obviously are asked to look to the Eucharist and see it as the food that truly feeds us. But the only where we can get feed with this food is here at Church and at a Catholic Eucharist service like you are doing today. Three weeks ago 13 girls and boys were spiritually hungry. They sat in these front pews and made their First Holy Communion. For many of us First Communion is the first time we join the older people in doing something they do. The photos, prayer books, holy cards and gifts we receive at our first Holy Communion become part of our religion. Each one of you could tell a story of your First Holy Communion. Today is the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In Latin it is Corpus Christi. When we receive Jesus we call it Holy Communion. The prayer that you and I participate in is called the Eucharistic Prayer. But I wonder how many of you see Holy Communion as satisfying your spiritual hunger. Nothing else! No one else! God alone can satisfy it. Last week we thought about the mystery of the Blessed Trinity that in God there are three persons. This weekend we have another mystery called the Blessed Sacrament. We believe that Jesus is present in the Holy Communion that we receive. It is not just bread but it is Jesus himself. Jesus told us one day: This is My Body given for you. this cup is the new covenant in My Blood poured out for you. If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood you have no life in you. From the time we enter the Church for Mass we are invited to realize that God along sustains us. Throughout the rest of the week we are at times tempted by millions of messages that tell us that something else is better. Little by little we can give in to those who tell us that we will find happiness if we buy certain cloths, drive certain car, maintain a certain weight, have a certain body shape, live in a certain home, have a certain kind of job, make a certain salary, have a certain amount of sex, have a certain level of popularity. Though there is usually nothing wrong in the things I mentioned, each time we are at Church for Mass we come to realize that only God alone sustains us. During part of the Church’s history, there was such a devotion to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist that believers would hurry from one church to another just to catch a glimpse of the consecrated bread as the priest held it high during the “Elevation”. There was a sense of their being blest just by seeing. And if you could not be there the church bells would ring so that neighbors would join in prayer with those at Mass. That is why today the altar server rings the bell when I raise the host and chalice. In the world of Jesus, the expression “body and blood” was a way of speaking of the whole person. In the ancient formula handed on to Paul and then to us, which we repeat at Eucharist, we are invited not only to receive the body and blood of Christ that is for us but also to “do this in remembrance” of him. “Do this” means not only to recall his words and actions at Eucharist but to imitate his whole manner of life. Moreover, “remembrance” is not simply to call to mind but to make present again Christ’s entrusting of himself to us in love. In the Gospel, we see how easy it is to miss the moment when Jesus can feed us. The Twelve Apostles and the crowd had been with Jesus all day as he was teaching them about God and restored the bodies of those who needed healing. With the day drawing to a close, the peoples’ physical needs now come to the fore. The Twelve Apostles suggest to Jesus that he send the crowd into the surrounding villages and farms to find lodging and food. Instead, Jesus directs the Apostles to their own resources All they have is five loaves of bread and two fish. They are sure there is not enough, and they quickly jump to the option of going out and buying provisions. Jesus, however, takes the five loaves and two fish, looks up to heaven, blesses, breaks and gives them to the disciples to set before the crowd. There is plenty for all and then some. How do we reproduce the giving of our whole selves, body, mind and spirit, to the one who is the source of all nourishment so that we may be broken open in love for the life of the world? Over the last 20 or 30 or 40 years, many Catholics have sadly moved away from the practice of their religion. Recently I met several people who introduced themselves as “reverts.” Raised as Catholics, they each spent years away from the Church, often looking for spiritual nourishment in various other religions or no religion. Each indicated that the key factor in returning to Catholicism was the Eucharist. “I missed the Eucharist,” one woman told me. “I hungered for it.” Many ask themselves the question: Why go to Mass? Why bother going to Mass when we can worship God anywhere? The simplest of answer is because it is only at Mass that we can receive Holy Communion. From the earliest days of Christianity, men and women and children have brought their deepest needs to the Altar table of the Lord. This is why we pray at Mass for the those who have died, and we pray for ourselves. It is at Mass that we can receive forgiveness for our sins, we can hear the teachings of God and Jesus given in our Bible readings, and we can pray with and for one another. Each of us are here today because our personal belief in Jesus, in his word and in his communion. But there are many who have made their first communion and for one reason or another have felt no need for a second or third or more communions. Each of you know such persons. Could it be that Jesus is asking you to invite them back?