Jesus Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It!

 

Deacon David Previtali · Jesus Said It. I Believe It. That Settles it!

Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 25, 2021. 2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; Gospel of John 6:1-15. Theme: Jesus Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It!

 The multiplication of the loaves and fish is one of the most popular of Jesus’ miracles. It held so much importance among the first Christians that it has the honor of being the only miracle to be recorded in all 4 gospels. To understand why this is, we have to know a bit of the backstory which we find in today’s other readings. 

 In our first reading we hear how the prophet Elisha fed 100 people with 20 barley loaves. And then in our responsorial psalm praise given to God, who fed his people through the prophet Moses with manna, which was a miracle-bread falling from the sky when they were wandering and hungry after having escaped from Egypt. These two important events from Israel’s history come together in Jesus’ miracle and their significant convergence is not lost on the people. They were able to put 2+2 together and realize that this holy man, Jesus of Nazareth, was a prophet much greater than either Moses or Elisha because his miracle, the sign of God’s powerful presence among them, was so much greater than either of theirs. 

 But God does not send prophets just to work miracles, he sends them with a message that is illustrated by the miracle. And so, the early Christians also remembered the message that Jesus spoke after he multiplied the loaves. We didn’t hear the words of this message in today’s Gospel, but you will hear them in the Sundays to come as we continue reading from the Gospel of St. John. However, I have to mention them now because both the miracle and the message are all intimately connected. 

 After multiplying the loaves, Jesus promised to give God’s people an even more miraculous bread, a bread that would give them eternal life. Even more astounding was the fact that he said this Miracle-Food to come would be his life-giving, soul-saving Body and Blood. This was not simply a figurative way of speaking nor was it something merely symbolic. The Eucharist does not just symbolize Jesus, nor is it only a holy reminder of who he was and what he has done for us. Many of these first disciples accepted Jesus at his word, as impossible as it seemed, for they knew that just as he was able to multiply the five loaves to feed thousands, so was he able to transform bread and wine into his flesh and blood at every celebration of the Mass. 

 This hard truth about the Eucharist can indeed be a difficult teaching to accept for some today, just as it was for some of those who first heard it. As a matter of fact, John’s Gospel tells us that there were disciples who parted ways with Jesus after hearing it. But it all boils down to faith, which means, trust in Jesus and his word. When those confused disciples who could not accept his message walked away, Christ didn’t stop them. He didn’t say, “Hey wait, you misunderstood me. I was only talking figuratively. It’s not really going to be my Body and Blood. It will only represent these things.” Instead, he responded to their leaving with even stronger and clearer words about the literal truth about the Eucharist. He said, “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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. (John 6:53-56) 

 And of course, as we know, Jesus kept his word and fulfilled his promise of giving us heavenly food at the Last Supper, which was the very first Mass to ever be celebrated. He took bread into his hands and said, “This is my body given for you.” Then he took a cup of wine and proclaimed, “This is my blood poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins.” Notice that he did not say, “This is a symbol of my body given for you” or “This chalice will represent my blood poured out for you.” No, he meant what he said and he said it quite clearly. 

 And then, Jesus did even more than working this Eucharistic miracle by himself. He gave his apostles the command and the supernatural power to do this very same thing, to take bread and wine and by his authority change them into his very Body and Blood. And they passed on this Eucharistic ministry to others who have come after them. And so ever since the Last Supper, this on-going miracle of heavenly bread has been happening on planet Earth for 2,000 years. 

 I don’t know about you, but when it comes to the ways of God and such mysterious things as the on-going miracle of the Eucharist, I’m just a simple kind of guy. And so for me, as far as I’m concerned, I respond to it in this way: “Jesus said it. I believe it. That settles it.”

Like Sheep Without A Shepherd

 

Deacon David Previtali · Like Sheep Without a Shepherd

Homily for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 18, 2021. Gospel of St. Mark 6:30-34. Theme: Like Sheep Without a Shepherd

It’s a pretty common fact that sheep are among the most vulnerable of livestock. They are quite lost and confused without a shepherd and become easy prey for their enemies such as wolves and thieves. It’s an interesting thing that sheep are trained to recognize only the voice of their own shepherd, so when other strange voices call after them they can become bewildered and wander aimlessly.

 

This Sunday’s Gospel describes the crowds of people who thronged to Jesus as being like those vulnerable sheep, of being “shepherdless”. They were without leadership in many ways, political and religious.   An oppressive Roman governor and a treacherous half-Jew named Herod were their political rulers.  Their religious leaders were corrupt and more interested in maintaining their own social status than in leading the people to God.  Those who did give religious instruction were so strict and demanding that the people found it oppressive and overwhelming to try and live up to their standards.

