Homily Lent 1A: Choosing God's true good over my apparently good

 

Homily for 1^st Sunday of Lent Year A 2023

Introduction

Sin! Nobody wants to talk about sin.  I am sure you are not looking forward to hearing a homily about sin. I can assure you that I too don't want to talk about sin.  But sin is the subject of our readings today, particularly the passage about the sin of Adam and Eve in our first reading.

One reason we don't hear much about sin is because we have replaced the word with euphemisms.  There is a story about a father who was taking a walk with his teenage son.  And they came upon two people on a park bench involved in a sinful act.  The young man quickly said, "Dad, that is not cool."  So for him, sin was simply "something not cool."

As for the dad who was in his forties, looking at the same act said, "that is inappropriate."  Even he couldn't bring himself to call the act, sin; the act was merely inappropriate.  But when they got back home and were describing the incident to grandpa, it was he who finally said "that is wrong."  And so we have come from grandpa's generation which saw sin as wrong, to ours which sees sin as only inappropriate and now our children who see sin as "not-cool."

Scripture and Theology

But sin is a reality.  It was a reality for our first parents, it is a reality now.  What Adam and Eve did, was not merely "uncool" or merely inappropriate; it was a sin.  What was their sin, I hear you asking?  Thank you for asking.

Our reading began with God giving Adam and Eve two precious gifts.  First, he gave them life.  Think about it; he did not have to create them, but create them he did.  Then, he gave them a lush garden in Eden full of all manner of trees, including the tree of knowledge in the centre.  He allowed them to make use of the trees in the garden.  But he asked for one little, tiny thing: "You shall not eat it [the tree in the middle of the garden] or even touch it, lest you die."  And so Adam and Eve found themselves before a loving God, who gave them all they needed, and some rules, like a good parent does for children.

So how did Adam and Eve come to sin, despite being in this most enviable paradise?  Well, what do you know! The serpent, described as "the most cunning of all the animals" comes to Eve and says that if she eats of the fruit of the tree, she will most certainly not die. "No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The Devil is tricky; he downplays the downside that is death and magnifies the upside, knowledge.  Spare a thought for poor Eve; if you were presented with such a proposition, a chance to have the key to knowing what is good and evil, would you not at least consider it?  And as we heard, Eve was convinced and saw three good things in the tree.  It "was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom."

The Tempter will use these same three goods against Jesus in today's gospel: "good for food," the temptation of bodily pleasure, "pleasing to the eyes," the temptation of possessions, and "desirable for gaining wisdom," the temptation of power.  Of course, Jesus will triumph over them, but Eve did not.  She ate the fruit of the tree and gave some to her husband as well.

Eve therefore sins, not only because she disobeys a direct command of God, who forbade her to eat or even touch the tree; she sins also and especially because she assigns to herself the role of deciding what is the true good.  She chooses an apparent good over the true good, a lesser good over the greater good, something else over God, who is goodness itself.  It is this desire to be the masters of our own destiny, the deciders of what is good and evil, or what is the greater good and the lesser good, that is the original sin.

If the first reading was a step-by-step guide in how to sin, the gospel passage is a case study in how to avoid sin.  While Eve’s temptation took place in the lush garden of Eden, that of Jesus takes place in the dry desert of Judah, where he is presented with virtually the same proposition and three apparent goods.

Considering that he was hungry after fasting for forty days and forty nights, the first crack at him by the Tempter was particularly attractive: "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread," Eve's good for food.  Later in the gospel Jesus will be in the business of making bread out of nothing for the crowds and will change water into wine at Cana wedding.  And so what the Tempter is asking him to do, is actually somewhat of a good thing.

But if Jesus chooses to obey him, he would be abandoning an even better good, his need to rely on God.  He would be taking a short-cut, rather than the way of the cross; he would be nothing more than a magician; he would not be a true messiah.  That is why Jesus tells the Tempter: "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God."  In other words, trusting in God is greater than immediate gratification.

The second temptation from the Devil is: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down" from the temple roof, from God's dwelling place, since Scripture says that God will protect you. This proposition places before Jesus the choice of trusting in God unreservedly or obtaining a little proof that the Father cares for him.  Moreover, jumping down from the temple roof and surviving the experience would have been an excellent opportunity for Jesus to show his divine power and win over many people.  But since doing this would be also be testing God for his own purposes, the equivalent of Eve's desire for knowledge and wisdom apart from God, Jesus rejected this temptation saying: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

The third temptation provides Jesus with another shortcut to power that avoids the suffering of the cross.  "All these [kingdoms of the world] I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me" proposes the Tempter.  And this was not an empty promise.  Jesus had come to take the world from Satan's control.  Should he do it through the arduous way of suffering and death on the cross, or should he take easy way proposed by the tempter?

