Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I was on a clergy conference last week, that is why there was a lack of daily posts during that time.  But here it is again:  my Sunday Homily!

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saying, “Thank you”, whether in person or by way of a written note or a card is a small and simple action, but it is also much appreciated by the one who receives the “thank you”. Saying, “Thank you” is simply the polite thing to do.

I remember a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from several years ago. The boy, Calvin, was writing a letter a few days after Christmas day. The letter says, “Dear Grandma, Thank you for the box of crayons you sent me for Christmas”. As he continued to write, his friend, a stuffed tiger named Hobbes, looks at what he is writing. “Writing a thank you letter huh?” he comments. “Yup”, says Calvin. “I always make sure to write grandma a thank you, ever since that one Christmas when she sent me a box with only a note inside that read, “Just making sure the postal service still works!” The message is pretty clear, make sure to thank others when we receive something.

The act of thanking a person is not just about being polite or doing what is nice, however. To thank a person means that we have taken the time to consider what he or she has done for us and realized how much it means to us. Having realized this, we then take the time to thank the person: perhaps is person, by phone, through a note or a card, or maybe even by e-mail, text, or some other electronic message. The fact that we have taken the time to thank that person and shown that we are grateful for what was done: that, I think, is why people like being thanked.

Today’s readings give us two examples of thanking God. Now if there is anybody who does not have an ego that needs to be stroked with countless thank-yous and who would understand that we appreciate what He did without specifically saying “thank you”, it would be God. What I am trying to say is, God does not need our thanks. He will still continue to love and care for us and offer His graces to help us in this life, whether or not we take the time to thank Him. Yet we can clearly see in today's readings that God wants to hear us say, “Thank you”.

In the first reading, we come in to the end of a story about a great general named Naaman who travels from his home in what is now modern day Syria to Israel to ask the prophet Elisha to heal his leprosy. After a long trip and a discussion with his servants about what he truly believes, he submerges himself in the Jordan River seven times, following the directions of Elisha. The number seven, just like the seven days of creation in the Book of Genesis, is meant to symbolize completion and perfection. More specifically, Naaman's healing will be made perfect and complete through the power of God. That perfection is shown by how he emerges from the water with skin like that of a little child.

The general then goes to Elisha with a gift gold and silver and fine garments to offer as thanks. It is important to point out that he has the right idea, but he's kind of doing it in the wrong way. It was typical in the Ancient Near East to give something to a priest or prophet for offering a sacrifice or giving a prophesy from a particular god or goddess. This was seen as thanking the deity and the priest or prophet got to benefit from this gift as well. But Elisha is quite adamant that he will not take this gift. God is not looking for a gift of money or rich goods. What He wants is Naaman himself; He wants Naaman to start worshiping him; He wants Naaman to love Him. The general seems to finally understand that when he asks for the two mule-loads of dirt. This may sound like a very strange request, but it is actually an acknowledgment that God is the God of Israel. God is present in a special way with land of Israel and so Naaman wishes to have a little bit of Israel's land (the Holy Land) with him so that he may worship God more closely. Perhaps he plans to use the dirt as part of the construction of an altar to God. The point is, he is thanking the one true God by devoting his worship to Him.

The Gospel gives us another story of thanks with the story of the ten lepers. Again we see the healing from the terrible disease of leprosy. Notice as well that again we have a focus on a foreigner: the lone leper who comes back is a Samaritan. God seems to be pointing out to us that His blessings are for all people and all nations. He is also pointing out that all people need to give thanks as well.

The Samaritan leper returns and gives thanks, though he did not need to. Jesus doesn't mention that He is revoking the healing He gave to the other nine who didn't return, so it seems unlikely that He would have done anything different if none had returned. The Samaritan knew, however, that it was important to come back and give thanks. No doubt, it was through God's grace that he knew to do that. His “thanks” is not a passing, “Hey thanks for the healing thing from the leprosy and all that”. This man is actually worshiping Jesus at His feet! Jesus actually has to tell him to get up and go live his new life now. This man is intent of giving Jesus the proper thanks.

We too need to give God the proper thanks as well. I believe that, deep down, we all know that we must give thanks to God. I think we all try to do it the best we can. It is so much harder to remember to do that, however, when hardship is surrounding us; when things are not going all that well. There are so many hardships in the world that are affecting people right now: So much violence throughout the world; the poor economy affecting jobs for people; the current government shutdown that leaves many people without work and needed funds. You may have heard earlier this week about a priest of our diocese who has been credibly accused in the abuse of a minor about thirty years. These things hurt us. They sadden us, especially that last one I mentioned. It's hard to imagine how to give thanks for what God has given us when so many difficult hurts and sorrows and challenges are going on around us. But I believe that is the very challenge that God is offering us today. Let us thank God for what we do have. Thank Him for the courage and faith He gives; thank Him for the resources that we have to help those in need; thank Him for our family and friends that we have to support each other. We are called to continue giving thanks.

