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homily – March 4

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Luke 9:28-36

Have you ever noticed that a lot of churches are built on hills or have a lot of steps you have to climb to get in? In the old days they never thought about accessibility. Building on a hill or having to climb a lot of steps was a way of recognizing the ‘aboveness’ of God. Mountains play a great part in Sacred Scripture – as in today’s gospel. The fact of the matter is we live our lives in the ‘belowness’ on the level plains of life.

In the gospel of the Transfiguration Jesus takes his friends, Peter, James and John out of the level plains of their lives into the ‘aboveness’ of God. Great and wonderful things happened – the very appearance of Jesus is transfigured – they saw Jesus as they never saw Him before. They are startled to see Moses representing the Law, Elijah representing the prophets – talking with Jesus. This is a true religious experience – it must have overwhelmed them. No wonder Peter said,” Lord it is good for us to be here” Then to hear the very voice of God, “This is my Son, My Chosen, listen to Him.” This whole experience allowed Peter, James and John to be part of the ‘aboveness’ of God. It must have been a bit like St. Paul’s experience when he tells of being swept up into the third heaven.

When Luke tells of the appearance of Moses and Elijah he tells us these two were talking with Jesus about his departure that He was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus had been trying to tell the twelve that He would be betrayed, handed over to the authorities and be put to death. They didn’t want to hear this. This shattered all their expectations of a Messiah. As Peter told Jesus, ‘far be this from You Lord, this must never happen to You.’ But it would happen and they would fail to be there with Him and for Him – as scripture says, “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.’ And scattered they would be.

This sharing in the ‘aboveness’ of God was to prepare them, strengthen them for the coming experiences in the belowness of their lives and the life of Jesus. Luke goes on to tell us that as Jesus brought them down from the mountain and they were met by a large crowd with a desperate father whose son was possessed by a demon. The father begs Jesus to do something, anything for his son. Jesus asks him, ‘do you believe I can do this?’ the poor man didn’t know what to say except, ‘Lord I believe but help the little faith I have.’

This whole gospel story teaches us that we will live most of our lives, maybe all of our lives, on the level plains of belowness. Every now and then we may be blessed with an awareness of God’s love – we may be blessed to know that God saw us through a difficult time and really is with us and cares for us. But most times, when things are rough, we are like the desperate father saying ‘help my unbelief.’

There can be high points in our lives that see us through the low points. They are like rockets bursting in the air. The deep joy of a mother and father holding their new born child in their arms is what gives them the strength to face sleepless night trying to walk that baby to sleep. Even though it may be in the far distant past, that joy helps them see a rebellious teenage son or daughter through the madness of puberty.

The memory of the joy and excitement of a wedding day – if it is kept alive – can see a husband and wife through the struggles that are part and parcel of every married life.

Back to Peter, James and John. These are the same three Jesus took into the garden of Gethsemane – certainly a great ‘belowness’ in their lives and in the life of Jesus. In that dark place they see Jesus sweating blood and begging for His life – pleading, ‘if it is possible, let this chalice pass me by’. In Gethsemane no one said, ‘Lord it is good for us to be here’ – they couldn’t wait to get out of the place and when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, they scattered. The memory of the mountain was lost in the terror of the garden.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that there be times when we are blessed to experience the ‘aboveness’ of God, that we be gifted with those moments when we know God loves us, forgives us, sustains us. We pray too that as we live our lives in our belowness we will always have the honesty and courage to pray when things are rough ‘Lord I believe, help the little faith I have.’ In either of these experiences may we always say, “Lord it is good for us to be here.’ Because wherever we are You are there.



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homily – February 25

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Luke 4:1-13

This Sunday’s gospel is all about the temptation of Jesus in the desert. Temptation – it’s probably our most commonly shared human experience. Usually when we hear the word ‘temptation’ with think of sexual temptations. One of our older priests was telling one time of the difficulty he had studying theology. He told us that every time he heard the word ‘grace’ his mind went automatically to a girl named Grace who lived next door to him when he was a teenager – she used to drive him crazy – the association of ideas never left him. You’ve probably heard the story of the young priest asking the old priest, ‘when do temptations cease?’ and the old priest answers, ‘a half an hour after you’re dead.’

