Homily for Sunday October 28, 2012 (30th Sunday B)

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

Today in the Gospel we hear some of the most comforting words ever spoken: Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.  What comfort these words must have brought to the blind Bartimaeus; Take courage, get up Jesus is calling you.  Having lived for years in physical darkness, living his life on the side of the road and separated from society, Bartimaeus was personally called by Jesus.  These were indeed words of comfort.

This was the same consolation and compassion that the Lord promised to the Israelites during their exile in Babylon.  Today in the reading from the prophet Jeremiah we hear of the promise of the Lord to bring his people back from exile to the Promised Land.  Behold I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the earth.  This promise of the Lord, however, was not made only to the powerful and the strong.   The Lord promised that his chosen people would return with the blind and the lame, with mothers and those with child.  The return from exile would not leave anyone behind, because the love and compassion of God extends beyond the lines of society and beyond the edges of the road.

It is the same compassion, recounted in the Letter to the Hebrews, which is to be exercised by the High Priest.  He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and the erring, for he himself is beset by weakness.  The High Priest exercises his ministry with a compassionate heart, always conscious of his own weakness and limitations.  Christ our High Priest, whose Sacred Heart burns with compassion, desires the same compassion from those who exercise his sacred priesthood and from his holy people.  The compassion that Christ our Savior commands us to show, the people of the world deserve to receive from us who bear the name of Christian.  The Lord Jesus calls us to share his compassion and to seek out those on the sides of the roads, the blind, the lame and the exiles, and proclaim to them: Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.

However, dear brothers and sisters, we cannot give what we have not first received.  And we will not be able to share the love and compassion of Christ if we have not first encountered them.  Each of us, in one way or another, is afflicted by blindness.  Each of us can find ourselves on the side of the road, calling for help and being pushed away by the crowd as we saw in the Gospel.

The people in the crowd rebuked Bartimaeus and told him to be silent.  They wanted Bartimaeus to leave them alone in their comfortable world where they would not have to see him.  The response of the Lord Jesus to the plea of Bartimaeus was different.  Jesus sent them to call him.  The response of Bartimaeus was immediate.  He throws aside his cloak, he leaps up, and he comes to Jesus.  This, my brothers and sisters, is no ordinary activity.  This is the pattern and the language of resurrection.  This is the calling to life in the kingdom.  Just as Bartimaeus would leave his cloak on the side of the road and be raised up by the call of Christ, so Christ Jesus would leave behind the shroud that covered his lifeless body in the tomb that could not hold him bound.  Bartimaeus left behind what made him comfortable on the margins so that he could embrace the call to life with Jesus.  And upon encountering the Lord, Bartimaeus heard those words: What do you want me to do for you?  Called from the side of the road by the same crowd that had pushed him away, now face to face with the Son of God, Bartimaeus replied, Master, I want to see.  The Lord Jesus, giving him sight, said, Go your way; your faith has saved you.  And Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way.  Bartimaeus used his new gift of sight to keep his eyes fixed on following the Lord Jesus.  The Lord Jesus had called him to himself, healed him of his affliction, and sent him as a witness to the great things that the Lord had done.

For each of us, in the celebration of the Eucharist, the Lord does the same thing.  Called through our Baptism to participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we come to the Altar of God.  Wherever we are, in the crowd or on the margins, the Lord Jesus is calling us closer to himself.  He is calling us to a fuller life in the Kingdom.  We proclaim as the Host and Chalice are raised: Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.  There we respond in faith to the Lord’s question: What do you want me to do for you?   Invited by the Lord we reveal our afflictions to the Lord for his healing touch.  And strengthened by the Lord’s Precious Body and Blood, and seeing the world with the eyes of faith, we can say to those we encounter as we journey on the road, Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.

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

     

Homily for Sunday October 21, 2012 (29th Sunday B)

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

Today we celebrate World Mission Sunday.  It is a day when the whole Church prays for all of her members who are involved in the works of the missions.  Often when we think about the activity of the missionaries, we think of those brave apostolic souls who leave the comfort of their homelands to proclaim the Gospel to a culture and a people who have yet to hear the name of Jesus.  We think of those men and women who leave everything and serve as witnesses of the compassion of Christ announcing the kingdom of God by their words and by their lives.  In our own parish community, we are privileged with the presence of the Missionaries of the Poor, who by their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and through their apostolic service witness to the kingdom of God.  We are blessed, brothers and sisters, that these signs of the kingdom live among us.

