8/28/2013 – Wednesday of 21st week in Ordinary Time – St Augustine – Matthew 23:27-32

Woe to you, you Scribes and Pharisees, woe to you, you hypocrites.  Jesus sees people who are pious and whitewashed on the outside, but who don’t care much about what is on the inside.  Jesus saw past the exterior of the Pharisees, past their empty rituals, and saw what was lacking on the inside. 

         The Pharisees thought they had all the answers, thought they had figured it out.  In the midst of that, we have St Augustine, the saint whom we celebrate today.  He was a very intellectual boy growing up in a wealthy household in North Africa in the middle of the 4^th century.  Though he had a pagan father, he had a great Christian example in his mother, St Monica.  Yet, as much as Augustine was on a search for God, his search for the fulfillment of his earthly desires and earthly pleasures consumed his life as a youth and young adult.  He founded his own school of philosophy in Rome, but knew that he had not yet found the final destination of his search for God.  The letters of St Paul and his search for spiritual fulfillment finally led him to Christianity at the age of 32.  Augustine’s teacher, St Ambrose, baptized him during the Easter Vigil celebration.  Augustine would later advise the Christian faithful: “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”

         I think it is so appropriate today to speak about St Augustine and his spiritual quest, because as we offer this mass for Betty Montgomery and the repose of her soul, I think of her lifelong spiritual quest and the way she help bring others to the a greater understanding of the faith in the tradition of St Augustine and another one of Betty’s favorite saints – St Ignatius of Loyola.  In fact, just this past spring, Betty made a pilgrimage to Spain to follow in the footsteps of St Ignatius.  I think of how Betty’s love and knowledge of literature helped so many on their own journeys of faith, how she influenced students, friends, colleagues, and fellow searchers in the faith on their own journeys. 

         Writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Flannery O’Connor, Anna Quindlen, and Ann Patchett influenced Betty on her journey.  The Gospel that those authors taught, the Gospel that Betty and Augustine believed in, saw our spiritual journey as being fulfilled in love rather than power, in humility rather than arrogance, in hope rather than despair.  May we all continue in that quest and journey.  And I know that the prayers of Betty, Flannery O’Connor, St Augustine, and all and all of the community of saints will accompany us on the way. 

9/1/2013 – Domingo vigésimo segundo del Tiempo Ordinario – Lucas 14:1, 7-14

      El Evangelio de hoy habla sobre la humildad que necesitamos tener en nuestro viaje de fe como discípulos de Jesucristo.  La palabra "humano" viene de la misma raíz que la palabra "humilde". Las dos palabras proceden del latín "hûmus" que significa "suelo” o “tierra".  Cuando Dios nos creó, no nos hizo desde el cielo – el nos hizo de la tierra.  De la tierra viene nuestra humanidad & nuestra humildad.  Para nosotros como cristianos, la humildad es una característica que siempre tiene que estar presente cada día en nuestra vida de fe.

     ¿Como podemos ser humilde en el sentido de nuestro Evangelio de hoy?  Ser humilde no es tener un carácter débil o cobarde o flojo.  Ser humilde es reconocernos ante Dios y ante nuestros hermanos como somos, sin apariencias, sin imagen falsa.  Sabemos que el orgullo y la ambición pueden llevarnos a un nivel falso, pero, para ser humildes verdaderos, podemos ser más amados por los demás.  En nuestro mundo moderno, muchas personas quieren ser humildes, pero no pueden porque están muy centrados en ellos mismos, porque quieren dar una imagen a los demás que no es verdadera.

     Nuestra pobreza tiene una base en nuestra humildad.  No estamos refiriendo a la pobreza sociológica o económica, pero una pobreza de nuestro espíritu a la que todos estamos llamados.  Los pobres del espíritu no son los frágiles. Ellos dependen de Jesús, ellos respetan a Dios y a su prójimo.  Los pobres del espíritu - los humildes - ellos no buscan el reconocimiento por parte de los demás.  Ellos tienen tiempo para dedicarles a crecer por dentro.

