Sunday Readings

Love Wins

Do you what you call a politician who does not end every speech with ‘God bless the United States?’ Unemployed.

We live at a unique time in history. We also live in an age of faith. In fact, we Americans are among the most religious people on the face of the earth. With the exception of a small minority of powerful media voices, most of us actually have some sort of religious beliefs. It’s on the money, in the songs and a part of every small and big town. And most of all, it’s in the Constitution. But on the eve of another major election, what does this mean? What does it mean to say ‘I believe in God’?

I think in our popular understanding, belief, or, if you will, faith, is the personally chosen agreement with the existence of a powerful and unseen Divine Power that created and sustains the universe. If I agree in that possibility, it becomes my ‘faith journey’ to define what that means to me and how it will impact what I feel and how I live. And given the American propensity for associating with others of like mind, we are free to choose with whom we share those same convictions.

This emphasis on the individual is an historic development that differs from many other cultures in our world where the communal faith became a part of the culture itself. In the modern world, this cultural religion has produced a hollow silence of empty churches in many places. On the other hand, the individual aspect of our society has created a rootless faith that leads many into a quest for meaning that is a constant spinning of confusion.

So what des any of this have to do with the readings today that say we should love God first and then our neighbor as ourselves?

The first is a lovely idea about loving God. And who could argue with that? If we feel we love God, then we do. We call the second the Golden Rule. And so we can start to think that religion is about living by a set of values. In other words, we get to choose – once again – between how we feel and what we do. Like these supposedly Catholic politicians, we get to slice and dice until we find something we are comfortable with. And we end up with little more than a meaningless badge of religious identity that can be dragged out at Christmas and funerals.

But Jesus had a different version of things. Faith is more than a warm feeling and more than a cold set of laws. In fact faith is not one or the other. It is a tripod. It is founded on God, ourselves, and others. And what makes it active is charity. The ancient faith of Israel is expressed in the ‘shema Israel’ – the first of these two greatest commandments. It is a love of people they individually choose to live out among each other in reference to the God who called us into existence.

This is a reflection, a glimmer, of the Trinity itself. Without the divine, personal and communal love, the whole thing fails. It is not about how I feel or how I image things. If this is the faith revealed by God, I cannot be a faithful Catholic and be involved with the destruction of innocent human life through my support of abortion. I cannot be a good Christian and condone the destructive forces of crushing poverty and alienation. I cannot truly love without showing what George Bailey called ‘good old-fashioned human decency.’

Love is love; not only a feeling, a command, or one of many options that are our choice. You can’t order it like demanding an apology or writing the obligatory thank-you note. It is total but not impossible because of the singular reason we would even try - we are loved by God. We know the totality of this love every time we look at the Cross. We personally experience the reality of this charity when we – together – take this Sacrament. And every time we witness or practice kindness beyond what we expected or thought possible, we find this faith in action.

Evil wants us to think that love is not possible. The demonic forces of despair will conquer and divide love by reducing faith to a feeling or a mere set of more laws.

As New Yorkers are wont to say, ‘fugetaboutit’ – Love wins. Faith conquers. God is victorious. And because He is, so are we.

Sunday Readings

Recycle
I am in Ohio this weekend for a wedding so here is a recycled homily from 2002

Every so often, and as recently as the 1960's, people begin to think that the world is a really bad place. People, even some religious people, believe that anything connected with the material world is evil and keeps them from God. Plato, pre-Christian Augustine, the Puritans, and the Hippies seem to have this in common. They see a world that is split. There is the world of Caesar and the world of the Spirit and nothing between the two.

 I guess old heresies never go away. They just look different. They tried to get Jesus into this. He  wouldn’t take the bait.  While always keeping the distinction between matter and spirit, Jesus would not admit a  dualism. Neither can we. The Word who created the world and pronounced it very good would not now say it is evil.  At creation, God made real things composed of atoms and acting according to the laws of nature.  God who is all-good, does not create evil. Most evil is the result of our wrong use of free will.  And yet even in the depth of sin, God can bring good out of any situation. He is completely free to use His creation as He wills. Look at the Persian king Cyrus God used to rescue His chosen people.

