Sirach 4:11-19
Psalm 119:165, 168, 171-172, 174-175
Mark 9:38-40
We have just repeated in the psalm, “O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.” The psalmist is speaking of the peace which is the foundation of peace in our society: peace within ourselves. This internal peace is founded on the law of God. Until we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, we cannot be at peace, and until we are at peace, our society cannot be at peace. Our popular society blames fundamentalism for violence, which is to say that they blame strongly held beliefs for violence. If everyone would calm down, we are led to believe, and be willing to accept that they will not always get their way, we would have peace.
This is not true. Most of the violence in this world comes not from fundamentalism but from selfishness. Behind theft, rape, nearly every murder, and all the other crimes which disturb our peace, lie a selfish motive. We concentrate on the violence that comes from those who claim to be fighting for an ideal, but that is such a minuscule part of the violence in the world. Some people speak as if the elimination of fundamentalism would lead to perfect peace, but they must be ignoring the vast majority of the crimes against peace to believe this. A popular claim by modern atheists is that the elimination of religion would mean a flowering of peace. This is false. Religion, even religions that are deficient in their understanding of the truth, are the greatest contributors to peace in this world. Most religions make a person try to be good, and no one is more peaceful than a good person. Some atheists may brag that they are good without God, but many people, without the morality of a religion, would commit whatever violence or theft that they thought they might get away with.
If we could only make every person in the world be good, then we could deal with the philosophical questions like whether and when it is ever good to use violence. There is a way to have this world peace, but we must begin with peace within ourselves, which comes only from following the law of God: love. Until we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, we will not be at peace, and until we are at peace, it is sort of foolish to hope for world peace.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Selfishness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Selfishness. Show all posts
January 23, 2013 - Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 3:1-6
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 3:1-6
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
November 5, 2012 - Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Philippians 2:1-4
Psalm 131.1,2,3
Luke 14:12-14
What St. Paul is writing about here is possibility. “If”, he says, “If there is any support in Christ.” Of course he means that there is, but he is drawing the attention of his readers to that fact. Our natural tendency is toward selfishness and being conceited. Our natural tendency is toward regarding ourselves as the most important. St. Paul is very gently asking, “But what if?” What if we followed the teachings of Jesus? The world would be a better place if it were not possible to be poor, crippled, lame, or blind without being invited to a banquet. Those in need would have trouble keeping track of all their invitations.
The problem, at least from the selfish perspective of fallen human beings, is that even if we embraced this idealism of actually doing what Jesus says, others probably will not. We will do all the good, but others will just take advantage of us. And there is a truth to this cynicism. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Those who do not work should not eat.” But how can we dismiss the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as simplistic idealism? We admit by faith in him that he is God and therefore greater than us in every way. Jesus was always right.
The mistake is to take his idealistic teachings and apply them to the world as if he had never also taught about the world to come. As he says today, “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” He is advocating a sort of selfish generosity that should speak to us selfish, fallen human beings. He does not suggest feeding the needy because they need to be fed, but because their inability to repay us leaves God in our debt, and that is an amazing place to be.
It is like when the son of a very wealthy man travels around running up debts in various places, causing damage, and everyone is glad to have him take advantage of them because they know that his father will pay the bill and add a little something on top for the trouble. If we follow Jesus’ teachings and end up poor, beaten, insulted, or even dead because of them, we should smile knowing the repayment that we have coming. Every single person who takes advantage of us has a Father in heaven who is going to make it up to us and more.
Psalm 131.1,2,3
Luke 14:12-14
What St. Paul is writing about here is possibility. “If”, he says, “If there is any support in Christ.” Of course he means that there is, but he is drawing the attention of his readers to that fact. Our natural tendency is toward selfishness and being conceited. Our natural tendency is toward regarding ourselves as the most important. St. Paul is very gently asking, “But what if?” What if we followed the teachings of Jesus? The world would be a better place if it were not possible to be poor, crippled, lame, or blind without being invited to a banquet. Those in need would have trouble keeping track of all their invitations.
The problem, at least from the selfish perspective of fallen human beings, is that even if we embraced this idealism of actually doing what Jesus says, others probably will not. We will do all the good, but others will just take advantage of us. And there is a truth to this cynicism. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Those who do not work should not eat.” But how can we dismiss the teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as simplistic idealism? We admit by faith in him that he is God and therefore greater than us in every way. Jesus was always right.
