New Year's Resolutions

          I did not preach the homily this past weekend, so in lieu of a homily I thought I'd share an idea I had regarding New Year's resolutions.  New Year's Day is the great "self-help" holiday, in which we are full of hope that the new year brings and some healthy (and often a lot of unhealthy) self-contempt.  The problem is that we often focus way to much on the externals: losing weight, exercising, learning a new skill, etc.  If you're a Christian, however, I'd charge you to think more spiritually.  Here are three resolutions that will bolster your spiritual life in 2020 (or create one, if you've been lacking it!):

1. Grow in piety: Piety is a devoted fulfillment of one's duty.  The pious person prays daily, frequents the sacraments, studies the Bible, and does other spiritual reading.  These pious practices are like core exercises: they're sometimes boring, but they make your whole body stronger.  Resolve to grow in piety by doing these things:
1. Pray more/better.  Check out this video from Ascension Presents for a plan to do this.  https://youtu.be/1UPIvsvWcUc
2. Go to Mass and Confession.  Mass every Lord's Day (Sunday) and Holy Day of Obligation (there are 5... look them up!).
3. Study the Bible/Read.  Spend time every day doing this!  Start with 10 minutes a day and grow from there.  If your parish has a Formed.org subscription, there are plenty of study/reading resources there.  If not, ask your parish priest for some resources.
2. Be a better evangelizer: Evangelization is not much more than communicating the good news that Jesus is our Savior and in him we have hope of eternal happiness.  We can do this though our words (spoken and written) and our actions (self-sacrificing acts of charity, both small and big).  Using words is often a challenge for folks, so here's three simple steps to prepare yourself to be an evangelizer:
1. Spend some time thinking about your own faith story.  How did you come to know God and Christ Jesus as your Savior?  What impact has that made on your life?  What is the hope that you live with because of this?
2. Write this story down and think about how you would share it.  Most people don't talk about their faith because they've never really verbalized it.  By writing it down, you give words to your story, making it easier to share when the opportunity arises.
3. Share it!  Now that you know how to verbalize the Good News (because you've verbalized how it has been good news for you), you are ready to share it with those around you.  Do not be afraid!
3. Help relieve suffering wherever you can: The Kingdom of God is a return to the Garden of Eden when all of creation dwelt in harmony.  Sin destroyed that harmony and suffering is the result.  But now that Jesus has conquered sin, we can begin to re-establish that harmony around us by helping to relieve suffering and by always striving to make a positive impact on those around us.  Here are some ways to do that:
1. Practice random acts of kindness.
2. Engage in regular service to those in need.
3. Perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

          These are three very broad resolutions, but they are resolutions that can be repeated year after year and never exhaust their fruitfulness.  Don't expect perfection for yourself, but do expect growth.  Write down some weekly goals for each of these resolutions and spend some time writing down how you did each week.  You'll begin to see your growth, even amidst setbacks.  Still further, your relationship with God will grow, and there's nothing more valuable than that.

          Remember that I'm walking this journey with you!  Let us encourage and support one another as we strive for the heights of happiness in this world in anticipation of the incomparable happiness we'll know in heaven.  May God bless you all in this year of grace, 2020!  Verso l'alto!

I'm not okay and you're not okay... and it's okay to say it.

Homily: 23^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A

          It is a mantra of our times.  It’s only four words, but it manages to send a compelling message that millions find easy to follow.  The phrase?  “I’m OK, you’re OK.”  Perhaps we’ve heard it.  Perhaps we’ve even used it.  In either case, we probably didn’t think that there was anything wrong with it.  Basically, what this phrase says is that I’m fine just the way I am and that if you’re comfortable with the way that you are then you’re fine, too.  On the surface, it is intended to promote harmony between us: “I won’t criticize you if you don’t criticize me, OK?”  (Because we all know that it’s not nice to criticize someone, right?)  And it is the acceptance of what this phrase proposes that promotes the kind of thinking that leads us to say things like, “Who am I to criticize him?” or (on the flipside) “Who is she to criticize me?”

          Of course we all know that our compulsion to make judgments about the way people act or the things people say is not something that we can turn off, like a switch.  Rather, it is something that is very natural to us, because our reason constantly seeks to make sense of the things that happen around us.  And so, when we convince ourselves that it is wrong to criticize people openly we find that we end up criticizing people covertly; through gossip (and we do love to gossip, don’t we?), passive-aggressive behavior, and holding grudges.  This is what society tells us we should do.  Keep our judgments and criticisms to ourselves, or at least don’t bring them out into public.  But what does God have to say about it?  I think our Scriptures today show us.