Temptation: its defined as an allurement to something evil under the aspect of good. Remember when Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit – she knew God told Adam and herself they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – but Eve saw that ‘it was pleasing to the eye’, it was alluring and so she ate it. And it’s been downhill ever since.

In today’s gospel we have Satan trying to lure Jesus away from His life given task. Jesus spent His forty days in the desert trying to come to grips with the words He heard when He was baptized in the Jordon, “You are My Son, the Beloved, My favor rests on You.” In that time of fast and prayer Jesus came to have a better understanding of His relationship with God, Who He was and the mission to which God called Him.

Satan tries to lure Jesus away from that mission or distract Him from fulfilling that mission by the misuse of power, possessions and domination. Jesus rejects every allurement – every false promise of power, popularity and possessions. Satan tries to lure, entice Jesus away from being Who He is – Satan tries to lure Jesus into disowning Himself, disowning His own integrity.

Someone once referred to ‘the temptation fields of our lives’, something like the minefields of our lives. We have to tread carefully. There is not a day goes by we are tempted to be someone or something we are not. When we were baptized we received in a special way our identity – you are my beloved son, my beloved daughter, my favor rests on you. At our baptisms we became sons and daughters of the Father – this is our identity – and we are faithful to it when we try to live and love and forgive as Christ-like men and women.

But everyday we are tempted to be someone, something we are not when we are tempted to anger, resentment, when we are impatient with the weakness of others. Everyday we are tempted to be someone or something we are not when we exclude any person from our lives because of who or what they are – everyday we are tempted to be someone or something we are not when we imagine our happiness and fulfillment will be found in having, possessing. TV advertisements are all about luring us, enticing us to possess more and more – luring us into believing our happiness, our fulfillment will come when we live in this home, drive this car, wear this clothing, keep this diet, use this I Pod – the list could go on and on. Everyday we are tempted to be someone or something we are not when we give in to abusing the clout, the muscle we may have over someone else. Every day we are tempted to be someone, something we are not when we are tempted to ignore or belittle the calls for a change in life style to which the present environmental crisis calls us.

One of the worst temptations that may come our way is when we face our own faults and failing and we tempted by the conviction that God has no time for one such as me, God must be disgusted with me, that God couldn’t love one such me after what I’ve done.

Temptations are part and parcel of our lives – Satan tried unsuccessfully to turn Jesus away from Who He was and His mission in life. Satan will try to lure us away from being whom and what we are; sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of the Christ Who loved us and gave His life for us.

Facing this reality of our lives we can take courage from the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews when he encourages the early Christians with these words that never loose their power and truth: ‘For it is not as if we had a high priest who was incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us; but we have one who has been tempted in every way that we are, though he is without sin.’ Let us be confident then, in approaching the throne of grace, that we shall have mercy from him and find grace when we are in need of help.



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homily – February 11

Sunday, February 11th, 2007

Haves and Have nots

On Tuesday when the staff was reflecting on today’s readings someone mentioned that Jeremiah wrote his words about 500 years before Christ and Luke wrote about the year 70, 30 years after the death of Christ – quite a stretch of time, yet Jeremiah’s message resonates with Luke’s; people who put their trust in mere mortals, people who think that riches and position and power are what it’s all about, people who see these as their sufficiency, their security, are in for a surprise. Jeremiah uses a biblical image of what we call tumbleweed – to describe such people. They are rootless and without direction, rolling through the desert, driven by whatever wind that blows.

People who put their trust in God and see their personal relationship with God – which involves a just and loving relationship with others – as something of first importance, they are like trees planted by a running stream – untouched by scorching heat or drought, always bearing fruit.

When Luke recorded what Jesus taught, 500 years after Jeremiah; blessed are the poor, blessed are the oppressed and the distressed – forgive your enemies, pray for those who persecuted them, turn the other cheek – people’s reaction was ‘you got to be kidding’? What do you mean blessed are the poor – the poor are losers – what do you mean ‘woe to you rich’ – we’ve always been taught riches are a sign of God’s favor.

From the beginning of his public life, which began in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus meant to turn mindsets and value systems upside down. God sent Jesus into the world to bring new news, good news to the poor, to give sight to the blind, proclaim liberty to captives, set the downtrodden free. Jesus meant to reverse the mindsets of his time – that the poor were losers, the rich were favored by God.