The mistake is to take his idealistic teachings and apply them to the world as if he had never also taught about the world to come. As he says today, “You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” He is advocating a sort of selfish generosity that should speak to us selfish, fallen human beings. He does not suggest feeding the needy because they need to be fed, but because their inability to repay us leaves God in our debt, and that is an amazing place to be.
It is like when the son of a very wealthy man travels around running up debts in various places, causing damage, and everyone is glad to have him take advantage of them because they know that his father will pay the bill and add a little something on top for the trouble. If we follow Jesus’ teachings and end up poor, beaten, insulted, or even dead because of them, we should smile knowing the repayment that we have coming. Every single person who takes advantage of us has a Father in heaven who is going to make it up to us and more.
September 3, 2012 - Labor Day
Genesis 1.26-2.3 OR Genesis 2.4b-9, 15 OR 1 Thessalonians 4.1b-2, 9-12 OR 2 Thessalonians 3.6-12, 16
Psalm 90.2, 3-5a, 12-13, 14+16 Resp. 17b OR Psalm 127.1, 2 Resp. 1ac
Matthew 6.21-34 OR Matthew 25.14-30
The problem the St. Paul is confronting with the Thessalonians is referred to by economists as the tragedy of the commons. It is why communism does not work. Because of the ideal that Jesus put forward, like in this Gospel, the early Christians set up communes, but these were given up before very long. Communism does work in monasteries and convents where people work as much as they can and take as little as they need. It will always fail in the larger world where people work as little as they can and take as much as they want.
The problem with communism is reflected in our psalm today: “Lord, give success to the work of our hands.” Humans need to have that dignity which comes from seeing the work of their hands. To build something and then step back and say, “I built that” is a great feeling. Ideally, every human job would lead to this feeling. “I built that; I wrote that; I made that; I fixed that; I cleaned that; I healed them; I taught them.” St. Paul’s concern is not just anger about these freeloaders. He is concerned for them, because of what happens when a person stops working.
Not that capitalism is the perfect solution either. Many people work in jobs that either are fundamentally useless or are a small, repetitive part of the larger task. They are not able to have pride in their work. This is what happens when the economy is driven by money rather than respect for human labor. Just because a business process is more efficient does not mean that it is right.
Labor Day is not only a chance to celebrate human labor and to thank God for the gift of our own labor, but a call to justice. There is no perfect economic system because no system can compensate for human selfishness and greed, but we can do better than we are doing right now. Many people are forced to do menial tasks in order to provide for their families. Many people do not receive a just wage for their work. We have an obligation to do better. We cannot just pass this responsibility off, blaming government and greedy business owners. Everyone who benefits from the work of another has a responsibility to that person.
Psalm 90.2, 3-5a, 12-13, 14+16 Resp. 17b OR Psalm 127.1, 2 Resp. 1ac
Matthew 6.21-34 OR Matthew 25.14-30
The problem the St. Paul is confronting with the Thessalonians is referred to by economists as the tragedy of the commons. It is why communism does not work. Because of the ideal that Jesus put forward, like in this Gospel, the early Christians set up communes, but these were given up before very long. Communism does work in monasteries and convents where people work as much as they can and take as little as they need. It will always fail in the larger world where people work as little as they can and take as much as they want.
The problem with communism is reflected in our psalm today: “Lord, give success to the work of our hands.” Humans need to have that dignity which comes from seeing the work of their hands. To build something and then step back and say, “I built that” is a great feeling. Ideally, every human job would lead to this feeling. “I built that; I wrote that; I made that; I fixed that; I cleaned that; I healed them; I taught them.” St. Paul’s concern is not just anger about these freeloaders. He is concerned for them, because of what happens when a person stops working.
Not that capitalism is the perfect solution either. Many people work in jobs that either are fundamentally useless or are a small, repetitive part of the larger task. They are not able to have pride in their work. This is what happens when the economy is driven by money rather than respect for human labor. Just because a business process is more efficient does not mean that it is right.
Labor Day is not only a chance to celebrate human labor and to thank God for the gift of our own labor, but a call to justice. There is no perfect economic system because no system can compensate for human selfishness and greed, but we can do better than we are doing right now. Many people are forced to do menial tasks in order to provide for their families. Many people do not receive a just wage for their work. We have an obligation to do better. We cannot just pass this responsibility off, blaming government and greedy business owners. Everyone who benefits from the work of another has a responsibility to that person.
