Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Nativitas D.N.I.C.
25 December 2021
Midnight Mass Readings

 In the Gospel for this solemnity the whole world was in motion.  The phrase that “the whole world should be enrolled” is a reference to the entire Roman Empire.  The Emperor Caesar Augustus had decreed that a census should take place and so the whole world was in motion as people returned to their ancestral homes for the census.  This is how Joseph ends up in the city of David, Bethlehem, because he is a descendant in the royal line of David.  He went to register where his ancestral line and territory originate from.  Recall that it was in Bethlehem that the youngest of Jesse’s sons, David, was anointed as king (cf. 1 Sam 16).  There was motion and commotion as the various processes of the world unfolded on that first Christmas night.  The powerful and the elite initiated this movement.  But most everyone was unaware that a divine motion was taking place in the midst of it all.  That divine motion took flesh by Mary’s cooperation and the power of the Holy Spirit and began nine months prior.  That divine motion remained hidden in the sanctuary of her womb.  And on this solemnity we celebrate that the movement of God coming to man was made visible by the birth of Jesus from Mary.  As the beginning of that movement of God, the conception of the Lord, took place in obscurity and simplicity and privacy.  So, with his birth.  And it was not to the powerful nor to the elite that the angel shared the message of God moving near and becoming one with us.

Celebrating the birth of our Savior and considering to whom angels announced this movement of God offers us three lessons for living our faith, three lessons for how we ought to be so that we are more open to the Good News of great joy that God is with us, so that we don’t miss the movement of God toward us like so many at that first Christmas.  And so, the humility and simplicity taught to us by those to whom the angels of the Lord did announce God’s coming near is a lesson for us.  It is a lesson for our present spiritual life so that we live in a way that makes us open and receptive to receive God’s desire to come near to us, open and receptive to receive God Himself.  So, let’s look at three examples of those to whom angels appeared.

 It was the Archangel Gabriel who first announced to Mary that God desired to come near to mankind and that she had been chosen to be part of this divine movement.  The humility and the simplicity of a living faith, of which Mary is an excellent model, is a lesson for us to emulate.  That living faith is one that is both active and contemplative.  It is one whose prayer is both vocal and silent.  Above all, a living faith is one that is not only on the lips but rather seeks to embrace what God speaks and to conform and change one’s life in trust.  Mary’s living faith is a model for us to permit God and His ways to have a claim on our lives so that we change ourselves to be conformed to Him.

The Gospel of St. Matthew tells us that an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream to communicate God’s plan that involved Mary and to call upon him to change his mind so that he would not be afraid to take Mary into his home and to be both husband to her and father to her child.  The courageous obedience of St. Joseph is a model and a lesson for us to emulate.  The silence from Scripture on St. Joseph does not permit us to know much about him.  However, what we do know provides for us this lesson of courageous obedience.  Listening to the message of the angel and following what God revealed to him was not some passive thing.  His cooperation with God’s plan required a type of courage to steel his nerves, to change his plans, to submit to God in trust and to endure whatever would come.

Finally, in the Gospel of this Holy Mass we hear that soon after the birth of the Savior an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds keeping the night watch in the fields near his birth.  The lesson we can learn from the angel’s appearance to the shepherds requires a bit more analysis.  It is perhaps not as obvious as the need for an angel to appear to Mary and to Joseph in order to gain their free cooperation with God’s movement to mankind.  Bethlehem is in the region of Jerusalem, only about 6 miles or so to the south of Jerusalem.  It might be hard for us to imagine but the service at the Jerusalem Temple and the sacrifices that took place there were a major driving part of the economy of the entire local area.  In particular, for the sacrifice of lambs thousands of sheep would be needed.  Perhaps most unimaginable to us, hundreds of thousands would be needed at particularly high holy days when pilgrims from far and wide made the journey to Jerusalem.  It is thus entirely likely that the flocks in the region surrounding Bethlehem, only about six miles from the holy city, were flocks that provided, at least in part, for the massive sacrificial system of the Jerusalem Temple.  Following the birth of Jesus, the angel’s appearance next to the lowly shepherds – to these shepherds in particular – highlights a lesson for us about sacrifice and worship.  Already at his birth, the specter of sacrifice is present.  The Bethlehem shepherds, guardians of the flocks destined for sacrifices at the Temple, come with haste to see what the angel proclaims, the sign for them of an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.  We don’t get any details later in the Gospel about just what is was like for several shepherds to move their entire flocks and to arrive at the nativity.  But whatever motion and commotion there must have been, these guardians of the sacrifices for the Temple, come to see the newborn Lamb of God, the one whose very self is the perfect Temple, the one who will be sacrificed for the salvation of mankind.  And thus, a lesson for us is the primacy of sacrifice in our embrace of God’s movement to be with us.  Most especially, our embrace of the sacrifice that is made present to us here at the Holy Mass, the sacrifice of the Cross that saves us.  But not only that.  The lesson for us is that to respond to God’s movement to us we must be a people of sacrifice.  Our sacrifices to change sinful habits and to rid them from our lives helps us welcome and adore Christ.  We make sacrifice to put God first in all things, requiring that we keep proper priorities and refuse to make others things our gods.  Living in such a way that proclaims that I actually do believe that God is near and with me requires sacrifice.  To see the events of life, especially those that challenge me or disturb my faith, as participating in God’s life and His work of salvation requires that I sacrifice the voices of doubt and beg an increase of trust.  And of course, to be like those guardian shepherds of the sacrifice, to gather here in accord with the Lord’s own command that we do this in his memory, to be present to worship God at Holy Mass… this requires that we sacrifice other pursuits to embrace God’s saving presence and action among us.  It is in keeping our eyes fixed, like the shepherds, on the Lamb of God, that our individual sacrifices make sense and are placed together with the one perfect pleasing offering made to God the Father by the Son Jesus Christ.

Developing a living faith, a courageous obedience, and a focus on the primacy of sacrifice helps us receive the Good News of great joy that our God and Savior has come near.  These lessons help us embrace the movement of God to us so that we might move to deeper life with Him.  May the observance of this solemnity help us, through the darkness of our stumbling faith, to see with renewed vision the glory of the Lord shining around us.  May this solemnity help us to embrace the movement of God to us so that we join the multitude of the heavenly host in proclaiming: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!”

