Homily 3-17-2013 (Cycle A - Lazarus) A Matter of Life and Death

Homily 3-17-2013 (Cycle A) A Matter of Life and Death

When we watch movies, especially action movies, we see situations where the hero must make decisions that determine the life and death of sometimes large groups of people, and often their own. Maybe we sometimes forget that our spiritual life, which is more real than anything on television, is also a matter of life and death.

Sin is death. Spiritual death is worse than physical death. Living forever with evil in our soul is not anything to be desired. Even if all people were sinless, death would still remain a gift to humanity, because it puts an end to the evils that we suffer in this life – but most of all, the greatest suffering on earth is what we suffer because of our own sins and the sins of others.

Ezekiel promises to the people of his time that God is planning to restore the dry bones of their current experience. After years in exile, suffering the devastation of their capital city (and the Temple!), and the horror of massive loss of life, the shame of enslavement under Babylon, the Israelites feel death is their only companion, taking place of the life and joy that were once almost tangible to them. The dry bones which represent their seemingly irredeemable existence, The Lord promises His people that these He will restore. At the same time, we see a foreshadowing of the new life in Our Lord Jesus.

In restoring Lazarus to life, we see another foreshadowing. For us Christians, we too experience some form of resurrection like Lazarus, but what Lazarus experienced on a physical level (a mere biological restoration, which we do profess in the Creed), we ourselves have already experienced in our souls. Not having yet tasted physical death, we ourselves know all too well what spiritual death tastes like. Sin stinks worse than a body dead for four days, if we pay attention to the spiritual sense of our consciences. But this does not make Jesus afraid: “Take away the stone!” He is stronger that physical death; He is stronger than spiritual death. He did not make them, but, as God, Christ can use them according to His greater plan to offer us everlasting life.

That life, Ezekiel and Paul tell us, comes from the Spirit that the Lord gives us. Paul stresses that “you are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit if the Spirit of God dwells within...The one who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit.” What Paul is describing here is not a matter of body versus soul, nor should “flesh” be thought of as simply our physical desires. The term “Flesh” refers to living as a part of Adam, as a part of humanity enslaved by sin. Life in the Spirit, however, means living in Jesus, as a part of humanity made free from spiritual death in the body of Christ.

It would be an utter contradiction for those who are in the life of the spirit to return to a life in the flesh. That would be like Israel leaving Jerusalem to go back to the devastation, death, and slavery of Babylon. Let us flee from sin as if from death! And if we find ourselves spiritually stinky, we better go back to Confession to be restored to spiritual life. No matter where we are, as we look forward to the Holiest Week of our Church year, we take ownership of our Baptism, and say with St. Thomas “Let us go too to die with Him.” And thus dead to sin with Our Lord, leaving our life of the flesh on the Cross, we may on Easter rise to new life with Him in the Spirit.

Homily 3-10-2013 Standing up for what is right: a miniature Triduum.

Standing up for what is right: a miniature Triduum.

Today we see that standing up for what we know is right, especially for our faith in Jesus, unites us with Jesus and with His Cross.

Last week we saw the woman at the well transformed by her personal encounter with Christ and inspired to bring the message of the Gospel to others, to share in the work of evangelization. While she received a positive response from her audience, the blind man's witness today is not so well-received. Rather, this story from John ch.9 presents us with a scene of social uprising, anger, pressure, and responses of both resistance and weakness.

Jesus, as he so often happens (even if we at times forget it or ignore it), causes quite a stir with his words and his actions today. This is because those who are so attached to the status quo see Him as a threat – mostly because Jesus is honest, wants change, and knows who He is. Christ stands up for what is right, and he almost always receives persecution for it, culminating in His Cross. Indeed, Jesus is either loved or hated.

We see the reality of Christ's own words before us: No one can serve two masters. Like the Man born blind; like the Pharisees; like the man's parents; like the crowds... we must choose. Will we love Jesus or will we hate him?
This is what we see in today's imagery of light and darkness. As Saint Paul reminds us, before we encountered Jesus and were united to Him through the sacraments of the Church, we were in darkness. We were blind to the truth of Christ until we met Him and were transformed from darkness into light. And if we were raised Catholic we still know that Jesus meets us weekly in the Eucharist, and daily in prayer, and we are meant to leave that encounter as a different person. Then, we are changed, and we see the world, we see other people, we see our mission in life in a totally different way. We know we were called to be like Jesus, just like the man was called to after he was cured.

In order to see the Truth, adore its beauty, and stand up for it, we have to meet Christ. Formation of conscience, to know what is right, is the result of an honest life and a continued encounter with Jesus.