July 23, 2012 - Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
After the violence of this past weekend, many people are asking a question, but it is the wrong question. They are wondering why. “Why does something like this happen?” But, as I said, this is the wrong question. The right question is “Why doesn’t this happen every day?” I will tell you that it is not because there is any shortage of selfish human beings who care more about what they want than how that would affect others. The selfishness that was the foundation of that act is the same selfishness that can be found in my heart and yours. It was G. K. Chesterton who gave that famous answer to the question, “What is wrong with the world?” They asked “what is wrong with the world?”, and he answered, “I am.”
Original sin has made nearly every human being into a creature capable of great evil. In the history of the world we humans have done such terrible things to each other that it seems that there is no depth of evil to which we cannot sink, enormous evils and every sort of evil. And it is no good just putting that evil on another. They are human just like us. Their capacity for evil is our capacity for evil. It is somewhat comforting to consider them as monsters, a different kind of person than we are, but they are human, and we are human.
Of course, our own selfishness has probably never manifested itself in such an act of violence, largely because of laws and social constructs. Yet I am sure, if we honestly search our souls, each of us could remember something we have done of astounding selfishness. The man in the first reading today knows what I am talking about. He asks “with what shall I come before the Lord?” What offering would be sufficient for my sins? A thousand ram? Ten-thousand barrels of oil? “Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
The answer is none of these. Nothing we can provide is sufficient to purify us of our sins. Only one sacrifice has the power to do this: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. We are unable to provide a sufficient sacrifice, so God provides a lamb for us. This sacrifice has the power to forgive every sin, no matter how horrible. If that man in Colorado seeks forgiveness through the grace of that sacrifice, he will be forgiven, just like the Ninevites were forgiven, just like we are forgiven.
After the violence of this past weekend, many people are asking a question, but it is the wrong question. They are wondering why. “Why does something like this happen?” But, as I said, this is the wrong question. The right question is “Why doesn’t this happen every day?” I will tell you that it is not because there is any shortage of selfish human beings who care more about what they want than how that would affect others. The selfishness that was the foundation of that act is the same selfishness that can be found in my heart and yours. It was G. K. Chesterton who gave that famous answer to the question, “What is wrong with the world?” They asked “what is wrong with the world?”, and he answered, “I am.”
Original sin has made nearly every human being into a creature capable of great evil. In the history of the world we humans have done such terrible things to each other that it seems that there is no depth of evil to which we cannot sink, enormous evils and every sort of evil. And it is no good just putting that evil on another. They are human just like us. Their capacity for evil is our capacity for evil. It is somewhat comforting to consider them as monsters, a different kind of person than we are, but they are human, and we are human.
Of course, our own selfishness has probably never manifested itself in such an act of violence, largely because of laws and social constructs. Yet I am sure, if we honestly search our souls, each of us could remember something we have done of astounding selfishness. The man in the first reading today knows what I am talking about. He asks “with what shall I come before the Lord?” What offering would be sufficient for my sins? A thousand ram? Ten-thousand barrels of oil? “Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
The answer is none of these. Nothing we can provide is sufficient to purify us of our sins. Only one sacrifice has the power to do this: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. We are unable to provide a sufficient sacrifice, so God provides a lamb for us. This sacrifice has the power to forgive every sin, no matter how horrible. If that man in Colorado seeks forgiveness through the grace of that sacrifice, he will be forgiven, just like the Ninevites were forgiven, just like we are forgiven.
March 21, 2012 - Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent.
Today's Readings
“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” How I wish this were a rhetorical question. Of course, we know that it is a real question and that the answer is yes. There are mothers all over the world who forget their infants, who are without tenderness for the child of their womb. Millions of children are murdered each year in our country with the permission of their mothers. Some mothers may be honestly confused. Some mothers may believe the irrational lie that the humanity of their child depends on the child’s location. It is difficult to believe though that millions of otherwise rational people could hold such an irrational belief. In truth, most of these murders happen because of selfishness.
Let us not be deceived. The selfishness that has led to 100 million dead children in our country is so pervasive in our culture that even if we stand up for life and protest against the horrific crime, the selfishness at the heart of the crime lives in our hearts too. If I try to express the selfishness in a phrase it is: “I deserve what I want.” Abortion is not the problem. It is one symptom of the real problem: selfishness. We get an idea in our head of how our life ought to go, and anything that stands in the way of this dream must die.
