July 27th, 2008
The parable Jesus tells in today’s gospel has a foundation in reality. The land of Palestine was a famous coastland trade route between Persia, Syria and Egypt. Palestine was also a dangerous place to live. Besides being a trade route it was also an invasion route with armies from north and south attacking the land. Facing such dangers it was not unusual for ordinary people to gather whatever they valued and bury it in the ground to save it from looting soldiers. It could happen that a family could be wiped out or taken away as slaves. Years later someone could happen to come across such buried treasure. It’s been known to happen even today in different countries in Europe when a farmer plowing his field turns up something of value or an ancient artifact.
The points of the parables of the buried treasure and the precious pearl are God’s kingdom is something of extraordinary value; it’s worth everything we have and calls for our total commitment.
We know that the Christian community of Matthew’s time was under great pressure. Those who chose to follow Jesus as Messiah were seen as men and women who abandoned their ancient faith. Their decision to follow Jesus split families, alienated friends, and meant expulsion from the synagogue. It was a costly affair.
The parable of the buried treasure and the pearl of great price are all about making a choice to accept Jesus for who He is or not. They are all about appreciating the value of a living relationship with Him and being willing to pay the price for such a relationship.
Jesus is the new “treasure” buried in the field of humanity. Once a person understands the value of the relationship which Jesus offers, that person lets go of all that gave him or her value before and buys the “field” with the “treasure” buried in it – no matter what the cost.
We don’t have to make such hard choices as did the people of Matthew’s community. I think it would be safe to say that our need for a living relationship with Christ is on the back burner of our lives. We try to fit it in to family obligations, a busy life style, and a promising career. We can honestly ask ourselves, is a lifegiving relationship with Christ really a treasure, a pearl of great price for which we are willing to give up everything else – or is it something we take for granted, not too much front and center and for our part, not too demanding.
Could it be that the cost of coming to a deeper, lifegiving relationship with Christ might mean finding the time to spend a bit of peace and quiet in prayer each day, or making the time to be more faithful to Sunday Mass or even trying to attend daily Mass?
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we pray as Solomon prayed for an understanding mind and the ability to discern between good and evil and in that wisdom come to better appreciate what a treasure, what a pearl of great price is a deep, lifegiving personal friendship with Christ, Who loved us and gave His life for us. And if ever push came to shove – as it does sometimes for some people – we would be willing to give up all that is precious to us and make our own that great treasure, the pearl of great price and be able to say with St. Paul, “I live now, not I but Christ lives in me and the life I live, I live trusting in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me.”
| Posted in Homily |
July 20th, 2008
One of the things I do when we have school Mass is ask the children ‘tell me who you are.’ They can all answer, ‘we’re good people’. And they are good people, we are all good people. But as we all know from our own life experience, good people can do some pretty hurtful things, thoughtless things, even mean things. I think that’s what today’s gospel parable of the wheat and the weeds is all about. We all have within us wheat and weeds. St. Paul was speaking of the reality of his own weeds and wheat when he said of himself, “the good that I would that I do not and the evil I would not do, that I do.” God in His wisdom lets wheat and weeds both grow together and judges us with mildness and great forbearance. He holds back the enthusiasm of those who would want to root out our weeds lest more damage than good be done.
It is good to know that the “kingdom of heaven” is not a place or an institution, but an attitude, a mindset where one places ones trust and priorities. Jesus told us, ‘the kingdom of God is within you.’ We would make a mistake to think the kingdom is limited to the Christian faith or the Catholic Church. On the feast of Christ the King we hear that God’s kingdom is an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.
Whenever, wherever and who ever works for and brings about in the human family or in the earth community, truth and life, holiness and grace, and especially justice love and peace – they bring about the kingdom of God. It is our life time effort to bring about the kingdom in our own lives as we try to be people of holiness and grace, justice love and peace.
There can be times in our lives when the wheat of our Catholic, Christian faith is choked by the weeds of our prejudice or our narrow mindedness, weeds that choke our ability to see the good and the dignity of people of other races, religions or cultures. We can ask ourselves whether or not we get choked on the weeds of arrogance and a sense of superiority because we find the wheat of our Christian faith which calls us to love and respect men and women different from ourselves to be too demanding and difficult.
Do our weeds of indifference and apathy stifle the wheat of our sense of responsibility to the poor, the homeless, those good people less fortunate than ourselves, do such weeds desensitize us to the needs of such good people and choke the wheat that teaches us, ‘whatever you do to one of these, the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do to me?’
Do our weeds of busyness and frantic activity choke the wheat of our need to spend time in peace and quiet, our need to spend time in prayer with God?
As we praise and worship God in this ‘green space’ can we admit that our weeds of consumerism and waste are choking our wheat of respect and reverence for God’s good creation?
