9.27.2020

Tree of Grace

 

26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Tree of Grace


Ez 18:25-28, Psalm 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, Phil 2:1-11, Gospel: MT 21:28-32

(Video: https://www.facebook.com/stanthonyofpaduadenver/videos/316321956331566)

Starts at 12:02


Who is the Church?

Last week’s Gospel Jesus told the parable about the generous vineyard owner who invited workers into His vineyard to work.  Fr. Wojciech explained that this parable is a parable about the life of the Church.


Today’s readings continue to lead us into a deeper reflection on the mystery of the Church - the Body of Christ which we all share and help us to realize the beautiful mystery into which we have been incorporated.


The path into this mystery is indeed an unusual one.  Today’s Gospel Jumps almost a Chapter from last week’s reading (You can go home and read about the part’s that we skipped).  In today’s Gospel we encounter Christ in a conversation with the Scribes and the Elders, that began just before this section when they challenged Christ by asking “On what Authority do you teach?”  He responded that he would tell them if they could tell him on whose authority John the Baptist taught.  They declined to respond to that question, and so Christ begins today’s scripture.


Authority / Authenticity / Author

The question that the Chief Priests posed to Jesus led me to think about the word “Authority” - it is an odd word that shares a common root with Authenticity and Author.  When I realized this I was struck, because all of the readings today call us to live an authentic life.


I think that one of the reasons why the Elders asked Jesus about his Authority is because they felt undermined by the Authenticity of His witness.  He was a threat to them because unlike the Scribes and the Pharisees Christ spoke with Authority.  


Roots of Authority / Authenticity / Author

The root work for Authority is the same as the word Author - which means creator.  Jesus’ Authority stems from the fact that He is the creator - with the Father and the Holy Spirit He created everything.  As the creator of a thing He has the right to govern the use of the creation - hence he does have Authority.


What really challenged the Chief Priests and the Scribes is the fact that not only does Jesus have the right, the Authority to teach and to rule, but he is Authentic in the way that he lives out his life and speaks about God.  Authenticity is about being able to give an honest, consistent, “authentic” witness to the love that God has for us.  


Honest / Authentic vs Dishonest / Inauthentic

Jesus goes on in the Gospel to share a parable with the Elders and the Chief Priests about Man’s response to God’s love, and he is placing the priests and the elders into the role of the second son.  He gives them this example - A Man tells his son (tells you and I) - Go and work in my vineyard.  The son (you and I) says “No” - but later thinks better of it and actually does the work.  This is the image of a person who falls into sin (says no to God) and then repents (and does God’s will).


The other Son is told to Go and work in the vineyard and says “Yes” - but then does not follow through.


An Authentic vs Inauthentic Response to God

In this parable we have a contrast between an honest and dishonest (or Authentic and in-authentic) response to God.  The first Son has an authentic response to his father's command - No, I will not. Later he reflects on his response and it troubles him, so he chooses to listen to his Father as an honest response to the love that his father has shown him.


The Second son has a dishonest response to his Father’s command and love.  He lies - “Sure”, but then does not listen.


Knowing and Doing are 2 different things

Jesus contrasts the response of the two sons to the response of the Chief Priests and Prostitutes to the preaching of John the Baptist.  He shows that while the Tax Collectors and Prostitutes are getting into the Kingdom of Heaven (because they address sin in their lives honestly), the Chief Priests and Elders are having to follow them - which is not as it should be - because they are inauthentic and dishonest in their response to Sin.  This parable underlines that while we may know in our heads what to do intellectually (we can choose right from wrong) - if we don’t integrate our faith into our hearts then we will not reap the rewards that the Christ promises to us.


This Dichotomy is also in Ezekiel

The heart of this dichotomy is revealed in the first reading which comes from an entire chapter where God is pleading through Ezekiel to convert.  In his argument Ezekiel points out that the sinner, the unrepentant one accuses God of being unjust, and God’s response is that vice has a consequence, as does virtue.  It is good for us to repent and turn from our sin.  This is exactly the response of the first son in the Parable that Christ shared.


Become rooted in repentance

The mystery of God’s goodness is that he reaches into our hearts when we find that we are trapped in the depths of our sin and plants a grace there that calls us to repentance.  God roots our understanding of His love for us in the willingness that he has to give us the gift of grace, the gift of conversion in the midst of our suffering from the effects of sin.


