August 23rd, 2009
Among strictly Orthodox Jews there is a real resistance to any association with non Jews. They fear they will be contaminated by any such association. People can be offended by such an attitude but it goes way back in Jewish history. In our first reading we hear Joshua calling the people to make a choice, follow the God of their ancestors or follow the gods of the Amorites. Joshua makes his choice perfectly clear, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
The Book of Judges tells us that after the death of Joshua the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord – they abandoned the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. They lusted after other gods and bowed down to them and turned aside from the ways in which their ancestors walked. They learned from experience that they two often allowed themselves to be influences and values from different from their own and thought it necessary to keep to themselves.
Many of us have family members who have left the church. They have not joined other Christian communities, they just left. God and the things of God are on the back burner of their lives. For a lot of good people the church and its structures, the church and its scandals, the church and its hard sayings about birth control, divorce, abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, its teachings on social justice and its fundamental option for the poor have soured their relationship with the Catholic community. Not just the young, but older Catholics see no value in coming to Mass, receiving the sacraments. At the end of a stressful work week the last thing they want to do is sit in church and be bored silly. They see any religious obligation as an intrusion into time better spend relaxing with their family or enjoying a golf game with friends.
The false god of our time is that of believing that any spiritual dimension of life is personal and private and non binding. Good people can be deeply involved in organized hockey, organized baseball, organized soccer, whatever, but organized religion is a dirty word. Prayer is used only in time of crisis, in time of need. You’ve heard of the man late for an important appointment who couldn’t find a parking space. In desperation he prays to God, ‘find me a parking space and I’ll go to church next Sunday. As he turns the corner there before him is an empty parking spot, he pulls in jumps out of his car, looks up to heaven and says, “forget it, I found one.”
Many parents and grandparents are saddened and disappointed by the choices made by family members. They can see these choices as choices to follow other gods, false gods offering false values. They can’t understand how people can live without the faith. But faith is a life time journey. Our parish motto is, “believing, belonging and becoming.” The most important of these is becoming. Becoming to believe, becoming to belong, and this ‘becoming’ can take a life time.
Our loved ones and family members have echoed the situation in today’s first reading and the gospel – the challenge to make a choice. In the first reading good people made a choice to serve the Lord but fell away from their commitment. In the gospel many of Jesus’ followers made the choice of walking away from His gift of Himself as life giving bread. They walked with Him no more.
We tend to think that our family members, our good friends have given up on God and the church but we have to trust that God, and the church, and we are the church, will never give up on them. We will respect their present choices and pray they come to that moment of grace when, with deep conviction, they can say, “Lord to whom shall we go, we have come to know and believe “You have the words of everlasting life, You are the Holy One of God.” Maybe we can all remember that becoming takes a life time.
| Posted in Homily |
August 16th, 2009
On most of the Sundays of August the gospels are about the Eucharist – Jesus is the bread of life, come down from heaven. He is not like the manna God provided His people as they journeyed in the desert, they all died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
The Eucharist is the greatest of the sacraments. The most important of the sacraments is Baptism because we can’t receive any sacrament until we are born into the Christian faith by baptism.
In a recent article Fr Ron Rolheiser tells of a famous English convert to Catholicism. He was the historian Christopher Dawson. He was from an aristocratic family and his mother was quite distressed at his decision to join the Catholic Church. She had nothing against Catholics as such but what really bothered her was that, becoming a Catholic her son would have to worship with the help. The English were very class conscious in those days after the First World War. She knew that in church at least, his aristocratic background would no longer set him apart from others or above others. At church he would be just an equal among equals because the Eucharist would strip him of his higher social status.
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul is quite angry with the people because of the way they celebrated the Eucharist – which was quite different from the way we celebrate it today. The celebration would begin with an agape – a love meal at which people shared food and drink with one another and then they would celebrate the Lord’s Supper. But that didn’t work out too well, at least in Corinth. So we have Paul writing “I cannot say that you have done well in holding meetings that do you more harm than good. In the first place I hear that when you come together as a community there are separate factions among you, and I believe it – since there must no doubt be separate groups among you.’
As Paul points out ‘when the time comes for you to eat, everyone is in such a hurry to start his own supper that one person goes hungry while another is getting drunk.” Paul goes on “surely you have enough respect for the community of God not to make poor people embarrassed. When Paul condemns those who eat and drink without recognizing the Body he is referring as much to the Body of the community as he is to the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. Anyone who would participates in the Eucharist and would ignore or snub the person next to him or any other member of the gathering would be making, what we called in the old days “a bad communion.’ They are ignoring the very unity of the sacrament.
As Rolheiser says in his article ‘The Eucharistic table is by definition a table of social non-distinction, a place were rich and poor are called together beyond all class and status. At the Eucharist there is no rich and poor, only one equal family praying together in a common humanity.