The cure to selfishness is faith, hope, and love. If this world were all we had, we might be justified in holding on to our little idea of happiness even at the expense of others, but we have something else, we have the promise of God: “I will never forget you.” If we believe this promise, we will have hope. Hope lets us see this world not as it seems, the end-all of our life, but as it is, a short training exercise. After 40 trillion years in heaven, will it matter whether we got to go to prom or college or got the job we wanted? No, none of this will matter. If we see according to hope rather than fear, we will be able to love. What does it mean to waste 20 years and care for a child? Why should we be afraid of wasting our whole life serving others and never getting what we wanted? When we believe in God’s love, we hope in him and not in this world, only then are we free to love without restriction.
January 15, 2012 - Second Sunday In Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.” That is not really a message that the world is ready to hear. The world says, “It is my body; it is my life; I will do what I want.” And St. Paul says, “You are not your own.” This is not merely true theologically speaking. It is a basic truth that anyone who is not a child should be aware of. We belong to others. Parents belong to their children; they are not their own. Children belong to their parents; they are not their own. A husband belongs to his wife; he is not his own. A wife belongs to her husband; she is not her own. We belong to our communities. When we view existence in terms of what we can get out of it, we have a very shallow, very immature sense of life.
I am concerned that we have so forgotten this basic principle that we are no longer able to think clearly. Birth control, frequent divorce, cheating on taxes, and excessively seeking entertainment are symptoms of individuals who have forgotten their responsibility to the civilization in which they live. It is hard for a self-centered person to understand why these things are wrong. We understand that it is wrong to hurt others, but it is also wrong to be self-centered, to live life as if we were each the center of our own universe.
In November there is going to be a vote here in Minnesota about whether marriage is between a man and a woman, and I am concerned that many people are not ready for that vote. I think that a lot of people, good people, people who want to do what is right, do not know why we are opposed to any other definition of marriage, and I cannot blame them. To understand why marriage is not simply a matter of personal freedom or a choice between consenting adults, it is necessary to first understand that we are not our own, and our culture does not understand that.
Our whole culture, our civilization and our country, are in a decline because we do not understand that. It is as if our ancestors built up a balance in a savings account and we have decided to live on that balance without making any new deposits. When someone tells us that our civilization needs our support, we are confused. We keep spending through capital that was put there by others, and someday that is going to run out.
This past week has been Vocations Awareness Week. We are aware that there is a shortage of priests and sisters, but there is also a shortage of married vocations. The shortage is not of this vocation or that vocation; the shortage is in our sense of vocation. Fifty years ago our president told the country, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If our president said that today someone would call it socialism. Yet that is exactly what it means to have a vocation. A vocation is not a job. A vocation is the decision to live your life for a reason. It is putting into practice what St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.”
As we have become richer in technology and leisure time, we have lost our sense of vocation. The more we have, the more concerned we become with what we do not have. In the first reading today, Samuel was sleeping in the Temple. He was not doing this because he thought it would be a good place for a nap. He was sleeping there because 3000 years ago people could not afford to waste a perfectly good roof. We might not consider ourselves rich, but until we are all reduced to living in this building, we do not know that kind of poverty.
It was in that kind of poverty that Samuel found his vocation. God called out, “Samuel!”and Samuel jumped up ready to serve. We see how ready he was since he did not even realize that it was God. He thought that it was Eli, and he did not just lie there and shout out “What?!” He got out of bed and went to Eli. Samuel was a servant, and he was ready to serve Eli, so when God called him to be a prophet, he was ready to serve God.
The question of vocation is before all of us at all times. Are we using our lives to benefit the world? But this question is particularly before the young people, people who are the stage in their lives where they are asking themselves, “What will I do with my life?” And although there are many possible answers to this question, at a most basic level there are only two answers: to live life for myself or to live life for others.
Because if our first concern is making ourselves happy as this world sees happiness then we will eventually become a lot of individuals doing our own thing. If our first concern is the public good and the good of our neighbors and the good of our families, then we will be a civilization. Selfishness is uncivilized.
And so that is merely the secular reason for vocation. As I said St. Paul's phrase does not only apply theologically, but it does also apply theologically. As Christians we are not our own because we have been purchased at a great cost: the life of Jesus Christ. How much more, then, does this apply to us, “You are not your own”! Those of us who are committed to a vocation should live that vocation not begrudgingly, not considering it an imposition on our time, but considering it our reason for living.
When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, Andrew and Philip follow Jesus. They go get their brothers, and then their brothers follow Jesus. They all followed Jesus for three years, and then spent the rest of their lives preaching the Gospel, until they were killed for it. They did not waste their lives.
