Homily for Ordinary Time 31 - October 30, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 31

October 30, 2022

He Sees You

 

            16670. It was the number tattooed on his arm when he entered Auschwitz concentration camp. But we know him better as St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who gave up his life in exchange for a prisoner who had been sentenced to die.

            One of the common practices of all of the totalitarian governments – and everyday bureaucracies - in the twentieth century was to reduce people to solely a number. Prisoner number, citizen number, form number, account number, social security number. The modern world has a way of quantifying everything – we’re defined by our college application, our resume, the number of likes and followers and what we can produce.

            But our hearts cry out to be known and loved as individuals. We don’t want to be a number – we want to have a name. The recently-elected President of Italy, Georgia Meloni, had

a really powerful speech about this when she said, “When I am only a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators. The perfect consumer. That’s why [Christianity] inspires so much fear. Because we do not want to be numbers. We will defend the value of the human being.”

            And thus we come to today’s Gospel. A couple of things strike me – first, Zacchaeus could have been a part of the crowd. Certainly mobs of people surrounded Jesus at all times. But he didn’t want to be a nameless face in the crowd – he wanted to be known and acknowledged as an individual. And then Jesus, passing by, calls him by name. Jesus and Zacchaeus had never met, but the Lord already knew him – not as Person 342, but as Zacchaeus, a man with a past but also one with great potential for holiness in the future.

            So what does this show us about the Heart of God? Three things.

            First, God knows us and loves us as individuals, and He calls us by name. I know sometimes we all wonder if God actually knows us. I mean, yes, He loves humanity, but does He love YOU or ME, in our own specific circumstances, in all of the messiness of our daily life? This Gospel shows us that He does know us by name – and loves us! He knows us, both our good points and our messy points, and still chooses to call us by name. A couple weeks ago we held a retreat for our high school freshmen where I teach. We all went to a retreat house run by these diminutive Indian and Philippino nuns. At a certain point, I couldn’t find one of our students, Jason. Jason is the kind of kid who always gets into trouble unwittingly – he’s not malicious, but trouble seems to find him, so I was worried when he went missing. After a few minutes of searching, I found him in a small alcove of the convent, speaking with one of the nuns. I told him it was time to go, and the nun said, “Thank you for this time with Jason. He’s one of the Lord’s chosen ones.” I thought, “Yeah, right. Do you know how many detentions he’s got this year, Sister?” So the retreat continued, and toward the end of the day once again Jason was lost. He finally wandered into the group room, explaining, “I’m sorry I’m late, I wanted to speak with the sister again. We had another long conversation, she’s really helping me.” It was interesting that when Jason felt loved, valued, and seen as an individual – he began to believe in his own dignity – and that it was possible to live up to his dignity. Do you know that God sees you? Do you know how God sees you? Why not ask Him – “Lord, show me Your Heart, show me who I am in Your sight.”

            Second, He calls us even while we are still sinners. Jesus didn’t wait until Zacchaeus changed his life to call him down from the tree. No, the Lord calls him first, even as a corrupt agent of the hated Roman empire. Now we have to be careful here, because some people like to believe Jesus spends time with sinners because He’s tolerant and open-minded. But that’s not why He eats with them. Rather, Jesus spends time with sinners because He sees them as future saints and wants to invite them to a life of holiness. As the old saying goes, “Ever saint has got a past, and every sinner’s got a future.” Jesus doesn’t wait until we are holy to seek us; rather, He seeks us in our sinfulness so that we might become holy.

            Finally, it is only through our encounter with Him that our lives are changed. St. Augustine describes this life-changing encounter with the Lord in his autobiography, The Confessions: “Late have I loved you, beauty ever ancient, ever new: late have I loved you. You called and shouted and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness.” After a life of sin, Augustine was so miserable and hungry for some peace that when he read the Scriptures for the first time, he encountered Jesus there – and Jesus spoke to his sinful heart through the words on the page: an encounter that would change the sinful Augustine into a saint.

            We are more than numbers, more than anonymous faces in a crowd. Our modern world often tries to quantify us, when our hearts yearn to be known and loved as persons made in the image of God. Thanks be to the Lord that He knows us and calls us by name – and invites us to follow Him into eternal life!

