Solemnity of all Saints

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Rv. 7: 2-4, 9-14; Ps. 24: 1-6; 1Jn. 3:1-3; Mt. 5:1-12a

I am reminded by the four angels with the “power to damage the land and the sea” of the Holy Father’s concern for climate change. History marks periods of climate change whether we read about Noah and the flood in scripture or the great Ice Age there is evidence for climate change causing great damage. We even see the recent destruction from fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. For these families they have endured a “time of great distress”.

A “time of great distress” happens every moment of life. Some are very public stories of terrorism, murder, rape, abuse, hunger, war, or spread of disease. Others are very private stories of tragedy, death, sickness but all a form of great distress for the suffering, poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness. The world is on a path to destruction from its sins and Jesus comes offering the fulfillment of the Law in a new teaching on life in the spirit of God. Jesus ascends the mountain as Moses did however Moses received the law from God and Jesus gives the law with authority on the mountain to receive the blessing and great reward in heaven. God intervenes through his son into the world to save it from destruction of humanity.

This week we saw the persecution of Jews in a synagogue by a man who stated he simply want to kill Jews. Christianity was born out of the persecution of Jesus on the cross and continued with persecution of the early church. Many washed their robes in the blood of their baptism. Religious persecution exists around the world having to worship underground or live in fear of being targeted. There are some who wish religious practice was restricted to within the walls of their churches, synagogues, or temples in this country and find offensive for someone to publicly witness to their faith.

The vision of John reveals the number of those marked by the seal followed by “a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, race, people and tongue”. There is universality in this declaration of which we are all invited to wear the white robe of salvation and survive a “time of great distress and be washed in the Blood of the Lamb.” This cleansing began with our baptism and includes the daily cross of life. We bring our gifts of sacrifice to the altar and we receive the Blood of the Lamb in the Eucharist. So far so good until the question is asked, “who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?”

To ascend this mountain requires our purity “as he is pure…one whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.” With one brush of a statement we can feel like a baseball player with three strikes and we’re out. Take “vanity”, all media promotes a world full of vanity. From weight loss plans, muscle magazines, Botox, wrinkle free creams, hair restoration and who can live with acne. We get an overdose of vanity promotion. Then we look for clean hearts. Why is it that as soon as we make a resolution to foster a greater virtue we fail the virtue being tested. My favorite is the test of patience, “Lord may I grow in patience.” BAM! Someone gets under my skin and I fall harder than before but perseverance builds the character of patience. As for sinless “hands” those are the acts with full knowledge and consent of the will to commit the sin but rather than stop we minimalize the sin or rationalize our own justice. The temptation to sin is given power by self-righteousness, “I deserve to give myself this reward.” God will one day say, “Did you not give yourself your own rewards where is your sacrifice?” We carry our sins with us as a vain badge of honor spreading over us as a cancer unrecognizable as God’s creation.

Who can ascend the mountain is the one of humble heart who cries out to God, “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.” The Lord will look at us to identify if we have shown mercy, been peacemakers, and endured our persecution for the sake of righteousness or picked up the sword with our hands or our tongue to claim our own justice. Today the Church recognizes all those who have washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb. They lived as sinners who in their distress sought refuge in God and were given mercy. It is our invitation today to come to him with humble contrite heart and in mercy wash our robes from the stain of sin.

Dante said we go to purgatory to wash our robes from the stain of sin. He reminds us of the old Midas commercial, “pay me now or pay me later.” Purity of mind, heart, and spirit cannot be purchased. Jesus already purchased for us the redemption from our sin. We are here not to pay up but to receive our just reward from God our savior. If the Lord is to call us today are we ready? The first step is the sacrament of confession, the penance given is to go forth to love and serve the Lord, and the narrow way is the sacramental life in communion with the Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels and all the saints. The God who is we will see as he is for we are a people who longs to see his face. “What we shall be has not yet been revealed” but don’t expect the vanity of looking 21 again, regaining lost hair, or getting rid of the gray and wrinkles. Expect the spirit of purity and sainthood.

I heart a quote from Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She stated, “Good people do good things, holy people do God’s things”. He made one Saint Teresa, on Saint Padre Pio, one Saint Francis of Assisi, one Saint John Paul II and one Saint Francis Xavier. He also made one of you and me. Our holiness will come from doing “God things” that we are called to do. Where you are there your will find those things. Be the best you were created to be in the moment and as one writer put it, “wherever you go you are there” but also wherever you go God is there to do God’s things. Search and you will find, call and he will answer.