CCC 1783 Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-formed conscience is upright and truthful. ...The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings. 1784 The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. … 1785 In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.

When we let Christ change us and open our eyes, we know we are called to live like Him and stand up for Truth. And if you are like Christ, you will be treated the same was He was: with persecution. This is nothing to fear! With God at out side, persecution only purifies us, draws us closer to God, makes us more saintly. In a huge storm, Trees drop their dead/dying branches more than anything else. Then they are ready to grow stronger branches and produce more fruit. So too when we stand up for what is right will we be made stronger. Jesus will find you and console you for your faithfulness.
Today we ask God for the strength to stand up for what is right, to be so transformed by our encounter with Christ that we see the Truth with confidence as it is, even when the rest of the world is blind to it. And if God's plan calls for us to suffer for that Truth, let us hide in Christ's wounds, where suffering becomes healing. And in this Holy Communion today, may His wounds heal us once more.

Homily 3-3-2013 The Woman at the Well and the New Evangelization

When our former Holy Father, Benedict XVI, the first to resign the papacy in over 600 years, took up the ministry of guiding the ship of Christ's Church, he opened with a very powerful message in his first encyclical, titled Deus Caritas Est, or God is Love. He said that “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” I want today to consider this first “big statement” with our Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI's last “big statement” as Holy Father, the Synod on the New Evangelization which united some 200 bishops for over a week to discuss what this means. First, let's be clear on what the New Evangelization means: Pope JPII coined the phrase in describing how to take the perennial, the constant vocation of Christians to spread the Good News, and update it for our modern context by giving it a “new ardor, new methods, and new expression.” Particularly, Pope John Paul II had directed us to preach the Gospel to those peoples who think they have already heard the Gospel because their culture has a Christian heritage. This is where we see our connection with Pope Benedict XVI's words in Deus Caritas Est: a Christian is not truly a Christian until there is an encounter with the Lord, a relationship of love with Jesus, of both knowing personally and being known by God.

I've been reading a book [Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry A. Weddell], with the limited free time that Lent offers me, about U.S. Catholicism. Some recent surveys are very telling about the health of the Catholic Church among Americans: over 10% of adults in the U.S. are former Catholics, and only 2.5% have come into the Church, so we are losing that battle. These former Catholics very often leave early: sometime during their teenage or college years they abandon their practice of the faith, and eventually switch religions or (more increasingly popular) opt for no formalized religion at all. From the age group of 18-25, only about 10% of Catholics say they go to Mass every week. And the reason so much of this happens falls down to this basic statistic: only 48% of self-identified Catholics say that they believe in a personal God.

Well, if Christianity is stressing a relationship of love with Jesus, and the majority of Catholics do not even know if they can relate to God personally, no wonder some would stop coming to Church. God doesn't have any grandchildren: they must be his children, directly in relationship with him. The faith of parents doesn't mean faith for children: a Christianized culture or home-life is not enough.

We need to be pro-active in our work for the new evangelization. Archbishop Gomez of LA said, “Jesus Christ did not come to suffer and to die so that he could make cultural Catholics.” No, he came because he is dying of thirst for your love, for my love, for our neighbor's love.

This is where our Gospel today can help us: the story of the Woman at the Well is like a summary of the work of evangelization, and I propose that we use this story in our own efforts of evangelization. We first meet Jesus, dying of thirst to be with us. He initiates the conversation, whether He speaks to us in the silence of our hearts or through other persons. (For the Christian, in fact, every day of prayer is like this encounter between Jesus thirsting for us, and our thirsting for Him.) And we so often are hesitant, afraid, and confused by His words, because God sees deep into the well of our souls, where we so often avoid. Perhaps we are too focused on our daily tasks or immediate needs, as the Samaritan woman was for water. But Jesus slowly reveals Himself to us, shows that He knows us more than we know ourselves, and despite our sins, still loves us. And this intimate encounter of love transforms us, it fills us so deeply that we go out and preach to others: we have to share it.

So let us share it.  We first must go through this process ourselves: we have to make the stories in the Gospel to be our own stories - to meet Jesus and encounter Him.  This is first and foremost in our daily prayer and in the sacraments of the Church.  Then, we bring the experience of that encounter to others - inviting them to meet Jesus in their prayer and in the life of the Church - as these RCIA Elect and Candidates have experienced.  If we know of non-practicing Catholics, invite them to Confession, coach them through it, and go with them to the sacrament.  “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."  May this be so for our lives, for our families, for our neighbors.

