The Christian way is the way of humility!

Homily for 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2013

Sir 35:12-14, 16-18 • 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18 • Luke 18:9-14

Introduction

Today’s gospel reminded me of an incident that happened to me in the fourth grade.  My mother had been taken up a teaching job in a rural school and so I moved from a really good school to this regular village school.  But the upside of the move was that from being an average student in my former school, now I was easily the best student, or as you say, the top dog in my new class.

One day the teacher asked a question, as teachers often do.  I knew the correct answer, but I did not raise my hand.  Many of my classmates raised their hands, but their answers were wrong.  And then, very proud of myself, I blurted out the correct answer.  I was expecting the teacher to say to me, “good job,” “attaboy,” and to scold my classmates for their ignorance, pointing to me as the exemplary student they should imitate.  But no!  He punished me! He punished me for refusing to raise my hand, as students are expected to do.  That I had the correct answer was beside the point; I lacked class discipline and most importantly, I lacked the humility of a student.

Scripture and Theology

In today’s gospel, just like my fourth grade teacher, Jesus reverses expectations.  Instead of praising the saintly Pharisee, he praises the sinful tax-collector, “I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former.”

To the Jews, the Pharisee was the good person, the holy person, hands down; for Pharisees observed the Law of Moses very strictly.  That is why this particular Pharisee could honestly say: “I am not like the rest of humanity – greedy, dishonest, adulterous.” Moreover, he fasted twice a week, far beyond the normal expectations.  And he paid tithes, that is, 10% on all his income to the temple.  It was no wonder that for the Jews, this was a person to be admired.  But Jesus disagrees!  He says it is the tax-collector who is the one closer to God.

But how can this be, when the tax-collector is quite a disagreeable character?  He doesn’t fast at all!  He doesn’t give 10% of his money to the temple or any at all.  In fact, tax-collectors were known to take bribes or charge more and keep the difference for themselves.  And human nature being what it is, both then and now, nobody likes paying taxes and so nobody likes tax-collectors.  To add insult to injury, the tax-collectors of Jesus’ day collected taxes for the Romans, the occupiers.  Even the tax-collector himself admits that he is a really bad man.  And yet Jesus says, this man went home justified, while the Pharisee did not!

Why this role-reversal?  Why does Jesus turn the world upside down?  Like my fourth grade teacher taught me how a student should relate to the teacher, Jesus is teaching his listeners how human beings should relate with God: they should be humble and realize that God is the source of all goodness.

·        The Pharisee, despite his apparent righteousness, lacked this one really important virtue of humility.  He thought that salvation came from merely observing the laws.  When he came to pray, he did not come to talk to a friend; he came to boast, to remind God about his own holiness, just in case God had forgotten!  His prayer basically said: “God, you should be really grateful that you have someone like me (and there are not many of us), someone who is so faithful in following your commands!”  This is pride, this is self-conceitedness, this is self-righteousness.

·        The tax-collector, however, despite his sinfulness, realized he really needed God.  Jesus is inviting his listeners to imitate, not the sinful life, but the tax-collector’s humility and willingness to place himself under God’s mercy and love.  We heard that when he came to pray, he stood off at a distance, and would not even raise his eyes to heaven.  Rather, he beats his breast and prays: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  He realizes that by sinning, he has hurt a dear friend and now comes back to that friend, to ask him for a fresh start.

And so, the tax-collector is to be admired more than the righteous Pharisee because by humbling himself, he is disposed to receive all that God has to offer.

Christian Life

Whenever I tell my fourth-grade story, people sometimes ask me.  “Did you learn what your teacher was trying to teach you?”  Well, to be honest, I am not sure.  I think, I am still learning that lesson.  For while we think of ourselves as the tax-collector, if we are really honest with ourselves, we might find that there is still a bit of the Pharisee and that little fourth grader in us.

Sometimes our goodness can get to our heads.  And we might be tempted to think or pray like the Pharisee and our prayer might go something like this:

“Thank you, God, that I am a Catholic and not like those deluded Protestants and heathen Muslims.  I go to Mass every Sunday, receive Communion, and now and again go to Confession.  I give to the collection, send my children to Catholic school and I am faithful to my wife.  I am successful in my business and although it is not always easy I try to keep on the right side of the law.  Once I year I do a retreat.  I, of course, do not claim to be a saint but you know, I am an above average Catholic, which is more than can be said of the many so-called Catholics and non-Catholics I know.  Thank you, God, that I have not become like any of them.”

