INTRODUCTION: (Isaiah 5,1-7; Matthew 21,33-43) Those of us who have
ever had a garden know how much work it is. We can only imagine how much
work is involved with setting up an entire vineyard. Isaiah describes some
of what was involved in today’s first reading. If we wonder why there was
a watchtower in the vineyard, it was necessary to watch over the grapes at
harvest time both night and day to protect the grapes from thieves and
predators. Isaiah apparently was not only a talented poet, but it seems he
could also sing. We can see his audience coming to the conclusion that
Isaiah’s friend wasted his time trying to produce a good crop and suddenly
they all discovered they were the vineyard he was singing about. From a
historical perspective, the prophecy of Isaiah literally came to be true
when the Assyrian invasion came and much of the land was laid waste.
HOMILY: The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel we sing in
the psalm refrain. Truly in the religious history of the world, Israel was
God’s special people. But all that changed with Christ. We are God’s
special people today. So the two stories about God’s vineyard, which
applied to God’s people 2000 years ago, now speak to us.
So what is he telling us? He’s telling us to look at the practical, down
to earth things we do every day. For example, we like things to work for
us. We buy a TV, we expect it to give us a good picture. We buy a car, we
expect it to run. We buy food and we expect it to give us energy and not
poison us. If we plant a garden, we want to see what we plant grow and not
see just a bunch of weeds. That’s what the story of the “vineyard” is all
about. God made us, he blessed us in so many ways; he expects results,
good results. The other day someone wrote to me and asked, “Since Christ
died to free me from sin, and if I believe he did, do I have to do
anything else to be saved?” He was asking: “Is God looking for good
results from his creation? Does God expect us to do something with the
gifts he has given us?” For our own benefit, we better believe it. The
second letter today from St. Paul tells us some of the things God is
looking for: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.” “Keep on
doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then
the God of peace will be with you.”
There is a some historical detail in today’s gospel: the servants, whom
the owner of the vineyard sent to collect rent, refer to the prophets God
sent to his people to call them to faithfulness to his law. But the
prophets were rejected and even put to death. The son of the owner of the
vineyard, of course, is Jesus who was rejected and put to death. Replacing
the tenant farmers by others refers to Christ establishing his Church.
Although God is warning us in these stories of the dire consequences of
being spiritually unproductive, there is a lot of love in these stories.
In the first reading we heard of the loving attention of Isaiah’s friend
to his vineyard, sparing no effort or expense in caring for his vines.
But, especially in the gospel, we get a glimpse of God’s love that is
beyond common sense. After the owner sent numerous servants to collect the
rent and the servants were mistreated and killed, then he decides to send
his son. And we ask, “how could he be so dense? Couldn’t he see what would
happen?” But God’s love is beyond our understanding. And God keeps on
loving us even to giving his own son for us. We celebrate that love now in
our Eucharist and we thank God for never giving up on us. Amen.
28th Sunday Ordinary Time
Oct. 9, 2005
INTRODUCTION: (Isaiah 25, 6-10a; Matthew 22, 1-14) If we were
raised in the old school we’re used to associating God’s will with
something we don’t like. We just grit our teeth and say: “It’s God's will.
We just have to accept it!” Well God doesn’t always make life easy for us,
but today’s first reading gives us a fuller 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.
In our second reading St. Paul is making reference to a donation he had
just received from the Philippians to help support him and his ministry.
He is writing to thank them and in his comments he describes some of the
ups and downs of being an apostle.
HOMILY: In today’s gospel, Jesus compares heaven to the wedding
celebration of a prince. It would have been the social event of a
lifetime. In that culture, when someone celebrated any wedding, the
celebration went on for a few days, not just a few hours like ours do. But
for a prince, it would have been lavish beyond belief.
In the story the king sent out servants to inform all of the guests, who
had been previously invited, that everything was ready. It’s the servants
I want to talk about today. I am one of those servants. Today is vocation
awareness Sunday. All parishes have been asked to promote vocations and
one of the ways I thought I could promote them is to say something
personal about my own vocation.
