July 14, 3013 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Do you like retreats? I don't. I hate them! I'm forced to go on one each year--it's probably the fact that I'm forced to go that irks me, but I'm always dragged, kicking and screaming to the 4 day experience where we have to sit and listen to someone who Someone Else thinks will be good for us! 

I think the best retreat I ever made was a workshop, more than a retreat, on social justice, given by Brian Hehir--a priest, and later Monsignor from the state of New York, who ended up in Washington DC working for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Strecker, of Kansas City, Kansas, where I was working at the time, had demanded that we all go to this 3 day workshop--in fact, he had said that anyone who didn't show up, would be immediately transferred, and we wouldn't like where we were sent! Some had complained, "But what if someone dies?" He replied, drolly, "Let them call the Methodists!" So, we knew he meant business. Every last one of us showed up.

Now I don't remember a lot about that workshop--nothing at all of the content, except for what Hehir did with the parable of the Good Samaritan. He said, "Men, we all envision this gospel--Luke wrote it in such a way that it's easy to visualize. We can almost see the muggers beating and kicking and choking the victim, and leaving him for dead after stripping and robbing him. Then, we watch: and after seeing the holy people pass that poor half-dead Jew by, we see a stranger, a foreigner who binds up his wounds and gets him care, and we say, 'Yea! Samaritan! We need more like you!' But, let's say that that scenario happened on a Sunday, OK? Now, what if on the day following, Monday, the Samaritan passes that same place, and sees another half-dead Jew along the side of the road, beaten and close to death, what will he do? Well, he seems like a good soul, so let's say he'll bind him up and get him care. Then, let's say, that on Tuesday, he is going down that same road, and lo and behold, there's another! And of Wednesday another, and on Thursday another. How long will it be before his sensibilities are dulled? Before his commitment wanes? Or, simply before his funds run out?" Then , he said, "Don't you think that eventually it will dawn on him that MAYBE what we need to do is straighten out this stretch of the road so that bandits can't hide? Or, maybe hire a guard? Or, maybe put in a light? Or, maybe jobs should be created for young thugs so they won't have to kill to eat! Doing this, he is caring for 365 Jews a year, by making sure that they won't be left half-dead, stripped and robbed in that spot. This is what we call "social justice." It is "love" written LARGE, in capital letters. We are called to love in small letters, as in today's Gospel reading of the Good Samaritan when situations present themselves, but we are also called to use our God-given intelligence to make a more whole world--to mend its brokenness, so that wholeness and holiness can grow." 

I have NEVER FORGOTTEN that example or that definition of social justice. It has informed my living and my working as a priest for the past nearly 39 years.

What the Good Samaritan does in the Gospel is the result of good religion. Good religion makes nice people--kind people--people who care for half-dead Jews on their doorsteps, but who also care to make their society a healthier, more wholesome and holier place, so that tragedy is NOT the daily "normal."

Jesus, Himself,  probably was thinking of both individual and societal response when he gave the parable to illustrate what He saw as the essence of Torah, as the kernel of what God's will for humanity is all about. He, too, championed good religion.

But, I ask you, how long can a moral life be sustained simply because it is "commanded?" There's a commandment that says, "Love your neighbor," so you try, but how hard? And how long? Where does the spiritual energy come from to open us to living the religious life? 

The Book of Deuteronomy where our first reading comes from, is a series of "last words," or "last sermons" from Moses to the Israelites, whom he has lined up, in formation, ready to enter and claim the "Promised Land." This is the end of Moses' life--after a lifetime of wandering with this people, he is ready to die, and so he knows that he is giving his last words--his best, perhaps "holiest" wisdom to his people. He's had 40 years to think about that revelation on Mt. Sinai--when the mountain shook, and he heard the words he wrote in the book. Here, on the plains of Moab, there is no shaking mountain, no fire, no wind...but there is SOMETHING MORE--a wisdom born of struggle, and it is this that he wants to share--it's his own "last breath," that he is breathing onto his people as he addresses them.

