Twentieth Sunday in OT C  2019

Jesus said to his disciples:  “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”...  Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This Gospel imperative runs in the face of a more compassionate pastoral approach to ministry.  To become a member of the Church of the Holy Spirit, you simply need to be breathing and fill out a census card.  It is very, very easy.  I try to short circuit the hoops that people sometimes need to go through in the Catholic Church.  My mother taught me always to be kind and trust that God’s love will be revealed.

If your body is in the Church today, you get a gold star from me as being a very active member of Holy Spirit.  After all, there are many parishioners who are not here today.  It’s still summer.  So, congratulations.

However, however, I am not the final word on discipleship of the Lord Jesus.   Jesus is!  Jesus, of course, is the Savior and Lord of our lives.  For Jesus, being here on Sunday is just the beginning of our discipleship.  There is much more expected of me and much more to be expected of you.   Jesus expected the same prophetic fire that burned in him to burn also in the hearts of his followers.

You may have heard the expression “cheap grace.”  This is the grace we seek as Catholics without ever troubling ourselves about the need to move beyond our comfort zone in the ways we live out the message of Jesus.  The truth is there is no such thing as cheap grace.

In answering the call to follow Jesus, we are in for rude awakening as to the cost of discipleship.  We need to look no further than the crucifix to witness the extent of the giving love of Jesus.  He gave us His life.  The cost of discipleship for us is to witness to the kind of giving love that Jesus has given us.

As we read in today’s Gospel, Jesus has come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing.”

The flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  We need to be advocates for the peace and justice that characterizes a Gospel way of living.  But also the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  Jesus is a God of mercy and compassion.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.   None of us get a free pass from reflecting on the cost of discipleship.

As a priest today, in the midst of the dark cloud of clergy sexual abuse and where there is considerable anger in the Church, I ask myself where is God to be found?  Maybe, just maybe, the Church is in need of purification. I think back 51 years when I was first ordained a priest, quite frankly, perhaps, that was a time of privilege for priests.  It was far easier to live the Gospel and to be a priest.  For some, you were held up on a pedestal.  Now is another time in a darker chapter of the Church, it is more challenging to be a priest.  It is not a time of clerical privilege; in fact, there can be a suspicious attitude toward the clerical lifestyle.  We stand in need of purification. 

In a curious way, this is an opportunity for me and the whole Church to be a follower of Christ crucified --- the Jesus who was mocked and scourged and given a crown of thorns and died an ignominious death.

Never confuse God – or what is holy – with current cultural religion which worships the included, the glamorous, the ones who aren’t shamed and ridiculed, and the ones who seem important and indispensable. 

The God we worship is the God who died on the cross and was hated and spat upon.

Where is God?  God is on the side of the victim, standing with the one who is excluded, and specially present in the one being ridiculed and dying and in the one who is being put to death.

The truth is we are all sinners.  Imagine yourself in conversation with Jesus, what truths do you need to share with Jesus about your need for God’s forgiveness – what about our failure to share more fully with those who are in need; how much of our income do we tithe; do we have time for God in our prayer life or are too busy; what kind of judgments or gossip are hurtful to others; how selfish are we in using our God-given gift of sexuality?

Thanks be to God, the truth of our life is also that God forgives any and all of our sinfulness and invites to rejoice and trust in God’s healing love for us. 

The truth is to belong to the faith community of Holy Spirit demands much more that filling out a registration card.  It is the commitment to make Jesus the center of our life and to be sent forth to proclaim the love of Jesus in all we say and do.

May we pray:  Holy Spirit, flame of God, hover over each of us as you did for the followers of Jesus at the first Pentecost. 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Again, the flame of God can be frightening in that it demands a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation.  And the fire of this love is that fire that also warms and comforts.  The truth is:  Jesus has come to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

What is the grace that you ask for today?  Ask the Lord to enkindle within you the fire of God’s love.

Have a Blessed Day.

Have a Blessed Day.

Faith is not merely us holding on to God -- it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

One night a house caught fire and a young little boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." Hearing this, the boy jumped. He jumped because he trusted his father.

