Homily for Friday, 20 June 2014– Ferial

Friday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time 

Readings of the day: 2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20; Psalm 132:11, 12, 13-14, 17-18; Matthew 6:19-23

Where do we store up our treasure?

Jesus says to his disciples in our Gospel reading today from Matthew: “Store up treasures” not on earth but “in heaven… For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”

I think, then, that the question of where we “store up treasures” in the sense that Jesus intends; whether we “store up treasures” on earth or in heaven, is a question of priorities. This question is related to other questions we might ask ourselves: Where are our hearts? Have we not heard it said about someone: Her or his heart is or is not “in it”? Are our hearts “in it,” referring to our faith; our relationship with God? I anticipate that, for many of us, we could honestly answer “yes” to this question.

Serving here at St. Kateri Parish, I consistently see a parish community that is generous; devoted; faithful. Last night here at St. Margaret Mary Church, we gathered for our first night of the Sacred Heart Novena. The congregation was much larger than I expected for our reflection on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. And there are many other ways, often silent and unassuming, in which we at St. Kateri show our generosity; our devotion; our faithfulness both within and beyond our parish community. Our hearts are in the right place; our hearts are “in it”; our hearts find their home not primarily on earth but with God in heaven. This is what Jesus asks of us, his disciples.

Jesus asks: Where do we store up our treasure? Where are our hearts? Who is our first love? We are doing well if our treasure; our hearts are in heaven and if our first love is God and if, through God, we draw strength for our mission to serve one another, especially those most in need.

Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Jesuits from 1965 to 1983, once asked these same questions that Jesus asks of us in a poem that I would like to share this morning. Where do we store up our treasure? Where are our hearts? Who is our first love? Let us meditate on these words of Fr. Arrupe:

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, that is, than

falling in love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed

in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read,

who you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with

joy and gratitude.

Fall in love,

stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

Homily for Thursday, 19 June 2014– Ferial

Thursday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time 

Readings of the day: Sirach 48:1-14; Psalm 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7; Matthew 6:7-15

Do any of us have a loved one, a relative, a colleague, or friend of whose accomplishments we are very proud?

Before I became a Basilian, I was a microbiology lab technician for three and a half years after graduating from college. One significant job I had in the lab was to teach co-op students who came to our lab from various universities in Western Canada basic lab techniques of industrial and environmental microbiology. I would also help to guide these students’ co-op term projects in the lab, proofread their co-op project reports, and critique their final oral presentations. Several students who worked in our lab could essentially work independently of me and the other technicians; their laboratory skills were often remarkable, and they would sometimes teach me as much as or more than I taught them.

Now, as a Basilian, I can say the same of our men in formation for religious life and priesthood; people with deep faith and spirituality who inspire me and teach me as much as or more than I teach or inspire them. These are people who have made me very proud; very grateful for the gifts of God being fostered through family members; friends; colleagues; people of St. Kateri Parish; my Basilian confrères.

The Book of Sirach, from which we hear today in our first reading, speaks of Elijah and of his successor prophet, Elisha. Sirach lists the impressive array of accomplishments of Elijah in great detail. Then, more briefly but just as strongly, Sirach emphasizes that Elisha was everything Elijah was and more: “Then Elisha, filled with the twofold portion of [Elijah’s] spirit, wrought many marvels by his mere word.”

Elijah was so great a prophet and so righteous that our Scriptures say that he was “enveloped in [a] whirlwind”; brought to heaven perhaps without having died, on a chariot of fire, in an impressive display of God’s power! And then Elisha received “a twofold portion” of the spirit of Elijah. Imagine a prophet twice as powerful as the amazing Elijah!

I imagine that, if Elijah were teaching Elisha the basics of prophecy; preparing his hand-picked and anointed successor to be able to prophesy on his own; proofreading and critiquing his end-of-term report, Elijah would have been extremely proud of Elisha.

And so we remember the people we have encountered of whom we have been very proud. We remember the people who, it would seem, have received a “twofold portion” of our spirit; who have received ultimately the Holy Spirit of God himself, the same Holy Spirit we have all received in baptism and confirmation, who through us works marvels beyond our imagination. And we are invited to pray in gratitude for God’s gifts in those people who make us very proud of what they have accomplished.