Homily: Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Imagine if we had the opportunity to go to a master or expert of whatever activity we were interested in and simply learn as much as we could so that we ourselves could become masters or experts in that activity. That could be a really neat opportunity. Maybe we wanted to learn how to cook gourmet meals and so we could meet with a chef who trained at the top culinary schools in the world. Maybe we want to train to be a great athlete and so we get to train with a professional athlete. We could learn about music, science, writing, how to build things, how to fix things or even how to do a new hobby or pastime that we've always wanted to learn, from the greatest minds in the world today. This could be awesome; but what if when we meet these great minds all we did was ignore their advice and just continued to do what we like to do, or even told them how we think it should be done? What if the gourmet chef is trying to teach us the finer points of various spices and herbs in a recipe, but we just continue throwing in whatever ingredients we like? What if the professional athlete is trying to teach us about having a healthy diet, but we continue to eat the same old food we've always ate? Not only would it be incredibly rude for us to just completely ignore the advice of these experts, but we would also be missing out on a wonderful chance to grow in knowledge.

We must be careful not to allow our own pride to get in the way of growing intellectually. We must also be careful not to let our pride get in the way of our spiritual growth; in allowing our faith to grow. We may very well have a great deal of faith, thanks to the grace provided by God. If we allow pride to rule in our lives, however, if we think we have it all figured out that we don’t need God’s help to do anything, then whatever faith we do have will never grow and will never flourish.

A lot of people, I think, don’t realize that the root of all sin really goes back to pride and that pride was the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. When the Serpent talked with Eve about what God had said about not eating the fruit, he started planting the seeds of doubt in her mind that God really had her best interests in mind. He suggested that God only gave the rule forbidding eating the fruit in order to stop the two of them from becoming like God. So Adam and Eve began questioning God’s motives. Pride entered in and they convinced themselves that only they knew what was best for them. They ate the fruit, knowing that God had forbidden it, because they thought they deserved it. When you think about it, that is what all sins are. We do what we want because we think we know what is best, because we think we deserve it. If we would simply allow humility to enter in and be one of the virtues that helps guide our life, however, our faith would blossom and our relationship with God would grow all the more.

The Gospel for today talks about this idea of how those who are humble grow in faith. Today’s passage starts out with the Apostles asking Jesus to increase their faith. When you think about it though, it seems like right from the beginning they are going about this in the wrong way. It’s good that they want to increase their faith, but the way they worded their request suggests that they are looking for some sort of “quick fix”. Come on Jesus! Just snap your fingers or bless us or give us something to do so that we can have more faith. I don’t know if all people thought this way, but many of the Pharisees certainly had this idea that the more pious action that person is doing, the holier and more faithful that person must be. Perhaps the Apostles were thinking along those lines when they made their request. “Increase our faith”. Even that simple phrase suggests that they were not being all that humble right then. They think they deserve it and they want it now.

Jesus answers by trying to change how they look at faith. First He explains that faith is not something you need a large quantity of. Nor is it something we are meant to show off about, like bragging that I have more faith than some other person. He uses the analogy of the mustard seed to show that they we really don’t need that much faith. A mustard seed is a very small black, sphere shaped seed; just a little bigger than a period you’d find in book. Yet if we had faith of a comparable size, we could actually cause trees to be uprooted and moved and even cause entire mountains to be moved as we hear in another version of the story. Even a little bit goes a long way.

Jesus then goes on to another analogy, explaining that faith is not something that we earn by doing a bunch of actions or things to impress God. Instead, by humbling ourselves and making ourselves to be servants of God, we receive grace as a gift and we can therefore grow in faith. A master, Jesus explains, does not reward his servant for simply doing what was expected of him. Rather, the servant is expected to continue to do what was asked of him and not expect anything in return. Just so, we shouldn’t act all pious and holy and expect God to shower us with blessings. We must simply continue doing what God wants of us, praying, following the Commandments, loving our neighbor as well as our enemy, being a humble servant of God. Those gifts of grace that we receive to help increase our faith are not earned because we happened to do what we are told to do. In reality, it is a free gift that we receive from God even when we aren’t being that ideal servant. But by being humble, by not assuming that we just deserve these things, by not allowing pride to rule our lives and make us think we know what is best, we finally open ourselves to what that gift of grace can do in our lives. It is truly a wonderful gift!

By living out our Christian vocation as humble servants of God, we really help ourselves to persevere in what God wants for us. St. Paul tells us, “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” God will give us the strength, and we will be able to do what He wants for us. Let us continue to serve with love for all.

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

Today is the memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, who is quite famous for his work for the poor in his day.  The many different Franciscan orders continue that work in the various charitable works that they do today.  St. Francis was not concerned about his own comfort or doing only what he wanted to do.  He strove to follow in the direction that Christ was leading him.  He famously gave up his inheritance of his father's wealth and business so that he could care for the poor. 

Christ warns in the Gospel today not to follow only our own selfish desires, but to strive for what is good and holy.  May we follow the example of Christ and of St. Francis in all that we do.

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

In the first reading today, the people are hearing the Scriptures proclaimed from the Temple for the first time in around 70 years.  They are so overcome with emotion at hearing those words that they are weeping out loud.  The priests are telling them, however, to not be sad.  They are hearing the word of God spoken!  They should be filled with joy, not weeping!  We should rejoice as well.