But again unlike Eve who chose what was pleasing to the eyes, Jesus chose the greater good and not the lesser good.  He says, thanks but no thanks.  Quoting from Scripture he says: "The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve."  He chooses to worship God above all else.

Christian Life

And so my friends, as we begin our Lenten journey of repenting from sin we have to be aware that the greatest temptation of all is not the ugliness of sin, but its attractive nature, especially when we think of ourselves as the ultimate arbiters of what is truly good, and so are deceived by what is apparently good.

In our daily lives we make choices, some big, some small.  What makes these daily choices particularly difficult is not that we have to choose between what is clearly evil and what is clearly good; that is a fairly easy to do.  The difficulty is that often both choices before us appear to contain some good and we must decide which is the true good.  And if we rely only on our own feelings and wants, without relying on God, we shall most certainly choose the lesser good.  That is why the Catechism (1849) tells us that "Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbour caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods."  Let us be watchful against this last part, that attachment to certain lesser goods.

And so, avoiding sin is not just about obeying rules, but also about allowing God to help us choose what is truly good over what is only apparently good.  It could be the choice between watching TV or saying my rosary, the choice between helping someone in need or bypassing them, the choice between being faithful to my spouse or cheating on her, the choice between keeping quiet in the face of evil or speaking against it; do we choose the true good?

Conclusion

Like the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert may our Lenten experience of 40 days be observed through sincere fasting, generous almsgiving and ardent prayer and lead us to realize that only God can offer us what is "[1] good for food and [2] pleasing to the eyes, and [3] desirable for gaining wisdom."  Most of all, let us allow this Eucharist, the highest good, bring us closer to God.

Homily Ordinary 7A: Holiness is living and loving as God loves

 

Homily for the 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Introduction

When you hear Jesus say these words in today’s gospel, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”, what is your reaction?  Don’t you ask, really?  Really Jesus, you want me to love people who have hurt me? You really want me to pray for those who attack me and persecute me? 

These words are part of the Sermon on the Mount that we have been reading for the last couple of Sundays.  They fit right in there with other radical teachings like the beatitudes, like blessed are the poor.  And so the casual hearer of these words might be forgiven for wondering why Jesus is asking us to do the impossible.

Scripture and Theology

The key to understanding these seemingly difficult demands of Jesus is in the last line of today’s gospel, where Jesus says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."   In other words, these demands are not your everyday ethical demands from wise teachers like Plato, Confucius or even our own modern Miss Manners; nor are they simply like the demands of our political and civil laws.  No they come from on high.  They challenge us to be perfect, to be holy like God.

To be holy and to be perfect as our heavenly Father, we have to start by understanding, what does it mean to holy?  What does it mean to be perfect?  When I was a young boy in seminary, we thought that the holy seminarian was the one who was pious, such as one who folded his arms when he prayed, who spent hours in prayer, and basically wore religion on his sleeves.  Thankfully, as I advanced in my studies, I learnt that while piety was certainly helpful on the journey to holiness, it was not the essential element of holiness.

The essential element of holiness is being like God; we pursue holiness when we try to set ourselves apart from the world of sin, and give ourselves over to being like God.  Like God set the people of Israel apart from the rest of the nations as his holy people, God also sets us Christians apart as his holy people.  Unfortunately, for a long time, Catholics mistakenly thought that only priests, nuns and brothers were holy, because they were set apart by the Sacrament of Holy Orders and by Religious Profession. Thankfully the Second Vatican Council reminded us that all the Baptized are called to holiness (LG 39-42).  We are set apart by our baptism so that we can be dedicated to God and be like him.

And how do we do this?  How do we set part ourselves for God?  We love as God loves, not as the world tells us to love.  Listen again to how the Lord expected the people of Israel to do this, as we heard in our first reading:

Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.

You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.

Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him.

Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the LORD.

In other words, hatred and revenge are incompatible with being holy like; but love, which is defined as willing the good of the other, that is compatible with holiness, with being like God, because God is love.

