FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Matthew 24:37-44

Dear Friends, Advent invites us into a new year in which we journey with the Gospel of Matthew. This is a graced time when we are summoned once more to an encounter with Christ as our Savior and Lord. The Advent Season first guides us to prepare for the Second Coming and, in the final days, to plunge into the mystery of Word becoming flesh.

Advent has us look backward, so we can look forward. Both views call us to live in the present. Advent is not a penitential season but a celebration. We are called to rejoice in the gift of Christ. We recall He is coming today just as He came in the poverty of the first crib. A special element of Advent is the challenge of making the Second Coming produce consequences for our daily living. Jesus emphasized the suddenness and surprise of the final hours. There will be a swift judgement that sifts good from evil with a decisiveness that is final and absolute. However, he did not call us to do anything different beyond the utter importance of our ordinary responsibilities and relationships. Both in the incarnation and the Second coming we have a powerful invitation to embrace the gift of today, the now of the present moment, as a concrete opportunity to walk with Christ.

Isaiah is the featured Old Testament author of the Advent Season. The beauty of his poetry is filled with hope for deliverance and longing for the final expression of God’s saving power.

Matthew’s message in this time of Advent, is based on the fundamental confidence flowing from the Christian message. Christ will return in glory and with him will come the fullness of redemption. A new day is coming. Matthew is emphatic: we need to be ready.

This longing for the return of the Lord mirrors the passionate longing expressed in Isaiah. Yet it is incredibly enriched and supported by our gift of the Gospel reality. Paul tells us, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” (Romans 13:14) So, we join together in our Advent liturgies and in our lives to proclaim the Advent yearning: Come Lord Jesus!

In the meanwhile, Isaiah, Paul and Matthew have a clear and simple message for us. Live today in faithfulness to the Lord. Enter into our reality. We do not know the future but we are gifted with the present. We are called to live the Gospel with acts of mercy and forgiveness, with concern for justice and the constant struggle “to beat the swords into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks.” Isaiah 2:4)

Swords and plowshares are not our ordinary arsenal in our daily battles with one another. We often have looks and words and attitudes that are up to the job of antagonizing our neighbor. Our anger and resentments join with our prejudices to create walls of isolation and hostility. We have a way of making our time, interests and convenience the measure of our actions, all to the detriment of fraternal charity. More often than not this is done with a facade of righteousness. Advent is a time to put away the weapons of hostility and division and isolation. It is a time to pray with a truly humble heart, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Advent challenges us to look at the lost opportunities, the time wasted and misdirected. We all have more than enough to account for. Advent calls us to gather ourselves together and live today, with the gift of the present moment. Tomorrow is in God’s hands. We indeed need to cry out, Come Lord Jesus! A life seeking to walk with Jesus right now makes our Advent Prayer all the more real and focused.

God is very capable of keeping the schedule. He will do his job of finishing the program at the appropriate time. It is quite normal for us to use that familiar question of our youth, Are we there yet? God will let us know. In the meanwhile, our task is to be faithful to the Gospel message and express the hunger in our heart for a new day with the beautiful Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

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CHRIST THE KING

The Thirty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 23: 35-43

Dear Friends, On this feast of Christ the King, we celebrate a “kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace” (Preface of Christ the King). We are asked to gaze again on the Crucified Christ. We are driven to ponder Mary’s words: How can this be?

The Angel said to Mary, “You shall name him Jesus. He will be great and called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father….And Mary said, “How can this be?” (Lk 1:31-34)

We have journeyed the year with St. Luke’s Gospel, a Gospel where the theme of reversal is a dominant message. We have been invited into the mystery where the last shall be first, and the first last. We have heard the strange teaching where we have to lose our life to save it. Even stranger, we were told to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…to the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other as well.” (Lk 6:27-29)

As we contemplate the mangled body of our King, so many events of the Gospel journey seem like a long-faded past. The miracle worker and the healer is hidden in the agony of the Cross. Peter’s boat overflowing with the great catch, the multiplication of the loves and fishers, Bartimeaus jumping for joy with his new sight, the penitent woman rejoicing in her tears and so many other events unveiling the gracious possibilities in life. We have to ask, how is such a radical turn to darkness possible? The contradiction of the Cross goes so beyond any possible human understanding. Yet we ponder and see a crucified Savior and Messiah, a King in total poverty and apparent defeat. A leader has been abandoned by almost all. With good reason we need to ask, How can this be?

One part of the Passion of Jesus is the startling expression of his service and compassion for others in spite of his personal suffering and rejection at all levels. In the garden, he heels the ear of one of the mob. After the trial, he reaches out to Peter in sympathy and tenderness. On the road to Calvary, Jesus expresses his kindheartedness for the suffering women. On the cross, he forgives the Good Thief. With a heart unlocked by this compassionate love, Dismas is able to see a Savior and a King. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk 23:43)

This is the King at the deepest time of personal loss and denunciation. His Kingship is clearly an emptiness of self and openness to God in the brothers and sisters.

The mockery of the rulers, the soldiers and even the unrepentant thief holds the seed of the answer. “Save yourself.” Indeed, hidden in all the darkness of evil’s apparent victory is the reality of salvation for all.

In this crucified King and Savior, we encounter the deepest wisdom of God. Jesus’ greatest power is revealed in the manifestation of his weakness. The truly poor misguided leaders speak the truth in their sanctimonious petition to “the Christ” and “the Chosen One”. Their plea “save yourself” was, in fact, addressing the ultimate and most consequential event in human history, the universal saving death of Jesus Christ. This was the gift of eternal life being offered to all of humankind.