Can we place ourselves in the mind and heart of this boy as his dad is telling him to jump?  What about when we face life situations of sickness, death, brokenness in relationships, and we are gripped by fear, are we able to trust in God as a loving Father in the same way as the young boy who jumped off the roof into the arms of his father?    Faith is the willingness to risk, to jump when we are not in control and to trust that we are in the hands of God.

Our faith in Jesus calls us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known. Faith is not merely us holding on to God -- it is God holding on to us. And He will never let us go!

God is holding onto to us in both the green pastures and the dark valleys of life.  Faith is our seeing in trust.

In the Second Reading of today, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks about two faith-filled people, Abraham and Sarah. He recalls how our early faith ancestors placed their trust in God.  Abraham and Sarah left their comfortable home and set out for an unknown land because God called them. They passed through great deserts and villages full of strangers; dwelt in temporary shelters along the way.  When God promised them that their descendents would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea, they were old enough to be great-grandparents and Sarah too was sterile. Even though for so long they saw no fulfillment of the promise, they believed. They had the virtue of faith, a lasting confidence that God's Word would be fulfilled someday.

And when God finally granted them a son, He asked Abraham to sacrifice him and still continue to believe, to trust, and to hope that the promise would still somehow be accomplished.  Abraham, faithfully listening to the Word of God, 'hoped against hope' that his son would be restored to him, even as he was willing to sacrifice him. It is shocking  to think that somebody was willing to sacrifice his own son to God. Essentially, Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son is an act of trust, of faith, in which he was proved right. We consider Abraham our father in faith, and he is a model for our own times – he took great risks; he had no agenda other than his faithful obedience to the God in whom he trusted completely.

The gift of faith was life changing for Abraham.  He relied completely on the steady reality of God’s loving kindness.  On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your trust in God in your challenging life situations as did Abraham?

Trust is difficult for us today, is it not?  Relying on someone else involves a risk, and we have been disappointed so often.

In the world that we live in which that are deadly random shootings of innocent people as in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, in a political world in which decency and civil dialogue is hard to come by, in our society in which too many relationships have been broken,  is there any room left for trust?  In our Church, is trust the defining characteristic of who we are as the disciples of Jesus or is the lack of trust more of a reality in our Church today? 

In our St. Joseph’s School Advisory Board meeting last Monday evening, we were asking the question whether the fact that we are a faith-based school makes for a marketing plus or a marketing minus.

This leads us to ask the question:  Do you see yourself as a person of faith and what does that mean for you?

As a person of faith, does it mean that you practice considerable spiritual disciplines?  Does is mean that you are a very moral person?  Does it mean that you keep all the rules and the commandments?  What does it mean?

First and foremost, a person of faith is a person of trust.  That young boy on the roof of the house  risked jumping – trusting that his dad will keep him safe.  The boy had faith in his dad.  Our faith question is do we have that same kind of faith and trust in Jesus in the frightening circumstances of our lives.  For Abraham and Sarah in the second Scripture reading today, their faith was life changing – such was their trust in God’s loving kindness.

While all of us need to humbly say:  “Be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”  Does our faith lead us to risk and trust that Jesus goes with us in all circumstances of life?

Without faith, we live in a very scary world.  As a person of faith, our future is full of hope no matter what circumstances in life we are facing.  We are always surrounded and lifted up by a loving God.  This is not too good to be true.  This is the truth of our lives.  This is the meaning of our faith.

For me, the jewel of St. Joseph’s Church and St. Joseph’s School is we are a people of faith.  Jesus is the North Star of our lives.  The sun rises each morning in the heart of one who trusts in Jesus.  For me, no matter what the tuition of our school is, you cannot put a price on our children being fashioned after the mind and heart of Jesus.

In the big scheme of things, at the end of the day, what are we waiting for?  What is your hope for the future?  What is your ideal retirement?  Would it be wealth or power or pleasure? 

Jesus warns us that material possessions can capture our heart, not allowing us to be free to follow him.  Jesus challenges us to reveal what it is we truly value --  may we truly value loving and being loved.  In faith, we are loved by Jesus completely and unconditionally.  May we find the fulfillment we are looking for in the ways we love and serve one another.

Have a blessed day.

                                                     

Does our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?

