Homily for the Week of August 31, 2014

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time  2014

Jeremiah 20,7-9; Psalm 62,2.3-4.5-6.8-9’  Romans 12,1-2; Matthew 16,21-27

        

         You can’t turn on the TV these days without hearing about politics. Will Rogers told a story about politicians. One politican said to the other: I’ll stop telling lies about you, if you’ll stop telling the truth about me.

         Jesus would  have made a lousy politician. Politicians are busy telling us how they are going to solve all of our problems if we vote them. Jesus  is telling us today that if we follow him it is going to bring us problems.Jesus said: Whoever sishes to come after me must take up his cross and follow me.But let us not assume that if we decide not to follow him we will be without problems. Having problems comes with being human.Problems and crosses are part o everyone’s life whether we believe in Jesus or don’t believe in Jesus.But following Jesus helps us to deal with our problmes more easily because the cross that we take up will lead us to life everlasting.

         Religion has always tried to understand the mystery of suffering, espcially the difficult problem of why good people suffer. Books have ben written about the ways we can overcome suffering.  But none of them take away the mystery from suffering.The best answer is always found in the words and example of Jesus which we find in the Bible. By his own suffering Jesus has promised us that if we follow him  in our faith that will lead to a happy life that never ends.

         Again today we hear about Peter. Last week Peter said that Jesus was the saviour.But those words were hardly old when jesus tells him today that he will  have to suffer and that he would be put to death. But that was not the kind of Saviour that Peter thought Jesus would be. Peter thought that Jesus was not so much a religious savour but more of a politician. Peter and probably many of those who listened to Jesus thought of him as a person who would defeat the Romans who occupied Palestine and he bring back the good old days when the Jewish people had peace had their own king. That Jesus would have to die a horrible death was not in Peter’s plans for Jesus.

         Peter wondered how Jesus could ever save them by suffering for them. For Peter, and maybe for some of us, that is ridiculous. Jesus scolded Peter for thinking that way telling him that he was thinkging like the devil. Jesus was not telling Peter that he was the devil, but that he was like the devil tempting that what Jesus had come to do for humanity was easy.  But Jesus knew history a lot better than Peter. Jesus knew the history of the Jews how they had suffered century after century because of their faith in God, or how John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousing who  have been put to death because by Herod, the Roman emperor. Jesus was telling Peter that he was not thinking like God but thinking as people often think.

         In a sense we too might be like Peter in our thinking, especially about suffering or when we have difficult times in our life. It is easy for us to think like others do about our difficult times, rather than to thing how God does. But to think as God does means that we must learn from God, to listen to God and to believe what he tells us. We do this by doing what we are doing now. We do it by praying and by knowing our Catholic faith. We then start thinking as God does. We know as God does. The problem with Peter was that he stopped listing to Jesus when Jesus started talking about suffering. He started to tell Jesus what Jesus should hear rather then to listen to Jesus.

         Coming to Mass as you are doing now helps us to think like God thinks. We listen to God as he speaks to us from our Bible readings. As we struggle with our own difficulties and sufferings we also learn how Jesus overcame his suffering.

         We also come to church to learn. We can’t know God or Jesus  by looking at a blank sheet of paper. Anything that we know and are good at doing we have had to learn from someone and then put it into practice. The same is true about our faith in God or Jesus which we call our religious faith. As adults most of you have had to update yourself in most every thing that you do. Otherwise you would be out of date in the same way we may think about food or medicine. So too with our religion. We don’t have to take new courses in religion but we do have to update ourselves from what we learned as young children. There are many ways to doing this. That is why in our parish we use the type of Sunday bulletin which provide you each week a short answer to a question being asked by thousands of Catholics about our faith. The answer can be a means of learning, not only for indviduals but for families as they discuss the answers together. 

Homily for the Week of August 24, 2014

TWENTIETH-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A 2014

Readings:  Isaiah 22:19-23; 

Romans 11:33-36; 

Matthew 16: 13-20

         A new school year will soon be here. We all have our own memories of school and of classroom participation.  One of the memories might be tests that are planned and announced by the teacher and some pop tests that are unannounced. At the time of Jesus there were no schools or teachers or classrooms like those with which we are familiar.  But Jesus very often called himself teacher, and many times his friends called him The Teacher.  In the Bible reading for today we listen to Jesus giving his closest friends a pop quiz. It was a basic question: Who do people say I am?

         This happened when Jesus and his disciples were in the region of Caesarea Philippi, a pagan area about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.  They were standing at the base of Mount Hermon, in front of a bunch of niches holding statues of pagan gods at the top of which was a statue in honor of Julius Caesar. It is here that He asked his close friends who others thought he was. He got a variety of answers.  This was an indication that he was not well known -- perhaps much like the answers he would get from persons today. 

         Then Jesus turns the question around and makes it more personal.  He asked his friends who they though he was.  There was a long silence.  Then there were a lot of wrong answers. But then Peter answers correctly: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus then tells Peter that he gave the right answer. He got an A or 100% on the test. As a reward Jesus appoints Peter as the first leader of the church, or was later known as the First Pope.  Since Peter there have been 265 Popes.

         That passage has been the subject of much controversy over the past 2000 year history of the Catholic church. That the Pope is the head of the Church is a belief that has not been accepted by other Christian churches. And even on our part, we may not fully understand the implications of who the Pope is.  Some think he is sinless. Others give him supernatural power, others believe he cannot make a mistake; others think of him as a man who has too much authority, and some could care less about the Pope.