Luke’s pattern of reversal, the up side down world of Jesus’ Gospel, has its ultimate expression in today’s Gospel: death giving way to life! It is not only the good thief, but all of us, who celebrate the victory of a loving God answering our question, How can this be? The unconditional love of God revealed in Jesus Crucified and Jesus Risen tells us how this can be! Alleluia!

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CALL TO HOLINESS-4

Evangelization and Contemplation: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
Over the past several years, I have called upon Teresa of Avila and Pope Francis to help explore the riches of our Catholic spirituality. I would like to go to the well of their insights and wisdom once more for help understanding the call to universal holiness. I will use the Pope’s call to evangelization and Teresa’s summons to deeper prayer in the Carmelite tradition.

These seemingly very different persons offer much clarity for our directive to proclaim the Good News of a loving God to a world floundering in a search for meaning and direction. In both The Joy of the Gospel and The Interior Castle, we find a vast font of wisdom to guide us on our pilgrimage to God in the confusion and brokenness of our lives and of our world. Both the Jesuit Pope and the saintly Carmelite never tire of telling us to keep our eyes and our heart fixed on Jesus. Both agree that one of the major consequences of this continual encounter with Jesus will be a new and inviting awareness of the poor and those on the margin in our midst.

Challenge of Evangelization and Need for Contemplation
For Francis, the emphasis in this quest for universal holiness calls us to share Jesus’ call to evangelize. For Teresa, deeper prayer opening to contemplation, is the most important experience. These two ostensibly different concepts and experiences are mutually supportive in a search for God.

Francis tells us at the beginning of The Joy of the Gospel that bringing Jesus into our life frees us from narrowness and self-absorption. We move steadily to the development of ourselves in accord with God’s plan for us. We want to share the love we have discovered with others. This personal and spiritual growth moves us to share the Good News, to evangelize all we meet in life.

Francis refers to a statement by the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops: “Life grows by giving it away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of communicating life to others.” Francis is simply adding his voice on the theme of evangelization to a message expressed many decades earlier by Paul VI and repeated by John Paul II and Benedict XVl. We are all called to proclaim the gospel and, in doing so, to transform the world and ourselves by giving new life in Jesus Christ. We are all summoned to be evangelizers, missionary disciples.

This is new to us. This is not a common vision we share as followers of Christ in today’s Church. For many, the idea of evangelization is limited and often distorted. True evangelization means far more than to stand on the corner holding a sign: “Jesus saves!” Likewise, most respect others’ religion and simply are not comfortable talking about the richness of our faith. Religion is a private affair in the usual social interchange we share. This is especially so on personal issues but also to a degree in the social, economic and political realm.

Vatican II set the stage for this renewed challenge of evangelization. The Council members set out a clear call to universal holiness. This too is a mandate that has not been part of the generally accepted understanding of what it means to be a good Christian. Francis and Teresa offer a deeper and more extensive view of what it involves for us to walk with Jesus in the God-given task to evangelize and to seek God’s gift of contemplation. We are summoned to be holy and we are directed to share the Good News of God’s love in Christ both in our life and in our actions. Evangelization, understood in the fullness of its meaning, is a radical breakthrough in our awareness and acceptance of our Christian calling. Francis asks us to proclaim the depth of God’s love in Christ as we enter more deeply into the Mystery. He quotes John of the Cross, the great Doctor of Mysticism, in describing this process: “The thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and so broad that the soul, however much it has come to know of it, can always penetrate deeper within it” (Spiritual Canticle, 36, 10).

Contemplation, a new and different experience of God, where God takes a fresh and active role, normally is the result of a faithful and generous journey with Jesus. Teresa of Avila points out us a clear and direct path to this special development.

In the centuries following the Reformation certain elements of the tradition were either neglected or misrepresented. Evangelization and contemplation were two significant victims of neglect and misrepresentation. The distortion and neglect of both evangelization and contemplation led to minimizing holiness for most members of the Church. Contemplation was specifically twisted to be understood as the privilege of a chosen few rather than the normal consequence of a faithful Christian life. Evangelization was both diminished and considered primarily an exclusive task of the clerical faction of the Church.

Like its invitation into so many other buried treasures, Vatican II has directed us to recover the hidden riches of these profound resources, a central one being holiness for all the disciples of Christ. This deeper encounter with the message of Christ and the call to a more profound experience of prayer are a passageway to our most authentic experience of God.

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THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 21:5-19

Dear Parishioners,
As the Church Year draws to a rapid conclusion, the Gospel message is once again a story of the end. Last week it was a personal ending. This week it is the end of the world.

Luke’s description in today’s Gospel is the destruction of the Temple. It is the first of three destructions in this chapter of Luke. The next two are of Jerusalem (Lk 21:20-24) and the world (Lk 21:25-28).

This passage addresses the early Christians and us. Our first ancestors in the faith expected a quick and almost effortless passage to glory on their acceptance of Christ as Savior. No such luck. Rejection, conflict and persecution shortly followed their conversion. Slowly they had to delve more deeply into the Gospel message to find meaning in their new puzzling, and at times, frightening world.

It is the same for us. We come to Jesus seeking comfort, and soon, much of our new world is caught in the challenge of walking with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

Jesus’ message today is that the struggle will continue to the end. Our journey of discipleship is only possible in his footsteps on the road to Jerusalem where death gives way to life. Good and evil will be our daily fare until the end. Whether it be the call to martyrdom or dealing with the in-laws, whether it is the loss of a child or the aging process, whether it is a loved one lost in a destructive addiction or the crisis of a Church floundering in search of the Gospel, the weeds and the wheat will be the stuff of our experience till the end.

