The True Blessedness of Real Happiness

 

Deacon Dave · The True Blessedness of Real Happiness

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 29, 2023. The Gospel of St. Matthew 5:1-12. Theme: The True Blessedness of Real Happiness 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins what has come to be known as his famous Sermon on the Mount. He starts it off by proclaiming the eight Beatitudes which paint a word picture of what a true disciple of His should look like. Not physically, of course, but morally and spiritually. The word “beatitude” means both “blessed” and “happy”. “Blessed” because the Beatitudes make us more like Jesus, and “happy” because they promise rewards that will be ours for all eternity. 

Jesus begins by praising those who are “poor in spirit”. That “in spirit” part is very important. He’s not endorsing economic poverty but is talking about a lifestyle that refuses to be enslaved by material things. Consumerism drives us to buy way more than what we need and slick advertising misleads us into thinking that happiness consists of possessing everything we want. But Jesus says that the ones who will attain lasting happiness are those who are truly free from the inside out, who are not owned by their wealth and possessions but trust in God’s fatherly care for all their needs. 

“Blessed are they who mourn” may sound a bit odd at first. But it’s really praising those who have a tender heart that has empathy for the pain and struggles of others. You see, a person can only truly mourn if they have a heart that is open to the vulnerability of love. Jesus blesses them because they have not closed their eyes to the suffering of others and he promises that God will reward them for their compassion. 

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land” sounds contradictory because we imagine that it is the rich and powerful who will end up on top. However we can find the key to understanding this Beatitude in today's second reading from St. Paul. He says that God chooses the foolish of the world to shame the wise, the weak of the world to shame the strong, and the lowly and despised of the world who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who think they are something. In other words, this Beatitude reminds us that what matters to God is not one's portfolio or pocketbook. God is the Champion of the poor and Defender of the Vulnerable. The meek, that is those who are humble and lowly, will receive their reward in God’s kingdom when the injustices they suffered will be made right and when those who oppressed them will be dealt with according to their deeds. 

Jesus uses an experience very familiar to his listeners to teach the next beatitude on righteousness, which means living in a right relationship with God. They were primarily working class people who lived under an extremely oppressive government that literally taxed every penny they earned. So they knew what it was like to be truly hungry and go to bed with an empty stomach. Many of them lived on the edge of the desert wilderness where water was precious, so they also knew what it meant to be extremely thirsty. Jesus says to them, in effect, “Blessed are they who desire union with God as much as they want food for their aching stomachs and drink for their burning thirst.” 

“Blessed are the merciful…” is similar to the beatitude of mourning, however, it goes one step beyond just having empathy for others. Mercy obliges us to take the mourning that is in our hearts and translate it into concrete acts of love on behalf of the poor and needy. In our relationships it calls us to treat those around us with kindness and to extend forgiveness to those who harm us. Jesus is basically saying, “what goes around, comes around”, so if we want God to be merciful and forgiving to us then we must be merciful and forgiving to others.There’s no other way around it! 

“Blessed are the clean of heart; they shall see God” is not about sexual purity as people often think. A pure or clean heart means having a clear conscience that comes from having our priorities in life in their proper order. Jesus told us what that order is: God first, others second, and ourselves last. A clean heart is what beats within those who have their priorities straight and who live their lives accordingly. To “see God” means to attain union with Him in Paradise, which is the ultimate happiness and the goal of human life. 

The popular Peace Prayer of St. Francis is our best guide to living out the seventh beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” If every day we try to put into practice the words of that simple prayer we will be truly blessed as the children of God. It spells out for us the definition of a peacemaker as one who sows love where there is hatred; pardon where there is injury; faith where there is doubt; hope where there is despair; light where there is darkness; and joy where there is sadness. It describes peacemakers as those who are able to forget themselves for the sake of loving others in word and deed. 

The last two blessings for the persecuted and insulted actually form just one beatitude: “Blessed are they who are persecuted…and… insulted…because of Me.” Jesus is informing us that persecution of all kinds will indeed come our way because of our relationship with Him. He Himself was ridiculed and slandered during His ministry and ultimately persecuted in His Passion. And at the Last Supper he clearly informed us that we will be treated no differently. But He promises that we who suffer injustice with Him and because of Him will also share the eternal happiness of His Glory and Resurrection. 