Tags

Shared this

Views

355 views

Homily

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on October 28, 2018October 28, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Jer. 31: 7-9; Ps. 126: 1-6; Heb. 5: 1-6; Mk 10: 46-52

The father to Israel loves all his people “the blind and the lame, mothers and the unborn child with his mother and delivers us from stumbling”. The people of Israel “departed in tears” remembering the suffering, sickness, and hardships they endured in their struggle for freedom though the desert. In an age when women and children were considered more of a property and the blind and the lame as cursed, the father of Israel makes known there is no one he does not love, no one he rejects, and he is there to console them and guide them. He is here to console us in our weakness and suffering. We are his beloved.

Fast forward to Jesus coming and today’s gospel, Bartimaeus a blind man, a beggar on the roadside cries out to Jesus. What is the people’s attitude towards the beggar? “Many rebuked him, telling him, be silent”. In their eyes he is but cursed, insignificant to the people. The beggar calls out to Jesus “son of David”. The Jews awaited the messianic king from the line of David. The beggar in his faith recognizes Jesus as the long awaited messianic king and his faith brings him salvation with his sight restored.

Fast forward again to our times and the attitude taken towards the unborn, the disabled, elderly, and the beggar on the street, what has changed in our humanity? The unborn are aborted, the disabled institutionalized, the elderly forgotten in nursing homes and the beggar remains cursed by the poor choices of life. “The Lord has delivered his people” all his people, the unborn, disabled, elderly and beggar. Who are we? I qualify as unborn into eternal life still in the womb of mother earth, disabled by my sins, elderly since I now qualify for senior citizen discounts and beggar fits my prayer life, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me”. If we could see ourselves with the eyes of truth we would be filled with the fear of God. If we could see ourselves with the eyes of God there is his truth, goodness, beauty, and love.

If we look to society for answers we see in history the sins of the people repeat themselves and our deliverance will not come from changing social structures. It comes from repentance and a return to “one God under nation” with us, through us, and in us. A study done by Arthur Brooks on generosity found that out of four possible combinations the most generous group is the religious conservative and least generous is the secular liberal with the religious liberal and secular conservative in the middle. Secular liberalism seeks generosity with other people’s resources. We are a generous people for we recognize generosity of God in our life, “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.” As the philosopher Spinoza says, “If love is the goal, generosity is the road to it.” If love is the goal then God is our destiny. God is love, deep, generous and revealing.

The Lord has done great things for us, he has given us a high priest Jesus, son of David. Jesus in his humanity is “taken from among men” and in his divinity “a priest forever”. Thus he also calls other men to follow him as “representatives before God” of the people and for the people. Every high priest “must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people…he himself is beset by weakness.” In the Eucharistic liturgy a priest prays for himself “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:4) and in the Lamb of God quietly prays, “May the receiving of your Body and Blood…not bring me to judgment and condemnation…be for me protection in mind and body and a healing remedy.” The priest recognizes his weakness as representative of the people with great accountability for his actions and with full transparency before God, the naked truth that awakens the fear of God and the coming of the day of judgment.

A priest is first called to diaconia, meaning servant of the people as a transitional deacon before his ordination as priest. The priest glorifies God as servant in humility. The priest who glorifies himself separates himself from the people in abuse of his authority. The priest who glorifies himself is a blind man in need of pity until he recognizes he is but a beggar in need of conversion. Every “high priest is established for human kind” to offer gifts of sacrifice for sins. That is the offering pleasing to God in the Mass. Christ died for all sinners.

“Master, I want to see” is a confession of a servant who recognizes they are but a sinner. We all have our blind spots where we do not see in ourselves what other see and our ego defenses don’t want to see finding safety in denial whether through ignorance or as an act of will. Denial is a temporary curtain of darkness where our sins run to hide. The light of faith, the faith of Bartimaeus at Jericho who had the courage to seek sight from his blindness and call out to Jesus, “Master I want to see.” It is an act of faith that gave him the will to cry out to Jesus and be saved. What holds us back from that act of faith is pride. Pride sometimes is hidden in false humility. We say, “Who am I to bring God all my troubles.” It comes with the belief that he created us and set us free to live our lives but he is a distant God. We reason God out of our lives when he is waiting for us to cry out to him in faith.

