The Oil of Gladness

32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A

WIS 6:12-16, Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 1 THES 4:13-18, 19-20, Matthew 25:1-13

What is Wisdom?
The readings today speak to us about the gift of Wisdom.  What is Wisdom?  St. Thomas Aquinas defines Wisdom as “right judgment in accord with eternal law (ST II-II, q. 45, a. 2).”  Put another way, wisdom is the ability to understand the world from God’s perspective. 

Pondering life in the light of Wisdom.
One of the questions that the readings pose to us today is this – do we examine our lives under the light of Wisdom?  Do we spend time reflecting on the events of our lives to understand how God is reaching out to us through those events.  To ponder – how is God inviting me to grow?

Three layers of imagery in the Gospel
In the Gospel today we find that there are 10 virgins awaiting the arrival of the Bridegroom from the wedding.  They are waiting in the darkness, but God has provided them with the means of light – each one has a lamp.

They are to await the bridegroom, and when He arrives they are to enter into the wedding feast with him.  As they await, they all fall become drowsy and fall asleep.

What are the symbols of this parable?

• The first layer of symbols is the people
• The second layer of symbols is the places 
• The third layer of symbols are the things

The readings today invite us to reflect on the parable from the Gospel, and to join that reflection to the events of our lives in order to resolve to respond to those events with love.

The People
The Bridegroom is of course Christ.  He has invited us to a wonderful feast, but that feast cannot begin until he arrives.  You can’t have a party without the host.

We are the virgins.  We are the ones invited by the Lord to enter into the feast with Him.  The Lord desires to invite us into this relationship and celebration.  We should be humbled by such an invitation.

The Place
The virgins are apparently awaiting, seeking the bridegroom on the way, but near the house.  The virgins are awaiting the bridegroom in the darkness.  It is night, and in fact late in night when the groom finally arrives.  From this we can see that the virgins (us) are called to wait for the bridegroom in the world – in the midst of our own lives – filled with the darkness and confusion of sin.

The Lamps
Yet, each of those invited by the groom has a lamp.  Christ has given us the ability to shed light into this dark place.  To know the way to go and to be prepared for His coming into our lives at a time and place that we do not know and do not expect.

The Lamps are symbolic of the gift of Baptism in our life.  When each of us was baptized, we received a candle, and it was said to us.  “Receive the light of Christ.  This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. You have been enlightened by Christ. You are to walk always as a child of the light. May you  keep the flame of faith alive in your heart. When the Lord comes, may you go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.”

God does not abandon us into the darkness of the world without help – but rather he gives us the tools that we need so that we can be prepared to meet Him.

The Oil
Oil is the fruit of the Christian life.  Oil is symbolic because it denotes a permanent change in things.  Oil is symbolic because it strengthens, it heals and it transforms.  Oil is symbolic of the gift of faith.

Oil is a symbol of our Faith
Faith is our relationship with God.  For each of us, our faith is unique – it is our experience and expression of our relationship with God.  I cannot give you my faith – because my faith is founded on the relationship between God and myself. You cannot give me your faith for the same reason – your faith is founded on your relationship with God.  Yet, my faith can inspire you to seek out your relationship with God and vice-versa.

For this reason the wise Virgins – the ones who had used the gift of Baptism in their life had sufficient oil and were ready to meet the Lord, and yet the foolish virgins were not.  The foolish virgins did not understand the nature of faith, and so had to run off to find oil for their lamps, and missed out on the feast.

How do we grow in Faith?  
How do we find oil for our lamps?
Wisdom leads us to ask the question – “How do we get oil for our lamps?”  To reflect on the answer to this question let us turn to St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux – The Little way of Love
One way to prepare oil for our lamps is to learn to love our enemies. 

The Critical Sister
St Thérèse spent her time living in the convent in Lisieux, France.  At her convent she was given the opportunity to suffer injustice at the hands of one of her sisters.  This particular sister was often very critical of Thérèse. 

For example, On one occasion, Therese remembers that she left a cobweb in the cloister. In front of everyone, the nun said: "The cloisters are obviously swept by a fifteen-year-old; it is a disgrace! Go and sweep that cobweb away, and in the future be more careful!"”

