Wednesday, III Lent
(Mt 5)
When was the last time you ate a ham sandwich or enjoyed bacon and eggs? Did you feel guilty at the time? Of course, you were breaking a tenet of the Mosaic Law? Jesus seems to be saying in the gospel passage today that the Mosaic Law still is in effect. Should we start revising our menus?
Of course, that is not necessary. But we must reflect on what Jesus means when he tells us, “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not the smallest part of a letter of the law will pass away, until all things have taken place.” Perhaps he is using exaggerated language that he does not mean literally as when he says, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out”? Or perhaps he intends these words only for the Twelve, all Jews, who were quite used to keeping the Law?
There is another, more logical explanation why the Church does not keep the Mosaic Law. As Jesus says will happen, “heaven and earth (have) pass(ed) away” with his death and resurrection. All things have now been made new. We have been given the Holy Spirit to live a new righteousness that should surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. Is this the case? It is when we find ourselves not acting just to conform ourselves with a law, i.e., not just out of fear of being punished. It is when we do what is right out of love for God who has given us everything.
Homilette for Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Tuesday, III Lent
(Mt 18)
President Gerald Ford died in January. Commentators in the newspapers and on television remembered him with admiration. They said that his singular greatest achievement was to pardon ex-President Nixon for criminal activity in the Watergate cover-up. Even Ted Kennedy admitted that although he disagreed with the decision at the time, he has come to regard it as a distinctive service to the country. The pardon helped heal a nation badly divided over ideology and shocked over wrongdoing at the highest levels.
Would that politicians be more willing to practice what they admire in others! Instead we usually hear from them calls for resignation, impeachment and apology. In the gospel today Jesus tells his disciples that it should not be that way with us. We must be ready to forgive when people repent of their misdeeds. Rather than clamor for retribution, we must pray that our offenders take note of their wrongdoing and make proper amends.
Mercy becomes us. It makes us like God whom has been revealed as replete with merciful love. It even makes us better appreciated in our society as in the case of President Ford. In forgiving, of course, we must not abandon the norms of justice. Compensation to the wronged is usually due, and the offender must be resolved not to offend again. But practiced rightly, mercy makes everyone better.
(Mt 18)
President Gerald Ford died in January. Commentators in the newspapers and on television remembered him with admiration. They said that his singular greatest achievement was to pardon ex-President Nixon for criminal activity in the Watergate cover-up. Even Ted Kennedy admitted that although he disagreed with the decision at the time, he has come to regard it as a distinctive service to the country. The pardon helped heal a nation badly divided over ideology and shocked over wrongdoing at the highest levels.
Would that politicians be more willing to practice what they admire in others! Instead we usually hear from them calls for resignation, impeachment and apology. In the gospel today Jesus tells his disciples that it should not be that way with us. We must be ready to forgive when people repent of their misdeeds. Rather than clamor for retribution, we must pray that our offenders take note of their wrongdoing and make proper amends.
Mercy becomes us. It makes us like God whom has been revealed as replete with merciful love. It even makes us better appreciated in our society as in the case of President Ford. In forgiving, of course, we must not abandon the norms of justice. Compensation to the wronged is usually due, and the offender must be resolved not to offend again. But practiced rightly, mercy makes everyone better.
Homilette for Monday, March 12, 2007
Monday Week 3
(2 Kings)
In one of his poems Robert Frost writes about a farmer who knows how to throw hay. The farmer points out how some men try to pick up hay that they are standing on. In this way they themselves get in the way of what they want to accomplish.
Two characters in the first reading have that same problem. Both the king of Israel and Naaman, the Syrian general, make themselves their own enemies. They worry about not being able to do something when all that is necessary is that they trust someone else. No, king of Israel, you are not a god with power over life and death. Your God, however, has exactly that power. Ask him to heal the leper. No, Naaman, you cannot be cleansed in the waters of your own land. Do what the prophet of God tells you and you will be healed of your leprosy.
Rather than put our trust in God we sometimes worry and fret over our problems. We also are not gods. Our resources also cannot resolve every problem we face. We too must trust the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He can and will save us. Let’s ask him for help.
(2 Kings)
In one of his poems Robert Frost writes about a farmer who knows how to throw hay. The farmer points out how some men try to pick up hay that they are standing on. In this way they themselves get in the way of what they want to accomplish.
