32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Why do we do what we do? What drives us?

Why do we choose what we choose? What do we base those decisions on?

Often our choices are one step this side of the un-intentional, more of a habit, the easiest and safest  choice.

We make countless choices, without a second thought, as if they do not matter at all. 

Life sometimes forces us to make more deliberate decision. When we need to take a moment to figure out the next step.  Still this usually starts and ends with - what’s best for me.

Here the Church reminds us that we should make the effort to look beyond ourselves, and make our decisions and choices out the freedom that only comes from our Faith - the freedom to choose the better good; a more selfless choice for the good of the spouse or family or for the common good for neighbor and community and even for the good of the world.

But, sometimes there are choices that must be made from the deepest part of our being.

They go beyond the better and the common good.

These choices can only be made out of absolute living faith and a confident hope that is more real and tangible than what confronts us, whatever that may be.

We must (and there is no other option) base our decisions on the absolute reality that the Kingdom of God, His love and mercy, is more real than the kingdom of man and what it offers us and that Jesus (not ourself) is the only way,  truth and  life.

Sometimes, we must step up to the plate.

 The rein of King Antiochus Epiphanies, some 150 years before Jesus, was heavy handed and oppressive.

His regime used every means to stamp out Jewish religion and culture.  He had the Temple desecrated and holy scrolls burned.

 He attempted to crush all sacred and cultural intuitions that were the life blood of the Jewish people.

The authorities struggled to stamp out anyone or anything that tried to return Israel back to God. 

Under this oppression many were arrested as were the mother and her seven sons in today’s 1^st reading.

All were imprisoned, cruelly tortured and in the end killed for holding fast to their faith.

 They were given options, of course.  “Just renounce your faith and you can go home.” They might have said.

We know this scenario.  It continues to be played out, in one form or another, around the world; everywhere the light of faith confronts the darkness of oppression and sometimes it’s only a lone voice in a wilderness.

We read that each brother was forced to make a decision that no human being should have to make, but which all human beings must be ready and able to make.

Confronted by hatred and fear each person (in their weakness and vulnerability) had to look their captor in the eyes and choose.

 “We are ready to die”   one says. “It is my choice to die at the hands of men” says another.

Why this courage? another son explains.

 “You are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up again – forever.” 

 Each had to dig deep into their very being because there was no faking it.  There was no pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

 Only truth would do; a faith that had already been lived day in and day out.  In fact they had already made their choice countless times before.  Each had already decided long before that day that

We are not afraid “God will raise us up again”

This was not, nor can it ever be, empty bravado - it was conviction, a deeply lived realty.

And what a reality it is.

The second reading describes this Christian reality.

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and has given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.”

This is the Truth and the Faith we must build our lives on.  

It is what we must base our choices on.   It is how we measure our lives.

 God loves us and has given us everlasting encouragement (which is faith) and through the gift faith the grace of hope is born.

St Paul knows gift of faith, which is received through baptism, is not the same as living faith that transforms lives and turns us, by what we say and do, from believers into disciples.

 “May God encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.” Paul prays

The gift of Faith must be nourished and exercised, claimed as our rightful inheritance, held tight and most importantly used as our guiding light for our daily, ordinary lives.

 Faith and Hope must the foundation of every choice and decision we make.

If we do not live our lives in the light Faith and Hope, if we do not choose Jesus and the Kingdom of God over the Kingdom of deception, selfishness, pride and prejudice, then we can never hope to choose eternal life over this transitory life when push comes to shove.

Unless we strengthen our faith by making daily choices that reflect God’s love and compassion, we will always fall short and choose the cheap over the costly.  Love of this world over the love of God.

This is what Jesus is telling the Sadducees.

You love yourselves rather than loving God.

You trust your rules and laws that only tangle and entrap.

 You love this life without regards for eternal life to come. And you dent the resurrection.

Sure we need to be engaged in this transitory world because we have responsibilities;  as spouses and parents, friends and workers, and as helpful strangers  but always acting out of love of God, and always acting to restore His Kingdom that is already growing here.

The salvation of the world goes on - one choice, one decision at a time. Thousands upon thousands small choices,  each one bringing us closer to God and adding to the building up the Kingdom or taking us further from God and hindering that growth.

The choice is always ours. God had given us that freedom.

But before we choose (in little or great matters) we must recall to mind Jesus’ promise

  “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live”

“If you believe you will see the glory of God”

This - we can always bet are lives on.

28th Sunday

Counter to what we normally think or what would normally catch our attention – it’s not the healing that counts; it’s the response to the healing that matters. The healing is just an outward sign of the dramatic, but unseen making new. Sometimes, as we see in today’s Gospel, the unseen making new goes unnoticed or even ignored.

