As for me and my household.... well, what will you do?

+ J. M. J. +

 Homily Outline for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

            Today we come to the climax of Jesus’ teaching on the great mystery of the Eucharist. People grumbled at this hard teaching, and He responded by re-emphasizing His point: we are to gnaw His flesh and gulp His blood, they are true food, and without them we have no life within us.  EVEN Jesus’ own disciples struggled with this teaching, “This saying is hard, who can accept it?”  If Jesus was going to step back and render symbolic His statements, here was His chance. Many times He had pulled the disciples aside to explain the significance of a parable, but not today: “Does this shock you?” He said, and turning to the Twelve, his closest collaborators, these men He has called by name and formed with love and patience, turning to them He said, “Do you also want to leave?”

            Let that sink in for a moment: Jesus is not only ready to see the crowds turn away; He is not only willing to see the disciples turn away.  Jesus is willing to have the Twelve turn aside if they will not accept this strange and unsettling teaching: unless we eat His Body and drink His Blood, we have no life within us.  Jesus is Himself the Truth, and He can only speak the Truth, and so He must teach those He loves the Truth, even when it is difficult, even when it is surprising, even when it is likely to be rejected.

            Jesus teaches us with such courage and fortitude, with such love, because He is preparing us to enter into the New Covenant in His Blood. A Covenant is not merely a contract, an exchange of services; rather it is a permanent co-mingling of lives, a bond even unto death.  A Covenant draws us into commitments that are beyond our unaided power, to a love that is stronger than death.  God sealed a covenant with Abraham, and with Moses on Mount Sinai. God called the People of Israel to Himself and told them that He would be their God, and they would be His people.  When Joshua gathered the tribes at Shechem after they had entered into the Land, he once more placed a decision before them: God has chosen them, would they choose the Lord?  Joshua had made his choice, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

God called them to be a Light to ALL nations, and in the fullness of time, God came Himself into their midst.  In Jesus Christ a New Covenant was sealed between God and His people in the Blood of the Cross.  Jesus offered no animal, no grain offering, no tithe—He offered Himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity on the Cross for us, thus bridging forever the chasm opened up by our sins.  By His stripes, by His passion, we have been healed.  God has united Himself to us definitively, once for all, and what God has united, no man can divide.

This is the awe-inspiring context for St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians. Some claim this passage has been abused as an excuse for men to mistreat their wives, while in our own time many have used it as an excuse to ignore the Church’s teaching on marriage.  Neither abuse of this passage has anything to do with what St. Paul is teaching, and his first words make that clear: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  In the Greek and Roman worlds, a woman was the property of her husband, and could be readily dismissed at his prerogative.  St. Paul rejects this inhuman cultural situation and tells husbands and wives that they are to surrender themselves to each other out of reverence for the Lord who surrendered Himself to us.  If anything, it is men who are called to task, “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.”  

How did Christ love the Church?  On the Cross, He offered Himself unto the last breath, unto the last drop of sweat on His lacerated brow, unto the blood and water that poured forth from His pierced side. Jesus offered Himself unto the carrying of the Cross, unto His dying on the Cross, unto the cold and silent tomb, and even unto Gehenna itself, where He shattered asunder the gates of Hell.  My brothers in Christ, whether you are a husband, or a boyfriend, or a single man, or a boy, this is what our faith calls us to, and Jesus walked before us on this path.  Sisters in Christ, how would you respond to a man who laid down his life completely, unto the last breath for you?  Could a man who emptied himself completely for his wife ever lord it over her?  Could he ever mistreat his wife and claim to be following Christ?  He could not.

This, then, is the covenant God has made with us. He has wedded Himself for all eternity to His Bride, the Church, and sealed this covenant by His own blood on the Cross.  He submitted Himself to all things, to all suffering on our behalf, and at every Mass this sacrifice and banquet feast is re-presented.  We are drawn into the sacrifice of Calvary, and we are drawn into the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.  Marriage is the metaphor, and for most of us, it is the path God has called us to.  Marriage is in great trouble in our land, perhaps your own marriage is in trouble, but the path to healing and truth passes through this altar from which we receive the Lamb of God, He who takes away the sins of the World.  This Lamb’s teaching is mysterious, at times it is hard, at times it is not apparent how it fits into our deeply wounded world.  And, yet, we are called to make a decision: the same decision Joshua put before the Chosen People… the same choice Jesus put before the crowds, before His disciples, and finally before the Twelve.  Will we leave Him?  Will we follow idols, or will we follow the One True God?

