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Homily

30th Sunday Ordinary Time – What is love?

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ex. 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-4, 47, 51; 1 Thes. 5c-10; Mt. 22:34-40

What is love?  Today Jesus in the gospel connects two passages from the Mosaic Law, love of God from Deuteronomy 6:5 with love of neighbor from Leviticus 19:18.  He makes it clear that all the 600 laws plus in the scripture can be summarized in these two commandments and you cannot have one without the other.  If we claim to love God then we keep his word by demonstrating our love for neighbor that is every other human being is the evidence of our love of him.  Two sides of the same coin, love of neighbor fulfills our love of God. He is the head and we are the followers. 

What is love then?  In Exodus from the Old Testament law, we hear the words “You shall not” repeated often comprising of many specific laws of how to treat others.  There is an equivalency in the old law with obedience as a sign of love.   I once had a very young couple in counseling and I asked the young man to complete the sentence to his wife “I know you love me when…”  He said “I know you love me when your obedient to me.”  “Houston, we have a problem” to quote the movie Apollo 13.  The God complex is when we act as God and expect to be served and not to serve.  Jesus comes to overturn the tables and say to love is to serve and not be served.  He serves in healing the sick, multiplying bread and fish to feed the thousands, raising the dead.  What is love?  Love is to serve. 

What else is love?  We hunger for love without the cross of suffering.  However, as song says, “you can’t have one without the other” for true love is sacrificial.  That is why the Church has a crucifix with Jesus on the cross reminding us of what true love requires.  It is to live and to die for the one we love.  We have forgotten how to suffer, to carry our cross, to offer it up and allow God to bring good even out of the persecution from others.  We pray for “our way” not for the will of God.  Love has become a soft teddy bear we control and manipulate and wear out to meet our needs.  The two great commandments reveal our love for God in the cross we bear.  Suffering often raises the question of “Why, God?”  We should not ask “why” but “what”.  What do you ask of me?  What is your will that I may follow?  Love is to sacrifice. 

The first reading reminds us that God is witness to all that we do.  The law of reciprocity in which it is in giving that we receive, it is in loving that we are loved and it is in dying to ourself that we are born again.  We cannot outgive our God who multiplies our riches in Christ with his blessings.  The law of reciprocity also reveals that love and justice come together in love and there are consequences for our misdeeds.  Love does not ignore misdeeds but holds us accountable. Love is justice. 

Christ came to transform our hearts that by his mercy upon us we may to be a people of mercy and charity.  It leads us to a greater good in the true image of God.  Charity places the good of the other before our benefit because we trust in God to provide for our needs as we provide for others.  Jesus was condemned because he dared to forgive sins revealing himself as God the Son.  In love we forgive as an act of the will not as a feeling.  As a child of God love is mercy. 

Love requires time.  When a child is born our love pours out unconditional and sacrificial.  Babies require time, lots of time.  We sleep with our ears alert for any sound and as they grow up, we don’t stop hovering over them as helicopter parents “but” we still have expectations of them as they grow.  Love is building a relationship with the one we love.  God desires our time in prayer, adoration, and church.  We don’t have time, make time for each other.  The bond of love is relational.    

Love has expectations because it is relational and requires for there to be truth, “just don’t lie to me”; goodness “no temper tantrums”, beauty “comb your hair”; and unity “we all go to church on Sunday.”  “But why?”  It is hard being a parent, imagine how it is for God with us as his children when he gives us his commandments and we break them. 

We would think that with the coming of Jesus the transformation of the law would happen rapidly but for many even today God remains more as a distant, authoritative, and legalistic God than a personal, compassionate, loving Father.  It begs the question, how are these individuals in living their authority as parents, bosses, judges, or in their priesthood or religious authority?  In the old days it was not uncommon for a priest to hit you on the head or for a nun to use a ruler on your hands.  Before Vatican II a Bishop would do a gentle slap on the face at Confirmation as a reminder to be ready to suffer for the faith.

The more secular the world becomes the further from God are its norms.  The “woke” culture is one of entitlement not sacrifice, safe spaces not discourse, tries to cancel the voices who question as “hate speech” rather than the right to free speech.  Jesus always engaged the Pharisees and Sadducees in dialogue even as they tried to trap him and persecute him. 

I love you!  These three magical words we all love to hear.   Remember the hand sign to say it with one gesture?  It is in sign language the “I”, “L”, and “Y” all together to say “I love you”.  Sometimes we don’t say it enough and sometimes when we say it, we don’t show it enough.  The heart of Jesus says “show me” the same way our hearts need to see love in action. 

What is love?  “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:16)

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Homily

29th Sunday Ordinary Time – My chosen one!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 45:1, 4-6; Ps 96:1, 3-5, 7-10; 1 Thes. 1:1-5b; Mt. 22:15-21

My chosen one!  The Lord God calls us by name, giving us a title by which we have been chosen to lead of life for his God given purpose.  Our choice in life is to accept or reject his call and live out our mission defined by his title for us.  If we accept his call we will be armed with the grace to fulfill our mission whether we recognize his hand leading us in battle or not.  You were chosen for the gospel not only in word “but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.”  This drives our life and our destiny.  Let us live our calling. 