And yet, these Missionaries of the Poor are not the only ones that Christ has sent to proclaim his gospel and witness to his kingdom.  In the waters of baptism each of us was called to be a child of God and each of us was sent to be a sign of his love.  When we pray for the missionaries, we pray for the whole community of the baptized, and we pray for ourselves as well.

Today in the Gospel we hear about the disposition of discipleship and the ambition that the missionary must leave behind to follow the Lord Jesus.  James and John, the Sons of Thunder, made a request of Jesus.  They asked for a seat at the right and the left of the Lord Jesus when he entered into his glory.  The Lord responded with a question: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  When James and John agree, the Lord Jesus assures them that they will share the cup and the baptism, but not the places at his right and his left.  The Lord Jesus then addresses all of the disciples and reminds them that being the greatest among the servants of Jesus means being the servant of all.

It would be easy, dear brothers and sisters, to speak about the virtue of humility and how we must be humble in our life of faith and in our witness of faith.  It is true that humility is necessary for the disciple and the missionary; but the Lord Jesus invites us to something more.  The Lord Jesus invites us to something more difficult today.

When the Lord asked James and John about sharing in his cup and his baptism, the Lord was inviting them to join in his suffering.  Union with Christ means sharing not only in his teaching, in his miracles, in his prayer, it means also sharing in the glory of his cross.  The disciples and the missionaries will suffer for their faith and suffer for their witness to the faith.  The father and the mother will suffer in body and soul for the mission field of their family that God has entrusted to their care.  The student and the teacher will suffer for their faith in the most difficult mission field of the classroom.  Wherever we work, we will suffer for our faith and for our witness to faith as we seek to speak words of charity in good times and in bad.  Christ Jesus has invited us to join him at his cross.

James and John asked for a place at his right and his left when the Lord entered into his glory.  It would not be two disciples or two missionaries, but two robbers on a lonely hill that would be at his right and his left when the Lord Jesus entered into his glory. 

Today as we renew our baptismal commitment as missionaries of the Kingdom of heaven, we set aside our request for a special seat, and make our prayer with the good thief, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”  

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

Homily for Sunday October 14th, 2012 (28th Sunday B)

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

On Thursday, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, opened the Year of Faith.  Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Holy Father has invited us to reflect both on the gift of faith and the mystery of faith.  We are called to meditate upon the faith that we profess with our lips and to witness more profoundly to the faith that radiates in our lives.  Pope Benedict invites us to travel along the road of conversion so that with minds and hearts renewed we may embrace the faith once delivered unto the saints.  We are invited to embrace the faith that overcomes all fear.

The rich man in the Gospel today did not possess a faith that was stronger than his fear.  Presenting a question to the Lord Jesus about the way to eternal life, the rich man received two answers from the Lord Jesus.  With the first answer, the rich man was reminded of the importance of keeping the commandments of the law of God.  Notice, dear brothers and sisters, that all of the commandments that the Lord mentions are concerned with how the rich man treats other people.  The rich man, a devout follower of the law and a man of justice could claim to have kept the commandments since his youth.  He was, according to the law, a righteous man.  And looking at him, Jesus loved him.  The second answer of the Lord Jesus now followed.  “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  Looking upon the face of incarnate love, the rich man decided that the cost was too great.  He walked away from Jesus, saddened that his many possessions were more precious to him than eternal life.  The fear that could not be overcome was that he would lose more than he would gain.  He feared that following Christ into heaven would be worth less than his many possessions on earth.  And he went away sad.

