August 26th, 2007
I got this idea from an article I read a while back. Have you ever been bumped from a flight for which you had a confirmed reservation? You arrived at the airport presuming you had a seat on the plane. After all you made the reservation weeks ago. But what a lot of us don’t appreciate is the fact that many carriers overbook flights just to make sure the flight is full. Getting bumped happens more often than we think. What happens to the person who gets bumped? He or she is disappointed, frustrated, and angry and there’s not too much they can do about it. A connection can’t be made. A vacation is ruined, a meeting is missed. There are all kinds of consequences.
What has this got to do with today’s Scripture? Maybe the connection can be found in the word,’presumed’. Because I made a reservation, I presumed I had a seat, I presumed I’d be on that flight.
In our first reading from Isaiah, Jews were of the conviction that because they were the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they were members of God’s chosen people, they presumed they were guaranteed a welcome in the kingdom of God. Others, non Jews, would be bumped.
Luke’s reading today is warning those early followers of Jesus not to presume that because they saw and heard and followed Jesus they were guaranteed a welcome in the kingdom of God, they would never have to worry about being ‘bumped’. Others might be, but not them.
Jesus made it quite clear that it would not be those who said, ‘Lord, Lord, who would enter the kingdom, but those who did the will of His Father.’ That’s why we pray that we live this Mass outside these walls in the lives we live. Nominal membership and outward belonging are not enough.
When young couples come to get married in the church and tell me they are Catholic, or Anglican or Baptists or whatever, I always ask, ‘is that a capital c or a small c, a capital a or a small a. Are you a cultural Catholic or a committed Catholic?’
Before the world began, God chose us in Christ to be God’s adopted sons and daughters. But we have to respond to being chosen in a positive way. We can’t presume on it or take it for granted. If we let tardiness or indifference wean us away from what that being ‘chosen’ demands of us, we can be bumped.
Using the same idea of the plane reservation – Isaiah and Luke are letting the people of their separate times know that they don’t have reservations on a private jet. They will be seated next to people they never expected. What do you mean non Jews are on this plane, what do you mean non Christians are on this plane, and what do you mean non Muslims are on this plane?
Isaiah’s words must have shocked his Jewish listeners, “I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign on them and some of them I will make priests and Levites.” Luke’s listeners must have shared the same shock, “they shall come from the east and the west, from north and south and will eat in the kingdom of God.”
We have to remember the great awakening Peter had after his encounter with the family of the pagan Cornelius, “what I have come to realize is this, that any person of any nationality who does what is right is acceptable to God.”
We are all chosen, we all have reservations, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus – every person of every nationality are loved by God, redeemed by Jesus, Who they may never know.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can thank God for God’s graciousness toward each of us for choosing us in Christ before the world began. May we be blessed with the grace to respond to our choseness and not only hear the word of God but live the word of God and may none of us ever be bumped.
| Posted in Homily |
August 19th, 2007
A number of years ago there was a popular book titled, “I never promised you a rose garden.” It was about a psychiatrist and a young woman with whom she was working. The struggle was to bring this woman out of her dream worlds into the world of reality. She finally managed to do so but the young woman was stunned by the harshness she found in her new real world. She shared her disappointment in her new world with her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist’s response was, ‘I never promised you a rose garden.’ In other words, I never told you life would be easy because I know it is not.
In a way this is the message of our first reading from Jeremiah and our gospel from Luke. When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the people God never promised him a rose garden. “Stand up and brace yourself for action, stand up and tell them all I command you…they will fight against you but you shall not overcome, for I am with you to deliver you.”
Jeremiah paid the cost of his discipleship when he preached an unpopular message, advising the king to surrender to the Babylonian army besieging the city. Why waste innocent lives to defend a hopeless cause, forget your pride and think of the people. The military, industrial complex of that ancient time was determined, Jeremiah got to go. But Jeremiah would not go away; he stood his ground and would not be silent. It cost him.
In the gospel Luke is reflecting on the reality of the Christian community of his time, a reality that has repeated itself up to the present day when people make life choices that conflict with the wishes of others. In Luke’s time those who believed in and followed Jesus were seen as traitors – deserters of the faith of their fathers and mothers. They were seen as people who rejected the God of Israel or the gods of Rome and Athens. Their choice to follow Christ split families; they were rejected by kith and kin. Luke is telling them, this is the cost of discipleship. Jesus did not promise those who would follow him a rose garden, He warned us, ‘If anyone would be My disciple he must take up the cross and follow Me.’
In our day we have been blessed with so many examples of men and women who have made our world a better place because they ‘spoke the truth in justice’ and paid the price. St. Paul refers to such people as ‘a cloud of witnesses.’ Archbishop Romero, murdered because he demanded justice for the peasants of El Salvador – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu exposing the evil of apartheid – Martin Luther King and all those who marched with him for civil rights – Ita Ford, Maura Clark, Dorothy Donovan, religious women murdered for standing with the poor and disposed – Sister Helen Prejean who continues to speak out against the unjust justice of capital punishment. All these men and women who knew Christ never promised us a rose garden and were willing to pay the cost of true discipleship.