Homily for the Feast of St. Jude 2022

 

Homily for the Feast of St. Jude

October 28, 2022

We Need Each Other

 

            When you look at the Animal Kingdom, it’s amazing to see how animal babies grow up so fast. Giraffes literally fall out of the womb and start walking. Birds fly as early as 10 days after hatching. Dogs can have puppies of their own when they are only six months old. Lion cubs start to hunt when they’re only six weeks old, and at sixteen months they’re completely independent.

            And then there’s humans. It takes us eighteen years to be ready to leave the home! We can’t even walk until we’re a year old. Why would God make us, the smartest of all the animals, so totally helpless for such a large part of our lives?

            Because, unlike the animals, we were made to need each other. We weren’t meant to do life on our own. That’s why He didn’t just have us spawn from seeds – we were meant to be brought up in a family, a community of life and love. We are not supposed to do life on our own.

            In all of our excitement over St. Jude and his feast day, it’s easy to forget that he shares his feast day with another saint: St. Simon. We don’t know much about St. Simon – the Bible calls him a Zealot, which means he had been involved in armed rebellion to try to expel the Romans from ruling the Holy Land. The Bible also calls him a Canaanite, meaning that his family has roots all the way back in the Holy Land even before the coming of the Israelites. That’s about all we know for sure – many other legends surround him, but a significant tradition makes him the close coworker of St. Jude, as both of them traveled to Persia and preached the Gospel to the pagans in that land. St. Jude was martyred by being beaten by clubs, while St. Simon was sawed in half.

            We often think of the Apostles as these lone-rangers, traveling to far-off lands as courageous warriors bringing truth and love to godless nations all by themselves. But it’s consoling to know that Jesus commanded His followers to go out “two-by-two”. It can be a lonely mission to spread the Gospel by yourself – in times of discouragement and suffering, even the Apostles needed a brother to offer them encouragement.

            And this is true not only of the Apostles, but of us. On this feast day we not only celebrate our namesake, we also, in a sense, celebrate our parish as well – because we cannot even follow Jesus, let alone become saints, without the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We don’t believe in a “me-and-Jesus” spirituality – we need shepherds in the Church to guide us on the right path; we need our spiritual family to nurture the saint-in-the-making within us.

            So I ask you two questions. Who is helping you draw close to Jesus? Perhaps a family member or a friend is an inspiration to you; perhaps you have a brother or sister in Christ who encourages you to strive for greater holiness. If you find yourself isolated, get involved in our parish and get to know others who are seeking the Lord.

            And the second question is: who are you drawing closer to Jesus? We have to be intentional here – we don’t just accidentally fall into the role of spiritual friend. Perhaps consider a person in your life – a sibling, or a friend – whom the Lord has put on your heart to accompany towards the Lord.

            St. Jude couldn’t do it without St. Simon, and neither can we. But together, as one Mystical Body of Christ, we can become saints, along with our great patron!

Homily for Ordinary Time 29 - October 16, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 29

October 16, 2022

Spiritual Warfare

 

            If you’ve ever read the Old Testament, you may wonder why it’s so doggone bloody. The Israelites are always involved in a war – and today’s first reading is a perfect example, as Moses and Joshua fight and win a battle against the Amalekites. Non-Christians often use this as a reason for disbelieving in the Bible – how could God allow so many wars in the Old Testament when He preaches love and forgiveness in the New Testament?

            But there are two reasons for this. First, there is a principle in reading the Bible called the Law of Progressive Revelation. This means that God doesn’t reveal the fullness of His plan all at once, but only gradually. When I was in second grade, I took the bus with middle schoolers, and one eighth grader showed me her math book. I was appalled – how could anyone do math with letters? Algebra didn’t make sense! But of course – you can’t teach algebra to a second-grader. Likewise, in 1500BC (when this war takes place), God is still trying to convince the Israelites that there is only one God – they are not yet ready for His teachings about mercy and forgiveness. Back then, the entire Middle East was filled with warring tribes – to tell the Israelites not to fight would mean they would be destroyed by these other nations. So God is willing to overlook such violence because He was trying to first teach them that He is real, that He is the only God, and that He is going to be on their side forever.

