Are You Ready To Fight?

 

Deacon Dave · Are You Ready To Fight?

Homily for The First Sunday in Lent, February 26, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 4:1-11. Theme: Are You Ready to Fight? 

Every year the Season of Lent calls us to a deeper relationship with God which includes, of course, a more intentional love for our neighbor. And both of these things not just in theory, but in fact and deed. Scripture and the experience of the saints teach us that the three spiritual practices of Lent - prayer, almsgiving and fasting - are immensely helpful for us in this regard. Prayer brings us into conscious contact with God as we converse with Him from our hearts. Fasting empowers us to say “no” to ourselves so that we can say “yes” to the needs of others. And almsgiving teaches us generosity and builds up within us a sense of gratitude to God for the blessings we have received. 

But the thing to remember when planning out these Lenten practices for ourselves is that they must be personalized. This means that if they are to be effective in helping us grow in love, they have to focus on our own particular struggles in living the Christian life. This is why the Church doesn’t mandate that we all say the exact same prayers, or abstain from the exact same foods, or give our alms to the exact same charities. Our Lenten penances must be tailor made for us so that they become truly useful weapons for us in the spiritual battle that is at the heart of today’s Gospel. And that brings me to the one thing that we will all have in common this Lent. 

We will each have to face the ancient Enemy of the human race who doesn’t want to see these good things happen in our lives. As we see in the Genesis story, Satan is a cunning liar who is envious of our relationship with God, a relationship that he freely gave up. It’s a choice that torments him for all eternity and his overriding goal is to entice us to make the same horrible decision. To this end, he and his demon-minions will surely but slyly attack our well-intentioned Lenten resolutions. He will try to convince us that we already pray enough and that, after all, we’re not monks or nuns living in a monastery. He will work at weakening our decision to give up whatever we have chosen as our Lenten penance, making us think that we deserve a break now and then. And of course, that last thing he wants is for us to become more generous by giving alms because greed is one of his specialties. 

But we need not fear facing the Ancient Enemy because we will not be fighting this spiritual battle alone. Through the blessed ashes that we received last Wednesday, we were called to recommit to Christ, to repent of sin and believe in the Gospel. If we are living our Lent with sincerity and faith in our hearts then we will have with us the ever-abiding presence of Jesus as Brother and Companion. He lived in total solidarity with us including temptation, real temptation. He wasn’t just play-acting or pretending to be one of us. He leads us into the battle and shows us how to fight so as to win. So let’s keep our eyes on Him and our ears open to the words He speaks to us in today’s Gospel. 

Jesus said: “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” There is spiritual nourishment and supernatural power in the Word of God. Scripture makes the Lord present to us in a mystical but very real way. It’s hard for us to comprehend this mystery, but the saints tell us to reverence and receive the Word with the same kind of devotion that we show towards the Eucharist, for both are ways in which we come into the Divine Presence. There are many ways for us to do this. For example, we can hear it proclaimed in the liturgy or meditate on it privately while reading the Bible in our own homes. And it’s a good idea to find a verse of Scripture that deals with a particular vice or struggle in our lives and then prayerfully repeat this verse when tempted, trusting in the power of God's Word. 

Which brings us to the next declaration that Jesus spoke to Satan: “It is written: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” We test people whom we do not trust. It seems to me that Jesus is telling us here to work on building up a relationship of trust in God. We need to be firm in the conviction that He really does want only what is best and good for us. We must reject the devil’s lies, so often repeated by our media and our culture, that tell us that God is a tyrant, a bully, out to ruin our fun and restrict our freedom. This is the deception that is behind every temptation and it’s the ancient lie that Satan has been whispering into the ears of the human race ever since the days of Adam and Eve. So, in times of temptation the best, the easiest and the most powerful response, the most powerful prayer to keep repeating is this: “Jesus, I trust in You.” 

Lastly, Jesus proclaimed : “It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Satan’s third temptation is an enticement to worship ourselves instead of our Creator; to decide for ourselves what is true or not, to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong. He wants us to place ourselves upon the altar of self-promotion and then to worship there. It’s the same old tactic he used on Adam and Eve by telling them that they could become like gods if only they would eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. But we expose this lie every time we bow in spirit before God and confess our sins with a humble honest heart. We defeat this temptation every time we gather for Mass to offer true worship to the Father, through his Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. By our heartfelt worship we not only trample upon this temptation but we grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus and stronger in the spiritual power he holds out to us. 

