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Homily – October 26, 2014

Sunday, October 26th, 2014

If I was to give a title to this sermon I might title it -How quickly they forget.

The first reading for today’s Mass is from the book of Exodus. It deals with the setting down moral and religious laws. All these laws and moral guidelines developed in the years following the liberation of the Jewish people from years of slavery in Egypt.

This particular passage is all about how the Jewish people were to treat the weakest, defenseless people in the community – the widow, the orphan, the stranger or alien and those down on their luck. God calls the people to remember how harshly they were treated as slaves in Egypt – they are not to treat other men, women and children in the same way.

Next Monday is voting day. As citizens we have a duty to vote. I heard a commentator on the CBC say that this campaign season was the ugliest, mean spirited, small minded and raciest we’ve seen in a long time. Urging Olivia Chow to go back to China, attacking other candidates Muslim faith, insinuating their sympathy for terrorist groups – all these realities are not what this city, this country is all about. We are blessed to live in this city. Despite our differences Torontonians are a generous people. Look at how people respond to the United Way, Cancer campaigns, Share Life, the many food and toys drive at Christmas, the Star’s summer camps for children – the list could go on and on.

But just below the surface there is that fear and distrust of the newcomer, fear of the stranger, there is fear and suspicion of anyone who is different.

How quickly we forget that this city was built on immigration and each new wave of immigrants faced the hostility of the wave before them. Each wave of immigrants had to struggle to find work, learn the language and build a better life for their children. It has always been a struggle to fit in, to be welcomed.

We constantly have to be reminded that for a lot of people life is not fair. Pope Francis speaks about a culture of indifference toward those at the bottom rung of society – the neglected aged mothers and father, the slum dwellers of the world, the men, women and children who are the victims of war, the exploited temporary workers, the underpaid and over worked nannies, those who work two or three part time jobs just to keep their heads above water.

We heard today’s short gospel so many times. The greatest commandment –love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind – and this is joined at the hip with ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself. If these commandments do not touch the way we treat others, the way we think about others, way we respect others, the way we support others then we are sounding brass and tinkling silver.

We are good people struggling to live and love as Christ would have us live and love. Some days we win and some days we lose but always we keep trying.

May we all be strengthened by the bread of life that will nourish us at the Mass to find within ourselves the ability to love as we’ve been loved, to accept others as we have been accepted, to forgive and heal as we have been forgiven and healed and be agents of God’s love and peace to all who come into our lives.

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Homily – October 19, 2014

Sunday, October 19th, 2014

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. This has nothing to do with the separation of Church and State. It has a lot to do with how we live our lives as Christian men and women in our society. We are finally coming to the end of this too long a time of campaigning for the election of a mayor and councillors. Our Christian faith and values should have an influence on the decisions we make at the ballot box even on this local level. Do we question where a candidate for public office stands on such things as social housing, social welfare? Do we try to find out what they will try to do for the homeless of our city or what they will try to do to stem the tide of these senseless shootings we’ve heard of recently? What are they willing to do to find jobs for unemployed young people? How will they help the families who use food banks? What programs do they have to help immigrants to our city? There is more to life in Toronto than gridlock and subways.

When politicians promise to cut taxes, that means some services will have to be cut as well and those services are mostly the ones that help and support the neediest among us. It is important we take our Christian conscience into the ballot box. On October 27th we encourage all of you to ‘render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Vote.

Every day of the year we are to render to God what belongs to God. When Jesus asked for the coin of the realm he asked the Pharisees whose image was on the coin and they answered Caesar’s. Every day we rub shoulders with men, woman and children who bear the image of God and bear the image of Christ. Remember Christ’s words – whatever you do to one of these the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do to me. When we accept and respect other people as they are and for whom they are, we accept and respect Christ. When we reach out and support the least and the needy who come into our lives, we support Christ. When we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn we are one with Christ in the joys and sorrows of others. When we reject good men, women and children out of our lives, out of our consciousness – they are not even there – because of their different nationality, different social statue, different life style, different religious beliefs, we are rejecting Christ. This truth is so basic to our Christian faith. Yet it can be so difficult to live. We’ve received our prejudices and narrow mindsets from our mother’s milk, from the home atmospheres in which we grew up. There was a line from a musical – you have to be taught how to hate and to fear – otherwise we would grow up accepting other people just as they are.

Every day we struggle with Christ’s new commandment – love one another as I have loved you and some days we win and some days we fail but hopefully every day we try. We try to see in all we meet the image of God – a brother or sister in Christ and reverence that image with the reverence that is its due.

