The Gift of Touch - Homily for September 9

St. Peter Claver

Readings for Sunday, September 9 / 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time:  Isaiah 35:4-7  |  Psalm 146  |  James 2:1-5  |  Mark 7:31-37

Even though words have power, Christ still uses the gift of touch to heal us.

Treasures in Filth - Homily for September 11

Readings for Sunday, September 11/ 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Exodus 31:7-11, 13-14  |  Psalm 51  |  1 Timothy 1:12-17  |  Luke 15:1-32

A couple weeks ago I was over at mom's house and we were going through the storage unit where a lot of our stuff was that had been affected by the flood. As we were going through and tossing a lot of stuff that couldn't be saved we came across one big plastic tote and it was full of two-week-old floodwater. Floating in that disgusting water were my keepsakes - my first baseball cap with my name written on the bill, my Baptismal garment and a few other little things from my childhood that mom had been treasuring for many years. We looked at it, and honestly it was disgusting; I didn't want to touch it, but mom was digging through it, trying to find what she could. I said, "Mom it's ok, it's just stuff, I'll put it out." She responded," No you won't! It may not mean much to you, but it means a lot to me. Give me a minute." And so she dug through it, found a hand full of things she wanted to keep and passed them off to my sister to get her to take care of them.

It was interesting because that is the basic idea of the Gospel this. It starts with the scribes and the Pharisees and they are looking at Jesus who welcomes sinners and even eats with them. They imply in their words to Him a sense of ‘don't you know that they are filthy, don't you know that this is not worthy keeping, just put them to the road, just be rid of them, cut your losses and be done.’ But it's the Lord God who looks and says, "No no no ... these are ones that are very valuable to me. They have great value. They may not have any value to you, you may not see or understand it, but they mean a great deal to me." And that's the scriptures - it's the love that God has for every single one of us as children, and to be able to receive that love.

The reading from Exodus shows us in a sense the patience of God. The passage we heard comes directly after they have sealed the covenant and received the law. Moses had gone up on the mountain and the cloud had consumed the mountain. All the people were praying during this time and Moses comes down with the law - the Ten Commandments - that God Himself has written on the tablets for the people. Moses gives them to the people sayings these are the things God has asked us to do, will you enter into the covenant? Will you enter into the family bond that we want to set? The people of God respond saying, "All of these things we will do - every one of them, we will be faithful to our God." And they were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice as a way of saying, "If I fail to keep my side of the covenant, may death come upon me. It's rightly mine. I choose it." A couple of days later, we find the people of God have already shrunk to their depravity. Rather than turning to the Lord, in their impatience they make a the golden calf from bracelets and other things saying that this is the god who has saved us, not that God on the mountain, this god that we have created with our own hands, this is what has saved us. And the Lord God says, ‘How quickly you have gone away. So quickly you have abandoned the covenant we formed a few days ago.’

It would have been right for God to kill them all; it was part of the judgment, part of the covenant, that every single one of them who said they would do all these things, it would have been part of the deal to rightly deserve to be killed because they asked for it, really. If I don't keep my end, let me die. But the Lord looks upon them with mercy and says, "No no. We will keep them. We will keep trying to bring forth that which is holy which I desire for them. We will keep the promise in store for them." And He shows His patience. He showed His patience for many years as the people of God continued to break the covenant over and over again. Every single generation, every single human heart. We make our promise to God saying, "Lord I will follow you, I will do all of these things," and ten minutes later we have sunk to our depravity once more. How many times have I heard, "Father, I feel like I need to go to confession again after I just walked out of confession because someone did something that upset me."

How quick our hearts can turn, and yet the Lord is always patient with us. He is patient with us and He goes to great lengths to try and save us. A lot of times we feel like we have to try and save ourselves, that we have to try and convince God of our goodness, convince God of my holiness and worthiness of being saved, but it's the Lord who wants it even more than I do. God wants to save you more than you want to be saved. And we see a glimpse of that in the Gospel.

