I will call down the Fire

Friday, 20 January 2012

  • Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time(B) January 22, 2012

    This week I was looking for an entrance into my homily and I found this by Elizabeth Scalia, on her blog the Anchoress, “My love and my law are not enough? You need a corporeal king? All right then, I will come down and be your corporeal king. I will teach you what I know -- that love serves, and that a king is a servant -- and I will teach you how to be a servant in order to share in my kingship. In this way, we shall be one -- as a husband and wife are one -- as nearly as this may be possible between what is Whole and Holy, and what is Broken. For your sake, I will become broken, too, but in a way meant to render you more Whole, and Holy, so that our love may be mutual, complete, constantly renewed, and alive. I love you so much that I will Incarnate, and surrender myself to you. I will enter into you (stubborn, faulty, incomplete you, adored you, the you that can never fully know me or love me back) and I will give you my whole body. I will give you all of myself, unto my very blood, and then it will finally be consummated between us, and you will understand that I have been not just your God, but your lover, your espoused, your bridegroom. Come to me, and let me love you. Be my bride; accept your bridegroom and let the scent and sense of our love course over and through the whole world through the church I beget to you. I am your God; you are my people. I am your bridegroom; you are my bride. This is the great love story, the great intercourse, the great espousal, and you cannot imagine where I mean to take you, if you will only be faithful . . . as I am always faithful.” I do not know if they are her words or paraphrased from someone else or just a retelling of the story we heard as a first reading one of the weekday masses recently. I think regardless that it is perhaps one of the most beautiful descriptions of the story of salvation. He came to be Broken for us, “I will become broken, too, but in a way meant to render you more Whole, and Holy, so that our love may be mutual, complete, constantly renewed, and alive. I love you so much that I will Incarnate, and surrender myself to you.”

    I think all of the readings carry the theme of being changed. It is the end of the week of Prayer for Vocations, and today is the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that changed everything. But in reality the change happened long before the decision. In all truth and reality the change of society facilitated the change in the law, and this is what we face today. Will we as Catholic Christians be changed by the society or by the One Who became Broken for us?

    Jonah walks through the great city of Ninevah, announcing the day of the Lord is at hand repent of your evil ways. To his surprise they do. They listen to a foreigner in a foreign land and mend their evil ways. In our baptismal call to holiness, we are charged with doing the same. We are people of faith, people of truth, people gifted with the keys to heaven; we must call the world around us to repentance. We do this by repenting ourselves. We do this by living lives that cause no scandal or scuttlebutt. We do this by guiding our families into the ways of Christ. We are given all that we need in order to change the world, Jesus Christ. We come to be strengthened by His Body and Blood, and we go out into the world to be Christ for the World. This is one of the great paradoxes of our faith, sinful men and women are called to pattern the Sinless, Broken, and Resurrected Christ for all to see as beacons on hills.

    St. Paul reminds us that after Christ our lives can never be the same. Encountering the living Christ means we must be changed, we cannot go back to our old lives. In the waters of Baptism our old self dies, and a new self rises. In the waters of Baptism we are intrinsically changed from the very depths of our being. In the waters of Baptism we are made new, we are joined to the Body of Christ, and we are called and chosen to be his followers.

    Jesus reminds us the time is now. “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Gospel.” The time is now, not tomorrow, not next week. The Time is now. The Kingdom of God is in our midst, Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega. Jesus Christ has come to save us. He has come to rescue us from bondage, by becoming bondage. He has come to rescue us from sin, by hanging on the Cross. Jesus Christ has come to bring us home. Repent, change your lives, be called into conversion and believe. It is odd isn’t it, that in Jesus’ own words in order to believe in the Gospel, we must first be changed. If we think that we can be the same after the encounter with the Savior of all mankind, then we are sorely mistaken. And this mistake leads away from salvation.