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Homily – October 12, 2014

Sunday, October 12th, 2014

Feasts were and are important events in both the old and new testaments. In the first reading Isaiah uses the image of a banquet of rich food and fine wine to described the joys and the happiness of heaven. Jesus’ last meal with his friends was the celebration of the feast of liberation – the Passover meal.

This weekend invitations will be going to family and friends to come and share a meal as we celebrate this Thanksgiving weekend. The States celebrate their Thanksgiving in November and it is the busiest travel time of the year, out doing Christmas.

I want you pretend with me for a minute. You are grandparents and you want to host the family thanksgiving dinner this year. You may feel you won’t have the health or the energy to do it in the years to come and you want to make this a special event. You call your sons and daughters and all the grandchildren and their families. You want this to be a special event. On Thanksgiving Day people show up with salads and desserts and flowers and they begin to mix it up and enjoy one another’s company. Near the beginning of the meal a grandson arrives. He is unshaven, unwashed and has an attitude. The tone of the party changes. He is like the elephant in the room, everyone pretends not to notice but he is there. What to do?

You don’t quite know what to do. You are upset, disappointed and confused by your grandson’s behavior. As gently and as quietly as you can would you take him aside and do what the host of gospel story did? Would you let him know his behavior and his attitude is offensive, unacceptable – would you ask him to leave? His appearance and his attitude lets you know he doesn’t want to be a part of this family gathering and you have to wonder why he came. The whole family was invited and welcomed, – but how a person shows up indicates how important or meaningful is the event and the invitation to him or her.

We are all invited to the banquet of life and love that is ours in the family of the church. The question is, are we dress for the occasion. Everyone is invited – but how one shows up indicates how important or meaningful was the event and the invitation.

St. Augustine tells us that the wedding garment we are all to wear is love. St. Paul tells that without love we have nothing at all, no matter whatever gifts with which we are blessed. He writes to the community in Corinth, ‘If I do not have love then I am nothing at all ‘Paul encourages them to be clothed in love. Love requires that we respect and accept the dignity and worth of ourselves and of every person who comes into our lives. Love is dress code for membership in the church. Love is the dress code required of us at every Eucharist.

It is a hard dress code to keep as we rub shoulders every day with people who are twisted by bigotry and prejudice. It is a difficult dress code to keep as we are tempted to demonize other people’s faith because the horrible actions of fringe groups in their membership. We may be tempted to slip into the clothing of ‘conditional love’ which allows us to be open and accepting of those who agree with us, hold our theological or political views but annoyed and challenged by those who call us to be more aware of and sensitive to the needs of the hungry and the homeless and the neglected aged within our own community. Wearing our clothing of ‘conditional love’ allows us to be annoyed and wearied with people who remind us of the struggles of the working poor, the under employed, the unpaid interns.

Maybe we could all use a dry cleaning of our wedding garments, especially through a self – examination of our awareness and concern about what is going on around us, within our families, our neighbourhood, our parish. We might rid ourselves of the stains of avoidance of issues, stains of indifference, stains of resistance to be involved in the social issues of our church and community.

Every Mass we celebrate is an invitation to the banquet that celebrates our Father’s love for each of us shown in the passion and death of Jesus on the altar of the cross. The dress code for properly and truly celebrating this banquet is that we be clothed with the same love for others as Christ has for each of us here today. As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we always be properly dressed for this celebration.

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Homily – October 5, 2014

Sunday, October 5th, 2014

I suppose many of you have been down to Niagara on the Lake and seen or visited the many vineyards down there. The lines of grape vines seem to stretch for miles. When these vineyards first started the owners cleared the land with modern earth moving machines. Modern techniques were used for planting the vines and staking them. Modern techniques are used for harvesting and crushing the grapes and aging the wine.

Imagine the backbreaking labor intensive work it must have been to start a vineyard back in the days of Isaiah and Jesus. Breaking the soil, turning it over, clearing it of rocks, planting and staking the vines, building a stone fence and a watch tower and a wine press must have taken years of work and a lot of investment. Whether we think about the vineyard of Isaiah, which represents the people of Israel or the vineyard Jesus describes, which represents those who so strongly opposed the person and teachings of Jesus, we hear that both owners of the vineyards – for all their labor –were rewarded with wild grapes and murderous tenants. It was all thrown back in their face. God’s love for his chosen people, Christ’s great desire to speak and show the Father’s love for all God’s people, both were rejected. Both owners could say, ‘what more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done.?’

We can just imagine the frustration and disappointment of the owners of both these vineyards – all their work, their love goes for nothing. We’ve all know the word ‘entitlement’. It is a mindset that is so real in our times. I have a right, I am owed, I deserve. The chosen people, the religious leaders at the time of Jesus were convinced they were special people and had a right to the gifts of God. People today suffer from this same delusion. I have a right to a better job, better opportunities, a better home a better life style than my parents. Things are supposed to be bigger and better.

