A Song of Faith - Homily 26th Sunday OT-C

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A friend of mine shared a beautiful video this morning of a choir from his native country. It was over 60 voices sharing a song of faith “Do you believe?” The title is African Credo.

My friend was born in Nigeria.

I share that because St .Lawrence has been blessed with priest and ministers from all over the world. There have been shepherds from the US, Nigeria, and Kerala. Missionaries who share their ministry within our Diocese come from India, Asia, Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe.  As Fr. Biju leaves us we thank him from bringing us his witness. We thank him for sharing his voice in a song of faith that is his life.  

Fr. Biju shows us the closeness of this world made possible in Jesus Christ.

Last weekend, I traveled with my mom and step dad to his sister’s funeral. She died in Christ after a long life of 92 years. She had 5 sons. In her extended family, I saw the world.  Her descendants shared African American, Asian American, and Native American heritage.

Over 70 family members there; but, there was also her family of faith from the small Baptist Church in Muskogee, OK, were she had been a member for 65 years.

She touched many lives in 92 years.

One of the things about Mrs. Mollie is her ministry was simple. Any time food was needed - church, needy family, a disaster, funeral, or celebrations - she answered. Even if out of town visiting he half a country away, distance did not stop her from making sure food was there when needed.

True closeness in this world is sharing the Christ in us and sharing his love. When I heard the song this morning, “Do you believe?” I thought of Mrs. Mollie.

I thought of the priests from all over the world to share the Eucharistic table. They preside over the meal of Christ’s body and blood and give all they are to serve Christ. They give up worldliness. They live a life of poverty. They surrender control of their life. They give up seeking their glory to bring to us God’s glory. The share their voice in a song of faith that is the life they live.   

That is a stark contrast to our readings. They begin: Thus says the LORD the God of hosts:  Woe to the complacent ….  they shall be the first to go into exile,

That is Jesus’ warning in the parable of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. Remember, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees. They were the rich man, wealthy in possession; and, they thought themselves rich in faith.

They were riich men who walked about in fancy clothes; Rich men who could boast their faith; Rich men who boasted the law. They gave to the temple from their wealth. They prayed from their places of comfort. They observed almost to the letter the rigid purity laws of the temple.

In that rigid faith, the rich man ignored Lazarus. He was unclean. He was full of sores, only the dogs ministered to him. The rich man was so rigid he failed in what was truly important to God. He was complacent and was the first to go into exile.

He raised his eyes from his torment in the nether world and saw Lazarus at the side of Abraham and begged for pity from the torment of the flames.

There is so much to unpack in this parable.

But start with Paul’s words “if you are of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith; Lay hold of eternal life to which you were called…”

That was the rich man’s failure. He lived such a rigid life he forgot to live as God instructed. He failed to live as a believer; but, live a life that was an adjective filled description of a believer.

He was so complacent by the way he lived his life, he failed to see the life of one in need. He failed to see the life that was Lazarus. He failed to see the life that was his own.  

In exile, the rich man begged for Lazarus could go back and warn his brothers to change.

“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead." Jesus knew that those set in their ways would not listen - even rising from the dead would persuade them.

We too can fail to pay attention to the example given us. We can become so rigid in our life and our habits to live by the example of Christ.    

Rigid in living the life the world expects. Rigid in being the Christian everyone else expects.  Living the life everyone thinks is Christian our hearts and hands can become too rigid and stiff to lay hold of the eternal life to which we are called ….

My friends, “Do you believe?”  The next verse of that song is “Oh yes, I believe.”

Live as Christ calls us to live. Sing a song of faith that is your life. Thank you Fr. Biju for bringing to us the song of faith that is your life.   

Be good, be holy, and preach the gospel confessing Christ by the way you live your life and love one another.  Amen.

Morally Lazy - Homily 24th Sunday OT-C

(Readings)

Society is morally lazy It accepts sinfulness as normal in the world.

Deacons often have to help prepare couples for marriage. One thing marriage prep reveals is most couples are already living together.

Recently a couple came for marriage prep wanting a full mass for their wedding. The reason they wanted a full mass was because their faith was important to them. Their faith was important; but, they lived together.

I explained the first thing to do was stop living together and go to confession. It was like I asked them to sin instead of asking them to stop sinning.

I reasoned one of them could get an apartment or live with parents or stay with friends until after the wedding.

They had excuses. We can’t afford it. We’ve lived together for years, my parents live too far away. Everyone would think something was wrong in our relationship if we moved apart.

Moral laziness is when it is easier for us to sin than to do what is right. It is seeing sin and accepting it.

That is what we find in the First Reading. The Israelites have just been freed from slavery in Egypt by all the miracles that God did for them. Instead of giving thanks to God, they collected their gold and precious metals to melt and mold into a golden calf and declared it their God.

God saw and said they were depraved.

