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.

All Saints Day 2024 - Remember Who You Are

 

Homily for All Saints Day

November 1, 2024

Remember Who You Are

 

            Young Ben Hooper grew up in Tennessee, in the depths of the Bible Belt. His mother wasn’t married when Ben was born, and the deep South in the late 1800s was a tough place to grow up if you were a child out of wedlock. He recounts that his classmates shunned him, called him names, and he had to eat lunch by himself every day. Even the townspeople of Newport would whisper among themselves when Ben walked through town. He said he could feel their judgmental stares and gossipy comments, as he put it, “bore a hole through him” – everyone wondering who his real father was. In those days there was so much shame and social stigma to being fatherless.

            One day when he was 12, a new preacher came into his church. Ben made it a point to avoid him, ashamed of his background. He would come late and leave early from services so he wouldn’t have to greet the preacher. But one day the preacher happened to run into the boy in town.

            “Hey, boy!” the preacher called out. “I see you in church every Sunday – what’s your name? Who’s your father?”

            Oh here it comes, Ben thought. He felt the old black cloud come down upon him.

            But much to his surprise, the Preacher looked down at the boy for a moment, and a smile of recognition came upon his face. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I know who you are. I can see the family resemblance. You’re a son of God.” With that, the preacher put his arm on the boy’s shoulder and said, “And boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.”

            Ben Hooper said that was the moment his life changed. He knew who he was, and he no longer had to live in shame. He went on to become a two-term governor of Tennessee.

            Our second reading gives us a consolation and a challenge. The consolation – we are God’s children now, and we shall grow evermore in this sonship. How could He be pleased to adopt me – after all I’ve done – as His son? How could He adopt you – with all your insecurities and wounds – as His child? And yet, out of the gratuity of His love, He has done just that. I don’t care who your earthly parents are, whether they’re saints or deadbeats, Rosary-praying church ladies or drug addicts. If you have been baptized and walk in the faith of Jesus Christ, you are a son of God.

            The challenge – “Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,

as he is pure.” A son or daughter of God does not wallow in sin. We’re made for more than that! I think of the great story of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. When he first came to his town of Ars, he found that it had 250 people…and seven bars. That’s not a good ratio! He knew that, to obtain the conversion of his people, he needed to stop the drunkenness and the dirty dancing that went along with it. One day, as a very indecent dance was taking place in one of the taverns, and to stop it, he used a simple tactic. He simply walked over to the tavern, and stood in the middle of the dance floor, wearing his priestly garments. He said nothing, but merely stood there, gazing peacefully at the revelers. When they caught sight of the silent priest in their midst, all of a sudden they were struck by his noble bearing. He looked so dignified, peaceful – and they had been dancing impurely like crazed animals. They began to realize that their drunkenness, lust, and bawdy jokes were humiliating, beneath their dignity. One by one, they began to depart, until the tavern was empty – and within a couple of years every one of those bars was closed down and the people frequented the church instead!

            Jason Evert is a chastity speaker who hosts a podcast called “Lust is boring.” But we could say the same thing about any of the vices. Greed is boring. Envy is disgusting. Wrath and hatred are so beneath you. Sloth and laziness are so immature. Frankly, all sin is stupid and pointless – really, we would trade an eternal crown of glory for a few short moments of degrading pleasure? Let it not be so among you!

            A saint is one who realizes his dignity and lives out of it. As Pope St. Leo said, so powerfully, Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Remember who you are, and Whose you are – and do nothing that is beneath your dignity.

            Someday we will see God face-to-face – keep your eyes pure. Weekly Our Lord rests upon our tongues – make sure that your words glorify Him. He has revealed His truth to our minds – let us take every thought captive and make it obedient to Him. We have been purchased at a tremendous price, the Blood of the Son of God – let us delight our good Father with our deeds.

            Saints knew who they were, and acted accordingly.

            My dear Christians, remember who you are: a people redeemed. Now let your life reflect that awesome dignity!

