Homily for Ordinary Time 7 - February 20, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 7

February 20, 2022

Love Your Enemies

 

            Daryl Davis is a truly gifted Black jazz musician…whose life was forever altered by a chance meeting in a bar where he was playing. After his set, a man approached him and complimented him on his playing, and the two began chatting. A couple of beers later, the man admitted to Daryl that he was part of the KKK, and Daryl began to wonder what made people join an organization that is based in such hatred for blacks.

            So he began a personal quest to answer that question. From this man, he got the contact information of the Imperial Wizard of the KKK, Roger Kelly. He called Roger out-of-the-blue and asked for a meeting, under the pretext that Daryl was writing a book on the KKK. The two met – and Roger was quite surprised to find that Daryl was black. But over the course of several meetings, the two became unlikely friends, and eventually Roger left the KKK and turned his robes over to Daryl, apologizing for his racism and asking Daryl to be his daughter’s godfather.

            Daryl has made it his life’s mission to stop hatred through friendship. He has befriended dozens of KKK members and over 200 members have left the Klan through his influence. His actions are not without controversy, though. Another African-American activist called him once to tell him to stop wasting his time with people who hate him, saying that white supremacists can’t change. But Daryl’s success proves the opposite – when you love your enemies, there is a transformation: both in the enemy, and in you.

            “Love your enemies” – one of the most difficult teachings of Christ. Why should we love our enemies, and how should we love our enemies? (And when I speak about enemies, I include anyone that we don’t like, people we find difficult to be around).

            We should love our enemies for three reasons. First, because they are made in the image and likeness of God. St. John asks a poignant question in his letter in the Bible: “How can we love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother that we do see?” That person standing in front of us, no matter how obnoxious or difficult or evil, carries within him the imprint of God. That annoying, bad person has the capability to be a saint!

Second, we love our enemies because Jesus Christ died for them too and wants their salvation. One of Jesus’ last words was, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” If Jesus is able to forgive the very people who were driving nails into his wrists and feet, how can we do any less?

Finally, we love our enemies because if we do not, then we become filled with hatred and evil ourselves. Hatred corrupts the person who hates – thus, if we want to be like Jesus, Who is all-loving, we must make sure that the poison of hatred and revenge do not infect our souls.

But it can be difficult! How do we love our enemies? First, we must remember that loving someone does not equal liking them. We do not need to be friends with everyone. Some people we shouldn’t have in our lives – people that are toxic, abusive, truly evil, people who lead us into sin. For the most part, we don’t have an obligation to be around such people. Rather, to love is to will the good of the other. So even though we don’t like a person because of their actions or their personality, we still must will their good – desire that they be converted, blessed, and that they go to Heaven.

We must remember that even saints didn’t always get along with each other! Two of the greatest saints in history, St. Augustine and St. Jerome, wrote bitter letters to each other criticizing each other’s theological writings! Yet they remained holy men, even though they were never friendly with one another. So we can love without liking – we may never feel emotionally close to enemies or people who have hurt us – but we can still choose to will their good.

How to love, then? Three suggestions. First, pray for them. Ask God to bless them, ask God especially to give them the grace to change their ways, if need be. It is impossible to hate someone we are praying for. And while we’re at it – pray for the grace for ourselves to be able to love as Christ loves.

Second, seek to find ways to do good to them. St. Paul writes that “doing good for our enemies is like heaping hot coals on their heads.” We find practical ways to help them – sending them a birthday card, or providing a meal for them if they need it. Practical acts of kindness can soften a hard heart.

Finally, we must make sure to never speak ill of them unnecessarily. It’s tempting to tell others of how much so-and-so drives us crazy, or what bad thing this person did to us, but to truly love someone is to keep our mouths shut. If our lips are used for praising God, how can they be used for tearing down the Image of God in another human being?

Loving our enemies is not easy – in fact, it is one of the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings. But it is also a way to change the world…or at least change a soul. A saint one time was made because of loving one’s enemies. Back in the early Church, one of the great debates was about what to do with those who had denied Christ under persecution. In the Roman Empire, many people would be captured and tortured to give up their Faith, and while hundreds of thousands did shed their blood for Jesus, some denied the Faith. Later on these people, called lapsi, repented of their cowardice and asked to be readmitted to the Church.

