Homily for the Week of February 23, 2014

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

Lv 19:1-2,17-18 • 1 Cor 3:16-23 • Mt 5:38-48

         I recently read about 10-year-old girl who had been chosen to read the Gospel I just read at a prayer service for her class. When she got home from school she said to her father, “I had that passage where Jesus says, ‘Turn the other cheek.’  Dad, I think Jesus is wrong.” We might think so, too, or at least we might wish that Jesus is wrong or that he meant something less literal. Unfortunately for those who wish Jesus did not mean exactly what he said, But Jesus did mean exactly what He said. Jesus and all three Bible readings for today tell us that his followers must be holy. 

        

         And it is appropriate that we should consider holiness today since we have about 10 days before we begin Lent. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal during which we try to do more holy things like praying more, learning about our Catholic faith, and trying to change how  we might be living our Catholic faith along with fasting from food and other things that control us. We do not have a preparation time for Lent.  However, we should turn our eyes toward Lent and ask ourselves how we are going to use it.  

         But what is holiness?  Usually we think we are holy when we are being good, doing good things and avoiding sin. You may be surprised that this is not exactly holiness, because any good person is good, does good and avoids evil. . To be holy is to try to be like God.  God loves all of his children; so must we. God forgives, so must we. God expresses mercy, so must we. This is incredibly hard, but with God’s help it is possible. Being holy is about a relationship, not about goodness.

         When we think about holiness we often think of individuals such as the saints like Saint Brother André of Montreal. Persons like Brother Andre or Mother Teresa give us examples as how to live as holy persons. But these were holy because they introduced God and Jesus to others. When did you talk about God or Jesus to others? Is your family, your workplace, your school, more God like because of you? To be holy we must concern ourselves not only with our individual relationship with God, but also with our relationship with the communities to which we belong.

         Our first reading today was from the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The part of Leviticus we read from today is referred to as the Holiness Code. The three sentences outline for us the way to approach holiness. You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Cherish no grudge against anyone. You shall love your neighbor has yourself. God tells us. These requests of God have to do with our relationships within the community in which we live. We are not to bear hatred toward anyone in our community because God does not. However, we can point out to others when necessary who are doing something wrong, because, if they are doing wrong, everyone suffers. God has a history of correcting those who lead others astray. We take no revenge and we hold no grudge because God does neither of these things. If we do them, we hurt the community. We are to act in love toward those in our community because God does. This love is not about how we feel about someone; it is about our willingness to care for someone. 

         Over time there developed a system of justice that fell astray from this Holiness Code. A system of retribution and revenge developed.  

         Jesus gives us an updated Holiness Code, one that goes far beyond the demands of Leviticus. In Jesus’ day, the worst insult was to strike a person on the cheek with a backhand. This insult always resulted in a bloody fight. Honor had to be satisfied. But Jesus said, “No.” Honor is not regained this way. Honor is regained by not retaliating. To make His point He exaggerates by saying we should even offer the other cheek! This would not have been well received at all. The point is that for Jesus, reconciliation and preserving the unity of the community of faith outweigh all other considerations. Jesus is not advising us to let evildoers freely abuse us; rather, we are not to retaliate by the same means. We are to respond with an action that confronts the evildoer non-violently, thus breaking the cycle of violence and opening up a new possibility by which gestures of reconciliation can be reciprocated.

         In the last section Jesus deals with the command to love our neighbor. Nowhere in the Bible is there a command or permission to hate the enemy.  We are to set no bounds on our love just as God sets no bounds on his divine love for us.

         Holiness is found in following the purpose of Jesus’ life: preaching, death and resurrection. All was done to reunite us with the Father, to bring us into community with the Father. For our Lenten discipline and sacrifice, we might ponder how we can achieve this holiness. You will find at the entrance to the church a variety of booklets on our Catholic faith, our Catholic prayer, and our Catholic way of life. Use them to help you being holier during Lent 2014.

Homily for the Week of February 16, 2014

HOMILY: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sir 15:15-20 • 1 Cor 2:6-10 • Mt 5:17-37

         Parents and teachers know that before you can communicate effectively with children you have to get their attention. Jesus had his own way of getting His followers to pay close attention. He would say, “Amen, I say to you.” But Jesus never used it at the end of a prayer as we do. The word “amen” has no English equivalent. It is an Aramaic word that was said when someone recognized the deep truth of something.  Jesus uses Amen a few times in the Gospel which I just read.