Two characters in the first reading have that same problem. Both the king of Israel and Naaman, the Syrian general, make themselves their own enemies. They worry about not being able to do something when all that is necessary is that they trust someone else. No, king of Israel, you are not a god with power over life and death. Your God, however, has exactly that power. Ask him to heal the leper. No, Naaman, you cannot be cleansed in the waters of your own land. Do what the prophet of God tells you and you will be healed of your leprosy.
Rather than put our trust in God we sometimes worry and fret over our problems. We also are not gods. Our resources also cannot resolve every problem we face. We too must trust the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He can and will save us. Let’s ask him for help.
Homily for Sunday, March 11, 2007
Sunday, II Lent
(Exodus 2)
Remember the movie “Titanic”? How can we forget it? It probably was the last blockbuster to dominate the Academy Awards. Once two young girls were watching it on a bleached out television screen in a store window. They just couldn’t take there eyes off it although they had probably seen the movie many times before. The burning bush in the first reading today rivets the same attention.
An angel of God appears in a burning bush. The angel, however, is not a separate being from God. Rather it is a manifestation of God. In the fire of the bush which is not consumed the angel reveals God as love. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French priest and scientist, once wrote that when humans discover how to control the forces of love, for the second time they will have discovered fire. Here the love stands ready to unite itself to the Hebrew people in their struggle for liberation. In pictures of the Sacred Heart we find a similar non-consuming fire. Christ shows himself desiring to be one with us in our struggle against evil.
To accomplish victory we certainly need Christ at our head. The challenge, of course, is colossal. Not only are the forces of the enemy formidable – ignorance, disease, violence, and poverty – but he has also infiltrated our ranks. Pride, envy, and lust cripple our efforts. In large cities across the country there are schools that have defied “No Child Left Behind” and every other education program. The reason is not the lack of constructive ideas but the fact that home life of students is a mess. Only Christ, the Son of God who shares our human nature, can heal our infirmity to prepare us for battle. In the passage, Moses seems to have been likewise selected for his special qualities. Since he is Hebrew by birth, he knows and loves the people. Being reared by Pharaoh’s daughter, he has access to the chambers of Egyptian power. When God calls Moses by name, we get the sense that he has been hand-picked for the role of liberator.
Moses must remove his sandals in the presence of God. The instruction appears odd since Moses is walking on open ground. But the action is symbolic. The sandals carry soil from other places, and Moses should be free of all contaminants in God’s presence. The removal of sandals indicates Moses is dropping all pretensions before God. He will submit to the divine will. Of course, in Catholic churches we don’t take off our shoes before entering, but we do bless ourselves with holy water. The blessing has the same symbolic significance. We want to cleanse ourselves of all sinful tendencies as we listen to God’s instructions.
Then God reveals his plan to Moses. He has heard the Hebrews plea. He will rescue them from suffering in Egypt and deliver them to a land of plenty. As spectacular as that accomplishment will be, it will not equal Christ’s Easter victory over sin. His death will achieve for us forgiveness of sins. We can leave behind the guilt of our past to start over again. His resurrection will send us the Holy Spirit to advance in the struggle against evil. Yes, individual Christians sometimes backslide. Yet the record of Catholic schools in education and of Catholic organizations in charity is impressive. Catholic Relief Services, for example, is ranked among the largest and most efficient relief and development organizations in the world.
Yet some of us are reluctant to trust ourselves to Christ as presented in the Church. We wonder if the achievements of the Church in education, medicine, and social development are incidental to its claim as being the body of Christ. “Why does the Church exclude women from the priesthood or prohibit divorced Catholics to receive Communion?” we ask. We dither like Moses when he asks God to reveal His name. Moses is not quite sure that God is a friend. After all, the gods of other peoples are quite capricious, treating human beings with no more care than boys swatting flies. How could Moses be sure that God is not just leading him down a dark alley? He has the answer to that question: he will ask God for identification.
Astoundingly, God provides it! He tells Moses that he is, “I AM” – that is always there for His people. He is always ready to help them and even to forgive their faults if they but repent of their sins. Providing the people with His name is no small concession. It is having the cell number of the President! We might find in the name “I AM” the motive of the Church’s resistance to faddish change. As God is eternally there for His people, the Church tries to remain faithful to Christ’s teachings. His commands to treat the least of people as we would treat him as well as the proscription of divorce stand forever.
A particularly disgusting advertisement shows bacteria germs infiltrating toenails leaving them green and calcified. That’s a very graphic way to picture the evil which we face in the world. It confronts us outwardly with ignorance, disease, violence and poverty. It also leads us down the blind alley of pride, envy, and lust. To advance in the struggle against it we need Christ’s help. He is human by birth so he knows and loves us. He is also the Son of God with access to the chambers of power. We can count on him in our struggle against evil. We can always count on him.
