Are You Living the Mission?

 

Deacon Dave · Are You Living the Mission?

Homily for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 27, 2022. Gospel of St. Luke 6:39-45. Theme: Are You Living the Mission? 

Every significant world religion has a particular passage taken from their holy books which expresses who they are as a people; a kind of “mission statement” as to how they live out the faith they profess with their lips. And each of them also have a special time of year particularly devoted to prayer and repentance, renewing their commitment to God as they understand Him. 

The mission statement of Judaism, for example, is expressed in the Shema, a prayer that says “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone…” and then it goes on to remind the Jews of their obligations to God. And every year - from Rosh Shanna to Yom Kippur - the Jewish people observe 10 days reflecting on how they have lived out their relationship with God and others. Islam’s mission statement is called the Shahada, which is a very short profession of faith proclaiming: “There is only one God and only one prophet of God, Mohammed.” Their penitential time of year is the month-long Fast of Ramadan, which calls the Muslim people to submit both their bodies and souls to purification. 

What about Christianity? If a Jewish or Muslim person asked, would you know what our mission statement is? It is taken directly from the Gospel and every Christian should know it by heart. We call it The Great Commandment because that’s what Jesus called it: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The Great Commandment expresses the very heart of Christianity and therefore, it should be enshrined in the heart of every Christian. 

This is what the four short sayings of Jesus in today’s Gospel are meant to tell us. They call us to an honest self-evaluation of how we are living out our love for God in our relationship with others. This collection of the Lord’s sayings summons us to have clear spiritual vision, to look into our own hearts and lives to see what needs to change, what needs to be reformed and purified. And of course, this is why the Church gives us our special time of year for spiritual renewal and purification: the holy Season of Lent which will begin this Wednesday. It is like having an annual spiritual check-up so that we can honestly evaluate how we are living the Great Commandment. It’s a time to refocus on our relationship with God, to look to the example of Jesus our beloved Brother and Lord, and to submit ourselves in mind, body and soul to the purifying action of the Holy Spirit within us. 

The short but direct-to-the-heart teachings of Jesus that we hear in today’s gospel are purposely proclaimed on this Sunday before Ash Wednesday, so that they can guide us in putting together our personal spiritual program for Lent: 

 Jesus says the bind cannot lead the blind…how is our spiritual eyesight? Are we trying to see life from God’s point of view by reading the Scriptures and pondering them in our hearts? Try reading from the Scriptures a bit more this Lent. 

Jesus says to remove the beam from our own eye …do we know what constitutes that beam in our eye? Are we aware of what behavior or attitude is blocking us from loving God with all that we are and from loving our neighbor as ourselves? Start making a review of the day before you go to sleep. Evaluate where you succeeded and where you need to improve in living as a Christian. 

Jesus says that what we cherish in our hearts is what really guides our decisions and actions in life…So, let’s ask ourselves with gut-honesty: do we hold the Great Commandment as the treasure of our hearts? Is it the guiding light of our relationships? 

Try doing the following simple spiritual practice this Lent: Memorize the Great Commandment and recite it twice a day throughout Lent, so as to enshrine it in your heart. Recite it first thing in the morning to remind you to make choices consistent with being an instrument of Christ’s Love during the day. Then repeat it at night as a kind of examination of conscience, as a way to review your day to see where it was lived well and where improvement is needed by God’s grace. 

By doing this we can hopefully and gradually learn to make love more real and effective in our everyday lives. This simple program can help us put into practice these words from St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “It is easy to love the people who are far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give food to relieve the hunger of a stranger, than it is to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved among our own family. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”

The Blind Leading the Blind by  Pieter Bruegel, 16th century Netherlands

Do I Smell Like a Rose?

 

Deacon Dave · Do I Smell Like a Rose?

Homily for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 20, 2022. Gospel of St. Luke 6:27-38. Topic: Do I Smell Like a Rose? 

During his college years in England, the famous Hindu activist, Mahatma Gandhi, began reading the New Testament out of curiosity. Jesus’ words made a deeply positive impression upon him and he was especially fascinated by the Gospel passage we heard proclaimed today: “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” He told a friend, “If you Christians lived these words of your Master, you would become a significant force for peace and justice throughout the world.” 