Notice “freedom” we have in Jesus. Jesus tells Bartimaeus “Go your way.” We all have the freedom to go our way in the light of Christ or in our darkness. Bartimaeus chooses to become a disciple and follow him. How do we identify our discipleship? In other words, “How do I follow Jesus?” We may say we follow him by coming to church. It is possible to come to church and walk out without a conversion to live life God’s way but go our way. We follow him by loving our family but even an atheist loves his family and does not follow God. We follow him by respecting life and natural law with some good common sense. Many an agnostic respects life and the natural law because of some good common sense. We can only begin to follow him by having a personal relationship with Jesus himself. When we cry out to him to let us see, he will reveal himself to us. He will give us our identity of discipleship in the way we are to go.

In the gospel reading Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and has this final miracle at Jericho as a sign that the time had come to recognize Jesus as the messianic king before his passion, death, and resurrection. Jesus’ true identity as messianic king remains hidden to a people who seek an earthly kingdom. True sight comes from recognizing Jesus as the son of God after his resurrection ascending to his heavenly kingdom. Let us be a people of faith, hope and love with the vision to follow him rejoicing for the Lord does great things for us and we “shall not stumble.” “Master, I want to see.”

Tags

Shared this

Views

439 views

Homily

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on October 20, 2018October 19, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Is. 53: 10-11; Ps. 33: 4-5, 18-19, 20, 22; Heb. 4: 14-16; Mk 10: 35-45

“The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” Really God, it pleases you to crush someone when their down? With friends like that who needs enemies. Have you ever questioned God? Many a saint has because sometimes our understanding and our ways are not God’s ways. A saint questions not from doubt but from trust in the Lord, seeking, searching, hoping and surrendering to God’s will. In sanctity we have a personal relationship with Christ, and he answers us in unexpected ways. Our understanding is egocentric not other focused and at times outside of the context of the “big picture”, what God allows in his salvific plan.

Isiah is prophesizing the one coming who will be crushed for our sins, Jesus Christ in whom the Lord is pleased for giving his life as an offering so that the world might be saved. The will of the Lord is that we may all come to him and through him in the Son it is accomplished. We often refer to God as a God of mercy, love, justice and/or faithful. God said to Moses, “I AM” and he cannot deny himself. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that represented disobedience and God did not deny himself with the two-edged sword of love and justice. When we eat the fruit of obedience we receive mercy, love, justice, and faithfulness to his promise. It is all ours because he is who is there for us. “For we do not have a high priest, who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way yet without sin.” It is up to us to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy” and every other gift of grace with “timely help”. He is our Glorified Christ “trustworthy” and “merciful”.

How do I a sinner approach God in confidence? It comes from holding onto our confession. As the body of Christ we the church, confess in the Confiteor “I confess to almighty God…” and in the Creed “I believe in one God…” We profess it together to receive from the one body and blood of Christ. We also confess other claims to God with faithfulness in our acclamations to him. “Jesus I trust in you.” “I claim in the name of Jesus, mercy, healing, victory, and all our supplications.” “Let thy will be done not my will.” “Come Holy Spirit strengthen me by your grace.” “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:19). For Schoenstatt devotion, “Mother Thrice Admirable Queen and Victorious of Schoenstatt pray for us and bless our families”. There are so many powerful confessions we can hold onto. Which are yours?

The evil one wants us to confess fear, doubt, and self-righteousness. Do these sound familiar? “Oh! my God!” “I can’t believe it.” “It’s not right…” Focusing on our weakness instead of our strengths we lose confidence even in God. What about simply confessing gratitude? “Thank you Jesus. Thank you my Lord and my God.” God will not deny himself in our confessions.

There is one confession we generally do not like to claim. It is to please the Lord in our infirmity. We pray to have the cross removed. Jesus came to witness to the truth and show us the way as servant of God. The offering of our suffering can be joined to Jesus redemptive suffering and we can serve other souls in our families, this world, and souls in purgatory. Waste not a sacrifice! Let it not go by without making an offering of it and you will find grace for timely help. The earth is full of his kindness when we place our hope in him.

