The Joy of the Gospel!

 

Deacon Dave · The Joy of the Gospel!

Homily for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 30, 2022. Gospel of St. Luke 19:1-10. Theme: The Joy of the Gospel! 

The Name Jesus means “Savior” and its related word “salvation” means “healing”. The mission and message of Christ the Healing Savior is that he came to repair the spiritual rupture between the human person and God. And a by-product of this healing is the possibility of reconnection with others. Pope Francis calls this healing and reconnection the “joy of the Gospel’. He never tires of reminding us that Jesus showed by words and behavior that no one, no matter who they are or what their situation in life might be, is excluded from this reconnection. No one. 

St. Luke never tires of trying to get this message across to us. In today’s passage, he introduces us to a tax collector who was in desperate need of this reconnection with God and others. To better appreciate why we need to remember that the Roman oppressors levied unbearable taxes on the people they conquered. And in order to collect this money they hired Jewish locals to do their dirty work. In addition to the taxes for Rome, these scoundrels added a hefty commission for themselves. This left the people with very little on which to live until the next tax-day which was never far away. These hired men were greedy scoundrels who cared more about money than the good of their nation or their neighbors. 

Zacchaeus was one of those guys. Actually he was worse than just being one of those guys because he was the chief tax collector for the region. He had extreme wealth that was built upon the suffering of others. But that’s all that he had. His greed had disconnected him from God and from his neighbors. He was ostracized, lonely, and despised by the Jews of Jericho. It’s no wonder that the people were puzzled and upset when Jesus chose to spend the evening as the guest of such a notorious public sinner! 

But despite the fact that Zacchaeus was both a traitor and a swindler – or maybe precisely because of it – Jesus’ merciful heart went out to him. And this love, expressed by Jesus in treating Zacchaeus as a person worth spending time with, deeply touched his hardened heart. Can you imagine what he must have felt when Jesus selected him from among all others in the crowd? St. Luke tells us that he was overjoyed, deeply touched, transformed to his very core. He was converted on the spot! After years of rejection he had found reconnection. After years of exclusion, he had found inclusion which brought him hope for a new life, for a new beginning. I think that the story of Zaccheus can teach us a few important things about reconnection with God and others. 

First of all, we see that connection with God has to be something we truly desire from deep within us. By climbing up that sycamore tree, Zacchaeus showed his desire and used all his energy to encounter Jesus and connect with him. In return, Jesus responded and did even more than Zaccheus imagined. God never forces himself into anyone’s life. He awaits an invitation from us, an opening no matter how small, to enter in and reconnect. And once he has it, he doesn’t miss the opportunity but rushes right in! 

Secondly, we must be willing to do whatever it takes to make room for God in our lives. I am sure that Zacchaeus had to ignore the taunts and laughter of the crowd, who were most likely ridiculing him as he scurried up the sycamore tree. Seeing and knowing Jesus were more important to him at that moment than what others thought of him. That was the beginning of the Kingdom of God breaking into Zacchaeus’ heart and making a difference. He did whatever it took to facilitate his reconnection with God. We must do the same no matter what others might say or think. 

Lastly, our reconnection with God must show itself in our willingness to be reconnected with others. Zacchaeus goes above and beyond what either Roman or Jewish law required of him regarding restitution for the money he had extorted over the years. And he seems to have a real delight in wanting to make these amends to others, to reconnect with them in a positive way. Zaccheus shows us that once we taste the sweetness of reconnection with God it will move us to search our hearts to see if there is anyone we need to forgive or with whom we need to make amends. 

So, perhaps today’s Gospel of Zacchaeus can inspire us to examine our relationships with God and others honestly. His story shows us that we must open our hearts up to Christ so that he can reconnect us and restore what has been lost. The Good News of Jesus is that God is always ready and willing to reach out to us, to heal our inner wounds and accompany us in life. Because you see, no one is too dirty for God to cleanse, no one is too broken for God to fix. No one is too far for God to reach and no one, absolutely no one, is too worthless for God to love. That is the “joy of the Gospel”.

Sincerity & Truth

 

Deacon Dave · Sincerity & Truth

Homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 23, 2022. Luke 18:9-14. Theme: Sincerity & Truth 

As the father of 6, grandfather of 6 and uncle to somewhere over 40 and counting, I have had the privilege of watching an array of human beings grow from infants into children and then young adults. What a joyful marvel it is to see such a mix of personalities, each one uniquely created by God. And yet, there can be a bit of sadness mixed into it every so often, when I see one or the other of them trying to re-invent themselves into someone whom they are not but whom they think others want them to be. I suppose there’s that temptation within all of us no matter who we are or what our age in life might be. We often seem to spend so much time and energy putting forth a false self to others, reimagining ourselves into what we think will make us more pleasing, or more lovable, or more admired. 

