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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 5, 2008
INTRODUCTION
(Isaiah 5,1-7; Matthew 21,33-43) Most of us know how much work is
involved in caring for a garden. Just imagine how much work is involved
with setting up an entire vineyard, which is a full time business.
Isaiah describes some of what was involved in today’s first reading. If
we wonder why there needed to be a watchtower in the vineyard, it was
needed, both day and night, to protect the grapes from thieves and
predators, especially during harvest time. Apparently Isaiah was a
musician as well as a talented poet. As he sang his song we can imagine
the shock his audience felt when they discovered they were the vineyard
he was singing about. From history we know Isaiah’s prophecy literally
came to be true when the Assyrian invasion came and much of the land was
laid waste.
HOMILY
As I reflected on today’s readings about vineyards, I thought back about
40 years to a day when I was traveling with my sister, brother, and
sister-in-law in Germany. My brother and I had a great love for Mosel
wine at that time and we spent the whole day driving down along the
Mosel river, just looking at vineyards. At the end of the day we stopped
in a little place to get something to eat. We were tired and thirsty and
ordered some of the local wine. It was cold and delicious and, since we
hadn’t had much to eat or drink that day, it hit us hard. We both
started laughing at the silliest things. My sister (a nun) was much
irritated at the two of us, which made us laugh all the more. I guess I
wasn’t very sensitive to my sister at the time, but my brother and I
sure had a fun time.
At the time I just enjoyed the benefits of all those vineyards and
hardly thought of all the work involved in making it possible for us to
enjoy ourselves. Maintaining a vineyard is a year round operation,
caring for the vines, pruning them for the best yield, protecting them
from anything or anyone who might destroy them, pressing the grapes,
storing the juice until it ferments, etc., etc. Vineyards were abundant
in Judea at the time of Jesus, so it’s natural Jesus would base his
story on something his listeners were very familiar with. Jews used lots
of wine, in liturgies and at meals, yet they always respected it. Jews
have one of the lowest rates of alcoholism among all nationalities.
Today we have two stories about vineyards.
In the first story from Isaiah, over 700 years before Christ, the
vineyard represented the people of Israel who were a great
disappointment to God. God made them his own special people and blessed
them abundantly; yet they turned their back on him and the commandments
he had given them. Their lives represented sour grapes after all God had
done for them.
In the second story from the gospel, the vineyard represents God’s
people, but it is the religious leaders of Jesus’ time who are taken to
task. They ignored their responsibilities to God and controlled and led
God’s people, not in God’s ways, but to protect their own interests. We
can see the first set of servants who were sent to the tenant farmers as
representing the earlier prophets like Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and the
second group of servants representing the later prophets like Jeremiah
and Ezekiel and others. The son who was put to death was Jesus, of
course. I wonder if the parable would apply to the leaders of our modern
culture who tell us God is like some big jolly Santa Claus who’s going
to give to every person everything they want to be happy when they die.
This is the popular theology - everyone is going to heaven no matter how
they lived. Whether they prayed and went to church or not, whether they
hurt or cheated others; none of that matters. But that’s not what Jesus
taught us. The ten commandments are still in force.
Today is Pro-Life Sunday. One of the worst sins of our culture is
abortion, the killing of an innocent, defenseless human life. People
rationalize all over the place about this issue, but it is a fact that
innocent human life is deliberately being destroyed, mostly so as not to
embarrass or inconvenience the person who is carrying that life. People
who were not planning to conceive often are looking for help to know
what to do. Pro-life programs offer that help. Special envelopes are in
the pews today to offer support to pro-life programs and organizations.
There is an article in today’s bulletin that challenges us to realize
that abortion is not the only way our culture does not support life and
how we can become in all ways more the kind of person God calls us to be
in today’s second reading: true, honorable, pure, just and gracious in
whatever we do. Amen.
28th Sunday Ordinary Time
Oct. 12, 2008
INTRODUCTION: (Isaiah 25, 6-10a; Matthew 22,
1-14) Today’s first reading and today’s gospel give us a beautiful
picture of what it is we’re praying for when we say “thy will be done.”