They had become morally lazy and God was angry. He said to Moses – These people are hopeless (a stiff necked people.) I will destroy them and make you a great nation.

Moses begged God for mercy.

God was merciful. But, God wanted Moses to be merciful. If you don’t see the sinfulness in what others are doing, you can’t be merciful. If you can’t see the wrong, you too have become depraved; morally lazy.

If Moses didn’t see anything wrong with the way the people were acting, then Moses would have been morally lazy as well; but, he was not.  

Moses does not try to excuse the Israelites behavior. He doesn’t try to accept it as not being sinful.

Moses was merciful. Moses begged God to forgive them because of who and what the Israelites once were: God remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were your servants; pleasing to you!

For the sake of what the Israelite people were in the past, have mercy on them. Moses was pleading with the LORD, these people were good and they can change to be good again.

And, God was merciful.

The Second Reading is about mercy too. Paul explains that he once was a persecutor of Christ’s people and God’s had mercy to him. He doesn’t make excuse for his once evil ways. That would have made him morally lazy.

Instead, Paul says despite all his sins; God had mercy on him anyway, because God saw the man Paul could become.

For the sake of the man Paul would be, God had mercy on him.

Society has become morally lazy. We live in this society where we are like the loss sheep or the wayward son. We wander off because we think a life of moral laziness or a life of dissipation is what we really want.

We’ve all been to that place. I’ve been there at one time in my life.  

But ignoring the wrong in the world around us is laziness, too. When you look at family or friends or even the leaders in our community and the world, see clearly the truth of sinfulness and immorality for what it is.

We live in a world where society no longer respects life or cares for the poorest of the poor or has mercy for others and forgives. If we don't recognize this we are morally lazy. 

Then there are those who are morally lazy like the faithful son. He did not have mercy and forgive.

It is why we need the message of our readings. God is merciful. No matter how far we wander from him by our sin and laziness, through Christ we are forgiven and able to return to his open arms.

Sin does not make the person. Love does.

A person is made of who they were in the past, an innocent child a mother loved. A person is made of who they can become. Like Paul, we can become glorious in the love of Christ.

Lord, have mercy on all of us. Each of us, have mercy for the rest of us. Have mercy for the person we were and can still be.

Be good be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love one another. Amen.

It Takes a Special Heart - Reflection 23rd Sunday OT-C

Readings

Wiki Commons

Great crowds always travel with Jesus until it gets hard. Then many disappear.

Jesus knows that it is hard. It is the reason, Jesus says to pick up and carry your own cross.

Realize what that means. Look at what it involves

Because if you love something more, then we will not be able to love Jesus with all that we are. If we cannot love Jesus with everything we have, it is hard to follow Jesus.

Even family must take second place to the absolute dedication required to follow Jesus. That is a hard thing. That is why the Church requires unmarried and celibate priests. It is a decision of wisdom guided by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus himself said this was a cross his disciples should carry.

And Jesus said to follow him you must hate your father, your mother, and your brother and sisters.

You must hate the earthly shelters that weigh down the mind.  In the ancient world, the family made a person. It was the core of success, wealth, and station in life.

To be a disciple, one had to abandon that family. Jesus demands it.

Jesus required that the vocation of discipleship be discerned. It is the same for every vocation of faith no matter if it is religious life, single life, or married life. The person must discern if it is the correct choice.

The builder must discern if he has enough to complete the build. The leader must decide if he has enough the complete the battle.

To be Jesus’ disciple takes a special heart.

A six year old boy ran in his first cross country race. He was told to just try to stay with everyone. Don’t try to outrun everyone; just finish the race.

As the race began, he was not in the first 1/3 of the racers. He was not in the first 2/3 of the pack. He was closer to the end.. As he tried to stay close to the leading pack even he was pulling away from slower runners.

Looking back over his shoulders he sees the slower boys falling behind. And, he stops. He waves them forward with big gestures of his arms and encourages them forward, and waits for them to catchup.

After the race, he was asked him he did that.

His answer was genuine love. I didn’t want them to give up. I wanted them to finish the race. It is a team effort.

Even though he doesn’t quite get the point of the race; everyone should be proud of that child. He was worried about those he was leaving behind even though he didn’t know them. He doesn’t know what the world expects of him. He only knows the love that is in his heart.

 “This earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.”

If we are more worried about winning than helping and encouraging others to finish the race, then are like the crowd that leaves Jesus behind.

As disciples we are to run with others to the final destination. That's our vocation.

That is what priests give their lives to do. That is what religious people take solemn vows to do. That is what a married couple stands before the community of witnesses at the altar of God and vows to do.  

Pray for vocations; because, tt takes a special heart not to leave Jesus because it gets hard. Pray that we can be a community of disciples that culture and grow these special hearts in our community and our children.