The Church as the Tree of Grace - Roots / Trunk / Branches / Leaves

An image that comes to us from the readings today is the image of a tree.  


Roots dig into the dirt - and honestly evaluate our sin.

The roots of the Tree are rooted in the dirt, in the depths of our suffering in sin - when, if we allow ourselves to think about it honestly (like the first son) we see that God forgives us and shows us mercy and calls us from death (sin) to life (grace).


The Trunk represents our acceptance of God’s Love

In changing my mind, changing the direction that I am going I turn towards God when I see the love with which he forgives me, and it is this repentance that leads us to discover the depths of God’s Love. This is the experience that is leading the Tax Collectors and Prostitutes to enter into the kingdom of heaven.


Christ’s Authenticity is expressed in His Kenosis

We see this love expressed fully in the second half of the second reading from Paul’s letter the Phillipians.  Here St. Paul shares with us the Kenotic Hymn.  Kenotic comes from the greek word Kenosis which means pouring out.  In this hymn we see the love of Christ expressed as a humility to not grasp (as Adam did) at being like God - but rather lowering himself to be with the sinners, and to authentically show them that He loves them.  It is the experience of this love that leads the Tax Collectors and Sinners to turn back to God - because they have been seeking Love all along, and now they have fulfillment.  


In Sin we often seek to know that we are loved

The Chief Priests and Elders are not actually seeking God (even though they say they are) - they are inauthentic, and so they are threatened by Christ and his authentic love.  


The Branches is our response - imitating Christ

As Christians we are called to imitate the Kenosis of Christ - we are called to pour ourselves out in a life of humility - a life that seeks to place the other ahead of ourselves.  When we encounter Christ’s love and respond by imitating His humility we open our hearts in a radical way to become conduits of God’s grace.


In our Humility we are called to imitate Christ

Humility is grounded in seeking out the truth of who God created us to be.  To become humble we must acknowledge our sins - the ways that we have been rejecting God, and to repent - so that we can uncover God’s love and encounter the reality of His overflowing forgiveness.  When that happens (through a life of humility) then we allow God to form us into the Body of Christ - the Church and our lives become a conduit for Grace.


Those who imitate Christ are conduits of Grace - the Branches

It is for this reason that St. Paul extols the Church in Philippi - “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.  Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.


This “Tree of Grace” is the image of the Church

This is the image of the Church - it is the community of those who have encountered the radical love of God, and in being rooted in the repentance from our sins we encounter God’s love that leads us to respond humility by imitating Christ and so open ourselves to be conduits for God’s grace into the world.  


That is the mission of the Church - of me and of you.  Do we have the courage to accept it?




8.30.2020

Embracing, Praying and finding the Truth

 

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time


Jer 20:7-9, Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9, Rom 12:1-2, Gospel: MT 16:21-27

(Video: https://www.facebook.com/stanthonyofpaduadenver/videos/3521886977849992)

Starts at 13:30


How many of you are aware of the prayer that goes with the beginning of each of the stations of the Cross?  The prayer goes “We adore you O Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world”.  I would like to use that prayer today to reflect on the scriptures today, to go through the readings and to take a look at what it means for us as Christians to take up our Cross and to follow the Lord.  


We will begin with the Gospel, where Jesus begins to lay out God’s plan for His disciples.  His disciples are you and I brothers and sisters, so Christ is very much speaking to us.  He comes to us and says that it was necessary for him to suffer and to die in a humiliating way.  When Peter hears this, and I think at times when we hear this we have the same response - No that is not appropriate for God, that is below God’s dignity.  It does not conform with my image of God.  That is where we need to stop and listen to the Scriptures.  This is exactly Peter’s response, “God forbid such a thing ever happen to you Lord!”  In Peter’s mind God should not be put through such humiliation, it is below his office, below his place in the universe.  That he would be at a point that the people who should care and love him the most - the priests, scribes and elders would be the ones humiliating him and killing him.  This is so far beyond where Peter thinks that God should be that Peter take’s Jesus aside and rebukes him. 


Keep in mind that just recently in the Gospel Jesus was saying to him “You are Peter, you are the rock, your faith is the faith that I will build my Church on.  Yet

not 3 verses later Jesus is saying to Peter - Get behind me Satan, you are an obstacle to me, you are not thinking as God does but as man does.  We have to ask ourselves what is it that God is thinking that Peter cannot see?  That we can’t see?