Third Sunday of Advent

Dominica III Adventus C
12 December 2021

The change of vestment color for this weekend and the permission to decorate the sanctuary with flowers serve as a visual reminder that half of Advent is in the past.  The color rose – rose being traditionally associated with joy – and the repeated message of the Scriptures call us to rejoice.  And so, this day has been called in Latin “Gaudete Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday.”  That thematic title for this Sunday comes from the words of the entrance antiphon, which we chanted at the beginning of this Holy Mass: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.”  This weekend the Church calls us to step up our joy because we have completed half of this holy season and are drawing near to the celebration of the source of our joy, the birth of Christ Jesus.

The brief book of the Prophet Zephaniah, our first reading, demonstrates the hope of God’s people that there would be fulfillment of God’s promise that “the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst.”  This promise that the Lord will come among his people and be in their midst has always held for the Church a Marian significance.  When we celebrate Mary’s role in salvation history it is common that this first reading is chosen since, through Mary and her cooperation in faith, God’s Son literally comes into our midst.  The mere hope of the fulfilment of this promise was already a source of joy for God’s people in the Old Covenant.  We who live in the time of the New Covenant can embrace an even more confident joy in that this promise has been fulfilled and God, our Savior, has come to us.  One of our focuses in Advent is that very reality, the first coming of our Savior, whose birth we are preparing to observe with renewed faith.

 Yet, for us too, like God’s people in the time of the Prophet Zephaniah, we await a promise to be fulfilled.  Zephaniah also prophesied about a coming day of the Lord, a day of wrath and judgment.  In fact, Zephaniah’s description of this day of wrath has inspired in large part the liturgical texts and poetry that we use for requiem or funeral Masses, especially the composition of the hymn Dies Irae, the Day of Wrath.  That coming day of the Lord, the day of judgment, is our second focus in the season of Advent.  We who exist in the New Covenant, seek to renew our faith in celebrating the first arrival of God’s presence in the midst of His people, that is His coming in our flesh and His birth in time.  But we also must prepare and look ahead – even looking ahead with joy – for the fulfillment of a promise still awaited, that is the Lord’s return in glory when he will usher in the fullness of his Kingdom.

 It may seem odd to look forward with joy to the coming day of glory and judgment.  Yet, that is our task in faith.  Our joy for the return of the Lord in glory can find its place in God’s tender care and love for His people.  We see that tender care in the terms commonly used to refer collectively to God’s people.  Borrowing the name of the location of the original citadel of David, named Zion, and later called Jerusalem, a poetic personification comes to be used to refer to God’s people as a beloved daughter.  The Prophet Zephaniah uses those terms – “daughter Zion” and “daughter Jerusalem” – calling God’s people to shout for joy even as they await both the coming of the Lord into their midst and the coming day of wrath.

 Those incorporated into the Church by faith and baptism, and who maintain that life of grace, are the fulfillment of daughter Zion and daughter Jerusalem.  The Church is thus viewed and referred to as the new heavenly city, the dwelling place of God with His people.  We have joy as we prepare to celebrate God’s birth among us at Christmas.  And we have joy as we still await and must prepare for God’s return in glory as our Judge.  Why or how do we have joy as we prepare for His return?  We have joy because we are called to view the Lord’s return as an opportunity for the fulfillment of our eternal dwelling and communion with God in His Kingdom.  To be able to look ahead with joy to the Lord’s return should fill us with the same expectation that prompted those listening to St. John the Baptist’s preaching to ask, “What should we do?”

 St. John the Baptist’s response highlights the moral response that must be part of our preparation for the Lord’s return.  And if we will seek to make a moral response by the choices we make in our living as disciples, then we can have joy as we await the Lord’s return.  Too often we can be lulled into a false notion that approaches our life as disciples and our preparation for the Lord’s return in a far too static way.  A brute way to say this is that we don’t have an authentic and lasting joy in waiting for the Lord’s judgment if we live as if having once been baptized and showing up for Mass means we have accomplished the heights of sanctity.  No, we have joy in our looking forward to the Lord’s return by living a dynamic moral life, by reforming our sinful ways, and by living for others.  That fulfillment and satisfaction you experience in serving the less fortunate and providing for someone who has less material means (which we do so easily at this time of year), that can serve as an indication and a reminder that we can live in joy by serving others and putting away sin from our lives.  All manner of people asked St. John the Baptist, “What should we do?”  All people from the Gospel reading, even those known as notorious sinners, such as tax collectors, and those known to exercise power and manipulation, such as soldiers, all have a place in the joy of awaiting the Lord if they will turn from sin and live a more dynamic moral life.  And that’s the lesson for us too.

 Our Advent focus is not only the joy of celebrating the Lord’s birth at Christmas but it is also a call to have joy in living our life and communion with the Lord now, even as we await that mysterious day of glory and judgment that will come.  We can prepare for that day with joy by seeking to be better grain (to borrow a gospel image), better wheat for the Lord, while separating the chaff from our lives through repentance and better moral living.  And then, as beloved sons and daughters of the Church, the new Jerusalem, and free from anxiety we can respond to the charge of St. Paul in the second reading, which forms the theme for this Sunday: “Rejoice in the Lord always, I shall say it again: rejoice!”

Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Immaculate Conception of the BVM
8 December 2021

 Observing the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary we contemplate the threshold of our salvation, because we celebrate the gift of God to Mary, the one He chose to be the mother of our Savior.  As we celebrate today how she was conceived free from all stain of sin in her mother’s womb, the womb of St. Ann, we celebrate that God was making good on His promise to save mankind.  With this in mind it is appropriate that we hear in this Holy Mass from the Book of Genesis.  We hear God’s words after the fall of Adam and Eve, in that sin we call “original.”  We hear of God’s plan to save mankind after sin had entered the garden of goodness God had made for His creation.