Have you ever had a child come up to you and say, “Mom, Dad, or grandma, grandpa I want to ask you something but I don’t want you to say no, please.” That is the way in today’s gospel James and John sound like, children desiring for one to be at Jesus right hand and the other at the left in his glory. In truth they are and so are we children of the most high. Just the question implies they know better but can’t help themselves. Jesus asks them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to him, “We can.” Careful what you ask for. The cup of salvation was the call to be the servant and “slave of all” and the baptism will be the giving of their life “as a ransom for many” in martyrdom. The calling is for leadership by service in imitation of Christ. Jesus makes known the way of the rulers among the Gentiles is through their authority but our authority is marked by humility in service. Jesus is fulfilling his mission on earth. We too have been called to fulfill our mission of service. Jesus pays the price for redeeming us from the slavery of sin.

Before you doubt and say, “I don’t think I can” consider that our grace has already been given to us through our baptism to say “yes”. Yes, I can be a lector, Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, sing in the choir, help with C.C.E. or have a rosary group that makes rosaries and prays the mysteries for the church. The opportunities are waiting. The opportunity to drink from the cup has come and will continue to come awaiting our response with love, divine, love, sacrificial love. It begins in the home the foundation of faith in practice. It goes forth into the world to witness to God’s “I Am” as servants of mercy, love, justice, and faithfulness. In baptism we also die to ourselves, death by 70 X 7 sacrifices in life. Love the sacrifice, waste not the opportunity to make it an offering. If it was easy it would not be called a sacrifice. When we approach it with love it becomes a powerful gift of grace and transformation.

God is present in our lives closer to us than we are to him. We all can receive our own private revelations in life. A few years ago I had one of those unexpected answers to prayer in a personal revelation. I was going through some health problems and in a moment of despair I cried out to God, “God what do you ask of me?” The response was quick and direct. As I was praying, I heard a voice of a man strong and with authority say, “I ask nothing of you.” My first response was fear and then a sense of rejection. For a few days I was troubled pondering both the power of the voice and the words spoken so clearly in my ear. Finally it came to me the awareness of naked truth. God does not need me, I need him. God is giving me the opportunity to serve him in sickness and in health, to make of myself an offering and if it is 1000 deaths or 1000 victories let it be all for his glory. “Jesus I trust in you”.

Tags

Shared this

Views

366 views

Homily

Friday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Posted on October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Eph. 1: 11-14; Ps. 33: 1-2, 4-5, 12-13; Lk 12: 1-7

Today we celebrate the Memorial of Saints John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests and Companions Martyrs of North America. They were “chosen destined in accord with the purpose of the One.” They were strengthened to accomplish the will of the Father “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit”. The “first installment” of their inheritance was to answer the call “chosen to be his own” ministering to the Iroquois Indians of the Huron tribe. They learned to live Iroquois life, “smell like the natives” working alongside them, learning their language, practicing works of mercy bringing conversion to Christianity. This love and sacrifice was met with death. It was a death they did not fear, the death of the flesh only. Europeans who also immigrated brought sickness, like small pox around 1640 and the priests in “black robes” were associated with messengers of death to be feared (M. Mattingly, Creighton University’ Campus Ministry; 2018). In some ways that image remains today.

We have the sacrament of the sick to assist us in sickness but at times is seen more as the sacrament of the dying. Someone can be seriously sick, in the hospital, possibly about to undergo a major surgery and you ask “should I call a priest?” The fear response is “no, I’m not dying yet”. The gospel reminds us “do not be afraid of those who kill the body…Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast in Gehenna.” We fear death more than the consequences of death. Death is not the end but the beginning of the rest of our inheritance.

This is the day the Lord has made to determine our inheritance, Gehenna or the glory of the kingdom. We are reminded “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed.” God know us, our thoughts, feelings, and intentions. This day we can receive him in the sacrament of his body and blood, his forgiveness, his love and mercy. We are given the “white robe” of baptism to be messengers of hope.

We live in a time where “fear” is a weapon against the opposing ideology. Statements like “They are going to throw grandma over the cliff” denying her healthcare or “They want open borders letting in killers and rapists” make fear a weapon of division. The weapon turns to violence and attempted murder. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees in the gospel remains today as in those days, it is the fear of loss of power and control of the natives. The leaven of fear turns the natives to destroy each other so each side can claim victory and power. They plot in secret, behind closed doors and in darkness, and who will be sacrificed. The people have a voice, it is the witness and testimony of our faith in action, to proclaim it, and live it. Our redemption and our inheritance are at hand.

