Homily for Ordinary Time 31 - October 31, 2021

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 31

October 31, 2021

Rightly Ordered

 

            Are you one of those people who have a clean desk and a clean car? If so…please teach me how you do it!

            Don’t we all feel better when things are clean, organized, orderly? We can more easily find what we’re looking for. We can get more accomplished. Our life just feels better when it’s organized. I know that if I ever lose my appointment book (yes, I still use a paper book, since I don’t have a smartphone), I feel a tremendous panic until I find it again! When our life is orderly, we have greater freedom and peace.

            And this is why God gave us commandments – to rightly order our lives.

            Consider, all the way back in Exodus, the way in which God gives us the Commandments. He had just led His Chosen People, the Israelites, out of slavery, through the Red Sea, to Mount Sinai. There He gives them the Commandments – not to enslave them in a new way, but to give them the freedom of a life that is ordered properly.

            The proper order of our lives should be: God first, others second, ourselves third. Dis-order enters our lives when we put ourselves first, or when we love ourselves more than others, or even if we love others more than God. No, a rightly ordered life is: God first, others second, ourselves third.

            Hence these two Commandments in the Gospels. The first Commandment is the very core of who we are: love God with our whole heart, whole mind, whole soul. We can’t understand what it means to be human until we have a right relationship with God.

            But, let’s be honest – do we really love God above all things? I think there are three ways to tell if God is our #1, or if we are making anything else an idol: time, sacrifices, and enthusiasm.

            First, how do we spend our time? God asks for one hour per week for Mass, out of 168 hours in the entire week. Less than 1%. If we are too busy to make it to Mass, then we are idolizing something else – is it our work? Our kids’ sports? Our own laziness? If we spend no time in prayer, then God is not #1. Obviously we have to sleep and eat and work for eight hours a day, but that should leave us enough time to give God, not the scraps, but a significant portion of the day. The first litmus test, then, for whether God is first in our life is do we give Him time?

            Second, what are we willing to sacrifice for? There’s a great true story about a woman who was getting ready to go to church, and she noticed her husband sitting on the couch in his pajamas, reading the newspaper. She said to him, “Aren’t you going to church this morning?” He replied grumpily, “Nah, I don’t like that new priest.” She replied, “Well you also said you don’t like that new bartender, but you sure as heck haven’t stopped going there!” People are willing to put up with a lot for things they love – athletes will give up desserts to get in shape, but will they fast from dessert for the sake of growing closer to the Lord? People will give up sleep to work hard on a project, but will they give up sleep to pray a Rosary? What we sacrifice for is what we love.

            Third, what do we get enthusiastic about? Think about the NFL. Have you ever seen those fans who paint their bodies and wear cheese-heads and scream into the camera and live and breathe their team? These same guys, who are so enthusiastic about football, you take them to Mass and I say, “The Lord be with you!” And they respond grumbling, “And with your spirit.” Where’s the enthusiasm? Can there be anything greater than to love the Lord, to seek everlasting life? A football game lasts for a few hours, but seeking the Lord is a life-long adventure that lasts into eternity. Following Christ isn’t boring at all – it’s the most exciting quest to conquer our vices, to develop a deep interior life of prayer, to fight the devil, to help the Lord Jesus on His mission of bringing the world to Heaven – I can’t think of anything that makes me more excited!

            So – let’s go back to that idea of ordering our life of God first, others second, ourselves third. Only if God is truly first will we be able to love others well. Mother Teresa used to tell her nuns that before they served the poorest of the poor – people who were literally starving to death in the slums of Calcutta – they had to first spend an hour before the Eucharist, the True Presence of Jesus Christ. She said, “Let us first see Christ hidden in the Eucharist, so we can then see Christ hidden in the distressing disguise of the poor.” Only if Christ lives in us can we see Christ living in others.

            In fact, Mother Teresa is a perfect example of living out these two Commandments. We all know her as the great humanitarian, who worked with the poor. But what motivated her? At eighteen years old, she left her home country of Albania to become a nun in India, working in a school for wealthy girls. But as Mother Teresa grew in her daily prayer, she made a promise to Jesus to “never refuse Him anything.” That’s a dangerous prayer – but one that can only come from a heart that loves the Lord more than anything.

