Thursday, November 7, 2019

Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 14:7-12; Luke 15:1-10)

It is said that a person is known by the company she keeps.  If she goes about with good people, she is probably worthy of trust.  But if she hangs around with liars, her words should be scrutinized.  It is for nothing, therefore, that the Pharisees in today’s gospel are suspicious of Jesus.  He seems to enjoy the company of sinners.

But Jesus will no more adopt the ways of sinners than Pope Francis will look for a luxury hotel.  Quite the contrary, Jesus goes out to sinners because they need him.  They are, as the gospel says, “lost.”  This is a fate worse than death.  Unless they receive help soon, they will not find their way home.  They will perish in a fearful place.

We too must try to bring back “lost” believers.  We do not want to see our loved ones, or anyone else, perish.  Our strategy is simple.  It does not include harangues.  Rather, we talk with them in our homes as people who love them.  More importantly, we show by the qualities of our lives God’s blessings for those who love Him.

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Thursday if the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Philippians 3:3-8A; Luke 15:1-10)

Last week in a perceptive column author David Brooks analyzed the social ecology of American society.  He said that Americans are becoming increasingly lonely.  We spend way too much time by ourselves often in front of a computer.  We do not join organizations as our parents and grandparents did.  The resultant isolation triggers bizarre fantasies of power, suicide, or the yearning for drugs.  Brooks calls for a war on “division, discord, and isolation.”  But, he writes, the war is to take place not among different kinds of people but inside every human heart.  Today’s gospel indicates both the ongoing war of the heart and the spiritual weapon necessary to win it.

Jesus tells the Pharisees and scribes of the need for repentance.  He points to the tax collectors who are giving up their propensity to extort money from the people.  He says that their moral turnarounds cause rejoicing in heaven.  But it is not that the Pharisees and scribes are so righteous that they cannot precipitate a party among the saints.  Rather, they and the rest of humanity have dark sides that need illumination.  All people have hearts divided between loving and loathing, between serving and being served.

As wealthy, our society affords many people opportunities to live distant from others.  Not only do many have their own households, they can also can work, shop, and recreate without leaving home.  As luxurious as this may seem, we must resist at least some of it.  If we are going to live in harmony with ourselves, we must interact with others.  Jesus has already shown us how to do it.  We should follow his example of civility, service, and friendship.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, religious

(Philippians 3:3-8a; Luke 15:1-10)

A story about St. Martin de Porres illustrates the vision of today’s gospel.  According to the testimony of a Dominican friar made during the investigation into Martin’s sanctity, Martin loved animals.  One late night the friar followed Martin in the community dining room.  The saint served a plate of food to his animal friends.  Soon a dog and a cat were eating at his feet.  Then Martin spotted a rat in a hole in the wall looking hungrily at the two larger animals.  Martin invited the rat to join the feast with words to the effect, “Come, little one, don’t be afraid; come and eat.”  The rat joined his natural predators and all ate happily together.

Jesus has come to the world to invite everyone to his Father’s table.  He does not want anyone excluded.  When the Pharisees and scribes grumble that Jesus associates with sinners, Jesus tells three parables about God’s love for them.  Two of these parables form today’s gospel reading.  The lost sheep is the sinner for whom the shepherd goes far out of his way to find.  The party hosted by the woman upon finding a lost coin indicates the banquet which God is preparing for all the different peoples inhabiting the earth.

Along with being charmed by Jesus’ parables and pious stories of the saints, we must take to heart Jesus’ message.  He calls us to reform our lives and then to the table prepared by his Father.  Reform means letting go of self-centeredness to assist others, especially those most in need. 

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Thursday of the thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 14:7-12; Luke 15:1-10)

His family came together to celebrate his special day. They made a toast, but it was not with the usual fare.  Not wine but juice filled their cups.  They were rejoicing as their husband, father, and grandfather had been twenty-five years without a drink of alcohol.  This is the kind of celebration that the Pharisees criticize in today’s gospel.

Sinners are coming to Jesus.  They glimpse in him the arrival of the kingdom of God.  Not wanting to let their moment of opportunity pass by, they repent for their past lives.  Jesus welcomes them with open arms, and the Pharisees wonder what is going on.  They don’t see the kingdom in Jesus.  They believe that repentant sinners should be on their knees not at the dinner table.

We must take care not to act like the Pharisees.  Grousing when others known to have lived dissolutely begin to change betrays God’s grace.  We should indeed thank God to have more witnesses stand with us in testimony to the faith.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, religious

(Romans 14:7-12; Luke 15:1-10)

St. Martin de Porres, a half-Black Peruvian, at first thought of himself as unworthy of religious life. When the Dominican friars of Lima, who accepted him in their convent as a servant, wanted him to join their ranks, he was resistant. Was it the color of his skin that made him consider himself as unfit? Or perhaps it was the awareness of himself as a sinner? In either case his humility seems exaggerated today. It may be that Martin eventually reappraised his own self-worth to realize that although he was not perfect, he too was redeemed by Christ.

In today’s gospel Jesus demonstrates that no one is outside the range of God’s salvific action. Tax collectors, at least in Jesus’ day, are notoriously greedy. “Sinners,” perhaps Luke’s euphemism for prostitutes, are likewise given to depravity. But Jesus expresses loving care for these unsavory types by the dual parables of the shepherd and the housekeeper. No one should consider herself or himself as so lost that God would not go out of His way to rectify her or his life.

Christian holiness starts from the realization of oneself as a sinner. Everyone should recognize that deep down he or she is inordinately self-centered and avaricious. From this consciousness we hear Jesus’ call to conversion and look to him as both model and impetus for overcoming the inclinations to sin. Then we legitimately see ourselves as works of a new creation with full membership in the company of saints.

Homilette for Thursday, November 8, 2007

Thursday, XXI Week of Ordinary Time

(Luke 15:1-10)

Dominicans tell a story about St. Dominic that corresponds in a way to the gospel today. Once when Dominic was traveling in southern France, he stopped at an inn whose keeper was an Albigensian heretic. Dominic engaged him in a discussion that lasted the whole night. In the morning the innkeeper was ready to convert to orthodox Christianity. The story indicates how difficult it is to turn one who has defied the Church back to the faith.

Certainly Jesus has as large a challenge when preaching to tax collectors and sinners. Yet he seems to change their hearts with all the facility of a potter molding clay. Evidently the Pharisees are scandalized by his associating with these people. But knowing the duplicity of our own hearts, we may suggest that they also resented Jesus for his success. After all, if he was bringing back people from contempt of religion to religious observance, there is certainly Scriptural precedent to rejoice. But either they thought the conversions insincere or, more likely, they could not tolerate Jesus accomplishing such difficult transformations. So they find reasons to undermine his efforts.

We must take care not to give in to envy of others’ successes. We might criticize the achievement of the head salesperson by saying that her territory is easier than ours. We might carp at the “teacher of the year” by saying that he concentrated too much on test scores. Perhaps we have a point, but it is also possible that another has more talent than we or worked harder than we. We should be ready to congratulate the person and to thank God for the benefits her work attained for others.