Thou shalt not be a Catholic busbody!

Homily for 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C

November 17, 2013

Mal 3:19-20 • 2 Thess 3:7-12 • Luke 21:5-19

Introduction

Nobody likes a busybody, because they are sometimes a nuisance, always annoying and often dangerous.  You will know the busybody, when you see them. 

·        They will eavesdrop on your private conversation, sometimes offering unsolicited opinions.

·        They will usually have pieces of juicy gossip to pass around.

·        They will report you for child abuse, because they see you discipline your child at the mall.

Scripture and Theology

No wonder then, that St. Paul in today’s second reading, expresses his dislike for busybodies, in very stern terms.  In fact, he has quite a harsh judgement for them, saying, that they should be denied food.

Why is St. Paul so angry with these people?  After all every society has such people; it is just part of living in a community.

Well, Paul is particularly ticked off because the damage they are causing the Church of Thessalonica was far more serious than that of your everyday busybody.  These particular busybodies spent most of their time agitating about the end of the world, like the doomsday people you often hear about.  “The end is near” they probably shouted.  “The Lord is coming back tomorrow,” they taught.  And so, they decided that working was a waste of time.

·        Why plant crops that take months to grow, if Jesus may return before the harvest?

·        Why go to school and study hard, if Jesus may come before graduation?

·        Why work on my career, if the Lord’s coming will happen before my next promotion?

So they just stopped working and spent their time interfering in the lives of the others who were earning a living as well trying to live their Christian life quietly. 

And so Paul tells the Christians of Thessalonica, that “that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.”  His message is that no one should have a free ride in the name of waiting for the return of Jesus.  And as for the busybodies themselves, his advice is simple: they are to work quietly and eat their own food.

In the gospel, Jesus too warns Christians to be aware of people who will come saying: “’I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’”  Jesus says: “Do not follow them!”  They are false prophets; for as Jesus teaches elsewhere, nobody knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man will return.  Those who claim to know it are busybodies who get their kick from such excitement rather than from doing their duty.

And so, both Jesus and Paul tell us that the life of a busybody, who lives in excitement and agitation, is not the way to wait for the Coming of the Lord.

1.    The busybody sins against the community by failing to do their fair share of gainful work and by being a burden to the rest.

2.    The busybody sins against their neighbour by interfering with everybody’s business and even causing damage by their meddling.

3.    But the most serious damage by the busybody is that he focuses on the less important things rather than on living a relationship of love of God and his neighbour.

Rather, Jesus wants us to wait and prepare for his coming by being committed Christians, living in faith, hope and love.

Christian Life

We Christians of today are not protected from the temptation to be busybodies.  Remember that the busybody often has very good intentions; they want to be good; they want to helpful; they want to do something, just like us.  Their problem, our problem, is that if we are not careful, we can focus on the wrong thing, so that when the Lord really comes, he will find not find us at our station.

When I was growing up, because I was the first born child, my mother would leave me in charge of my siblings when she had to go out on errands.  Now naturally, like any other teenager, I really loved this opportunity to be king of the court, the master of the house, top dog, for a while.  As the saying goes, when the cat is away, the mice play.  And so I could do what I wanted, without any adult supervision or reprimand.  For example, I could boss my siblings around, I could invite friends over to play or I could go over to their house.  Now sometimes my mother returned unexpectedly and I was in some serious trouble.  This happened enough times for me to realize the folly of my actions.  Soon I came to the conclusion that life would be much easier, much less anxious, much less stressful, if I just did the right thing, regardless of when the cat would return. In that way, whenever she returned, she would find me at my job.

Is that perhaps the way we can wait for the coming of the Lord?  We just go about our business of being Christians, living faithfully according to his will.  Should he come at the ninth hour, he will find us ready!  Should he come at the tenth hour, he will find us ready!  Should he come at the eleventh hour, he will find us ready working on his Word, Sacraments and Service.

·        Let the return of Jesus find us believing in his Word, contained in the Bible and in the teaching of his instrument, the Church, the Word that leads us to heaven.

·        Let Jesus find us celebrating the sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist that maintains our friendship with him, and confession that restores that friendship when we break it.