            One day, she was on a train ride to the mountains, when Jesus spoke to her heart very clearly. He said, “Will you bring My light to the poorest of the poor?” Remembering her vow, she courageously said yes and left the school with nothing but the clothes on her back. That first person she encountered, the man dying in the gutters of Calcutta with maggots crawling around in his sores – that was Christ in disguise. Only because she loved God so intensely could pick him up, clean out his wounds, and allow him to die in dignity and peace. That first man soon became thousands upon thousands that she helped, spurred on by her love for God. Hers was a rightly-ordered life – God first, others second, herself third.

            And you know what? Mother Teresa radiated incredible joy. In every picture, she is smiling with a joy the world cannot explain.

            Because that’s what happens when our life is in the right order: God first, others second, ourselves third.

Homily for Ordinary Time 29 - October 17, 2021

 

Homily for October 17, 2021

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ransom

 

            During World War II, there was a fighter pilot named Vivian Rosewarne from the Royal Air Force of England who flew multiple successful missions. He never ceased to be amazed by the grandeur of the sky and the world from his vantage point 20,000 feet above the ground. Despite his success as a fighter pilot, he knew his days were numbered, as more and more of his comrades were shot down on mission. In the last letter he wrote home to his mother, he shared his premonition that he would be shot down soon, but he told his mother not to worry. Instead, he penned these immortal words: “The universe is so vast and ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice.”

            Yes, in the grand scheme of history, our lives are so, so small. Walk through a graveyard and look at the graves – do you know any of those names? Those people who thought they were so important while alive are not even remembered today. Truly, our lives are only justified by what we sacrifice for.

            But our sacrifices are nothing compared to Christ’s sacrifice. If an innocent person dies, it is a tragedy – but if a guilty criminal dies, people often say, “Well, they deserve it.” But we are the guilty ones – Christ is the Innocent One. Our second reading says that Jesus is the only one among us without sin, but He took on Himself the guilt and shame, the punishment that should have been ours. It was our death He endured; our sufferings that He embraced. This is why He could say in the Gospel that His mission was to “give His life as a ransom for many.”

            Last week my homily was about the mercy of God – but mercy has a cost. The cost of mercy is the Blood of Jesus Christ. The price of our reconciliation to God is the death of His Son. What lavish and outrageous love – to ransom us criminals, God gave away His innocent Son!

            In the light of such an enormous sacrifice, there are two responses we should have. First, gratitude. Our entire lives should be one of gratitude. The Father was not obligated to send His Son; He could have just given up on the human race. The Son did not have to die for us, but His abundant love wanted to give it all. Every day we ought to thank Him for such a reckless love.

            And the best way to thank Him is through the Mass. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek word eucharistia, which literally means “thanksgiving”. One day St. Theresa of Avila was so overwhelmed with the goodness of God – she considered the beauty of creation, the goodness of her family and friends, the consolation of her Catholic faith, the promise of everlasting life – and she cried out to the Lord, “Lord, how can I ever thank you for everything You have done?” Jesus spoke to her and said, “If you wish to thank Me, attend one Mass.”

            When we attend Mass, we offer God the perfect thanksgiving – the perfect eucharistia – for such extravagant love He showed us on the Cross.

            But in addition to gratitude, such a sacrifice invites us to imitate His example. St. Paul tells us to “make our bodies living sacrifices” – to imitate His sacrifice by laying down our lives. I think of the beautiful example of St. Maximilian Kolbe, one of the most popular saints of the twentieth centuries. He was a Polish priest during the Nazi occupation, and was arrested because he was an outspoken critic of the Nazis. During his imprisonment in Auschwitz, he continued to exercise his priestly ministry by hearing confessions, praying with the men, and encouraging them.

            One man in his cell block escaped from the camp, and in retaliation, the Nazi guards ordered all the men in his cell to stand at attention as they went down the line and selected 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker. When the guards pulled out a certain man, he fell to his knees and cried out, “I have a wife; I have children! Please don’t take me!”