The Pope at the time, St. Pontian, allowed them to return to the Church after a time of penance. But there were factions in the Church who wanted these lapsed-Catholics to be permanently kicked out. A priest by the name of Hippolytus was so outraged by the Pope’s merciful attitude that he decided to declare himself an anti-Pope and try to split the Church.

Well, the pagan Emperor didn’t care about this inter-Church debate, so he exiled both Pontian and Hippolytus to an island where they were forced into slavery, working in the mines. Pontian treated his enemy with such kindness and love that Hippolytus soon recognized his errors. He asked forgiveness from Pontian for the way in which he divided the Church, and the two were reconciled – just before both of them were martyred for the Faith. They are now celebrated on the same feast day – former enemies, now united in eternal life.

I think if we are so blessed to enter into eternal life, we will be surprised to find some of those difficult people already there – and some people will be surprised to find us there! So let us love our enemies here on this earth, so that we are ready to love everyone likewise in Heaven.

Homily for Ordinary Time 6 - February 16, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 6

February 13, 2022

In Whom Do We Trust?

 

            October 29, 1929 was no ordinary day. That was the day that the stock market crashed, with investors losing over 50% of the value of their stocks overnight, launching our country into the Great Depression. It was not only an economic depression – it caused many people to take their own lives in despair. In fact, when one actor was seeking a 19^th floor hotel room in New York to stay the night, the clerk asked him, “Will this be for sleeping or for jumping out the window?” Another man, Wellington Lyle, down to his last four cents, wrote in his final note, “Give my body to science, my soul to the Secretary of the Treasury, and my sympathy to my creditors.”

            But not everyone fell into despair. It was said that during the Great Depression, atheists jumped out windows while Christians went back to work. In New York, a group of ex-carpenters, ex-plumbers, ex-laborers used rickety wooden carts to bring scrap metal to junk dealers to make a quick buck. Some enterprising neighborhoods would repurpose empty lots into gardens. We Americans are a hardy lot – and though there was a lot of suffering during the Great Depression, there were a lot of inspiring stories of charity and perseverance.

            The way people dealt with the Great Depression depended, in large part, to where a man put his trust. Was his trust in the New York Stock Exchange? Or in God?

            That same question looms equally large in our modern world, because there are many things we put our trust in.

            Some of us trust in money. I have always found it ironic that every dollar bill has the words, “In God We Trust” – when more people trust in the dollar bill than in God! We sometimes think that a comfortable nest egg, or a solid stock portfolio, or a good job is security. We won’t suffer if we have enough money.

            But let’s be honest – can money ever give us a truly secure life? How much money would be enough that we wouldn’t worry about the future? Andrew Carnegie, who was worth millions, once said, “The rich never smile” – because they were too worried about their bank account to truly enjoy life. Study after study has shown that lottery winners do not report greater happiness than ordinary folks. So often, we put our trust in money, and in the end it leaves us empty.

            Some of us trust is science and technology. We often think of science as settled, rock-solid, something we can trust - but it has changed drastically over time – just remember how doctors used to practice bloodletting and put leeches on people’s body in an attempt to heal them! As good as science is, it’s not foolproof.

Technology, too, is fragile. It’s amazing how dependent we are on technology. A couple years ago I accidentally tripped and fell, and when I got up I found that my cell phone had shattered in my pocket. You’ve probably felt that panic of thinking, “Oh no! What’s going to happen? I don’t have my phone!” We act as if our phones are indispensable, but how fragile they are! About three weeks ago the World Economic Forum published a video saying that a cyber-attack that takes out the world’s internet is, quote, “inevitable”. We can’t trust something as fragile as science and technology.

            Some people put their trust in public opinion. If people think well of us, we think we are secure. If we get into the right college, have the right resume, say the right things on Twitter, we think we’re set. But the example of Jesus shows us just how fickle public opinion can be – the very same crowd that praised Him on Palm Sunday were yelling “Crucify Him!” on Good Friday. Look at how many good people have been “cancelled” in our cancel-culture by the social media mob – there is no security in what others think of us.

