Homily for July 27, 2014 (17th Sunday A)

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

Give your servant, O Lord, an understanding heart.

The prayer that Solomon offers to the Lord in our first reading is a prayer that we can make our own today.  Give your servant, O Lord, an understanding heart.  Solomon does not ask for long life.  He does not ask for riches.  He does not even ask for victory over his enemies.  Essentially, the prayer that Solomon offers is not really a request for him.  Solomon asks that a gift, a particular grace, be entrusted to him for the building up of the community.  Solomon asks for an understanding heart that he might lead his people in justice and truth.

We pray on this particular day for the gift of an understanding heart.  We ask the Lord to give this gift to us, so that we can use it for the good of others.  An understanding heart allows us to see others with compassion and allows us to recognize the gifts that the Lord is offering to us.

In our reading from the Gospel today, we hear that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure that was buried in a field.  When the person found the treasure, he sold all that he had to buy the field.  The Lord Jesus also says to us today that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who searches for fine pearls.  When he finds a pearl of great price, he sells everything to buy that one pearl.  The kingdom of heaven is of great value.  The kingdom of heaven is found after searching for it.  And the kingdom of heaven is worth more than everything that we have.

The gift of an understanding heart allows us to recognize the value of the kingdom of heaven.  We beg the Lord to give us that understanding heart so that we can recognize the treasure that has been found.  The treasure is not earthly riches.  The treasure is not victory over our enemies.  The treasure is not even long life in this world.  The treasure, the true treasure, is not long life, but eternal life.  The Lord Jesus is the true treasure that has been found.  The Lord Jesus is the pearl of great price.  Our relationship with him is of great value.  Our relationship with the Lord Jesus is begun and continued and developed after a long search for it. 

But the search has not been ours. 

We are not the ones who have sought for the precious treasure.  It is the Lord Jesus, sent from the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit, who has been searching for us.  The holy people of God, the Church, the bride of Christ, is the treasure that the Lord Jesus sought.  We, the people of the Lord, members of his flock, are the pearl of great price for which Jesus Christ, Son of the Father and Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, offered everything.  We are the treasure that has been purchased, not with silver and gold, but with the blood of the spotless lamb who takes away the sins of the world.  We are the treasure of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is our true treasure.

As we celebrate this Eucharist today, let us ask the Lord to grant us the gift of an understanding heart.  Let us ask for the grace to recognize the treasure, both the treasure that we are and the treasure that we have found.  And let us respond to the call of the Lord Jesus and offer all that we are to him, as He offers all that He is to us.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, Lackawanna, NY

Homily for July 20, 2014 (16th Sunday A)

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

Today we hear about the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God is precious.  The Kingdom of God is awaited with patience.  The Kingdom of God transforms the world.

In our reading from the gospel of Matthew we hear three parables from the Lord Jesus. The first is the parable of the weeds and the wheat.  A man sows good seed in his field and the enemy, who approaches in darkness, sows weeds in the same field.  The laborers of the household want to remove the weeds because they would threaten or could prevent the growth of the wheat.  The master, however, tells the servants to wait for the harvest time.  The weeds could not be removed because they could damage the wheat.  Some of the harvest could be lost.  And the harvest is precious.  The holy people of God, we who grow and develop and make ready for the harvest even among the weeds, is the precious harvest.

In the second parable the Lord Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.  The smallest of seeds grows into the largest of plants.  When full grown this plant is large enough for the birds of the sky, an image of all of the peoples of the earth, to come and dwell in its branches.  However, the growth of this largest of plants from the tiniest of seeds must be awaited in patience.  With patience, the person who sows the seed must wait for the beauty of the plant to unfold.  It is the way of parents who watch and wait for their children to grow into those men and women that Christ has called them to be.  It is the way of priests, who lovingly tend the vineyard, to see the unfolding of the gifts of grace poured out and stirred up among the people of God entrusted to our care.  And it is the way of the people of God, the holy people of God, to patiently and lovingly and confidently attend to the full flowering of priestly grace in their shepherds.  The kingdom of God, the full manifestation of the glory that is to be revealed in us, is awaited in patience.

In the third parable we hear that the Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.  The small measure of yeast transformed the whole batch.  That is the mission of the Kingdom in the world: to transform the world into an offering to the Father.  To transform the world is the mission of all of the people of God.  To transform the world is the mission of each of the people of God.  All of us, baptized into Christ Jesus, are called to be agents of transformation and sanctification in the world.

But in order to transform the world, we must first ourselves be transformed.  We must respond to the Lord’s invitation to conversion and repentance, confident, as our reading from the book of Wisdom instructs, that we are given good ground for hope and that the Lord judges with clemency.  We must use our freedom to allow the Spirit of God to pray within us, to aid us in our weakness, and to intercede for us.  Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable and precious manifestation of the love of God.  Each of us is called in baptism and strengthened by the seed of the Word and the power of the Sacraments to become a measure of yeast for the batch of flour.  The kingdom of God, built of the living stones, transforms the whole world.