Tags

Shared this

Views

256 views

Homily

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on October 14, 2018October 12, 2018 by Deacon Joe

1 Wis. 7: 7-11; Ps 90: 12-17; Heb. 4: 12-13; Mk 10: 17-30

Wisdom is naked truth! “Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away” wrote Antonine De Saint-Exupery. We have all grown up with “dichos” those sayings with one liners of wisdom that capture the essence of a teaching. They are easy to remember but serve to penetrate our minds and hearts “sharper than a two-edged sword” cutting “down to the bone” as we say and to our souls.

When Solomon prayed in the first reading prudence was given to him. Prudence as in having the ability to discern with right judgment was his reward. He could have prayed for victory over his enemies, his health and his wealth. He recognized the one priority as “wisdom greater than any priceless gem, silver or gold.” When Solomon set his priorities according to God’s order “all good things together came…and countless riches at her hand…” He was given the treasure of wisdom but also the earthly treasures of his kingdom with honor.

The Word of God cuts judicially “both ways”. One side cuts through to the prime rewards of obedience to God’s commands. We see this in the Gospel when the young man “with many possessions” testified to his obedience to the commandments Jesus presented to him saying, “Teacher, all these things I have observed from my youth.” His life has been blessed with many material possessions. It also cuts from the other edge where sin and reckless behavior gives rise to adversity and sorrow. Having entered my 60’s already I realize the sins of my youth have already started to be revealed in my aging problems. I have quite a bunch of friends. I wake up with Buddy Aches, spend the day with Arthritis, eat with Tummy Hurts, and go to bed with Ben Gay. These are the good guys to help me face my enemies. We pick our lifetime friends by the choices and lifestyle we live and they are very loyal in sickness and in health.

Hebrews however gives us God’s wisdom in his order to judicial process. In the world we normally have an inquiry that leads to judgment and ends with verdict for execution. In Hebrews we see the execution has already been set by the Word of God “living and effective”. Those who “follow me” receive the retribution of reward or suffering from the judgment of naked truth as our minds and hearts are revealed. At the end comes the inquiry “to render an account” no one escapes in the final opening of the seal revealing our life story. This revelation is the judgment set to be executed though our life journey “living and effective” in our days and the account will come beginning at the moment of death into our afterlife and the naked truth is revealed. It is said freedom is the right to choose what I want, when I want it, and how I want it. Sounds good until we recognize it comes like a two edge sword with the consequences of our choices. Wisdom recognizes freedom as the right to take responsibility for ourselves. Which way is cutting is in our hands.

In Mark’s gospel the young man calls Jesus “Good teacher”. His title for Jesus limits his view of Jesus as a prophet, a man of wisdom. Jesus wisdom is to pose a question and without waiting gives the answer. Indirectly the question is asking him ‘who do you say that I am?’ He cuts to his heart by responding “no one is good but God alone”. Hint, hint! The young man is to discern the divine nature of Jesus but apparently doesn’t get it since he continues to call him “teacher”. Jesus presents six commandments to follow to which the young man affirms “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus looks at him with love to penetrate his heart like a two edged sword. It is always easy to look at an infant with love. Not so easy to look at our enemies, our friends, or sometimes even our family with love. It makes us vulnerable. Do it and people will question you, “What’s wrong or what do you want?” We don’t know how to accept love as easily.

Jesus is calling him to love God as the first priority noted in the top three commandments not stated but implied by the action he calls him to follow. He gives him two directives to fulfill his call to perfection. The first is the perfection of letting go to the degree there is “no more to take away”, no more to hinder his journey of faith to God. William of Ocam says, “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.” We accumulate our “stuff” all with special meaning, stuffing our closets, garages, and even get a storage shed unwilling to let go. Every now and then we shuffle through it, forget how most of it ended up with us and then reorganize our stuff again.

The second directive was “follow me”. The message for us is “who is Jesus in my life?” If he is my Lord then our first priority is to follow him in our daily lives fulfilling the top three commandments. We then order our lives according to our relationships with others. Material treasure is not to hinder our priorities to God and neighbor. Jesus sets the record straight at the end regarding “wealth”. He does not condemn wealth it is a part of creation. We build wealth out of God’s creation. Jesus raises our awareness with wisdom to the truth wealth can have when we allow it to possess us and keep us from a right relationship with God. The drive for wealth can come at the expense and injustice to the poor when we don’t pay a living wage. It may promote greed not generosity, false witness not truth, stealing not integrity, adultery not chastity, and even murder not life. We allow it to become an obstacle to a right relationship with God.

