Homily for Tuesday, 8 August 2017– Memorial of St. Dominic

Monday of the 21st week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Numbers 12:1-13; Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 6cd-7, 12-13; Matthew 14:22-36

This homily was given at St. Clare Church, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

How often have we read or prayed with a passage from the Bible, or heard the Word of God at Mass, when a verse or part of a verse catches our attention? Perhaps a few words feel out of place within the rest of the passage or reading.

Might the description in the Book of Numbers today of Moses as “very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth,” be one of those moments that catch our attention because this description breaks from the flow of the rest of the reading? Maybe because I am teaching here in Edmonton at St. Joseph’s College this summer, and I have been grading papers, I am becoming particularly sensitive to (among a few kinds of grammatical and other foibles) the overuse of superlatives.

For example, one of the most annoying tendencies ever (now, I am saying this for humorous effect) is when it might have been convincing enough to me to describe Moses as humble, but the writer describes Moses glowingly as humbler “than anyone else on the face of the earth.” My reaction to superlatives like this is often a skeptical, “Really”? Well, in this case, we hear a superlative from the divinely inspired Word of God, so I will take the writer of Numbers’ word for it.

But is this description of Moses, where we hear it in our first reading today, still not jarring; seemingly out of place within the context of our reading? Led by Aaron and Miriam, the people complain “against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married.” (This, again, is countercultural to most if not all of us. In Moses’ time, interethnic marriages were potentially scandalous; here today they are not). God defends Moses, afflicting Miriam with a skin disease because of her sin of having opposed Moses’ leadership unjustly. Aaron then pleads with Moses, and Moses with God, for forgiveness and for healing for Miriam.

Perhaps the stark contrast between Moses’ great humility and Aaron’s and Miriam’s lack thereof eventually enables Aaron and Miriam to recognize and ask forgiveness for their sin. Perhaps, in the reading we hear today from Matthew’s Gospel, the Pharisees and the scribes might have benefitted from a similar stark reminder of the differences between Jesus’ leadership and their own. For the Pharisees and scribes, “the tradition of the elders” had become an end in itself and a point of excessive, even sinful pride. The religious tradition, Jesus taught, was to serve the good of the people, not the other way around.

But Matthew does not break from the flow of his Gospel to emphasize for us that Jesus was so much humbler or a better leader than the Pharisees or the scribes, although he was. No, Matthew does not help us with superlatives! And today, while we acknowledge some people with superlative praise, how many people do we know who go about doing good works; who are holy, and yet humble and unassuming? I think of the likes of Mother Teresa, within the lifetime of most of us here.

St. Dominic, whose feast we celebrate today, taught his followers within the Order of Preachers he founded to preach the Gospel of humility by example. Early Dominicans were simply called “The Holy Preaching” for this reason. Their example is for each of us to strive for: To be “The Holy Preaching” ourselves; to preach Christ by example, with no need for superlatives.

Homily for Tuesday, 11 July 2017– Memorial of St. Benedict

Readings of the day: Genesis 32:23-33; Psalm 17:1b, 2-3, 6-7ab, 8b, 15; Matthew 9:32-38

Tuesday of the 14th week in Ordinary Time

Is there anybody here who has ever wrestled or who enjoys wrestling? I must admit that wrestling is not my favourite sport. Yet today we hear in our readings the continued story of Jacob. We hear about Jesus’ confrontation with the mute man with a demon, and we celebrate this feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, the sixth-century abbot whose Rule is the basis for life in many religious orders to this day. Jacob, Jesus, and Benedict were all expert wrestlers.

Of course, they were not wrestlers in the sense of the sport we are familiar with today. They are wrestlers in a spiritual sense, at least in the case of Jesus and St. Benedict. But do we not have to admit that each were involved in some epic wrestling matches? Even if we, like Jacob, were quite confident in our wrestling abilities, how many of us would dare to wrestle with God? Talk about a heavyweight class matchup! I wonder what our best chance would be against an opponent as powerful as God. Would we opt for Greco-Roman wrestling, or maybe freestyle? Or maybe we might try oil wrestling, which I understand is the national sport of Turkey, or beach wrestling (yes, this is actually a type of wrestling)? In any case, I do not think many of us would stand much of a chance in a wrestling match against God!

