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Homily

25th Sunday Ordinary Time – The Lord is near!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 55:6-9; Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Phil. 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt. 20:1-16a

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near” is both an invitation and a warning.  The Lord is near, easy to be found who desires to remain with us but we must come to him so he can reveal himself to us.  The invitation is to recognize God in his infinite love and mercy calling us back to him.  He is with us even as we live in the flesh that our labor may be fruitful.  God is a generous God to those who serve him in his kingdom.  The invitation also includes a warning that our day is passing quickly and soon this life will come to an end and with it our opportunity to seek the Lord while he may be found.  If we but call out to him he is near to us ready to enter into our hearts. 

“The Lord is near to all who call upon him”.  In general, there are two kinds of Christians.  One view God as creator who after creation remains apart allowing humanity to live by self-determination.  The other side views God as someone who has predetermined all that is going to happen and we are just living it out like a play.  Both views by are wrong.  Today’s readings reveal to us that we have a choice of how we live our life in relationship with God.  He is near if we call upon him but he also allows us to be distant from him by our free will. 

The person who says “where is God” when hardship or tragedy comes reveals himself as someone who believed in a distant God, living “their life” and forgetting to call upon him for a deeper relationship.  The person who calls upon God in daily life is not immune from hardship or tragedy but is already being carried through to the other side of the turbulence able to weather the storm and by their faith is invited to come out and walk on water trusting in the Lord.  He is near to those who call upon Him always whether in thanksgiving or in supplication.  If we only wait to call out to him after the house is on fire the damage is done.   

The hope of the gospel is that we can come to God whether it is the first hour of our life or the last hour of our life while in the flesh.  The story of the landowner who goes out to hire workers throughout the day giving each the same wage at the end of the day appears by human standards as an injustice unless we recognize that love and justice work together.  The love and mercy of God is being extended to us who forget to call upon the Lord as we go about living our lives until at the end we recognize our need for God.  It is extended to those raised agnostic with no teaching of the gospel who by the grace of God one day hear the word and receive it in their hearts.  It is extended to the broken and suffering who in their pain call out in agony and receive mercy from God. 

The gospel story also has a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The son who demanded his inheritance and walked away from the Father left to create his own self-determination and squandered his inheritance, that is the kingdom of God.  He had enough common sense to return to the Father and seek forgiveness.  The son who remained with the father working all his life felt cheated by his father who received his brother back with great love and mercy.  It is a reminder that even the faithful sometimes don’t realize all that we are receiving from the Father which by the grace of God have not fallen away like the prodigal son.  In both parables, the landowner and the father demonstrate a generous heart.  The love of God is the love of a Father.  

Recall what we tell our children when they are little, “I love to the moon and back.”  They grow up and realize we can now travel to the moon and back so compared to God’s love of “infinity and beyond”, no comparison.  It wasn’t that long ago when our kids couldn’t wait to move out of their parent’s house and be independent and we were “helicopter parents” trying to follow them.  Now many are in no rush to leave the nest and we can’t wait for them to go get a job and have their own life.  The moon is college and they went there and have come back home.  The Lord reminds us, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”.  We are all a work in progress so when we turn to him, we open up that his will be done. 

Those who come into his kingdom and serve God all the days of our lives receive the promise of heaven.  Those who are to come later in life can also receive the promise of the Father.  Some are faithful from the cradle to the grave but many of us have veered through our life separating ourselves from God, Church, even from our family falling into sin.  The love of God is mercy and justice.  In mercy God desires all to enter heaven and in justice he provides the path of purification we call purgatory to “wash our baptismal robes” as Dante claims.  This is where love and justice meet. 

Purgatory is the promise of heaven but not yet and can be the joy of suffering in redemption for our sins already forgiven.  We can liken this to going to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.  When we go to confession the priest gives us the absolution and our sins are forgiven.  He then gives us our penance which we are to joyfully fulfill in thanksgiving to God for his love and mercy.  Purgatory is the heavenly penance we owe our Lord for his justice in final preparation for heaven. 

God desires all to be saved and today he gives us all hope that it is never too late to seek the Lord, turn from our ways and follow his call to salvation. 

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Homily

24th Sunday Ordinary Time – Remember your last days

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Sir. 27:30- 28:7; Ps. 103:1-4, 9-12; Rom.14:7-9; Mt. 18:21-35

God is mercy and mercy is forgiveness!  “Remember your last days” before you proclaim “no justice no peace”.  We are called to “forgive your neighbor’s injustice”.  Why do we “hug them tight” our wrath and anger when they are the poison of death while others remain alive?  In part, it is because we fail to see ourselves in the sinner.  In the heart we give thanks we are not like them and justify our “’righteousness” for anger and vengeance.  When we remember our last days the only thing that matters is our own judgment day before God.  He will judge the mercy of our hearts based on the love we offered to others. 