Jesus sends his disciples out by two to preach ahead of him to prepare the way that he may follow with the power of the word in action, healing, forgiving sins, and even raising the dead to life.  God’s chosen ones by living testimony in every act of love bring healing, forgiveness and new life to the spirit of the soul who hungers for truth, goodness, justice and unity.  The Jesus prayer to God the Father “that they may all be one” united as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit.  We are invited to enter into this covenant of love. 

The Lord says, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.”  Parents bring their children to baptism accepting the responsibility to prepare the way of the Lord as they grow and develop teaching them the way of faith, hope, and love that they may grow and come to Confirmation seeking the Lord in even a deeper relationship of love as God’s chosen ones.  We are chosen for the works of the Lord each according to the grace given in response to our readiness to seek the Lord.  Baptism is the beginning of what can be won or wasted by our free will.  

My chosen ones will “shine like lights in the world” of darkness.  It is God’s light that many will try to cover and reject as soon as it reveals the sins of the world.  This is the light Jesus brought into the world and the Pharisees went off and “plotted” against Jesus to silence him and have an argument to “cancel” him from society.  They put him to the test with the question of paying the census tax to Caesar.  Some may try to use this scripture story to argue the issues of separation of church and state.  This is a false notion of duplicity and Jesus would call us out as “hypocrites” if we fell into this reasoning.  God is greater than any social, political, economic structure the world can invent.  All is subject to his power and authority. 

Recalling Jesus words that we cannot serve “God and mammon”.   Mammon being the pursuit of material riches.  For many the heart is restless in the pursuit of the material world but nothing can truly satisfy its hunger.  The material is destined for the grave and if we are not prudent, we will be subject to the same destiny without the hope of heaven.  St. Augustine realized this in his early manhood as he turned away from the desires of the flesh and came to the conclusion that our hearts are restless until we rest in God himself.  Once he discovered this reality he entered into the kingdom of the chosen ones. 

To be chosen is an invitation for God desires all to be saved, but many fail to respond to the call.  Are we living by the title God has chosen to give us?  Have we given it a thought when we pray what is God’s will for me?”  It is easy to have our prayer be “God, please what I want” and not ask what do you desire of me and for me.  Perhaps we fear asking the question because it may carry a cross and not a comfort, a sacrifice and not a pleasure, a self-denial and not an indulgence.  Perhaps God is silent because we don’t really want to hear what he has to say to us.  My chosen ones, we cannot imagine what lies beyond but we trust that God will be faithful to his promises.  Today we are remined, there is a heaven and a hell, good and evil in the world, power to heal and the power to kill.  We must choose which path to follow. 

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Homily

28th Sunday Ordinary Time – You’re invited!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-6; Phil. 412-14, 19-20; Mt. 22:1-14

You’re invited!  The Lord has prepared his wedding banquet for his people, and we are being invited to the wedding feast but before we come, we must have the appropriate dress code.  The dress code demands a life of righteousness, a heart of love, and a spirit open to God’s will.  In the gospel today the Lord offers us a parable in which he compares the kingdom of God to a wedding feast.  If the kingdom of God is already at hand, then the wedding feast is ready for us and it begins with the celebration of the Mass. 

Many have been invited of the house of Israel he tells the chief priests and elders but few are chosen.  The invitation comes at the beginning of life and the chosen ones have been washed clean of their sins and turned to God in faithful service.  Many of the invited guests have refused to come thus the invitation has gone out to others on “the main roads” which opens the invitation to all the Samaritans, Gentiles and to us.  The invitation however requires that we come wearing the proper wedding garment, that we be dressed with the proper garment of holiness. 

Before we come to be received by the Lord, we must wear the outer garment of righteousness, the undergarment of purity, the headdress of humility, and the shoes of justice.  Otherwise, the Lord will ask of us, ““My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?”   Our souls must be washed clean of our sins.  It begins with a good confession and a commitment to avoid sin and all its near temptations.  We are not to come to receive the Lord in mortal sin or the Lord may pronounce those words we hear today in the gospel, “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  Just because Jesus calls us “my friend” does not excuse us from the proper attire to enter the kingdom of God. 

The guest to the wedding feast must also bring the gifts that come from the fruit of charity.  Charity atones for many sins and helps purify the undergarments of our passions.  Without the gifts of charity, the other garments only appear as illusions of righteousness, humility, and justice.  We cannot expect to rush right before the wedding feast and be appropriately dressed.  We work on our dress on Sunday as we are sent forth into the world to live a virtuous life and do the work of charity.  This work is carried out through every opportunity our Lord gives us to encounter him in the world.  It is how we respond to the calling of our God given purpose.  We multiply the fruit of our gifts for the Lord until we return to the wedding feast the next Sunday where he receives us once again having prepared the table of the Lord. 

