Love is the Pathway to Peace

 

Deacon Dave · Love is the Pathway to Peace

Homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 29, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 22:34-40. Theme: Love is the Pathway to Peace 

 I am sure we can all agree that Christ's Message of love, which is at the same time a message of peace, is desperately needed in our world today. World peace seems like such an abstract goal that’s far beyond our reach. I mean, can you and I really have any real influence in that regard? Well, actually, yes we can! But to see how this is possible we have to first break down that seemingly unreachable global concept into its smaller very reachable parts. What I mean is that each one of us is called to contribute to world peace by focusing on the little slice of life that is indeed within our reach, within our sphere of influence. 

 It’s very much like the way medicine is injected into one small part of the body and then slowly makes its way throughout the whole system until the disease is eradicated. Or as Jesus Himself told us, the Gospel of peace will spread throughout the world person by person, the way a pinch of salt makes its way through the whole recipe or the way a little bit of yeast ends up elevating the whole batch of dough. So you see, we have God’s Word that our personal efforts for peace can indeed end up having a global effect. It is not an utopian ideal beyond our reach. 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us the way to peace by commanding us to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. However, this double commandment was just the beginning, the starting point for His ever-expanding teachings on love. He moves on to include enemies in the list of those whom we must love and in the parable of the Good Samaritan He teaches us that all people without exception are to be recipients of our kindness and mercy. Finally, at the Last Supper He gave us His highest directive when he said, “This is My commandment: love one another as I have loved you ” (Jn 13:34) . And those last few words, “as I have loved you” make all the difference in the world! They are what make Christian love so radically different from all other definitions of the word. 

 So, what does it mean to “love as Jesus loves”? What does that look like? Well, fortunately for us all we need to do is turn to the Gospels for the answer. By doing so, we see Jesus in action and learn that His way of loving is one of self-emptying, self-forgetfulness and self-giving. It doesn’t take into account what it will cost the lover, the giver, because the focus is always on God and others. It’s very difficult to define, but we can surely say that to love as Jesus loves means that our love must be unconditional. To love as Jesus loves means that our love must be sacrificial. To love as Jesus loves means that our love must be forgiving. This way of loving is the pathway to authentic peace. 

 To love unconditionally means that we accept people as they are and not how we want them to be. We are to show kindness even to those who may rub us the wrong way without first insisting that they change their attitude or behavior. If any changes really need to be made in them, then those changes will more surely come about not by our demanding it, but by our loving them into existence. Because, when a person experiences unconditional love, it can often stir up within them the desire and the determination to become the best that they can be. So you see, practicing unconditional love in our relationships, which sometimes may have to be what we call “tough love”, has the power over time to change hearts and lives from the inside out. Unconditional love can’t help but breed peace. 

 Christ-like love is also meant to be sacrificial, putting the needs of the other before our own. Our natural tendency is to put ourselves and our own desires first. But Jesus reorders the priorities of our love. He calls us to put God first, others second, and ourselves last. Now, for us frail human beings, it’s a struggle to love like that, and it’s especially difficult to keep on doing so consistently! However, with and in Christ we can do it because God’s grace empowers us to do things that we didn't think we were ever capable of doing. We can find inspiration to keep on doing this in the figure of Christ on a crucifix, with His arms outstretched and His pierced side opened wide for us. It will remind us that He kept on loving right to the end and never gave up. Neither should we. 

 Lastly, to love like Jesus means that we must be forgiving. A hard fact of life is that we often hurt one another. A flippant remark, an insult expressed in anger, or a grudge that we won’t let go of can cause emotional wounds that fester and bleed. The refusal to forgive or the refusal to accept an apology drains life out of relationships. It leads to wounded hearts, results in broken families, and works against serenity in our hearts and ultimately against peace in the world. You know, when it comes to forgiveness, what always impresses me most is the fact that after His Resurrection, Jesus never made even one remark or rebuke to his disciples for having denied Him and abandoned Him. Instead of condemning them, the very first thing the Risen Christ said to them were words of peace and blessing. He allowed the past to remain in the past and die there. We would do well to do the same. 