If we are not inclined to say this kind of prayer, our temptation might take a different form, not being aware of our sinfulness and the need for God’s forgiveness.  “What is sin, we might ask?  I don’t really sin.  Those bad things I do are only part of being human.  Besides, God understands that I have needs.”  This attitude, like the Pharisee, takes God for granted.  This attitude stops us from examining our consciences for any sins of commission or omission, sins which have damaged our friendship with God.  This attitude stops us from coming before God in confession and like the tax-collector saying: “Forgive me Father for I have sinned; 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner’.”  And yet, only by coming to his altar of mercy, can we expect to receive that mercy from God.

And so, whether we are generally good or whether we have had some rough patches in our lives, Jesus invites us to always live in that basic humility which acknowledges God, as the source of our success but also the source of mercy. 

Conclusion

I will suggest two practical things, to help us develop the humility Jesus calls for.

1.    If we are not already doing so, let us return to the sacrament of confession, even if we do only once a year, as required by the Church.  All of us are in need of forgiveness – why not use the means Jesus left for us.  Even at Mass we always begin first by acknowledging our sinfulness.  Before we praise God, hear his word and receive his Body and Blood, like the tax-collector we first say: “I confess to Almighty God” and three times we say “Lord Have Mercy!”  This is the humility of the Christian.

2.    A second practice to help us live in God’s providence is saying grace at meals.  When we say before meals: “Bless us O Lord, and these your gifts, which we are about to receive, from your goodness, through Christ our Lord,” and when we say after the meal, “We give you thanks Almighty God, for your benefits, you who live and reign for ever and ever,” we are acknowledging that even in the basic necessities of life like food, we need God in our lives.

I know it is very un-American to think of ourselves as anything less than we are, and I know that the founding Fathers of the nation are probably rolling in their graves at this very moment.  But Jesus invites you and me to know that, however righteous we are God is the source of our goodness and however sinful we are, God alone can forgive us.

The Great Missionary Commission for all Christians!

Homily for Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exod 17:8-13 • 2 Tim 3:14-4:2 • Luke 18:1-8

Introduction

In your packet of collection envelopes this month, there is a special envelope for today’s second collection, and it has the words: “World Mission Sunday.”  And so: What is World Mission Sunday?  And why is World Mission Sunday asking for your hard-earned money?  What will that money do?

Every year on the next-to-last Sunday in October, the Catholic Church celebrates World Mission Sunday, aiming to do three main things:

1.    Collecting donations for the missions – like that envelope in your packet this month,

2.    Raising awareness about the mission of the Church – like I am trying to do in my homily,

3.    Praying for the work of missionaries – like we are doing at Mass now

For my reflection, I am going to speak about these three things: the collection, the awareness and prayer for missions.  Some people say that my homilies are long.  If talk too much today, just throw the money at me and I will stop talking.

Scripture and Theology and Christian Life

Let us start with the collection.  Your donation in that World Mission Sunday envelope will be put together with that of other parishes in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and sent to the Vatican.  Putting together the collections from other countries, even the poorest countries, the department of the missions at the Vatican will then divide that pot among the many needs of those dioceses in Asia, Latin America and Africa, which they have only recently received the faith.

But when that money gets there, what does it actually do?  Well, just look at me, as I am the product of your kind missionary donations.

·        Forty years ago I was blessed to be born to parents, who themselves had been born Christians, thanks to the work of the first missionaries who came to Uganda.  The work of those early missionaries to Uganda was definitely supported by a collection such as that of World Mission Sunday.

·        The parish church where I was baptised and the village church where I attended Sunday services growing up were built with the help of the World Mission Sunday collection.

·        The priests, catechists, sisters, brothers who taught me the faith at Church and in school from an early age were probably trained with money received from this same collection. 

·        I was quite a sickly child and was a frequent visitor at the parish medical clinic, built and maintained by the generous donations of such collections.

·        Then when I joined the seminary in Uganda, both high school and college seminary, I am sure that my training would not have been possible without the generous mission collections.

·        After I was ordained, I was sent to study for graduate studies in Rome, and I lived in a college maintained by the Vatican Department of the Missions, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

And so, please know that there are many priests, sisters, brothers and catechists like myself, who serve the Church only because of the donations you make in mission collections like today’s.  Even more important are the millions of Catholics throughout the world who have the faith in Jesus Christ, because of that $10, $20, $50, $100 you put in that collection.  And on their behalf and on my behalf, let me say how grateful we all are for enabling us receive the Good News of Jesus Christ.