Jesus’ message is very clear about what we should do when the end is at hand. We do not need to store up food and supplies in our bunker on the mountain or in the basement. What we need to do is continue to serve and love our brothers and sisters in the context of our life’s responsibilities.

When our little world, locked into prejudice, is threatened when immigrants are no longer convenient, we need to seek justice that recognizes their humanity and inherent dignity and rights. When our world of stereotype and distortion is crushed by the emersion of gays as equal in our humanity we need to flee from our fear and ignorance to a new heart filled with compassion and acceptance. There are many of our worlds that will continue to crumble as we embrace the light of the Gospel. In the process we need to be faithful to the struggle on the journey to Jerusalem.

The word Jesus has for us today is that the grace is in the struggle. Yet, the comfort Jesus assures us is gradually perceived in a growing awareness of a loving presence. Slowly we grasp that we have been lifted up on eagles’ wings. The dangers that have haunted us somehow fade into oblivion. Jesus calls us to persevere, to be patient, to be faithful as we experience the destruction our little worlds of comfort and prejudice on the way towards the end of the world. When we will be hated because of His Name we are called to stay faithful. We need not be afraid. He guarantees “not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will be saved”. (Lk 21:19)


In Christ,

Fr. Tracy O’Sullivan, O. Carm.

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CALL TO HOLINESS-3

THE JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE

THE NEED FOR AN INTEGRATED SPIRITUALITY

The traditional spiritualities such as the Carmelite, Jesuit, Franciscan, Benedictine and others have been challenged to adjust to some of the fundamental changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council. The insights of this historic event unleashed the power of the social message of the gospel. The final document of Vatican II, The Church in the Modern World had this to say on that topic: “A new humanism is emerging in the world in which man and woman are primarily defined by their responsibility toward their brothers and sisters and toward history.”

Vatican II made it clear that there is no part of human life and history that is not affected by faith and the gospel. Grace touches all of life whether it is personal, in the home, the workplace, the political arena, the theatres, the stadiums or any and all social reality. All of God’s created handiwork is influenced by the saving presence of God’s grace. An isolated “natural order” is a fiction far removed from the divine dominion that encompasses all creation.

Basically, this call for a new humanism is a summons to adjust our religion, to refocus how and where we experience God, to direct our attention and to be open to this world. Many of us were raised to understand our central faith project as saving our souls. Our attention was focused on “the spiritual”, “the other worldly.” Events in this world simply formed the context for this fundamental personal endeavor. Carmelite spirituality, like all other traditional spiritualities, had been distorted over time to exaggerate the personal and private to the neglect of the wider picture of the social and historical, including the actual experience of our daily lives.

Pope Francis, in his beautiful and transforming Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, speaks of our need to change our ways so we can bring justice to the poor. His message is completely in tune with the gospel, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the long and magnificent tradition of the social teachings of the Church. Francis lays out a concrete program that is founded on a mature development of Vatican II’s message. The problem many people have with his call for involvement is rooted in a narrow and damaging understanding of spirituality.

Slowly, we have come to realize that Jesus did not preach a message of just saving one’s soul. He proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. His message includes saving one’s soul but also concern for this world, its history and the struggle for a just society. The gospel is about the kingdom of God (Lk 4:43); it is about loving God who reigns in our world. To the extent that He reigns within us, the life of society will be a setting for universal fraternity, justice, peace and dignity. Both Christi preaching and life, then, are meant to have an impact on society. We are seeking God’s kingdom: “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Mt 6:33) Jesus’ mission is to inaugurate the kingdom of his Father; he commands his disciples to proclaim the good news that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt 10:7) Pope Francis highlights this call to social involvement over and over in The Joy of the Gospel. Here is one example: “We cannot ignore the fact that in cities human trafficking, the narcotics trade, the abuse and exploitation of minors, the abandonment of the elderly and infirm, and the various forms of corruption and criminal activity take place … The unified and complete sense of human life that the gospel proposes is the best remedy for the ills of our cities … But to live out human life to the fullest and to meet every challenge as a leaven of gospel witness in every culture and in every city will make us better Christians and bear fruit in our cities.” 1

This is the Justice Perspective. It involves both a personal and a social transformation. It calls us to experience a spirituality that includes the just transformation of our society. This is the prophetic dimension of the gospel which has played a minimal role in the lives of many if not most Christians for centuries.

The Synod on Justice in 1971 captured this fundamental call to expand our horizons in this historic statement: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as constitutive dimension of preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”

In his response to the environmental crisis, Laudato Si, Pope Francis makes a strong point about concern for the poor. He states that we must always include a social approach in our response to the gravity of the ecological issues that confront us. We must constantly include action on behalf of the poor. Justice has a vital role in uniting our response to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

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THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Dear Parishioners, Today’s challenge for Jesus is with the Sadducees. They were a small but powerful and elitist group in the Jewish hierarchy in the time of Jesus. They had both wealth and power. The literal meaning of their title was “the righteous ones”. They were adamant that there was no after-life.

They were totally convinced that their scheme of the widow and the brothers would reduce Jesus’ teachings about the resurrection to total absurdity. Of course, Jesus quickly placed the absurdity package in the Sadducees home court.

In responding to the Sadducees’ disagreement, Jesus highlights that the resurrection is a totally new form of life that transcends any form of marriage. Likewise, Jesus is teaching us that God is a God of the living. Thus, our relationship with God goes beyond the experience of death. St. Paul explained this in his Letter to the Romans: “I am certain that neither death nor life…nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus.” (Rom8:38-39) Our faith is clear. Death is only a passage to a richer life with a God who loves us.