Yet in our day, hatred for others, especially for those who are not like us, has become honourable, sometimes even a requirement in politics and society.  But in line with what we heard in the first reading, Jesus tells Christians "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.”  He is raising the bar for us, telling us that he expects much more from us, if we are to be holy, to be set apart for God.  He asks: “For if you love those who love you. . . Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?”  Perfection for Jesus means going beyond the common standards of justice found in the world, the world of tax-collectors and pagans, terrorists and murderers, society and the world.  If we are to be holy, we have to be above the fray, just like God, who does not bear hatred for sinners but seeks their redemption.

You see the ethical standards of the world are quite low.  The tell us to dish out our love with tea-spoons, and only to those we think deserve it, the good people, the ones who treat us well.  But God’s standards are much higher.  Jesus tells us, “for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”  That higher divine love is what we are called to imitate.

Similarly, revenge seems to be the order of the day.  Today grown men and women, like children on the playground will say, “he hit me first, that is why I hit him back.”  While vengeance is a natural human tendency, Jesus tells us that Christians cannot take an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, or even the pound of flesh that the Merchant of Venice sought.  While seeking justice against wrongdoers is an honourable pursuit, the first reading was very clear: “Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him.” Our anger and response to evil must not be evil itself; it must be righteous.  That is what holiness entails, that is what is what perfection means, that is what being like God is.

Moreover, Christians may sometimes have to forego even righteous revenge and just deserts, because that is exactly what God the Father does to us; forgiving us when he should punish us, punishing us less when he should punish us more.  When Jesus was on the cross, he did not take any eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; instead, he gave his eye, he gave his tooth, he gave his life, so that we who choose to be his enemies, might have life.  That is the example he set for us Christians.  That is probably why Luke's version of the Sermon does not say "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" but "Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful."  Holiness and perfection involve mercy.

And so as we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus has been teaching a whole new way of being perfect, of being holy, of being like God, Jesus is even going much farther than the Old Testament laws.  For the Christian no longer is the law, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."  No longer is the ideal "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." For the Christian who wants to be perfect, he must love as God loves.

Christian Life and Conclusion

The one place where we must start living out this tall order is in our own families.  Perhaps because of living in close proximity that is where we offend each other most sometimes to the point of hating each other.  While the Lord is not asking us to stay in toxic family situations, he is asking us to will the good of those family members who hurt us, even if we must keep them at some distance.  We will their good, by doing good for them, for example, visiting them when they are sick, helping them out materially when we can, but especially praying for them.

In a few moments, we shall approach the altar of the Lord, to offer his sacrifice, to receive his sacrifice, to receive the greatest sign of love that ever was.  None of us is worthy to receive this gift.  But the Lord Jesus Christ, on the night before he died and on the Cross left this gift behind for us.  God gives himself to us so that we can become like him.  God became man so that we can become God.

Two American idioms express this truth very well.  We say "Like father, like son" when a child imitates his or her parents.  We also say, "The apple does not fall far from the tree," when a child takes after his parents.  If we can attempt to imitate our human fathers and our mothers, who if truth be told are quite imperfect, how about with, his help, imitating our heavenly Father, who is perfectly holy, perfectly merciful, perfectly loving?  Can we be the apple that does not fall far from the tree of the Cross, the tree on which perfect love was displayed?  As we have received that love, should we not also share it with others?

Homily Ordinary 6A: Jesus was no hippie - Rule of Law with a heart

Homily for 6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Introduction

When you hear the word "law," what emotions are stirred in your heart?  Perhaps if you have recently paid a hefty speeding ticket from those traffic cameras, I would guess that you might not be too thrilled about the law at this moment.  But if the person who stole your car has been caught and punished by law enforcement, you just might appreciate that the law is essentially a good thing.

That is why Jesus in today's gospel has a rather positive view of the law, saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  Fulfil the law, he does.  But how does he do it?

Scripture and Theology

Let me explain, using the image of a typewriter, on which I learnt how to type.  For those who were born after 1990, a typewriter was this clunky machine used to type and type only; no internet, no email, no Facebook and certainly no twitter.  And for the older manual typewriters, if you wanted your work to be legible, you had to strike those keys really hard.  Moreover, if you made a mistake, you had to go back and cover the mistake with liquid paper and type over again.

Then came computers – and secretaries of the world with one voice shouted "Alleluia!"  Now they did not have to fight with the keyboard; now they could correct mistakes more easily and probably make a few more in the process, and if truth be told, now when the boss wasn't looking, they could also play solitaire or update their Facebook page on the computer.  My point is that today, we use the computer to do everything the typewriter did and some.  Computer technology has not abolished the typewriter, but rather fulfilled it to do many more things.