 In the selection from Genesis we hear what theologians like to call the “protoevangelion.”  That term comes from Greek and refers to the first proclamation of the Good News, the first proclamation of the gospel, that God has a plan to save us.  That first proclamation is verse 15 which has God speaking to Satan, the serpent, and saying: “I will put enmity [division, hatred, adversarial relationship] between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he [the offspring of the woman] will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen. 3:15).  God speaks His plan to undo the sin and disorder that Satan proposed and introduced to Adam and Eve.  God proclaims that the offspring of the woman will strike a head blow, that is a mortal blow, to the serpent.  The fulfillment of this good news for salvation is finally found in the Cross of Jesus, in his sacrifice of his life for our salvation.  Why is the Cross of Jesus that mortal, head blow to the serpent and his cunning?  It’s because disobedience is at the heart of Satan’s relationship with God and Satan’s plan to bring ruin to God’s goodness.  Satan is that angel who fell because he would not serve God in obedience.  Disobedience is at the center of what Satan introduced in the garden and disobedience remains at the heart of our sins, for which we are personally responsible.  That’s why the Cross of Jesus is the fulfillment of this first announcement of the gospel: because the Cross is fundamentally about obedience.  God the Son, takes on our flesh, and he comes to do the Father’s will.  In obedience Jesus accepts the Cross and the punishment for our sins.  The obedience of the Cross undoes the disobedience inspired by Satan.  And thus, for you and for me, obedience to God is key to our salvation, an obedience that is demonstrated in our growth in holiness and our saying an increasingly committed “no” to sin.

 I’d like you to think about the value of the Cross in order to understand our faith in Mary’s preservation from sin in her immaculate conception.  The sacrificial event of Jesus’ death on the Cross is what saves us.  It is re-presented here at the Holy Mass and that’s why the Mass is so important to our faith and our entrance into Heaven because it places us in contact with the sacrificial value of the Cross.  I’m willing to bet that most everyone here believes the Cross is what saves us, even though it happened a few thousand years before any of us was ever thought of, or ever lived and walked the earth.  In other words, I bet most everyone here believes that God the Father saw the value of Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice on the Cross and applied the merit, the value, of that sacrifice, to people who did not live at the time and in the place where it happened.  God applies the value of the sacrifice of the Cross to those who will accept it in faith, and who will embrace it and conform their life to it.  God sees the value and the merit of the Cross and I bet you believe that its value is applied to you and to me a few thousand years later.  Here is what I’d like you to consider: If you believe the value of Jesus’ sacrifice can apply to you thousands of year later, can you believe and accept that God could see the value of the Cross and apply its value before it happened?  If its value could move forward in time to us, can God permit its value to go backward in time?  That is basically what we are saying in faith about Mary’s immaculate conception.  We are saying that God Who exists outside of time and Who sees and knows all things, could see the value of what His Son would accomplish on the Cross and He applied that value to Mary from the first moment of her conception in her mother’s womb.  Thus, God gave Mary the gift of saving her from the first moment of her life.  It’s not that she did not need salvation, no!  God saved her from the first moment of her life by the value of the sacrifice of Jesus which the Father could foresee.

 Why would it be important for God to have a plan to do this for Mary, the mother of our Savior?  If God’s plan was to send His Son in the flesh to be born among us, in time, in the normal course of human birth, then a human being, having inherited a fallen nature due to original sin, could not do anything but pass on fallen, sinful human flesh to Jesus.  But the Book of Revelation tells us that nothing unholy can be in God’s presence.  Much less together with Him.  God, the all-holy One, cannot coexist with sin.  It’s like oil and water; they don’t go together.  So, God’s preserving Mary from sin from the first moment of her life means she was being prepared for the role He chose for her in salvation: to give human flesh to the Son.  And by preserving her from sin, God the Father was making it possible to pass on to Jesus the pure flesh that could coexist with Him.  Mary’s being preserved from sin means she could provide for Jesus sinless human flesh in which to take up dwelling, in order to come to save us.

 Thus, the collect of this Holy Mass speaks well of what we believe in this aspect of our faith.  Listen to it again carefully: “O God, who…prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.”

 We celebrate in this solemnity the special gift of God to Mary.  A gift that was part of His plan, first announced in Genesis, to deal a mortal blow to Satan and the harm he had done to God’s desire for us to have Heaven.  Since obedience was the undoing of Satan’s disobedience, then obedience to God must be fostered in our Christian living.  And this is why Mary is for us such a great example and intercessor.  She is the one who said “yes” to God’s plan.  We heard of that obedience in the gospel: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  God has a desire for us to live in communion with Him now and forever in Heaven.  He has fulfilled His plan in Jesus’s sacrifice.  Today we celebrate the role He prepared Mary to occupy to bring us that Savior.  Looking to Mary and counting on her prayers for us we can walk confidently toward God trusting that by sincerely doing away with sin, by confessing it, and seeking to observe greater obedience to God now, we will be prepared one day to enjoy the fullness of obedience’s reward in eternal life in Heaven.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Dominica D.N. Iesu Christi Regis
21 November 2021

In a Church with as much history as ours, we observe today a solemnity that is more recent in history.  This solemnity of the universal kingship of Christ was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925.  In his encyclical letter about today’s feast, Pope Pius XI sets the context of this observance.  Let’s listen to his own words:

“In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord” (Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI, December 11, 1925).

Exponentially moreso than did the year 1925, our time bears the marks of a society suffering great difficulties and manifold evils due to Jesus Christ and his law being thrust out of public and private affairs and out of the governance of nations.  There is no authentic and lasting peace between nations, and within nations divisions, tribalism, and dissolution is on the rise, bringing with it great turmoil, unrest, and fear.  What a vision Pope Pius XI had so many decades before the insane lawlessness that has now gripped our nation and much of the world!  This reality should give us renewed focus and vigor to observe the kingship of Christ.  This reality should also lead us to unapologetically submit ourselves more completely to the reign of Christ.  To stay on the current path of modernity and secularization is to choose a path of destruction.