And that brings me to the second aspect of World Mission Sunday, which is the reminder that mission work is at the centre of Catholic life.  Jesus gave a great commission to the Church in Mk. 16:15, saying, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”  That great commission of preaching the gospel is just as valid today, as it was 2000 years ago, because the consequences are serious.  For Jesus goes on to say: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk. 16:16).  The work of mission is not simply about making people’s lives better here on earth; it is really about bringing them to knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and giving them the opportunity to experience God’s salvation that begins here on earth, but will reach its climax in heaven.

For the Bible tells us that true fulfilment here on earth and in heaven, which is another way of describing salvation, comes only from knowing and loving Jesus.  John tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16).  And he goes on to say: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:17).

That is why Archbishop Gregory Aymond has reminded us of the Pope’s words in his Message for World Mission Sunday 2013, where he says: “The Church – I repeat once again – is not a relief organization, an enterprise or an NGO, but a community of people, animated by the Holy Spirit, who have lived and are living the wonder of the encounter with Jesus Christ and want to share this experience of deep joy, the message of salvation that the Lord gave us.”  And so, we are all responsible for sharing this message of salvation with others.

Before he ascends to the Father, Jesus tells his followers that after receiving the Spirit “. . . you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:18).  They are to begin at home in Jerusalem, throughout their nation of Judea and neighbouring Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth.  That command from the Lord is given to us too, to be missionaries here at home, in our parish, in our nation and to all other nations.  In today’s reading to Timothy, St. Paul makes this mission even more pressing saying:  “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus . . . proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.”

Conclusion

My friends let me suggest three ways in which we can be missionaries of the Good News, both here at home and beyond; by Word, Example and Support.

1.    Let us not be afraid to teach the Good News to others, especially to our children, to our family members and even co-workers.  Let us share with them what we know about God and how God has changed our lives.  Yesterday I was having a conversation with a homeless man and he asked me: “why are you a priest?” And I told him, “because I love God.”  And he remarked at the simplicity of my answer, but also its clarity.  Our words do not have to be complicated; let us share what the Lord has done for us.

2.    But secondly, we are even better missionaries if we actually live out the Good News in our lives. Pope Paul VI once said that modern man listens to witnesses more than to teachers; if he listens to teachers, it is because they are also witnesses.  Since action speak louder than words, perhaps our preaching the Goods News will be most effective if we also live it.

3.    And thirdly, let us support the work of missionaries, both here at home and abroad, with our money and our prayers.  The same Pope Paul VI said that there are two kinds of missionaries: there are those who go the missions, something I hope you can one day do, by coming back with me to Uganda, even if only for a week or so; then there are those missionaries who go by giving of their prayerful and their financial support.

Thank you for being a missionary, even if only the second kind of missionary!

A Christian's Life is a Life of Gratitude

My Homily for 28^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2013

Introduction

Teaching children to say “thank you,” is something mothers always do.  Why then is there so much ingratitude in the world today, like the nine lepers in today’s gospel, who fail to give thanks to God, despite the great miracle they have received?  Let me suggest two main causes: self-sufficiency and entitlement.

Scripture and Theology

There was a dad who, on getting a significant raise at work, decided to take his family out to a nice restaurant.  When the food arrived, the parents asked their five-year old son to say grace, as he usually did at home.  But he, let’s call him Kyle, stubbornly refused despite the urging of his mom and dad.  And when asked why, this is what he said: “You see, at home I say grace because God gives us the food and we must thank him; here at the restaurant we don’t need to thank God for the food, because daddy is going to pay for it.”

Like little Kyle, sometimes we fail to see God as the source of our blessings; we attribute them to our own efforts.  For example, if we do well in school, we think it is because of our own smarts or hard work or both.  Or if we are successful in business or in our careers, again we might attribute it to just our own work, with God playing no part in it.  Even the success of our marriage, the hardworking husband, the gorgeous wife, the angelic children – we think of them as the fruits of our own labours, nothing to do with God at all.  And so because we don’t see God’s role in our lives, we see no reason to thank him.  Perhaps those nine lepers too, did not realize that the healing they had received at the hands of this teaching from Nazareth, was healing from God himself.

But at other times, we refuse to thank God, even when we know that he is the source of our blessings, like Maggie, the older sister of little Kyle.  Her hard working parents have saved up quite a bit to send her to a really good college: tuition, room and board, all paid up without her having to take out any loans.  Mom and dad drive her up to college, set her up in her dorm room and return home.  One week goes by, another week, then a month goes by, but they do not hear from their daughter.  There is no letter or card – of course nobody writes those anymore – no phone call, no email, not even a text message from her to say these simple words: “Thank you mom and dad.”  And when they visit her a few months later and bring up this matter, she tells them that paying for her to go to college is their duty.  Why should she thank them for doing their job?

