11/6/2011 – Homily for 32nd week of ordinary time – Wisdom 6:12-16

         When I was in seminary, we had to take many, many courses in philosophy.  Since the medieval period, when the training of priests became more standardized in our Church, the study of philosophy has been at the foundation of our training as priests.  I remember taking a course on the great medieval philosophers of the Church, using this huge two volume textbook set that included all of their essential writings, written by the great Jesuit philosophy professor Frederick Coppleston.  Many of the Church’s theologians in the medieval era spent a lot of time trying to prove God’s existence by using philosophical reasoning.   I wrote a major paper addressing St Anselm’s proofs, a task that I did not find very enjoyable.  Our professor was always wanting us to put something of ourselves into the paper, to personalize it, so in its conclusion, I wrote that for me, for the way I approach faith in my own life, approaching the existence of God from a philosophical view does not really have an affect on my belief in God.  For me, I walk by faith, I live my faith through the way I experience God in my daily life.  When I received my paper back, I saw that my professor had written a comment at that section of the paper, stating that he thought I was one of the lucky few, that for him, faith was not enough.  He needed proof, he needed a rational, philosophical, knowledge-based explanation that God really existed. 

         Our first reading today is from the book of Wisdom, a book that we have in our Catholic Bible, but a book that is not included in the Protestant scriptures.  When I think of the topic of wisdom, I think of a older man or an older lady, wise from years of experience, giving advice to a younger person.   Here in Yazoo City, and specifically in our parish communities, there is an older generation that is really the spiritual heart of our community, and I see everyone looking to them for guidance, wisdom, and examples of how we can live out our lives of faith in the midst of our modern world.

         Yes, book knowledge is one thing.  But it is not the only thing. We spend years and years in our culture studying in schools, colleges, and universities, but we need to go beyond that in finding a way to incorporate that knowledge into our lives and into the real world.  As most of you know, I spent four years teaching Spanish at Greenville Weston High School here in the Mississippi Delta before I became a priest.  I had learned Spanish as a missionary, almost literally out in the trenches you could say, not in the classroom.  So for me, putting my practical knowledge of Spanish into a classroom setting where I could explain the grammar and the nuts and bolt of the language to my students was quite a challenge.  However, I saw some other teachers who had the opposition problem.  On our teaching staff was a lovely young lady from the coast who had just graduated from one of the fine universities in our state. She was full of enthusiasm and energy.  She majored in Spanish in college, but had not really used it very much in real world settings.  I remember when I introduced her to the some of the Hispanic families who went to our parish in Greenville.  When they tried to chat with her in Spanish, she had no idea how to even start conversing with them, since she had learned so much Spanish up here in her head, all of the grammar, the rules, and the vocabulary, but using the language in conversation was something she had never really done.

         Tradition has it that the Book of Wisdom was written by King Solomon, a man very admired in ancient Israel for his wisdom. Yet, most biblical scholars today believe that the Book of Wisdom was probably written originally in Greek in the great ancient center of learning in Alexandria, Egypt a couple of centuries before Christ’s birth.  Today’s reading tells us that wisdom is received by all who love her, that she is found by all who seek her.  The writer tells us that if we watch for wisdom at dawn, she will be waiting for us at the gate.  It appears that we human beings innately yearn for wisdom and for a connection with the divine in our lives.  We are searching for wisdom, we are searching for God.  We are yearning, striving, and aching for such a connection.  Likewise, wisdom and God are searching for us. 

         So, if we are saying that wisdom goes beyond a book knowledge, beyond what we perceive intellectually, we can see wisdom as a resonance, as an understanding of God’s teachings, laws, and values.  Wisdom is all about being able to integrate God and his teachings into our daily lives.  And while book learning and knowledge are important in our development as human beings and in our spiritual quest, they are certainly not everything.  God can reach out to us, wisdom can connect with us, in many diverse and eclectic ways: through music, art, poetry, literature, and nature; through prayer, contemplation, and even silence.  And so meeting Wisdom at the gates means that we are to find ways to gain this understanding, this experience, this integration of God into our spirituality and into our lives.  In our Why Catholic groups this year we are looking at different ways to pray, so meeting wisdom at the gate is about connecting to God through prayer and meditation, in delving into his Holy Word through lectio divina, in hearing God in the silence of contemplative prayer, in connecting our experiences and our feelings with those that are expressed by the psalmists.  We as Catholics, in our search for wisdom, are to read good books, to listen to beautiful music, to see God in nature, to mediate over an intriguing piece of art.  And we are to find God’s wisdom in the talents and gifts that God gives us.  When we sing or play a musical instrument, when we create a work of art, when we knit or crochet, when we prepare a lovely meal for our family and friends, when we write in our journal, we are to experience God, to connect to the divine, to gain spiritual wisdom and understanding through those creative experiences.  And I know a lot of men out here are hunters.  I know that many of you really find hunting a spiritual experience, in the connection to the land and to nature, to the brisk autumn air and to the animals that provide you food.  Feel the connection to God’s creation in that experience; then, perhaps you will find greater spiritual understanding and a greater connection with your faith through those experiences. 

