Sunday, August 30, 2015

Homily for August 30, 2015 (22nd Sunday B)





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

At the entrance of many stores and many restaurants, and every few feet in the hospital and nursing homes there are stands with automatic dispensers for hand sanitizer. We see these every day. There is a constant invitation to clean our hands. There is a constant reminder that it is good for us to keep our hands clean. And that is a good thing because clean hands help prevent the spread of disease and they help to keep us healthy. It is good to be concerned about clean hands.

The Pharisees were concerned about clean hands, but they had a different reason. For the Pharisees, cleaning your hands was about religious observance. It was a ritual practice and those who did not follow this practice were considered to be unclean. They were considered to be unfaithful to all of the additions that had been made to the Law of Moses. For the Pharisees, failing to properly clean the hands was an outward sign that the person did not offer proper respect to the law and proper worship to the Lord. For the Pharisees, cleans hands were a sign of righteousness and fidelity.

The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, was more concerned about clean hearts. Hands are external. We can see them, we can show them, we can shake them, and we can easily clean them. But the heart is hidden. We are careful to reveal it, even more careful to share it, and the heart is much more difficult to clean. Within our hearts we keep love, and affection, and compassion. But we also keep grudges, and bitterness and jealousy and rage. We keep all kinds of things hidden in our hearts. That is why it is so much easier to wash our hands than to clean our hearts.

Fortunately, my dear brothers and sisters, the cleaning of our hearts is the work of the grace of God, with our cooperation. The Lord God, who loved the people of Israel enough to give them the law so that they could live with justice and in freedom, has planted his law in our hearts. He has planted his word within us so that we can be a witness to the world and an offering to him. The Lord has claimed our hearts by his gift so that we can reject every evil that arises in our hearts. He has willed to make us new by the word of truth. By his grace and by the gift that we make of our hearts we are able to renounce our selfishness and embrace the generosity of God.

But then, if we embrace the generosity of God and we walk the road with Jesus, we might get our hands dirty. The Pharisees criticized the disciples of Jesus because their hands were dirty. But the disciples’ hands were dirty because they had been working with the Lord Jesus. They had been feeding the poor on the side of the mountain. They had been fishing on the sea. They had been visiting and curing the sick. Their hands were dirty because they had been laboring in the vineyard of the Lord. And we are blessed to have many opportunities to get our hands dirty in the vineyard of the Lord.

We can get our hands dirty feeding and serving the hungry with the Brothers of the Missionaries of the Poor in our parish. We can get our hands dirty by teaching and working with our children and young people in our faith formation program. We can get our hands dirty in the holy work of caring for our families. We can even get our hands dirty by picking up a hymnal and singing at Mass. We can get our hands dirty in the vineyard of the Lord right here, right in this parish, right in this community.

As we lift up our hearts in the Eucharist, we ask the Lord to make them clean and to strengthen our hands to do his work in the vineyard. Amen.

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

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Homily for August 23, 2015 (21st Sunday B)





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

They had a choice to make. The people of the tribes of Israel had a choice to make. After years of wandering through the desert and after victories over all of their enemies, the people had to make a choice. They could serve the Lord who led them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, or they could serve some other gods. They had to make a choice and in a solemn celebration the people of the tribes of Israel declared with their leader Joshua that they would serve the Lord.

The twelve disciples of Jesus had a choice to make. After the feeding of the five thousand men on the side of the mountain, and after the Lord Jesus had announced that he is the Bread of Life, and after the Lord Jesus had told them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life, the twelve disciples of Jesus had a choice to make. Most of the large crowd walked away from Jesus. Most of the men who had eaten the bread on the side of the mountain and heard the preaching of Jesus about the Bread of Life walked away from him. The twelve disciples had a choice to make. In a simple conversation the twelve disciples with Peter their leader declared that they would remain with Jesus.
Saint Paul encouraged husbands to make a choice. He encouraged husbands to love their wives with the same life-giving, love-giving, holy and sacrificial love with which Christ loves the Church. Saint Paul reminded husbands of the choice that Christ the Bridegroom made for his beloved bride the Church. Husbands, Saint Paul said, have a choice to make.

And we have a choice to make. We have a choice to make to remain with Jesus or to walk away from him. In solemn celebrations, like Baptism and first Holy Communion and Confirmation and even with each and every Amen that we pronounce at Mass, we make our choice to remain with Jesus. Like the tribes of Israel with Joshua we make our choice in solemn celebrations to remain with Jesus. But we also make our choice to remain with Jesus in simple conversations and in simple situations every day. We make our choice in simple situations every day to remain with Jesus.

When we choose what we will watch on television, see in movies, or listen to on the radio, we are making a choice about remaining with Jesus. When we use the great gift of speech to build up a life or tear down a reputation, we are making a choice about remaining with Jesus. When we use our precious time in service or even in silence with those who suffer, we are making a choice about remaining with Jesus.

And we have a choice to make every day.
 
The Lord God, for his part, has made his choice. He has chosen us from all eternity. We were created in love and from the foundation of the world we have been chosen to share in the likeness of the Son of God. We have been claimed and chosen in the waters of Baptism. We are strengthened and chosen in the celebration of the Eucharist.
God has chosen us. Let us remain with him.  Amen.