Wisdom is personified as a woman while the commandments come from a Father. The wisdom of God comes to us through a woman who gave birth to a son, Jesus and his truth is given in the proclamation of the Word made flesh. Mary’s wisdom was her fiat entering into the universal plan of salvation. Her riches and glory came in raising her son, loving her husband, and being obedient. In Mary the execution was set for her life but she had to consent and live the judgment of the Lord’s passion. Mary followed the plan receiving the judgment awaiting her reward for her account on earth and now in heaven as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

The book of Wisdom* written by sages of the time we would consider as our contemporary prophets and theologians. Sages recognized a great truth in the order of the universe. The God of all creation has established natural laws of the universe. In this New Age movement some identify with these natural laws and try to tap into them with meditation, aroma therapies, mineral therapies, yoga meditation, and other Zen like approaches seeking peace, harmony, and well-being. They focus on the universal principles of the cosmos without recognizing the source of creation, the prime mover, the God of the universe. The problem is they stop short of making this connection to the source of life itself. These sages of the past in observing the world recognized each component in this world has a place in the overall plan of God’s design.

Today we would make comparisons of cause and effect, food chain, evolution of nature, and each person in life makes a difference in the larger plan of God. It is not just about you, it is about your contribution to the greater good and for the faithful our contribution to salvation history. Sages also believed if we disregard our calling we will bring about our own hardships. The dynamic of life is in constant motion like riding the rapids in a canoe, sometimes calm and other times fast, rough and rushing. Proverbs says, “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom” (Prov. 9:10) Fear of the Lord is the realization of the two edge sword created by the awesome creation of the natural law we are members of and of the consequences that come by rebelling away from our call to “follow” his plan for us.

We are headed into the holiday season secular and Christian. Some celebrate Halloween, or the Day of the Dead, All Souls Day and we get sugar overload. Then Thanksgiving comes with all kinds of carbs and dressings followed by Christmas and juicy fat tamales by the dozen, ending in New Year’s drinks, nachos, and guacamole. We indulge and rush to get more stuff we call our treasures in toys, shoes, electronic gadgets and there is always the next best phone or 4-D mega screen TV and more. We wake up and discover we just gained another 20 pounds of bondage in our “freedom”.

The knife cuts both ways as we can celebrate in fellowship with church festivals, Posadas, Holy Days of obligation, processions, adoration, rosaries, family reunions and yes some treats in moderation. Freedom is taking responsibility to the naked truth. Advent is coming and it is a good time to move in the direction of having no more to let go of. In Spanish we say, “el que mucho abarca poco aprieta” meaning “the more we try to squeeze into our life the less we gain”. Gain more with less and we will be on our way to perfection.

*The Paulist Biblical Commentary; “Wisdom Literature”; Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, 2018. Pg. 423-425.

Tags

Shared this

Views

292 views

Homily

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on October 6, 2018October 5, 2018 by Deacon Joe

Gn.2: 18-24; Ps. 128; 1-2, 3, 4-5,6; Heb. 2: 9-11; Mk. 10: 2-16

Tradition today is talked about as old school. Progressiveness is considered modernity. Tradition represented commitment to God, family, work and community. Progressiveness today is acceptability and tolerance meaning for some anything goes.

Today in the readings we celebrate the sacred door of matrimony. We also see “bringing many children to glory” through him and to him. In an age when over 50% of marriages end in divorce, the institution of the family is being broken and the most affected “are the little ones”. United States divorces rank 10^th in the world at 53% and from #9 France at 55% to #1 Belgium at 71%” with the highest rate (www.trendrr.net/8004/countries-with-highest-divorce-rates) you see a rise in secularism and liberalism. Belgium is considered the “European symbol of Modernity” *. The symbol of the most modern society is also a symbol of least stability for matrimony. In the U.S. every 1 in 6 seconds a divorce happens*, so if you have weathered that storm you are not alone. The more countries progress away from religious and cultural heritage towards “acceptability and tolerance” the less tolerant to commitment and acceptable lifelong marriage becomes. What was the norm is now abnormal. Say you have been married over 25 years to the same person and you are considered an anomaly.

