Pray with the heart of a tax collector, Homily 30th Sunday Ordinary Time, cycle C

   This week’s Gospel focuses where our heart needs to be when we pray to God, and our dependence on God. We have two very contrasting figures, a Pharisee and a tax collector.  The Pharisees were the religious leaders at the time of Jesus.  They went to great lengths abiding by the Jewish law, going above and beyond what was called for.  They were revered in the community for their religious piety. The tax collector was a Jew who worked for the occupying Romans.   He made his money from his fellow Jews by collecting above the required taxes for the Romans.   Tax collectors were despised by the Jews as they were considered traitors.  Pharisee and tax collectors were viewed as complete opposites in the culture, the righteous versus sinner. 

    Their prayers were quite different as well, but not what the culture expected. The Pharisee’s prayer was to himself, citing his accomplishments in following the law and not being like others

who were sinful like the tax collector.  He was justifying himself based on His own actions and did not seem to have a need for God.  His heart was closed in on himself and had little mercy for others. The tax collector was far off with his eyes cast down and beat his breast praying: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.   He was humbly requesting for God’s mercy in his poverty of spirit, aware of his sinfulness and his need for God’s mercy. The tax collector depended on God and the Pharisee depended on himself. Jesus tells us that the tax collector was the one who went away justified. This is exactly the opposite of what the Jewish culture perceived. God’s ways are not our ways.

We all need God no matter what our state is in the world, because we are all poor sinners, and need God’s mercy. If we humbly approach God in our poverty with a contrite heart humbly admitting our sins, our prayers are powerful. As we heard in Sirach,  “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;  it does not rest till it reaches its goal,  nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds.” Approaching God with humility is where our heart should be when we come to God in prayer.  

        The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the tax collector as the model of righteous and pure prayer.  I’ve recently added this prayer to my own prayer at the end of the day. I begin with an examination of conscience of how the day went and recall the events of the day where I failed, and realize I may forget or not recognize somethings I did as being sinful. And sometimes I just too tired to a good examination as surrender with the prayer: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.

Each time we come to Mass we are given the opportunity to come humbly before God to admit our sin.  After we pray sign of the cross and the priest greets us, he then calls us to acknowledge our sinfulness and need for God’s forgiveness, Before we come to Mass it’s a good idea reflect on when we have not been loving to God and our neighbor. Where we failed to with our family, friends, work or school, or in our own relationship with Christ, during the week:  What were the  things we thought about, acts we committed, or things we failed to do that were not loving?When we recall our sins we confessing what has gone on throughout the week that has hurt our relationship with God. Part of what we’re experiencing in the Mass is a sacrifice The Mass requires the priest purifies his hands, as any priest would in the Old Testament before a sacrifice. When we confess our sins at the start of Mass we perform a similar action to cleans our hearts before receiving the Eucharist. This act forgives our venial sin in our lives, which weakens our relationship with Christ. If we have mortal sin, which is a serious sin that breaks our relationship with God, we need go to confession to be forgiven, before receiving communion. As Communion we are fed with Christ’s, Body and Blood which provides us the grace we need to love and overcome sin. Isn’t it beautiful that at every Mass we can ask for and receive God’s to deal with the sin in our life?        

We need God and His tender mercy. We can’t do it alone. So when we pray have a humble heart like the tax collector remembering that the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds for God to grant us His mercy.

Are you a fan or following? Twenty Third Sunday, cycle C

     Who here has every binged watched a TV series? If you are not familiar with the term, it has to do with watching multiple episodes of a TV series in one sitting. My wife and I have been binge watching a series called the Chosen. It’s about the life of Jesus and the call of his disciples to follow Him. The one thing I like about the series is that it really brings to life the character of the disciples and their struggles they had in following Jesus. They try and do their best, and fail many times, but Jesus keeps welcoming them to follow him. If you have not watched the series I’d encourage you to check it out.     

    The are several scenes from the Chosen that remind me of today’s Gospel where Jesus is

surrounded by a large crowd so they can witness Jesus perform miracles.   I would call these crowds fans of Jesus, and not really his disciples. Being a fan is easy and can be an escape from our daily routine. You can go to a show, concert, or game to be in the crowd to cheer on your favorite celebrity, music group, or team and then go home and then get back to your daily routine.   You don’t need to make a change in your life, to be a fan..

Being a true follower, a disciple, is hard as it comes at a cost. It requires a commitment that requires hard work on a daily basis. I think Jesus wanted to challenge the crowds to see if they were ready to accept the call to follow his way as a disciple.

Jesus challenged them with three conditions to be His disciple. The first sounds quite harsh, hating your family and even your own life. In the Hebrew culture of the time the word hate had a different meaning than it does today.  Hate meant to give lesser priority. So Jesus is requiring to put family relationships and even their own lives, behind him. By having a relationship Jesus as first priority our family relationship and lives will be richer.