Homily for Wednesday, 18 June 2014– Ferial

Wednesday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time 

Readings of the day: 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Psalm 31:20, 21, 24; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Has anyone here, in moments of excitement over our accomplishments, ever listed off these accomplishments to another person in conversation? Then, has anyone here stopped momentarily and then added a phrase like (one of my favorites I admit), “I don’t mean to boast, but…”?

To be aware of and even to speak with joy about our accomplishments and our talents to other people and in prayer to God are not necessarily bad things. There is no shame in taking some pride in our accomplishments and talents, even aloud, as long as we first give thanks to God who gives us these talents; who gives the ability to accomplish sometimes extraordinary deeds.

And yet how often do we reflect that we live in a competitive social environment that encourages us to take credit for our accomplishments; our talents, often without giving due credit and glory to God, the source of these gifts; accomplishments; talents; of everything that is good?

“I don’t mean to boast, but I give alms, I pray regularly, and I fast.” Can we not imagine the early followers of Jesus addressed in Matthew speaking these words? Have we ever spoken similar words? Jesus’ response to them and to us is, “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them… Your Father who sees in secret”; “who sees what is hidden will repay you.”

We have and we will have opportunities “to perform righteous deeds” in public, where other “people may see them.” I imagine that we have and we will have opportunities in which it is appropriate to be proud of our righteous actions and even to give voice to this pride when speaking with other people. This, in and of itself, is not wrong.

But Jesus reminds us in our Gospel reading today of the great grace in doing quietly, “in secret,” what is right; what is God-like. We are encouraged perhaps to perform a so-called “random act of kindness” toward another; a deed that the other person to whom we are intentionally kind does not expect; cannot repay, or does not even know who did it. We are encouraged by Jesus to run counter to our culture that puts pride for accomplishments and talents; that puts competitiveness on display, even to excess. We are encouraged to give glory to God by the witness of our lives; our quiet acts of kindness and mercy especially.

I don’t mean to boast, but I think that, in light of today’s Gospel, Jesus would allow us to boast with quiet gratitude in our God who is good to us, who repays our acts of kindness toward one another in due time, and who makes possible all that we do that is good.

Homily for Tuesday, 17 June 2014– Ferial

Tuesday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time 

Readings of the day: 1 Kings 21:17-21; Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6ab, 11, 16; Matthew 5:43-48

Which is the most difficult commandment to observe? In Matthew’s Gospel, for the last several weekday Masses, we have been hearing Jesus give us increasingly difficult, or even difficult to understand, commandments. Jesus takes commandments of the Law of Moses from the Old Testament and raises the standard for observing these commandments, even if the original commandments seem easier to keep than Jesus’ modified (or, better yet, intensified) ones.

“Thou shalt not kill.” This is an easy enough commandment to keep, right? “But I say whoever is angry with his brother [or sister] will be liable to judgment.”

“You shall not commit adultery… whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.” But Jesus says that treating another with lust‒ as a thing to be used instead of a human being to be loved‒ falls short of acting according to God’s love for us; for human community; for marriage, the great sacrament of communion between a woman and a man.

“Do not swear at all,” Jesus says in Matthew. “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” Then he says, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”

Today, Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.” How many of us think, when someone is especially irritating or consistently makes us angry, even for good reason, to pray for this person? Today’s intensified commandment may be the most difficult of the commandments that Jesus gives us in Matthew’s Gospel to follow.

“Love your enemies”? “Pray for those who persecute you”? Is Jesus serious? Is keeping this commandment even possible?

I believe that Jesus is serious and that keeping this and his other commandments is possible, although perhaps not without the help of God’s grace. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Who then is the source of this love that is “capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”? We know that the source of this love is God, and that God calls us to love as God loves. This is not to create for us an impossible-to-observe commandment but to strengthen human interrelationship; human community; and finally communion between us and God.

Let us then pray to God, the source of love; the source of transformation even of enemies into friends, to strengthen us with his love; to strengthen us in our human relationships; to strengthen us with the grace to keep God’s commandments, especially those we find most difficult to observe.