Homily for Ordinary Time 22 - August 28, 2022

 

Homily for August 28, 2022

Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Hidden Giver

 

            Some of you may know the story, but it’s worth retelling how St. Nicholas became associated with the gift-giving Santa Claus. St. Nicholas was a real-life bishop of Myra, Turkey back in the fourth century, and he was known to be concerned with both the spiritual and the material needs of his flock. One day he heard of a man with three daughters who could not afford to marry them off. Back in those days, a father needed to pay a “dowry” to give his daughters in marriage, but this man was so poor that they had no ability to pay.

            So, according to the story, Bishop Nicholas came to the man’s house at night and threw a bag of gold down his chimney. This was enough for the first daughter to be married. Then, a few years later, he tossed another bag of gold for the second daughter, then another bag for the third. In this way, St. Nicholas became known as a man of vast generosity, leading to his connection to another man who brings gifts down chimneys.

            St. Nicholas – and Jesus – show us the proper way to give: without expecting anything in return, anonymously if possible. This shows that we are motivated by love for God, and not for human praise.

            But this can be challenging! Sometimes in marriage, the temptation is to do an act of service to our spouse…so that we can get something from them. “Honey, I did the dishes for a week, so you should let me go on my hunting trip…dear, I did this or that for you, so I should be allowed a new pair of shoes.” Kids can sometimes do that to their parents – “I’ll do the chores for you as long as you drive me to the mall or get me that new toy.”

            This falls short of the beautiful but challenging ideal of the Gospel. Do we really believe that our hidden acts of service to others do not go unnoticed by God? Do we really believe that He will repay us? So many times we do acts of service or give generous gifts only hoping for an earthly return. But true charity is motivated solely out of love – I love God, and this person is made in His image, so it is worth it to do the dishes for them even if they don’t thank me, or reward me, or even acknowledge that I did anything.

            After all, this is exactly how God acted with us. The Blessed Trinity was completely happy by themselves – they didn’t need anyone or anything, as their joy and delight was complete. But out of absolute generosity, the Father decided to create us – not because He got anything out of it, but simply out of love. He continues to shower so many blessings anonymously – the blessings of food, water, our very life – and so often does not get recognized as the Giver of all these good gifts. And even when He sent His Son to die for us, Jesus did not receive any greater happiness or glory because of His death. Rather, He did it solely to benefit us, with no thought of any benefit for Himself.

            So my challenge to you this week is to find ways to bless others anonymously, without seeking any recognition or thanks – and have the faith to believe that God sees it, delights in it, and will reward us. As St. Augustine put it so succinctly, “Give of your earthly gifts, and receive eternal ones…give earth and receive Heaven!”

Homily for Ordinary Time 21 - August 21, 2022 - Who Can Be Saved?

 

Ordinary Time 21

August 21, 2022

Who Can Be Saved?

 

            St. John Bosco was a priest in Turin, Italy during the mid-1800s. While he was still a seminarian, he befriended another seminarian named Louis Comollo, who was a great example of holiness. The two of them used to read lives of the saints together and speak about the joys of Heaven.

            One day, after a conversation about Heaven, they decided to make an interesting agreement. They swore to each other that the first one of them to die would, if God allowed it, let the other one know whether the deceased one was saved. They even wrote this promise down as a contract, signed it, and told others about it.

            Tragically, Louis fell ill and died at only 22 years of age. The evening after his funeral, St. John Bosco was getting ready for bed when he and his fellow seminarians heard – and felt – a loud rumble like the sound of thunder from out in the hall. It shook the building so strongly that several seminarians actually fell out of bed. They huddled together in terror as the roar got closer and closer. From out of the roar came a voice, which declared, “Bosco, I am saved!” Three times this phrase was said, and then the noise faded away. Everyone was so afraid that even St. John Bosco almost passed out. Later on, Bosco would say that it was the most terrifying moment of his life, and he discouraged anyone else from making such a promise!