        Wisdom is all about integrating our knowledge and our intellectual understanding with our heart, our senses, our bodies, and our real life experiences.  And I want to make clear that wisdom does not always mean that everything is clear-cut, either-or, or an easily obtained answer.  We can see an example of this from our lives here in Mississippi.  There has been a lot of discussion and emotions going forth in recent weeks about Proposition 26 in the upcoming election.  Things are being said about us as Catholics that condemn us for the position we are taking, that twist the bishop's words in order to make us look like a villain in society.  Wisdom does not mean that I am going to stand up here as your priest and order you to vote a certain way or to always give you the answers.  As a priest, I am here to lead you, to guide you, to help you along your journey, not to force you along a certain path or to make decisions for you.   Bishop Latino is telling us to form our consciences in the Catholic tradition, and to use our consciences in voting on this decision and on the other issues that confront us on election day, and in all the other decisions, big and small, that we have to make in life. 

         Connecting with the divine wisdom, connecting with God, is not always easy and comfortable.   In our search of wisdom, we will have great joys and great struggles.  And all of this is an essential part of our journey.  

10/30/2011 – Homily for Sunday of the 31st week in ordinary time - cycle A – Matt 23:1-12; Malachi 1:14b; 2:1-2, 8-10

      We are in the last weeks of our present liturgical year. We’re just 4 weeks away from the beginning of Advent, from a new Church year which begins on Nov 27.  Advent is not only a time when we prepare for Christmas and for the birth of Jesus into our world, but it is a penitential season where we look into our hearts in a special way to see those ways we need to turn away from sin and to receive renewal and conversion in our lives.   Today’s readings get us thinking about these themes, about how we need to repent and amend our ways, to look at those things that perhaps are eroding our faith, that are keeping us from growing in our relationship with Christ.

         The prophet Malachi spoke to the people of ancient Israel in the fifth century, just a generation or two after the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon.  At that time, the people had once again turned their backs on God.  Many had married outside of their faith and had turned to the worship of foreign idols.  Malachi is very direct in his message, in identifying the sins of the people and the sins of their priests.  The prophet tells them that it’s not enough to go through the empty motions of religious rituals if they are doing so for their own glory and to make themselves look good in the eyes of others and in the eyes of God.  Malachi prophesies that the priests will be held accountable for having strayed from their faith, for leading the people astray as well.

         Jesus is very hard on the Pharisees and the Scribes in today’s Gospel, because he saw them not only leading so many of the faithful astray, but they took the glory that was due God, and in a very sneaky and hypocritical way, turned it into their own glory.  Yet, in contrast to the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus warns us about, I bet we can all think of those who have been examples of faith for us, who truly have lived and served for the glory of God, who have led us closer to the faith rather than leading us astray.  When I was in Ecuador serving as a missionary, I saw so many priests and nuns who had left their countries from all over the world in order to serve the poor throughout this vast jungle region of South America.  I met one elderly nun from Italy – Sister Gemma – who had been there in the jungle for almost forty years.  Even though she had gone through some very difficult times, I was struck by the love, grace, and humility through which she served the Lord as a missionary.   She never drew attention to herself, she never was announcing to others how great she was.  She knew that God called her as a missionary, as his servant, so she served him simply and humbly, through patience, perseverance, and hard work.  That is so different from the message we see in the Pharisees and scribes in today’s Gospel, who follow all the laws of the faith, but who do so rigidly and dogmatically.  In flaunting the way they take the seats of honor, in drawing attention to themselves and lording their power over others, the scribes and Pharisees really are serving only themselves.

         Let us look at a very different example.  Our psalmist humbly comes before the Lord this morning, telling him: My heart is not proud, Lord.  My eyes are not haughty.  I don’t spend my time trying to accomplish great things.  I don’t not worry about those things that are too complicated or sublime for me.  Instead, the psalmist declares that he has found his peace with the Lord, that his hope is in the Lord both now and forever. 

         The Pharisees and scribes would not have understood one of the main messages St Teresa of Avila brings to us in her teachings, that love begets love, that even though we are all still truly beginners in loving in the same way that Jesus loved, we are to strive to implant this love in our hearts and to bring this love to others.  And we can bring this love to others in so many different ways, in so many creative ways, even in some fun ways.  Our parishes here in Yazoo City had a Halloween carnival that was a very important social activity for many years, but it had been a long time since we’ve had this event.  Out of love for our parish community, out of love for our children and youth, some of the ladies of our parish wanted to revive this event this year.  For many in our parish, the Halloween carnival brings back a lot of memories.  So, we look forward to having this social time together this afternoon in this revival of an old parish tradition.  If we try to be a community where Christ’s love is present, where we want to share this love with others, then that love will multiply, and be a true sign that we are living out the Gospel message in our world. 

         Just last week, we saw our own Pope Benedict using our Catholic faith to bring the message of God’s love to the world.  He convened religious leaders from all over the world to Assisi, Italy, the hometown of St Francis of Assisi, to stress the importance of all of us working together for world peace.  Pope Benedict pointed out that it had been 25 years to the day that Pope John Paul II convened the first world day prayer for peace in Assisi.  Leaders from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, traditional African religions, and from different Protestant faiths all pledged to work toward dialogue, justice, peace, and friendship.  In a world where a lot of terrorism and violence has been perpetuated in the name of God and in the name of different religions, a world day of prayer for peace tells the world what all these faith traditions truly stand for. 

         Yes, there are a lot of things that can erode our faith, that can lead us astray, that can bring us down.  However, if we make a conscious decision of living out a faith that is more than going through the motions, then God’s love will truly be present.  