Feast of St. Jude - A New Name

 

Homily for St. Jude Novena

Monday, October 28, 2024

You Are Not Your Name

 

            It would be rough to have a famous last name – you’re always following in someone else’s footsteps. For example, did you know that the hockey great Wayne Gretzky’s son Trevor decided to play baseball instead of hockey? After he washed out of minor league baseball, he got into acting…and did pretty well, I guess, considering he starred in a movie with Bruce Willis. But I wonder if his dad was disappointed that he didn’t follow the hockey path…and I wonder if Trevor had different interests so that he wouldn’t have to live in his father’s shadow.

            Sometimes, though, the name has darker connotations. There are actually three nephews of Adolf Hitler who live in Long Island, but understandably they have changed their last name and refused all media interviews. Who would want to live with a name like that?

            Such is the case with our saint today. The reason why St. Jude is considered the patron of impossible cases is because his name is essentially the same name as the most infamous person in human history: Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ. It was said that you must be pretty desperate in your prayers, asking every single Apostle for their intercession, before you got to St. Jude, lest you come too close to praying to Judas!

            But St. Jude, with his faith, was not held down because of his name. No, he remained faithful to Christ, penned one of the letters of the New Testament, spent his life ministering in Persia, and ended up winning the martyr’s crown. He was not defined by his name or his association with an evil person – he knew that Jesus Christ had given him a better identity, a truer name.

            When reflecting on our own lives, are you proud of every name you’ve ever borne? Maybe you didn’t have a great family, and you live under the shadow of their dysfunctions and sins. Maybe you were called names as a kid, and these names became your identity. I was recently reading about a young man whose father called him “Seagull”, because, as his dad said, “All you’re good for is sitting around and squawking.” What a terrible identity – and a terrible wound. Do these things define us?

            One of the passages of Scripture that has always mystified me is from the Book of Revelation, where Jesus is speaking to those Christians who were struggling to remain faithful during persecution. He says, “To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” How fascinating – that one of the gifts God will give to us is a new name, a new identity. If you are in Christ, He doesn’t see your messed-up family, your past, or your reputation. He calls you a new name – Beloved Child, Redeemed One, Conqueror.

            Claim that new name! Live out of that new identity! In Christ, St. Jude went from being one step away from Judas to a powerful Apostle, missionary, martyr, and intercessor. In Christ, you too can shake off the past and be transformed into a saint!

Ordinary Time 29 - The Gift of Human Life, Part 3 - The Life of the Soul

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 29

October 20, 2024

The Gift of Life, Part 3

 

            Many of us have visited Yale’s campus in New Haven. If you have, you’ve probably seen the statue of Nathan Hale, the first American spy. He’s often held up as a hero, but he was kind of a fool because his first spy mission didn’t go so well – due to his own fault. At the young age of 21, he volunteered himself to George Washington to spy on the British. He did so for a couple weeks, but one night he was out relaxing at a tavern in New York, a British soldier approached him and pretended to be a Patriot. Lubricated by more than a few beers, Hale told him everything and boasted about his spy mission. It didn’t take long for Hale to be arrested and found guilty of espionage. But he is perhaps best remembered for his immortal line right before his execution: “My only regret is that I have only one life to give for my country.”

            An inspiring thought! The entire point of this life is to give it away – Pope St. John Paul II said so powerfully, “Man can only find himself in a sincere gift of himself.” In other words, we only truly live when we find something to die for.

            This month of October is known as Respect Life month, when we consider the dignity and sacredness of all human life. I’d like to reflect upon the dignity of human life in light of our ultimate destiny – Heaven.

            In Greek, there are three words for “life”. There is bios, as in “biology”, meaning physical life – living, breathing, walking around. There is psuche, as in “psychology”, meaning the life of the mind – we are conscious, sentient beings. But then there is zoe, meaning fulfillment, joy, living out our purpose. There are an awful lot of people who are walking around, living, breathing, going to work or school – who have absolutely no idea why they were put on this earth. Earlier this year I started my Confirmation classes with the question, “What is the meaning of life?” I got some strange answers – “To live it…to have fun…” or just blank stares. As that famous line from the movie “The Sixth Sense” put it, “I see dead people walking around…and they don’t even know they’re dead.” I see a lot of people who are physically quite healthy – but are spiritually dead, and don’t even know it.