    If we want an end to abortion, we must be about changing the course of the society, that is flowing away from the importance of family and the love of children and the centrality of the Marriage of Man and Woman as a God given construct meant for the building up of the community of man and the exultation of the goodness of God. If we are afraid to stand up; if we are afraid to speak; if we are afraid to study and pray and fast and sacrifice for the truth, then we must be assured that we will lose. As Christians we have been called and chosen and gifted to be candles on lamp stands, salt of the earth, cities on hills. We are called to be beacons guiding all people to their true home. Our Holy Father told a group of American Bishops this week, “For her part, the Church in the United States is called, in season and out of season, to proclaim a Gospel which not only proposes unchanging moral truths but proposes them precisely as the key to human happiness and social prospering.” We have the sacred duty to guide society to her true purpose, service of God. We must embrace this holy charge. We must love all around us enough to call them to holiness of action and life. We must be Christ for the world.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

  • Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time(B) January 15, 2012

    Social media offers a very quick and immediate interaction with people known well and acquaintances alike. This week perhaps you were sent a video entitled, “Why I have religion, but love Jesus.” I watched it several times each time thinking more and more that it was just an attack on a straw man. Jefferson Bethke offers a litany of many reasons why Jesus did not start a religion. He rails against war and hypocrisy, he tells of those who pose as Christians instead of really being Christians. He also gets right a very Catholic understanding of salvation as being made friends and brothers of Christ and followers of God most high. He accomplished many things that I kind of doubt he intended. Though I don’t mind commenting on contemporary issues, this is one that I never thought would need my commentary. I would point you to a ton of responses that are available all over the internet. For those who are not connected to the wide wide web, I thought I would form my reflections around a line from the second reading that seems to me to dash all of this idea that I can be, “spiritual” without being “religious.”

    The major difference of Christianity from all the Greek Hellenistic religions and philosophies and all the Eastern religions and philosophies is found in the second reading, “The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body; God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.” All of the Greek and Eastern religions and philosophies set up a complete war of body and spirit. This is shown to be completely false in the Christian understanding of creation. The Lord of the Soul is the Lord of the Body, salvation occurs of human beings, completely, totally, integrally. Our understanding of salvation is rooted in the salvation of the person. We are saved as human persons, body and soul. Thomas Aquinas said that we are not embodied souls, we are ensouled bodies. We are not bodies that have souls; we are souls that have bodies. Our salvation is a salvation of the human person, not just the soul or just the body. We are welcomed into heaven as human persons, and humans have bodies. We are not split. This is the challenge of the contemporary dichotomy of a dualistic approach to the human person. This is a fancy way of saying contemporary society would rather talk about the salvation of the soul and the leaving behind of the body. We are animals after all right. The contemporary society says do whatever you would like with your body; just keep your mind and soul ready for eternity. This is not Christian. We are saved as integral persons, we are saved body and soul, we are rescued to heaven were body and soul sing in unison.

    As much as the human person is made for complete union of purpose, the Christian believer is made for union of purpose. In the grace of Baptism we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, and we are incorporated into His Mystical Body. The Church, rightly so, is called the Body of Christ. As much as the human person is made for union with self, the Church more so; the Church is the visual sign, symbol, and sacrament of the union of the Christian believers. The Church is rightly called the Bride of Christ, she is a unity of all who believe and are called to conversion. She is made of sinners and saints. She is made of clergy and laity. She is filled with the young and the old. She is made of the living and the dead. She is made up of hypocrites and sinners the self righteous and the self assured. She is the place of healing and conversion. She is for all people for all time and all places. The Church is all for calling people together into union and communion of purpose and being. She exists to be a beacon calling all to salvation.

    I am reasonably sure that we cannot do this alone. We are in this together. We are in need of your gifts and challenges; your successes and failures to make us one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Here as a community of believers we come to “Behold the lamb of God.” Here as a community of the faithful we come to find, “What we are looking for.” Here we have found the Messiah, his name is Emmanuel, Prince of peace, king of Kings, Jesus Christ the King of the Jews. We have been purchased with a great price. All together, we are built up into the great Mystical Body of Christ. If I truly love Jesus, then I must love his people, all of them whether they are joined with us now, or we are waiting for their unity. “Are you not aware that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the body of the Church united with one purpose, the salvation of the people of the world.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

  • Homily for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God January 1, 2012