          Throughout the Old Testament, we see that God appointed prophets to be those people that our modern society tells us we shouldn’t be: the one who openly criticizes the actions of people, who declares certain actions as wicked and calls the evildoers to repentance.  In short, a prophet of God is one who troubles those who have become comfortable in their wrongdoing.  As often is the case when God called his prophets, Ezekiel’s first reaction was very similar to the reaction we often give today: “Who am I to criticize?”  And God responded to him just like he responded to all of the other prophets: “You are the one whom I have appointed.  Therefore, you will go and you will speak to them what you have heard from me.”  To Ezekiel God adds a statement making clear the consequences of the responsibility he is giving to him: “You will go and speak these words to them.  If you don’t, then you will be responsible for their guilt.”  And so we see that, in ancient times, God called some to be responsible for calling his people to repentance.

          Then, in the Gospel reading, we see Jesus revising this principle.  Jesus, who came to redeem us from sin and to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom, teaches us that, in this kingdom, each of us is responsible for one another.  Therefore, he says, “if your brother sins against you, go yourself and tell him his fault.”  In other words, don’t wait for someone else to correct him, but go to him yourself.  This is how it must be in God’s kingdom.  But how?  You know, it’s not often in the Gospels that Jesus is recorded as having given specific instructions for how to accomplish something; but being reconciled to each other is so important for the building of God’s kingdom that Jesus’ teaching on this topic is recorded for us here.

          First he says “go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  In other words, don’t make a spectacle of it—and, for heaven’s sake, don’t gossip about it!—but go to the one who has sinned against you and tell him how what he has done hurt you.  Notice, he doesn’t say to ignore it either; because to ignore it leaves your brother in sin; and, like Ezekiel, if we leave our brother in sin and don’t say anything, then his guilt becomes ours, too.

          If that doesn’t work, Jesus teaches, then bring along one or two others to speak to him.  In other words, bring in an “objective third party” who can reinforce your admonition to your brother and hopefully bring him to repentance.  Again, do not make this a spectacle, but rather do it privately.  Who knows, when you do this you may find that you yourself were wrong, which can help bring about the reconciliation faster.

          If that doesn’t work, then bring your brother to the church, Jesus teaches.  Now this still isn’t a public thing.  Jesus isn’t saying that we should come here and proclaim it to the congregation from the pulpit.  Rather, he is saying to bring it to the pastor and the respected leaders in the community; because perhaps your brother will listen to them.

          Finally, if all else fails, Jesus says, “treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.”  Now I know that this can seem harsh—for elsewhere in the Scriptures Gentiles and tax collectors are despised and treated poorly—but remember how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors: he treated them like persons whose sin was clear, but who he nonetheless loved and desired to see come to repentance.  Thus, his admonition about praying.  If you would treat him as I would treat a Gentile or a tax collector, that is, with love, you will pray for him and for his conversion.  And when two of you agree to pray for his conversion, then I will be there with you and what you pray for shall be granted to you by our Father in heaven.  This is a radically different notion than what society teaches us, right?

          And so now we see that the mantra “I’m OK, you’re OK” is patently false.  We know that there are “right” and “wrong” ways of living and that, most of the time, we’re not OK.  What we don’t need is to be left alone so that we become comfortable living in our errors.  What we do need are people who love us enough to tell us when we are doing wrong so as to help us become OK.  And we need to be those people for others.

          “Yes, father, but I, too, am a sinner.  And so, who am I to judge?”  Who are you?  You’re a Christian!  And you have God’s Holy Spirit living within you!  When you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ, who is priest, prophet, and king.  Thus, you are a prophet; and therefore, like Ezekiel, you are obliged to speak the words that God’s Spirit gives you to speak.  Through baptism God has called each of us to be responsible for one another, in charity.  And what is the charitable way?  The way that Jesus lays out for us in our Gospel reading today.

          My brothers and sisters, if we really want what Jesus wants—that is, to be a family of love that makes present his coming kingdom on earth—then we must take up the task of being responsible for one another as Jesus has taught us.  And this is difficult, because love is difficult.  Strengthened by the love that Jesus poured out on the cross, however—the love that we receive from this altar—we can do it.  So let us take courage so that God’s work of love may be fulfilled in each one of us.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – September 10^th, 2017

An island big enough for everyone

Homily: 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

          There certainly is a wealth of lessons to be learned and insight to be gained from our Scriptures today.  There always is, of course, but today there just seems to be more to “sink our teeth into” than normal.  Obviously I can’t cover it all in one homily, so I’ll have to choose something.  I think that this year, in particular because it is an election year, it would be good if we focused in on the reading from Saint Paul’s letter to Timothy.  First, a little background on these letters.

