Homily for March 30, 2014 (4th Lent A)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

I was truly surprised by God’s choice.  Six years ago yesterday I was sitting in the rectory of the cathedral in Charlotte waiting for my ordination to the diaconate to begin.  I was truly surprised that God had chosen me to share in the ministry of his Son.  Yet God, in his infinite mercy and goodness, had made his choice.  In his providence, God had revealed his choice unto me and to the Church.  And confident in his grace, I responded.  But I was truly surprised by God’s choice.

David was probably surprised by God’s choice.  Samuel the prophet and Jesse of Bethlehem, and certainly the brothers of David were surprised by God’s choice.  David was the youngest of the brothers.  In the line of the family, he would be the last to receive the blessings.  And yet, God in his infinite mercy and goodness, had revealed his choice unto Samuel and unto David.  Through the holy anointing by the prophet, the Spirit of God rushed upon David.  They were all surprised by God’s choice.

The man born blind in our Gospel reading today was surprised by God’s choice.  There had never been a healing of someone who was blind from birth, and this man did not even ask to be healed.  The Lord Jesus saw him.  The Lord Jesus rubbed clay on the man’s eyes and told him to wash his face in the pool of Siloam.  And then the man could see.  He was surprised by the choice of God.  The neighbors of the man and the Pharisees were certainly surprised that the man had been healed of his blindness.  They were even more surprised that this miracle of healing had been performed by the Lord Jesus.

But what is more surprising, my dear brothers and sisters, is that David and the man born blind were not chosen for their own good.  They were not chosen because they asked to be chosen.  They were not even chosen so that they could be the special recipient of divine blessings.  God chose them so that through them the glory of God would be revealed to the world.  They were not chosen for their own glory, but for His. 

They were called, and we are called, to live in the light of Jesus Christ.  We are often surprised by God’s choice.  Yet God made his choice before the foundation of the world.  God made his choice, that you and me, and the man born blind, should gaze upon the glory of his face, and reflect the glory of his grace.  God has chosen us.  The Light of the world, the light that no darkness can overcome, has chosen to shine through us, so that the world, the whole world, will gaze upon Him alone.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for March 23, 2014 (3rd Lent A)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  While we were still helpless, Christ extended his love to us.  St. Paul has been reminding us in these weeks of the eternal love of the eternal God.  Before the foundation of the world, God has loved us.  And while we were still sinners, God extended his love to us in Christ Jesus.  It was not because we were so very good that Christ was sent.  We did not earn and could not earn the presence of God.  We were helpless.  We could only receive his presence as the gift of the Father.  Christ came to us while we were still helpless and Christ died for us while we were still sinners.  It was not because we deserved him, but because God’s love for us is far deeper and far more powerful than our sins.

The Israelites in our first reading complained and complained and complained in the desert.  They grumbled because they were thirsty.  The people asked God for water, and God provided.  In our Gospel today, it is God who asked the Samaritan woman for water.

The Lord Jesus was resting at the well in the middle of the day, and the Samaritan woman came to draw water.  The detail about the time of day shows us how separated this woman was from her community.  It is hot in the middle of the day.  It is, in fact, very hot, in the middle of the day.  The respectable women would have come early in the morning to draw water.  She would not have been welcome then.  She had a trail of husbands and the man she now lived with was not her husband.  She was isolated because of her sins.  She was alone.  Because whenever we make friends with temptation and sin, we will eventually be left alone and isolated.  This is one of the most drastic and damaging effects of sin.  Sin isolates us.  Sin not only separates us from God, but from each other as well.  By our sins, we actually drive out love from our soul.  And so we have less love within us to share, and that separates us from others. 

The Samaritan woman was separated from God and separated from her community.  And yet, while she was still in her sins and before she gave any sign of conversion or repentance, the Lord Jesus reached out to her.  He asked her for a cup of water.  He approached her first.  The power of the love of Christ broke through the walls of her sin and isolation.  Asking only for a cup of water, the Lord Jesus offers her the waters of eternal life.  There was the Lord Jesus at the well, loving her when she was so isolated from him and from everyone else.  While we were still sinners Christ died for us.  While we were still helpless, Christ extended his love to us.

And the love, compassion and mercy that Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, extended to the woman at the well, he extends to you and to me.  Even in our sins, Jesus Christ looks on each of us with love.  Even in, and especially in, our isolation, Jesus Christ invites us into communion with him.  He asks us for a cup of water, and he offers us the waters of eternal life. Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for March 16, 2014 (2nd Sunday Lent A)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

It was a word of invitation, a response of obedience, and the revelation of divine promise and consolation.  On this second Sunday of Lent the Church places before us the call of Abraham, the encouragement of the Apostle Paul, and the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

The call of Abraham was an invitation to depart.  Abraham was invited to go forth from the land of his father and from all of the comforts of home.  He was invited to depart from the house of his father so that he could become the father of many nations.  Abraham would receive the divine blessing and through Abraham the divine blessing would be received by the whole world.  Abraham received the invitation.  He responded in obedience and he became the recipient and the agent of divine blessing.