When Peter asks Jesus “how often must I forgive”, he is thinking between human relationships.  Our world however is not just between us humans, it is between us and God.  Jesus binds the debt of forgiveness between humans to himself and his sacrifice for us.  We owe it to Jesus to forgive others as he has forgiven us infinitely.  In this we die to ourselves when we come to realize it is not about us but how we are called to serve him with all our heart, mind and soul.  Jesus gave himself completely on the cross for us and we are to respond to this sacrifice in like manner giving ourselves completely to him.

False righteousness is like rejecting the leper for his visible disease while walking in ignorance of the invisible cancer growing inside.  “Remember death and decay and cease to sin!”  Anger and wrath become the poison we consume that leads to the death and decay of our humanity. 

Jesus likened “the kingdom of heaven” to a king who “settles accounts with his servants” and whether “we live or die we are the Lord’s” waiting our own day of judgment.  “Remember your last days” is God reminding us to live with the last days in mind so that our actions will be based on our preparation for eternity. 

Love humanizes us to a greater degree than the animal instinct to attack back.  Love is the antidote to our anger and wrath.  Love does not imply we never get angry.  Do we have a right to be angry?  Yes, anger has a just purpose in life.  Anger is like a fever in that the problem is not the fever but what underlies the cause of the fever.  Anger is a symptom and we need to examine the cause on its merit.  It moves us to speak and right action.  Jesus became angry in the temple with the money exchangers.  He was moved to action.  His action did not end in anger but a call to love God above all. 

Justice is the offering of Jesus for our sins for his mercy.  It is conditional on our forgiveness “as we forgive others”, our brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers “from the heart” for the injustice.  Jesus speaks to the disciples that “heaven is likened…(to) his master (who) handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt”.  As servants of the Lord there is a place for those who fail to forgive “until ‘we’ pay back the whole debt” which as a Catholic church we identify as purgatory.  Purgatory is for the chosen who remain with the stain of sin of unforgiveness. 

We live in times when the streets proclaim “no justice no peace” seeking reparation for a history of people who have long passed from the earth.  Some believe you can be the victim of other’s history standing in for another’s suffering with expectation of compensation as an entitlement.  They “hold them tight” wrath and anger for a historical identity as victims without personal sacrifice of suffering in the name of social justice.  This is likened to blaming God for the sin of Adam and Eve for falling into a world of sin and suffering.  It is a ludicrous philosophy of victimization for all creation. 

Who do we need to forgive?  It begins in the domestic church, husbands and wives must forgive each other from the heart; children forgive parents for imperfect parenting at best and abandonment or abuse at worse; forgive our friends and neighbors who we have stopped talking with.  The root of forgiveness lies at the seed of love from the home.  It begins with a decision to forgive and a prayer of petition to receive the grace of forgiveness in the heart.  We don’t wait for a feeling to forgive to arrive before forgiving.  We act on the command of God to forgive and trust God with our heart to bring us peace.

Take a moment to do an act of forgiveness for anyone who comes to mind who has offended thee regardless of how great the offense was.  Do it as an act of love for God regardless of any emotion felt toward the offender.  Picture the offender in your life as the sinner on the cross who was promised paradise after he asked Jesus to remember him when he enters into his kingdom.  Remember your last days having surrendered all your past sins with a true act of contrition letting go of all anger and wrath and receiving the mercy of God knowing as you have forgiven others you are being forgiven. 

Amen. 

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Homily

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time – Love fulfills the law

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ez. 33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9; Rom. 13:8-10; Mt. 18:15-20

Love fulfills the law!  The law of love is the practice of truth, Godly truth.  Today we hear that the law of love also carries a responsibility not only for our actions but to address the actions of the one we love.  God says “I will hold you responsible” not for the sins of another but for having remained silent and not warned “the wicked from his ways”.  God did not come to be a god of convenience but went about speaking truth to power.  He backed up what he said with the power of his word. 

In God’s world there is no “safe space” to practice sin and we are all called to be a voice for righteousness.  It is our sacramental duty to speak up against sin, to evangelize for Godly truth, to be a witness of faith by our very actions and yes, there will be repercussions, rejection, attack, and persecutions of every kind “but you shall save yourself”.  The voice of Godly truth is spoken with and through love that fulfills the law without compromise to the truth.   

The practice of the law of love comes with the duty to warn and it begins in the home called to be a domestic church.  The duty to warn however also requires the duty to love.  We are to hold onto the principle that the means does not justify the ends.  We cannot yell, threaten, or impose unjust punishment to gain compliance against the will of the other.  The Lord invites us to come to him and receive from him what is good, pleasing and perfect in his kingdom.  To inherit the kingdom of God is not an entitlement where all get to go to heaven.  We should never assume or take for granted God’s love, his mercy, or ignore his justice.   To be a law there must be truth and justice that underlies all love of God. 

The duty to warn must also reflect Godly love as well as Godly truth.  How often do we come to church knowing one of the family remained at home with no interest in giving to God of themselves an act of thanksgiving, with no desire to receive God’s body and blood and gain his holiness, with no sense of guilt for having offended God by rejecting him in the sacramental life of the church?  What are we to do?  We love, we pray and we invite not once but always. 

