Homily for Wednesday, 5 July 2017– Ferial

Wednesday of the 13th week in Ordinary Time

Optional Memorials of St. Anthony Zaccaria and St. Elizabeth of Portugal

Readings of the day: Genesis 21:5, 8-20a; Psalm 34:7-8, 10-11, 12-13; Matthew 8:28-34

“Which of you desires life, and takes delight in prosperous days”? This question is asked in the last verse of our Responsorial Psalm today. Unless somebody is truly not of sound mind, who would not desire life and prosperity, both for him or herself and for one’s nation?

Yesterday we celebrated across this nation a lovely Fourth of July, Independence Day. We have celebrated our nation’s deep desire for life and prosperity. And our first reading today, from Genesis is, at its heart, a story of desire for life and prosperity. Prior to the events of today’s reading, God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of “a great nation”; of descendants to number as the stars. After a long wait—Abraham is already one hundred years old by the time “Isaac [is] born to him”— Abraham finally has a son, Isaac, with his wife Sarah. The problem is that Abraham had also had a son, Ishmael, with the slave Hagar. Could we not imagine that, like Sarah for Isaac, Hagar would have had great dreams for Ishmael: Dreams of “a great nation” of her and his family lineage; dreams of life and prosperity?

But those dreams of Hagar for Ishmael seem to become all but crushed as Hagar is banished through the jealousy of Sarah. Then again, we may ask, why does God not intervene on Hagar’s behalf here? Why does God not defend Hagar and Ishmael against this act of injustice by Sarah against them? If we are troubled by this question, we are not alone. Abraham, Genesis says, “was greatly distressed, especially on account of his son Ishmael.” Instead of defending Hagar and Ishmael, though, God says to Abraham, “Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you.” Why does God seem to go along and even encourage this injustice of sending Hagar and Ishmael away? Did God not know that Hagar’s and Ishmael’s water supply would quickly run out under the desert heat, putting Ishmael’s life in danger? Of course, God finally intervenes on Hagar’s and Ishmael’s behalf, giving them water, but only when Ishmael is near death from thirst.

Yet almost hidden in the middle of this reading from Genesis is God’s reassurance to Abraham that, as he had promised of Isaac, God “will make a great nation of [Ishmael] also.” God’s justice, it would seem is not always our justice. Here, though, God’s way of assuring justice for Hagar and Ishmael, that Ishmael and Isaac both will give rise to great nations because they are both Abraham’s sons, seems simply bizarre.

Might God’s promise to Hagar and Ishmael, though, be an invitation to us? We rightly celebrate this “great nation”; these United States of America. We, like the Psalmist, desire “life and [take] delight in prosperous days.” But do peoples of other nations not also desire “life and [take] delight in prosperous days”? The invitation to us is to aid peoples of other nations both abroad and those who seek refuge among us, as God came to the aid of Hagar and Ishmael thirsting in the desert, to realize most fully their God-given human dignity; their desire for life; for prosperity; for peace. May we not impede them in their pursuit of life; of prosperity; of peace, desires God has given peoples of other nations just as he has given us.

Homily for Thursday, 18 August 2016– Ferial

Thursday of the 20th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Ezekiel 36:23-38; Psalm 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19; Matthew 22:1-14

This homily was given at the chapel of Kateri House Women's Residence of St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Our Gospel reading today raises many questions for me: Why do the first slaves “invited to the wedding banquet” of the king decline the king’s invitation? Why do they not simply decline politely, but instead “make light of” the invitation, while some go so far as to mistreat and kill the king’s other slaves? Why is the king so harsh toward the unfortunate man who shows up at the wedding banquet without his “wedding robe,” casting this man “into the outer darkness, where there [is] weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

These questions are difficult to answer with only the information that Matthew’s Gospel gives us. Maybe the first slaves thought their master, the king, to be harsh, and so they had planned a way of opting out of attending his wedding banquet. And maybe they mistreated his other slaves out of added spite. The king’s slaves would seem to have been right about his harshness and short temper, if the king’s treatment of the man without a wedding robe is any indication of this.

