Homily for the Week of October 27, 2013

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013

Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18

 Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23

 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

 Luke 18:9-14

         Those of you participate in Mass on a regular basis know that each Mass every day of the year is both different and the same. The readings from the Bible and the prayers are always different; the Eucharistic prayer which I proclaim at the altar is the same. From this pulpit you have heard the word parable used many, many times as part of the third reading known as the Gospel.  In the Bible there are only 4 Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The Gospels were written for different readers: some of them Jews like Jesus, some who had no religion, some who were Jews and became Christians. The Gospels give us the words of Jesus and how Jesus wanted his followers to live.  Jesus was a teacher.  Like all outstanding teachers he uses parables to teach.  A Parable is another name for a story.  Jesus uses parables, like the one in today’s Gospel, to help his listeners identify and change harmful behavior in themselves. Today Jesus tells us the story of two people who come to the temple to prayer. One of these is a Pharisee and the other is a tax collector.  One thinks he will avoid hell because he is such a wonderful person; the other throws himself at God’s mercy. 

          Pharisees enjoyed the unqualified respect of the Jews but were often opponents of Jesus. In English today the word Pharisee often refers to a hypocrite, to someone who pretends to be religious but who is not. At the time of Jesus, however, Pharisees were often devout and religious.  They were ordinary persons who volunteered their time to help others. They also tried to follow the Jewish religion with great care.  And by and large, the people loved and respected the Pharisees more than any other Jewish group.  That respect was earned because they went way beyond the rules of the Bible.  If the Bible said that a person should give 10% of his income to the temple, the Pharisee would give 20%; if the Bible said you should go to church once a week, the Pharisees went every day. But the problem with this Pharisee was that he thought  he was not a sinner like everyone else -- especially like the tax collector.

          In Jesus’ time the tax collector would have been regarded as the opposite of the Pharisee.  Tax collectors were an especially terrible group.  The tax collector collected taxes for the Roman government who ruled Palestine. The Roman government would set the amount of taxes to be collected. The Roman government would require tax upon tax upon tax from these poor Jewish people. They would tax the Jews blind. These taxes support the luxurious life style of the Roman politicians.

         No person was more hated than the tax collectors. They took money from those who were very poor and they would torture or abuse those who fell behind in their payments. Interest rates were often 25% on the grain the farmers raised. You may remember that one time Jesus went into the temple and throw over all the tables of the money of the tax collectors.

         Jewish persons could bid on an amount they would give the Roman government. They then would make a contract to pay the set amount to the Roman Government. The Roman government would then give the job of tax collector to the one who would pay the largest bribe to the Romans. In exchange the tax collector collected the tax from his Jewish neighbor, plus any amount he could collect for himself. Tax collectors often overcharged the people keeping the profits for themselves. They were also known as spies for the Roman occupiers. Jewish rabbis taught that there were two occasions that it was all right for a Jewish person to lie -- you could lie to someone who wanted to kill you, and to a tax collector. 

         In the story today the Pharisee and the tax collector both go to the temple to pray.  The Pharisee tells God how good he has been. His entire prayer directs attention to himself and his accomplishments: “I thank you...I am not like.... I fast.... I pray....” He thanks God not for the gifts he has been given but for not being like all the rest of humanity.   He appears to have no need of God.

         The tax collector, in contrast, beats his breast and prays simply, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Focusing on God, he prays for openness to divine mercy, which has the power to transform his sinfulness. The tax collector concentrates only on God in his prayer, while the Pharisee spends most of his energy focusing on how much better he is than the tax collector.   The sinner throws himself at the mercy of God; the Pharisee recites his spiritual resume. 

         What does this story highlight? The Pharisee was actually better than he said he was, and the tax collector was probably worse than he said he was. The problem Jesus exposes is that the Pharisee was comparing himself to other people while the tax collector was comparing himself to God. Jesus’ expectation of the Pharisee, and thus of us, is that we judge our goodness and holiness by looking at God, not by looking at those around us. God is the standard!

         This story can be both good news or bad news?  It all depends on our point of view.  For those who wish their good deeds added up on deposit in God’s heavenly bank, this story is bad news.  But for those who thought they were forever stiff-armed from God because of their terrible bad sins, this story is surprising good news.  Those who think they do not have a prayer to make it to heaven need to know that a prayer is precisely what they do have.  It’s all any of us have ever had.  Each of you have come to church because we are in need of God. Today as you prepare for communion personally prepare yourselves, not the one next to you.  As I hold the Eucharist for you to see and pray: BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, BEHOLD HIM WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD. And, and like the tax collector you respond: LORD, I AM NOT WORTHY THAT YOU SHOULD ENTER UNDER MY ROOF, BUT ONLY THE SAY THE WORD AND MY SOUL SHALL BE HEALED.  O LORD HAVE MERCY ON ME,  A SINNER.