            The best medical practitioners recognize that we are a unity of body and soul, and that our physical life and health is good only insofar as it gives us strength to serve God. I think of the great St. Rene Goupil, a French doctor who traveled to America in the 1600s to serve as a missionary along with several other Jesuit priests. Rene was able to help the priests tremendously by offering his medical services to the native Mohawk peoples in upstate New York – once the natives experienced physical healing, they were more open to receiving the Gospel. However, not everyone was in favor of the missionaries’ presence, and the chief eventually forbade the Jesuits from teaching about Jesus Christ. One day, however, Rene was walking through the woods when a young Mohawk boy asked him to teach him about Jesus. So Rene taught the boy how to make the Sign of the Cross – and an older Mohawk brave saw it, reported it to the chief, who ordered Rene to be martyred. St. Rene Goupil realized that, as good as it was to take care of the physical health of the Mohawk people, they more urgently needed the spiritual health of Christ.

            We see this same dynamic in the Gospel. Bartimaeus receives a physical healing, but that is the least important miracle in the Gospel. More importantly, he receives the grace of faith and becomes one of Christ’s followers. One day his body went into the ground, but his soul still lives to this day – hopefully in Heaven, although the Church has never declared Bartimaeus a saint.

            So what are our takeaways? I’d like to mention three. First, we must always prioritize spiritual over physical health. Both are good, but more important is the soul which is eternal. So if it’s the end of the day and we have only twenty minutes left and we can either pray or work out, we ought to choose the prayer. If we have to choose between worshipping God at Mass and taking our kids to their sports, we need to prioritize Mass. It is good to pray for physical health for our family and friends – but it is better to pray for their conversion and sanctification. Our body is good, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we should care for it. But our soul is better, for it will last into eternity, while the body…as the saying goes, “No one makes it out alive.” So prioritize the soul over the body!

            Second, any health care or medical research must respect God’s law and the dignity of the human person. Unfortunately much of the medical research community is focused on “can we do it?” instead of “should we do it?” Science isn’t a free-for-all where we should do everything that is theoretically possible – the limits of the free inquiry of science should be the eternal Law of God and respect for His plans. Research that is done upon embryos or health care that violates our Catholic teachings must be avoided, and when we are involved in beginning-of-life or end-of-life issues, we should form our consciences well by studying what the Church has taught on those matters, so we know the Mind of Christ.

            Finally, the last takeaway is that life is not absolute, and there are reasons to sacrifice life and health – for Christ, and for others. I know of a priest who, during Covid, decided to continue providing Last Rites to patients dying of Covid – and because of this, the priest was on perpetual quarantine, never left his rectory except to anoint the dying, and caught the disease several times (thankfully, he survived and is fine now). I think of St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian priest who spent his life ministering in a leper colony in Hawaii, eventually catching and dying of the disease. I think of Bl. Stanley Rother, a priest from Oklahoma who was ministering to the people of Guatemala during their civil war back in the late 1970s. He was threatened by the rebel insurgents so often that his bishop called him back to Oklahoma to save his skin, but he convinced the Bishop to let him return, saying, “How can a shepherd run away when the wolf is at the door?” He was eventually martyred for his faithfulness to his people. There have been many saints who preferred to suffer and die rather than commit sin. The entire point of life is not to preserve it indefinitely – it’s to give it away to Someone worth the sacrifice. I was very inspired when Msgr. Sabia was here in July for his 90^th birthday Mass and, at great personal cost, genuflected during the Consecration. Surely it was difficult and painful to genuflect, as his knees are not good (at 90, whose would be!). But he knows that Jesus Christ is worth the pain.

            My friends, in the midst of Respect Life Month, we remember that life is a sacred gift from God that should be cherished and protected, for ourselves, our families and neighbors, and the most vulnerable in society. But we also acknowledge that the divine life of grace in our soul is infinitely more valuable, and that our human life is given to us so that we can serve God faithfully here, and someday possess Him for eternity.

