Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 9, 2016

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 9, 2016

Sacramentals – Seeing Is Believing

 

            Let’s go back to the first reading today. The prophet Elisha does an amazing miracle, healing Naaman, the Syrian, of his leprosy by bathing in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman, being a rich official of the Syrian king, offers fine gifts, but the prophet refuses. So Naaman asks for a very strange thing – he wants to take back two mule-loads of earth back to Syria.

            Why would he want hundreds of pounds of dirt? It’s very simple – God did something amazing in his life, and he wanted some way to remember God’s incredible works.

            Think about it – don’t we often take souvenirs from awesome experiences? If I go to a baseball game, I always hope to bring home a foul ball, which helps me remember the great game. If we go to the Eiffel Tower, we bring back photographs, postcards, maybe a little statuette of the landmark. Why do we do this? Because we want to remember the great places we’ve been, the amazing experiences that we’ve had.

             So Naaman wanted to remember all of God’s works – hence, he brings home some of the Holy Land.

            We, too, need things to help us remember the great works of God. Christ gave us seven specific ways in which we remember the great works of God – we call them sacraments. But many of the Sacraments are limited in time and space – we only get baptized once, and we have to come to church to encounter the Eucharist. We need more frequent reminders of the Lord’s mighty deeds!

            Thus, the Church gives us sacramentals. Sacramentals are things that remind us of our Faith. They include things like crucifixes, holy statues, the Rosary, holy water. These sacramentals can be used by all of us, anytime, to remember God’s mighty deeds.

            Many non-Catholics think that these sacramentals are superstition. And, certainly, they are not meant to replace faith and a righteous life. But we recognize the old truism: “Out of sight, out of mind.” If we aren’t constantly reminded about God’s great works, we will forget about Him!

            For example, the crucifix reminds me of Christ’s death on the Cross, and how His death purchased my salvation. Having holy water in my home reminds me of baptism, and how His Spirit now dwells within me. Seeing a statue of Our Lady reminds me that she is always ready to intercede for us. Wearing a scapular reminds me of God’s constant presence as my Creator.

            We all need things to remind us of “God’s wondrous deeds,” as our Psalm puts it. St. Jerome, for example, used to keep a skull on his desk at all times to remind him of the shortness of life (whose skull was it? I wonder!). St. Francis of Assisi was praying before a crucifix when he heard God’s call to “rebuild His Church.” St. Padre Pio would tell his friends, “Bring me my weapon!” when referring to his Rosary, as the Rosary is a powerful weapon against evil.

            We, too, ought to fill our homes and our lives with blessed Sacramentals. Every room in the house should have a crucifix and holy pictures in it. Consider this: let’s say you have a bad day. You come home from work or school and you crash on your couch. If you have an ocean landscape on your wall, you may start to dream about your next vacation, which is fine…but it doesn’t help you in the long run. But if you have a crucifix on your wall, you will be reminded that Christ loves you and is with you in your suffering, and you are able to offer your suffering up to Him as a sacrifice and thereby grow in holiness. All because of a sacramental!

            My friends, fill your lives with sacramentals – reminders of God’s mighty deeds!

Homily for Ordinary Time 26 - Sept. 25, 2016

Homily for Ordinary Time 26

September 25, 2016

Dead Conscience

 

            St. Dominic Savio, the schoolboy saint, one time came upon his friends all huddled in a corner of the schoolyard looking intently at a magazine. He came over to see what was up, and was horrified to see that the magazine contained impure images. Without a second thought, he grabbed it out of its owner’s hands and ripped it to shreds right there on the playground.

            The boys protested, saying, “Hey, that’s our book!”

            But St. Dominic replied, “Is that what God gave you eyes for? To look at bad pictures?”

            One of the boys said, “Oh, it was just for fun. What’s so wrong about looking at it?”

            To which the saint shot back, “If you don’t see anything wrong, that’s even worse! It means you’re used to looking at shameful things!”