Godly truth and Godly love are both one and the same reflection of God.  It is better to say, “I pray that you will join me in going to church” than to keep repeating “missing church is a sin” when the baptized Christian already knows the truth.  It is better to speak of how we can “love them both” when speaking of abortion than to argue about the legality of personhood where we are able to do something about the former and not simply debate the latter.  Godly love is an invitation to dialogue in Godly truth and not to turn Godly truth into a weapon against the sinner. 

The duty to warn is an act of love delivered with God’s love and mercy.  This is how we are to love others as we love ourselves with the same sensitivity as a child of God.  This is how we witness to others when we avoid sin in our own lives and humbly acknowledge when we have failed to love.  We want others to desire what we have “Oh that you would hear his voice” and “harden not your hearts”.  The sign of God’s love in us is joy and peace in the midst of hardship, still giving of ourselves from the goodness we have received.  The cheerful giver is not one without troubles but one whose troubles don’t define their state of being grateful to God. 

In the gospel today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples giving them instructions on how to be a servant leader.  Jesus describes a process of gradual intervention we often refer to as subsidiarity where matters are handled beginning at the lowest level before progressing to higher authority. 

The principle of subsidiarity is that individuals should have the courage to face each other and speak to the issue that divides them.  It is so tempting to avoid the person or the issue directly with the one involved and go to our friend, family, or neighbor to complain about them.  The excuse given is “I tried but they won’t listen” so we give up.  We never take the next step which is to seek support from someone else who sees what you see or maybe even experiences the same issues and can both speak to the problem.  Instead, we remain silent even feeling isolated with our own dilemma. 

Today, Jesus is reminding us “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  When we come together in prayer and deed the power of the word is granted by Jesus as he promised “there am I in the midst of them.”  If Jesus is with us who can be against us?    Jesus also comes to us through his church who has been given authority to “bind” and to “loosen”.  Jesus was entrusting his disciples to remain united as one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

When love fulfills the law, it stands for truth and justice not according to our will but to the will of God.  The law of love must then be attentive to the voice of God not with any new revelation but with the confirmation that love is an organic process that deepens us in God’s truth and does not contradict itself.  God is not a contradiction and neither is the law of love.

Jesus reminds us that love binds and loosens the spirit of the law as we discern what is good, pleasing, and prefect for the will of God.  God’s will is to fill us with his graces that we may be in his glory for all eternity.  The duty to warn is simply the opposite side of the same coin calling others into God’s loving hands.  Those we love we warn and we embrace with our prayers for even greater conversion for both them and us. 

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Homily

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – You duped me!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Mt. 16:21-27

“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped” says Jerimiah.  Today we would say you conned me Lord but I could not resist you.  Jerimiah was not naïve knowing how he would be rejected and persecuted for standing up for the Lord.  Why would anyone be willing to walk into the “fire” of injustice, ridicule, persecution or even death?  It is the power of love greater than any fear.  It is love that makes a parent run into a burning house to rescue their child or a young man stand with his fallen soldier and fight rather than retreat to safety. 

In every human soul there is a warrior spirit to carry the fight.  This warrior spirit comes from God with a divine purpose to love, serve, and sacrifice.  What we love we will sacrifice for and it will serve a greater purpose than ourselves.  We sacrifice for our family out of love and serve each other that all may be united as one.  This is God’s call that we may all be one in him.  Jesus however calls us to love, serve, and sacrifice beyond our family to the degree of self-denial to “take up his cross and follow me”. 

Today, Jeremiah is suffering an interior crisis in accepting his call to be a prophet for the Lord.  He calls out to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”  Recall when a child comes about to ask for something there is a different pitch in their voice and so is in a spouse.  You know something is coming yet out of love of the person we accept being “duped” because we cannot resist their love.  This is Jeremiah’s reaction to God.  Jeremiah could not deny the Lord his calling knowing he would be persecuted.  In his weakness he wanted to remain silent but he could not contain himself what he knew was the truth God had revealed to him.  Even in weakness he understood there was only one right choice in serving God.  Do we recognize the choice God is asking of us this day?  In prayer we “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” obedience to his call. 

Suffering and dying to oneself will bring us to a crossroads where we will experience an interior crisis of faith, hope and love.  It presents in the many faces of suffering through sickness, death of a loved one, betrayal, persecution, rejection, even abandonment being forgotten as we age.  In the dark night where can we go, who can we turn to who truly knows us as we are but the one true God who brought us into this world and will come to take us with him.  A crisis of faith is a calling out to God to rescue us from our very selves, to see ourselves as he sees us, his love, mercy, and passion that died for us and will never abandon us. The God we trust more than ourselves.  God now and forever. 

Jesus is calling us to follow in his footsteps by being a warrior for what is good, pleasing, and perfect love of God.  When Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to rebuke him, he speaks as “human beings do”.  This is the same Peter who just before spoke through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God.”  How quickly he has returned to his human way of thinking.  How quickly we can lose focus of God’s call and will for us and become immersed in our own world unless we remain constantly coming to receive him in word, sacrament, and in prayer.  Peter reminds us that Satan never rests from being a distraction in the least and on the attack at worst. 