God's will is for our complete and eternal happiness. Our gospel warns
us, however, that in order to be part of his beautiful plan, we need to
respond to the invitation he offers us.
Our second reading is part of a thank you note St. Paul wrote to the
Philippians for the money they sent him to help him most probably while
he was in prison. The Philippian community was the only community that
were thoughtful enough to offer him any support in his ministry.
Responding to the invitation God gave him to serve as an apostle was a
difficult job for Paul.
HOMILY: Heaven is going to surpass all our hopes and
expectations. It’s going to be more wonderful than we can imagine.
Because there will be love and joy and peace like we’ve never
experienced, it’s hard for God to tell us about it. All he can do is to
use images that we are familiar with: a great banquet, a wedding feast,
the elimination of suffering and death, wealth that cannot be exhausted
as in the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price or the mansion God
is preparing for us. Today we heard Isaiah compare it to a great banquet
and Jesus compare it to a wedding celebration for a prince which would
be an event people would remember for years.
As Jesus tells us, to have all this wonder and joy we must respond to an
invitation. We must be wise enough not to turn it down. How will we
recognize the invitation when it comes? As I reflected on this week’s
gospel, I came up with a long list of ways we might recognize it. I
won’t bore you with everything on my list but just give you a few ideas
of how we might recognize it. It sounds something like this: “Come to me
all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you.” Or “I am the
good shepherd,” a shepherd whose sheep hear his voice and follow him. We
hear the invitation in the sermon on the mount when Jesus tells us:
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be
like a wise man who built his house on rock.” Or from the Book of
Revelation: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him
and he with me.” He doesn’t promise everything will be wonderful in this
world if we respond to his call, for: “If anyone would come after me,
let him take up his cross and follow me.” But for those who do respond,
he promises “I will be with you always.” “I will not leave you orphans.”
In a special way he invites us to begin enjoying the wonderful banquet
heaven will provide when he tells us, “Unless you eat the flesh of the
son of man and drink his blood you do not have life in you.” He invites
us each morning to “take this and eat, take this and drink.” For
Catholics this is part of his invitation to “Keep holy the Lord’s day.”
You might say that’s a commandment, not an invitation. Yes, he does
command us because we don’t always feel like doing what we should, but
today he invites us for he wants us to come to him not just because
we’re commanded, but he wants us to come because we want to, he wants us
to come out of love.
There is one part of the parable that puzzle many people and that is the
last part about the wedding garment. Some scholars have suggested that
wedding garments were provided to guests as they arrived because the
king, apparently a kind and generous man, would not have responded with
such anger if they were not extremely important and easily obtainable.
Jesus uses this part of the parable to warn his followers that even
though a person says they believe in him, it’s not going to help them
much if they do not put their faith into action.
Our new age theology wants us to think that everyone is going to be
blessed in the next life. Jesus is telling us eternal happiness is not
to be taken for granted. The way to eternal happiness is open for all,
but we have a free will as to how we will respond. May the banquet we
come to today, eating his body and drinking his blood, lead us to the
eternal banquet he has prepared for us. Amen.
30thOrdinary Time
October 26, 2008
We have a short gospel today, but the ideas it contains are enormous.
Numerous volumes have been written about each of these themes, love for
God and love for others. Often when I prepare a couple for marriage, I
ask them what they think love is. Answers range from a very well thought
out response involving the notion of self-giving to a smirky,
embarrassed answer like “well, you know.” TV and movies seem to portray
only one kind of love, the kind of love that could be described as a
wonderfully pleasant, euphoric kind of feeling that seems to promise
fulfillment and happiness forever but its underlying function is to
facilitate mating. Its promise of fulfillment and happiness forever is
generally misleading and temporary. This kind of love has a lot to
recommend it: 1) if it didn’t exist probably very few of us would have
been conceived, 2) it is a taste of the joys of heaven, and 3) it sells
movies, books, magazines and TV programs and that’s why we hear a lot
about it. I have seen many marriages fail because one or the other
person believes this is the only kind of love there is or the only kind
of love that really matters. When the romantic “high” dims, they move
on. But those who realize there is a lot more to love than romance work
through challenging times in relationships. They discover a depth of
love that may be lacking in fireworks but is more secure and more deeply
joyful. Fortunately our faith keeps reminding us there are many facets
and stages of love and not just one kind.