Don’t we sometimes, like Maggie, feel entitled to the blessings God gives us and see no reason to thank him? “Why should I thank him, when it is his duty to protect me from illness, give me wealth and give me a good life?”  Did you notice that in both the gospel and the first reading, it is the foreigners, the non-Jews, who return to give thanks to God?  On being healed, Naaman, the Syrian General, insists on thanking the Prophet and God in a big way.  In the gospel, the one leper who returned was a Samaritan.  Probably because they are foreigners, they don’t take God’s help for granted; they really appreciate it.

And so, like the nine lepers in the gospel, sometimes we are ungrateful to God, either because like little Kyle at the restaurant, we fail to see God’s hand in our lives, or like Maggie at college we see his hand at work in our lives, but because of entitlement, we take his help for granted.

Christian Life

But the Christian life, as today’s readings remind us, is a life of constant gratitude to God.  And there are two main ways to thank God: with words and with action.

You might remember that in the gospel, the Samaritan leper returned to Jesus “glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”  Like his mother taught him to say, he returned to say “Thank you” to Jesus and to God for the great gift of healing and life, he received.

Because the words of sinful human beings are not a worthy response to the God for creating us and redeeming us from damnation, Jesus gave us something worthwhile, with which to say “thank you” to God.  He left us the Eucharist, in which we thank the Father not just with our own feeble words, but with the words of Jesus himself, and most importantly, with the body and blood of Jesus himself. It is like a child who buys his mom or dad a birthday gift, with the very allowance the parents gave the child.  In fact, not only does the word Eucharist mean “Thanksgiving,” but in the Eucharist, we are constantly giving thanks to God.

• Starting in the Gloria we say, “We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you and we give you thanks for your great glory.”
• At the end of each reading again we say: “Thanks be to God.”
• As we begin the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest invites us “Lift up your hearts,” to which we reply, “We lift them up to the Lord.”  And then he invites us: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” to which we reply, “it is right and just.” And then the priest launches into this long Eucharistic Prayer thanking God for all the great things he has done for us.
• After the priest has prayed over the bread and wine, he says: “We offer you, Lord, the Bread of Life and the Chalice of salvation, giving thanks that you have held us worthy to be in your presence and minister to you.”
• And then at the end of Mass, the priest dismisses us, telling us to go forth and glorify the Lord with our lives.  To this we reply: “Thanks be to God.”

And so, we might want to think of attending Mass as not an obligation to fulfill, but our weekly way of of saying thank you to God for his goodness to us.

But our thanks must also be in action.  Our whole lives must be lives of thanksgiving.  In fact, thanking God and others, should be second nature to us, infecting every aspect of our lives, so that we do not for one moment think of ourselves as self-sufficient or entitled to anything, material or spiritual.

There is a scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan that shows us how to live lives of gratitude.  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 two of his brothers to the war.  Many of these men die in the process of saving him, including their leader 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 of their lives 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.”

Conclusion

Jesus gave up his life, so that when you and I die, we too might be admitted to heaven rather than hell.  Do we thank him with our words for this great gift?  Even better, do we thank him in action, by living a good life, where every day, is a day of thanksgiving, where everything we do, we do in gratitude, so that before our last breath, we can say, “Yes, my life has been worth the sacrifice of Jesus.”

What to make of Pope Francis - Part 3

Here is a more profound analysis of the pontificate of Pope Francis given my a former professor of mine.  Trust me, it is good!  Moreover, this analysis was made in May, four months ago!
http://www.hprweb.com/2013/05/an-ignatian-bishop-of-rome/

I promise this is the last posting on Pope Francis.  The next one will be on a different subject.

What to make of Pope Francis? Fr. Deo's take

Here is a talk I gave to the Serra club of New of Orleans on October 8 on this subject.

Soon after Pope Francis was elected, one of the most common questions asked of Catholics was “How do you like the new pope?”  Although I should have known better, I too jumped on the bandwagon, and whenever I had exhausted material for conversation, I would ask friends: “How do you like the new pope?”

I was talking to a friend in Uganda on the phone and asked her: “So how do you like the new pope?”  My friend Agnes immediately responded: “Father, how can you ask such a question?  Do I have a choice?  He is the Pope, the man whom God has given me, to be my spiritual father at this moment.  Of course I have to like him, not necessarily for who is in himself or what he does, but simply because he is the Pope.”  Agnes is no theologian, but in my opinion, hers was a truly theological answer.  And from that time I stopped asking that question.

