Easter: The Limits of Mercy - Homily for April 23

Readings for Sunday, April 23 / Divine Mercy Sunday: Acts 2:42-47  |  Psalm 118  |  1 Peter 1:3-9  |  John 20:19-31

This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. The readings tell us how the Early Church shared all things in common, giving without limits in the service of the larger community. Do we believe in mercy without limits? Even more importantly, are we willing to BE merciful without limits?

The full statement of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Death Penalty can be found here.

Pyramids & Furbabies

Readings for Sunday, October 5/ 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

I’ve always enjoyed building things. There’s something about doing something with your hands that gives you a great satisfaction at the end. One night when I was in 6^th grade I went to my mom with the words that every parent loves to hear: “Mom, I just remembered I have a project due tomorrow morning. I have to build a pyramid.” My mom shrugged her shoulders at her forgetful son once again we got to work building my project. We had a cardboard base and found some sand-colored carpet in our garage to make a nice landscape. Then we took the cardboard and made a pyramid and covered it with the only things we had that would come close to looking decent: birdseed. A few small rocks and a fake tree supplied the finishing touches and I was thrilled. I brought it to school the next day proud as a peacock. I don’t remember what grade I received on it, but I remember bringing it back home and, unlike other projects that found the garbage asap, I placed in on my shelf to marvel at. Even when we moved houses a couple of times in subsequent years, I made sure to have a special box to ensure my birdseed pyramid arrived safely at the next place. I was proud of it, this little masterpiece I had made.

In the Scriptures today we hear of the Lord God making a masterpiece of His own, but rather than a little school project the masterpiece God was creating was His people, a nation that would spread the good news of His presence to the surrounding nations. But we hear that this wonderful masterpiece that God made didn’t turn out exactly as He had desired it. God put in a great effort to shape this people, this vineyard of the Lord, as our responsorial psalm calls to mind. He gets the best soil, sets up the terrain perfectly, builds all of the necessary elements, and plants the choicest grapes. And what does He get in return? Wild grapes that you can’t do a thing with other than leave it for the animals to devour. And so He does. Their mission to be the light of the world came, in the end, to them simply snuffing our their lights to remain in the darkness of sin. And with their choice made, the Lord had to change plans and choose a new path.

The Gospel account gives us the same tale but in a different form. This vineyard produces the fruits God desires, but here the tenants are the ones symbolizing the people of Israel and they refuse to give up the fruits that belong to the owner. This is the story of the Israelites. The servants were sent in the form of prophets and they were killed by the Israelites because they didn’t want to turn from sin. More prophets were sent, with the same results. Finally, the only son of the landowner is sent and he, too, is killed, as the people thirst for power, wealth, and honor. Rather than give the landowner what was rightly his, they sought to take it by force. Rather than wait for blessings from God that would come in the end, the Israelites sought to take blessings for themselves from the hand of the Lord, much like Adam & Eve in the beginning. They failed in their mission and because of that, new tenants were brought in that would cooperate – the gentile people, which includes most of us. The mission to spread the good news of God now falls to us and it is we who have the obligation to accomplish what was left undone before – to produce good fruits and to give them to the Lord for His glory, knowing that we will receives our inheritance at the end of our labors.

This weekend we celebrate Respect Life Sunday. This is a weekend each year where the Church invites us to reflect upon the dignity of the human person. That our dignity comes not from anything we do or possess, not from where we live or what ethnicity we are, nor from any characteristic other than that we have been created by God in His own image and likeness. The world doesn’t get this reality, but instead places the value of a person in how much they can produce, what they can do, what others can benefit from their presence. I’ve encountered it numerous times in my ministry and have heard of it many others secondhand. For instance, on several occasions I have visited with people who had a family member who was non-responsive, in a vegetative state, as it is often described. And the advice from doctors to these families was ‘if we withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration, it will help speed up the process of their death, since they really don’t have a purpose.’ Basically, the suggestion was ‘lets stop feedings them and giving them water so they can die, since they aren’t worth much as they are’. The families instinctively said, “Father, that doesn’t sound like it’s moral.” And I agreed. It’s likened to saying ‘well, if we just remove their oxygen, it’ll speed things along.’ Foolishness! I read recently about a woman in Oregon who had cancer and the chemo treatment she was offered by the doctors gave a 45% chance of extending her life over a year; most of us would likely jump at such odds. The problem was that her insurance wouldn’t support such a move. BUT they suggested that if she would pursue physician-assisted suicide, they would pay the bill in full. Respect for life? Or what about the 1.2 million children killed each year through abortion because ‘they aren’t really children; it’s more like a clump of cells’ or some other specious argument that never gets at the truth of the dignity of the child who is alive in the womb. Even in Louisiana, the most pro-life state in the country according to laws, we have men lined up at Angola waiting to be put to death because a judge has deemed them no longer worthy of having life; they aren’t productive anymore.