Peter and the apostles had left everything to follow the Lord Jesus.  The prayer we heard in the reading from book of Wisdom had been answered for them.  They had received the spirit of wisdom to recognize that nothing on earth could be more precious than following the Lord Jesus.  And yet, Peter seems to ask in the gospel today about the rewards of discipleship.  In exchange for what they had given up, what would they receive?  The Lord Jesus responds with divine generosity announcing that whoever has given up houses or family or future or wealth would receive a hundred times more in this life, along with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.  The Lord Jesus would give to his disciples a share of what was his in this life and in the life to come.  The rewards of discipleship, my dear brothers and sisters, are not the things that were spoken of; the reward of discipleship is the one who was speaking.  The true reward of following the Lord Jesus is the Lord Jesus.  And united to the Lord Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are received in the presence of the Father.  No treasure of earth can be more precious than the gift of a place in the kingdom.  No fear can be more powerful than the perfect and abundant love of God.  The great mystery of our faith is that we are loved from all eternity, and in his love, the Lord has invited us to share his love.

As we celebrate this Eucharist today, we celebrate the great gift and the great mystery of our faith.  We ask for the grace to follow the Lord Jesus without fear.  And turning our hearts to him, we profess that Christ Jesus himself is the only reward we seek, and we will go rejoicing.

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

Homily for Sunday October 7, 2012 (27th Sunday B)

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

Today in our readings from the Sacred Scriptures we hear about two divine gifts.  Today we hear about the gift of marriage and the gift of children.  The gift of marriage was given by God at the dawn of creation.  We hear this in the reading from the book of Genesis.  After the creation of the man, the Lord desired to give the man companions to share in the goodness of creation.  What followed was the creation of various kinds of birds and animals, and the man was invited to name them.  Each of the animals that were created and named was created to be of service to the man.  The animals were not partners to the man: they were servants.  This is not the case with the creation of woman.  She was not formed from the ground, but she was formed from the man.  And while the man had named all of the animals, the man had not named himself.  It is not until the man looks upon the woman that he names the woman and he names himself.  With the creation of woman, the creation of humanity was completed.  The man recognized that the woman was, like himself, created in the image and likeness of God.  The woman was not like the animals who were created to be servants.  The woman was created to be a partner to the man.  The woman was a gift to be respected and reverenced.

In our reading from the gospel, the Pharisees ask a question of Jesus.  They ask the Lord Jesus if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife.  Moses had allowed a man to divorce his wife, but the Lord Jesus reminds the Pharisees that this was not the will of the creator.  The marriage of a man and a woman was created to be a permanent covenant that was blessed by God.  The institution that was created by God at the dawn of creation was raised by Christ our Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.  When a baptized man and a baptized woman exchange their consent in the Church, the man and the woman enter into the sacrament of marriage.  When the sacrament of marriage is truly entered into, that sacrament endures forever.  After the prayer of consecration, the bread and the wine of the Eucharist can never be ordinary bread and wine again.  After the pouring of the water, the baptized person can never lose their baptismal dignity.  When the sacrament of Marriage has been truly entered into, the bond of marriage can only be ended by the death of one of the spouses.  And yet, dear brothers and sisters, in the time of Moses, and in the time of Jesus, and in our own day, the marriage of a man and a woman is ended, not by death, but by divorce.  The destruction of a marriage is a tragedy.  The destruction of a marriage begins with the rejection of a gift, either by the man or the woman or by both of the spouses.

So it is, dear brothers and sisters, that when a husband and a wife deprive the gift of marital love of its divine and creative power, then they reject the gift of God.  Whenever children are regarded as a burden, and not as a manifestation of the love of God, then the husband and wife reject the gift of God and place their marriage in peril.  Whenever the husband or the wife fails to reverence their spouse as a companion on the journey to eternal life, then they reject the gift of God.  The destruction of a marriage is a tragedy.  It is a moment of great sadness.

And yet, brothers and sisters, we are a people of hope and a people of redemption.     If the gift of God has ever been rejected, through the grace of repentance and forgiveness, the gift of God can again be accepted.  What God has joined by the goodness of his providence, God will indeed strengthen and restore by his grace.  As we celebrate this Eucharist today, we ask the Lord to stir up the grace of the sacrament of marriage in the souls of husbands and wives.  Let us ask for the grace to reverence and respect each other as gifts of God.  And let us turn to the Lord with the simplicity of children to receive the grace of his blessing.