Homily 2-24-2013 Mountains

 Mountains in the Bible are powerful and important places. Mountain is almost a code-word for divine intervention, for God manifesting Himself and making something critical happen.

In seminary, we had our own little mountains not far off the Mississipi river in southeast Minnesota, called “bluffs.” One of these had an awesome rock formation right near the top that gave a wonderful view of the gorgeous campus below. I went up there many times, even once before sunrise to watch the dawn break. Back when I was in shape, I could take the most direct and steepest route right up to it, but I was always out of breath by the time I made it to the top.

Lent is meant to be a time of climbing a mountain to experience God. And if you've ever tried to climb a mountain, you know that it ain't no walk in the park. This is some seriously difficult work, and you better make good preparations for it. You have to first off dress properly and bring the right equipment. But also you have to pack the necessary amount of food and water. But not too much. Any ounce of extra baggage you bring is going to make that climb more miserable. So the journey up the mountain requires you to make judgments on things: what's important? what will help me? what will hold me back? That's one thing we do during Lent.

But then we get to work climbing. And that work toward sanctification can be tough. In these 40 days, we may want to quit. It is so much easier to just give in to the gravity of our concupiscence and fall down. It's not easy to change; it means going against the grain of our habits to make better ones.

When we are tempted to give in to the difficulties, or find ourselves tripped up on our faces because of sin, it is then that we need a reminder of our purpose: why are we doing this?

The Cross hurts, but the Resurrection gives us assurance that it's worth it.

This is what the disciples experience today. 8 Days ago, they hear that their teacher, the Messiah, is going to taste the most humiliating, most shameful, and most painful death possible.

They need encouragement. They need a change of perspective- to see things from above.

They need a God's eye view. They need hope.

Homily 2-17-2013 Winning the Desert Duel

 Five days into Lent, I am sure some of us have been tempted to give up our Lenten promises. Perhaps we've felt the sting of our sacrifices and we already asked ourselves, “Is it too late to change my penance?”

This is okay. Temptation is normal for us humans. And today, as we follow Jesus into the desert in a game of “follow the leader” that really isn't a game, we look toward our future with confidence knowing that He was Himself tempted and overcame the sting of that temptation.

Today, in the desert where we have to face-up to ourselves, we see Jesus in a sort of duel - a wrestling match between Himself and the Devil's cunning temptations. And the lesson for us today is that we don't defeat the Devil at his own game. If we play his game, we lose no matter what.

Look at Christ. Jesus doesn't beat Satan by doing what he tells Him: turning stones to bread to satisfy his physical wants; worshiping him to receive power and dominion; or hurling himself off the temple to receive the praise and adoration of others. Rather, Christ conquers these attacks by His lowliness, by His humility, by His trust in God His Father. Not that he couldn't have shown the Devil who's who, but He responded this way to leave an example for us. And in that victory we are shown a way to win in our own struggles and temptations, whatever form they take (for me right now it is in the form of yummy looking sweets and snacks between meals!). We have to follow our leader.

The desert reminds us that we will fail on our own. This is why Moses commands the people of God to proclaim the story of their ancestors, of how God saved them by mighty works: so they never forget that they are nothing without God. We must confess our trust in God over these next 40 days as Paul reminds the Romans. We see today the truth in the words of Saint Paul, who said in 2 Cor. 10:12 I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong. Here's one example of that. If on Ash Wednesday we cannot survive the 16-or-so hours of fasting (or at least Fr. Terry cannot) without being either irritable, grumpy, or lazy, then how do we expect to survive the forty days of Lent ahead of us? No, Lent is not a muscle-building program for us to be self-sufficient; Lent is a habitual re-orienting of the eyes of our hearts and minds towards God so that we find in Him our only true strength. When we are weak, then we are strong. This is the humility that Christ exemplified for us today, and this is how he defeated the Devil in that challenging competition.

So whether we have already stumbled in our Lenten program or have survived the first days of Lent, we know that we must trust in God our Father, after the example of Christ in the desert. With absolute humility, let us creatures acknowledge Our Creator and Defender, and find ourselves strong in our weakness. CCC 2097 To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is his name. The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world.

This humble adoration is the way to victory. This is the program for our entire Christian life, and especially for our next six weeks. Let us follow our leader with His humility and His strength to the desert and the cross, and so receive the promise of eternal life that we taste in this Mass.

Homily 2-10-2013

 Today I have a simple message for you all: don't be afraid of prayer. Despite its difficulties, it is rewarding.