            From out of the line stepped Fr. Maximilian Kolbe. He said, “I will take that man’s place.” The guards were stunned – no one had ever volunteered to enter the starvation bunker before. They accepted the exchange, and Fr. Kolbe and nine men entered the underground cement bunker.

            Every day, the Nazi guards would check on the men, but instead of hearing them crying out for mercy, Fr. Kolbe led them in singing and prayers. Finally, he was the last of the ten men to die, serenely and peacefully. The man whom he gave his life for? He was rescued from Auschwitz and was present in Rome when Pope John Paul II named Maximilian Kolbe a saint.

            A man’s life is measured by his sacrifice. But all of our sacrifices are tiny compared with the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. With a love so profound, how can we do anything less than live a life of gratitude, imitating His example of self-giving love.

Homily for Ordinary Time 28 - October 10, 2021

 

Homily for October 10, 2021

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Bad Archery

 

            After Pope Francis was elected, in his first interview he was asked the question, “Holy Father, who are you? If you had to define who you were, what would you say?” He responded, “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”

            What a beautiful description! It is both a humble recognition of our weakness, but unbounded trust in His mercy. “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”

            But many modern people don’t see themselves as sinners. Sometimes we think we are good people. But listen to Jesus’ challenging words in the Gospel: “No one is good but God alone!” St. Paul teaches us in the book of Romans that “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

            The Greek word for sin is “hamartia”, which is an archery term meaning “falling short”. It’s when we aim for the target but miss. What is the target we are aiming at? Jesus. When we look to Him, we realize that all of us fall short of being like Jesus. Instead we often compare ourselves with others: “Oh, at least I’m not as bad as that guy…I’m not as hateful as my mother-in-law…I’m such a mess compared with her, she’s got it all together.” But that’s not helpful, because the comparison isn’t with this person or that person – it is the comparison to Christ – which helps remind us that we all fall short – we are all sinners in the need of God’s mercy.

            But, we may say with the young man in the Gospel, “But I keep all the commandments!” Sure, we may not have killed – but have we harbored anger in our hearts? We may not have committed adultery, but have we always been pure with our thoughts? We may not have stolen, but have we been as generous as we ought? Sometimes our sins aren’t things that we’ve done (which we call sins of commission) but rather things that we haven’t done (sins of omission). Neglect of prayer, holding back a kind word, trying to get out of an unpleasant chore, not being aware of the poor and needy…these too prevent us from becoming like Jesus Christ.

            All of this reflection on our sinfulness should not cause us to despair, though. The Apostles felt like despairing when Jesus said that this young man, who had done everything right, still wasn’t perfect – the Apostles exclaimed, in despair, “Who can be saved?!” But Jesus responds, “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible!” He is making the point that we cannot save ourselves through our own efforts – it is only by fully entrusting ourselves to God’s mercy that we will be saved.

            And His mercy is most lavishly granted in the Sacrament of Confession. How long has it been since you’ve gone? A year, five years, fifty years? Some of us have been carrying burdens of guilt and shame and hurt that could easily be healed if we bring it to Confession. Confession is not to make us feel horrible about ourselves as “lousy sinners” – no, as Fr. Mike Schmitz says, “Confession is a place of victory!” It is a place where the healing medicine of the Cross is applied to our wounds, where we get to partake in a share of Christ’s victory over sin.

             Personally, I go to Confession every 3 weeks. I always leave feeling lighter, freer, cleansed, renewed. I receive the grace to help me overcome temptation and to become more Christ-like. No one would go a year without showering, so if we clean our bodies every day (and our bodies will someday be buried in the ground), we should clean our souls regularly too, since they will live for eternity!

            I want to urge you this weekend to take advantage of the Sacrament of Confession. It will be offered after Mass today, in the cry room/day chapel. If you don’t know what to confess (or how to confess!) we have booklets on the table with an Examination of Conscience and how to go to Confession. Even if it’s been years, do not be afraid. It is completely anonymous, and the Church has always taught that there is an unbreakable “Seal of Confession” – where the priest can never, ever tell anything that has been said in Confession. So have no fear – Confession is where our misery meets God’s mercy.

            We are all indeed sinners who, through the Sacrament of Confession, the Lord has looked upon with mercy.