“When attendance at church drops divorce rates rise. Spain has a law entitled ‘Divorcio director’ requiring a couple to be married for at least three months to assert for the divorce”*. How quickly the honeymoon is over that you have to endure 3 month before submitting for a divorce. Here perhaps sheds some insight to the rise in divorces and to some extent why annulments, meaning a valid marriage are declared never to have been so in the first place and are being facilitated by the church. These are what the church calls “impediments” to the capacity of making a lasting commitment and include seriously debilitating factors like drug and alcohol abuse, physical and sexual abuse, parental divorce, serial marriage, and other mental and emotional factors. Notice that the capacity of making a lasting commitment includes beside the individual and their relationship conditions also the history of parental divorce. Divorce impacts the children’s ability to grow in commitment to a lasting relationship. God’s plan was to bring his children to glory and it begins with the commitment in their parent’s marriage.

There is also St. Augustine’s famous line, “I was not in love as yet, yet I loved to love.” Love is a hunger of humanity, a need for someone who “at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” but is this the “one” woman or woooo-man, take your time don’t rush until the love for love puts some flesh on those bones. God is one and he joins man and woman to be one as the Lord of marriage. That flesh is a deeper understanding into the mind and heart of a person. A person recently shared with me how she fell in love with how her future husband was always dressed neatly with clothes pressed. Now married she discovers he likes to bathe 2 or 3 times a day and each time changes into clean pressed clothes. He somehow never finds the dirty clothes hamper and continues to dress real sharp but who gets the job of laundering? It’s not his mom anymore.

I suspect in general most young couples getting married have always lacked some maturity which impacts a commitment but after years when someone is still wondering when the other is going to “grow up” there may be some serious debilitating factors in a person’s commitment. What helps develop maturity is parenting a child to have lived experiences of commitment. You cannot give what you have not learned to live. Commitment starts young in life with responsibilities for completing chores, caring for a pet, turning in school assignments on time, contributing to the work at home, and keeping promises. A common mistake, “We want them to focus on their education”. Translation is they come home and have no responsibility to the family, the home, the church, or even the community. They can do it all when they are young. The get bored easily so you give them an IPad or a phone to entertain themselves. The underlying message, “it’s all about themselves” until they enter into that other world of a shared responsibility with and to someone else. For some it is jumping in the water without knowing how to swim or a life jacket and quickly deciding they want out.

One of the fastest growing businesses today is drive thru restaurants that have easy, cheap, and quick meals. Does anybody care to cook tonight? That is part of the early struggles of marriage that teaches us humility when we burn the beans but ooh so good a lesson we didn’t burn the house down…making progress. You cannot give what was not expected of you growing up. It is an impediment to the readiness of marriage. Commitment starts at home and develops in maturity with lived experiences of commitment, not only to education but many small and large responsibilities. Why do divorce rates drop when attendance to church increases? It is a commitment to growing our faith and fellowship, love of God and love of neighbor. Faith as in living a prayer life, studying scripture, reflecting on moral issues of the world and discussing what the church says to guide our faith. Fellowship is lived at home with family activities and extending that fellowship by coming to church and giving of oneself as a volunteer to the church and community.

The new tradition of acceptability and tolerance seems to grow in less acceptability and tolerance because we all want to be accepted and tolerated but we are not as willing to accept and tolerate even those who we say we love. Tradition of the past was commitment to a lasting marriage and we need to renew that tradition in our culture before we will see the beauty of lasting fidelity. Last weekend I had the fun and honor of celebrating a 50^th wedding anniversary. I asked the congregation who had seen the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”. Surprisingly only about 5 hands came up. I did a monologue of one of the scenes from the musical reminding us of that lasting fidelity to marriage. I find it appropriate to close with it for you. In the scene Tyve, the husband has just given approval to a young man to be engaged to his daughter without talking it over with his wife, Golde. Big mistake! In marriage the saying “two heads are better than one” is not optional it is part of the requirement.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Tags

Shared this

Views

355 views

Tags

Shared this

Views

439 views

Tags

Shared this

Views

366 views

Tags

Shared this

Views

256 views

Tags

Shared this

Views

292 views

Tags

Shared this

Views

591 views