The saints call the Beatitudes a description of a Christian because they are a description of Jesus Christ Himself. He was poor and meek. His hunger and thirst was to do the will of his Father. He mourned over suffering and was merciful towards others. Everything he said and did was for the glory of God his Father and the good of others. And this is supposed to be our attitude as well. This is how we are supposed to think and act, how we are supposed to love and live. With this in mind, let’s ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to embrace these Beatitudes so that we can think and act more like Jesus day-by-day and become, like Him, a blessing, a living beatitude so to speak, to those around us.

Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

 

Deacon Dave · Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ

Homily for Word of God Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023. Isaiah 8:23—9:3; Gospel of Matthew 4:12-23. Theme: Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ 

Today the Catholic Church is celebrating “Word of God Sunday”. Pope Francis placed this observance under the patronage and inspiration of St. Jerome who lived in the 4th century AD. Jerome was very important to Christianity because he was an extraordinary Scripture scholar who translated the Bible into the language of the people. But he wasn’t always such a devoted fan of the Bible. He was at first only a half-hearted Christian. 

When he was an academically-gifted but hedonistically-promiscuous college student in Rome, Jerome contracted a life-threatening disease. Up to this point in his life his practice of Catholicism was done mostly out of a sense of guilt after nights of partying. But during his sickness he had a dream in which he found himself before the judgment seat of Christ. Trying to put his best foot forward, Jerome confidently declared to Jesus that he was baptized and so should be let into Heaven. Our Lord replied to Jerome that he ought to think twice about that statement. He informed him that simply going through outward religious rituals without them affecting one’s life is of little to no value when it comes to where he would spend eternity! 

Jesus’ words shook Jerome out of his spiritual apathy and he experienced what the New Testament calls a “baptism of the Holy Spirit”. What this means is that he had a spiritual revival, a religious awakening in his life. It’s what some might call a “conversion experience”. He saw that he was not an authentic Christian because he really didn’t know Christ personally. And he didn’t know Christ personally because he didn’t know the Scriptures where we encounter Him! From that point on, Jerome embraced his newfound faith wholeheartedly and devoted the rest of his life to the study of the Word of God. The most famous quote we have from him sums up his religious experience and goes like this: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”. 

Pope Francis has instituted Word of God Sunday precisely to help us to avoid – or get out of - that kind of ignorance. He wants us to realize the place that the Bible must have in the life of every Catholic Christian. He is hoping that, like St. Jerome, we will come to really encounter Christ up close and personal through the Gospels. But for this to happen, we have to approach the Sacred Scriptures very differently than we do any other writings. We need to accept them as they truly are: the Word of God and not simply the words of human beings. Sure, we can find other writings that are more beautifully composed or more artistically inspirational to us than some books of the Bible. But their advice and lessons rest upon fallible human experience and limited human knowledge. 

The power of the Scriptures, on the other hand, is not in their literary composition or beautiful imagery. The uniqueness of the Bible is that it originates in the mind of God. He inspired the various authors of the Scriptures to write down only those things that he wanted to share with us concerning himself, concerning our lives as human beings, and how we should live in this world in order to be with him forever in the next. Unlike ordinary human writings, God’s Word has the power to touch the heart, to heal the soul, to enlighten the mind and to strengthen the will to do good and avoid evil.  But it seems to me that if a person is going to accept all this as true about the Bible, then there remains one vital question that must be asked and answered: How can we know that the Scriptures are truly the inspired Word of God? 

We can’t simply say as some do that the Bible says so! That’s just a circular argument. There is quite honestly only one sure answer and it is the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus. In other words, the physical historical Resurrection of Christ from the dead proves his divinity because no one who is just a human being can die and then rise up from the grave. So, the reality of the Resurrection confirms for us the reality of the Sacred Scriptures as the Word of God. As St. Paul teaches in his letters: if the Resurrection is not true then everything we have been taught and believe is not true, including Sacred Scripture as the inspired Word of God. In other words, the degree to which we accept the Bible as inspired by God is equal to the degree to which we accept and trust that Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead as Lord, Son of God and Savior. 