 By virtue of his divine nature, being the Son of God with all lordship and sovereignty, our Blessed Lord is a King by right.  Being God, his kingship extends farther than any mere man’s kingship.  Yet, having given us the curious gift of freedom, there is a certain sense in which his sovereignty must be claimed over us, as if by conquest.  To be clear, the Lord has absolute rights over us.  Yet, in freedom, he expects us to use that gift to submit and to willingly subject ourselves to his rule.  Our Blessed Lord makes this conquest and claims his rights over us by his Passion, death, and resurrection.  Thus, with good reason do we hear the Gospel on this feast, a Gospel that communicates to us the unique way the Lord exercises his kingship.  It is a Gospel leading to the Lord’s condemnation and death on the Cross.  By shedding his blood on the Cross, the Lord condemns sin and wins victory over Satan and his kingdom of darkness.  The implications are grave for our social order and for our hope for salvation when we refuse the kingship of the Lord who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… when we refuse the incarnate love of God for us.  Consider not so much the small portion of the Gospel we hear today, but the whole larger context of the scene surrounding the arrest, the accusation, and the condemnation of Jesus.  “The angry mob outside demands him to be punished.  Voices from all sides have already concluded that he is guilty, even before any trial begins.  They don’t want to hear the facts of the case,” or to accept any meaning of the facts that does not fit the predetermined narrative (Rev. Robert Wood, personal text message, 20 November 2021).  “The truth of the matter makes no difference [to them].  He is obnoxious to them, and he has already been condemned in their minds and hearts.  It is not a matter of truth or justice, but of factions and ideologies and lies” (ibid).  What are the implications of rejecting the order of the King who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?  Look into the mirror and look into that mirror of our civilization that is the mass media, cell phone video footage, and social media posting.  “The scene of today’s Gospel continues to be played out in our world.  Not only in Kenosha, Wisconsin, or Brunswick, Georgia,… but in every place and community and heart that refuses to see the truth, or to cherish the truth, or to listen to the spoken truth” (ibid).  When you reject the Kingship of the Word Incarnate who is Truth, the result is not that you are without a king.  Rather, fallen sinful man makes himself, and what satisfies himself – and soon – his delusions and his derangements, a king.

Having established his kingship over us, we should find comfort in knowing it is God’s action that makes it possible for us to enter his kingdom, to subject ourselves to him, and in so doing to find ultimate and lasting freedom.  While it is possible for us to submit to our King, it is a work that requires our cooperation and ongoing effort in the life of grace.  Seeing the order of the reign of Christ flourish and proliferate in our world begins with that territory, that domain, that is a human person.  It begins with you and me submitting ourselves to the Lord, training our children to do the same, witnessing to the Lord and proclaiming the Gospel in our areas of influence so that others come to accept the Lord as their King too.  Then we will see the proper flourishing of the Kingship of Christ reflected in greater order, justice, truth, and peace in our world.  We get just a little glimpse of that growth and flourishing of the reign of Christ today as our brothers and sisters in RCIA have taken a new step to submit themselves to the Lord and to serve him in his Church as they enter the time of formation and instruction that is the catechumenate.

 The placement of this solemnity situates it always near the annual observance of All Saints’ Day.  The proximity of this placement can serve as a lesson that the mission of the Lord Jesus as King continues in how the saints manifest the holiness and glory of the Lord.  We celebrate the fidelity and the success of the reflected glory and holiness of God shown in the saints, but we also must admit that the Lord’s mission and his reign is supposed to continue in each of us who must strive for holiness and who are saints still-in-the-making.

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXXIII per Annum B
14 November 2021

 We are in the final few weeks of the Church’s liturgical year since the Church’s new year always begins with the First Sunday of Advent, just two weeks away.  These final weeks of the current liturgical year are marked by the images in the Scripture readings of times of darkness, tribulation, suffering, and destruction… images that call to mind the end of things, especially the end of earthly life and most especially God’s return in glory accompanied by the end of the world.  Thus, we hear today from the thirteenth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel.  It is a very complicated Gospel chapter that can be difficult to grasp.  That difficulty is made the more so in this setting in that the Church picks only some verses of the chapter to give us a glimpse.   Thereby missing the whole context of the chapter can create its own confusion.  Furthermore, attempting to make some sense and application of the passage in a limited setting like a homily with only a few minutes to speak really won’t do justice to the chapter.

 Chapter thirteen is Jesus’ Discourse on the Mount of Olives.  After journeying over several chapters toward Jerusalem, our Blessed Lord has finally arrived in the holy city.  He has visited the Temple (as we heard from last week when Jesus was watching people and especially a poor widow put offerings into the Temple treasury).  And now, leaving the Temple he goes outside the city gates, across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, and speaks the selection we hear today presumably while looking back across the valley toward the Temple.  We need to know an important context that the Olivet Discourse is about two distinct but related events.  The Lord speaks about (1) the destruction of the Temple; and, (2) he speaks about the return in glory of the Son of man at the end of time and the end of the world.

 The initial context of Mark chapter 13 is not read in today’s selection.  That context comes in the first verses of chapter 13 when a disciple mentions to Jesus the magnificent stones and the building that is the Temple.  Jesus predicts the Temple’s destruction.  Then, on the Mt. of Olives, the apostles ask the Lord when this will take place.  Jesus responds by commenting on the two related events of the destruction of the Temple and his return in glory at the end of time.  One complication for us is that St. Mark has both events overlaid to show their relatedness and interconnectedness.  That interconnectedness makes sense in the Jewish mind because the Temple was viewed as an image, a microcosm, of the order of the whole universe.  Destroying the Temple is closely related to the destruction of the cosmos, the whole world, which will be part of the Lord’s return in glory.  This interconnectedness is not as clear to the modern mind and so we can get a bit lost in chapter 13, losing sight of which event and which timeline of cataclysmic signs refers to which event.  It is important for understanding chapter 13 to know which event (Temple destruction or return in glory at the end of time) Jesus is speaking of in any given moment.