And what he says is surprising...he tells them that the Torah is "not in Heaven"--don't expect Divine Revelation to come to you--it's already come! If you want to know what to do, read the book and study it. It isn't esoteric or far away--you don't need to travel at all, you only need to go INSIDE, for it's IN YOUR HEARTS. The elder Moses knows what the younger Moses couldn't know: he has learned, painfully, that the religious project has an "outward character," in that we SHOULD be nicer people, but at its heart, the religious project is really about the "inner path," the path inside--to encounter the God Who made you, and Who resides deep within. It is learning to listen to THAT Voice that is the essential part of being an authentic human being. If we are true to our truest self, we shall be a wonderful gift to the earth.

What Moses hopes for his people is that they will come to know the wonderfully caring God, a God Who is always there to the rescue, BY LEARNING TO GO INSIDE--in other words, to find their own loveableness, their own ability to come to other's rescue--for they are created in the Image of That God, and when they come to know themselves, and create a society that cares and rescues the fallen--they will come, also to a far deeper awareness of God-Himself--who "hides" His presence in the broken of the world, and at the same time, they will heal the brokenness of the world, the flaws that have been in it since its creation. 

Both Moses and Jesus want us to see that "attaining eternal life" is all about discovering the preciousness of all that is--the neighbor, the dog, the drapes, the mountains and the sea! We are not truly "ALIVE" if we harbor "smallness" toward anyone but ourselves. And the wider we learn to extend our hearts and souls, the more "alive" we become--eternally alive. Today's Gospel is the story of the discovery of the value of "the Other," the one who is SO NOT ME--the one thought to be an enemy, even--but when push comes to shove, one realizes that one MUST do for him for his very "humanity" demands it! At that point, the Samaritan stood on the very threshold of the heart of God, Himself. This is what Jesus wanted us to know. 

The second reading from St. Paul teaches that "Christ Jesus" (as a human being) was the "form of the invisible God," and was so brutally treated. Luke, who may well have been Paul's disciple, says of the half-dead Jew along the roadside, "Here, before you is another "form of the Invisible God," let's learn from experience. The Samaritan rises to the call of his heart--his truest self. His prejudice may have made him wish to pass by, but his "true self," said, "Help him!" The Crucifix is always before us, showing us what we do to each other when we fail to see "Infinity in the dust of a human being", the Good Samaritan parable shows us what kind of world we can make when we take the time to see it--to see that Infinity, that fingerprint of the Divine--in another. It is a kinder, richer world we make...let's pray for the grace of kindness, and the Grace to lift ourselves and all our world a little higher this week. Let us pray for eyes to see Infinity in the dust. And may God bless you all.+

June 30, 3013 - Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Eddie, our organist, called me earlier in the week and asked if he should do patriotic numbers this weekend or next weekend. I said, "Do both!" Some will be expecting it to lead up to the holiday, and others will want it during the long weekend, even though it's after the fact. Besides, with the world in the mess it's in, it doesn't hurt to pray for the nation twice, right? So, a Happy and Safe 4th of July to all of you, and expect similar wishes next weekend too!!!

Now, let's move to the readings for the weekend. What do we make of a Sunday meditation that occurs just before our national holiday of Independence that presents with not one, but TWO "death marches?" We could focus on how anything that is worthwhile demands sacrifice, I suppose...

But, what I'd like you to see is that each death march--that of Elija wtih Elisha in tow, who was to succeed him, and that of Jesus as He turned his face to Jerusalem and began the several month long journey that would end at Calvary's Hill--while both are, indeed, death marches.......neither really ends in death! Elijah, according to the Text was taken up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire from where he would wait the Day of the Messiah and then return to announce it. And Jesus, while he died, and was buried, rose in the Resurrection of Easter Morning Wonder!