But Jacob holds his own. This wrestling match goes on all night, “until daybreak.” And then, in the upset for the ages, Jacob actually wins his match against God, disguised as a man in our reading from Genesis. Sure, Jacob ends up with a dislocated hip, but this is not bad for somebody who has just emerged from an all-night wrestling match against God! Jacob gets a blessing from God after his victory. We know that God is a good sport; even if he dislocates your hip, he will give you a blessing, especially if you ask as Jacob did. Jacob also gets a new name, Israel, which, Genesis tells us, means one who has wrestled or “striven with God.” And in memory of Jacob’s unprecedented victory, his having “seen God face to face” and lived, the people of Israel no longer eat “the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket” of animals.

Jesus’ wrestling match with the mute demoniac is described more briefly in Matthew’s Gospel than Jacob’s match with God is in Genesis. But it is as much or more of a classic match as that of Jacob. In fact, this match between God and demonic forces, against Satan himself, is still going on. God has promised us that he will win this match.

But God, through Jesus Christ, has asked for our help. We might follow the example of St. Benedict, who saw the Christian life as a participation in a spiritual battle; a wrestling match. The Rule of St. Benedict says, “When you begin a good work, earnestly pray to God to bring it to perfection.” St. Benedict invites us to prayer. Jesus invites us to the harvest, and to pray for more “labourers” to join the harvest. They, along with Jacob, invite us to wrestle with God and with demons. The best part is that, if we accept this invitation to wrestle, we are guaranteed victory.

Homily for Sunday, 3 May 2015– Fifth Sunday of Easter

Readings of the day: Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

What does it mean to be connected to something or to somebody? Back in 2001, I went to study in France for the first time. Fourteen years ago, the flip phone was the latest in cellular technology, an increasingly portable way to remain connected. The communications company Nokia ran an English ad in France for its flip phones. At the end of the commercial, a child announced the Nokia slogan proudly in a French accent: “Connecting people”!

Nowadays, what are our ways of “connecting people”? Flip phones have led to smart phones. E-mail has led to Messenger. We have Facebook; Twitter; Linked-In for the more professionally-inclined… Technology has afforded us more ways than ever to be connected to one another. I communicate regularly with my family in Edmonton over Skype, and I am able to “Skype into” faith and Scripture sharing meetings with my brother Basilian priests from as far away as France and Colombia! Social media have become an indispensible tool for ministry, as long as they do not replace physically meeting people we serve.

But with all this electronic technology, is something not still lacking insofar as being connected? Some of us may ask, “What is lacking”? In John’s Gospel today we hear Jesus encourage us to rise to a new standard of being connected. All this technology is good. Actually to meet and speak with other people is better than technology. But Jesus speaks to us about the best way to be connected. What is the best way to be connected both to one another and to God; to Christ?

Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” What does Jesus mean by all this: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower”? What does it mean to “remain in” Christ and for Christ to “remain in” us? How is Jesus asking us to “bear much fruit”?

We do not need to live on a vineyard to understand well enough what Jesus is saying here. We do not need to leave behind all of our electronic technology that helps us to stay connected to one another in order to gain a better sense of Jesus’ words, although “remain in me and I in” you may sound strange to our ears. No, Jesus speaks to us of how best to live in relationship with one another and with God.

And do we not all understand at least something about relationships? How many of us have a best friend, or a few very good friends? How many of us are married; belong to a religious community; have ever been in love? How many of us have brothers; sisters; parents; extended family whom we love dearly? This past week, speaking of relationships, my parents celebrated their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary. Their relationship of love is a model for me; for my priesthood; for my relationship of love with all of us, the Church, which I try to live out daily.

We understand a lot about relationships already. We are here to celebrate this Eucharist, Jesus Christ really present among and in us. And so we already understand something sacramentally about the greatest of all relationships: Our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our God has given himself to us as a human being, Jesus Christ, one like us in all but sin. Jesus lived among us, died for us, is risen for us, ascended to heaven for us, and now gives himself to us under the form of bread and wine: “This is my body… This is my blood…”

Many of our children here at St. Kateri Parish will receive their first communion; this sacrament of Eucharist for the first time today and over the next few weeks. Children of St. Kateri: Who are you receiving when you receive communion? You receive Jesus Christ. And so you already understand something about relationship with Jesus; with God.