Jesus gives three separate parables all of which show the stupidity of God - the foolishness of God - and His love for you and I. "Who among you," the Lord says, "having a hundred sheep, and losing one wouldn't leave the 99 sheep to go and search far and wide for the one sheep until you find it." And every one of the people there would say that the only shepherd that would leave 99 perfect good sheep to leave in search of the one who has already strayed, no matter how long it takes, is a stupid shepherd because you never know what could happen. The job of the shepherd was to keep safe the flock, and so yea "I'm going to leave 99 perfectly good sheep, so I can go and search - I don't know how long - to find that one. And when I find that one and I come back and 50 others of my 99 have already scattered." It's foolishness. You cut your loses. One sheep - it's unfortunate - but we can't abandon the 99 for the sake of the one, we'll just let it go. That seems like a reasonable thing for a shepherd, it would have been reasonable at the time to do that. But that's not the heart of God when it comes to us. It would be like a family of 12 going to a theme park, and coming out with 11 and going, "Well ... close enough .... get in the car." It doesn't happen, right? If you're missing a kid you say, "Y'all get in the car, but I'm going back to find them." And the same thing with our God. He doesn't look upon us as sheep, He looks upon us as children. He's our Father. He says, "One of my children is out there. I need to go find them." To great lengths He goes, to foolish lengths He goes.

The second parable shows that even more of the absurdity of it all - the lady with the 10 coins who loses one. We lose something in the translation, as always, from the ancient language to the contemporary language, and by the coin they essentially mean the equivalent of a penny or nickel. She loses a penny in her house ... and so in response, she tears up everything; she's pulling out the couches, flipping over the beds, searching the cabinets, sweeping the entire dirt floor, cleaning everything and searching entirely for…a penny. How many times have you gone to the grocery store and while walking to your car, you look on the ground, see a penny, and keep walking because it's just a penny. It's not worth your time to pick up the penny in a sense sometimes. And yet she goes and turns over her entire house looking for it. And then when she finds it, she invites all the neighbors to come celebrate. Imagine if you were sitting at your house and you got a phone call from your neighbor saying, "Come to the house, come to the house! We got some great news! The whole street, the whole neighborhood is coming, I got something awesome to tell you." And you all get there like, "What, what, what?!" you ask and they excitedly inform you, "I found the penny I've been looking for."  "You invited us over for that? You're crazy .. you're a fool." It's a penny! And yet that's the Lord. How often whenever we are lost and we don't even know we are lost, we think everything is fine, and yet we're lost. It would've been easy for the world to look upon us, as the scriptures describe the Pharisees, and say "It's just a penny ... it's just one person. There's what, 5 billion people in the world, what's one? Just let them go." But the Lord says no.

Those are two examples of things that were "not able to go back;" the coin doesn't have a mind of its own; the coin can't seek to be found. If the sheep goes in a place or gets lost in a hole or falls off a cliff and needs help, it can cry out but it doesn't have the sensibilities to go back exactly where it was…he can't reason it that way. He simple cries out in hopes of being found. But the lost son who goes away, it makes it more personable.

The last one is the son who goes off, and he receives the father's inheritance first. Basically he says, "Father I wish you were dead, so I could have my part of your stuff." What a great son, huh? Everybody wants a son like that. And so the son takes it and immediately leaves. Imagine the sorrow in the father's heart. The son goes off and he spends it on prostitutes and all these sorts of things. He's working among the pigs which would have been completely contrary to the faith, they didn't touch pork or deal with pigs - it was "unholy" and "unfitting", and yet he was longing to eat pig food. That tells you the lengths to which he had gone in his faith, and he realizes it and decided to go back, thinking he'd at least be a hired hand at the house. And when he goes back, the father does - again - the most foolish of things. Who among us would take the son - who took half of our belongings, went and spent it on sin, and wants to come back - who among us would give him the finest robe, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, and slaughter the best animal we have, and throw a party? The fool. Instead, at best, you would welcome him back as a hired hand; at worst, you would slap him in the face and tell him to get out of here. That would've been normal, the normal response of the days ... "You wanted me dead? I'm dead. Go away." That would've been acceptable, socially reasonable, and yet the father does the exact opposite. He gives him even more riches on top of what he has already wasted.

And its the Father who does the same for us. No matter what filth we may find ourselves in, no matter what it is that we are "floating in" in a sense, God our Father looks at us and goes, "This is one that I treasure. This is one that I created Myself and love, that I want to keep. I know how bad it looks, how disgusting it looks, how useless it may seem, but this is one that I treasure." Every single one of us. The person that we think is the easiest to dismiss, who ever that person might be for you, that person is so deeply loved by God that He is willing to go to any lengths to save him. All the people that we meet, every person we see - today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives - God longs for them to be sitting right next to you in the pews. He longs to have His children to come to Him. It's not that He will accept us back reluctantly - He is actively seeking every single person. Every single one of us. Some of us respond and come back. Sometimes we don't know that we are lost - we're like the coin that's just there, it doesn't know. But every single one of us, God calls. Every person - treasured, loved, valued and longed for.