Ordinary Time 28 - The Gift of Human Life, Part 2 - Who Are the Vulnerable?

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 13, 2024

The Dignity of the Vulnerable

 

            A random fact about my life is that I was on Food Network for five seconds. Yes, it’s true. When I was a deacon, I was visiting a brother priest who asked me, “Can you assist me at Mass? By the way, a film crew will be here.” So we had Mass and a film crew from Food Network was there, because right after Mass, this priest – Fr. Leo Patalinghug – was going to be on “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”. Fr. Leo won the throwdown, by the way.

            But now Fr. Leo has a much more important ministry than just making good food – he’s making good lives. He runs a ministry called “Grace and Grub” which is a food truck…run by ex-convicts. While much of the world sees these men as wasted lives, Fr. Leo trains them in cooking and job skills, and gives them a chance to contribute to society. It’s a population that so often is seen as lacking human dignity – but Fr. Leo sees their dignity and loves them back into the men they were created to be.

            We continue our series on “human dignity” during this Respect Life month by looking at different facets of human dignity. For all of our technological progress and first-world comforts, the true mark of a civilized society is how it treats the most vulnerable – and we do not do a particularly good job on many fronts, in large part because we’ve lost the Christian understanding of the human person as made in the Image and Likeness of God, from conception until natural death.

            With this understanding of our inherent dignity, our Church teaches that we must have a Preferential Option for the Poor – in other words, in our laws and policies and even in our daily lives, our first thought and concern should be for the poor. But who are the poor? The poor are the unborn, the elderly and sick, immigrants, victims of war or abuse or racism, those who struggle with addictions, the disabled, and those who are materially poor. These particularly vulnerable populations deserve our concern, protection, and aid.

            In doing so, we recognize that dignity does not depend upon which side of the womb you’re on. Dignity doesn’t depend on the amount of money in one’s bank account. Dignity doesn’t depend upon one’s health or having only a short time remaining on earth. Dignity does not depend upon what language you speak or what country you come from. Dignity is not taken away based upon a person’s limitations, what they’ve done, or what they’ve been through.

            St. Vincent de Paul, who worked with the poor his entire life, admitted that to our eyes, human dignity could be hard to see. He once said, “The poor are our masters, but masters who are terribly insensitive and demanding, dirty and ugly, unjust and foul-mouthed. But the harder they are to serve, the more we have to love them.”

            After all, Christ was Himself “the poor”. He was an unborn baby in a crisis pregnancy. He was an immigrant when forced to move to Egypt. He lived in poverty and labored with His hands. He was so disfigured in His Passion that the Scriptures said that He hardly had the appearance of a man. He was injured and helpless upon the Cross. And so He said that those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, or shelter the homeless are doing those acts of kindness to Him.

            Some of the saints took this quite seriously. St. Camillus, who was dedicated to taking care of the sick, once came up to a sick person and asked him to forgive his sins – he truly believed that this sick person was Christ! The Hungarian Queen, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, once found a poor man suffering from illness, and not having the ability to take him to a hospital, brought him to her own bed in home. When her husband objected to having a sick stranger in his own bed, he angrily tore off the covers and was shocked to find, instead of a sick man, a vision of Christ stretched out on the Cross upon the bedsheets. Clearly, to respect human dignity and to love our neighbor is to love Christ Himself!

            I hope it is safe to say that we all agree thus far that human dignity is non-negotiable. However, with an election looming and so many issues of human dignity at the forefront, how is this truth to impact our choices? It is important to make a distinction among certain issues.

            Human beings have many rights: life, food and shelter, love, home, a right to an education and employment, a right to freedom of religion and freedom from fear. But of all the rights that a person has, the right to life is the most fundamental and under no circumstances can we allow a person to take the life of an innocent person. Therefore, all persons of good will must be committed to protecting the lives of the unborn and the elderly as a primary value as we look to build a Culture of Life.