In today’s Gospel’s parable, an exceptionally good harvest made a rich farmer even richer.  The lesson of the parable leaves us with the question.  What is the farmer to do with the abundance of crops?  It never occurs to him to do anything with them except to keep them.  His problem then is simply is where to keep them, and the solution is a major building program on the farm.

The gospel message is:  Do not let greed take you over.  Easily, it will become your goal in life.  Give it free reign, and it will become the God you serve.

The learning for us as we pray over this parable is not where to store the crops but how can they be used to give honor to God?  How can they be used in the service of others?

As we pray this morning, what are our abundant crops that we are blessed with?   What talent, what possessions, and what wealth do we have?  The Gospel question for each of us is what we do with what we have?

In the parable, wealth, in and of itself, is not being maligned.  Rather, the appropriate use of wealth remains a challenge. 

The story is told about the wealth of John D Rockefeller.  When he died, many were curious as to Rockefeller’s monetary worth.  So curious was one man that he scheduled an appointment with Rockefeller’s chief financial aide and asked, “How much did he leave behind?”  Without hesitation, the aide replied, “He left all of it.”

As with the rich farmer featured in today’s Gospel, Rockefeller’s millions did not pass with him to the next life.  Just as the budging bins of grain would have been better shared than stored away, our mission in life is to be found in our relationship with God and in our relationship with one another.  Everything we have is for the sharing.  This is Gospel stewardship.

The seduction that can trap any of us is to think that our security is to be found in our possessions.  Rather the message of Jesus is that our spiritual security is to found in a life of gratitude, living with an attitude of gratitude. 

In today’s Gospel, someone in the crowd said to Jesus:  “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”  Sharing and gratitude are such important life lessons.  I had the privilege to spend some time last week with my niece Emily.  Emily and her husband have five children – ages ranging from 11 to 2 years old    -- three boys and two girls.  As you can imagine, the life lesson of teaching children to share is sometimes a bit of a challenge.    The movement from “this is mine and don’t touch it” to sharing what we have with each other is a beautiful parental challenge, is it not?  This movement to sharing among my five grandnieces and grandnephews is the spiritual challenge for all of us and is the message of today’s Gospel?

Does our prayer life reflect that we seek to give back to God the giftedness that we have been given.  Do we find the deepest meaning to life in all the ways we share ourselves in the service of others and in gratitude for the blessings of life?

The beginning of the parable has only one character living in his own world, making plans and anticipating the future as though he were entirely in control of it.  The abrupt divine intervention is the more startling because this is the only Gospel parable in which God Himself appears as a character and speaks.  The significance of this emerges when we notice that this story is about a man who thinks he can write his own story.  That is the value of his wealth for him: it gives him control over the future that enables him to say his story is going to go on.

The farmer’s fatal flaw is to believe that power comes from possessions.  This gave him a false sense of security.   The rich man understands security in terms of abundant wealth.   This control over life is an illusion.  The message of the parable is to beware of the seduction of wealth.  It provides the illusion that we are in control of our lives.  The rich man of the parable discovers in shock that it is God who really writes the story of his life.  The grace we seek is the spiritual awareness that God writes the story of our lives, and that all is a gift of God and all that we have is for the sharing.

We tend to think we can provide for our own future, but the Gospel reminds us that the future is God’s.   Our true inheritance is neither more possessions nor security but life with God.  All is a gift of God.  All that we have is for the sharing.  What is the vision by which we shall live?  Is our vision fixed on the person and the mission of Jesus?

From the first Scripture from the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is the clear message that obsession with the things of this world will never lead to happiness.  “Vanity of vanities.  All things are vanity.”

Yes, we need to be aware of the seduction of greed that keeps from giving back to God in gratitude.  This is such an important truth.  Even more important that going to your medicine cabinet for the right pill to cure what ails us, gratitude heals.  Further, sincere gratitude for what we have makes us less likely to covet what we don’t.

As we give thanks for all that we have, let us remember to be grateful for the gift of Eucharist.  The reason why we gather at Eucharist Sunday after Sunday after Sunday is to give thanks to the Lord our God.  When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we indeed are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

Does our security and our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?  This is such a fundamental spiritual challenge for all of us.

Have a blessed day.