10/23/2011 – homily for 30th Sunday of ordinary time – World Mission Sunday – Exodus 22:20-26, Matthew 22:34-40

         On the second to the last Sunday in October each year, our Church celebrates World Mission Sunday, recognizing our call to bring the Good News of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to all the world.  The theme for World Mission Sunday this year is “Celebrate the Hope that Saves.”  And that hope for us is Jesus, the salvation we receive through him.

         World Mission Sunday ties into the message that we hear in all of our readings today, the message that God is love in the midst of all of the brokenness in the world around us. That love should be at the center of how we see God interacting in our lives.  That love is a call to see ourselves as missionaries as an essential part of our identity as followers of Christ.  In the Exodus story that we hear today, as the Israelites are escaping the bondage and oppression of their lives in Egypt, as they travel to the promised land, Moses presents God’s law to the people.  The laws of conduct that God gives them at Mount Sinai are reiterated again and again by the prophets as the people repeatedly stray from God and turn their back on him throughout the history of the people of Israel.

         The widows, the orphans, the poor, the oppressed, the stranger – they were the most vulnerable and the most at risk in the ancient Mediterranean world.  Today, in our world and in our own community right here in Yazoo City, we may think that we can easily identify these members who are most at risk, who are orphans and the strangers.  But some individuals may feel like they are orphans or strangers in their own community and they are not so readily identifiable.  What we see on the outside and on the surface can be so different from the reality that is going on inside a person.  We may see someone who appears happy and content, confident and successful in life, but inside they may be struggling just to make it from one day to the next, they may be insecure and lacking in self-worth and confidence. 

         God tells the people of Israel that if they do wrong against those who are most vulnerable in their society, those they’ve wronged will cry out to God, and God will surely hear their cry.  God’s wrath will flare up at the people of Israel, and the Israelites themselves will become widows and orphans.  The point of all of this is not to instill fear in our hearts, to make us afraid of God, but rather it is a call to awareness, to look at how we treat others, especially the least among us in our society.  And since it is often so difficult to determine who the least among us are, we are to be watchful in how we treat all of God’s children.

        We here in the Diocese of Jackson live in a mission diocese where we Catholics are just a small part of the population. In fact, we have one of the lowest percentages of Catholics of any diocese in the US.  For years, priests and sisters came from Ireland or from the North of the United States to help plant the seeds of the Catholic faith here in Mississippi.  The Society for the Propagation for the Faith had its first collection to fund missionary activity in our Church way back in 1822.  At that time, 2/3 of the funds came to the United States, primarily from the Church in Europe.  Our present day circumstances are very different, with the Catholic Church firmly established in our country.  Yet, we here in the Diocese of Jackson are still a mission diocese, one of over 1,100 such dioceses throughout the world.  As I travel as a part of my ministry throughout Yazoo and Humphreys counties and to the Jackson area, I am very aware of how missionary we still are here in Mississippi.

         So as we celebrate World Mission Sunday today, just how do we respond to God’s call to mission, to reach out to our brothers not only in our own community, but also beyond, especially in light of the commandment to love, to love God and to love our neighbor?  In reflecting upon God’s love and our call to be missionary, Pope Benedict instructs us that through our co-responsible participation in the Church’s mission, we as followers of Christ become builders of the communion, peace, and solidarity that Christ brings to our world.  Through our mission call, we help bring God’s plan of salvation to all of humanity.  With God’s love as an example to us all, we live out our Christian vocation in bringing Christ’s Gospel to the world.

        Since the days of the early Church, when Peter, Paul, and the other disciples traveled near and far to spread Christ’s message, the Church has seen the missionaries as models of faith for all of us.  Just this past month we’ve celebrated saints such as St Teresa of Avila, who worked to bring about reforms in 16^th century Spain; Jean de Brebeuf, who gave up his in order to bring God’s word to the native people of 17^th century Canada; and St Francis of Assisi, who came out of 13^th century Italy to help all of us expand our view of God, to see him in nature and in all of creation.   All of these saints were missionaries in the reality of their world, using the gifts, talents, and interests that God had given them, being true to themselves and true to the way God called out to them in life.  We also are called to be missionaries in our own way.  And we are called to do this in our own community and to others in this wonderful world we are in.  We can never forget that all of us are called to be missionaries as part of our discipleship in Christ.   

10/16/2011 – homily for the 29th Sunday of ordinary time – Stewardship homily – Matthew 22:15-22

The Holy Spirit blesses us with a most insightful Gospel reading today.  This is the Sunday that I had planned for a homily on stewardship, to tie it into the readings somehow, and the Gospel reading today happens to tie in perfectly with this topic.  How about that!

We can start off by looking at the motivation of the Pharisees in asking Jesus their question in today’s Gospel.  They did so not wanting to grow in their faith, not trying to better understand Jesus’ calling and his relationship with the Father, but rather in an attempt to entrap Jesus and to make him look bad. As we look at the motivation of the Pharisees, we see how important motivation is to stewardship, and how stewardship itself is so integral to the way we approach life and live out our faith.