Brothers and sisters we are much more than coins and we are much more than sheep. God calls us to Himself. We are the sons and daughters of His who can turn away or can draw close, and we can bring the same with others. We can bring others close to Christ and let them know that no matter what, they are loved, because there are many people around us who don't know they are loved, who don't know they are worth saving, who don't know they are worth anything. They have never been told that, but it's we who can share the good news. It's we who can share the gospel of the love of our God which is so powerful that He calls every one of us to Himself. He seeks that all might be saved, and it is for us to respond, to be willing to be found. And so we pray through the course of this Mass, pray for the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with us, especially in this Eucharist, to help us to become even more deeply aware of our sinfulness so that we can become aware of the gift of our Savior and the gift of the God who loves us, who longs for us, who has come to seek and to save sinners.

We see Paul as the perfect witness who says, "I am a blasphemers, a persecutor." He tried to actively killed Christ and stands here as a witness. How much can we say the same for others? We are all sinners, and there is place for more here in the Church of Jesus Christ. And so we pray for His grace to be with us again, to help us become aware of our sinfulness, but also the joy of a Savior. That we might be able to experience the joy of this Mass, the peace of His mercy, and the grace of coming to rest in the heart of Christ that comes to seek us out and to save us.

Everything is Meaningless! Praying with the 'vanity of vanities'

Readings for Sunday, July 31/ 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Psalm 90
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21

This week the Holy Father has been in Poland for the celebration of World Youth Day. 2 Million youth and young adults from around the world have gathered for Mass, prayer, catechesis, and to share in the joy of being a universal Church. What intrigued me in watching the various celebrations was the face of Pope Francis. In the majority of the encounters with people he was his usual jovial self - smiles illuminating his eyes and the joy of the Gospel written on his face. When he went to the concentration camp at Auschwitz it was different though. His face as he walked around the grounds and prayed at the various sites was one of a solemn and somber nature. You could see in his face and body posture the weight of a profound mystery, the great sufferings endured by so many people.

Some of the survivors of the Holocaust have written and spoken of the horrors that took place within those gates. Many recall how some of the most faithful people among them lost all faith as they endured and witnessed the suffering and death of their friends, families, neighbors, and their own selves. Many, it is said, were the ones who cried out in search of the meaning of it all – What is the point of this?! Why is this happening?! What is the meaning of it all?!

Viktor Frankl was a man who himself endured great suffering in Auschwitz. He lost most of his family there and was subjected to the inhumane conditions that claimed the lives of so many. But as he endured it all, he also reflected on it. Victor Frankl was a psychologist and he continued his labor as such even in the camp. He tells of how the Nazi guards would intentionally starve the prisoners for long periods of time and then throw a small bit of bread into the middle of the yard so they could watch the prisoners tear at each other in hopes of getting a few scraps. Many did so, seeking to feed themselves before others who were more in need. But Frankl also noticed that in the face of these attempts at dehumanization, there were many who kept their dignity and some who were able to attain a piece of bread that immediately brought it to others more in need of it than themselves. This made him think about the differences between people in the camp, particularly in how they viewed their future. He came to realize that if one had lost hope and had nothing to look forward to, they often died in the camp. On the opposite end, many who were subjected to great trials endured them on account of their desire to fulfill some hope they still clung to. Ultimately Frankl survived his time in Auschwitz and was freed, after which he wrote a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” in which he provided an axiom that described his experience: if we have a why to live, we can endure almost any how. Or in Christian terms, if we have hope, we can carry any cross.

The readings this weekend help us to grapple with this mystery a bit too, particularly in regards to the reading from Ecclesiastes, which is rather jolting. This is the one and only time we hear from Ecclesiastes in the three-year Sunday readings, so I encourage you to go read through it yourself. What you will likely experience as you start to read through it is a sense that it is quite different than the rest of the books of the Bible. While many have historical or a more positive theological tone, Ecclesiastes is the gut-wrenching cry of an anguished heart: Vanity of vanities! Everything is vanity! The Hebrew word for ‘vanity’ is ‘hevel’ and is also translated as a waste, a breath, vapor, useless, meaningless, and the like. Qoheleth cried out in frustration as he sees that he works and labors with skill and all he works to attain will be left behind to another person who has done nothing to deserve it. He goes through an contemplates how he can have all wealth, power, honor, health, and worldly wisdom, and in the end he will die the same as someone who has none of it. What is the point of this life? he challenges the invisible God. Vanity of vanities! Like chasing after the wind. This litany of frustrations is not the end of the book, however. In response to all of these things and the vanity of being consumed with the things of the world, the writer concludes that we ought simply to enjoy the things that come our way and to follow the way of the Lord. So if you have wealth, health, wisdom, power, honor, and the like, enjoy it and use it well. But don’t make that your goal. These are not what matters to God and this is what he New Testament passages clearly remind us.