St. Mark lets us in on how Jesus felt about this situation when he writes that “…his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”  Actually, our translation’s  use of the word “pity” is a bit lacking. What the Gospel literally says in Greek is that Jesus was “moved deeply within his gut.” And so his gut-response to their vulnerability and need was to teach them. You see, unlike the self-promoters, the words of Jesus were simple and to the point; demanding, yes, but not oppressive. They brought freedom to the heart and joy to the spirit. This is why everyday ordinary people flocked to him like crazy!  And it is what eventually led his envious enemies - jealous of their position, power and prestige- to have him arrested and crucified. 

In today’s world, we also have social and political leaders who are hell-bent on silencing truth and freedom just like those corrupt rulers in ancient Israel. Determined to separate the sheep from the shepherd. They are motivated by preserving and promoting their own status and power. By manipulating our media and monopolizing our technology, they promote fake news, redefine words to mean utter nonsense and promote social confusion. They parrot their carefully crafted politically correct propaganda without any concern or regard for our well-being as individuals, our dignity as human beings, and our destiny as God’s children. 

We might think people are smart enough to recognize the fake voices of these false shepherds, but that’s not the case.  These leaders have such control over so much of the media that their message is pumped all day every day into our homes, our cars and our schools, into our ears and our heads. Sadly there are so many who listen to these voices without discretion and end up becoming like sheep without a shepherd, wandering aimlessly.We who have been gifted with faith cannot just stand by and be silent. To be silent is to be complicit. We must take up responsible ownership of the name of Christian.  We must have within us the gut-response of Jesus, and be moved like he was by compassion and fueled by zeal for truth.  How can this happen? 

By mindfully taking time every day to be with Jesus.  He is present in his Word that we can read at home and so be taught by him what we need to do and how we need to live. We must come before Jesus truly present in the Eucharist so that He can live and love and act from within us. He invites us to draw near to his Sacred Heart, which is moved to the very depths of His gut with love for the sheep.  It is from this well-spring of the Heart of Christ that we will receive the love and the grace we need to cooperate with him in leading the shepherdless sheep back home into the arms of their Good Shepherd.

Called & Chosen

 

Deacon David Previtali · Called & Chosen

Homily for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 11, 2021. Amos 7:12-15, Ephesians 1:3-14, Gospel of St. Mark 6:7-13. Theme: Called & Chosen 

Have you ever wondered why it is that out of the billions of people who inhabit planet Earth, you and I have been gifted with the Christian Faith? How is it that we are among the 30% of the world’s population that has received the grace and faith of baptism? It’s not as if any one of us has done anything spectacular to grab God’s attention, so to speak, and be chosen. It’s a great mystery to be called by God, to become part of a people uniquely His own, and it is what today’s readings are all about. 

In the first reading we encounter Amos, who lived about 700 years before Christ. He was ordinary like us; just a shepherd and gardener, but God called him to become a chosen prophet. In the second reading, we hear from St. Paul who was also ordinary like us; a professional tent-maker and a fierce persecutor of Christians before God called and chose him. He reminds us in today’s lesson from his Letter to the Ephesians that we have been called and chosen in Christ, to become God’s holy people destined for the glory of Heaven. Lastly, the Gospel shows us the twelve apostles who were called and chosen to carry on Jesus’ powerful ministry of preaching, healing the sick and expelling demons. They were just ordinary guys with ordinary jobs mostly as fishermen, although one had been a greedy tax collector. They had wives and families and were living pretty much just like us. There seems to be a pattern in Sacred Scripture of God calling and choosing those who are usual and ordinary. 

This mystery of God’s calling and choosing brings to mind a powerful experience from my childhood. If you were like me, growing up in a small town, then you might recall how the neighborhood kids (and there were tons of us back then) would gather in a local field for a game of ball. The older guys, the jocks of the neighborhood, were of course always the captains. The rest of us wannabes lined up for the ritual of choosing up sides where your talents and abilities (or lack thereof) were publicly acknowledged. I could hit the ball pretty well but man I just couldn’t run to save my life. While my typical at bat could send the ball far into outfield, I’d be lucky to pull a single out of what most guys could turn into a double. And so, I dreaded those line-ups before my peers. But there was this one guy, a jock named Charles, who even at our young age stood head and shoulders above the rest of us. No one dared to question his choices or doubt his selections. 

Whenever I saw Charles take up a captain’s spot I got a huge smile on my face. Because you see, I knew that whenever Charles was captain I was safe from total humiliation. No, he wouldn’t pick me in the first couple rounds (the guy was after all a jock and he wanted to win!) but I knew that I wouldn’t be standing there as the last pick of the day either. Why did he do it? Why did he risk the game at least somewhat? The only answer I could come up with is that he was just that kind of guy, with a heart as big as his muscles. As I got older I outgrew the field games, but I never outgrew the memory of Charles and his mysterious kindness in calling and choosing. 