When Jesus tells Peter to “cast out into the deep for a catch,” I think this is a beautiful image for what prayer is. Prayer is dark, scary, demanding, challenging. It requires our hard work, yes, but ultimately depends on more than that to be fruitful: we can't force God, just as Peter can't force fish into his net. But if we are faithful to prayer, we will in the end see great results. If we go “cast out into the depths” of our soul in prayer, it is there we will find the wellsprings of eternal life in the Holy Spirit, and we will never be dissappointed, we will never be let down.

Today's readings show us that prayer is the source of Christian mission. Only in prayer do we get a sense of who God is, who we are, and what that relationship demands that we do on this earth – both for God and for our fellow man.

Saint Peter today receives his vocation, to be a fisher of men, through a profound encounter with the Lord Jesus. Saint Paul, who says today how he was made an apostle by Jesus appearing to him on the way to Damascus, also receives his mission, and his strength for perseverance, from that experience. And in our first reading, the prophet Isaiah, deep in prayer, had a similar mystical experience where he encountered in a vision both God and his angels, and hears the Lord calling out to him to fulfill a specific mission. Prayer is the source of vocation. Prayer is the source of mission.

Even Jesus himself underwent this process, one example being at the beginning of His public ministry: deep in prayer at His Baptism, the Father's voice is heard, and the Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the desert for 40 days to be deeply devoted to prayer as he begins his mission to proclaim the Gospel of repentance. This is what we are about to do as a universal Church in the 40 days of Lent which begin this Ash Wednesday, preparing for the holiest days of our Church Year – the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

If prayer is the source of mission, the source of what God is calling us to do, then it is also the source of Grace, with which God also equips us to carry out what He asks of us. This is why prayer is so critical: without it, we fail. The less we pray, the more we will struggle as disciples. On the other hand, the more we advance in prayer, the more perfect we become, the closer we are to being the saints God calls us to be, and the more our weaknesses and defects are overcome, since we are united to God Himself more perfectly and His love draws us into His fulness.  (A dedicated Christian should pray 15 minutes a day, minimum) (silent prayer is necessary!)

So, it is very fitting that at this time, we as a parish, as Christian Disciples, as stewards of the gifts of our life and our time, rededicate ourselves today to the stewardship of Prayer, affirming that we cannot fulfill our Baptismal calling without a regimen of prayer. I now invite our joint-speakers, Matt and Jack, to share their own experience of prayer in their lives to guide our commitment for this year.

Homily 2-3-2013 Receiving the Difficult Message

Jesus Christ, out of love for his hometown, speaks a difficult message to them, and they are unwilling to receive it. It fills “them with rage,” and we see the first glimpse of how the Gospel will end, Our Lord suffering death for standing up for the truth in live. Veritatem in Caritate, the truth in charity, is the episcopal motto of our Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and this is exactly the witness I have always seen him bear to our diocese. This role is a challenge for us as Christians, to speak the unpopular truth with compassion, but it is an essential part of true love, because Love and Truth go together. Charity does not abide in fantasy, it rather faces reality as it is – along with faith and hope to guide it.

But what really hits home for us today is how often we fit the role in today's Gospel not of Christ, but of the locals. How many times have we failed to listen to what we know is true because of how much it hurts? How many times have we disregarded the message because of a personal or social hang-up we have for the messenger? I know I have been guilty in the past of disregarding people I disagree with, of ignoring people I haven't forgiven, and of slandering (at least in my heart if not in my words/actions) people who have rubbed me the wrong way. If we fail to hear the hard truth, instead of growing and learning from our failings, we will only continue in the same shortcomings.

Sin is always easy, because of our concupiscence – since we have a tendency to self-love, it is always a challenge to be charitable, to be selfless, to model the Lord's Cross.

Saint Paul reminds us today of the essence of love, the essence of the Christian life. One practice I would ask you to do is to look at this passage for 1 Cor. 13, and replace the word Charity with Jesus, and see what it teaches you. Then replace it with yourself, and use that as an examination of conscience. You will find this remarkably helpful.

Living in love is the trademark of Christians, of God's adopted children. CCC-1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. ... (Basil) If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.

Let us be those children who love for love's sake. And if we can't do it in every part of our life, let us fake it 'til we make it. Practice it until it truly is a part of your soul.

In order to know what charity looks like, let us recall its fruits: CCC-1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: (Augustine) Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.

And these last words are why we are here today: God is love, and by coming to Him in our daily prayer and especially in the Mass, where Love itself is poured out into our hearts from this altar, we are restored and strengthened to live as children of God. Thank you Jesus, let the Love from your Sacred Heart fill our souls.