Preached (in Spanish) at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Homily for Sunday September 30, 2012 (26th Sunday B)

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

Today we bring to conclusion our encounter with the Letter of James.  For five weeks we have heard the counsel of this servant of the Lord Jesus and shepherd of the flock of the early church.  We have been challenged to be transformed by our worship of God, authentically living the Amen we speak in the Church.  James has invited us to live in a spirit of reverence.  Three weeks ago we were encouraged to reject the distinctions of earth, especially between the poor and the rich, when we gather to participate in the banquet of heaven.  James has invited us to live with a spirit of welcome.  Two weeks ago we pondered the relationship between the faith we profess with our lips and the works of faith we accomplish with our hands.  James, again, has invited us to live in a spirit of integrity.  Last week, brothers and sisters, we were invited to examine our motives and our goals.  We were challenged to make union with Christ the ultimate goal of our lives.  James has invited us to live in a spirit of single minded devotion.  Today, as we hear the final counsel of the letter of James, we are invited to live in a spirit of justice and generosity.

“Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.  Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”  It would seem, brothers and sisters, that the warning of the letter of James only applies to those who are rich in the goods of the world.  It would seem that only those who have mistreated their workers need to be concerned about the judgment of God.  It would seem that this final counsel of the Letter of James would not apply to us.

And yet, whenever the Sacred Scriptures are proclaimed in the Sacred Liturgy, God is speaking to his people.  Whether or not we possess an abundance of the riches of earth, God is speaking to us, this day, through the passage.  The charge that James levels against the materially rich of his community is that they have kept for themselves that which rightly belongs to another.  They withheld wages that had been earned for work that had been accomplished.  They failed to give to another that which was owed to them.  They had failed to live in a spirit of justice.

To live in a spirit of justice is to give to others that which is owed to them.  We live in a spirit of justice when we fulfill the obligations that we have toward others.  We fail to live in a spirit of justice when we keep as our own possession those gifts and graces that God has entrusted to our care.  That means, dear brothers and sisters, that the spiritual gifts that were entrusted to each of us in the Sacrament of Baptism and stirred up in the Sacrament of Confirmation, have been entrusted to us for the building up of the community of faith.  Each of us is a steward of the gifts of God, and the people of God have a right to benefit from that which God has entrusted to our care.

So it is dear brothers and sisters, that God who is the author of all time, has a claim on our time.  We owe to God our worship for he is worthy of our praise.  We owe to his Church a share of our resources, both of our time and of our goods.  We owe to our society a consistent and convincing witness to the sanctity of life and dignity of the family.  We owe to each other the prayers of intercession, the counsel of the Gospel, and the compassion of the heart of Christ.

For these past few weeks, the letter of James has called us to a deeper understanding of the meaning of Christian discipleship.  We have asked the Lord to transform our voices, our minds, our hearts, our motives, and the conduct of our lives.  As we celebrate this Eucharist today, let us ask for the grace to live in a spirit of justice toward God and toward our brothers and sisters.  Let us seek to place the gifts entrusted to our care at the service of the whole community of faith.  And let us ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit to live our lives as witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ.    

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

Homily for Sunday, September 23, 2012 (25th Sunday B)

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

Today we are continuing our journey through the Letter of James.  This is our fourth Sunday reading through this letter from Sacred Scripture.  Three weeks ago we heard the proclamation of the goodness and love of God who has loved us and has called us to be the first fruits of all creation.  Precious in the sight of the Lord, we asked for the Lord to transform our voices so that we could live fully the Amen that we proclaim when we gather for worship.  Two weeks ago we heard the challenging words that called us to reject the distinctions of earth, especially between the rich and the poor, when we are gathered to celebrate the banquet of heaven.  We asked the Lord to transform our eyes so that we could recognize the face of Christ in the faces of our brothers and sisters.  Last week we meditated upon the connection between the faith we profess with our lips and the works of faith we accomplish with our hands.  We asked the Lord to transform our lives so that we could be recognized as companions of the Lord Jesus.  Today, in both the Letter of James and our reading from the Gospel, we are challenged to examine our motives and our goals.  In these past weeks we have begged to have the eyes of Christ so that we could be the hands of Christ.  Today we ask to put on the mind of Christ and ask that our hearts may be configured to the heart of Christ.

