Ordinary Time 33 - The End of Our Worlds

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 33

November 17, 2024

The End of Your World

 

            Christians should always be ready to do three things: to pray, to share our faith, and to die.

            Our Gospel seems to speak about the end of the world. But then why does Jesus say that “some standing here will not taste death until they see these things”? No one living in Jesus’ day are still living now. But Jesus is speaking on two intertwining levels. He is speaking about the end of the world…but He is also speaking about another event which shook His listeners to their core.

            Exactly one generation (40 years) after Jesus’ death, Jewish leaders rebelled against Roman occupation. This sparked a war known as the First Jewish Revolt, which culminated in a disastrous event in 70AD – the complete destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. It was the end of the world for the Jews – the very meeting-place of God, the location of the daily sacrifices, the pride and joy of an entire nation was leveled to the ground. To this day only one small part of the Temple remains, a small retaining wall called the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall), where Jews go to pray. It’s hard for us to understand just how devastating this event was for Israel – it’s as if the entire Vatican were destroyed and the Eucharist could no longer be celebrated ever, for two thousand years.

            But theologically, the destruction of the Temple made sense, as our second reading points out. The Temple was the place of sacrifice, but once Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross was consummated, there is no need for further sacrifices. The Temple ended one world, because a new one was dawning – a world of faith in Jesus, the Son of God, the Perfect Sacrifice.

            So, although the world did not end in 70AD, in a sense their world did. Similarly, it is unlikely that you or I will get to see the end of the world (of course, I could be quite wrong about that!). But we are guaranteed to see the end of our world – at some point we will breathe our last, and death will end our world. Our life of faith in God will give way to the vision of God.

            I have always been haunted by those words in Daniel’s vision – “Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.” When that last breath is taken, will we live forever in the presence of God, or spend forever away from Him. At the end, there are only two eternal dwelling places for the soul – Heaven or Hell, glory or tragedy.

            We think so highly of our life when we are alive. King Louis XIV of France named himself “the Sun King”, saying, “I am the center of the universe, without equal.” But on his deathbed, he final words to his heir were, “Do not follow the bad example I have set.” How quickly does our life pass before we return to God Who made us! We ought to follow the advice of St. John Chrysostom who said, “Go to the grave, contemplate dust, and sigh.”

             So how ought a Christian prepare for the day when our world will end? Four suggestions to live a life worthy of a noble death and a happy eternity.

            First, contemplate frequently the shortness of life and the length of eternity. This is not a morbid fascination with death, but a proper appreciation of who we are and where we’re going. St. Bonaventure uses the example of a sailor. For a boat to get to its proper destination, a sailor always needs to keep his eyes looking in the right direction. Likewise, for a soul to make it to the safe harbor of Heaven, we must always keep that destination in mind, realizing that our life’s journey is actually heading in a direction. We’re not wandering aimlessly upon storm-tossed ocean – we are either heading to our eternal home, or heading away from it. Consider daily that life is short and this is not our home, and it will help point our life in the right direction.

            A second, connected, suggestion is to evaluate everything in the light of eternity. Will this decision advance me closer to eternity with God, or will it draw me further away? Will this music I listen to, this TV show I watch, draw me closer to God, or push me further away? When I am on my deathbed, will I regret what I posted on social media; will I regret the amount of time I spent on this hobby, to the detriment of my spiritual life; will I regret how this friendship led me astray; will I regret how much time I worried about my appearance or my bank account? Looking at our lives in the light of eternity makes us realize what’s truly important – love of God and love of neighbor – and what’s not important at all, like most of the things we worry about. As CS Lewis said, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in'; aim at earth and you will get neither.”

            One time the brother of the great spiritual writer Thomas a Kempis built himself a luxurious house and filled it with all the finest luxuries money could buy. His holy brother visited him and said, “Ah, this is a beautiful house but it has only one flaw.” “What’s that?” asked the worldly brother. Thomas responded, “It has a door.” “A door? Why is that a flaw?” asked the brother, offended. The holy man replied, “Through this door your lifeless body will one day be carried, and you will leave this house forever. Where then will your treasure be?” Evaluate all things in light of eternity.

            A third way to prepare for a happy eternity is to go to confession regularly. St. John Chrysostom once said, “Nothing brings more happiness than a good conscience.” Imagine if a person were headed to court because they hadn’t paid their debts. But on the way there, they won the lottery. Should they pay off the debt, and avoid jail time? Of course! That would be the logical decision. We are all headed to judgement, too – the judgement of our lives before God. But what if we could quickly and easily pay off the debt of all our sins? We can – in the Sacrament of Confession. This is where the great wealth of Jesus’ Blood is applied to our debts, so that we can stand before the Father cleansed. Do not wait, for we are not guaranteed tomorrow – confess frequently, and pay off the debts with the Blood of Jesus, so that when we approach judgment, we can stand before the judge with our debts paid!