When I was at St Richard Parish in Jackson, we started a conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society, an organization dedicated to serving the poor. When a regional director of St Vincent de Paul came for a visit, she asked one of our members, a lady with a Masters in Social Work, to identify the primary goal of the St Vincent de Paul Society.  Without any hesitation, she answered: “Helping the poor, of course – that is our primary goal.”  The regional director snapped back: “Absolutely not – that’s not the right answer.”  She explained that the primary goal of St Vincent de Paul is to be an apostolate where members can grow in their Catholic faith and in their relationship with Christ.  Helping the poor flows out of the faith of its members, out of their relationship with Christ.  Without that, the works are just good works, not works of faith.  I felt the same way about my missionary work, since what I did as a missionary always started at the foundation of my faith.  Without faith, without the way I grew as a Catholic, my missionary work would have been different.  I still would have done good works, but my relationship with the people and the work itself would have been very different taken out of a context of faith.  Likewise, when we look at stewardship, in serving God and giving back to him, we need to look at it in the context of our faith, which is different from the way the world sees things.  

In asking Jesus the question, whether it is lawful to pay Caesar taxes from the point of view of faith, Jesus responds by saying that we are to pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar, to give God what belongs to God.  Perhaps Jesus’ rather enigmatic response tells us that while we owe the state our taxes and other responsibilities, we are to pledge our hearts and souls to God, to make God the focus of our lives. As you can see I have 10 beautiful apples here.  Let’s say that they represent all of the goods and resources, riches and talents, that we have in life.  We have a lot of responsibilities in life, that’s for sure.  The adults among us can think of the financial obligations we have: taxes, rent or a mortgage payment, health care, food and clothing, utilities, education – the list seems endless, doesn’t it, of all that is pulling at the resources that we have.  We have many other things tugging at our time and attention as well, with all we have to do in our work and family and personal lives.  Yet, what if we took one of these beautiful apples and return it to God, in the same we that we take the bread and wine that are gifts from God, and then offer them back to God in the form of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  Even if we give God one of our beautiful apples, as symbolized by this apple that we place on the altar, we are giving thanks to God, but we are still retaining all of these other apples for our other responsibilities in life.

Stewardship is about giving back to God with thanksgiving.  We can make the connection between stewardship and giving thanks in the Eucharist, since the Greek word “eucharistia,” means being thankful and grateful.  In stewardship, in giving back to God and giving to his Church, we’re called to do so gratefully, thankfully, joyfully and cheerfully.  But stewardship is not to be seen as some isolated aspect of our lives. Rather, we are called to make stewardship a way of life for us, an integral part of our faith. We can hoard all of the talents and riches and gifts that God gives to us, we can selfishly keep them to ourselves, but I don’t think that this is what the Gospel message and the kingdom of God are all about.  And, in a lot of ways, especially from a perspective of faith, we will not achieve joy in its fullness in our lives without a sense of stewardship.  True joy is achieved through both love and generosity.  Perhaps the angst and helplessness and lack of meaning many in our modern world feel in their lives is due to no sense of stewardship, of giving back to God, in giving generously and graciously of what we have. 

In reflecting upon stewardship, it encompasses not only what we do with our treasures, but also with the gifts and talents that God gives to us, in the way we spend our time. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops tells us that the practice of stewardship can have the power to change not only how we understand ourselves, but also how we understand the meaning of life itself.  God is the origin of life who give us our freedom, who gives us all that we have and who we are.  We are called to see ourselves as a caretaker of all that God gives to us.  If we are grateful for what we have received and eager to cultivate these gifts out of our love for God, out of the love we have for our brothers and sisters, the doors and the possibilities that will open in our lives are beyond anything we can imagine.  

10/9/2011 – Homily for the 28th Sunday in ordinary time – Homily for Respect Life Month - Isaiah 25:6-10a, Psalm 23

It is interesting that two of the readings that we hear today are ones that we often have in our Catholic funeral liturgies. From the prophet Isaiah, we hear a vision of a great banquet that God prepares for us, a banquet of rich food and the best wines, a vision that foreshadows the heavenly banquet that awaits us when we unite with God in the eternal life we have after we end our lives here on earth.  At this banquet God will wipe away our tears, he will destroy death forever by giving us everlasting life.  I think that all of us can relate to this message and this wonderful banquet because food and banquets are so integral a part of the celebrations that we have here as a part of our lives here on earth.  Think of the wonderful meals Marion, Natalie, and the Friendship Committee prepare for our funerals and the mass of anointing, the way our families celebrate Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays, and the wedding banquet that we had last weekend at the country club here in Yazoo City to celebrate the marriage of Rachel Parker and Josh Brewer.

Then, in Psalm 23, a psalm most of us learned about when we were children, we hear about the Lord as our shepherd, a shepherd who leads us to green pastures and restful waters, who guides us down the right path, who protects us even when we travel through the dark valleys of struggle and crisis in our lives.  And if we have the Lord as our shepherd and as the center of our lives, that means that everything else is not at the center and is not the primary focus of our lives here on earth.  