Often, our images and impressions of who God is are formed in such deep ways in our lives that it is really hard for us to hear the scriptures.  It is really hard for us to see where God is trying to lead us.  Because at the heart of what Jesus is saying to Peter, you and I is that God’s love is so immense that it is willing to forbear tremendous injustices so that we can know how much God loves us.  He is willing to go to the Cross to dignify our suffering. There he turns around to us and invites us to imitate him. 


Lent is a special time of prayer and meditation on the sufferings of Christ with that prayer that we began this homily as a way of integrating into our lives that reality.


Jesus turns upside down Peter’s life.  He says to Peter “Get behind me” because Peter is trying to lead the Lord, it is as if Peter is Christ’s “Media Manager”.  “Lord, this message is not going to resonate well on Facebook, we need to alter it”  Jesus responds, “No, get behind me satan, you are not thinking as God does, you don’t see the love that God is trying to pour out through my life.  You need to follow me and pay attention so you can go where I go.”


The rebuke that Christ gives to Peter is the same rebuke that He gives to us, we are called to get behind him and to walk the way of the Cross just as He called Peter to do.


How can we do this practically?  There are 3 ways for us to think about - How can I take up the cross and follow the Lord?  


  • Embrace the Cross

  • Pray at the foot of the Cross and

  • Receive Healing through the Cross.


The first thing we need to do is to Embrace the Cross. Take a moment and consider - where in my life do I need to embrace the Cross?  Maybe you wear a cross every day as a reminder to yourself of your Christianity, or maybe you have a Crucifix in your house.  I invite you this week to take a moment when you put on that cross in the morning, or when you pause before that crucifix that you remember that prayer from the Stations of the Cross “We Adore you O Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world” as a way of Embracing the Cross


St. Paul today in the Romans talks to us about ways we can embrace the Cross.  He says “I urge you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.”  As Christians we recognize that we have a physical expression of our faith and we realize that the things that we do matter in our spiritual lives.  For that reason when we enter the Church we bless ourselves with Holy Water and genuflect acknowledging Christ’s presence in the Tabernacle, and that we make the sign of the Cross as we begin to enter into prayer.  These are all physical reminders of us that we bear in our bodies a living sacrifice.  


What are we putting to death in our bodies?  We are putting death to sin.  Death to those false ideas we have of who God is that cause us to separate ourselves from Him.  Much as Peter had to put to death his own ideas of who the Christ should be in order to allow Jesus to be himself.   


St. John Chrysostum gives the following ways that we can put to death Sin in our bodies.


“Let the eye look at no evil thing - it has already become a sacrifice.  This is a practice that St. Francis of Assisi had, he struggled with the sin of lust, so he would avert his eyes to help him avoid falling into sin.


Let the tongue say nothing filthy - and it has become an offering. Many of us have fallen into this rut of behavior that is leading us away from God.  A way that we can attack that is to put to death that action in our lives.


Let your hand do nothing evil, and it has become a whole burnt offering.  The actions that we do, especially against the people we perceive to be our enemies, what can I do to modify my behavior so I have grace in my body to imitate Jesus Christ.


Paul Goes onto say “Do not conform yourselves to this age  but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  That we would allow our minds to be transformed by the person of Jesus Christ’s profound love for us by the sufferings that he offered for us on the Cross because Christ chooses to dignify our suffering by entering into it himself so that as we go through suffering we can see that Christ comes to suffer with us and to share that burden with us.  This response is attested to in Luke’s Gospel “Lean on me for my yoke is easy and my burden light”.  Jesus comes to walk the way of the Cross with us.


John Chrysostum goes on to say “Unite to this sacrifice Good Works also…”, so as I work to rid my life of the practices of evil, I pour in the practices of good.


The hand must give alms

The mouth must bless those who curse it

and the ears must find time to listen to the reading of scripture.”


The second way that we can embrace the cross is by beginning to pray at the foot of the cross.  That is why the prayer “We adore you O Christ and we praise you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.” can become such a help for us through our lives.


The Psalm today speaks to this matter - it begins “O God, you are my God, for you I long.  My body pines for you in the dry weary land without water, as I gaze on you in your sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.”      


If we think about life without God, it is dead because God is the source of all life.  He brings us into life.  