Both men truly suffered in their lifetime. Elijah was abandoned by his people, and crawled all the way to Mt. Sinai, where Moses had stood, and said, "I alone am left! Now, what?" Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And as if things were'nt dark enough for Him, an eclipse of the sun occured, as He was expiring--not even sunlight was given Him at the end. And, YET....both of those people, according to the Text were truly blessed with Heavenly and Eternal Life. Death was just something that "really wasn't there!" It looked so foreboding, but when the climax came, and they passed thorugh those portals, God's Chariot of Light and Life arrived, or His Resurrection Power that overcomes every kind of death--the death at the end of human life, as well as the many smaller deaths within it, deaths to things we think so important we don't know how to live without them, but they "go" and we move on, and learn that they were not so essential, after all. 

Death, then, in both readings is a chimera. It appears and is so frightening, but when one passes through it, one sees that it was nothing at all--and life goes on--a different life, but eternal life.

I think this is an essential teaching for all who hold the Gospel and wish to be imitators of the Christ, and walk in His gentle footsteps as His disciples. We need to hear it over and over again. For we are so often tried--not because God is testing us to see if we are worthy, but simply because LIFE is as annoying as it is wonderful. Crazy people live in this world, and they're ALL AROUND! Sometimes, they're EVEN US!  So whether it's the crazies annoying us, or us crazies annoying them, life is filled with moments of darkness and trial. We understand the story of the eclipse on Good Friday, whether it happened or not, because We have been there! We know that that's the way things often are! Darkness just seems to descend. 

So we also need to remember that it passes--sometimes quickly, sometimes terribly slowly, but these "death moments" do pass. All disciples need to know that. Otherwise every misfortune is seen as God's punishment. If we can look at life and see the trouble and the trial that simply livng in a finite world of free will, inhabited by 7 billion other people, can bring to anyone, instead of looking for God's punishment in everything that happens to us, we begin to look for God's saving Grace to take us beyond life's difficulties. 

This is what the disciple of the Prince of Peace has to know. God is here, and God is here not to hurt us but to help us. God is not trying to test us--though living does test us in many ways--rather, God is here to help us overcome, and truly LIVE. Moreover, the ENERGY FOR LIVING--the RESURRECTION POWER FOR TRUE LIFE--that is given to us, helps us to be healers and menders of the broken who have no hope. We are NOT here to RISE and OVERCOME in order to look at those poor slobs who don't know God, or who don't have our faith, and say, "Huh! Guess you see who is right NOW, don't ya?" Absolutely not. That desire to be better, to show up the lesser, is what got James and John Christ's rebuke in today's Gospel. They had wanted to make a parking lot out of an entire village becasue it had rejected them....and Christ says, "Good grief! I'm about to die, and you STILL DON'T get it!" We are here to be the leaven in the loaf. What does leaven do? It lifts. It raises. We are here to lift ourselves and all humanity a little higher, and we only do that as we make their cares our own, and help them to rise, too, NOT by destroying others, but learning to love them as family.

And as we do that, as we make a friend out of an enemy, as we help someone who is suffering to see that hope is possible, we LIFt the world Godward.

We need this lesson as individual disciples, and we need it as a nation--so maybe it's good that it falls where it does. Instead of destroying our enemies before they can destroy us, maybe we need to befriend them--make them family. I know it sounds so bizarre to think that one can make a friend out of a person who is ready to toss a grenade into your house, and it feels like opening the door wide to him is just giving him less resistence, and makes it easier to get the grenade into the house, but look at who our "Enemies" have been: England, at the time of the origin of this national holiday...now they are our staunchest allies. At one time or another, Canada, France, Mexico, Spain, Germany--all nations who we NOW know are simply wonderful people--people we want to know better. Why would we think those folk who, now, seem to be so threatening will not be the same one day? 