        

As we hear these readings today, we recognize the month of October specifically in the way we Catholics should respect all human life. This year’s theme of Respect Life month comes directly from Jesus’: “I came so that all might have life and have it to the full.”  As we think about God’s heavenly banquet, about what awaits us in eternal salvation and in the new life that we gain through Christ’s death and resurrection, it is good for us to reflect upon all of the goodness and life that we have here on earth.  Even as we go through the ups and downs of life, as we work hard to provide a good life for ourselves, as we try to live out the Gospel values and the vocations to which God calls us, I think that we often can take many aspects of our lives and our faith for granted.  Yet, respect for life is something we certainly cannot take for granted, not in our world today where the modern lifestyles of many in our society & the policies our nation enacts can be so contrary to the Gospel of life that our faith proclaims.  Pope John Paul II stated in very strong words that the dignity of life in our society faces multiple threats, both old & new, from the culture of death that exists today.  It might shock us that in all the abundance and opportunities we have in our world & in our modern American society, that the Pope would call it a culture of death. Yes, poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, & violence have plagued humanity since the beginning of civilization. Yet, the new threats that plague our modern world include abortions that are easily obtained, euthanasia, human cloning, human embryonic stem cell research, widespread recreational drug use, lack of access to health care, the use of the death penalty, and tampering with our world's ecological balance. I can go on to list other abuses that exist in our modern American society that threaten the dignity of human life, but the list would be overwhelming.  As followers of Christ, we are called to reflect upon what we can do as individuals & as a community of faith to promote the respect for life in our society & in our lives.  Our Catholic stance on life respects all human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death.  A catchy way is remember it is “from the womb to the tomb.”  The late Cardinal Bernadin of Chicago saw all of the issues that fall under our respect for human life as a seamless garment encompassing many different aspects of life.

As I mentioned, the entire month of October is designated as Respect Life Month for us Catholics each year.  However, it is not something that we should recognize just in one particular month or only during special times of the year.  Our respect for human life should becomes an intrinsic part of the way we live out the Catholic faith that we all profess & believe.  There are both little and big ways we can probably think of in which we can incorporate the Gospel of life into our daily lives.  It’s one think to see God’s glory in the heavenly banquet, or to see Jesus as our Good Shepherd, but do we relate this to the Gospel of Life that we are taught to follow?  Do we see Christ in the unborn baby whose life is threatened, in the child or youth who is lonely or who is being bullied and picked on in school?  Do we see him in the prisoner who has no one visiting him & has no one to bring God's message of salvation to him?  Do we see Christ in the homeless person waiting in line to get something to eat at Manna House?   Do we see him in the single mother who decided not to have an abortion, but who is at the end of her ropes trying to earn a living & trying to care for & nurture a child at the same time?  And how to reach out to these individuals who perhaps need help or a kind word and encouragement in their lives? Respecting life is not just an abstract concept, but it is truly living out the Gospel of Life in our lives.  

10/2/2011 – homily for the 27th Sunday in ordinary time – Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80, Matthew 21:33-43

       Today’s lectionary presents us with several readings about a vineyard.  The psalmist declares that the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, that the Lord transplanted a vine of people who were in bondage in Egypt, that he put this vine forth as far as the sea and the river.  The Gospel reading from Matthew talks about a vineyard, about how the servants and messengers the vineyard owner sent out to the tenants were either killed or treated with hostility.  Then we have Isaiah’s prophecy about God’s vineyard, how the choice grapes that the Lord planted and tended with love and care became wild grapes, how this foretold about Israel’s upcoming destruction due to the failure of the people of Israel to do what God expects of them.

         Since today’s readings allude to God’s creation and our response to God, and since the feast day of St Francis of Assisi is coming up on October 4^th, I thought it would be good to reflect upon today’s readings in light of the spirituality of St Francis.  Francis of Assisi is such a popular figure in today’s world not only for his love of nature, but also for the brotherhood and sisterhood he saw in all of creation, for the way he saw everything in our world coming forth from the love of God, our creator. 

         As Isaiah tells the people of Israel that they have not lived up to God’s hopes and expectations, I wonder how we fare under such an appraisal.  Look at all of the gifts the world has to offer us, at the individual talents and gifts each one of us has been given from God.  We can all ask ourselves if we are good stewards of these riches and talents, if we as individuals and as a society use them according to God’s desires for us, or if we squander these talents and resources in ways that are against God’s will.  We are indeed the body of Christ gathered together as the Church, but in many ways Francis thought of nature and all of creation as God’s body as well.  Francis gloried in the beauty of God’s creation that was all around us.

         I have told you all many, many stories about my missionary travels before I became a priest. I would travel all over the rain forest jungles of Ecuador in a canoe, on foot, even sometimes on horseback.  Almost every weekend for the three years I was a missionary in Ecuador, I would travel about 4 or 5 hours in a canoe to a village called San Francisco – how appropriate that I am telling you about this village on the day we are talking about the spirituality of Francis of Assisi, after whom this village was named.  Even though I would take this journey every weekend, I never tired of traveling through the vast rainforest jungle.  I was in absolute awe of its presence, of the trees and plants and animals that made up such a fascinating ecosystem.  Yet, when I saw how fast the lumber companies were cutting down the many acres of trees there in the jungle without replanting or caring about what they were destroying, it made me wonder if we were really good stewards of God’s creation.

         Many of the poor in Ecuador had very little opportunities for education, or work, or to be able to follow their dreams, so it made me appreciate even more all of the opportunities and resources that we have here in the United States.  Yet, just look at last week’s Mississippi Catholic newspaper, how on the very front page there was an article in there by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, urging us priests to preach to our congregations about the effects of poverty and job loss in the economic downturn that is affecting our country and most of the rest of the world.  We are still a very rich nation, but there are many in our country who are suffering a great deal and who are having great difficulty paying their bills and providing for their families.   Archbishop Dolan stated that he did not want to make excuses or place blame for these problems, but rather wants us all to take responsibility to help create jobs and overcome poverty, to work together in trying to correct those structural elements in our society that are creating and perpetuating such conditions. 