When we look at who it was who prayed at the foot of the Cross, it was the Blessed Mother and John the Evangelist.  They knelt there as He went through His humiliation, His suffering and the offering of His life as a sacrifice to the Father.  Mary and John witnessed these things in this moment of prayer, and took them deep into their hearts to shape their relationship with God.  That is what prayer at the foot of the Cross is calling us to do.       


If you have that crucifix in your house one of the things that you can do is to take some time each day to kneel at the foot of the Cross putting yourself in the place of St. John or the Blessed Mother and begin to meditate on the love that God has for you that He so much desires to be united to you and to pour himself out for you through His humiliation.  


Finally, we go back to the first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah so that we can begin to meditate on the healing that flows from the Cross.  If we enter into this encounter with Christ we realize that there is an encounter with love that we celebrate here today. 


Towards the end of the Psalm the psalmist says - “with the riches of the banquet my soul shall be satisfied”.  If you think about that from a Catholic perspective the banquet is the Eucharist.  Our souls are fed with and nourished with the Body of Christ here today.  If you remember with Mary and St. John as they knelt at the foot of the Cross the Roman soldier came along and pierced the side of Christ with a Lance so that Blood and Water flowed from his side as he hung upon the Cross.  The Water is symbolic of Baptism and the Blood is symbolic of the Eucharist.  


The banquet that the Psalm speaks about is the Eucharist that we share today.  Baptism is that gift that God has given us to conqueror sin in our lives.  When we pray “We adore you O Christ and we praise you because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world” we begin to see how the power of these sacraments infuses all the actions of our lives to gives us the strength to live a life of conversion.


In the reading from Jeremiah we begin to see how Healing flows from the Cross.  Jeremiah begins “You duped me O Lord and I let myself be duped, for you were too strong for me and you triumphed.  All the day I am an object of laughter and everyone mocks me.”  When we hear this we think - that does not sound like a prophet, that sounds like someone who is bitter with God, who is angry with God because of what he has been through.  This is true, because in the beginning of this chapter of Jeremiah begins with the Chief Priest of the temple of Jerusalem arresting Jeremiah and putting him in the stocks before the temple so that anyone walking by Jeremiah can do whatever they want to him and he is helpless to respond.  


We see in Jeremiah that he is processing his embarrassment, his humiliation and we hear him say “I say to myself I will not mention him!  I will speak his name no more.”  In essence Jeremiah is saying to God - “I am taking my toys and going home because I am tired of being embarrassed by you Lord.”  


How does Jeremiah find healing in this?


Jeremiah recognizes “But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.”  The Word of God comes to Jeremiah and he recognizes the truth that he is called to be God’s prophet and he cannot deny the truth.  It is a profound reality of the universe that the truth brings about healing - which is why Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life”.  In this Mass Jesus Christ comes to us in the Eucharist so that we can recall who Christ has called us to be and the mission he has called us to be on.  In that encounter with the Lord today I invite you to bring the suffering, the cross you are being called to embrace, and to spend a moment in prayer with Him in that truth so that truth can bring healing.      


Jeremiah recognizes his vocation and even though it brings him pain and difficulty he goes on to continue to fulfill his vocation as a prophet to speak the words of truth to those in power who need to hear them and be converted because that is the mission that God calls him to.   


Brothers and Sisters the Lord has called us to many different missions here because we are the Body of Christ.  He has given us the grace of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist to nourish and strengthen us.  He has given us the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can respond to his love and to witness that love to the world.  That is the purpose for which God gathers us here together today.   


Let us take a moment this week and embrace the cross, to pray at the foot of the cross and to find healing through Gods immense love.


We adore you O Christ and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

 


2.23.2020

Be Holy

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lv 19:1-2,17-18, PS 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13, 1 COR 1:3:16-23, Gospel: MT 5:38-48

Get some Ice Cream.  Last Sunday of Ordinary Time
In my opinion everyone who loves Ice Cream here at the parish should have some after Mass today by way of celebrating this last Sunday of Ordinary Time.  It is a way for us to begin to celebrate the coming of Lent - a time when the Church turns back towards Christ to renew our Faith / our understanding and acceptance of God’s love for us that is shown through the pouring out of his Love on the Cross.