            What a joy it would be to be saved! Not only a joy for us, but a joy for the Heart of God, for He is a good Father, and as St. Paul writes, “God wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.” He invites every human being to spend eternity with Him, and the Church officially teaches that everyone receives enough grace to be saved.

            But is it guaranteed that all will be saved? Not at all. We can always reject that invitation, spurn His grace. In fact, Jesus speaks more about Hell than anyone else in the Bible. It is a reality, and it’s not empty.

            Sometimes as Americans, we believe in an idea called “Universalism” – the false belief that all will be saved. Universalism is the idea that God’s love is so great that at the end of time, even the worst sinner will go to Heaven. But this has been condemned as a heresy since the sixth century.

            So some people believe in quasi-universalism, or as I like to call it, “Not-Hitlerism” – the belief that everyone goes to Heaven unless you’re basically Hitler. But this, too, is not the teaching of the Church. The Church teaches that one unrepentant mortal sin is enough for a soul to lose its salvation.

            Also, the testimony of the Church acknowledges that salvation is not universal – there are souls in Hell. For example, Our Lady appeared to four children in Garabandal, Spain, in the 1960s and the children asked Our Lady where most souls go upon death. She revealed that the majority of people go to Purgatory, a good number go to Hell, and the fewest go directly to Heaven. In the apparitions of Fatima, the three shepherd children saw a vision of a Hell that was quite populated. Saints like St. Faustina, St. John Bosco, St. Theresa of Avila, and many more have had visions of this terrible place of torment.

            So we have to ask the question – why would God send anyone there? He doesn’t. We choose it freely. Love requires freedom. If God were to force us to love Him, it wouldn’t be love. Think of when you were a child and your mom told you to go give Aunt Gertrude a kiss. We would roll our eyes, sigh, and go over and give her a kiss. Is that love? Does it mean a whole lot? No, because it’s not done in freedom. Love requires freedom to be authentic.

            So Our Lord gives us the freedom to accept or reject His love, to accept or reject His grace, to accept or reject His offer of everlasting life. The choice is up to us. Why would anyone choose to reject such a grace? Because it’s costly. It’s the “narrow way” of prayer, sacrifice, self-denial, love…when the “broad way” of the pleasures of the flesh, the arrogance of pride, and the glories of this world are, frankly, more easy and attractive.

            When I was growing up and would go on a Boy Scout campout, my dad was great about making sure I got to Mass. Truthfully I liked going to Mass, and it sometimes helped that I got to skip cleaning up dirty pots and pans to go there. On one campout, my dad picked me up at a certain place, took me to Mass, and drove me back to the campsite, which meant I got to miss a brutal four-mile hike up a torturous mountain. When I arrived back, a fellow scout named Chris asked me, “Where have you been?” I told him I went to Mass. He shot back, “You missed the hike because of Mass?” I nodded, and he added, “I would rather hike forty miles than go to Mass.” I was floored – he would rather do anything than be in the presence of a loving God and to receive His Body and Blood? Sadly yes, and there are many who would rather do anything else than be with God. Some would rather scroll their phones for hours on end than spend a few minutes with God in prayer; many who would rather stay addicted to lust instead of take the steps necessary to be pure; many who would rather buy a Maserati than give a bit of money to the poor. The broad road is easy; the narrow road is hard.

            Now, why do I speak about all this? Because this life matters, as it determines where we will spend the rest of eternity. Don’t indulge these eighty or ninety years on earth and miss out on an eternity with God, our true Happiness!

            But the good news of all this is that God desperately wants us to be saved! He wants it so badly that He died for us to be with Him! And He has given us every tool necessary to be saved. He has given us the Sacraments, especially monthly Confession and frequent devout reception of Holy Communion; He has given us the Bible and the Church to teach us the way to holiness; He has given us the riches of prayer like the Rosary and Adoration; He has given us the examples of the saints; He has encouraged us to sacrifice and deny ourselves for others; He has given us the poor for whom we can do works of mercy.