    It is again the time for the dreaded New Year’s Resolution. It is kind of like a secular ascetic practice of looking back upon the actions of the past and a promise for a new future. Perhaps you will resolve to lose weight, or exercise more. Perhaps this year’s resolution will be to save some more money, or buy a house. Maybe you will stop smoking, or cursing, or drinking. It is kind of like a mini Lent that is usually over much quicker than it has begun. The practice is perhaps a worldly attempt to grow in virtue and perfection. Unfortunately this is not a possible action. Without Christ perfection is not possible. This Year’s Resolution will for all intents and purposes end up in the trash heap of what may be or could have been.
    St. Matthew ends his gospel with the exhortation to preach the gospel, “Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” He tells the eleven that all in heaven and earth already belongs to Him, and they are to go to all the nations in order to bring them home to Christ. Not only is this special privilege and responsibility for them it is also for all times. For all times and places Jesus has sent his faithful followers into the world to bring His people home.
    We didn’t hear that gospel today. In fact today is the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. We are closing the eight days of Christmas. We are or should be focused on the first coming of Christ. We are supposed to reflecting on Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ who is God. I want to look today at a short line from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son.” I would venture to say that you may ask yourself occasionally, “Why did Jesus come to Earth when He did?” Perhaps you think about, “If He came today would the message to the world have been easier, or different, would more people accept it?” “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son.” God the Father waited until the time was right, and the Word Jesus Christ came to the world born of a virgin. He came weak and fragile and defenseless, to a world that still values the powerful, the rich, and the strong. He came to show that life, true life is about surrender and following, rather than power, strength, and self-determination. The Son was sent, when the fullness of time was here.
    This week I was sent a picture of a spindle adapter for a 45, and asked what it was. My Grandpa used to play Burl Ives on the HiFi so I knew what it was. It made me think, in my lifetime I have seen us go from listening to music on records, to eight tracks, to cassettes, to CD’s, and now we can download whatever music we wish. Our society, our world has become extremely self-focused. Not just focused on me, but focused on the contemporary age. With so many advancements and opportunities we can sometimes maybe even often be convinced that today is the day.
    With the advent of Jesus Christ life has found its true meaning. With the coming of Jesus Christ as the son of Mary and the Son of God, the world has received her purpose. With the teaching and miracles of the Christ, we have been given the truth of Love. With his crucifixion and resurrection, we have been offered salvation. We are living in the fullness of time, and have been for almost 2000 years. Our future is not salvation. Salvation is here today and now. He has promised us “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” And in the Eucharist he has made good on his promise.

Friday, 02 December 2011

  • December 2

    We woke up bright and early and drove to The Church of the Annunciation. We passed by Mary's Well the place of the Annunciation according to the Greek Orthodox. The Church of the Annunciation is quite massive and built over the home of Mary and Joseph. We celebrated Mass in the Church of St. Joseph. We then drove to Bethlehem for shopping for olive wood carvings some of the stuff was very expensive. I purchased crosses for the new Stations and a large nativity set. We then drove to the Wailing Wall and arrived just as the Sabboth prayers were beginning this may be the most memorible moments of the pilgrimage. As the Jews gathered at the Wall of different kinds and observances young and old sang and danced as they welcomed the Sabboth. You can't take pictures as the Sabboth begins but I think this image will be with me for a long time.

  • The First Few Days

    We have not had access to free internet until today and since I am notoriously cheap I have waited until today.

    November 28-29

    The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful and the flight to Tell Aviv was completely packed. We then drove to Natanya for our first night into the hotel. We had a bit of a orientation to the community around us.

    November 30
    Feast of St. Andrew

    We began with a tour of Ancient Ceasarea. The city's ancient theate
    is still used for performances. We then took a short drive upon Mount Carmel for Mass at the Church of Stella Maris. We were able to visit the cave of Elijah after our Mass in the church's sacristy. We drove through Haifa and on to Megiddo. Megiddo is the home of Solomon's Stables and the home of an underground tunnel to the water source. It was 153 steps down and 83 steps back up. It was quite an experience when the solid stone steps to the iron steps where you could see the bottom deep below you. Then we were on to Mount Tabor to visit the Church of the Transfiguration. The church itself is rather small but stunningly beautiful. I was quite amazed at the view from the church absolutely breathtaking. We then left for our hotel in Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee with a brief stop at the River Jordan where we saw people renewing their baptisms and able to touch the water of the Jordan. There were other Americans living in the Jordan, nutria, a kind of river rat from South America with large orange teeth. We also saw huge carp swimming in the River.