·        Finally, let Jesus’ coming find us living out what we believe and what we celebrate in our daily life, in service to our neighbour  Should he return when we are at work, no problem – for we shall be doing his will at our place of work.  Should he find us on the street, no problem – for we shall be doing his will even as we drive.  Should he find us at home, no problem – even in carrying out our domestic duties, we shall be reflecting our faith and love.

Conclusion

In the classic movie Fiddler on the Roof, there is this matchmaker called Yenta, who meddles in everybody’s life, trying to help everybody marry off their children.  In fact in popular culture today, a Yenta is another word for a busybody.

As we prepare for the Second Coming of the Lord, we can choose to be Catholic Yentas or Catholic Christians!  Catholic Yentas chase the latest religious craze or devotion that promises us a short-cut to heaven and in the process drive everybody crazy with our misplaced zeal.  Catholic Christians on the other hand, live their lives, by seeking to be fed first by the meat and potatoes of our faith: God’s Word and Sacraments and only then do they turn to the desserts, the other things as well.

Resurrection or Reincarnation?

Homily for 32^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2013

2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14 • 2 Thess 2:16-3:5 • Luke 20:27-38 or 20:27, 34-38

Introduction

My grandfather had a sure fire way of telling which kids had only book knowledge and which also had common sense.  "There are ten birds on a tree,” he would say.  Then he would ask: “After I shoot and kill one, how many birds remain?"

The smart kids quickly did the math and came up with the answer, “nine birds remain on the tree.”  But the wise students, after giving the question a little thought, answered “zero.”  Surely no bird is going to remain a sitting duck, when the life of one their own has just been taken.

Preserving one’s life is perhaps the one thing all animals treasure.  This is true especially of human beings, supposedly the smartest and wisest of all animals.  One wonders then; if life, especially our own, is so important to us, what in the world would make somebody ready to give up their life, whether it is the seven brothers we have just read about in the first reading or all those men and women of the armed forces, whom we remember this weekend?

Scripture and Theology

Men and women put their life on the line in the military, for sake of something greater, their nation.  The seven brothers and their mother gladly give up their earthly lives, for the sake of something greater, eternal life.  “You are depriving us of this present life,” they said, “but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.”  Unlike the nine birds in the story, which take off at the first sign of danger, these seven brothers remained steadfast in their hope for eternal life, even as they saw the others being butchered and tortured.

But not all Jewish people believed in the resurrection.  The Sadducees, who were a Jewish movement like the Pharisees, denied the resurrection.  They believed that only the first five books of the Bible were the Word of God; and since they did not say anything about the resurrection, it must not be true.

And so, in our gospel passage, they challenge Jesus, by setting before him a situation of seven brothers who, one after another, married the same woman.  They married her to raise up descendants for their deceased brother, who had died childless. Perhaps also, because their society lacked the social security net of our times, they married the widow so that she could be supported, financially and socially.  And so the Sadducees use this scenario to trap Jesus with this apparently difficult question: “Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?”  If Jesus says that she will be the wife of all seven brothers, he will be suggesting a ridiculous and impossible situation.  And in that way, they will win the argument, by showing that belief in the resurrection is silly.

But like a good debater, Jesus answers them by demolishing the question itself.  He points out that their question meaningless when it comes to things of the other world; resurrected life is entirely different from our life here on earth.

·        In this life we die, like the seven brothers and the woman did.  And that is why in this life, we need to marry, so as to replace those who die.  Death and marriage are part of the human condition on this side of heaven.

·        But life on the other side is quite different.  In that life, we do not die anymore; and that is why we don’t need to marry and beget children.  Those seven brothers and their wife, after death, had no more need for descendants; for had reached the highest form of life, where, as St. John tells us, we shall be like God and we shall see him as he really is.

With this answer, the score is, Jesus 1, Sadducees 0.  Jesus goes on to score another goal, by showing that God at the burning bush, called himself, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, using the present rather than past tense, to show that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, although deceased were still alive.

And so, both sets of seven brothers and the woman in their life, have something to teach us about the resurrection.  The first set of seven brothers and their mother, who died rather than disobey God’s laws, teach us to believe steadfastly in the resurrection.  The story of the second family of seven brothers and their wife, who do not die and marry again in the afterlife, give us a picture of what life after death is really like.