The universal church is under attack around the world.  In some places public worship is not allowed and the attack is from outside the church.  Traditional church values have been targeted as “extremist” and compared to “terroristic threats”.  Attack from the outside however is nothing new if we think back to the persecution of the early church.  The more it was persecuted the stronger and greater it grew.  This mystery is the fruit of sacrifice that came from the cross and martyrdom.  This calling remains today.  We are to not fear Satan from the outside. 

We are to be vigilant of Satan coming from the inside under the shadow of progressiveness.  Change can be good but it also can be the work of evil.  Jesus reminds us “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves”.  Change that is self-serving is not the will of God.  The innocence of a warrior dove is that it delivers the “truth” as revealed by God and not by man.  God wants you and I to stand firm and may our name be revealed with holy meaning that stands with and for Christ. 

God calls us by name so consider what God’s name for us is today.  God’s naming reflects his purpose and today he may be calling us “prayer warrior, voice of justice, fearless faith, comfort to the suffering, mercy to the unjust, hope in persecution”.  Most of all he calls us his own. 

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Homily

21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Key of the House

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-3, 6, 8; Rom. 11:33-36; Mt. 16:13-20

Who do we trust with the key to our house?  There was a time when we walked out of the house and left the doors unlocked.  Then we started locking doors and leaving a key under a pot.  Today we have bolt locks, key codes, and security cameras.  We learn to trust no one with what is our treasure at home.  There is a treasure we hold that is our soul and yet we often leave it open to all intruders, the music we hear, the movies we watch, the social media we follow, even the people we “party” with.  The soul is made for eternity, for God, guarded by his watch and he will sound the alarm when an intruder enters that does not belong unless we are foolish to welcome the enemy. 

Who has the key to God’s House?  “The key of the House” of God has been entrusted to his anointed from Abraham to David to Peter and his successors.  When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of God this is nothing new.  Looking back in biblical history God has always called on someone to lead his people with great authority as we see today in the first reading “what he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open”; and in the gospel “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”. 

We also recall the words to the Apostles in John 20:23 after he breathed on them, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained”.  God is trusting humanity with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  It begs the question “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?”  We are but sinners and yet by doing so he is demonstrating that all grace comes “from him and through him and for him are all things”.  This was something the early church had to recognize, whether a sacrament was valid if the presbyter committed a mortal sin.  The answer was “yes”, even if we fail, he does not fail us. 

Consider for a moment “who do we trust with the keys to our house?”  We trust family, maybe a neighbor, or a housekeeper.  Who do we trust with our soul?  From the days of Adam and Eve it was not right that we should be alone.  Adam and Eve trusted each other a fell from grace.  Jesus tells Peter “Get away from me Satan”.  Even those we love and trust can be misguided by the evil one.  My favorite short prayer is “Jesus, I trust in you.”  God alone is perfect, we are in search of him.  The church is his vehicle for the journey. 

You and I, deacons, priests, religious in our humanity are imperfect but God chooses the imperfect to demonstrate his perfection when we surrender to his will.  Salvation comes through Christ and we come to Christ by coming to his house of prayer.  The Church holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  It is the Church that gave us the books of the Bible bound in heaven and earth as sacred scripture, the Word of God.   It is the Church that gives us the channel of grace through which Christ makes himself present to us in the sacraments.  It is the Church that guides the people of God to discern the will of the Father in our times as we deal with the issues of society.  It is the will of God to institute a Church governed by his anointed to whom he gives the keys to his house and through his house to the kingdom of heaven. 

When Peter responds to Jesus saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Jesus confirms “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father”.  Some have said and continue to say “I do not agree with everything the Church teaches”.  There is a litany of issues people object to from celibacy of the priesthood, ordination of men only as priest, the church position on abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, confession to a priest, even the requirements for the sacraments.  The Church is an institution of authority instituted by Christ for his people.  The Church however is its people in which we all share responsibility for building up the kingdom of God. 

The Church is also called to listen to the people of God and calls together Synods in which the people are called to contribute as members of the body of Christ.  Synodality is a process by which laity and bishops share in collaboration and discernment as part of the body of Christ.  Synodality means a “journeying together as a People of God” to listen to each other how God speaks through the one and the many.  The guiding principle of synodality is that it is not about us, it is about God’s will for us.  Not only are we called to walk together but God walks with us so that our hearts may burn with his Spirit.  Together, we care for God’s House and together we build up the kingdom of God. 

We hold the key to the house of God, our home, our soul, our church.  We not only guard the doors to our house but we also receive those who knock and share of our blessings.  We also are called to be a welcoming church as a community of faith but must guard the doors of our church from the evil one who finds ways to enter seeking to desecrate the altar and the house of God.  We are best prepared to be a servant of God when we begin by guarding the door to our soul, rejecting evil, and the temptation to commit sin.  Then we will be ready to fight the good fight. 