Those of you who are not yet committed to a vocation should listen for the call of God. He is calling you to something, and it is not to serve yourself, to see how rich you can become, nor to wander without meaning. Your life will not be wasted if you live it for a purpose, and God knows what he wants you to do.
St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.” That is not really a message that the world is ready to hear. The world says, “It is my body; it is my life; I will do what I want.” And St. Paul says, “You are not your own.” This is not merely true theologically speaking. It is a basic truth that anyone who is not a child should be aware of. We belong to others. Parents belong to their children; they are not their own. Children belong to their parents; they are not their own. A husband belongs to his wife; he is not his own. A wife belongs to her husband; she is not her own. We belong to our communities. When we view existence in terms of what we can get out of it, we have a very shallow, very immature sense of life.
I am concerned that we have so forgotten this basic principle that we are no longer able to think clearly. Birth control, frequent divorce, cheating on taxes, and excessively seeking entertainment are symptoms of individuals who have forgotten their responsibility to the civilization in which they live. It is hard for a self-centered person to understand why these things are wrong. We understand that it is wrong to hurt others, but it is also wrong to be self-centered, to live life as if we were each the center of our own universe.
In November there is going to be a vote here in Minnesota about whether marriage is between a man and a woman, and I am concerned that many people are not ready for that vote. I think that a lot of people, good people, people who want to do what is right, do not know why we are opposed to any other definition of marriage, and I cannot blame them. To understand why marriage is not simply a matter of personal freedom or a choice between consenting adults, it is necessary to first understand that we are not our own, and our culture does not understand that.
Our whole culture, our civilization and our country, are in a decline because we do not understand that. It is as if our ancestors built up a balance in a savings account and we have decided to live on that balance without making any new deposits. When someone tells us that our civilization needs our support, we are confused. We keep spending through capital that was put there by others, and someday that is going to run out.
This past week has been Vocations Awareness Week. We are aware that there is a shortage of priests and sisters, but there is also a shortage of married vocations. The shortage is not of this vocation or that vocation; the shortage is in our sense of vocation. Fifty years ago our president told the country, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If our president said that today someone would call it socialism. Yet that is exactly what it means to have a vocation. A vocation is not a job. A vocation is the decision to live your life for a reason. It is putting into practice what St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.”
As we have become richer in technology and leisure time, we have lost our sense of vocation. The more we have, the more concerned we become with what we do not have. In the first reading today, Samuel was sleeping in the Temple. He was not doing this because he thought it would be a good place for a nap. He was sleeping there because 3000 years ago people could not afford to waste a perfectly good roof. We might not consider ourselves rich, but until we are all reduced to living in this building, we do not know that kind of poverty.
It was in that kind of poverty that Samuel found his vocation. God called out, “Samuel!”and Samuel jumped up ready to serve. We see how ready he was since he did not even realize that it was God. He thought that it was Eli, and he did not just lie there and shout out “What?!” He got out of bed and went to Eli. Samuel was a servant, and he was ready to serve Eli, so when God called him to be a prophet, he was ready to serve God.
The question of vocation is before all of us at all times. Are we using our lives to benefit the world? But this question is particularly before the young people, people who are the stage in their lives where they are asking themselves, “What will I do with my life?” And although there are many possible answers to this question, at a most basic level there are only two answers: to live life for myself or to live life for others.
Because if our first concern is making ourselves happy as this world sees happiness then we will eventually become a lot of individuals doing our own thing. If our first concern is the public good and the good of our neighbors and the good of our families, then we will be a civilization. Selfishness is uncivilized.
And so that is merely the secular reason for vocation. As I said St. Paul's phrase does not only apply theologically, but it does also apply theologically. As Christians we are not our own because we have been purchased at a great cost: the life of Jesus Christ. How much more, then, does this apply to us, “You are not your own”! Those of us who are committed to a vocation should live that vocation not begrudgingly, not considering it an imposition on our time, but considering it our reason for living.
When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, Andrew and Philip follow Jesus. They go get their brothers, and then their brothers follow Jesus. They all followed Jesus for three years, and then spent the rest of their lives preaching the Gospel, until they were killed for it. They did not waste their lives.
Those of you who are not yet committed to a vocation should listen for the call of God. He is calling you to something, and it is not to serve yourself, to see how rich you can become, nor to wander without meaning. Your life will not be wasted if you live it for a purpose, and God knows what he wants you to do.
