Acts 2:14, 22-33;
Psalm 16;
1 Peter 1:17-21;
Luke 24:13-35
The story in our Gospel today takes the form of a Mass. Cleopas, who is the brother of St. Joseph and so the uncle of Jesus, and his wife, who is one of the several women in the New Testament named Mary, are walking home after having come to Jerusalem with Jesus for the Passover. Jesus appears. “The Lord be with you.” Cleopas confesses the sin of the people for killing Jesus, and his own sin in failing to believe in the Resurrection. Jesus reads the words of the Scriptures. Then he preaches a homily, explaining how everything points to his death and Resurrection. How wonderful it would be if we could have Jesus preach to us now! Instead, you only have me. When he is done explaining the Scriptures, he takes bread, says the blessing, breaks it, and gives it to them. Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the bread. Then they go and announce the Gospel of the Lord. This is not an accident. Here we have a proof for how the Mass goes all the way back to the Apostles. St. Luke uses very specific words to emphasize how this encounter with Jesus is like the Mass.
Just like in the Mass, Jesus was present even though the disciples could not see him. Jesus is present here, even though he cannot see him. When they reached Emmaus, they stopped for the night. They stop because they are seeking some rest, but Jesus is the true rest for our restless souls. They stop because they cannot see their way any longer in the dark, but Jesus is the Way. They stop because they are afraid of the dark, but Jesus is the Light of the World. They do not understand who they are with. “Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.” Yet, they do understand that this stranger is able to bring all the events of the past few days into light and they wish to speak with him further and so they beg Jesus to stop with them.
We too, should beg Jesus to stay with us. Our lives are a journey toward heaven. We alternate between doing holy things like going to Mass and praying and doing secular things like work and play. It would be a mistake to think that Jesus is only with us when we are doing the holy things, as if he were just sitting in Church and has nothing to do with what happens outside of these walls. We turn to God throughout the day, but he is always turned toward us. God is just as real when we are watching television as he is when we are praying.
When we stop and take our rest, we should urge Jesus to stay with us. Not because he would otherwise go somewhere else, but because we need to keep in mind that he is here with us. He is on the couch next to you as you watch TV. Sometimes, when you are watching TV, stop for a second and pray. God is always there, but we have to remember sometimes. This is why it is so important to pray at specific times throughout the day. Pray before you eat, pray after you eat, pray before you sleep, pray when you wake up in the morning, pray constantly. And do not let these prayers be just a jumble of mumbled words. As you say the prayer, turn to God in your heart. Remember for a moment who you are and who God is.
Once the disciples recognize Jesus they immediately leave Emmaus for Jerusalem. Before they remembered Jesus, they were afraid. It was not safe to be walking outside after dark, particularly not in an age without flashlights or streetlights. When they recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, they get up and go back to Jerusalem. They are no longer afraid. They do not wait until morning. They just go. "Perfect love casts out all fear." "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." When we know that we are loved, we are not afraid anymore. It is not like someone who is too drunk or stupid to see the danger. A Christian sees the danger but is not afraid because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. This fearlessness is the true mark of Christians. To be willing to die for what you believe in is not uncommon. Many people die for what they believe in: some are good; some are bad; some are just crazy. Martyrs are different. They die without hatred and without fear. They die joyfully because they have come to know a love that is greater than any suffering.
We are not at this time confronted by the challenge of martyrdom. No one right now and right here is going to kill us for faith. But we still face fears. The fear of missing out. We are afraid that if we give ourselves more fully to Jesus and therefore give up things of this world, we are missing out on the fun that the rest of the world is having. The elder brother complains to his father that the prodigal son got to party but he never even got to feast on a goat with his friends. We want to eat our cake and have it too. We are afraid that being Christian means giving up enjoyable parts of life. The father responds to the elder son by reminding him of his love. If we come to know the love of God, we will realize that all the little distractions of the world are worth nothing in comparison. It will be like a man who stops playing a video game because he has fallen in love and his friends make fun of him for being bossed but he says, “You do not understand. I don’t want to play the game anymore. I have something better to do with my time.” Imagine being so in love with God that it wasn’t that you did not sin because he told you not to but because sin just seemed like such a waste of time.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Commitment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commitment. Show all posts
June 26, 2014 - Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
The stronger the foundation, the more work which is required to build on that foundation. Sand is a weak foundation, so it is easy to dig a few feet into the sand and bury the anchors for the house. Rock is a strong foundation, so it requires a great deal of work to break through even a few feet.
Jesus contrasts the one who listens to his words and acts to the one who listens to his words and does not act. According to the analogy they have both built a house. Indeed, if we consider the analogy further we can understand that the rock is located under the sand. It is not as if the rock were bare rock. Wherever there is sand, there is bedrock underneath, perhaps 100 feet underneath, but it is there.
