August 28th, 2011
I’d like to say a few words on our second reading, especially the advice St. Paul offers to all of us: “be not conformed to this world,” in other words ‘let the example and the teaching of Jesus be the guidelines by which we live our lives, not the secular values that permeate our society.’
These words brought to mind something that happened to me just recently. I had a funeral and was going to the cemetery afterwards. A young, newly licensed funeral director was doing the driving. As usual on these occasions we were doing small talk. We talked about how quickly the summer went and about our vacations. I told her I’d been down home to visit the family and asked if she’d taken her vacation yet. She told me she was going to Ethiopia in October with Habitat for Humanity to help build homes. In the past her vacations were to India and Pakistan with the same organization.
She told me she does this to keep in touch with reality. The homes they build are very simple but they are palaces compared to what other people live in. She told me her experience with Habitat makes her appreciate the blessings in her own life and she is committed to live a very simple life style. She is not into ‘shop til you drop’ mentality. Most her friends think she’s crazy, a fanatic. The truth is her values are an affront to them because she does not buy into what is so important to them: the good life.
There are so many good young people who have made themselves aware of and care about the under-privileged in our city, our country and around the world. They are sensitive to the injustice of the economic systems of the world and the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. They are not conformed to the values of this world. Many of them suffer for this. They are resented by their peers.
I don’t know this young woman’s religion, I don’t know if she even goes to church. I do know she is a woman of principle and she will not conform to the consumerism and wasteful lifestyle around her.
In the gospel Jesus speaks in demanding words, “If anyone wants to become my follower let them deny themselves, take up the cross and follow me.” He asks us the question, “what does it profit anyone to gain the world and lose oneself, one’s integrity.” I think when we hear the word ‘cross’ we think about illness or some other misfortune or struggle in our lives. Maybe we could think of the cross as our personal challenge to be faithful to the values to which our Catholic faith calls us.
Along this line someone once wrote, “you work for peace and people accuse you of being unpatriotic. You stand up for the poor and people write you off as a naïve dreamer. You work for nonviolent change like Martin Luther King and they shoot you.” There is a cost of discipleship; it will cost us for being faithful to the teachings and example of Jesus.
Remember Matthew’s description of the judgement we will face at the end of our lives? I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothed me, sick and in prison and you visited me. As often as you did these things to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did them to me. When all is said and done we will be judged by who we were and how we were to one another. Could we imagine that taking up the cross is a challenge to each of us to try as best we can to avoid being conformed to the values of the world? Our cross is in the challenge to be aware of and do something about the unfairness and the injustice in the society in which we live, a society unmoved by hungry children and homeless families and good men and women who cannot find work. Our cross is the challenge to avoid being sucked into the consumerism and wastefulness of our society. Our cross challenges us to work toward a healing of the earth and the healing of society. Our cross, challenges us to do what we can, in any way we can to make our society and our church more just and inclusive.
As we continue this Mass in which we celebrate the reality of Christ’s life giving love for each of us, may we accept the cross of living in such a way that our lives live out the challenge of Christ, “love one another as I have loved you – whatever you do to or for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you do to me.”
| Posted in Homily |
August 21st, 2011
Today’s gospel is familiar to all of us: “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” As Roman Catholics we see this promise kept in the ministry and service of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. Other Christians have a different understanding of Christ’s words to Peter. Lutherans would maintain that the power of the keys, to bind and loose belong to the whole church while the Orthodox Churches and the Anglican communities say the power given to Peter is shared by all the bishops of the church, not just the bishop of Rome who they consider to be the first among equals, with the emphasis on ‘equal.’
For us Catholics the Pope takes on a life of his own. He is the Holy Father, the Supreme Pontiff. We dare not question his authority. For some people anyone who questions the Pope’s words or decisions is a bad Catholic.