November 24, 2011 - Thanksgiving Day
Today's Readings
How blessed are we to gather as a country each year and give thanks. This holiday transcends any political sentiments or particular religious belief, but, at the same time, it is central to all true religion. To give thanks is to acknowledge the existence of a Creator whom we can thank. We do not merely celebrate how much we have today; we celebrate how much we have been given. Given by whom? By the Creator of all.
Thanksgiving is the most important feast in the Catholic Church. It is more important than Christmas and more important than Easter. This is revealed to us if we say that word, “thanksgiving”, in Greek. The word is “Eucharist”. Every Sunday, indeed every day of the week, we gather in this Church and give thanks. On Christmas and Easter and every other feast day, we gather in the Church and celebrate the Eucharist; we celebrate Thanksgiving. Though our country celebrates Thanksgiving once a year, we celebrate it without end.
What is God looking for from us except thanks? Imagine how proud a parent is the first time they hear their child say, “Thank you, Mommy” or “Thank you, Daddy”. It is a sign that the child is maturing beyond the basic selfishness of infancy. It is impossible to be purely selfish and grateful at the same time. When we are perfectly grateful, we will be generous without fault. We cannot begrudge another what we ourselves received as gift.
To be perfectly grateful is to know our place in this world. We are creatures of God and loved by him. Everything we possess was a gift from God, even our own bodies and souls. Even our talents and abilities are reasons not for pride but for thankfulness.
There is no prayer more appropriate for us creatures. Prayers of petition are important, and prayers of praise are proper, but in the prayer of thanksgiving all the rest are summed up. When we give thanks to God we admit the truth: we are dependent on him. We can thank God for every gift he has given us. We can thank God for every struggle that he has not put in our way. We can thank God for the strength to endure the struggles that do confront us. We can thank God for his great glory. We thank God for everything; without him there would be nothing.
How blessed are we to gather as a country each year and give thanks. This holiday transcends any political sentiments or particular religious belief, but, at the same time, it is central to all true religion. To give thanks is to acknowledge the existence of a Creator whom we can thank. We do not merely celebrate how much we have today; we celebrate how much we have been given. Given by whom? By the Creator of all.
Thanksgiving is the most important feast in the Catholic Church. It is more important than Christmas and more important than Easter. This is revealed to us if we say that word, “thanksgiving”, in Greek. The word is “Eucharist”. Every Sunday, indeed every day of the week, we gather in this Church and give thanks. On Christmas and Easter and every other feast day, we gather in the Church and celebrate the Eucharist; we celebrate Thanksgiving. Though our country celebrates Thanksgiving once a year, we celebrate it without end.
What is God looking for from us except thanks? Imagine how proud a parent is the first time they hear their child say, “Thank you, Mommy” or “Thank you, Daddy”. It is a sign that the child is maturing beyond the basic selfishness of infancy. It is impossible to be purely selfish and grateful at the same time. When we are perfectly grateful, we will be generous without fault. We cannot begrudge another what we ourselves received as gift.
To be perfectly grateful is to know our place in this world. We are creatures of God and loved by him. Everything we possess was a gift from God, even our own bodies and souls. Even our talents and abilities are reasons not for pride but for thankfulness.
There is no prayer more appropriate for us creatures. Prayers of petition are important, and prayers of praise are proper, but in the prayer of thanksgiving all the rest are summed up. When we give thanks to God we admit the truth: we are dependent on him. We can thank God for every gift he has given us. We can thank God for every struggle that he has not put in our way. We can thank God for the strength to endure the struggles that do confront us. We can thank God for his great glory. We thank God for everything; without him there would be nothing.
October 29, 2011 - Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
Jesus advice might not work. We could take the lowest spot, over in the corner, but what if no one ever comes to move us up? Also, it could lead to the same kind of hypocrisy as the Pharisees, worse even. Whereas the Pharisees wanted to sit in the best spot and were very explicit about this, Christians could fight for the lowest spot because it is the highest spot. We all want to be caught being humble when no one is looking so that we can be complimented on our humility.
Prescinding, then, from the question of whether this is actually good advice for a wedding banquet, we should consider it as advice for The Wedding Banquet: heaven. St. Luke calls it a parable, after all. What does it mean to take the lowest spot in the heaven? Well, there are two reasons for attending a wedding reception: to honor the couple being married and to enjoy the party. At one end of the spectrum is a wedding crasher, whether invited or not, who does not care about the couple at all. At the other end is someone, perhaps a saintly great-aunt, who attends purely to honor the couple. Most of us fall in the middle: we attend the wedding to honor the couple, but we are disappointed if the food is bad and the music unpleasant and the conversation boring.
