Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
(Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17)
Beholding jeweled crosses and hearing how perfect the cross is as geometric design, we have difficulty contemplating its scandal for early Christians. It is said that people mocked the first followers of Jesus when they found out that he was nailed to a cross. We might similarly chide a teenager today for idolizing a rock star. In Jesus’ day crucifixion was the basest of punishments the state imposed because it entailed the most gruesome suffering. We do not consider it an alternative form of execution today precisely because it comprises “cruel and unusual punishment.” Yet the cross is the instrument by which Christ won our salvation.
The gospel today curiously does not mention the cross. It merely states that those who believe in Jesus “lifted up” will be saved. In the Gospel of John Jesus is lifted up twice – first on the cross and then in the resurrection. Either time when we look on him with faith, we find ourselves in the magnetic field of salvation. When we believe in Jesus crucified for our salvation and lifted up for our glory, we are saved.
However, faith is more than paying lip service that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. Faith indicates our willingness to follow him through suffering to everlasting life. Still, the purpose of today’s feast, as those of Holy Week, is to indicate that not by our own effort do we achieve our life’s end. As when we were little children with nothing to repay our relatives for the gifts they brought us, we cannot earn eternal life. We can only say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you” to Jesus for his death on the cross.
Homilette for Friday, September 11, 2009
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
(I Timothy 1:1-2.12-14; Luke 6:39-42)
Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the haunting tale of a scientist that marries an extraordinarily beautiful woman. The scientist notices one slight defect in his wife’s face – a birthmark on her cheek -- and desires to remove it through drug therapy. At first the woman dismisses the birthmark as charming not detracting, but for her husband’s sake she drinks the elixir he prescribes. The result is calamitous. Although the birthmark fades away, the lovely woman dies as well.
Hawthorne’s story illustrates Jesus’ admonition in the gospel today. The scientist makes a disastrous guide because a wooden beam -- belief in the power of science to remedy all ills –lodges in his eye blinding him to the fact that the birthmark is but a superficial blemish, a splinter.
We should take care not to suffer the same illusion as the scientist that material and scientific progress has made or indeed can make life nearly perfect. Yes, people today live longer than before and are less likely to suffer from back-breaking labor. Yet they still treat one another cruelly and sometimes end feeling desperate in an uncaring world. It is a far from perfect situation and indeed difficult to tell if the quality of human life is actually improving.
(I Timothy 1:1-2.12-14; Luke 6:39-42)
Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the haunting tale of a scientist that marries an extraordinarily beautiful woman. The scientist notices one slight defect in his wife’s face – a birthmark on her cheek -- and desires to remove it through drug therapy. At first the woman dismisses the birthmark as charming not detracting, but for her husband’s sake she drinks the elixir he prescribes. The result is calamitous. Although the birthmark fades away, the lovely woman dies as well.
Hawthorne’s story illustrates Jesus’ admonition in the gospel today. The scientist makes a disastrous guide because a wooden beam -- belief in the power of science to remedy all ills –lodges in his eye blinding him to the fact that the birthmark is but a superficial blemish, a splinter.
We should take care not to suffer the same illusion as the scientist that material and scientific progress has made or indeed can make life nearly perfect. Yes, people today live longer than before and are less likely to suffer from back-breaking labor. Yet they still treat one another cruelly and sometimes end feeling desperate in an uncaring world. It is a far from perfect situation and indeed difficult to tell if the quality of human life is actually improving.
Homilette for Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
(Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 6:27-38)
The third century theologian Tertullian quoted pagans admiring Christian, “Look how they love one another.” Evidently early Christians took to heart Scriptural passages like the one we read from the Letter to the Colossians today. We are told to “have heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another...”
Perhaps in the name of honesty Christians today criticize one another with all the fervor of hardened politicians. For the past generation at least the measure has been the liberal-conservative divide. Liberals speak of conservatives as compassionless while conservatives fault liberals for wavering commitment to Church belief. It may be imprudent and perhaps impossible to refrain from judgment on fundamental Christian principles like mercy and faithfulness. Still judgment does not require always speaking one’s mind. We follow Christ, in the words of the reading, by “bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” Or is it that when we act with such forbearance Christ follows us putting into our hearts his peace?
(Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 6:27-38)
The third century theologian Tertullian quoted pagans admiring Christian, “Look how they love one another.” Evidently early Christians took to heart Scriptural passages like the one we read from the Letter to the Colossians today. We are told to “have heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another...”
Perhaps in the name of honesty Christians today criticize one another with all the fervor of hardened politicians. For the past generation at least the measure has been the liberal-conservative divide. Liberals speak of conservatives as compassionless while conservatives fault liberals for wavering commitment to Church belief. It may be imprudent and perhaps impossible to refrain from judgment on fundamental Christian principles like mercy and faithfulness. Still judgment does not require always speaking one’s mind. We follow Christ, in the words of the reading, by “bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” Or is it that when we act with such forbearance Christ follows us putting into our hearts his peace?
Homilette for Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest
(Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 6:20-26)
In the gospel today Jesus almost sounds like Fidel Castro delivering a harangue on economic justice. Some might want to press the mute button for the duration of his sermon. But he is the Lord and definitely has something to say to us that will transcend the speech of political messiahs.