So why from Plato to New Agers do humans start to think that faith means living in a non-real world? I think it is a temptation to make things easier.  The thinking goes along these lines: “Blame it all on things rather than on me. My truest self is spiritual so it doesn’t matter what I do in the physical world. In fact, if I am ever going to be perfect, I have to be pure spirit like the angels.”

But I am not an angel. I am a human person, a unity of matter and spirit. I like a good meal and a beautiful sunset. I enjoy the power of a storm and tranquility of a cool evening. I do good through my actions and use my material resources to make life better. I physically come to Church and I receive the tangible sacraments of grace. I love real people not spirits. Even marred by human sinfulness, I still see the hand of a good God in a good world.

This is what I call a “Christian materialism.” It is a Gospel call to see and use the goodness of creation for the glory of God. It is a call to be real. Christians should not vilify but baptize.  If there is something in our life which is not of God, make it so. Talents, things, events, opportunities - all are possible vehicles of grace when kept in proper order and in proper perspective.

 So yes, what is God’s is God’s. And what is good and proper in this world belongs to this world. But since all things are of God’s making and exist by His will, (unless sinful) they are meant for the betterment of humanity. We can not make this world better by rejecting it. We can, however, see the glory of God in living with grateful appreciation and holiness for all the good things which come from His hand. “The glory of God is man fully alive” said St. Ireaneus.  This is our glory, our joy and our life as well. This world is created good and the good must treat it that way. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s but give all the glory to God.

Sunday Readings

Already There

This sounds like a strange Gospel. The king invites the elite, they refuse and he turns to the ordinary-Joe to attend. And then one of the crowd gets thrown out. It doesn’t seem fair. Well these are two different parables joined together – and there is a time gap. Knowing there was time for the unfortunate guest to get ready, makes this even more powerful.

In the first part, the refusal of the invited guests was a violent rejection and reaction. For their own reasons, and their varied rejections, they insulted the king. This was a world where that type of thing was not acceptable. We can understand it because we jokingly tell people to show up or ‘we’ll kill them’ if they miss it. And we can also understand how offensive it would be if some one showed up at a family wedding dressed like a bum. Respect demands that we dress appropriately. So we start with a parable of an invitation refused and an invitation answered disrespectfully.

We can focus on God’s invitation rejected. We can see that we can reject God’s grace in what we believe and how we live. Likewise, we take God’s mercy for granted and approach God in a far-too casual manner. There is no question that every age needs to hear this message and heed this warning. For example, every election season we have an energetic debate of what a faithful Catholic public servant really is. We hear policians foolishly defining what Catholic Church teaching really is. But it is something we do as well as we choose what we will accept and what we will not. In others words, this is a gospel about morality and the critical importance in living it.

But there is another level and one that is essential. God invites us. Stop there. This is not a slavish religion that demands and threatens us. It does not strip away our humanity and deny our freedom. God invites, but does not force. He calls more than He commands. God treats us with respect and dignity, respecting the freedom He gave us.

But this is no careless mention. This is an invitation to nothing less than eternal life and the divinely-given means of attaining it. It demands a response not only to it, but also in it. This is an on-going thing. We are never converted once and for all. God’s invite to us is dynamic. We get to one level and God calls us to another. Grace calls us to one place in order to point us to another. There is something restless, demanding, and wonderful in us that says we are never there. It really is a pilgrimage that keeps moving on. We are – each of us – invited and how we dress for the occasion is our RSVP.

So we can all point to those moments we know and love. We dress for the Baptism, the First Communion, the Wedding, and the Funeral. These outward symbols reflect a deeper meaning. We know these are encounters with the mystery of God breaking into our lives. And we rise to the occasion.

They are milestones along the path of life. We can mark them as we should but can never forget all the steps in between. Every effort we make at answering ‘yes’ to God pushes us forward. They can be small and seemingly insignificant. They can also be enormous and difficult. There are days we stand ready and dressed to the nines in our resolve to live the Gospel. And there are those days when we are not. God understands our hearts but even in the times we are not faithful, God is.

So here, then, perhaps, is the key to appreciating this unique Gospel. It is not a matter of success and fidelity; it is a question of whether or not we care. That was the mistake of the invited and the mis-dressed guest. They didn’t care. They wouldn’t consider the grace of the invitation. They presumed on God’s mercy and felt no need to live a life reflecting it. And we can often be that same way. Yes, we can rise to the occasion and, yes, we can fail.

