Homily for the week of August 8, 2010

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010

Wisdom 18:6-9

Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22

Hebrew 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12

Luke 12:32-48 or 12:35-40

Americans are a mix of nationalities. We Americans love genealogy. We work to learn the origins of our ancestors and take pride in our ancestry and histories. Quite often we will point out some of our own behaviors and identify them as being “inherited” from one of our backgrounds. One person is fond of saying that he inherited a seriousness about life from his German ancestry and a sense of fun and play from his Irish heritage. As a consequence, he jokingly says, he takes his fun seriously!

We do speak of other nationalities as if certain behaviors and traits are truly ingrained in them. We will say that “the French” or “the Germans” or “the Irish” say or believe this or that. For example, one story is that “The Irish forget everything but their grudges.” Of the Germans it is sometimes said, “If it makes a German laugh, it will give others heart attacks!” They invite us to ask the question, “What is a Christian like?” We might say, “That’s the Irish in her.” Does anyone ever say of us, “That’s the Christian in her”?

Context is always a good place to start. A poll from just a few years ago noted that the standard of living of Americans — at least until the recent burst of the economic bubble — increased every year since the 1950s. On the other hand, claims of individuals to “be happy” declined each year since the 1950s.

In many cases those born after 1960 have divorced spirituality and church. As the number of people participating in church has dramatically decreased since in the last 40 years, the number of persons interested in spirituality has increased. But for most of these persons the path of spirituality is not organized religion. Typical today is the 30-40 year old person who wants faith but not the church, asks the questions but not the answers, wants the truth but not the obedience. They struggle with direction in their lives. They do not know which way to go.

Until quite recently being a Roman Catholic meant that you went to church every week, prayed privately, and supported your parish. These were the minimum, but Catholics also did not eat meat on Fridays, prayed the rosary, and participated in various devotions such as benediction, the Stations of the Cross, litanies to the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart, went to church on First Fridays, read the lives of the saints, prayed for the souls in purgatory, and had a crucifix in a visible place in your home. All of these spiritual practices nourished our Catholic faith, but not necessarily the teachings of the Catholic faith. They were all taken from the life style of the Catholic monks and nuns who loved silence and lived in monasteries and convents. And surprisingly, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco was never condemned by these monks and nuns. These practices, however, gave a sense of direction to Catholics.

Just reading some of the comments of young persons on Facebook leads one to sense a lack of direction. They will often quote a saying from some unknown scientist with greater faith than in the words of Jesus. They are looking for direction. They are looking for spirituality and meaning, but not through church.

Death surrounded the peoples of the Bible. The average life span was only in the late 30s. Jesus, if He died at 33 as tradition suggests, would have practically been an old man in the community. Only one in 10 babies lived to be a teenager, and only about one of five teenagers lived to be an adult. Violence was the order of the day. People lived with death daily. It was into this world that Jesus said, ''Fear not.''

How do you know if you have faith? It is plain and simple: you have faith if you trust the word of someone else. When you accept what someone says on faith, you believe in what the other person is telling you even if you have not personally witnessed or seen it. Faith means to trust. Having faith means being able to live with unanswered questions -- sometimes tough questions. Faith gives you the courage to endure and survive without having the answers.

To Catholics, faith isn't something you find. Rather it is a gift from God. God offers faith freely to anyone and everyone, BUT IT MUST BE FREELY RECEIVED AS WELL. No one can be forced to have or to accept faith. And each person responds differently to his or her gift of faith - at different times, at different levels and in different ways. Some people reject the gift of faith, some ignore it, and some treat it like a new pair of shoes. Others cherish their faith deeply.

The Letter to the Hebrew tells us that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Faith is taking a step into the unknown and trusting God to work things out. Faith demands a way of thinking that is completely opposite to the expectations of people of the computer age. Faith says that we cannot find the answers ourselves. Freeing the heart from attachment to anything but God’s love and God’s realm is the first step in faith. It is then that we can experience the fire of God inside of us and shape our lives and our bodies in the way that Jesus shaped his.