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20th Sunday Ordinary Time – “A house of prayer”

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 56:1, 6-7; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Rom. 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt. 15:21-28

The Lord provides a “house of prayer for all peoples” who “observe what is right, do what is just”. We are living in an age when division not unity wants to rule the world.  There is division of religion, politics, racism, classism all in the name of truth and justice.  Jesus himself claims in Luke 12:51 “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth?  No, I tell you but rather division”.  Jesus speaks of division between the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one not based on the color of the skin, national origin, rich and poor, Jew or Gentile but on the great faith that saves when we observe the law of God. 

 This is that house of prayer that Jesus instituted as he poured down the Holy Spirit upon his people on Pentecost.  Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church with Jesus as our High Priest and the disciples as the new Apostolic priesthood for the world.  We rejoice in this house of prayer uniting our worship of the one true God with all the angels and saints in the Eucharistic celebration of the body and blood of Jesus.  It is the presence of Jesus in his house of prayer that is welcoming all people calling us to observe all that he taught. 

This is also the house of prayer that teaches us to observe what is right by following his commandments, listening to the Word made flesh, participating in the sacrifice of the Mass, and doing what is just.  It is what separates who is faithful to his teaching from everybody else.  When the Gentile woman comes to beg Jesus for healing for her daughter it becomes what we call a “teaching moment”.  Jesus knows who is his audience and the attitude between Jews and the Cannanites.  Jesus speaks to the truth of his coming “to the lost sheep of Israel” but as we discover the lost sheep not only did not accept him but were seeking to kill him.  The woman demonstrates a faith far greater than many of the Jews and he demonstrates salvation comes not from the Jewish laws but to those whose hearts are open to Jesus. 

Jesus spoke harshly to the Canaanite woman for she represented a culture that was polytheistic, worshiping many gods who were condemned in the Old Testament.  Canaanites were inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed by fire directly by God.  They were hostile to the Israelites as God gives to Abraham in Genesis the land of Canaan.  In this context we can say that the “enemy” of the Israelites is now asking for a favor from Jesus and he makes the comparison between children and dogs.  The woman however has the great comeback “even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters”.  When we humble ourselves before the Lord, he is merciful and forgiving. 

A child comes into this world through the womb of a mother.  She gives life to this child, blood of her blood and through the womb a mother knows sacrificial love.  When a child becomes sick a mother’s desire is to wish the sickness on herself if it would heal her child rather than see her child suffer.  It is humbling to see a child suffer and from deep within the sincerity of prayer comes to life our nothingness if we don’t have God.  The Canaanite woman was both humbled by Jesus and filled with faith and hope from her love of a daughter. 

St. Paul calls himself “the apostle to the Gentiles”.  The other apostles were going out to minister to the Jews in the synagogues that had spread throughout the ancient territory during several periods of exile called the Diaspora.  While the Jewish population was significant it was also small compared to the rest of the Gentile world.  Paul saw his calling was to the Gentiles who were pagan and followed many gods.  In the end, Paul became the greatest evangelizer of the world.  Paul desires “to make his race jealous” that they may see the face of God shine upon the Gentiles and come to conversion and “thus save some of them”. 

The Catholic Church in its wisdom by the gift of the Spirit recognizes that if we are to give worship to God in his house of prayer we first must come and admit our sins to be forgiven and for our sacrifice of worship to be acceptable to the Lord.  This is why our Mass begins with the Confiteor.  As St. Paul says, “For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all”.  It is the visible testimony of our need for God to fill us with his grace and strengthen our resolve to be a better Christian, to live more holy lives, and to seek his perfection that his face may shine upon us as a visible sign of God’s mercy upon us.    

As we come to Mass today let us come with the same desire and persistence to God as the Canaanite woman not acting out of the law of compliance but out of the law of love.  Let our prayer speak to our minds and reach deep into our hearts.  It is easy to fall into repetition of prayer and never truly pray.  Prayer comes from deep within, an honest expression of our very being, thoughts, feelings and experience of life as an offering of ourselves to God in this his house of prayer. 

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19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Take courage!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 19:9a, 11-13a; Ps 85:9-14; Rom. 9:1-5; Mt. 14:22-33

Take courage!  Recall the sketch of the man hanging from a branch off a cliff calling out to God for help.  The voice he hears says “let go”.  He responds “Is anyone else up there?”  Life is not about letting go recklessly, it is about trusting God faithfully. 

People of faith take courage in the middle of the storms of life God invites us to step out and “walk on the water” of faith.  Pope John Paul II is famous for calling on us to “be not afraid”.  Fear is very disabling and opens the imagination to create unfounded fears that begin with “what if”.  This is when we should say, “get away from me Satan!”  He loves to play on our fears and create doubt that God is with us.  God says, take courage, I am with you. 

Be actively still!  How, isn’t this a contradiction?  The actively still person has the movement of faith being actively attentive with a still heart to the whispering sound of God.  Peter was able to take courage because he heard the voice of Jesus say “come”.  That is all it took for him to have faith and walk on water.  The Lord will also direct us if we can be actively still listening for his voice. 

When Peter saw Jesus walking on water, it gave him hope and courage.   Jesus descended coming into our world to be that visible sign of God to strengthen our faith in all that is possible for those who trust in him.  He teaches us how to live and how to die to self.  Once we see with the eyes of faith all things are possible. 