We see this happening in today’s gospel when both the Pharisee and the tax collector go to the Temple to pray. One stands proudly and presents his falsely-imagined self before God, while the bows his true-self down before the Lord in sincerity and truth. The Pharisee speaks of himself and his religious achievements, pretending to be someone who is a perfect and devout believer in every way. He thinks he can refashion himself even in God’s eyes in order to make himself look better than he really is!  

On the other hand, the tax collector goes to the temple and prays honestly. Unlike the Pharisee, he does not try to conceal who he really is or put on a mask to hide his real self from God. He is able to see and accept himself clearly. The Tax Collector is not trying to fool God or put on false airs. We see his sincerity and self-awareness in his prayer, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Therefore, God meets him where he is and lifts him up. Jesus says that the Tax Collector goes home justified while the Pharisee returns home still bound by his sins and hiding behind his masquerade. 

The story begins with the word “righteousness” and ends with the word “justified”, two important religious terms that actually mean the same thing. And they are the fundamental lesson of this parable. To be justified means that we have been freed from the guilt of our sins and have been put into a right relationship with God. To be righteous means that we have come to realize that yes, we are sinners, but we are loved-sinners who reflect the goodness of God.  And this points us to the big difference between the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. 

The Pharisee lives life with God as an obligation. To him, religion was a labor to always do the right thing so as not have the wrath of God fall down upon him because of his sins. This idea rests upon an image of God as a just and angry judge who controls people through fear. The Tax Collector, on the other hand, sees life with God as a relationship of creature to Creator, of servant to Lord, of sinner to Savior. And so he humbly bows down in a true admission of who and what he is in God’s sight. His prayer expresses trust in a God who is merciful and whose love overrides his own sins. It is the polar opposite of “religion as rules”. 

I think that Jesus is saying to us in this parable that we have nothing to fear in approaching God just as we are, in all sincerity and truth. In fact, this is the correct way to approach the Lord. Otherwise we block him out from our lives because we are so full of ourselves that there is no room for him! Like the Tax Collector we have to humbly admit our own nothingness and spiritual emptiness before God. When we do this and fully admit who and what we are, we can then begin to realize that yes, we are sinners, but we are each loved-sinners, and that love makes all the difference in the world! It leads us to a path of freedom and to conversion of heart, inviting us to really embrace a true and full relationship with God both in this world and in the next.

Lord, Teach Me to Pray!

 

Deacon Dave · Lord, Teach Me to Pray!

Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 16, 2022. Book of Exodus 17:8-13; Gospel of St. Luke 18:1-8. Theme: Lord, Teach Me to Pray! 

Today’s liturgy directs our thoughts to the vital role that prayer must have in our lives. You can find articles and podcasts and all kinds of “how to” books about prayer but really it’s quite simple and uncomplicated. Prayer has been most simply defined as having an honest conversation with God. And like all conversations it must be a two-way street, which means that along with speaking we make time for listening so that we can hear what God is saying to us. And of course for this to be most fruitful we have to make time for silence and solitude in our lives. 

In today’s first reading we see Moses giving all he’s got to the task of praying. His prayer is so intense that it begins to wear him out and he seeks the help of others in order to persevere. And in the gospel Jesus uses the example of a persistent widow as an example for our praying. She keeps coming back to the judge, constantly in his face, demanding what is rightfully hers. The point of this parable is not that our prayer wears God out, because it doesn’t. Rather, it teaches us that perseverance reveals the intensity and sincerity of our prayer which somehow touches God’s heart. 

These examples of prayer that we find in today’s readings all depend upon faith, which means trust. And as we all know trust is born out of repeated experiences in a relationship. Genuine faith in God, the kind of faith that heals and transforms lives, is also only born out of a personal relationship. And the way we grow in this kind of personal relationship with God is through prayer; through making and spending time with the Lord in our daily lives. So I think it's pretty easy to see that prayer, that is, having regular conscious communication with God, must be a non-negotiable component in our lives. And like all relationships, we will only get out of it what we put into it. 

Think about a relationship in your life that is very important to you. Now imagine for a moment what that relationship would be like if you never gave attention to that person; if you never phoned or texted with them; if you never made time to be with them in person and share what’s happening in your life. How long do you think that relationship would last? How deeply significant would it remain in your life? I think we all know that under such circumstances it would surely wither and eventually die. 