 Throughout the Olivet Discourse Jesus is shifting in and out of references to both events because they are interconnected.  But at the end of the discourse Jesus notes an important difference between the destruction of the Temple and the end of the world when he returns in glory.  Our Lord predicts that the destruction of the Temple and the violent and deadly overthrow of Jerusalem will happen within one generation (40 years).  But as regards his return in glory with the end of the world, our Lord says we do not know when it will happen, not even the Son knows the day or the hour, only the Father.  The first event (Temple destruction) will have accompanying signs and you should be able to know it is coming (like the fig tree getting leaves and you know summer is near).  But the second event (return in glory with the end of the world), you won’t know the day nor the hour.  Here the lectionary stops today’s selection but Jesus goes on to use another image, the parable of servants not knowing when the master of the house will return and so they can only be watchful and prepared each day.  I hope you can see that in chapter 13 you have to keep clear which event is being referred to.  Otherwise you might conclude that our Lord predicted the end of the whole world in one generation and thereby got it wrong.  No, he predicted the destruction of the Temple and, in fact, it did happen in one generation, in about 40 years’ time.  Or you might conclude that he has told us both that we will be able to know the time of his return and that we will not be able to know.

 At this point this homily is feeling more like a lecture, but I wanted to set a foundation for some of the mysterious message of chapter 13, because it is mysterious and we all know well that with that mystery we can tend in our world to get wrapped up in movements, and ideas, and prophecies, and interminable YouTube videos… but we need to stay grounded and rooted, anchored, in what Jesus, and the Scriptures, and his Church actually teach.  With that in mind, I want to briefly highlight a lesson for us, something more like a homily.  In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel we hear the apocalyptic vision of Daniel that accompanies a time of great upheaval, trial, and distress.  It is an image of the end of things.  That reading gives us an Old Testament reference for one of the named Archangels, St. Michael, who is described as an angel prince warrior and a guardian of God’s people.  (So, our devotion to St. Michael and our trust in his protection is a piety with Old Testament origins.)  The reading shows us the upheaval of a great battle in heaven which is also manifested in the earthly realm.  But after this, those who are wise and just will awaken to an everlasting life and will shine brightly like the stars.  This teaches us a lesson that is maintained in the New Testament and which Jesus also demonstrates in his own life and teaches in his own words: Namely, that suffering precedes salvation.  The spiritual battles that are manifested also on earth, the mysterious and frightening cataclysmic events that accompany the end of the world and the Lord’s return in glory, and also our own struggles with sin and our need to confess, to grow in virtue, and to be saved… all these are examples of that scriptural lesson: that our normal or ordinary path to salvation passes through suffering.  I think we need to hear this because it can be easy for us to dismiss this.  Let’s face it, none of us wants to hear that.  It can be easy for us to treat dismissively or all-too-lightly the damage of our sins.  It can be easy for us to fail to go to confession as we should, letting month upon month, or more, build up the filth of moral decay.  It can be easy for us to dismiss the seriousness of God’s judgment and the call to a rigorous spiritual life marked by spiritual battle.  I think we can fall prey to these notions that dismiss suffering and battle and hard work, in part, because we live in such an age of comfort, casualness, and self-absorption.  We can tend to think of God’s judgment less objectively and instead approach that notion subjectively, thinking something like “Judgment?  Condemnation?  God would never do that to me!”  But you can’t read the Scriptures seriously without noting that some will pass the test and others will not.

 As we come to the end of a liturgical year and hear Scriptures that speak of the end of things, it can be a spiritually healthy opportunity to recall what the Church terms the Four Last Things, that is: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.  These are the end of things.  Our lot on earth passes through suffering and death.  Upon death we will each face our own unique particular judgment, which will be revealed at the end of time in the General Judgment when the Lord returns in glory.  And when that end comes we will find ourselves in one of two eternal destinies: that of heaven or hell.  Signs in the world around us won’t tell us conclusively when the Lord will return.  But they should serve to alert us to the reality of spiritual battle which we must undertake.  But let’s keep ourselves anchored in a truth: The Lord has already won the victory and generously gives us the tools and the strength for battle, even aiding us with his power and life in our frailty.  But we have to cooperate with those gifts, especially by prayer, regular practice of the sacramental life, and moral living.  The Lord’s love is constant and generous.  He sends us guardians, like St. Michael, to minister His own generous assistance.  We therefore must be like servants in the household who live each day simply finding confidence and peace in being prepared and alert for his return.

Solemnity of Christ the King (Traditional Latin Mass)

Dominica D.N. Iesu Christ Regis (Mass of the 1962 Missal)
31 October 2021

 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST.  AMEN.

In a Church with as much history as ours, we observe today a solemnity that is more recent in history.  This solemnity of the universal kingship of Christ was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925.  In his encyclical letter about today’s feast, Pope Pius XI sets the context of this observance.  Let’s listen to his own words:

“In the first Encyclical Letter which We addressed at the beginning of Our Pontificate to the Bishops of the universal Church, We referred to the chief causes of the difficulties under which mankind was laboring. And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord” (Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI, December 11, 1925).

Exponentially moreso than did the year 1925, our time bears the marks of a society suffering great difficulties and manifold evils due to Jesus Christ and his law being thrust out of public and private affairs and out of the governance of nations.  There is no authentic and lasting peace between nations, and within nations divisions, tribalism, and dissolution is on the rise, bringing with it great turmoil, unrest, and fear.  What a vision Pope Pius XI had so many decades before the insane lawlessness that has now gripped our nation and much of the world!  This reality should give us renewed focus and vigor to observe the kingship of Christ.  This reality should also lead us to unapologetically submit ourselves more completely to the reign of Christ.  To stay on the current path of modernity and secularization is to choose a path of destruction.

 By virtue of his divine nature, being the Son of God with all lordship and sovereignty, our Blessed Lord is a King by right.  Being God his kingship extends farther than any mere man’s kingship.  Yet, having given us the curious gift of freedom, there is a certain sense in which his sovereignty must be claimed over us, as if by conquest.  The Lord has absolute rights over us.  Yet, in freedom, he expects us to use that gift to submit and to subject ourselves to his rule.  Our Blessed Lord makes this conquest and claims his rights over us by his Passion, death, and resurrection.  Thus, with good reason do we hear the Gospel on this feast, a Gospel that communicates to us the unique way the Lord exercises his kingship.  It is a Gospel leading to the Lord’s condemnation and death on the Cross.  By shedding his blood on the Cross, the Lord condemns sin and wins victory over Satan and his kingdom of darkness.