Having read the Gospels, Gandhi was inspired to do a bit of exploring into the possibility of becoming a Christian himself. So, he decided to attend a Sunday service. When he reached the doors of a local upscale Episcopalian church, he was stopped by a clergyman who said to him, “Where do you think you are going, you (here insert a derogatory slang word for a person of color). There’s no room for your kind in this church. Get out of here or I’ll have my ushers throw you down the steps”. Gandhi’s path to Christ had been road-blocked and detoured by the scandalous behavior of someone who claimed the name of Christian. 

After he became famous, he was once asked what would be the best way to spread the transforming message of Christ in the modern world? Newspapers? Radio? Television? Or in our day, we could add social media? He shook head and replied: “A rose does not need to preach. It simply spreads its fragrance on its own. The fragrance is its own sermon.” 

And so that made me ask myself a few questions: How many people have I turned away from Christ because of my lack of courtesy or gossip or other un-Christian behavior? Does my Christianity smell like a rose, attracting others by its fragrance to investigate the person and message of Jesus? Or does it smell more like a stinking drive down HWY 5 by the cattle fields of Harris Ranch? 

You see, the problem isn’t that we don’t know what Jesus is teaching us. The problem is that we do not choose to live it. We all know what it means to love, to treat others with kindness no matter who they are, and to forgive those who offend us even when it’s tough to do. We know what it means to not judge the reasons for a person’s particular actions because we cannot see into their minds, into their hearts. We know that only God can look into those secret chambers of the human person, and thus, only God can truly and honestly judge each one of us. 

Yet we fail rather consistently to put into practice what we preach and I am at the front of that line! We are interiorly drawn to live like Jesus but we find ourselves falling short of the mark in our exterior actions, even if we start off the day with the best of intentions. The Scriptures tell us that the reason for this moral weakness is what we call “the wound of original sin”, a path of least resistance within all of us when it comes to doing what is right and choosing what is good. 

But it was precisely to heal this wound that Jesus came to us as Brother, Savior and Lord. He is not a cruel Master who teaches us a lifestyle that is impossible to live. Rather, He promises to be with each one of us always, to live within each one of us, making it possible for us – by His divine presence and power within us - to say “yes” to love and mercy, to say “yes” to forgiveness and unity. And not to just say “yes” with our lips, but with the concrete actions of our behavior. 

It is primarily through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Real Living Presence of the Risen Lord Jesus in Holy Communion, that this divine power and in-dwelling comes to us. When we receive this sacrament with faith and mindfulness and not simply out of routine or habit – we are filled with spiritual power enabling us to love and to live as true Christians. We know how much we need Jesus to live within us so that we do not become a road-block or a detour in someone’s path to Christ. We know how badly we need Jesus dwelling within us always, so that his grace can help us become like roses, whose sweet fragrance of Christianity captures the attention of those around us and attracts them to the person and message of Christ.

Blessings & Woes

 

Deacon Dave · Blessings & Woes

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 13, 2022. The Gospel of St. Luke 6:17-26. Topic: Blessings & Woes 

Struggle, sacrifice, self-denial…. These are all a part of our lives and not just when things go wrong or when we have to go through some trial or difficulty. Oftentimes, we intentionally embrace these things when we want to better our situation. For example: If we want to advance in our occupations, we put in extra effort and time to prove our dedication and competence. If we want to improve on our appearance and health we will embrace a strict regimen of proper nutrition and commit ourselves to a program of physical exercise. If we want something bad enough, we willingly chose sacrifice and self-denial in order to come out on the other side with the joy of accomplishment and a better form of living. Jesus is telling us in today’s Gospel that we should have the same enthusiasm, the same commitment and the same determination about our spiritual growth and development. 

If we value and want to improve our spiritual health and well-being, we must willingly and intentionally embrace the struggle, sacrifice, and self-denial that come with choosing to live according to the way of Jesus. Today’s Gospel presents us with the most basic of his teachings that have come to be called the Beatitudes, a word that means “Blessings”. These are attitudes and behaviors that describe Jesus himself, and include such things as trust, mercy, humility, kindness, justice, patience and fidelity to God no matter what the cost. They define and describe who we are as Christians. And as we hear in today’s Gospel, the Beatitudes have both a negative and positive dynamic. They are a blessing for those who embrace them but a condemnation for those who refuse to do so. 