    December 1

    We begin the day with a brief ride across the Sea of Galilee. The water was smooth and fresh. After the cruise we headed to the Church of The Multiplication at Tabgha. The church here has some of the oldest and most beautiful floor mosiacs in the Holy Land. The church itself is rather recent in construction. We then drove up to the Mount of Beatitudes for Mass. Again the church it self would seat maybe 100 people but there are several outdoor altars set around the area. It is a very peaceful location. There is a retreat center available for people to come and stay. After Mass we went to the Church of the Primacy of Peter. It is on the Sea itself and the site of the last appearance of Jesus to his disciples in the Scriptures. We were able to touch the waters of the Sea of Galilee and see the ancient steps that the fisherman would have used to leave their boats. After this we drove to the site of Capernaum and the house of Peter's mother in law. The church built over the foundations of the house and two previous churches is suspended above the excuvations. The house itself was very close to the ancient synogogue. This maybe an indication that she was rather wealthy. We then drove to the Church of the Wedding Feast of Cana. There is a stone jar or a stone jar cover about 2000 years old in the basement of the church. Then home to the hotel.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Saturday, 05 November 2011

  • Homily for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time(A) November 6, 2011

                This is maybe one of the most comforting psalms that we hear liturgically.  Maybe we don’t think of the statement of fact as comforting.  We know the comfort that we receive in Psalm 23 from the idea of the Lord as shepherd guiding and guarding our hearts offering protection and providing super abundance.  Maybe Psalm 121 comes to mind immediately as words of comfort “I lift up my eyes to the hills from where shall come my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”  The idea that all I need for help comes from the Lord.  Or Maybe you find comfort in Psalm 50 “Then call on my in the day of distress, and I will rescue you and you will give me praise.”

                I do not normally preach on the psalm, maybe to my own detriment.  They seem so life giving and approachable that I make the assumption that you find them the same way.  I want to look at the Psalm today especially the refrain.  “My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.”  We hear all but the last three verses of Psalm 63.  In these brief words we have all of the human condition summed up.  There is something deep inside of me looking for something more than I can ever provide for myself.  That has to be You, O Lord God.  I will search for You like the dry, weary land thirsts for water.  And when I find You, I will worship You in your tabernacle, I will lift up my hands like and evening offering.  I will be satisfied in the banquet that You set before me.  I will remember You in the dark of my fears and meditate on Your love and You will be my joy.

                The genius of the psalms is they speak to all people in all situations for all time.  We have all known the deep and gnawing hunger in the depths of our being.  We have all known the joy and finding satisfaction. We know fear and separation in the middle of the night.  We know the joy that can be found in Jesus.  We may not know all this at the same times or even continuously.  The psalms have words for the moments in which we don’t. There are words of contrition, anguish, hopefulness, despair, hurt,illness, health, peace, and comfort.  In the book of the psalms we echo the prayers of the Children of God from all times.  The psalms were the prayer book of Jesus.  They would have been the lullabies that Mary had sung him to sleep; the words of prayer offered by Joseph at the table and the shed.

                St.Augustine echoes this psalm in his Confessions“My heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”  The challenge and gift is perhaps rooted in that idea of resting in Jesus.  We must be able to find rest in the immenseness of God. We must be able to submit our own restless wills to the peace offered in following the will of God.  Our Holy Father Benedict says it perhaps best, “If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation. And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.”

                When we truly recognize that our souls’ thirst can only be slaked in Jesus then we can truly live.  If we are afraid of the restrictions and rules of following Christ, we live lives of fear.  If we are searching for wholeness and drink in the world around us, whatever we find will only leaves us dry and lost.  Let us be a people who fill the thirst of our innermost heart with the banquet of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Here we find the Bread of Life and the Cup of Eternal Salvation.  Here we will find food for eternal life, and drink for salvation.

Sunday, 30 October 2011

  • Homily for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time

                I was reading an article about Seminary Formation in the different protestant traditions.  One of the articles spoke about Sex and seminary formation.  This really isn’t as much of an issue for the Catholic Seminarian as for a pastor in training in other faith traditions. Celibacy is not just an expectation, for the Catholic seminarian, it is the norm of life.  The young graduate was reflecting on the first time he told his classmates about his fiancée and his decisions to remain virgins until their marriage.  He said his classmates looked at him as though he had grown an extra arm or a third eye.  Then he said maybe the most profound statement that I have read in a very long time, “It was okay to be unholy,because we were all holy.”  I have spent much time thinking about this phrase; in fact it is the only part of the article I remember.  “It is okay to be unholy, because we are all holy.” Perhaps this is the best statement of the challenges facing the Churchi n the world today.  “It is okay to be unholy, because we are all holy.”