And then we have the whistle blowers in our own country, brave men and women who exposed wrong doings and injustices in the church, the government, the justice system. Good men and women who were willing to pay the price by speaking the truth.
How does today’s scripture apply to us? We won’t be asked to face hostile police men; we won’t have to worry about being taken away in the night. But are we willing to make decisions that may separate us from family and friends, maybe even our livelihood?
It costs to name injustice, especially in the work place. It costs to confront a bully of a boss who browbeats and cows good people who depend upon his favor to hold on to their jobs. It costs to confront people who abuse their power over others whether in the family household or a work place. We tend to look out for our own security and safety and keep silent when we know good people are being abused. It costs to ‘bell the cat.’
Are we willing to jeopardize our own popularity in our workplace when we let it be known we don’t appreciate sexist or racist remarks. Are we willing to pay the price for challenging remarks that belittle someone else’s faith or culture or life style? It may cost us if we speak up for what we believe, but Jesus never promised us a rose garden.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other that we be given the strength we need to be faithful to Christ’s will and way as we try to live our lives as Christian men and women. We know Christ never promised us a rose garden but He did promise to be with us in every circumstance of our lives, especially in those circumstances that will make us pay the cost of discipleship. May we always trust that promise.
August 12th, 2007
Today’s gospel is a difficult one on which to preach. It’s pretty demanding and can make us uncomfortable. That part about selling what we have, letting go of all we treasure and trusting in the coming kingdom of God doesn’t compute with our innate need for security. I read a bit of a commencement address titled, “Chase your passion not your pension.” The speaker advised the students, “If you chase money it may catch you and if it catches you, you’ll be forever its slave.” How much better will it be for all of us if we chased and are caught by God? We chase God and we are caught by God every time we try to be the person God calls us to be, we chase God every time we try live like Christ lives.
That part about the servants who fail to follow their Master’s wishes is something we might think about. Some say this part of Luke’s gospel, which was written about 50 years after the resurrection, was meant to apply to the leaders in the Christian community, leaders put in charge of the Master’s household, given the charge of caring for the community. We have those who followed the Master’s directions and we have those who didn’t, those who took advantage of the Master’s absence and abused their position and their authority over the community of faith.
In the history of the church we’ve always had examples of those entrusted with the household of the church community who have been faithful to the Master’s wishes and we’ve had those who have abused their position of authority. In our own time we’ve all been hurt and disappointed and embarrassed by the examples of sexual abuse and the cover up by those in authority. “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
One of the lessons we might learn from today’s demanding gospel is that our actions have consequences. Our actions, our lifestyles, our attitudes, the way we deal with other people all have consequences. Things come home to roost. If we abuse our bodies by over eating, over drinking, using drugs there will be consequences. Common sense tells us this.
If we are open to and accepting of different ways of thinking and living then the consequence is that we are enriched by a broader view of life and its variety – if we are closed minded we rob ourselves of a richer way of looking at life.
If we recognize the truth that God’s grace works in the lives of people and communities of faiths other than our own, the consequence is that we can come to acknowledge the goodness and holiness in these faith communities. If we believe we have a corner on the truth, we have all the answers, we have a corner of God, then we deny ourselves exposure to the rich traditions of other faith communities
If we stereotype men and women of other cultures, if we speak despairingly of ‘these people’ then we lock ourselves into ignorance of cultures older than our own and we are diminished.
The signs of the times, the changing weather patterns around the globe, the desertification of soil, the destruction of rain forests, the pollution of lakes, the poisoning of the very air we breathe, the diminishment of the cod and salmon and other species, all these facts of life tell us that our consumerism, our gauging of earth’s resources is having consequences on the life systems that maintain the health of Earth. The way we live on Earth will impact us, for the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves and isn’t that the truth?
We are a blessed people, blessed with faith, family and friends. We live in a blessed land. The Master of the household of creation has entrusted these blessings to each of us. It is best we remember, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.” As we continue to celebrate this Mass may we be graced to appreciate these blessings and use them wisely so that at the Master’s return He may see in each of us a good and faithful servant, worthy of our Master’s love and praise.
August 5th, 2007
Today’s first reading and the gospel really speak for themselves. We get the message but do we really internalize it. We can see it’s ‘right on’ for people we know but do we apply it to ourselves and our lifestyles.
Years ago we were promised that all this new technology coming down the line would free us up for more leisure time. I remember reading an article on how people have to prepare themselves on how to wisely use all their leisure time that would be theirs in the future. Today we can honestly ask, “What leisure time”? There was something on the radio the other day about the need to take at least a full week’s vacation if we are to benefit from time off. The idea of taking every Friday off through the summer instead of one or two weeks is really not beneficial. We need to take a break, to take a rest. The excuse most people give for not taking time off is that when they come back to work they come back to a full desk worth of work and hundreds of e-mails to be answered.
Vanity of vanities – what do mortals get from all the toil and strain for which they toil under the sun? For all their days are filled with pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.” Do these words resonate with you? Someone wrote that the word vanity is meant to describe a lifestyle, a mind set, a relationship that is empty of purpose or meaning – it’s like a vapor or a mist – no substance.