         The readings for today set before us some basic principles for living out out daily lives as friends of Jesus. As much as God loves us and desires our good, God does not force us to accept the road leading to salvation. The choice is ours and is part of that wonderful gift of freedom which God has given us. But today I would like to reflect with you on right and wrong. Like it or not, in our Catholic faith there is black and there is white, but too often we insist that there must be some grey. The more secular the world becomes, the more we live in various shades of gray. This is a dangerous moral climate. The Gospel today calls us to remember that even though there is a color gray on the color chart, there is no such moral color. There is only white and only black.

         The rabbis of Jesus day were religion teachers.  They would distinguish between very serious commandments such as “Do not kill” and minor ones. We still make distinctions today. We excuse some sins thinking, “At least I didn’t kill anybody.” Many people make distinctions. Some lies are bad and some lies don’t matter because they are only “little white lies.”

         Our Gospel reading today stands in contrast to this practice. Jesus speaks of “jots” and “tittles.” The “jot” is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It looks like an apostrophe. A “tittle” is a flourish on a letter such as the top or bottom bar on a printed capital “I.” Jesus said He will not do away with the smallest letter of the law or the smallest part of a letter.  We are to be good and do right. There are no exceptions. This is hard: Transgressions, no matter how small, are never acceptable.

         A sin is always a choice. We make choices every day. Some choices are bad, and they bring with them bad consequences. We should never be shocked or taken by surprise when our bad behavior brings bad consequences. Jesus gives examples that stand even today. If we choose to be legalistic, we may think that we have never broken the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” but Jesus makes clear that He is not interested in legalism. He is interested in right and wrong. Our emotional, moral and social health begins with what is on our mind. So Jesus tells us that not only is murder wrong, but so is the mental attitude of hatred and unforgiveness that we  may choose to carry around with us. Even if we never act it out by killing someone, an attitude of hatred and revenge will affect not only the person who holds on to such feelings but also his or her relationships with others. The same is true with regard to sexuality, honesty and so on. I am not talking about those passing temptations that we have, where we may feel extremely angry toward someone or we feel a physical attraction toward someone. I am talking about  holding on to those feelings, nurturing them, wanting to keep them. Choosing to hold on to negative, destructive, sinful, or evil thoughts will only bring about immoral or bad results.

         Thoughts are like seeds in put in the ground.The kind of seeds in put in the ground will determine the kind of plant that will grow. The kind of thoughts we plant in our minds and imagination, or that we let others plant there, will affect our attitude, our mood and our behavior. Jesus is telling us we must have control over our thoughts. We have to make good choices as what we feed our mind and imagination.

         God gives us the opportunity to change our lives, to follow the road which leads to life. If you choose to keep the commandments, they will save us. We have been given by God the power to chose between good and evil, between life and death.

         God knows us so well that he knows and understands every one of our deeds and even our thoughts. Maybe fortunately, or unfortunately, God never commands us to act justly. However, God never gives us permission to do wrong.  We need the wisdom described by Paul in our second reading. Paul reflects God's thinking. Paul prays that we will be given discernment so that we might have God's law in our heart.

         The teaching of Jesus is truly challenging. Its focus is the heart, the place of human feelings, desires and hope. Jesus wishes to bring the human heart alive with the warmth of his love. When our efforts to become better people focus simply on behavior, they are misdirected and will be frustrated. Following the teaching of Jesus, we focus on the heart: on our feelings, desires and hopes. This is where Jesus is at work within us, and where the Spirit renews us. And what is changed on the inside will show itself on the outside.

         In about three weeks we will begin Lent.  Lent is a time for us to return to the Lord those parts of our life which we have taken over for ourselves, or to listen to the voice of God inscribed in our hearts. We have an opportunity to examine our choices. We are either choosing to follow God, or we are not. We are either under society’s influence to rationalize, or we have chosen Jesus Christ and His vision that there is right and there is wrong. It is the most important choice we will ever make.

Homily for the Week of February 9, 2014

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2014

Isaiah 58:7-10,  Psalm 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9,  1 Corinthians 2:1- , Matthew 5:13-16

         You are the salt of the earth.  These are the words of Jesus which I just read.  But I can hear doctors and health care professionals cry out: But don’t get carried away with too much salt.