Spoiler Alert
If you have been following along with the Sunday Gospels for the past couple of weeks, you will notice that last week’s Gospel flows directly into this week’s Gospel, and that this week’s Gospel flows directly into the Gospel we will hear on Ash Wednesday.  Do not fear!  I will not give away Wednesday’s Gospel (Spoiler Alert - It is the same each year), I mention it in the off chance that you might want to follow along as we go.

Align your Soul to the Will of God
This is providential as we can use the readings today to queue us up for Lent, to prepare us to enter into this time of prayer, fasting and alms giving with our eyes on the ultimate goal - emerging from Lent this year with our will, our soul more in aligned with the will of God.

The Gospel today begins with Christ comparing the old-law to the new-law..

Following the Old Law is rooted in fear, 
To follow the New Law one must be rooted in love.
In the Old Law it was said - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  This law was based on the fear of revenge.  It is the primitive, or basic form of spirituality as it is rooted in justice plain and simple.  You hurt me and I will hurt you.  Therefore we should be respectful of one another.

The New Law it is said - offer no resistance to the one who is evil.  If he strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one instead. 

A Practical Example of turning the other cheek
Have you ever noticed that often times when you speak to a person, and need to correct them that they respond with anger or denial or upsetness?

How often when we have a difficult time correcting another and their response is one of - “How messed up we are.”  Our natural response to this type of confrontation is to get angry, and respond out of authority or power or righteousness or denial.

Turning the Other Cheek means not responding out of anger
I once had a situation with a co-worker where I needed to correct them about a work situation that had gotten pretty messy through their actions.  When I placed the truth of the problem before them they responded with anger, avoiding the root problem that we faced. One response I could have had was to respond to them in kind - with anger and bitterness about the “truth” of their actions, but that would not be productive.

As I was reflecting on this Gospel I realized that this is what Jesus meant when he said that we are to turn the other cheek.  When we choose to respond to the injury of another out of love then it is a witness to our faith and to our ability to imitate the love of Christ.

To be able to respond to the attack of another with love is a witness of courage and of a strong faith because it shows that we are truly trying to imitate the love of God. 

It is tempting to kill relationships that are painful - Christ calls us to forgive...
In the Gospel Christ points out that more often than not these broken relationships exist in our families, where the bitterness of division is forced to endure for many years because we are related by blood or marriage.  How often do we have those relationships where we can’t just leave them.  With other relationships if we have a bitter disagreement, or some grave hurt we tend to close down those relationships and put an end to them.  In family, that is much harder, because of the harm it does to all of the associated relationships that we have. 

Fight Fire with Fire or with Water?
This then is the challenge for us when we find ourselves embroiled in these relationships where we have to face the fire of our brother (or sister’s) anger.  How do we respond?  If we follow the wisdom of the world then we “fight fire with fire” then we end up burning up and destroying the relationships that are there.  In the Gospel today Christ offers us an alternate path - to fight fire with the water of Baptism!

How can we fight the fire of anger with the water of Baptism?  We “Put on the love of Christ”.
When we are Baptized, Christ comes to dwell in our souls, and we are transformed because in that moment we “Put on Christ”.  When we are Baptized we take on a new identity in which we are called to imitate the Love of God.  It is interesting to examine the last part of the Gospel, where Christ points out that God pours out His love on both the faithful and sinners alike.  If we reflect on the earlier part of the Gospel and the passion then we see that it was Christ, when he was persecuted actually lived out this teaching - he turned the other cheek, and he walked the entire way to Calvary.  He demonstrated the degree to which His life was in conformity with the Love of God by the authenticity and consistency of His witness.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God?
One thing that you might not realize is that in Baptism we are transformed, and become a temple of the Holy Trinity.  This means that our identity - that is who God created us to be is rooted in our ability to imitate the love of Christ in our actions. I think that it is often the case that as Christians we lose sight of this reality.  For the World, identity is rooted in rebellion.  For us Christians, our identity is rooted in who we are in the eyes of God.  This identity is revealed to us through the love of God.  Another way of saying this is that our vocation is to imitate the Love of Christ.

What does it mean to “Put on Christ?”  It means to imitate His Love.  If I look at the Cross as a person of the world - I say “What a foolish waste!”  What a failure in potential, for a 33 year old man to give himself up over to death.  Think of the career he could have had in carpentry…

I am judging Christ by selfish standards. 

