Homily 7-14-2013 Being the Good Samaritan

 When these readings arose three years ago, I preached on the beauty and importance of Confession: Jesus the Good Samaritan, heals our wounds and brings us for continued healing to the Church – the inn, the safe home where we are cared for. Today I want to look at something else: We are called to be Good Samaritans when Jesus commands us, “Go and do likewise!”

As Moses reminds us today that the Law of God is written upon our hearts, a part of our human nature that the Catholic Church calls natural law. That law cannot be blotted out, and from our Creator we hear the voice of our conscience calling from inside us to “do good; avoid evil; love your neighbor as yourself.” This internal law of God, invisible but so very real if we are listening, is manifest us in Jesus.

We heard Saint Paul tell us, “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God... and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. The Church re-echoes these words in the writings of Vatican II, cited in the Catechism, CCC 1710 (Gaudium et Spes 22) Christ ... makes man fully manifest to man himself and brings to light his exalted vocation.

Jesus, the Good Samaritan who did much more to make us well than just spend a little time and money, but even wasted his own life to care for us: he is the one that shows us how to live, how to love. He reveals what it means to truly live out that law written in our hearts.

Pope Francis made his first trip outside of Rome this past Sunday, July 7th. He went to Lampedusa, an island that receives immigrants traveling treacherously by rafts to Europe. It is estimated that some 20,000 people have died attempting to arrive at this place, because there seems to be little concern for the inconvenience they cause the island and the continent. Here are some excerpts from his homily, starting with the story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden:

“Adam, where are you?” This is the first question that God addresses to man after sin. “Where are you Adam?” Adam is disoriented and has lost his place in creation because he was thinking how to become powerful, to dominate everything, to be God. And harmony was broken, the man erred – and this is repeated even in relations with his neighbor, who is no longer a brother to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life, my well-being. And God puts the second question: “Cain, where is your brother?” The dream of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God, leads to a chain of errors that is a chain of death, leads to shedding the blood of the brother!
These two questions resonate even today, with all their force! So many of us, even including myself, are disoriented, we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live, we don’t care, we don’t protect that which God has created for all, and we are unable to care for one another. And when this disorientation assumes worldwide dimensions, we arrive at tragedies like the one we have seen.
“Where is your brother?” the voice of his blood cries even to me, God says. This is not a question addressed to others: it is a question addressed to me, to you, to each one of us.

Even today this question comes with force: Who is responsible for the blood of these brothers and sisters? No one! We all respond this way: not me, it has nothing to do with me, there are others, certainly not me. But God asks each one of us: “Where is the blood of your brother that cries out to me?” Today no one in the world feels responsible for this; we have lost the sense of fraternal responsibility; we have fallen into the hypocritical attitude of the priest and of the servant of the altar that Jesus speaks about in the parable of the Good Samaritan: We look upon the brother half dead by the roadside, perhaps we think “poor guy,” and we continue on our way, it’s none of our business; and we feel fine with this, we feel at peace... The culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others, that makes us live in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are nothing, are illusions of futility, of the transient, that brings indifference to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference. In this world of globalization we have fallen into a globalization of indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our business.

[King] Herod [, when he slaughtered the innocent infants,] sowed death in order to defend his own well-being, his own soap bubble. And this continues to repeat itself. Let us ask the Lord to wipe out [whatever attitude] of Herod remains in our hears; let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this.
O Lord, in this Liturgy,we ask forgiveness for the indifference towards so many brothers and sisters; we ask forgiveness for those who are pleased with themselves, who are closed in on their own well-being in a way that leads to the anesthesia of the heart, we ask you, Father, for forgiveness for those who with their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord! O Lord, even today let us hear your questions: “Adam, where are you?” “Where is the blood of your brother?”

Help us, Lord Jesus.  Heal us, O Good Samaritan, so that we can be who you created us to be, and have compassion on our brothers.

Homily 7-7-2013

       TWO NEW POPE-SAINTS - MISSIONARY WITNESSES

If we trust God and commit our lives to His Gospel, clinging to the Cross, we will experience His blessings. This is what Isaiah is promising us, what Paul challenges us to, what Jesus commands his disciples to.

Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II were just slated to be added to the list of saints of Roman Catholic Church. These two popes of our own era were spectacular because God knew we needed them in our world today. As we hear Jesus sending out the 70 disciples in the Gospel today, we find in these two soon-to-be saints good examples of missionaries, evangelists, messengers of the Gospel who take the Gospel to the world. When John XXIII shocked all the Church's cardinals, who expected a few years of transition with the very elderly pope, by declaring an ecumenical council, he said we need to open the windows of the Church and let in some fresh air so that the Gospel could be proclaimed in a new way. He did that in his own life, even as pope: Blessed John XXIII would walk out in the streets and slums of Rome, visiting the poor and sick, sharing the Joy of the Gospel with them. That joy, flowing from a deep sense of hope, was seen in his sense of humor, my favorite account of which was his response to the question, “Holy Father, how many people work here in the Vatican?” The Pope: “Oh, about half.” By his joy and by his charity, John XXIII shows us the sometimes forgotten side of a missionary: we don't have to cross oceans or borders to share the Gospel of God's love and proclaim “the Kingdom of God is at hand!”

John Paul II, however, was a missionary who did travel the world, many times over. The Gospel worked its power as John Paul II proclaimed its message. What was the most powerful effect if his missionary work? Perhaps the many souls who saw him face to face, as an elderly woman in Mexico described to me the encounter of so many years ago with fresh tears like it happened yesterday (and I myself experienced in Toronto). Perhaps the non-violent fall of the Communist regime in Poland and then eastern Europe? Perhaps the visit to publicly forgive and evangelize Ali Agca, the man who attempted to assassinate him in St. Peter's square.

John XXIII and John Paul II show us both the ordinary and the courageous ways we are called to proclaim the Gospel to the world. And in the midst of their overwhelming successes, they also shared in difficulties and trials. Paul finishes his letter to the Galatians with the words we hear today, writing this last part in his own hand (as verse 11 tells us), as a way of authenticating the letter and emphasizing its conclusion. Here he presents us with the Cross.

CCC 1235: The sign of the cross, on the threshold of the celebration of Baptism, marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him and signifies the grace of the redemption Christ won for us by his cross.

That cross is again placed on the casket of the deceased. And as two bookends, it is present throughout the entire life of a Christian.

CCC 2015:The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.⁶⁸ Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:

He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.⁶⁹

Following Christ to the Cross means dying to our plans, our desires, our comforts, our safety. But letting go of the Cross is like letting go of the rope that holds us up, like abandoning the anchor that keeps us safe in the storms of life.

I remember how John Paul II held his cross until the end. I can't say about John XXIII since I was around yet, you'll have to ask Fr. Bill. But JPII, slowly fading with Parkinson's disease, eventually barely being able to speak or move, showed us that the Cross, when embraced, brings hope. Let us pray that as we bring the message of the Gospel to the world with joy and with hope, we can embrace the difficulties of Christian life, placing our faith in the Resurrection of Our Eucharistic Lord Jesus, who never abandons us, who suffers with us, and who rejoices in victory with us.