And the same is true about our faith-relationship with God. If we don’t give it the attention it needs; if we don’t take time to nurture and deepen it, it will surely wither and eventually die.  We call this sad experience “losing the gift of faith”. We hear Jesus referring to this tragedy in the last verse of today’s gospel, asking if when he returns to earth he will find any faith left in people’s hearts? I think this serious question is specially addressed to us today because Our Lord knew what the culture we are now living in would be like. He knew that the commercial secularism and militant relativism of our times would seek to distract us from belief in the Divine. He knew that the truth of his Word and the Voice of his Church would be ridiculed and rejected by many who follow the ways of the world and abandon their Christianity. His heart was surely broken over the foreknowledge that so many who were brought to Him as infants in baptism would grow up to not know Him nor the depths of His love for them. 

But I wonder if these wandering sheep ever really knew Christ in the first place? What I mean is, did their parents and teachers who taught them to develop their minds and their talents, also teach them to develop a personal relationship with God by daily prayer? And I don’t mean just reciting memorized prayers or routinely repeating the responses at Mass, as important as these can be. But did they learn how to speak with God from the heart as with a Real Person? As a Father who created and cares for them? As Lord and Savior who freely suffered and died for them? As the Spirit of Love who comes to dwell within their hearts? Or were they left to flounder on their own, formed primarily by the media that cares only about their money and the allegiance of their minds and not a thing about their spiritual well-being and the salvation of their eternal souls? 

But there’s still hope for them and there’s still hope for us who may not have been all that devoted to prayer. Because in Christ bad news can always be transformed into good news and so it’s never too late to renew an old friendship with God or begin a new one for the first time. And this hope of a new beginning is only a whisper and a breath away from those who want to claim it because the Risen Christ is always present and waiting for an invitation into our lives. All we have to do is turn to him in our hearts and say, “Lord, teach me to pray.”

The Persistent Widow & the Unjust Judge

Seven Washings, seven Sacraments

 

Deacon Dave · Seven Washings, Seven Sacraments

Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 13, 2019. 2 Kings 5:14-17 (for the full story read 5:1-19). Theme: Seven Washings, Seven Sacraments 

Today’s reading from the Old Testament about Naaman the Syrian took place around 850 years before the birth of Christ and it is one of my favorites. But unfortunately for some reason our liturgy has us dropping into the story almost at the end. If we don’t read it all then we’ll miss out on some extremely important details that enable us to better appreciate Naaman’s cure and his coming to faith in God. And by extension we miss out on how we can come to a deeper experience of God in our lives. So, allow me to quickly fill in the back-story of what is missing. 

Naaman was the prestigious commander of the great Syrian army. In one of his many raids upon Israel, he had captured a young girl as a slave for his wife. After he contracted leprosy, this slave-girl told him about Elisha, a powerful prophet of the True God back in her homeland. She assured him that through this holy man he could be healed. So, Naaman set off seeking the cure. Being a pagan who is used to a lot of fanfare and frenzy in his religious practices, Naaman expected that the God of Israel would manifest himself by means of some awesome dazzling displays of power. However, no such spiritual fireworks were connected with his cure. Elisha simply told Naaman to immerse himself seven times in the Jordan River if he wished to be healed. Naaman was insulted and grew furious! He felt like he'd been treated disrespectfully and made to look like a fool. In his wounded pride, he refused the offer, packed up and intended to head back to Syria. However, 

Naaman’s servants convince him to at least give it a try. They reason that if Elisha had told him to do some bizarre things, such as jumping up and down and chanting magic incantations, he would have surely done so. Then why not do as the prophet said and wash seven times in the Jordan River? They encourage him to at least give it a try and to see what happens. It’s at this point that we enter the story in our reading. And as we now know Naaman was indeed healed of leprosy and through this miracle was converted to faith in the One True God. 

This story speaks to me very clearly about the Seven Sacraments through which we encounter God’s presence and power in our own lives today. Our sacred rituals are so much like what we see in Naaman’s experience of God because they make use of ordinary things to bring the extraordinary into our lives. And like Naaman, I think that it’s so easy for us to at times doubt that the presence and power of God can indeed come to us through these simple rituals. We can find it hard to believe that God’s healing and grace truly comes to us and changes us through such things as the water of baptism, the oils of Confirmation and Anointing, the bread and wine of the Eucharist, the laying on of hands at Ordination, or the vows of Matrimony. 