This Sister would also send Thérèse out to weed the garden at half-past four every afternoon. Thérèse hated to weed the garden, but she realized that with each weed that she pulled up she could begin to pray for the Nun who was giving her such a hard time.  Even though she overheard this Nun say to her on the way to the garden "Really, this child does nothing at all. There must be something wrong with a novice that has to be sent for a walk every day."  

On another occasion someone or other had left a little vase on a window sill, and it was found broken. The Nun  thought it was Thérèse fault. She seemed very annoyed that Thérèse had left it there and told her to be more careful next time, adding that Thérèse had no idea at all of tidiness.

Without saying a word, Thérèse kissed the ground and promised she would take more care in the future. Thérèse  was able to use these events to grow in virtue, because she reminded myself that it would all be made known on the Day of Judgment.

The Lord is near to us in our sufferings
We really have two responses to injustice – One is to get angry and upset, riled up.  Another is to respond with patience – as Christ does, and to pray for our enemies.

Our Lord says:  “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28)”.

Respond with Kindness
Thérèse was able to take these words to her heart and to allow God to transform her suffering into a source of spiritual growth.  She took up the habit of seeking to pray for her enemies and to perform little, hidden acts of virtue for them.  For example, when her sisters left their choir mantles in a mess, she would pick them up and fold them quietly, and without drawing attention to herself. 

Our enemies need our friendship
When Thérèse died and her Sisters read her autobiography – The Story of the Soul.  When the Nun who had been harsh with Thérèse listened to her Autobiography she was shocked that she had caused St. Thérèse such suffering, because she felt that Thérèse had loved her and was one of her closet friends. 

How to respond to unkindness
When we encounter injustice in our lives, we can respond out of anger and righteousness or we can see in our journey an invitation from our Lord to grow in Love.  I would like to leave you with three things to do when experiencing injustice.

1. Listen to the book of Wisdom.  Make a habit in your life of reflecting on the relationship you have with your enemies in the morning each day of your life.  Take some time during your morning prayer to specifically pray for your enemies by name.
2. When you encounter their injustice or cruelty, make it a point practice patience.  Patience means to be willing to be long-suffering.  It means to have passion as Christ did on the cross.  
3. When we encounter cruelty, we are called to respond with kindness.  Thérèse did this by always seeking to be helpful and loving towards those whom she found to be difficult.

The darkness of our present world.
In the past two months our country has suffered terribly from the acts of cruelty and violence.  The mass shootings in Las Vegas, Thornton, and Texas along with the terrorism in New York are signs that we are waiting in a dark world for the coming of the Bridegroom.  This week let us transform the sufferings of our lives into a source of oil for our lamps by praying for our enemies and those who are unkind to us with the same love that Christ gave showed us when he suffered his crucifixion and death.

If we can return cruelness with kindness, hatred with love, and neglect with prayer then the world will be transformed because the light of the lamps that Christ has given us will shine forth with His love.

Lord Save Me!

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a; Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14; Rom 9:1-5; Gospel: Mt 14:22-33

Elijah on the run from the Queen
In the first reading today, the prophet Elijah is in the midst of a crisis. He is in trouble with Queen Jezebel because God asked him to oppose her pagan worship and she has sent her men to kill him. Elijah knows that he will most likely die. His response is to take time out to pray.

Prayer – the answer to every crisis!
When we find ourselves in moments of crisis one of the best things that we can do is to pray to God. It is important that when we pray that we pray from our hearts. This means that we honestly and openly share our hearts and our lives with God. Then we listen to what God has to say to us in reply.

Distractions in Prayer – Wind, Earthquake and Fire
When Elijah tries to pray he finds that his prayer is distracted by a wind that is crushing the rocks, an earthquake and a fire. When these things happen Elijah checks to see if God is present, and when he does not find God he returns to his prayer.

Wind, Earthquake and Fire = Distractions of the Crisis
Time in prayer is time that we set aside to listen to God. We listen to God so that we can hear him and encounter him in our hearts. One of the difficulties of prayer, and especially with prayer of those in crisis is that we are often filled with many distractions, when we sit down to pray our mind is attacked by our worries, fears and anxieties. These are like the Wind, the Earthquake and the Fire that Elijah encountered on the mountain. When we are distracted in prayer we gently set the distractions aside and return to listening for God to speak to our hearts with his small, still voice.