            Some of us trust in our beauty or our health. A friend of mine is a gym rat and often spends three or four hours a day at a gym (he’s single, so he can do stuff like that). One day he asked me if it was a sin to work out so much. I asked him, “Well, how much time do you spend every day on your soul?” He didn’t want to respond. In a hundred years, his body will be rotting in a grave and his soul will be around forever, as an eternal triumph or an eternal tragedy. So we cannot trust in our health or our beauty, because that too will end up passing away.

            So – who can we trust? Only one – God. Only He never changes; only He is always faithful; only He remains when the money dries up and the wifi goes down and the friends betray us. Today’s first reading reminds us: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord alone!”

            What does it mean to put our trust in Him? It means that He is our rock, our foundation, our truest happiness. Even as we go about our necessary daily duties of making money and paying bills and going to the doctor, we remember that all things are passing except for God alone. This helps us not to worry about the future, and not to get upset when we lose our money or our hair or reputation.

I love the example of the holy man Job in the Scriptures – he ended up losing his house, his children, his flocks, his health, his standing in the community…all in one day. But he still said, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” He wouldn’t let it upset him, because he knew that God was faithful, and would repay him when it pleased the Lord. And – God was faithful, giving him abundant blessings at the end of the Book of Job.

How do we grow in trust in Him? Invest more in generosity than in the stock market; spend more time with the Lord than putting on makeup; seek His approval, rather than the approval of the world. To trust Him more, remember how He has helped you in the past. Search the Scriptures, and you will find ample evidence that He comes through for His friends. Pray a very simple prayer to grow in trust: “Jesus, I trust in You” – which we see on the image of Our Lord behind us.

            There’s a great story from the life of St. Clare of Assisi, the friend of St. Francis. Inspired by St. Francis, Clare also embraced a life of poverty and penance, as a cloistered nuns. One time, her city of Assisi was in danger of being attacked by a vicious army bent on destroying the whole town. Clare’s fellow nuns were all terrified and wanted to flee the convent. But despite the fact that Clare was elderly and sick in bed, she rallied her strength and gathered her nuns around her, telling them, “If you only trust in the Lord, you will have nothing to fear.”

            Struggling to her feet, she went to the tabernacle and took out a golden vessel called a ciborium containing the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She then went to the roof of the convent and stood there holding up the Eucharistic Lord just as the army began to invade the town. When the general and the soldiers caught sight of this fearless elderly nun holding up Jesus Christ, they realized that God was on their side – and fear struck their heart. They fled the town, and never attacked again. Clare turned to her sisters and said, “I assure you, daughters, that you will suffer no evils if only you have faith in Christ.”

            Do you want to build your life on something that cannot fail? Not money, or popular opinion, or science and technology, or our health. No – “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” – in every suffering or trial, they will stand firm.

Homily for Ordinary Time 5 - February 6, 2022

 

Homily for February 6, 2022

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mission, Repentance, Encounter

 

            All three readings today have a similar progression of three themes. A person is called for a mission, they recognize their sinfulness, and they encounter the merciful God Who forgives them and confirms them in their mission. Isaiah, Paul, and Peter all experience those three parts to their call. But this idea of mission is not only for prophets and Apostles – every single person in this world is created for a purpose. But what is it? What is the meaning of life?

            Some people say that we don’t have a meaning – in fact, a recent study in the UK found that 89% of young people ages 16-29 “believe that their lives have no meaning.” If we don’t have a meaning to life, then all it’s about is just trying to get through the day. Without a purpose to life, we just try to strive for a little pleasure, for a few successes – but doesn’t that just seem meaningless? What are we living for: a Bermuda vacation, for a nice retirement, or just to get through another day? We all want more than that – we know there has to be a meaning.

            But what is it? I asked our Confirmation class two weeks ago what the meaning of life was, and one kids said, “To eat food.” (My kind of guy!). The modern world says that the meaning of life is “to be a good person” or something generic like that.

            But I’d like to make a claim. The claim is this: the meaning and purpose of this life is to know, love, and serve God in this world, so that we can be eternally happy with Him in the next. That means the purpose of this life…is not about this life, but about the next! Haven’t you ever had the thought, “There must be something more than all of this”? That intuition points to a deep reality – we have eternity in our heart because we are not just evolved animals – we are made in the image and likeness of God, and our souls long to be united to the One Who created us.