         And in the midst of this, we as the Catholic Community here in Yazoo City are looking at ways in which we are called to be stewards to our Church, to share our time, our talents, and our treasures in order to support our faith community here in Yazoo City.  I have been here almost a year now as your pastor, and I am so happy to be here with all of you, to share in our community’s rich faith traditions.  I think of how St Mary’s was established 160 years ago, how you and many of your ancestors sacrificed so much over the years and gave so much in order for the Church to prosper here. I think of how St Francis parish was started here in Yazoo City by the SVD priests from Chicago and by the School Sisters of St Francis from Milwaukee, how the school and the parish nurtured so many children and youth and adults throughout the decades.   Our reality is a lot different today than it was when these two parishes were established, but we bring our hopes and our dreams to the Lord for the future of our faith community.  We put our faith and hope in God, but we also need to respond appropriately to the Lord, to meet his hopes and expectations, just as Isaiah tells us in his prophecy today.  We want the Lord to be able to say that we have truly followed him as disciples of Christ, that we have lived up to the values of the Gospel through the midst of the reality of our modern world.

         Francis of Assisi saw all of creation bound together by the Spirit of our Lord, seeing all of creation as a part of the brotherhood and sisterhood we have in Christ, to see the fire and the wind and the sun as our brothers, to see the moon and the water and the earth as our sisters.  May we see the holiness that is present around us, the holiness and the spirit and the beauty of God that is in all of creation.  And let us discern the stewardship and responsibility to which God is calling us as a part of this message.  

9/25/2011 – Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A- Philippians 2: 1-11, Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14

        Today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians probably sounds very familiar to all of us, since we hear the second part of this reading every year on Palm Sunday.  Many biblical scholars believe that Paul adapted these words from an ancient hymn in the early Church.  The contrasts that Paul points out in this reading are striking: Jesus was divine, but he took on human likeness; those both in heaven and on earth are to bend their knee to honor Jesus; and in the humiliation that Jesus suffered in his death on the cross, he gained for us victory over sin, and through this humiliation, he has earned our exaltation.   

         So often, we human being want all of the answers.  We don’t like the unknown.  We don’t want to leave a question without getting an answers.  We as believers are always called to seek greater understanding in matters of faith, that is true.  Since we have just started our year of religious education in our parishes, we’re excited about all the programs we have going on this year, of all the opportunities we will have to truly grow in our faith. Yet, we must remember that there is always a part of God, a part of our faith, that is going to remain a mystery for us.  In seminary, when I was studying to become a priest, I took a course in my last year of studies that explored the Trinity as well as the divine and human nature of Christ. This class was entitled “The Mystery of God”, which reflects how no matter how much we learn about God, there is always more for us to learn.  This brings to my mind Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest who taught at the University of Paris in the 13^th century, who is considered one of our Church’s greatest theologians.  Even more than 700 years after he wrote his famous works on theology, his writings are still fundamental to our Catholic understanding of the faith.  Yet, several months before he died, he was meditating in a chapel where he had a mystical vision of God, which prompted him to say that all of his writings and all of the knowledge that he had accumulated over his lifetime were mere straw compared to this vision and first-hand experience of God that he just had.

         Looking at Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we see that Paul starts with words that try to encourage this community of faith, telling them to be of the same mind, the same heart, and the same love of Christ.  Yet, in all of the enthusiasm we can have for our faith, we’re not to live out our faith with arrogance or pride, we are not to lord our faith over others, but we are to live in the same manner that Jesus lived, by being humble, by being a servant, by not seeking glory for himself, but by proclaiming the kingdom of God in all things.

         Paul saw hope, joy, and encouragement in his faith, in the new life he had in Christ, which he tried to pass down to the communities he founded as he asked those in Philippi to imitate him and the way he lived out his faith.  So, in our modern world, as we follow along this same journey of discipleship that Paul walked, where do we see hope, joy, and support in those difficult realities that confront us in life, in the sufferings we have to endure?  One of my heroes and role models in ministry is Father Gustavo Gutierrez, a Dominican priest who started working with the poor in Lima, Peru and who developed an entire theology around the way the poor see God interacting in their lives. Father Gutierrez now teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame.  As a youth, he was confined to a bed for 6 years from the age of 12 to the age of 18 as he suffered from an illness called osteomyelitis, which is a very terrible infection in the bone marrow.  As a result of this illness, Father Gutierrez has had to walk with a cane for most of his life and he has great difficulty getting around.  He said that he had much reason for discouragement during those years he was confined in bed, but he found hope and new life through prayer, reading, and the support he received from family and friends.  Later as a priest, Gutierrez says that he learned a lot about hope from his parishioners in the poor neighborhoods where he served in Peru.  He says that the gift of hope that God gives us is not for those easy, comfortable moments in life, but rather for those difficult, challenging times.  Gutierrez has learned that while the poor most often do not have a rational understanding for their suffering, while they don’t fully understand its causes or recognize its beginning, the hope that the poor are able to embrace helps them endure and believe.  Father Gustavo Gutierrez, this poor, humble priest from South America, exemplifies for me the love, compassion, and humility that we are all called to bring to our faith, that we to use for the compass that will guide us in life. 