I never had an angel or a vision to tell me to be a priest. It’s just an
idea that grew in me from the time I made my first Communion at St.
Patrick’s. But as I grew, I discovered girls and I decided being a priest
was something I didn’t want to do. But the idea of being a priest wouldn’t
go away. I reasoned if this really was something God wanted me to do, I
better give it a fair try. I knew deep down I would find my greatest
happiness only if I did what God wanted me to do. So I went to the
seminary intending to stay only one year and to see how it went. I managed
to survive for five years that way, always full of doubts about whether
that’s what God wanted me to do with my life. After five years of that,
one evening while I was praying in chapel, all of a sudden, all my
questions and doubts disappeared. It was a real gift to me that that
happened because in the early years when I was a priest, a lot of priests
I admired and respected were quitting, but that experience in the chapel
in the seminary helped me know that God wanted me to be where I was.
In the gospel the servants were treated badly. I’ve never been treated
badly, physically, but I’ve taken some verbal beatings and when I invite
people to respond more to God’s invitation, I been ignored many a time.
But the good far outweighs the challenges. The happiest part of being a
priest is to know that somehow some people’s lives are better because I
have influenced them for the better. I can truthfully say I have enjoyed
almost all of the things I do as a priest (except trying to raise money).
The only drawback is that sometimes all of these enjoyable things I do,
counseling, praying with people, teaching, visiting the sick, saying Mass,
etc. get to be too many enjoyable things and then it can become
burdensome. We can have too much of a good thing. But that’s part of
anybody’s life, I’m sure, so I can’t complain. As a priest, the
opportunities to pray and to grow in knowing and loving God are numerous
and most rewarding. One thing that touches me most deeply is confession.
It is very humbling and inspiring to me when I hear someone’s confession,
especially someone who has been away from Church for a while or who is
inwardly troubled and I can bring them peace. It is a privilege and a joy
like no other.
Everywhere I’ve been, my ministry has been different, rewarding and
challenging. Northside is a lot different than Loveland is for example.
But I want to say that my last fourteen years here (and they’re not over
yet) have been exceptionally rewarding. I love being here, I love the
people here. I just wish we had a few more people coming to Mass. In being
a priest one gives up family, but I have inherited a larger family and
wonderful friends as a priest.
We do not have a lot of young people here unfortunately, so I’m probably
not going to get any one to join the seminary or religious life from what
I say today. But, a lot of you are grandparents. If your grandchild
mentions giving themselves to God in the religious life, support them.
It’s a good life, as good as any life can be. I recommend it.
29thSunday Ordinary Time
October 16, 2005
INTRODUCTION: (Isaiah 45, 1.4-6; Mt. 22, 15-21) The Babylonians
lived in the land we now know as Iraq, 600 years before Christ. The
capital city of Babylon was just less than 100 miles south of modern day
Baghdad. 587 years before Christ the Babylonians conquered the Jews and
enslaved most of the Jews and took them as captives to Babylon. At that
time the Persians lived in modern day Iran. Fifty years after the
Babylonians conquered the Jews, the Persians conquered the Babylonians.
The Persian king, Cyrus, allowed the Jews to return to their Israel. He
even encouraged them to rebuild their temple to Yahweh. The prophet
Isaiah, in today’s first reading, sees the hand of God at work in all
these events. He calls this pagan king, Cyrus, God's anointed. And
although Cyrus thought it was by his own strength and shrewdness that he
conquered the Babylonians, Isaiah said this was God’s doings. Isaiah
stresses the absolute supremacy of God, a theme in today’s liturgy.
HOMILY: There were some scientists and biologists who thought they
had found the secret of life. And they decided to tell God he was no
longer needed. They said they could create life also. God said “well, I
created life from a hand full of dirt.” They said we could too. Then they
picked up a hand full of dirt and started to show God what they could do.
God said to them, “wait just a minute. Create your own dirt.”