One of the best ways for us to observe Word of God Sunday and allow its grace to have an impact in our lives is to commit to a personal program of Bible reading. To do this most effectively, we need to find a quiet place where we will not be disturbed. Then begin by taking up the New Testament and turning to one of the four Gospels. Read thoughtfully. Think about what you read carefully. Ponder it for a bit. Pray sincerely from the heart. Ask the Holy Spirit who dwells within you to enlighten your mind and guide your thoughts. I am totally confident that the person who perseveres in doing this will come to see that the Word of God is a shining light that disperses spiritual darkness and gloom from our lives, as Isaiah prophesied in today’s first reading. And I believe that the person who sincerely commits to this prayer-time will come to experience Jesus up close and personal and will be strengthened to respond to Jesus’ call in today’s gospel to repent and take up a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, a new way of living that is fueled by the Word of God and leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Call-Within-A-Call

 

Deacon Dave · The Call-Within-A-Call

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 15, 2023. Is. 49:3-6, 1 Cor 1:1-3, Gospel of John 1:29-34. Theme: The Call Within a Call 

Today’s liturgy reminds us that each one of us has been created by God, who has intentionally put us on planet Earth for a purpose, for a reason, with a mission. What this means is that while we all share in as a general “vocation” (from the Latin vocare, which means to call) we each also have a very specific and individual mission that is tailor-made for us. It’s a “call-within-a-call”, so to speak, and it can be discovered through the experiences of our everyday lives. 

In the first reading Isaiah speaks about Someone whom he calls the Servant of God who has a basic call or vocation of bringing God’s presence and power to the Jewish people as their Messiah. However, this Servant becomes aware that his mission must broaden and expand. He was sent not just to the Hebrews but to bring God’s love and light to all the nations, to all people of every culture, religion and place. The Church has always understood this prophecy as applying to the Lord Jesus and so we see that even Christ himself had a call-within-a-call: first as Messiah of Israel but then also as the Savior of All Nations. 

The second reading mentions a man named Sosthenes, who had an amazing call-within-a-call story. We learn from the New Testament that Sosthenes was the leader of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth. This was his basic vocation. When St. Paul came to Corinth and began preaching about Jesus as the Messiah, Sosthenes had him arrested for causing a public disturbance. However, the Jews of the city didn’t think Sosthenes had stood up strongly enough for Judaism and so they literally beat him to a pulp. But this suffering providentially brought Sosthenes to find his specific mission and purpose on Earth. He began to carefully listen to St Paul’s teaching and professed faith in Jesus. This man who started out as a religious leader of Judaism became one of Paul’s traveling missionary companions and a leader in Christianity. 

Finally we come to the Gospel and St. John the Baptist. He is a great example of how God intentionally creates us for a definite time in history and a specific place in the world. St. John began his ministry knowing that his basic call was to preach repentance of sin to Israel, but once Jesus appeared on the scene he found his real mission, his call-within-a-call. He was created and sent to identify the Messiah and then lead the people to Him. So you see, St. John the Baptist was born in that time of history and in that small part of the world for a precise reason. And that reason was tied to his vocation, his purpose, his mission on planet Earth. 

And the very same is true for each one of us. Our vocation with its specific mission is also tied into when and where we were born, what family we are born into, and even whatever sufferings or privileges or struggles we have experienced. Even if the circumstances of our birth were not the best, every one of us was brought into existence for a reason. The basic vocation we live in the world is obvious to us and everyone around us because it consists of what we do every day at home and at work. But hidden within our lives is our personalized specific mission, our call-within-a-call. It comes from God alone. We cannot choose it, we can only embrace or reject it. And like Sosthenes, it is often made known to us after we have passed through some sort of suffering or struggled with some difficulty or are wrestling with some issue in our lives. Perhaps it’s because tough times call us to really focus on what matters in life and drop any pretenses we have built up around ourselves. 

Every single one of us without exception has these two vocations on planet Earth, the basic and the specific. When things are not going as we would hope or expect, that may well be the beginning of the call-within-a-call making its appearance. Through prayer and meditation, as well as by seeking spiritual counsel, we can discover it, but we may never know its full impact and purpose in this life. God will make that known to us in the next. But as for right now, let’s just trust that God has only our ultimate good in mind and that our life has a purpose and a mission known only fully to Him.

Responding to the Epiphany

 

Deacon Dave · Responding to the Epiphany

Homily for Epiphany Sunday, January 8, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 2:1-12. Theme: Responding to the Epiphany of Jesus 

The Nativity of Jesus has always had two "bookends" in the liturgy, so to speak, that open and close the "12 Days of Christmas" celebration. The first of these is Christmas Day itself when Jesus is revealed to the Jewish shepherds of Bethlehem as the Promised Messiah of Israel. The second bookend is today’s feast of the Epiphany when the true identity of Jesus is revealed to Magi from the East. The Magi are also known by other titles such as astrologers, wise men, scholars and kings, but we really don’t know exactly who they were nor precisely where they came from. However, Matthew’s Gospel preserves and passes on their story because it proclaims the Good News that Christ came for all people and not just for the Hebrews. The joyful message of the Epiphany is that anyone of good will can receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life through the Promised Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ. 