            All we need to do is use these tools, seek holiness, and stay close to Jesus Christ – and we have nothing to worry about. He will obtain our salvation for us, if we cling to Him. But we must not let these tools sit idle, because the “broad way” of destruction is pretty tempting…but it’s the “narrow way” that leads to life.

Homily for Ordinary Time 20 - August 14, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time Twenty

August 14, 2022

Standing for Truth

 

            Many years ago I was at a Confirmation ceremony with Cardinal Edwin O’Brien from Baltimore. As part of the ceremony, the pastor asks all the kids to be confirmed to stand. They stood up, everyone applauded appreciatively, and then Cardinal O’Brien asked them to remain standing. The cardinal came to the center of the sanctuary and stood there, just looking at them in silence. The seconds stretched into minutes as the kids stood silently, the cardinal stood silently, and things started to get awkward.

            Finally, Cardinal O’Brien said, “Tonight you are standing for something. Never forget Who you are standing for. Please be seated.”

            It was a moment I’ve never forgotten. They were standing, in public, declaring that they believe in Jesus Christ. He is certainly worth standing for.

            As the old saying goes, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Unfortunately many people don’t have much more to stand for than for a comfortable life for themselves.

            But Jesus offers us a stark warning: to stand for Him means often to stand alone, against family and friends and society as a whole. After all, we are following a King Who Himself was rejected by His closest friends. Truth is controversial in a world of lies, and so Jesus Who is Truth Itself finds Himself in opposition to the world.

            I love that powerful scene from Jesus’ trial when He stands before Pilate, and Pilate asks Him, “So You are a King?” Jesus responds, “For this I have come, to bear witness to the Truth.” And Pilate asks the age-old question: “What is Truth?”

            Here we have two views of the world: Jesus, claiming to be King and Lord, and Pilate, rejecting that claim. These are still the fundamental visions of the world: either Jesus is Lord, or we are. Either a God-centered worldview, or a secular worldview. Either God established the world and its laws, and we must humbly obey those laws; or we are the ones who define life and marriage and gender and meaning and purpose. Either we submit to the Lord’s loving Kingship, or we rebel against it and do whatever we want. All of our choices and thoughts fall into one of these two categories – either a universe based on God, or a universe with us at the center.

            When there are conflicting visions of the world, we get di-vision – division. Jesus is only warning us that division is going to happen. And many of us have already suffered division because we hold to Jesus as Lord. I have a friend who was peacefully praying a Rosary for an end to abortion at a rally, and a man came up and spit on her. I know a friend who has been open to life and generous with their family size, and they often get snide remarks like, “Are those all yours? You’re done, right? Save some resources for the rest of humanity!” When I told my family I was becoming a priest, my brother (an atheist) commented, “You’re wasting your life!” There will be division because there are competing visions of what the world is.

            But it’s worth it to live for the Truth. In the mid-1900s, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was one of the few people who spoke out against Communism in Russia. He wrote “Live Not By Lies,” an essay that said it was better to suffer for the Truth than to live by lies – he paid for that essay which criticized Stalin with eight years in the Communist Gulag labor-camp, followed by exile. But is it not better to suffer for truth than to live comfortably in lies?

            The people who lived this best were the martyrs. The word “martyr”, in Greek, means “witness” – the more-than-50-million martyrs for Christ witnessed, by the shedding of their blood, that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that Heaven is real. These men, women, and children stood – and died – for Truth. And now they are living in a world where there are no more illusions, no more lies.

            One of my favorite martyrs is St. Thomas More. His death took place in merry old England, under the reign of King Henry VIII. The King hadn’t produced a son with his wife Catherine, so he divorced her and sought to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. The Pope told him that it was wrong to be divorced and remarried, for in the eyes of God, he was still married to Catherine – a civil divorce doesn’t dissolve a sacramental marriage. In anger, King Henry VIII declared that he would be the head of the Church in England, and required all of his nobles to sign an oath of loyalty, declaring that the King, not the Pope, was the head of the Church.