The Beatitudes teach us that those who make material possessions, self-promotion and the pursuit of pleasure their motivation in life will end up with just those superficial things and nothing more. If their whole focus in life is what this world has to offer, then when their life in this world comes to its end, so will they. Why is this? Because God was not their focus. Heaven was not their goal. The needs of others were not their concern. And so, such people will get what they lived for: an eternity in which there is no room for God and no experience of relationships rooted in real love. It’s what we have come to call “Hell”. 

On the other hand, Jesus teaches that those who do embrace the struggle, the sacrifice and the self-denial required in observing the Beatitudes will also get what they lived for: blessings from God in this life and happiness with Him forever in the next. Why? Because despite the difficulties they encountered, they chose to be faithful to a lifestyle inspired by Jesus. Besides the many opportunities they had to live what is called “the good life”, they chose a lifestyle that was simple, sacrificial and giving. Having been touched by Christ and changed from the inside out, they embraced a life focused on loving God and neighbor instead of primarily oneself. 

In addition to being a description of both Christ and Christians, the Beatitudes are also the foundation of what we call the “social teachings of the Catholic Church.” This means that the Gospel has - or should have - an effect on how we live and behave as neighbors and citizens in society. If we think that religion is something confined to Sunday worship and concerned primarily with our personal morality, then we are greatly mistaken in our understanding of Christianity! It is absolutely impossible to define and interpret Jesus and the Gospel in this way. The overriding majority of Jesus’ teachings are utterly inseparable from social responsibility and the Scriptures clearly inform us that love for the God whom we cannot see is proven by our love for the neighbor whom we can see. 

With this in mind, I find it very interesting and very revealing that Jesus starts off by naming poverty as the first Beatitude, that it receives pride of place. I think it’s important for us to understand what the Gospel means by the term “poverty” because when many of us hear this we get confused and even turned-off. As 21st century Americans, when we hear “poverty” we think of “destitution”, you know, living at the poverty-level, with not enough to eat or to wear. But this is not at all what Jesus means in this Beatitude.

Gospel poverty means simplicity of life, being content with what one needs and not being suffocated by an over-accumulation of the things one wants and then so often wastes. It’s a Beatitude that is especially important and necessary in today’s culture that is so steeped in materialism and driven by consumerism, the desire for more, more, more. As Christians, we are called to embrace a simple lifestyle which, while allowing for what we truly need, also makes room for the just needs of others. Handling our finances in this Gospel spirit means that we are not saving or spending all of our money for ourselves, but are giving a fair share to relieve the suffering and needs of those who don't have it so good. 

You know, this makes me think of some of the home renovation shows that I enjoy watching. They will often highlight a newly enlarged walk-in closet that's as big as a bedroom, filled with so many clothes and a whole ocean of shoes. It makes me wonder how in the world the residents of that house can even keep count of what they have, let alone even get around to wearing all that they have stored up. Meanwhile, others in their town go around with barely enough food to survive, without sufficient funds to buy necessities, or without proper clothing to wear. As Christians, we must admit that there is something so very wrong with that picture. It’s such a glaring contradiction of the first Beatitude, and so polar opposite to the way of Jesus. 

So, for our own sake, for our very salvation and for the sake of our neighbor, let’s take to heart the words that Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel: Blessed are you who struggle. Blessed are you who sacrifice. Blessed are you who embrace self-denial for love of God and others, for you shall be forever rewarded in the Kingdom of Heaven. But woe to you who have served and pampered yourselves in this life. Woe to you who have lived without thought for your needy brothers and sisters, By choosing to have your consolation and comforts here and now, you have forfeited them forever in eternity.

I Surrender!

 

Deacon Dave · I Surrender!

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 6, 2022. Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Gospel of St. Luke 5:1-11. Theme: I Surrender! 