Any gift requires some sort of thanks, but God’s Gift demands our gratitude and not just lip service, but life changing and life affirming loving action that is the fruit of God's gift of new and eternal life.

We see it in Naaman, a prideful and powerful general, who goes to Israel, because he has heard form a servant girl that he can be cured of his leprosy. As one of such prestige and honor would, he presents himself to the King of Israel, who dismiss him - what can I do. But, Elisha says to him I will show you that there is a prophet (a man of God) in Israel. I will show you God at work. So Naamen goes with all his men and horses in great splendor.He scoffs at the paltry means of his potential healing (simply washing in the puny Jordan) and he turns away. But in a moment of Grace, (Naaman's healing had already begun)  he decides to try anyway and he is overwhelmed by the experience “his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child”.

Part of the gift of healing was Naaman’s new knowledge (an experience of Grace) that his healing was more than skin deep. The physical healing was great and not to be dismissed but this healing was of the spirit and of his very humanity, and it compels this prideful man to real humility and gratitude. “Now I know (I have experienced) there is no God in all the earth, except the God of Israel”

We see it in the 10 lepers who Jesus heals in an even less dramatic fashion, by simply telling them to go show themselves (as proof of their healing) to the authorities, who are the only official voice that can announce them, clean. As they all hurry off, one remembers something long forgotten, or perhaps something within him stirs him to do the unexpected. The newly healed leper returns, to thank Jesus, for he knows it was more than his skin that was cleansed. He knows he was not just cured, but healed, and that his healing was complete transformation of body, mind and spirit; from death to life. And like Naaman, the leper - returned (in gratitude) to glorify God in a loud voice.

It is important, but not crucial (at least to this homily) that we reflect that both Naamen and the leper were outsiders, beyond the law and so beyond God’s saving grace. It is also worth noting that Naaman had power & prestige and the leper had none, but both became equal in their belief and in their new belief they were both set free.

For us what is unique and sanctifying, is that their gratitude went beyond being merely thankful. 

Beyond what we the American Catholic writer Flannery O’Conner lamented –

“My thanksgiving is never in the form of self-sacrifice, it is rather a few memorized prayers babbled once over lightly”  And this describes most of us most of the time. But, active all-embracing gratitude is true Christian gratitude.  It is deep, it is motivating, it is sanctifying and it compels us, not to move our lips, but to conform ourselves more and more, closer and closer to Jesus. This is what Paul describes in himself – a fearless gratitude in the Gospel.

 “Remember, Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, this is my gospel “ He says. We know the joy and confidence in which Paul proclaimed the Gospel, but he reminds us that real transformative gratitude is a grace that is both deep and broad and includes everything and rejects nothing -“this is my gospel (that is, it is Jesus Christ), for which I am suffering”.

Sacrifice and suffering are the hard side of gratitude, beyond the babbled prayers. It is never the easy choice.

Sacrifice and suffering are not inherent in the Gospel - it is the Good News, but it can be the consequences of living the good news in a self-serving self-serving world where escaping sacrifice and turning its back to suffering is preferred to facing it head on. Paul tells us that we may suffer and even be bound up in chains - both literal and metaphoric,but God gives meaning and hidden value to our sacrifice and suffering and we are free from the oppression of despair. 

How deep is Paul’s gratitude?  Well, he boldly proclaims “I bear everything”. This is the difference between lip service and all-embracing gratitude, between cheap and costly grace, the Protestant martyr Bonhoeffer would say. Paul doesn’t pick and choose what to bear. He doesn’t shy away from the heavy load. And this is sanctifying gratitude and it is the proper response to God’s gift of new and eternal life.

Gift and selfless / surrendering gratitude – Naaman saw the connection. Gift and self-less gratitude, the Samaritan leper saw the connection.  St Paul’s saw it and points out that it begins for us in baptism -

“If we have died with him we shall also live with him.” Resurrection with Christ through baptism sets in motion a new life of selfless gratitude both sanctifying and sacrificial.  But this is not a one off, but a starting point. Paul reminds us that this is a journey.“If we preserve (in gratitude on this journey of faith) we shall also reign with him”

But, this kind of gratitude must be cultivated, nourished and strengthened. We must continue to choose and respond to God in whatever form comes our way - joyful or sacrificial. Because Paul is clear -  “If we deny him he will deny us.” This is true. God has given us the great human gift of choice and so is we choose to deny God, he must sadly respect the choice and so by default denies us.“But, if we are unfaithful (the unfortunate attribute of our human condition) God remains faithful”

For no matter how many times we fall down, stumble, get lost, or break down Jesus is there, reminding us of the Father’s faithfulness, love and mercy. He is always there to heal us with a touch or a word and to command us in love “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you”

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 “Who can know God’s council or conceive what the Lord intends?” we are asked rather rhetorically in the first reading.

