July 30, 2012 - Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 13:1-11
Deuteronomy 32:18-21
Matthew 13:31-35

It is possible that what happens in the first reading gets lost in the language. God tells Jeremiah to not wash his underwear for awhile, then bury it, then show it to people. Why did God make Jeremiah go through all that today? Could he not have just stood up in Jerusalem and said, “What you are doing is wrong.”? He could have, and he did many times, but the situation called for something a little more memorable. It is easy to forget about the odd street preacher who complains about our sinful ways, but if a man shows you his filthy, rotten underwear and says, “You are like this underwear”, you are not going to forget it.

In the Gospel today, we have two parables about parables. The little mustard seed becomes a bush, and the little yeast leavens all the dough. Jesus could have just given his teaching straight; he could have written a catechism with everything carefully explained, but instead he gave us parables.

Parables are more powerful than their explanations. This is a little ironic since it is now my job to explain these parables, but I know that you might forget my homily by the time you finish lunch. Certainly a week from now you would not be able to quote it all back to me. But the parables stick with you. The mustard seed that grows into a bush, the yeast that leavens the whole dough are not as easily forgotten as a theological explanation can be. These little ideas start as simple analogies, but they can grow in our souls and change us. They are like mustard seeds or a little yeast, and what these tiny things can accomplish in us is simply amazing.

The greatest parable is the paschal mystery. A simple story about a man who died for us though he was innocent, then rose from the dead because he was God and could not be conquered by death is as simple a story as any parable. This story and all the parables that Jesus told have such power if we will water the seed or knead the dough, if we will meditate on the mystery and turn it over and over in our minds. Given time we will be amazed at how much these simple stories have done in our souls. Sometimes a little unforgettable idea is far more powerful than a 5 volume book.

June 8, 2012 - Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

2 Timothy 3:10-17
Psalm 119:157, 160-161, 165-166, 168
Mark 12:35-37

There is something about 3.16. Everyone knows John 3.16: For God so loved the world…, but for some reason, and it must surely be a coincidence the sixteenth verse give or take of the third chapter of many of the books in the Bible is very important. Genesis is 3.15 is the first announcement of Christ, called the protoevangelion; Exodus 3.14 is where God tells Moses his Name: “I am who am.”; Matthew 3.16-17 is pretty important: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Mark 3.16-19 has the names of the Twelve Apostles. Luke 3.16 is John’s announcement of the coming of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Just those four 3.16’s from each Gospel pretty much sum up Christianity.

Now today we have another great 3.16 in front of us for the first reading: 2 Timothy 3.16: “Every Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for an education in righteousness.” This is a powerful statement that we cannot pass by. Every Scripture is inspired by God, literally it says “Godbreathed”. Every Scripture is like the breath of God out of his own mouth. The same breath that gave life to the clay man who became Adam. The same breath that the prophets heard, that Elijah heard as a still, small whisper. Every Scripture contains that breath. That means that it is alive.

And every Scripture is useful. That might be hard to believe if you have ever ready Leviticus or Numbers, but it is true. Useful how? St. Paul has four things, and they are not random but they form a progression. This is how Scripture changes us: first it teaches us something; then comes reproof, we see something in our lives which is contrary to what we have learned; then comes correction, we learn how to stop doing whatever sin or fault is contrary to Scripture. Last comes an education in righteousness, because Christianity is not just about “not being bad”, which would be really boring; Christianity and every Scripture is about who we could be.

Every Scripture is useful, if we will decide to use them. The 3.16’s perhaps more than the others, but every Scripture. We do not pick and choose our own collection of beliefs out of the Bible. We must not change the Scripture; we have to let the Scripture change us.