St. Paul tells the Colossians to set their eyes on the things that are above, not the things that are on earth, and the same applies to use. Do you not know, brothers and sisters, that you have died in Christ? Then think of heavenly things – the Blessed Trinity, the glory of the saints, the joy of the angels, the beauty of heaven. Set your hearts there and store up those riches. The earthly riches are nothing in comparison. The wealthy man in the Gospel who stores up great quantities to permit himself years of rest and relaxation is met with the voice of the Lord telling him he won’t even survive the night. Be rich, then, in the things that actually matter to God. And what is it that matters to God? What’s most important to God? You might rephrase it with that of another Gospel narrative: What is the greatest commandment? You know the answer. Love God, love neighbor. So what is it that matters to God? Love God, love neighbor.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest who himself endured suffering and death within the gates of Auschwitz. One of the norms at the camp was that if someone tried to escape or actually escaped, 10 or so men would be killed as a sort of penalty. The purpose was to dissuade trying to get out of the camp, using the possible death of family and friends as a deterrent. One day someone did escape and so a group of men were chosen to be killed. One of them began to weep and cry ‘My wife! My children!’ He had a ‘why’ to endure the ‘how’ of life there. Hearing this plea, Maximilian stepped forward and volunteered himself to take that man’s place. The guards, unconcerned about who was killed, agreed and Maximilian went to his death and the martyrs crown. Love God, love neighbor. The man survived and was later reunited with his family because St. Maximilian had a purpose and it ended in a heavenly union.

Viktor Frankl himself chose on many occasions to love God and love neighbor instead of caving to his own desires and giving up hope. When he could have tried to rest and care for himself, he instead spent many nights talking to the men who surrounded him in the bunks. As they would begin to despair he would simply begin asking questions to them one by one. Do you have an family left? And if they said yes, he would encourage them to think about being reunited. Do you have friends somewhere? Again, wouldn’t it be great to be reunited. Is there some place you’d love to travel to or some activity you’d love to do? What joy to be able to do so! Over and over and over again, by loving God and his neighbor Frankl gave hope to countless men in the camp and encouraged them to find meaning in the life they lived. As those men began to love God and love neighbor – whether outside or inside the camp – they grew in the health, wealth and wisdom that matters to God: love.

All of those is simply a shadow and reminder of the great love shown to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, who loved God and neighbor even unto His death on the Cross.

So the end point is this: if you have worldly riches and blessings, enjoy them. But remember that out goal is not earthly pleasure but heavenly joy. Every human heart must face that reality at some point. Whether in the past, present, or future. Whether it is us personally or someone we know or even someone we don’t know. All of us are faced with those questions at times that make us want to cry out Vanity of Vanities! What is the meaning of all of this?! In those moments, when hope seems to be waning and despair increasing, when confusion seems to triumph over reason, remember your purpose. Remember the ‘why’ of life that can help you get through any ‘how’. Love God, love neighbor.

The Response

Readings for Sunday, June 28/ 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Mark 5:21-43

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis spoke to us these words: “The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these beonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with tohers depite our differences and to belong to one another; it is alos the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage no tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born ‘of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but form the depth of the obligation assumed by spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life.’”

As you all presumably know, the Supreme Court of the United States announced their opinion Friday, decided by a 5-4 vote, to reject the traditional view of marriage in light of a new definition that permits ‘same-sex marriage’ in all 50 states. While this may upset us, it should surprise us because traditional marriage has been under attack for a long while and this is just one more step. Catholic theology on marriage notes that marriage has two ‘ends’ or ‘goals’, namely procreation and the good of the spouses, which basically means the union is emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, & physically beneficial. We can see that attacks on procreation began decades ago with the introduction and encouragement of contraceptives. This fundamentally separates marriage and its first end. Following behind it is the continued attack on children. Abortion necessarily follows because when contraception fails there has to be a means to be rid of the child one sought first to avoid. From there society made ‘advances’ in being able to choose certain attributes of their children and ‘get rid of’ children who had undesirable attributes. In vitro fertilization and other unethical means of creating life only further the chasm between marriage and the gift of children. The good of the spouses came under attack with the introduction of no-fault divorce, which necessarily makes marriage less binding and thus less valued. To this we can add the devaluing of women in general. It’s interesting to me that in an age when feminism fights so strongly for the rights of women to equal pay, equal job opportunity, etc. (rightly so!) that the culture continues to treat women worse and worse. Women are generally not valued in themselves for the gift that they are, but rather are used for their bodies and their ability to increase sales. This is only encouraged by the acceptance of pornography and pornographic films and books, which only seek to make people objects to be used instead of persons to be loved. With all that has happened to the two ends of marriage, it is no surprise then that the very definition of marriage itself should be free from attack.

