Archive for the ‘Homily’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Homily – July 19, 2015

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

I remember the year after my ordination we had another year of study. It focused on how to write a sermon. My classmates and I went out every weekend to help in neighbouring parishes but before we went our sermons had to be approved by our mentor priest. On Sunday afternoon when we all came home we would talk about how things went that morning or our experiences of hearing confessions on Saturday afternoons. This was our first experience of any kind of pastoral experience and it was an exciting for all of us.

These thoughts came to me reading the beginnings of today’s gospel when we hear of the excited apostles telling Jesus about all they done and taught. These were busy people; people were coming and going and wanting attention. Jesus and his friends had no leisure even to eat. Jesus suggested they all get away from their busyness and spent some time recharging their batteries.

That was not about to happen. A great crowd got there ahead of them and Jesus told the Apostles ‘we’ll have to save this for another time, right now we have to look after these good people.’ Jesus saw these men and women as ‘sheep without a shepherd’. He knew that their spiritual needs were not being looked after by most of their priests and spiritual leaders. The needs of these good people were not answered by priests and rabbis who didn’t have the time to listen to their stories and get to know them, priests who were more interested in proper rituals than the needs of these great unwashed.

Jesus knew these good people needed to hear again that God loved them, they were God’s people. These good people needed to hear they were of more value to God than any lilies of the field or birds of the air. He wanted to be for them a good shepherd, a good shepherd who knew each one by name. He would be the kind of shepherd who would search for them when they wandered away and bring them home. Jesus wanted to be so unlike the shepherds we heard about in our first reading, shepherds who ignored or abused their sheep, and shepherds who, by their abuse of power, turned their sheep away. By the way he took the time to be with these good people, to listen to their problems, to cure their pains, to tell them time and time again that they were precious to God Jesus wanted to set an example to those who would come after them as shepherds. He would be the shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep.

Jesus is our good and faithful shepherd. Do we listen to his voice as he calls us to be shepherds to one another? Do we listen to his voice as it comes to us from men and women different from ourselves, different in faith, different in social backgrounds, different is cultural backgrounds, different in lifestyles? Do we hear Jesus’ voice as these good people ask for acceptance and respect? Are we willing, as Jesus was always willing, to accept people as they are, where they are in their life journey and walk with them on their journey? Are we willing as spouses to shepherd our spouses into a deeper mutual relationship, growing in love day by day. Do we shepherd our children to grow up free of bigotry and prejudice toward people who will into their lives. Are we willing to be shepherded by Jesus as he wishes to bring us to that closeness with him that we can say of ourselves, ’I live now, not I, but Christ lives and loves and serves through me.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass we pray for ourselves and one another that we be available to all those who come in need to us as Christ our shepherd is always available to us.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – July 19, 2015

Homily – July 12, 2015

Sunday, July 12th, 2015

There was a little store front church in a rundown area of Baltimore. There was a brightly colored sign over the front door of this church that read, ’Welcome to the house of the Lord.’ Inside there was another sign to be read by people as they leave the church. It read, ‘Welcome to the vineyard of the Lord.’

You know for years now our first petition in the prayer of the faithful is, ‘may we live this Mass outside these walls in the work we do, the service we give and in the prayers we pray.’ The final words after the final blessing at the end of Mass are, ’let us go in peace to love and to serve the Lord.’

In the gospel of Matthew we hear of Jesus sending the apostles out two by two to cure the sick, cast out demons and announce the good news that the kingdom of God is near. They would do the very things Jesus was sent to do.

Jesus sent them two by two so they could support one another when they met hostility and encourage one another in their efforts.

He commanded them to take nothing with them, neither bag, nor money, not bread, so as to teach them to despise riches, and to make people ashamed when they saw them preaching poverty by their own lack of possessions.

He gives them his authority to preach repentance, to cast out demons, to cure the sick. He also gives them each other, for they are not sent out alone but in partnership “two by two.” The gift of his authority and the gift of one another is essentially the gift of Jesus himself. So gifted, disciples cannot fail.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord – welcome to the vineyard of the Lord. One of the powers the apostles were given was the power to cast out demons. In the time of Jesus belief in spiritual beings was very strong. Greeks called hostile spirits “demons,” while Jewish people called them “unclean spirits.” We have demons in our days, demons that are our ways of thinking and living that make us see other people as less than ourselves, demons such and bigotry and prejudice.

In his letter to us and to the whole world, ‘ Laudatio se’ on the care and nurturing of creation, Pope Francis calls each one of us as we leave this house of the Lord and go into the vineyard of the Lord, to cast out our demon of indifference. It’s the demon that dulls to the devastation and diminishment of our home Earth. The demon that causes us to be unconcerned about the health and wholeness of Earth, unconcerned about the Earth we will leave to our children and our children’s children. A demon that makes us unsympathetic to the needs of men, women and children in our own city whose lives are diminished by unfair wages, unemployment and under-employment, lack of adequate housing, lack of proper daycare, lack of care for those suffering from mental and emotional sickness, unconcerned about the racism that exists among us.