Paul was trying to convince the Philippians that they need to imitate him, since Paul himself imitated Christ in his own life.  Yes, as followers of Christ, we are to imitate Christ himself.  And in imitating Christ in our life of discipleship, we are to be just like Christ in the way he was obedient to the divine purpose to which God called him to in his earthly existence.  Jesus was aware that he could have grasped or exploited the equality that he had with God, for Jesus was aware of his identity as the only begotten Son of God the Father.  Yet, instead of seeking special privileges, instead of demanding that all of creation bow down to him, Jesus submitted himself obediently to God, allowing himself to die on the cross according to Father’s will and his divine plan of salvation.  We as followers of Christ should strive toward this same level of obedience to God’s will, even though it’s not always the easiest path and not always the way our secular world calls out to us to live our lives.

         In the midst of submitting ourselves to God, to obeying him, to trying to discern his will, we hear our psalmist cry out: Remember your mercies, O Lord.  Remember me in your compassion.  Make your ways known to me as you teach me and guide me in your truth. God shows us sinners the way to salvation.  We are never to forget that God is the purest form of love and mercy that we can ever find, that the love of God surpasses anything we can imagine in our limited human understanding of things.  But if we bring God’s love and compassion to all we do, then the love of God will be even more widespread here on earth, then we are doing our part of proclaiming God’s kingdom in the here and now.  So, as we are called to imitate Christ, as we are called to submit to God’s holy will and to be obedient, let us do so not in fear and trepidation, but in joy and in hope.  

9/18/2011 – Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A – Homily for Catechetical Sunday – Philippians 1:20-24, 27

       Today, in the Catholic Church in the US, we celebrate Catechetical Sunday.  We not only celebrate the beginning of our parish’s religious education program for the school year, but we recognize the commitment that our religious education teachers and that we as a parish make in educating our children, our youth, and ourselves in the faith. 

         The theme for Catechetical Sunday this year is “do this in memory of me,” which fits so appropriately with the Year of the Eucharist that we are celebrating in the Diocese of Jackson this year.  As we recognize the real presence of Christ that is with us in the Eucharist, we hear Paul reflect upon his faith in a letter the he wrote to the faith community in Philippi.  Paul wrote this letter while he was enduring house arrest in Rome, so it might amaze us how much joy and fervor he has in his faith.  While he ponders his precarious situation with the Roman authorities, he expresses his desire to magnify Christ in his body, whether he is here on earth, or whether he ends up dying for the faith.  Paul gives glory to God for the way Christ lives in him, in the new life he has in Christ.  Paul longs for the day when he will be reunited with the Lord in God’s heavenly kingdom.

         If you recall, Paul had a very real encounter with Christ.  He was going all over the countryside persecuting the followers of the Way of Jesus when Christ literally knocked him off his horse and blinded him with a bright ray of light.  Christ called Paul to a very special mission, which he accepted with courage and tenacity.  If all of us Christians could have the joy, commitment, and enthusiasm that Paul had in his faith, there would be no limits to the ways we could bring Christ’s message to the world.

Even though we live more than two centuries after Christ’s birth, we also have a very real presence with Christ in our lives as well.  The National Directory of Catechesis tells us that through the Eucharist, we have a real experience with Christ – we come to know the paschal mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection in a very intimate and experiential way.  Through the Eucharist, we not only attain knowledge of God, we also experience the living God in our lives. 

         Religious education for children, youth, and adults is more important than it ever has been, especially since families in our modern world are dealing with a lot of different issues.  On many levels, family life itself is disintegrating. Our faith is not being passed down to many of our youth and children. And so many in our society are struggling with issues such as domestic violence, abortion, drug and alcohol addictions, gang violence, poverty, and unemployment.  Our faith and our faith community help us overcome and endure what we face in life, which is why it is so important for us to always educate ourselves in our faith.  Growing and educating ourselves as individuals and as a community help us along this life-long journey of faith.  Our theme this year for Catechetical Sunday focuses the Eucharist, for when we grow in our understanding of the Eucharist, we not only better understand it’s meaning when we gather together around the table of the Lord, but also how it affects our lives after we exit the doors of the church after mass.  Our faith is not something that stands still and remains stagnant in our lives.  It is like a plant; if it is not growing and developing and being nurtured, it will wither up and die.  We nurture our faith by the Eucharist, by our religious education experiences, by the way we apply our faith in our daily lives.

         I have told you a lot of stories about my missionary work down in the jungles of Ecuador.  We had one mission site that served around 90 different villages throughout a vast river-system in that jungle.  I’ve described to you how I would travel on foot and by canoe for hours to get to any one of those villages.  You can image how most of the people living in the jungle rarely had the opportunity to go to mass.  Well, here in Yazoo City, we are blessed with a Catholic community that has been here for 160 years, with two parishes that were founded here that met the needs and the reality of the community.  We are blessed with beautiful church buildings and resources at our disposal.  Yet, I will be very honest with you.  If we don’t fight for our faith, if we don’t make a commitment to our Catholic faith, if we don’t nurture our children and ourselves in the faith, how long will we be able to endure here in Yazoo City?  This is an alarming reality, but if we all work together, if we all make a commitment to our faith and reflect in our community and our lives the real presence of Christ that is with us, our faith will grow and develop and attract others.