And the one that really gets at me because of the madness of it: furbabies. That’s right. Furbabies. How many in my generation and others don’t want to be inconvenienced with the gift of life that is a child, so they get a cat or dog as a substitute. They make a child created in the image and likeness of God equal to or even inferior to an animal, treating the animals as if it were a person. You may have seen the signs around town sometimes that say “Fill the void in your life” and it has a cutout of a cat next to a person. What?! Y’all, if the void in your life is filled with a cat, we have some serious problems to address! I love animals as much as anyone, but they aren’t people! To act otherwise is to blatantly reject the truth of the goodness of the human person.

The world around us doesn’t have a clue sometimes about the value of human life, so they need us to show them. They need us to bring them to an understand of their own worth and that of every other person on this earth from the smallest in the womb to those who are moments from crossing deaths door. We need to help the world see, but we have to make sure we can see it ourselves. There was an article recently about a museum where a janitor picked up what he thought was a bag of garbage, only to find later that it was an artist’s work of art. While I think that is an insightful commentary on the state of modern art, it also highlights the fact that sometimes we are like the janitor and can easily look upon others and see ‘trash’ where God sees a masterpiece that He has shaped and molded in His image.

The world needs our witness and the Lord longs to see zealous laborers in His vineyard producing great fruits. May the Eucharist we come to celebrate and receive today transform us, that we might be able to love as God loves and see as God sees, that in the face of each person we encounter we might recognize the image of God Himself and rejoice in the gift of yet another masterpiece form the Divine Artist.

Love Your Elders

Woodcut of Anna, Simeon, and the Holy Family

Readings for Sunday, February 2/ Presentation of the Lord:
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 24:7-10
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

Today we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, which rarely falls on a Sunday but when it does it trumps the Sunday celebration. This feast is one that the Church has celebrated since her earliest days. In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, it was known up until the reforms of Vatican II not as the feast of the Presentation but rather the feast of the Purification. The latter emphasizes the ritual purification of Mary that was required by the Jewish Law after having given birth to her child. The former emphasizes the coming of the Lord to the Temple and His revelation to the people of Israel through the great canticle of Simeon and the words of Anna. In that proclamation we hear the infant Lord described as the ‘Light for revelation to the Gentiles’. That description of the Lord, built up by many Old Testament images, is also commemorated in the procession and blessing of candles used at home and in the church parish. Just as Jesus was brought to the Temple in the arms of Mary, so we also entrust our prayers to these candles and pray that they might be brought before God and found pleasing in His sight.

I say all of those things rather quickly because I don’t want to talk about candles today. I don’t want to talk about Mary and her purification. And, God forgive me, I don’t really even want to talk about Jesus’ presentation in the Temple specifically. As I was praying about this homily what continued to strike me again and again were the presence and words of those two great symbols of faith today: Anna and Simeon.

Some of you may know that I had the privilege a week and a half ago to join some 400 youth from our diocese for the annual March for Life Pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to march for an end to abortion in our country. While the March is mainly about ending abortion, our particular group though doesn’t limit ourselves to that focus but instead emphasize human dignity and the value of all life. Our trip schedule helps to highlight this fact. We go to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the various war memorials near the Washington Monument and speak about the fight for human rights and freedoms. We visit Arlington Cemetery and witness the changing of the guards, which is an impressive ritual at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We pray before an abortion clinic and listen to several talks on respect for life in general and against abortion in particular. But the thing that always strikes me the most is our visit to the Holocaust Museum. This Museum, set up to commemorate and honor those lost in the Holocaust of World War II, shows to what depths the human heart can go in its rejection of others’ dignity. Every time I go I am reminded of the many whose dignity was not seen and that the fight in our world continues on for human dignity, rights, and freedom. And while the child in the womb is in such danger today, there is another group of people in need of our respect and remembrance of their dignity and that group is the elderly.

Each month the Holy Father asks the Church and the world to join in prayer for two particular intentions, the Monthly Papal Intentions, and this month the first intention is “That the Church and society may respect the wisdom and experience of older people.” In the Gospel account we just heard it was not the young zealous priest who recognized the Christ, as much as I would kind of like it to be. It was the older wisdom of Simeon and the prayerful presence of Anna. Their age permitted them to see something different that others could not. Think about it. If every woman who gave birth had to come for their purification after giving birth and each firstborn male had to be ‘redeemed’ as they called it, then the Temple wasn’t a nice quiet place waiting for that one special couple to come with their little boy. Quite the opposite! There were probably hundreds of families daily coming to the Temple to make their offerings to God. Simeon and Anna, being in the temple day after day for so many years, had likely seen tens of thousands of families come through, all looking the same; a bit disheveled from travel, maybe tired or overwhelmed at the occasion or lack of sleep from a crying baby. There wasn’t any special radiance about the Holy Family as they came humbly to the Temple for the presentation of Christ and purification of Mary, but Anna and Simeon recognized them for who they were and pointed it out to the people gathered. They were able to do this because their many years following the Lord God gave them wisdom, an openness to the Holy Spirit, a grasp of the story of Israel, a story of their own journey of faith, and a willingness to share of those blessings with the community of faith. In the Letter to the Hebrews we heard it spoken of Christ that He was tested in the flesh so that He could lift us up when we ourselves are tested. In other words, Christ walked the journey already and would be able to strengthen us afterward because He already knew the path. He had run the race, as St. Paul elsewhere alludes. And the same goes for our elders in the faith.

