The Witness of St. Polycarp

 St Peter and St John heal a crippled man in the temple

The First Reading comes today from Chapter 4 of the Acts of the Apostles.  What happened just before this was that St. Peter and St. John both had passed a cripled man who had begged them for some money, instead Peter shared his faith in Christ and the man was healed.  Peter and John went on to share with the crowd that was gathering that it was in the name of Jesus Christ that this man had been healed and so he and John were thrown into prison.  In today’s reading we hear of his testimony before the Sanhedrin - the ruling council.

Peter and John installed Ignatius of Antioch and his friend Polycarp

St. Peter and St. John installed St. Ignatius as the Bishop of Antioch.  St. Polycarp was a close friend of St. Ignatius.  St. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna which is a town in Western Turkey.  Both Ignatius and Polycarp were disciples of St. John - who installed Polycarp as Bishop of Smyrna.  St. Irenaeus (a disciple of St. Polycarp) tells us that St. Polycarp was a disciple of St. John.

“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; 

One of the characteristics of a Good Shepherd is that he brings peace to the sheep.  Without a shepherd the sheep are anxious and skittish.  With him they are at peace and unified - because they know his voice and his presence.  

How well do you know the Good Shepherd?  

One of the side-effects of knowing the Good Shepherd is that He takes away worry and anxiety from our lives.  We do not worry and we are not anxious because we are able to trust in the providence of God.

Think back on your life this past week - what are you worrying about?  

• Divorce / Marriage / Relationship?

• Work / Finding Employment?

• Sickness / Chronic Problem?

• A Test or problem at School?

To know Christ - to know the Father means that we understand that everything happens according to God’s will - so when we are able to listen to the Shepherd - especially in the disasters of our lives then we can see that God has a hand in everything.

The capture of St. Polycarp

When St. Polycarp was 86 years old, the Proconsul Irenarch Herod gave an order that any Atheists (that is those who denied that Caesar was God) be rounded up and forced to take an oath that Caesar was God.  Polycarp heard that they were looking for him so he started moving from house to house and hiding to stay alive.  Eventually, some horsemen found him in a farm outside of Smyrna - and when caught Polycarp, he first asked that they be given food and drink to be refreshed and then  asked them to let him pray for an hour before taking him prisoner.

• How often do we turn to prayer when we are caught in a moment of Crisis?  

• How often do we turn to prayer to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd to know the voice of the one who loves us - to ask Him what His will is?

Peter and John - A night in Jail and in Prayer

Peter and John turned to prayer and relied on the prayer, and as the first reading begins today they are on trial.  St. Luke tells us that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak about what God was doing through them - because Jesus had laid down his life and taken it up again.

Like Peter and John - St. Polycarp was called to witness

When the Proconsul Irenarch Herod endeavored to persuade him, saying, “What harm is there in saying, Lord Cæsar, and in sacrificing, with the other ceremonies observed on such occasions, and so make sure of safety?  Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists and I will set you free!  Reproach Christ.”

Polycarp replied - “Eighty Six years have I served Christ, and He never did me any injury:  How then can I blaspheme my King and My savior?”  Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.

Ask for the grace to be a witness this week

I want to invite you in your prayer life this week to ask the Lord to make clear to you when you are being called to witness to the love of God that is made so clear at Easter time.  When you pray in the morning lay your plans before the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to make clear to you when and where you are called to give witness to Christ.

The world today asks us to swear by fortunes like Caesar

Just as in the time of St. Polycarp, the world today calls us to depend on things that are not God, and then ridicules us for being men and women of faith.  Our culture has made a straw puppet out of people of faith as unreasonable, ignorant and superstitious. Nothing can be further from the truth - 

• To know Christ is to know the truth, 

• To know Christ is to live an abundant life.  

• To know Christ is to know the blessings that he showers on us, and to be willing to publicly give Him credit for the grace He has given to us.

Martyr is the Greek word for Witness

Irenarch Herod then threatened to throw Polycarp to wild beasts - Polycarp responded “Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous.”

When that did not work Irenarch threatened him with fire but Polycarp was unfazed.  St. Polycarp was burned at the stake and pierced with a spear in the stadium in Smyrna for refusing to burn incense to the Roman emperor.  As he died he said “I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share in the cup of Christ.”

Polycarp grew up listening to the preaching of St. John the Apostle - who wrote the 2nd reading today.  St. John said… “Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.”