Years ago, while attending a conference, part of the evening activities was a “fire walk” and a “glass walk”.  To see someone walk on hot coals and on a bed of glass made others also believe and do it.  I was one of those who was willing to step out in faith and do the walk, after saying a prayer.  The purpose of the activity was to recognize how fear is very limiting to what is possible.  God comes to say “take courage” I am with you through the fires of life.  We should not be foolish and tempt God but we should not be afraid to do the right thing. 

Take courage by being actively attentive to the voice of God who directs our ways through the heavy winds, the storms, and the fire of life as he calms our hearts and lets us see his kindness and grants us salvation.  God’s walk in not a “fire walk” or a “glass walk” but a “justice walk”.  He tells us, “Justice shall walk before him, and prepare the way of his steps”.  His justice was the way of the cross so take courage when we are called to carry our cross and unite it to his justice walk.  Recall the song, “They will know we are Christians by our love”.  Yes, they will know is we truly walk the walk of love and justice or hold onto the boat that sinks in fear.     

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Homily

18th Sunday Ordinary Time – Love of Christ

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 55:1-3; Ps. 145:8-9, 15-18; Rom. 8:35, 37-39; Mt. 14:13-21

“What will separate us from the love of Christ?”  Will anguish over a disease, or distress over family, or persecution by a political structure, or the spiritual famine for lack of love or the nakedness of our sin, or peril from injustice, or the sword of death?  Even death brings us to the love of Christ “to all who call upon him in truth”. Pride leads us away from Christ like the story of the prodigal son demanding what he felt entitled to when in reality everything we are and have is from God.

God is love in his truth not ours.  Recently the media reported that asexual dolls have been created with sexual body parts that can be exchanged to create the sexual identity the child wishes identify with.  These dolls are for children as young as four years of age.  It promotes the transexual culture and intended for use in publicly funded education.  To deny science and reason is the kingdom of evil doers let alone the truth given by God that is our faith.  This is how we separate ourselves from the kingdom of God. The love of Christ is a gift not an entitlement and to mutilate our bodies is to damage our souls and our relationship with God.

Truth is the path of love and to love God with all our heart and soul is the first truth of life.  To “heed” him in truth is the sign of our love.  Love is an active obedience to the will of God.  Jesus had a “thirst” on the cross and he is inviting us who have the same thirst to “come to the water”.  Jesus’ thirst was for righteousness and we receive his righteousness through the water of baptism.  He is a generous God “without paying and without cost” he provides for us when we heed him.  We become members of the renewal “the everlasting covenant, the benefits of David.” 

Having received him in water we can now listen to him in spirit as he speaks to us through his Word, through the bread that satisfies in the Eucharist, in all the sacraments and through the church meaning the magisterium of the church and the people of the church.  “The Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth.”  The love of Christ is everlasting.  Does this imply that all are going to heaven?  Recalling last week’s gospel parable of the “seed” as children of the kingdom and “weeds” as the children of the evil one, God’s care for all is not a predestination for all to go to heaven.  “Evil doers” and “all who cause others to sin” will send themselves into the “fiery furnace” because we heard but did not listen. 

Today the gospel demonstrates the power of God when we come to him who can satisfy our need.  Five loaves and two fish feed five thousand plus.  Really!  Yes, it is not a hyperbole but a reality in preparation for the sacrifice of his body and blood on the cross to become the true food from heaven remaining with us in the Eucharist.  In Christ and through Christ he is the one who satisfies our hunger and meets our needs of body and soul.  “Heed me, and you shall eat well” says the Lord who is near to us.  

“Why spend your money…for what fails to satisfy?” says the Lord.  In a highly commercialized world where everything becomes a “need” to satisfy nothing lasts except a continued “need”.  The world is in a famine for the Truth that lasts.  Every other worldly pleasure or pseudo-spirituality has failed humanity because it comes from the ego to be our own God.  Today there is a rise in young people in search for something more than what the world and the culture have created.  Truth is God satisfies!  He is our peace as we heed his voice and follow his truth. 

What separates us from the love of Christ is when we fail to heed him, we separate ourselves denying him as we deny his word and fail to listen in Spirit and truth.  Consider how many times God was ready to respond with his love if only we followed his command, “Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life”.  The “I” of our ego kept us from him and the pride of our heart wanted to do it “our way” as he waited for us to call upon him, we denied him once again. 

Come and be satisfied at the waters of life, at the bread of salvation in the Eucharist, and the Word of truth in scripture and remain in his presence.  The goodness of the Lord is everlasting and today he invites us to receive what satisfies the longing of our hearts and the needs of our being.  Come to the love of Christ. 

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Homily

17th Sunday Ordinary Time – An understanding heart

Posted on by Deacon Joe

1 Kgs. 3:5, 7-12; Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-130; Rom. 8:28-30; Mt. 13:44-52

Tell a child to ask for anything and you’re likely to get a response of a toy, candy, or McDonalds.  Solomon but a young man asked God for an understanding heart.  It takes a bit of wisdom to know what is best for us and not just what is pleasing to our eyes.  Recall those toys called “Transformers” popular in the 1980s, how they transform objects to come to life as action heroes and villains.  God is the ultimate transformer of lives from what is to what we are called to be if we but know what to ask and how to seek. 