Homily for the Week of August 10, 2014

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a · Rom 9:1-5 · Mt 14:22-23

         A good number of you know how to swim.  Most of you have probably paddled a canoe or kyak or rowed a boat.  Some of you have been water skied.  Not as many have sailed the seas on board a yacht or a cruise ship.  How many of you have ever tried walking on water? The closest 21st century answer to this question was when a bride told me that she felt like walking on water as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day. 

         Water like sunshine is one of God's gifts that we either have too much of or too little of.  Water symbolizes many positive things. It can quench thirst, sustain life, cleanse, even be a means of relaxation or the means of contemplation. As Christians we certainly relate to the water poured over the head of a child being Baptized. Water has such a positive symbolic value that we can forget that water also represents chaos and death. Water is meant for drinking, washing, cooking, fishing, swimming. Water quenches our thirst, sustains life. But water can also destroy life in equal and frightening measure as in hurricanes and tsunamis.

         You often hear in the Bible about the Sea of Galilee. It was really a small freshwater lake about the size of Chazy Lake located northern Palestine and touches Syria.  It was also known for its violent storms. No one could predict the violent storms that broke out unexpectedly. Fishermen were so afraid of the Sea of Galilee that they saw it as the home of violent gods. 

         In the Gospel today we find the disciples in the evening in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. For the apostles, water still represented a place where demons and evil gods lived. To be caught after nightfall in a boat in a windstorm would have been frightening. They surely thought they might die that very night.But this night something strange happens.

         As  the disciples were rowing right into what would turn out to be a big wind storm which overturned their small fishing boat they notice someone coming to them walking on the water, They call out to him, and Peter on impulse starts walking towards him across the water.  But because of the strong wind and in fear, he began to sink and cries out for help. This person holds out his hand at once, and holds him. When the wind died down, and in the calm they recognized him as Jesus.

         Our first reading today is about a miserable person named Elijah. Queen Jezebel wanted him dead for critizing her poor leadership.  To save his life he decides to live in a cave.  Elijah wondered why God would not take care of him after he had done all that God wanted him to do. He prays to God. He stands on the mountain, where the Lord was to pass by. He also experiences a great wind; then an earthquake and thunder, and then a fire. God was not in them. Instead, God was in the sound of a gentle breeze. God was in a tiny whispering sound., God was in the sound of silence.

         Perhaps this gives us a clue as to how God speaks to us, not in  a storm or strong wind, but in the sound of silence. God's voice speaks to us in the ordinary events of our lives. Today many of us have gotten into the habit of instant communication because of the technology on which we depend. Our need for constant communication can fill our life that we don't have time for silence.  We are bored with silence.. Today’s Bible readings invite us to choose to enter into spaces of silence.

         Religiously, spiritually, for most Catholics there has been for centuries a struggle between faith and doubt. That was Peter's problem in reaching out to Jesus by trying to walk on water.  Peter began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. As long as he focused on Jesus, he walked on water. The moment he lost his focus and saw the storm, he began to sink. 

         That is also our story.  Most of us have faith, but we often lose our focus.  We see the storms and the wind around us. The wind in our life can be most anything that prevents us from being real. It could be pain: the pain of loneliness, insecurity, envy, not enough money or job.  It is easy to overcome this pain with homemade remedies or addictions which make matters worse. Just as we go to dentists and doctors to get rid of our pains and to be healed, we Catholics must turn to our faith in Jesus to heal our deepest personal wounds. Daily, however, we need to put into practice the faith that we express here today. The Bible and our Catholic Church tell us that God is with us even in these difficult moments.  Like Peter It would be so easy to believe if we could only get rid of the wind.

         Our faith does not take away suffering, but it provides us with remedies. If you keep your focus on Jesus and not on your surrounding storms you too can walk on water.  There is no struggle God cannot calm. We must find time in each day  to be silent with him--a short prayer in the morning,  or just the words "thank you" when we remember his goodness--then his voice will be in that stillness and his hand will hold us.  We need to appreciate the sound of silence.

Homily for the Week of August 3, 2014

18TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR, YEAR A  2014

Isaiah 55:1-3     

Romans 8:35, 37-39   

Matthew 14:13-21

         During the World Youth gathering in Los Angeles in 1987 Tony Melendez played the guitar and same the song Never be the Same in the presence of Pope St. John Paul II. That event not have been extraordinary other than Tony Melendez was born without any arms. But he was also born with the gift for music, so he developed that gift in a unique way.  He plays the guitar with his feet. He started with a push-button organ and moved to the guitar and the harmonica. And he has shared his gift of music in concerts throughout the world. He continues to give his hope to all persons, especially those who have disabilities.

         Like Tony Melendez 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. 

         Our first reading today sounds as if we were invited to a summer picnic. 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.   The friends of Jesus did not  have very much going for them. Five loaves and a few fish is all they have to feed a crowd. They are hungry. 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. 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, Tony Melendez, who threw away his artificial arms at the age of 10 and took advantage of his feet and toes. .

         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. 

         Jesus gave to the disciples, and the disciples gave to others. And today we still receive and give. What God has to give is always satisfying. Not only is it satisfying, but is always free. God is so generous that there is always more than is necessary. And there is still more. We might have to sacrifice some current values and earthly things, but what God offers is well worth the price. God stays with us always remaining with us not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always!  But I leave you with a few questions:

What do you suppose the disciples did with the 12 baskets of left-overs?  What do you do with my left-overs?