Polycarp let the words of St. John permeate his very being - it was why he said to the proconsul - “Since you think I should swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretend not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.”  Polycarp understood that his baptism as a Christian was the foundation of his life and he would not trade it for anything.  He spent his entire life seeking to become more completely a child of God - he wanted to be a saint. 

True faith is rooted in our relationship with Christ

That is what will happen to us if we understand our vocation as a Christian seriously - it is not something that happened to us when we were babies it is meant to be a way of life - that we have a relationship with God, with the Good Shepherd that is so deep and so profound that it permeates our entire lives and we begin to take on the image of Christ in our lives.  As we grow in holiness our responses become more and more infused with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

 

“Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

St. John calls us to become saints

The more we open our hearts to the grace of God, the more we listen to the voice of the Lord, the more we begin to imitate the Good Shepherd in our lives the more we know and understand His will, and the more we are able to cooperate with it.  

Saints subordinate their will to Gods

Ultimately this means that we surrender our will to the will of God - because in that way we imitate the son-ship of Christ - who reminds us in the Gospel - This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. 

Surrender is an active cooperation with the Holy Spirit

Surrender to God’s will is not a fatalistic abandonment to the fate of the world, but an active cooperation with the love of God working in our lives.  It takes work - a life of prayer and a life of conversion.  That surrender to God transforms us into the image of Christ - in the same way that Polycarp was transformed - he imitated Christ in a unique way that only St. Polycarp could.

Christ invites us to imitate Him this week

Christ invites you and I to imitate Him this week - each of us in a unique way that only we can do.

St. Polycarp - Pray for Us.

What does total Love look like?

1 KGS 17:10-16, PS 146:7, 8-9, 9-10, HEB 9:24-28, Gospel MK 12:38-44

Christ is watching...

In the Gospel today we hear about the Widow’s mite.  
Christ is observing those who are contributing to the
temple treasury. It is interesting that Christ sits down
and watches for awhile how people contribute to the needs
of the temple.  He sees the vast sums contributed by the
rich and that does not move his heart, but when he notices
a poor widow contributing a small amount to the treasury
His heart is moved so much that he calls over the disciples
and points her out to them.

Why does Jesus do this?

Jesus notices that the rich are not suffering because of their donations.  
They are giving from their excess. It is almost like they are sitting
around saying I need to find something to do with this pile of cash -
Oh, I know what, I will give it to the temple, then I will look good!

Yet the widow is at the temple for a very different reason.  She has
recognized that God is essential to her life, and she is compelled to
express her love and thanksgiving to God. This is why she goes to
the temple and offers her small contribution. She is giving to
God out of love, pure and simple.   

It must be widow Sunday!

God is asking us for small acts of love given completely

In the first reading today we hear about how the prophet Elijah visits
Zarephath where he meets a widow who is collecting sticks to cook a
last meal for her son.  This woman is in a difficult place, in that she
realizes that she has reached the end of her means of sustenance and is
preparing for her last meal before death. From her perspective she is
worn out, done worrying, and has finally surrendered to her fate.  
Elijah comes to her and asks her for a very little gift - can you please
bring me a small amount of water and a small hearth cake.

The widow explains what she is doing, and she chooses to share what little
she has with Elijah.  Have we learned to be generous as the widow is
generous?

How big is my gift to God?

If you think about it - what Elijah asks from the Widow is very small -  
Cupcake and a glass of water. So trivial. Yet from the Widow’s
perspective this is everything.  She only has a handful of flour and some oil,
and yet she chooses to sacrifice to share with Elijah.  She is choosing to
give him a huge gift, it is not $1,000,000!

Through her act of selfless love, she is preserved from death.  God sees her
selfless love, her willingness to share with others in a time of need, and He
blesses her with all she needs to be sustained in life.

Sacrifice is an expression of both Love and Freedom.  
We can’t sacrifice if we aren’t free, and we won’t sacrifice if we do not
Love.  I think this is at the heart of the Gospel today. As St. Therese
teaches - it is not the big, grandiose sacrifices that we see the rich making
in their contributions to the temple treasury, it is the little sacrifices that
show that we really do understand the Gospel to the point where we live it
out that show God our love.  This is the heart of selflessness.

There is both a lesson and a challenge for us in this. The lesson is that
when we are exhausted and God asks us for a small sacrifice - to say “Yes”.