So the fool listens to the words of Jesus, nods in agreement, smiles even, then goes home and keeps living. Perhaps, occasionally, he tries to act according to the words that he heard, if it is not too hard. The wise man hears the words of Jesus and begins digging. He digs through 100 feet of sand, hits rock, and begins chipping away at the rock. Only then does he build his life.
It sounds like a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Following Christ requires more than a smile and a nod. It is not easy to build a spiritual life that is anchored in the rock, but it is worth it. As Jesus teaches us, when the winds come and the floods rise, the house built on sand will not stand. We are going to have trouble in this world. We must build our faith to withstand the trouble.
If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a faith will be built in us that cannot be blown over, no matter how strong the winds. If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a hope will be built in us that cannot be drowned, no matter how high the waters reach. Unquestionably, the storms are coming. If we play at being Christian, we are building a play house that cannot stand up to anything. If we take Christianity seriously, more seriously than we have ever taken anything, more seriously than we take money, more seriously than we take sports, more seriously than we take
The stronger the foundation, the more work which is required to build on that foundation. Sand is a weak foundation, so it is easy to dig a few feet into the sand and bury the anchors for the house. Rock is a strong foundation, so it requires a great deal of work to break through even a few feet.
Jesus contrasts the one who listens to his words and acts to the one who listens to his words and does not act. According to the analogy they have both built a house. Indeed, if we consider the analogy further we can understand that the rock is located under the sand. It is not as if the rock were bare rock. Wherever there is sand, there is bedrock underneath, perhaps 100 feet underneath, but it is there.
So the fool listens to the words of Jesus, nods in agreement, smiles even, then goes home and keeps living. Perhaps, occasionally, he tries to act according to the words that he heard, if it is not too hard. The wise man hears the words of Jesus and begins digging. He digs through 100 feet of sand, hits rock, and begins chipping away at the rock. Only then does he build his life.
It sounds like a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Following Christ requires more than a smile and a nod. It is not easy to build a spiritual life that is anchored in the rock, but it is worth it. As Jesus teaches us, when the winds come and the floods rise, the house built on sand will not stand. We are going to have trouble in this world. We must build our faith to withstand the trouble.
If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a faith will be built in us that cannot be blown over, no matter how strong the winds. If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a hope will be built in us that cannot be drowned, no matter how high the waters reach. Unquestionably, the storms are coming. If we play at being Christian, we are building a play house that cannot stand up to anything. If we take Christianity seriously, more seriously than we have ever taken anything, more seriously than we take money, more seriously than we take sports, more seriously than we take
February 16, 2014 - Sunday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Sirach 15:15-20
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37
Sirach places a choice before us today: life or death, good or evil, fire or water. The choice that Sirach is talking about is called the “fundamental option”. The idea of the fundamental option is that we ought to stop being lukewarm, wishy-washy, half-in/half-out and make a decision to follow God. Many people stand at this fork in the road and refuse to commit themselves to a path. Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly telling his people to make a decision either for him or for the world, to continue to the Holy Land or to go back to Egypt, to worship him or to worship the pagan Gods. God insists that we make a decision.
Many people easily and proudly proclaim what football team or political party they support, but, in life, they are content to stand on the sidelines and watch. The world loves the open-minded, who see both sides, neither extremist nor fundamentalist. There is a war going on; pick a side. Will your fundamental option be for God or not? If we choose God, life will be hard. We will have to follow the commandments. People are afraid to choose because they think that they might choose wrongly. What if I choose for God and I am wrong? I will miss out on a lot of fun in life. What if I choose against God and I am wrong? I will miss out on something bigger. Every choice for something rejects other possibilities, but we will never get anywhere unless we pick a direction. So we stand on the threshold of life, paralyzed by fear.
Now, if this were a particular kind of protestant church, I would continue in this vein for an hour or so and then ask you to make a decision right now and to come up front and to pray a prayer of decision. I tell you, you would feel good if you did it, all warm inside, excited, probably crying. You would feel alive for the first time in a long time. And I am not going to stop anyone from doing that. Come on up after Mass, and look at Jesus, and make a decision. In fact, I am going to presume something right now. I am going to presume that since you got up this morning, got dressed, and came to worship God, you probably would make that commitment. In fact, let us all pause right now, and, without all the theatrics, turn to Jesus and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God who died to save me from my sins. I choose to follow you wherever you lead me, forever. Amen.”
But now we have got a problem, because we have to actually do what we just said. No one runs a marathon by signing up for a gym membership. You have to actually exercise. No one loses a single pound because they made a New Year’s resolution. You have to actually eat better. No one ever got to heaven because they decided that they would follow God. You have to actually follow God. We made the decision. We took the fundamental option for Jesus Christ. The problem is, it is hard to be perfect.
