Ordinary Time 28 - Oct 14, 2018

Homily for October 14, 2018

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Seeking Guidance, Finding Jesus in the Church

            A few years back, I was leading a group of boys through their Boy Scout Catholic Award. After the first session, one of the boys approached me. He asked, “Is this a…Catholic religious award?”

            I was a bit confused by the question, considering I am a Catholic priest! I replied, “Uh…yes.” After a considerably awkward pause, I asked, “Are you a Catholic?”

            He shrugged and said, “Nope. I don’t belong to a religion.”

            Surprised, I asked him, “Why are you here?”

            He replied, “Well, I just figured I needed some sort of religion in my life. Can I explore Catholicism?”

            I’m happy to report that this young man, as a freshman in high school, got baptized that spring and is now a happily practicing Catholic.

            But what an insight! “I need a religion in my life”. He knew he couldn’t do this “life” thing alone – he needed a guide, someone to show him the way.

            So it is with this rich young man. Presumably he had a comfortable life – riches, stability, and he seemed to be a pretty moral guy. But he wanted more; he wanted to go deeper in his faith. So he seeks to discover the path to greater love of God and neighbor.

            But seeking a spiritual path is not a matter of trying on jeans at Forever 21 or the Gap – you don’t just try them on for size and see which one fits your lifestyle. Rather, we should seek the truth – which is why this young man turns to Jesus, Who Himself is the Truth.

            I remember one time browsing in a church library. Those can be very scary places – you just never know what’s going to be on those shelves. I happened upon a book called “Ten Best Guesses”. Intrigued, I opened it up. It was by a priest who admitted in the book, “I don’t have all the answers to life’s questions like suffering, eternity, happiness, holiness…but here are my ten best guesses to life’s big questions!” I almost threw the book across the room. I understand about knowing your limitations, but I don’t want best guesses about how to live – I want to know the truth about suffering, about eternity, about the path to holiness! I want to know a tried-and-true way to come to God and follow Him!

            And I have found it – in the Scriptures and in the teachings of our Catholic Church. I believe – and our Church teaches – that the Bible is the living and inerrant Word of God, entrusted with the Truth of our salvation. And I believe that this Word of God is explained and lived out in the living Tradition of our Church.

            After all, look at the evidence – all the saints who have followed the Lord Jesus and found their life’s meaning, their life’s purpose, true joy, abundant life, everlasting love, and an eternity in Heaven. We often look only at the scandals in the Church – and yes, there have been some bad leaders. But look for a moment at those who have found in the Church the spiritual path to Heaven – Mother Theresa, Pope John Paul II, St. Augustine, St. Therese of Lisieux…we have tens of thousands of canonized saints, and many more saints who we will never know until Heaven, who have already blazed a path to Heaven by following the guidance of the Scriptures and our Catholic Church.

            So, if you are looking for spiritual guidance, look no further than the Word of God and the Catholic Church. Here, you will find the wisdom of two thousand years of people who have followed the Lord and blazed a path to Heaven. This is why we should remain Catholic – because it is the True Path to Heaven. This rich young man came seeking a guide to holiness, but turned away because it required too much of him. We come to the Scriptures and the Church to seek a guide to holiness; may we have the courage to do what He asks of us through His Word and His Church.

            I want to close with the story of a saint who found in the Church a true guide and pathway to Heaven. His name is St. Moses the Black, and at one time he was the most feared gang leader in Ethiopia in the 400s. He led a gang of 75 men across the countryside, raping and pillaging and murdering anyone in his path. After years of leading this gang, the law began to catch up with him, and he was pursued by the police. Knowing he needed to hide, he found a monastery in the desert and prepared to ransack it and use it as a hideout.

            But when he banged on the monastery door, he was greeted by the abbot…who welcomed him. He has so shocked to be welcomed, and doubly shocked to see in the abbot’s face something that he had rarely seen: love, joy, peace. Moses allowed himself to be led into the monastery, and had a long conversation with the abbot where he heard the message of Jesus Christ for the first time. Finally, he decided to remain in the monastery as a monk, dismissing his gang.

            But life as a monk was difficult. He had developed so many vices: lust, anger, greed; and it was difficult to rid himself of them. After several years, he was frustrated by his lack of progress, and he made ready to leave the monastery. Once again, the abbot intervened, and early one morning brought him to the roof of the monastery just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. “Just as the sun lights up the sky gradually and not all at once, so God’s grace will bring His light into your life gradually.”

            Moses persevered in the monastery, and was finally able to master himself through prayer and penance and great struggle. He was ordained a priest and eventually started his own monastery with 75 men; since he had led 75 men into sin, he would now lead 75 men into Heaven.

            Moses was looking for the right way to live, and he found it in Christ through the mentorship of the Abbot. If we are looking for the right way to live, we can find it in the Bible and in our Catholic Faith.