The challenge of this scriptures is to answer the question:  

• What is my gift?  
• What is my cup of water and hearth cake?  
• Where in my life am I being called to offer a cup of water and a hearth

cake?

Live this week looking for God’s invitation to sacrifice

• When we need to help our children out with their homework
• When we cook dinner for our families
• When we clean the bathrooms in the house?
• When we take time away from the busy-ness at work to listen to a

co-worker who is suffering?

Christ’s model of Sacrifice - All In!

In the Letter to the Hebrews St. Paul teaches us the value of sacrifice.  
Christ’s sacrifice was not fake, because Jesus says of himself - I am the
Way, the Truth and the Life!  If Christ is the Truth then he cannot give a
false witness to sacrifice and suffering. When Christ chose to sacrifice,
He gave everything of what he is and so he does not repeat his sacrifice
because he could not - He was all in!

Christ brings salvation to those who await Him

Because Christ gave himself out of Love to us for our sins he has already
sacrificed and judged us - He judged us to be worthy recipients of His Love.  
For this reason I do not fear Christ’s second coming, because he is waiting
to bring salvation to those who AWAIT HIM. Christ give us the gift of
freedom from Sin, and follows it up with the gift of salvation.

How Convenient...

You might be thinking to yourself - how convenient for the Deacon to
preach about the widow in the Gospel today but to ignore the first half about
the Scribe - who likes to dress in long robes, and be greeted in the
marketplace “Deacon”, and yet devours the houses of widows and
recites long prayers…  You would be wrong - I saved the best for
the last part of our reflection today.

Contrast between the Widow and the Scribe

The heart of today’s Gospel is the contrast between the Scribe who enjoys
the pretense of holiness and the poor widow who actually lives out holiness.  
Jesus is commenting on the reality that there will always be a “political”
struggle in the faith. There are those who seek to live out their lives in God
in service to other, and there are those who seek to use their service to satisfy
their own ego’s.  This is the contrast between the widow - who gives from her
need, and the Scribe who enjoys the favor of his office.

Praying for those involved in abuse

The sad news of this year about sexual abuse by clergy and the covering up
of abuse by Bishops leapt straight to the forefront of my reflections on the
Gospel as I reflected on the readings for today.  A few weeks ago I had the
opportunity to be on retreat with other Deacons from the Archdiocese.
During our retreat the retreat master asked us to keep vigil on Friday night
to pray for the victims of the abuse and for the conversion of the clergy.  

My initial response was one of anger - why should I pray for those Bishops
who have not been faithful to their vows?  I finally resolved that I need to first
address the beam in my own eye before beginning to help my brother with the
spec of sin in his eye.  After seeing this I came to understand that we are being
called to imitate the love of Christ and to pray for my brother Clerics who are
trapped in sin, and deceived by the enemy.  

One way you can do this is by joining the Archbishop for a Mass of Reparation
on the 7th of December at 5:30 PM at the Cathedral downtown.

Am I the Scribe?

When I read this Gospel I am confronted with Christ’s observations on the
actions of the Scribe.  They lead me to ask myself this question - “Am I living
out my role in service to the Church, or have I placed the Church in service of
me?”  I think that this is an excellent question and so I plan on using this as my
daily examination of conscience for this next week.

Selfish or Selfless?

The basic orientation of the two people in the Gospel is one of Selfishness
(for the Scribe) and Self-less (for the Widow).  Christ tells us that when we are
selfish we will be severely condemned, but that when we are selfless we will be
rewarded greatly.

Turn back to my vocation as Deacon

I am grateful for my ministry of “Deacon” - which is a Greek word for “Slave”
or “Servant”.  I think that this ministry helps me to focus my heart on serving
the Church and her needs. Who is that Church - it is this community, but it is
also those who I work with and it is my family at home.  

Turn our service into prayer

The Gospel today invites us to sacrifice for Christ with all of our heart.  One
way we can do this is by becoming more prayerful in the service that we give
others this week.

• It is a service to cook dinner,
• It is a service to fold the laundry,
• It is a service to pick up the house
• It is a service when I am interrupted in a meeting at work to try to listen

first and respond second.  

Christ invites us into a life of serving one another by placing ourselves last so
that I can be sure that I have first listened to others.  

How does this apply to me?

You might be sitting in the pews today thinking - “Boy am I glad that I am not
wearing robes today and reciting long prayers!”  That means that Jesus is not
speaking to me! Yes - that is one way to reflect on this reading.