         Life depends on salt. We cannot function without it. The people of Jesus’ day would not have known it, but even the proper functioning of our nervous system depends on salt — sodium — although too much salt can hurt us. Salt is good for many things. It was once used as currency, thus giving rise to the expression, “He is not worth his salt.”  Because salt was a necessity years ago workers were paid with a number of portions of salt from which we get the term salary. 

          Salt gives flavor to food. Salt is still used as a preservative, and its use as a preservative has given us a taste for various foods. Because the people of Jesus’ day were every bit as dependent on salt as we are, salt made a good image for Him to use. However, the image might not work as well for us today since we are used to salt being crystalline granules in a salt shaker, that is, well, always salty. So you might ask: How, then, could salt lose its taste?

         Table salt was not used at the time of Jesus. The sea is a major source of salt, either the present day seas or ancient sea beds that are now dry. For the people of Jesus’ day, there were two primary sources of salt. One was seaweed. People simply put some seaweed in the pot and cooked the salt out of it. Once the food tasted right, the seaweed was removed. The seaweed could be used several times, but eventually all the salt would be cooked out and thus “lose its taste.”

         The second and more common source of salt was from the Dead Sea, the saltiest sea on earth, but this salt had other minerals and compounds mixed with it. When Dead Sea salt deposits were dissolved for their salt, the remaining minerals would leave a useless, bad-tasting compound. The remains were good for nothing “but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

         Both of these sources for salt gave the experience of having the flavor of the salt go flat. This can be like our experience of certain people. We meet someone and are immediately taken with the person. He or she truly “adds spice to life.” But, sometimes such people prove to be shallow. After a great start with them, we find ourselves being disappointed. They are not worth their salt.

         Jesus’ reference to salt today, however, is not exclusively about salt as part of our diet or about enhancing the flavor of food. His clear meaning was that His followers are to spread His teachings throughout the world and not grow weary in their efforts. Years ago salt was put on an infant's tongue as part of the baptismal ritual as a symbol of everlasting life. As Jesus called his disciples “salt,” they may have understood any of these meanings: they were to season and to purify the world with God’s love, giving witness to divine fidelity that preserves life for all eternity.

         Today Jesus uses both the image of salt and the image of light to tell us how we are to live and act as His followers. Just as you don't turn on a light just to turn it off again, so Jesus is telling us that we his followers must not stop being a light to others who might be in darkness.   Although there are many times in our life when temptations and struggles to be good may threaten to dilute our “saltiness” or dim our light, nothing is ever able to take away our capacity to illumine God’s love for others.

         Like salt we are not called to smother others with our Christianity. But, like salt, we are asked by Jesus to permeate society with his message and to add zest to the lives of others whose salt may have gone flat, or who have not yet found the salt of spirituality. But we are also called to leave no trace of ourselves. We are called to produce the little deed, the unnoticed presence, the unassuming influence. We are invited by Jesus to restored the flavor.

         The same kind of example with wide impact is wrapped up in the example of light.  Scientifically, light is more complicated than salt. To understand light involves such concepts as wave and radiation. We are left to ponder how light can travel at the speed of 186,282 miles per second. For example, as tiny as a candle might be, when placed in a room it fills the room with its presence. Also, we don't try to hide a light which we have turned on. But we place it so that it allows us to see.

          A lamp is meant to be used. A hidden lamp is useless. Such is the gift of our Catholic faith and religion. It is meant to be used. Faith must be shared. It must be seen. Our faith must not be left in the church where it is hidden. It must be put on the lampstand of the world so it aids everyone. In our first reading tody Isaiah put faith on a lampstand.He says: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed, clothe the naked.” These are outward expressions of faith. Isaiah says we must participate in these expressions of our faith, but we are not to do these things for our own glory.

         You and I were first invited to be a light to others at Baptism. We were given a candle lighted from the Easter candle -- the symbol of spiritual life and resurrection --  and our parents and/or godparents were asked to hold it for us.  The Resurrection candle is placed in front of the casket at a funeral in order to remind us that this person who has died was blessed with the light of Jesus, and has now resurrected with Jesus to everlasting life. We light candles at the altar as a symbol of the light of Jesus. However, one isolated candle does not light a community, but it might encourage others to place their light on the table.