          Three of Saint Paul's fourteen New Testament Letters are called his "Pastoral Letters". Two of these were written to Saint Timothy and one to Saint Titus.  Both Timothy and Titus were disciples of Paul. Timothy's mother was Jewish and he had become a Christian through the influence of his grandmother, Lois. Titus had no Jewish background at all; he was a Greek convert from paganism. Timothy and Titus each accompanied Saint Paul on some of his missionary journeys around the Mediterranean and they also served as Paul’s messengers to churches that he was trying to guide from a distance. At the time when the New Testament Letters to Timothy and Titus were written, the two disciples had stopped traveling with Paul and each had been made an overseer, or "bishop", of a local church. The Letters contain advice and instruction from Saint Paul on how to lead their respective communities. In the passage we just heard, located near the beginning of Saint Paul's First Letter to Timothy, many themes emerge: themes that are as important for us today as they were for our Christian brothers and sisters in the first century. Today, however, we’ll just focus two of them.

          The first has to do with the Church's relationship with the world around it. In the first century, the civilized world in which Christianity was taking root was still pagan. The different cultures around the Mediterranean Sea had been forcefully united under the Roman Empire. The Empire's fabulous wealth opened the door to a pleasure-loving lifestyle among the rich and powerful. It also required the spread of slave labor and the injustice and misery that went along with it. Furthermore, it allowed for the spread and interaction of the many different pagan religions native to each culture. At that time, in the midst of this sea of paganism, Christianity was still only a tiny island.

          In his instructions to Timothy, Saint Paul lists as the first responsibility of those living on that “island” to pray for the pagan “sea” all around them—especially for the "kings and for all in authority"—the Emperor, the governors, and the other civil leaders… many of whom had already begun to persecute the Christians. You see, in Paul's mind, the Church was not only a boat journeying to heaven—or an island of refuge in the midst of a hostile sea—but it was also God's chosen instrument for the spread of a stable and prosperous society here on earth, in which everyone could live a "quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity." And the primary way for the Church to do that, Paul instructs, was through prayer.

          Today, once again, the Church is an island in a sea of paganism. The island is bigger now, but the surrounding culture is still hostile to Christian values. So today it is still our responsibility as God's ambassadors to pray for peace, justice, and prosperity in society: which means, of course, to pray also for our leaders. God wants our culture to be healthy and our society to be stable and he chooses to use our prayers as channels for his grace to achieve this end.

          The second theme has to do with the extension of Christ's saving mission. Jesus Christ came as the Savior, but who exactly did he come to save? Did he intend to save only some members of the fallen human race? This is what some traditions of separated Christianity have taught and still teach. John Calvin, for example, one of the most influential figures in the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th century, taught a doctrine called "double predestination". This doctrine stated that from the moment when God creates a human soul, he destines that person either to heaven or to hell, and nothing that the person does can change that destiny. But that, of course, is not true. As Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, "God our savior... wills everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

          When Christ offered his own life as a sacrifice for our sins, he offered it as a sacrifice to atone for ALL our sins, for the sins of every human being who ever lived and who ever will live. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes to Timothy saying that, "Christ Jesus... gave himself as ransom for all." God doesn't play favorites and he doesn’t exclude. He offers the gift of salvation to every single person and he wants every single person to accept salvation by believing in and following Christ. But he won't force anyone to accept the gift: because then it wouldn't be a gift at all. This is why it is not a contradiction to say both that God wills the salvation of all people, but that all people will not necessarily be saved.

          And so, do you see now how important it is that we pray for “kings and for all those in authority”?  If we decide that some people don’t deserve our prayers because we don’t think that they should receive the gift of eternal life from God, then we have set ourselves against God’s will; and if we are against God’s will then we ourselves are in danger of losing the gift of salvation that comes to us from Jesus Christ!  And besides, are we any better than that dishonest steward about whom Jesus speaks in the Gospel if we try to hoard the treasure of salvation for ourselves, instead of praying that everyone would share in it?  No, we’re not!

          And so, in the Gospel reading, when Jesus seems to agree with the master’s commendation of the dishonest steward’s actions, it isn’t because he agrees with the steward’s actions, but rather it is to make a point: that the dishonest are better and more committed to being dishonest than the good are at being and being committed to being honest!  And he makes this point to make a further point: that is, that in order for the Gospel message to be received as authentic, then Christians must live the faith authentically.  My friends, this begins with charity; and today Saint Paul teaches us that an essential part of charity is to pray for everyone, without discrimination.

          My brothers and sisters, our faith is a vast treasure house of truth and light: a treasure that our world so desperately needs today! And so today, as Christ comes once again to nourish our souls in Holy Communion, let's thank him for this priceless gift of our Catholic faith, let's pray for the salvation of the entire world, as Saint Paul encourages us to do, especially for the politicians and government officials that seem to be lost, and let's renew our determination to follow Christ faithfully this week, so that we might be authentic witnesses to the Gospel that lead all those around us to the joy of eternal life.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – September 18^th, 2016