Thursday, April 3, 2014

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47)

It's takes no great insight to see that in planning soccer games on Sunday mornings society is replacing religion with physical fitness.  Sure, some families faithfully hustle to church at another hour during the day, but most are content to substitute competition for worship on the Lord's Day.  Today’s first reading recalls the Israelites in the desert also forsaking God.

Tired of waiting on the Lord, the people take religion into their own hands and create objects of worship for themselves.  It is a familiar story.  Rebellious hearts refuse to accept the legacy that has been handed down to them and search for something different to treasure and worship.  In the gospel Jesus pleads with the Jews to accept him as the faithful interpreter of the Mosaic covenant who has come to reestablish the closeness of the people to God. They, however, content with their structures of privilege would prefer that he just leave the premises.

We must take care to live our faith as it has been handed on to us.  This entails not only attending mass on Sundays but also not hankering after fulfillment from pleasure, power, or athletic prowess.  Stated simply, it means to follow Jesus in his love for his Father and all our brothers and sisters.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Lent

(Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47)

There is no end to people’s fascination with idols.  Tabloid newspapers and even more sophisticated media easily find consumers wanting to know more about LaBron James or Lindsay Lohan.  This fact is amusing but it is also disturbing.  Taken up with these false gods, the public misses the real God.  This is why Jesus sounds so frustrated in today’s gospel.

Jewish authorities are hassling Jesus for having cured a paralytic on the Sabbath.  Jesus has defended the action as a work of life that God continually performs every day of the week.  In today’s passage Jesus concludes the argument.  He says that if the authorities really understood the Scriptures, with which they are accusing Jesus of wrongdoing, they would recognize that they testify to his being from God, not against God.

Looking toward Holy Week, we need to reaffirm who it is that will command our attention.  It is no less than God’s eternal Son.  His actions -- and nothing we can produce nor knowledge we can have nor other person we can know -- will give us our heart’s deepest desire. 

Homilette for Monday July 30, 2007

Monday, XVII week of Ordinary Time

(Exodus 32)

Upon seeing a picture of Lindsay Lohan for the first time, a sixty-seven year old friend remarked that movie stars don’t seem to last very long anymore. Their attraction may be more ephemeral than before, but still the public never exhausts its need for these idols. Both entertainment artists and sports figures seem to contend with God as the fulfillment of people’s hopes. John Lennon thought that his crew had the better of the match when he boasted that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus?

What could the people have possibly seen in the golden calf made with their own hands as worthy of worship? If it were displayed today, we might answer that it would be the first prize in a lottery. Forged from gold, that would make many mouths drool. But in the ancient world the calf was a symbol of God. Worshipping it was sinful because the first commandment of the Decalogue prohibited such images. The people probably did so anyway because Moses delayed so long in his conference with God that they wanted to conjure God’s presence.

Like the Israelites we often have a hard time waiting. Worshipping God seems to bring such a slow payback that we turn to idols for excitement. However, if the fulfillment we receive from attentiveness to God takes its time and arrives without sweeping emotion, it brings a joy that lasts forever. In the meantime we have the consolation of good company waiting on the Lord.