And I think that is something we can also say about why God calls and choses each one of us. Simply put: it’s because He’s that kind of God, who has a big heart, an infinite Sacred Heart. Scripture tells us that He chooses those whom the world often considers to be nobodies to become somebodies in the Kingdom of Heaven. We all know that it’s not because we are better than others that we’ve been called and chosen. We have our own sins and shortcomings to remind us about that fact! Rather, we are very much like those kids standing around out in the field, and God looks us over like the captains choosing up teams… He sees our whole lives from beginning to end and everything in between; He sees the ups and the downs, the pluses and the minuses. And in all this I think He sees that most of all, we just need to know that we are personally loved and called and chosen by Him. 

Just as Charles’ inexplicable kindness helped me to think that just maybe there was something inside me that was good and worthy, so this calling and choosing by God informs us that we are lovable and worthwhile. It transforms us spiritually, from the inside out, making us His adopted sons and daughters, heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, and anointed temples of the Holy Spirit. 

This is what it means to be called and chosen. This is what it means to be a Christian.

Prophets One and All

 

Deacon David Previtali · Prophets One and All

Homily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 1, 2021. Ezekiel 2:2-5; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Gospel of St. Mark 6:1-6. Theme: Prophets One and All

In today’s gospel, we drop in on Jesus as he visits his hometown and teaches in the synagogue of Nazareth. At first the people are impressed by his words, but then they begin to reminisce about how he grew up with them and was just like them. By recalling his ordinariness, they refuse to believe he could be a messenger sent by God. I think many of us can relate to this experience of Jesus. Our good intentions and sincere efforts to live the Gospel can be misunderstood or even rejected by those who know us best - perhaps because in our ordinariness they have seen us at our worst. But rejection didn’t deter Jesus from carrying out His mission as prophet. And it shouldn’t stop us from carrying out ours, either. 

You do know that you are a bonafide God-anointed prophet, don’t you? By virtue of our Baptismal-washing and Confirmation-anointing, each one of us shares intimately in the mission of Jesus as prophet. And so, it’s incumbent upon us to know what it means to be a prophet and what we can expect once we consciously take up our part in this mission. Contrary to popular thought, a prophet is not primarily someone who predicts the future! Rather, a prophet is a person called and chosen by God to communicate his message to others. Sometimes this might indeed entail foretelling a future event, but by and large it is a matter of delivering God’s message for the here-and-now, both by word and by action. 

If we look to the Sacred Scriptures we see that prophets are meant to be the conscience of a nation, to point out the evils that others are willing to ignore. They are called to alert the community to the spiritual and moral sickness that is all around them and is threatening to infect them. They speak out about the abuse of the poor by the rich and point out the negligence of political leaders in seeking the common good. Prophets called and recalled the leaders and the people to acknowledge and worship God, upon whom all depend for life, liberty and happiness. They advocate for the building of a truly human society rooted in acknowledging God’s sovereignty and they warn of the impending consequences to be faced in ignoring to do so.  To sum it all up, we can say that prophets in every era and in every part of the world are the moral doctors of a country, diagnosticians of the national soul. They offer a divinely constructed path to social healing for those who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see what is really going on around them. 

As Christians, we have a vitally important and utterly necessary prophetic mission in our nation today. It needs to hear the voice of Jesus, through our voices, calling all the repentance of heart and conversion of life; to love of God and love for neighbor if we hope to be a real service to our country. We need to remind people that the further a nation drifts from God, the further away it floats from safety and security, from truth, goodness, justice, mercy and compassion for all people. As prophets, we need to point out that when humans alienate ourselves, our education, our social lives and our politics from God, from what is good and true, then we are left with nothing but a fallen human nature, still in the grips of slavery to Satan and sin. And once this happens we are destined to denigrate into the pagan barbarism of the Vikings of old or the inhumanity and bloodthirst of the Nazis of yesteryear. 

It is so very easy to bemoan the state of things in both our nation and our church today, but whining and doing nothing about it is not the way of the prophets! Instead each of us, in our own way and within our own particular slices of life, must never be timid about speaking God’ Word, his truth, and carry out our mission as… 

• Prophets of racial harmony, calling all to see the person beneath the color, neither discriminating not privileging on account of one’s skin or ethnicity; 

• Prophets of human nature, recalling the creation of male and female, while offering compassion and mercy to those who struggle; 

• Prophets of truth and freedom, demanding honesty, integrity and the right to speak our minds from our media, our corporations and our politicians; 

• Prophets of peace and justice, speaking out against violence and disregard for life whether it be from abortion, unchecked urban crime or the trafficking of the vulnerable. 

This is a tremendous task and a courageous challenge. But it is ours and we can indeed accomplish it because of our faith relationship with Jesus Christ. It requires that we, each and every one of us, be deeply rooted in a right relationship with God through prayer and reflection on his Word. We must be fed frequently with the spiritual nourishment of the Eucharist and become emboldened by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We will not be judged on if we were successful in this mission but only if we have been faithful. Fidelity to God and not the approval of others must be our motivation. This was the spirit of Ezekiel in our first reading. It was the spirt of St. Paul in our second reading. And it is the spirit of Jesus Christ, prophet and Son of God.

Jesus teaching in the synagogue of Nazareth