If we thought that following Jesus just meant not killing anybody, he corrects that idea today: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” Has anyone here ever been angry with their brother or sister? Has anyone here ever called them a fool? Thus Jesus goes through each commandment and shows what it means to keep it perfectly.
There are some possibilities of course. We could just be hypocrites. We could follow the easy commandments in public and break the hard ones in private. We would be like actors on a stage: it does not matter what happens when the curtain goes down. This was the way of the scribes and Pharisees. But Jesus tells us, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We could be antinomians, which is to say, we could not bother trying to be good since we will sin anyway. We could just say, “I have taken the fundamental option for Jesus, so it does not really matter what I do day to day. God will forgive me.” The antinomians are like the hypocrites except that they do not even try to hide their failings. This is not a surpassing righteousness.
We are going to have to use more difficult tactics if we will succeed on this path. We made the commitment today; we will have to make it again tomorrow. When we fail, we can repent. We will just have to keep trying to be perfect, no matter how many times we fall. We must never accept sin. We must refuse to put up with evil in our lives. We must never say about some sin we have struggled against, “Oh well, that is just the way I am.”
If this were all though, we would just be like Pharisees but humble. Not a bad place to start, but there is also good news. If we choose to follow God, he will guide us. His Spirit lives within each one of us by our Baptism and Confirmation. God wants us to be saved, but we have to decide that we want to be saved. We have to decide it at every hour; we have to decide it against every temptation; we have to decide it in every part of our lives. This is what it means to choose Christ, to take the fundamental option: following Jesus is the foundation of our lives. “If you choose, you can keep the commandments. They will save you. If you trust in God, you shall even live.”
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37
Sirach places a choice before us today: life or death, good or evil, fire or water. The choice that Sirach is talking about is called the “fundamental option”. The idea of the fundamental option is that we ought to stop being lukewarm, wishy-washy, half-in/half-out and make a decision to follow God. Many people stand at this fork in the road and refuse to commit themselves to a path. Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly telling his people to make a decision either for him or for the world, to continue to the Holy Land or to go back to Egypt, to worship him or to worship the pagan Gods. God insists that we make a decision.
Many people easily and proudly proclaim what football team or political party they support, but, in life, they are content to stand on the sidelines and watch. The world loves the open-minded, who see both sides, neither extremist nor fundamentalist. There is a war going on; pick a side. Will your fundamental option be for God or not? If we choose God, life will be hard. We will have to follow the commandments. People are afraid to choose because they think that they might choose wrongly. What if I choose for God and I am wrong? I will miss out on a lot of fun in life. What if I choose against God and I am wrong? I will miss out on something bigger. Every choice for something rejects other possibilities, but we will never get anywhere unless we pick a direction. So we stand on the threshold of life, paralyzed by fear.
Now, if this were a particular kind of protestant church, I would continue in this vein for an hour or so and then ask you to make a decision right now and to come up front and to pray a prayer of decision. I tell you, you would feel good if you did it, all warm inside, excited, probably crying. You would feel alive for the first time in a long time. And I am not going to stop anyone from doing that. Come on up after Mass, and look at Jesus, and make a decision. In fact, I am going to presume something right now. I am going to presume that since you got up this morning, got dressed, and came to worship God, you probably would make that commitment. In fact, let us all pause right now, and, without all the theatrics, turn to Jesus and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God who died to save me from my sins. I choose to follow you wherever you lead me, forever. Amen.”
But now we have got a problem, because we have to actually do what we just said. No one runs a marathon by signing up for a gym membership. You have to actually exercise. No one loses a single pound because they made a New Year’s resolution. You have to actually eat better. No one ever got to heaven because they decided that they would follow God. You have to actually follow God. We made the decision. We took the fundamental option for Jesus Christ. The problem is, it is hard to be perfect.
If we thought that following Jesus just meant not killing anybody, he corrects that idea today: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” Has anyone here ever been angry with their brother or sister? Has anyone here ever called them a fool? Thus Jesus goes through each commandment and shows what it means to keep it perfectly.
There are some possibilities of course. We could just be hypocrites. We could follow the easy commandments in public and break the hard ones in private. We would be like actors on a stage: it does not matter what happens when the curtain goes down. This was the way of the scribes and Pharisees. But Jesus tells us, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We could be antinomians, which is to say, we could not bother trying to be good since we will sin anyway. We could just say, “I have taken the fundamental option for Jesus, so it does not really matter what I do day to day. God will forgive me.” The antinomians are like the hypocrites except that they do not even try to hide their failings. This is not a surpassing righteousness.