The good that we would, that we do not and the evil that we would not do, that we do. This is the lifetime struggle of our wheat and weeds.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be graced to know that our sins and failures don’t really agree with our real selves. Our sins and failings are not good things, nor are any of the weeds growing in us wonderful or desirable and they are only a part of who we are. Our urges to put ourselves and our needs before others, our impulse to think less of those different from ourselves, our tendency to neglect the presence and grace of God in our lives, our tendency to take for granted the bounty and beauty of earth – all these are never the full description of who we are. We are good people who are also mistake making beings and we should try to remember and celebrate, there is more to us than our weeds.
July 13th, 2008
I read a short reflection on today’s gospel. The author of this reflection thinks that many who read today’s gospel will try to figure out what kind of soil they are into which the seed, the word of God, the life of God has been sown. Do we see ourselves as people of superficial faith, with no depth, no convictions or are we so distracted with more important life issues that we call upon our faith only in times of troubles or crisis. Do we imagine ourselves as good soil in which the gift of faith takes roots and flourishes? The author of this reflection wisely cautions us, “don’t go there.” He claims if we do we’ll only end up in self-negativity and preoccupation. We’ll keep wondering ‘how am I doing?’ or well get into comparing our faith life with others we imagine to be of deeper faith and end up centering on our failings or weaknesses.
He maintains we should go to the Sower, the Rain-Sender and open our lives to the wonder and the mystery of God’s grace working in our lives in the simplest of ways, in the most mysterious of ways. He tells us, “Listen with the ears you have and see with the eyes you have and know that certainty and security are traps and lead only to yourself.” The life of God, our own personal relationship with God is established on the fidelity of God, a God Who has made promises God will keep. Our relationship with God is founded on a Love that will remain around and within us until what it was sent to do in me and you is accomplished.
We may be tempted to see only our faults and failing, we may be tempted to get into comparing ourselves with others and that is a waste of time. I remember a poster I saw years ago of a young boy – a bit of a ragamuffin – and the poster said, “be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet.” God’s not finished with any of us yet. The seed of God’s life in each of us is growing in its own mysterious ways and we have to trust that truth. God’s work is not finished.
Going back to our first reading we can hear with new hearing the promise of our faithful God, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it spring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be, that goes out of my mouth, it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in all the things for which I sent it.”
There is that quote from scripture, “God works in strange ways God’s wonders to perform.” This is true for all of us. We have to leave ourselves open to the mystery of God’s grace working in all of us – we don’t step out of ourselves and wonder “how am I doing?” In a way we are not the doers – we are a graced and gifted people – “before the world began God chose us in Christ”. As St. Paul knew “by God’s grace I am what I am and His grace has not been in vain”.
As we continue to celebrate this Eucharist, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we make our own the prayer of the Church, “May God Who has begun this good work within us bring it to completion.”
July 6th, 2008
During my imposed weeks of inactivity I had a chance to read a few novels. One character in one of the novels titled “The Shack” described God as cold, distant and disinterested. This is a far cry for the wonderful invitation we heard in the gospel. The welcoming Christ invites us, “come to me all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” How many of us here at this Mass are weary, drained of energy and vision, how many of us at this Mass find our lives burdensome and oppressive? Maybe right now things are ok, we are coping, doing all right, but there have been times when we’ve been hit by illness in the family, by the loss of a job, we faced the death of one we loved, or there have been times when what we thought were close relationships have been weakened by misunderstanding and imagined hurts. And maybe at such times we’ve found ourselves bent low under such burdensome circumstances, and we too felt God was cold, distant and disinterested.
There can be times when we are more convinced of the distance rather than the presence of God in our lives. The saintly Mother Teresa tells us she was more aware of the distance than of the presence of God in her life – but her faith in God’s love for her kept her trusting in God’s presence and care for her and she took Christ’s words in today’s gospel seriously – she accepted His invitation, “come to me” and she yoked herself to Christ’s love and His transforming power. Christ’s yoke is so far removed from the crushing yoke of ritual perfection and outward observance imposed by religious fanatics of that time and ours.
We’ve been told time and again how Christ entered fully in to our human condition, He was like us in all things, He knew joys and happiness, He knew the sustaining gift of close friends, He knew family life and love and He knew great sorrow and suffering. He knew the closeness of God – “the Father and I are one” and He knew the distance of God, “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?”
As we continue to celebrate this Mass today we pray for ourselves and for each other that every day of life, whether that day be a good day or a day of burden, we will be blessed to hear and accept the great invitation – come to me, bring me your joys, your happiness, you accomplishments, your sense of well being – come to me, yoke yourself to me, let yourself be supported, buoyed up, carried by My love for you and we will bear those burdens, those hurts, those pains together.
June 30th, 2008
| Posted in Events |
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