         If we go to Mass just to get something, then Mass will go flat for us, and this is the biggest complaint, “I don’t get anything out of it!” The mistake is that we go not to get something, we go to give something. We go to express something. We actually do go to Mass in part to be seen. If my friends see me there, they will gain support from my presence. Certain kinds of faith, like a certain source of salt, can go flat. We can’t let that happen.

         Jesus was a carpenter, not a chemist or scientist.  Yet by using such simple examples as salt and light, he was telling us how important it is for us to live, work and pray together.  One little grain of salt can do nothing by itself. It can only be effective when it joins with grains of salt.

Homily for the Week of February 2, 2014

HOMILY: Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2014

         Most of you may not know that this weekend has several celebrations associated with it. You may all know that it is the Super Bowl weekend, but may have realized until you came to Church that it was the Presentation of Jesus by his mother and father in the temple, or it was Candlemas Day in those churches where candles are used, or it was weekend when a groundhog in Pennsylvania will predict whether or not we will have more weeks of winter. But today I want to concentrate on the Presentation of Jesus in the temple.

         Young parents, after having experienced the birth of a beautiful baby, are eager for the many presentations they will soon make. Certainly there will presentations of their baby to family, presentations to friends, and hopefully the presentation to the Catholic church at the baby’s Baptism.  Over and over again they will present their child as a sign of love and thanks.

         It would only be natural that Mary and Joseph would also celebrate the birth of their baby Jesus. The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord recalls two Jewish parents faithfully fulfilling the requirements of their faith.  Six weeks after the birth of Jesus,  Mary and Joseph followed a Jewish religious custom of bringing their child to the temple and presenting him to the rabbi and others who were there.

         In the temple was an elderly couple by the name of Simeon and Anna. They meet the baby Jesus, who had been brought to the Temple by his parents. This meeting of young and old represents a turning point in the history of humanity’s relationship with God. Simeon and Anna have spent their lives serving God and looking forward to the coming of a Saviour. Then one day Jesus suddenly enters his Temple. Simeon is overcome with joy and peace as he realizes that the age-old hopes of the Chosen People have found their fulfillment in this six weeks old baby.

         But with this joyful event there comes a warning to Mary. Simeon warns Mary that a some day a sword will pierce her heart. That was a prediction of the kind of suffering and death that would be part of Jesus’ life -- and Mary, his mother.

         Every day we are tempted to choose what we want over what God wants for us and of us. God presents himself to us in many and varied ways. Simeon and Anna prayed to see the coming of the Lord whom Malachi and the other prophets had foretold. How was it they recognized in one baby the answer to their prayers? Of this we have no clue, but what we do know is that they were looking. We are being reminded that God presents himself to us daily, and we too must be looking. As we begin to see God in our lives, we are expected to respond. A sword waits to separate those who choose to respond with their best from those who choose to hold back and place themselves and their wants above the needs of God.

         Will we choose to be like the two faithful Jewish parents who took their faith seriously enough to make a return to the Lord of the most precious thing in their lives, that is, their son whom they presented to God in the Temple? Or, will we choose to penny-pinch and be cheap like the people with whom Malachi was frustrated? Have we “robbed God” by withholding our tithe? Or, will the sword discern our generous love?

         Every day we are tempted to chose what we want rather than what God wants for us and of  us.  God presents himself in many and varied ways. Simeon and Anna prayed all their lives to see the coming of the Lord whom Malachi and others had mentioned was coming.  Somehow they recognized in one baby the answer to their prayers. God presents himself to us every day, many times a day. But we must be looking to recognize him. Once we begin to see God in our lives, we will respond.

         The Risen Jesus is present with us here and now in a very real way.  The question is whether our vision is as keen as that of Simeon's.  We will see Jesus in the ordinary events of our daily life. It is not a new pair of glasses or bifocals that will allow us to see Jesus. The PRESCRIPTION for seeing Jesus is the Holy Spirit  This is the Holy Spirit we received at Baptism.  At that Baptism we were also given a lighted candle and invited to be the light of the world. Of course, as babies, it was our parents who held the candle for us. But as teenagers and adults have we ligthted our own candle so that we could be the a light to those around us? God is not a distant God that is out there.  God is present to each of us.  On this day of the meeting of the Lord, let us see Jesus present in us and in others: our spouses and children, our friends, and also our enemies.  Let us be God’s presence of love and joy in the world. Our world will be starving for goodness unless we ourselves make a presentation  of our goodness to others.