We are going to have to use more difficult tactics if we will succeed on this path. We made the commitment today; we will have to make it again tomorrow. When we fail, we can repent. We will just have to keep trying to be perfect, no matter how many times we fall. We must never accept sin. We must refuse to put up with evil in our lives. We must never say about some sin we have struggled against, “Oh well, that is just the way I am.”
If this were all though, we would just be like Pharisees but humble. Not a bad place to start, but there is also good news. If we choose to follow God, he will guide us. His Spirit lives within each one of us by our Baptism and Confirmation. God wants us to be saved, but we have to decide that we want to be saved. We have to decide it at every hour; we have to decide it against every temptation; we have to decide it in every part of our lives. This is what it means to choose Christ, to take the fundamental option: following Jesus is the foundation of our lives. “If you choose, you can keep the commandments. They will save you. If you trust in God, you shall even live.”
January 15, 2014 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
January 11, 2012 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
January 2, 2011 - Saints Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
Today's Readings
Religion is a system of belief with a core belief at the center, a reason for all the other beliefs, the central point on which every other belief is balanced. It is not true that the other beliefs can be cast aside or kept depending on our personal preference, but they remain peripheral to the central belief. The other parts of religion may be very important, but everything starts with one act of faith.
For Judaism, the central belief is a promise made to Abraham, fulfilled in Moses. If it were discovered that Moses was actually named Tom, that would not change the Jewish religion, but if it were proven that the Lord did not save the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt then the whole faith would be shaken.
For Christians, our central belief is in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Sometimes people try to shock us by showing that Jesus was actually born in March, but whether he was born in winter or springtime is not nearly as important as that he was born. God, the creator of the universe, was born of a woman. For our sake, he became one of us, a human. The central fact of Christianity contains the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is true, then everything else can be important in its own way. If that is false, none of the other stuff matters.
This is what St. John is saying in his letter. He says that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar. Perhaps this statement is not the most ecumenical or interreligious, but the central fact must either be true or false. We cannot follow a religion if the central idea of the religion is a lie. Christmas might have Christmas cookies and a Christmas tree and Christmas presents, but if Jesus were not born, there is no point in having Christmas at all.
St. John knew Jesus personally. He spoke with him; he ate with him; he followed him. He wants to express to us that the central fact of Christianity is not merely an intellectual idea that some wise person thought up. At the core, it is about a man he knew, who lived, who died, yet who still lived. He was not only a man. He was God. That is the kind of fact that can change everything.
Religion is a system of belief with a core belief at the center, a reason for all the other beliefs, the central point on which every other belief is balanced. It is not true that the other beliefs can be cast aside or kept depending on our personal preference, but they remain peripheral to the central belief. The other parts of religion may be very important, but everything starts with one act of faith.
For Judaism, the central belief is a promise made to Abraham, fulfilled in Moses. If it were discovered that Moses was actually named Tom, that would not change the Jewish religion, but if it were proven that the Lord did not save the descendants of Abraham from slavery in Egypt then the whole faith would be shaken.
For Christians, our central belief is in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Sometimes people try to shock us by showing that Jesus was actually born in March, but whether he was born in winter or springtime is not nearly as important as that he was born. God, the creator of the universe, was born of a woman. For our sake, he became one of us, a human. The central fact of Christianity contains the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If that is true, then everything else can be important in its own way. If that is false, none of the other stuff matters.
This is what St. John is saying in his letter. He says that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar. Perhaps this statement is not the most ecumenical or interreligious, but the central fact must either be true or false. We cannot follow a religion if the central idea of the religion is a lie. Christmas might have Christmas cookies and a Christmas tree and Christmas presents, but if Jesus were not born, there is no point in having Christmas at all.
St. John knew Jesus personally. He spoke with him; he ate with him; he followed him. He wants to express to us that the central fact of Christianity is not merely an intellectual idea that some wise person thought up. At the core, it is about a man he knew, who lived, who died, yet who still lived. He was not only a man. He was God. That is the kind of fact that can change everything.
December 27, 2011 - Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist
Today's Readings
Today we celebrate the feast of the Apostle John. He wrote the Gospel according to John, whether he wrote it down or his students put it together based on his words. He was the only apostle who was not martyred. Although the stories say that people tried to kill him many times, including boiling him in oil, it did not work. We also know that John was given the responsibility to care for Mary by Jesus. When Jesus was about to die, he said to John, “Behold your mother,” and from then on, John took her into his home.
In our first reading today, the beginning of John’s letter to the churches, we have the essence of John’s theology. That which was in the beginning is that which I touched. He who created the world is the one who ate dinner with me. The source of all life is the one who I saw die. John’s theology is simultaneously transcendent and corporeal. He cannot overemphasize that God is above and beyond all creation, but he never allows the least qualification when he says that God was a man who he lived with and ate with for a few years. The Word was God in the beginning, and the Word became flesh.