 Loving as Jesus loves seems quite impossible and indeed it is on the natural human level! But He gives us the grace, the supernatural power, to do so. And He does this particularly through the Eucharist. Christ-living-in-us by Holy Communion unites our human love to His divine love and elevates it. It injects us with spiritual strength that can go far above and beyond our normal human capabilities. Through the power of His Sacramental Presence within us, He enables us to love as He loves but this happens gradually, bit by bit, day by day. And so over time, if we are faithful, we will find ourselves becoming real instruments of peace by loving more unconditionally, sacrificing more joyfully, and forgiving more quickly and sincerely. 

 Now, imagine if all 2.3 billion Christians on planet Earth each decided to live this way! What a huge leap forward that would be to actualizing world peace!. And it is possible but the decision is left up to you and me. Sadly, so many chose not to do so and become part of the problem instead of being what Jesus wants us to be: part of the solution.

Dressed for (Eternal) Success!

 

Deacon Dave · Dressed for (Eternal) Success!

Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 15, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 22:1-14. Theme: Dressed for (Eternal) Success! 

Today’s Gospel gives us another one of Jesus’ parables and while it has a lot going on within it, the partthat seems to always grab people’s attention is the man who gets kicked out of the party for not being properly dressed. That may seem a bit extreme to us, but it’s another reason why I always say that we miss out on the full message of Scripture if we don’t know the culture out of which it came. With this in mind it’s helpful to know that in Jesus’ time when a king gave a party he often supplied more than the expected food, drink and entertainment. The host would often provide a rack of formal garments at the entrance gate for guests who did not come appropriately dressed. 

The wedding garment of this parable has often been interpreted as a symbol for the white gown that was given to adult converts at Baptism. We still have a remnant of this custom today which is why catechumens and infants often wear white when receiving this sacrament. It stands for the purity of the brand new spiritual life that is given through the saving grace of Baptism. It’s meant to remind us that through this sacrament we change out of our natural human condition of sin-woundedness and are re-dressed in the clothing of divine life which we call “sanctifying grace”. Or as St. Paul describes it, we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14) and are no longer spiritually alienated from God. 

But let’s get back to that guest who wasn’t wearing his wedding garment and see what that might mean. First, guests often arrived at a wedding party after having traveled for many days and so their clothes were dirty and stained with sweat. Clothing was hand-woven and handmade so it was extremely expensive and so ordinary everyday people didn’t own much of a wardrobe. This is why the host often supplied party garments and thus there was no polite excuse for anyone to enter without it on. This means that the offensive guest in today’s parable either refused the garment in the first place or he was wearing it but at some point decided to take it off. Either one of these actions would be extremely rude and a gesture of ingratitude to the king. 

I think we can see in this a symbol for those who either refuse God’s generous gift of eternal life through Baptism or who did indeed receive Baptism but later decided to not abide by it. For whatever reason, they do not want to live a Christian life and have chosen to lay aside their baptismal gown. They have taken off the Lord Jesus Christ and have only their own clothing to wear, soiled by sin and unfit for the wedding feast of Heaven. I bet many of us know people who would fit into this category. And I would also guess that many of us ourselves fall prey to this temptation now and then. And so we might be tempted to take off our wedding garments, assuring ourselves that we will have both the time and the opportunity to put them on again. The famous German Lutheran minister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed by the Nazis in World War II, coined a term for this way of non-challenging self-focused thinking and acting. He called it “cheap grace”. 

Cheap grace means that we want God without His commandments; Christ without the cross; Heaven without repentance for sin; and Christianity without all the rules. In other words, cheap grace means that we want a Christianity of our own making; a religion that is fashioned according to our own likes and desires. Cheap grace is a hybrid-Christianity that doesn’t cost us anything or challenge us in any way. However, today’s parable warns us that our refusal to wear the wedding garment of God in favor of the cheap grace of our own clothing, will not only get us kicked out of the party but cause us to run the risk of being cast into the torment of Hell. 

And this is where we come face-to-face with the curious saying with which Jesus ends today’s parable: "many are invited but few are chosen". What the Lord is telling us is that in his great mercy and generosity, God invites all human beings to His wedding feast which is a symbol for living in a right relationship with Him both here and hereafter. But not everyone who RSVPs in a positive manner to this invitation ends up actually staying at the party. For various reasons some of us take off the wedding garment and lose our status as guests. While those who do remain dressed in their baptismal gowns for the celebration become the chosen few. 

