The Church Belongs to Us All (3rd Sunday, Year A)

To listen to this homily, click here.

The second reading this weekend seems very appropriate for us today, even though it was directed to a growing but fragile Christian community in Corinth more than 1900 years ago. At the time, St. Paul was addressing the cliques and divisions that were forming within the Church in that city. And the fact that they often worried more about their sports teams than their eternal salvation! Some believers were separating themselves according to who baptized and brought them into the Faith. It was turning into a competition, a pecking order according to which apostle people felt was most powerful, prestigious, or holy. Even though everyone belonged to one faith, in a short time, there were at least 4 rival groups. Understandably, he expresses outrage and disappointment over what was happening to their faith, how it was becoming a source of argument and division when it should have been a source of mutual strength, comfort, and unity.

Paul’s words remind me of one time (not the only time), as kids we did something really stupid. We got our grubby little hands on some old eggs and decided to throw them against our shed in the backyard. We had a great time and thought it was the funniest thing we had ever done. Mom and Dad disagreed. Before sending us out to clean up (and by the way, dried eggshells are like nature’s superglue) we received a well-deserved lecture from the parents. Of course it included a sprinkling of outrage and “how could you do something like this…” But what I remember clearly and what made a lasting impact was when my parents asked how we could have so little respect for something that was not only theirs but ours.

I hear that same question in Paul’s words today. This beautiful faith, the gospel, the Good News, Christianity doesn’t just belong to THE CHURCH or the Pope or bishops or priests: it belongs to each of us too. And while no one person owns our Catholic Faith or can take credit for it, we all have a share in it and should take pride in how we act as believers. These days, just like the days when Paul’s audience was working through their issues, it is easy to focus on the things that separate and divide us. Even when we are here in church, it is possible to compare ourselves to other people, other parishioners and try to rank ourselves. That’s how a parish gets divided between Democrats or Republicans, rich or poor, living in the neighborhood or commuting from further away, day-school or public school, new parishioners or been here forever—-you get the picture.

Something we see clearly in the gospels over and over again is how Jesus draws people together. In our passage from Matthew, we hear that he calls some of the apostles to follow him and, amazingly, they leave everything immediately and do it! We might think the apostles were this merry band of brothers with blissful, carefree lives, but they were from very different families and viewpoints. Even in the gospels we hear they fought, argued, and got jealous of each other. Only Jesus could have taken their diversity, their seemingly incompatible backgrounds and made it into something that was both enriching and unified. We see this pattern over and over again, not only in Scripture but also in history. When Christ is at the center of human lives and efforts, the resulting blessings never belong to or benefit one person or group. They end up enriching all people. 

If we apply this pattern to our actions and the activity within the Incarnate Word family, it becomes easy to see where God can be found. His blessing will be on those ministries and groups that bring people together and lead them to focus on the One who unites all of us in the first place, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, if we find ourselves forming groups that isolate others or put people down, chances are, we are wandering into the same mess the Corinthians were. 

One of the great paradoxes of Christianity is that because it is owned by no one person, it belongs to everyone. It’s ultimately not important who baptized us, what parish we grew up in, or which Catholic high school we graduated from; what matters most is that in all these things, Christ unites us. He is the common bond that brings together, in this active, busy parish, people of very different means, backgrounds, and viewpoints. Jesus is is our claim to fame, our source of pride. He brings unity to our diversity and enables our little gifts and efforts to have outsized effects. And when we encounter other Catholics, other Christians, from other parishes and other faith traditions, our mindset should not be one of competition or seeing who is better but rather how we can support each other and cooperate in spreading the Good News that Jesus offers. At the end of our life, God will not care what parish we belonged to, whether we went to the 7:15 or 6pm Mass, what neighborhood we lived in, or if our parish and professional sports teams were champions. He will want to know if we served him and introduced others to the love and truth Jesus Christ offers. It can be easy to lose perspective of what is truly important in life and in the Church, which doesn’t make us bad people but it does make us people in need of correction, just like the Corinthians.

To wrap up, I want to return to what I learned after egging the shed. Jesus didn’t have to share the Church with us. We certainly don’t deserve to help build it and represent it with our lives. In his generosity, he invites us to take ownership and to share in both the blessings and the responsibilities of caring for our Faith and helping it to spread. Let’s never forget the privilege we have been given and make sure our thoughts, words and actions always honor the great spiritual treasure he shares with us through our Catholic faith! It is not only his but ours.

What is Human Life Worth? (2nd Sunday, Cycle A)

To listen to this homily, click here.

This Friday in our nation’s capital, hundreds of thousands of Americans will march together to celebrate human life and dignity and also protest the fact that infanticide has been legally protected and promoted in our country for the last 47 years. Whenever I’ve gone on the March for Life, I’ve felt a mixture of sadness and joy. Sadness, because over 60 million innocent children have lost their lives since 1973 and yet so many still remain indifferent or excuse themselves from doing anything to change this tragedy. Sadness, especially as a priest, as I think of the millions of moms and dads whose hearts have been shattered by their decision to choose abortion. This is the hidden price of abortion most people don’t see unless they’ve helped in the healing process for men and women who’ve made that choice and are burdened by years of shame and guilt. But on the March there is also an overwhelming sense of joy. Joy because you realize you aren’t alone; the crowds grow larger and younger every year. The crowd is not just Catholic, it is composed of people of good will from all backgrounds, ages, and demographics. God and the gift of life cannot be defeated; the question is how many people must pay the price for our decision to try and decide who is and who isn’t worthy of life. 

The issue of abortion cannot be resolved without first reflecting on the value of human life. How we value human life at its most vulnerable, innocent moments determines how we treat ourselves and others: the poor, the immigrant, the disabled, the unborn, the infirm and the dying - not to mention the person who makes my life difficult or who I struggle to forgive. The question is fundamental: Where does the value of human life come from? Why does human life have worth at all? Today's Gospel gives us the answer; human life has value because of what God was willing to pay for it.

In his book on the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert writes about a concentration camp prisoner. Before his arrest, the man was a successful jeweler in Holland. The Nazis robbed him of his possessions, but he managed to smuggle a small amount of gold into prison. He hoped to survive imprisonment and use the gold to begin a new life. But, with the lack of food, he grew thinner and hungrier. In desperation he took the gold and showed it to a guard. He asked the guard what he would give for it. The next day the guard returned, reached into his pocket and pulled out two potatoes. They were small, shriveled and starting to rot. The prisoner looked at them. He hesitated for a moment, then handed the gold to guard and quickly ate the uncooked potatoes.

Gilbert comments that the exchange represented a scale of worth. In that concentration camp, a few scraps of food were more valuable than gold even though normally the gold would be worth thousands of dollars. Those potatoes had value because of the price someone was willing to pay for it.

Something similar applies to the value of human life. This Sunday we hear the price Jesus is willing to pay for human life - for yours, for mine, for all of humanity. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God.” In the Old Testament, every Passover, the Israelites would select a lamb, a young male sheep. The lamb had to be a year old, the age when his meat and wool fetched their highest price. Each family would offer a young sheep for the sacrifice in atonement for their sins. The priest placed the lamb on the altar and opened its throat so blood would flow out. The blood of the lamb brought forgiveness and restored the Chosen People relationship with God.

When St. John saw Jesus, he recognized him as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Like a young sheep placed on an altar, Jesus would give his blood, his life for us. That is the highest possible price, because Jesus is perfect man and true God.

If you were to ask where our value comes from, you would have to say: It is not because we are so intelligent. Nor because we are so charming, or so good, or so beautiful or so strong. We may have some of those qualities, but they do not last for very long. In the end, our worth does not come from our brilliance or virtue or beauty or strength or anything we produce or accomplish. We are valuable because God was willing to pay the ultimate price for us. Our lives are not our own to throw away as we please. We were created by God, in his holy image and we have been redeemed and ransomed by his death on the cross. Our lives, so to speak, belong to him. 

It is important for us to say that today. We live in a society confused about the value of human life. Many people want to claim total autonomy over their lives and even the lives of others. Some want to seize the power to pronounce which lives have meaning and purpose while designating others to be unworthy of the care and sacrifice their existence might require. We see this playing out as more states and countries allow abortions after prenatal testing for disabilities like Down Syndrome, Trisomy disorders, and even preferred gender. Others push for physician assisted suicide, claiming it is "death with dignity." As Christians we cannot support any of this. We know that life has incalculable value. The Lamb of God has paid the ultimate price so that each of us could have life and have it to the full.

We of course want to do what we can to ease the the suffering of others, especially the terminally ill and profoundly disabled. But we do not believe suffering is completely worthless or beyond God’s power of redemption. We can join our suffering to the Lamb of God. What a person endures, for the sake of Christ and in union with him, can have great value. This applies especially to the suffering involved in one's final illness, living with a disability, or caring for someone with special needs. In fact that is what separates us from animals, where efficiency and survival of the fittest reign supreme. The sick, the unborn, and the disabled are not problems to be eliminated but images of God to be loved. This message is hard to proclaim and even harder to live but it is needed now more than ever. Each human life has incalculable worth, even in the face of great suffering and the most severe limitations. As Christians we know we have been purchased at a high price. Our dignity doesn’t come from what we accomplish or provide for others. It is part of who we are as persons created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Blood of the Lamb.

It’s not possible in one homily to go through ALL the reasons we are called to value human life, from conception until natural death. For sure, there are natural and philosophical arguments as well. But it cannot be denied that human life has value for the same reason that gold has value, because someone was willing to pay for it. If our Creator and Savior thinks that highly of each and every one of us, we have no right to think less of ourselves or others for any reason. This week, let us thank God for the gift of our life and recommit ourselves to defending this basic right for all people. We place all our efforts under the protection of Mary as we say…Hail Mary…

The Shock of New Birth (Baptism of the Lord, 2020)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Some people have strange minds and see the world in a different light than most others. Tim Burton, the director of movies like as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, the Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride, is a prime example. When I have watched his movies, I often think, “how does he come up with this stuff?” However, he had an experience which topped anything he depicted in his films, an experience that not even his unusual mind was prepared for. He said, “You really can't prepare for it. It's the most natural thing in the world yet the most shocking, somehow.” Tim Burton was referring to the birth of his first child.

Burton makes a good point. Nothing on this planet can really compare with the birth of a baby. Each child possesses a potential and a value which cannot be quantified; babies bring hope. As the Bible teaches, we are created in the very image of God. That we can participate in the conception of such a being, whose soul and resurrected body will live forever, should stun us.

That natural event, with its power and potential, rightly amazes us, yet something else should shock us even more. Today’s feast of the baptism of the Lord reminds us that something similar happens in the spiritual world whenever someone receives the sacrament of baptism. In beginning his public ministry, Jesus risked misunderstanding by allowing John to baptize him. It made him appear as less than John and of somehow needing spiritual cleansing. Neither was true, as John himself testifies. But the fact Jesus would accept such a risk shows how important he considered baptism to be to his message of salvation. It would become not only a vehicle of conversion, but of new birth. The early Christians struggled with this. Why did the sinless Christ accept a baptism that implied repentance? As St. Augustine and other Fathers pointed out, Jesus was baptized not for his sake, but for ours. The waters did not transform him; he transformed the waters.

Our family has been blessed with many babies. I personally believe being around little ones softens the heart of a person in the best possible way. That’s why I always want our families with young children to feel welcome here; their presence benefits all of us! For example, one of the blessings of holding a little baby is how peaceful and happy they make us. People spend hours simply holding their children and looking at them with love. Even the smallest thing they do brings such delight to their mother or father: a little smile, a funny face, a goofy sound. People delight in their babies, not for what they do but simply for who they are. 

What we do for babies, God does for you and me at every instant. You might say God spends all eternity contemplating us. And his attention is never divided. Even though he has lots of children, he focuses completely on every one of us with undivided affection. Not because we have done something to deserve it, but because of Jesus, who instituted the sacrament of baptism, which allowed us to be adopted into God’s family. Because of those saving waters, God has said to us the same sacred words he proclaimed to Jesus, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased!”

You and I don’t earn the Father’s Love nor have we done anything to deserve it. But he doesn’t care about that! In spite of our unworthiness, He gives it freely and unconditionally. There is nothing in the world we could ever do to make God love us more. And yet, how sad that we usually interact with God as if it were up to us and our actions to make him like us. As if it were in our hands to do enough to persuade God to send a little love our way. No wonder we beat ourselves up so much when we sin and fail and realize our weaknesses!

Think about this:

What would look different in your life if you believed God loved you unconditionally? How would it change your perspective? Would it make you more daring in living out your faith, knowing that you always had a loving God at your side? Imagine the freedom that would come with knowing in your bones that no matter what you did, successful or not, you could not lose the love and approval of God! How might it change the way you treated other people? Realizing the One who is madly in love with you is also loving them in the same way? Would it add passion to our faith, our prayer, our daily lives?

How good it must have felt for Christ as he came out of the water and heard the voice of his Father! If you have never heard that voice, I pray for you now, I want you to know that God is crying out those same words every day, all the time. You are alive because God loves you, thinks of you and wants you here. Every moment of every day he is thinking of you specifically, he looks on you with love, he is smiling and crying and feeling everything you do. He wants us to know of his mad love for us fickle and sinful children, that is why he sent his beloved son in the first place, to shatter our deafness and indifference.

When you find your faith tested, perhaps by sickness or financial problems, by struggles in your family, or even  abandonment by the people who should be there for you, remember Jesus has claimed you. We belong to him and in him we belong to each other. Because of him we also hear the Father's voice, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased.” Shocking, undeserved, but ultimately and always true!

There are Three Types of People...(Epiphany, Year A)

To listen to this homily, click here.

The Solemnity of the Epiphany is one of the oldest liturgical celebrations of the Church, possibly even older than the observance of Christmas. It’s message is that in Jesus all people have been saved from the destruction of sin.There are three moments the ancient liturgies referred to as epiphanies or manifestations of the Lord: the homage of the magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the changing of water into wine at Cana. The Eastern and Orthodox Churches combine all three events in one celebration. The Roman Catholic Church separates the three and zeros in on the worship of the magi for today’s feast.

To guide our reflection on the Epiphany, I’d like to offer a quote from Blaise Pascal. He was a seventeenth century scientist and philosopher who, among other things, invented a primitive calculating machine that became the forerunner for the modern computer. Those of us who feel lost around computers and smartphones or curse the confusion technology brings can try to forgive Pascal for that. One of the good things he left us was this quote:

"There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek him, and those who live, not seeking or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.”

We see those three types represented in our readings at Christmas time. Among the foolish and unhappy is King Herod. He pretends to seek God, but his real concern is to defend his power and pleasure at any cost. He was far from happy. Tortured by suspicions, he murdered scores of innocent babies after the visit from the Magi. He also wiped out members of his own family, including his wife and two sons, who he was convinced, were plotting against him. This caused the Emperor Augustus to remark, “I would rather be Herod's pig than his son." Herod, in an extreme way, represents the class of people who neither seek nor find God.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who have found God and serve him. Two obvious examples are St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can also include the shepherds in that happy group.

In the middle are the Magi. They represent all honest seekers of truth and goodness found ultimately in God. From the Greek "magoi" we get our English word "magic" or "magician." They were not illusionists like modern magicians, but they studied the heavens and tried to figure out the relationship between the stars and what is happening on earth. The Magi are also called "Wise Men" because they followed the celestials signs that led them to Christ.

We do not know what those signs were. There is a fascinating documentary called “The Star of Bethlehem”. You can actually watch the whole thing on YouTube. The hour-long film recreates the heavens at the time of Christ’s birth and offers some compelling ideas of what those signs would have looked like to the Magi, be that a comet, an alignment of planets or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it led the Magi to Jerusalem, then to Bethlehem. When they arrived at the dwelling of Joseph and Mary, they stopped being seekers and now it was time for adoration. They worshipped the child and acknowledged him as God. And they gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which honored Jesus' kingship, divinity, and priesthood.

One last thought on the Magi’s search for the messiah; they ultimately found him, not in the royal city of Jerusalem, not in a kingly palace, or the sanctuary of the temple. They found him in the little town of Bethlehem in the most ordinary of circumstances. The same will be true for us most days. We have to seek Jesus every day of our lives. Finding the Lord and the happiness he offers is not a one-time event; it is a mindset, a way of life. More often than not, we will encounter him in the mundane details of living out our vocation, in our homes, at work, and interacting with the people God places in our life. We should never give up on finding God! We should not grow weary of looking for him even though at times he may feel far away or hidden from our sight! We can only imagine there had to be moments where the Magi felt the same as they journeyed slowly towards Bethlehem, yet they never gave up or stopped looking.

The Magi serve as an inspiration and example on how we can seek the Lord and serve him. We have confidence that all who honestly look for God will find him. So we ask the help of the Magi, Mary, Joseph and all the saints for the grace and determination to seek God always and as we find him, to serve him so we can experience the happiness and peace that Jesus longs to give us.