To Put on Christ is to imitate His love
If on the other hand I put on Christ then I desire to imitate this love.  I desire to share this love.  This is foolishness to the World - but the truth of Christ’s love.  When I place the needs of the other before myself then I no longer need to defend my actions, I no longer need to get upset by injustice, I no longer fear blindness or toothlessness, because my desire is not for myself but for the other to encounter Christ in my actions.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians to call them out of their life
To fight the fire of anger with the water of our Baptism is to choose to discover our identity in Christ.  If I respond to anger with anger I do not grow, mature or develop.  If on the other hand I respond to fire with the Love I received in Baptism, then that light of the Holy Spirit illuminates within me the special, unique way that Christ calls me to follow Him.  In that exchange I discover who God created me to be as a gift to the world so that the world can encounter Christ.

Christian vs Muslim view of Sin and Forgiveness.
Once I had the opportunity to discuss Sin and Forgiveness with a Muslim man.  He pointed out to me the lack of security systems in Saudi Arabia.  He boasted that Gold and Jewelry salesmen did not need to invest in security systems because the consequence of theft was too severe.  If you are caught stealing - they cut off your hand.  If you keep on stealing you end up dead. 

While one might admire that fear of the consequence of sin that this viewpoint brings out, it is ultimately an impoverished view of God’s love.  Yes, the Lord hates the things that we do that drive us away from Him.  That is what sin does.  As imitators of Christ, we too must hate our sin and we need to examine what is leading us into sin. 

From a Christian perspective this is of limited utility in bringing about human conversion.  You have a very finite limit to the degree to which you can convert.  Conversion of the heart is hard because you need to reject the ideas that have been planted in your heart that lead you to sin.   Think about any hard addiction that you are trying to change - it takes work and there are setbacks. 

Listen to what the psalmist has to say about God’s approach to sinners. 

  • He pardons all of you inequities
  • He heals all your ills
  • He redeems your life from destruction
  • He crowns you with kindness and compassion 

God’s love starts with a pardon of us.  In the sacrament of Confession we are healed from our ills.  When we choose to unite ourselves with the love of Christ we are redeemed from destruction by His sacrifice on the Cross.  Christ wants us to be crowned with kindness and compassion which is what happens at the end of this life as we are welcomed into eternal life.

Set your sites on selfless love this Lent
Ultimately, today’s reading focuses our hearts on learning how to imitate the Love of God.  As we take these last few moments of Ordinary Time to ponder what Christ is calling us to this Lent, I want to invite you to consider dying to those actions that hinder our ability to imitate the love of Christ.  The goal of this season of Lent is for our hearts to be converted, so that others will see the works of Christ present in our lives and give praise to God the Father.

For Lent this year let us strive to “Be Holy, as your Father in Heaven is Holy!

1.28.2020

Sunday of the Word of God

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sunday of the Word of God


Is 8:23-9:3, PS 23:1,4,13-14, 1 COR 1:10-13,171, Gospel: MT 4:12-23


Sunday of the Word of God
Pope Francis has issued a decree declaring this Sunday as the Sunday of the Word of God.  For our Homily today I would like us to take some time and reflect deeply on the Word of God, and how it could impact our daily lives. 

In the 2nd Letter to Timothy, St. Paul says that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction and for training in righteousness so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 

My goal today is to better equip us to carry out God’s good work this week. 

The Holy Father desires us to examine our relationship with Christ, and to connect more deeply with Him through the scriptures. 

In the Letter to the Hebrews St. Paul goes on to say that “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”

Whenever we hear the Word of God, it demands a response for us.  The prophet Isaiah says “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

Three-Way-Relationship - Christ / Scripture / The Church
If you think about it, there is a three-way relationship between Christ, Scripture and the Church. 

Christ is the Scriptures - because he is the Word made flesh - the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  God has used the Scriptures to express the fullness of his love to us.

Christ also identifies with his Church - we are described as the “Body of Christ” - it is through us that God’s word is spoken, sent and from us that it demands response.

Be Unified
Finally, in the second reading today, St. Paul encourages us “all to agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, but that you be unified in the same mind and in the same purpose.”

To help us in this task, I want to invite you to meditate on the Word of God read to us in the readings today - this is how we (the Church) come to know our Lord and to imitate Him - thereby bringing God’s love into the world in reality. 