            Finally, we needn’t fear death if we are constantly drawing close to the Heart of God, trusting eternally in His mercy. What is Heaven but spending time with the God Who loves us? We make ourselves ready for Heaven by spending time with Him here. Because I know Him, I know what a good and merciful Father He is, which takes away all fear of death. God is not a cruel teacher who is waiting to fail us on the test – He is, rather, a good Father Who so desperately wants His children to be with Him that He sent His own Son to die in our place. With such a good Father, how can we not trust Him completely when He comes to call us home?

            My friends, Christians should always be ready to do three things: to pray, to share our faith, and to die. Are you ready to do all three?

Ordinary Time 32 - Consecration to Jesus through Mary

 

Ordinary Time 32

November 10, 2024

Empty Hands

 

            There is a famous legend of how the poinsettia plant became associated with Christmas. Poinsettias are native to Mexico, but according to the legend they used to be all green – no red or white flowers. One day a very poor girl was walking to church at Christmastime. She wanted to see the manger scene with Baby Jesus. She also wanted to bring some flowers to decorate His crib, but she was too poor to afford any, and in late December there aren’t too many wildflowers out. So this poor girl picked a handful of leaves from a large green weed and continued to church, hoping and praying that God would accept her meager offering. She laid them before the Christ Child and prayed that God would see her heart and not the weeds she was offering. She got up to go and at the door of the church, she gave one more glance at the manger scene, and was shocked to find that her green leaves had turned a brilliant and beautiful shade of red. Hence, the poinsettia has become the standard Christmas decoration worldwide.

            “Love is self-gift,” said Pope St. John Paul II. When we love someone we want to give to them – our time, a gift, an encouraging word, a smile, an act of service. So when we love God, we also want to give to Him – but what can we offer to so great a God? How could we ever come close to expressing our gratitude and love? Our lives are just a pittance, a tiny drop in the ocean of human history, just two small coins in the midst of an overflowing treasury.

            But genuine love wants to give more! St. Bernard once said, “It is true that the creature loves less because she is less. But if she loves with her whole being, nothing is lacking where everything is given.” So this should give us hope, that as we offer our lives to God, even if our lives and our prayers and our efforts are small, if we are giving Him our all, then this delights Him.

            But those who truly love God want to give more than our own meager efforts! We can do that in an easy way – by consecrating our lives to Jesus through Mary.

            After all, what pleases the Father the most? It is not us; it is Jesus Christ. Our Second Reading from Hebrews speaks about the offering that delights the Father – not the blood of calves and goats, which were offered under the Old Covenant, but the Blood of Jesus, offered once for all on our behalf. It’s as if someone wanted to make a million-dollar gift to a noble person, and they asked us to contribute. All we could contribute is a dollar, but the gift is given as if it was equally from both of us. Likewise, Jesus paid a gift that literally infinite – in His Precious Blood – but He invites us to offer a tiny amount, united to His, to make a beautiful gift to the Father. The Father will see our tiny self-gift as pleasing as Jesus’ infinite gift.

            We do this by consecrating our life and our actions to Jesus through Mary. It is good to begin every day, and every task throughout the day, by consecrating it to Jesus through Mary. Many people have done a 33-day or a 40-day consecration to Jesus through Mary by using one of the popular “consecration prayers” from St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, or Fr. Michael Gaitley. And those are great, but it doesn’t have to be so elaborate. It could be simply a prayer like, “Lord Jesus, I give You this day. I give you every thought, word, and action. I give you all my joys and sorrows, my labors and my recreation. Let is all be pleasing to the Father, and let it be for Your glory. I offer all this through Mary our mother.” Or even easier: “For You, Jesus – through Mary.”

            Why through Mary? Mary is sometimes called the “Mediatrix (multiplier) of All Graces.” All graces from God pass through Her hands, because God loves to use small, humble servants to accomplish His plan. But conversely, all of our good works and prayers, when given to Mary, become amplified and purified before they are presented to the Father. It’s much like if we wanted to bring a flower to the Great King, but all we could find is a dandelion. Mary takes that dandelion and places it in a bouquet of lilies and roses and other fragrant and striking flowers, and then brings it to the King, in our name.

            True love wants to give. If we truly love God, we want to give Him more. We hunger for more time with Him in prayer, more sacrifices, more good works of charity. But in the end, all of our gifts to God are miniscule compared to the one Gift of Jesus Christ’s Blood, which has made all of us righteous. We can unite our small lives to His by consecrating ourselves and our ordinary lives to Jesus through Mary, which makes our small gift something so pleasing to the Father!

Ordinary Time 31 - Commanded to Love

 

Homily for November 3, 2024

Ordinary Time 31

A Command To Love God

 

            If you grew up in the ‘90s like me, you probably remember the movie “Richie Rich”, starring Macaulay Culkin. The movie was about an incredibly rich boy who had everything he could ever want – his own roller coasters, a McDonalds inside his house, everything – but he didn’t have friends. So his butler decides to use some money to “hire” friends for him. As it turns out, the kids enjoy hanging out with Richie so much that they end up refusing the money, and they become friends and have all sorts of adventures together.