When we hear the words, “I surrender” or “I give up” we tend to think of the humiliation of defeat, the loss of power or lack of control over our lives. Most of us fight hard against saying these words because we want to avoid being thought of as weak or be seen as incompetent or incapable. And yet, one of the many paradoxes in Christianity, in the teachings of Jesus, is that we can only become spiritually strong when we admit that we are interiorly weak; we can only be lifted up to greatness after we acknowledge the reality of our utter nothingness before God. This is precisely the lesson that all three of the holy men in today's Scriptures teach us. Each one had an up-close-and-personal experience of God which totally transformed their lives. Each one had a life-changing encounter with God that moved them from the heart to surrender their own self-image and ideas in order to become vessels for God’s work and true servants of his people. 

In our first reading we drop in on the prophet Isaiah during a profound vision of God in all his glory. Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus. He was hesitant to take up the prophet's mission of calling the people to repent of their sins, to turn away from their destructive behaviors. He felt inadequate to the task because he was aware of his own sinfulness and thought, “Who am I to tell others to turn away from sin?” He knew that saying “yes” to God’s call would bring bitter opposition, rejection and ridicule into his life. And so his fear of social rejection made him hesitant to do what needed to be done. But in beholding the Lord’s glory he surrendered to God saying, “Here I am Lord, send me.” And as a result of his surrender, Isaiah became the greatest prophet of the Messiah in the entire Old Testament. And to this day, almost 3,000 years later we still repeat at every Mass the words that he heard sung by the angels around God’s throne, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, heavens and earth are full of your glory…” 

Our second reading presents us with a reference to the conversion of St. Paul. Before this life-changing event, he was very much the polar opposite of Isaiah. He was full of himself, cocky, stubborn and arrogant. Paul was convinced that he was God’s agent and answer to the problem of an annoying little branch of Judaism called the Way, whose members believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Messiah. Surrendering was the very last thing he was likely to ever do, so God had to literally knock him to the ground and give him temporary blindness so that he could see exactly who and what he had become. Long story short, Paul did surrender his over-exaggerated sense of self and was transformed, as he points out to us in today's reading, into an apostle of Christ, perhaps the greatest missionary of the Gospel the Church has ever seen. 

Lastly, in our Gospel today we read about the initial conversion experience of Simon-Peter. As we know from so many other stories about him Simon was a headstrong, impetuous, self-sufficient, totally “alpha” kind of guy. He knew the family fishing business like no one else and wasn’t about to be told how to do it more effectively by a carpenter from Nazareth. But for some reason, perhaps it was the look in Christ’s eyes or the tone of his voice, or maybe self-sure Simon thought he would teach this carpenter a lesson, he decided to give in, to surrender. And lo and behold! Simon and his partners end up with the biggest catch of fish in their careers! He surrendered with as much passion and gusto as he had at first resisted, saying, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Simon surrenders the strong-man facade he has built around himself and acknowledges who and what he truly is at heart. He leaves everything behind to follow Christ and will go on to become Peter, the first pope, the rock upon which Jesus will build his Church. 

It seems to me that all three of these holy men speak to us about our need to get rid of any false self-images and give up any self-serving plans that we have. They call us to open our hearts in humility and step forward with trust in what God has in mind for us. All three were already connected with God but on their own terms. Isaiah had set limits on what he would or would not do for the Lord until he was overcome by God’s glory. Paul considered himself God’s gift to Israel and this pride kept him spiritually blind until physical blindness opened the eyes of his soul. Simon-Peter personally walked and talked with Christ, but he shows us that knowing Jesus is quite different from actually having a personal relationship of trust in him. 

So I think today’s liturgy should move each of us to examine our minds and our hearts, to reevaluate our relationship with Christ. Do we truly see that we are weak in spirit and need his grace to lift us up? Can we be humble enough to give up our own ideas and plans about how God should act in our lives, so that he can truly do what he wishes to do with us and for us? The transformation of ourselves into something beautiful for God, so that we can become what he has created us to be, is indeed possible and the Lord wants to do this for each one of us. But it requires that we turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God every day and be ready to surrender, to give up, our even own ideas and plans as did Isaiah, Paul and Simon-Peter.