            But the other reason why the Old Testament has so many battles is because what the Israelites go through in the physical realm, Christians go through in the spiritual realm. Israel is led out of slavery in Egypt by passing through the Red Sea – Christians are led out of the slavery of sin through the waters of Baptism. A man named Jeshuah – Joshua – leads the Chosen People into the Promised Land. A new Jeshuah (Jesus of Nazareth) leads His new Chosen People, the Church, into the Promised Land of Heaven. So these physical battles that Israel fights are foreshadowing the spiritual battle Christians engage in. When Israel prays, “Lord, deliver us from our enemies,” we can pray that too: “Lord, deliver us from our spiritual enemies – not of flesh and blood, but the powers and principalities of evil.”

            Our world is no less a battle now than it was during the time of Moses. We believe that the devil and his minions are very real – and I have helped with an exorcism, I can tell you that Satan is not a myth. This battle is not fought primarily in politics or in culture, but within every human soul. God created your soul for eternal bliss with Him, but Satan, out of his hatred for God, desires to own your soul as well, through sin and faithlessness. But it’s up to you to decide who will win this battle.

            So how do we fight this spiritual war for our own souls? We see two powerful tools in our other readings today. Our second reading speaks about the power of the Word of God. Before heading into a battle, any soldier needs to check in with their commanding officer to see what the plan is, what the advance scouts have found out, where the traps are, what kind of enemy they’re facing. “One mile up on the right is a big tank, and to the left are land mines, and you’re going to need this certain type of weapon…” These are the instructions we receive from the Word of God – they are our battlefield map, our armory, our check-in with the Commander. Read it daily and prepare for the battle.

            Our Gospel gives us another powerful tool – prayer without ceasing. I wish we knew the power and absolutely desperate need we have for prayer! My brother was in the Navy, and as part of his basic training, he had to walk into a room with tear gas and take off his gas mask, breathing in the toxic fumes. He said it was pure torture for several minutes until he was able to put back it back on and breathe clean air.

            That’s how desperately we need God – He is our breath of fresh air in the midst of toxic culture. Prayer can’t be a five-minute afterthought, but the very motivating factor of our life. Because Satan is wiley with his temptations – anger one minute, arrogance the next, lust here, greed there. We cannot avoid the temptations, but we can keep our eyes fixed on the One we are living for. The only thing stronger than our temptations is our love – if we love God more than we love sin, we will be free of sin. If we cling to God, then our sins will not cling to us.

            Even the great saints were severely tempted, but through perseverance in prayer they triumphed. St. Anthony the Abbot was one of the first of the “desert fathers” – men who sought God as secluded hermits in the deserts of Egypt. He lived in a cave, fasted rigorously, and prayed unceasingly. But he was still tempted greatly. It is recorded in his biography, written by a saint who was a contemporary of his (St. Athanasius), that at times he had so many impure temptations that he felt like he was in the midst of a swarm of bees. Once as he traveled further into the desert, out of nowhere Satan gave him a mirage of a pile of gold coins in the path, with the suggestion to take some with him – who knows when he would need to use them? But he recognized that this was an attempt to get him to abandon his radical poverty. At every moment, Anthony covered himself in prayer, though. Finally, the Evil One appeared to him as fierce beasts, trying to cause him to abandon his vocation through fear. During one particularly severe temptation, St. Anthony cried out to the Lord, “Where have You been, O Jesus? Why did you not come to rescue me?” Jesus responded, “I was here, but I hid myself to see your struggle. And as you have not yielded to the temptation, I will be your helper forever.”

            Of course, there are so many other weapons against Satan that we have. The Vatican’s top exorcist, Fr. Gabriel Amorth, who did over 10,000 exorcisms in his lifetime, said that the two most powerful weapons against the devil are…Confession and the Eucharist. Last week we spoke about the Rosary being a powerful spiritual weapon. There are many others too, but if you start with daily prayer and the Scriptures, you’ll be on the right path.

            My friends, do you want to win the battle against evil? Do you want Christ’s Kingdom to come in your life and in your circle of influence? Turn to the Scriptures, and turn to daily, passionate prayer to arm yourself for the battle. Christ has won the war, but the battle for your soul is still undecided – until you decide to fight it with God at your right hand.