Our English language, with its vast vocabulary, uses only one word,
love, for a multitude of emotions, attitudes, expressions and
activities. Even the Greeks 2000 years ago had three different words for
love: eros - passionate love (hence the word erotic), philia -
friendship love (hence the name Philadelphia: the city of brotherly
love) and agape - love that is compassionate, generous, faithful,
unselfish and able to reach out even to our enemies.
Several years ago I used some ideas from Dr. M. Scott Peck, a
psychiatrist and ordained Episcopal priest. I would like to repeat some
of his thoughts because they are so illustrative. He tells us we often
confuse love with affection and there are significant differences
between the two. He tells us “affection is mostly an emotion between
equals… On the other hand, we can love virtually anyone if we set our
minds to it. Liking or affection is primarily a feeling; love is
primarily a matter of decision and action.” This may sound abstract, but
it has practical applications. For example, when working with some of
his patients, he helped them to understand they were not obliged to like
all of their relatives and this paradoxically made it easier for them to
love them.
I think Dr. Peck gave a lovely example from his own marriage of how love
grows and matures. I found this very insightful. He and his wife, Lily,
were married for 40 years. He said as the bloom of their romantic love
faded, there was at first denial. They worked hard to act like it
couldn’t be happening. When that didn’t work and they were faced with
their profound differences (which, of course, they perceived as faults
in each other) they became angry at each other and even angrier as they
attempted, without success, to somehow change the other. When that
failed, they eventually descended into a lengthy phase of depression
wherein each wondered whether it was worth it all. He then says
gradually, mysteriously and almost miraculously, they emerged into a
stage where increasingly they began to accept their deep differences of
personality as mere differences, often more reflective of virtue than
fault. Their marriage had come to a point where he described Lily as his
best friend with whom he could have lots of fun and enjoy many common
interests. I thought their story was a good example how love can develop
and grow.
I see this same pattern take place in people’s relationship with God.
There are moments in our spiritual lives when we discover God’s love and
presence and it is powerful and wonderful. Those “high” moments may come
early in our relationship or they may come after years of praying and
serving God. When they come it brings a “high” we never want to let go
of. In the normal course of any relationship, even our relationship with
God, there are periods when we feel as if we are in a desert. There are
times when we get angry with God, when we try to make deals, when we
feel let down because he doesn’t give us what we want. If we weather all
these stages and do not give up faith, all these stages will lead to a
deep love and a profound joy.
I could talk on love for a long time, because as I said earlier, much
has been written about it. But I wish to briefly conclude with these
thoughts. Mature love for God and for others has to be measured more by
what we are giving than by what we are getting. Warm, fuzzy feelings
sure are nice, but they are not a criterion of love for God or others.
Loving God means obeying God and giving him prayer and worship. Loving
our neighbor means helping them in whatever way we can. That’s why in
the Scriptures love is referred to as a commandment, because we don’t
always feel like praying or keeping the commandments; we do not always
feel like helping our neighbor. Kathryn Hepburn said it so well: “ You
give because you love and cannot help giving. If you are very lucky, you
may be loved back. That is delicious, but it does not necessarily
happen.” With God, however, God doesn’t love us because we love him. He
loved us first. The crucifix and the Eucharist demonstrate that. He just
asks our love in return, which we offer each time we come to Mass. Amen.
All Souls
Nov. 2, 2008
INTRODUCTION: Our first reading, from the book of Maccabees,
comes from about 100 years before Christ. At that time in history the
Greeks were the dominant power and they were trying to get the Jews to
abandon their faith and follow the beliefs of the pagans. Those who
would not give in were persecuted and put to death. The loyal Jews
fought back. In one of their battles, many Jews were killed. As they
were being buried, it was found that they had small statues of pagan
gods attached to their garments. These Jews were loyal to their Jewish
beliefs, but they had, to some extent, given in to paganism. Just in
case those pagan gods were real, they were carrying with them statues of
pagan gods to give them protection. Their leader, Judas Maccabeus, took
up a collection to send to Jerusalem for sacrifices to be offered up to
the Lord for those people. He believed their hearts were, in general, in
the right place, but for the weakness in their faith they had to be
forgiven. In this piece of history from 100 B.C., we can see the
beginnings of the belief that our prayers can help those who have died,
a belief that is still part of our faith.