(Exodus 2)
Remember the movie “Titanic”? How can we forget it? It probably was the last blockbuster to dominate the Academy Awards. Once two young girls were watching it on a bleached out television screen in a store window. They just couldn’t take there eyes off it although they had probably seen the movie many times before. The burning bush in the first reading today rivets the same attention.
An angel of God appears in a burning bush. The angel, however, is not a separate being from God. Rather it is a manifestation of God. In the fire of the bush which is not consumed the angel reveals God as love. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French priest and scientist, once wrote that when humans discover how to control the forces of love, for the second time they will have discovered fire. Here the love stands ready to unite itself to the Hebrew people in their struggle for liberation. In pictures of the Sacred Heart we find a similar non-consuming fire. Christ shows himself desiring to be one with us in our struggle against evil.
To accomplish victory we certainly need Christ at our head. The challenge, of course, is colossal. Not only are the forces of the enemy formidable – ignorance, disease, violence, and poverty – but he has also infiltrated our ranks. Pride, envy, and lust cripple our efforts. In large cities across the country there are schools that have defied “No Child Left Behind” and every other education program. The reason is not the lack of constructive ideas but the fact that home life of students is a mess. Only Christ, the Son of God who shares our human nature, can heal our infirmity to prepare us for battle. In the passage, Moses seems to have been likewise selected for his special qualities. Since he is Hebrew by birth, he knows and loves the people. Being reared by Pharaoh’s daughter, he has access to the chambers of Egyptian power. When God calls Moses by name, we get the sense that he has been hand-picked for the role of liberator.
Moses must remove his sandals in the presence of God. The instruction appears odd since Moses is walking on open ground. But the action is symbolic. The sandals carry soil from other places, and Moses should be free of all contaminants in God’s presence. The removal of sandals indicates Moses is dropping all pretensions before God. He will submit to the divine will. Of course, in Catholic churches we don’t take off our shoes before entering, but we do bless ourselves with holy water. The blessing has the same symbolic significance. We want to cleanse ourselves of all sinful tendencies as we listen to God’s instructions.
Then God reveals his plan to Moses. He has heard the Hebrews plea. He will rescue them from suffering in Egypt and deliver them to a land of plenty. As spectacular as that accomplishment will be, it will not equal Christ’s Easter victory over sin. His death will achieve for us forgiveness of sins. We can leave behind the guilt of our past to start over again. His resurrection will send us the Holy Spirit to advance in the struggle against evil. Yes, individual Christians sometimes backslide. Yet the record of Catholic schools in education and of Catholic organizations in charity is impressive. Catholic Relief Services, for example, is ranked among the largest and most efficient relief and development organizations in the world.
Yet some of us are reluctant to trust ourselves to Christ as presented in the Church. We wonder if the achievements of the Church in education, medicine, and social development are incidental to its claim as being the body of Christ. “Why does the Church exclude women from the priesthood or prohibit divorced Catholics to receive Communion?” we ask. We dither like Moses when he asks God to reveal His name. Moses is not quite sure that God is a friend. After all, the gods of other peoples are quite capricious, treating human beings with no more care than boys swatting flies. How could Moses be sure that God is not just leading him down a dark alley? He has the answer to that question: he will ask God for identification.
Astoundingly, God provides it! He tells Moses that he is, “I AM” – that is always there for His people. He is always ready to help them and even to forgive their faults if they but repent of their sins. Providing the people with His name is no small concession. It is having the cell number of the President! We might find in the name “I AM” the motive of the Church’s resistance to faddish change. As God is eternally there for His people, the Church tries to remain faithful to Christ’s teachings. His commands to treat the least of people as we would treat him as well as the proscription of divorce stand forever.
A particularly disgusting advertisement shows bacteria germs infiltrating toenails leaving them green and calcified. That’s a very graphic way to picture the evil which we face in the world. It confronts us outwardly with ignorance, disease, violence and poverty. It also leads us down the blind alley of pride, envy, and lust. To advance in the struggle against it we need Christ’s help. He is human by birth so he knows and loves us. He is also the Son of God with access to the chambers of power. We can count on him in our struggle against evil. We can always count on him.
Homilette for Thursday, March 8, 2007
MASS OF ANOINTING OF THE SICK
Fr. Leo Thomas was a Dominican priest who had a gift of healing the sick. In a book he writes of how he ministered to a fellow Dominican, called only “Fr. Anthony,” who had cancer. When Fr. Anthony eventually died, his superior asked Fr. Leo if he wanted to preach at the funeral mass. Fr. Leo writes that he had the distinct impression that the superior was asking Fr. Leo to bury one of his “failures” because he had prayed for Fr. Anthony’s healing for six months. No, Fr. Leo concluded, he hadn’t failed. During the time of ministry, Fr. Anthony experienced a transformation. He went from having an intellectual idea of God’s love to a feeling of God’s compassion and an experiential knowledge of God’s care. He became ready for, indeed he had a glimpse of, eternal life. This kind of transformation is what the Sacrament of Anointing proposes.
The principal purpose of the Sacrament of the Sick is to take away sins. For this reason it is grouped with the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the “sacraments of healing.” This does not mean, of course, that sickness is caused by personal sin as was commonly thought in Biblical times and is sometimes held today. Disease is a manifestation of evil in the world which God sent His son Jesus Christ to overcome. We remember Jesus telling his disciples when he is about to cure the man born blind, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:3).
The second benefit of the Sacrament of the Sick is that it strengthens the soul’s conviction that God can and will save us. With increased confidence in God’s mercy, the sick person can “more easily bear the trials and hardships of his sickness and resist the temptations of the devil.” “What temptations?” we may ask. The truth is the sick and aged may commit many kinds of sins. Burdened by sickness, they might curse God! This serious sin is exactly what tempted Job, but didn’t succeed in bringing him down. More typically the sick can become cranky and inconsiderate of those around them and even forget to thank God for their lives.
We should not expect physical recovery with sacramental anointing, but we should not exclude the possibility either. We certainly can hope that it takes place and we have all heard stories of it doing precisely that. But like Fr. Thomas, we do not have to think that the sacrament has failed if after its administration there is no physical change or if the patient’s physical condition becomes worse. The primary purpose of the sacrament is to strengthen our faith, not our body.
So let’s come forward – any who are seriously sick or weakened with age – to receive the Sacrament of the Sick. Believe that Jesus is bringing you salvation. Perhaps you will not be healed of the infirmity but your faith shall increase in Jesus. He will deliver you from death. He will give an eternal home. Be at peace.
Fr. Leo Thomas was a Dominican priest who had a gift of healing the sick. In a book he writes of how he ministered to a fellow Dominican, called only “Fr. Anthony,” who had cancer. When Fr. Anthony eventually died, his superior asked Fr. Leo if he wanted to preach at the funeral mass. Fr. Leo writes that he had the distinct impression that the superior was asking Fr. Leo to bury one of his “failures” because he had prayed for Fr. Anthony’s healing for six months. No, Fr. Leo concluded, he hadn’t failed. During the time of ministry, Fr. Anthony experienced a transformation. He went from having an intellectual idea of God’s love to a feeling of God’s compassion and an experiential knowledge of God’s care. He became ready for, indeed he had a glimpse of, eternal life. This kind of transformation is what the Sacrament of Anointing proposes.
The principal purpose of the Sacrament of the Sick is to take away sins. For this reason it is grouped with the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the “sacraments of healing.” This does not mean, of course, that sickness is caused by personal sin as was commonly thought in Biblical times and is sometimes held today. Disease is a manifestation of evil in the world which God sent His son Jesus Christ to overcome. We remember Jesus telling his disciples when he is about to cure the man born blind, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:3).
The second benefit of the Sacrament of the Sick is that it strengthens the soul’s conviction that God can and will save us. With increased confidence in God’s mercy, the sick person can “more easily bear the trials and hardships of his sickness and resist the temptations of the devil.” “What temptations?” we may ask. The truth is the sick and aged may commit many kinds of sins. Burdened by sickness, they might curse God! This serious sin is exactly what tempted Job, but didn’t succeed in bringing him down. More typically the sick can become cranky and inconsiderate of those around them and even forget to thank God for their lives.
We should not expect physical recovery with sacramental anointing, but we should not exclude the possibility either. We certainly can hope that it takes place and we have all heard stories of it doing precisely that. But like Fr. Thomas, we do not have to think that the sacrament has failed if after its administration there is no physical change or if the patient’s physical condition becomes worse. The primary purpose of the sacrament is to strengthen our faith, not our body.
So let’s come forward – any who are seriously sick or weakened with age – to receive the Sacrament of the Sick. Believe that Jesus is bringing you salvation. Perhaps you will not be healed of the infirmity but your faith shall increase in Jesus. He will deliver you from death. He will give an eternal home. Be at peace.
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