This is why the Lord says, “many are invited, but few are chosen.”  Though we are all created by God with a God given purpose, our lives don’t center around our calling.  We approach the world in terms of how the world can satisfy us and all our needs and wants.  We don’t consider enough how we can serve our God in the blessings we receive from him.  We think in terms of what “I” can do before we even think of what God can do for us and through us.  If we approach life ego-centrically then our choice of garments turns into self-righteousness, pride of self, rationalization that always justifies our actions, and the impurity of our concupiscence taking over our hearts.  How can the Lord respond to us but with the words, “I do not know you.” 

The feast that the Lord prepares for his people is with “juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.”  For those who have dressed in holiness sin has already been destroyed forever having our soul prepared to enter the kingdom of God as the soul separates from the body at the end of our mortal life and enters the glory of God penetrated by the light of holiness.  No one knows what the Lord has prepared for those who love and serve the Lord.  It is only a comparison to juicy rich food and wines.  

No one can go through mortal life without shedding tears.  Suffering came into the world by disobedience thus obedience opens the wardrobe to wear the proper wedding garment.  When God wipes away our tears, he brings about our healing and he will reveal to us his plan for salvation that we may participate as heirs to the kingdom.  What does this mean?  It means that God is a personal God who desires to make himself known to us.  In coming to know God we are guided to wear the appropriate garment for each event of life, knowing also how to respond to the test and challenge of life. 

Sometimes we must put on the garment of warrior for Christ while at other times we must wear the robe of silence and perseverance.  The wardrobe the Lord offers us may also be a garment of sacrifice or the colorful dress of joy.  Knowing what to wear must meet with the appropriate circumstances and desires of the Lord.  This is why we must always seek the Lord first and remain attentive to his voice in our hearts, mind, and spirit. 

Today in order to “live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” we begin by accepting Jesus into our hearts to be transformed into his temple.  The Lord desires that we be the temple of the Lord as we open ourselves to him then his house becomes one with us in being as we receive him in our souls.  Today this word is fulfilled in our hearing as we come to receive him, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist.  The house that the Lord builds in us cannot be denied as we place our trust in him.  We walk in the dark valley of sin in this world but fear no evil.  We have been anointed with the oil of salvation and as we like to say, “Ain’t no party like a Catholic party, cause a Catholic party don’t end”.  It lasts forever, and you’re invited.

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Homily

27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Keep on doing!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 5:1-7; Ps 80:9, 12-16, 19-20; Phil. 4:6-9; Mt. 21:33-43

“Keep on doing what you have learned…received…heard…and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you” says St. Paul in the scripture.  Paul is being an imitator of Christ and we are all called to live in imitation of Christ.  An imitator in this aspect is not a poser who acts one way in front of others to see but in his heart harbors sinful thoughts.  An imitator is one who is being transformed to be another Christ in service of God.  We become another Christ when we keep on doing what God commands of us. 

In the gospel today Jesus reveals in a parable what is about to happen to the Israelites who have rejected him and seek to kill him.  They have become posers of the word having established many laws but lost the true sense of God’s law.  Jesus warns them that God will take away his kingdom from them and give it to a people who will produce fruit.  This people will be imitators of Jesus the “cornerstone” rejected by the Jewish religion.  Jesus is the cornerstone of Christendom and we are the people trusted to keep on doing the will of God through Him, with Him and in Him. 

The will of God is a calling and we have a choice to keep on doing the will of God and bear fruit or repeat history and become simply posers, Christians by name and tradition but living by our desires.  How do we know the difference?  Examine the “fruit” of our lives.  The “fruit that will remain” lives on in the lives of others.  The difference we make by being imitators of Christ in love, sacrifice, charity, and mercy is the type of fruit we are called to produce.  What difference have we made is the difference between heaven and hell. 

We are creatures of habit, once we develop a habit it becomes hard to change and the more we repeat it the more ingrained it becomes. In other words, we are transformed by our habits into the person we become.  If we keep on doing the things that solely bring us pleasure, produce greater power in our lives, and help us receive recognition from the world then we belong to the world and the fruit we bear will not last past this world.  Keep on doing what God commands at first seems difficult but by the grace of God there is a conversion of who we are to be who Christ is calling us to be. 

St. Paul names a few of the habits to follow, “whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious…anything worthy of praise” of God keep on doing these things.  Then the peace of God “will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”.  God will give us a new life and not withdraw from us “and we shall be saved”.  What’s it all about?  It’s about God, about heaven and hell, about all eternity. 

This is the day that sets in motion for tomorrow.  That is why what we are living today has been determined by our yesterdays.  If we keep on doing what has failed us in the past then it is destined to be repeated.  Keep on doing the will of God and even greater things will come.  Life is always in a state of motion, which direction it goes now depends on our next action. Keep on doing what is right and the kingdom of God will open up to even greater things. 

Jesus is the cornerstone of our life.  The psalm reveals that the house Israel is the vineyard of the Lord but Isaiah prophesizes that the Lord’s vineyard has produced wild grapes.  All his investment in the vineyard of the house of Israel has not given the fruit he desires.  He desired “judgment and justice” but these wild grapes have brought about the “bloodshed” and “outcry”, it is the bloodshed of Jesus and the outcry to crucify him.  It leads God to ask “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?”  Looking at the history of salvation is a sad commentary on humanity that repeatedly has rejected God but not all.