When you look at Christ and Scripture in this light it becomes clear how vital it is to the life of the Church that we allow ourselves to encounter the Word of God and to be transformed by the word on a daily basis.

In keeping with the intent of the Holy Father I would like us to encounter the Word of God from the readings today through a meditation on the readings.  So I ask you to lay aside anything that is distracting you and seek to pay attention to the word as we enter into a meditation together.

[[Go and Move my chair down to the front of the Altar]]

Prepare for Meditation
I want to ask that you sit up straight, with your feet placed comfortably apart and place your hands on your lap and close your eyes. 

I want to begin our reflection by praying a Taize chant - to alert our soul’s to the presence of Christ in the Word.  Feel free to sing along with me or to rest in this prayer as the Spirit leads you.

I am going to re-read and reflect with you on the scriptures some of the ideas that I had while preparing for today’s homily.  I want to invite you to listen with your heart and allow God to challenge you with His Word as we enter more deeply into this relationship with him. 

The response from the psalm today gives us a good chant to guide us in our encounter with the Word of God.

SING:  The Lord is my light, my light and salvation
In Him, I trust, In Him, I trust.  (x3)

[[PAUSE]]

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

Is God my life’s refuge?  Imagine my life represented as a circle, where I am surrounded by the events, people and things of my life.  Where is God in that Circle?  Is He outside of the circle, at the periphery, or next to me, or within me, at the center of everything?

[[PAUSE]]

SING - The Lord is My Light.

[[PAUSE]]

One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.

Christ desires to be the keel of your soul.  He stands at the gate to your soul and knocks.  Do you have the courage to open the gate and invite Him in?  Do I seek to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life?

SING - The Lord is My Light.

[[PAUSE]]

Listen again to the First Reading...

First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali;
but in the end he has glorified the seaward road,
the land west of the Jordan,
the District of the Gentiles.

Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness:
for there is no gloom where but now there was distress.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.

Isaiah shows us that God desires to send His Word into the places that are most disobedient to the Lord.  the lands of Naphtali and Zebulun are the places where Israel disobeyed God greatly.  Sin in my life causes me to live in darkness and gloom.  It is exactly here that God is asking you to invite Him - He wants to enter into these dark areas in our hearts so that his Love and light can transform them.

What is my greatest area of sin?  Invite Christ to shine His light and love there to heal my sin.

[[PAUSE]]

SING - The Lord is My Light.

[[PAUSE]]

You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.

When we allow scripture to challenge us, we invite Christ into our life.  We become more like Christ, because we become willing to allow the light of Christ to penetrate the darkness of our hearts.  When we accept God’s grace we then become signs of his love and mercy - and we begin to imitate Him and to be like the Altar Candles - Women and Men who are living their lives giving witness to God’s love and presence in the world.

SING - The Lord is My Light.

And now - let us encounter the Word made Flesh in the Gospel

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled:

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

John came to the people saying - Repent - the Kingdom of God is near.  When Jesus came he took John’s preaching and amplified it, calling us to the urgency of the Gospel - The Kingdom of God is HERE!  Now Christ has come - and he comes to the place prophesied by Isaiah - to the place of darkness in my life. 

Christ fulfills Isaiah's other prophecy - “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

Christ is bringing his word to Me, in the grave - so that he can grasp my hand and bring me out of this grave of sin, this prison of darkness. 

[[PAUSE]]

SING:  The Lord is my light…

As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father
and followed him. He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.

[[PAUSE]]

Jesus encounters us in our daily lives.  Just as he encountered Simon, Andrew, James and John - at work.  He calls them, and he calls you and I to offer our lives to the service of the Gospel.

If Christ can chose Simon, Andrew, James and John - illiterate, unskilled, and untrained fishermen and make them into his Apostles, then he can also call you and I to make a difference in the world.  We only need to let Christ enter into our hearts.

Fish are also a symbol of the Eucharist.  Christ has met us here at this Eucharistic feast where he gives us his Body and Blood to enter into our lives and nourish us.

He invites us to enter into the Kingdom of God.  St. Gregory the Great reminds us that the Kingdom of God is worth all that you have be it the wealth of the rich, young man, your nets and your boat or the Widows mite…

Lord - Teach me to listen to your Word this week - that your Will may be done in my life.

SING - The Lord is my Life (x2)

[[SILENCE]]