Of course, there are those who do not receive the word of God with joy.  We read about how Jesus (the Word of God) sends out the 72 to go spread the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God.  He tells them that there will be those who are not peaceful and that they will not welcome the disciples.  Will we be one of those who rejects the joyful message of the coming of the Kingdom, or one of those who rejoices?  Let us strive to rejoice in the Word of God at all times.

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

"Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father".  The Gospel today reminds us that we are not on our own when it comes to making our way to heaven.  We have our guardian angels to help us.  They protect us from arm, and they pray for us.  I feel like they help us make the right decisions as well: I don't know if this is through their prayers for us or if they help our conscience make right choices.  However they do it, they do help us, and we need to keep this in mind.   We are all children of God and we are all considered "little ones" to God, so He will help us so that we can be with Him.

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Busy day today, but I didn't want to miss a chance to talk about one my favorite saints: St. Therese of Lisieux.  Therese was a contemplative Carmelite nun in the 19th century.  She died at the age of 24 of tuberculosis, but before dying, she taught much about welcoming Jesus into our lives and loving as He taught us to love.

One of my favorite images that she talks about in her autobiography is that she would want to welcome Jesus to sleep in her little boat.  She is referring to the Gospel story (Mt 8:23-27) about the calming of the sea.  The disciples got scared and woke Jesus up from His sleep because they didn't understand who He was and that there really was nothing to worry about.  St. Therese wanted to welcome Jesus to come and rest in her own little boat.  She would not wake Him from His needed rest because she would be content knowing that her Lord and Savior was with her.

She also taught about the importance of loving as Christ did.  She called this her "Little Way" and also referred to it as her vocation: love.  She strove to love all those that she met, even when they might annoy her or get on her nerves or criticize something she did.  She would love.  That is what we are called to do as well. 

The Prophet Zechariah in both the first reading and in the psalm response talk about knowing that God is with us.  He talks about how people will so desire to have that presence of God with themselves that they will cling to the garments of God's people so that they can get in on the action as well.  The point of this Scripture is to help us realize that God is with us and that we can rejoice in that.  God is with us because He loves us and that is something to rejoice about.  We are called to help share that love.  May St. Therese pray for us so that we can help share that Good News to all we meet.

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Here is my homily for this Sunday.  It's a little shorter this week because I spent a few minutes talking about stewardship in the parish this weekend.  I hope this shorter homily still gives you some things to think about.

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A name is much more than just a word people call us by or that we sign with to show ownership of something. A name literally says something about who we are as a person. Throughout Sacred Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, the meaning of each name typically connects with the story of the character. So Abraham literally means “Father of many”, reflecting his role as the father of all Israelite people. The name Moses is meant to sound very similar to the Hebrew word “to draw out” or “I drew him out” because Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out of the Nile when she adopted him. We see that even back to ancient times names were chosen not just to connect a newborn with a relative that shared the same name. The name was meant to show something of what the parents hoped for their child. When God renames a person, it shows what He had planned for him or her as well.

I have mentioned before that I struggle with remembering names. Once or twice when I was teaching at the Catholic School in International Falls, I was having trouble getting names out, so in frustration I announced that from then on all the students would be named “Bob”. Of course there was no one in the class whose name really was Bob or Robert, but that didn’t really matter: I was just doing it to be goofy and the students knew I was just joking around. In all seriousness however, I realize the great importance of knowing names and using them. For many people it can be a great insult if a person doesn't remember another person’s name. A person can be in a crowded room, but if no one knows their name, they will feel like the loneliest person in the world. When someone knows our name and we know theirs, there is suddenly a real connection. We might see the same person every time we go to the grocery store, the gas station, the bank, the post office, etc., but until we learn that person’s name, there won’t be any connection.

I recently heard a homily on the radio that must have been recorded the last time these readings came up in the Sunday Cycle; about three or so years ago. The priest pointed out an interesting fact. Usually when Jesus tells a parable, He describes the characters simply as “a man had two sons” or “a woman losses a coin” or “a man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho”. We are never given a name for these characters. Except with this parable. We hear about Lazarus. And what is even more interesting is that we are told the name of the poor man and not the name of the rich man. This would similar to talking about the biggest fans of a Hollywood actor or actress, and naming those fans but never giving the name of the famous person. We are usually interested in the rich and famous, not the poor and destitute. This rich man was very rich: the fine dining and the purple garments tell us that. But instead of focusing on him, Jesus draws our attention to Lazarus.

I am convinced that the reason for this is so that we identify ourselves with the rich man and not with the poor man. This is not meant to be a feel good story that talks about if we live simply enough we'll get to Heaven. This is meant to shake us and make us consider how we can serve others. Remember last week, I talked about how we are called to use our resources to help others, to find a balance in our lives.

Today our readings are pulling us even deeper. How are we helping others? There are many ways we can do just that. We can certainly help by giving money to the poor, but we can also volunteer at Union Gospel Mission or the Damiano Center or a soup kitchen. We can also help in the Church community as well.

 

Take time today to pray and ask God what He is calling you to.  It might sound scary, but it is well worth it.