Christian Life

In a few moments, and I promise it will be only a few more moments, we shall be professing our faith in the creed.  And we shall say: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

Do we really mean these words, that is, do we really look forward to that other life with God?  Do we live this life, like we are preparing for that other life, or do we live like this is the only life we have, enjoying it to the fullest, regardless of whether we obey God’s law or not?

Earlier this week a friend sent me a link to a youtube video.  Now, probably like you, I usually delete these kind of messages; for they are usually silly videos of cats or emails that threaten misfortune if I do not forward them to ten people.  But I decided to click on this link and see what it was all about.  It was the video of a nun at a hospice for children, interviewing an eleven-year terminally ill boy.  This was Garvan Byrne’s last interview, before died.  He admits that when he first learnt that he was going to die, he was quite frightened.  But over time he felt much better, because he believed in a life after death. 

And then Sr. Francis Dominica asks him: “What do you think happens to your body when you die?”

“I will leave it behind” he says.  “This is only a reflection, a tag to say this is Garvan.  . . . When I die . . . the real me . . . will go up to God. And I always believe that it is just like . . . as though God says to you, ‘shut your eyes’ and you just go to sleep. And the next minute you open your eyes and you find that you are in a lovely place, just so beautiful that you want to stay there and be with Jesus forever.  And all my friends, most of my friends who I knew down on this earth, that I believe have gone to God; and I hope that when my time will come, I shall see them and go up and say hello to everyone that I lost.  Like I never saw my grandma, grandma Doherty, I hope to see her in heaven, and my grandpa, some of my aunties, and my uncle Christy who I used to know down here very well.  I will meet all those people back up there.”

Conclusion

I am sorry that in transcribing his words and even in reading them, I could not express his sincerity, passion and emotion, and of course his cute twelve-year old Irish accent.  But this little boy expressed his belief in the resurrection and in the afterlife very clearly, just like the seven brothers and their mother.

What about you and me?  Do we really believe in the resurrection?  Of course the cynic in you and me might say: “Well, they Garvan and the seven brothers had such clarity of their faith, because they were about to die.  But I still have a long way to go.”

That may be the case.  But still, none of us knows the day or the hour, when the Lord will make a claim for my soul.  I better be ready with a clear answer, when he knocks on my door.  Or even better, let me take the Lord at his word, when he says: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever.  I will raise him up on the last day.”

Christian conversion shows itself in both action and word

Homily for 31^st Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2013

Wis 11:22-12:1 • 2 Thess 1:11-2:2 • Luke 19:1-10

Introduction

Looking at me, you can see, from a young age, I have always been a short person.  Some of you probably have difficulty seeing me standing behind this pulpit.  And with school boys being the cruel creatures they are, there are no prizes for guessing what name my classmates used to torment me with.  Yes, because of my short height, they called me Zacchaeus.

But about ten years ago, I learnt an American saying, with which I am now able to get back at them: “Good things come in small packages!”

Scripture and Theology

How accurately this saying describes the real Zacchaeus!  The gospel makes the point of telling us that he was of short stature; that is why he could not see Jesus because of the crowd.  “So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.”  Then as Jesus was passing by, he said: “Zacchaeus come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” There could be no greater stamp of approval for this detestable tax-collector than having Jesus as his dinner-guest.

Naturally, the honour Jesus bestows on Zacchaeus by being his dinner guest causes scandal among the people; for Zacchaeus is a chief tax-collector and therefore a really bad man, even as we saw in last week’s gospel.  What Jesus does would be similar to a priest today, having Christmas dinner at the home of a notorious drug dealer, who gets wealthy on a product that destroys the lives of thousands of people, or the home of the local mafia chief who bleeds small businessmen dry through threats, extortion and murder.

Why then does Jesus do this?  It is because he has come to offer salvation to everybody, even to creeps.  It is up to them, if they take up the offer of Jesus and change their lives.  That is exactly what Zacchaeus does.  He responds to Jesus self-invitation by joyfully receiving him; he doesn’t say, “Oh my house is a mess; why don’t you come next Sunday?”  But he is not just a gracious host; he is now also a disciple of Jesus.  He has been won over by the message of Jesus, which is: “Repent and believe!  For the Kingdom of God is close at hand.”  By allowing Jesus to enter under his roof and break bread with him, like we do at communion, Zacchaeus is also accepting Jesus’ message of salvation.