At the Eucharist there is to be no distinction between rich and poor, noble and peasant, aristocrat and servant. Rich and poor, able and disabled, gifted and limited, men and women, adult and child, every nationality – we all line up together and come to be nourished with the Body of Christ. We are all equal. Not just here at this Mass. We live this Mass outside these walls when we put behind us our stereotyping of men and women of other faiths, cultures, social backgrounds and life styles. We live this Eucharist outside these walls when we try to accept and respect men and women we see as different from ourselves.
There can be times when we find this a bit challenging to do. It is difficult to rid ourselves on bias and prejudices instilled in us as children. What makes it possible is the promise of Jesus, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.” The abiding Christ will give up that openness of mind and heart to help us keep his new commandment, “love one another as I have love you” The abiding Christ will give us the openness of mind and heart to love as he loved, to forgive and he forgave and to embrace and accept as equals all those He sends into our lives.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we see in those who celebrate with us our brothers and sisters in Christ – all equally love and accepted by Christ, all equally loved and accepted by ourselves – in here and outside these walls.
August 9th, 2009
Someone once said that the English look at Europe wearing glasses tinted with the Union Jack. We Christians read the Old Testament wearing glasses tinted with the reality of the Resurrection. So we would hear the first reading about Elijah receiving food for his journey through glasses tinted with today’s gospel and Jesus statement “I am the bread of life – I am the living bread come down from heaven.”
Elijah is a very interesting person. In the first book of Kings we read of his confrontation with a group of 150 prophets of a god called Baal. They had a test to see whose sacrifice would be accepted by their god. The prophets of Baal prayed and chanted all day calling on their god to send fire to consume their sacrifice. Nothing happened. Elijah prepared the same sacrifice; he even poured water on it and then waited for God to act. Fire from heaven consumed Elijah’s sacrifice. His god won. In fury Elijah had the prophets of Baal slaughtered. They didn’t fool around in those days.
These prophets were at the service of Queen Jezebel and she sent a message to Elijah that she would do the same to him and even more before the day was out.
In today’s reading Elijah is on the run. He comes back to Israel only to find his own people unfaithful to the very God he was proclaiming. Elijah fears for his life, he is exhausted and depressed. He’s had it as a prophet, it’s a thankless task. He just doesn’t have it in him to make that long trek to Mount Horeb – he just wants out.” It is enough O Lord; take my life away for I am no better than my ancestors. Elijah was giving up on God but God was not about to give up on Elijah. He is ordered to eat the food prepared for him otherwise the journey would be too much for him. The strength of that food kept him going for forty days and forty nights until he reached the mountain of the Lord.
During the second Vatican council we took a new look at ourselves as church and came to see ourselves as a pilgrim people, a pilgrim church, a community still on its journey of faith, life and service. One of the ways of expressing this truth was the new way we could receive Holy Communion. Instead of knelling at the altar rail, which symbolized a table, we could receive communion as part of a procession, a long line of fellow parishioners walking toward the priest or a minister of communion, holding out an empty hand, about to receive our food for the journey before us.
Today we hear the wonderful words of Jesus – I am the bread of life, whoever eats of this bread will live forever.
Our empty hands signify our neediness. There can be times in our lives when we feel so much like Elijah, “I’ve had it, I can’t go on.” We can be burdened by so many cares and concerns. Just like Elijah we can be frightened, exhausted, dispirited and wonder how we can go on. But we have the promise of Jesus, ‘whoever comes to me will never be hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” So we accept His invitation ‘take and eat” not because we are good and holy but because we know we need the strength of this bread. We don’t receive Communion because we are good and virtuous; we stretch out our empty hands to receive the strength and grace we need to continue our own pilgrim journey of life. In the strength of this food we carry on.
As we continue to celebrate this Eucharist we pray for ourselves and for each other that we always treasure this gift of ‘living bread and no matter how unworthy we may feel we will always stretch our own empty hand to receive this living bread, a food that strengthens us for life’s journey.
August 2nd, 2009
Last Sunday’s gospel told of how Jesus challenged the generosity of the crowd of 5000 when He took the five barely loaves and two fish and began to share them with those around him. His act of openhandedness had a ripple effect throughout the crowd as people followed His example and began to share with those around them the food they brought with them to this gathering.
In today’s gospel we see many of those same people seeking Him out. Not fully impressed with His teachings they were looking for something more. So we have their question; “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see and believe.” All through His years of teaching and healing this was a constant demand,” give us a sign so that we may believe, give us a sign so that we may know You are authentic, You are from God.” At one point Jesus so much as says, if you won’t believe my words at least believe my works, they should convince you I am from God and I am with God.
Give us a sign was the last demand of the mocking crowd as they jeered the crucified Christ, “come down from the cross and we will believe.” Give us a sign.
In today’s gospel we heard the people quoting their own scriptures saying, “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, He gave them bread from heaven to eat” In other words, ‘can you top that? Can you offer a greater sign?
So often we wonder about the presence, the love, the healing and forgiveness of God in our lives. We may be hurting so badly, be so confused by the evil and injustices in the world we wonder, is there a God? We may be so depressed or lonely we wonder does God really love or care for me? We may be so burdened by memories of past sins and failings, we wonder, can God really forgive me? In our own way we’re saying ‘give me a sign’ You care for me, give me a sign You love me, give me a sign You forgive me.