St. Paul in his second letter to Timothy encouraged the young bishop and he encourages us to endure our share of sufferings for the sake of the gospel.  The Apostle echoes the invitation of Jesus Christ and calls each of the disciples of the Lord to a holy life.  It is to this life of holiness that the Lord has called us.  It is for this life of holiness that the Lord has destined us and has equipped us by his grace.  Before the call of Abraham, and before the foundation of the world, God was preparing to bestow his grace on us in Christ Jesus.  The gift of the divine invitation and the revelation of the divine promise and consolation have been given in anticipation of our response in obedience.  We have been loved enough and trusted enough to receive the invitation of God.

The Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus is an invitation to draw near.  Peter, James, and John were invited up a high mountain by the Lord Jesus.  And there, the three disciples saw the glory of the only Son of God.  Jesus Christ was transfigured before them.  They looked upon the face of a man and they saw the face of the Eternal God.  In the transfigured glory of Christ, the disciples saw Moses and Elijah.  They saw the law and the prophets standing with him who is the fulfillment of all law and all prophecy.  They heard the voice of the Father declaring the identity of his Son.  Earlier in the gospel, Peter had proclaimed the identity of Jesus in faith.  Now the voice of the Father announces his identity in fact.  The three disciples had been invited up a high mountain.  They had entered into the holy presence of the Most Holy God. 

But they could not remain there.  Three tents could not hold the presence of the law and the prophets and the Savior of the world.  The Transfiguration was a moment of encouragement and consolation for the disciples in anticipation of the suffering of the servant in Jerusalem.  It was a gift to them in anticipation of the greatest gift which is the Resurrection.  The Lord Jesus called them from their vision of glory, and told them not to be afraid.  He invited them to give up their fear and their comfort on the mountain, and to be consoled by Jesus alone.  Three tents on a high mountain could not hold the divine presence . . . but three crosses on a low mountain would.  There the Son of God would offer the perfect response in obedience to the invitation of the Father.  We were given the grace of the invitation in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, so too we make our response of obedience to the Father in Christ Jesus in each moment of our lives.  Through him and with him and in him we respond to the word of invitation.

The Lord Jesus did not invite us to a high mountain today, but to a parish church.  And yet, in our midst, the words of the prophets and the precepts of the law are announced.  The voice of a man will speak with the power of the Son of God, and veiled in the simple gifts that only faith can recognize, Jesus Christ is made present to us.  The Lord has invited us.  We are responding in obedience.  Let us receive the word of consolation and divine promise, and proclaim, with Peter, “Lord, it is good that we are here.”  Amen. 

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for March 9, 2014 (1st Sunday Lent A)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

So what did you give up?  This is the question that always accompanies the beginning of Lent.  When I was a child, this conversation always took place in the days surrounding Ash Wednesday.  One child when asked responded, “I gave up chewing gum.”  That always met with an approving nod from the rest of us.  Another child said, “ice cream.”  Admirable, we thought.  And then one kid, there was always one kid who would outdo all of us:  “Television.”  And then, only a reverent silence would fall over the conversation.  We had been bested – he gave up TV.  He loved God more and that was that.  For as far as we understood you gave up something to prove your love for God.  That’s what Lent was all about – proving our love for God by giving up something we valued.

Not at all, dear brothers and sisters, that’s not it at all.  Whatever we give up, whatever acts of self-denial we make or additional spiritual practices we take up are not really opportunities for us to show our love for God.  They are additional opportunities for God to show his love for us.  In our fasting, prayer, and acts of charity we join with the Lord Jesus in his time of fasting in the desert.  We join with the poor of the world and the poor of our community both by physically eating less, remembering those who do not have enough to eat, and by the alms that we give.  In our time of prayer, united to fasting and almsgiving, our minds and our souls will be turned more and more toward our loving Father.  And the love of God our Father, shown to us in the Lord Jesus and made present to us in the power of the Holy Spirit will transform us and renew us.  That is the great gift of Lent.  It is a time of transformation and renewal.  It is a time for us to give up some things that we don’t need, and receive some things that we do.

Usually by the first Sunday of Lent, we have settled on, or negotiated to, what it is that we are giving up for Lent.  We know what we are giving up to the Lord.  Today, my dear brothers and sisters, we look to the example that the Lord Jesus is giving up to us this Lenten season.  Following his baptism by John in the Jordan River the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  The devil’s plan of attack, the process of temptation, had not changed since he tempted our first parents in the Garden of Eden.  He tempts the Lord Jesus to doubt his own identity, “If you are the Son of God . . .” he says, then show your power.  The way that the Lord Jesus rejected these temptations, is the example that he is giving up to us the Lent.

