Wait For It! Second Sunday of Advent, 12/7/14

Here we are on the second week of Advent. The season of Advent is, of course, the beginning of the Liturgical Year, the time when we look forward and prepare for the coming of the Lord. We joyfully anticipate his birth.  For children, especially, Christmas can’t come quickly enough.  They muster all of their patience, waiting to open all those gifts under the Christmas tree.  In some ways, it’s a good lesson because we all have to learn how to wait, throughout our lives.  When we are young, birthdays can’t come quick enough.  When we enter our teen years, we can’t wait to enter high school.  When we enter high school, we know that getting our driver’s license is just around the corner.  Then comes the day we turn eighteen, and twenty-one, the day we get married, or have our first child.  Throughout our lives, we seem to be constantly looking over that fence, anticipating what is just around the corner, but not yet here.

Time and time again, Israel found itself waiting.  Abraham waited to find the unknown land that God would lead him to.  He waited for the fulfillment of God’s promise of a sea of descendants.  The Hebrews, previously enslaved in Egypt, were set free, only to have to wait once again, wondering in the wilderness for forty years.

In today’s first reading, Isaiah has been instructed by the Lord to bring a promise of comfort to His people.  Warfare will be at an end, and pardon for all of their sins will be granted.  The roads in the wilderness will be straightened, valleys will be lifted up, uneven ground made level, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed. But not yet! These promises of succor will be granted by the Lord, but at a time that has not yet occurred.

In the Second Reading, Peter tells his flock that the waiting is not yet at an end.  He says that the Lord’s promises will be fulfilled, but at a time of the Lord’s choosing, not ours.

“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief…  But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth…“

More waiting!  It never gets easier, does it.  At least, now, we are told how to behave while we wait. We are told to be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish.  In other words, we are to straighten the roads of our lives, to fill in the pits, and smooth the hills.

Finally, in Mark’s Gospel, we see John, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, saying

“After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So here we are, entering the second week of Advent, and again we wait.  We know that the Lord is coming, but first we need to amend our lives, need to make our pathways straight and level.  How then do we accomplish this?  I’m the first one to admit that I am terrible at waiting.  I am very impatient.  If you have any doubts, just ask my wife.  When something is promised, is just around the corner, I want it right now.  Waiting is fine for everyone else, but not for me.  My guess is that I am not alone in this respect.  We see our impatience rearing its ugly head all around us.   We see more and more couples forgoing marriage, and moving in with each other, unable to wait for the intimacy that is proper to marriage.  When we do get married, we know that we are called to be open to the gift of children, but we realize that having those children will diminish our own pleasures and interests.  Children require a lot of things, all of which cost a lot of money, but society says that life is all about us and that having to put the needs of children before our own is unnecessary, and wrongly curtails our freedom.  Common wisdom leads many to the belief that contraception and abortion are valid “choices” and even a constitutional right.

How are we to discern the will of God in our lives?  What are we to do in order to be found without spot or blemish when the day of the Lord appears?  I would suggest that the best thing we can do is to spend time with the Lord, in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, praying before the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus.  Once again, Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, and the Eternal Word of God, is showing us how to be fully human, by waiting for us!  All He asks of us is to spend time in prayer with Him.  Just as Jesus asked Peter, James, and John to spend time with him in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his passion, He desires us to spend time with Him, to place our sins once again upon his shoulder, to seek what he seeks, that the will of the Father will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

As always, God has made the first move, and now he is waiting for us.  How will we respond?

Homily  Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A,

September 28, 2014

Paradox.  Among its many definitions is this:  an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion.

Today’s readings are full of paradoxes, full of seemingly contradictory statements.  If we look closely at our society, our culture, and then study these readings, we are going to receive a clear lesson in recognizing a paradox, and having recognized this, learning what we must do in order to enjoy eternal happiness in Heaven.

First, what does our Culture teach us about happiness?  What must we do in order to be fulfilled, to be truly happy, according to the accepted wisdom of our society?  Why, we must look out for ourselves, we must put our own interests first.  Ever hear the phrase “Who ever has the most toys wins!”  When we see someone buy a new, bigger house, don’t we think to ourselves “maybe my house is too small to be happy in?”  When someone buys a new car, do we think to ourselves “Maybe my car is getting too old? Maybe it’s time for a new one?”  How about bling?  Are our clothes, jewelry too plain? Will people notice us if we aren’t making a statement with bigger, better stuff?

Watch television any day, and you will be inundated by voices telling you that you need more, you need newer, you need bigger everything.

Let’s start with the Gospel.  In Palestine, during Jesus’ time, who were the respectable people, the ones in charge?  The High Priests, the Saducees, the Pharisees.  They were successful, shown respect, sat in the best seats, and looked down on anyone and everyone who wasn’t as fortunate as themselves.  Obviously God had blessed them with success and riches, right?  But what did Jesus say to them?

“Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you?”

In the Psalm we hear:

“Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.  He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.”

Humility is what God wants from us.  He wants us to consider ourselves the least, to put others’ needs before our own.  He wants us to realize that we are sinners, and in doing so to beg for God’s forgiveness and mercy. 

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians gives us a clear view of what is expected of us:

“Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees, criticized by them for eating with sinners, tax collectors, and harlots.  The sinners, tax collectors, and harlots knew their places.  They were never allowed to forget who they were.  To eat with them, to sit among them, to brush up against them, made you ritually unclean.  And instead of putting themselves up in front, in the places of honor, like the Pharisees, they stayed in their places, in the background.  And when Jesus came preaching of God’s mercy and forgiveness, they repented and changed their ways.

Paul, a former Pharisee, saw this paradox, and tells us that humility, not conceit is what will open the gates of Heaven for us.  Repentence, turning away from sin, is what the Lord desires from us.

We’ve gotten a concrete example of this in the life of a man that we just buried this week, Fr. Gus.  He was humble, always putting the needs of the sick, the poor, the destitute, ahead of his own needs.  Let us remember to follow Jesus’ example, to follow Blessed Theresa of Calcutta example, Fr. Gus’s example.

In the final analysis, there is the interplay between the justice of God versus the mercy of God.  We know that none of us hopes to receive merely what we deserve, for as we are all sinners, we place our fate at the mercy of the Father. In true humility, we can do nothing less!

With the hope of Mercy, we must truly strive to become an Amazing Parish.  We, as a community of Faith, must strive to let the Light of Christ shine through us in everything that we do.  By doing God’s will we hope to draw everyone to God.  We all have a part to play.   With God’s grace at work in our lives, our parish can do amazing things!

The Feast of Corpus Christi – June 22, 2014

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ!  The Eucharist!  The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian Life.  The Church has always been very clear in its teaching that the Eucharist, while looking like bread and wine, are in reality the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ..  Most other faith communities, while they celebrate what they refer to as the Lord’s Supper, differ from our Faith in that they merely believe that the communion is symbolic, that the bread and wine, or indeed the crackers and grape juice represent the body and blood of Jesus, but remain at all times just crackers and juice.

If we look closely at the readings for today, we will gain an insight into the Eucharist.

In the first reading, taken from the book of Deuteronomy in the Torah, we see the Hebrews, who have been brought out of Egypt by Moses, wandering through the desert.  As usual, they have hardened their hearts, and are complaining to Moses, and through Moses to God that they are starving, that they have been abandoned by God, and ultimately, that it would have been better to remain slaves in Egypt with food to eat, than to wander freely, feeling the pangs of hunger.  The Lord wanted to test the Hebrews, to make them totally dependent on Him, to humble them.  He fed them, just when they thought that they could go no further. He sent Manna from Heaven, and only allowed them to gather enough for one day’s meal, even though they wanted to gather more, to keep some in reserve. God wanted to feed the Hebrews miraculously, so they would realize that everything they needed came directly from God, right down to bread and water.

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

Our second reading, taken from the First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the people of Corinth, seeks to remove all doubt from their minds as to the true nature of the Eucharistic feast.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

This letter makes it very clear that Paul believed that the bread and wine, originally taken from the Pesach meal, has been transformed into the very Body and Blood of Jesus.

Finally, we hear from the Apostle who Jesus loved, John the Evangelist.  Jesus, has just finished teaching the crowds that he is the living bread.

“ I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life f the world is my flesh.”

“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; ⁵⁴ he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”

The Jews, back in the desert in the time of Moses, were given very specific dietary commands, which had to be kept in order for them to remain ritually pure.  These dietary laws were of vital importance.  Now, hearing Jesus tell them they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to gain eternal life that as many as half of Jesus’ disciples got up and left him, rather than trying to wrap their mind around this talk of eating and drinking human flesh and blood.

Now seriously…, Jesus used metaphors, he taught using parables. If he was speaking symbolically, if he wasn’t being literal, wouldn’t this have been the perfect place for Jesus to tell the disciples who were walking away, “Whoa, I wasn’t being literal here!  I wouldn’t expect you to really eat and drink my flesh and blood.  I was just trying to make a point here…”  But instead, this is what Jesus says:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; ⁵⁴ he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.”

So this is vital.  Jesus is talking about eternal life, an eternal life of supreme happiness and joy with Jesus, in heaven, and conversely, by contrast, of an eternal life of supreme misery, without him.

Just like the Jews in the Torah, just like all of us now, we are always looking for proof, something we can take to the bank, so to speak. To the contrary, Jesus is looking for us to believe him, without the miracles, taking him at his word. 