But on the spiritual level, do we care? I believe that we do. Our evidence is that we are here. No, we’re not perfect but something deeper than our own personal evaluation is saying there is so much more.

So keep on going. If we care that we are on the pilgrimage to God, know that we run and stumble to a God who cares for us.

Come to think of, doesn’t that mean we’re already there?

Sunday Readings

Heaven's Harvest

From the dawn of history, human beings have been trying to get others motivated. In religion, politics, sports and advertising there is a common goal of getting other people to value and get excited. You’d think that if something is really good, people would gravitate to it. I mean who doesn’t want to find a cure for diseases or want the benefits of a prosperous society?

Well history has also shown that there is something else at work here. It is not found in a cause or the popularity of the moment. It is rooted deep in the human person. It is a complacency that says get what you can, take care of Number One, and just assume that it will always be there for the taking. Apathy and good old boredom are part and parcel of the common human experience. The code word is “convenience.” It whispers: “don’t rock the boat” at anything more demanding or more difficult. And it puts its hand up to God and says, ‘thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take it from here.”

Like the workers of today’s Gospel, we sometimes think we can get away with it. And for a time, we can. But the day of reckoning comes at some point. Oooo! That sounds like a warning; a message of fire and brimstone. Ok, if that’s what you need to hear – and perhaps some do! But there is another message for us as well. It is not a message of replacement or missed opportunity. It is a call to do the only thing we actually can.

The workers were in a fantasy land. They thought they could attack the messenger who was demanding what was justly owed to the Landowner. They convinced themselves that a group effort of convinced people could illegally revolt in a hostile takeover. They rationalized the owner’s existence right out of existence. And they were wrong. They may have cared (or not) that they were subjects of another, but it didn’t stop them from acting as if they had total dominance and absolute power. And they probably said it was not fair they were kicked off the vineyard while congratulating themselves for sticking to their principles. Their rebellion cost them everything and it cost the owner his son.

Doesn’t it sound serious? This should; this is a heavy message. But without truth, there can be no love. If we don’t care, we can’t love. Pretending that we are good and loving when we are not is no help to us - or those around us. The problem is that those today called to work in the vineyard didn’t.

What a privilege we have, then, to hear this Gospel not because we have failed but because we are still in the vineyard. We are still working in the vineyard as go through our days, deal with our families and friends, and interact with the world at large. The vineyard has not been given to another. We are the workers and our loving Employer has invested a great deal in us – up to and including His own Son. We can forget this at times. We can start to live without reference to God and grow bored by the tedium of the tasks. God is reminding us to keep our perspective. The passing of time can dull and erode our appreciation of what God has given us. We can start to take for granted that God has entrusted this life and this world to us. And we can even – in those thoughtless moments – begin to believe that we are the owners and operators of the universe. To be reminded, even in a warning, of where we stand before God, is a good thing.

There is an advertisement running on TV now that illustrates this very well. On a subway platform there is a knapsack resting against a support beam. You hear the normal sounds of the transit system and see the passing feat of the crowds rushing by. Then the words appear ‘Say something.” It’s chilling and effective. But it is neither harsh nor bombastic. It’s just a reminder of how things are today. And – sadly - it’s needed. Complacency is too high a price in our world today.

The same – equally sadly – is true of our faith. We have been given so much and it cost our Lord everything. But He thought it was worth it – or better, He thought we were worth it. He asks us to think and live the same. He asks us to work and leave the rest up to Him.

Let me end with one of those joyful glimpses of good worker. I recently found a FaceBook page of kids – now adults – who grew up at the time of my first assignment. Incarnation in Washington Heights is a massive parish with many programs and activities. Literally it is a vineyard of thousands of workers. Here is what some wrote as their memories:

…for real...Incarnation was back when things were easy and fun ........we were too young know what life was really like.

I don't have any terrible memories - it was always good...

God smiles when He hears that. It means that the work of the Kingdom is happening. And all our efforts, all our product and even all our mistaken attempts, are His harvest.

And that is a harvest worthy of Heaven.