            By contrast, there are many issues of human dignity where people of good will can disagree about how best to pursue the good. For example, we all must welcome immigrants, but people of good will can disagree about the best way to do that while protecting our own country. We all must be concerned about poverty, but there can be a wide range of solutions for ending poverty. These are not unimportant issues, but there can be legitimate disagreements about how we can respect human dignity.

            So what are our “action steps” in response to the great dignity of every human being? First – we have a duty to work toward a just society which respects all human dignity. We work toward it through the political process, through making our voices heard in the halls of power, through peaceful and prayerful protests and activism which seek to build a “Culture of Life” and by praying for the conversion of our leaders. Second – we have a duty to respect human dignity in our own spheres of influence – by being there for the friend in a crisis pregnancy, taking care of and not abandoning our elderly relatives, welcoming immigrants in our midst, finding ways to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, and supporting charities which do such things. We aim to build a Culture of Life in our homes, our neighborhoods, our town, state, and country.

            In a truly Christian society, no one is unwanted. No one is disposable. As Pope St. John Paul II said, “The only right response to another human being is love.”

            Let’s build that truly Christian society.

Ordinary Time 27 - The Gift of Human Life

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 27

October 6, 2024

The Gift of Human Life

 

            In 1995, Pope St. John Paul II released a document which became one of the cornerstones of his pontificate: Evangelium Vitae, which means “The Gospel of Life.” This encyclical letter (which is a letter from the Pope to the entire world, carrying magisterial weight) coined that phrase which would be so repeated by the saintly pontiff for the remainder of his tenure: We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the “culture of death” and the “culture of life.”. He held up these two contrasting ideas - culture of life and culture of death – as the great battle of our time. And here we are, almost thirty years later, with the battle still raging around us. As our Church enters into October, which is designated as Respect Life month, and as our nation is roiled by continual disagreements about the gift and meaning of human life, today I begin a month-long homily series discussing the Culture of Life and how it is lived out joyfully, with love.

            But first, let us examine what makes human life unique – in a world that is sometimes lost to it! Haven’t we all seen the old Fancy Feast commercial where the cat is being given the choicest, most delectable tidbits to eat out of the crystal goblet – while at the same time there are starving people in Bridgeport? Human life is infinitely more valuable than a pet’s. Why? Let us look at five aspects of human life that makes it unique, valuable, and worthy of respect.

            First, human life is sacred. We are made in the Image and Likeness of God, with an intellect and freedom. The Church has always been on the forefront of human dignity – whether it was the Dominican priest Fr. Bartolome de las Casas objecting to the harsh mistreatment of Native Americans among the Conquistadores, the religious orders like the Camillians who founded the modern hospital system, the great works of charity of St. Vincent de Paul and Mother Teresa, or the bold stand against the Nazi juggernaut by Bl. Franz Jagerstatter. The Church, since it is made of individuals, is not perfect in its history of respecting human rights – but it was truly due to the influence of Christianity that the world shifted from being “nasty, brutish, and short” to being one that sees the sacredness of every human life.

            This was one of the main reasons why Christianity spread so rapidly in the Roman Empire – it was the first religion to actually respect human dignity for everyone, from the poorest to the rich. An anonymous early Church document called “The Letter to Diognetus”, from approximately 130AD, talks about this stark, countercultural juxtaposition of the Roman culture of power, domination and violence with the unique compassion and respect that Christians showed: Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. (Exposing children was the ancient tradition of taking a handicapped child and leaving them in a field or forest to die). (Christians) share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, kindness their response to insult. It was this radical commitment to the sacredness of all human life that caused the Church to be looked at in wonder – and for Christ’s message to spread

            Second, human life is a right. Our Declaration of Independence was correct when it stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This right to life comes from God and cannot be taken away by any government or individual.