In today’s Gospel story the Sadducees challenge Jesus with a simplistic and ridiculous story about seven brothers marrying the same woman. Jesus turns the story into a profound truth that we profess in the Apostles’ Creed: the resurrection of the body. But before the new life where, in the coming age, we neither marry nor are given in marriage, we must face death. This truth is central to today’s liturgy.

We are in the final weeks of the Church year. The liturgy weaves a very fascinating story of the end and the beginning. In the process it invites us into the mystery of time.

Today we are confronted with the reality our bodily death. Next week we are challenged with the end of the total historical venture that we call the end times. Then the first three weeks of the new year give us the Advent message and cry for the new reality, “Come, Lord Jesus!” In between the message of the ending, and the plea for the new beginning, we celebrate Christ the King. This is a bridge that connects the transiency of our human reality, our mortality, with our ultimate purpose and goal of life: to be in the eternal embrace of our loving Lord, our immortality.

In these fascinating times of ending one year and beginning again a new year in the cycle on the path of salvation with Jesus our Crucified and Risen Savior, we are asked to ponder the Christian perspective on time.

We learn that time is relentless. It waits for no one. We learn that it is pregnant with life and hope. We learn that ultimately it is gracious in the victory of Christ. While It is urgent, it is calling us to be patient in trust while longing for the coming of the Lord. The final two verses of the Book of Revelation and the final verses of the Bible say, “The one who gives this testimony says, Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. (Rev 22:20-21) It is, indeed, calling us into a merciful and compassionate future of new life even in the face of death.

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Thirty First Sunday of Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 19:1-10

Dear Parishioners, Luke gives us a truly rich character in the wealthy tax collector, Zacchaeus. In today’s story, Luke taps into three of his favorite themes. The first is the oft-repeated attack on the harm riches can be in pursuit of salvation. Then he has Jesus once again reaching out to the neglected, rejected and marginalized. Finally, as Jesus identifies the faith of Zachaeus, once again the Evangelist identifies Jesus as the source of life and salvation.

"Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was." (Lk 19:2) Jesus shattered the norms of correctness and invited himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ home. In the process, the restless tax collector was introduced into the Jesus game where you win by losing.

Luke is the only evangelist who brings us into the delightful Zacchaeus story. He does so, in part, to highlight the difference between the chief tax collector and the rich official who did not want to play the Jesus game. (Lk 18:18-23) On the surface, the two men where dramatically different. One had all the right credentials of social acceptability. If the rich official were operating today, he surely would be a daily communicant and probably on the pastoral council of his parish.

Zacchaeus was a low life. He not only would not go into the crowd to try to see Jesus because he was short. He knew it would be dangerous for him because as a tax collector for the despised Roman oppressors he was a hated man. On the other hand, both men shared that hunger in the heart that Jesus so easily surfaced by his presence and message.

Zacchaeus had to run ahead and climb a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. On the other hand, the rich official was blessed with a close up and intimate encounter with the Lord.

After Jesus made his pitch, the two men went in different directions. It is hard to find a more heartbreaking line in the Scripture than, “But when he heard this, he became quite sad, for he was very rich.” (Lk 18:23) He was not buying into the Jesus game.

Zacchaeus, however, got the message. He understood this saving encounter with Jesus had immediate and concrete consequences in his life. He opened up not only the purse strings, but much more importantly, his hurting heart. So, Jesus could say in joy, “Today salvation has come to this house…For the Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.” (Lk 19:9-10)

Zacchaeus rejoiced in the Jesus game where you win by losing. He became wealthy in a new way by freeing his heart of the burden of his old wealth that had made him a poor man. Now Zacchaeus had new purpose and direction in his life. He had a new way of living and new values to enrich his life. He gladly made restitution with a sense of joy and direction in his astonishing calling leading to new life in Jesus.

Each day in our lives, we are open to the possibility of the Zacchaeus surprise. In the daily flow of our life, with its myriad relationships and responsibilities and experiences, Jesus is saying to us, “I mean to stay at your house today.” Each day we are able to open our heart to the best of all gifts and invitations. We are being called into God’s love and mercy in a deeply personal way. Like Zacchaeus, we are being called to change our ways, to see our wealth in a new way. Now we are being asked to see these possessions not as our security but as the source of sharing in God’s love for all and for all of God’s creation. Like the beleaguered tax collector, we have the amazing opportunity to say yes to Jesus with a renewed hospitality. With a heart set free of the bondage of “our things”, we being called into a new lease on life in the footsteps of Jesus.

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THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Dear Parishioners,

As I ponder the deep riches of today’s parable, I am inclined to reflect on my early Catholic formation. I grew up in St. Laurence parish on the South Side of Chicago. It was a very beautiful and enriching experience in so many ways. But like anything else human, it suffered from the blindness revealed in today’s Gospel. Over the years, I have found myself growing in awareness of the ordinary human prejudices and ignorance that were implanted in me by my early Irish Catholic parish experience.

First of all, we had a wide open highway to hell for others. Protestants and fallen away Catholics, especially the divorced, led the parade. The role of women was very clear: in the kitchen and preferably pregnant. The “colored people”, the operative term of respect for African Americans in my youth, were inferior and happy to stay on the other side of 47th St. where God put them. As Catholics, we were very patriotic and in full support of the insanity of nuclear escalation.

