LIBRARY OF HOMILIES
FROM
FATHER CHRIS
MARCH 2000
March 5th - 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time (English)March 8th - Ash Wednesday (English)
March 12th - 1st Sunday of Lent (English)
9th Sunday in Ordinary Time
People who have experienced amnesia find that what they miss
the most about forgetting the past are the connection points of life.
They wonder why certain people are in their life today. They can’t
remember how all the pieces fit together. They have to trust those
around them that prior commitments were made. I have heard of cases
where the person with amnesia will be led through their past hoping that
seeing the place where they grew up and went to school, the places where
they played as children or teens, the homes they lived in as adults might
trigger a memory that would then open the door to connecting all the other
memories. Often times it does just that. Pretty soon the individual
can make sense with all the rest of their life.
Making connections is what makes life meaningful. We
mark our lives by time. We speak of what happened last week or last
year. We remember anniversaries and birthdays as ways of celebrating
the passage of time. In fact, most of us live from marker to marker.
Some people work each day simply to get to the weekend. Others plan
their lives around vacations and holidays. In the Church we make
our plans based around the great feasts of Easter and Christmas.
The rest of the church year fills in the time between those feasts.
It would seem natural that since human beings are creatures
that mark time that somewhere in the fiber of our being this was given
us by God. We look to the scriptures and discover that truth.
When God created the world he did so in six days. Then on the seventh
day God paused and beheld the beauty He had created. God created
the animals and us on the 6th day. Yet, we were created not to live
like the animals. We were created to live in the image and likeness
of God. Therefore God wanted us to take time to pause and be renewed
in mind and spirit. Literally the Sabbath rest was designed to be
a time of regeneration by remembering and then celebrating.
When Israel was held in captivity in Egypt they were denied
their human dignity. They were treated like animals. They had
to work seven days a week. When God freed them from slavery He wanted
them to recall that they were made in God’s image. He called them
back to remember and rest on the Sabbath.
By the time of Jesus the Sabbath rest had become a burden.
The Pharisees and Scribes had determined just how much activity would constitute
rest or work. For instance, if one walked 3000 feet or less they
were at rest. If they walked more than that they were working and
violating the Sabbath. On the Sabbath they were not allowed to untie
a rope with both hands. That would be work. If they did it
with one hand it was okay. You can see somewhere the mystery of recalling
the wonder of God and rejoicing in creation had gotten lost in all of the
laws that were written about the Sabbath.
Jesus challenged the Pharisees to see the bigger picture.
Certainly eating a few grains as a snack cannot be violating the Sabbath.
Likewise, healing someone whom had been crippled was not “work” but God’s
liberation. Just as Israel was freed from the yoke of slavery in
Egypt, so too the man with the withered hand could now be freed from his
affliction. It seems so sensible to us. Obviously it wasn’t
to the religious officials of Jesus’ day.
The notion of Sabbath was enhanced by the resurrection.
Now we see the completion of all creation. We see that all of humanity
was lost until Christ. Therefore Sunday has become our day of worship.
It truly is the “Lord’s Day” because on that day our Lord was raised.
It would also be on a Sunday that the Church was born. Pentecost
was the day the Spirit descended upon the Apostles and led them out to
preach, teach, and baptize.
Many of us can remember a time when shops were closed on Sundays.
That is no longer the case. We operate on a twenty-four hour a day
schedule. It seems outdated to think of being closed on Sunday.
Now Sunday has become a primary day for shopping. If stores are going
to be open then they need employees. It is very difficult to truly
keep Sunday a day of worship and a day of rest. Our Church has mandated
that we attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. It says this because
we know how easily we can forget who we are and why we were made.
We can become slaves once again.
We human beings need that time to remember all the goodness
in creation. We need the time to pray and worship. We need
time with family and friends. It is important that we renew our spirits
by reading, listening to music, and taking in cultural events. If
Sunday can’t be a complete day of rest, we still need the time. Take
the time. Don’t return voluntarily into a life of slavery.
We are created in God’s image. Take the time. Shalom.
A few years ago I heard a story about a child who was in the
third or fourth grade. His class was learning about science and the
universe. The teacher had been telling the students that one day
the sun will explode and all the planets in our solar system would be destroyed.