            All of his nobles cared only about their own political futures and comfort and happiness, and the peer pressure was so strong, that only one solitary man refused to sign the oath – the King’s chancellor, Sir Thomas More. Thomas had a lot to lose – he was the second-in-command in the Kingdom, wealthy, married with four children.

            The King prevailed upon Sir Thomas, begging him to sign the oath due to their long friendship. He promised him wealth, riches, and greater favors. But Thomas knew that the Pope was the spiritual head of the Church, not the King, and he could not violate what he knew to be the Truth. So the King tried to persuade him with torture, locking him up in the Tower of London. The King sent in his wife and daughter, to try to convince him to sign the oath. Imagine how difficult it was for Sir Thomas to see his wife and daughter, whom he loved dearly, and have to choose to stay faithful to Truth. Yet his heart and soul was made up – it was worth it to lose everything to stand for Christ.

            And lose everything, he did. He was eventually beheaded for his steadfast faith, and his final words were, “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

            He knew that Jesus Christ was King of the World, the founder of the Church, the promiser of everlasting life – and thus, worth dying for. King Henry thought that he, the adulterous king, was the center of the universe.

            My friends, there will be division if we stand for Truth, because we live in a world of competing visions – a vision where Jesus is Lord of all, and a false vision where man is the center of everything. But despite what it may cost, it’s worth it to stand for Christ, to live for Christ, even to die for Christ.

Homily for Ordinary Time 18 - July 31, 2022

 

Homily for July 31, 2022

Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Using Money for Profit

 

            The founder of Domino’s pizza, Tom Monaghan, is an immensely wealthy person…and a devout Catholic. During the 1980s, when he had amassed a huge fortune, he went on a spending spree: the private jet, the Bugatti…he even became owner of the Detroit Tigers. As a hobby, he loved architecture, so he began construction on his multi-million-dollar dream house inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.

            All of this changed in 1992 when he happened to pick up CS Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity”. He read in the book about how pride is the root of all sin – living for our ego, boasting about our accomplishments, living for self. He was struck to the heart – and realized that, despite all of his public Catholicism, he was living a very self-indulgent lifestyle. He quickly sold the Detroit Tigers, stopped construction on his dream house, and began to live simpler. He started attending daily Mass, praying a daily Rosary, and frequenting Confession.

            He finally sold Domino’s Pizza in 1998 for over one billion dollars – and has since used that money to spread the Catholic Faith. He founded Ave Maria University in Florida, rebuilt a cathedral in Nicaragua, and funds many pro-life organizations. Here is a man who could have used his wealth for himself – and instead realized that it was given to him to bring souls to Heaven.

            The man in today’s Gospel didn’t actually do anything wrong – he wasn’t a murderer or an adulterer, he didn’t cheat anyone or lie. But it’s what he didn’t do that had him condemned. He had all of this amazing wealth, in a time when the majority of the population struggled to find their next meal. And with his lack of generosity, he deprived others of their basic needs.

            Tolstoy once wrote that “I am a participant in a crime if I have extra food and another has none.” In America, we have more than enough material goods – money, leisure time, cars and houses and food – but these material goods will only profit us if we use them for others. Americans tend to live very self-indulgent lives – we make money, and we spend that money on ourselves: whether it be vacations, clothes, cars with all the bells and whistles, Amazon purchases, whatever. Most of our time and energy is used for ourselves and our own comforts.

            St. Anthony of Padua has a good analogy. He says that earthly riches are like reeds – they are very beautiful, but their roots are stuck in the swamp, and when you break the reeds, they are hollow. Likewise, earthly riches have their roots in the things of this earth instead of Heaven, and if we try to find happiness in them, we find them to be hollow.

            But does that mean we can never go on vacation or buy new clothes? No, it doesn’t. So what does God actually expect from us? He is actually very clear in Scripture: He expects His people to tithe. What is tithing? It is the practice of giving ten percent to God. In the Old Testament, Israel was required to give God the top ten percent of their flocks and fields. We, too, are encouraged to tithe – to give ten percent of our gross income to the Lord, whether to the Church directly or to charities.