We were proud to be Catholics leading the way in the censorship of movies to maintain pelvic orthodoxy. I think some in the Communion line in my parish would not have made it past the censors. We never gave a thought to Hollywood’s glorification of booze, smoking and violence. Mexicans were the only Hispanics I knew and this only thru movies. They were always total losers only topped by the savagery of Native Americans who attacked the white settlers.

I could go on at length about clerical dominance but the point is clear. Organized religion, no matter how beautiful and profound, is never too far removed from the Pharisee in today’s Gospel.

I do not think often enough about what the next generation will see in our parish and today’s Church that is so completely off the radar of Gospel values. I am sure that there is a lot to consider even if it is hidden from our awareness at this time.

Today’s parable offers us the possibility of much light and wisdom. The first point directs us to a message that goes beyond the characters of the Pharisee and tax collector. The deepest issue is about the goodness and mercy of God. God is the one who forgives sinners. Our task is to recognize and accept our reality as sinful creatures, yet as sinful creatures who are loved and forgiven. This is the truth of our situation. Humility is the liberating passage to this truth. It empowers us to receive God’s love and mercy.

There are two other helpful points in today’s parable. The first continues Luke’s often repeated theme of reversal. In God’s coming revealed in Jesus, things will be put in the proper order with God at the center. The Pharisee missed this point as we so often do. It is a long journey to put God at the center and to move ourselves tour rightful place as the humble and totally dependent creature.

Secondly, it is quite a spiritual feat to have the openness and integrity of the tax collector. St. Teresa of Avila teaches us of the utter importance of this humble self-knowledge. She practiced it so well that she could say at the end, her life story is all a story of God’s mercy. It truly was the same for the tax collector.

Fundamental to today’s parable is that every human heart is torn between the pull of the Pharisee’s arrogance and the tax collector’s humility and self-knowledge. The power of the message is that the God of mercy revealed by Jesus forgives sinners. All we need to do is to recognize that we need to get in line for this liberating gift!

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THE PARABLE OF THE JUDGE

TWENTY NINTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 18:1-8

Dear Friends, We, as a faith community, have journeyed with Luke on our way to Jerusalem for sixteen weeks. After today, we have just two short weeks on this passage to the engulfing mystery of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This mythical road has seen Jesus’ challenging the depths of our human heart. He has been seeking to draw us out of the darkness into the light, a light radiating faith on the Gospel message. We have received the relentless call to move away from the self-centered False Self to our singular call to the True Self in the footsteps of Jesus. Our spiritual formation continues today in the delightful and bold story of the very determined and pugnacious widow.

We need to make a couple of points right at the beginning of our reflection. THE PARABLE OF THE JUDGE and widow does not teach us that we can eventually win God over to our side by our strong-minded resolve. On the contrary, the real lesson for us in the story is this: not to lose hope in spite of all the hardships and injustices that confront us daily in our personal life and in the avalanche of injustices engulfing our world. The parable is inviting us to a persistence that is rooted in loving trust in the basic truth of our faith: God is good now and always no matter how it may seem to our limited view. We need not worry about God’s perseverance. It is our faithfulness that is the issue.

One of the delightful aspects of the story is missing in English where it says that the judge finally gives way to the widow because he fears she may strike him. In the original language, it says he fears that she will give him a black eye.

The main point of the parable is contrasting the self-absorbed and crooked judge with a loving and merciful God. If the poor widow received her due from the corrupt minister of the law, how much more will be the loving response of the God of mercy, compassion and limitless love. We are called to place trust in our prayer to a God who sent his Son to take flesh in the chaos of our world so as to transform it in the end with a reign of love and justice. Luke’s message is one of exhortation to the disciples and us: be relentless in our prayer no matter what because God is relentless in his love for us and our broken world.

We can easily see ourselves in the widow, a woman forsaken by society and locked into poverty that seemed ruthless in its destructive power. We may not be caught in the urgency of her immediate economic survival but poverty attacks us in many ways. Our human condition is always caught in a sense of futility and mortality. We suffer the consequences of the neglect of our environment and, now, we even have governmental denial of this reality. The on-coming horrors of climate change seem totally overwhelming. We are confronted daily by the divisive horror of ICE’s arbitrary onslaught on so many innocent and beautiful people who contribute so much to our common well-being. The issue of sexual harassment in the Church, society and, more often than we might imagine, in the family, often renders us longing for the liberation of a new day. The continual struggle of a fair and compassionate acceptance of sexual orientation begs for a sign of hope from the Church and society. Then there is the engulfing conflict in government where we see the politicians further and further removed from the common good by the parallelizing partisanship that is devoid of compromise. It locks everyone into a senseless stagnation. These are just a few examples of how we all share some of the widow’s’ desperation whether we are aware of it or not.

The widow shows us that for the person of faith and trust, prayer is not the last resort. It is the first resort and always joined to our personal effort to make a difference. Prayer exposes a sense of God’s loving allegiance to all. In the end, God will have the last word. That word is uttered in the victory of Jesus over evil and death in the Pascal Mystery of his death and resurrection.

Like the widow, we are urged to both pray and act for the justice of God. When we are faithful in our commitment to prayer and action, the Son of Man will truly find faith on earth when he comes again. (Lk 18:8)

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TWENTY EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Luke 17:11-19

Dear Friends, Most Gospel stories are deeper and more challenging than they seem on the surface. Today’s story of the ten lepers is a good example. While it includes the limitless horizons of salvation, it also is an obvious lesson of gratitude.

In the Hebrew language of Jesus’ time, there was no word for thankfulness. The Jews uses words of praise blessing and glorifying to express thanks. Just like Naman in the first reading, the Samaritan responds to the healing with a statement of faith and praise. This is our most common prayer form the Eucharist. Which is the greatest prayer of thanksgiving for the saving act of our Crucified Savior.