Today’s Gospel promises that we can all share in the victory of Jesus over temptation in our lives. We can each be filled with the power of the Risen Christ by opening our hearts to the graces that God wants to pour into us through daily prayer, through generosity towards others, and through fidelity to our Lenten penance. We can each confidently face the Ancient Enemy armed with the Word of God, strengthened by trust in Jesus, and spiritually energized by true worship. Temptations will never ever go away. They are part and parcel of human life as we all know and they are found everywhere. Victory over temptation, however, is not found everywhere but comes only through, with and in a personal relationship with Jesus the Messiah, Son of God and Savior. To Him be glory and praise forever. Amen.

The Radical Love of Christianity

 

Deacon Dave · Radical Love of Christianity

Homily for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 19, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:38-48. Theme: The Radical Love of Christianity 

In the Gospel we just read, Jesus is teaching us that the only way to end the vicious cycle of hatred in our lives is for someone to pull the plug on it. We Christians call pulling this plug “forgiveness” and it's something we must be willing to do - or to at least be working towards - if we want to truly call ourselves Christian. This call to forgiveness is really a continuation of what Jesus has been saying to us over the past few Sundays in His Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the merciful; you must be salt and light for the world; and goodness begins within the heart. And today He also goes to the very core of the human person, deep into our gut where the reaction we have to our enemies is to get even. 

St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who died as a martyr in a Nazi concentration camp, had a personal motto on this very teaching of Christ. He would often say, “Hatred destroys, love alone gives life. So love without limit!” And Kolbe walked the walk and lived those words to the day he died in Auschwitz, assisting fellow inmates as best he could in their suffering and urging them to forgive the Nazis, not to hate them. He kept reminding them that hatred would only change them for the worse on the inside and make them similar to their enemies. It takes a spiritually strong person to pull that plug of forgiveness, but Jesus promises us the grace to accomplish it. Kolbe got this strength from his personal love for Jesus Christ, from his reception and adoration of the Eucharist and from the true devotion he had for the Blessed Mother. The Gospel was his daily guide to love and forgiveness. 

Forgiveness requires good intention, moral courage, emotional maturity and spiritual muscle. Striking back verbally or physically and hurting someone is actually so very childish…it happens on every school yard throughout the world. And yet there are plenty of adults who remain emotionally childish and hold on to every single hurt that has ever been committed against them! Those of us who know such people can attest that they gradually become very bitter, more resentful and increasingly unpleasant to be around. Like hatred, they become toxic to us. And toxic is exactly what hatred is for us, corroding the heart and eventually killing our emotional and spiritual lives. Forgiveness - made possible by the grace of Christ - is the antidote to this poison and the remedy that will eventually heal the wound. 

Dr. Robert Enright, is an internationally acclaimed Catholic psychologist known as the “Trailblazer of Forgiveness”. He travels the world as part of the International Forgiveness Institute and has dedicated the past 30 years of his life to helping people achieve the freedom from hatred, rejecting revenge and retaliation. Here is how he describes forgiveness, a definition that actually could have been written by Jesus himself: 

 When you forgive someone who has deeply hurt you, it means that you let go of resentment and the urge to seek revenge, no matter how deserving of these things the wrongdoer may be. You choose instead to give the great gifts of acceptance, generosity and love. Forgiving is an act of mercy toward an offender, someone who others say does not deserve our mercy, but you don’t let that stand in your way. Rather, you forgive because you have freely and intentionally chosen to have a merciful heart. 

Dr. Enright is careful to point out that forgiveness does not always mean reconciliation with the person who has offended us. That may never come about but it doesn’t have to happen in order for forgiveness to be genuine. Most of the time we will really struggle to forgive as we wrestle with the negativity that arises each time the memory of a hurt resurfaces. But we need to remember that Jesus did not say that we had to like the offender or ignore as insignificant what was done to us. He simply said that we had to let go of the hurt and strive to forgive the one who caused it. 