Many of us are perhaps wresting with a similar question: “What are we to make of Pope Francis?”  He is doing all kinds of things different from his predecessor.

·        He is not living in the Apostolic Palace, driving himself in a beaten up old fiat and making his own phone calls.

·        In his ministry, he goes around kissing babies, washing feet of women and allegedly Muslim women and making off the cuff remarks in his homilies.

·       And then there is the issue of these interviews he is giving, and to add insult to injury giving them to Jesuits and to atheists.

What is happening to the papacy?  What is happening to the Church?  What is happening to my faith?  That we ask these questions at all is perhaps a good sign that we are interested in our faith and we are paying attention.

Let me suggest three considerations that might help us understand Pope Francis and what he is doing, and might perhaps give us peace of mind and heart.

First and foremost, we have to realize, there is a new sheriff in town.  Things in the Church are not going to continue business as usual.

·        That was the wish of Pope Benedict, who resigned before his time was up, so that another person, with the physical strength and perhaps even the character, would steer the ship of Peter to meet today’s challenges.

·        That was also the wish of the cardinals, who knowing the kind of man Cardinal Jorge Maria Bergoglio was, voted for someone who would shake things up a little.

·        But such change is also the life of the Church throughout history, hence the popular saying, ecclesia semper reformanda (the Church always reforming herself).  And the Church keeps reforming, not its own sake, but for the sake of being always becoming a better instrument of salvation.

And so, we have to realize that there are going to be changes in the way we live as a Church, but also in the way we live as individual Catholics.  Pope Francis is steering this ship in a new direction and if we don’t get on board, we will be left on the shore.

The second consideration is this: if we are to know what the Pope is saying, where he plans to steer this ship of Peter, let us get this message from the horse’s mouth.  In other words, let us read his words for ourselves and not get the message through the media, even certain media that claims to be Catholic.

·        We are fortunate enough to have access to the internet, to the Vatican website and to the USCCB website, which contains the Pope’s message in its original language and in approved translations.

·        We would never allow someone to chew food for us to eat and shallow.  This is not only disgusting, it is also not nutritious – for they will chew the nutrients out and leave us with the dregs.  So why then do we learn about the Pope’s message through the often twisted words of the media?

o   For when the liberal-leaning media reports the Pope’s words, it is to pick out those parts of what he says, for their agenda.  For example, when he spoke about homosexuality, they picked out only that part that called for respect and love for the homosexual person, but not the part that called that person to a chaste life.

o   As for the conservative-leaning media, they too will take his statements out of context, to show how unorthodox he is.  Using the same example of homosexuality, many on concluded that the Pope had changed the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

And if in reading his words for yourself there is something that you cannot understand, ask someone you trust to help explain: your pastor, another priest or go to authentically Catholic commentators.

The third and final consideration is filial trust.  We ask our children to trust us their parents, even when they think that we are bumbling idiots, are out of touch with the world.  As children of the Papa Francis, why don’t we accord him the same benefit?  We too ought to trust our papa, whom God has given us to lead us to heaven, even if we don’t get it yet.  The apostles trusted Jesus, who rocked the boat as he steered it.  We trusted Pope John Paul II, who also rocked the boat, for example, by all the foreign trips he made and by his charismatic speeches.  Let us trust our papa, who is digging deeper into the treasure of our Catholic faith, to remind us of things that we have forgotten in recent years.

And so, what are we to make of Pope Francis:

·        There is a new Sheriff in town.

·        Let us listen to the new Sheriff, by going to the horse’s mouth.

·        And finally, when we listen, let us trust that despite rocking the boat a little, the new sheriff knows how to steer the boat.

Let him Pope you

What to make of Pope Francis?  Here is an article I thought treated this question very well.  I will speaking about the same subject tomorrow and will use some of this material.

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/let-him-pope-you

Welcome

Dear friends,

After some urging from friends, and after being convinced that the blogger sphere can be a useful tool for ministry, I have decided to jump in and try my hand at it.

And so, I hope to post here from time to time, some of my thoughts and musings.  Feel free to let me know what you think about them.  I find that my thoughts are clarified and made better, when I hear other points of view that approach them arithmetically:

• Adding new ideas to my thoughts and musings
• Subtracting from them errors and deficiencies
• Multiplying my thoughts and musings by expanding them
• Dividing them making further distinctions and clarifications

I look forward to a wonderful journey of thinking, musing and discussion.