As he did so often, out of his own weakness, St. Peter models for us the way forward, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”  Peter does not say, “Lord, it all makes sense to me, so I’ll follow you.” He could not have understood in any full way how they were going to eat the Lord’s Body and drink His Blood, but he made the choice, he cast his lot with the Lord, he made the same choice that Joshua did.  May we make that choice today, either for the first time, or once again. May Joshua’s words be our own, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

+ A. M. D. G. +

How can we eat this man's flesh?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The bounteous repast that the Church spreads before us on this parish picnic weekend is rich indeed! We begin with Lady Wisdom, God’s wisdom here anthropomorphized and imagined as a wealthy and powerful queen. She has set up her home, prepared the feast, set the table, and then she sends out her maidservants and puts out a wide invitation:

"Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding."

The invitation is clear… if we will turn towards God’s wisdom, knowing our own simplicity and lack of wisdom, we will be filled, we will be lead deeper into the mystery of God. The door, my friends, is open to us.

St. Paul also calls us to wisdom, inviting us to live, “not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of the opportunity…” We become wise and live wisely precisely to the extent that we seek the will of the Lord, turn away from sin and vice, and open the door to the Spirit. This wisdom culminates in a joyful outpouring of praise to the Lord, and most importantly, thanksgiving. We should be “giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.”

Here the plot thickens—the Apostle has told us to give thanks always. The phrase he uses in Greek is euxaristountes pantote, that is “giving thanks always…” Do you hear the connection? Euxaristountes? This is the very same root as for the word “Eucharist.” This is the Greek word for gratitude. If we are to cultivate grateful hearts and lives and so be wise, this means we must cultivate Eucharistic hearts!

Wisdom is not a popular category… it has been supplanted in our daily lives by knowledge, and even more by raw data. On the internet we have practically infinite information and data at our fingertips. But, then, we don’t know for sure if ANY of it is true, accurate, dependable or trustworthy. I think we can see that in our world information and data have exploded, but wisdom is just as rare as ever. How do we acquire wisdom? It comes from God, we can receive it as a gift if we realize that we are little and that we are not self-sufficient, and that we need a Savior. Jesus spoke the truest and deepest wisdom to those crowds, but it was difficult for them to accept. He said:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

How can we eat this man’s flesh? The crowds had the very same question… and it’s a good question, a reasonable question. How indeed? Jesus doesn’t step back, or indicate that He’s speaking a parable, or using hyperbole, as He often did at other times. He continues:

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

Once again, there’s a deeper connection here in the original Greek. Jesus makes a solemn declaration, “Amen, Amen. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood or you are without life.” Then Jesus ups the ante even further… He switches verbs, and instead of the common ordinary Greek words for eat and drink that He has used up to this point, He chose graphic words that mean literally to gnaw and gulp… words that explicitly emphasize real eating. He drives home the point, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

How are we to understand this??? We’re supposed to eat the Lord’s body and drink His blood? We’re supposed to gnaw his flesh and swallow His blood? PLEASE, don’t just say to yourself, “oh, yes, we say that all the time at church.” These are astonishing and even offensive words… if the people listening to Jesus that day struggled with this, it was at least in part because they were really listening to the Lord. We are incomplete, broken, starving, desperately in need of God’s help in ways large and small, in ways visible and hidden. God from all eternity has seen our poverty, and in the fullness of time He responded after centuries of preparation. That response to our poverty and starvation is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ who is Himself Truth Incarnate said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

This is not data that our data-saturated world is readily able to accept… neither is it data that we should gloss over too easily just because the words are familiar. When church-going Catholics in our country are asked in surveys, “Do we really consume the Lord’s body and blood at Mass,” a solid minority say, “No.” Yet, Jesus said, “My flesh is truly food and my blood is truly drink.” God in His wisdom has set the table, prepared the meal, and opened the doors…. But we have to forsake foolishness if we are to live, we have to forsake simple routine if we are to receive eternal life. Brothers and sisters, do not approach this altar half-awake, out of habit. Do not approach this altar unless you desire God’s wisdom which breaks our categories and our hearts and our lives so that we can be remade in His image. Please, today, perhaps even for the first time, approach this altar with reverence, with awe, aware that we receive here a mystery beyond our full comprehension. At this altar we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King and He says to us, “This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