Notice also that Jesus doesn’t say that our forgiveness must happen immediately although it certainly must be our ultimate goal. The best we might be able to do in the beginning is to show our good intention by asking God for at least the desire to want to forgive. This is a good start and eventually, if we are sincere with that prayer, we will reach a place of actual forgiveness. Then once we are able to finally let go of the hurt we can begin to experience the inner peace and serenity that flows from forgiveness. We will be on our way to understanding what it means to be free from the inside out.

A New Heart & A New Spirit

 

Deacon Dave · A New Heart & A New Spirit

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 12, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:17-37. Theme: A New Heart & A New Spirit 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins his lengthy Sermon on the Mount by assuring us that He has not come to do away with the religion of Israel, what we Christian call the Old Testament, but to bring it to its completion. You see, there are many people who think that Jesus came to make a clean break with Judaism and to establish in its place a completely brand new religion. But this simply isn’t true and Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel make this perfectly clear. He came to fulfill, not to destroy. 

What He is saying is that in God’s plan Judaism was meant to develop into Christianity. With the coming of the Messiah there was meant to be a transition of the Old Israel into the New Israel, with membership no longer restricted just to Jews but now open to all who place their trust in Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord. And, indeed, it originally started out that way but, as we all know, it didn’t end up that way due to human sinfulness and religious infighting. By the end of the first century after Christ, Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah were expelled from the synagogues through the Mediterranean world and Christianity began to arise as a separate and distinct religion. 

I think it’s important for us to know our roots and to realize that Jesus came to reform and renew the religion of Israel not to replace it. Because we, too, are the spiritual children of Abraham and the Old Testament is part of our story. That’s why we still read from it in our liturgies and why we revere it as being the inspired Word of God along with the New Testament. But there is a huge difference between us when it comes to the role of the Law, which means the Commandments, in our relationship with God and this is what Jesus is focusing on in today’s Gospel. 

You see, over the centuries, the Law became everything to the Jewish people because it preserved their identity in the midst of a pagan world that was closing in all around them. Being Jewish became intimately tied up with external actions and if you ask Orthodox Jews today they will tell you that Judaism is more about what you do rather than what you believe. This emphasis upon rules of identity became so important that the original 10 Commandments were expanded over time to become 613 laws of proper Jewish behavior. And to assure compliance, the people were constantly spied upon, watched very closely by the Jewish leadership, to make sure that they were observing every little detail of the Law. We see this happening all the time in the Gospels when Jesus has his many encounters with the Scribes and Pharisees. 

Jesus was constantly preaching that the Commandments were never intended to be a set of detailed laws that were a burden too heavy for anyone to carry! And in today’s Gospel He breathes new life into them, calling us back to their original purpose. He reminds us that our observance of them must come from the heart if it is to be more genuine than that of the Jewish leaders. You see, their idea of morality was totally legalistic, based on going through the motions. If on the outside everything looked good, if everything was done according to the letter of the Law, they considered themselves righteous or holy. Where their hearts might be in all of this didn’t come into the picture. This was the false understanding of Commandments, the corruption of religious observance, that Jesus came to reform and renew. 

He taught them in a new way that went much deeper than simply obeying the letter of the law. For example, as we just heard in the Gospel, He told us not to be satisfied simply because we have not murdered anyone, but to dig deeper and see if we are harboring anger or resentment in our hearts. He said to not be satisfied just because we haven’t committed perjury, but to dig deeper and see if we are guilty of gossip or lying, of using the gift of speech to build people up or to tear them down. And in our marriages, the Lord informs us to think beyond the physical parameters of adultery and dig deeper to see if we are being faithful emotionally, internally, towards the one to whom we have pledged our love. So you see, He is not doing away with good external behavior, but is telling us that we will be hypocrites if the outside doesn’t match what’s on the inside. 