The earth’s oceans would vaporize into steam and the earth would no longer
be able to sustain life. These were pretty difficult things for a
youngster to hear. The teacher told the students that scientists
believe this will happen in 3 billion years.
After class was over this student came up to the teacher with
a very worried look on his face. The teacher could see that he was
distressed and asked him what was the matter. The student said, “You
said that the sun was going to get hotter and destroy the earth?”
“Yes,” responded the teacher. The student asked, “Was that in 3 million
years or 3 billion years?” The teacher replied, “Three billion.”
The student breathed a sigh of relief.
I suppose the thought of the earth being no more is pretty
scary. It’s scary to imagine that there may come a day in history
when the United States will be no more. It seems likely given the
fact that many other great empires eventually collapsed. Our belief
is that this day is hundreds or maybe even a thousand years away.
A person who would have lived a hundred years ago could only
imagine what the world would look like in 2000 AD. They could not
have guessed some of the inventions that we live with. In other ways
they would be surprised that our age is not that different from their own.
The truth is that no matter how long we live there will always
be things beyond our reach. Our scriptures remind us that we can
do nothing about the distant future. Likewise, no matter how much
we study the past or try to dissect it we cannot change it either.
All we have is the present moment. Now is the time of our salvation.
Now is the time when God will visit His people. Now is the time for
repentance and make a return to the Lord with your whole heart, soul, mind
and strength.
This day we are given to search out that which has gotten
in the way of our serving God and root it out. For most of us we
have settled for lesser gods; idols of distraction. These must be
destroyed. Our gods may have taken up our time, energy and devotion.
Maybe we have chosen to use our time to pursue pleasure. Our gods
may be time spent on diversions like the Internet, television, or work.
Today our God calls us to return to Him with our prayer. We can only
know what God wants of us if we take time for prayer. Make this day
and every day an offering to God with prayer and worship.
Our idols might be food or other pleasures of the body.
The body is good. God created it in goodness and wants us to enjoy
the bounty of the earth. Yet, we can and do make our bodily pleasures
gods in themselves. Now is the time to fast and abstain. Now
is the time to allow that openness for God to enter in. Freely renounce
the good things of the earth for the greater good of God.
Sometimes we can get caught up in our own selfish pursuits
and forget to notice the needs of the poor around us. We might justify
it by saying that I don’t have enough for everyone. I can’t feed
all the starving children of Africa or rescue the poor in Latin America.
True enough! But we can do something. Perhaps this season the
Lord is calling you to a greater awareness of the needs of others by giving
alms. It is only when we give away some of our possessions that we
discover we are free. When we help another we save two lives, theirs
and ours. Let this be a season to grow in greater generosity and
openness to the needs of others.
Our God is merciful and slow to anger. God wants us
to see that there is so much more that can be done to bring forth the Kingdom.
May this Lent be a time of renewal to bring it one step closer to its fulfillment.
I understand there is a new show on TV called “God, the Devil,
and Bob.” It’s supposed to be about God wrestling with the decision
to destroy the Earth because humanity has gotten so evil. God decides
to give it one more chance by entrusting the future to Bob. If Bob
can show why it’s worth God’s effort to keep the planet going the Earth
will be saved. Sound familiar? That’s essentially the story
of Noah and the flood.
That story from Genesis is in some ways the story of humanity
in every age. I am sure that at some point you must have asked yourself,
“Why does God care about us? Why should He keep forgiving us and
looking for new ways to redeem us? You would think that by now we
would have figured out the proper thing to do.” Even the Psalmist
says, “What is man that you care for him, mortal man that you are mindful
of him.” But then the psalmist says, “I have made you little less
than a god. With glory and honor I have crowned you.” Yes,
God has created us with glory and honor. God takes that seriously,
even if we sometimes do not.
The story of Noah is a reminder that God prefers to redeem
that which is lost rather than destroy it. That is the whole reason
for the incarnation. Jesus came to earth that we might be saved.
His taking on human flesh is God’s ultimate sign that we are worth the
effort.
When Jesus came among us He would embrace everything of our
humanity. Probably the one thing that we find the most perplexing
is temptation. Intellectually we know what we should do. Most
of us know the commandments including the Great Commandment of Jesus to
love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet, just because we
know what to do doesn’t mean we follow it.