+ A. M. D. G. +

Will the journey be too long for you?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B


“Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” These are the angel’s words to Elijah the prophet—he has been fleeing from the King Ahab and Queen Jezebel who are trying to kill him, and he has all but given up. The angel of the Lord brings him food and drink, but he is so weary and close to despair that the angel has to urge him on to eat enough. Without adequate food, we become weak. If we face a big physical struggle, all the more must we eat well. My uncle Tim ran the Paavo Nurmi Marathon in under 4 hours this morning, and last night I made sure to feed him a plate of pasta! On the Baraga March this past week, we biked over 100 miles, and we had to make sure to eat and drink so we would have fuel for the journey. Simple enough, this principle, something we are all familiar with… but as we spoke of last week, are we prepared to go deeper? Can we apply this knowledge of our physical bodies to our spiritual life by analogy?

As human beings we are uniquely body and soul. Of all God’s creatures, only we have both a material and spiritual component. The angels are pure spirit, and even the highest animals fall short of free will and the ability to choose and love that God has given us. Unless we integrate these two aspects of our united being, we will easily go astray. Both our bodies and our souls lie at the heart of the human condition. God, in His perfect wisdom, has always responded to us on both levels. We will understand and penetrate deeper into the mystery of the Eucharist only if we bring together what we know and experience in our bodies AND our souls, just as we do at every Mass, with the Word, and music, and architecture and art, and vesture, and posture, and, at the very crux of things, food.

Last Sunday we heard of Jesus challenging the people who had come to Him hungry for more to go deeper. What sign might He do to prove to them He is a prophet? Moses called down bread from heaven! Jesus responded, “"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Notice how the people respond: they grumble—don’t we know this guy, his parents—how can He say such a thing?!! Jesus is familiar to them, they think they know where he’s from, and so they balk. They want something spectacular, surprising, obvious… and Jesus offers them mystery and sacrament. “Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me…I am the bread of life… I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Every third year our Mother the Church lays out this whole long sixth chapter of John, and I think we see within the reading itself the wisdom of this repetition. Each one of us in different ways is up against some pretty tough struggles: maybe it’s something big that came out of the blue, like cancer, or a divorce… maybe it’s a hidden battle against a temptation that no one else knows about, but whatever it is, God is calling. St. Paul says, “All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.” Whether it’s rejecting what is evil, or more fully embracing what is good, this is not easy, and it’s not automatic. It’s not a choice we can make once, but a series of choices every single day. Where do we get the power? Where are we to find the stamina? What fuels this journey?

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” When the people of Israel were in the desert, God sent them bread through Moses. When Elijah was fleeing for his life in the desert, God sent him bread through an angel. As we face the desert struggles in our lives, each day, God has not forgotten us. Jesus sees our hearts, our need, our hunger—but in Jesus, God didn’t send just a prophet, an angel, a messenger—God came Himself, and Jesus who is both God and man gives us Himself. “When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard, and from all his distress he saved him.” Perhaps this is not immediately satisfying—we’d like to see something obvious, something impressive, something overt. But, God knows what we need, and He gives us Himself, He who is the only final and full satisfaction for our whole being, body and soul.

Let me close by inviting you to very seriously ask yourself a question: Have I kept the Lord ’s Day holy? Have I gone to Mass unless it was physically impossible? If you’ve allowed other things to creep into God’s place, if Mass has become occasional or a matter of convenience—you’ve been running on empty. You’ve been attempting to navigate the marathon of life without a spaghetti dinner. You’ve been facing struggles big and small, both visible and hidden, on your own. God doesn’t ask this of you, to fly solo. God doesn’t ask this of you, to step into the ring on an empty stomach. God comes to every altar, to every Mass, waits for you in every tabernacle throughout the world, and He even urges you on through me, through the Church. Don’t stay away, don’t let obstacles keep you from the Bread of Life. “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!”

