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, 15 March 2015

4th Sunday in Lent

Readings of the day: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23; Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21

“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

Are these not some of the most beautiful and memorable words in our entire Bible? What a testament to God’s mercy: “He gave us his only Son.” God has given us “eternal life”! How frequently have we heard or seen references to these words, from John 3:16, in our popular culture? Those of us who enjoy watching sports like I do have probably seen references to John 3:16 often at sporting events. Is this not so much a part of our culture that we see “John 3:16,” or simply “3:16,” and many if not most of us know exactly what this means? What makes this verse so memorable; so influential even in our culture that is far from uniformly Christian, let alone religious?

“3:16”… This verse from John’s Gospel speaks to us of profound joy. What or who is the source of our joy? Our joy is deeper than our favorite football team scoring a last-minute winning touchdown; fans displaying “3:16” on banners while the victorious players show “3:16” outlined in their eye black.

“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” This is the source of our great joy. That “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son,” Jesus Christ, is the most profound act of God’s mercy our world has ever known and will ever know.

But that God has given us “his only Son” to live as one of us, to die for us, to rise and to ascend to heaven for us, one day to return in glory for us, and to be with us now in the sacrament of the Eucharist, is not a surprise to us. God’s gift to us of Jesus Christ is the high point of God’s ongoing work of mercy toward us from the first moment of creation until now. We celebrate and rejoice in this mercy of God. And our joy in God’s mercy toward us is at the heart of another Biblical verse, perhaps less famous than John 3:16 but still beautiful, with which I greeted us at the beginning of this Eucharistic celebration. Our Entrance Antiphon from the prophet Isaiah is this: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her! Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast”! “Laetare Jerusalem,” this verse begins in Latin. And so we call this Laetare Sunday; Lent’s “Rejoice” Sunday. We wear rose (not pink!), the color of joy, on this Laetare Sunday. And yet why do we rejoice? Why “laetare”?

3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And this is only the high point of God’s mercy, which has been with us since the beginning; by which we exist; by which we have pardon for our sins; by which we are able to pardon one another for their sins against us; by which we “have eternal life.” Let us rejoice in God’s mercy!

Are we somehow worthy of God’s love; God’s mercy? Of course not! Our readings today are clear on this. “The light,” Jesus, “came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil,” John’s Gospel says. Many today continue to prefer “darkness to light”; continue to do “evil.”  Our world knows the evils of extremism; of persecution of people because of their faith by groups like ISIS; Boko Haram in Nigeria; Al Qaeda. Our world and our nation know assaults against human dignity and the human right to life from conception to natural death. We know, right here in our city and parish, poverty and hunger. Subtler still but nonetheless damaging, we know political partisanship; gossip; division and breakdown of friendships; of families. And yet, in the face of all this, God’s mercy is still present; still greater than any human evil. 

The second Book of Chronicles recounts how the people, from “the princes of Judah” to “the priests and the people added infidelity to infidelity.” Yet even this did not stop God’s mercy. Yes, the people of Old Testament Israel, who had been unfaithful to God and unjust among themselves, suffered exile for their sins. But even this seventy-year exile in Babylon is seen as evidence of God’s mercy; a time to allow the land to rest while the people did penance. 2 Chronicles speaks of a time when God’s people did evil, but when God’s mercy proved greater than any and all human evil. The same could be said of our time: God’s mercy is still present; still greater than any human evil. 

And so let us rejoice in God’s mercy and not grow discouraged. Many of us (rightly, I think) lament the evil in our world. I hear somewhat constantly, here at St. Kateri and beyond: “Father, there is so much evil; so much violence; so much persecution in our world. What are we to do about it”? I believe that just to ask these kinds of questions, to pray over them, is itself a mark on us of God’s mercy. This compassion is evidence of people who live “in the light.” All of us who share in this way in the passion and death of Christ; who suffer because our fellow human beings suffer and who have genuine mercy for them: I am confident that you will also share in the resurrection of Christ in a special way. 

Rejoice in God’s mercy! Rejoice, all of us who live God’s mercy as well as we are able! “For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” God so loves our world that is so far from perfect; so in need of God’s mercy, today perhaps more than ever. And we are the presence of God in our world. We are God’s mercy in action, called to live God’s mercy with joy in our world. 

To anybody has ever despaired of God’s mercy, I ask: How well do we hear and believe in the words of the Letter to the Ephesians; of our second reading today: “God… is rich in mercy”? God is merciful, not because of our own “works”; our own merits but purely by God’s gift to us. “Even when we were dead in our transgressions,” God “brought us to life with Christ… raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.” These are remarkable words; confident words from Ephesians.

May we never despair of God’s mercy! May we seek God’s mercy in one another; in prayer; in our Church; through our Eucharist; in Reconciliation; in the Anointing of the Sick and our Church’s other sacraments; through our celebration of Lent. Let our poverty; our sin meet and be conquered by God’s love; God’s rich mercy. May we live God’s mercy; rejoice in God’s mercy! Why rejoice in God’s mercy, even as we live by it? 

3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God’s mercy is our cause for rejoicing; our cause for this Laetare Sunday; “Rejoice” Sunday. By God’s mercy we have the gift; the presence of Jesus Christ here in this celebration; here in our world. And so we bear Christ to our world with confidence. We reflect God’s mercy in living our Christian faith. By God’s rich mercy, in and through Christ, we “have eternal life.” This is why we rejoice.