As we celebrate this Eucharist today, let us claim our identity as part of the precious harvest of God.  Let us pray for the grace to patiently await the full flowering of grace in ourselves and those around us.  And let us receive the strength from the Lord to be a transforming presence in our community and witness to the Kingdom of God.  Amen.

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

Homily for July 13, 2014 (15th Sunday A)

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

At the dawn of creation, the Lord God gave three tasks to man.  The first was to name the animals.  The second was to avoid the forbidden fruit of the forbidden tree, and the third task, was to till the soil.  The animals were named within a few days, and only a few chapters after the command not to eat the forbidden fruit our first parents took what was forbidden and lost what they had been given.  Therefore the only task remaining was to till the soil.  From the very beginning, the Lord God invited us to share in the work of making good soil.

Today we hear the parable of the sower, and we hear the explanation of this parable from the Lord Jesus.  There is clarity in this message.  Good soil will bear good fruit.  Everything else will bear no lasting fruit.  The seed that is sown is the powerful and effective Word of God.  It is good seed.  If the harvest is not abundant, it is because of the soil.  So my dear brothers and sisters, our task remains.  The Lord invites us to till the soil of our souls so that he can reap an abundant harvest in us.  It is his work.  It is his harvest.  God invites us to share in the work that he is doing.

Through the waters of baptism, God opened the soil and planted the seed of eternal life within each of us.  God himself has done the hardest work.  With the cross of Jesus Christ the soil of our souls received the seed of the Word of God.  With his sacred Body and precious Blood the Lord Jesus offers us nourishment.  Through the sacrament of reconciliation, the Lord Jesus removes the stones and protects the seed from the feet that will crush it and the birds that will steal it.  Through the sacraments of the Church, each of us becomes good soil for the harvest of eternal life.  Amen.

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

Homily for July 6, 2014 (14th Sunday A)

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

There are three invitations in our gospel today.  The Lord Jesus invites us and says, “Come to me.”  The Lord Jesus invites us and says, “Take my yoke.”  The Lord Jesus invites us and says, “Learn from me.”  We have been offered three invitations.  The Lord awaits our three responses.

“Come to me.”  How shall we respond to the invitation to come to the Lord?  How shall we approach the King of Glory who reigns from the throne of grace?  We shall draw near to him in the way that he has shown to us.  In our reading from the book of Zechariah, we hear the prophecy of the entry of the Lord into the city of Jerusalem.  He is king, but comes not as a conqueror.  He enters the city as a man of peace.  He approaches with reverence and humility.  The Lord is gently carried into the city, just as most of us were carried to the baptismal font.  We were carried to our first graced encounter with the Risen Lord.  For those among us who received baptism as adults, the invitation of Christ guided your steps.  We are able to come to the Lord, because we were first brought to him.  We approach him with the humility that he approached the city of Jerusalem. Following the path of the humble steps of the Savior, we approach him who has said to us, “Come to me.”

“Take my yoke.”  Generations before the birth of Jesus Christ in the city of Bethlehem, the prophet Jeremiah wore a yoke in the city of Jerusalem to symbolize the time of servitude and exile ahead.  This is not the yoke that Christ offers to us.  It is a yoke of obedience.  It is a burden that we receive.  But it is not the yoke and burden of slaves in the house of the master, but the yoke and the privilege of children in the house of the Father.  The Lord Jesus invites us to share in the work that he is doing.  He invites us to be close to him, in the field where the work of salvation is accomplished.  The yoke is easy and the burden is light because he has shared it with us.  He has given us a participation in his work.  He has offered us a place at his side. 

“Come to me. Take my yoke. Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”  On the night before he died, the Lord Jesus gave John a place at his side.  John had listened for years to the teaching of the Savior.  On this night, he would listen to his heart.  Reclining at the side of the Son of God, John listened to the heartbeat of the heart of Christ.  He listened to the heart that burned with love for the will of the Father.  He listened to the heart that burned with the fire of love for the salvation of the world.  He listened to the heart that would be pierced by the lance of the soldier, the heart that would pour forth the blood and water of mercy.  John had learned from him because he had come to him.  He was privileged to be at the side of Christ because he was willing to share in the yoke of Christ.  He listened to the heart of Christ because his heart was filled with the love of Christ.

The Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ.  On this altar the blood and water that flowed from the side of Christ flows into us in the Eucharist.  The Lord Jesus renews his invitation for us to come to him.  He approaches us through the simple gifts of bread and wine.  He comes to us veiled in humility for we are the citizens of the holy city.  He comes to us so that we might come to him.  He shares his burden with us, so that we might share our burdens with him.  He draws us close to his heart, so that our broken hearts can be healed and burn for him.  “Come to me.  Take my yoke.  Learn from me.”  The Lord Jesus offers us three invitations.  We need make only one response: Amen.

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