On one hand, Jesus addresses those experiencing serious deprivation. He is talking to the poor who scavenge for food in garbage dumps and to weeping parents who have had to bury multiple sons and daughters. But he does not mean all the poor, all the hungry, all the weeping, and all the insulted. No, he specifically addresses his disciples -- both then and now -- who patiently bear hardships without becoming bitter and mean.
Jesus does not limit his address to the have-nots but delivers choice words to the haves as well. Their future is bleak, he says, if they do not use what they have for the good of all. Jesus is not condemning the rich, the sated, the joyful, and the well-spoken of per se but only when they reserve for themeselves everything they have. They would be wise, he implies, to share their wealth and their joviality so that everyone may live grateful lives.
(Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 6:20-26)
In the gospel today Jesus almost sounds like Fidel Castro delivering a harangue on economic justice. Some might want to press the mute button for the duration of his sermon. But he is the Lord and definitely has something to say to us that will transcend the speech of political messiahs.
On one hand, Jesus addresses those experiencing serious deprivation. He is talking to the poor who scavenge for food in garbage dumps and to weeping parents who have had to bury multiple sons and daughters. But he does not mean all the poor, all the hungry, all the weeping, and all the insulted. No, he specifically addresses his disciples -- both then and now -- who patiently bear hardships without becoming bitter and mean.
Jesus does not limit his address to the have-nots but delivers choice words to the haves as well. Their future is bleak, he says, if they do not use what they have for the good of all. Jesus is not condemning the rich, the sated, the joyful, and the well-spoken of per se but only when they reserve for themeselves everything they have. They would be wise, he implies, to share their wealth and their joviality so that everyone may live grateful lives.
Homilette for Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 1:1-16.18-23)
We sometimes speak of the patriarchs of Israel, and we hear in today’s gospel mostly male names in the lineage of Jesus. Yet women of Scripture regularly exemplify great virtue. The four mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy are no exception.
Tamar was Jacob’s son Judah’s daughter-in-law whose husband died without giving birth to a child. As was the custom, Tamar was then given to her husband’s brother, the infamous Onan, so that her original husband’s family line would continue. Because Onan selfishly did not wish to have children by Tamar, he too died prematurely. There was a third brother whom by right Judah should have given to Tamar, he Judah refused to do this out of fear. Tamar then resolved to show the critical importance of family over personal desire. She dressed as a prostitute, was propositioned by Judah, and gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Judah learned the need of self-sacrifice in raising children.
Rahab was an actual prostitute of Jericho who came to believe in God from the story of Yahweh bringing the Israelites across the Red Sea. At the risk of her life, she became instrumental in the Israeli occupation of the Promised Land. Ruth, another non-Jew, refused to abandon her widowed mother-in-law Naomi and the God of Israel when her first Jewish husband died. Later she married Boaz, and the two became great-grandparents of King David. The former wife of Uriah, and mother of Solomon, is nameless in the gospel text but most people remember her as Bathsheba, whom the adulterous David seduced. She is not so much a heroine as a victim of the rapacious king.
As the stories of the other women mentioned in Jesus’ lineage, Mary’s motherhood is unconventional. She miraculously bears a child through the Holy Spirit. Matthew, unlike Luke, does not dwell on her virtue. Nevertheless, she silently follows her husband Joseph in doing God’s will for Jesus her son, the Savior.
(Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 1:1-16.18-23)
We sometimes speak of the patriarchs of Israel, and we hear in today’s gospel mostly male names in the lineage of Jesus. Yet women of Scripture regularly exemplify great virtue. The four mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy are no exception.
Tamar was Jacob’s son Judah’s daughter-in-law whose husband died without giving birth to a child. As was the custom, Tamar was then given to her husband’s brother, the infamous Onan, so that her original husband’s family line would continue. Because Onan selfishly did not wish to have children by Tamar, he too died prematurely. There was a third brother whom by right Judah should have given to Tamar, he Judah refused to do this out of fear. Tamar then resolved to show the critical importance of family over personal desire. She dressed as a prostitute, was propositioned by Judah, and gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Judah learned the need of self-sacrifice in raising children.
Rahab was an actual prostitute of Jericho who came to believe in God from the story of Yahweh bringing the Israelites across the Red Sea. At the risk of her life, she became instrumental in the Israeli occupation of the Promised Land. Ruth, another non-Jew, refused to abandon her widowed mother-in-law Naomi and the God of Israel when her first Jewish husband died. Later she married Boaz, and the two became great-grandparents of King David. The former wife of Uriah, and mother of Solomon, is nameless in the gospel text but most people remember her as Bathsheba, whom the adulterous David seduced. She is not so much a heroine as a victim of the rapacious king.
As the stories of the other women mentioned in Jesus’ lineage, Mary’s motherhood is unconventional. She miraculously bears a child through the Holy Spirit. Matthew, unlike Luke, does not dwell on her virtue. Nevertheless, she silently follows her husband Joseph in doing God’s will for Jesus her son, the Savior.
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