In the same way, Jesus came to improve and bring to fulfilment what God had already revealed to his people in the Old Testament Law and the Prophets.  That is why he strongly reminds his followers that “until heaven and earth pass away,” that is, until the end of the world as we know it, “not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law.”  In other words, he does not do away with the law, but only improves it, to serve God and his people better.

In the passage that we just heard, Jesus provided four examples of how he is not abolishing, but improving the laws against killing, adultery, divorce and swearing.    Let us focus on just the first two, the laws against killing and against adultery.

Quoting the fifth commandment, Jesus says: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill.”  And then he goes on: “But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment . . . and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.”  For Jesus, it is not enough to avoid killing people, something few of us actually do.  Rather he goes to the root of murder, things that lead people to kill, such as anger and the lack of civility in discourse.  How many people have drawn their guns to shoot others due to road rage!  Jesus is extending the fifth commandment to include respect for the dignity and life of every person.  If we begin by cultivating in ourselves the virtue of respecting life, all life, then we do not ever have to worry about killing anybody, because respect for life will begin in our thoughts and in our words, a much firmer foundation than any written law.

The same principle applies to the sixth commandment, which says: “You shall not commit adultery.” Jesus adds, “But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”  Again, Jesus is pointing to our basic attitude towards other people.  We should not use another person just as an object of pleasure, like we do a toy, since when that happens both people are degraded. But real love, real respect, is concerned about the good of the other person.  Therefore, adultery is wrong not just because it is a sexual act outside marriage, but especially because it is a serious injustice to the innocent married partner and to the marriage relationship.  Most of all, it is a serious breach of trust and fidelity.  Again, if we cultivate that basic attitude of respecting other people’s bodies and our own, we have little to worry about ever falling into the temptation of adultery.  The first step to avoiding adultery is avoiding even seemingly innocent flirtatious thoughts and words.

And so how is Jesus fulfilling, improving upon the fifth and sixth commandments against killing and adultery?  He is showing what the core and starting point of these commandments is, namely, thoughts and attitudes.  That is why at the beginning of Mass, when confessing our sins, each of us also confesses those sins I have committed, "in my thoughts and in my words."  Thus without abolishing the Ten Commandments Jesus has explained their true meaning and even expanded them to apply to new situations.  He has taken that old technology of the typewriter and morphed it into a computer that can do even more things.

Christian Life

And so, it could never be said of Jesus that he was against the law.  Jesus was no Hippie!  Jesus was a law and order man, who stood for the rule of law.  But he asked that law have a new heart and a new spirit.  He invited his disciples to look beyond the letter of the law, and also observe its spirit, which is always love of God and neighbour.  That is why Jesus told the disciples: "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."  For the Pharisees and scribes, rule of law only meant, fulfilling the letter of the law.  For Jesus, "rule of law" means observing, not just its letter, but its heart and spirit as well.

How do we approach the law as Jesus has taught us?

There are two extremes to avoid.  Obviously, the first extreme is that of the scribes and Pharisees, who see only the letter of the law.  That is what Pope Francis, since he became Pope, has been trying to teach us to do.  When it comes to those who are imperfect before the law, those who do not always fulfil the letter of the law, how are we to treat them?  The unmarried mother, the divorced and remarried person, the person with the same-sex attraction, the so-called illegal immigrant, the prisoner, the woman who terminated her pregnancy – these are the tax collectors and sinners of Jesus’ time.  Do we apply the blunt instrument of the law or do we examine each case to see what is going in their lives, to see whatever good God is doing in their lives, to offer them the hope of conversion and change?  Do we look into our own lives and see that while we might be fulfilling the letter of the commandments, we are guilty of the far more serious attitudes of hate, lust, a lack of commitment to people and to the truth?  For it is these attitudes that are at the foundation of the sins that will lead us into hell.

On the other hand, we have to avoid the extreme that ignores all laws and commandments.  We must not forget that Jesus said, “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus did not do away with laws; he just gave us new eyes, a new heart with which to live out these laws in peace and freedom.  For example, we have the Five Precepts of the Church. (1) Attendance at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, (2) Confession of serious sin at least once a year (3) Reception of Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season (4) Observance of the days of fast and abstinence (5) Providing for the needs of the Church.  Why do we have these laws?  To provide us with the minimum effort we must make to love God and neighbour.