So it is with heaven: do we want to go to heaven so that we can praise God forever or so that we can enjoy the delights of heaven? Saints do not want to go to heaven for their own sake, but many people do. For many people, heaven is a reward for having lived this life properly, but for a saint, heaven is where we finally begin to live properly.
One of the important first steps in spiritual maturity is realizing that not I but God is the most important being in existence. I hope heaven will be wonderful, and I know it will be, since God knows how to throw a party and he is very wealthy, but I want to go to heaven not because it will be great for me but because there I will finally praise God perfectly. I do not look forward, primarily, to the good food, and good music, and good company of heaven. I look forward to the good prayer and the good love. That is the lowest place, where there is no self-interest anymore. I want that, or, at least, I want to want that.
Jesus advice might not work. We could take the lowest spot, over in the corner, but what if no one ever comes to move us up? Also, it could lead to the same kind of hypocrisy as the Pharisees, worse even. Whereas the Pharisees wanted to sit in the best spot and were very explicit about this, Christians could fight for the lowest spot because it is the highest spot. We all want to be caught being humble when no one is looking so that we can be complimented on our humility.
Prescinding, then, from the question of whether this is actually good advice for a wedding banquet, we should consider it as advice for The Wedding Banquet: heaven. St. Luke calls it a parable, after all. What does it mean to take the lowest spot in the heaven? Well, there are two reasons for attending a wedding reception: to honor the couple being married and to enjoy the party. At one end of the spectrum is a wedding crasher, whether invited or not, who does not care about the couple at all. At the other end is someone, perhaps a saintly great-aunt, who attends purely to honor the couple. Most of us fall in the middle: we attend the wedding to honor the couple, but we are disappointed if the food is bad and the music unpleasant and the conversation boring.
So it is with heaven: do we want to go to heaven so that we can praise God forever or so that we can enjoy the delights of heaven? Saints do not want to go to heaven for their own sake, but many people do. For many people, heaven is a reward for having lived this life properly, but for a saint, heaven is where we finally begin to live properly.
One of the important first steps in spiritual maturity is realizing that not I but God is the most important being in existence. I hope heaven will be wonderful, and I know it will be, since God knows how to throw a party and he is very wealthy, but I want to go to heaven not because it will be great for me but because there I will finally praise God perfectly. I do not look forward, primarily, to the good food, and good music, and good company of heaven. I look forward to the good prayer and the good love. That is the lowest place, where there is no self-interest anymore. I want that, or, at least, I want to want that.
July 17, 2011 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
So it is with each of us and with every stalk. Until the end
of the age comes when all the useless people, the people who have not loved,
are gathered together and thrown into the fire, we cannot tell the weeds from
the wheat, not because they are difficult to tell apart, but because each weed
is only one kernel of love away from becoming wheat and each stalk of wheat
which loses its fruit will be considered a weed. Until the end, it could go
either way, but until the end, it is never too late to start loving.
Today’s Gospel is another case where Jesus gives a parable
and then explains it himself. This makes the job of preaching both easier and
more difficult. The interpretation is already given to me; how arrogant would I
have to be to come up with a different interpretation of the parable than the
Lord gives, yet I am struggling with the interpretation today because it is not
easy to understand. I wanted to say, after reading the first half of the Gospel,
that the field stands for each one of us and the good seed is the good that God
has put in us and the bad seed is the sin that Satan has put in us and at the
end of time God will only keep what is good and burn away what is bad. I wanted
to say that, but I cannot, because Jesus says differently.
Jesus tells us that the field is the world and the good
plants are the children of the kingdom and the bad plants are the children of
the evil one. At the end of time, the children of the evil one are collected up
and burned. I struggle with understanding this interpretation because it seems
to divide the world so starkly between good people and bad people when most of
us are a mix. I can see the wheat, the saints, and some weeds are pretty clear,
but I do not know where I fall.
We need to examine the parable more closely. When I first
read it, I thought that the enemy had snuck into the field and planted the
weeds among the wheat. I see now that that is not necessarily the case. We are told
that “an enemy has done this”, but we are not told what exactly “this” is that
the enemy did. Indeed, it is not the case that the enemy planted his own seeds.