Things don’t change – 500 years between Jeremiah and Jesus – 2000 years between Jesus and our time and still things are the same. Today there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Then as now the ‘haves’ often have what they have as the expense of the ‘have nots’, the working poor, the undeserving poor, good men and women struggling to get by on an inadequate minimum wage, working at two or three jobs just to get by.

Jeremiah and Jesus didn’t condemn ‘having’. Their concern was, does what you have, have you? Do you own the car, the house, the job, the career, and the investments – or do they own you? Is there any place for God, any place for others, especially men and women who are the ‘have nots’, is there any place for them in your life?

If you’ve been reading the articles on poverty that have been in the Star these past weeks or the articles about the bonuses CEOs have received or the severance packages offered chief executives, doesn’t it boggle your mind?

I’m not into Catholic guilt – but shouldn’t we be bothered at the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, both here and around the world? Shouldn’t we be bothered with the fact that our North American society uses a disproportionate amount of Earth’s energy resources? Shouldn’t we be bothered by wasteful lifestyles? Shouldn’t we be bothered by our failure to live lightly on the Earth? Shouldn’t we be bothered by the truth that very often the clothes we wear, the food we eat come to us from the hard labor of the working poor and the sweat shops of the world? Shouldn’t we be bothered with the pittance that was just added to the minimum wage compared to the increase in salaries that other’s received?

Shouldn’t we be bothered with men and women sleeping on our city streets? Shouldn’t we be bothered with overextended food banks? Shouldn’t we be bothered with families who have no place to live? I don’t have any answers to the great social problems facing our city or the country, but shouldn’t we be bothered?

As we continue to celebrate this Mass maybe we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to be bothered – and being bothered maybe we can do something to change our attitudes to what we have, and change our attitudes towards the ‘have nots’.



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homily – February 4

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Lord, I am not worthy…

For a long time I had trouble with the prayer we pray right before receiving Holy Communion: Lord I’m not worthy to receive you, only say the word and I shall be healed. We all know we are not worthy to receive Christ, the Bread of Life. But we don’t come to communion because we are worthy, we come to communion because we are hungry, frightened, confused, struggling with a problem. Our extended empty hand is a symbol of our neediness, our dependency on God.

In today’s three readings we have people declaring themselves to be ‘unworthy.’ Isaiah is praying in the temple when he is blessed with a religious experience, an awareness of the holiness of God. God’s holiness makes Isaiah deeply aware of how far he is from such holiness and so he speaks the truth, “woe is me, I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips.”

In the second reading, we have Paul reminding the Christian community of Corinth what is of first importance: that Christ Jesus died for our sins was buried and on the third day He was raised from the dead. When Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus he had his own religious experience. In the very depth of his soul Paul was gifted to know Jesus and the transforming wonder of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. Changed by this experience Paul would say of himself, ‘I know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ Still Paul would always say of himself, ‘I am not worthy.’ I am the least of the apostles; I persecuted the church of God.

In the gospel we have Peter, disappointed after a night of fruitless fishing now stunned by this bountiful catch of fish, saying to Jesus, ‘Stay away from me of Lord, I am a sinful man.’ In a way Peter was saying, “I don’t know who you are about but you’re way too much for me.” I don’t belong in your company.

Isaiah, Paul and Peter each had an experience, an awareness of the presence and the holiness of God. Each of them was overwhelmed by this experience. This experience helped them put things into perspective. Their experience made them humble.

How often do we think of humility as putting ourselves down, belittling ourselves, seeing nothing but the negatives in our lives. That’s not true humility. The Blessed Mother was being totally humble when she said, “He Who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name. Henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Mary recognized her place in God’s reality – God chose her.

Someone wrote of today’s readings, “Isaiah, Paul and Peter were forced to compare themselves directly with the presence of God. When they met the holiness of God head on, they saw their own humanness as full of holes. They were no longer able to pretend that they shone like the stars because they saw the real star bursting with light. Their experience of God let them see they are far, far less than God. And this is not bad, it is good. God will make us holy not our own sense of holiness. We can be proud to be unworthy if God’s love is the result.”

