Homily « St. Gabriel's Passionist Parish

Archive for the ‘Homily’ Category

homily – March 9

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

John 11:1-45

A long gospel calls for a short sermon.

In spirit let’s be with those who gathered at the tomb of Lazarus. We are with Jesus, who wept at the death of his friend. We are with Martha and Mary and their friends and probably with a few curious people anxious to see what was going on. Jesus makes this strange request – take the stone away – open the tomb. The ever practical Martha says “not a good idea, he’s beginning to smell.” But Jesus insists, “take the stone away” and then He makes that chilling call, “Lazarus come out”. And he who was dead came out and Jesus tells them, “Unbind him and let him go free.”

Amazing. To see someone called back from the dead. What a wonder. But if we stop to think about it, every day of life we have the opportunity to call some one to life. Through our care, understanding, compassion, encouragement we may be able to call someone out of the deadly tombs of depression, discouragement, disappointment or despair. It may take just a few words, a phone call, and a card. Just enough to let someone know we are there for them.

I’d like to take another approach to this wonderful gospel. This past week on Monday and Wednesday evenings Dr. Dennis O’Hara led us in evening reflections titled ‘Critical Choices – Passion Responses Then and Now’. He took us back to the Passion of Jesus and the choice Jesus had to make to go on with his mission knowing that in doing so He would pay the price with His life. He then brought us to our time of crisis, our time of choice as we face the serious consequences of what is happening in our time – the reality of climate change.

Dennis used a lot of material from Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. To tell you the truth I found his first presentation overwhelming as we considered the future results of our present climate changes. The present results are frightening: melting glaciers and ice caps, spreading deserts, the loss of forests. What was even more distressing was the impact on those places in the planet that are undergoing these changes, mostly the underdeveloped areas of the world, especially Africa.

Here in Canada we have yet to feel the impact of climate change. We can complain about all the snow we’ve had this winter but it’s nothing compared to what other people are facing in other parts of the globe as their rivers and wells dry up and their lands can no longer grow food. We have to ask the question, ‘what kind of a planet are we leaving to future generations who will have to live with the consequences of our excesses’?

The frightening truth about climate change is that the very life systems of the planet are under assault. We can say that the Passion of Jesus is present in our time in the sufferings of humanity and in the destruction of our planet, St. Paul tells us that Christ is the first born of all creation and in Him all creation holds together. The pain of humanity is the pain of Christ and the pain of the planet is the pain of Christ.

This is a time of our crisis – we may not want to face it but it is not going to go away. You know while I was working on this sermon I came across an article on the Internet; the founder of the weather channel is suing Al Gore for fraud. He calls global warming the greatest scam in history claiming some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulate long term data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Unbelievable. As I said, this is our time of crisis, denying it is not going to make it go away. Our critical choice today is; are we willing to make changes in how we live – how we consume – how we waste – how we conserve – that can help call the planet out of the tomb into which we are now placing it?

The whole thing is so complex. Not everyone is listening to, or even believes the inconvenient truth of the stress the planet is under. Unfortunately, Europe and North America have set a standard of living to which so many other nations strive: China, India, Latin America. But the planet cannot sustain a second North America; it is collapsing under the weight of such a demand.

Back to the song, ‘Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me’. Let there be life on earth and let it begin with me. Ours may be a weak voice but it is a voice nonetheless as each of us in our own way is willing to call the Earth back to life even as we call ourselves to live more lightly upon the Earth.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on homily – March 9

homily – March 2

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

John 9:1-41

In the time of Jesus blindness was regarded as a consequence of sin. Hence the question of the disciples, “Rabbi, who has sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” The blind were doubly burdened, both by their inability to see and a culture that thought they were living in a darkness they deserved.

Today’s gospel is about the cure of a man blind from birth and the blindness of those who can see. Let’s face it; most of us are probably blind to someone or something at one time or another in our lives. Our biases and prejudices are like cataracts that cloud our sight and prevent us from seeing clearly.

We can be stunned by the unwillingness of the Pharisees to see the wonder that took place before their eyes. A man born blind sees. Their blind spot was that anyone who did not keep the Sabbath could not work such a wonder. But more insightful people responded, “How could a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”

The man born blind went through his own process of seeing Jesus more clearly. He started out by saying, “this man named Jesus put mud on my eyes and sent me to Siloam” Facing the hostility of the Pharisees he saw Jesus as a prophet. Finally when he met Jesus face to face he worshiped Him as Lord. This much like our own journeys of faith. If we are open to God’s grace we can be blessed with sight and insight into our own relationship with God and how God is working in our lives even in our most difficult times.

