Today’s Gospel is very interesting compared with yesterday’s. Yesterday, Herod was trying to figure out who Jesus was; today Jesus is asking who people said he was. What is most interesting is that the answers both times are the same. The people advising Herod gave the same answers as the Twelve did today: John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the ancient prophets. The question is a good one and it’s worth asking and answering. Peter had the right idea, but didn’t fully understand it. It’s easy for us to know the right answer but not fully understand it too. Who is Jesus for us?
Category: Homilies
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Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time
You know, I think Herod was asking the right question. Sure, he was asking it for all the wrong reasons, but still, it is the right question. And that question is, “Who is Jesus?”
What Herod was hearing about Jesus is pretty much what the disciples told Jesus when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” Elijah, or one of the prophets, or maybe even John the Baptist. But Herod was the one who killed John so he knew that couldn’t be it, so who is he really? Herod kept trying to see him, and of course, he’d have more than ample opportunity soon enough, after Jesus is arrested.
So we have the question too. Oh, we know well enough – intellectually – who Jesus is, but we still have to answer that question in our hearts. Who is Jesus for us? We know he is not just some prophet, that he is not like anyone who lived before or after him. But have we lost the virtue of Herod? Have we stopped being intrigued by the question, have we lost our fascination with Jesus? Herod kept trying to see Jesus, and it’s the right instinct. We have to keep trying to see him too, whether that takes us to a rereading of the Gospels or to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or to contemplative prayer. Whatever the case, fascination with Jesus is the right way to go, and we have to let ourselves be intrigued by the question again. Who is Jesus for us?
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Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time
I am an over-packer. As hard as I try, I pretty much always pack way too much. So I always wondered why Jesus ordered the disciples to take nothing with them for the journey. No walking stick or second tunic or any kind of money. Well, I think there’s two reasons. The first is that this would bring the disciples closer to the people they were ministering to. But the second, and far more important, is that they might learn to trust God more. If they went everywhere with everything they wanted to take, they would never have need of anything, or anyone. But taking nothing with them, they are vulnerable and in need of just about everything. The question for us disciples then, is what do we need to take out of our travelling bags so that we might trust God more?
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St. Matthew, apostle and evangelist
How wonderful for us to celebrate the feast of St. Matthew. Because Matthew was qualified to be a disciple of Jesus in much the same way that we are qualified to be disciples of Jesus-which is to say, not at all. Matthew was a tax collector, working for the Roman occupation government. His task was to collect the tax from each citizen. Whatever he collected over and above the tax was his to keep. Now the Romans wouldn’t condone outright extortion, but let’s just say that they weren’t overly scrupulous about what their tax collectors were collecting, as long as they got paid the proper tax.
So Matthew’s reception among the Jews was quite like they might accept the plague. The Pharisees were quick to lump men like Matthew with sinners, and despised them as completely unworthy of God’s salvation. But Jesus had different ideas.
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”Which brings us back to us. How wonderful for us to celebrate the call of a man who was anything but worthy. Because he was called, we know that our own calls are authentic, unworthy as we may be. Just as the Matthew spread the Good News by the writing and preaching of the Gospel, so we are called to spread the Good News to everyone we know. Matthew’s call is a day of celebration for all of us sinners, who are nonetheless called to do great things for the Kingdom of God.
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Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time [B]
Nobody ever becomes rich and famous by being righteous. We may never forget who interrupted an awards show or a presidential press conference with an immature comment, but the most truly righteous people will hardly be remembered.
How many people even care about the idea of being righteous? The world is so often full of jealousy and selfish ambition. Indeed, we commend people who make good deals (for themselves, anyway), who get ahead (regardless of the cost), who get rich quick. These people are strong, self-assured, ambitious, and clever. Sometimes they are even entertaining. But would we ever call them righteous? Not very often, I think.