Conclusion

Like the typewriter, which we have developed into a computer, the law is only an instrument, a tool.  Like technology, law is a good servant, but a bad master.  And so we must observe the laws of God, the law of the Church and the laws of the state; but we must do so in a way that brings glory of God and does the greatest good for people, thus surpassing the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Homily Ordinary 5A: Providing a Christian flavor, vision and direction

 

Homily for 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Introduction

We continue to read from the Sermon on the Mount, in which last week Jesus taught us in the Beatitudes how to be blessed or holy.  Today he teaches another lesson, which is, how to make our holiness help other people to be holy.  To make his point he uses three images, with which we should be very familiar, that his followers must be the salt of the earth, the light of the world and a city built on a hillside.  For all three do not exist for themselves but for something else.

Let us reflect on these images a little.

Scripture and Theology

First, Jesus says to his disciples, "You are the salt of the earth."  Salt has three common uses, as an antiseptic, as a preservative and as seasoning.

·        From ancient times salt has been used as an antiseptic, to kill germs.  Back in the day, people cleaned chicken with salt to prevent salmonella.  Salt has been used to clean wounds, something my mother did liberally when I was growing up in Uganda.  And today I gargle with salt to cure my sore-throat.

·        Secondly, salt is a preservative.  Again, in the absence of fridges and freezers, the only way to preserve meat or fish was to salt or smoke them.  Salt draws out the moisture and decomposition does not take place.

·        The third use of salt is as seasoning.  Salt brings out the flavour in food.  For people without the wealth of spices that we have here in New Orleans, unless they add salt, the food is very insipid and bland, as anyone on a salt-free diet would testify.

And so, like salt, Christians should do all three things: they should preserve what is best in society; Christians should flavour society with some of the best teaching of Jesus like the Beatitudes which we heard last Sunday; Christians should be an antiseptic in society, removing evil that damages human life.

Next Jesus uses the image of light, telling his followers: “You are the light of the world.”  At the time of Jesus having light, especially at night could not be taken for granted.  Homes in ancient Palestine, like homes in most pre-industrial societies, generally had one room with no windows and only a door.  When the door was closed, the house would be pitch black.  The only light source was a small oil lamp.  The only way the lamp would illuminate the whole room was if it was placed on a stand or ledge above everybody’s head, to avoid anybody blocking the light.  Without light, nobody could do anything productive: no guests, no reading, no socialising, no work, perhaps only sleeping.  Light brought illumination.

Again, like light, Christians should illuminate both the good and the bad in society.  When with our Scriptures shed light on society's values, we reveal what builds us up and what is truly dysfunctional; and that is our calling.

The third image of the city, serves a similar purpose to that of a lamp.  In that part of the world, most cities were built on hillsides for protection, but also to serve as points of navigation.  Even our own city of New Orleans, although it is not built on a hillside serves as point of navigation for boats and ships on the Mississippi river; especially at night they use the city lights to guide their movement.

Therefore, like the city on the hillside, Christians should help society navigate away from the boulders and rocks of evil, towards the safe shore of heaven.  Christians should be the GPS that directs society towards the good and away from evil.

So all images of salt, light and a city exist, not for themselves, but for others.  The point of Jesus then is that the Christian faith and people do not exist for themselves, but for others.  When we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world and a city built on a hillside, we are winning salvation, not only for ourselves, but for others too.  Jesus says so elsewhere: "Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

Christian Life

Much good can come from Christians being good witnesses to the gospel, showing off what Jesus teaches as it were.  Mahatma Ghandi once said that he liked Jesus Christ and what he had to say; not so much Christians, because they did not live up to that message.  Therefore, we must witness to the gospel with our works.

For example, the last pagan emperor, Julian once wrote to a pagan priest chastising him because of the behaviour of Christians.  He said:

when it came about that the poor were neglected and overlooked by the [pagan] priests, then I think the impious Galilaeans [i.e., Christians] observed this fact and devoted themselves to philanthropy. . . . (Julian, Fragment of a Letter to a Priest, 337, in The Works of the Emperor Julian, II, trans. Wilmer Cave Wright (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1913).  [They] support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us” (To Arsacius, High-Priest of Galatia, 69; in The Works of the Emperor Julian, III, trans. Wilmer Cave Wright [New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923]) ) .

These early Christians by their acts of love, clearly understood the message of Jesus that they were to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city built on a hilltop, which directs people to the saving message of Christ.