Be good, be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live your life and love one another. Amen.

Finding the Real Presence - Homily First Friday Mass and Adoration

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Surveys show that many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. I think the truth for many may be that the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament has not been revealed to them.

Christianity (Catholicism especially) is a religion of revelation. It is all about God revealing himself to those who believe.

We a people of God in Jesus Christ believe that God is revealed to us through Christ. We want to know him. We want to discover Christ revealing himself in our lives. 

But how do we get there or how do we tell others to get there?  A basic map is this: scripture, prayer, and being in the presence of Christ. 

Christians know that Christ's presence in the world is revealed by scripture. 

The first reading taken from Paul’s letter to the Colossians reveals that Christ is the same God as the God revealed to the Jewish people. And, the God revealed to the Jewish people is the same God revealed in Christ Jesus to the Christians.

This scripture reveals the old and new. Christ Jesus made it all - Christ Jesus paid it all.

The presence of Christ is revealed to us in prayer. The responsorial psalms are universal prayer. Today, we pray Come with joy into the presence of the Lord: he made us, we are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Our Shepherd is the light of life; it is a light still present. Our God, Christ Jesus is present and at work in the world.

The Gospel compares old and new and reveals a mystery of faith, the Blessed Sacrament.

Jesus says that his disciples are to eat and drink. In another place, Jesus told us to eat this bread and drink this cup. Eat and drink because the bridegroom is still present. He is present in the bread and wine for it is HIS body and it is HIS blood.

Tell all those that do not believe in the real presence: It is revealed over and over again. The gospels testify it. The epistles emphasize it. Our prayers reinforce it.  

His real presence in the Blessed Sacrament is the truth revealed when we eat his body and drink his blood.  The truth revealed in scripture, prayer, and Christ’s presence taken together.

Friends, Come with joy into the presence of the Lord for he made us, we are his. His will reveal himself to us in the real presence in Blessed Sacrament.

Confession & Humility - Reflection 22nd Sunday OTC

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Seeing the Gospel in everyday life is easy when befriend men who live Godly lives. One  truly holy and learned friend put this on social media on the Memorial for St. Augustine of Hippo.

“Let no one say I repent before God; I perform it in the sight of God, and He who is to pardon me knows that in my heart I repent.”  Whereupon St. Augustine asks: “Was it then said to no purpose, ‘What you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven?’ Was it for nothing that the keys were given to the Church?”

“You hold the Gospel of no account. You despise the words of Christ, and you promise yourself what he refuses you. “ – St Augustine of Hippo.

And the comments began arguing the need to confess to a priest.  Being raised a Southern Baptist; this was the hardest sacrament for me to embrace. It may have also been because of the absence of a good priestly confessor.

The idea of confessing to a priest is not only Jesus instructions it is also an issue of humility.  St. Augustine says “You despise the words of Christ, you promise yourself what he refuses you.”

Sirach says - conduct your affairs with humility…; seek not, things beyond your strength.

I think refusing to partake in the sacramental gift of reconciliation and penance one becomes like the wedding guest that sits at the head of the table.

If Jesus rebukes the pride of those racing for the best seat at the table imagine how he feels about those whose pride and ego keep them from the sacrament of reconciliation and penance.

You see the worse kind of pride is the pride of the Pharisee. Standing before the temple the Pharisee prays to God and thanks him for not being like other people, sinners.  But behind him the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ The pride of the Pharisee is that he had God’s gift and forgiveness and the sinner did not. (Luke 18)

Jesus asks who was forgiven.

And he repeats this phrase from today’s Gospel. “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Most will say that this is why we can confess directly to God.  It was one of the arguments against the quote of St. Augustine of Hippo on that Facebook post.

We can confess directly to God, the sinner did and Jesus said that he was the one forgiven. One messages in this parable is to confess with a contrite heart. But, this parable was under the precepts of the old covenant.

It was before Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins.

It was before He gave the Keys of Heaven to the Church.

It was before he told his apostles, ‘What you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven?’ What you retain will be retained.”

Friends, God judges us all; and, Jesus is the new covenant.

It is Jesus who gave the sacrament of reconciliation and penance to prepare us for the wedding feast. He gave us this sacrament so we would take our place at the Eucharistic table. It is what we need to recline at the heavenly banquet.

Remember, conduct your affairs with humility…; seek not, things beyond your strength.  That is why I caution - Let no one say I repent secretly before God….

In many cases we are just confessing our sins to ourselves and granting ourselves absolution. It is in those things that we hold the Gospel, the words of Christ to no account and make promise to our self an what he refuses us.

All this is can be cause by a lack of humility. “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

It is through the humble act of seeking forgiveness of our sins through the sacrament of reconciliation that Christ Jesus gave to us that we are invited: 'My friend, move up to a higher position."

Be good, be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live your lives and love one another. Amen.