            God gave us our consciences in order to lead us to right and wrong. But it’s very possible to ignore our consciences, or deaden them so that evil things no longer bother us.

            This is what happened in today’s Gospel. I’m sure that at first, the rich man felt a pang of guilt for completely ignoring Lazarus at his doorstep. He might have been embarrassed by his riches, maybe feeling ashamed for being so selfish. But after a while, as he continued to ignore his conscience, the guilt dissipated. It didn’t even register on his conscience that this human being, this child of God, was starving outside his door, having his wounds licked by dogs. The rich man had killed his conscience!

            Psychologists today often say that guilt is a neurosis; they say that to feel guilty is an unhealthy reaction. Although it is possible to have unhealthy guilt, most guilt that we feel is quite healthy indeed! Guilt is our conscience telling us that we need to change our lives and repent of our sin.

            CS Lewis once said, “If you live differently than you believe, then you will soon begin to believe the way you live.” For example, let’s say that a person knows that telling a lie is wrong, but does it anyway and feels guilty about it. He will soon be faced with a choice: either stop lying, or stop believing that lying is wrong. If it’s the latter case, then he changed his beliefs to fit his lifestyle.

            I see this all the time as a priest. People don’t go to Mass and feel guilty – so they have to rationalize it and say, “Well, I don’t believe it’s a mortal sin to miss Mass.” People commit impure actions and feel bad about it. They can either repent or rationalize it away, saying, “Oh, it’s no big deal, everybody does it.” If they rationalize it away, then they have killed their conscience!

            So, what are we to do to make sure our conscience is alive, leading us to God? First, we must form our consciences. We must study the teaching of Christ and the Church to know what is right and wrong. It’s not the role of our consciences to decide right and wrong for ourselves – rather, our consciences apply the teachings of Christ and the Church to specific situations in our life. An example might make this clear: Christ clearly teaches through His Church that gossip is wrong. Our conscience doesn’t determine that. But our conscience determines whether this particular incident where we had to speak about our friend to another friend was actually gossip, or whether it was a necessary conversation we needed to have to ask their advice. That’s the role of conscience – to apply moral teachings to particular situations.

            Secondly, we must examine our consciences daily. Usually done before bedtime, that means going over our day to see where we fell short of loving God and our neighbor. If we examine our conscience daily, we will sharpen our conscience and discover small faults that we never knew we had. If we take care of the small faults, they won’t grow into big ones! Our conscience is like a muscle – if we use it daily, it will grow stronger. But if we neglect it for a length of time, it will grow dull…and perhaps wither and die!

            Thirdly, we ought to be wise about what influences us. When I was a teen I fell in with a group of friends who were great people, except they cursed…A LOT. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were all destined for the military with their foul language! The first few times I was around them, I found their language shocking…but little by little, I became accustomed to it, and soon I found myself indulging in their bad words. That wasn’t good! Our consciences can be dulled simply by what’s around us. If we play violent video games, we will quickly stop being horrified by violence; if we look at sexually explicit material, we will soon find it mundane. And that is a terrible thing, because it means we’ve become so accustomed to sin that it doesn’t shock us anymore! So, to keep our consciences alive and well, we ought to control what we watch, listen to, and who influences us.

            As evidenced by the Gospel, ignoring our consciences comes with a great risk…the risk of eternal damnation. For this reason, we ought to listen carefully to our conscience, as it is the voice of God in our soul, leading us along the path of holiness.

Homily for Ordinary Time 25 - September 18, 2016

Ordinary Time 25

September 18, 2016

Only Saints Can Save Us

 

            Corrupt government. Entertainment that glorifies violence. Fear of terrorism. High taxes, extreme debt. Every sort of sexual perversion encouraged. Breakup of the family. Immigrants bringing in their bad habits and vices. Uncontrolled greed. A nation divided.

            Of course I’m talking about the Roman Empire in the late 300s. All of these problems – and more – caused the breakup of the greatest empire the world had ever seen. They had been corrupted from within, and attacked from without. Finally, the Roman Empire fell, attacked by barbarian hordes and unruly citizens.