The other is to reflect - what roles of leadership has Christ called me to?  

• Am I a teacher in school?  
• Am I a leader / foreman / supervisor at work?  
• Am I a parent?  

Closing Reflection

Are we using the authority given to us to serve others, or am are we using

that authority to make others serve us?

Trials of Faith

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

x

1 IS 50:5-9A, Psalm 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9, JAS 2:14-184, Gospel MK 8:27-35

Who do people say that I am?

If I was to read the news papers today about who people say that Christ is, then I would get a very negative view of the Church
Christians are a group of narrow-minded, hate-filled, bigots. Or, Christians are a bunch of mindless, rule following people
who have been deceived by a group of corrupt Priests and Bishops.  

We might feel pretty good if someone were to respond - a group of people who try to live according to God’s commands, like
one of the prophets - or a holy people.

It is true that the Church is mired in a scandal that has many dimensions, including the sexual sins of Cardinal McCarrick or
the act of covering up priestly sexual abuse by Cardinal Wuerl in Pennsylvania.  In the light of the Grand Jury report from
Pennsylvania - who do we say that Christ is?  

My goal today is to preach on the Gospel not to be mired into the details about the abuse crisis that the Church is embroiled
in - if you want to speak with me about that I am more than willing to sit down and share my thoughts on that issue at another
time.  These two issues are relevant - and I am sure that many of the faithful are asking ourselves - who do we say that Christ
is?

It is critical for us to have an authentic answer to this question from Christ

I think that it is critical to have an honest answer to this question, and then to being living your response to the Gospel today
based on your answer to that question.

The Spectrum - Worldly - Spiritual - Christian

I think that our answer to this question of Christ reflects where we are on the spectrum of faith in our relationship with God.  
Our response could be anywhere from “I am not part of the Church” - to - “You are the one anointed by God to show us his
love!” This is Peter’s response.  

The Spiritual Response

If your answer is nearer to the Jews - One of the Prophets, etc, then we need to begin to examine what is behind my reason
for coming to mass - Am I here for the social status, because of tradition?  Am I hear because of my family, or because of my
relationship with Christ.

The Christian Response

When we have had an authentic encounter with Christ, then it becomes very difficult for us to deny the reality of His presence
and teaching in our lives.  We recognize that Christ really is God-in-the-flesh and because of that everything he does and says
is significant to the way that we live our lives.

Do I have a fully Christian Response - Peter

As we begin to read scripture, to hear the witness of Christ and to see how He lived his life and how He calls us to follow him,
we get uncomfortable as St. Peter did.  Right after blessing Peter, Christ begins to talk about the depths of His love for us -
how that love will require him to suffer and die. This teaching of Christ does not agree with Peter’s vision for who Christ is,
and so he pulls Christ aside and tries to correct him.

How often in our lives do we disagree with the teaching of Christ - on the care for the poor, immigration, on the evil of
contraception, homosexuality, abortion, divorce, remarriage, cohabitation?  

Christ’s response to the areas of our lives that are in disobedience to his teachings is “Get behind me Satan!”  - That is follow
\me. It is interesting that he uses this phrase with St. Peter, but to the devil at his temptation he says “Begone” - get away from
me.  Yet here he calls us to conversion and to follow him. To pick up the cross and follow in his footsteps.

How do we live lives of Faith?

When we choose to pick up the cross and begin to follow Christ then we begin to live out the gift of Faith that St. James speaks
about in the 2nd Reading.

Faith is our Recognition and Response to God’s presence in our lives.  We have faith when we are able to see that God has
saved us from the consequences of our sin.

What are the Works that are the response of Faith?

We have faith when we recognize how good God is, how he has blessed us and guided the course of our life.  James goes on to
say that Faith demands a Response in the actions of our lives. It is one thing to say that I will be faithful to my promises to
God in my marriage, it is another thing to choose to live them out each day of our life.  After all, what good is it to say I will be
faithful to you in marriage if you don’t also remain true to your vows by actually refusing to have an affair on them.  It is one
thing to say that I will be faithful to the promises that I made to God in my ordination - it is another thing to live them out day
after day.

Faith without an answer is dead

Faith without response is dead.  We live our faith when we choose to change the actions of our lives based on our recognition
of Christ’s presence in our lives.

What is the Faith of our Parish?