One of the things most people who visit Uganda notice, and I hope you will visit my home country one day, is that the first churches, both Catholic and Protestant are built on top of hills.  You can see them from miles away.  That is a good thing if you don’t have GPS and are trying to get there.  Of course, not so good, for the people who have to walk to church on Sunday, for whom it is an uphill task.  These churches literally cities built on a hillside.

But even better was the work that the missionaries themselves did. When the missionaries came to Uganda, they not only built churches and preached the gospel, they also lived out the message of the gospel in addressing the material needs of the people especially through education and medical care.  And the Church in Ugandan continues to do so.  The churches became a focal point for not just religion, but also education and medical care and other social services.  By their work among the poor and needy, these missionaries became the salt that flavoured the community, the light that pointed them away from evils to a better life, the city of God to which everybody flocked.  They did what our first reading told us: "Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own."  And like the first Christians, they did not discriminate as to whom they helped, Catholic or Protestant, Christian or pagan.  They did not help because those people were Christian, but because they who helped were Christians.

That is what our Catholic Charities does today even here in our own community.  That is what Catholic Relief Services does abroad, not just helping people, but by helping them point them to Jesus Christ, who inspires all our work.  This past week the Holy Father has been visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Among the groups he met are charitable groups that help the poor.  This is what he told them:

While so many today dismiss the poor, you embrace them; while the world exploits them, you encourage them. . . . I would like to make better known what you are doing, to promote growth and hope in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on this entire continent. I came here out of a desire to be a voice for the voiceless.

Then he concluded that helping the poor is not mere philanthropy; for Christians it is faith, for faith without works is dead.

Conclusion

At the end of today’s Mass, the deacon will dismiss us with the words, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” or “God and announce the gospel of the Lord.  How will you and I go about doing that?  How will be go about being the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city built on a hillside?

Homily Ordinary 4A: The Beatitudes provide us with a philosophy of life

 

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Introduction

“Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .  Blessed are the meek . . . Blessed are the merciful.”  What does Jesus mean by this word blessed?  For this word seems to have many different meanings.

For example, I have heard that in the South if someone says, “Bless your heart” that can mean different things.  Of course, it be a genuine expression of sympathy like when one says, “You have the flu, bless your heart.”  It can also communicate gratitude like, “You baked me a cake, bless your heart.”  But it can also be an expression of derision, as when one says, “You got a “C” on that exam? Bless his heart.” Surely, Jesus is not speaking about blessing in this sarcastic way.

Nor is he speaking about blessing in terms of doing well materially or being well physically as many people today think.  You will hear people say, “I am blessed” when something good happens to them, as if to suggest that those who are not doing well, the sick, the poor, are not blessed.  If this is our only understanding of blessing, then we are in for a shock. For the kind of people Jesus says are blessed are not doing well, at least not according to the standards of the world.

Scripture and Theology

For Jesus calls blessed the poor in spirit, not the rich; those who mourn, not those who laugh; the meek, not the self-assured; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not those who hunger and thirst for power.  He calls blessed the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, those insulted and persecuted because of his name.  These lowly people are the blessed ones according to Jesus.

And there is good reason for Jesus reversing the order of values.  For he understands blessing in a very different way.  For Jesus, blessing means being holy, being like God, and being a friend of God.  And being holy comes from living in a certain way, a way pleasing to God.

That is why for each Beatitude, Jesus mentions a condition and a corresponding reward that comes from God.  For true blessings are not worldly rewards, but rather spiritual things, like being with God in heaven for eternity.

·        The poor in spirit will receive the kingdom of heaven.

·        Those who mourn will be comforted.

·        The meek, being, as they have not sought power and riches for themselves, they will inherit the land, the heavenly land.

·        Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied and rewarded for their efforts especially in heaven.

·        As for the merciful, well because they showed mercy, they too will be shown mercy, which we all need on the Judgement Day.

·        The clean of heart, they will see God, because there will be nothing in them, not impurity, not sin, to impede their entry into God’s presence.

·        The peacemakers will be called children of God, sons and daughters of he who brings everlasting peace.

·        Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness will receive the kingdom of heaven, the place where the righteous go.

·        Finally, for those who are insulted and persecuted because of Jesus, they should rejoice and be glad, for their reward will be great in heaven.

Now based on the standards of this world perhaps nobody is going to call blessed the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.  Or if they do, it will be the sarcastic Southern “bless your heart.”  But for Jesus these nine beatitudes are nine ingredients for whipping up a really solid Christian life, one that will be rewarded with a true blessing, which is life with God. 