God has provided for kings, rulers, priests, and prophets and the people have “neither heeded the voice of the Lord, God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord set”.  Is the world any different today than in all history?  Jesus came and his word has spread to the ends of the earth.  It has spread because Jesus sent his disciples out with the power of his name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend yet rebellion prevails in the hearts of many.  Sin remains the greatest pandemic that brings death and destruction. 

Faith is an exercise that requires constant movement in the direction of God.   This is having a mind of excellence, where we recognize God is working for our salvation in all and through all and we are listening and responding to his call.  “Keep doing what you have learned and received” from God through prayer and petition and through his Church and his servants with thanksgiving for all you have received.  Let our hearts not be troubled.   When God is with us who can be against us?     

Finally, a famous quote by St. Francis of Assisi says, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”  The impossible comes from God who makes up for what we lack and makes all things possible.  Amen.

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Homily

26th Sunday Ordinary Time – Do it, anyway!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ez. 18:25-28; Ps 25:4-9; Phil. 2:1-11; Mt. 21:28-32

Today the Lord is responding to those who say “The LORD’s way is not fair!”.  What is the response?  Be obedient, do it anyway!  There used to be a television sitcom where the theme was “Father knows best”.  This is what we heard when we were growing up and what we still say to our children.  As parents we see beyond what they see and so it is with God.  We see the finite and God sees the infinite.  “Just do it” is the tag line for Nike commercial and the message is don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. This is just half of the story the rest comes later. Jesus also challenges us to do what He commands out of obedience.  Don’t like it?  It is what it is. 

This is a theme carried forth from last week when all the labor workers received the same daily wage regardless of the hours they worked.  Not only did they receive the same wage but Jesus responded “The last shall be first.”  “Not fair” we say but who among us has the mind of God to judge his ways or his will.  Today the Lord says, “do it anyway”, be obedient to me.  What you do not understand now has a purpose, follow my ways and you shall live forever by my side.  When others saw Jesus on the cross, they did not understand what now we get to see and live because of his sacrifice. 

What we see in the gospel is two sons with two attitudes.  One is aggressive and says “I will not” because he does not like what he is asked to do.  The father was not asking him to do anything bad, illegal, or immoral.  He needed him to do some work.  His conscience moves him to do what is right.  The other son goes along with the father but then ignores doing the work.  Which did the father’s will?  The one who is obedient matters more to God even in our faults that the one who gives lip service “yes, Lord”, then follows his own will.  Jesus reminds us heaven depends on our actions.

As children we learn early that our parents are “the boss of me” and when someone else tells us to do some like a big brother or sister we like to say, “you’re not the boss of me”.  We are very good at avoiding authority and careful who we listen to.

No one said it would be easy.  Obedience is difficult.  From the 2-year-old that says “no” when we say eat your vegetables to the teen who is a master of avoidance as we hear mothers say, “how many times do I have to remind you?”  We don’t like it.  Then there is the “grown-up” complaining “why do we have to change, this is how we have ‘always’ done it”.  Then we finally get to be old and wise and someone says, “it is not safe for you to drive anymore”, so we make an extra pair of keys so we can keep driving. 

The world is demanding we listen and obey the norms of a culture described as a culture of death by Pope John Paul II.  Why are we so ready to follow the secular culture that to be obedient to the Word of God?  One reason is we want to be accepted by our peers.  The other reason is the wide-open ocean of comfort, pleasure, do what you will.  Be you’re your own boss.  Remember the song from the 70’s “Don’t rock the boat, baby, don’t tip the boat over” (Hues)?  Jesus will tip the boat over to save a few rather than all perish. 

Jesus is the example par excellence of obedience “he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death” and what did God the Father do?  “God greatly exalted him” that we may all proclaim “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.  God’s will, is our salvation.   Let us love ourselves by doing his will.  This is the day to say “yes, Lord”, do it for the love of God, for the love of others, and even for the wisdom of self-love.   Eternity depends on it. 

The gospel message reminds us that we are called to obedience even when our own will rebels in our humanity, even when we have refused in the past, even when we think God is not interested in our actions.  God knows our faults but is waiting for our obedience with his gift of mercy.  If we only give the illusion of being obedient externally for all to see we fool only ourselves before God. 

“I don’t like to go to church”, do it anyway.  “I don’t like to do homework”, do it anyway.  “I don’t like my job”, keep doing it anyway until you find another job.  Whatever we are called by God in his service be obedient.  Do it unless it is illegal, immoral, or just a bad thing to do. 

Our goal of life is to reach salvation by following the “paths” laid out for us by Jesus who desires us to come to “truth”.  The first right step in this journey is to come to him in humility with an open mind and humble heart to be fed from the table of salvation.  This table is God’s offering through the sacramental life of the church.  It is to be church where we become “of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing” that we may empty ourselves out for him by our love of God and charity to neighbor. 

Now for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say on radio.  The inspiration for “Just do it” came from a death row inmate as he was about to be executed.  His last words were “let’s do it”.  With Jesus we are never alone.  He is with us, through us, and in us so that what we do in his name we do with Him.  When Jesus says “do it” in obedience to me and we realize what we need to do is what is right, what is best, we can say with confidence to God, “let’s do it, Lord”. 

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25th Sunday Ordinary Time – The Lord is near!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 55:6-9; Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Phil. 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt. 20:1-16a

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near” is both an invitation and a warning.  The Lord is near, easy to be found who desires to remain with us but we must come to him so he can reveal himself to us.  The invitation is to recognize God in his infinite love and mercy calling us back to him.  He is with us even as we live in the flesh that our labor may be fruitful.  God is a generous God to those who serve him in his kingdom.  The invitation also includes a warning that our day is passing quickly and soon this life will come to an end and with it our opportunity to seek the Lord while he may be found.  If we but call out to him he is near to us ready to enter into our hearts. 

“The Lord is near to all who call upon him”.  In general, there are two kinds of Christians.  One view God as creator who after creation remains apart allowing humanity to live by self-determination.  The other side views God as someone who has predetermined all that is going to happen and we are just living it out like a play.  Both views by are wrong.  Today’s readings reveal to us that we have a choice of how we live our life in relationship with God.  He is near if we call upon him but he also allows us to be distant from him by our free will. 

The person who says “where is God” when hardship or tragedy comes reveals himself as someone who believed in a distant God, living “their life” and forgetting to call upon him for a deeper relationship.  The person who calls upon God in daily life is not immune from hardship or tragedy but is already being carried through to the other side of the turbulence able to weather the storm and by their faith is invited to come out and walk on water trusting in the Lord.  He is near to those who call upon Him always whether in thanksgiving or in supplication.  If we only wait to call out to him after the house is on fire the damage is done.   

The hope of the gospel is that we can come to God whether it is the first hour of our life or the last hour of our life while in the flesh.  The story of the landowner who goes out to hire workers throughout the day giving each the same wage at the end of the day appears by human standards as an injustice unless we recognize that love and justice work together.  The love and mercy of God is being extended to us who forget to call upon the Lord as we go about living our lives until at the end we recognize our need for God.  It is extended to those raised agnostic with no teaching of the gospel who by the grace of God one day hear the word and receive it in their hearts.  It is extended to the broken and suffering who in their pain call out in agony and receive mercy from God. 

The gospel story also has a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The son who demanded his inheritance and walked away from the Father left to create his own self-determination and squandered his inheritance, that is the kingdom of God.  He had enough common sense to return to the Father and seek forgiveness.  The son who remained with the father working all his life felt cheated by his father who received his brother back with great love and mercy.  It is a reminder that even the faithful sometimes don’t realize all that we are receiving from the Father which by the grace of God have not fallen away like the prodigal son.  In both parables, the landowner and the father demonstrate a generous heart.  The love of God is the love of a Father.  

Recall what we tell our children when they are little, “I love to the moon and back.”  They grow up and realize we can now travel to the moon and back so compared to God’s love of “infinity and beyond”, no comparison.  It wasn’t that long ago when our kids couldn’t wait to move out of their parent’s house and be independent and we were “helicopter parents” trying to follow them.  Now many are in no rush to leave the nest and we can’t wait for them to go get a job and have their own life.  The moon is college and they went there and have come back home.  The Lord reminds us, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways”.  We are all a work in progress so when we turn to him, we open up that his will be done. 

Those who come into his kingdom and serve God all the days of our lives receive the promise of heaven.  Those who are to come later in life can also receive the promise of the Father.  Some are faithful from the cradle to the grave but many of us have veered through our life separating ourselves from God, Church, even from our family falling into sin.  The love of God is mercy and justice.  In mercy God desires all to enter heaven and in justice he provides the path of purification we call purgatory to “wash our baptismal robes” as Dante claims.  This is where love and justice meet. 

Purgatory is the promise of heaven but not yet and can be the joy of suffering in redemption for our sins already forgiven.  We can liken this to going to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.  When we go to confession the priest gives us the absolution and our sins are forgiven.  He then gives us our penance which we are to joyfully fulfill in thanksgiving to God for his love and mercy.  Purgatory is the heavenly penance we owe our Lord for his justice in final preparation for heaven. 

God desires all to be saved and today he gives us all hope that it is never too late to seek the Lord, turn from our ways and follow his call to salvation. 

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24th Sunday Ordinary Time – Remember your last days

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Sir. 27:30- 28:7; Ps. 103:1-4, 9-12; Rom.14:7-9; Mt. 18:21-35

God is mercy and mercy is forgiveness!  “Remember your last days” before you proclaim “no justice no peace”.  We are called to “forgive your neighbor’s injustice”.  Why do we “hug them tight” our wrath and anger when they are the poison of death while others remain alive?  In part, it is because we fail to see ourselves in the sinner.  In the heart we give thanks we are not like them and justify our “’righteousness” for anger and vengeance.  When we remember our last days the only thing that matters is our own judgment day before God.  He will judge the mercy of our hearts based on the love we offered to others. 

