August 17th, 2008
Back in the early 60s I witnessed the marriage of a young couple. She was from Spain and he was from England but living in Canada. They met while he was on vacation in Spain. He took instructions and I received him into the church just before he went to Spain for his wedding. By chance they were married in a Passionist parish in Madrid.
Her first years in Canada were very difficult. Her English was not all that good and coming from Franco’s Spain she found the openness of life in Canada to be a bit overwhelming. Her greatest difficulty was dealing with her husband’s friends. They were all Protestants. In Spain she’d never met a Protestant. Being a “good” Catholic she was convinced she should have nothing to do with them. She worried she was doing something wrong when her husband had his friends over to their home and she let them in. She was stunned by the number of Protestant churches in the area – she’d never seen one before and certainly had never been in one. Socializing with other people of other faiths was all new to her. It took her quite a while to feel at ease rubbing shoulders with them. I’m talking about over 40 years ago and about a woman who came from a very closed society. Things are quite different for her today; she’d be embarrassed by her attitudes of those past days.
I thought of this couple when I read today’s gospel.
The Jewish people were convinced they were the people of God. Time and again they were told. “I will be your God and you will be My people.” Israel jealously protected its sanctity as God’s Holy People, by excluding anyone from outside its borders; they were the “foreigners”, the Goi. Foreigners were to be avoided, lest the Jews be tempted to worship strange gods and take on pagan practices. They strove to be racially and ritually pure. When Jews returned from foreign lands they would clean the soles of their sandals lest they contaminate the soil of the ‘holy land’ with foreign soil. Jesus grew up with this kind of mentality; avoid the stranger, the foreigner. This was part of His culture. As he matured He saw the limitations of such a mentality. He came to know God’s love for all people. He scandalized His own disciples with the way He associated with the Roman centurion and other non Jews and with the way He associated with woman. Bit by bit Jesus was distancing Himself from His own cultural taboos.
Today’s Gospel makes Jesus and His disciples look quite guilty of prejudice and selective charity, even bigotry. Here we have this non-Jewish woman, a foreigner, calling to Jesus for help with her sick daughter. Usually we see Jesus responding quickly and with great compassion to such requests. But Jesus turns His back on her. Basically He tells her to get lost. His disciples want Him to grant her request, not because they cared about her daughter but just to get rid of her. She is a bother, an embarrassment. So there is tension. Jesus tells her, “I haven’t come for the likes of you; My mission is to recall, recover and rededicate the lost sheep of Israel. He has come to feed the Jews, not dogs. This desperate mother will not give up; she turns His words back on Him. ‘even the dogs eat of the crumbs from the master’s table.’ Whether Jesus was testing her or struggling with His own inbred attitudes toward the outsider we don’t know, but He gives in, “woman great is your faith”, a faith He found missing in so many of His own people. Her daughter is healed instantly.
What has all this got to do with us? We are a parish family made up of people from many different lands and cultures. Some of us are cradle Catholics; some are converts to the faith. St. Paul described the first Christian communities as ‘neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ.’ But we all have an innate tendency to be selective, exclusive. We are comfortable with conformity, people of our own kind. We can resent the demands of people new to this land that their faith, their culture and customs be accepted and respected. If they want to live here then let them be Canadians, be like us.
Having heard the words of today’s Gospel and seeing Jesus’ own struggles with His own culture of exclusiveness, can we hear Him asking us to hear the requests of the Canaanites of our own families, our neighbours, our parish to be accepted for who they are and what they are. Jesus kept crossing boundaries with His welcoming words and healing touch. Can we do the same, not just within our parish family but in the living of our daily lives?
Are we willing to overcome our annoyance, our impatience with Canaanites of our own lives – people who intrude into our set ways of thinking and living and make demands on us to accept and respect them as they are – regardless of their faith or culture or life style?
In today’s gospel we see Jesus having a change of heart, we see Him overcoming His own culture of exclusiveness and superiority. As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to open our lives to all those men, women and children who come into our lives and accept and respect their many differences, differences that in many ways make us one – one as people embraced and loved as God’s own people.
| Posted in Homily |
August 3rd, 2008
The very first words of today’s gospel set the scene of the gospel. Jesus has just heard the shocking news that His cousin, John the Baptist, had been murdered by Herod. He needed time and space to take all this in. He went with his friends to what He thought was a deserted place to grieve the death of this good man.
Things didn’t go as planned. When he got out of the boat He was confronted by a large crowd. These people had no idea of what Jesus was going through, probably they didn’t even care. They had their own problems and they needed Him.
We hear that Jesus had compassion on them, in other words, His heart went out to them. Forgetting His own feelings of loss, His own need for peace and quiet, He reached out to these needy men, women and children. His listened to their sad stories, He spoke to them of God’s love and proved that love as He cured those sick in mind and body. At the end of the day He took what little food He had and shared it with them, encouraging them to share with others the food they had with them.
There can be times in our lives when we are convinced God really doesn’t have time for us, that we really are not that important. Maybe we feel God has a grudge against us because of our past neglect of Him. We are convinced God knows we only come to Him when we are in trouble or want something, otherwise we seldom think of God. Or we’re sure that God resents us because of our past sins.
So often when we let such feelings color our ways of thinking about God what we are really doing is projecting our ways of thinking and relating to others unto God. We imagine God treats us the way we treat others. We imagine God is at tightfisted with His love and His forgiveness as we are with ours. We forget that we are cursed with memories while God is blessed with amnesia. It has been said that in the beginning God made us in God’s image and likeness and ever since we have been making God in our image and likeness and that’s why our God is too small. Our small God cannot grasp our true God.
If we want a good image of God’s love for us we can imagine a tsunami. Remember those TV images of that tsunami that hit Indonesia, a gigantic wall of water sweeping up everything in its path? This is a perfect image of God’s love for us, an eternal, unstoppable surge of love that sweeps up and carries along everything in its path – never in a destructive way but in a loving, life giving way.
It was that tsunami of love that gave Jesus the patience and the strength to put aside his own need for a time to grieve over John the Baptist, a time for peace and quiet and to empathize with the needs of the people who came looking for Him. It was that tsunami of love that washed Jesus up on Calvary, where in his final act of love, He died for us.
Last week’s gospel told the parable of the pearl of great price. Can we imagine ourselves as that pearl, a pearl Christ finds and gives up all that He has, His every life, to purchase us?
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for the grace to appreciate the powerful words of St. Paul in our second reading – I am convinced that neither death nor life, no angel, no rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation – including or faults and failing, we ever separate us from the love God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord, Who loved us and gave His life for us – pearls of great price.
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.”
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.”
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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