Living as Prophets of Love

 

Deacon Dave · Living as Prophets of Love

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 30, 2022. Readings: 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Gospel of St. Luke 4:21-30. Theme: Living as Prophets of Love 

Very often in our liturgy the gospels take up where we left off on the prior Sunday. And such is the case today, as we drop in on the tail end of a story which we began last week. Recall for a moment that last Sunday we heard about Jesus attending worship services in his hometown of Nazareth. He had read a prophecy from Scripture about the coming of a great prophet who would show forth God’s power and presence. And then, while all his neighbors and relatives were looking on, Jesus informed them that He was that long-hoped-for prophet called and chosen by God. 

In today’s continuation of the story, we see that at first the people were impressed. But then they began to recall their experiences with Jesus and how ordinary he was. This was the son of Mary, who as a child played with their kids and went to synagogue school with them. This was Joseph’s boy, who learned the family trade and earned his living as one of the local craftsmen. He was so much like them that he turned out to be too much for them to accept as someone special and sent by God. And so they refused to believe. They turned on Him on that day in Nazareth, and Jesus got not only rejection but also a death threat from the very people with whom He lived, worked and socialized. 

I think we can all relate in one way or another to what Jesus experienced. When we try to live the gospel, to truly live our Catholic faith and have it make a difference in our lifestyle, some of our family and friends might react a bit like Jesus’ townsfolk. Our good intentions can be misinterpreted or we might be misunderstood. People might think that we believe we are better than them, when in reality what we are saying by embracing our Christianity is that we are sinners very much in need of God’s grace like everyone else. It's also very possible that we might be rejected by some of those who know us best. That certainly happened to Jesus. But that didn’t deter him from carrying out his mission as a prophet. It didn’t deter him from doing what he was meant to do. And it shouldn’t stop us from carrying out our mission as prophets, either. 

When we were baptized and then later confirmed, we each were anointed with sacred chrism oil and this anointing consecrated us as prophets with Jesus. It’s important to understand that calling ourselves prophets isn’t just some noble thought or a motivational idea. Both the New Testament and the ancient teaching of the Church tell us that it's a solid fact! To be consecrated means to be called and chosen. We Christians are consecrated to go out into the world as prophets of the good news that God is love and that this love became flesh and blood reality in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. 

So that might make us wonder what does it mean to do this, what does it look like to live as prophets of God who is love? Well, first of all we need to know that being a prophet doesn’t mean foretelling the future as most of us might think. That can, indeed, be part of a prophet’s mission but first of all and most of all, a prophet is someone who communicates God’s Word to others. Now, this can be done both with words and by example, but as all know talk can be cheap and actions speak louder than words, so it is most of all by the way we live and act that we will fulfill our prophetic mission as Christians. And so this is where our second reading today comes to the rescue, so to speak, and shows us what being a prophet of love should look like in everyday life. 

While this reading from 1 Corinthians 13 is hands down the most popular Scripture used at weddings, that's not what St. Paul had in mind when he wrote it. Rather, he lays out very clearly for us what it means, what it looks like, to live as a Christian, as a prophet of love in a world that is very self-centered. It means being patient, kind, humble, forgiving, encouraging, uplifting, and hopeful. This is how we are to reflect God to others. This is how we are supposed to treat everyone no matter how they treat us, friend or enemy. You see, the idea is that by witnessing our behavior, people should be able to get a glimpse of what God is like and then want to draw closer to him themselves. This is how we help to grow the Kingdom of God, heart by heart, person to person. 

I was on a retreat once, years ago, and the retreat director used this exact reading from 1 Corinthians 13 in giving us a simple spiritual exercise to do. He told us to go back to our rooms and slowly, mindfully, re-read the passage several times, substituting our first names for the word “love” in the reading. By doing this we can see if it is describing us or not…we can take note of how close or how far off the mark we are from living as Christians, that is, as prophets of love. It was a very powerful and enlightening, spiritual experience for me. I urge you to go home and try this yourselves. 