                We are all mostly from pro-Christian cultures, whether we are of Mexican, European, or Filipino back grounds.  We live in a society that is for the most part pro-Christian values, while at the same time maybe being anti implementation or support of those values.  Vast majorities of the American culture are ambivalent to Christianity, some parts maybe even growing parts are hostile to all forms of religion, but at the moment we are still free to practice what we believe.

                These are some of the reasons that I think that that idea of, “It is okay to be unholy,because we are all holy.” is becoming more a part of the Catholic Christian landscape.  If we begin to embrace the easy and facile religion of ambivalence then there is no need to be called to holiness because, “Well I am just human. You can’t expect me to be anything less. And Jesus certainly loves me the way I am, why would he ask me to change?”  This is certainly dangerous thinking.

                St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “we…give thanks to God unceasingly,
    that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.”  It is clear, in my mind, that St. Paul sees “the Word of God,” in a varied and splendorous way.  St. Paul is very clear that he understands that “The Word of God,” is the person of Jesus Christ.  “You, Thessalonians, we thank God at all times that in receiving the words that we spoke that you received the Word that Spoke into the nothingness and created the world.  Not only that but He came in Flesh and Blood to suffer, to die, and to rise again.  In our words you received the Word of life, the Word of God, Jesus Christ.  And now, now you speak the words of salvation and others encounter the Risen Lord in your words.”  St. Paul is so very crystal clear that in receiving the Word of God spoken by his mouth, takes up residence in the hearts, in the temples of the souls of those who listen and are changed.  Not only this, but when those who have listened to the Word, give the Word of God to others in their own words and actions.

                The Word of God, the Word of Truth, is continuously replicating.  In receiving and listening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we become bearers of the Gospel. He works from within us to make us Holy. Jesus works on our souls in the Word of the Gospel that we hear and the Body and Blood that we consume.  He enlivens our lives if we will let him. And he gives us a warning.  He warns us about what will happen if you do not cooperate.

                The Prophet Malachi warns those leading the Jewish people that they are chosen and special to the Lord the Most High.  They must not show partiality, they must follow the ways of the Lord, not the ways of the World.  The priests of the Old Covenant are called to give the truth to the Children Israel, nothing more and certainly nothing less.  The Truth of the Love of God is sufficient.  If we follow in the footsteps of his commandments and ways then all will be well.

                Jesus warns us in the Gospel of Matthew that the followers of the Lord God must follow in the ways of those who serve rather than the ones who wish to be served.  “For they preach what they do not practice.”  This is the challenge mentioned in the beginning, “It is okay to be unholy, because we are all holy.”  Have we all been created Holy?  Of course we have.  We have all been created in the image and likeness of God.  There is nothing that we can do to ever completely wipe away this great gift of the God of Heaven,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We can damage it, we can ignore it, we can do all within our powers to make ourselves as animal-like as possible.  But the gift of his likeness is His alone.  We do not own our souls they have been His from the beginning, we can only grow them into deeper and more profound love of him through His gifts of Grace, or we can leave them to whither on the vine.

                It is never okay to do unholy things.  Never and that is what we welcome every time we sin. Every time we sin we welcome unholiness into our lives.  If you haven’t been to confession in a while,it is time.  Please come to the sacrament and come regularly.  The longer we live with our sins, the more normal they become for us.  The longer we allow them to take up residence in the Temple of our Souls, the more a part of the landscape they become.  They become like pieces of furniture that are rather ugly but we keep them around because they have been there so long, or we are afraid of the cost of something new. In all reality the cost is tremendously high; it is the price of our sins.  When we give them to Jesus and truly strive not to go looking for them again, he takes them completely away from us and makes our lives sparkling clean and pure.  It is truly okay to be holy, because holiness is what we have been created for.