I mean who could imagine that simply through the pouring of water in baptism, we are healed of our spiritual emptiness and put into a right relationship with God? And how incredible does it sound that ordinary bread and wine at the Eucharist are truly transformed into the Body and Blood of the Risen Lord Jesus? Or that through our simple expression of sorrow in Confession our deepest sins are completely erased and our dark past is utterly obliterated by the mercy of God? And yet this is precisely what happens to us and for us through the Sacraments. 

But let’s not forget that Naaman wasn’t cured simply by going through the action of washing in the Jordan River. More importantly, he was healed because along with “the doing” he had “the believing”. Naaman trusted in the promise and power of God even if he didn’t understand how it would work. And so should it be for each one of us in regards to the Sacraments. You see, they are not magic rituals. Their spiritual power doesn’t depend solely upon saying the right words or doing the right actions. If that is how we view them then we have a pagan approach to religious ceremony just as Naaman did in the beginning. On the contrary, we must come to the Sacraments with faith in the Risen Christ in our hearts, trusting that he will reach out to us and touch us through the ministry of his Church, just as God once reached out to Naaman and healed him through the ministry of Elisha.

That Amazing Mustard-Seed-Size Faith!

 

Deacon Dave · That Amazing Mustard-Seed-Size Faith!

Homily for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 2, 2022. Luke 17:5-10. Theme: That Amazing Mustard-Seed-Size Faith! 

Our first reading today comes from one of the most remarkable books in the Old Testament. It contains an extended dialogue between the prophet Habakkuk and God. The prophet is confused and upset about God’s apparent lack of intervention into the sufferings of this world. He wants to see God do something about it! God responds to Habakkuk by reminding him that, while he may seem silent and uninvolved in our world, He is very aware of what is going on and carries out his plans for good through others. 

Jesus’ words in today’s gospel about a mustard-seed size faith are a key as to how God does this. Some people think that Jesus is putting the disciples down for not having enough faith, but I think what he is really saying is that even just a little faith, small as a mustard seed, contains within it the power to do the impossible. This small mustard-seed-size faith, planted in the hearts of those who trust in God and who are willing to take a step out of their comfort zone, can bring about incredible responses to Habakkuk’s concern about divine intervention against the evil and injustice in the world. 

In 1948, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was just an ordinary nun teaching high school to wealthy girls in India. But every day she came face-to-face with the destitute poverty and hunger of the poor outcasts in the streets. Her mustard-seed sized faith that God could somehow use her to do something about it moved her to leave her comfortable convent and live among the poor. Many years later, after she was world famous, she was asked how it all started. She replied, “I never thought of doing anything big. I just saw one poor abandoned dying man lying in the street and so I picked him up and brought him home.” Today, there are over 4,000 Missionaries of Charity relieving the suffering of hundreds of thousands across the globe. All because of God acting through one person’s mustard-seed-size faith. 

In 1964, Rosa Parks, a devout Christian black woman in Montgomery, AL, was on a segregated bus-ride home after a long hard day at work. When 4 black passengers were told to give up their seats for white passengers, 3 of them got up but Rosa stayed put. Her mustard-seed size faith was enough to inform her that she had dignity as a child of God just like anyone else. So, she just stayed seated. Rosa was arrested on the spot and lost her job. Once word of what she did spread, the very large black population of Montgomery boycotted the bus system for 381 days. They brought it to a stop-still, causing it to fall right down to its financial knees. This eventually resulted in a Supreme Court decision opening the doors to racial equality and jump-started the civil rights movement. All because of God acting through one person’s mustard-seed-size faith. 

Such true stories should make us stop and think: What small act of mustard-seed size faith might God be asking me to do regarding the struggles or sufferings around me? Is there something that I know I should be doing but don’t have the courage to step out of my comfort zone to do? Or perhaps do I think that what I have in mind is too little or too insignificant to make any real and lasting difference? 

We need to toss those kinds of thoughts aside. Recall that Mother Teresa never had the slightest clue that picking up one dying man off the street would result in an international movement of service to the poorest of the poor. Rosa Parks had absolutely no idea that her refusal to give up her seat on that segregated bus would become the catalyst for a worldwide racial equality movement. They were, each one of them, simply acting upon their mustard-seed size faith and doing what little thing they thought they could do at that time and in that place. 

How does Jesus want me to respond to the injustice and suffering I see around me? Ask him this question often in your daily prayer and especially after you receive Him in Holy Communion. Then be sure to listen for his voice for he will truly respond. Trust him, be willing to step out of your comfort zone and do what he asks of you because… it’s absolutely amazing what God can do through one person’s mustard-seed-size faith!