Of course, none of us is going to come away from this personal inspection with a perfect score, but that’s why we have the wonderful sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. Jesus gave them to us precisely for the purpose of gradually growing in love. Confession helps us to identify where we tend to be most selfish and gives us grace to overcome what we acknowledge and lay before him. The Eucharist is all about the giving of ourselves to others in love just as Christ gave himself for us. The truly Eucharistic person will find in the frequent and mindful reception of Christ’s Body and Blood the grace, strength and supernatural ability needed to love as Jesus loves, cause we can't just do it on our own. 

Now, people might still misunderstand us, they might still misinterpret us and some may still even reject us, but at least we will know that we are being faithful to the call and mission we have received to live as prophets of love. And that, really, is what will matter most to us as we approach our appointed time to leave this world for the next. We will be able to do so with a serene conscience, knowing that we have done our best to live in the most excellent way, the way of love, which as St. Paul tells us, is the greatest life we could have hoped to have lived on planet Earth.

Most Excellent Theophilus...

 

Deacon Dave · Most Excellent Theophilus...

Homily for Word of God Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. The Gospel of St. Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21. Theme: Most Excellent Theophilus... 

Today is Word of God Sunday. Pope Francis instituted this observance several years ago as a reminder that God has spoken to us through the mouth of his Son, Jesus Christ. And this Word of God, written down in Scripture, is so vital to us that we spread it out over time and read segments of it every day in our liturgy. In 2022, the Sunday gospel readings will come mostly from the Gospel of St. Luke, and so, I think it might be helpful for us to review what we mean by the word “gospel” and to learn a little bit about the man chosen to compose it. And of course hopefully figure out what all this might mean for you and me today. 

The literal meaning of the word “gospel” is good news. In the ancient world there were no means of mass communication, so horse-riders or runners would be sent out to deliver important messages to the villages. And once they arrived they would shout out, “I have gospel…I have good news!” In a similar way, after Pentecost when the first Christians went out as missionaries, they were like those runners who burst into the villages shouting, “I have gospel…I have good news!” Of course, the people would eagerly ask what it was and so the apostles would reply with something like: “The good news is that God himself has become human in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, died and buried but who has risen up from the dead! He has done away with both the penalty of sin and the finality of death by offering those who wish it a way to spiritual freedom and the gift of eternal life.” 

The Apostles shared this good news with all who would listen and the Word of God spread rather rapidly throughout the empire. But many wondered what would happen once the apostles had left this world? And so, it became vital for them to set down in writing the words of Jesus and the events they had personally experienced. And so, this brings us to the second meaning of the word “gospel”: a written record of what Jesus said and did when He lived on earth as seen and heard by those who knew Him. As you know by now, we have four editions of this written-down Gospel by the evangelists (which means “gospel writers”) Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

Matthew and John were companions of Jesus from the time he was baptized in the Jordan River until the day he returned to Heaven. They were members of his band of brothers, the Twelve Apostles. Mark was a very young man, perhaps even a child, when he and his mother became disciples of Jesus. All three of these evangelists were Jewish, born and raised in Israel. But Luke is different from them in many ways. And so is his approach to composing the written gospel. He was not Jewish but was a Gentile, born in Syria. And so he saw things from a different perspective. He was also a well-educated physician and not a fisherman or tax collector like the others. So he had a solid educational-medical background that influenced the writing of his gospel stories. Because he came from a Greek and not Jewish culture, Luke was attracted to stories and persons in Jesus’ life that show his compassion for the outsider and the outcast, for the poor and the sick, for women and children. These were all categories of people who were typically frowned upon in proper Jewish society. 

And most interestingly, unlike the other evangelists, Luke had a wealthy benefactor. A man named Theophilus commissioned Luke’s gospel-writing project and most likely funded it. This sponsor wanted assurance that all he had heard and been told about Jesus of Nazareth was true. And he was willing to pay for this certainty! We hear about this relationship between Theopilus and Luke in the opening verses of today’s gospel. And I think that’s a good reflection point for us in asking how the Good News by St. Luke has meaning for us today. 

You see, I truly believe that at some point in our lives each one of us is like Most Excellent Theophilus. That is, we are attracted to the person and message of Jesus Christ, we see its goodness and its beauty, but we also see that it will ask quite a bit of us. It will launch us off to a lifetime of change and growth in our relationship with God and with others. It will require stability in our commitment to Christ, obedience to his Word, and an ongoing conversion of our hearts. And so, like Theophilus, we want to know, we need to know, that what we have heard and learned and believe about Jesus Christ is trustworthy and true. 