The very first thing Jesus did to begin His ministry with
us is to embrace our most perplexing problem. He entered into the
desert and faced the demons and beasts of temptation in their own kingdom.
He went out to the desert where they roamed. That is what Israel
believed about the desert. Probably because they saw wolves, snakes,
and scorpions in the desert. These were things humans had to stay
away from. It was natural to imagine that Satan lived out in the
desert too.
Mark’s Gospel doesn’t give us much detail as to what that
temptation was like. We can recall the incidents in Matthew’s Gospel
where Jesus is tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, to plunge off
the temple parapet, and to worship the devil. Here, in Mark’s Gospel,
all we hear is that Jesus was tempted while at the same time was ministered
to by angels. In some ways we are being told from the very beginning
of this Gospel that Jesus’ life would be in the center of the struggle
between good and evil.
Maybe it’s better that we don’t have the particulars of what
that temptation was like for Jesus. If Jesus was like us in every
way but sin and we know that each of us will be tempted, but that those
temptations will be different for each of us. Most of us have some
kinds of temptations to deny our true selves and adopt some false self,
various forms of peer pressure. We are tempted to buy things we don’t
need because we have to “keep up with the Jones.’” Sometimes the
temptations are to enter into gossip or bad language because others are
doing it and we want to be accepted. Maybe the temptation is to be
silent about our faith or moral beliefs because they aren’t popular.
All of these temptations are some form of denial of who we are as individuals.
I would guess that Jesus was tempted like we are to indulge
in the sins of the flesh. We are inclined to eat too much, drink
too much, or spend too much time on diversions of entertainment.
All of these things can be good in themselves. When we overindulge
or become obsessed with the goods of the earth we replace God with these
lesser gods.
Our temptations can also be about power and influence.
All of us want to be in control of our own destiny. We can use our
influence to harm another person’s character. We might use the power
that has been given us to enrich ourselves instead of serving others.
Maybe we become obsessed with our own security we fear people and choose
not to address the needs of the poor if they look different from ourselves.
Jesus was tempted but used the power of God to combat the
demons and beasts he encountered in the desert. Throughout this Lenten
season when you go into the desert on your spiritual journey and face your
own demons and beasts, ask for the power of God. God desires that
we return to Him with our whole heart. He has not given up on us.
Let us make this a season of grace. Amen.
Everyone has an Isaac. Everyone has something or someone
dear and precious, without which or whom life would seem empty and meaningless.
An Isaac can be a beloved spouse, who is also a best friend, who knows
your every thought, whim and idiosyncrasy and loves you just the same.
An Isaac can be a partner in a business. That person who is able
to complement your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. An Isaac
can be a brother or sister. Isaac can be a child who fills our days
with pride and joy. An Isaac can be a parent or mentor in whose eyes
we find the love and acceptance we need to grow and in whose example we
find the strength and courage to become all that we are meant to be.
An Isaac can be a friend whose familiar voice never ceases to bring a smile
to our face.
For some, an Isaac can be a prized possession. It might
a beautiful piece of art, a home that is lovingly cared for or something
given us by a deceased parent or grandparent. Sometimes an Isaac
can be money and the security it brings. It might be even something
that is not so noble, an addiction or compulsion.
What or who is your Isaac? Is it your privacy? Is it
health? Would it be peace of mind? Could it be your prestige and reputation?
Is your Isaac comprised of your academic degrees or athletic abilities?
Whatever each of us might identify as Isaac, would you, would I, be willing
to surrender that to God? That is what our scripture passage from
Genesis asks us.
The story of the sacrifice of Isaac, and in the Moslem tradition
the sacrifice of Ismael is very disturbing. For it causes us to ask,
“Does God require the sacrifice that which is most dear to us?” The
answer to that question is both yes and no. God asked Abraham to
sacrifice Isaac. Abraham could not possibly have known why or how
the plan of God could be completed if his only son from his old age was
to be sacrificed; yet he trusted that somehow God would make sense of it.
That’s faith. Some might say that seems almost crazy.
Yet, because Abraham was willing to go to that limit God saved
Isaac. He did not require the sacrifice of a child to know of Abraham’s
faith and loyalty. We have come to understand that this story in
the Old Testament was a reminder for all ages that God does not require
human sacrifice to be pleased. The peoples that Israel lived among
would practice child sacrifice as a sign of loyalty to their gods.