The second condition is to be willing to suffer for Jesus, by carrying your own cross. How can we do this? By being willing to live as a Christian witness in the world. It may be a doctor, nurse, or other health care worker refusing to participate in procedures related to abortion, sterilization, or assisted suicide, at risk loss of their jobs. It could be standing up for racial justice or non-violence with co-workers during your conversations at lunch, were you might be ridiculed. It may be giving up a Saturday morning once a month to volunteer at a food pantry instead of going to the gym.

If we live as a Christian in the world we will suffer, but we will gain in peace of the hope of eternal life promised by Jesus. The third condition to follow Jesus is to renounce all your possessions. This sounds extremely difficult as we need certain things to live: our home, cars, and money to buy food and medical care.  Do we really need to give all of those up all in order to be a disciple of Jesus? Maybe a few who join religious communities that make a vow of poverty to follow Jesus. May need to do that. But most of us still need some of those possessions in order to live our lives. Jesus is asking us to surrender from those possessions from possessing us, and being satisfied with just enough to sustain our lives.

About twenty years ago I was more of a fan than a follower of Jesus.  I would come to Mass almost every Sunday, but it just one of the activities in my busy life. My top priority was my job so I could make a lot of money to buy all the latest things and engage in experiences for me and my family.

But I had no peace in my life, because I was always striving for more, and I had little time for a relationship with Jesus. A friend from Church invited me to attend a Welcome retreat, but I had little interest as cost me time from my job and family. I reluctantly went on the retreat and it opened me up to listen to the Jesus and to follow as his disciple  After the retreat I made Jesus first priority in my life and found that peace that was lacking. I began a daily relationship with Jesus in prayer and trying to follow his way of being His disciple.    I dedicated time to serving others going on a parish mission trips to Appalachia and serving at Saint Vincent DePaul. I eventually left my job and found one that more compatible with being a disciple of Jesus. This eventually led me to be open to the call to serve in the diaconate. I was no longer just a fan of Jesus, I was dedicated to being a follower as his disciple.

In choosing to be a disciple of Jesus it requires assess the cost of doing so, just like the person who calculated the cost to build the tower in the Gospel in order to finish the job I’ve had to reassess my own life over the years to make sure I’m keeping Jesus first priority in my life  It’s not just a one-time decision to follow Jesus as his disciple. I’ve had to make some adjustments multiple times over the years to keep Jesus first in my life.   

If we want to be more than just a fan of Jesus, we can ask for God’s wisdom in prayer to help in listening of how to keep Jesus as top priority so we can live more intentionally as his disciples.   We might be called to do something new in our lives that may come at a cost.  It might be to volunteer our time in such as serving in ministry as a youth catechist or helping feed the hungry in the food pantry. It may be a call to be more loving to our spouse, to more fully live out our vocation of Christian marriage It may require us to be open to consider a call to the diaconate, priesthood, or serving in a religious community. It may be to have the courage to be a more Christian witness to defending the poor and social justice with those you work or go to school.  All these examples may come at a cost, but will give us a greater sense of peace in having Jesus first priority in living as His disciples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving behind to make God first, Homily 13th Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle C

He was a young man who was the life of the party.    Everyone loved being around him. He was a leader of a group called the “Merrymakers”. As the son of a wealthy businessman from an upper middle-class family, he had the means to buy the best wines for he and his friends to frolic late into the night. After getting bored with all the partying after a few, his interest turned to great military adventures, to win battles against the foes threatening his country. This adventure didn’t turn out as he planned and resulted in imprisonment, sickness, and disillusionment.   He had a dream that led him to follow a new way of life, to serve the “great King”.  It was an encounter in least unexpected way that would lead him to the King he was seeking.

Elisha today has an unexpected encounter with the prophet Elijah.  Elijah was a great prophet to the Kings of Judah leading them to follow the true God. He heard from the Lord that

he was to anoint Elisha to succeed him. Elisha was most likely from a wealthy family as he was in the field plowing a field with twelve oxen. He was probably content, living well, going about his family business when Elijah comes over and places his cloak on him. This action signified Elijah’s passing on his role as God’s prophet to the younger Elisha. 

Elijah was well known as the prophet of God in the community, and this probably caught Elisha off guard that he was being called to serve God. His response was to leave his oxen, his family livelihood, which showed his willingness to serve God, but he wanted to say goodbye to his family. The prophet Elijah rebukes him. Elisha then commits to serving God by slaughtering the oxen and burning yokes as fuel to cook them for a feast for the people. Elisha left behind his old way of life, so he could serve God as Elijah’s attendant, and eventually becoming his successor.  Sometimes God calls us when we least expect it. When that call comes, will we be ready to leave behind what keeps us from making God first priority in our life?

Elisha’s call elicited a total commitment to serve God.   He gave up everything, his livelihood and family, to follow the call of Elisha This is a great example of putting God first above everything else in his life. Are we called to do the same?

As Christians we are called to live as disciples of Jesus. We are empowered to do so by the grace of our Baptism where we first became adopted children of God and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation we received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. These two sacraments provide the grace giving us freedom to live as Jesus Disciples by loving your neighbor as yourself.  We know how hard it can be to love our neighbor, who many times are not that loving to us.