In today’s gospel, the enemies of Jesus thought they really had Jesus in
trouble this time. The gospel tells us he was approached by Pharisees and
Herodians. These two groups were bitter enemies. Israel was under Roman
rule, as you know, and the Herodians were totally loyal to Rome. They
would have immediately accused Jesus of promoting civil rebellion and
revolution if he had said “don’t pay the taxes.” The Pharisees, on the
other hand, held that God alone was their king and Lord and they viewed
the payment of taxes to Rome as caving in to the hated Roman emperor,
Tiberius Caesar, a foreigner and a pagan at that! This hot issue was made
worse by the fact that Rome’s tax burden on the Jewish people was
extremely heavy. Jesus asked them to show him a Roman coin; apparently he
didn’t have one. The fact that they could produce one gave evidence that,
like it or not, they participated in Rome’s commerce and economy. Jesus’
answer to their question is well known, “Give back to Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God's.”
Jesus avoided getting caught in their trap. He reminded us we have
obligations to both God and civil authority. We need good leadership in
our country and in the countries of the world. With good leadership the
citizenship will prosper. Without it the people will suffer. St. Paul even
reminds us to pray for our leaders and obey them. (I Tim 2,2 and Rom 13).
In this particular confrontation, Jesus did imply that since the people
chose to participate in the Roman economy, they had obligations there. But
Jesus did not answer how we are to treat some of those thorny issues that
we have to deal with in a society that believes in the separation of
Church and State.
We have to figure out most of those issues ourselves, taking a cue from
other things Jesus taught us, especially from his teaching that obeying
God is our greatest responsibility. When we break the laws of our country,
we get arrested or fined or have to pay some consequence. When we break
God’s laws, however, God doesn’t come knocking on our door ready to fine
us or lock us up in jail. If he did, people wouldn’t get by with a lot of
the things they do. But God isn’t in the business of being a policeman.
Rather he is interested in having us love him and doing right because of
love. And love cannot be forced; it must be given freely. God could have
made us all robots and we would have done exactly what he wanted us to do,
but if we were robots we would not be human nor would we be capable of
love. When God gave us a free will, God took a big chance that we might
choose not to love him. Apparently he thought it was worth taking that
chance.
Give back to God what is God's, Jesus tells us. Because God does not come
knocking on our doors when we do not give him what we owe him, it’s easy
for us to say I’ll pray later, or I’ll go to church next week or I’ll be
good later! Later may not come for any of us. Nothing is more important
than our relationship with God. Some day we will leave behind all the
other things that we think are so important, and the only thing we will
have left is the love for God and for others that we have demonstrated in
our daily lives. That love will grow and develop only by prayer and good
works.
In our society, which wants immediate results, many important things in
life do not give immediate pay offs. When we plant a seed in the ground,
it doesn’t produce fruit the next day. If we buy stock in a good company
today, it probably won’t go up 50 points tomorrow. A good education takes
many years before it pays dividends. The things we do to serve and obey
our God are an investment, an investment that will bless us in this
present life, but the full rewards of such a life are off in the future.
As St. Paul tells us “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered
into our hearts what things God has prepared for those who love him.” (I
Cor 2,9) What God asks of us is simple: prayer, obedience, love, love for
God and for each other. In line with prayer, we cannot neglect the most
important prayer we have, the Eucharist. “Do this in memory of me,” he
said. That’s
why we’re here today, to give to God our ears to listen, our hearts to be
united with him, our gratitude, our expressions of faith as we praise him
and receive him.
We will get in trouble with the law if we do not give back to Caesar the
things that are Caesar’s, but we have the most to lose if we do not give
back to God the things that are God's. Our eternal happiness depends on
it. Amen.
31st Ordinary Time
October 30, 2005
INTRODUCTION: (Malachi 1, 14b-2,2b. 8-10; Matthew 23, 1-12) Malachi
was a prophet who lived about 400 years before Christ. He was definitely a
fire and brimstone type prophet. Our reading begins with Malachi
condemning the priests of his day for offering sacrifices unworthy of God.
