Ordinary Time 29 - October 22, 2017

Homily for October 22, 2017

Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Give to Caesar the Refashioned Image of God

            Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, was founded as a Catholic college, but as happens all too often it quickly lost its mission in the crazy drug-and-sex culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In fact, in the 1970s, Playboy Magazine ranked Franciscan University in their top-25 Party Schools…a rather dubious honor! The school was quickly dying – one of the residence halls had a “For Sale” sign in front of it, enrollment was dropping, and they were deeply in debt.

            In 1974, the board of directors needed a new president for this sinking ship, and four candidates interviewed for the job. Only one candidate wanted to keep the school open, so they gave the job to him. This young Franciscan priest, Fr. Michael Scanlan, was faced with a monumental task – how do you save a university?

            He started in one place only: on his knees. His secretary used to complain that Fr. Scanlan wouldn’t come into work until 11am. Was he lazy? Taking the morning off? No, he was in the chapel, asking God for His will. And His will seemed a bit daring at times! Fr. Scanlan felt that the Holy Spirit was telling him to do some radical things – he eliminated all NCAA D-I Sports and dissolved the fraternities and sororities, knowing that sports teams along with Greek life were bringing the culture of lust and drugs onto the campus. The first Sunday on campus, Fr. Michael found that only six students attended Mass. So did he make the Mass shorter? No, he began to make it longer – preaching dynamic homilies, with vibrant music. He ripped down the “For-Sale” sign and began to hire faculty who were men and women with a deep relationship with the Lord, faithful to the Catholic Church.

            All of these changes worked only because Fr. Scanlan was a man of prayer. The school is now filled to capacity – I had the blessing to graduate from there, and today there are between 600-800 students attending daily Mass! Over 700 graduates have gone on to become priests or nuns, and it has the largest undergraduate theology program in the country. It wasn’t Fr. Scanlan’s solutions that solved the problems at Franciscan University – it was God’s solutions, which were brought about through the holiness of Fr. Scanlan.

            Jesus tells us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s. But how often have we put our trust, not in God’s solutions, but in our own? We see the world in a messy state: poverty, racism, abuse, abortion, depression, broken families…what is the solution? Is it more politics? Should we just throw more money at these problems?

            Politics will not save us. Money will not save us. Caesar cannot save us. The only thing that can save us is to return to God. Only His grace can save us. This is not a platitude – it is a fact, because all of our efforts to change the world apart from God are futile. As the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, once said, “The only people who truly change the world are saints.”

            This idea of “image” in today’s Gospel puts two things in radical contrast. Jesus asks for a coin, and asks whose image is on it. It is the image of Caesar, but in Jesus’ day, the Roman Emperor considered himself divine. So here, on this coin, is the image of a pagan god. But by contrast, there is something that bears the image of the true God – human beings. Genesis reveals that we are made in God’s image and likeness. So we are the currency that God wishes to use to change the world.

            But wait a moment – have you ever wondered why we talk about “image AND likeness”? Are they different? Yes, they are. Imagine that you are holding a very dirty penny. It’s so darkened and worn-down that you can barely make out what it says. You know that it is the image of Lincoln, but it really isn’t a very good likeness. Or picture some modern art. Sometimes you go to a modern art gallery and you see three lines on a canvas, and they tell you that it’s supposed to look like a beautiful sunset, and you say, “Well, supposedly it may be an image of a sunset, but it really doesn’t look much like it!”

            In the same way, we are all created in God’s image. But sometimes we don’t think or act very much like God. We can obscure His likeness by sin, error, lies, evil. His grace, however, can refashion that image within us. In fact, that is the entire point of life – to refashion the image of Christ within us, through our union with Him in grace.

            These two coins: the secular coin with the image of Caesar – that coin of worldly power and money; or the coin of a soul in the state of grace, in the image and likeness of God – which one will save the world? Which one will solve the world’s problems? Not politics or money – only men and women transformed by grace. When we become serious about holiness and seeking God, then will our country be changed.

            I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes, from a sixteenth-century Spanish saint, St. Peter of Alacantra, who said: “Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.”

Homily for Ordinary Time 28 - October 15, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 15, 2017

Heaven Is Where God is Being Enjoyed

            Just recently, a very unique new reality TV show aired in England. The premise was simple – take four party girls and offer them a chance for a two week “spiritual journey”. The four girls agreed to be part of it, but it turns out that the spiritual journey was a two-week stay in a convent of nuns!

            At first, the girls were not happy about that! Two weeks of living like a nun? Praying every day? Having a schedule, no music but chant, no parties and no alcohol? Worst of all – no men? They were reluctant - but it was amazing to see the transformations! After the two weeks of praying, eating, and working alongside other nuns, they left changed. One of the girls – a former nightclub dancer – is now volunteering with the homeless. Another one said, “Those two weeks were the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.” The show is called “Bad Habits, Holy Orders” – you can watch it online.

            Why were they so happy? Because for the first time, they felt like they were loved. The girls said that they felt like they constantly had to pretend to be someone they weren’t (one girl spent over $60,000 on makeup, clothes and accessories last year). They felt like they had to get drunk and sleep with men in order to feel loved. But in the convent, they experienced what it was like to truly be loved for the first time for who they were – and it was life-changing!