It is very helpful to understand the background. Any person with any skin disease was considered a leper. This, of course, included those with real leprosy which is very contagious and fatal. However, it also included many minor skin diseases. Lepers were totally isolated and could not come closer than fifty yards to any person as well as their loved ones. They had no participation in the social life of the community and were totally dependent on the generosity of others for all their needs.

The first words of today’s passage from Luke are “As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem”. (Lk 17:11) We have been with Jesus for fifteen weeks on this journey to Jerusalem and have three more to go. It has been a time of learning how to be a true disciple.

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TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 17:5-10

Dear Friends, For us, the treatment of the servant in today’s gospel passage can be both distracting and upsetting. We need to move beyond these concerns to discover the real challenge Jesus is presenting to us. It is the issue of faith that helps us to see who God is and who we are.

Faith means understanding and acting on our commitment to Christ and the values of his gospel message. Faith is a call to service. It means the steady recognition and response to the circumstances in our life situation. We should realize that this is our duty, our call to service. It is accepting the proper order of reality.

Today’s short gospel passage is part of a longer section. In this part of his gospel, Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples what it means of be his follower. Immediately, before today’s selection, Jesus presented the challenging issue of forgiveness. For those listening in Jesus’ presence, down to us today, it is a truly demanding task to forgive once a day not to mention seven times a day. “If he wrongs you seven times in one day, and returns to you seven times to say I ‘I am sorry’, you should forgive him”. (Lk 17:4) This lesson is why the disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith.

The phrase about the mulberry tree flying off to the sea is just another example of the strong and exaggerated language that Jesus used to stress a point. What he is saying to the disciples and to us, is that the little faith we have is sufficient if we only trust it and express our confidence in God. Faith allows us to share in the power of God. The impossible becomes possible to the person of faith. Of course, this requires that we accept both God’s authority and schedule.

We should not be put off by the treatment of the servant. This was an example from the everyday reality of Jesus’ listeners. Jesus is not accepting nor rejecting it. He is using it to convey a message that his listeners would understand. The real issue is not how the owner treats the servant but how the servant understands his role. It should help us understand our basic reality. God is God and we are the creature. We must fight the constant temptation to make ourselves god and God our servant. This was the basic problem with Adam and Eve in the Garden. It has been the same through the history of humanity.

Jesus is using the parable to also teach us about discipleship. We need to see our role as servants. Jesus is contrasting this understanding with the constant practice of the Scribes and Pharisees. They saw themselves in a position of privilege and expected special recognition and esteem at all times. On the other hand, the disciple of Christ should seek to lead by example and service. Jesus said he was among us as one who serves. We could have no more powerful example of this than the washing of feet at the Last Supper.

Accepting ourselves as creature and God as Creator puts everything in the right perspective. It means, among other things, that we can never put God in our debt. We can never have any claim on God. When we have done our best, we only have done our duty. We are not living in the realm of law with its exactitude in measuring our responsibilities. Jesus has called us into the realm of love where the boundaries of our giving and self-sacrifice are always expanding to new horizons.

St. Teresa of Avila understood her role as creature and servant with profound accuracy. All her teachings and wisdom flowed from her appreciation of true humility. She recognized, with ever-growing clarity and insight, that God is God and she is the creature. In embracing her humble circumstances, she accepted God as a loving and merciful savior and herself as a humble and sinful child and servant, but one both loved and forgiven. She understood her life, in its deepest truth, as the story of God’s mercy. It is the same for all of us. That is the real message in today’s parable.

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TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 16:19-31

Dear Friends,

Luke’ Gospel has a consistent theme of reversal. Today’s parable continues this pattern. Right at the beginning of Luke we have in Mary’s great hymn, the Magnificat: “He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich he has sent away empty. (Lk: 1: 52-53)” In the Sermon on the Plain this theme of reversal dominates. The first blessing and the first Woe of the Sermon on the Plain are a concrete expression of today’s message. “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Lk 6:20). Then in Lk 6:24 we read: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Then in Lk 13:30 we read: “For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last”.

Jesus’ entry into the human scene has had many consequences. The great reversal is one of them that await us. Today’s parable about Lazarus and the unidentified rich man is a significant example of this turn-around. The two characters experience a deep transformation of their fortunes. There is a profound message in this story for us.

We learn that we have limits to the time for us to act in accord with Jesus’ call. Death offers a finality to our time of decision. In this framework, there are consequences. The rich man shows the transient nature of wealth. We can put off our commitment to charity and justice only so long.

Another contradiction that Luke offers is the challenge to the mindset about wealth and poverty in Jesus’ time. People believed wealth was a blessing from God and poverty a sign of God’s rejection. Luke’s great reversal has a different lesson.

Today’s parable is making it quite clear. In God’s scheme of things, all wealth, status, prestige, privilege and power are transitory. Secondly, we need to learn that ownership is not absolute. It has consequences. When we do not accept these realities, we are subject to the great reversal. These great changes flow from the radically Good News that Jesus offers us.

Today’s story does not describe either character as particularly good or bad. The problem is neglect and blindness. Luke, in this parable which is found only in his Gospel, goes deeply into the details of the reversal between Lazarus and the rich man. First, in contrast to almost all of history, the poor man is identified and the rich man is nameless. Then, the disparity in physical comfort is dramatically transformed. Now the powerful rich man sees Lazarus as the one who can give him what he wants. First, it is water and secondly, it is help for his brothers.