And in the gospel Jesus asks the question, “and for what”? Whatever material possessions we amass in life, whatever financial security – we die and then there’s the will. I’ve mentioned it before, there is nothing like a will to divide a family, to bring out the worst in people. The best will ever written was, ‘being of sound mind and body, I spent it all, you pay for the funeral.’
I’d like to tell you a story about a safety deposit box. A good man died. He had two daughters. He thought he wrote a fair will and that they would be satisfied with and respect his will. Not so. For whatever reason, one daughter, in fact the one who had the least to do with her father, thought she deserved more and gave the executor nothing but grief. In the midst of settling everything they found a key to a safety deposit box. What could possibly be in it? The daughter who thought she had been hard done by was sure her father had stashed away a lot of cash. Since she lived out of the country she hired a lawyer to be present when the executor opened the box. She wanted her interests protected. Well the day came to open the box – no cash, no jewelry. Photos of the two girls as children, drawing they had done in kindergarten that had once decorated the fridge door and their adoption papers. These were their father’s treasure. But as the saying goes, “one man’s gold is another man’s junk.” His greedy daughter was not the least bit interested in her father’s gold. Vanity of vanities.
The story Jesus tells of the foolish man with his every expanding appetite for bigger and better barns speaks to anyone of us who imagines “I am somebody because of all that I have.” Every day we are condition to be consumers, never satisfied with what is enough but always lured to needing the biggest, the best, the fastest, the costliest, the handiest, the latest, anything and everything that will help us feel a ‘cut above the rest.’ Vanities of vanities
I like to tell the story of the young newly married couple who were out for a walk one evening. Friends of theirs drove by in a beautiful new car. They waved at each other and the young man looked with envy at that car. He could hardly afford a bicycle. He said to his new bride, ‘don’t worry honey, someday we’ll be rich too.’ Every so wisely she answered, ‘we are rich, maybe someday we’ll have money.’
If you want to see your gold, your treasure, look at your spouse, look at you children, consider your health, and appreciate your Catholic faith that teaches you, “Before the world began God chose us in Christ to be His adopted sons and daughters.”
As we continue to celebrate this Mass, we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to know where our true wealth is to be found. We are all rich with family, friends and faith. Maybe someday we’ll have money.
July 29th, 2007
Remember the story I told last week about the young boy getting ready for his First Communion? I’d told him that when Jesus comes to us in Communion He comes as food and as friend. I asked him what he does when a friend comes to visit. He told me he would chat with Jesus, tell Him how he’s doing and then he would ask Jesus how He’s doing. Perfect prayer is a heart to heart conversation of friends.
In teaching the apostles how to pray Jesus teaches that in prayer we enter into a relationship. When you pray say ‘Our Father’ – we are into a relationship of child to parent. Between parent and child there are healthy relationships and unhealthy relationships. Relationships that are open and honest, supportive and life giving are good relationships. Relationships that are controlling, manipulative and abusive are certainly unhealthy. As a child grows to adulthood his/her relationship with a parent changes, or is supposed to. How often have you heard someone say, or maybe you’ve said yourself – “parents never let you grow up”? We could be forty years old and still being treated like a child. Our decisions are judged, our choices are questioned as if we didn’t have a brain to rub together. We feel our own adulthood; our own life experience is not respected.
In the gospel of today Jesus wants us to enter, through prayer, through that trusting conversation of friends, into an adult relationship with our Father. We come to our Father with our needs and our fears, but first of all we should come with praise and thanksgiving; ‘Hallowed be Thy name.’ One time Jesus told the apostles;” when you pray don’t babble and prattle, don’t use a lot of words.” He told them, ‘your Father knows what you need even before you ask’, He will take care of you, but first of all recognize the One with Whom you are conversing, God Who gives you your very existence.
But we all have difficulty with Jesus’ promise, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.” It’s not been our life experience. In those desperate, frantic times in our lives haven’t we wondered, “Does anyone hear my cry, does anyone hear me knocking”? The story Jesus tells in the gospel is to encourage us to persistency, to never give up.
So Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” so that we will come to prayer with a deep trust in the Father Who loves us, Who knows our needs even before we ask.
You know as parents there are times when you have to say ‘no’ to the persistence, call it nagging, of a son or daughter. Whatever it is they want is so important to them, everyone else has what ever it is, everyone else is going to where they want to go. You are so mean not to give them what they want, right now. But you know it’s not good for them, now is not the time. You’re not being mean, spiteful, you are being loving and caring. Your trust your parental instinct.
Jesus asks us, trust the parental instinct of our God by meaning what we say when we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” In His own agony He prayed, “if it is possible let this chalice pass me by – spare me tomorrow’s pain – “yet not my will but Your will be done.” The prayer that is so common to us asks us to trust the truth, God knows what we need but God sees the bigger picture and there are times when what we want, what we desperately want is not what is best right now.
As we continue to celebrate this Mass in which we will pray the very prayer Jesus taught us, we can pray for ourselves and for each other to trust the parental instinct of God and place ourselves, our worries, our fears, our hopes in our Father’s hands, trusting that when the time is right we will receive that for which we ask, find that for which we seek and the door of our desires will be opened.
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