Then again, maybe we are asking the wrong questions if we are wondering why the slaves behaved the way they did or why the king in Jesus’ parable is so harsh. After all, the king is meant to be understood as God. And God would not be unduly harsh toward his people, would he? Perhaps we interpret God incorrectly as harsh for destroying the slaves and their city after they had mistreated and killed other slaves. Perhaps God, the king, has reason to cast the man without his wedding robe “into the outer darkness, where there [is] weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

But maybe we are being invited to focus less on the apparently harsh actions of God; of the king, and more on our own choices before God and one another. Now, I am in favour of the belief in a loving and merciful God who gives sinners and even serious evildoers almost infinite chances to turn from sin. And yet all of us are created with complete freedom, which includes the freedom to accept or to reject God’s mercy; God’s gift of salvation; God’s invitation to the wedding feast, the Kingdom of Heaven definitively, as it were.

And so might we direct these questions not toward God but toward ourselves: If we are given an invitation to the wedding feast, will we choose to accept God’s invitation? Will we go “into the main streets” and invite still others, without partiality, to the wedding feast? Will we wear the wedding robe of salvation given us by the king, God, at our baptism, when we were first invited to “bring” the “dignity” of this garment “unstained into the everlasting life of heaven”?

Will we pray with the humility and penance of the Psalmist: “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord,” even if our creation and re-creation by God entails breaking down our sin; our acts against God; against love; against one another, in order to rebuild dignity with which we were first created? Will we listen to prophets, of our time or of old, who call us to accountability; to repentance when necessary?

These choices are ours to make, with the freedom God has given us to make them.

Homily for Tuesday, 23 June 2015– Ferial

Tuesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Genesis 13:2, 12-18;  Psalm 15:2-3a, 3bc-4ab, 5; Matthew 7:6, 12-19

What is the most difficult message you have ever had to hear? Today I find our readings to be about extremely difficult but necessary messages.

Can we imagine Abram and Lot, good friends; both rich and successful in herding livestock; so successful that the land on which they have settled can no longer support both of them, so Abram and Lot must separate? It is bad enough when friends need to separate under ordinary circumstances: We move; we change schools or workplaces; we retire. Worse yet, we might experience the illness or death of a good friend. But would it not have been terrible for Abram and Lot to know that each other were still alive and well, but that they could never see each other again?

Jesus’ message in our Gospel reading is also extremely difficult but, I believe, necessary. Jesus teaches that there is a right and a wrong path; a way that leads to salvation and a way that does not, and that “those who find” the right path “are few.” What do we make of this harsh, ominous message?

Would it not be natural for us to want to soften Jesus’ message. Many do, especially in our time and culture. We know the error of relativism: That we can act as we please; we ought not to judge the beliefs or actions of one individual or culture as superior or not to the beliefs or actions of another. Salvation does not depend on accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ or of any “organized religion,” many argue.

But this is not what Jesus teaches. Indeed our beliefs; our actions; whether we accept and practice the Gospel of Christ does matter for our salvation. But there is more. I do not wish to discourage us (and neither did Jesus), yet this is, I believe, is at the heart of Jesus’ message in Matthew’s Gospel today: Without God it is impossible for us to live fully by Christ’s Gospel; to live fully in a way that builds up human community and human dignity. Without God we cannot “enter through the narrow gate.” This is possible only by God’s grace.

And here is our hope; our encouragement: With God’s grace, if we accept this grace and live by it, will find and “enter through the narrow gate.” God is not actively trying to block our way to or through the gate; to obstruct our way to salvation. We can (and I think we are called to) hear in today’s Gospel reading that God wills the salvation of as many people; all of us if possible.

We are free to help one another or to obstruct one another from the salvation that God wills for all of us. May we help one another to salvation by kindness; by forgiveness; by works of mercy. May we avoid gossip; passive-aggression; any action or words that tear down others’ dignity; divide community; divide households; families. In our hearts; our consciences we know which actions and words lead us to salvation and which do not; which are right and which are wrong. With God’s grace, our salvation together is possible, even probable. Individually and without God, there is no salvation; no way “through the narrow gate.”

Jesus gives us this extremely difficult message today, but a message that is necessary; for our good; for our salvation.