            Some may say, “This is just an attempt for the Church to make more money!” No – it’s an attempt for the souls of men and women to not be snared by the lure of money. Mother Teresa always encouraged people to “give until it hurts” – if we only give our excess and save plenty of room for luxuries, then we are still living self-indulgently. We should be denying ourselves that fifth pair of shoes, that extra dinner out, that leather interior, that trip to Cancun…because our money doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to God. Consider – when you give to the Church, you are helping the most critical mission on earth: to bring souls to Heaven. When you give to the poor, you are giving to Jesus Christ in disguise. There is no better use for money! Plus, tithing frees us from undue anxieties about things – it puts our goods in proper perspective, and helps us to trust that God will supply everything we need.

            So, I would encourage you to tithe – give your 10% to God and to the poor. I tithe, and I have found that God can never be outdone in generosity.

            That which we give away stores up the greatest profit for us. Don’t store up the self-indulgent luxuries when we can store up treasures in Heaven!

Homily for Ordinary Time 17 - July 24, 2022

 

Homily for July 24, 2022

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Reason Behind It All

 

            Once when I was teaching a Confirmation class, there was a kid named Jake who clearly didn’t want to be there. He sat in the back with a scowl, arms folded, totally unresponsive. About halfway through the year I finally pulled him aside and asked him, “Hey, what’s the deal? Do you not want to be here or something?”

            He replied, “I’m an atheist.”

            Oh great, a thirteen-year-old atheist. “Okay, Jake, so why are you an atheist?”

            He replied, “Because I prayed for my grandma to get better, and she died.”

            I’d bet that this is one of the main reasons why people lose faith – because they pray for something and don’t get it. But doesn’t Jesus say that “ask and we shall receive”? Did He not promise that anything we ask the Father for in His Name will be granted to us?

            The key is in the last line of today’s Gospel. Jesus promised that “how much more will the Father give…The Holy Spirit…to those who ask.” Not that the Father will give riches, healing from every illness, a perfect life. No, He will give us the Holy Spirit, whose role is to make us holy.

            I often hear people say, especially when bad things happen, that “everything happens for a reason” – but they never give the reason. Well, I will tell you the reason, and it’s not mysterious: everything happens for your holiness. Everything God does or allows is for your holiness.

            Protestant pastor Rick Warren once said, “God cares more about your character than your comfort.” As Christians we have to view everything in the light of eternity. In the light of eternity, sickness can help us to grow in patience and give us something to offer up to God. In the light of eternity, death is a passageway to eternal life. In the light of eternity, having financial troubles helps to detach us from undue care about earthly goods and helps us to trust God alone.

             So much of what we ask for will not actually help us to become saints. If we ask for a new job with better pay, we might become more attached to riches and start to live self-indulgently. If we ask for healing, perhaps we are passing up an opportunity to grow in virtue through our sickness.

            As an example, there was once a young college girl who fell in love with this certain young man. Every day she would pray that he would fall in love with her in return, but month after month passed and he showed no interest. Finally, he started dating another girl…and they got engaged…and they got married. The first girl was devastated, and questioned why God had not answered her prayer – this young man was perfect for her, she thought!

            In her sorrow, she started to go to Mass and to Eucharistic Adoration more, and now that the young man was out of her life, she began filling that void with God. She discovered a love for God that she never knew…and God began to win her heart to Himself. She is now Sr. Mary Catherine TOR, a Franciscan nun. She would never have found her true vocation if God had answered her prayer all along…and now she is closer to the Lord than ever before.

            St. Theresa of Avila once said that “more tears are shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.” He knows what will make us truly happy. Yes, He wants us to be happy in this world, but He desires our ultimate and eternal happiness. Parents have to hold down a young child who is receiving a shot, and the child doesn’t understand why he must feel pain, but it’s for their health. In the same way, we don’t understand in the moment why God seems silent to our pleas, but knowing that He is a good Father, we trust that He will make holiness

            So whether or not God answers our prayers, our attitude should always be: “Lord, how are you using this to make me holy? What virtues are you trying to form in me? How are you trying to bring me one step closer to Heaven?”