Saturday, 01 October 2011

  • Homily for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time(A) October 2, 2011

                Respect is one of those things.  It is one of those things that we think we all deserve, but maybe not be willing to offer.  Respect is rooted in a deep reverence of the other person, so deep in fact that it grows and deepens the persons own self worth and value until it overflows and returns to the person offering it.  Have you thought about respect?  I am sure that we often think about it when we think it is owed to us.  We get upset,sometimes rightly so, when those whom we respect do not offer it back.  Or sometimes even when someone who we think should respect us doesn’t.  Maybe they are younger than we are, or we hold a position of leadership.  I would venture to say that there are many reasons that we think or have thought about respect.

                Respect in and of itself is rooted in familial love. It means that as I come to know and treasure you as a member of the human race and as a brother or sister in Christ, I should grow in love and respect for you as created by God.  This is difficult because we hurt and wound each other.  We often do not have the moment of clarity or ability to see past our own wounds caused by our fellow human beings and cannot peer into God’s all consuming love.  This love is on display on the most egregious of sinners and the most perfect of saints.  The other is a finite exact moment of the Lord’s all consuming, all creating love on display for those who choose to see.  In all reality when we respect the other we show great love and reverence for the one who created all of mankind.

                Think for a moment of every single thing, person, or experience you have had since you awoke this morning from sleep.  Maybe the first thing that you were aware of this morning was the warmth of your bed and pillow.  Or the frustration of the alarm clock going off and awakening you from slumber. Perhaps you thought about breakfast or the dishes you forgot to wash last night.  Maybe you opened your eyes and uttered a quick and heartfelt prayer for the day.  None of these things truly belong to you;even the heat of the blanket is not truly created by you.  Even if you planted and harvested the cotton and spun and dyed the thread and loomed the material and hemmed the edges you did not create the seed or the dirt or the water that fell from the sky.  Even the warmth of your body heat is dependent on the calories of the food that you ate being converted in the depths of your bowels.  Every single person you have encountered since you awoke every single thing you have touched, eaten, and thrown away has not been created by you. 

                I cannot create a single thing from within myself. I can take materials and images and combine them and manipulate them into something different, but I cannot create from nothing.  Only God can do this.  When I show respect for the other I am offering reverence to the Creator. Respect is rooted in the fact that I am not the center.  I am at best somewhere out on the edges being drawn into relationship with the Blessed Trinity.

    “Finally, he sent his son to them,thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’  They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.” The owner of the vineyard sent representatives knowing that only one person could save the tenants from themselves. Our God the Father, knew from the eating of the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil, only His Son could make things right.  So He sent His Son, and we saw Him, Jesus,one like us a man in all things but sin and we were jealous and envious.  We want to be like God.  We desire to be in control.  We want to have dominion over as we have been called.  But we are not creators, we are stewards.  We are the great chosen caretakers to care for His creation.

    We often forget.  We often do not pay the appropriate attention to the call to be caretakers, we would rather be managers.  We can see the work ahead of us, but we often would prefer to allow someone else to do it. Sometimes we are the ones that others allow to do the work of caretaking in the vineyard.  We can become indignant at this.  It isn’t fair.  We spoke about that last week.  We become great scale keepers rather than laborers.

                “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  St. Paul tells us that we are to remain focused on Christ.  Those things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, worthy of praise these are the things to reflect on in order to remain in Christ.  When we look to the other we look for Christin them.  Jesus may be buried under a lot of stuff.  Years of sin and pain and hurt and bitterness and anger can make us miss finding Him.  He is there whether the other knows it or not.  This is why we respect our fellow humans, because Jesus is there.  He is always there calling us each into contrition and forgiveness.  We need only look for him.

Saturday, 24 September 2011

  • Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time(A) September 25, 2011

                “It isn’t fair.”  We have all said it at one time or another.  “It isn’t fair.”  It is the mantra and marching song of those under the age of 18.  “It isn’t fair.”  It is the song of the adult who has not received what they thought they should.  “It isn’t fair.”  “You say, “The LORD's way is not fair!”  Hear now, house of Israel:  Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?”  We hear this word fair tossed about in all kinds of contexts. I wonder do we really want what is fair? I maintain with loud voice that we do not want what is truly fair; we want rather what we perceive as fair from where we stand. 