It is a hard lesson to learn that we are not an entitled people we are a gifted people. St. Paul asks in one of his letters,’ what have you that you have not received and if you have received it, if you have been gifted, why do you carry on as if had earned it or were owed it? We are here because we were gifted with the gift of faith, a gift that enables us to know that before the world began God chose us as God’s adopted sons and daughters. We are gifted with a faith that assures us God love our world so much he sent his only son as one of us, and the son loved us so much he died on the cross for us. We are gifted with a faith that enables us to know bread is more than bread and wine is more than wine – they are the body and blood of our crucified Lord.

We are gifted to know that we are our brothers and sisters keepers and that Christ comes into our lives in every person we meet. Our gift of faith is meant to grow and produce – as vines are meant to grow and produce choice wine.

We all know there is so much, too much selfishness, racism, sexism, bigotry, prejudice, economic injustice and exploitation in our city and country. Life is too unfair for too many people. As gifted members of God’s vineyard, in the ordinary living of our ordinary lives, we are meant to produce the choice wine of love for others, the choice wine of reconciliation with those we have harmed or those who have harmed us, the choice wine of acceptance and respect for the faith and life situations of friends and strangers, the choice wine of working for social justice, fair immigration laws, affordable housing, just wages, the choice wine of loving others as we have been loved.

As we continue this Mass we pray for ourselves and for one another that by God’s grace we gifted people that we are, will produce the choice wine of a well lived life.

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Homily – September 21, 2014

Sunday, September 21st, 2014

For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your way. Thank God for that. Imagine what it would be like if God’s thoughts and ways were as ours in our relations with one another. We would be in big trouble. Imagine if God were as close minded toward us as we are to those with who are of a different faith, cultural, social or racial background, or different life style, imagine if God was as impatient, unfeeling or unsympathetic as we can sometimes be toward family members or friends who are struggling with their own demons of alcohol or drugs or their mental health issues, imagine if God held the resentments and the grudges we hold when we have a falling out with a family member or neighbour, imagine if God was as indifferent to our needs as we can sometimes be to the needs of those who suffer from hunger and homelessness, imagine if God was too busy to be with us as we can often be too busy to visit a friend in the hospital or in a retirement home, or even make a phone call, imagine if God was as deaf to our prayers as we can sometimes be as we weary of the many calls for assistance that come our way, imagine if God’s thoughts and ways were as our thoughts and ways. Imagine.

Thankfully Isaiah assures us, ‘for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

How do we know the mind of God, how do we know the ways of God? Jesus tells us,’ no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son choses to reveal him.’ We know the mind of God and the ways of God by the way Jesus lived his life on earth and by what Jesus taught us about the Father. As Jesus said to Thomas, ‘he who sees me sees the Father.’ We know God’s unconditional love for each of us as look on the crucified body of Christ.

When we study the life and ministry of Jesus we know so well that his ways and thoughts are often not the ways we think and not the way we do things. With open arms Jesus said, ‘come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome but we choose our friends, we select the people with whom we associate. How often do we feel, even if we don’t say it; ‘not in my back yard.’? Jesus life was open to everyone, rich or poor, righteous or sinner. We know he challenged the phoniness with which he lived but he admired the honesty of those who could admit they failed, ‘Lord be merciful to me a sinner.’ He ate and drank with sinners, he consoled the widows and all who mourn the death of one they loved. He cured the lepers so they could be restored to social and family life. He fed those who hungered with bread and fish, he fed those who hungered for the righteousness of God when turned our value system upside down and declared – blessed are the poor, blessed the gentle, blessed those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed the peacemakers, blessed are the persecuted – blessed are all these men and women – theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus challenged us to keep things in perspective when he asked ‘ what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose himself?

As far as the east is from the west so are my thoughts and ways from your thoughts and ways. In one of his letters Paul makes the claim ‘we have the mind of Christ.’ Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could say that of ourselves? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the day would come when we could say, ‘his thoughts, his ways are my thoughts, my ways? That’s something we could strive to achieve. It isn’t easy, it’s a life time struggle but there can be times when, because of the way we handled a situation, the way we welcomed someone into our lives, the way we work to heal old wounds, the way we reached out to someone in need, the way we were with someone in mourning, the way we gave thanks for the gifts with which blesses us – we can say – we have the mind and the heart of Christ. We can pray for ourselves and each other that one day at a time our thoughts and our way come just a bit closer to the thoughts and ways of God.

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