            I have since lost touch with Jake, and I pray for him. I pray for him to be blessed in this life, yes, but most of all I pray that he may regain his faith in the good Lord Who loves us. Because I know that the one prayer God always delights in is, “Lord, make us holy – make us like Yourself – and bring us to Heaven with You forever.”

Homily for Ordinary Time 16 - July 17, 2022

 

Ordinary Time 16

July 17, 2022

At the Feet of Jesus

 

            Poor Jesus. Every time He goes somewhere, they’re always bringing the lame and cripples and sick out to him. They want Him to constantly do miracles, bring some healing, multiply bread and fish, or save them from a storm at sea. It’s always request after request.

            How much of a blessing, then, must it be for Jesus to come to the house of friends, where He is on the receiving end of kindness! And Mary gives Him the greatest kindness of all – just lovingly sitting at His feet, listening to Him.

            So – let’s look at our own relationship with Jesus. How many of us would say that the majority of our prayer is asking God for things? When I look at our book of prayers out in the Church vestibule, it’s a litany of requests – heal this person, find this person a job, bring this person back to the Faith. All good things – and God does want us to bring our needs to Him. But true spirituality begins when we stop seeking God’s blessings and we start seeking God. God is not just a vending machine to give us stuff (“I want healing from my ailments, so I’ll put in my three Hail Mary’s and hope that I can get some healing!”). He is a Father who simply loves to spend time with His children.

            So how do we “sit at the feet of Jesus” and listen to Him with loving attention? There are many ways to do so – silence, Adoration, the Rosary – but today I want to speak about a powerful way to sit at His feet, called Lectio Divina.

            Lectio Divina literally means “Sacred Reading” and it is a way to read Scripture where we can encounter Him in His Word. When people read the Bible, they often read it in one of two ways. First, they read it cover-to-cover as if it were a novel – which is hard to do, because it’s not a book but a library which includes poetry, letters, books of law, genealogies…so by the time they get to Leviticus, it usually gets so boring that they give up! The other way people usually read the Bible is what we call “Bible Roulette” – randomly opening to a page and seeing what it says. God can sometimes speak through this method, but it’s just as likely you will get some random verse which doesn’t make sense!

            But Lectio Divina is very different. It involves reading a passage from the Bible very slowly, focusing on a word, phrase, or image that stands out to us. For example, if one were to use this weekend’s Gospel, perhaps the words “the better part” will stand out to you. Or maybe you will identify strongly with Martha and her busyness. Then, after we have our word/phrase/image, we read the same passage again, and ask God what He means – “Lord, what are You trying to reveal to me through these words? What are you trying to say to me through this person in the story?” And then we wait and listen to whatever thoughts or feelings are arising in our hearts. Finally we read the passage a third time, and we speak to the Lord about any good resolutions that He has inspired in us – for example, we could say, “Lord, thank You for showing me that time with You is ‘the better part’ – help me to spend more time with You…Lord, make me less like Martha with her busy-ness and more attuned to Your Words.” Lectio Divina is that conversation between us and the Lord – He speaks to us in the words/phrases/images from the Bible that stand out to us, and we speak to Him about those words.

            Sitting at the feet of Jesus in prayer is the key to spiritual growth. Not trying to demand something of Jesus, not being a Martha-like busybody, but just seeking Him.

            A beautiful story illustrates this. St. Thomas Aquinas was perhaps the greatest and most prolific Catholic author in history – he wrote innumerable books about the Lord and our Catholic faith, including his most famous “Summa Theologica” which is a profound summary of all of our beliefs. Towards the end of his life, though, he had a vision of Jesus Who said to him, “Thomas, you have written very well of Me. What reward would you like to have?” Thomas replied, “My reward is only to possess You.”