            Heaven is going to be a lot like that. We’ll finally know that we are loved, and loved completely. I feel like our vision of Heaven is often not very good – it’s pictured as a place where we sit on clouds strumming harps. Pretty boring, but surely better than Hell. But wait – Heaven isn’t boring at all. Look at the image we get in Scripture – Heaven will be a wedding feast. I hope you haven’t been bored at a wedding feast – it’s usually quite a celebration with good conversation, dancing, great food…a place for family and friends to gather in joy and conviviality. Why should Heaven be any less? It will be a place where we are finally at home – loved by God and by others for who we are, not for what we look like or what we’ve accomplished or our bank account or our many masks we hide behind.

            Consider this analogy. Imagine that you begin to be pen pals with someone in another country. You start writing letters back and forth, and through the letters, you start to truly love this person. You send small gifts to them and they always send beautiful, expensive, valuable gifts to you. You have seen pictures of them, heard stories of their life, heard about their friends and family and their life in the foreign land. For years, decades, you correspond daily. They have told you in so many ways that they love you and care for you deeply. You feel like you know this person and love this person more than your own family. Finally, after years of this, you get to meet this person. Can you imagine the joy at this meeting? Imagine how much you will want to be in their presence!

            And this is Heaven. For your entire life, God has been trying to send you messages of love. Yes, you have never seen Him, but you have heard His stories, read His letters in the Scriptures, received His gifts such as the gift of His Body and Blood, and you have desired to see Him. In Heaven, we will finally meet Him face-to-face, and get to spend eternity with the only One who loves and delights in us perfectly. We call this the Beatific Vision – seeing God, which is the greatest joy of Heaven!

            But Heaven is only for those who choose it. God invites – but we must respond. Notice that some people who are invited to this wedding feast are too busy – that is a symbol of those who don’t care about the Lord, are apathetic toward faith. Some people kill the servants – a symbol of those who hate God, and try to destroy the Catholic faith. Some people arrive at the feast but are not allowed in because they are not dressed in wedding garments – a symbol of those who say they love God, but their evil actions show differently. Only those who are wearing a wedding garment (lived a life of holiness) and have accepted the invitation (through faith in God) are allowed to enter the banquet.

            But the good news is that we do not have to die to begin Heaven. As a wise priest once told me, “Heaven is where God is being enjoyed.” And that begins here, as we can live our everyday, ordinary lives in union with God. It’s not hard – just love Him, serve Him, seek Him. Living in union with God brought healing and joy to four party girls – why not you?

Ordinary Time 26 - October 1, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 26

October 1, 2017

Welcome, But Call to Repentance

            I was alarmed when the headline read, “Progressive Criticizes Jesus for Not Being Christlike.” The article spoke about a millennial who wrote a blog post about how Jesus didn’t act nearly as Christian as she had hoped, since He spoke a lot about a pesky thing called sin, which, as she pointed out, just isn’t very welcoming or inclusive.

            Luckily that headline came from a satire news website called the Babylon Bee (a very funny site which I frequently read!). But behind every bit of satire and irony is a great deal of truth. And the truth is, some people would like to remake Jesus in their own image.

            In a particular way, as Americans we’d like to think that Jesus welcomed people just the way they are. We love to talk about the value of inclusiveness and acceptance, and how God loves us unconditionally. And all this is true, to a point. God does love us no matter what we do – we never need to earn His love, and we can never lose it. Jesus is indeed a Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to welcome the one lost sheep who was an outcast. He came to touch the leper, welcome the foreigner, and reach out to those on the margins.

            But His welcome is only half of the story. As Adrian Rogers said, “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” He doesn’t just touch the leper, He heals him. He doesn’t just find the lost sheep – He brings the lost sheep back into the flock. He doesn’t just welcome sinners – He calls sinners to repentance, and gives them the grace to be holy.

Doesn’t He talk about the goodness of tax collectors and prostitutes in today’s Gospel? No, actually He doesn’t. He praises them because they listened to John the Baptist, and put into practice his teachings. And what did John the Baptist come to preach? Repent. Turn from sin. Yes, these people started off as sinners, but once they received the grace of repentance, they became saints. The tax collectors gave up their greed; the prostitutes gave up their lust – unlike the Pharisees, who are ostensibly religious people but who are still living a life of sin.

So we need to be careful when we speak about Jesus being welcoming. Yes, He welcomes all, and He loves us always. But His love wants us to become better than we are, to live a more abundant life in Him. He is constantly calling you and me to repentance. The first words that are recorded of Jesus in the Gospel are, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Repent!

St. Francis of Assisi called this “constant conversion” – every day seeking to turn our lives more over to Jesus, to become more like Him through intimate communion with Him. Sin blocks that intimate communion. It’s like our heart and blood vessels. The heart is constantly trying to pump blood into our body, but if our arteries are clogged, it won’t work well. Jesus is constantly trying to pump His divine life into us, but sometimes our spiritual connection with Him is clogged by sin which prevents us from living with His life in us. We must clean out the sin through repentance before we can fully receive the gift of a life transformed by Christ.

That’s why I love the stories of saints who started off as serious sinners. They show us that with repentance from sin, God’s grace can make us great saints. (Story of St. Mary of Egypt).

So, I leave you with a challenge. What is one sin that God is asking you to repent of? Maybe it will take a while to fully root it out of your life, but identifying it and asking for His strength is a major first step. This week, think about what God wants you to repent of, and make a resolution to repent so that His divine life may flow into you more fully and make you holy.