Homily for the Week of October 20, 2013

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013

 Exodus 17:8-13

Psalms 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

 2 Timothy 3:14--4:2

 Luke 18:1-8

       The story that Jesus tells us today is about prayer. Prayer and praying are words and actions which we have heard since we were very young children preparing for our First Communion or even before that. But at one time or other most of us  do not understand why we must keep on praying.  Why do we need to be asking God for the same thing? We might think God is too busy, so why bother him again? Why do we need to inform him of what we want? We are told that God knows what we need before we tell him. Some may think that we can wear God down by asking him over and over again like a child asking a mother for the same thing. Or some may think that God is old and he forgets so we have to ask him again, or hope he changes his mind.

         All of what I have just mention is only one form of prayer: the prayer of asking God for something or what we call the prayer of petition. But as with any human relationship we can get tired of someone who is always asking for something.  So too in prayer. In prayer There are other forms of prayer such as adoration, of thanksgiving of forgiveness.

         If we want to grow in our relationship with God we need to grow in knowing God, in loving God and feeling the peace and love that only God can give. In each of our life we experience times of darkness or what we might think of being in a dessert without water or food or rest. So too in Prayer. There are times when we wonder if God is listening, times when our prayer gives us no consolation.The most holy of persons have gone through times like that and all of them tell us that they still  kept on praying. To continue praying during these dry times is to continue to grow deeper in our religious faith.  Consistency in prayer when we feel like it and when we don’t is most important for our religious growth.

         That is what the widow in our Bible story did. She was in a Catch 22 situation - A hopeless situation.  She is the helpless victim of an unjust system. A wealthy man is withholding a sum of money to which she is entitled. To get her money she must pay the judge the fee or a bribe which was necessary for her to get a court hearing. Yet until she gets the money she is too poor to pay the fee.

         The poor widow did not give up. Faithful to the age-old saying that THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE MOST GREASE she comes to court every day and makes a scene. She kept coming for weeks or even months.  The judge does not care for the woman or her complaint, but she will not go away.

         She finally finds a loophole in the corrupt judge's indifference. For the sake of PEACE he finally gives in, hears the case, and in a few moments grants her what she has so long sought for in vain. But Jesus also says there is a difference between the corrupt judge and God. Although the widow's situation was hopeless she did not give up. But with God, Jesus is saying, OUR situation is not hopeless. God is not the corrupt judge. He does not have to be bought off before he will answer prayer. God is always more ready to HEAR than we are to pray.

         Talking to God is the best definition of prayer. But prayer is also listening to God. Few of us can tolerate friends who do nothing but talk at us. Words are good. But in addition to words prayer involves our mind and heart.  Just like a good relationship, prayer must include insight and affection. 

         There are times when our experience of prayer seems to suggest that God is simply not listening.  Our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling and ricochet back to us. Is God deaf,  we ask. Yet how does prayer work? Why does war prevail everywhere when every day we pray for peace?  Why does God permit rich nations to ignore the hunger of millions in poorer nations?  Why do young  persons with great promises die young?  The more we see things like this the more difficult it may be to pray with confidence.  Prayer is not magic.  And God is not a magician.  But God is always with us even when we don't think so. 

         God answers all of our prayers in one of three ways: Yes, No or Wait.  A No or a Yes is very clear. We struggle with the Wait. We live in a right now world. We trade in a computer if a newer model is faster.  We want to eat at fast food places. We want overnight delivery.  We also want an instant answer to our prayers. When it comes to prayer, we are the ones who must change.  

         Prayer does not change God. Prayer changes us. It opens us up to the action of God in our lives. Like Moses we may get tired of making the same requests day after day. But we must not get discouraged. At every Mass and gathering we ask others to pray with us.

