God's mercy is scandalous, Homily, Week 11, Cycle C

God’s mercy is scandalous.   Or so it appears from the perspective of how the world looks at David and the sinful woman. David was a great King, but he had his faults.  He had everything, but it wasn’t enough.  He desired Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, so he had him killed.  David committed adultery and murder, two grave sins.  We don’t exactly know the sin of the woman in the Gospel, but its suspected she was a prostitute who committed adultery. The Pharisee judges her to be a sinner and doubts Jesus’ status as a prophet since he let her touch him. So we have two people guilty of grave sins: adultery and a murder.  The punishment for these sins at the time was death by stoning.  So what does God do?   He forgives both of them: a scandal, from the world’s perspective. But not from a God who extends his mercy. 

David and the woman provide a good model in receiving God’s Mercy by their humility, faith, and gratitude.  When Nathan confronted David for his misdeeds, David didn’t respond in defense.   He humbly admitted: “I have sinned against the Lord”.  Admitting your sins can be something that’s very hard to do.   It takes humility to admit you’ve done something wrong.  It’s especially a challenge in our culture today, where there is very little sense of sin.  Living a sinful lifestyle seems to be the norm and accepted if you follow the secular media and entertainment in today’s world. But if you have David’s humility to examine your life and admit sin, you can hear Nathan’s words to David: ”The LORD on his part have forgiven your sin: you shall not die”.  All you have to do is to go to confession.

The sinful woman showed great faith in Jesus’ power to forgive.   She was so confident in Jesus’ ability to forgive she risked showing up as an unwelcome guest to

express her gratitude.  Due to her faith, Jesus forgave her. Now it may have seemed like Jesus forgave the woman because of the great love she showed him.  But it’s really the other way around.  The woman was showing great love for Jesus in gratitude for his forgiving her sins.  We can’t earn forgiveness. Forgiveness is a free gift from God.  God forgives us because he loves us, not because we love him.  Our love for him is a response to the grace given to us through His mercy. 

It’s essential for us to recognize our sinfulness, so we can receive God’s Mercy.  In doing so we can also be instruments of God’s mercy.   Two lines from today’s Gospel really hit home on this for me:  Jesus said: So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.  The Pharisee, Simon, showed little love for Jesus, because he thought he was righteous.  This was obvious by his lack of hospitality.  He showed little love for the woman.  His judgment of her made this clear. He could use a little humility and faith, so he could be grateful and show great love.

This year Pope Francis has declared an Extraordinary Jubilee Year dedicated to Mercy.   The theme of this Jubilee is “Merciful Like the Father”. Pope Francis has done this to make the world more aware of the infinite mercy of God.  As part of the Year of Mercy each diocese throughout the world has a Holy Door of Mercy that anyone can make a pilgrimage to pass through. By passing through the Holy Door of Mercy you’re able to receive a plenary indulgence.  We have two Holy Doors of Mercy in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, one at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral in downtown Indianapolis and another at St. Meinrad Archabbey in St. Meinrad, IN.  In order to receive the plenary indulgence you need to make a profession of faith, pray for the pope and his intentions, and receive Holy Communion and confession within 20 days of passing through the door.  An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.  The indulgence can be applied to yourself or to someone who has died. Making a pilgrimage to one of the Holy Doors of Mercy can be a great way to experience God’s mercy in a profound way.

We’re all welcome to receive God’s Mercy.  We may feel we’re in right relationship with God and have no need to confess our sins. But if we don’t make the effort to go to the sacrament of reconciliation we will miss the grace of receiving God’s mercy.  Has it been a while since you’ve received the sacrament of reconciliation?  If so pray for humility and faith to help you go. Let the priest know if it’s been a while since your received the sacrament.  He will help you through.  If you’re concerned about your sins, don’t worry. Remember, God’s Mercy is scandalous.  Receiving God’s Mercy will heal your soul and help you to share great love with others.

Homily, Pentecost, "Come Holy Spirit, Come", Cycle C, May 15, 2016

Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost which known as the birth of the Church.  Why would this day be called the birthday of the Church?   Because it’s the day when the Holy Spirit was sent spread the good news of Jesus as the Christ to the many nations gathered in Jerusalem.  In the first reading from Acts we hear about many Jews who had came to Jerusalem celebrate Pentecost.  Pentecost was a Jewish feast 50 days after Passover to commemorate when Moses received the Law from God at Mt. Sinai.   This feast had been going on for over 3000 years.  We heard that, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and many others were gathered in Jerusalem at the time.   Even though they were all Jews thy all didn’t speak the same language.  

The disciples were all in Jerusalem as Jesus had instructed them.   Jesus told them just before he ascended they would be baptized by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit came in dramatic fashion, making a loud like driving wind and appearing as tongues of fire above them.  The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the gift to speak to the Jews in their own languages so they could understand the good news of Jesus as the Christ.  This brought about the unity of Jews of many nations to belief in Jesus.   This was like a reversal of the events that had occurred at Babel thousand of year before.  Babel was the place where God had confused the languages of the people due prideful ways and caused disunity.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to the restore unity of the separated people through the belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior.   They now shared a common foundation of Life giving Truth. When the Jews returned from Jerusalem to share the good news of Jesus this started the growth of the Church to the Jews of many nationalities.

Today the Church continues to grow and is present throughout the entire world through the power of the Holy Spirit.   The Church does this by reminding and teaching us through the sacraments of the Church. We are reminded of Jesus sacrifice every Sunday through the memorial of the Mass.  At Mass we are learn about Jesus through the Scripture and homily.  We affirm our beliefs in the Church by reciting the Creed. The Eucharist spiritually nourishes us to grow in union with Christ.  The Church empowers us, the Body of Christ, to be witnesses to others by our actions and words.   This helps us to grow the Church by attracting others by our way of life, loving God and our neighbor. 

During this Easter Season we’ve witnessed how the sacraments grow the Church. At the Easter Vigil we added 20 new members to our parish through the grace of Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation. There were over thousand people who came into the Church in Central and Southern Indiana this Easter.   We’ve also had many youth who were confirmed at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral just this last month.  Our youth were empowered with the fullness of the Holy Spirit to spread the growth of the Church through each of the their unique individual gifts.

How is the Holy Spirit at work in us today to help grow the Church?    We live in America and most of us don’t have the opportunity to encounter many people who don’t speak our language. We may all speak English, but there are many people we encounter who don’t know the Christian way of life or believe in Jesus.  Think about people and experiences you encounter every day.   It may be co-worker that is always negative and complaining.   Or possibly some kids at school that excludes others at the lunch table or at recess.   Maybe you have a supervisor that is always treats people unfairly.  Do you see people ignoring the homeless person sitting on the corner on the way to your office every day?  Are there friends or loved ones in your life that don’t go to church anymore?

These are all opportunities to call on the Holy Spirit to act or speak in the right way to build up the body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit might compel you to say something or do something to reach out to a person in need or to share your faith.   It may even tell you to wait and pray for them.  The important thing is to remember to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. There is a favorite prayer I like to prayer in situations like these to call on the Holy Spirit for help.   It’s very short: Come Holy Spirit, Come.   This prayer to the Holy Spirit will help you to use the gifts you received at baptism and confirmation.   I pray this quite often when I’m at a loss of what to say or do. Each time I preach or proclaim the Gospel I try to always pray for the help of the Holy Spirit. There’s been many times I’ve preached with a certain message in mind and someone will tell me how the homily spoke to them in a totally different way than I intended.  I’m amazed the way the Holy Spirit works and give praise to the Holy Spirit for providing the help.  

Jesus told his disciples: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.  So please remember to call on the Holy Spirit who is there always to empower and help us