The question is this: how do we respond?

I’ve seen responses ranging from fear, anger and despair to excitement, relief, and celebration. As Catholic we ought to stand on neither end of that spectrum but rather firmly planted in the middle full of faith, hope, and love. We are called to have faith that God is in control of this country and this world, regardless of what happens around us. We are called to have hope that Marriage would shine brightly in our culture and remind us of the love of God for us and our call to heavenly life. And we’re called to love. Love of every single person who stands in front of us, regardless of their age, sex, race, social status, sexual orientation, or any other personal attribute, because they are a person. Because they are created in the image and likeness of God. Because they were made to love and be loved.

A lot of times the Catholic Church is painted as this hate-filled body that spews its hatred and condemnation at people who identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, bi-sexual, queer, etc. But did you know the Church says the stands for the exact opposite? The Catechism says unambiguously that we are called to show them ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ and that we are to avoid any sign of unjust discrimination toward them. Holy Mother Church loves all of her children and wants to have all of humanity rest in her loving arms. Sadly, we Catholics and fellow-Christians often failed to convey this truth, but the call still stands for us to be images of God’s love ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we condone or celebrate ‘same-sex marriage’ or relationships that lead to such, but it does mean continuing to love the other by showing respect, compassion, sensitivity, and honoring the dignity of others.

So our response needs to be one of faith, hope, and love, which is exactly the same at it has always been. The Supreme Court can say whatever it wants, but the ultimate reality is that the true King of this world is Jesus Christ. I love my country deeply, but we all have to remember that we’re Catholic first and American second. And that means that our Catholic faith informs everything we do. And what is our mission as Catholics? To shine with the light of Christ.

Did you hear the Collect at the beginning of Mass today? It’s easy to miss but it was beautiful: “O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.” I love that last line ‘be seen to stand in the bright light of truth’; not just to stand there, but to be seen standing there. We are called to be witnesses that reflect the Light of Christ as the moon reflects that of the sun.

As I noted last weekend, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders both are sacraments of service. The entire goal of the individual is to get the other person to heaven. I’m a priest. I’m obligated to be a holy priest, a saintly priest. The Catechism tells me that my life as a priest is to be entirely consecrated to service of the others. Every moment of my day is to be dedicated to getting every single one of you and many others to walk through the pearly gates of heaven and sing the Gloria along with the angels and saints. And if I get there too, good! My call is to shine with the Light of Christ in holiness and priestly ministry.

Single people, your call is much the same. To consecrate your days to loving whoever stands before you. Love them as if it were Jesus Himself and seek to recognize in them the Christ who seeks to love you as well. Be holy and happy Catholics, radiating the joy of the Gospel in your eyes as well as on your lips. Seek the Lord at all times and trust in His guidance of you through all that life brings.

Married people, your call is the same, but even more important. When marriage is under attack, the need is for good, holy marriages to be even more visible and even more effective in their outpouring of love and witness of the goodness of the sacraments. You are called to be icons of the Most Blessed Trinity! The love of husbands for their wives and wives for their husbands is a powerful sign of the love of God for us, and the love of both for their children speaks even more fully of the life and love of God in Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Husbands and wives, remember that your goal is not to get to Heaven and hopefully to drag your spouse along with you. The goal is to get your spouse to Heaven and for them to drag you! When this mutual selfless love is present then it produces saints, both in the parents and the children. The parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Bl. Louis & Bl. Zelie Martin, will soon be canonized and only for the fact that they were a holy family. Be models for your children and for all the world of the gift of God’s grace, and the joy of selfless giving. It can seem that you have little effect on the world, ‘what good can I do in such a big world?’ you might be tempted to think. But remember that Pope St. John Paul II called the family the basic cell of society and a blessing to the world. Strong words. St. John Chrysostom has some strong words too in a homily on marriage as he reminds each and all of us that “The love of a husband and wife are the force that welds society together.”

Be the force and the weld. Be the blessing and the light. Be saints.

Papal Intentions for February 2015

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Papal Intentions for February 2015

Universal Intention: That prisoners, especially the young, may be able to rebuild lives of dignity.

Mission Intention: That married people who are separated may find welcome and support in the Christian community.