Matthew recorded and passed on the story of the Epiphany so that it might help us to deepen our own relationship with Jesus. He tells us about the Bethlehem Star that filled the Magi with joy, to teach us that the bright light of faith will lead us to happiness in Christ. He recounts their long journey from the faraway lands of the East, to remind us that seeking Jesus is worth all the time and effort it takes to encounter Him. And he specifies the gifts that the Wise Men laid before the Christ Child: gold to pay homage to His royalty; frankincense to honor His divinity; and the burial ointment of myrrh to prophesy His saving death. The symbolism of these gifts should lead us to serve Christ as our King, worship Him as our God, and trust in Him as our Savior. 

But important lessons from the Epiphany can also be learned from King Herod and the Jewish Scholars, as well as the Magi. All together they provide us with examples of the various responses people can have to the Good News that God has sent his Son into the world as its Savior. As we start off the New Year, which is typically a time to evaluate our lives and make resolutions for improvement, let’s take a look at these characters and see if they can help us to identify and, if need be readjust, our own response to Jesus. 

The first type of response can be found in the reaction of Herod when he learns about the birth of the Newborn King of the Jews. Now, Herod was a very wicked man whose jealousy and thirst for power had led him to kill one of his wives and several of his own sons whom he saw as threats to his throne. So, it’s no surprise that he would order the slaughter of the little boys of Bethlehem in an attempt to get rid of the Christ Child. Herod saw Jesus as a threat and he wanted Him out of his life at any cost.. He cared only about his own status and situation with power, prestige and pleasure being the false gods he worshiped in his life. He had no room in his heart for the one true God and so his response to Jesus was a fear that gave birth to rejection. 

A second type of response can be found in the Jewish scholars whom Herod called to advise him about the Messiah’s birthplace. They knew the Scriptures very well. They were, after all, the professional Bible experts of their day. They knew all of the prophecies about the Messiah. Yet when the news of his birth reaches them they do nothing at all. They stay put in Jerusalem rather than go to Bethlehem (which is only a few miles away) to see for themselves if their long-hoped-for dreams have indeed come true. Their response to Jesus was apathy, a complacent yawn. They were comfortable and happy with life as they knew it, and they didn’t want a Messiah and his teachings to disturb the status quo. 

The third type of response we find in the Magi themselves. They were utterly intrigued, totally captivated, by the quest to find the One whom the star proclaimed. They had invested a lot of themselves, their time and energy, in studying the prophecies and charting the constellations concerning the Messiah. They knew from their reading of Hebrew Scripture that the Newborn King of the Jews would bring great blessings to planet Earth and especially to those who accepted Him. And so they spent long hours mapping out their route to Jerusalem, gathering up supplies for the trip, and selecting precious gifts to properly pay him homage. Christian tradition tells us that after they found Christ they gave up their pagan religious practices of occult magic and astrology to serve their new King, God and Savior. The response of the Magi was one of joy giving birth to a new life in Christ. 

It seems to me that today’s liturgy is placing before each one of us a very important and personal question: What is my own response to the epiphany of Jesus as King, God and Savior of my life? Like Herod, does part of me find Him and His teachings to be a threat to something that I do not want to give up or change? Or like the religious scholars who were disinterested in actually finding the Messiah, do I at times find Christ and Christianity to be boring and unexciting? Of course, it goes without saying that the Gospel wants us to share in the response of the Magi. They were totally committed to following the star, finding the Newborn King and pledging their fidelity to Him. They were willing to do whatever was necessary to share in the blessings of the One whom the prophet Isaiah called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. 

As we begin this new year, let’s ask the Lord for the grace to respond wholeheartedly to the Epiphany of Jesus. Let’s be willing to do whatever it takes to personally encounter Christ in our lives and not be afraid of changing whatever needs to be changed. Let’s let go of any complacency we might have towards the practice of our Faith and go the extra mile in prayer, the reading of Scripture and showing mercy to others. If we walk by the light of faith, like the Magi following the star, we will surely discover Jesus in a new and deeper way as they did. And then we can more meaningfully offer him our own precious Magi gifts, so to speak, the gift of our very lives lived in faith, filled with hope, and rooted in love.