All human beings are created in God’s image and likeness. There are not two
species of human beings, the good and the bad. Just as all humanity is one, so
the weeds and wheat are one. It is not the case that some of the seed was bad,
as if some people are just bad seeds, as if some people are bad from the
beginning, with no hope of salvation. No. The weeds and the wheat are one. If
we were to check the DNA of the weeds we would find that they are actually
wheat. Nothing else was planted.
So what happened that some of the wheat is referred to as
weeds? The difference between a stalk of wheat and a weed is the fruit, the
kernels of wheat. If a stalk of wheat grew up and never produced any kernels of
wheat, we should call it a weed. So it is that by remaining faithful to the
interpretation that Jesus gives we begin to understand the parable correctly.
Satan does not have the power of creation. He could never create something, not
even something as good as a weed. He is the destroyer. He can only ruin some of
the wheat so that it does not produce fruit.
If you plant a vegetable garden, and one of the bean plants or
one of the rose bushes fails to produce anything at all, what is it but one
large weed? It was a good seed; it has gotten plenty of sunlight and water, but
in the middle of the night your enemy crept up to your garden and poisoned the
plant. It did not die; it still grew up, but it never produces any fruit. This is
what has happened to God’s field.
Now we have a good image of the field! Properly speaking
there is not a single weed in the whole field. Billions of stalks of wheat are
growing, but some are producing fruit and some are not. Some stalks are tall
and thick as tree trunks, full of wheat kernels, more perhaps that seems
possible. There is St. Francis and, next to him, St. Clare. You could feed a village
off each of those stalks of wheat. Now I see the rest of us Christians: some
are growing well, but many of us are sickly stalks, short and thin. Too small
for so late in the season. A few buds perhaps. We will see later whether they
produce any fruit at all. There are other stalks that have no fruit on them.
They are tall and thin and useless.
So let us consider, we stalks of wheat, what is the fruit and
what is the poison. The fruit is the part of a plant that does not exist for
its own sake. The fruit is a gift from the plant to the world. So too with us
people: if we are existing only for ourselves, if we plan our lives, beginning
to end, so that we have what we want and we take everything we can get, are we
not weeds? Our fruit is service for others, which service has at its heart
love. Our fruit is love: love of God and love of neighbor. A human being who
does not love with unselfish love is as useless as a stalk of wheat that does
not produce grains.
I do not know so much about botany to be able to identify
exactly which poison could prevent wheat from producing fruit, but I do know
about the poisons which prevent us from loving. They are Lust, Greed, Gluttony,
Laziness, Envy, Wrath, and Pride. These dangerous poisons have been spilled
throughout the world; our world is like a toxic waste dump. These poisons
course through our arteries, stopping us from loving, from giving unselfishly.
Jesus’ parable and interpretation does not separate the world
into two types of people. All of the wheat was poisoned, except a couple of
stalks. When we see someone growing strong and producing fruit, love beyond measure,
we should know that they did not start out like that. They had the same poisons
in their heart as us, but they overcame all the poisons which prevented them
from fulfilling the purpose of their life.
February 23, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr
We have just repeated in the psalm, “O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.” The psalmist is speaking of the peace which is the foundation of peace in our society: peace within ourselves. This internal peace is founded on the law of God. Until we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, we cannot be at peace, and until we are at peace our society cannot be at peace. Our popular society blames fundamentalism for violence, which is to say that they blame strongly held beliefs for violence. If everyone would calm down, we are led to believe, and be willing to accept that they will not always get their way, we would have peace.
This is not true. Most of the violence in this world comes from selfishness. Behind theft, rape, nearly every murder, and all the other crimes which disturb our peace, lie a selfish motive. We concentrate on the violence that comes from those who claim to be fighting for an ideal, but that is such a minuscule part of the violence in the world. Some people speak as if the elimination of fundamentalism would lead to perfect peace, but they must be ignoring the vast majority of the crimes against peace to believe this. A popular claim by modern atheists is that the elimination of religion would mean a flowering of peace. This is false. Religion, even religions that are deficient in their understanding of the truth, are the greatest contributors to peace in this world. Most religions make a person try to be good, and no one is more peaceful than a good person.
If we could only make every person in the world be good, then we could deal with the philosophical questions like whether and when it is ever a good to use violence. There is a way to have this world peace, but we must begin with peace within ourselves, which comes only from following the law of God: love. Until we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, we will not be at peace, and until we are at peace, it is sort of foolish to hope for world peace.
January 19, 2011 - Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
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