The message of the Christ is the Christmas message of Peace on Earth. Peace is made one friendship at a time, one good deed at a time, one offering of hope at a time. So, to celebrate our national holiday, let's get busy with peacemaking, shall we? And may the God of Peace bless you all. +

May 5, 2013 - Sixth Sunday of Easter

I remember when I was probably 12 or 13, I had been out playing, and I came into the house by the back door, and I guess my parents didn't know that I was there, for I heard my father say to my mother, "Well, there's no doubt about it, he should be taught a lesson, and I'm the one to do it!" I froze, then back up quietly, and ran to a neighbor's house, and shot hoops for an hour, wondering what it was that I had done. I saw my Dad's car drive by as we were shooting hoops, and he waved, and kept going. So, I said good-bye, and went back home, and Mom acted like she always did. So, after some small talk, I asked, "Is anything the matter?" "No, not that I know of," she replied.  I never found out who needed to be taught a lesson, but I knew it wasn't me! What had happened was that I had walked in on a conversation that wasn't about me at all, but with the guilt that EVERY teenager carries with him all the time, I SUPPOSED it was about me.

 

Today's Gospel is taken from a conversation. We are interlopers into a conversation between Jesus and a few of His disciples.

 

The entire Gospel reading, this morning, was a response to a question asked by one of the apostles--Judas--not Judas the Iscariot, but the other Judas--we call him, St. Jude, today. He had asked Jesus, "What happened that You are revealing Yourself to us, but not to the rest of the world?" And today's Gospel was Jesus' reply. But there doesn't seem, at least at first glance, to be an answer.

 

Like all half-heard conversations, we are baffled. Judas wants to know why Jesus doesn't reveal Himself as Messiah, and why He doesn't call on the Divine Armies of angels, and conquer the Romans and set Israel free. That way, ALL  THE WORLD will know that God is with Israel, and with Jesus, and with those who follow Him. So, Jesus answers with wisdom about what it means to actually "FOLLOW" the Messiah--and it has nothing to do with conquering anyone but oneself--the hardest battle any human being ever has. "Whoever loves me will keep my Word...my commandments:" the love of God and of others--especially one's enemies. Jesus' "way" isn't about conquering the enemy, it's about conquering the hate in our hearts that turns the "Other" into an enemy in the first place.

 

He goes on to say, that when a follower does that "The Father and Christ will come and dwell within him." Jesus is saying, "You want the world to know God is with you? Then, love the world, and the world will see the Divine in you!" The question of the Bible and of every human being is, "Is God with us?" That question is made up of several other questions--Is there a God? Does He care about the world? Does He love ME? Is He with me? And we are never satisfied. That, too, is the nature of the human heart. We are small in a vast uiverse, and we are uneasy. It's so easy to explain everything materially. Maybe, since science says we don't need God, there is no God? So we set up "tests" for God--sort of asking, "Are you out there?" But the only convincing answer comes from within when God says, "I'm in here!" But, the assurance doesn't last long--a day? a week? And then, we're second-guessing ourselves, wondering if we "tricked ourselves." And other "tests" of God follow. That's who we are. Judas asks Jesus to be less subtle. "Put it out there, man!"

But Jesus says, "No. You put it 'in here!" When it changes you, you'll know what you need to know, and the only way to let it change you is to live it--so go love that enemy! I could be wrong, but I've come to believe that the only proof of God's existence is our own transformation, and the transformation of those we love...

 

I think He would say the same thing to you or to me, here, this morning. We pray to be transformed into more loving people. We say, "Lord change me, make me kinder." But, the wisdom of today's Gospel is that it is in being kind that we grow kinder...so find someone you don't mind being kind to, and get busy! There is no law in the universe that says you have to start out by loving your worst enemy! You don't have to begin with Adolph Hitler! (Well, he's dead, but you get the point!) Start with what you can do, and do it well.

 

It is in the doing of charity that we become charitable. It is in the loving of the neighbor that we learn to love God--and feel that God deep within us, uniting us to all humanity.