In a recent talk given in Equator Pope Francis teaches,’we can no longer turn our backs on our reality, of our brothers and sisters, of mother earth. It is no longer licit for us to ignore what is happening to our surroundings as if certain situations did not exist or have nothing to do with us. Again and again comes the strength of that question of God to Cain: ‘Where is your brother?'” he said. “I ask if our response continues to be: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’

Jesus teaches us that we are our brothers and sisters keeper. We are called to cast our demon on indifference and uncaring and be there one another. We can cast out this demon if we remember and live the words of Jesus; as often as you did these things to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did them to me.

By God’s grace may we cast out our demon of indifference and hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – July 12, 2015

Homily – July 5, 2015

Sunday, July 5th, 2015

A prophet is not without honor except in his home town and among his own kin. These words are proven by the reception Jesus received when he visited his home town of Nazareth after living in Capernaum. He was invited to read from the scriptures and say a few words. According to Luke Jesus read from the scroll of Isiah about the spirit of the Lord being given to him to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives and to set the downtrodden free. Jesus told his neighbours who knew since he was a child, ‘today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ Their reaction was swift and furious. How dare Jesus speak like this, who does he think he is, his father was a carpenter, there’s his mother and his family. Who does he think he is claiming God’s Spirit was given to him to tell us how to live? They ran him out of town.

When we hear the word prophet we usually think of a person who tells of future events but that is not the only role of the prophet. A prophet is one who calls people to face the failures and the injustices of the times in which they live and change their ways.

Last Tuesday evening we had close to 300 people here reflecting on the importance of Pope Francis’ letter to the church and all people who care about the degradation being done to our home, planet earth. The letter is titled ‘Laudato Si’ Praise be to you my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs. These words are from a famous prayer or canticle of St. Francis of Assisi.

We were guided through this discussion by Fr. Steve Dunn and Dr. Denis O’Hara a professor from St. Mike’s who teaches ecology and theology. There was a lively and informative exchange of ideas concerning the present environmental and ecological health of planet earth.

The heart of the matter question Pope Francis asks is,’ what kind of a world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up.’ I’ve often wondered while baptizing an infant ‘what kind of a world will this kid grow up in and in what kind of a world his children will grow up?

You’ve heard me say this many times before, ‘The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.’

What we need is a whole new mind set as regards our relationship with Earth, mother Earth. Genesis tells us we are to subdue the earth and conquer it, be its master and that’s what we’ve been doing. We imagine ourselves to be stewards of God’s creation, managers and exploiters of Earth. Our prophet Francis calls us to know that we are kin; we are family with every life form that shares with us our common home Earth. Pope Francis teaches ‘when all these relationships are neglected, when justice no longer dwells in our land, then all life is endangered. All these life forms are inter-connected and when one life form in reduced or becomes extinct all other life forms, including the human, are lessened. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves.

Leaders of nations are becoming more and more aware of the environmental crises we face through climate change. Our own federal government refuses to face the global crises happening around us, it’s the elephant in our living room. Hopefully Pope Francis’ words and warning will have some impact on the world’s leaders meeting in Paris next December to call nations away from our dependence of fossil fuels which are the main cause of the climate changes impacting the world. It is a global climate summit.

His neighbours drove the prophet Jesus out of his home town. Who does he think he is tells us how to live our lives. We can be sure our prophet Pope Francis will be driven out of the Board Rooms of industry and commerce whose sole focus is exploitation and profit. Pope Francis will be challenged in the corridors of congresses and senates and houses of parliament. He will be told ‘stick to your God talk’ you know nothing about science, trade and world development and politics. As one leader of global industry said, ‘Though Pope Francis’ heart is surely in the right place, he would do his flock and the world a disservice by putting his moral authority behind the United Nations’ unscientific agenda on the climate.’- another elephant.

Will we as individuals listen to the words of our prophet Francis? He is calling us not to just a change in life style, to live simply that others may simply live; our prophet Francis is calling us to a whole new mind set, a change in the way we look at our relationships with God’s good creation. This will not be easy. We are so set in our ways, so caught up in consumerism and wastefulness. We are not Lords of creation, we are kin, and we are family with all of creation. He tells us that the bounty of the earth is meant for all of us but especially the poor. He asks us to hear the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor.

Our prophet Francis offers us words of hope when he tells us, ‘The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather all creatures are moving forward with us and through us toward a common point of arrival, which is God.’

The question is: will we listen to the words of the prophet Francis and let his words challenge us to hear and answer the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor?

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – July 5, 2015

Homily – June 28, 2015

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

There’s a story told of a young Jewish girl who was going off to a new city for university. She was very conscientious about her faith. She went to her Rabbi and asked him, ‘how do I find a good Rabbi to guide me? The Rabbi answered,’ ask him if he can explain suffering. If he begins to explain suffering, look for another Rabbi.”

The Rabbi was right. Who can explain why bad things happen to good people? We are good people and for all of that we are devastated by the death of one we love, our ordinary living is upset by illness, our security is threatened by the loss of a job, a marriage breaks up, a son or daughter gets into drugs or suffers depression.