            I think we can all admit that a friendship based on money isn’t a real friendship. For love to be real, it must be free. Do you remember when you were younger and you were at a family gathering, and your mom said, “Okay, now give Aunt Sally a hug” – and you did it reluctantly, perhaps rolling your eyes. Clearly this means far less than a hug freely chosen. So why, then, does God command us to love Him? How is that real love? Can someone command us to love them?

            God commands us to love Him because He knows that loving Him is what makes us happy. He gets nothing from our love – it’s not like He’s lonely or an egomaniac. Rather, He recognizes that loving Him is precisely what we were made for, and that our deepest happiness is to love Him.

            But how can someone command love? Doesn’t love rise spontaneously in our hearts? Not always – because love is fundamentally a choice, and not a feeling. We can take a natural, human love as an example. A married couple have committed themselves to love each other – but this does not mean that they always feel loving toward one another. Rather, it is a daily choice to lay down their lives for the other, even when they don’t feel like it. One could say that their vow commands them to love each other, because they freely entered into this love, so that when the feelings wear off, they choose to love.

            God’s love for us features this same dynamic. I doubt that He had any affections or delights in loving those men who were driving nails into His hands. No, He endured the Cross because His love was complete self-gift – His only thought is for us.

            So, it is our duty to choose love, even when we don’t feel it. What does that look like? Make choices for Him. Decide to pray, even if it feels dry. Follow His commands, even if we don’t understand them. As the saying goes, “Fake it ‘till you make it.” A wise philosopher, scientist, and devout Catholic named Blasé Pascal, offered what he called “Pascal’s Wager”. Part of this wager is the idea that if you don’t believe in God or love Him, all we had to do was act as if we believed and loved God – and He would grant us the grace to believe and love Him. This should give us hope – if we choose to do loving actions, love will soon become so ingrained in us that we will authentically love.

            I was recently reading about a reluctant musician from the Portland (Oregon) Orchestra. Turns out she was forced to take violin lessons from her mom, and she hated every minute of it. It seemed so dull to her – all that practicing and scales and screeching. When she was 10, her mom wanted to help her love the music, so Mom forced all her kids to start volunteering at the local orchestra. The young girl hated it even more! She’d rather be out playing with her friends. Finally, one day, the local orchestra was putting on a performance of a piece by a musician named Corelli, which the girl had tried to play in her private lessons and hated. But much to her surprise, when the first notes started to play, she realized, Oh! So this is what this piece is supposed to sound like! It’s beautiful! And she fell in love with music, having tasted the rich beauty of a beautiful piece of music. She is now a professional violinist in the Portland Orchestra.

            Our relationship with God can be much like that. We steep ourselves in the Word of God, we attend Mass, we make pilgrimages to holy sites, we read the Lives of the Saints, we hear beautiful Christian music, we go to Adoration and pray the Rosary, go on a retreat. At first we may do these things out of obligation, but it is likely that one or the other will stir our souls to a greater love for God!

            Which is why it’s not enough merely to attend Mass. Of course, the Mass is the highest form of prayer and worship, where we encounter Jesus in the Flesh…but the other parts of our Faith minister to our hearts, our minds, our desire for happiness, our craving to make our life meaningful. Diversify your prayer life and enrich your life of faith, and you will experience His love.

            Another important corollary is that parents might have to command their kids to love God and bring their kids to church, even if they object! Some parents say, “Oh, I’ll just let my kids choose what religion to practice, if they practice one at all.” But do we allow our kids to choose whether to go to the dentist or do their homework? Of course not. We force them to do things that they may not enjoy, because we know it is good for them – and because we are hoping to form the good habits that will continue into adulthood. Likewise, raising our children to know how to pray, to come to Mass weekly, and to live according to Christ’s teachings may not be appreciated by your surly teenager or your hyperactive toddler, but it is good for them and it inculcates faith deeply in them. It gives God a context to work in their lives.

            I think of the great example of St. Raphael Kalinowski, a Polish man in the mid-1800s. He was raised Catholic, reluctantly dragged to Mass by his parents. When he went off to university, he fell away from the Faith and didn’t give God a second thought. He became an Army engineer after college, during the time that Poland had begun a war against Russia. He happened to be captured by the Russians and sent to a salt mine in Siberia.

            This was a wake-up call for Raphael. Everything was stripped away – his career, his family, his health – what would he turn to for strength and purpose? He began to return to the faith of his youth. It had been so deeply ingrained within him, even though at the time he was reluctant, but now it came back full-force. He was able to survive ten years in Siberia due to his faith, and when he was released, he was a holy man of God who became a Carmelite priest and a saint.

            My friends, this command to love God with all that we are is so important that our Jewish brothers and sisters recite it every day. We too should inscribe it on our hearts, that we may think about it daily. Whether we feel loving or we don’t, we can still love God by choosing to love Him. In doing so, we will eventually begin to sense His presence, and someday come to possess the Object of our love, which is God Himself.