            Third, human lives are equal. If you were in a psychology class in college, you may have had to do the classic “Lifeboat” thought experiment. We were taught something along the lines of, “There are ten people on a sinking ship, and the lifeboat only has five spots. Who do you let on? You have a college professor, a person with cancer, an elderly person, a child, a famous athlete, your mother, someone with Downs’ Syndrome…” and the list goes on. The whole idea of the exercise is to somehow judge which lives are worth saving and which lives are not worth anything. With the eyes of a Christian, though, every life has the same equal value since all are loved infinitely by God and are invited to the same eternal destiny. There is no human life that has greater or lesser value than any other, based on talent or looks or money or size. From the first moment of conception until natural death, every human life has equal value.

            Fourth, human life is a gift. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. He does not owe us another day of life or another breath – but all is gift. It is a gift that we must treat well, lest we offend the Giver – hence, our obligation to take care of our health and the health of others.

            Because it’s a gift, it is not something we are owed. This is especially true for couples who are struggling to have a child, which is a tremendous cross for many families. Recently IVF has made the news, and I know it is very prevalent in this community. But IVF is always gravely immoral, since it makes a child, not a gift, but a commodity to be manufactured. A child has a right to be brought into existence through an act of love, not a scientific technique. In this way, we preserve the nature of the gift – the giver is God, and we receive the gift of human life with gratitude and openness.

            Finally, life, as good as it is, is not absolute and there are many reasons to give it up. Greater love has no man, says that Lord, than to lay down his life for his friend. The fifty million martyrs who shed their blood for Christ demonstrated this profoundly – there are reasons to give up our health, our energy, our very lives.

            As Pope John Paul II said, “The basis for every good thing in society is the dignity of the human person.” Life is always a good, as it participates in the very life of God. This earthly life is a hint and a foreshadowing of that life that never ends, which we all yearn for. As St. Irenaeus put it, “The glory of God is man fully alive” – and this is His destiny for us, not just an earthly existence, but a Heavenly one where this earthly life will reach its fulfillment.

Ordinary Time 26 - The Beauty of Innocence

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 26

September 29, 2024

Innocence Regained

 

            One of the great scientists and geneticists of the last century, Dr. Har Khorana, was a renowned atheist. Having earned multiple doctorates and receiving the National Medal of Science, he came up with a number of arguments for why God does not exist, and was able to convince many of his colleagues that God was impossible. He was so certain of his atheism that he made up a sign to hang over his office door that read, “God is Nowhere.”

            One day, he picked up his young son from school and brought him to work. As they were walking towards his office, he asked his son what he learned in school, and the boy said, “I learned how to read sentences.” Delighted, the father stopped them at the door and pointed to his “God is Nowhere” sign and said, “All right, son, can you read that sign above my door?”

            The boy slowly read, “God…is…now…here.”

            Dr. Khorana began to feel his atheism crumble at his young son’s innocence – and he eventually came back to God.

            Innocence is often scorned in our culture, but it is a prerequisite for Heaven, as Our Lord tells us that only the “pure of heart shall see God.” Innocence is not naivete – being naïve is not knowing what the world offers, while innocence means that we know what the world offers but have chosen to reject the evil and choose the good. Innocence is a beautiful virtue that Christ extols in today’s Gospel, as He speaks about the necessity to protect the innocence of children and even to protect our own innocence by choosing to die rather than to sin.

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, to that tragic beginning of the human race. God created the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and instructed us not to eat from it. Why is knowledge of good and evil such a bad thing? Because the Hebrew word we translate “knowledge” really means “experience” – it was the first time that Adam and Eve had tasted evil, experienced it from the inside out.

            There are many things that we don’t know unless we experience. It’s hard to describe something like eating wasabi or riding a roller coaster to someone who has never experienced it. But evil is something that we should know about – but not experience. For example, I can know that drugs are bad even without having tried them myself. And this was originally the case of Adam and Eve – they knew what evil was, and they knew to avoid it, but they had never experienced it – and their curiosity led to the downfall of the human race.

            Our Lord, then, is urging us to guard our innocence, and guard the innocence of those around us, particularly the young. I just want to mention a couple ways we can do that.