         It is up to each of us to find a method and place and even a position for praying that works best for us.  These too can often change. Praying takes creativity as well as faith.  Rarely will we pray like Moses, Aaron and Hur did today,with hands upraised on a hilltop.  But, hopefully, we will often pray by reading and reflecting on sacred writings, including the Bible, as Timothy advised us to do in our second reading.  At times we must pray with others and for others. We need people to support us. Children need to see their parents praying, and they need to pray with their parents every day.  Family prayer must extend beyond meals and bedtime.  Children experience security as they see their parents praying for God's help.  And, if prayer hasn't been a family tradition, it can seem very "unnatural" to introduce it as something we might do together as family.  Prayer must combine words and real actions on behalf of those in need.

Homily for the Week of October 6, 2013

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013
Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4
Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Luke 17:5-10

If I were to ask you which is your favorite book of the Bible, I doubt if any of you would answer Habakkuk. Yet this Old Testament book is the source of our first reading, but it is not at the top of most people's reading list. Habakkuk was one of the Old Testament teachers. He was a teacher about God and how God wants us to live. Today many parents name their sons after Bible names such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Nathan, Adam, Matthew, Luke, Mark, John, James. But Habakkuk? It has been a long time since I have baptized a baby boy by the name of Habakkuk.

The Book of Habakkuk is not a familiar book. It was written within a very short time span, between 605-597 B.C. It tells about the problems that the Jewish people were having with the Assyrians, the same country that has been in the news in the last 2 years. Habakkuk had watched many of the Kings destroy Assyria and Babylon and Jerusalem. Habakkuk asked the familiar question, “Why, God are you letting this happen to us? Why are you not listening?”

God responded to Habakkuk in a vision which Habakkuk was to write down on tablets. Writing on stone tablets would preserve the vision permanently. He urged the people to patience, reminding them that God’s way always triumphs. But in a sense if you were to read all three pages of Habakkuk book you might wonder if he wrote this book one night after watching the nightly news. He was living at a time of tremendous violence in the Jewish country.

Habakkuk is the voice of the oppressed, crying to God for help. In our society, if Habakkuk were living, he could hear of the child torn from her mother's womb. It could be the fearful grasp of the neglected and abused child put out on the street by her own parent and picked up by sex trafficker. It is the voice of the voiceless and the cry of the desperate.
In a sense we in the 21st century are living in a culture of violence.

At one time or other, regardless of age or circumstances all of us struggle with human suffering. It is not pleasant. It is not only
difficult to suffer ourselves, it is hard to watch another person suffer. Being with an ill person at the end of life can be one of the most difficult things we do. We are encouraged to care for each other even unto death.

Today in our second reading we can find Paul’s words to Timothy encouraging: “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love.” Peace comes only where there is respect for life in all its forms.

Not unlike Habakkuk, the followers of Jesus in today’s Gospel want Jesus to fix things by giving them more faith. Jesus reminds them that they already have faith enough to transform what seems utterly immovable. He gives examples. Jesus says a mulberry tree has a deep and extensive root system and is extremely difficult to uproot and replant. How we care for a parent suffering from cognitive impairment, or an infant with a disability does not reflect the degree of their humanity, but our own. We are dependent on them as they are on us. There can be no compromise with the standard Jesus set and continually call us to:

Jesus also tells us that we a tiny bit of faith we can do unbelievable things. At the end of the Gospel we are told that we should do what we are expected to do. The only way we can increase our faith is to live our faith by taking time to do the things that help us to live it such as taking time to pray, to read the Bible and by what you are now doing by coming to Mass. If we don’t live our faith it will be like muscles that we do not use. Maybe we have seen that happen in our own life, or have seen it in the life of others.

It is also important that we repeat the words that we have learned or have heard from the Bible. Words are so important, especially he words we tell ourselves. A whole area of counseling has developed around this idea of how what we tell ourselves affects our moods. It is called cognitive therapy. What we tell ourselves also affects our faith. If we always tell ourselves negative things such as God does not love me, he is too busy for me; God can’t forgive me; God does not hear my prayers; God is not here when I come to church we are going to believe these things. Instead we should tell oursleves what we have heard from the Bible: God does love me; Jesus hears me when I pray even when he says no; Jesus really comes to me in Holy Communion. Telling ourselves these things,
expecially we don’t feel it, or when the devil whispers doubts in our ears, helps strenghten our religious faith.

Jesus offers us faith in order to conquer despair. He gives us he example of the mustard seed. Mustard is a spice. The mustard seed is very small but it reproduces rapidly. Once planted it produces so many plants that it can be uncontrollable. Jesus told us today that with faith as small as a mustard seed we can do amazing things.