This is one of those statements that on the surface is a no brainer, but upon reflection sheds light on all of creation and history.

In God’s boundless creative wisdom he is unknowable.

And in the ordinary human sense, we cannot understand his workings in the world.

Sometimes we see God’s hand in the grandeur of creation, or the smile of a child, or in the reading of Salvation History.

We sense God’s intention in the intimate interior of our prayer, the fleeting movement of his Holy Spirit in our heart, and in the Church’s sacraments. But, as we are, we can never really get it, we cannot even see it.  We can only glimpse it as if passing a mirror. And it’s a broken mirror and its true image is distorted by its fractures. 

We get lost in its multifaceted false images of social, cultural and political agendas and in its shimmering web we lose sight of who we really are and we lose sight of God. Worse still, sometimes this mirror is so clouded over by our busy, self-absorbed and forgetful lives that it appears as if God does not exist at all. 

And without God we are left – alone, with only the self and its ego to shape and give meaning to our lives.

Every choice and every relationship than becomes self-centered and conditional.

The sad story of the human condition is that this doesn’t bother us so much. We have built whole societies and cultures around this false sense of self and the individual. We have even, on the cover of Newsweek, declared God is dead.

Fooled by the distortion we fail to see the danger in this separation from God because we are fascinated and entranced by the seductive images.

But it is in this very mirror that Jesus finds us and restores our sight (as he did Bartameaus’ ) and we are given the chance to see with clear eyes, without the distortion,  as Jesus himself sees. With new eyes we can begin to see God (his council and intentions). With news eyes we no longer see through the glass darkly but in the light of clarity and truth.

It’s all about the vantage point.  It’s all about point of view. And this gets us to the Gospel.

Great crowds were with Jesus. Like most great crowds it was filled with onlookers and gawkers, the curious, the bored, and the halfhearted. Jesus always attached those who were not interested beyond the distorted image of this world.  They even judged Jesus by these distortions.

We know many said I’ll follow you, but . . . . I’ll surrender most things.  I will listen, if it's what I want to hear. I willing follow you if you meet my expectation.Jesus had heard all these self-centered, conditional answers, full of qualifiers and bargains. These are answers that only make sense a world reflected by the distorted mirror.

 Jesus understands our dilemma (how we have come to believe the reflection to be real and that we have come to love the distorted images more than life itself).  We love them so much that they have become for us; the norm, the ordinary and the expected, the way it is.

So with words as sharp as a razor and as shocking as lightening he says

 “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters and even his own life he cannot be my disciple”

This is hard.  We don’t hate our mother and father, sister or brother.  We may have issues with them, but we don’t hate them. But, the human condition (brought about by original sin) is by its very nature self-centered and self-serving.The choices we make, the relationships we form are conditional and measured by lose or gain. Our bonds and relationships are not only centered on the self, they restrict and limit what we do and how we think within well-defined and safe boundaries. I will only do so much, for some people, some of the time. I will care for me & mine alone and in the approved and acceptable way – this is reasonable to the world.

It is our human nature to be conditional and self-centered, to be restrictive and exclusive. But this is the distorted view and it limits, if not crush, our relationship with God and neighbor. Jesus says this way of seeing is wrong.  It is not life it is death.

To follow Jesus means expanding who we think we are beyond the individual, beyond  the limitations of  family and friend, beyond society and culture. Jesus is not saying hate your loved ones, but look at them in light of God without distortion. Have the courage to look away from the mirror and look towards God.

When we do, our lives expand and our horizons grow, our relationship with God is made right, as is our relationship with every father and every mother, every spouse and every child, we do not hate them we love them more.  And not for our sake, but for theirs.

But, Jesus also reminds us that to turn away from that false, but comfortable vision, to proclaim it a lie, is to pick up the cross, because the world will laugh at you and brush you aside and so it seems even hate you for it. 

But this cross is truth and light and the narrow gate we hesitate to enter opens to an unlimited horizon and we can see for eternity in brightness because our vision has be made clear in Faith and Truth andas the Wisdom writers says

“Thus the paths of those on earth are made straight”

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A philosopher once said

 “Out of crooked humanity, no straight thing can be built”.  

A witty way of saying that no matter how good our intentions, or how smart we are, as human beings (bound to the human condition) we cannot go it alone.  Left to our own devices we fall into every personal, social, cultural or economic snare that ever was or ever will be.