            Mary did choose the better part, because she chose just to be with the Lord. Sometimes we fear it’s a waste of time because we’re not accomplishing anything productive. But being with the Lord is never a waste of time – it was loving attention to the One Who delights in us. My friends, if you want a real spiritual life, it begins when we sit at His feet and seek Him.

Homily for Ordinary Time 15 - July 10, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 15

July 10, 2022

The Greatest Epidemic

 

            Mother Teresa was once taken on a tour of a nursing home in America. The nursing home director was telling her all about the state-of-the-art facility: round-the-clock skilled nursing care, good food, TVs in every room, plenty of comfort. But the saint noticed that no one was smiling and that they were all looking toward the door. She asked the director why everyone was staring at the door, and the director sadly responded that they were all waiting for a visit from family or friends, but only rarely did anyone come to visit them.

            From this experience, Mother Teresa concluded that there was a poverty in America that was worse than the poverty in Calcutta. She said, “The greatest poverty is loneliness, the feeling of being unwanted.” In Calcutta, people were starving – but they knew how to share what little they had, and this love brought them joy. Here in America, we have everything – and so often are miserable because we do not have the meaningful connections that make life worthwhile.

            A recent study found that 61% of Americans are lonely. There is a yearning in every human heart for connection. We are created for relationships, because we are made in the image of God Who is Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the original community of life and love, and since we are made in His image, we too desire to be part of a community of life and love. Thus, we recognize that something is deeply wrong when we are isolated, lonely, unloved. As Pope St. John Paul II said, “The only proper response to another human being is love.”

            As we reflect on this parable of the Good Samaritan, it strikes me that in our country we do not see people beat up by the side of the road. We don’t see people literally starving in the streets. We have enough soup kitchens and homeless shelters and government programs and charities to help most people live decent lives. Yes, we should continue to contribute to charities that help the poor, but most of us do not have a daily encounter with people who are lacking material goods.

            But the poverty we encounter daily is the poverty of loneliness. Perhaps our grandparents, who are isolated in a nursing home…perhaps a kid at school who always sits alone…perhaps a neighbor who has no family left. This is the needy person that we encounter daily.

            And the choice of how to respond to such a poverty is up to us. If I were to rewrite this parable for our modern world, it would go something like this: a person got beat up, not by robbers, but by life…perhaps they were the victim of online cyberbullying, or maybe their kids moved away from home and have ignored them. And so, they sat there by the side of the road, lonely and hurting. A person passed by, but was too distracted looking at their smartphone to notice. Another person passed by, but they were so busy working eighty hours a week and driving their kids to soccer practice that they couldn’t take time to help. Finally, a Christian, a true believer in Christ, noticed this person who had been forgotten by the rest of the world. They stopped, and got to know the other person’s name, and invited them out for coffee – nothing earth-shattering, but it broke through the loneliness and isolation. The person began to get well simply by meaningful human connection.

            I challenge us all to look around in our own life and see who could use a card, a phone call, an invitation over. Is it your grandma? Your neighbor? Your classmate? That person that you see sitting all by themselves in the pew in front of you?

            Once, a pair of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity went to visit a very poor man up in the mountains of Australia. When they came to his house, they were noticed a beautiful lamp sitting in the living room, covered in dust. The lamp was all dark – no light came from it. The nuns asked the man why he didn’t light the lamp, and he said, “I never get any visitors. I have no reason to light the lamp.” The nuns said, “If we visit you every week, will you light the lamp for us?” The man agreed, and he began to light the lamp…and through these visits, he himself became changed. He began to go out to visit his neighbors and return to church. Years later, long after the nuns had stopped visiting him, he wrote a letter to Mother Teresa and told her, “The lamp that your sisters had lit in my life continues to shine.”

            We have very little chance, on a daily basis, to encounter a man beaten by robbers. But almost every day we encounter someone who suffers from the epidemic of loneliness – and the cure doesn’t cost us even two gold coins – just a little time and love.