                Think perhaps on this with me for a moment. What is fair?  Fair means everyone gets the same.  The same amount of everything, not only do we get the same amount, we are expected to give the same amount.  That is fair.  It is a precise game of give and take.  To be fair, to be truly fair excludes all exceptionalism.  It means that there are no exceptions to the rule, everything is fair. We have to have the same number of shirts in my closet, our bank accounts must be equal, and our houses must be the same.  In a way it is a good idea isn’t it.  To be fair means that no one would ever hunger.  There would be no thirst or homelessness, because we would all be treated fairly.  We would have equal shares of everything.  In a way it sounds like a utopia.  The problem comes with what happens next.  To be fair I wouldn’t be able to have more of anything than you. If I had gifts in music or art, or sports, or math or writing, I wouldn’t be able to use them it wouldn’t be fair it wouldn’t be equal.  If I got really sick and needed a lot of attention, when I exceeded my allotted portion of healthcare, I would not be able to receive anymore because it wouldn’t be fair.  If we live in a world based on fair, then everything would at best be mediocre. There would no longer be greatness, there would only be mediocrity and probably a little less than that.  If I am going to get what is fair, why should I work hard for it, I will always get the same as everybody else.   “You say, “The LORD's way is not fair!”  Hear now, house of Israel:  Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?”

                Hear now Oh people of the World there is no such thing as fair.  It is always the response to the opening statement, “It isn’t fair.”  “Life isn’t fair.”  There is no such thing as fair.  Because when the “fair” is passed around, someone always gets a little more “fair.”  At least it is that way from my perspective.  There is no such thing as fair.  Life isn’t fair.  It isn’t fair.  The exclamations about fairness will always persist; they are rooted in that evil little thing called jealousy or envy.  You have what I want so I complain that it isn’t fair that you have it.  In my mind I see what I want not what you had to do to acquire it.  Perhaps you saved up, or it was a gift.  I do not see all the stuff I have that you don’t, just what I want what I desire, what I envy.  Fairness is rooted in me and my wants and desires, it doesn’t have anything to do with my needs. “You say, “The LORD's way is not fair!”  Hear now, house of Israel:  Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?”

                The words of the Prophet Ezekiel should ring loud and clear in our ears.  “Oh my people, you are not fair.”  We are not fair we do not have the ability to be fair, because we are made in the image and likeness of God.  God is not fair.  God is just. If God is fair, then we would all be condemned to hell.  We are finite the Blessed Trinity are infinite.  When we sin against God, our sin wounds infinitely.  We cannot make reparation for this kind of infinite wound. We can never offer enough penance for satisfaction, because we are finite.  The very fact that we are going to die and God is not means we can never even the score. And God the Father knows this, and instead of being fair, allowing us to remain in our sin, He sends the Son to heal the infinite wound.  The Father knows that with the sin in the Garden of Eden, we can never find our way back to Him, without His great mercy and assistance.  Instead of being fair,God is just.  He loves us so much that he gives us what we need.  He sees past fairness and into justice.  He loves us so much that he gives us that which, we can never possess, never earn, never achieve eternal life with Him.

                “You say, “The LORD's way is not fair!”  Hear now, house of Israel:  Is it my way that is unfair,or rather, are not your ways unfair?”  Of course the Lord’s way is not fair it is just. God does not call his people into fairness he calls us into justice.  It is important to think about.  Justice is the virtue from the human perspective that gives to the other what is due to them in their humanity.  It is not fair, it is just.  It means that when our brother needs food or clothing or water we give it to him.  It means that when our sister is ill we care for them and provide for them.  Justice means that out of my own need, wants, and desires I care for the sake of the other first.

                The true danger in the being fair is that those who perceive that they have nothing to give then don’t, and those that perceive that they have much do not receive.  Blessed John Paul II said, “There is no person so poor that he has nothing to give, and now person so rich that they have nothing to receive.”  Justice is about seeing past what I possess or lack and into the needs of the other to see if I can fulfill them.

                There are many things in this world that just are not fair.  There are a great many more that are not just.  We are called to be people of justice not fairness.  This means that we must be quick to offer a helping hand and as quick to receive one.  “Brothers and sisters:  If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.  Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.  Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  In all fairness we can do nothing apart from the great gift of the cross and the one who hung there for our salvation.  Let us be a people rooted in the great gift of salvation and be willing to always give of our need and accept in our time of need.

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