+ A. M. D. G. +

What lies in the depths of your heart?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B (5 August 2012)

What lies in the depths of our hearts? Give me your full attention, pause for a second, close your eyes, and look within your heart. What desires move there? ...What longings, hopes, and dreams? ... There are layers in our hearts and lives, as if all of our being and experience were a deep pool or ocean.  Passing breezes and surface currents ripple the surface, or even cause massive waves… but the surface doesn’t tell the whole story. If we plunge past the surface of the ocean, we find layers and depths and currents that are largely hidden. If we venture past the superficial passing fancies and desires that each day brings, we will find layers and depths and currents there: some of that is painful, some is embarrassing, some is confusing, and at the core, there is the possibility of finding something very beautiful and enduring,

Do you desire a donut, or a cold glass of water? Do you long for nap? Take a step deeper… are you hungry for a friend, thirsty for a conversation, or longing to simply sit still out in the woods? At the core… are you hungry for love, or forgiveness, or truth? Are you sad, or feeling flat and lifeless, or full of enthusiasm?

As children, we must learn not to act on every impulse—we can’t take every cookie we see, hit every person that makes us mad, or go to the bathroom the moment the urge strikes us. This is the beginning of virtue—to make decisions about how and when and if we will act on our desires. However, much more is required! Maturity, and holiness, cannot be merely the ignoring or suppressing of our desires. We must learn to discern, purify, and move from the surface to the depths, to those deeper currents, to the deepest truest innermost current which is God’s own life and love, the Holy Spirit.

This dynamic is played out over the whole course of salvation history, and in each person’s life, and it is vividly present in our readings today. Moses led the people out of slavery in Egypt by wonders and signs into the desert, and very quickly they began to grouse and complain about the lack of food, so God sent quail and manna in the desert. God did not ignore the most basic desires:

He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; he rained manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread. Man ate the bread of angels, food he sent them in abundance. And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountains his right hand had won.

Centuries later, Jesus encountered the same dynamic, we heard about it last Sunday.  He saw the crowd hungry before Him, and he multiplied the loaves and fed their bodies. Now, they have followed him to Capernaum, looking for more. It is good that they seek Him, but Jesus sees into their hearts, that they are still just looking for more bread.

Why are we here at this Mass? Part of it is may be habit, part obligation… maybe we’re here out of obedience to our parents or to please them or to please a spouse. Part of why I’m here is that it’s my job! None of that is bad, but it’s not enough…the Lord wants your whole heart, mind, and soul, and He wants mine, too. Jesus Christ challenges us: do we want food that endures? Do we want more than going through the motions or fulfilling a duty or making someone else happy? Do you want to go deeper than seeing who this new priest is? How do we get there? How do we go deeper? The people asked, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus said, “Believe in the one he sent.” It is by faith in Jesus Christ, that faith itself a gift, that we go deeper and draw nearer to the Living God.

To make an act of faith, to step beyond what we fully understand, that takes courage, a leap beyond our comfort zone… and the people of Jesus’ time wanted a sign, like Moses had given. They’re still stuck hoping to see another miracle and get some more bread for free. But a miracle, miraculous bread comes from God—it is God we seek. The deepest current, the truest depths of our hearts seek God and Him alone. Nothing else will satisfy us. We see this painted across the screens of the media so clearly - men and women rich, famous, and powerful far beyond our circumstances, and scrabbling in the mud with their fingernails trying to get just a little bit more. Clearly the things of this world do not themselves bring peace. Jesus knows this, He knows that it is to answer our hunger and thirst that He has come, that it is to answer our deepest desire that He will die… and so He tells us the truth so far beyond our expectations, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Brothers and sisters is Christ… for the next three weeks we will unpack what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the bread of life.” The sixth chapter of John is a long one, but it’s long because it’s important, and here Jesus draws us into a very deep mystery, the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. I love this chapter, this mystery, the Eucharist, and I hope you do too! It is a great mystery, always beyond our full grasp. But we can turn to this mystery once again, and enter into its light and beauty. To do this, however, we must come attentive to the deep desires of our hearts. God responds to what is deepest and truest in us, but if we don’t know what’s there, if we haven’t had the time, or the inclination, or the courage to look within, if we’re not willing to go deeper, we get stuck on the surface. Do you want to go deeper? God will help. St. Paul challenged the Ephesians to go deeper, so let me close with His words directed now to each one of us:

Brothers and sisters: I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

This is God’s invitation to us, to be open to becoming new men and women in Christ, and this happens above all through the Eucharist. In the Eucharist we encounter God, the only source of lasting peace, and we are empowered to know the depths of our own hearts and souls. May we open our hearts to this beautiful mystery now, and in the weeks that lie ahead.