John does not sort through this paradox. He simply emphasizes the realities that he experienced. Jesus is not merely an impressive human being: he is God. God did not just appear among humans: he dwelt among humans. John’s writing is the writing of a man who has seen something and never at any point in his life did he ever really recover from the shock of it all, nor did he want to. What he saw made everything else seem silly and useless, but what he saw made him love everything else so much more.
It was John who tells us that Jesus came because God so loved the world. In his writing he constantly refers to the people as “Beloved”. He came to be described as the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is to say that his identity was no longer caught up in a name or occupation. The one meaningful fact was that Jesus loved him.
Beloved, Jesus loves you. The supreme God, life itself, he who is with the Father, was made visible to John, and he saw him with his own eyes, and touched him with his hands, and he wants us to know: God loves us.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Apostle John. He wrote the Gospel according to John, whether he wrote it down or his students put it together based on his words. He was the only apostle who was not martyred. Although the stories say that people tried to kill him many times, including boiling him in oil, it did not work. We also know that John was given the responsibility to care for Mary by Jesus. When Jesus was about to die, he said to John, “Behold your mother,” and from then on, John took her into his home.
In our first reading today, the beginning of John’s letter to the churches, we have the essence of John’s theology. That which was in the beginning is that which I touched. He who created the world is the one who ate dinner with me. The source of all life is the one who I saw die. John’s theology is simultaneously transcendent and corporeal. He cannot overemphasize that God is above and beyond all creation, but he never allows the least qualification when he says that God was a man who he lived with and ate with for a few years. The Word was God in the beginning, and the Word became flesh.
John does not sort through this paradox. He simply emphasizes the realities that he experienced. Jesus is not merely an impressive human being: he is God. God did not just appear among humans: he dwelt among humans. John’s writing is the writing of a man who has seen something and never at any point in his life did he ever really recover from the shock of it all, nor did he want to. What he saw made everything else seem silly and useless, but what he saw made him love everything else so much more.
It was John who tells us that Jesus came because God so loved the world. In his writing he constantly refers to the people as “Beloved”. He came to be described as the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is to say that his identity was no longer caught up in a name or occupation. The one meaningful fact was that Jesus loved him.
Beloved, Jesus loves you. The supreme God, life itself, he who is with the Father, was made visible to John, and he saw him with his own eyes, and touched him with his hands, and he wants us to know: God loves us.
November 15, 2011 - Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
What contrasting figures are set before us today! In the first reading, we have Eleazar, chief of the scribes; in the Gospel we have Zacchaeus, chief of the tax collectors. Eleazar is a man noble in appearance; Zacchaeus is short in stature. Eleazar is so well respected that his persecutors try to find a way out for him; Zacchaeus is despised by his own people. Eleazar has lived an admirable life since his childhood; Zacchaeus is a tax collector.
What could such men have in common? I would say that they had more in common than they differed. Eleazar was a son of Abraham and Jesus tells us about Zacchaeus, “this man too is a son of Abraham.” More basically than that, they are both sons of the Most High God. The point of both stories is faithfulness to God. Eleazar choose to remain faithful; Zacchaeus choose to become faithful.
St. Thérèse puts it this way:
The key is in our psalm today: “The Lord upholds me.” The Lord gave Eleazar the grace to be faithful for 90 years; the Lord gave Zacchaeus the grace to repent. The Lord uphold them both, though in different ways. If Eleazar had lived 90 years faithfully and then decided to abandon God in the end, his 90 years would not matter. The past is not that important. It is in the present moment that we can be faithful, that we must be faithful. God neither holds the past against us nor gives us credit for it. So brothers and sisters, let us begin to be faithful today, regardless of our past.
What contrasting figures are set before us today! In the first reading, we have Eleazar, chief of the scribes; in the Gospel we have Zacchaeus, chief of the tax collectors. Eleazar is a man noble in appearance; Zacchaeus is short in stature. Eleazar is so well respected that his persecutors try to find a way out for him; Zacchaeus is despised by his own people. Eleazar has lived an admirable life since his childhood; Zacchaeus is a tax collector.
What could such men have in common? I would say that they had more in common than they differed. Eleazar was a son of Abraham and Jesus tells us about Zacchaeus, “this man too is a son of Abraham.” More basically than that, they are both sons of the Most High God. The point of both stories is faithfulness to God. Eleazar choose to remain faithful; Zacchaeus choose to become faithful.
St. Thérèse puts it this way:
Let us suppose that the son of a very clever doctor, stumbling over a stone on the road, falls and breaks his leg. His father hastens to him, lifts him lovingly, and binds up the fractured limb, putting forth all his skill. The son, when cured, displays the utmost gratitude, and he has excellent reason for doing so. But let us take another supposition.