 Having established his kingship over us, we hear words from the Epistle to the Colossians that let us know it is God’s action that makes it possible for us to enter his kingdom, to subject ourselves to him, and in so doing to find ultimate and lasting freedom.  St. Paul expresses our thanks today because it is God “who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has transferred us into [his] kingdom.”

 The placement of this solemnity in the traditional calendar situates it always near the annual observance of All Saints’ Day.  This year it falls literally the day before All Saints’ Day.  The proximity of this traditional placement can serve as a lesson that the mission of the Lord Jesus as King continues in how the saints manifest the holiness and glory of the Lord.  While we will celebrate the reflected glory and holiness of the saints, we also must admit that the Lord’s mission is supposed to continue in each of us who must strive for holiness and who are saints still-in-the-making.

 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST.  AMEN.

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXVIII per Annum B
10 October 2021

Last weekend the Gospel selection ended with children in their humility, trust, and acceptance as an image of what is required to enter the kingdom of God.  Today’s passage features a rich man, who is certainly older and less simple than a child, asking a question that touches upon the same lesson: What is needed, what must one do, to inherit eternal life?  And today’s passage ends with Jesus’ remark that entering the kingdom is hard, very hard.  He notes that wealth and riches make it hard to enter the kingdom.  The words of the Lord amaze and astonish the disciples leading them to ask, “Then who can be saved?”  Today’s passage connects well with the conclusion of last week’s passage and presents us with a critical question that should be ours about what is needed to inherit eternal life.  The passage likewise should challenge us.  We should not pass over these words lightly.  We need to have the same interest in knowing what is needed to enter the kingdom.  We need to permit the discomfort, the amazement, the astonishment to impact us if we are really listening to the words of the Lord and taking seriously the call to reform our lives for heaven.

 The rich man is an example to us in two key ways for how we need to navigate this life in the hope of inheriting eternal life.  The rich man provides us an example both in what he does well and in what he does not do well, that is what he still needs to do.

In a posture of petition and humility and worship, the rich man kneels before Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Notice what response Jesus does not give.  He does not say, just accept me as Lord and Savior.  He does not say, just be a basically good person.  No, notice what Jesus highlights as a foregone conclusion, one that would be familiar to any serious Jew.  The commandments.  Keeping the Law of God would be a common Jewish expectation for entering the kingdom.  And Jesus does not deny this.  Rather, the Lord highlights such obedience.  In response to the rich man, Jesus says, “You know the commandments.”  And the rich man does know them.  He responds that he has observed all these from his youth.  So, the first lesson of the rich man for us is in what he does well.  He is aware of, he is serious about, and he observes the commandments.  Doing what is right and living in accord with the commandments is key to entering heaven.  This is important for us to accept as a lesson because it is fashionable to dismiss a serious conforming of one’s life to the moral law.  Today we often hear approaches to living a godly life that are far less rigorous and robust than the example of the rich man.  Here are some examples of things we often hear: “I’m basically a nice person.”  “I don’t do anything THAT bad.”  “As long as your heart is in the right place.”  “I haven’t murdered anybody.”  We’ve all heard these generic or lowest common denominator appeals that reveal a less than robust striving for holiness.  This Gospel and the example of the rich man do not let us get away with that.  No, this rich man has observed all the moral commands and he has done so from his youth.  An appeal to some really bad thing I have NOT done cannot be the measure of my moral life and that does not get me off the hook for a serious examination of life and a vigorous life of faith.  Yet, this is the error that many people make in our modern age.  It is a well-worn road to hell.  The first lesson about getting to heaven is to obey and keep the commandments, to live a serious moral life.

But there is a second lesson for us in the example of the rich man.  He knows the commandments and he has observed them from his youth… yet, he must know deep inside that something is lacking for he comes to the Lord and asks what more is needed.  And the rich man is lacking something.  Jesus says so.  In context, it seems the rich man has his heart, his desire, his intentions focused on riches.  His treasure is on earth and not in heaven.  So, when the Lord tells the man to sell what he has and then come follow him more closely, the rich man goes away sad.  This lesson in what the rich man does NOT do well is what I will phrase or call the lesson of the heart, the lesson of love.  My spiritual interpretation of this passage is that the rich man, while following the commandments and being obedient, is lacking in love.  The deeper or richer motivation to follow the commandments is something that has escaped him.  He knows the commandments and he follows them, yet something deeper is missing.  To support my interpretation that he’s lacking in love I want to highlight a unique and captivating aspect of St. Mark’s version of this passage, where St. Mark writes, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  That’s a really interesting phrase and it jumps out at me as a way St. Mark is trying to communicate something to us.  Added to this unique phrase is the fact that all the commandments that Jesus lists off, are commandments traditionally understood to guide what one owes other people, they guide love of neighbor.  Things like, you shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness.  When Jesus says to the rich man, “You know the commandments” but then the Lord doesn’t list those commandments traditionally understood to guide what one owes to God, to guide love of God, in my mind that serves to highlight this spiritual interpretation that what the rich man is lacking is a proper motivation, a desire of the heart, a deep love of God that should be the reason for why he leads a moral life.

Just as we cannot dismiss a robust living of the moral life and obedience to God’s commands, likewise we need to look deeper.  We need to notice the movements of the heart.  We cannot live the commands of the moral law in only a superficial or formal way.  We need to give attention to the matter of the love of God.  To strive for eternal life we cannot dismiss a robust living of the moral life; but we also must reform our heart to deeply love God and his ways so that we are not lacking in what will help us inherit eternal life.  It can be very easy for us to have our hearts set on what we can provide for ourselves and on what we can control.  We can fall into the trap of having our heart heavy with material goods and earthly riches.  But to have treasure in heaven starts with the heart and the work we must do to foster our love of God and to place ourselves before him, like the rich man, so that the Lord may look upon us and simply love us.  Before we love God, He has loved us.  Do we let ourselves accept the love of God?  Think of that unique phrase in this passage: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  Do we simply let ourselves be in the place where Jesus can look upon us and love us?  Or does an excessive focus on earthly advancement keep us from meaningful attention to a prayer life that will address the deeper matter of the heart?