+ A. M. D. G. +

+

How is the Shepherd of the Flock at work among us?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Jesus had gone to some lengths to give Himself time with His apostles in a deserted place, but even there people find them. The last sentence of the Gospel sets our theme:

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ responds with spontaneous love and mercy towards the vast crowd, the Heart that would be pierced by the lance already pierced by love. He sees their broken and hungry hearts, He sees their sinful and confused hearts. Without a shepherd of their souls, they are wandering, drifting, astray, and vulnerable. He is moved deep within Himself, and He teaches them. Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, True God and True Man, the Living Word of the Father teaches them.

In this moment we see how God kept His promise to His people. The People of Israel, God’s Chosen People, had gone astray, they had been lead astray, and had ended up far from God, surrounded by bitterness and failure. The He made a promise through the prophet Isaiah:

I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD.

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.

This is just what God did… He DID NOT SPEAK THROUGH HIS PROPHET IN VAIN. God keeps His promises. God keeps His promises to us. In the fullness of time His Only Son Jesus Christ came to us, the righteous shoot, the king to reign and govern wisely. He reigned and governed and taught and saved, all of this labor perfected when He went to the Cross and died, and was buried, and rose again.

Now, my brothers and sisters in Christ, here is where it really gets interesting, but also challenging… After Jesus had ascended into heaven, what did He leave? A book? It wouldn’t be written and collected together for decades. He left a living community, the Church, chief among them the Apostles. They had received His authority to teach, to sanctify, and to govern the flock. We are connected to that flock, and here in our midst is a living successor of the Apostles, standing in that line, in that mission. This is not a theory, it is not an idea, it is a living reality, and Bishop Sample is in our midst, and through him we are shepherded, through him we are connected in a living way to Jesus Christ. He ordained me, and sent me to you as your shepherd; let me emphasize the smallness of that S. Bishop Sample participates in the very fullness of Christ’s priesthood, and he ordains priests, and deacons, to be his sons and collaborators in that mission. I am able to celebrate this Eucharist for you, and to absolve your sins because he laid hands on me and invoked the Holy Spirit and ordained me a priest of Jesus Christ. Thus the rich gifts of the sacraments continue to pour forth from the loving shepherd heart of Christ upon the Church. Listen to the words Paul uses to describe this mission:

you who once were far off have become near… he … made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity …establishing peace…He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

This is what the Lord is speaking to us, a little portion of the flock desperately in need of shepherding, we who in so many different ways need to be drawn near to the Father, we who need to have our barriers broken, we who need to receive God’s peace, we who have been far off and are now drawing near to this altar. Through Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the Flock, we have access in the Holy Spirit to the Father.

Look within your heart and life… where is God calling you to be reconciled? Where has your conscience been bothering you and inviting you?

Thus far, brothers and sisters in Christ, it might sound like I’m painting a pretty dramatic picture of my mission to you… Well, I think it is pretty dramatic, to be here as your pastor, to be called to be an assistant shepherd to this particular portion of God’s flock. I won’t apologize for thinking that is pretty awesome. HOWEVER… this is not my mission, as in my personal possession. A number of you have asked me to bring back the lost sheep, and I’m sure as you said this, you had the faces of any number of loved ones before your mind’s eye. We all know many others who should be here right now. I am confident God is calling me to be part of this… but I cannot do it alone. How will I meet our lost sheep? Who will bring them to me? Who will encourage them? Who will invite them? Most important, most difficult: who will live for them in such a way that they want to draw near? Who will live the burning fire of Jesus’ pierced heart? It cannot be me alone. That is not Bishop Sample’s call, it is not my call in the sense that it is not also your call. God will do this work in us, but it must be US, and not someone else over there. Together, all things are possible in God. As we prepare to draw near this altar to receive the Shepherd of our Souls, let us place on this altar in prayer our need for conversion and healing, and let us place on this altar every person who should be here with us right now, and ask God that together we may be His instruments in drawing together every member of the flock.