Where are we in this gospel story? Are we the man blessed with sight or are we among those who refuse to see the wonders worked before our eyes? As I mentioned before we all have our blind spots, our cataracts. Maybe in the light of today’s gospel each one of us can echo the plea of another blind man found in another gospel story, “Lord let me see again.”

Someone wrote, “We should be able to see what our hearts have always taught us to be true: all that truly matters in life are our relationships. If we can see the bonds that are shared with family, with friends, and with members of our faith community and with God as most important, that is the first step in making those relationships better, stronger, truer. Too often we allow our jobs and other interests to stand in the way of our time together.” It would be great that, if in the light of today’s gospel story we could be touched by that healing power of Jesus and be blessed to see in a new way our family, our friends. If we could see in a new way their humanity and their preciousness and come to appreciate what a blessing they are to us and how they enrich our lives. It would be great if we were blessed with an insight into our own worth and goodness and how precious we are to God.

And what about those men and women who do not count in our eyes? The ones we chose not to see; the poor, the homeless, the immigrants, the underemployed, the handicapped. Could we be blessed to see these good people for who they are, our brothers and sisters in Christ? Lord let us see again.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass we pray for ourselves and for each other that we see with fresh eyes all those people who touch our lives, may we see with fresh eyes the great love God has for each of us as we see that love made visible in the crucified Christ, may we see with fresh eyes the beauty and the fragility of the world in which we live. Lord let us see again because there is so much to see.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on homily – March 2

homily – February 24

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

John 4:5-42

It’s all about water. Where would we be without it? Luckily in Canada we have an abundance of water. We can’t conceive of a situation of being without water. Here in Toronto we live on one of the great lakes, the inland seas. The Indian name for the Great Lakes was ‘the sweet water seas’. Right now the greatest sought after resource in the world is oil. Most of the conflicts going on in the world right now are around securing sources of oil. Some say the next great conflicts on the globe will be over water. For many people it will be a matter of survival. When you stop to think of it, we are paying more for bottled water than we are for a liter of gas.

But let’s back to the scripture. Imagine the anger and frustration of the Jewish people out in the arid desert following Moses to an unknown destination. In rage they ask Moses “Did you bring us out into this desert to die of thirst”? We know the end of the story. Moses struck the rock and there was water a plenty. Without this water they could never continue their journey. The water was a symbol of the sustaining presence and companionship of God on their journey.

In the gospel we find the thirsty Jesus standing by a deep well. He has no way of drawing up the water because He has no bucket. He needs someone else. So Jesus breaks two taboos: fraternizing with a Samaritan and a Samaritan woman at that. She was shocked by this encounter. “How is it that you a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria – for Jews did not share things in common with Samaritans.” Jesus is certainly thirsty, walking dusty roads on a dry hot day. But the water Jesus has in mind goes way beyond well water. “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Those who drink of the well water will come back time and time again to be refreshed. Those who drink the water Jesus offers will never be thirsty again, He is the living water. His presence, His love, His healing, His life quenches all our thirsts.

I read this thought recently. In John’s gospel there are a few instances where we are faced with apparent impossibilities. At Cana they had no wine – when faced with feeding an enormous crowd they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes, at the end of a long night Peter, James and John caught no fish. Jesus is thirsty, the well is deep and He has no bucket. Apparent impossibilities. But water is turned into choice wine – thousands are fed and there is much left over – there is a catch of fish that threatens to break nets – and at the well Jesus quenches a woman’s thirst for truth and love and acceptance.

How often do we face ‘apparent impossibilities’ in our own lives? How can I cope with this problem, resolve this conflict, let go of this anger and resentment? How can I forget and forgive this wrong done to me, what am I going to do with a son or daughter who is messing up his/her life? How can I cope caring for an invalid mother or father who is cantankerous and unreasonable? How can I cope with my own failing health, my own aching bones? How will I ever get over the grief of losing someone I loved? How do I handle my own doubts of faith in God or the meaning of my own life? Apparent impossibilities. The well is deep, we have no bucket.