We can and should pray anywhere and anytime.  We can and should pray at Holy Mass, and on our own using our own words and turning to God’s word in the Bible as a rich deposit for our spiritual lives.  In all of this, we have various ways to place ourselves before the Lord, like the rich man, so that the Lord may encounter us and love us.  Letting ourselves be loved by God and growing in love of Him must be just as much part of our striving as keeping the commandments must be.  They go together.

My experience of the value of praying and participating in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament really struck me in this regard.  By participating and committing to a time in our adoration chapel we can quite literally re-enact this Gospel passage in its unique description of Jesus.  When we come before the Lord in adoration, we place ourselves before him.  We run up to him in the midst of our busy day.  We may even kneel before him, like the rich man.  We believe the Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament.  Why wouldn’t we run up to him?  And in that time of prayer, in addition to whatever we might bring and whatever things we might want to pray about, we probably need the encouragement of this unique Gospel passage to simply be before the Lord, to let him look upon us and to love us.  As we have heard from the Book of Wisdom today we pray that we set our hearts on the Lord and on spiritual treasure, that we may not be weighed down by an earthly focus that prevents us from noticing our need to let the Lord love us and to call us to follow him.

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXVII per Annum B
3 October 2021

 The Pharisees test Jesus in the Gospel passage by asking about marriage and divorce.  The force of Jesus’ response remains powerful still today in an age marked by many challenges in relationships.  The Pharisees were a very devout group of Jews who knew the Scriptures well.  They indicate that Moses permitted a “bill” of divorce.  They are referring to the teaching of Moses found in the Book of Deuteronomy 24:1-4.  This is the first place in Scripture that mentions a permission for divorce.  Jesus responds to the Pharisees by himself quoting the Book of Genesis and taking them back to “the beginning.”  It’s like saying, see how far you have strayed… get back to God’s original idea and mind.  Jesus interprets the witness in the Book of Genesis and indicates that divorce is not the mind of God and, furthermore, that to divorce and remarry is tantamount to adultery.  The Catholic Church maintains this divine teaching because it is not human teaching but comes from God, and man has no authority to change divine teaching.  How can we not maintain this teaching, if we take the Scriptures seriously?

 In the exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees we learn that Moses permitted divorce due to the sinfulness of the people and their hardness of heart.  But Jesus purifies the vision of his listeners.  And he challenges them to live in accord with the mind of God.  This Gospel lesson is challenging.  I don’t want anyone to think that the message today is condemnatory.  Or that the result should be embarrassment and shame.  In speaking about the mind of God and the permanence of marriage we find a truth that we must hold up.  As a Pastor I know that there are many challenges that come in relationships.  I also know, as does the Church, that one rightly makes a distinction about the morality involved between one who breaks the marriage vows versus being a spouse who has been unjustly abandoned or divorced against his or her will.  I am keenly sensitive too because divorce has marked my own family.  But none of this changes that we must uphold what marriage is and we must expect spouses to strive for it, notwithstanding those cases where marriage vows have been irreparably harmed or one spouse refuses to work to improve the relationship.  If you have questions about divorce or need to address a new and subsequent marriage that was accomplished outside the Catholic Church then I urge you to come see one of the parish clergy soon.  Fr. Bali and I and Deacon Pereira will happily guide you.

 In the Genesis account we see that the relationship of man and woman, their oneness in the flesh that is a hallmark of marriage, is something found within the very act of creation.  It is God’s action that results in the creation of man and woman and it is God’s action that they belong together.  This is why we believe that marriage is not at all a man-made institution, but a God-made one.  Therefore, we accept in faith what God has made.  At the same time, man has no ability or right to dissolve what God has united, to change what God has made, or to make other relationships equivalent to marriage.  God made marriage within the very order of creation as a covenantal bond between one man and one woman.  This is important to note, and all the more so in our troubled age.  Notice that Adam does not leave his father and mother to marry Eve.  No, Adam and Eve were made for one another and established as fitting partners in life.  Since God established marriage and placed it within the very order of creation, “for this reason,” as the Scripture says, all future marriages involve a man leaving his father and mother and clinging to his wife.  In other words, marriage involves a permanent unity reflective of that unity in creation that we see in Adam and Eve and – for this reason – a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife.

But these biblical passages have implications far beyond the question of marriage and divorce.  This is so because we find here a Scriptural based anthropology, meaning an understanding of the origin and existence of mankind.  This Scriptural anthropology presents a biblical vision of creation, the divine institution of marriage, the meaning of the body, the life-creating power of human and spousal love, and more.  As Christians we accept as authoritative, divinely inspired, and inerrant, both the Old Testament and the New, and so the lessons of Genesis are brought together with the Gospel interpretation given by Jesus into a unified Christian anthropology.  Do we accept and embrace this vision of creation, mankind, and moral life, especially as regards relationships like marriage?  Do we let this vision transform us and our attitudes?  While today’s readings touch upon marriage, we can note that this Christian anthropology in the Scriptures gives us guidance on many other issues in our secular modern age.  In fact, given the tsunami of anti-traditional social constructions and novel ideas in the area of sexuality, gender, and marriage it is critical that we understand what godless forces in our society are proposing as a substitution for the Christian vision of creation.  For if we pull up anchor from the foundations of Christian anthropology we quickly find ourselves swept away into all types of man-made constructions that are delusions aided by fairytale language presenting itself as a new version of reality.  But it is no reality.  What are some examples of being unmoored from reality due to rejecting Christian anthropology?  I mean the separation and rejection of the procreative meaning of sexual love by use of contraception or by sterilization.  The proliferation of abortion that leaves a baby dead and a woman scarred, at the very least emotionally and psychologically.  So-called gay “marriage.”  The idea that there is no discernible difference or even meaning to the body, to our physicality, such that a man can become a woman or a woman can become a man.  The proliferation of made up genders on an almost daily basis.  Things like non-binary, non-conforming.  The claims of transgender ideology.  The experience of modern life, uprooted from a biblical and Christian anthropology, has consequences.  And very serious ones indeed.  And we are seeing this all around us precisely because a Christian view is no longer the view of those who drive culture in our world.  The experience of modern life apart from a Christian anthropology is like trying to tread water right near the edge of Niagara Falls and hoping not to get swept away.  The last few years have been marked by radical delusion powered by mainstream media, and by leftist elites in our political and monied classes. There are real people with struggles in all the areas of morality I have mentioned.  They need help, but instead are aided in living a fantasy by these made up ideas and nonsensical language.  The elites with power put forward the stories of such suffering souls in order to tug at the heart strings by invoking a compassion that is false because it recreates a world that is not based upon reality.  Would that our cultural response would be offering real help to the suffering, to help them see reality and to face their challenges, rather than going along with the lies and aiding and abetting the delusions we see all around us.  This is what happens when you pull up anchor from reality.  Reality reveals itself by the order of creation around us and it can be known by anyone of good will.  And if you have faith, you can see this reality even more clearly.