So our idea of who is a person worthy of our admiration needs to change a bit, I think. Jesus puts it very plainly in today’s Gospel: “If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” That, after all, was the way that he lived his life, and the way that he expected his disciples to live as well. This is the Jesus who said goodbye to his disciples by feeding them with his own body and blood and washing their feet. He is the one who cured the sick and preached the word no matter what day it was, Sabbath or not.Saint James in the second reading urges us all to be truly wise, not covetous and envious and full of hate. He urges us toward the wisdom of the righteous one, the one who has the wisdom from above, who is “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”
The problem is, though, that the righteous one doesn’t always live a stress-free life. Nice guys, as the proverb goes, tend to finish last. And so, as our first reading tells us, the just one is often seen as an obnoxious irritant to those who do not see with wisdom from above. And so they set out to knock the just one down a peg or two: “With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test,” they say, “that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.”
Jesus knows that just this kind of treatment is in store for him, and he discusses it with the Twelve as they walk along, out of the way of the crowds, so that he might better teach them what is to come. “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.” But the Twelve, as usual, miss the point. And rather than ask the Teacher what he means, instead they engage in a frivolous argument about who among them is the greatest.
In some ways, it’s the classic schoolyard disagreement. “My dad can beat up your dad.” Or, even better, maybe it’s the classic sibling rivalry: “Mom likes me best.” These things are sort of understandable among children. Children growing up need to know where they fit in to the structure of society, so there are a lot of comparisons going on all the time. But when that kind of argument begins to take place among adults, it’s not at all charming.
Jesus says that the way a person becomes first among us is that he or she gives everything, empties himself, becomes the last of all and the servant of all. This is a spiritual principle called kenosis or “self-emptying” that calls the Christian disciple to go deep into himself or herself and to give up all of the back-biting, ambitious attitudes that come so naturally to us fallen people, and instead give everything they have and are for others. This is righteousness, and it comes at a great cost. This is our calling as followers of the Lord.
We have to realize that our salvation will only come about by pouring out our lives for our brothers and sisters. We may think we can become number one by looking out for number one only. We may think we can get ahead by tending to our own interests first and foremost. But Jesus tells us today that quite the opposite is true. To become number one, to really get ahead, we must serve all of our brothers and sisters. We must lay down our lives in every way possible and raise up others whenever we see them down. Getting this right, becoming truly righteous, will involve us tending to the needs of others first and foremost, knowing that God will take care of the just one.
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Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Today’s readings are a kind of blueprint for the life of the disciple. We see that those who surrounded Jesus as his core group were but a few selected people. We have the Twelve, of course, but also some women. Common to all of them is that nowadays we would probably not see any of them as qualified for the job of being in the Savior’s inner circle. The Twelve themselves were a ragtag bunch, tradesmen, fishermen, tax collectors – none of them were even particularly distinguished in their chosen careers. It is said that the only one of them who was distinguished and could possibly have been called qualified was Judas Iscariot, and we all know what became of him.
The women mentioned were similarly unqualified. The Gospel says that they had all been cured either of evil spirits or infirmities. But they also provided for the ministry out of their means. So it’s a humble group that surrounds Jesus, and apparently, that was fine with him. He came, after all, to save those who needed saving, not those who had no use for a Savior.
Paul tells Timothy that those who would be disciples must “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” They must “Compete well for the faith” and thus “Lay hold of eternal life.” Jesus chooses anyone he wants; not merely those who are outstanding in qualifications. Blessed indeed are those who are poor in Spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”
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Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Simon the Pharisee had committed a grave error in hospitality, and a serious error in judgment. In those days, when a guest came to your home, you made sure to provide water for him or her to wash their feet, because the journey on foot was often long and hot and dirty. But Simon had done no such thing for Jesus, because his intentions were not hospitable, but rather he intended to confront Jesus on some point of the Law. He judged the woman to be a sinner, and reckoned Jesus guilty of sin by association. But Jesus is about forgiveness. He didn’t care who the woman was, he just knew she had need of mercy. Her act of love and hospitality, her posture of humility, her sorrow for her sin, all of these made it possible for Jesus to heal her. But the one who doesn’t think he is in need of healing can never be healed.