 (the readings for this weekend: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072212.cfm )

What's this preaching thing all about?

Homily Outline for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Let me begin by making a confession – I think God called me to be a priest so that I would sleep through fewer homilies!  Unfortunately, I know firsthand how easy it is to drift away.  As we begin our shared mission together, I commit myself to trying NOT to put you to sleep!

As your pastor, one of my most sacred duties is to preach to you the Word of God.  The priest’s mission can be summarized with the tria munera Christi, that is to say, the three tasks, or duties, or burdens, or offices of Christ.  The priest’s mission is to be priest, prophet, and king—to sanctify, to teach, and to govern as a servant.  One prominent expression of my prophetic teaching mission is the Sunday homily.  We see the roots of this mission in our readings today. 

Jesus sent the Twelve out to preach the Gospel, specifically repentance.  This mission of preaching the Truth of Jesus Christ is also foreshadowed in our first reading.  We hear of the prophet Amos, who was not a professional, but a shepherd and vinedresser, used to working in quiet solitude. Amos said, “The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”  An authentic prophet is very frequently one to whom this call comes unexpectedly!  Amos did not expect to be called away from his flocks and vineyards and sent to the king, nor did the Twelve expect to be called from their nets and sent to the nations.  While I’ve never had a flock of sheep myself, I studied forestry, like my dad, and in high school and college I definitely imagined myself shepherding trees, not people!  Trees might have been more cooperative!

These then, are the roots of what we do here together each time we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Our mother, the Church, gathers us and places before us the Living Word of God, and as your priest, I am charged with breaking this open and putting it in contact with our lives.  What is this meant to achieve?  Well, first of all, it is meant to prepare us for encountering the Living Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, at this altar.  The Liturgy of the Word is an essential part of the Mass, but it is also preparatory.  It tills the soil of our hearts so that Christ Himself can be planted there. 

What tools shall I use to do this? Well, I will certainly attempt to entertain you from time to time, mostly at my own expense!  I’m not one for telling a lot of lengthy stories or jokes during Mass, but my own weakness often gives me occasion to invite you to laugh with me!  I will also attempt, with God’s help, to teach you.  Our faith is a rich gold mine, far too broad and deep for any one of us to every fully master it. Our Church communicates God’s self-revelation to us, but if we can wrap our minds completely around something, rest assured, it’s not God!  So, we are constantly called deeper into mystery, knowledge, and understanding—to know Jesus’ teaching, but even more importantly, to know Christ Jesus Himself.  Have you ever been asked, “Do I know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?”  The manner in which many Fundamentalist or Evangelical Christians understand this is incomplete, but it’s still an excellent question to ask ourselves.  Every person is indeed called to an intimate and loving relationship with the Lord.

Most importantly, in each homily I want to invite each of you, and myself, to deeper conversion.  I want to encourage and persuade and convince you to come closer, to go deeper, and to seek the Lord.  Even more, I want to encourage you to say “Yes” to God’s call in your life, whatever form that may take.  In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul said:

In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.

We were also chosen… every one of us!  This call to be priest, prophet, and king is not something that is exclusive to ordained priests. The most basic reality of this triple mission came to us by baptism.  By your baptism, you are priest, prophet, and king to the world. Is that the same in each person’s life?  Of course not: the young mother, the retired engineer, the fifth-grader, Carmelite nun, the forester, and the priest each live this differently.  In the midst of our daily lives, though, we are each called to holiness, to a radical and transforming love for the Lord, and to be His servants in transforming our very broken world.  If we are to do this, WE must first be transformed ourselves.  This is my task… more importantly, this is OUR task!  No one here can do it alone, but working together, all things are possible in God.    