            But from the rubble of the greatest nation on earth arose an unlikely survivor – Catholicism, which began to flourish and spread. Under the pagan Roman Empire, Christianity was persecuted, sometimes violently – in fact, over 10,000 Christians were killed in the Coliseum alone. But as Tertullian said, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians” – and through the sacrifice of these heroic men and women who gave their lives for Jesus Christ, Catholicism continued to grow stronger.

            It was truly Catholicism that saved civilization. Order, learning, literacy, art, music, science, and even civilization itself was in danger of being destroyed once the Roman Empire fell. But the Church – in particular, the monasteries – began to preserve and enhance it. Monks and nuns throughout the fifth, sixth, seventh centuries wrote books, started schools, composed music, and preserved civilization from becoming completely defunct.

            It was martyr-saints who grew Christianity. It was monastic saints who, through Christianity, saved civilization. And in today’s day and age, only saints again will save the world.

            In many ways our world is similar to that of the declining Roman Empire. All of the problems I mentioned at the beginning are problems that the declining American empire also faces. So let us apply what St. Paul said in our second reading to our current situation.

            First, St. Paul urges prayers for those in authority. We’re very good at complaining about politics and our government, but have we actually prayed for them? Our president and Supreme Court justices and congressmen and women are human beings, souls, persons who have been created in God’s image and who can be redeemed by Jesus’ Blood. And I guarantee that if our nation’s leaders become better disciples, the entire nation would benefit. So, while we complain about our leaders, do we pray for them? St. Paul tells us to!

            I would wager that our leaders do not only include government but also leaders in media. TV personalities, pop singers, movie stars, journalists – all of these people shape our culture and our civilization. But when’s the last time we prayed for them? St. Paul goes on to say that God desires ALL men to come to salvation – He wants you and me and Justin Bieber and Donald Trump and that man in prison who committed an unspeakable crime and that annoying neighbor who plays their music too loud – He wants all of us to become saints.

            That means we have to do two things. First, we have to become saints ourselves. St. Paul tells us that his desire is for us to live a life of “devotion and dignity”, where we live a life of prayer and sacrifice and love. Mother Teresa was once asked by a reporter, “What do you think needs to change in the world?” She answered, “You and I.” As Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia once wrote, “The only people who ever really change the world are saints.” St. Francis said something similar: “Sanctify yourself, and you will sanctify society.” If we allow God’s grace to transform us and make us holy, that will change the world!

            My brother Patrick is studying for the priesthood, and recently he began his studies in Rome. He has to stay in Rome for the next two years without coming home at all, and he was telling me how tough this was. His heart is burning to make a difference, to preach the Gospel, to lead souls to Christ – and here he is, hidden from the world, only studying and praying. But I told him – work on becoming a saint, make that your goal and let every choice of every day be directed towards that goal, and you WILL be changing the world. Even if you live alone with very little interaction, even if you think your life is too small to make much of a difference, I guarantee that your love for Jesus, your small and hidden sacrifices, your prayers make a tremendous difference that we will only know in eternity.

            In addition to becoming saints ourselves, we must pray and fast for the salvation of others. God desires all men to be saved, but that does not mean that all will accept His invitation. We believe that as believers in Jesus, we are part of His Mystical Body, which means that we cooperate with Him in saving souls and bringing His grace to others. We do this by our witness and words, but even more so by our prayers and sacrifices. So pray and fast – for people in authority, for famous people, for sinners, for friends and benefactors, for those who’ve left the Church, for the souls in Purgatory. God has so designed it that, at times, He waits for us to request grace for others, to allow us the privilege of participating in His saving work!

            With everything that’s going on in our nation and our world…only Jesus can save us. But Jesus wants to save America by transforming you and me into Him, through grace…He wants to make us saints. The world was saved after the fall of the Roman Empire by saints. And people living lives of holiness is the only thing that can save us now.