 “All things work for good for those who love God”, says our second reading today.  In loving God, he leads us to be conformed to the image of his Son.  When the day comes and our soul is lifted from our body, and our body is placed in the ground the question we must answer to God is “how did we live in imitation of Christ?”  Christ is the “fine pearl” that gives us an understanding heart to discover the kingdom of God in his church, in his people and in our souls transformed by his grace, transformed into the image of Christ. 

Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to a treasure we can hold, fine pearls to appeal to the eyes, and a great catch to appeal to the appetite and yet it is none of this.  Jesus has a way of drawing us in appealing to our senses yet taking us to a place we cannot imagine.  That is because the kingdom of heaven is not a “thing” we hold but a way of being.  Being in the kingdom of God is something that is lived.  We cannot grasp it with our hands but we can know we are there by living it and by the fruit of our lives where we can see the hand of God at work to sanctify us, save us and answer our prayers. 

In baptism we then all carry a new beginning with a Christ centered image and purpose.  Christ is the sower of the field and the field is our heart.  In our hearts he places his law to come to him, to know him and to love him.  The seed is his word that is to bloom in our hearts and the fruit of the bloom is our love for God and others.   The pearl of life then is our identity in Christ to know ourselves not only as a child of God but as a saint in the kingdom of God reflecting the image of Christ by the gifts we have received and live by.  This is the understanding heart that knows our divine purpose and seeks to live it. 

There is the popular story of an atheist teacher who said to the class “There is no God.  Has anyone ever seen God?”  One student then asked the teacher, “Have you ever seen your brain?”  The teacher said “no”.  Then the student replied “then you have no brain”.  The kingdom of God come to us through invisible grace seen at work through visible signs.  We hear in the Old Testament how no one can see the face of God and live and yet God reveals himself indirectly through visible signs, the burning bush, the voice in the clouds, the angels as messengers.  It is the will of God to reveal himself to us but we have to seek him.  That requires our time to be in prayer, receiving the sacraments, and responding to the movement of the spirit in us.  This is how we can come to receive the wisdom of an understanding heart. 

The Kingdom of God is reflected in what Solomon asked of God.  Consider the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety fear of the Lord.  These are the doors into not only the kingdom of God but to the heart of Christ.  He asked for an understanding heart as a way of being able to see, hear, and know how to lead his people.  In the end he received much more than what he asked for he asked rightly.  The inspiration of understanding produced the fruit of a good leader.  The kingdom of heaven comes to us through the spiritual gifts from God while we are in this world.  They allow us to see him in our world and to serve him.  The kingdom of God is transformative of our humanity into his divinity. 

Recall the story of what is commonly known as the prodigal son who left his father and went outside the kingdom of his father to live his own life.  How soon he discovered the consequences of mortal sin coming from being outside of the kingdom.  At the same time the other son who always stayed within the kingdom of the father did not appreciate all that was his and felt resentful of the father for his mercy to his brother.  God’s desire is to care for all but like the prodigal son many choose their own way and find themselves in the misery of their choice asking “how does this happen to me. 

The Lord’s desire is to enrich us with the gifts of the Spirit that we may all be saints.  This cannot be unless we ourselves come to him with the desire to serve and not be served as Solomon did.  Solomon was the prototype of Jesus who was to come to serve the Father for our salvation.  The love of God is the love of his commands.  It is to see in his commands the good seed of his word given to us in order to serve him by our lives.  Service is at the heart of being Christian. 

This all seems great until we recognize his image includes the wood of the cross, love through sacrifice and justice through mercy.  Can we really love our enemies?  How can this be?  It can only be in the heart of the one who knows “all things work for good for those who love God.”  Our God is a transformative God. 

Whether in life or death, God promises “those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified”.  In the end it is not whether we live or die in this life but how we lived and died for the eternal promises of the kingdom of heaven. 

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Homily

16th Sunday Ordinary Time – The care of all

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Wis. 12:13, 16-19; Ps 65:10-14; Rom. 8:18-23; Mt. 13:1-23

When I was a child when I got into trouble at school, they had a wooden board with holes in it to whistle as the principal used it on our buttocks for discipline. In many homes parents turned to the belt or inpatient parents grabbed their shoe for a quick whipping. My mother had a different method. She would send me outside to find a stick or a branch to bring back to her for my punishment. Think of the psychology of going to pick the “weapon” used against you. God is reminding us today he is the mighty one of power and he uses his power not so much about punishment but for conversion, to shake us up and turn to him because he cares for all.

Jesus today continues to use parables to reveal to us that he cares for all but all don’t necessarily care.  When we approach God with disbelief, with temerity, he is going to show us his power in ways to shake our unbelief.  God’s way of caring is with both power and clemency.  It is like when a child is learning to ride a bike for the first time without training wheels and he gets scared, falls, starts to cry.  The voice of God through his parents says “don’t cry, get up your ok, keep going”.  Keep going in search of God and his will in our lives. 