It seemed to them that if they showed this level of commitment then the
gods would respond generously to their petitions. Even though the
people of Israel were instructed that God did not ask this of them, they
too sometimes did this awful practice.
Yet, when we get beyond the notion of child sacrifice we are
still left with the belief that God does want our complete loyalty and
affection. Jesus tells us that we must be willing to turn our backs
on family and possession to inherit the Kingdom. We know that Lent
is the season to strip away all that has gotten in the way of having God
as the center of our lives. The Gospel is a reminder that the glory
of the Lord is found not on a mountaintop but in the total sacrifice of
Jesus on the cross. The disciples would only understand the transfiguration
once they experienced Good Friday.
I believe the ironic nature of human life is that all things
are for our enjoyment and goodness. Yet they are all temporary.
Everything we do is just a glimpse of the eternal life we are destined
for. Therefore, don’t become too attached to anything on earth.
We can’t build tents on a mountain and bask in the glory of God.
We must live our lives in the city. The glory of God is found in
His creation, most especially other people.
3rd Sunday of Lent
Cycle A Readings
Do you pay a lot for water? I do. At the rectory
because of sewer charges the monthly bill is usually over $50. Many
of you have water filtration systems that cost a lot of money. Some
of you buy bottled water, which is very expensive. Why do we those
this with the most common substance on the earth? Because it has
to be just right.
Water is a most amazing substance. Water has the ability
to absorb particles of dirt. It makes it possible to keep things
clean by using water. Water in concentrated form can put out fires
and with even more concentrated forms can drill into rock. Water
running over millions of years formed the Grand Canyon. Water is
necessary for every living thing to survive. Did you know that there
are some fish that are able to grow so fast that when a desert gully fills
with rain a couple times a year they grow and reproduce and then die, but
leave their eggs in the sand for the next rain which may come months later?
If water is polluted with small traces of chemicals it can
cause sickness and death in people or animals that drink it. Yet,
when water is pure it keeps our body working properly. We all need
water.
The Samaritan woman needed water to drink. She needed
water to cook with and use for cleaning. Yet, she was not with the
other women of the village. She was there to get her water in the
heat of the day, by herself. Gathering water was more than just a
necessity. It was the way the women of the village kept up on local
news and found support from one another. This woman was not welcome
in that group. She was known as a sinner.
Jesus comes into the village and asks for a drink. It
seems like a reasonable request. But in reality Jesus has come to
offer this woman living water. Just like water on the ground that
picks up all the debris it comes in contact with, this woman’s life had
become messed up with the decisions she had made and with her sins.
The woman is aware of her status. She knows that she is an outcast
among her own people and regarded as undesirable by Jews. She longs
for true living water that will give her peace.
Perhaps for the first time in her life she discovers someone
who is not interested in using her or ridiculing her. Here is one
who listens to her and is willing to share a conversation. In her
meeting with Jesus she discovers hope and peace. She finds living
water.
You and I may not see ourselves as terrible sinners.
Maybe we haven’t gotten into the mess that the Samaritan woman got herself
in. Yet, we all have found at times our sins or the guilt of our
sins to be like pollution that has gotten into our water. We long
for the life-giving water of Jesus to wash us clean and renew us in spirit.
We want to experience even deeper levels of intimacy with Christ but find
we are caught up in the distractions of life. Maybe we have found
ourselves thirsty for meaning and purpose. We wonder what life has
to offer. Is there something more to live for than a paycheck or
the routine that we currently are in?
Maybe we are thirsty to find peace from the loss of affection
in a broken relationship, a failed marriage, or through the death of a
loved one. It could be that we need the soothing waters of Christ
to give us peace in our grief or sorrow.
When the woman at the well received the power of Christ she
was no longer afraid. She could approach the people of her village
with Good News. She had been redeemed and renewed. Perhaps
we long for the courage to be able to live our faith publicly. We
want to confidently carry the living water of Christ to others even though
we are flawed vessels.
This season of Lent gives us an opportunity to be renewed
and cleansed of sin. May we find purpose to our lives and courage
to share our faith. May we never long for the slavery of sin, but
the freedom of Christ and of His life. May this Lent be such a time
of grace for each of us. Amen.