This is why it’s vitally important for us to realize that the gospels honestly hand on to us what Jesus really said and did when He lived on earth. They are not creative fairytales of faith or fabricated religious fables. They are the memoirs, so to speak, of the personal experiences of the apostles, who sealed the truth of their testimony by the shedding of their blood for Christ. When we read Luke’s gospel, we are delving into the work of an investigative reporter who spent a great deal of time and energy researching everything that he had heard about Jesus of Nazareth. He interviewed the eye witnesses, including the Blessed Mother, and collected their stories. He was thus also able to compare and contrast many experiences to judge their trustworthiness. And he learned that the greatest thing they all experrienced was the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead! Though he had been tortured, crucified and buried they encountered him alive again and spent 40 days eating with, talking to and learning from him. The Resurrection was the ultimate sign and absolute proof of who Jesus really was and it confirmed the truth of his teachings as well. 

Luke’s gospel helps us to learn about Jesus, but what we do with that knowledge is up to each one of us. We have heard the good news and have been offered the way to spiritual freedom, the path to eternal life. Are we going to accept the offer? Are we going to truly commit ourselves, our lives, to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Are we going to embrace his gospel and give it meaning, give it flesh and bone in our lives? These are the questions our Holy Father Pope Francis would like us to ask ourselves and reflect upon as we observe this Sunday of the Word of God.

That All May Be One

 

Deacon Dave · That All May Be One

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Jan. 16, 2022. The Gospel of St. John 2:1-11. Theme: That All May Be One

On January 18 the Catholic Church, in conjunction with other Christian denominations, will observe the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It will end on Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the great Apostle of Church Unity. This special time of prayer was begun in New York in 1907 by an Episcopalian priest who soon after became Catholic. Even though this Week of Prayer for Unity has been happening for 114 years, it is sadly overlooked by so many in our Church today, even by those who are in pastoral leadership. I say “sadly” because the division of the Body of Christ into thousands of different denominations is a terrible scandal to the world. How can we give credible witness to being the Body of Christ on earth and serving the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God, as St. Paul writes in today’s second reading, when in reality we are a broken and divided Christianity? 

There are those who say that it really doesn’t matter which Christian church you belong to as long as you believe in and follow Jesus. Now, that is a good thing, but is that really totally true? Think about it. The Son of God left the glory and power of Heaven to become flesh and live among us. He chose to do this so that he could teach us his Gospel which is truth and light leading us out of confusion and darkness. He became man to forgive our sins and to give us the Holy Spirit to form us into one family of God the Father. Before leaving our world he established a community to be his voice proclaiming the gospel and continuing his mission on planet Earth until the end of time. Do we dare to think that Our Lord bothered to do all this so that we can then just pick and choose what we like or don’t like about him or his teachings? Or that we might have a better idea of how to build a church that is better than the one he established? 

The plain objective facts of history clearly show us that Jesus Christ established a community of disciples, and before returning to Heaven, placed it under the care of the Apostles with Peter as their leader. History also shows us that there was only one such Christian community for 1,000 years and it has been called the Catholic Church since about the year 110 AD. And so there was never any need to find various adjectives to differentiate between Christians or their communities. They were all members of the Catholic Church and so the words “Christian” and “Church” referred only to one entity: the Catholic Church founded by Jesus and centered in Rome where its earthly leader lived. 

But by the 11th century, many Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire, today’s lands of Russia, Turkey and Greece, broke away from the leadership of the pope as the successor of St. Peter. Simply put, they did not like the way the pope was exercising his authority and they wanted to be shepherded by just their own bishops. Today we call the descendants of these Eastern Christians the Orthodox Church. They kept the teachings of Jesus, the celebration of all seven sacraments, and devotion to Mary and the saints, and, except for the issue of unity with the Pope, they are much like us in many ways and we consider them to still be part of the one Church established by Christ. However, their movement away from the leadership of the pope began a crack in the worldwide Church which, over time, would spread and result in further fracturing of the Body of Christ on earth. 