Moreover, the repentance of Zacchaeus is not just in his heart or in his words; it is also in actions.  For apart from agreeing to host Jesus for dinner, he also says: “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over."  Not only has he decided to leave his old life of sin behind, he wants to show his conversion in a real way, by concrete action, for actions speak louder than words.

Remember the story of the rich young man in the gospel?  He asked Jesus what he should do “to gain eternal life” and Jesus’ answer was: “Keep the commandments!”  Then on insisting that surely there must be more he can do, Jesus told him “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  In other words, Jesus wants this man to put his money where his mouth is.  Unfortunately, that rich young man could not back up his excited profession of faith with concrete actions of charity.

Zacchaeus on the other hand puts his money where his mouth is, demonstrating his conversion in two main ways:

·        First, he pays back all those whom he has cheated, four times over.

·        Secondly, he donates half of his property to the poor.

Christian Life

Something similar happens to us when we go to confession.  After we have confessed our sins, the priest gives us a penance, something to do.  This penance may be a prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbour, voluntary self-denial and sacrifices.  And this penance does the same two things that Zacchaeus promises to do.  The penances help to repair the damage caused by our sins and they also strengthen us to keep away from sin.

Repair is needed because our sins leave scars behind.  Sin can be compared to a wound on the body.  When we sin, we cut open the skin and allow it to be infected by germs.  Thankfully, like good medicine heals the wound on the body, the sacrament of penance also heals the wound on our soul.  In both cases, the physical wound and the spiritual wound, after the healing, there still remains a scar.  Sometimes the scar is quite unsightly and needs to be removed.  In same way, although we have been forgiven and we have converted, there is still the business of repairing the damage we have done: money and property stolen needs to be returned to the owner; things left undone need to be done; insults made in anger need to be taken back; reputations need to be repaired.

That is why the priest gives us penances to do.  For example, if our sin has been gossip or bad-mouthing other people, what better way to show our repentance by taking back those bad words and repairing the reputations we have damaged.  Or if we have stolen something, after being forgiven we still need to return and pay back what we stole, if we are able to.  Sometimes the repair we need to do takes the form of praying for the victims of our actions or even apologizing to them.  By giving back to those he extorted four times over, Zacchaeus shows us that after conversion we must repair the damage our sins have caused.

Apart from repairing damage, penance also keeps us on the straight and narrow path.  Bad habits are difficult to get rid of; we need all the help we can get.  Zacchaeus realized that one way of getting rid of the sinful habits of a tax-collector, cheating and taking bribes, was to do the very opposite; give away most of his money and cut his dependence on material things.  We too, after we receive forgiveness in confession, need to do things that will keep us good.  If impurity has been our sin, we might want to cut off television and internet, the usual sources of our temptations.  If we have been unkind to our neighbour, some acts of charity will probably help us realize the value of others.  Often people who have procured abortions, after their conversion, may want to take care of children or get involved in activities that promote life.

Our penance, our acts of ascetism, our sacrifices, our fasting, our almsgiving, our prayers are not simply empty acts of hypocrisy.  Like the acts of Zacchaeus, they are external ways of showing what is inside our hearts, namely, our gratitude to God for forgiving us and our desire to change.

This is what Zacchaeus did and that is what Jesus recognized in him when he invited himself to the tax-collector’s house.  He saw a man, who it is true, used to be a sinner.  But now he has changed and is a new man and shows in action that he is a new man.  Despite his sinfulness, despite his short stature, Jesus recognizes the real Zacchaeus in there.

Conclusion

Zacchaeus reminds me of a story about a small-statured president from an African country who went to speak in Texas. After the speech, someone came up to him and asked, "Don't you feel intimidated in front of all these big and tall Texans?" "No," the little man replied; "I feel like a dime among many pennies."

After he met Jesus, Zacchaeus was the dime, among the many self-righteous pennies in the crowd.  For Jesus, you and I, if we choose to, can be that dime.