Last week he called us to examine the type of seed that we have become.  It went from the seed on the path that never matures and dies to the seed that is rich and fruitful for all eternity.    Those who keep going seeking the will of God in their lives will discover more than his will, they will enter into the kingdom of God.  Those with unbelief are not only giving up on God but by default are giving up on life.  It is living to exist devoid of true purpose and meaning that comes from God. 

Today he carries forth the idea of the children of the kingdom as “good seed” who live among the “weeds, the children of the evil one”.  What distinguishes the children of the kingdom from the children of the evil one?  Are we talking about two separate groups or can one fall into both groups?  One way to distinguish the separation is Jesus words “follow me”.  Those who are faithful in following his word are the seed growing on rich soil.  Those who oppose the will of God become children of the evil one. 

Recall how Jesus told Peter in Mt. 16:23 “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”  This is Peter his loyal follower but his mind and heart was worldly.  The battle for our soul wages on to become either a kingdom for God or a kingdom for evil.  The good seed has a desire to do the will of God, faithful to church, to prayer, to care for others.  The good seed can also be mixed in with bad seed that grows weeds that choke good intent.  “I believe BUT church is boring, prayer makes me sleepy, God knows, maybe next time”.  Yes, God knows.  He knows the path we are on and where it will lead us.  He knows a lukewarm heart and he is not pleased.  The Old Testament is full of stories where God demonstrates his power on the unbelieving, the sinner to bring conversion because he cares for all. 

The enemy comes with the seed of sin to create his own children.  This is why we are called the Militant Church on earth because the battle wages on for souls.  Each soul must choose who we belong to Christ the King or to the evil one before the Son of Man comes to collect at the end of the age. 

Jesus introduces also the mustard seed which he calls the “kingdom of heaven”.  If the seed is the children of the kingdom, then the mustard seed is the kingdom of heaven that is growing within our souls to become the “large bush” that draws others to their branches.  Jesus sows the mustard seed in our soul in the coming of the Holy Spirit through baptism.  The mustard seed is entrusted to us to cultivate, in our children, in our church, and in our world to create great saints.  We are all called to be a great saint. 

The good news is that we are not alone in this battle. So often in our struggles we feel alone, isolated with our own battles.  This is deception by the evil one.  God says, “remain in me, as I remain in you” in Jn. 15:4.  God describes this world like a woman in labor ready to give birth.  I am glad God made me a man and spared me of that pain but like a woman in labor we all face pain, endure suffering, struggle with life’s hardships and make sacrifices.  Why?  We have faith in something greater to come.  There is this joy and expectation that regardless of the cross we bear it will not compare to the glory of God in the resurrection. 

The “Master of might” comes “to the aid of our weakness” and to reveal his truth to the power of his love.  He comes in the Spirit to “intercede with inexpressible groanings” to give birth to his truth that sets us free.  God is the Master of might who “…comes to judge with clemency”.  God’s care is for all but not all care to receive it. 

Children of God are not timid in their faith.  We may appear as timid by remaining humble but humble people have the strength of spirit to remain faithful, enduring hardship, persevering not by might but by love of God and willing to deny themselves for the greater good.  God “rebukes timidity” as a sign of lack of faith.  The God of might gives us of his power for every encounter in life to stand firm with him.  Timidity reveals a superficial “skin deep” commitment to God and a fool’s religion to the world that sees only weakness to be exploited. 

Children of God are called to be battle ready.  The battle will come from the enemy, the evil one who looks for our weaknesses and knows how to bring on the attack.  Are we ready for the spiritual battle?  With every victory over evil, we become like the mustard seed growing bigger and stronger in our faith.  Others come like birds seeking to receive cover, nourishment and a blessing from the holiness of a child of God.  We want to be that person who shares in the cross of Jesus and is not afraid. 

Today Jesus explains the parable of the good seed and the weeds in the context of salvation history. Our world then is divided into the “haves and the have nots”, those who have God in their life and those who God is seeking because they have not received him, for he desires all to be saved.  The more we have God as the center of our life the more we receive of his kingdom.  We cannot however take our salvation for granted since the lost can be converted while the righteous can become perverted.   

Finally, a mother and a daughter went on a pilgrimage to Mexico to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  At the time the daughter was a young woman suffering from a terminal illness.  She was told she had six months to live. When they entered the Cathedral, the daughter said to her mother “do you sense that?”  The mother said “no”.  She asked again “don’t you sense something?”  The mother said “no”.  Often when we go on pilgrimages, I know it is true for me having visited Rome, and Jerusalem and other places, we go to see and not to seek.  This daughter went seeking in her heart and it was revealed to her making such an impact that the rosary she carried became her weapon of faith from that moment on and she was able to keep going. God granted her two years beyond what was expected to live. Do we come to church seeking or waiting to see?  When we seek it is revealed and we will be able to keep going.  God is here for the care of all, let us come to seek him and not just to see, let us believe.

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