When Peter asks Jesus “how often must I forgive”, he is thinking between human relationships.  Our world however is not just between us humans, it is between us and God.  Jesus binds the debt of forgiveness between humans to himself and his sacrifice for us.  We owe it to Jesus to forgive others as he has forgiven us infinitely.  In this we die to ourselves when we come to realize it is not about us but how we are called to serve him with all our heart, mind and soul.  Jesus gave himself completely on the cross for us and we are to respond to this sacrifice in like manner giving ourselves completely to him.

False righteousness is like rejecting the leper for his visible disease while walking in ignorance of the invisible cancer growing inside.  “Remember death and decay and cease to sin!”  Anger and wrath become the poison we consume that leads to the death and decay of our humanity. 

Jesus likened “the kingdom of heaven” to a king who “settles accounts with his servants” and whether “we live or die we are the Lord’s” waiting our own day of judgment.  “Remember your last days” is God reminding us to live with the last days in mind so that our actions will be based on our preparation for eternity. 

Love humanizes us to a greater degree than the animal instinct to attack back.  Love is the antidote to our anger and wrath.  Love does not imply we never get angry.  Do we have a right to be angry?  Yes, anger has a just purpose in life.  Anger is like a fever in that the problem is not the fever but what underlies the cause of the fever.  Anger is a symptom and we need to examine the cause on its merit.  It moves us to speak and right action.  Jesus became angry in the temple with the money exchangers.  He was moved to action.  His action did not end in anger but a call to love God above all. 

Justice is the offering of Jesus for our sins for his mercy.  It is conditional on our forgiveness “as we forgive others”, our brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers “from the heart” for the injustice.  Jesus speaks to the disciples that “heaven is likened…(to) his master (who) handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt”.  As servants of the Lord there is a place for those who fail to forgive “until ‘we’ pay back the whole debt” which as a Catholic church we identify as purgatory.  Purgatory is for the chosen who remain with the stain of sin of unforgiveness. 

We live in times when the streets proclaim “no justice no peace” seeking reparation for a history of people who have long passed from the earth.  Some believe you can be the victim of other’s history standing in for another’s suffering with expectation of compensation as an entitlement.  They “hold them tight” wrath and anger for a historical identity as victims without personal sacrifice of suffering in the name of social justice.  This is likened to blaming God for the sin of Adam and Eve for falling into a world of sin and suffering.  It is a ludicrous philosophy of victimization for all creation. 

Who do we need to forgive?  It begins in the domestic church, husbands and wives must forgive each other from the heart; children forgive parents for imperfect parenting at best and abandonment or abuse at worse; forgive our friends and neighbors who we have stopped talking with.  The root of forgiveness lies at the seed of love from the home.  It begins with a decision to forgive and a prayer of petition to receive the grace of forgiveness in the heart.  We don’t wait for a feeling to forgive to arrive before forgiving.  We act on the command of God to forgive and trust God with our heart to bring us peace.

Take a moment to do an act of forgiveness for anyone who comes to mind who has offended thee regardless of how great the offense was.  Do it as an act of love for God regardless of any emotion felt toward the offender.  Picture the offender in your life as the sinner on the cross who was promised paradise after he asked Jesus to remember him when he enters into his kingdom.  Remember your last days having surrendered all your past sins with a true act of contrition letting go of all anger and wrath and receiving the mercy of God knowing as you have forgiven others you are being forgiven. 

Amen. 

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Homily

23rd Sunday Ordinary Time – Love fulfills the law

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Ez. 33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9; Rom. 13:8-10; Mt. 18:15-20

Love fulfills the law!  The law of love is the practice of truth, Godly truth.  Today we hear that the law of love also carries a responsibility not only for our actions but to address the actions of the one we love.  God says “I will hold you responsible” not for the sins of another but for having remained silent and not warned “the wicked from his ways”.  God did not come to be a god of convenience but went about speaking truth to power.  He backed up what he said with the power of his word. 

In God’s world there is no “safe space” to practice sin and we are all called to be a voice for righteousness.  It is our sacramental duty to speak up against sin, to evangelize for Godly truth, to be a witness of faith by our very actions and yes, there will be repercussions, rejection, attack, and persecutions of every kind “but you shall save yourself”.  The voice of Godly truth is spoken with and through love that fulfills the law without compromise to the truth.   

The practice of the law of love comes with the duty to warn and it begins in the home called to be a domestic church.  The duty to warn however also requires the duty to love.  We are to hold onto the principle that the means does not justify the ends.  We cannot yell, threaten, or impose unjust punishment to gain compliance against the will of the other.  The Lord invites us to come to him and receive from him what is good, pleasing and perfect in his kingdom.  To inherit the kingdom of God is not an entitlement where all get to go to heaven.  We should never assume or take for granted God’s love, his mercy, or ignore his justice.   To be a law there must be truth and justice that underlies all love of God. 

The duty to warn must also reflect Godly love as well as Godly truth.  How often do we come to church knowing one of the family remained at home with no interest in giving to God of themselves an act of thanksgiving, with no desire to receive God’s body and blood and gain his holiness, with no sense of guilt for having offended God by rejecting him in the sacramental life of the church?  What are we to do?  We love, we pray and we invite not once but always. 