The father, aware that a dangerous stone lies in his son's path, is beforehand with the danger and removes it, unseen by anyone. The son, thus tenderly cared for, not knowing of the mishap from which his father's hand has saved him, naturally will not show him any gratitude, and will love him less than if he had cured him of a grievous wound. But suppose he heard the whole truth, would he not in that case love him still more?
The key is in our psalm today: “The Lord upholds me.” The Lord gave Eleazar the grace to be faithful for 90 years; the Lord gave Zacchaeus the grace to repent. The Lord uphold them both, though in different ways. If Eleazar had lived 90 years faithfully and then decided to abandon God in the end, his 90 years would not matter. The past is not that important. It is in the present moment that we can be faithful, that we must be faithful. God neither holds the past against us nor gives us credit for it. So brothers and sisters, let us begin to be faithful today, regardless of our past.
August 18, 2011 - Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
One lesson of the first reading is that we are never obligated to do what is wrong. It does not matter who we promised or even if we made a vow to God, we are never obligated to sin.
And what Jephthah did was a sin, which leads us to the second lesson of this reading: just because it is in the Bible does not mean God approved of it. Large sections of the Old Testament are simply historical records; they tell us what happened without judging it. In this sense, it is easier to relate to these historical books than to the more theological books. We do not often have God speaking to us from clouds or through prophets. Usually things just happen without any clarification from God on whether it was right.
In the case of this story, we can be absolutely sure that God did not approve: “Thou shalt not kill.” He has made his will known to us. I wish God would have intervened. Sometime during those two months a prophet could have visited; right before Jephthah killed his daughter and burnt her body a voice could have shouted down from the clouds. Clearly the action was not God’s will, but why did God will to let it happen?
If we could see God’s will in everything that happens, life would have meaning. Even the worst suffering would be endurable if we knew that it was not pointless, that it was part of the intricate plan of God, that some good would come out of it, somehow. God lets some things happen; he stops other tragedies. If God stops a tragedy, we thank him. Should we curse him if he allows another to happen, or should we say that this tragedy must be God’s will? No, the relationship between free will and God’s will is impossible to calculate.
If good comes out of evil, we say that God willed the good but not the evil. This is not a contradiction. We can celebrate how well St. Maria Goretti died while condemning the attempted rape and murder. We can praise Jephthah’s daughter for her obedience to her father and her selfless commitment to the Lord, even as we condemn human sacrifice.
God willed these good things. He did not plan the circumstances for the sake of the good, but, having allowed them, he willed the good. It is wrong to say that God allows some evil because of the good that would come out of it. God did not allow Auschwitz because the good outweighed the evil, but he did will St. Maximilian Kolbe to give up his life for another.
In this way, we can look back on our whole life and see God’s will. Not in our sins, nor in the injustices we have suffered, but in the way that our suffering has made us who we are, in every good that we have experienced, even in the midst of suffering.
One lesson of the first reading is that we are never obligated to do what is wrong. It does not matter who we promised or even if we made a vow to God, we are never obligated to sin.
And what Jephthah did was a sin, which leads us to the second lesson of this reading: just because it is in the Bible does not mean God approved of it. Large sections of the Old Testament are simply historical records; they tell us what happened without judging it. In this sense, it is easier to relate to these historical books than to the more theological books. We do not often have God speaking to us from clouds or through prophets. Usually things just happen without any clarification from God on whether it was right.
In the case of this story, we can be absolutely sure that God did not approve: “Thou shalt not kill.” He has made his will known to us. I wish God would have intervened. Sometime during those two months a prophet could have visited; right before Jephthah killed his daughter and burnt her body a voice could have shouted down from the clouds. Clearly the action was not God’s will, but why did God will to let it happen?
If we could see God’s will in everything that happens, life would have meaning. Even the worst suffering would be endurable if we knew that it was not pointless, that it was part of the intricate plan of God, that some good would come out of it, somehow. God lets some things happen; he stops other tragedies. If God stops a tragedy, we thank him. Should we curse him if he allows another to happen, or should we say that this tragedy must be God’s will? No, the relationship between free will and God’s will is impossible to calculate.
If good comes out of evil, we say that God willed the good but not the evil. This is not a contradiction. We can celebrate how well St. Maria Goretti died while condemning the attempted rape and murder. We can praise Jephthah’s daughter for her obedience to her father and her selfless commitment to the Lord, even as we condemn human sacrifice.
God willed these good things. He did not plan the circumstances for the sake of the good, but, having allowed them, he willed the good. It is wrong to say that God allows some evil because of the good that would come out of it. God did not allow Auschwitz because the good outweighed the evil, but he did will St. Maximilian Kolbe to give up his life for another.