In our own time we see that same desperation for a sign when we hear of people or see them on TV flocking to some place where someone claims to have seen the Blessed Mother or Christ. Recently they cut down a tree at a parish church in Ireland. One of the workmen was convinced he saw the face of Christ in the grain of the tree. The news spread like wildfire and people came from all over, lit candles, hung rosaries, left offerings. We’ve heard of bleeding or weeping statues of Mary in different churches. We had such a sighting here in Toronto a couple of years ago. The place was packed with people anxious, maybe even desperate, to see this sign, this wonder.
That’s why the church is so reluctant to certify the validity of claims of visions and miracles even though thousands of people go to these places where Mary or Jesus is supposed to have appeared.
Give us a sign. Think on this, right here, right now we are re-presenting and celebrating the greatest sign God ever gave of God’s love for us. As St. John writes God loved the world so much He sent His son to the world and the Son so loved us He gave His life for us. What greater sign could we have proving we are loved, healed, restored and forgiven? At this Mass, at every Mass a sign is offered us – take this is my body, take, this is my blood – this is my life given for you, this is my life given to you.
When we have our times of doubt and confusion, anger and hurt, when we wonder what its all about or if its all worthwhile – and we all have such times – there is a sign that beacons us through these troubling times- the sign of the crucified – a sign blazing the truth – God loved the world, God loved each of us so much He gave His only Son and the Son so loved us He gave His life for us.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we never loose sight of this sign – this eternal sign of love, forgiveness and healing, Christ crucified, His body broken, His blood shed for you, for me.
July 26th, 2009
Today’s gospel tells the beautiful story of Jesus feeding the hungry multitude. Just a few chapters before this one we have Jesus at a wedding banquet facing another crisis, ‘they have no wine.’ Jesus comes to the rescue ‘fill the jars with water, water that become choice wine and the celebration of love goes on.
I think there is a bit of reality which we should be aware as we listen to today’s gospel. This great crowd was made up of a lot streets smart people. No one is his/her right mind who take off on a trip without taking a stash of food and drink with them. But these people were pretty tight with their food and drink; it was just for family, not for any Freddie free loader.
Jesus asks his faithful friend Philip, ‘how are we going to feed all these people?’ Philip and Andrew get into the economics of it all; they talk about six months’ wages. All they could come up with was five barley loaves and two fish – not much there. Jesus gets the people to sit down in manageable groups and then starts to share what He had with those around Him. This was a teaching moment for the whole crowd. If Jesus was willing to share, so were they. Bit by bit their hidden stashes are brought out and people began to share with one another. And as the saying goes, a grand time was had by all. There was plenty of food in that crowd, more than enough. They collected twelve baskets of scraps. The miracle in this gospel was not in some kind of multiplication of loaves and fishes. If that’s what happened none of those people would have left that gathering changed, transformed. The miracle was in the people’s generous response to the challenge Jesus put before them, the challenge to share with others the food they had with those who may have had less.
This week the author of Angela’s Ashes died, Frank McCourt. I mentioned once before that one of the things that struck me reading that novel was that, so often no matter how poor the poor of Limerick were, no matter how little they had to feed themselves, they were always willing to share that little with those who had less.
We know that famine is a harsh reality in so many lands. We see pictures of gaunt mothers holding bone thin, big eyed children. Starvation is every where. Compare that to the abundance we see every day as we walk through a super market, compare that to the amount of food we throw out every day. But we can look at the food shortage situation in the developing countries and ask ‘Why doesn’t God do something about this, why does God allow this”? Often these good but powerless people are the victims of the greed of their leaders and the mismanagement of their own resources.
In his book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” Rabbi Kushner quotes an old Sabbath prayer that does the same things. It goes: We cannot merely pray to you God to end war / for we know that you have made the world in such a way that man must find his own path to peace, within himself and with his neighbour. We cannot merely pray to you Lord to end starvation, for you have already given us the resources to feed the entire world, if only we would use them wisely. We cannot merely pray to you Lord to root out prejudice, for You have already given us eyes with which to see the good in all people, if only we would use them rightly.
We cannot pray to you Lord to end despair, for you have already given us the power to clear away slums and give hope, if only you would use your power justly. We cannot merely pray to you Lord to end disease, for you have already given us great minds with which to search out cures and healings, if only we would use them constructively.
Therefore we pray to you instead Lord for strength, determination and will power to do, instead of just to pray, to become instead of merely to wish. We can’t expect God to step into the world’s crisis and make all things right.
God has already gifted us with the means to right the injustices that surrounded us. It’s up to us to discover and use those gifts.
In Jesus’ gesture of sharing His meager five barely loaves and two fish with those around Him, He challenges each of us, in whatever seemingly hopeless, helpless situation in which we may find ourselves, to find the will power to do, the will power to become, the people we are meant to be. Today’s gospel challenges us to be thankful for the blessings with which we’ve been blessed and be willing to share those blessing – our own hidden stashes, with those in need.
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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