When Jesus called Peter a ‘rock’ I think he has his tongue in his cheek. Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew Jesus. Jesus knew Peter was quicksand more than rock. Jesus would build his community, the church, on the rock of human weakness and frailty. It would be Christ’s presence to the church that would sustain it through the troubled centuries of its life. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
St John Chrysostom was a great theologian in the early church. He eventually became the Patriarch of Constantinople. He died in the year 404. Listen to his reflections on today’s gospel.
“Now Peter was inclined to be severe, so if he had also been sinless, what forbearance would he have shown toward those he instructed? Peter’s falling into sin was thus a providential grace to teach him from experience to deal kindly with others.”
Just think who it was whom God permitted to fall into sin—Peter himself, the head of the apostles, the firm foundation, the unbreakable rock, the most important member of the Church, the safe harbour, the strong tower; Peter, who had said to Christ, ‘Even if I have to die with you I will never deny you;’ Peter, who by divine revelation had confessed the truth: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Now, as I said before, the reason God’s plan permitted Peter to sin was because he was to be entrusted with the whole people of God, and sinlessness added to Peter’s severity might have made him unforgiving toward his brothers and sisters. He fell into sin so that remembering his own fault and the Lord’s forgiveness toward him; he also might forgive others out of love for them.
He to whom the Church was to be entrusted, he, the pillar of the churches, the harbour of faith, was allowed to sin; Peter, the teacher of the world, was permitted to sin, so that having been forgiven himself he would be merciful to others.” John Chrysostom did not see Peter as a rock; he knew Peter shared in the quick sand of humanity. As I mentioned before from the bottom to the top we, the church, are all mistake-making beings, sinners struggling to be saints.
You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This text, understood both in terms of papal primacy and the church’s durability, surely challenges the faith of the contemporary Catholic. Many good people in the church today are hurting, angry and disillusioned. The scandals in many of the local dioceses in too many countries, including our own are hard to cope with. Civil investigations are exposing what church investigations refused to face; the cover up of the sexual abuse of children by priests and bishops, a cover up meant to protect the image of the church rather than expose the crimes of its leaders. Bureaucrats in Rome are involved in some of these cover-ups. Here in Canada we have the shame of our churches involvement in the government’s residential schools as well as these other issues of abuse.
We believe in the holy Catholic Church. Our church is holy in its founder and in its teaching. Our church is holy in us, its members. Our church has produced countless numbers of holy men and women. Through the centuries our church has been responsible for centres of learning, places of healing, the orphans and widows. Our church stands for the rights of workers to a living wage, it teaches the dignity of life from the womb to the tomb. All this is so because the Spirit of Christ guides us and saves us from our sinfulness and failures. The gates of hell will not prevail. A famous French convert was convinced of the validity of the church because as he said, ‘not even its priests could destroy it.’
As we continue this Mass we pray for our church, that we admit our weaknesses and give thanks for our blessings and in our own personal lives may we recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
August 14th, 2011
There is a fellow who keeps sending me e-mail jokes. Some of them are good, many are not. I find some of these jokes to be offensive. They put down people on welfare, new immigrants, people seen as the ‘Freddy Freeloaders’ of society. I think he might be a clone of Sarah Palin or of one of our local politicians. The victims of many of these ‘jokes’ are men and women seen as outsiders, on the fringe of society, those different from ourselves. I think we all have difficulty dealing with some thing or some one we see as different, out of the ordinary.
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August 7th, 2011
A number of years ago we had a priest helping in the parish on weekends. He preached the sermon one Good Friday. He told me before hand not to get nervous; he knew what he was doing. He went to the pulpit after the reading of the Passion and stood there in absolute silence. We waited and waited for him to begin. He finally said, “we’ve just had a minute of silence.” He asked, “how many of you were uncomfortable, uneasy, and unsure of what was going on?” I think the whole church was. But then he spoke about the silence of Calvary and how we really find it hard to deal with silence.
July 31st, 2011
Good people I want you to hear again the words of our second reading:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am certain of this that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, depths, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross, every Passionist takes a special vow to spend his or her energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus, the memory of the Cross, and reflection of the meaning of the Cross for the world.
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