We thirst for love, for understanding, for faith, for solutions, for patience, for wisdom, for the ability to forgive, for healing, for the capacity to accept the fact that things are not going to change. The well is deep, we have no bucket. We too meet Jesus at these different wells. He offers each of us in all our apparent impossibilities the refreshing, life giving waters of His life and His love. He offers us the refreshing waters of courage and patience, of insight and understanding, He offers us the refreshing waters of healing and forgiveness, He offers us the refreshing waters to trust in His presence to us, to trust that He knows and understands our ‘apparent impossibilities’ and He will see us through them.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on homily – February 24

homily – February 10

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Matthew 4:1-11

There is a story told of a young priest asking a senior priest, ‘when do temptations cease?’ The senior priest answered, ‘a half an hour after you’re dead.’

Today’s scripture reading are all about temptations. A temptation is an allurement to something wrong under the aspect of it being good. In giving in to a temptation we are deluding ourselves into thinking that what we are about to do or say is really a good thing when in truth it is the wrong thing. We heard in our first reading that the fruit of the tree of good and evil was a delight to the eye, it was desired to make one wise and the really alluring part of this whole drama was that if one ate this fruit one would be like God, knowing good and evil. Surrounded by so many blessings the woman wanted more. She was not satisfied with being herself, who she was, she wanted to be someone else – she wanted to be like God.

So often our unhappiness comes when we fail to recognize how blessed we are, when we fail to appreciate our own selves and we try to be who we are not. We allow ourselves to be enticed into trying to be who we are not in the hope that this will fulfill us, bring us happiness. And it doesn’t work. We end up betraying ourselves, our own integrity. We allow ourselves to be enticed into relationships that are really not life giving but become the source of guilt and unhappiness. Someone described temptations as ‘truthy lies’.

After His baptism in the Jordan by His cousin John the Baptist, Jesus went into a time of prayer and fasting to sort out the full meaning of the words ‘this is my son the beloved with whom I am well pleased.’ In this self searching Jesus comes to realize that what His Father calls Him to be and do will not be easy. It will cost Him. He is to bear witness to the truth and justice of God to powerful people who will not want to hear what He has to say. He is to bear witness to the truth that the people need to change their ways of living life, change their external religious observances into something more of the spirit. He is to bear witness to the truth of the evil of political and religious oppression.

From the very beginning Jesus wondered, could His Father’s will be done in another way, a less demanding, less painful way. Even the night before He was to die Jesus prayed, ‘if it’s possible let this chalice pass me by.’ Jesus is tempted; He is enticed by the possibility of doing His Father’s will differently. Maybe He would change stones into bread and feed the hungry of the land. This would certainly bring the people back to God. Maybe He could bring the people back to God by doing spectacular things, do amazing feats that would mesmerize the people. This could be a way of bringing people to the Father. Or power, maybe He could have such a power, even political power among the people that He could overpower the powers that be. This would certainly attract the people and then He could lead them to God.

Jesus saw through these allurements. They called Him to be someone He was not. They would lure Him away from being the suffering servant of God Who would be faithful to His Father’s will to preach the good news, the challenging news, the demanding news of God’s love and mercy. Jesus rejected these enticing ideas. He saw through their emptiness. He would be what He was meant to be, God’s faithful Son. He would do what He was called to do, call the people to change their lives and return to God no matter the cost.

Temptation is part of all our lives. Every day we are conditioned to be consumers. We are enticed into believing our lives are not fulfilled if we don’t have the latest gadget, or wear the latest fashion, dine at a trendy restaurant, drive the latest automobile, use the latest ipod or blackberry. We are conditioned every day through the TV programs we watch to believe that uncommitted relationships are perfectly normal and can be easily trashed. No commitment means no one gets hurt. In work and social situations we can be tempted to look the other way, not get involved, and keep our thoughts to ourselves, when we see good people hurt by injustice or unfairness.

I read this little thought just recently, “we sit at our desks working hard, worrying about meetings and deadlines, wondering if we can live up to our own expectations and those of others. Right now we are important, everyone needs us.” I see this as the usual temptation to a god complex. It’s a temptation that has brought on many a heart attack. In so many ways, some subtle, some blatant, we will be tempted into relationships, lifestyles, attitudes, thoughts and actions that lure us away from who we really are, that diminish our true selves – under the guise of being good. It’s our reality.