St. Therese of Lisieux is a good teacher of prayer
She was born in France in 1873, the youngest of four girls. Therese grew up with an intense love for Jesus, and for the Eucharist. At 15 she became a Camelite nun, entered the convent and spent the rest of her life trying to listen to the still, small voice of God in her heart.

Like Elijah, Therese had distractions in her prayer
Like Elijah the prophet, St. Therese encountered many distractions in her prayer, She had to deal with living in community with her sisters, dealing with envy, injustice, pettiness and all of the other distractions that are part life. Therese was able to take all of this with her into her times of prayer, to listen to God and to hear his voice speaking into her heart.

From her prayer, Therese understood the path to holiness
It was through her listening to God that Therese discovered her “Little Way” to holiness.

1. Therese learned that God’s way of loving her was through mercy and forgiveness. He was always showing her His mercy and His love.

2. Therese discovered the best way to approach God was to be like a little child.

Like a little kid on his Fathers lap
Whenever little kids get to sit in their Dad’s lap they start with a lot of talk about what is going on in their lives, but then at the end, they just want to snuggle and to be in the presence of their Dad. This is the deepest type of Prayer. When Therese would pray, she would pray as God’s little girl and curl up in her Daddy’s lap to share her heart with him.

Kids copy their parents
Kids also learn to copy their parents. As Therese lived in the convent she started to copy God by showing love and forgiveness to her sisters. Whenever someone insulted or persecuted her she responded with compassion and forgiveness. Therese chose to love them by responding to their pain rather than their insults. She chose to copy the love that God showed her.

The Little Way transforms the world
We too can do the same when we allow God into our hearts. When God is with us, he transforms our hurt into love and so we too can follow the little way of St. Therese and help to transform the world.

The symbolism of the Gospel
Today’s Gospel is rich in symbolism. We heard about the first symbol last Sunday in the feeding of the 5000. This is a symbol for the Mass.

The Boat = The Church, the Storm = the World
After the Mass, the disciples take their boat across the sea, and while at sea the boat gets caught up in a storm. The boat represents the Church, and the stormy seas represent the world, filled with sin and strife that so easily distracts us.

Jesus says to us – Do not be afraid!
Often times when the troubles of the world surround us, we are overwhelmed by fear. We doubt God’s love and think we are going to die. Jesus says to us “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”

Jesus teaches us to be in the world but not of the world
Then we notice that Jesus is walking across the water – He is teaching us to be in the world, but not of the world. Jesus shows us how to face temptation and sin, but not to get trapped by them and to drown.

Peter gets out of the boat
Peter responds to Jesus’ call and gets out of the boat and is walking across the water. As soon as he realizes what he is doing, he gets distracted by the wind and the waves and starts to drown. When this happens he calls to Jesus for help, and Christ saves him.

How do we put these readings into practice?
- Listen to the small still voice
After Holy Communion today, it is our time to be like Elijah and Peter, to listen to God as he speaks to our hearts with the still, small voice.

Ask Jesus to call you out of the Boat
Then, ask the Lord, “if that is you then command me to get out of the boat”. God is sending us out of the boat onto the waves of the world this week. But we are being sent out to walk on water, to live lives that witness the love of God to our friends and family.

Remember to call on him this week when you get distracted!
Finally, when we are out there this week and we see the wind and the waves and we want to panic let us remember the prayer of St. Peter – “Lord Save Me!” And he will.

Secret Agent Saints

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Lv 13:1-2, 44-46 Psalm Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11, 1 Cor 10:31-11:1, Mk 1:40-45

The Saint
One of the television shows that I watched as a kid was the show “The Saint”. The main character of this show was a cross between Robin Hood and James Bond. Every episode he would disguise himself and use the name of some Catholic Saint as an alias. Thus disguised he would rob from the rich and give to the poor using the coolest secret agent gadgets available.

Mark – The Gospel for Secret Agents and Spies
I mention the Saint because I jokingly refer to the Gospel of Mark as the Gospel of Secret Agents and Spies. I do this for two reasons; One, Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel of Action; Mark never wastes words describing the scene, Jesus is always busy doing things. The other reason why Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel of Spies and Secret agents is that He is always trying to keep his identity as the Messiah as a secret. In today’s Gospel Jesus orders the Leper not to tell anyone who cured him. The reason why Jesus is trying to keep his identity secret is that he wants people to encounter him as he really is, and not through their expectations. Jesus reveals the truth of his secret identity when he dies on the Cross to show us the fullness of God’s love.