In this way, we can look back on our whole life and see God’s will. Not in our sins, nor in the injustices we have suffered, but in the way that our suffering has made us who we are, in every good that we have experienced, even in the midst of suffering.
August 13, 2011 - Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
There is something humorous about the image in the first reading. Joshua tells the people that they should decide if they will worship the Lord or some other god. The humor is not really visible from our perspective; perhaps the angels are laughing though. We human beings have this feeling, this attitude toward God, as if we were on a shopping trip, trying to decide between the yellow umbrella and the blue one. Even if we do choose the Lord, we are tempted to think that he ought to be grateful.
But God is not running for office. He does not need our vote. If no one on earth ever worshipped him, he would continue perfectly happy forever. He does not in any sense need us, but we do need him. There are no other options, no other gods to follow. We could worship other gods, but they will do nothing for us because they are not real.
God is the only God. He is God above and God below and God of all the earth. We cannot have a revolution against God. We cannot impeach him. He is the fundamental fact of reality, and we are weak creatures in a universe he created. So it is humorous that we humans feel like we are towering over him with the power to choose for or against, weighing the benefits versus the costs. We might as well decide whether 4 is going to be our number after 3 as decide whether the Lord will be our God.
Joshua warns the people of Israel that by choosing reality and leaving behind ignorance they are doing something dangerous: never again may they return to the false gods who do nothing for them. A reasonable person might ask why anyone, having entered into reality, would forsake it for a lie.
We know, since we have read the rest of the story, that the Israelites often did forsake the Lord and worship false and empty gods. They did it for the same reason we do: the Lord is not doing what we want, he is not our tame pet. Whether we disobey God for a fruit or money or whatever, we are afraid that he will not provide what we need; we are afraid that he is our enemy. On the contrary, if the Lord did need selling points here is one: he loves us.
There is something humorous about the image in the first reading. Joshua tells the people that they should decide if they will worship the Lord or some other god. The humor is not really visible from our perspective; perhaps the angels are laughing though. We human beings have this feeling, this attitude toward God, as if we were on a shopping trip, trying to decide between the yellow umbrella and the blue one. Even if we do choose the Lord, we are tempted to think that he ought to be grateful.
But God is not running for office. He does not need our vote. If no one on earth ever worshipped him, he would continue perfectly happy forever. He does not in any sense need us, but we do need him. There are no other options, no other gods to follow. We could worship other gods, but they will do nothing for us because they are not real.
God is the only God. He is God above and God below and God of all the earth. We cannot have a revolution against God. We cannot impeach him. He is the fundamental fact of reality, and we are weak creatures in a universe he created. So it is humorous that we humans feel like we are towering over him with the power to choose for or against, weighing the benefits versus the costs. We might as well decide whether 4 is going to be our number after 3 as decide whether the Lord will be our God.
Joshua warns the people of Israel that by choosing reality and leaving behind ignorance they are doing something dangerous: never again may they return to the false gods who do nothing for them. A reasonable person might ask why anyone, having entered into reality, would forsake it for a lie.
We know, since we have read the rest of the story, that the Israelites often did forsake the Lord and worship false and empty gods. They did it for the same reason we do: the Lord is not doing what we want, he is not our tame pet. Whether we disobey God for a fruit or money or whatever, we are afraid that he will not provide what we need; we are afraid that he is our enemy. On the contrary, if the Lord did need selling points here is one: he loves us.
June 23, 2011 - Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
The stronger the foundation, the more work which is required to build on that foundation. Sand is a weak foundation, so it is easy to dig a few feet into the sand and bury the anchors for the house. Rock is a strong foundation, so it requires a great deal of work to break through even a few feet.
Jesus contrasts the one who listens to his words and acts to the one who listens to his words and does not act. According to the analogy they have both built a house. Indeed, if we consider the analogy further we can understand that the rock is located under the sand. It is not as if the rock were bare rock. Wherever there is sand, there is bedrock underneath, perhaps 100 feet underneath, but it is there.
So the fool listens to the words of Jesus, nods in agreement, smiles even, then goes home and keeps living. Perhaps, occasionally, he tries to act according to the words that he heard, if it is not too hard. The wise man hears the words of Jesus and begins digging. He digs through 100 feet of sand, hits rock, and begins chipping away at the rock. Only then does he build his life.
It sounds like a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Following Christ requires more than a smile and a nod. It is not easy to build a spiritual life that is anchored in the rock, but it is worth it. As Jesus teaches us, when the winds come and the floods rise, the house built on sand will not stand. We are going to have trouble in this world. We must build our faith to withstand the trouble.