It’s normal we ask ‘why’, why me, why this, why now? It might be better if we asked ‘what’. What am I going to do with this, how am I going to handle this, deal with this? Will I let this hurt, this pain, this disappointment, shatter my life, will I let it crush me, make me bitter? Or will I embrace it – as Christ embraced His cross? Illness and suffering are part and parcel of life. As one poet wrote, ‘we are born in another’s pain and perish in our own.’ We are the followers of a crucified Christ, a Christ who offered His life out of love for us, a Christ Who said, ‘ if any would come after me let them take up their cross and follow me.’

The gospel tells us this suffering woman heard about Jesus. What did she hear? Did she hear about how Jesus challenged the religious authorities about their hypocrisy and their lack of concern for the ordinary people? Did she hear of the people he cured of leprosy or blindness? Did she hear that he made cripples walk and blind people see? We hear she spent a fortune on different cures and treatments and they only made her condition worse. Jesus told her her faith made her well but there must have been a bit of desperation there too as she worked her way through the crowd wishing only to touch his clothes. Maybe she said to herself, ’I’ll try anything.’’

I was reading up on this gospel and found that at the time of Jesus there were physicians and there were healers. Folk healers in those days were much more commonly available to the peasants. They were willing to use their hands to touch people and talk with them, listen to them, they let people unburden themselves. In the gospels people definitely identified Jesus as a folk healer, specifically a spirit filled prophet who could still storms, and restore people to their rightful and proper place in community.

Jesus definitely healed all who wanted to be healed. Healing is the restoration of meaning to people’s lives no matter what their physical condition might be. Curing is very rare, but healing takes place all the time because sooner or later we regain meaning in life and resume our rightful place within our family, our society and our church.

This is certainly what Jesus accomplished for the hemorrhaging woman. Her condition rendered her ritually unclean and not only prevented her from entering the Temple but also required that she remove herself from the community, the equivalent of social death in her world. She was treated like a leper. Healing her Jesus restored her to her rightful place in society, he restored her to her family and friends and he restored her to her family of faith and the Temple.

Could we find within ourselves, surrounded as we are with a crowd that does not share our faith, a busy crowd searching for the good life, could we find the courage to reach out and touch his garment and let power come out from him and restore us to the reality of our Christian faith namely we follow a crucified Christ who challenges us to take up the cross in whatever form it comes to us and let Christ walk with us giving us the willingness to accept our present reality, whatever is may be. It is what it is, this is what I live with – and in tranquility, trust in the presence and care of God – and say as Christ said – not my will but your will be done – for in God’s will is our peace.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – June 28, 2015

Homily – June 21, 2015

Sunday, June 21st, 2015

Have you ever had the experience of being caught in open water by a sudden and violent storm? I have. I was on a sail boat on Lake Erie just outside Port Dover and this storm seemed to come out of nowhere. We got back to port as soon as we could through pouring rain, high winds and rough water. Talk about wanting to kiss the ground.

This wasn’t the first storm these fishermen friends of Jesus experienced but by the violence of it they knew they were in serious trouble. All this was happening at night so they had no stars to guide them. They were amazed that Jesus could sleep through the whole thing. They woke him up with the demand ‘do something’ and he did, he spoke and rebuked the wind and stilled the waters. It was as if Jesus had a one on one relationship with the sea and the wind – Jesus knew the sea and wind and the sea and wind knew him and he told them, enough, be still, you’ve done your job, you’ve made these men turn to me. Then he asked the disciples a strange question, ’why are you afraid?’

Jesus had a one on one relationship with every man in that boat and the experience of the storm was meant to challenge and deepen that relationship. Why were you afraid, don’t you trust me, don’t you know that I’m here with you and that I care for you? The truth was they did know and yet they didn’t know. Their one on one relationship with Jesus would have its ups and downs for some time to come.

Each one of us has a one on one relationship with God in and through Jesus. Maybe we don’t think too much about our relationship with God but God never stops thinking of it, as scripture tells us, ‘Before you were conceived in the womb I knew you and called you by name.’ We all have a one on one relationship with Jesus though too often we don’t think of it but he’s told us, ‘I am the vine you are the branches, without me you can do nothing.’

Maybe that’s why our lives can become upset, turned upside down by the sudden storms that come our way. We’ve all had upsetting times in our lives, stormy days, nights, months or even years and we long for things to just settle down, we long for the calm.

Its natural when we hear this gospel to think of the stormy times in our lives, times when we feel totally helpless and alone, times when we are sure we are going under. We know from experience our storms don’t go away that easily, there is no instant calming, we have to wait them out, see them through trusting that Jesus is with us. Because of our one on one relationship with Jesus we trust that he will see us through whatever storm with which we are struggling. Jesus asks us, as he asked these frightened fishermen ‘why are you afraid, have you no faith, no trust in my love and care for you?’ Maybe all we can answer in the dark and stormy times is the simple truth, ‘Lord I believe, help the little faith I have’, and leave it at that.

Posted in Homily | Comments Off on Homily – June 21, 2015

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »