Bless Your Enemies!! (7th Sunday, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

One of the great blessings of my priesthood was the opportunity to live and work with Bishop Hermann for the two years I was assigned to the Cathedral Basilica. Bishop Hermann, as many of you know, was also the pastor at Incarnate Word for something like 15 or 16 years. Part of my assignment was to help him, especially when he was running the Archdiocese for the period of time after Cardinal Burke moved to Rome and before Archbishop Carlson arrived. We spent lots of time together going to confirmations, award ceremonies, prayer breakfasts, school masses, and so many other things I didn’t know Bishops did. (It made me certain that I never want to be a bishop!) Bishop Hermann is a blessing to be around. He is a pretty energetic guy, completely genuine and down to earth. Best of all, he is endlessly joyful and optimistic. Sometimes I would just shake my head as he told stories, interrupted by constant laughter, about how he blessed a person who cursed him or insulted him or rejected him because of his beliefs as a Christian. He seemed to be completely unfazed by the anger, hatred, and mean-ness he had to absorb as a bishop and representative of the Catholic Church. 

I really wanted to know his secret, how he not only kept a healthy blood pressure in the face of insults, unfair judgments, and slander but then even found joy in the midst of it all. These ugly, hurtful things had no effect on him even as they made my blood boil.

Bishop Hermann told me, and he would tell any of you, that he wasn’t always this way. He had a nasty temper; he could fly off the handle and cause people to run for the hills. A defining moment came during the term of our 42nd president. Bishop Hermann noticed whenever he saw that person on TV or heard his voice on the radio, his heart would fill with dark thoughts, insults, and not-so-Christian words. His disdain for the president (whose policies and personal life were not the model of Christian values) was starting to eat away at Bishop Hermann. His peace and joy were being stolen away. 

By the grace of God, Bishop Hermann came across a talk by a minister on something called unilateral forgiveness. The concept is simple and it comes right out of the readings for this weekend. “Love your enemies”, “Pray for those who persecute you”, “turn the other cheek”, and “go the extra mile” when someone demands something from you. Most difficult of all, ask God to bless the people who speak badly of you and try to destroy you. My gut reaction whenever I hear this gospel is more like, “Are you kidding me!!”

First of all, we have to acknowledge that unilateral forgiveness is not a natural response to hatred and persecution. It is supernatural, which means we can only do it with the help of God’s grace. But God loves to spread that grace freely, Jesus says it will be poured into our lap with overwhelming generosity. All we have to do is ask. And we see lots of real people practicing this amazing grace of forgiveness and blessing: David, who shows mercy and respect to Saul, even as the King keeps trying to kill him out of envy. Jesus, who blesses his enemies and prays for them, even while they are crucifying him on the cross. The apostles and so many martyrs, pray for the very ones who kill them and are able to die gruesome deaths with peaceful joy instead of bitter agony. 

There is great power and freedom in unilateral forgiveness. Imagine what it would feel like to not lose your joy and peace when people are nasty and thoughtless and do things like cut you off on the road, or gossip about you and spread rumors, or even deliberately try to hurt you and make your life difficult? What if you and me could float above the fray? What if our happiness was not affected by even the most terrible actions of other humans? That incredible peace is not only possible but actually demanded by Jesus.

In the gospel, Our Lord forcefully tells his listeners and us, to stop judging the hearts of others and to respond to every instance of hatred with love, to curses with blessings. Most powerfully for me, is the line where Jesus says, “the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” What a simple but challenging formula to live by! God gives us the equation he uses in dealing with humanity; it is directly controlled by us! Jesus couldn’t be any more open and transparent about it! So, when I curse the person who insults me or says untrue things to others about me, I am telling God, “give me the very same for all those times that I do wrong; let me be cursed.” Or, when I am mistreated and judged and I pray that the offender be blessed and filled with every good thing, I am telling God, “give me that same blessing, even when I have done wrong and been a sinner.” Which one sounds better to you? I think the choice is pretty easy, even if doing it out is much harder.

To wrap up, let’s go back to my experience of living with Bishop Hermann. That man’s joy is real; it’s not some sort of superficial, naive, kumbaya-mentality. When he prays for those who have hurt him, he means it and he wants God to overwhelm them with blessings. I am nowhere near that level of unilateral forgiveness but I am working on it. Sometimes I catch myself asking God to give people a taste of what they’ve dumped on me. Then I notice I lose my peace and joy. That vindictive attitude doesn’t fulfill me. Even my body pays a price by becoming tense and unsettled. But I thank God for those two years at the Cathedral. Because now I notice when I go down that road of bitterness and retribution. And with God’s help, I pray for my enemies, for those who don’t like me, who don’t respect me and I am overwhelmed with a deep, abiding peace that cannot be taken away, even by the worst of what people can do. It really works! 

If this is hard for you, start by forgiving your enemies just for the sake of your own happiness. God will still be happy to send the grace. Treat yourself! Stop holding grudges; they only punish you. Just like any skill, unilateral forgiveness takes practice to make perfect. Let’s start right now, at the offertory. When I am preparing the bread and wine at the altar, let’s place every person who has hurt us in any way on this altar. And then as I lift up the bread and the wine to heaven, let’s ask God to bless, in whatever way he sees fit, those same people. If we do this, as strange as it seems, we are calling down blessings upon ourselves and I guarantee you will not have to wait until heaven to experience the peace and joy God will send your way!

"Blessed Are They Who Hope in the Lord" (6th Sunday, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Sometimes people ask what it was like growing up in a large family. I always answer that it was great because our parents, either by choice or necessity, allowed us to be free-range children, which is one step above feral ones. This freedom allowed us to learn much by exploring, making mistakes, and problem-solving. Of course, there were limits to that freedom. If one of us had a really bad or dangerous idea, mom or dad would step in. But for the most part they showed a remarkable amount of restraint as we children offered thoughts and plans we believed to be quite wise, most of which were shown to be rather foolish.

One instance of problem solving I remember involved the exhaust on my dad’s car. The pipe had rusted out and if you’ve ever heard a car without a muffler, you know it needed to be repaired. I was sure I could fix it. My first attempt was to wrap an old cotton diaper around the broken ends of the pipe and join them together with duct tape. It actually worked for about 10 miles until the diaper caught on fire and burned off. Numerous other attempts were made with creative materials but the eventual fix was a tomato paste can which was the perfect size and two radiator clamps.

To this day I am a firm believer in creative problem solving and hold that most broken things can be repaired with either duct tape, gorilla glue, zip ties or a combination of all three. But the process of solving problems has to follow certain rules and limits. We had to run things by mom and dad first and they would let us know if our idea was ok to try or might lead to destruction of life and property. Some things would never work no matter how many different ways we tried it. Oftentimes there was a very fine line between a brilliant solution and stubborn foolishness.   

Apply this truth to the spiritual realm. In the first reading, Jeremiah says, "Cursed be he who trusts in human beings." At first glance that seems a little harsh. Is he suggesting that be suspicious of everyone? Of course not! Jeremiah is not talking about the trust we have to have in each other in order to function in healthy families and communities. Rather, he is reminding us that it is impossible to address the problems of our families, our nation, and our world if our lives and our solutions do not have God as their foundation and goal. 

Jeremiah’s audience had some serious issues that needed fixing. Their kingdom was besieged by the Babylonians, who were far stronger and more ruthless than Israel. The king kept trying to find salvation with worldly wisdom. He was willing to make a deal with the devil to try and buy peace. Again and again God spoke through his prophets that the resolution would come only through fidelity to the covenant; following his rules and trusting in Him. The Israelites could not solve their problems on their own. If they operated on their own wisdom, disaster would follow. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened.

The sobering, humbling truth that we cannot solve our own problems apart from God, is a message we still need to hear. There are many good people in our world who are determined to fix the ills of humanity. This is a wonderful intention and a noble goal. However, many of these same people think we can do it by trusting completely in our own cleverness and technology. This does not work. Think about the last century. 

The twentieth century began with the most terrible war humanity had ever endured. It is thought that nearly 40 million people were killed or wounded as a result of World War I. In 1919, after the war ended, the victorious nations gathered in Versailles to formulate a treaty which, they said, would guarantee this kind of war would never happen again. When the treaty was signed, Pope Benedict XV warned that the treaty and the peace was doomed to fail because there was no mention of God. There was no reference of eternal, spiritual values. The treaty relied completely on mankind's ability to restore peace to the world. The Pope, we know now, was correct. Within twenty years the world was engaged in an even worse conflict, World War II. Ultimate reliance upon human capabilities is a sham. It didn't work for the people of Jeremiah's day. It didn't work after World War I. It won't work today. The one lesson we need to learn from history is that our only true hope must be in God. Faith and trust in him must be the starting point as we creatively work to address the problems around us.

Christians are called to be problem-solvers. We cannot be satisfied to put our heads in the sand or circle the wagons and just take care of our own. God wants to use our minds, our gifts, our creative perspectives to help solve the many things that burden ourselves and others. He does not want us to be helpless or hopeless in the face of what sometimes appear to be insurmountable challenges.

And boy aren’t there a lot of them! Of course there are the usual suspects like illness, hunger, poverty, persecution, racism, and division. But there is also a growing despair and emptiness in our young people, the breakup of marriages and families, disrespect for human life, broken trust in our Church, and so many others. 

We can’t let these things get us down, as serious as they are. God has proven to us that he cares about our world and our problems through the life and death of his Son. He continues to send leaders and prophets to guide us. We cannot stop working to solve the ills of society but we must always consult the One who made us and who knows better than we know ourselves. He will keep us from falling in love with our own ideas, becoming stubbornly foolish, and adopting solutions that ultimately harm us. 

Today’s Scriptures challenge us to reflect on several fundamental questions. 1) In whom or what do I place my trust when I face challenges and setbacks? Is it God, —- myself, —— another human, or even material things? 2) Have I considered inviting God into the problems that affect me and the people I care about? Am I willing to trust his Wisdom over mine and open to pursuing the path He indicates for me through Scripture and teaching of our Faith?

  Todays readings promise many blessings for the person who does one thing: trust in the Lord above else. May we follow that advice and always place our hope in God who is our solution for every problem and source of all blessings!

Speak the Truth (4th Sunday of OT, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Almost two years ago, the Archbishop called me in and said, “ Kevin, I want you to go to Incarnate Word as the next pastor there.” Having just settled in at my previous assignment, I was looking for a way out; I didn’t want to move so soon. Naturally, I turned to Scripture to save me. “Archbishop”, I replied, “that is my parents’ parish and you know what happened when Jesus went back to his hometown synagogue and preached? They tried to throw him off a cliff!” Archbishop Carlson dismissed my concern immediately and simply said, “Don’t worry, there are no cliffs in Chesterfield.”

Today we hear two stories that highlight the challenges of speaking truth, especially to people who know us well. First up is Jeremiah who was given the task of prophesying to the King and upper class of Jerusalem. After completing that difficult job, he was told by God to speak to the everyday people. By the time he was done, he wasn’t very popular. Because of his challenging message to return to God, many rejected him and he was persecuted, attacked, even left to die in a cistern. Despite all this suffering, often at the hands of those who were his friends and neighbors, Jeremiah remained true to the Word he had been given. He wouldn't stop preaching or soften the message. He complained that he wished he could keep quiet, but the Word of God was burning like a fire within him. He had to share God’s message no matter how it was received.

Jeremiah sensed that God has created him for a special purpose, to proclaim His truth in a specific way that no one else could. Despite the difficulties, how could he run away from that?  Certainly the Lord’s words, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you" must have helped him along. God was telling Jeremiah that he had picked him out to be his prophet before Jeremiah was even conceived. And this is not just true for Jeremiah. The reason we reverence every single human life as sacred is because, before each of us was born, or even conceived, God knew us and had a role to play in the universe. How incredible! God knew you and me before our mothers and fathers ever met. He was excited to bring us into being. He is thrilled to call us to proclaim His truth. We are not just random results of nature. God has been thinking about us before time began.

One of the things all of us have in common, regardless of of our upbringing, job, or vocation is a responsibility to speak and live God’s truth. As a human being, created in the image and likeness of God, we cannot fail to do our part in sharing God’s message with others, especially as it relates to fundamental values like human rights, the family, marriage, and the right to life. We should keep in mind the Lord’s encouragement to Jeremiah, "They will fight against you, but I am with you to deliver you." He will be with us as we proclaim the authentic way of life, living for the Kingdom of God. 

In the gospel we read about Jesus returning home to proclaimed the truth about his relationship to the Father. His homies had heard about his miracles and they wanted Jesus to perform some for them, as if he were a magician or some sort of entertainer. But they to believe; they couldn't get past His family background. When he told them the truth, that he could only work miracles for those who had faith, people like heathens and non-believers, they wanted to kill Him. Instead of examining their hearts in light of the Truth, they tried destroy truth. True to his word, God took care of his truth-teller. Ironically the people got a miracle. He walks though their midst and they are unable to throw him off the cliff.  But their hearts were hardened and they couldn’t see it!

If Jesus and Jeremiah were rejected and persecuted for speaking God’s truth, we can expect the same. There are people who don't want to hear God's truth because it is deemed too challenging or extreme. We should not be surprised if we are mocked, vilified, or dismissed. Some may try to push us off the cliff of respectability. If you’ve ever experienced this, you know how hurtful, unfair, and awful that can be.

But the One who called us before we were conceived, will not desert us. His way, his truth will prevail. Those who live it and speak it with charity will be vindicated. There is nothing anyone can do to us that will take God from us. If he is for us, who could be against us? We have to proclaim all that is right and moral and true, but how do we do it?  Our wonderful second reading makes it clear, we have to deliver truth with charity. We are to proclaim God’s truth with patience and kindness, and not with all the negatives St. Paul describes. We cannot proclaim God's love if we are arrogant, jealous, selfish, angry, and vengeful. If others cannot see the love of God behind our words and actions, then we are not proclaiming His Kingdom properly. We cannot use the truth like a 2x4 to beat people into submission. If we let anger determine our actions, we will get nowhere. God is calling us to be patient and kind with others, even, and perhaps especially, those who do horrendous things. 

Let’s spend some time this week reflecting on the fact that God has called us, even before we were in our mothers' wombs, to proclaim his Truth. He has given each of us a unique set of gifts and a personality to help the people we interact with as part of our personal and professional circles. Sometime that Divine Truth will be well-received and welcome. Other times it will be rejected. May we, like Jeremiah, always be authentic to who we are, a daughter, a son of God. May we believe that God has a purpose for our lives that is unique and irreplaceable for the good of the world. And as long as we live and speak His truth with love, He will always be with us.