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

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Homily for August 9, 2015 (19th Sunday B)



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


Elijah was hungry in the desert.  He was discouraged, disgusted by the people, and he even prayed that the Lord God would take his life.  Elijah was simply ready to give up, and so he went to sleep beneath a tree.  He was without hope. He was without consolation, but he was not without the voice of an angel and he was not without food. Through the ministry of an angel, Elijah was given food and rest. Through the ministry of an angel, Elijah was given food and he was given strength for the journey to the mountain of God. Elijah was hungry and the Lord God fed him. He was hungry and he was given food for the journey.  


Several times each week I have the opportunity and sacred responsibility to visit the sick and the homebound of our parish.  Honestly this is one of my favorite parts of priestly ministry: bringing the Word of God, the consolation of the Church, the presence of the apostolic ministry, and the Bread of Life to those who are hungry to receive. With faith and devotion, in agony and distress, in moments of doubt and suffering, and sometimes with the peace that passes all understanding, the sick and the dying that hunger for the Bread of Life are fed.  They are hungry for the Lord Jesus.  They are hungry for the Bread of eternal life.


I want to have that hunger. I want to be hungry for the Bread of eternal life. Every day I am privileged to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and every day I am privileged to receive the Lord Jesus in Holy Communion.  Every week we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist and we are privileged to receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But sometimes I do not have that same hunger. Sometimes I am not as hungry for the Bread of eternal life as the sick and the dying who do not have the same opportunity to receive him.  Sometimes I do not have the same hunger and sometimes I forget the privilege. But I want to be hungry. I want to be hungry for Jesus, because he is the Word of Life. He is the gift of the Father. He is the one who has come down from heaven so that you and I can be drawn up into heaven. He is the one who feeds us in agony and distress, in doubt and suffering, in sickness and in health. Jesus is the one who feeds us with the Bread of Life that prepares us for Eternal life beyond the bounds of death.


And I want to be hungry. We want to be hungry for Jesus. We want to be hungry for the Bread of Life more than Elijah was hungry for bread in the desert. We want to be hungry for Jesus. And if we want to be hungry for Jesus then we need to be careful about other things that will feed us. Our telephones, our televisions, our social media and national media, our entertainments and our advertisements will feed us. They will feed us completely with food that will not nourish if we let them. And we can easily be fed to the fill such that we are no longer hungry for Jesus.


But we want to be hungry for Jesus. We want to be fed by Him. So as we celebrate this Eucharist we ask for the wisdom to fast a little or a little more, from everything else that feeds us so that we will be hungry to receive the Bread that will bring us to Eternal life. Amen.


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

Monday, August 3, 2015

Homily for August 2, 2015 (18th Sunday B)

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

They complained. The people who had been freed from slavery, led out of Egypt, and had walked though the Red Sea on dry land complained. They complained because they were ungrateful. They complained because they doubted the promise of God. And they complained because they were hungry. They complained and they complained and they complained.

And the Lord God heard them, and he loved them, and he gave them bread from heaven. They complained and he responded with generosity. They complained and he responded in love. They were ungrateful and he gave them bread from heaven.  They were undeserving and the Lord God gave them what they needed.  They were undeserving and the Lord God fed his people.

The Lord Jesus fed five thousand men on the side of a mountain.  He had fed them and now they followed him so that they could be fed again.  They wanted the food of earth, but now the Lord Jesus would feed them with the mysteries of heaven.  The Lord Jesus would reveal to those who followed him the bread from heaven and the work of the Lord God.  The Lord Jesus would reveal to them the bread from heaven that leads to eternal life.  And he would invite them to work for the bread that endures to eternal life. 

In a few weeks over six hundred children and young people in our parish will begin or continue their religious education.  Accompanied by their generous teachers, these children and young people will continue their work toward the celebration of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. The teachers and the students will work very hard this year, as they do each year.  The students and the teachers and the parents will all be working for the bread that endures to eternal life.

But we do not earn this bread.  We cannot earn this bread.  We cannot earn that which can only be received as a gift.  We cannot earn the love of God.  We cannot earn the bread of God.  We do not work to earn the bread of eternal life.  We work to prepare to receive the gift of the bread of life.  At the invitation of Jesus Christ we work to prepare to receive the gift of Jesus Christ.  Our work is the work of preparation.

We do not earn the Sacraments.  We do not earn the grace of God.  We do not work to earn the bread that endures to eternal life.  The Sacraments are the gift of the Lord.  The grace of the Lord is the gift of the Lord.  The bread of the Lord is the gift of the Lord.  And we prepare to receive him.  Our work at the call of the Lord Jesus prepares us to receive the Lord Jesus.  Our work prepares us to receive the gift.

As we now celebrate the great gift of the Eucharist, we give thanks that the Lord has found us worthy to be in his presence.  We give thanks that the Lord Jesus has invited us to share in his work.  And we pray that the work of this day and the work of this week will prepare us to receive the gift of Jesus Christ.


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