Christian Life

How do we live the Beatitudes today?  How do we embody this reversal of values?

·        Perhaps you followed the thousands of Catholic young people that travelled to Washington DC this past week, some from our own area to the March for life.  Why would they do such a thing, travelling for hours and hours on a bus?  Why would they be concerned about the life of unborn babies? I submit that these young people have heard the call of the Beatitude, which says: "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied."  They hunger to promote life from womb to tomb.

·        Similarly, mercy brings blessedness to the giver of mercy as much as to the receiver of mercy.  A life of mercy ignores the message to hate our enemy, to take vengeance on those who hurt us, and instead enjoins us to treat others better than they deserve, forgiving them or helping them in some way.  Think of the mother whose only son has been murdered.  While there is no commandment enjoining her to forgive this murderer, she does so, because she has heard the words: "Blessed are merciful."

·        Closely related with mercy is the beatitude that calls blessed "the peacemakers" and promises, "they will be called children of God.” Such people live their lives, not by the hateful, dividing, wall-building ways of the world, but with an attitude of reconciliation, forgiveness and unity.

There are several other examples of how to live out the Beatitudes.  You might recall that on All Saints Day, we read this same gospel of the Beatitudes. Several years ago, reflecting on that gospel, Pope Francis took some artistic license and composed for us, what he called additional beatitudes for the modern age.

1.    "Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others, and forgive them from their heart" [think of all the Christians who have been driven out of their homes in the Middle East].

2.    "Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized, and show them their closeness" [think of that trafficked young woman, that widow and orphan in a war zone].

3.    "Blessed are those who see God in every person, and strive to make others also discover him" [think of the homeless man living on the street, the person of another race, the person of another religion, the addict].

4.    "Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home" [think of avoiding wastage, giving excess to others, rather than let it go to the landfill]

5.    "Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others" [the list of ways to do this is endless, but think of all those who serve the poor and needy].

6.    "Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians", [think of the things we do with other Christians].

Conclusion

In his same reflection on All Saints Day, Pope Francis described the Beatitudes as being “in some sense the Christian’s identity card,” identifying us as followers of Jesus.  While most Christians think of the Ten Commandments as the ultimate moral guide, the fact is that what those commandments teach is not exactly unique to Christianity.  For starters, they are from the Old Testament. Also many of their injunctions can be found in other religions.

But the Beatitudes and that message of humility and willingness to suffer for Christ that they teach, that is uniquely Christian. Even more important they promise us heaven, everlasting life with God, if we live by them.

That is why we are celebrating the Eucharist, the memorial of the death and resurrection of Our Lord, perhaps the greatest Beatitude of all? We profit from our Lord Jesus, humbling himself and dying on the Cross, so that we have eternal life.

Homily Ordinary 2A: Offering up our daily hardships with the Lamb

 

Homily for 2^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2023

Introduction

It is customary that before the keynote speaker comes on stage, someone usually introduces them.  An introduction is considered good not because it is humorous, but because it prepares the audience, for example by telling them the qualifications of the speaker, so that they are excited and look forward to the keynote speech.

Scripture and Theology

If Jesus is our keynote speaker, then John the Baptist is the one who introduces him.  And as far as introductions go, John the Baptist does an excellent job.  In today’s gospel we have just heard him point to Jesus and say: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  John chooses to introduce him as a lamb.  Why?  Why introduce the long-promised Messiah as a lamb?

And yet John uses those words deliberately, because the image of a lamb was one the Jewish people would understand perfectly.  When they heard the words: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” they were reminded of the Passover Lamb and of the lambs sacrificed in the Temple.

If you recall from the book of Exodus, Pharaoh had refused to let the people of Israel return home.  God struck him with several plagues: blood, frogs and lice; flies, dead livestock and boils; hail, locusts and darkness; but Pharaoh still refused.  God had one final trick up his sleeve; the final plague was the death of the first-born Egyptian children and animals.

But how would the angel of death tell the Jewish homes from the Egyptian ones?  God told the people of Israel to smear the doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb; in that way the angel of death would pass over their houses and spare their children and animals. This blood came from the lamb that the Israelites had eaten at their Last Supper on the night before they were to leave Egypt.  And so the Lamb then becomes the sign and symbol of the liberation of God’s people from slavery and oppression.