Godly truth and Godly love are both one and the same reflection of God.  It is better to say, “I pray that you will join me in going to church” than to keep repeating “missing church is a sin” when the baptized Christian already knows the truth.  It is better to speak of how we can “love them both” when speaking of abortion than to argue about the legality of personhood where we are able to do something about the former and not simply debate the latter.  Godly love is an invitation to dialogue in Godly truth and not to turn Godly truth into a weapon against the sinner. 

The duty to warn is an act of love delivered with God’s love and mercy.  This is how we are to love others as we love ourselves with the same sensitivity as a child of God.  This is how we witness to others when we avoid sin in our own lives and humbly acknowledge when we have failed to love.  We want others to desire what we have “Oh that you would hear his voice” and “harden not your hearts”.  The sign of God’s love in us is joy and peace in the midst of hardship, still giving of ourselves from the goodness we have received.  The cheerful giver is not one without troubles but one whose troubles don’t define their state of being grateful to God. 

In the gospel today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples giving them instructions on how to be a servant leader.  Jesus describes a process of gradual intervention we often refer to as subsidiarity where matters are handled beginning at the lowest level before progressing to higher authority. 

The principle of subsidiarity is that individuals should have the courage to face each other and speak to the issue that divides them.  It is so tempting to avoid the person or the issue directly with the one involved and go to our friend, family, or neighbor to complain about them.  The excuse given is “I tried but they won’t listen” so we give up.  We never take the next step which is to seek support from someone else who sees what you see or maybe even experiences the same issues and can both speak to the problem.  Instead, we remain silent even feeling isolated with our own dilemma. 

Today, Jesus is reminding us “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”  When we come together in prayer and deed the power of the word is granted by Jesus as he promised “there am I in the midst of them.”  If Jesus is with us who can be against us?    Jesus also comes to us through his church who has been given authority to “bind” and to “loosen”.  Jesus was entrusting his disciples to remain united as one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

When love fulfills the law, it stands for truth and justice not according to our will but to the will of God.  The law of love must then be attentive to the voice of God not with any new revelation but with the confirmation that love is an organic process that deepens us in God’s truth and does not contradict itself.  God is not a contradiction and neither is the law of love.

Jesus reminds us that love binds and loosens the spirit of the law as we discern what is good, pleasing, and prefect for the will of God.  God’s will is to fill us with his graces that we may be in his glory for all eternity.  The duty to warn is simply the opposite side of the same coin calling others into God’s loving hands.  Those we love we warn and we embrace with our prayers for even greater conversion for both them and us. 

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Homily

22nd Sunday Ordinary Time – You duped me!

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Jer. 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-6, 8-9; Rom. 12:1-2; Mt. 16:21-27

“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped” says Jerimiah.  Today we would say you conned me Lord but I could not resist you.  Jerimiah was not naïve knowing how he would be rejected and persecuted for standing up for the Lord.  Why would anyone be willing to walk into the “fire” of injustice, ridicule, persecution or even death?  It is the power of love greater than any fear.  It is love that makes a parent run into a burning house to rescue their child or a young man stand with his fallen soldier and fight rather than retreat to safety. 

In every human soul there is a warrior spirit to carry the fight.  This warrior spirit comes from God with a divine purpose to love, serve, and sacrifice.  What we love we will sacrifice for and it will serve a greater purpose than ourselves.  We sacrifice for our family out of love and serve each other that all may be united as one.  This is God’s call that we may all be one in him.  Jesus however calls us to love, serve, and sacrifice beyond our family to the degree of self-denial to “take up his cross and follow me”. 

Today, Jeremiah is suffering an interior crisis in accepting his call to be a prophet for the Lord.  He calls out to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.”  Recall when a child comes about to ask for something there is a different pitch in their voice and so is in a spouse.  You know something is coming yet out of love of the person we accept being “duped” because we cannot resist their love.  This is Jeremiah’s reaction to God.  Jeremiah could not deny the Lord his calling knowing he would be persecuted.  In his weakness he wanted to remain silent but he could not contain himself what he knew was the truth God had revealed to him.  Even in weakness he understood there was only one right choice in serving God.  Do we recognize the choice God is asking of us this day?  In prayer we “discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” obedience to his call. 

Suffering and dying to oneself will bring us to a crossroads where we will experience an interior crisis of faith, hope and love.  It presents in the many faces of suffering through sickness, death of a loved one, betrayal, persecution, rejection, even abandonment being forgotten as we age.  In the dark night where can we go, who can we turn to who truly knows us as we are but the one true God who brought us into this world and will come to take us with him.  A crisis of faith is a calling out to God to rescue us from our very selves, to see ourselves as he sees us, his love, mercy, and passion that died for us and will never abandon us. The God we trust more than ourselves.  God now and forever. 

Jesus is calling us to follow in his footsteps by being a warrior for what is good, pleasing, and perfect love of God.  When Peter takes Jesus aside and tries to rebuke him, he speaks as “human beings do”.  This is the same Peter who just before spoke through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the “Christ, the son of the living God.”  How quickly he has returned to his human way of thinking.  How quickly we can lose focus of God’s call and will for us and become immersed in our own world unless we remain constantly coming to receive him in word, sacrament, and in prayer.  Peter reminds us that Satan never rests from being a distraction in the least and on the attack at worst. 

