September 21, 2014—Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092114.cfm

Called to be a Worker in the Vineyard

For to me life is Christ, and death is gain (Phil 1:21).  With St. Paul, there is no sense of comfortable Christianity, no “Health & Wealth Gospel” or “Prosperity Gospel.”  For St. Paul, the Christian faith — the living of the “good news” — is not a Sunday religion or something that is merely social like getting together for a community meal.  Faith in Jesus Christ changes everything — so much so that St. Paul writes, I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20).  Being a Christian entails a radical transformation, out of my comfort zone and out of doing just what I want so that I can transform the world through my belief, my hope, and my life in Jesus Christ.

In the gospel for this Sunday (Mt 20:1-16a), Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a landowner who saw people standing idle in the marketplace.  We are those who stand about idle in the marketplace.  All of us, in some way, are content with lukewarmness, some form of complacency, some desire to just “stand around” in our faith.  Maybe our tepidity is not wanting to volunteer our time at church (or at all); maybe we are apathetic toward the rights of the unborn (for those who have no voice) because abortion is such a controversial issue; maybe our lukewarmness is that we habitually missSunday Mass for insufficient reasons.  Lukewarmness is always a temptation and easy to slip into (even for priests) and we must be aware of the consequences of such an attitude (see Rev 3:16).  Nevertheless, God (the landowner) is constantly inviting us to labor in His vineyard.  Even if we are late in life (more advanced in years), we can always respond to God’s invitation to labor in His vineyard.

Yes, spreading the gospel in the family and at work is tough, but our efforts do help to build up the kingdom of God in our little area.  Yes, standing up for the sanctity of unborn human life in the LifeChain and in other peaceful Pro-Life activism can get you dirty looks and curses, but lives of the innocent can be saved and mothers’ lives can be changed.  Yes, Sunday Mass can be inconvenient at times, especially when we have worked hard all week and just want to take it easy, but going to Mass anyway is a recognition that God is the giver of time and should be the aim of our hard work and even of our leisure.  Christ is not calling for sleepy, bored Christians.  Our parish cannot just be another sleepy, little church!  Christ is calling us to work for His kingdom here on earth.  And what does He promise?  Eternal life — not a place in the clouds sometime in the future — but now.  The “Landowner” does not wait to give us a daily wage, but He gives us our daily bread quintessentially in the Mass — Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  And as we leave our church this Sunday to accomplish such a mission, we must follow St. Paul’s instruction to conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil 1:27).

September 14, 2014—Feast of the Exultation of the Cross

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091414.cfm

To Be Most Like God

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross.  On the liturgical calendar, this feast of September 14th [and its readings] trump the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  (For those of you non-Catholics who read my write-up each week, don’t worry. . . Even practicing Catholics have a hard time figuring out the hierarchy of feasts and our set of Biblical readings called the “Lectionary.”)  The gospel reading we would normally hear this Sunday is a continuation of Matthew 18, a follow-up to the gospel we heard last Sunday on how to reprimand another for his or her sin — the art of “fraternal correction.”  Matthew 18:21-35 is about forgiveness and showing mercy.  Christ our Lord says to St. Peter that we are not only to forgive seven times, but seventy times seven — a number denoting limitless forgiveness and mercy.  To demonstrate the profundity of this teaching, Jesus gives the “Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.”  A king (symbolizing God the Father) forgives a 10,000 talent debt, that is, 20 years worth of wages, when his servant asks for mercy.  That servant represents each and every one of us [sinners].  But Jesus shows how ungrateful this servant is (and how we all can be) when the servant refuses to forgive someone in debt to him — just 100 denarii, that is, 100 days worth of wages — a much smaller debt than what the king had forgiven.  Jesus tells us we will be punished severely if we do not forgive our neighbors from our hearts.