Relationship is like being connected to somebody, but even better. Technology and information help us to stay connected, but being in relationship means something more. Relationship means to love one another. It means to want the best for one another, in the way that God wants the best for us. God wants us to be with him forever. This is why God gave us God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, now still with us in the Eucharist. “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

But this “remaining in” relationship with God; Jesus Christ and with one another is hard work. All the technology we have only goes so far. It keeps us connected without necessarily keeping us in relationship. Imagine this: “You have reached Big White Phone Communications Customer Service. For service in English, please press one. For service in Aramaic, please hold the line…”

Relationship, what Jesus asks of us in our Gospel reading today, is more than simply “connecting people”; more than being connected with God. To be in relationship means to keep a delicate balance between forgiveness and accountability. This, I think, is behind Jesus’ talk of pruning his disciples as a vine is pruned; trimmed of its branches that are unhealthy and no longer open to nourishment from the vine. Might pruning away the unhealthy branches seem harsh to us when we compare it to remaining in relationship with God as disciples of Christ? Jesus gives us a harsh saying here. And yet Jesus invites us to be mindful that both forgiveness and accountability; both the health of the branches nourished by the vine and the pruning of the vine require strong relationships; a strong and united community of Christian faith.

Unity; our comm-unity as Christians; as a parish; as a Church leaves no room for a silo mentality in which we become closed off in our own ministries. Christian community leaves no room for gossip. Christian community is not “I-God”; “I-Jesus” but all of us, together, in a relationship of love with one another and with our Lord that bears fruit in a great range of good works. The sacraments all depend on Christian community. They are sacraments of the Church; of community. We are brought into a community of faith by baptism and confirmation. We receive the Lord and become Christ to our world in community through our Eucharist. We are instruments of healing, and forgiveness in community through reconciliation and the anointing of the sick. In community we love and serve through the vocations of marriage and holy orders.

Community is not uniformity; all having the same ideas and never disagreeing with one another. Like the branches that “remain in” Jesus the vine, we might imagine ourselves as grafted onto the vine. Each branch joined or grafted onto the vine and receiving its nourishment contributes different useful characteristics to the plant: Better fruit; resistance to disease… So it is true with our community of faith. Is it not remarkable in our first reading from Acts that, as “the brothers” began to accept Paul after his conversion; as they had already accepted Barnabas (a very different personality with different gifts than Paul), the Church “was being built up and walked in [awe] of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers”?

Christian community, we hear from the First Letter of John, depends on our keeping God’s commandments together. Who enjoys being commanded to do something? Not many of us like to be commanded to do something. But God gives us only two commandments in 1 John: “Believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ” and show the world (together) that we believe by how we act in Jesus’ name: “Love one another just as [Jesus] commanded us.”

“Believe” and “love.” These are whole community actions. “Believe” and “love,” and “remain”: Take in Jesus in the Eucharist and in our other sacraments of the Church; act for one another’s good in the world as Jesus has for us. This is community. This is relationship, not only “connecting people” but being at the heart of the Christian discipleship that Jesus asks of us: “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

Homily for Thursday, 9 October 2014– Ferial

Thursday of the 27th week in Ordinary Time 

Optional Memorials of St. Denis and Companions and St. John Leonardi

Readings of the day: Galatians 3:1-5; Responsorial Canticle: Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75; Luke 11:5-13

Both Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, and St. Paul, in his Letter to the Galatians, ask us questions centered on the Holy Spirit. Jesus points to the goodness and generosity of God by asking, “If you… know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him”? In his harsh-sounding correction of the Galatians, who had been deceived into thinking that adherence to religious law would earn them salvation, St. Paul asks, “Does… the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?”

Perhaps it is easiest to find a connection between these questions; between our difficult-to-understand first reading and Gospel reading today, by interpreting them through the lens of our canticle response. We pray in this response, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.”

We do not pray as if we are still waiting for God to come to his people. God has already come to us through the rich history of the people of Israel in the Old Testament; through kings, prophets, and sages; in God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who lived as one like us in all but sin and died and rose again that we might be saved. Now, God continues to be present to us in the Holy Spirit, who lives and works in and through us. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.” Blessed be God who continues to come to his people; to us.

This, I believe, is at the heart of Paul’s message to the Galatians and Jesus’ message in Luke’s Gospel: Look to God; trust in God for all that we need, and ultimately for our salvation. Is not God generous, even more so than a parent who gives everything to her or his child to thrive? Is it not God who saves us; who “supplies the Spirit to us”?

The law, even religious law (today we may liken this to the teaching of the Church or Canon Law, the law of our Church), is important insofar as it points us to God, but no law alone saves. God saves. God is good and generous, more than any human being except Jesus has ever been or could ever be. God gives us his own Holy Spirit to enable us to act as God would act. God’s gift of the Holy Spirit makes possible our works of goodness and generosity toward one another.

Indeed, our having received the Holy Spirit makes good works; Godly works an expectation of us as people of God; as Christians. St. Paul and Jesus himself invite us not to settle for anything less; not even observance of law for the law’s own sake. Trust in God who is with us; who saves us. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.”