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Ss. Cornelius and Cyprian
St. Cornelius was ordained as the Bishop of Rome in 251. The Bishop of Rome is what we now call the Pope, so you can see the significance of his position. His major contribution was to defend the faith against the Novatian schismatics, a group who denied the readmission of those who had lapsed in the faith by being made to perform a ritual sacrifice to pagan gods, under the threat of death by the Roman Emperor. St. Cyprian was a brother bishop who helped him in this struggle. Both men were subsequently martyred for the faith. Cornelius died in exile in 253, and Cyprian was beheaded in 258.
The focus of both men was to preserve church unity during a time when there was much oppression against the church. Cyprian wrote to Cornelius, “Dearest brother, bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle (that is, St. Paul) praised in your community. He foresaw in the spirit the praise your courage deserves and the strength that could not be broken; he was heralding the future when he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge to the sons. Your unity, your strength have become shining examples of these virtues to the rest of the brethren.”
The unity of the Church is one of the four marks of the Church, along with holy, catholic and apostolic. So preserving our unity should be one of our primary duties. That’s a challenge to us in these days of everyone wanting to do their own religious thing and following their own spiritual path. This was not how Christ intended it to be. What will our own efforts at unity look like today?
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Our Lady of Sorrows
Today’s readings: Hebrews 5:7-9; Psalm 31; John 19:25-27
Stabat Mater (Sequence)When I was growing up, I saw statues and pictures of Mary in our house and in the houses of my grandparents. It was hard to relate to her, because she always seemed so radiant, distant, and glorified. And there is truth to the fact that Mary, because of her many gifts, transcends our human nature in some ways. But even then, she only portrays what we will one day experience.
I have come to relate to Mary much more as I have grown. I know that she experienced all of the joys and sorrows we do: frustration, fear, love, worry, and especially what we celebrate today, sorrow. She was the one who rejoiced at the birth of her son and took pride in what he became as he grew. But she also worried about him as his ministry brought him to confrontation with the religious leaders, and she wept at the foot of the Cross.
The Sequence today sings of her sadness:
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.And so today, and any day when we experience sorrow, we know that we have an advocate in Mary, who experienced our sorrows, but was raised up beyond them in the joy of the Resurrection.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
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The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Theologian Robert Barron tells about an interreligious dialogue between Catholics and Buddhists. At one point, one of the Buddhists said to him, “Why is that obscene image on every wall in your buildings?” He was, of course, referring to the Cross. The Buddhist explained that it would be considered a mockery in his religion to venerate the very thing that killed their leader. The truth is, of course, that it is obscene. It is strange, and Barron wrote a whole book about it called The Strangest Way.
And we all must have thought about this at one time or another. Why is it that God could only accomplish the salvation of the world through the horrible, brutal, and lonely death of his Son? That question goes right to the root of our faith. We know that we had been alienated from God, separated by a vast chasm of sin and death. But into this obscene world, Jesus becomes incarnate; he is born right into the midst of all that sin and death. He walks among us, and goes through all of the sorrows and pains of life and death right with along with us. If sin and death have been the obscenities that have kept us from God, then God was going to use those very things to bring us back. Jesus comes into our world and dies our death because God wants us to know that there is no place we can go, no experience we can ever have that is outside of God’s reach.
Today’s feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, also called the Triumph of the Cross, was celebrated very early in the Church’s history. In the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman. The cross immediately became an object of veneration.
About this great feast, St. Andrew of Crete wrote: “Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.”
Because of the Cross, all of our sadness has been overcome. Disease, pain, death, and sin – none of these have ultimate power over us. Just as Jesus suffered on that Cross, so we too may have to suffer in the trials that this life brings us. But Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us, a place where there will be no more sadness, death or pain, a place where we can live in the radiant light of God for all eternity. Because of the Cross, we have hope, a hope that can never be taken away.
The Cross is indeed a very strange way to save the world, but the triumph that came into the world through the One who suffered on the cross is immeasurable. As our Gospel reminds us today, all of this happened because God so loved the world.
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
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