The forgiveness of which our Lord is speaking is not just forgiving someone for leaving their dishes in the sink, or someone being late for an important date, or someone who pulled out in front of you on the road.  It is a call to an attitude of forgiveness, so that when we are hurt badly, we will be able to be generous in mercy — as generous as God is with us.  Without this attitude, how can we forgive a close friend who says something bad about us behind our back?  How can we forgive an unfaithful spouse, or a child abuser, or a notorious murderer on death row?  How can we forgive the terrorists who plotted and executed the attacks on the World Trade Center thirteen years ago?  It is important to highlight that forgiveness does not absolve responsibility; mercy does not negate the demand for justice.  However, forgiveness opens the path to charity and the hope for conversion of the wrongdoer.  It is a submission that ultimate justice is God’s — not ours.  If you are having trouble forgiving someone right now (or some people who have hurt you badly), think about the worst sin you have ever committed against God and remember how God has been merciful to you.  Then in your prayer, thank God once again for his limitless mercy and ask for his help in forgiving the person (or persons) who have hurt you.  Some wounds are so painful that we cannot forgive without God’s grace.  And remember:  When we forgive someone, especially someone who has sinned against us gravely, it is then that we are most like God.  Forgiveness is the most loving characteristic of God, and so when we are forgiving, we are most like God.

August 31, 2014—Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083114.cfm

Health and Wealth or the Cross?

There is a particularly attractive message preached on television on Sundays, and it is probably preached in some Christian communities near you.  The writer of the book, Prayer of Jabez (Multnomah Books, 2000), is also a proponent of this message.  And the message is this: “If you believe in God and if you trust in Him, He will shower down upon you abundant material blessings. . . God will pamper good Christians and they will never have to suffer.”  This message is called the “Health and Wealth Gospel” or the “Prosperity Gospel.”  It is not completely new, either.  John Calvin, one of the original Protestant “reformers” in the 16th Century, taught that “the Elect” (i.e., true Christians predestined by God) can be distinguished from others by their riches as signs of God’s favor.  Our response as Catholic Christians is simply a question:  Is the “Health and Wealth Gospel” Biblical?  Is it the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

In the gospel passage of this Sunday (Mt 16:21-27), St. Peter tries to stop Jesus from going to His Passion — from being crucified and killed for our sins.  And what is our Lord’s response?  “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mt 16:23).  This is shocking!  Jesus had just called Him the rock upon which He was to build His Church, and now He is calling Him Satan.  And why?  Because Simon Peter is not thinking as God does, but as men do.  Jesus goes on to teach: NOT that if you follow Him you will be rewarded with material blessings; NOT that you will be guaranteed good health; NOT even that you will “assured” of your salvation; but Christ teaches, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24).  So, what does this mean for us as?  First, we must deny ourselves.  We must abstain absolutely from sin, especially mortal sin.  This means, for example, taking seriously purity, holding our tongue lest we speak filthy things, and avoiding excessive eating and drinking.  St. Paul teaches in the second reading (Rom 12:1-2) that we must not conform ourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of our minds.  Second, we must joyfully take up our crosses.  Just because we are faithful Catholics does not mean we will not have crosses.  On the contrary, it means that we must embrace them when they come our way — and when we unite them to the Cross of the Lord through prayer — they are the means of our purification and sanctification.  Yet this is hard.  (As a priest, it so much easier to preach to my parishioners about taking up their crosses rather than actually taking up the crosses the Lord sends me in my life.)  Thirdly, we must follow the Lord — to healing, to teaching, to works of mercy, to Calvary.  Where do we find the strength to overcome our selfishness and sinfulness?  Where can we find the power to take up our crosses?  Mass, Confession and Adoration are the ways the saints show us.  The Mass is Calvary made present in the here and now, and yet at the holy altar, we encounter the Lord Jesus to be refreshed, strengthened, and enabled to take up our crosses and follow Him.  At the holy altar, St. Paul teaches we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, [our] spiritual worship (Rom 12:1).  During the Mass, there are many opportunities to think about your crosses and ask the Lord for help in carrying them.  Let us avoid willful distractions, boredom, and desire for entertainment; and let us ask for the Lord’s grace to follow Him wherever He leads us.