     Necesitamos tener la humildad como la virtud principal de nuestra vida para viajar en el camino de fe.  El ayuno, la oración, la limosna, las obras de caridad, y cualquier otro bien que podamos realizar. Sin humildad no sirven para nada.  Sin una conexión en nuestra fe, pierden su riqueza.  Podemos reflexionar – ¿como podemos vivir la virtud de humildad en nuestra vida de fe?

8/30/2013 – Friday of 21st week in Ordinary Time – Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 10-12

        Rejoice in the Lord, you just – this is what we hear proclaimed in the psalm this morning.  Yet, sometimes is difficult to rejoice in the reality of our lives, in the sufferings and trials that we endure in life. 

         When I was looking at the list of saints for today, I saw the name St Richard Martin.  He was a devout Catholic layperson who was arrested and martyred in the year 1588 for giving shelter to priests during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England when the Catholic Church was outlawed.  Can we imagine having to give up out lives for wanting to live out our faith?  Perhaps with what we see going on in the secular world today, making sacrifices for the faith even up to the point of giving up our lives does not seem so far-fetched.

         There was a time when one had to be a martyr in order to be named a saint.  However, I do think there is a lot to learn from the saints and how they lived their lives.  They are just dusty pages from an old history book or from an old-fashioned faith that doesn’t exist anymore.  Richard Martin and the other Catholics who died while trying to live out their faith in the years after Henry VIII tried to outlaw the Catholic Church in England show us the courage and sacrifices people have made in order to live out their faith and to pass along that faith to others.  We live in a society where sacrifice is often scoffed at.  How are we called to courageously live out our faith and to rejoice in the Lord no matter what our circumstances are in life?

        

         

Ford Water Meter - Mississippi

My friend Marty Belcher from Indianapolis, Indiana sent me this old water meter that was made for a building in Mississippi. It is from the 1930s or 1940s. It was all rusted and he sand blasted it and painted it. Marty knows the Ford family in Wabash, Indiana who still owns the factory that makes these water meter covers. However, I wondered: Why is the Mississippi State Bulldog on it and not Colonel Rebel? As an Ole Miss grad, I was surprised to see the Bulldog! I know all the Mississippi State fans will love this.  Thanks, Marty, for this unique part of history!  I already have a lot of Bulldog fans asking me to leave to them in my will.

9/1/2103 – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary time – Luke 14:1, 7-14

         What's striking about Jesus' mission & ministry is that he never passes up an opportunity to teach us, especially in the ordinary, everyday moments of our lives. In today's Gospel, as Jesus is invited to dinner at the home of an influential Pharisee, he uses this gathering to teach us about how we should be in relationship with God and with each other. Like many of Jesus' teachings, we can apply so much from this simple parable to our own daily lives.

         Jesus tells us, not only should we be the kind of host who invites the poor and outcasts to share a meal, but when we are guests ourselves, we should display humility and grace in not automatically taking the seat of honor.  Jesus tells us: we will be repaid in God's eternal kingdom if we possess humility, if we seek to humble ourselves rather than to be exalted. 

         How we define humility is the key in understanding today’s Gospel.  I’ve recently been reading a book entitled the Six Questions of Socrates by philosopher Christopher Phillips.  The book addresses how we in the modern world define different values such as moderation, justice, the good, courage, piety, and excellence in our lives and how we live out these values.  We can approach humility in the same way that Socrates questioned the very definition of these values.  We can start by thinking how our secular world often defines success in terms of achievement, power, control, and wealth.  Humility is often seen not as a virtue in our world, but rather as a weakness that hinders us from achieving worldly success.  While many view someone who is humble as a doormat or a pushover, Jesus and the early Church saw humility as an important virtue for us to emulate in our journey of faith.

       Roberta Bondi, a Church historian from Emory University in Atlanta, sees humility as the foundational virtue upon which we should build our entire spiritual quest.  We might mistakenly believe that our spirituality is defined by the heroic acts that may happen to us on a rare occasion, but, more than likely, what truly shapes and nurtures our spirituality and our love for others are our day-to-day small acts of service, hospitality, and kindness.   We start to live the Gospel value of humility by seeing others as valuable as we ourselves are in the eyes of God. Gospel humility is a relational virtue that pertains to the way we learn to value others, no matter who they are. In our humility, we empathize with others, rather than judge them out of our own self-righteousness. 