Sunday Mass can become so routine, even boring. Other than the different scripture readings at Sunday Mass things are pretty much the same. In a way we can become dull to the wonder of what we are about. At every Mass God makes present to us what is of first importance – “that Christ died for our sins, was buried and on the third day was raised from the dead.” At every Mass we are touched by Christ’s total giving of Himself for each of us -“this is My Body, this is My blood, and this is my life given for you – unconditionally, no holds barred.” At every Mass, Christ’s message to us is: ‘no matter how little you may think of yourself, no matter how down you may be on yourself – I think enough of you to give my life for you.’

If we could grasp this truth then we would see how far, far less is our love for Christ than is His love for us – how far, far less is our love for Christ as we meet Him in family, friend or stranger – than is His love for us.

Then we would mean what we say when we say, “Lord I am not worthy.” Not a put down but recognition of our own reality. Then we could say, “I am so far away from you, nourish me with your body and blood – for you told us, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me and I live in them, from Your love for me let me draw love for others.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass in which we remember what is of most importance; Christ died for our sins, was buried and on the third day was raised from the dead, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that when we say Lord I am not worthy to receive You we honestly acknowledge our distance from and our need of Christ the living bread. Nourished by this living bread may each of us live as we are meant to live, love as we are meant to love, imitating Jesus, Who loved us and gave His life for us.



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homily – January 28

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:4-13

The past couple of weeks St. Paul has been telling us about how gifted is our Christian community. Some are called to be leaders, some preachers, some healers; some are even gifted with the gift of tongues. He tells us that all these gifts are for the common good, for building up the body of the church. He compared the church to a human body, Christ is its head and we are its members and no one member can say to another member, “I have no need of you’ we are all one, we are all important for the well being of the body.

Today Paul tells us that the most important gift with which we can be blessed is the gift of love. We can speak in tongues, we can have prophetic powers, we can be blessed with a great mind, with a faith that can toss mountains, we can be as pure as the angels – we can even die a martyr’s death, but if we lack love we have missed the boat.

I can hear today’s second reading in my sleep. It’s read at just about every wedding. It’s usually read by someone who has no experience in public reading, someone who is nervous and wants to get it over with. So they rush though these beautiful words, this powerful message and get back to their pew.

These words about love – a love that is kind, a love that avoids rudeness, a love that is patient, a love that supports the weakness of others, a love that endures, a love that believes and hopes and will not be overcome – these words are so beautiful to hear – and so difficult to live.

How many marriages could have been saved if the husband and wife had been able to keeps these words alive in their relationship instead of giving way to resentments, impatience? How did they come to lose the love that would have helped them live with the human weakness and foibles of their spouse or their children or even themselves?

How many marriages failed to reach their potential because one or other of the spouses insisted on their way or the high way or allowed their relationship to slip into bitterness and resentments?

Again these words of Paul are so beautiful to hear and so difficult to live.

These words on love can be applied to how we deal with our own selves, with our faults and failings, with our own willingness to be patient with ourselves as we struggle to be the kind of person we want to be. So many personal problems come from the lack of self esteem, a good self image. None of us is perfect, faultless. We are all mistake making beings so we need to be patient and kind and understanding and forgiving and supportive of ourselves. We are to love our neighbours as we love ourselves and if self love is lacking our ability to love others is weakened.

This past week I had the experience of loving people. I went to Saint John last Sunday for my brother’s 80th birthday. He was in the hospital but his good wife Sally planned on bringing to his party at least for a bit of time.

Unfortunately on Sunday morning he had a down turn. By the time I got to the hospital he really didn’t know I was there. He died peacefully on Monday evening. During that long vigil I kept saying to him, “come on George, its time to go.” Sally, his wife of 53 years simply said, “George was never one to hurry.” We had a great wake – George and Sally raised a wonderful family. I got to see people – old neighbours, old classmates I haven’t seen in years. People kept coming to the door with food, food and more food – it was a great Maritime time. We buried George at Holy Cross in an area known as Saint’s Rest, right on the Bay of Funday – with the temperature and the wind coming off the Bay it was about 30 below – so I said to George, you may never have been one to hurry but this will be quick.

When you stop to think of it, we are surrounded by good people, good people, who like ourselves are trying to live the love St. Paul praises in our second reading, good people we often take for granted. It’s at times like this past week that we come to realize how blessed we are with family and friends.

We can continue to celebrate this Mass praying for the grace we need to appreciate the good people who bless our lives – asking God for the grace we need no only to hear these words of love – but live these words on love.



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