Homily for Sunday, 30 November 2014

1st Sunday in Advent

Readings of the day: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7; Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37

Anticipate and focus. How are these actions so important, especially to our celebration of Advent?

Two old family memories I have of sports remind me of the value of anticipation and of focus. My first memory is of playing softball as a boy. My father coached our softball team for a few years. He has given me many wise points of advice over the years as a father and as a coach… But one of his most memorable points on the softball diamond was this: Anticipate where the ball is going to be, and go there; get under where the ball is going to catch it. Meanwhile, focus; pay attention to where the ball is now. This advice works well, I have found, with most sports.

My second memory is of my brother Eric playing soccer in his early teens. Eric is ten years younger than me, and much more naturally athletic than I am.  When I would watch Eric play soccer, I would marvel at the seeming effortlessness with which he thought several steps ahead of the play: Where is the ball going? Where are my teammates? How can I get open to give or receive a pass? Where is the clearest path to the goal?  Yet even in his anticipation of the play, Eric would not lose his focus on where the action was at the present time. Eric consistently applied Dad’s words on the soccer pitch: Anticipate where the play is going; focus on where it is now.

Anticipate and focus. These skills of an athlete are also helpful skills to develop in our spiritual lives. These are skills for us to hone especially in this time of Advent that we begin today. Instead of a ball or puck on a playing surface, might we ask ourselves the same questions as a skilled athlete, but of God and of God’s Kingdom? We might ask ourselves: What are the signs of the coming to fullness of God’s Kingdom? Where is God leading me in my life? What am I looking forward to in the upcoming celebration of Christmas and, perhaps a longer time away, at the end of time; in the “life of the world to come” as we pray in our Creed? But at the same time we might ask: Where is God present in my life now? What is God asking of me now?

Is God asking me; asking us to continue our acts and words of kindness; of faithfulness; of generosity; of charity; of peace; of justice? Or is God asking me; asking us especially during this Advent season to examine our conscience; to ask forgiveness for when we have been wrong; to repair relationships; to pray more; to limit activities and habits that distract from God; to worship more attentively; to repent? If we are honest with ourselves, we will probably answer that God is asking us to do all of the above. God invites us to anticipate; to go to where God and God’s Kingdom will be; will reach its fullness, and also to focus on where God is in our lives here and now.

Anticipate and focus, our Gospel reading in particular invites us. Jesus says “to his disciples” in Mark’s Gospel, “Be watchful! Be alert... Watch, therefore… I say to all, ‘Watch!’” Jesus speaks to us with urgency: God is transforming our world; bringing God’s Kingdom to fullness, and yet God’s Kingdom is with us here now.

God’s Kingdom is like the home of “a man traveling abroad,” Jesus says. This man, the master of the house, places us, “his servants in charge, each with his own work.” Anticipate the Master’s return, Jesus says, while we focus on the work given to each of us now: Bring Jesus; his Gospel of “Thy Kingdom come,” God’s Kingdom already here, to our families; to our workplaces; to the streets; to the rich and comfortable; to the poor, the lost, and the broken.

“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we will pray in the words Jesus taught us in just a few moments.

Anticipate and focus. The message of our first reading from Isaiah is similar to that of our Gospel reading today and to that of our Lord’s Prayer. Isaiah speaks to a people in danger of forgetting God; forgetting the key message: Anticipate and focus. In Isaiah’s time, the people of Israel were beginning to return home after seventy years in exile in Babylon. The problem was that most of the people of Israel decided to stay in Babylon among a people who had treated them fairly well but did not believe in the same God as they did. Only a few returned to rebuild Israel. Understandably, most of the people exiled from Israel asked, “Why return to Israel? Why return to a place where I was not born, although maybe my ancestors were from there? Why return to a nation in need of rebuilding; a nation whose cultural and religious center, the Temple of Jerusalem, had long been destroyed?”

The prophet Isaiah draws the people of Israel back not only to their homeland, but to God. Anticipate and focus, Isaiah says. Where is God leading us? Go out to encounter God where God is going, Isaiah says to the people, while he prays to God: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you… No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.” At the same time, Isaiah asks, “Where is God among us now? What is God asking of us now”? “Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways… O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay and you the potter. We are all the work of your hands,” Isaiah prays in magnificent poetry.

Anticipate where God and God’s Kingdom will be; focus on where God is now. This is also the central message of Paul’s prayerful and thankful greeting of the Corinthians in our second reading. Paul’s emphasis is on God with us here and now. He reminds the Christians of Corinth that they have all the tools; all the riches of God’s grace to discern where God is in their lives at the present and where God and God’s Kingdom is leading them. So do we. “You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Paul says to the Corinthians. God “will keep you firm to the end… By [God] you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Anticipate and focus, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of his time and reminds us. Anticipate and focus, the prophet Isaiah says to the people of Israel and to us. Anticipate and focus, Jesus says to his disciples. Like a good athlete who goes ahead to where the play is going without forgetting where the play is occurring now, our readings today invite us to await and to encounter God where God is going; where God’s Kingdom is reaching its fullness. At the same time, we are invited to encounter God where God is, here and now.

This is our twofold invitation; our calling for Advent, beginning anew today; the invitation of our readings; the invitation to us in the prayer that Jesus taught us. “Thy Kingdom come.” Anticipate where God is going to be; anticipate the signs of God’s kingdom. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Focus on where God is in our lives and what God asks of us to bring forth God’s Kingdom here and now. Anticipate and focus.