            First, to guard our own innocence, I recommend a couple things. First, curb our curiosity. Do we find ourselves constantly clicking on scandal-mongering clickbait, hungry for the latest dirt? Do we try to listen in on the office gossip, Google unhealthy things, or take delight in finding out about evil? Curiosity is good but must be tempered by the question, “Should I know this? Is this knowledge going to make me a better disciple of Christ?” Remember that curiosity killed the cat, and it can kill our soul too if we’re not careful with it!

            Second, the world is full of innocent good things – pursue them! I remember when Tim Tebow, the famous football quarterback, was at the height of his fame, a reporter was invited over his parents’ house for a family gathering to do an article on the quarterback. After the reporter did the interview and had lunch with the family (Tim was the youngest of five boys, and all of them were there), Tim turns to the reporter and says, “So, do you want to play hide-and-seek?” And the whole family – all young men in their ‘20s, plus a secular news reporter, start playing this kids’ game at their house. How awesome! There are so many great things to do that are innocent and pure – pursue these!

            Jesus also makes clear to His disciples that we are our brothers’ keeper, and must seek to guard their innocence as well, particularly if we have kids. How do we do that?

            First, help your kids get to know Jesus. Jesus and His Word is the filter through which we can understand and evaluate the world around us to understand what is good and healthy, and what will corrupt our souls.

            Second, we must be vigilant about who or what influences our young people. St. John Bosco said: Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul. We become our friends – good friends will make us holier!

            We also become the media we consume. Dear parents, I beg you – please do not allow your child unfiltered access to the internet! Not only does it risk their soul, it harms their ability to reason and is correlative to a whole host of mental illnesses. Give them a phone without internet access, put a filter on their computer, and monitor what music they listen to. This goes not just for kids – we need to do this for ourselves, too.

            In the news these days we see battles going on in certain states regarding banning books and other media from libraries and from children’s access. But it is not censorship to recognize that not every piece of knowledge needs to be known to all people at all times. Just like we don’t teach second-graders algebra, because their minds aren’t ready to receive it without confusion, so we don’t allow young people to encounter evil in books or movies when their souls aren’t formed to identify the evil in it. St. John Bosco put it best: Never read books that aren’t moral, even if these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?

            Finally, teach your kids critical thinking and communicate with them. Conversations at home ought to help form a worldview for your kids – a Christian worldview, with Christ at the center and everything else evaluated in light of Him. A Christian worldview, where we recognize that we have souls with an eternal, supernatural destiny, where we know that we are born into an epic mission of expanding the Kingdom of God to rule over our lives and the lives of our family and friends…this worldview helps us to judge everything we see in the light of eternity to see their true value or lack thereof, which help us live in innocence by choosing the good despite the myriad of evil options around us.

            As we begin to live from a greater purity, sin will lose its attraction to us. I am reminded of the story of St. Joseph of Cupertino, a simple Franciscan priest in Italy in the 1700s. He was so pure and humble that he didn’t know he was living a saintly life. One day, all of the Franciscans are in church, when Fr. Joseph seemed restless and agitated. He couldn’t sit still and looked sick. The abbot came over to him and asked, “Are you all right?” He replied, “Don’t you smell it? There is a horrendous smell in this church.” The abbot didn’t notice anything at all, but, concerned that perhaps it was mold or something decaying, he said, “Can you show me where it’s coming from?”

            Fr. Joseph got up and began to walk out of the church, and the abbot followed. They went down the street and came to a certain house, where Fr. Joseph began to gag and choke, the odor was so bad. He told the abbot that they needed to go into the house. They entered without knocking, and went up to the second floor, where they found a group of people seated around a table, reading spells and practicing witchcraft. Joseph took his walking stick and began thrashing it around, destroying their spellbooks and other accoutrements they were using for evil purposes. He could literally smell their sin because of the purity of his soul!

            There is nothing so beautiful as a soul unsullied by sin; innocent, pure, undefiled. We admire Mary’s pure and immaculate Heart, set apart for loving Jesus entirely. We shouldn’t just admire Mary’s innocence, but imitate that innocence – by helping ourselves, our kids, and our families to reject evil and choose the good!