         The word “humility” has its roots in the Latin word “humus,” which means “earth,” “ground,” or “soil.”   As God made the earth, he made us: we draw our life and our breath from that same source of all creation, from the God who made heaven and earth, from the God who loves us and who calls us his beloved. We're all a part of God's good creation. In our earthiness and our humility, we're to interact with our brothers and sisters in mutual dignity and respect, not in a way that is subservient or demeaning.

         Even though we're still in the midst of hot & humid weather here in Mississippi, we're not far away from the season of autumn, when the weather will get cooler and the leaves on the trees will start to die and fall to the ground.  The decaying leaves will bring nutrients to the soil and will nourish the beautiful azaleas and dogwoods that bloom in the spring. 

         Just as the new life of springtime won't be created if the leaves don’t fall and decay in the fall, our pride and desire to always be in control must fall away in order for us to live out a sense of Gospel holiness and humility with Jesus as our model.  As we practice humility in our lives, we will make room for the surprising ways God's graces will enfold: beyond what we can imagine and what we can expect, beyond what we can desire, as God touches our lives and helps us to reach out to others. 

         As we go about our week bombarded by so many messages and so much information, may we make time to reflect upon the Gospel message we receive in mass each Sunday. This week, let us reflect upon how we are challenged to incorporate this simple, earthy Gospel virtue of humility in our lives, especially in the ways we offer and receive hospitality in relationship to God and to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

8/29/2013 – The Passion of John the Baptist – Thursday of 21st week in Ordinary Time – Mark 6:17-29

Today’s memorial commemoration used to be referred to as the Martyrdom of John the Baptist, but the name has been changed to the Passion of John the Baptist, which is similar to the way we refer to the Passion Of Jesus.  We think about how passionate John the Baptist is in proclaiming the Kingdom of God and in paving the way for Jesus.  One of my professors in seminary, and many other Old Testament Scripture scholars, believe that John the Baptist was raised in the community of the Essenes, that mystical Jewish community that lived near the Dead Sea and that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. John was the last in the line of the prophets who brought God’s message to the people of Israel and who were precursors for Jesus’ life and ministry.

         Herod had a lot of respect for John the Baptist, for he knew him to be a righteous man.  Yet, Herod feared John the Baptist because Herod knew that he preached the truth.  Speaking the truth cost John the Baptist his life, but he had the courage to not back down from the mission God gave to him.  The prophets of our Christian faith today have the same courage and tenacity.  We hear Pope Francis being very bold and courageous in the way he is challenging the secular world today.

         May we all be able to emulate John the Baptist in the way we live out our faith.  May we boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives through our words and our actions, in truth and in love.  At some point, all of us will have to pay a cost for our faith.  May we be not afraid to do so.     

8/27/2013 – Tuesday of 26th week in ordinary time – St Monica – Matthew 22:23-26

    It is not often that we celebrate mother and son saints in the Church, but today and tomorrow we celebrate a mother and her son who each have their own saint days in the official calendar of the Roman Catholic Church – St Monica and St Augustine.  The fact that St Augustine is one of our Church’s most influential theologians is almost overshadowed by the fact that the prayers of his beloved mother are credited with bringing him to the faith after a lifetime of being outside of the faith and leading a very pleasure-filled lifestyle and a youth and as a young adult.  Monica lived in North Africa in the 4^th century, being the Christian wife of a pagan husband. Many mothers who pray for the return of their children to the faith identify with tenacious prayers of St Monica.  Monica was patient in her prayers for her son.  She never gave up on him. If a lot of us think of our own faith and the faith we see in close family members and friends, we can see a person of faith who was an influence both in prayers and by example. 

         The Gospel today shows Jesus confronting the hypocrisy that he sees in people.  He is especially hard on the Scribes and the Pharisees.  He sees that doing things that don’t ultimately matter, while neglecting and criticizing what matters most in a life of faith.  Worse yet, they lead others astray. 

         There is a lot in this world that can indeed lead us astray.  Then we have the examples of faith in our lives such as St Monica.  As we honor Monica today, let us remember the many prayers of mothers and grandmothers who have had such an influence on our lives of faith.