But Jesus always has Good News for us. And the good news for today is that we can always rediscover the beauty of our Baptismal gown and redress ourselves in the wedding garment of saving grace. We do this by our sincere repentance, turning back to God and striving to live life with Him instead of without Him. We recommit to the promises of our Baptism by rejecting sin and selfishness and professing our trust in God as Father, in Jesus as Savior, and in the Holy Spirit as Lord and Giver of Divine Life. And then we can rejoin the party and enjoy all the festivities that God has in store for us at the wedding feast of Heaven.

Looking Backward & Forward in the Vineyard

 

Deacon Dave · Looking Backward & Forward in the Vineyard

Homily for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 8, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 21:33-43. Theme: Looking Backward & Forward in the Vineyard 

I find it very odd that a verse which actually puts today’s parable into context has not been included in the gospel reading! The missing verse is found after the parable and it says: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them….” It’s no secret, then, just who Jesus is referring to and what this parable means. But like all parables, it goes beyond the literal and has application for our own lives today. This means that today’s parable looks backward and it looks forward. 

First, we’ll look backward. The parable was originally intended for the chief priests and Pharisees. Both groups were foundational to Jewish daily life. The Pharisees oversaw proper ritual behavior (even in one's home and private life) while the chief priests exercised authority over the people and acted as intermediaries between Israel and Rome. Both groups arose in the centuries before Christ to become caretakers of God’s people (the vineyard in today’s parable). Both groups ended up opposing the servants who were sent to the vineyard (the prophets of Israel). And lastly, both violently opposed even the son (Jesus) of the Landowner (God) when he came to set things straight. 

So, how did the chief priests and Pharisees end up being in opposition to God and failing in proper care of His people? The answer is really quite simple and quite ancient. As a matter of fact it's as old as the human race. It was sin, or more specifically, the illusions and delusions that are the fruit of sin. This is what made Adam and Eve think that they could become like God. This is what led the chief priests and Pharisees to think that they were not just tenant-managers but really the owners and rulers of the vineyard. And it is what ultimately brought Jesus to his death. 

Sin can make any of us fall into delusions and illusions as well. This is because all sin is fundamentally an expression of pride, which is an exaggerated unrealistic opinion of oneself. Pride makes us think that we are so vital in our personal world that things would fall apart without us. Pride fools us into thinking that we know best when it comes to setting moral standards in our lives, so who needs to pay attention to the Word of God? And, yes, pride still tempts those in religious leadership today into thinking that they are the owners of the vineyard instead of its tenant-managers when it comes to shepherding and serving the Lord’s people. 

And this is where the parable looks forward to us. Jesus says that new tenant-managers are being sent to oversee the vineyard. He is talking about His disciples, about you and me. This means that we are to see to the proper care and feeding of God’s people. Not just those who form the Body of Christ which is his Church, but all people for all belong to God in some way, shape or form. We are to do our best to “produce good fruit” which means living in a right and just relationship with God ourselves and helping others to do the same. To enable us to do this Christ has given us three special supernatural gifts: faith, hope and love. These garden tools of the vineyard help us to avoid the pitfalls of the chief priests and Pharisees. 

Faith means living in a dynamic personal relationship with God. It defeats the pride of Adam and Eve who forgot that they were but creatures and sought instead to become like the Creator. Faith reminds us of just who we are and Who God is. It enables us to maintain this sense of proper relationship as stewards and managers who are answerable to the Divine Landowner. 

Hope is the confident trust that God doesn’t judge us by externals but looks instead at our hearts and understands our weaknesses. It defeats the pride of the chief priests and Pharisees who were self-righteous, believing that scrupulous observance of the Law made them holy. Hope teaches us that God saves and blesses and reaches out to us freely and simply out of love and not because we have done something to earn it. Hope sets us free from the impossible burden and task of trying to be our own saviors. 

Love, which is the greatest of the three gifts, enables us to forget ourselves, showing compassion and mercy to all whom we encounter. It defeats pride by doing away with the delusions and illusions of exaggerated self-importance and reminds us that we are simply servants of God Who is love. It is the greatest of Jesus’ commandments and He told us to exercise love in the proper order: God first, others second and ourselves last. 

Faith, hope and love, then, are indispensable for the successful care of the Lord’s Vineyard. But they can only grow within us if we water them frequently with the grace of prayer and the sacraments. They blossom and produce fruit only if we prune away the dead branches of selfishness in our lives. They enable us to become faithful servants and trustworthy tenant-managers who will bring joy to the Landowner and will receive a reward from His Son when it comes time for the final harvest.