Now there are many instances of Eucharistic miracles that have been well documented and attested to though out the history of the Church.  One of most recent Eucharistic miracles occurred in Fatima, Portugal in 1916.  As the Angel of Peace was preparing the three children for the visitation of our Lady, he showed them a consecrated Host which dripped the Precious Blood of our Lord into a Chalice that he held beneath.

In Siena, Italy, on August 17^th, 1730 a consecrated host which had been profanely discarded, thrown away, was placed into water, in order to let it dissolve, and so be disposed of in a proper and respectful way, did not dissolve. In fact, not only did it not dissolve, it bled.  Not only did it bleed, it was kept and examined by a scientist in the 20^th Century, and the scientist, not knowing what he was examining, declared that what he was given was human flesh, flesh from the heart, flesh from the heart of a person who had been horribly beaten and tortured.

In Bolsena-Orvieto, Italy in 1263, a German priest named Peter, on a pilgrimage to Rome, stopped in Bolsena.  He was a pious priest, but he was having a difficult time believing that Jesus Christ was actually present in the Consecrated Host.  While he was celebrating the Holy Mass in a Church above the tomb of Saint Christina, the host started to bleed, the blood running down his hands and onto the Corporal and Altar.  The priest was so frightened that he asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was residing.  Pope Urban, after examining the priest, and the bleeding Consecrated Host and the blood on the Corporal, issued a Papal Bull, which instituted the very Solemnity that we are celebrating here today.

Do we believe?  Hopefully, most of us would say yes.  Do we declare our belief with our actions?  Do we declare our belief in the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ with our awe and respect?  Upon entering this Church, do we respectfully fall to our knees in prayer, or do we stop to make small talk to our neighbor?  After Mass, do we kneel and offer prayers of Thanksgiving, or do we run to our cars to hurry home for the rest of a game on TV?  If we are being honest, our Church is experiencing a crisis of faith, or rather, a crisis of lack of faith, in the Real Presence.

The gift of belief, the gift of Faith is a grace that we have not earned, a grace that we have been freely given.  What we do with that faith will in some measure manifest our true beliefs.  Will we let our faith in the Real Presence wither and die, or will we, inflamed with a passionate love for our Lord in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, evidence our faith by our actions?

Just a humble note...

I honestly don't expect to develop a readership with this blog, and will be very grateful to anyone who even considers giving it a second look.  I am a new deacon, and I end up preaching every 4-6 weeks.  Right now, I'm just posting those homilies here.  Perhaps I'll try to add cogent comments every now and then.

Borrowing a thought from Bruvver Eccles, let's aspire to be saved pussons!

Thanks.

Homily March 2, 2014

Stress, the great bane of our time.  

If we are kids in grade school, we stress about where we’re going to sit in class, who we’ll be friends with, and maybe, just maybe, about our grades. If we are teens, in High School, we are still stressing about if we are wearing the “right” clothes, who we are hanging out with, what team we try out for, who thinks we are hot, and maybe, just maybe, our grades.  If we are in our twenties, we’re stressing about which school we’ll get accepted into, what job we’ll get, or who we’ll marry… You get the picture.

I’m well past 50, and I’m still stressing, about my job, about bills, about my children, about my health.  Is the stress helping me or hurting me? Let’s take a look at today’s readings and see what we can learn from the Lord this week.

In the first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah, Zion (in other words, Israel) is lamenting that the Lord has forsaken them.  They’ve been conquered, dispossessed.  The Lord, through the Prophet, tells them “Can a mother forget her infant?... Even if she would, I will never forget you.”

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he is reflecting on the need to be good stewards, to be trustworthy.  Then, in the same breath, he says that he is not concerned about being judged by anyone else, and not even by himself.  Paul tells us that if we are doing what the Lord asks of us, doing the Lord’s work, then we’ll be judged positively at the appointed time, and receive our praise from God.

Finally, we come to today’s Gospel, a very familiar passage from Matthew. We’ve all heard it many times before, sometimes referred to as “the Lilies of the Field”.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”

So, really, what is the Lord telling us here, that we should all become Dead Heads, begging for food and rides to the next concert two hundred miles away?  That we should all quit our jobs and live the rest of our lives in communal bliss on an ashram in Oregon? That we should all become slackers? NO.

When the Lord tells us that we should not give into stress, I would suggest that the real message is about Priorities.  First, and foremost, our main priority should always be the Lord, our relationship with the Lord, our doing the Lord’s work. 

“Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.

They do not work or spin.

But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor

Was clothed like one of them.

If God so clothes the grass of the field,

Which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,

Will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?”

So we are to:

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you besides.”

And so, yes, it is ok to think about where we are to sleep, and yes, it is ok to worry about what we are to eat, and yes, it is ok to stress about what we are to wear.  These things, however, must never become our priority, our Mammon, the thing that consumes our every waking thought.

As we approach the Altar of Sacrifice and Thanksgiving, as we approach the coming Lenten season, let’s all resolve to examine our priorities.

Seek first the Kingdom of God!