After forty days of fasting in the desert, Jesus was presented with three temptations.  In the first, the devil tempts the hungry Jesus to use his power to turns the stones into bread.  In the second, the devil temps Jesus to throw himself off of the parapet of the temple, forcing God to send angels to protect him.  And in the third temptation, the devil offers all the kingdoms of the world to Jesus in exchange for worshipping and serving him rather than the Father.

In rejecting these three temptations, Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, turned to the words of the Scriptures.  There is power in the Word.  But more than that, the Lord Jesus recognized the lie in each temptation.  The devil, the father of lies, lied to our first parents and they were deceived.  He said to Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree, they would be like god.  The lie was my dear brothers and sisters that they already were like God.  They already were, because they were created in His image and likeness.  In every temptation that the devil presents to us, there is a lie that promises us something that he cannot give.  Jesus recognized the lie in each temptation.  He recognized that power, especially sacred power, used selfishly, denied the providence of our loving Father.  Jesus recognized he could not misuse his body by throwing it off the temple, because his body, just like our bodies, was made to be a gift.  And Jesus recognized the lie that worldly riches were better than a divine relationship, a life of loving obedience as the beloved child of the Father.

As we celebrate this Eucharist today, and we bring the first fruits of our Lenten sacrifices to the Altar, let us receive the gift that the Lord Jesus offers to us.  Let us ask for the grace to reject every assault of the devil that would ask us to deny that we are beloved children of the Father.  May we turn our hearts and minds in these days to the power resident in the Word of God.  And let us ask for the grace to recognize the lie of the evil one and embrace the Truth of the Holy One, and live our days by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Amen. 

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for March 2, 2014 (8th Sunday A)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

I received a message from my mother this week.  She said that my pediatrician, Dr. Warner, had died.  Now I am just old enough to have been away from the care of a pediatrician for as much time as I was under the care of a pediatrician.  Yet, there are two principle things that I remember about my visits to my childhood doctor.  I was never afraid to see him, and he always spoke a word of comfort and encouragement.

Today in our readings from the scriptures we receive words of comfort and encouragement.  Our brief reading from the prophet Isaiah was given to the people of Israel during the time of their exile in Babylon.  During this time of great suffering when they felt most abandoned by God, the word of Lord bringing comfort and encouragement came to them.  The Lord promised that he would always remember his people.  The tender and compassionate love that the Almighty God has for his people is even more profound and more powerful and more enduring than even the love that a mother has for her child.  There is no greater expression of how precious each of us is to God.  He has loved us enough to create us.  He loves us enough to sustain us.  We will always be remembered.  We will never be forgotten in the eternal plan of God.

In our reading from the Gospel today the Lord Jesus comforts and encourages his disciples to cast out worry from their hearts.  The Lord Jesus assures his disciples and he assures us that the Father in heaven will provide for his children, just as he provides for the birds of the air and the plants of the earth.  The Lord Jesus invites us to declare our dependence on the providence of God.  He invites us to entrust our daily cares and the cares of tomorrow to the loving care of the Loving Father.  He knows our needs, and our desires.  He knows what is for our good.  The Lord Jesus invites us to recognize that worry is a pretender to the throne in the kingdom of our hearts where God shall reign supreme.  Christ conquered our sins by the blood of his cross.  It is by the power of his promise that he seeks to conquer our worry.  He invites us to childlike dependence.

And he also invites us to cooperate with his work.  The birds of the air seek for the food that God provides.  The plants of the ground extend their roots to find the life giving waters.  They respond to the divine invitation even as they rely on divine providence.  They cooperate. In our reading from the letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us that the apostle is a steward of the mysteries of God.  The apostles and we who share in an apostolic ministry have been entrusted with the precious proclamation of the Word of salvation and the administration of the sacraments of divine life.  All of us, however, in the waters of baptism, have become stewards of the grace of God and the divine life that is entrusted to our care.  Each of us was made a steward of a temple of divine life, because each of us is a temple of divine life.  We have been washed in water and anointed with the Spirit.  The life that is so precious to Almighty God has been entrusted to our care.  He has shared his life with us, so that we can share our lives with him. 

God has joined us to his mission and his work.  We do not need to worry, and we do not need to be afraid.  God, who loves us enough to create us, loves us enough to comfort us, and to encourage us.  May we listen to his words of comfort, and respond to his words of encouragement, so that freed from the chains of fear and worry; we may remember that we are beloved children of God.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC