God Still Believes in Marriage (27th Sunday, Year B)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

Today we have a challenging Gospel as Jesus declares unequivocally the life-long permanence of marriage and reminds us that it is not a human invention but actually part of God’s plan from the very beginning. He does it with language that leaves no wiggle room for nuance or exceptions. "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her." These words upset Jesus' hearers then and they upset people today.

Before reflecting on Jesus' teaching on marriage, I would like take a step back and consider their context. This forceful teaching flows from what Jesus has been telling us in recent weeks: First, Jesus announced his own suffering, death and resurrection, then told us that each follower must take up his own cross and follow him. Peter tried to dissuade Jesus and Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan." The other apostles also misunderstood Jesus. They started arguing about who is greatest. Jesus responded by placing a child in front of them and told them they must become like little children.

No child can claim independence. They always rely on someone else, usually their parents or someone who represents them. For that reason we have a commandment that says, "Honor your father and mother." For a young person the first person they should seek to love, honor, and obey should be their parents. Marriage, however, changes that. Jesus quotes the book of Genesis: "God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

When someone marries, their spouse now takes first place. Not everyone seems to get this! There’s the story of the newly-married guy whose wife prepared a special meal for him. "It's OK," he said, "but my mom makes it better!" That guy hasn't left his mother. Of course we must always honor our mom and dad, but when someone marries, they no longer belongs to their parents. They belong to their spouse. This is what it means when the bible says, “The two become "one flesh.”

The two can become one flesh precisely because God made us male and female. As Pope St. John Paul observed, our bodies have a language. The very shape of our bodies as men and women speaks of self-giving and receptivity. Becoming one flesh is so real and powerful that God gave it the awesome ability to create new life.

In marriage the man and woman belong completely to each other. Not like pieces of property but as free and total gifts. Living this truth is difficult. There is a joke about the woman who went to the priest and said, "Father, I want to be a humble wife, but it is hard...because he is always wrong and I am always right.” Don’t we all have this thought sometime, even if we don’t say it out loud?!

Today’s readings remind us what we were made for from the first moment of creation; we were meant to give ourselves freely to another person in humble love and service. For the majority of people in this church, that gift of self will be lived out in marriage. For a few, as a priest or religious, this gift will be given directly to God as a sign of his kingdom, where there will be no more marriage because we will be perfectly united to God. But for all of us, regardless of our individual vocation, the reality remains the same; we must give ourselves to another if we wish to be truly happy and fulfilled. 

    For Adam and Eve, before Original Sin, this was easy and joyful. For us, affected by sin and weakness, it is difficult. We like to hold on to our freedom and preferences while trying to impose our wishes on others. We tend to be suspicious, cynical, and wonder if we are being used or taken advantage of. But that is not what God intended. God wants us to be in community. He wants men and women to be partners, equal in dignity even as they offer different capabilities and gifts. Whether we are married or not, we can begin to restore the world to what God intended by promoting mutual respect, loving service, and generosity between men and women. The irony of our faith is that we become full of grace, joy, and peace by pouring ourselves out in service to others rather than holding back and putting ourselves first. We become strong by humbling ourselves and depending on God and each other like little children. And we find life by taking up our cross and following after Jesus.  

  Just imagine for a minute what a different world it would be if instead of God saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him,” God would have said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make an iPhone for him” or, “I will give him a TV” We might smile at the absurdity of the idea, but maybe that world is closer than we think. Are we becoming more like Adam before the creation of Eve and “alone” because we have the constant preoccupation and noise of things like smartphones, tv, and technology distracting us from communion with each other? How much has technology and entertainment interfered with the relationship people have with their spouse and children? Or, taken to the extreme, has a smartphone, social media, or sports superseded the importance of being truly present to our spouse and loved ones? If you think I’m exaggerating, go to a restaurant and watch people beholden to their phones, even as they ignore the person before them! 

Many people say that traditional marriage is finished. That young people prefer to live together and when they do marry, those marriages seem so fragile. And, along with all that, a growing number redefine marriage so that it has it does not require being male and female, but any two adults who have a strong, mutual attraction.

Should we just raise the white flag, admit defeat and focus our energy somewhere else? That is tempting, but we need to look at Jesus' example. Marriage was in pretty bad shape in his time. As we heard, Moses allowed a man to simply write a note to dismiss his wife because the people had become so hardened. And in the Roman Empire, while Jesus lived, marriage was in decline. So much so that Caesar Augustus tried to strengthen traditional marriage by offering incentives to those that stayed married, but with little effect. People preferred their individual freedoms and saw commitment as a threat to pursuing pleasure. If this sounds similar to our own time, it’s because this is not a new problem!

But Jesus does not give in to discouragement. He knows the human heart and how noble it can be when it cooperates with his grace. He sees beyond our immediate troubles and weakness and goes back to the very beginning, before we were wounded by sin. If God does not give up on us or on marriage, neither should we. We are indeed presented with a difficult and challenging teaching. It requires courage and humility, but is worth any sacrifice. It is what we were made for and it is what will lead us back to the original happiness and harmony God intended for the world.

What Does God Hate? (26th Sunday, year B)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

One of the best parts of getting to know someone is that you start to discover a whole bunch of little-known facts about them. This happens all the time in families. We know which brother or sister likes this or that food and which vegetables they will secretly feed to the dog when no one is looking. We also know their favorite color, the music they listen to, the car of their dreams, and what they want to be when they grow up, even if it changes every three weeks. If we are lucky, we will also have a friend or two like this. We will be blessed to know their favorite food, their most embarrassing moments, and even the things that drive them crazy. The more we love someone, the more we want to know them. And the more we know someone, the better we can love them because we understand them, with their qualities and preferences that make them unique.

These same principles apply to our God who wants to be friend to us all. In fact, God desires and deserves to be our best friend, the love of our life. He is the one we are called to love above all else in this life. Amazingly, when we love God in this way, we end up enjoying the things and people in our lives more than if we ignored God to focus on them. So, if God is our friend, then those same little things that we know about our family and best friends, well, we should know those about God too! For example, do we know what he loves? Or what makes him happy? And what his dreams are? We can! It’s all there in His Word to us, the Bible, if we are willing to read and listen to it! But for today, I would like us to consider something we probably don’t think about too often. It is an aspect of God that almost seems strange to us. In light of the second half of the gospel, and because he is our friend, let’s take a little time to reflect on what it is that God hates.

This is actually pretty easy. There is only one thing that God truly hates and it is sin. Not sinners, mind you; God loves them. Only sin itself. Everything else God loves. He loves the earth and the planets and the stars in their galaxies. He loves humans and plants and animals and bugs and everything else that is running, flying, or swimming around. In short, He loves everything he has created, because it reflects his goodness and love in some way. So why does God, who is clearly defined by love, find sin so offensive? The answer lies in what sin does, both to God and to the one who sins. 

Sin is defined as any immoral act considered to be an offense against divine law. Sins can be little or large, they can take the form of thoughts, words, actions, or omissions, but they all share one thing in common: they separate us in some way from God and hurt others. Why is this? Well, sin is a deliberate choice to do or not do what God asks. And anytime, we act against what God wants, we end up hurting ourselves, even if it feels good or right at the time we do it. Sin is never in our best interests, even if it seems to be the easier or more pleasant path in the short term. God, who loves us more than we love ourselves, wants us to be happy forever with him. God hates sin because it separates us from him. And not only that, when we sin, we risk losing our happiness and peace and we drive a wedge between us and God. Now, that’s bad enough! But sin gets even worse. Our sins don’t just affect us, they can even cause other people to do wrong. Sin always hurts more people than we know, even though that sin seems private. In truth, there is no such thing as a private sin!

This effect of sin, where our wrongdoing hurts other people and encourages them to sin, is called scandal. Scandal is a concept we don’t hear about too often unless we are speaking about some crazy celebrity behavior. But scandal is a very real consequence of sin and is something each and every person is obligated to avoid. Today’s gospel shows us how seriously God takes scandal, when Jesus says “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” A millstone was a large, heavy stone that was used to crush wheat grain into flour. Having one of these around your neck in the water would mean certain death with no hope of surviving. Our Lord tells us that it is better to have one of those around your neck than to be responsible for leading another person into sin. WOW!

Jesus goes on to say, in the same dramatic fashion, that whatever leads us to sin needs to be cut off, torn out, and cast away from us, no matter what the cost. Does he mean this literally? No! It’s called hyperbole where someone exaggerates to make point. Like when we say “I am dying of thirsty” or “So hungry, I could eat a horse.” However, Jesus is very clear that  he wants us to take sin seriously. He want us to avoid even the circumstances and persons that lead us into sin. Out of love for us and our eternal wellbeing he is warning us that we are accountable for the ways our example might lead others into sin or weaken their faith.

There is only one thing in the whole created world God hates and that is sin. As his children and friends, as the ones who love him, we are called to do everything in our power to avoid sin, even if it means incredible personal sacrifice. We are also required to think of others before we act, knowing that our example, our decisions could cause scandal and make it easier for them to do wrong. No sacrifice is too big if it protects us from hurting God and our immortal souls. Jesus commands us to stop at nothing to protect our relationship with our Heavenly Father and to suffer anything rather than to lead someone into sin. This is a tall order! In fact, we can’t do it on our own. We desperately need God’s grace in prayer and the sacrament of reconciliation to help us avoid sin and the near occasions of sin. And when we fall, God’s healing gift is available to us if we are sorry and ask for forgiveness in this beautiful sacrament

So let us set our minds and hearts on getting to know God better, paying attention to the things he loves and doing the things that make him happy. And let us never forget the one thing he hates, trying always to avoid it in every possible way!

We Are Members of a Team (25th Sunday, Year B)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Last week I had the blessing of being able to enjoy 5 days of backpacking in West Yellowstone. It was so beautiful there: wild, quiet, remote, and mostly untouched by humans. It was deeply refreshing! But there was a cardinal rule laid down by our guide; no matter how experienced you were or how comfortable you might be on your own, you were part of a group. If one member was having a hard time, we all slowed down. If you needed to sneak off to the bathroom, you let someone else know. And even if you just needed some new socks from your tent or wanted to go somewhere for some quiet reflection, you took your bear spray and let another person know where you would be. In short, we were responsible for each other’s safety and well-being; it was not every person for themselves.

One place where this team approach often gets thrown out is Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. I thought I wanted to take on Everest after reading Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air 10 years ago. Then I learned it would cost around $100,000 for a guide and equipment. The government of Nepal, where Everest is located, also requires a special course in trekking along with paying $11,000 for a permit to make the climb. Only after all this, could one fly to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and hike ten days to the Everest Base camp. Climbers have to do this in May because there are only a few weeks between the worst of the winter storms and the summer monsoons. Over the years, at least 300 climbers pursuing the peak have died from altitude sickness, running out of oxygen, falls, avalanches, sudden storms, heart attacks, frostbite, snow blindness, and hypothermia. If you make the dash to the summit, you still have to face the equally dangerous descent. Because of the financial and personal costs involved with Everest, people tend to think of themselves rather than others when the summit is on the line.

            These details are necessary to get the full impact of a story involving a guide named Dan Mazur. Early one morning in 2006, Mazur was leading two well-paying clients up Mount Everest. They were only two hours from the summit, with just another 835 feet to go. Then they saw bright colored fabric in the distance.  At first they thought it was a tent, but soon realized that it was an abandoned climber named Lincoln Hall. Hall had made it to the top, but during the descent he became incapacitated from oxygen deprivation. His two Sherpa guides tried to help him, but eventually left to save themselves. When they arrived to safety, they declared that Hall was dead. But Hall wasn't dead. Somehow, he had managed to survive the night without gloves, jacket, sleeping bag, oxygen or food. Hall was hallucinating when Mazur approached him. Mazur and the others spent the next four hours pulling him away from the slopes, giving him bottled oxygen, food and liquids. While they were working hard to save him, two climbers passed them on the way to the summit. Mazur asked them to help but they said they didn't speak English. They certainly weren’t the first to behave this way. Only eleven days earlier, another climber died 1,000 feet into his descent. Dozens of people walked right past him, unwilling to risk failing reaching the top. Mazur radioed the base camp for help and eventually Sherpas made it to them. They helped save Hall, but by that time Mazur and his clients were too exhausted to attempt the peak themselves. Their supplies were depleted and they would not get another chance at the summit. They came home without completing the climb and Mazur did not receive his full commission. But he said he had no regrets. "You can always go back to the summit, but you only have one life to live. If I had left that man to die, that would have been on my mind for the rest of my life.  How could I live like that?"

 

            So, who was the greatest on the mountain? Was it the climbers who supposedly didn’t understand English and made it to the top? Or the others who walked past the dying climber two weeks before? Or was it Dan Mazur and the people with him who spent a great deal of money, time and energy and ended up finding the moral summit 835 feet below the pinnacle of Everest? Their money, time, and effort were not wasted.  They had conquered Everest without reaching the peak. Dan Mazur knew what greatness was. He and those with him put aside their own dreams of conquering Everest for the sake of a fellow climber. 

It is hard to be part of a team. Especially for those of us who are type-A, driven, and independent. I often fall into the attitude of “stay out of my way and I will stay out of yours.” As ghastly as the behavior of many Everest climbers was, we often act in some of the same ways. How often do we pass by those who are hurting physically, emotionally, mentally, or financially? We justify our indifference because we think it’s not my problem. I don’t want to get involved, I don’t have time, someone else will take care of them, or they put themselves in that situation. I know I can be blinded by my own schedule and timelines, becoming a slave to them rather than seeing a perceived interruption as an invitation to serve and help another person. St. James has nothing but harsh words for Christians who are jealous and selfish with their resources rather than using them wisely for the relief of others. How often do we fall into that category? Always wanting more and better things? Excusing ourselves from helping and giving until we reach an imaginary place where we have no more needs and plenty for ourselves? 

 

          Jesus calls us to set aside our own desires for the sake of others. He calls us to seek the greatness of humble generosity, to "rank first" among our families, friends and communities by taking on the spirit and role of servants. Every day, you and I are called to consider others before ourselves. The needs of children, the sick, the poor, the elderly, the foreigner, the homeless … all call us away from ourselves. Every day we have to resist the temptation to selfishness, the temptation to put ourselves before others. Every day we are called to greatness by conquering a mountain much more difficult than Everest. We have to conquer ourselves. And it begins in little things with our families and friends, at home and at work. 

  

            The goal of our lives is union with God. But that union is not achieved apart from others. We are called to help others come to Jesus. We ourselves came to know him through the witness and charity of someone else. The strength to achieve this union comes from Jesus Christ on the cross and working together as a team. He made Himself weak so we could be strong. We pray today for this strength, the strength to reach out to others in charity, the strength to ascend the Mountain of God and to never ignore those in need we meet along the way. 

Do You Believe in Miracles? (23rd Sunday, Year B)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

Few things capture the Christian imagination like Jesus’ miracles. It’s difficult not to wonder what it must have been like to see someone go from being sick, possessed by evil spirits, or even dead, to suddenly and completely restored to health. Perhaps some of us are a little cynical and try to reduce each of these healing moments to merely natural or medical explanations. Others, believe them but don’t think they happen anymore; the wonders of Jesus and the power they display were a sort spiritual one-hit wonder that the rest of us missed out on because we weren’t around at that time. A few still see miracles happening all around them large and small. So what is the best way to view these incredible feats of Jesus? What was their purpose? Was it to convince people that he was the Messiah? Was it to end all suffering in the world? If so, then they failed on both accounts! Even as Jesus was working his miracles, there was confusion among the crowds and his followers about what they meant and why He was doing them. 

In our time, many Christians tend to think that the healing of people was the main goal in Jesus’ life. But after this Sunday there are only four more healings by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Why? In the first seven chapters, he had worked so many cures that people were mobbing him.

And that was the trouble. He was in danger of becoming famous as a mere wonder-worker. People were confusing the signs of his power as the purpose of his life on earth. Because of this, they were besieging him at every stop, thinking that he would solve all their earthly problems. He was in danger of being regarded as a little more than a medicine man, wise teacher, and clever fixer.

But would any of these roles properly reveal God’s love for the world and its people? Jesus thought not. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus stopped the miracles and began a new phase of his mission. He turned his face toward Jerusalem…and towards the cross.

This change of direction will come next week. Suddenly and without warning Jesus will say to the disciples, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise”. What more shocking statement could this supposedly invincible leader and healer make to them? How could death go together with healing?

I will never forget how hard my family prayed when my sister Theresa was born. Both she and my mom faced life-threatening issues. It seemed inconceivable that the God of love and healing would not answer our prayers! Praise God, my mom pulled through but my sister died after just one day. We were all heartbroken and shaken to our core. Yet in the midst of our tragic loss we also discovered that that God had been manifested in Theresa’s short life and resulting death. In the time she was with us, we had received a love from God and others we had never experienced and seen the power of our faith in a way it had never been shown before. Even in the sadness, we felt God’s presence and care; he was closer in some of those horrible days than I have have ever felt before or since. Theresa was baptized and confirmed before she died which provided incredible comfort to us all. Our sorrow was immersed in love and Theresa was safe in God’s arms. Through it all God’s intimate presence was enough, more than enough actually, through the love and kindness of friends, family, clergy, and so many others. 

So how does this tie back to the miracles of Jesus? Every human person is created to be loved by God, not simply to have good health, riches, success, or a comfortable existence. True life consists of love given and received with God and with others, rather than having a life where things always go our way or we somehow avoid sadness and loss. There is a greater good than these earthly things and that ultimate good is a relationship with the God who made us, who loves us and who stops at nothing to save us. Even when we feel far from God, he is never far from us and often in these darkest times, we end up seeing how close he really is. Such an intimate relationship sends us out to help give God’s love to the world. Miracle cures help for a while, but pretty soon suffering and death have to be faced and accepted as part of this wounded world. A world without sickness and death has not yet arrived and can only be enjoyed in the perfect place we call heaven. Sometimes when we pray for miracles, we do not realize that we are asking God to give us something that cannot be found here and now. 

For this reason, Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our anguish, our rejections, and in that inevitable moment which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: death. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet temporary, God gives us companionship during each instant of our life if we are willing to see it. The miracles of Jesus, the miracles which continue even now, are awesome and good, they strengthen our faith and deepen our hope, but they only point to a time and place that hasn’t yet arrived. Until all souls are united in perfect friendship with God, there will continue to be times when we pray for healing, for sparing, and so many other things yet those prayers are not granted in the way we wish. That is not God ignoring us or our pain; but rather mysteriously allowing it for reasons we may not understand until we stand before Him. One thing we can say with confidence: God’s decision whether or not to work miracles for specific things will always be based on what will ultimately lead us back to him. If they would somehow lead us away or distract, then he will point towards the cross, just like he will soon do in Mark’s gospel! 

This Sunday at Mass, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved in our lives and always near us? Do we love God for who he is or only for what he might do for us? Do we let his love flow into us and through us to others, or must it just fight its way through? Is our ultimate happiness bound up in passing things like health, comfort, riches, and earthly life? At the first sign of suffering, death and loss, do we blame God and abandon him? 

It’s been 24 years since my sister died and there are still many things I do not understand about her loss. But even with that mystery and many unanswered questions, I know without a doubt that God was with her, with me, and with my family. Perhaps our prayer today is simple, especially if we are in a time of loss, isolation, or confusion, “Jesus, help us to hear you, however you want to speak, as the deaf man finally could.” Amen.

God is Revealed through the Law (22nd Sunday, Year B)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

I was reading an article the other day that estimated revenue from video games in the US to be about 65 billion dollars this year. That is an incredible amount of money and as many of you know better than I, games today are remarkably realistic and complicated. But video games started humble and simple. The first one was released in 1972. It was named Pong and the arcade version was the size of a refrigerator. Pong was a simple game by today’s standards; two people trying to keep a ball inbounds on their side while attempting to make the ball go out on their opponent’s end. This was accomplished by moving a small bar up and down on the screen to hit the ball, which never stopped moving. This game was a huge hit and it paved the way for many other video games, which slowly became more sophisticated. For example, eight years later, Pac-Man was released, which was far more advanced than Pong. Then came Nintendo and Mario Brothers, Sega and Sonic the hedgehog, Playstation and Gran Turismo, which led to the games we see now, like Fortnite which cause children and adults to disappear for hours on end because of how immersive they are. It’s really pretty amazing that over the past 50 years, games have evolved from Pong, where you could only move up and down in two dimensions to now where the characters can move up, down, left, right, lean, crawl, jump run, walk and interact, all in a 3-d environment that changes constantly based on the gamer’s choices.

This transformation didn’t happen overnight. It happened little by little, layer by layer as programmers came to a greater understanding of how to write code and computers and game consoles were capable of handling more advanced concepts. So what’s the point of this obscure history lesson? Well, just as gaming has grown in its complexity and depth, so too has our understanding of the moral law as laid out in the readings today. Notice how humanity has slowly, with God’s help, come to a rich and deep understanding of the law God placed on our hearts. 

Think back to the very first commandment God gave the human race. It was so simple, so basic, just like that first video game! He said, “you are free to eat of whatever tree you like, just stay away from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This one law, this one commandment our first parents could not obey. But God did not give up on us nor did he refuse to teach our stubborn souls. As time went on and humanity grew in its knowledge of right and wrong and of God himself, God began to reveal more of the law to his people. In the first reading, He speaks through Moses as he promises life to those who commit themselves to keeping his commandments. The prophet says, “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe, that you may live. In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations”

This is where God gives the ten commandments to his people and here, the law gets a little more detailed. God wants them to know the law because it will help them to know him. The way they show their love for God is to keep the laws he has given them. Each law has a purpose, not a single one is arbitrary or frivolous. If you read the Old Testament, you will see this pattern emerging: God reveals himself through the Law and he does this little by little, layer by layer. 

In the second reading from St. James, another dimension of God’s law is manifested. St. James advises us, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” Here we are encouraged to examine our hearts and see how well we actually do God’s law, taught to us in his holy Word. It is not enough to simply know it or hear it. It has to be practiced in our daily actions and become part of who we are as his followers. What we believe and how we act need to be one and the same with the Word of God. If they are not, we aren’t truly living his law and we won’t be found worthy of eternal life.

These are the first two parts of God’s law: learning or knowing it and then actually doing it. But there is one more dimension, laid out for us in the gospel. Jesus and his disciples are being observed by the scribes and pharisees while they eat. This group complains because they see some of the apostles neglecting the ceremonial washing of hands before they begin their meal. The scribes and pharisees knew God’s law and technically they followed it perfectly, down to the little traditions like washing ones hands. But they ignored the third and most important dimension of the law: they didn’t embrace the Law in their hearts and they refused to go any deeper than the appearance of being righteous. This is why Jesus condemns them and their hypocrisy. They know and follow the Law for other people to see and admire but their hearts are not in the right place. On the outside they appear spotless and virtuous but on the inside they are proud, arrogant, and sinful. When they observe the laws of God, they honor him with their lips but have all sorts of evil designs in their heart. They are missing this 3^rd dimension of God’s law; knowledge and doing are not enough.

This should make us pause and ask ourselves about our own intentions when it comes to the Law of God. Do we have all three layers working in our own lives? Do we truly know the moral law as it has been handed down to us through Scripture and the traditions of the Catholic Church? If we know these teachings, which are a revelation of who God is, do we also practice them in the way we think, speak, and act? Do we trust that God gave us commandments to help us get to heaven? Or do we think of them as suggestions or arbitrary laws God imposes upon us? Finally, in knowing and doing the Law of God, do we embrace it with our whole heart, out of love for our creator? Do we see our obedience to the law as a way to worship him? Or, do we keep the laws so that we can compare ourselves to others and feel self-righteous? Perhaps we do what is right for others to see while harboring evil in our hearts? 

As Christians, we are living in the most advanced stage of the of the moral law; we are not playing pong when it comes to knowing and following the Law! As disciples of Christ, we must incorporate all three aspects into the way we live. We cannot separate any of them from who we are or we risk becoming hypocrites. Knowing, doing, and loving God’s law will enrich our lives and deepen our understanding of God himself. May we find the Law to be life-giving and may it bring us closer to God and neighbor every time we observe it.  

Being in Communion requires Sacrifice (21st Sunday, Year B)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

We’ve been blessed over the past few weeks to have an opportunity to do some in-depth reflection on the gift of the Eucharist Jesus left to His Church. During this time, we’ve pondered the role of reverence when we are at Mass, how the Eucharist nourishes our soul as spiritual food and drink, and marveled at the fact that is it actually Jesus’ Body and Blood, not just a symbol. In this final week of praying with the 6th chapter of John’s gospel, we have a chance to consider the Eucharist by another name we sometimes use: Holy Communion. We all know what “holy” means but what about “communion”? It is the same root for the word community and it embodies a deep connection and sharing important things in common. By its very nature, communion requires sacrifice, collaboration, and compromise. I cannot be in communion with another person if everything is all about me and what I want. Communion requires me to go outside of myself, to place others first, and begin thinking in terms of “we” instead of “me”.

Humans are made for communion because our God is a perfect unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and he made us in his image. Belonging to and building a community leads to a level of fulfillment, achievement, and flourishing that simply cannot be accomplished when we do things alone. But just because communion is good for us, doesn’t mean that it happens on its own. There comes a moment for every group, whether that be two people or an entire country, when they have to make a decision: Are they going to hang together or each go their separate ways? That happened, for example, in the history of our nation. After we won the War of Independence, we were still not a nation. We had only gone from being thirteen colonies to being thirteen states. Representatives of the states met in Philadelphia to determine what kind of union they would have. They wanted things like common defense and open commerce, but - at the same time - each state guarded its own rights and priorities. Finally a young man named James Madison stood up and stated the obvious: You cannot form a nation based on each one defending their own turf; you have to make some sacrifices to work together. Well, by a fairly small margin, the delegates accepted Madison's proposal - and instead of being thirteen states we became the United States. It was a defining moment for our country.

Today’s readings are all about forming communion with God and with each other. In the first reading, Joshua gathers the Chosen people and demands they make a choice concerning who or what they will serve. Will it be the one, true God or the gods of other nations? Are they willing to give up their petty arguments, differences, and personal idols? He says that awesome line, “decide today whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” St. Paul says something similar about communion as it relates to marriage. It’s impossible to form healthy, happy, holy marriages if husbands and wives are focused on jealously guarding their own rights and always trying to get their own way. St. Paul uses the word “subordinate”, which has plenty of negative connotation for us. But let’s not let that word ruin the wisdom being presented. St. Paul is reminding the Ephesians and us that in order to achieve the communion that exists between Christ and his Church, husbands and wives each have to sacrifice something and give up some of their personal prerogatives. When they do, they are no longer simply two people living together. Instead, they become a living sign, a sacrament of God’s love and unity to the world.

In the Gospel, we see the disciples facing a moment of decision for communion. After Jesus announced that his flesh was the new bread from heaven and we must feed on him to have life, most people left him. Only the Twelve remained. Jesus did not soften or explain away his words. Rather, he asked them: Will you also leave me? Thankfully, the apostles sacrificed their preconceived notions of what the Messiah might look like and chose to remain with Jesus. They learned to set aside their doubts, their worldly ambitions and expectations, and entered into communion with the Son of God. That Communion would take years to mature but little by little the first followers of Jesus were transformed by their union with Him in the Eucharist.

We must understand that being in communion with Jesus is not like belonging to a political party or a social club where take the parts we like or agree with and leave the rest. We do not pick and choose the teachings of Christ we will follow and which ones we will ignore. Once we do that, we are creating our own god, our own religion and substituting human wisdom in place of God’s. Being in communion with Christ means letting go of leading and teaching ourselves and allowing Jesus to fill that role in our lives.  

There is no doubt that Jesus taught things which challenge and make us uncomfortable. The same was true 2000 years ago when he delivered this teaching on the Eucharist. The question is not whether we like everything he said. The real question is whether we accept Jesus and are willing to do our part to be in communion with him and his teachings. Hopefully we can be like St. Peter who spoke for the other apostles. Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Those words marked a defining moment. This is when the apostles stopped being a collection of individuals, each trying to get their own way. They became a Church. The Church.

Every time we come forward to receive the Eucharist, we say ‘Amen” which is us saying “I’m all in; my thoughts, my words, my actions, my faith and my conduct are fully united with the Gospel and the teachings of Christ”. Every time we receive Holy Communion, we are proclaiming that we want to belong completely to Jesus and His Church. That’s why we ask non-Catholics not to receive Communion at Mass; not because they are somehow bad or less but because there isn’t yet full unity there. It’s why, if there’s some central teaching of the Church that we’re not following (whether it concerns doctrine or morals) we ought not receive the Eucharist until that lack of communion is resolved. It’s also why, if we have serious sin on our souls, we ought not receive Jesus Body and Blood until that sin has been wiped away in Confession. Otherwise, our “Amen” isn’t really “all in” and receiving the Eucharist unworthily actually does us more harm than good. We should always be on guard against trying to conform the Eucharist to our lifestyles and beliefs rather than shaping our lives and beliefs to the Eucharist. 

The great news is that we are made and loved by a God who never stops trying to be one with us. Even when we struggle with some teaching or sin, Jesus offers the sacraments to cleanse us and his Church to guide us. Let’s ask for the grace to desire communion with God more than anything else in the world. Let’s not be afraid of the sacrifices such a relationship demands and take care to receive the Eucharist in a worthy manner each and every time. May our receiving Holy Communion at this altar make us one in every way with Jesus and his Church!

I'm in Love...(Solemnity of the Assumption, 2021)

 To listen to this homily, click here.

Sometimes my friends and family give me trouble for not being more emotive. Some parishioners have asked me to be more emotional and dramatic in my homilies. It’s not that I lack emotions or animation; I really do have them! But I tend to keep them contained and under control. I typically blame it on the considerable German heritage I come from but I realize being stoic is not always a strength. In talking to an older priest about this struggle, he told me how he had also tried to overcome it in his first assignment. His first pastor was Italian and emotions were no trouble at all. This priest, whom we will name Fr. Mario said, “try opening with some dramatic statement to get people's attention. “Like what?” asked the other priest. “Well, when you preach about the Blessed Virgin Mary, you could say, I am in love with a beautiful woman.' Then pause for effect and say, 'She is...my mother.”

The young priest thought it was worth a try so in his next homily he announced, "I am in love with a beautiful woman." The congregation fell silent. He had their attention and he paused to let the bold statement sink in. It felt pretty good. Then he went completely blank. He couldn't think of what came next so he repeated, "I am love with a beautiful woman... She is... She is... She is...Fr. Mario’s mother!”

This Sunday I do want to say, "I am in love with a beautiful woman." And hopefully I’m not alone! I am willing to talk about my feelings and even use that scary four letter word to describe how I feel about her. She is easy to love because of her kindness, her patience, and her goodness. She has always been there for me even when I have wandered from her loving gaze. She is gentle, strong and untouched by any of the viciousness that so often finds its way into our actions. She is resplendent in her beauty, and described in our first reading as a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. This woman who captivates the hearts of so many is no ordinary woman. She is the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

    Many people believe that devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is something best suited to priests, nuns, and old ladies. But if we understand the incredible life she lived and the irreplaceable role she played in our salvation, then we realize that each and every one of us should love her, even if we don’t like to talk about our feelings! Today we remember her life in a very special way as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption, a holy day of obligation that often gets ignored when it falls during the week. 

    But what is the Assumption? And why in the world should this feast of Mary matter to us, especially when we are busy getting ready to start another school year and sending kids off to college? Well first of all, the Assumption is the event where we believe Mary was taken body and soul into heaven when her time here on earth came to an end. We believe she is now in heaven, body and soul, unlike the saints whose souls are in heaven but will have to wait until the end of the world to be reunited with their bodies. This belief of the Assumption was declared official Church teaching in 1950 by Pope Pius XII but it was held as true by tradition long before, since the earliest times of the Church.

    So why is this feast of the Assumption so important that the Catholic Church around the world celebrates it, each and every year? Why should we care about the Assumption? The answer is beautifully presented to us today in the preface that the priest says right before the Holy, Holy, Holy. The prayer explains: 

    “Today the virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of the Church coming to perfection, and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people; rightly you would not allow her to see the corruption of the tomb since from her own body she marvelously brought forth your incarnate Son, the Author of all life.”

That is the reason the feast of the Assumption is so important, or at least should be important to you and me, as followers of Christ. Mary is the sign, the living proof of what God intends to give us in heaven. Her goodness, her happiness, her living forever now with her Son and her Lord is what we were all created for. And if we stay true to Christ, if we keep his commandments and obey his will, just as Mary did, we too will be taken up to heaven on the last day to live and rejoice with him forever. What God did for Mary today, he desires to do for each and every one of us. Even though we have to fight with sin and experience death, Mary’s Assumption reminds us that our final destination is meant to be Everlasting life and love with the God who created us.

    This is wonderful news for us and a source of hope when we are enduring the various trials and setbacks that are a part of life here on earth. We can look to Mary’s Assumption the next time we are sick, suffering, persecuted, or upset and remember that there is something better waiting for us in heaven. And we can take comfort knowing that Mary experienced so many of those same trials and tribulations as a fellow human being and with God’s grace she was victorious. And as she waits for us to join her in heaven, she prays for us and intercedes for us before God, making sure that we have all the graces that we need. 

    So, no matter who you are and whether or not you like talking about your feelings, I hope that you join me today in praising the Blessed Virgin Mary and thanking God for the hope and strength that she gives us. Let her feast of the Assumption give you hope in the various sorrows and difficulties of life, knowing that God wishes to share her blessings with us in the life to come.