If we fast forward a few centuries we see this fissure of disunity crossing over into Europe, where it reaches a breaking point in the actions of a Catholic priest named Martin Luther. Originally reacting to legitimate abuses and valid complaints about Church leadership, Luther began his protests within the Catholic Church but sadly ended up outside of it. He chose to seek the much-needed reform in the Church under his own authority and in opposition to the pope. And so he became known as the Father of the Protestant Reformation, with its legacy of giving birth to thousands of different churches throughout the world, each one interpreting the teachings of Christ as they see fit. 

What happened to the one Church of Jesus Christ founded upon the rock of St. Peter? All of these fractures in the Church began with one common denominator: the weakening of and then walking away from loyal and respectful obedience to the pope, who is the Christ-given father of unity in the Church. This is how it always begins. Sometimes the wound is serious but not fatal, such as the Orthodox Christians who still remain a part of the apostolic Church started by Christ. And other times it is gaping and bleeds profusely, such as in many of the Protestant denominations that have discarded almost all of the Lord’s teachings and sacraments. But in either case it hurts and infects the whole Body. 

We see this danger of division happening even today among those who speak disrespectfully of Pope Francis and who question his fidelity to Christ. These contemporary dissenters to unity seem to be following in the footsteps of the Orthodox in the 11th century or of Luther in the 16th, who claimed to know better than the pope what Jesus would or would not want for his Church. They seem to grant to themselves a divinely appointed role of leadership such as they will not grant to the pope. Now, there have indeed been popes in history who did not reflect Christ, who did not inspire allegiance or did not deserve loyalty. But they were still the leaders of the Church, still the successors of St. Peter even if not admirable ones. They still were owed obedience as the legitimate authority under Christ. We have to recall that even St. Peter himself momentarily denied Christ, yet this did not make the Risen Christ declare Peter’s leadership to be null and void. As a matter of fact it was at that time that Jesus confirmed the overall leadership of Peter telling him to “feed my lambs and tend my sheep.” (John 21:15-17) 

So for our own spiritual well-being, we should ignore those who speak ill of the Holy Father. Stay away from them! Do not listen to them! Instead, we must jealously protect our union with Christ and cherish in our hearts the treasure of our own personal communion with his Church. We would do well to ask such people, to ask these dissenters - as well as ourselves - some vitally important questions. Did Jesus preach one Gospel, establish one Church, command one Baptism, and institute one Eucharist or not? And if he did, who in the world are we to challenge his plan? Who are we to ignore this heritage? And do we believe that Jesus said to Peter, “You are rock and on this rock I will build my church; strengthen your brethren; feed my lambs, tend my sheep”? (Mt 16:17-19; Lk 22:32; Jn 21:15-17) And if he did say these things to Peter, then who are we to disrespect and ignore the earthly shepherd of the Church that Christ has appointed? 

I think we can safely say that the family of Christ on earth in the 21st century is deeply wounded and dysfunctional. We desperately stand in need of help. And in a family, who is the one to whom all usually turn for comfort, understanding and assistance? I would say it's the mother, who always wants to see her children united and happy. So how wonderful and how providential it is that just as we approach this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, our gospel today calls us to turn to the Mother of Jesus. She is, after all, Mother of the Church, Mother of Christ and thus the Mother of all Christians. So, let’s ask her to pray for healing in the wounded Body of Christ on earth. Let’s go to her with the request to turn the water of our division into the joyful wine of family unity. Let’s ask Mary to help us make a reality the prayer for unity which Jesus spoke on the night before He died: “Father may they be one in us, just as you and I are one, so that there will be just one flock under one shepherd, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:21)

A traditional illustration of St. Peter the Apostle, first Pope of the Catholic Church.  he hold keys to remind us that Jesus said he would give Peter the "keys to the kingdom" (which is Bible-speak for giving someone authority).  In the upper right corner is a depiction of the Risen Lord confirming Peter in his role as earthly shepherd of the Church.  In the bottom right corner the rooster reminds us of Peter's denial of Christ, which should us realize that popes are human and can make bad choices, but they still retain authority and Jesus can still work through them to lead, teach and shepherd the Church on earth.