HOMILY: Praying for our deceased relatives and friends is what
our feast of All Souls is about today. However, I had the hardest time
getting started with today’s homily. I kept putting it off. It’s not as
if I do not believe in praying for friends and relatives who have died.
I do it all the time and it has been a tradition in the Church from the
beginning, and even before that as we heard in our first reading.
I think the difficulty I had in developing my homily comes from two
sources. First, many people don’t like to hear about death and what
might come afterwards. We know we can’t avoid it, but my sense is that
many people believe that if they don’t think about it, it won’t happen,
at least not for a long time. My suspicion is that my father was that
way. I constantly tried to get him to make a will but he never did. As a
CPA he would have known it was a good idea. I think making a will would
have made the prospect of his own death too concrete and too real for
him to deal with.
The second reason today’s homily was hard was that I would have to talk
about Purgatory. It’s an idea that many Christians deny. I remember once
I was helping a family prepare the liturgy for their deceased father and
they insisted “absolutely no mention of Purgatory.” It’s as if it were a
bad word. They wanted to think their father was perfect, I guess, and
was already in heaven. Most of us would like to believe that our loved
ones go straight to heaven when they die - period. If this were true,
then they would not need our prayers. If they went to the other place,
God forbid, our prayers would do them no good. The Church teaches, in
every Mass we have for a person who died and in today’s feast, that our
prayers do help our relatives and friends who have left this world as
they journey to eternal life.
Purgatory, among all the mysteries and beliefs of the Church is an
extremely logical and comforting doctrine. It’s logical if we ask
ourselves how many of us think we will be perfect when we die. There may
even be some who are perfect right now. I would ask them to identify
themselves, but if they’re perfect, they will also be too humble to do
so. Even those who lived a good life may still have a little room for
improvement, they may still not love God or others quite enough. That’s
where Purgatory comes in – it’s an opportunity to grow into the most
loving, most holy person we can possibly be. As a result we would then
be filled with God’s peace and joy and love to the fullest extent.
Luther rejected the idea of Purgatory because of the abuse of
indulgences at the time. Today, the concept of Purgatory has been
rejected by many because of all the negative images of suffering and
punishment that we grew up with. Actually, I think for the souls in
Purgatory, happiness far outweighs the unhappiness. Their salvation is
sure, they are more closely united with God than they had ever
experienced before in their lives, they are on their way to the
enjoyment of God’s kingdom in the fullest possible way. But they’re not
there yet and that’s the painful part.
If you read the book, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” I think you
get a good, practical image of Purgatory. It’s not a religious book,
it’s very entertaining and it pictured for me what Purgatory might be
like as we work out issues, regrets, hurts, conflicts, etc., that we
might take with us when we die.
To demonstrate that Purgatory makes so much sense, I think that those
who deny Purgatory have had to find a substitute for it in their
thinking about the next life. For many that substitute is reincarnation.
In reincarnation a person supposedly keeps working for greater and
greater purity and holiness until they are ready to be perfectly one
with God. However, reincarnation comes from Hinduism. Actually a Hindu
does not look forward to reincarnation because they don’t want to have
to pass through this world of pain and suffering one more time. I
suspect the notion of reincarnation has been adopted by many Westerners,
even Christians, because it fits our culture of “buy now, pay later.”
They figure they can live any way they want and can postpone having to
pay any consequences. Our faith tells us, “now is the acceptable time,
now is the day of salvation.” God gives us what we need in this life to
help us know him and serve him in this life. If we do not do it
perfectly, Purgatory is there to finish the job. Today, we renew our
faith in life after death. Today too we renew our belief in the power of
prayer to help our loved ones, even those who are no longer among us,
for in Christ they are still one with us. With Christ our great high
priest, we offer now the greatest prayer there is, the Eucharist.