            Think of it – why do we spend nine months in the womb? It’s not so that we can stay there indefinitely. That would be weird! Rather, it is so that we become physically ready for the outside world – strong muscles, developed lungs, ready to breath air and eat food. Those nine months are really about preparation for the outside world. So then why do we spend 70, 80, 90 years here? So that we can become spiritually ready for the next world. So we develop our muscles of virtue, our lungs to breathe grace, ready to be nourished with Heavenly food. If earth was our final stop, we would feel satisfied here – but pretty much every human being experiences a restlessness here on earth. We were made for a different world! We’re pilgrims here, passing through a foreign land; in Heaven we will finally reach our true home.

            So that’s the meaning of life: to know, love, and serve God in this world so that we can be eternally happy with Him in the next. Obviously this purpose includes following the commandments, loving our neighbor, having a prayer life, growing in virtue. But the mission is the same for us all…but everyone lives it out differently. Isaiah lived it out as a prophet; Paul lived it out as a missionary; Peter lived it out by being our first Pope. How is God calling you to live out your life of loving God? Some people live it out in marriage, some in the single life. Some as a teacher, a shopkeeper, a computer programmer, a lawyer, a priest or nun. And all of us who have discovered the meaning of life, have a mission to bring that Good News to as many people as possible.

            Around the turn of the century, a French philosopher named Jacques Maritain and his wife Raissa felt that restlessness. Both were atheists, but were genuinely seeking the truth and authentic fulfillment – and couldn’t find it in the money, the pleasure, the things of this world. The two of them, after having searched for years, in 1901 made a pact with each other that if they did not find a meaning for life in the next year, they would mutually commit suicide at the end of the year. By God’s mercy, a friend invited them to a talk by a Catholic philosopher. They realized that Catholicism made sense – and found the meaning and purpose of their lives, and became dedicated, holy Catholics. All because a friend took the time to invite them to discover the meaning of life through the lens of our faith in Jesus Christ. I bet a lot of people we know are wrestling with that inner restlessness, that discontent in life. So – part of our mission is to bring as many people as possible to Heaven with us!

            So, we’ve got the purpose of our life – but when Isaiah, Peter, and Paul hear about their mission, they recognize that they are unworthy of the task. Indeed, this is the problem with you and me and every other human being – we are sinners. If our life’s purpose is to love God for eternity, then sin is acting against the purpose of our lives. And that is why we need a Savior.

            And what a Savior we have! He doesn’t deny that we’re sinful – He does something better – He forgives it! He looks at Peter and says, “Yes, I know your sinfulness – and I forgive you. Come follow Me.” He looks at Isaiah and says, “Yes, you do have unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips – so let me purify them, and go forth.” What mercy! He doesn’t require us to travel to foreign lands or undertake arduous penances or pay money to be forgiven. All we have to do is humble ourselves, like Peter and Paul and Isaiah, and say, “Lord, I have sinned,” and in the Sacrament of Confession our sins are forgiven – and we are back on our way to being the saint God has created us to be.

            What a joy it is, then, to find God’s mercy and to live out our purpose! This Easter, we are going to give all parishioners a book by a Catholic writer named Chris Stefanick about joy in Christ. He became a serious believer through joy. When he was in eighth grade, he was a typical kid who didn’t care much for the whole “Jesus thing”. His parents convinced him to go to a youth conference for Catholic teens. Reluctantly he went, and he was struck…not by a talk, or a small-group discussion, but by a man. This man was in his late 60s, overweight, not particularly good-looking. But as everyone began singing hymns during Eucharistic Adoration, Chris noticed this man standing in the back of church, his hands raised, eyes closed, singing, and a look of pure joy on his face. It was the look of joy that struck that eighth-grade boy – and he thought, “That man is joyful – that man knows and loves Jesus - I want joy, so I must know and love Jesus!” And from that moment on, he gave his whole life to Jesus Christ.

            And you know what? If we fulfill the mission for which we were created – to know, love, and serve God in this life, so we can be eternally happy with Him in the next – then we, too, will know joy – the joy of sins forgiven, the joy of inner peace, the joy of knowing the love of the Lord.