Jesus’ Secret Mission
Not only does Jesus have a secret identity in the Gospel today, but he also has a secret mission. The secret mission of Jesus is to show God’s love to people, and to lead them to give thanks for God’s presence in their lives. We see this in the Gospel today, Jesus heals the Leper and sends him to offer sacrifice in the temple for his healing. This act of offering sacrifice is a way of offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father. The secret mission of Jesus is to give us grace and to invite us to return to God with thanksgiving in our hearts.

We too are Secret Agents for Christ
There is a saying, “you’re preaching to the choir”. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but today, “I am preaching to the spies”. I say this because all of us Christians here are called to be “Like Christ” – If Christ had a secret mission, then so do we. In the second reading today St. Paul helps us to carry out our mission in three concrete ways. We can think of these as three principles of living our lives as “Secret Agents of Christ”. These are

• Do Everything for the Glory of God
• Avoid giving offense, Try to please everyone in everyway.
• Seeking the Benefit of the many – that they may be saved.

Ad Majorem Dei Glroiam
St Ignatius of Loyola’s is a real-life example of the fictional Saint. The motto was was “ad majorem Dei gloriam“ – In English, “For the Greater Glory of God”. Whenever Ignatius thought about some new undertaking, or some new venture, he always evaluated it in the light of this saying. If the goal, the purpose of the idea he had would result in the greater glory of God, then he would do it, if not, then he would discard it.

It is healthy for us too to develop a motto or slogan that we use to guide our lives. This is helpful because God has created each one of us for a specific mission, purpose in this life. Reflecting on that, and having a way to express it, often gives us a way to focus our life here on earth and order it to be productive and fruitful. If there is just one thing to remember from this homily today – it is that homework assignment – pray about your personal mission statement.

Try to please everyone in everyway.
Once we have a motto, then we understand how to frame our entire life. This was the case for the French-Canadian Blessed Andre Bessette. He had it in his heart to join the Holy Cross brothers in Montreal, but they refused because he was illiterate and ill. Perseverance and providence paid off and in 1870 he entered the order, and was given the job of door keeper, laundry worker and messenger. He spent the next 67 years of his life trying to follow the exhortation of St. Paul to “Please everyone in everyway”. This does not mean that Blessed Andre was a doormat for everyone coming to the brothers, on the contrary, he understood that the best way to please everyone in everyway was for him to allow them to encounter Christ in his actions whenever they came to the brothers in need. When people came to Blessed Andre’s door, he listen to them, he prayed with them and God used him to heal them. So many people were miraculously cured through his prayers that at the time of his death in 1937 he was receiving 80,000 letters a year from people asking for his prayers or needing advice. God used Andre’s pure devotion of heart to reach his people in the simple way he answered the door and took care of those who came before him.

“not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved”
As a teenager, St. Therese of Liseux wanted to be a missionary, to travel to wild lands and win souls for Christ. She made her first convert when she was only fifteen years old. There was a notorious murderer named Henri Pranzini on death row in France at the time. Therese prayed intensely to God that he would convert before his death. When she read the paper the day after his execution at the Guillotine, she saw that this man had asked to kiss the crucifix three times before being beheaded. This convicted Therese that the best way she could help others was through her fervent prayer so when she grew up she entered the Carmel at Lisuex and spent the rest of her life as a cloistered nun praying for the conversion of souls. This is what she wrote later in her life about how she was living out her vocation;

"I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places...in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love!”

[[PAUSE]]

Our homily today began with Simon Templar, “The Saint” who robbed the rich and give to the poor while using the name of some obscure Catholic Saint as his identity. In some way we are imitating him by taking the rich grace that God gives us and bringing it to the poor in our lives. We do this by listening, caring for and loving those we live and work with. When we look at the saints, Ignatius, Andres and Therese we see the many different ways that they lived out their lives responding to the love of God. Our secret mission is the same, and it is perhaps best summed up by St. Paul in the second reading today when he says; “Be imitators of Me, as I am of Christ”.

That – my Brothers and Sisters is our mission this week. The question is, are we brave enough to carry it out?