Especially when they cut us off while driving on the freeway, gossip about us to hurt our reputation, or cheat their way into getting a promotion.

They are acting in ways of the culture, putting me first, rather than thinking about others. When these things happen, we may want to respond in anger, to get back at them. But as Christian disciples we are called to love rather than to retaliate, and the Holy Spirit make it possible to be loving. 

To live as Jesus’ disciples showing love for our neighbor, we need to listen to the call like Elisha did to make God first priority in our life.   We do this by leaving behind the things in our lives that keep us from following God first in our life.  What are the things that hinder us from doing so? The culture we live in pushes us to prioritize things over a relationship with God. Our time is consumed by entertainment and pleasure, so we don’t have time to pray. We’re enticed to want things that are bigger, better, and newer so we’re consumed to buy more things, and we’re never satisfied. We may be bored in our relationships, so we see out others to make life more interesting. But all of these things take us away from our top priority, a relationship with God. What are the things in our lives that we can leave behind, so we can hear the call of God?

Returning to the story of the young man, he was traveling across town to visit his friends and was contemplating his life with the King. He took the long way around the leper hospital to encountering them, for fear of catching the disease.

The young man was particularly repulsed by lepers and avoided them at all costs. 

The horse the young man rode suddenly veered off the path, and there a few steps before him appeared a leper.  The young man was horrified at first, but something came over him. He sprang from his horse, placed the alms he was carrying in the leper’s hand, and kissed his hand.  When he got back on the horse to ride away, he was filled with excitement. The young man was St. Francis who had encountered the Lord his King, in the leper. He did so by showing love to his neighbor, as Christ’s disciple.

Both Elisha and St. Francis left behind things so they could put God first in their lives. Pray to be open to hear the call of God and make him first in your life to live as a Disciple of Jesus, loving God and neighbor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Peace of Jesus, Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter, Cycle

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus told his disciples, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. This is something the disciples needed to hear, because Jesus just told them he was going away. In fact, Jesus told his disciples that they should be rejoicing that he’s going away. Why would Jesus tell his disciples to rejoice that he was leaving them? Because the gift of the Holy Spirit was being sent to them after Jesus to ascends to be with his Father. This was something they didn’t fully understand at the time, but it would be something they’d remember later with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We’ve been hearing a lot about the Holy Spirit throughout the Easter season in the Acts of the Apostles. In today’s first reading we hear about the Holy Spirit at work among the

Christian leaders at the council of Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas had been preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles with much success. But there were some Jewish converts to Christianity from Judea who were trying to impose the circumcision on the Gentiles in order to become Christian. They were placing a significant burden on the Gentiles to become members of the Christian faith.  Paul and Barnabas opposed this practice and decided to go to Jerusalem and address these issues with the leaders. It came to pass through the decision of the Holy Spirit and the leaders of the Church not to impose circumcision on the Gentile, but only some limited dietary and marriage restrictions. This decision removed a major hurdle for the Gentiles to become members of the Church and helped foster the growth to nations throughout the world. This is a great witness of how the Holy Spirit can bring unity and peace for the good of those who have faith in Jesus to come into the Church.

In the Gospel Jesus tells the disciples that the Father will be sending the Holy Spirit to them.  The Holy Spirit will teach them everything and remind them of everything Jesus told them.  Jesus also extends them his peace, telling them, “Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.”

The world defines peace as an absence of strife, trials, and tribulations. While this type of peace is something we all desire, it won’t be fully realized because we live in a broken world, until Christ returns in his Glory,  A Jesus’ disciples we will experience the challenges of living in this broken world. But through our faith in Christ, we have the peace he gives us through the hope of eternal life that he gained for us by his sacrifice of love.

While we are still waiting for the Kingdom of God to be fully ushered in, we can help to bring about peace by loving God and our neighbor.  We’re empowered to do this through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Most of us here have received the Holy Spirit through Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. The Holy Spirit helps us to cooperate in following God’s will though the gifts of the wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and respect for the Lord.   The Holy Spirit enables us to be loving through our acts of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.  The Holy Spirit also helps us to love Jesus by keeping the his word. Jesus tells us that if we love him, that he and the Father will make his dwelling in us.  What a beautiful image this is that the Father and Jesus are in us by keeping his word! When we’re tempted do things that separate us from the love of Jesus why not call on the Holy Spirit in prayer for the strength to keep us in his love.  And if we fail to love God, don’t hesitate to return to his love by asking for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  On our own it can be impossible for us to fully love God and our neighbor as we should, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we have the gifts that make it possible. 

One thing that we all can do to help bring about the peace that Jesus gives us is to call on the Holy Spirit in prayer. I’ve found that praying for the Holy Spirit’s help in difficult situations helps things go much better than if I didn’t. There is a simple prayer that I’ll offer you to pray: Come Holy Spirit Come. This prayer has helped me, and I hope it helps you.

So don’t let your heart be troubled because of Jesus is going away! Rejoice and be glad for the gift of the Holy Spirit, to help us in being loving disciples of Jesus to bring his peace to the world.