But there is another lamb, that John’s listeners would think about, when he described Jesus as the Lamb of God.  The people of Israel worshipped God primarily by offering him an animal sacrifice.  The book of Exodus commands that every day, two one-year lambs were to be sacrificed on the Temple altar, as atonement for sin.  One was to be sacrificed in the morning and another in the evening.  Now we modern people might think of this practice as cruel and senseless, that is of course if we don’t think about where our steak, veal and lamb shank come from.  For a people who lived from hand to mouth as the Jewish people did, every lamb sacrificed was one less sheep to provide food, wool, milk and skins.  The sacrifice of a lamb was their way of giving God their most treasured possession.  This lamb was the symbol of their love for God.

And so, whether John’s words evoked the image of the Passover lamb or the image of the daily sacrificial lamb, the message was still the same.  John was telling them that this man Jesus whom you see, has come to do once for all, what our sacrificial lambs have tried to do over and over again without much success.  “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” once and for all.

Christian Life

And so, the title of "Lamb of God" brings something special to the table, something without which his identity would not be complete.  For Jesus is the Lamb of God, who offered himself completely for our sake.  He is a much superior sacrifice than the sacrifice of lambs offered by the people.  They had failed to satisfy God, because the spirit in which they were offered lack complete love.  That is why God cried out, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."  But now Jesus Christ in his sacrifice on the cross offers him both: mercy and sacrifice, love and sacrifice.  That is why Jesus the Lamb says that there is no greater love, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  And that is exactly what he does, because he is the Lamb of God.

Jesus is the Lamb of God, who offered himself completely for our sake.  God allowed the Jewish people who had sinned, to substitute for themselves a sacrificial lamb to die in their place.  In the same way, we are the sinners; but God has allowed his Son, to take our place and die for us.  That is why Jesus says that there is no greater love, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  It is true that Jesus is indeed many things for us: that gentle baby in the manger, we saw at Christmas, a Prophet and a Teacher, the Prince of Peace and King of the World, the Bread of Life and the Light of the World; but under all of them is the fact that he is our Sacrifice, our Lamb.

In fact at Mass, just before communion, we sing three times: “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World.”  And then the priest holds up the Host and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, Behold him who takes away the sins of the world, Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.”  The reason we say these words is so that, even when we are having the banquet of the Lord, a sign of joy and communion, we have to be reminded, that this all came about, because of the blood of the Lamb.  And to the priest’s words we reply, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the Word, and my soul shall be healed.”  By these words we recognize our unworthiness before the Lamb.

One of my favourite movies is Saving Private Ryan, a movie from which one can draw many moral lessons.  There is a scene that could help us understand the message that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  As you probably remember, this movie is about a group of soldiers during World War II, sent to save Private James Ryan who has already lost his three brothers to the war, so his parents could have at least one son. Many men die in the process of saving him, including Captain Miller, who just before he dies tells the rescued Ryan, “James. Earn this . . . earn it.”

James seems to have taken these last words very seriously. In this particular scene, now he is an old man who has returned to Europe to the cemetery where Captain Miller is buried. Staring at the grave marker he mumbles to his dead commander telling Captain Miller that every day of his life he has thought of Miller’s dying words. He has tried to live a good life, at least he hopes he has. He hopes he has earned the sacrifice that Captain Miller and his men made for him.

But James is not really sure. He wonders how any life, however well lived, could be worth the sacrifice of all those men. Now wobbly on his feet he stands up, but does not feel released. Trembling and filled with anxiety he turns to his wife and pleads to her, “Tell me I’ve led a good life.” Confused by his request, she asks: “What?” He has to know the answer, so he asks her again: “Tell me I’m a good man.” Finally she responds to him and says: “Yes, you are.”

If Jesus is the Lamb that gives his life for us, do we deserve his sacrifice?  Are we ready to lay down our lives for our family, friends and even strangers, like Captain Miller and his men?  Can we lay aside our sense of entitlement, when we make unreasonable demands from our family, from the church, from our employers, from the government?  Can we see be like the football player, who is successful only because he invests time and effort in a healthy diet and training, endures a little suffering?  Can we accept the joy of Christian life as well as the cross of the Lamb?

Conclusion

Tomorrow this country remembers Martin Luther King, a man who like the Lamb of God was willing to undergo beatings, imprisonment, and even death for a just cause, the end of segregation and racism.  Are we similarly offering up our minor daily hardships and sacrifices, adding them to the great sacrifice of the Lamb, for the far too many people in the world who need our intercession? The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God has offered up everything for us; what can we in turn offer to show our gratitude, to testify that we have come to believe in him?