“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.”  This counsel from the Letter of James is not a call to change our external behavior.  Each week we have responded to that call.  This counsel from the Letter of James invites us to an interior transformation.  Claiming as our own the dignity of our baptismal vocation as the first fruits of creation, as a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to the Father in Christ Jesus, today we invite the Lord to take possession of the minds and the hearts that we have lifted up to Him.  We ask to be filled with the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits, that is constant and sincere.  We ask for a mind and a heart that is focused on Christ alone.  We ask to live as children in the household of God.

To live as children in the household of God is the message of the Gospel today.  The disciples, having briefly taken their eyes off of Christ, began to focus on their status on behalf of Christ rather than on their relationship with Christ.  Worldly ambition and status, disconnected from humble service and childlike trust, are poisons to the disciples of Jesus Christ.  They harm us from within.  It is true, brothers and sisters, that we have a responsibility to perform our work well.  We have a responsibility to grow in Christ, with the grace of Christ, into those persons that we were created to be.  The counsel of the Letter of James and the command of the Lord Jesus invite us to purify our motives.  We are called today to examine the goal toward which we focus our lives.

For the life of the Christian, there can be only one goal.  There can only be one focus in which all other activities are included.  Christ Jesus calls us to single minded devotion with an undivided heart.  For the life of the Christian, the only goal, the ultimate goal, is union with Christ.  

As we have asked the Lord to transform our voices, eyes, and actions, so today we ask the Lord to transform our minds and our motives.  We ask in this Eucharist for the grace of single minded devotion so that we may keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.  We ask for the grace of childlike trust as we live in the household of God.  And we ask for the grace to seek as the ultimate goal of our lives true and eternal union with Christ Jesus.

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

Homily for Sunday, September 16, 2012 (24th Sunday B)

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

This Sunday we are continuing our encounter with the Letter of James.  Two weeks ago we reflected on the goodness of God and the virtue of humility.  We meditated upon the consequences of our worship and our desire to fully live the Amen that we proclaim in the Church.  Two weeks ago we asked the Lord to transform our voices.  Last Sunday James invited us to reflect on our conduct when we gather for worship as the assembly of the baptized.  We heard the counsel of James not to allow the distinctions of earth to enter into our participation in the banquet of heaven.  We asked the Lord to transform our eyes so that we could look upon the face of Jesus Christ when we encounter our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  Today, we ask the Lord to transform our lives so that we can be recognized as companions of Jesus.

In our brief reading from the Letter of James we hear about the relationship between faith and works.  James asks the question, “What good is it if someone has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  James continues, declaring that “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  We are again reminded, as we have been each week in the Letter of James, that we have a responsibility to care for the poor, because we are disciples of the Christ who was born in a manger.  Now we know, dear brothers and sisters, that work of salvation has been accomplished by Jesus Christ, and that he has invited us to cooperate with him in the redemption of the world.  Therefore as believers in the Good News and followers of the one who was crucified and now lives forever, we know that faith and works are not opposed to each other.  What the Letter of James cautions against is the thought that faith is simply the response of our minds to a set of propositions.  The Letter of James rejects the belief that faith is the acceptance of an idea.  Faith, for James, for Paul, for you and for me, is not the acceptance of an idea.  In faith, we embrace a person.  In faith, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we profess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  

And dear brothers and sisters, the faith that we profess, just like the worship in which we participate, has consequences.  There are consequences in our lives to the faith that we profess.  So if we are to claim that Jesus Christ is Lord in the Church, then we must proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord in the world.  And if Jesus Christ is Lord of the Church and of the world and of each of our lives, then we must proclaim that he is Lord of every aspect of our lives.  That means that Jesus is Lord of my priesthood and every part of it.  It means that Jesus is Lord of your marriage, and Lord of your family life.  It means that Jesus Christ is Lord when you go to work and Lord when you seek to rest.  It means that Jesus Christ is Lord of every conversation and Lord of every activity.  And it means that Jesus Christ is Lord even when we go to cast our vote.  That is the consequence of our faith because our faith is living and active.  We do not profess an idea.  We profess and we proclaim a person, and He is living and active.

As we celebrate this Eucharist today, we ask for the grace to recognize the consequences of our faith.  We seek with the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to receive the Lord Jesus as Lord and Redeemer of every aspect of our lives.  And we ask for the grace that by the faith we profess and the witness of our lives, we may be recognized as companions of the Lord Jesus.

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