If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a faith will be built in us that cannot be blown over, no matter how strong the winds. If we listen to the words of Jesus and act on them, a hope will be built in us that cannot be drowned, no matter how high the waters reach. Unquestionably, the storms are coming. What action should we take? Love. Love. Love. Love. Love our friends. Love our enemies. Love God above all. Love is hard; it is hard to be like Jesus. It is hard, but it is so worth it.
February 13, 2011 - Sunday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings for Sunday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Sirach places a choice before us today: life or death, good or evil, fire or water. The choice that Sirach is talking about is called the “fundamental option”. The idea of the fundamental option is that we ought to stop being lukewarm, wishy-washy, half-in/half-out and make a decision to follow God. Many people stand at this fork in the road and refuse to commit themselves to a path. Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly telling his people to make a decision either for him or for the world, to continue to the Holy Land or to go back to Egypt, to worship him or to worship the pagan Gods. God insists that we make a decision.
Sirach places a choice before us today: life or death, good or evil, fire or water. The choice that Sirach is talking about is called the “fundamental option”. The idea of the fundamental option is that we ought to stop being lukewarm, wishy-washy, half-in/half-out and make a decision to follow God. Many people stand at this fork in the road and refuse to commit themselves to a path. Throughout the Old Testament, God is constantly telling his people to make a decision either for him or for the world, to continue to the Holy Land or to go back to Egypt, to worship him or to worship the pagan Gods. God insists that we make a decision.
Many people easily and proudly proclaim what football team or political party they support, but, in life, they are content to stand on the sidelines and watch. The world loves the open-minded, who see both sides, neither extremist nor fundamentalist. There is a war going on; pick a side. Will your fundamental option be for God or not? If we choose God, life will be hard. We will have to follow the commandments. People are afraid to choose because they think that they might choose wrongly. What if I choose for God and I am wrong? I will miss out on a lot of fun in life. What if I choose against God and I am wrong? I will miss out on something bigger. Every choice for something rejects other possibilities, but we will never get anywhere unless we pick a direction. So we stand on the threshold of life, paralyzed by fear.
Now, if this were a particular kind of protestant church, I would continue in this vein for an hour or so and then ask you to make a decision right now and to come up front and to pray a prayer of decision. I tell you, you would feel good if you did it, all warm inside, excited, probably crying. You would feel alive for the first time in a long time. And I am not going to stop anyone from doing that. Come on up after Mass, and look at Jesus, and make a decision. In fact, I am going to presume something right now. I am going to presume that since you got up this morning, got dressed, and came to worship God, you probably would make that commitment. In fact, let us all pause right now, and, without all the theatrics, turn to Jesus and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God who died to save me from my sins. I choose to follow you wherever you lead me, forever. Amen.”
But now we have got a problem, because we have to actually do what we just said. No one runs a marathon by signing up for a gym membership. You have to actually exercise. No one loses a single pound because they made a New Year’s resolution. You have to actually eat better. No one ever got to heaven because they decided that they would follow God. You have to actually follow God. We made the decision. We took the fundamental option for Jesus Christ. The problem is, it is hard to be perfect.
If we thought that following Jesus just meant not killing anybody, he corrects that idea today: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” Has anyone here ever been angry with their brother or sister? Has anyone here ever called them a fool? Thus Jesus goes through each commandment and shows what it means to keep it perfectly.
There are some possibilities of course. We could just be hypocrites. We could follow the easy commandments in public and break the hard ones in private. We would be like actors on a stage: it does not matter what happens when the curtain goes down. This was the way of the scribes and Pharisees. But Jesus tells us, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
We could be antinomians, which is to say, we could not bother trying to be good since we will sin anyway. We could just say, “I have taken the fundamental option for Jesus, so it does not really matter what I do day to day.” The antinomians are like the hypocrites except that they do not even try to hide their failings. This is not a surpassing righteousness.
We are going to have to use more difficult tactics if we will succeed on this path. We made the commitment today; we will have to make it again tomorrow. When we fail, we can repent. We will just have to keep trying to be perfect, no matter how many times we fall. We must never accept sin. We must refuse to put up with evil in our lives. We must never say about some sin we have struggled against, “Oh well, that is just the way I am.”
If this were all though, we would just be like Pharisees but humble. Not a bad place to start, but there is also good news. If we choose to follow God, he will guide us. His Spirit lives within each one of us by our Baptism and Confirmation. God wants us to be saved, but we have to decide that we want to be saved. We have to decide it at every hour; we have to decide it against every temptation; we have to decide it in every part of our lives. This is what it means to choose Christ, to take the fundamental option: following Jesus is the foundation of our lives. “If you choose, you can keep the commandments. They will save you. If you trust in God, you shall even live.”
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