 

When I was working in the Maryland House of Correction as a chaplain, I had an interesting Sunday crowd of worshippers. We had about 20 guys who would come. I said to them, "Maryland is a Catholic state, surely there are more than 20 Catholics here." "Well," they said, "they don't like Church much." I said, "I don't particularly like it either, but I do it because it's a commandment. Tell them I want to see them." Well, that went around like wildfire on a prairie in a wind storm! The Warden saw me one day and said, "You're the priest that hates goint to Church!" I tried to explain, "It's not that I hate it, but, but, but..." There was no way out of the mess. BUT, interestingly enough, more people were coming to Mass.

 

And we would get readings like we got today, so I'd do a discussion sermon with them. "What does being good to your neighbor look like in here?" And, if no one would respond, I would call on someone. One man said to me, "Father, there are mean "so and so's" in here, and you don't dare be nice to them. It's interpreted as weakness." I said, "Do you think it's any different anywhere else?" "What do you mean," he asked. I said, "Do you think that if a Republican tries to be open to a Democrat's point of view in Washington, that he isn't seen as 'soft?'" Same in business. I've been a teacher all my life, and when I try to be understanding with homework and class assignments, it's tricky. If I don't walk a fine line, my students will decide I don't care about assignments, and they won't do a thing!" EVERYplace is like this place. "So," he says, "is it impossible what Christ asks of us?" I said, "It is until you try it." I said, "I dare you...pick someone--not the meanest guy on the cellblock, but someone you know you could be better to, and work at it this week--we'll talk about it next week."

 

It was like teaching a Sunday School class of 10 year olds, but I watched the men begin to transform. I soon realized that they were changing in ways I wasn't. I, myself, was spurred to greater kindness, by watching what occurred with them.

 

Will you be perfect? No. Will you have failures? Yes. So what? The point of the spiritual life is to draw closer to God, and that only happens as we draw closer to each other.

My prayer for each of us this week, is that as we each try to put into practice the commandments of the Christ, that we will lift ourselves and all the earth a little higher. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon 13 January 2013

Christ's baptism is a MYSTERY, because we don't know why He did it! Neither did John the Baptist who asked, "Why are YOU coming to ME?" Think about it: baptism removes sin, but Christ was sinless--so He didn't need it! This feast is always a puzzle to theologians.

 

When I teach about Christ's Baptism to students, I always teach about rituals. Rituals are significant to human beings. Not many of us would feel very good about combining our lives, our future and our fortune with someone, but have NO ceremony--even if it's the signing of a pre-nuptial agreement in a lawyer's office, with brunch to follow! Some people can do it, but most of us don't "feel married" without something that says to the world: "She's mine, and I'm hers," or "He's mine, and I'm his."

 

Not many want to come home from the hospital with a new baby with NO rituals at all--even if it's a new crib and flowers and a cake--we want SOMETHING that says to the world: "Welcome, little one! You're with us, now, and we love you, and we'll be here for the long haul."

 

Some students say, "I don't need to go through the graduation ceremony--let them mail me the diploma...but MOST of us could hardly wait to walk across that stage and change the tassel from one side of the Mortar Board to the other, and have that diploma in hand, our proud parents and relatives in the audience taking pictures and silently calculating the cost of the next one!

 

Religious rituals, especially, are "defining." They tell us who we are in the world. And Baptism tells us we are Christians, and if done by a priest, a Catholic Christian on top of it. BUT, Baptism ALSO tells us that we are now officially part of a family that is so much larger than the one that gave us birth. And I think that's why Christ wanted this ceremony. He didn't NEED it; He WANTED it. He wanted to be made one with the wider family--How Wide--His life would only show.

 

Today, you and I come here--all of us baptized, just as Christ was--and we know that it has made us Christians and Catholics on top if it, BUT, it has also made us a part of a much larger "family of God," and THAT family is bigger than we could ever imagine. So, as we celebrate this feast, let us celebrate its message--and let us make of our lives benedictions of brotherhood and peace as we come to see ourselves as part of the larger family of God--the HUMAN FAMILY. And may each of us find a way to bring a bit of understanding and peace to that family. And may God bless you all. +