The usual sacrifice a person offered was an animal, usually sheep or oxen.
People were bringing in animals for sacrifice that were blind, lame and
sick – the kind of animals the owner wanted to get rid of anyway. The
priest carried out the sacrifice and probably also had to be bribed in
order to accept the animal since the law required that only perfect
specimens be used in making a sacrifice to God. Malachi told them to offer
that sick or blind animal as a gift to the governor and see if he would be
pleased. The people were falling into sin, so Malachi condemned the
priests for not teaching the people God’s ways. One such thing the priests
were telling the people was “everyone who does evil is good in the sight
of the Lord, and he delights in them.” It sounds like new age theology
doesn’t it? The last verse of the reading seems to be out of context as
Malachi turns his focus to the people and chastises them for breaking
God's covenant through sins of adultery, dishonesty and injustice. The
reading prepares us for the gospel where Jesus condemns the Jewish leaders
of his day.
HOMILY: Malachi and Jesus are dealing with the sinfulness of the
religious leaders of their day. The priests in Malachi’s day were offering
unworthy sacrifices to God and neglecting to teach the people how God
wanted them to live. In Jesus’ day, the priests (also referred to as the
Sadducees) received their share of condemnation from Jesus, but it seems
the Pharisees and scholars of the law received the majority of Jesus’
criticism. The Pharisees were not priests, but lay leaders, trained in
leading the people in Scripture study and in liturgy. They were not all
bad people. Remember Nichodemas and Joseph of Arimathea were Pharisees. So
was Paul who at first persecuted the followers of Christ but later became
the great apostle to the nations. Some of their membership, as we hear in
today’s gospel, were more interested in looking good rather than in being
good. They were interested in using their position to bring glory upon
themselves rather than to serve God people and to lead them to give glory
to God. At any time in history we can find leaders, religious or not, who
were good leaders or who abused their position. It happens in religion,
any religion, and it happens in all levels of society and business. And
the abuse of power manifests itself in many ways. It is especially
distressing when it happens among religious leaders. They, above all
people, should be models of holy living. When I was growing up, the
biggest scandals I would hear about were when priests or nuns thought they
were little gods, thinking they should be treated as if they were on a
pedestal and the world should bow to their demands. That pedestal has
crumbled. The Church’s voice of authority is simply ignored by many today.
The scandal of priests abusing children and the way it was handled by the
hierarchy has given the Church’s authority a serious blow in our own day.
We must remember that society needs authority, and the church needs
authority so it does not degenerate into anarchy. I can understand the
feelings of those who have walked away from the Church because of some
people’s abuse of power, but at the same time those who have walked away
are missing a lot of good spiritual blessings because they have walked
away. Jesus spoke very harshly of the punishment of those who cause
scandal. It would be better for them if a great millstone were tied around
their neck and they were thrown into the sea. Yet he also says to the
people in today’s gospel about the Pharisees: “do and observe all things
whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.” It reminds me
of a comment St. Theresa made about a spiritual director. She said she
would rather have a learned priest as a spiritual director than a holy
one. In other words, she figured she would get better guidance from one
who knew what they were talking about than one who didn’t. Ideally, of
course, the best arrangement would be to have one who was both learned and
holy. It’s a goal I try to achieve in my own priesthood, but I know I do
not always achieve it. I keep asking God’s forgiveness for my failures. I
am grateful to know that God is a merciful God. In turn I ask forgiveness
of anyone I may have let down here at St. Boniface.
Many of you are in positions of authority too, maybe in your work, maybe
as parents. Did you ever think that in your close relationships you
exercise a kind of authority over others too, because in those
relationships you are an influence on another person for better or for
worse. Let us, in our prayers, remember all people who have positions of
leadership in whatever field they serve that they may use their position
to serve well. And may you who influence others in whatever way lead those
under your care to know the God of love and to follow him in a sincere
way. May you, in all your dealings, be both wise and holy. Amen.