In his lifetime the rich man was driven in an endless search for comfort. His wealth was a source of prestige and power. His possessions were a vehicle of security and control. Death destroyed these deceptions and revealed the truth. There is a social mortgage on God’s blessings. They need to be an instrument of justice. In the story of Lazarus, Jesus is teaching us to open our eyes to the poor around us. Our heart needs to move us to respond to the needy at our doorstep whether that doorstep is in our family or neighborhood or the many borders we create to protect our comfort personally, communally or nationally.

Pope Francis said that a lifestyle that is too comfortable leads to the gentrification of the heart. The results of a lifestyle driven by ever-expanding consumption diminishes the spirit which leads to an isolation and neglect of the poor in our midst. It does damage to the eyes of the heart. It is setting up our slippery slope into the wrong side of the great reversal that confronts us in the story of Lazarus.

Like the brothers of the rich man, the Word of God offers us a clear call to conversion. We also have the added advantage of experiencing the Risen Christ. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether we can see the poor in our midst? Does the message of the Risen Christ allow us to see in our possessions an instrument of love and service for those who are in need in our world?

Today’s parable has a simple and clear implication for us. We need to cast off our comfortable blindness and begin to see with a new heart rooted in the call of Jesus to walk in the light.

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TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 16:1-13

Dear Friends,

Today’s parable of the dishonest servant is one of the most puzzling in all of the Gospels. In the end, however, the message is clear and strong. We need to use our money and possessions to help us enter into the Kingdom. You can call it a plea for Kingdom economics. It is an invitation to a rather difficult task: how to use our material gifts to facilitate, not obstruct, our journey to the Kingdom and ever-lasting life.

The key to understanding the parable and its forceful teaching is to determine where the steward committed the injustice. On reflection, it had to be in the earlier use of the owner’s goods. This is why he is being dismissed. The heart of the puzzle is the owner’s praise of the seeming theft involved in the steward’s reduction of the bill to the various debtors. This had to involve the steward’s personal commission on the deal. Thus, the owner commended his foresight and action. This is our call: act to enter the kingdom.

Jesus is inviting his followers to use their time, treasure and talent with similar foresight. Like the steward, we have to realize that our possessions have a mortgage on them. Their actual ownership belongs to another. In the disciples’ case, and in our case, God is the owner. The material blessings are to be shared to benefit the Kingdom. The wise use of wealth that Jesus is calling for needs to include the priorities of the Kingdom. This places the poor, the forgotten and the marginalized in a position of privilege that is far different from the reality of our consumer society.

In this section of his Gospel, chapters ten to nineteen, known as The Road to Jerusalem, Luke is showing Jesus teaching the consequences of his Messiahship as the Suffering Servant. To be a follower of Christ demands a deep price. Discipleship comes at a real cost.

Discipleship demands a total commitment. Luke is consistently bringing up the challenge of wealth and the role of money for the followers of Jesus. How we use our possessions reveals our priorities. If Jesus is truly our priority, the approach to wealth and its trappings will be measured by how it draws us into the Kingdom values that Jesus proclaims.

Jesus’ message in today’s parable is strong and simple: we are called to make a clear-cut choice. The steward did this in his short-run vision of reality. As disciples, we are called to the wisdom of a similar decisive conclusion in the long -range vision of the Kingdom.



In the fourth century St. Ambrose had a great insight about wealth and the poor. He was commenting on the rich man and his barns (Lk 12:16-21): “The bosoms of the poor, the houses of widows, the mouths of children are the barns that last forever.”

Luke’s message today, as with the rich man’s barns, and throughout his Gospel, offers a test for the true disciple to make the wise decision. We are constantly confronted to choose between what is necessary and what we want. This is no easy choice. We are engulfed in the possessive claws of a multibillion-dollar advertising industry. We are constantly being bombarded with a definition of happiness that is rooted in values far removed from the Gospel of Jesus. We are being told that our total satisfaction is at our fingertips if we just buy the next product which surely will gratify all the hungers in our heart.

On the other hand, in the depths of our being, we have the gentle but unyielding whisper of the Gospel message. A faithful response to the word of God will be like the mustard seed in the heart, growing steadily in the wisdom and power of God. The discipleship called for by Jesus is a long and arduous trip. This perennial battle of the heart is the stuff of our way forward in the footsteps of Jesus.

Today’s parable is an invitation to begin the process of embracing the Kingdom economics of Jesus. Our garage sales need to constantly grow more expansive as we seek funds for those in need. In the Kingdom that Jesus is proclaiming, less is actually more, much more!

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CALL TO HOLINESS-2

The Liturgy: The Source and Summit of our Faith

The incorporation of the teachings of Vatican II into the Catholic life has been very uneven. The common experience of the Liturgy has been the biggest area of change and the most accepted by the faithful.

I would like to share a personal story leading into some reflections on liturgical reform and the call to universal holiness.

It was about twenty years before the beginning of Vatican II. I was at the Sunday school mass with my fourth grade class. The nuns kept a great discipline and order among the eight hundred students.

My crisis began when the priest placed two hosts on my tongue at Communion time. I became terrified and lost any common sense perspective. I tried to stay in line on the way back to my seat. I placed the extra host on the side of my mouth with the hope of bringing it back to the Monsignor right after the mass.

I was becoming consumed in a sense of horror as the host was rapidly melting in my mouth. My dilemma was that I could never touch the host nor receive two hosts. Likewise, I had to stay in place and keep quiet. Today we would call it the perfect storm of horror. As the host melted in my mouth, I was expecting the floor to open up and I would plunge straight down to the consuming fires of hell. To my utter amazement, I was somehow spared my eternal punishment at that moment. The floor at my feet held steady.