The universal church is under attack around the world.  In some places public worship is not allowed and the attack is from outside the church.  Traditional church values have been targeted as “extremist” and compared to “terroristic threats”.  Attack from the outside however is nothing new if we think back to the persecution of the early church.  The more it was persecuted the stronger and greater it grew.  This mystery is the fruit of sacrifice that came from the cross and martyrdom.  This calling remains today.  We are to not fear Satan from the outside. 

We are to be vigilant of Satan coming from the inside under the shadow of progressiveness.  Change can be good but it also can be the work of evil.  Jesus reminds us “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves”.  Change that is self-serving is not the will of God.  The innocence of a warrior dove is that it delivers the “truth” as revealed by God and not by man.  God wants you and I to stand firm and may our name be revealed with holy meaning that stands with and for Christ. 

God calls us by name so consider what God’s name for us is today.  God’s naming reflects his purpose and today he may be calling us “prayer warrior, voice of justice, fearless faith, comfort to the suffering, mercy to the unjust, hope in persecution”.  Most of all he calls us his own. 

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Homily

21st Sunday Ordinary Time – Key of the House

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Is. 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-3, 6, 8; Rom. 11:33-36; Mt. 16:13-20

Who do we trust with the key to our house?  There was a time when we walked out of the house and left the doors unlocked.  Then we started locking doors and leaving a key under a pot.  Today we have bolt locks, key codes, and security cameras.  We learn to trust no one with what is our treasure at home.  There is a treasure we hold that is our soul and yet we often leave it open to all intruders, the music we hear, the movies we watch, the social media we follow, even the people we “party” with.  The soul is made for eternity, for God, guarded by his watch and he will sound the alarm when an intruder enters that does not belong unless we are foolish to welcome the enemy. 

Who has the key to God’s House?  “The key of the House” of God has been entrusted to his anointed from Abraham to David to Peter and his successors.  When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of God this is nothing new.  Looking back in biblical history God has always called on someone to lead his people with great authority as we see today in the first reading “what he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open”; and in the gospel “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”. 

We also recall the words to the Apostles in John 20:23 after he breathed on them, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained”.  God is trusting humanity with the keys to the kingdom of heaven.  It begs the question “what were you thinking, God to give the key of the House to your servant?”  We are but sinners and yet by doing so he is demonstrating that all grace comes “from him and through him and for him are all things”.  This was something the early church had to recognize, whether a sacrament was valid if the presbyter committed a mortal sin.  The answer was “yes”, even if we fail, he does not fail us. 

Consider for a moment “who do we trust with the keys to our house?”  We trust family, maybe a neighbor, or a housekeeper.  Who do we trust with our soul?  From the days of Adam and Eve it was not right that we should be alone.  Adam and Eve trusted each other a fell from grace.  Jesus tells Peter “Get away from me Satan”.  Even those we love and trust can be misguided by the evil one.  My favorite short prayer is “Jesus, I trust in you.”  God alone is perfect, we are in search of him.  The church is his vehicle for the journey. 

You and I, deacons, priests, religious in our humanity are imperfect but God chooses the imperfect to demonstrate his perfection when we surrender to his will.  Salvation comes through Christ and we come to Christ by coming to his house of prayer.  The Church holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  It is the Church that gave us the books of the Bible bound in heaven and earth as sacred scripture, the Word of God.   It is the Church that gives us the channel of grace through which Christ makes himself present to us in the sacraments.  It is the Church that guides the people of God to discern the will of the Father in our times as we deal with the issues of society.  It is the will of God to institute a Church governed by his anointed to whom he gives the keys to his house and through his house to the kingdom of heaven. 

When Peter responds to Jesus saying “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Jesus confirms “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father”.  Some have said and continue to say “I do not agree with everything the Church teaches”.  There is a litany of issues people object to from celibacy of the priesthood, ordination of men only as priest, the church position on abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, confession to a priest, even the requirements for the sacraments.  The Church is an institution of authority instituted by Christ for his people.  The Church however is its people in which we all share responsibility for building up the kingdom of God. 

The Church is also called to listen to the people of God and calls together Synods in which the people are called to contribute as members of the body of Christ.  Synodality is a process by which laity and bishops share in collaboration and discernment as part of the body of Christ.  Synodality means a “journeying together as a People of God” to listen to each other how God speaks through the one and the many.  The guiding principle of synodality is that it is not about us, it is about God’s will for us.  Not only are we called to walk together but God walks with us so that our hearts may burn with his Spirit.  Together, we care for God’s House and together we build up the kingdom of God. 

We hold the key to the house of God, our home, our soul, our church.  We not only guard the doors to our house but we also receive those who knock and share of our blessings.  We also are called to be a welcoming church as a community of faith but must guard the doors of our church from the evil one who finds ways to enter seeking to desecrate the altar and the house of God.  We are best prepared to be a servant of God when we begin by guarding the door to our soul, rejecting evil, and the temptation to commit sin.  Then we will be ready to fight the good fight. 

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