Jesus calls us to embrace and live the Commandments with a new outlook, with a new mindset. He tells us that if we truly want to observe the law of God and be His reflection to others, then we need to begin by focusing on the reform and renewal of our hearts. But He knows that we cannot do this of our own power. He knows that while our intentions may be good, the lure of sin and selfishness within us pulls us down and so He gives us a share in the Holy Spirit who makes us new from the inside out. That the Messiah would do this for us was prophesied 600 years before Christ by the prophet Ezekiel who said: “He will give you a new heart and place a new Spirit within you; He will exchange your heart of sin for a heart of love and put his Spirit within you to enable you to follow his decrees”. (Ez 36:26-27) 

Jesus first gave us this Spirit at Baptism and increased His presence within us at Confirmation. But He and the Spirit continue making our transformation possible every time we go to Mass and worship with open hearts. In a little while you'll see Father place his hands over the gifts of bread and wine, and you will see me bow as he does so, because this is when we welcome the Spirit, who comes down upon the gifts to begin their transformation into the Sacrament of the Real Presence of Christ. And then when we receive Holy Communion with mindfulness and devotion, that same Spirit continues his work of transforming us from the inside out through the Body and Blood of Christ, who enters us as medicine for our spiritual sickness, healing balm for our wounded souls and strength in our human weakness.

Salt & Light

 

Deacon Dave · Salt & Light

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 5, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:13-16. Theme: Salt & Light 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that our lives, if lived as he taught us, are the single most convincing way to give witness to him. And He uses salt and light to illustrate what he is talking about. 

Let’s first take a look at salt. We all know what salt does: it brings out the best in food and makes it more appealing. That’s what we are all supposed to do with our lives. Our personal relationship with Jesus is meant to bring out the best in us. It is meant to show those with whom we live, work and socialize that Christ can transform people into the best version of themselves that they can be. But Jesus warns us that if we lose our saltiness, that is, if we become just like everyone else in how we treat others and how we live, then we have lost the spice of Christianity. We become useless for carrying out the mission of witnessing to Him. 

Moving on to the example of light, we all know how vital it is to our daily living! Among other things, it brings us clarity, warmth and safety. And when driving it makes it possible for us to see where we are going so that we reach our destination. In the same way, the more people examine our behavior enlightened by Christ, the clearer it can be for them to see the pathway to real love and happiness in life. The inner peace and strength we possess even in the midst of difficulties might enlighten them to investigate a relationship with Jesus for themselves. 

But the salt and light of Christianity can do even more than change the individual person. It can - and indeed has - changed the world! Western culture as we know it would not be ours to enjoy today had it not been for Christianity sprinkling the salt of the Gospel and diffusing the light of Christ throughout the world for the past 2,000 years. We should be informed and properly proud of how our faith has helped to make the world a better place, especially today when Christians have become open targets and Christianity’s social influence is being ignored or falsely denied. 

Christianity’s salt and light fueled many scientists to make vital discoveries in their fields such as: Copernicus, the priest who discovered that the sun is the center of the universe; the Jesuit priest George Lemaitre who came up with the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origin; Gregor Mendel, a monk who gave birth to modern genetics; and Louis Pasteur, a committed lay Catholic and pioneer of infectious disease control. 

Christianity’s salt and light gave inspiration and encouragement to the classic works of the fine arts such as: Michelangelo & Leonardo DaVinci in painting, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Johann Sebastian Bach in music, Dante Alighieri & J.R. Tolkien in literature. 

Christianity’s salt and light moved heroic figures to stand up on behalf of women, children, the dying and the disabled throughout history. Before Christianity arrived in various parts of the world, women were considered property like a man’s life-stock; children were regarded as not much better than slaves; the dying were abandoned in the wilderness; and the disabled were killed for being thought of as cursed. Christianity spoke up for the sanctity of marriage and human life. Missionaries brought with them the establishment of hospitals, orphanages and medical clinics and the Church remains today the single largest sponsor of social services in the world. 

Christianity’s salt and light gave determination and perseverance to the leaders of the civil and human rights movements. The slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a Methodist minister and Harriet Tubman, mother of the famous Underground Railroad to Freedom was a staunch Christian. St. Katherine Drexel gave her whole life as well as her billion-dollar inheritance to the education and social promotion of Black and Native Americans; and of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist minister. It was the salt and light of the Christian communities of the Southern USA that fueled the drive for racial equality under the law. 

So, with all this in mind - and knowing what we are meant to be and what the world can be - let’s ask Jesus for the grace to never lose our saltiness. Let's ask to never cease to be light in the darkness of this world. The Christians who have gone before us and who made such an impact on the world have shown us what the Gospel can do when it is truly lived out in flesh and blood reality. Their witness gives us absolutely amazing stories about how both people and places can be transformed by coming in contact with the salt and light of Christ flowing out of the lives of ordinary Christians like you and me.