         Today, Catechetical Sunday, is a good place for us to look at the ways we want to grow in our faith this year.  As we celebrate the Year of the Eucharist, as we look forward to the new English translation of the Roman Missal that we will get in November, as we kick off our religious education programs, we “do this in memory of Christ,” in recognition of the presence of Christ who is here with us on our journey.  

9/11/2011 – Homily for the 24th Sunday of ordinary time – Cycle A - Commemoration of 10th anniversary of 9/11 - Sirach 27:30 – 28:7; Matthew 18: 21-35

The context in which we hear God’s word really matters.  What goes on in our lives affects the meaning and significance of God’s word for us.  Last week, our Gospel reading told us that he who had been wronged had the responsibility to confront the man who committed a sin against him, detailing a series of steps he would need to take in order for his brother to achieve forgiveness, justice, and reconciliation.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us a parable about forgiveness, as he responds to Peter’s question about how many times we must forgive a brother who has sinned against us.  In our modern world where vengeance, retribution, and revenge are played out on our streets, in our schools, and in our homes each day, this reading has a deep significance for us. Today is also September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that shocked our nation and the world.  We saw many lose their lives that day; we saw many police and firefighters sacrifice their lives trying to save others.  So, as we hear today’s Gospel reading on a day that has so much meaning for us, we are called to listen to the ways that God’s word interacts with this specific reality.

We can listen to God’s message about forgiveness as an abstract teaching, knowing that we are called to forgive abundantly for our own sake and for the sake of our neighbors in the context of our faith.  But, when we try to put forgiveness into practice in a specific real-life situation, it’s quite another thing altogether.  We all know that we need to forgive in order to move on with our lives and to really live out the Gospel, yet this isn’t so easy in those hurts that exist in our lives, that tear us up inside.  Maybe intellectually we can understand the need to forgive, maybe we can even forgive someone who has sinned against us up here, in our minds, yet when we look into our hearts, at the deep-seeded emotions and feelings that reside there, forgiveness might be hard to come by. I remember one morning at the mission site where I served as a missionary in Ecuador, a woman came into our parish office to give us money for a mass intention; she wanted us to pray that the strong arm of the Lord would come down on her husband.  When we asked her what she meant by this, she explained that her husband had harmed her in a terrible way – in fact he had abandoned her and her children for another woman; she now wanted God to get revenge on her husband, for God to do something violent and horrible against him in retribution for the harm he had committed against her.  We had to explain to her that this was not the purpose of mass intentions. I think that may of us in our society are like this lady, in that deep down in our hearts, we may want God to punish someone who has harmed us, to get revenge. 

Let us look at what our first reading says about forgiveness.  Ben Sirach was a Jewish scribe who wrote in Jerusalem in the 2^nd century BC.  The book of Sirach that we have in our Catholic Scriptures, but which is not included in the Protestant Bible, addresses many ethical situations that we face in our daily lives. Today, Sirach tells us that although wrath and anger are hateful things in our lives, we often hold onto them very tightly.  According to Sirach, God’s wisdom tells us to forgive our neighbor’s sins and injustices, so that when we pray, our Lord will likewise forgive us our own sins.   If we nurture anger and hatred in our own lives, where will we find healing?  Where will we be on our journey of faith?

In recent decades, we as a Church have not only focused on the sins and injustices that we commit as individuals, but also on those sins that are a part of the structures and framework of our society.  As we remember the 9/11 anniversary today, perhaps God is calling us to look at the ways we as a community can implement forgiveness and reconciliation.  Perhaps this is the best way in which we can honor those lives that were lost on that day.  In our Gospel reading, God calls us to extend forgiveness in a way that goes beyond what a reasonable person would do.  We might think that forgiving someone once for a sin would be compassionate and noble. But Jesus tells us to forgive not once, not twice, not seven times, but seventy-seven times, forgiving in a manner that far exceeds whatever sincerity the sinner might offer us, forgiving in a way that goes far beyond the seriousness of the offense the sinner had committed. Perhaps in telling us to forgive so many times, Jesus is showing us the abundance and magnitude of God’s own love and mercy, of the many times God forgives us for the sins we have committed, for the ways we have broken God’s laws and have strayed from the path of faith.

Jesus shows us in today’s parable that forgiveness can affect great change in our lives and in the lives of others.  When we forgive others, as opposed to engaging them in a cycle of revenge, we help them find reconciliation and liberation, helping to free them from guilt, shame, and all that is weighing them down.   In forgiveness, we also liberate ourselves from bitterness, vengeance, and a cycle of violence that could eventually consume us and lead us away from the path of salvation.  The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 did wish us harm and did wish to destroy us, that is true, but there are also many people throughout the world and from the countries from which the terrorists came that have paid a big price for the terrorist attacks as well; they are in need of reconciliation and healing in their lives. 

          Yet, we recognize that the world is a tough place right now.  Many are out of work or are settling for work that is far below their skill level.  The economies of many countries are on the brink of disaster.  Many in our world today don’t feel as safe as they did before 9/11.  Yet, as we mark the anniversary of 9/11, as we look at the ways we as a nation still need to forgive and heal, may we as individuals and as a nation somehow find a way to use the commemoration of this date to bring about goodness and reconciliation in our lives, in our nation, and in the lives of our neighbors. I think that is what God is calling us to do.