Sunday, LENT Week IV
(Lk 15)
Books on tape aren’t read. They are performed. This is no exaggeration. Anyone who has ever heard a recording of, for example, Lonesome Dove, would agree. The performer of that recording gives distinctive voices to such diverse characters as Augustus McCrae, Joshua Deets, and Lorena Wood. In the parable today Jesus invites us to, in a sense, impersonate the three family members. Each of us should identify himself or herself with the younger son, the elder son, and the father.
Some of us will easily see ourselves as the younger son. We may have been “daddy’s favorite” or dared to have borne a tattoo. But in a deeper sense all of us resemble the younger son when we leave home to stake our claim in the world. In that process we usually forget about God’s inexhaustible love. As a result we allow the standards of the world to replace the good God desires for each of us. We set our hearts on “A’s” rather than wisdom regarding the nature of things. We hanker for five-star service rather than to serve the common welfare. We long for the pleasure of sexual gratification rather than the total self-surrender of marital love. The list can be extended, but in every case there is an infinite distance between the world’s promptings and God’s plans. We yearn for what is passing, what cannot really satisfy. We pass by what makes us like our heavenly Father.
In Jesus’ parable the wayward son is broadsided as he pursues his worldly adventure. He suffers for his lack of discretion, remembers his father’s goodness, and returns home to beg for mercy. All of us need to head in the same direction. It is in rediscovering the love of God, our Father, which gives us hope. That love is like a family diamond – ageless, priceless, erosion-less. It provides a stable basis to this life and an everlasting home in what lies beyond.
We who come to church on Sunday should find little difficulty in identifying with the elder son. After all, Jesus includes this character in his story as a lesson to the Pharisees, the ultimate church-goers. Abiding by the rules, we believe that we deserve more of life’s rewards than those who flout them. So driving in the appointed lane we resent someone using the shoulder then sneaking in front of us. Also, we envy those who seem to garner maximum attention with minimum effort. So we grumble when the boss or the pastor blue-ribbons a colleague whose contribution to the job seems little more than we made.
The elder son’s short-sighted anger keeps his father’s love out of view. Stewing over his brother’s return, he cannot notice how his father’s humbles himself to call him to the party. Nor can he appreciate how his father’s remaining legacy solely belongs to him. It is indeed difficult for anyone to live with resentment and envy. But we are not helpless in the situation. We can choose to practice gratitude for all that we have. Especially we in this church today have so much to be thankful for. We generally have families who care about us. We live in a free society with multiple opportunities to learn and earn. And we have a faith that gives us access to the source and end of life. Rather than obsessing over how unfair the world appears, we might thank God daily for these blessings.
We call the story “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” but it is the father who takes over center stage. A thinly veiled symbol for God, he goes out of his way to welcome both sons back. How might we imitate Him, even if we are not a parent? The father in the parable accepts his younger son’s return without giving him an economics lecture. We should likewise accept those we have been given to care for, i.e. our family, friends and associates. We may not condone all their actions, but we can express our love for them. A woman recently came to a priest crying that her daughter is a homosexual. Hopefully, she took to heart the priest’s consolation that a homosexual orientation is not immoral. Furthermore, the daughter needs her mother’s love. Beyond acceptance we need to spend time with those in our care. The old man’s interrupting his celebration to assist his elder son get over his anger is especially telling. He does not demand his son to join the party. But he does take time to explain why the celebration is in order. Time for friends and even time for children is becoming increasingly scarce in our society. Studies indicate that we do not visit friends and relatives nearly as often as a generation ago. Neither are parents spending so much time with their children. These trends are at best worrisome. We are missing the critical lesson in The Little Prince, “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”
The last scene of the movie Master and Commander shows a tall ship doing an about face in the middle of the ocean. That describes the younger son in Jesus’ parable coming to his senses and returning to his father. It also resembles each of us during Lent. Now is the time to realize that we have gone too far in staking our claim in the world. We hanker after diamonds and grumble over one-star service. Now is the time to rediscover God’s love for each of us and to beg for His mercy. Now is the time for mercy.
Homilette for Thursday, March 15, 2007
Thursday, III Lent
(Lk 11)
When I was a seminarian in Washington, D.C., Pope John Paul II was elected pope. A year later he came to the United States. He was going to celebrate Mass on the Capitol mall, but I was not sure I wanted to attend. After all, it was unlikely that I could get close to him, much less shake his hand. Then, there were hundreds of thousands of other people there who would slow up transportation when I had plenty of work to do. Besides, at the time I was having difficulty with the new Pope’s refusal to grant dispensations to priests who asked to leave the active priesthood. I pretty much decided against attending when I heard a priest preach that it was not an opportunity to pass up. He said that the visit was unique – the first time a pope visited the U.S. Capitol. Whether or not we agreed with the directions in which John Paul was taking the Church, he said, we should make the effort to see him. Fortunately, I did. John Paul became one of my heroes and universally acclaimed as one of the greatest men of our times.
In the gospel Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is at hand with his coming. Still many people resist trusting his word. Like my making excuses not to see the Pope, they give half-hearted reasons for maintaining their doubts. He’s in league with the devil, they say, or, let’s see him prove himself by turning stones into bread.
Perhaps most of us as well harbor reservations about giving ourselves to God. What are these reservations? One is that if the Savior really has come, the world would be different. Perhaps it is the presence of so much poverty, violence, and disease. But just as likely we’re upset with the price of gasoline and the cost of cable television. We shouldn’t be grumbling over things, however. No, we should thank God that we have surplus money to pay for it. Of, if we don’t have the money, maybe we can thank God that we can live without these things. We should be able to see ourselves as deeply loved by God. He has given us life and called us around the table of His son. He will provide for us in death also when the taste of Christ’s body and blood that we have now will be transformed into a full banquet of unending joy.
(Lk 11)
When I was a seminarian in Washington, D.C., Pope John Paul II was elected pope. A year later he came to the United States. He was going to celebrate Mass on the Capitol mall, but I was not sure I wanted to attend. After all, it was unlikely that I could get close to him, much less shake his hand. Then, there were hundreds of thousands of other people there who would slow up transportation when I had plenty of work to do. Besides, at the time I was having difficulty with the new Pope’s refusal to grant dispensations to priests who asked to leave the active priesthood. I pretty much decided against attending when I heard a priest preach that it was not an opportunity to pass up. He said that the visit was unique – the first time a pope visited the U.S. Capitol. Whether or not we agreed with the directions in which John Paul was taking the Church, he said, we should make the effort to see him. Fortunately, I did. John Paul became one of my heroes and universally acclaimed as one of the greatest men of our times.
In the gospel Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is at hand with his coming. Still many people resist trusting his word. Like my making excuses not to see the Pope, they give half-hearted reasons for maintaining their doubts. He’s in league with the devil, they say, or, let’s see him prove himself by turning stones into bread.
Perhaps most of us as well harbor reservations about giving ourselves to God. What are these reservations? One is that if the Savior really has come, the world would be different. Perhaps it is the presence of so much poverty, violence, and disease. But just as likely we’re upset with the price of gasoline and the cost of cable television. We shouldn’t be grumbling over things, however. No, we should thank God that we have surplus money to pay for it. Of, if we don’t have the money, maybe we can thank God that we can live without these things. We should be able to see ourselves as deeply loved by God. He has given us life and called us around the table of His son. He will provide for us in death also when the taste of Christ’s body and blood that we have now will be transformed into a full banquet of unending joy.
Homilette for Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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.
(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.
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