I was shown a very recent NASA photo taken from Saturn and it shows Earth as a tiny dot amidst the vast blackness. Together with the philosopher’s quote, it gave me a real sense that we are not as grand and as important as we think we are.  

What has this to do with what the 1^st reading calls “Sure Knowledge” or the 2^nd reading calls “Faith” or the Gospel  “ A Treasure”? In the midst of this vast cosmos and the crookedness of this world only God is ultimately significant, steadfast and faithful. 

But, through God’s gift of Faith and our communion with Him we can share in and benefit from His divine significance and faithfulness. Through Faith we share nothing less than  divine life.

This is not a secret.  God wants this know. God wants to share. His very nature is communion.  He has always desired to love us and be loved by us. But, humanity for the most part has turned away from God.  His gift of Faith openly offered has become a hidden treasure –but, hidden in plain sight.

Salvation History is the story of this treasure hunt |with God always offering us the map|and acting in the world as our guiding light. The Father even sent his Son to show us the way and we know that Jesus never pointed to himself but, always right at His Father’s treasure. Our human response to all this divine generosity can only be our humble Faith.

But, not a frozen static Faith, which isn’t faith at all, but Faith that is active and transforming and lived out in Hope & Love in everyday lives. It is the active Faith of Abraham, Isaac, and the prophets. It is Faith made absolute in Jesus. Pope Francis recently wrote -

“Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.  The light of Faith is unique, since is it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence.”  Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis  

What Pope Francis calls a supernatural gift, St Paul told the Ephesians is

 “a plan to be carried out in Christ, to bring all into one in him.”

Amidst the crooked paths of humanity and the black vastness of the cosmos there is a supernatural light, a perfect plan, that from that first day to this very day and beyond, is bringing all into one in him. This gets back to human faith which our confident and transforming trust in God and His Promise.

The first reading tells us that Faith is “sure knowledge”.  Faith is not blind.  It is not wishful thinking.  It is not childish. It is acquired knowledge!  It is a gift, but it is wrestled with and hard won. Faith is rock solid from lived experience of God (from those before us, those with us and our own). It is the heart’s confident trust  first set by Abraham and built upon by God’s chosen people. Faith is the foundation of the People of God with Jesus as its corner stone. Faith (as the saying goes, is something you can bet your life on). It is not only sure knowledge of some past event, but it is a sure thing because God is active in the world and he continues to do what he said he would do, sometimes, beyond our perception and understanding, and regardless of our pride & folly. 

From the beginning when God declared everything he made good he was trustworthy.God will keep his promises.  Abraham and Sarah knew this and are examples of this “sure knowledge” this transforming and active Faith. St Paul describes Faith and gives us a working definition -

“The realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” 

The Faith you and I share “our sure knowledge” our “realization & evidence” Is a sign that we have already share in God’s Treasure (this is the Good News).

The Gospel message connects Faith with Fidelity.

“Do not be afraid for your father is pleased to give you his Kingdom”

The Treasure that is God’s - is ours. He holds nothing back. Some don’t know this, others don’t care and still others don’t dare believe it. God is continually pouring out His life upon us; now, in Faith, Hope & Love and in the future as inheritors of his kingdom. And like any treasure; it must be discovered, cherished, protected, and used well.

 We discover it in Scripture, the story of Salvation.  We discover it most profoundly in the Life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  We discover it in the community of believers and in ourselves in the silence of communion with God.

We cherish this treasure (Good News) and protect it because it is where our heart is.  It is who we are. This is what Ezekiel gets at when he says that we will get a new heart and a new spirit; our stony heart is replaced by a natural heart.  Because, a heart full of Spirit & turned towards God - is a Faith filled heart -and a faith filled heart - is the natural condition of the human heart.

And Our Treasure of Faith must be used wisely; to soften fear and anxiety in ourselves and others, to enliven our charity, to embolden our love of God, and neighbor.   In the light of Faith we do not focus on what hurts us, but on what gives us life.   Faith keeps us strong, resilient, and vigilant.

Jesus reminds us that that this great supernatural gift from God is a binding contract – a covenant.

 Jesus says -

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more”

We have indeed been entrusted with much – more than we can ever imagine, perhaps more than we deserve. The Treasure of Faith is ours, but don’t own it.  It is not ours to do (or not do) with as we please.  We do not create it, but we are certainly responsible for it. 

The seed of Faith is received at baptism, but it must be nurtured and cherished in the family by creating a home of tenderness and fidelity. It must be nourished and protected by the sacramental life of Word and Eucharist in the Church.  And it must be active and lived out in this world by authentic Christian lives. Whatever our vocation or role, we are all stewards of God’s gift of Faith. 