Homily for Ordinary Time 24 - September 11, 2016

Ordinary Time 24

September 11, 2016

Mercy’s Price

 

            Archery is a great sport – I used to do quite a bit of it in Boy Scouts. There’s nothing more satisfying than pulling back a bow and watching your arrow launch toward the target. But it’s very challenging – it’s hard to aim it just right, and a lot of times your arrow will fall short or overshoot the target. Taking your eyes off the bulls eye or losing focus will cause the arrow to go in unintended direction.

            The Greek word for sin is “hamartia” – which literally means, “missing the mark”. It’s an archery term for shooting at something but falling short. And sin is falling short – sin is settling for less than holiness. Most often, we sin when we take our eyes off of the target – the goal is to become a saint, to be with God for eternity in Heaven. We lose focus in life and start to pursue lesser goods – like money or comfort or pleasure or the esteem of our friends – instead of pursuing the highest good, love of God and neighbor.

            Consider the Israelites in the first reading. The Israelites had just seen God do absolutely remarkable things – He freed them from slavery in Egypt through these miraculous ten plagues, led them through the Red Sea, fought for them, made a holy Covenant with them. But the Israelites had forgotten the good works of the Lord, and began to worship a golden calf! As one Scripture scholar put it so well, “It was easy to bring Israel out of Egypt; it was much harder to bring Egypt out of Israel!” – in other words, physically removing Israel from Egypt was easy, but the bad habits that Israel had formed in Egypt would take much longer to cure. Those bad habits were habits of sin – particularly the sin of idolatry.

            And isn’t every sin a form of idolatry? When we choose to tell a lie, we’re choosing ourselves and our comfort over God’s laws. If we choose impurity, we make pleasure a god. Many people worship many things other than God: sports, sleeping in, work, money, sexual license, technology…we often choose these false gods instead of the true God. Thus, all sin is idolatry.

            All of us have sinned. No matter how good our life has been, as St. Paul puts it in Romans, “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” None of us have hit the target exactly – and we can never do so on our own strength. That’s why we need the mercy of God.

            We hear in the Gospels these beautiful parables about God’s mercy. And indeed, His mercy is endless. But God’s mercy comes at a price. We believe that God is also perfectly just – therefore, all of our sins need to be atoned for. Mercy was purchased with the price of Jesus Christ’s blood!

Do we realize the tremendous price He paid for our sins? Do we realize the cost of His forgiveness? I remember thinking as I was watching Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ” – “Gosh, after watching this movie, I never want to sin again!”

I’ve often heard old spiritual writers – and some of you may remember nuns from Catholic school telling you – that our sins “offend” God. I don’t particularly like that language, but I agree with the idea behind it – the idea that our sins DO affect God. They affect Him because He is a good Father and He grieves to see us turn from Him. They affect Him because He paid such a high price for our salvation, and our sins demonstrate ingratitude for the death of His Son.

Back in 1939, there was a group of young boys in France who were being forced to go to Confession and they really didn’t want to go. They decided they’d have a little fun – they convinced one of their friends, a Jewish boy, to go in and make up bizarre sins. The boy went in and started to tell the most outlandish, ridiculous made-up sins you would ever hear, trying hard not to laugh the whole time. But the priest was a wise and holy man, and he said, “For your penance, I want you to go before the Crucifix and say three times to Jesus, ‘You did all this for me, and I don’t give a damn.’” The boy thought this was pretty easy, so he left the confessional and stood boldly before the Crucifix. The first time he said it was courage, “Jesus, You did all this for me, and I don’t give a damn!” But then reality set in, he said a little more quietly, “Jesus, You did all this for me, and I don’t give a damn?” On his last time, he could only get out, “Jesus, You did all this for me!” before he broke down in tears. He went back and asked for baptism – and this boy grew up to be a priest and the Cardinal of Paris, France until his death in 2007 (Cardinal Aaron Jean-Marie Lustiger).

Consider, next time you are tempted to sin – THIS (the Cross) is the price of mercy.