Our second reading is a link between the tragedy of Eden and the faithfulness of the desert. Paul sees Jesus as the new Adam and His obedience, his faithfulness to the Father stands in sharp contrast to the disobedience of the first Adam. Where sin abounded grace did more abound. We are told Christ was tempted in all things, but did not sin. This is our hope and strength. We are not alone; Christ is with us in all our struggles. As we continue this Mass, we pray for ourselves and for each other that no matter what the allurement of the day or the hour, by God’s grace we find the strength to be faithful to who we are and what we are, brothers and sisters of the Christ Who was obedience, faithful, even unto death, even death on the cross.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on homily – February 10

homily – February 3

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

Matthew 5:1-12

One scripture scholar has this to say about this beautiful Sermon on the Mount to which we’ve just listened. He says, “Jesus did not preach this so called sermon. Jesus didn’t slave over his sermons the way I do. He simply said whatever was on his mind at the moment and reacted to his listener’s questions. Jesus probably said all these things in some way or other at sometime or other. But it was Matthew who brought them together as one sermon. Then Luke modified them to suit his own gospel agenda. So, seeing any special meaning in the sequence of the beatitudes might tell us something about Matthew and Luke, but perhaps nothing about how Jesus ordered His separate sayings.”

Every time we hear this sermon, this collection of the sayings of Jesus, we are struck by the fact that this is not the way we see things. What Jesus is trying to teach us is what He taught the people of His own time – the values of the kingdom He came to establish will always be at odds with the values that are constantly shaping our lives. Jesus and His teachings will always be counter-culture. We are conditioned to ‘do unto others before they do it unto us’. Its hard for us to get our heads around the idea expressed in the Beatitudes, that there is some kind of hidden purpose in sorrow, some unknown value in poverty, some precious ingredient in humility. As that scripture scholar says, “the beatitudes offer hope to disenfranchised people, and a promise that God does notice their plight and will take care of them.”

Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians long before Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels, but the sayings of Jesus were passed around from community to community. Paul probably heard many of them. He may have had such sayings of Jesus in mind when he wrote his encouraging words to the Corinthians about God choosing the foolish to confound the wise, the weak of the world to shame the strong, the things that are not to reduce to nothing the things that are, so that God’s will and work will be accomplished in ways that confound the wise, the rich and the powerful.

When we watch the news and see the tragedies the plague the world and even our own city and country we can be overcome by a sense of helplessness. We see the tribal violence in Kenya, we see miles upon miles of flimsy tents housing hundred of thousands of refugees in Darfur; closer to home we hear of the plight of our own Native People enduring winter in inadequate housing, deprived of safe drinking water, sending their children to rundown schools. Global warming and its inevitable effects on future generations are always in the news as we hear of governments setting up another ‘commission’ to study the issue.

We tire of it all; we get numb, swamped by the dimensions of it all. We wish it would all go away. We ask ourselves, “What can I do? I’m not the government, I’m not the UN. I have enough trouble holding my head above water, coping with sending a son or daughter to college, paying a mortgage, caring for a sick parent, dealing with the uncertainty as to whether I’ll have job next week. Give me a break.”

Certainly Paul’s people weren’t dealing with such issues, but they had their own. They weren’t all that educated, they didn’t have positions of power, they were not well connected. They were just ordinary people struggling to make a living, dealing with internal factions in their community, facing the hostility of their pagan neighbours. But God chose them to be that yeast that would permeate their society with the love and truth of Jesus. God chose them, dim candles that they were, to be a light to those in darkness.

The other week there was story on the news about this grade eight student in Florida who was confused by the fact that at the end of the evening restaurants threw out whatever cooked food was let over in the kitchen. He knew there was any number of hungry people in the State. Why couldn’t that good food be given to them? He was told, it is against the law. He made up his mind to do what he could to change the law. And he did. Just recently the State Legislature in Florida passed a law allowing restaurants to pass on unused food to agencies feeding the poor. We call it the power of one. God chose this young boy, not wise, not powerful, but a boy sensitive to the needs of others, a boy willing to take a change to make a change. And he did.

Most of us can identify with the limited, the powerless, the unconnected Corinthians and with the underdogs of the Beatitudes. What can we do about social justice or world peace? As my mother used to remind us, “I’ve only got two hands.” But with those two hands she feed and clothed a family of eight. But can we open our lives and our hearts to trust the truth that in some mysterious and yet ordinary way God can use any one of us to make a difference. It may not be a global difference, a socially noticeable difference, a world shattering difference, but a difference none the less. In the ordinary living of our ordinary lives we could ease someone’s sorrow, lighten someone’s burden of loneliness or depression, heal a long festering wounded relationship, change someone’s attitude of racism or bigotry, deepen someone’s awareness of the beauty of creation, help restore faith to someone estranged from the church.

Like the Corinthians, not many of us are wise by human standards, not many of us are powerful or well connected but remember God has done wonderful things through the foolish, the weak, the lowly like ourselves if only we open our lives to the working of God’s grace and power and wisdom.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on homily – February 3