I have had the opportunity to witness to how parishioners from our parish respond to the needs of the homeless, the jobless,
the sick and the homebound.  Through your generosity I see faith lived out. Faith requires that we recognize God’s presence
in our lives and that we respond to His presence in a direct, practical and physical way.  When we respond in faith we make
God visible to the world.

How do we recognize the Cross in our life?

At the end of the Gospel Christ calls us to take up our Cross and to follow him.  One question that I get is how do I know what
my cross is?  It is undeniable. The cross carries with it suffering, and it is not something that we have inflicted upon ourselves.  
For example, if we constantly criticize our children or our spouse, and they respond to us with bitterness - this is not the cross,
but a self-inflicted suffering.  If we live in sin, such as infidelity so that our spouse does not trust us - this is not a cross - but
the consequence of sin.

The Cross is tied to the Truth

The cross comes to us as suffering that we did not ask for and would not have chosen.  Yet, when the suffering comes we
recognize the truth of what Christ is calling us to live out, and we see that in carrying our cross Christ is walking with us
through our suffering and into a holier relationship with him.

For me, the cross is my divorce.  Many of you know that a few years after I was ordained my wife chose to divorce me.  After
a decade of reflecting on the whole event, I have come to understand that my divorce is not something that I chose or is a
consequence of my selfishness.

How do we carry the cross?

In the Psalm today we learn that God listens to us when we pray to him in the midst of trying to carry our Cross.  The Psalmist
says

“I love the LORD because he has heard my voice in supplication,” “because he has inclined his ear to me

the day I called.”

Notice that we are invited to call upon the Lord, and that he inclines his ear to us in our suffering.

The psalmist goes on to say -

The cords of death encompassed me;

the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;

I fell into distress and sorrow,

and I called upon the name of the LORD,

"O LORD, save my life!"

When we reject the cross we can feel overwhelmed, immersed and helpless.  This happens when we forget who Christ is -
the one who has defeated sin and death!  When we enter into death, we fall into a despair and depression.
The Christian recognizes that he is entering into a relationship of intimate love with Christ, because we are choosing to join
Him in His suffering and so he says

 

Gracious is the LORD and just;

yes, our God is merciful.

The LORD keeps the little ones;

I was brought low, and he saved me.

Carrying the cross helps us to grow in humility.  It is painful for me to share my suffering. I see how others flinch and look at
me when I share that I am divorced.  They wonder and worry. We can learn however not to shy away from the reality that
Christ has called to as the psalmist says:  

For he has freed my soul from death,

my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

I shall walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

The Resurrection is about freedom from Death.  Christ brings about freedom from sin by entering into our lives more
completely.  

How do we carry the Cross like Christ?

The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;

Carrying the cross teaches us to listen

The first reading today picks up from where the Gospel left off last week.  If you recall last week Jesus opened the ears of the
man who was deaf and mute.  In this week Isaiah begins with the truth that God seeks to open our ears so that we can hear his
voice.

and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back.

The Christian listens to all that Christ has to say.  Do we have open ears or do we rebel against His will? God’s will is
manifested in the reality of my life.  When I encounter the cross do I surrender to the will of God and carry it?

As a single Dad and Deacon I need to make the decision to pick up the cross and follow Christ. When we make the daily
choice to embrace the cross we give witness to who Christ truly is by our actions.  

What Christ is calling us to do?

The easy response to the Cross is to say “Nuts to this” and go off and do what we want.   That is what rebellion looks like.
Have I rebelled?

The Christian response is different.  As a single Dad and a Deacon I find that I have had to make this decision many times - to
embrace the cross, with its embarrassment and to continue to serve and follow God.  

I gave my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

my face I did not shield

from buffets and spitting.

Are we willing to face the struggles that exist because we choose to listen to God and to respond to his love trusting that he
will lead us through the dark valley and into his presence?

The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Those who carry the cross are not dis-graced!

To carry the cross we must cling to Christ.  To go to confession regularly when we fall into sin.  To be dis-graced means to be
without grace. It is true that when we reject the cross we enter into sin because we reject the voice of God.  Sometimes we do
this out of anger or frustration.

Listening to God fills us with Grace

When we choose to listen to the voice of God and to follow Christ then we are not without grace but we become full of Grace.  
In the end God will be our judge. He knows our actions and the truth in our hearts.

  

See, the Lord GOD is my help;

who will prove me wrong?

Brothers and Sisters - Have Courage - embrace the Cross and be a witness of the Love of Christ in this dark world!