As soon as I got outside, I ran to the sacristy and told the Monsignor about my two host horror story. He said simply, “That’s all right boy. “Don’t worry about it.” While I was relieved, I also was terribly confused. I said to myself, “What the hell is this about?” Somehow I just avoided the eternal fires of hell and he says, “Don’t worry about it!”

This was the beginning of Vatican II for me. It was the first unraveling of the “Catholic world” that was my inflexible and non-negotiable heritage. This was the culture that had evolved from the defensive stance against the Protestants over the previous four centuries since the Council of Trent.

Vatican II became a process of stripping off the rigid strait-jacket that maintained the Catholic discipline centered around the sixth commandment, Mass on Sunday and fish on Friday. Walking with Jesus had become hidden somewhere along the way.

The Dominance of the Priestly Role

In the pre-Vatican II world, liturgy centered around the priest. Only the priest touching the host was one among many common practices that were established in response to the Protestant reformation.

The priest was seen as the mediator between the people and God. The priest was viewed as special, holy and outside the ordinary lives of the people. An entire culture of exclusiveness developed to support this view and help create a warped clericalism.

In the liturgy, the mass centered on the exclusive role of the priest. He prayed quietly in Latin with his back to the people and separated by the communion rail. The main part of the Mass became the special words of the priest changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This was identified by the ringing of the bell at the elevation of the host and chalice.

This emphasis on the importance of the priest led to the greatly diminished role of the laity. My crisis of not touching the sacred host was crossing the sacred division between the exalted role of the priest and the inconsequential role of the laity. The reality was clear. The priest was the holy one. The laity were along for the ride. They just needed to follow the rules and all would be well because the priest was bringing God to them.

The Church as the People of God

The changes in the liturgy mandated by Vatican II were a radical transformation from the priest-dominated reality in the centuries following the Council of Trent. The basic change was the Church was now seen as the People of God. Priests were part of the common people of faith. They are distinguished by a role as is the laity. The main difference at the Eucharist is not the change of the bread and wine but the transformation of the entire community into the Body of Christ.

This relates strongly to the call for universal holiness. This is why we call the liturgy the source and summit of our faith. Many other changes flow from these basic insights of the new emphasis on the People of God celebrating the Eucharist. The priest no longer is the celebrant. The entire community celebrates in unity. The priest presides over the communal celebration.

The laity have increased roles as lectors, Eucharistic ministers and ministers of hospitality. Likewise, the role of the musician and choirs have grown in importance. The Eucharist is placed on the hand without the separation of the communion rail or the posture of kneeling.

Most importantly, the message of the celebration and the liturgical seasons and scripture readings are all leading into a central and governing emphasis on the Pascal Mystery of Christ. All are defined most accurately not as priest or laity. All are Disciples of Christ, gathered to journey through life in the footsteps of Jesus. That is why we call the liturgy the source and summit of our faith. We are all, first and foremost, Disciples of Christ.

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Twentieth-Fouth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Lk 15: 1-32

Dear Friends,
The parables of the Two Sons and the Good Samaritan have been a major factor in the development of Christianity as we experience it today. Without the impact of these two parables, our perception of Christianity would be quite different. They offer an incredible breakthrough in our exposure to the mercy of God.

The three parables in today’s passage have one overriding and common theme. They are just too much in their contradiction of common sense. They all point to an extravagance without measure of God’s mercy. The story of the father and the sons presents a new slant to our relationship to God. The father has no concern about sin and repentance. It is about lost and found, dead and alive.

 
In the father’s attitude, we are invited to move away from a sin and forgiveness approach to a much more personal understanding. In this view, we see the issue as a lost person being found. This connects to the sheep and coin in the first parables.

 
We need to see ourselves in both sons. When we repent, like the first son, we have our story ready. The father has no interest in the story. His son was dead and now is alive. The father will have nothing to do with hired servant nonsense. This is his son. The ring and sandals and feast are all symbols of his unconditional welcoming of the son in his merciful embrace. Like the shepherd and the woman, the father knows what was lost and has been found. It is time to celebrate. We need to see ourselves as the recipient of the feast of Gd’s mercy

As we move on to the second son, it is ever so easy to recognize ourselves, like him, as victims in so many of life’s broken experiences. Similar to the angry and hostile brother, our hurts have a good deal of merit.

However, also like the second son, we miss the point that the father sees so clearly. It is not about things, but people. Possessions and privileges just do not make sense when measured against life, love and mercy. “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Lk 15: 32).

This story opens itself into an immeasurable panorama of interpretations. They all expose our human condition in the depth and breadth of its fractured reality. It is this very brokenness that displays the mercy of God. We are fond of saying that this mercy knows no limits. The actions of the father help us journey from the head to the heart when pondering this great mystery of a God calling us to the banquet of life despite our sinfulness.

All the great spiritual teachers of the Christian tradition emphasize the only way to know God is to know ourselves first. The story of the two sons shows us this profound truth. Only when they accept their own weakness are they able to begin to appreciate the wonder and magnificence of the love and mercy of the father.

We never find out if the older brother was able to break through his blindness of the commercial relationship by which he defined the father. What we do know is that the father was relentless in his pursuit of both sons. Their choice was to accept or reject this love and mercy. On the father’s part, there was only the continuing offer of love and the invitation to the banquet.

The message comes across in so many different levels. God is always accepting us. God is always forgiving us. God is always pursuing us. In the end, the call could not be clearer. We need to let God’s mercy and love define and direct our lives in every way possible.

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