We are given the task to not only love and live in peace and joy, but also to remain steadfast,  be obedient, hardworking, and vigilant, until the Lord returns,  and we must hand back this precious gift of Faith which has been entrusted to us.

Encounter and Mission, 14th Sunday

We are a missionary Church.  Our baptism sends us forth on mission and this doesn’t mean going to some far off place, but it means to follow Jesus and witness, by our lives, the Good News he preached.

Life with Jesus is following – sending – and being, and these are the dynamics of Christian discipleship.

Today we are in the middle of the Luke’s missionary discourse - the call to follow Jesus, the sending forth on mission and what that mission might look like.

Last week we had several accounts of those who said “I will follow you” only to fall away at what is asked of them. It was hard to leave everything and have nothing to live an intenerate life on the road where rejection and hardship are part and parcel of following Jesus. Jesus is clear; hold on to nothing, carry nothing, expect nothing.

Today we have the sending forth of the 72, where again, he tells them; hold on to nothing, carry nothing, expect nothing. Next week we have the in the Good Samaritan the model of mission & discipleship.

There is only one mission, but discipleship comes in all sizes. We know there were rings of discipleship around Jesus. 

There were the 12 closet to him who shared Jesus’ itinerant life. There were the 72; farmers, landowners, craftsmen, who drop temporally their village & family duties to be sent on mission by Jesus to bring the good news and prepare the way. And there was Mary, Martha & Lazarus and countless others who stayed at home, but who kept those homes open to Jesus. They all loved Jesus and all were committed disciples.

 We heard in the first reading that God’s reign will be generous, overflowing in abundance and tenderness.

But, we are not there yet. Jesus proclaimed that Kingdom, here and now, but not yet fulfilled and we know from Jesus that discipleship and mission comes before inheritance and rest.  The harvest is abundant, but the laborers few.

St Paul understood discipleship - it was total self-surrender - he says

“I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord”

“The world has been crucified to me and I to the world”

It was - and still is - all about Jesus.But, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

We heard last week the need for complete surrender of one’s life, total commitment right now  because of the utter urgency in preparing for the coming Kingdom.  Nothing else mattered.

For the 12, that meant absolute intenerate living at the feet of the master. For the 72, it was living the Good News in their ordinary lives, but also temporarily leaving that comfort behind. For others (the majority of followers) it meant keeping their hearts inflamed by his message, to do his work in their individual villages and towns and homes.

Each vocation looks different, but inwardly, it was always the same,a personal invitation by Jesus followed by a personal choice by us. It is always; encounter - conversion and mission. This is the pattern from the first evangelists to the new evangelization. It is never enough to simply know about Jesus, in fact it is impossible to know Jesus and not claim his mission as our own. 

Jesus called and sent out the 12. Jesus called and sent out the 72, he calls and sends us, to be an extension of himself and his mission.  Where they were (and we are) Jesus is.  Their work (our work) is his work.

He sent them with nothing but their complete trust and loving obedience.  No money, no sandals, no supplies and with such urgency (remember the person who wanted to bury his Father) that he tells them do not stop along the way, do not get sidetracked. Jesus tells them wherever you find yourself do not ask for anything, do not demand anything, offer your peace (offer them my peace) and if it is accepted and you are welcome.

Stay there and share table fellowship.  Do not move from one house to another.  Do my work wherever you find yourself. Teach, heal and comfort. Share each joy and each sorrow. There is no more important work.  You will never be a better disciple somewhere else? There is no one who needs you more than the person seated across the table from you. Right here – right now – is the logistics of discipleship & mission.

There is no one blue print but there are elements that again and again show up.

Trust in the Father and his Son and the Holy Spirit and have hope in the Kingdom, both here and fulfilled.
Relationship with Jesus, that is ongoing and deepening, because only Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for every Christian.  

Mission is extending the Kingdom of God wherever you are by making Jesus present by your words and actions.  Mission is not having faith, it is doing faith.
Service is the tangible fruit of mission and it always looks to help the other (spouse, family, neighbor, stranger) while never counting the cost to ourselves.

Prayer. To follow Jesus is to pray as Jesus prayed, as Jesus taught us, everywhere and always at ease the Father. 

And Suffering. It is a part of human condition, life itself and must be accept with grace when it comes our way but it must be fought (with tooth and nail) when it accompanies injustice.

To follow Jesus is to never boast of anything but the cross.  We are of this world, but are not slaves of this world. We are free to choose the better good.  We are free to follow Jesus completely and to the end.

And when we do, we can rejoice with the 72 and all disciples before us, and with us, and who will come after us, for all those names are written in heaven. †