Every Mass begins with the Collect, often referred to as the “Opening Prayer.”  As its proper name suggests, it is meant to collect, to gather up, our desires and lives as the Mass begins, and to focus them.  Listen to our prayer today again:

O God, who show the light of your truth to those who go astray, so that they may return to the right path, give all who for the faith they profess are accounted Christians / the grace to reject whatever is contrary to the name of Christ / and to strive after all that does it honor. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Together we all say, Amen… so be it, may this be done in our lives today.

My First Sunday Homily as a Pastor... An Invitation

Homily Outline for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a great joy and privilege to be among you for the first time as your pastor! I hope I know how little I have earned or deserve such a title, and yet in God’s providence here I am with you. In that light, the readings this Sunday are not a little daunting! God said to Ezekiel: “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD! And whether they heed or resist--for they are a rebellious house--they shall know that a prophet has been among them.” Yikes! What is God saying to us here!? Then, even more ominous, Jesus preaches in His hometown, and is able to do almost nothing because they have little faith and their hearts are hardened against him. Now, this certainly isn’t my hometown, but having spent the last year down in Chicago finishing my thesis, coming back to the U.P. certainly feels to me like coming home! Is God warning me? Is He warning you?

Fortunately, I don’t think these readings foretell your rejection of me, but nonetheless, I do believe they speak right to the heart of our shared situation. We are God’s people—He created us in love and lovingly sustains each one of us in existence at each moment. He redeemed us on the Cross and through our baptism, by which each one of us is priest, prophet, and king. As such, we are called to holiness, and nourished and empowered by the Word and the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist. By baptism we are members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and members of His family.

All of this is a gift, graces freely offered to us, if we will but accept them. But… THERE’S the rub… WILL we accept such gifts? Adam and Eve rejected them. The People of Israel, from Abraham on down, often failed to respond to God’s call and mercy. Most of Jesus’ countrymen and women, whether in Galilee or Jerusalem, rejected Him and turned away, to the point that He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Are we any different? If we look around our country, if we look around our Church, if we look around our community… we can certainly see a lot of people who say they’re Christians mixed up in a whole lot of stuff that certainly isn’t holy. Far more to the point… what do I see when I look into my own heart? What do you see when you look into your own soul? Is it possible that at times we haven’t always responded to God’s gifts with joy?—the gentle nudge to help someone in need? The Lord’s invitation to forgive or seek forgiveness? Is it possible that before the Lord we have been “hard of face and obstinate of heart,” as the Lord said to Ezekiel? I know for myself that these words strike uncomfortably close to home, inviting me not so much to harsh judgment of a very broken world, but rather inviting me to re-evaluate my own choices, and to seek the Lord.

In our 2nd reading, St. Paul dramatically describes his own journey into a deeper relationship with Christ, a journey that reached its deepest and most intimate point when he came face to face with his own  weakness.  We don’t know what the “thorn in his flesh” was, but it must have been terrible. St. Paul wanted it to go away: “Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’” God’s great gift to St. Paul was to reveal to him his total and utter reliance on God’s grace. This same invitation is made to you and me—will we turn a hard face and an obstinate heart to the grace offered us by the Lord? Will we turn away rather than face deeper conversion and healing, rather than embrace a call to greater generosity and service? Will we follow the crowd and go with flow of our sad and broken world, seeking ephemeral fame or prosperity or comfort rather than the Lord? It’s certainly not impossible! In fact, it seems to be more and more the majority preference… but that path is not God’s path, it is not the path of the Gospel, it is not the path of a Christian. You are called, and I am called…we are called together to holiness, to higher things, to a deeper joy, even in the midst of struggle and failure.

So, my friends… where do we turn for courage when we fail? Where do we turn for grace as we become more and more aware of how much we need God’s help? Listen again to the words of the psalmist: “To you I lift up my eyes who are enthroned in heaven -- / As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters. / As the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, / So are our eyes on the LORD, our God, till he have pity on us.”

At this altar we will stand in the presence of Jesus Christ Himself, just as surely as the people of His hometown did on that day when He preached to them despite their hardened hearts. In the Eucharist we will encounter Jesus Christ, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. No one here will approach this altar worthy to receive this gift, and yet in His infinite mercy the Lord will offer Himself to us. May we receive him with joy, deeply aware of our desperate need for His infinite grace and mercy.

"For God so loved the world..."