2/4/2012 – Mark 6:30-34 – Homily - Saturday of the fourth week -

        Today, we have a very interesting Gospel reading, with the apostles having just returned from their missionary travels, excited about telling Jesus about all they did & all they taught.  And what is his response to them? -  “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." As I meditated about this Scripture passage, I thought about the philosophy of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a group I was a part of in the Jackson area.  Doing good works and helping the poor are an important part of our faith and the ministry of Jesus, but they flow out of our faith and our spirituality.  Our compassion for the poor and our outreach to them, our work for justice and peace, our solidarity with them, must flow out of the faith and spirituality we cultivate from within.  So Jesus told the apostles that they must get away, that they must pray, rest, and renew themselves in their faith.  

        This so goes against the grain of our society, where many of us feel the need to be connected by cell phone or internet 24 hours a day.  When I was with a youth group several years ago at Catholic Heart Work Camp, the youth told me that the hardest part of that experience was not having music or noise filling up the space while they were working. And when I suggested to another priest that our youth should maybe put away their cell phones and technology when they go away on a weekend mission trip, he looked at me as if I were stark-raving mad, like that was not even within the realm of possibility, that we couldn’t ask them to undertake such an arduous sacrifice of not having a cell phone for the weekend.  If we try to fill up our lives with all kinds of external and superficial noise, when do we have time to listen to God in silence and in what He is calling us to do?  When are we giving ourselves the space and time to refresh and renew our faith?  We can be moved with compassion for the poor like Jesus was when he saw the crowd without a shepherd to lead them, but we need to first feed our own faith and find the time to maintain & nurture our connection with God. 

2/3/2012 – Sirach 47:2-11; Mark 6:14-29 – Friday of fourth week – St Blaise -

         In our readings today, we hear about 2 different kings of Israel.  From Sirach, we hear a summary of the story of King David.  From our readings from the 2^nd Book of Samuel these past few weeks, we know that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and was not always obedient to God, but that he had many admirable qualities as well.  We also hear about King Herod today, about how he had impure thoughts about his own step-daughter, about how this led to promises that ended with the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist, even though Herod's conscience told him that this was not the right thing to do. 

         The difference between these 2 kings is that David was repentant of his sins & that he always desired to serve God in his heart.  David had his weaknesses & was often led astray, but he always returned to God & repented, he always sought the strength of the Lord rather than relying upon his own strength alone.  David's sins were forgiven, and God made great promises to David & his ancestors.  In thinking about David, we might ask ourselves if we rely on our own strength and will too much rather than putting our trust in the Lord?

         As we hear about King David & King Herod today from the Bible, we're reminded that we also have so much that we believe as a Church that is not in Scripture, that is a part of sacred Tradition and the teachings of the Magisterium.  We celebrate St. Blaise today, and the traditional blessing of the throats with candles that we receive on this feast day is one of the beloved devotional traditions of our faith.  Blaise, a bishop in Sebastea, Armenia, was martyred in 316, only 5 years after religious tolerance was granted to Christianity in the Roman Empire.  During the religious persecutions that still raged there even in this era of supposed tolerance, Blaise hid out and lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer.  Legend has it that as Blaise was captured, but when he was being hauled off to prison, he came upon a mother & her young son.  The young son was choking on a fish bone lodged in his throat.  At Blaise's command, the boy coughed up the bone and his life was saved.  After repeated beatings and torture for refusing to worship foreign idols, Blaise was beheaded and has long been remembered as a martyr of our faith. 

         As we receive special blessings through the intercessions of St. Blaise on his feast day, may we give thanks for the community of saints, for those who have passed down the faith to us, & for the blessings & graces from God that we receive each day. 

Blessing of the throat that you will receive at daily mass today ---

Through the intercessions of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may the Lord deliver you from any ailments of the throat and all other diseases and illnesses.  May Almighty God bless you – Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.  AMEN. 

2/1/2012 – Wednesday of fourth week in ordinary time - 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17; Mark 6:1-6

          David doesn't completely put his trust in God, so he takes a military census of the men in Israel in order to see if he has a force large enough to take into battle.  Before God even has a chance to rebuke him, David realizes that he has sinned.  He repents and acknowledges the foolishness of his actions.  The prophet Gad comes to him with a message from God, telling him that he will be punished for his actions.  David is given three options for punishment. All are punishments mentioned in the third chapter of Deuteronomy for Israel's failure to keep their covenant with God.  The choices are: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing before their enemies, or 3 days of pestilence at the hand of God. David chooses the last option, not because it is the shortest length of time, but because it is God who will administer the punishment directly.  David would rather suffer at the hand of God than at the hands of man. He has more trust in the mercy of God than in the mercy of man.

         It’s ironic that David wanted to take a census to determine the strength of a potential fighting force, and now due to his sinfulness and the sinfulness of Israel, those forces have been reduced by 70,000 men who were killed by the pestilence.  Yet, as God poured out his wrath on the people of Israel, he takes compassion on them and orders the angel of the Lord to stop the killing.  David is willing to take the punishment himself and for his ancestors if God would spare his nation further bloodshed.

         As we hear this story from the Old Testament, may we ourselves repent for those times that we ourselves blatantly disobeyed the will of God in our lives.  May we place our trust in the God of our ancestor, in our God of love and mercy.  

1/31/2012 – Tuesday of fourth week in ordinary time – 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30; 19:3

         In today’s reading from the first book of Samuel, we hear about David and the death of his son Absalom.  Absalom was not a good son at all.  He did not follow God very faithfully at all as he journeyed through life.  Absalom even tried to plot the death of his own father in an attempt to become king.  Yet when news of Absalom’s death reached David, David did not rejoice, but instead cried out in his pain and his despair: “My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you.”

         Life can be very painful indeed.  Yet, we are to place our trust in the Lord even in the midst of the struggles and the pain that we endure in life. I recently was given this prayer written by Therese of Lisieux by Dr Sara Weisenberger - 

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our father's love — difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs — everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness —

Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events — to the heart that loves, all is well.

         May we accept the graces that God gives us in our lives, whatever those graces may be.  May we feel God’s presence both in our joy and in our sorrows. 

1/30/2012 – Monday of fourth week of ordinary time - 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13

        The context of today's reading from the 2nd book of Samuel is that King David is evacuating his people from Jerusalem.  His son, Absalom, has stolen the hearts of the nation and has raised up a rebellion to overthrow his father from the throne. We hear of David's encounter with Shimei, who is cursing David and casting stones at him, while David's men are trying to protect him. 

         Shimei reminds me of the way the media often treats heroes and celebrities in our society.  When there is a star or a hero, we give him accolades and adulation.  But, when those same stars are down-and-out or struggling, the media seems to relish the misery and kick them when they are down.  Think of the movie stars, politicians, & sports figures who've been treated this way; we can see similarities in how Shimei treats David.  By contrast, Jesus didn't curse people or throw stones at them or harm them when they were down or hurting or struggling, as he shows us in the healing in today's Gospel of the man possessed by demons. 

         Shimei accuses David of the murder and bloodshed of Saul's family, the king prior to David.  Shimei is looking for someone to blame, and he places the blame at the feet of David.  Yet, David does not allow his men to kill and silence Shimei, as Abishai proposes to do.  David remembers his sins; he is willing to endure the abuse he receives from Shimei, perhaps in atonement and recognition of those sins.  As we recognize our sins, we need to repent and to do penance for them.  Perhaps David is moving in the right direction here.

         As we get closer to the holy season of Lent, perhaps this is a good reading for us to reflect upon so that we will recognize those occasions that help us gain awareness of our sin & the need for repentance and conversion.