In our church today, in our community, in our families, there are many Anna’s and Simeon’s; men and women who have journey many years close to the heart of Christ, who have gained much knowledge, who have a story to share personally, and who can relate well the story of faith in the local and universal Church. We have before us a vast wealth of knowledge, experience, wisdom and a whole slew of virtues that are a gift to the Church and the world of immeasurable value.

One thing we all know is that as we age our definition of ‘old changes’. As a little kid I though 30 was old; but as a 29 year old, my view has changed. And I always have to laugh when I visit with some of those who are in their early 90’s and they still refer to some other group as the ‘old people’. I guess to them ‘old’ is the 100+ category. Who knows? But the fact is that all of us are called to value those who have the grace of many years in this life.

So a little invitation for us to consider: spend time with one another sharing your stories and your faith. If you are a younger person, turn to your elders and ask them questions. Listen to their journey, soak up their wisdom, and appreciate the gift they are to you. If you are an older person, don’t be afraid to share your story, your wisdom, your faith and the gift you are with others. If Anna and Simeon had simply rejoiced quietly in their heart at the coming of the Lord to the Temple, we wouldn’t have this beautiful account of the transformation of hearts that day in the Temple and if the younger people had not listened, it would not have been recorded. So let us rejoice in the gift of life and the gift of faith on this feast of the Presentation of the Lord. And let us pray with our Holy Father that the Church and society would always respect the wisdom and experience of older people. And let it begin in our hearts today.

HWP: Prayer for Life

Today, January 22nd, is the 41st Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in our country. Since then, over 55,000,000 of the most vulnerable people among us have been slain in the name of choice rather than cherished as the gift they are. Let us offer today this prayer from the Roman Missal from the Mass in Thanksgiving for Human Life:

God our Creator, we give thanks to you, who alone have the power to impart the breath of life as you form each of us in our mother's womb; grant, we pray, that we, whom you have made stewards of creation, may remain faithful to this sacred trust and constant in safeguarding the dignity of every human life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

In addition to the prayer, you are invited to join by also offering up some physical mortification (fasting, abstaining, etc.) as an additional sacrifice on behalf of the sins committed and that hearts might be changed to end this evil and heal the wounds it has inflicted upon our nation and world.

Octaves, Novenas, and Pilgrimage, Oh My!

Hello everyone! Tomorrow morning we shall have nine buses of youth from our diocese heading north to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. I ask your prayers for our safe travel, for conversion of hearts among our group, and conversion of hearts for the people of our nation, especially those who enact laws, that we might be a people who thirst for God. Additionally, there are some big opportunities for an outpouring of grace in this coming week. 

Beginning on Saturday, January 18, we will celebrate the Octave of Christian Unity (which gains a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions) as well as the 'Nine Days of Prayer, Penance and Pilgrimage' Campaign by the USCCB. These prayers and mortifications are sure to bring many souls to Christ and to win much merit for us in offering them.

For the Octave of Unity

Each day of the Octave the prayer 'Omnipotens Deus' is offered for the particular intention of the day.

January 18: For the return of the "other sheep" to the One Fold of our Lord Jesus Christ.
January 19: For the return of the Eastern Orthodox Christians to communion with the Apostolic See. January 20: For the return of the Anglicans to the authority of the Vicar of Christ.
January 21: For the return of all Protestants throughout the world to the unity of the Catholic Church.
January 22: That Christians in America may be one, in union with the Chair of Saint Peter.
January 23: That lapsed Catholics will return to the Sacraments of the Church.
January 24: That the Jewish people will be converted to the Catholic Faith.
January 25: That missionary zeal will conquer the world for Christ.

Pray: + That they may all be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.

Let us pray. Almighty and merciful God, who wished to gather the scattered nations into one people through your Son, grant that those who glory in the name of Christians may put aside division and become one in truth and charity, and that all men may be illumined by the true faith and brought together into the fraternal communion of one Church. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Nine Days of Prayer, Penance and Pilgrimage

Each day there are selected readings, prayers for reflection, and invitations to offer penances. As they are rather extensive, I figured simply linking to them would be better. Click HERE to download a copy of the novena in PDF format, download the phone app, receive prayers by email or receive prayers by text message.