 Is accepting the Lord’s teaching demanding?  Yes.  But accepting his teaching is more than just a religious practice.  It has much deeper meaning and consequence because the Christian vision of creation and mankind and relationship is accessible to all, no matter one’s faith.  The rejection of the Christian vision revealed by God, is rejection of reality itself.  And we are seeing those consequences all around us.  As if on cue, this very week provided me with two relevant examples of what happens when we reject the Christian vision presented us in the Scriptures.  An op-ed appeared in the New York Times entitled “Divorce Can Be an Act of Radical Self-Love” (New York Times Opinion, Lara Bazelon, September 30, 2021).  In this article the author notes that her marriage was good.  There was no abuse or neglect.  No one was cheating.  In fact, she says, there was love.  She notes that she still loves her ex-husband and goes so far as to say that even now when he walks into the room her stomach drops just like a roller coaster drop, a reference to the breathlessness of love and attraction.  She admits, “I divorced my husband not because I didn’t love him.  I divorced him because I loved myself more.”  One wonders whether the author realizes what she has just admitted and whether the editors at the New York Times really intend to promote narcissism as a cultural value?  Also, this week a Texas abortion provider testified at a House Oversight Committee hearing saying, “abortion saves lives, …abortion is a blessing, abortion is an act of love, abortion is freedom” (Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi).

 At this point in human history we are well beyond the testing of the Pharisees.  What a godless society proposes is not working because it is in opposition to the very order of creation, a creation we cannot pretend does not exist.  The lesson from the Lord in the Gospel passage is a call to get back to “the beginning.”  It is a lesson to accept God’s action in creation and the offer of His kingdom in childlike trust.  We marvel at the age of the martyrs and how Christian witness confounded pagan empires.  A new pagan empire is already here.  As he said to the Pharisees, Jesus says to us today, it’s time to get back to “the beginning.”  It’s time to be the saints, the witnesses, both the Lord and the world need!

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Traditional Latin Mass)

Dominica XVIII Post Pentecosten (Mass of the 1962 Missal)
26 September 2021

 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST.  AMEN.

 This brief passage from St. Matthew gets right to the point of showing our Blessed Lord as able to heal both body and soul.  The Lord’s identity and power as God is on display.  He knows the interior thoughts of the scribes who do not even say verbally, yet think, that he has blasphemed by taking on an attribute of God, namely forgiving sin.  He goes on to prove his authority by performing a physical healing, the miraculous healing of the paralytic.  And though the interior thoughts of man may still today raise questions, doubts, and complaints about the method God chooses to forgive sin, this passage also makes it clear that our Lord has given this authority of his to men, something we hold in faith in our belief that sincere confession and valid absolution are the normal sacramental means by which the Lord Jesus forgives sin in his one Catholic Church.

The parallel passages recounting this same episode from the Gospels of St. Mark (2:1-12) and St. Luke (5:17-26) fill out the picture and tell us more about this episode.  For instance, in the other parallel accounts we learn specifically that four men, presumably friends of the man with palsy, are carrying his mat.  And we learn that the crowds around the Lord are so dense that the only way the men can get the sick man to the Lord is by opening a hole in the roof and lowering the mat down before the Lord.

 All of the Gospel accounts of this event however make note of a particular motivation that drove the Lord to grant the spiritual healing of sin and the physical healing of paralysis.  The passage notes, “and Jesus seeing their faith,” went on to forgive the sins of the man with palsy.  I find this simple acknowledgment quite interesting.  The Gospel passage clearly makes reference to the plural in making use of the possessive pronoun “their,” as in “their faith.”  That pronoun could be an indication that upon seeing the faith of all five men (the four carrying the mat and the man with palsy) the Lord performed the miracle.  Or it could be an indication that upon seeing the faith of only the four who carried the mat he performed the miracle.  Whatever the case, it is certainly true that the reference is plural and thus the faith of the paralytic’s friends is also something that motivated the Lord.

We can learn in part by this how our Lord chooses to function in dispensing his grace.  Faith is an important foundation and a requisite for receiving God’s life.  We in no way want to dismiss the importance that the sick man himself needs to have faith. However, by this passage, we learn a critical lesson that should drive us to be living members of the Body of Christ, seeking to maintain the life of grace, and guarding our unity with the Lord, because we learn that the faith of the sick man’s friends was also instrumental and a motivating factor for our Lord’s miraculous working.  This truth revealed in the Gospel is a foundational reason for our belief in the communion of the saints, and even related to the doctrine on indulgences.  Despite some controversy with the doctrine of non-Catholic Christians, this passage shows us that the Lord chooses to forgive sin and to heal at least some people because of the merits of others (Sermon for this Sunday from St. Ambrose, The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, v. IV, p.183).  Yes, the merits of one person or group can positively impact the good of others and can be a manner by which the Lord dispenses his grace to someone in need.  That might not sound shocking to us.  Yet to some Christians it is.  Suspicion of this Gospel lesson and rejection of this Catholic doctrine leads some to be offended by the notion of the unity we have in Christ and the powerful effects of the intercession of the saints for us, and our part in interceding for others.  We as Catholics accept this as true.  And even more mysterious and viewed with suspicion is the doctrine of indulgences, the foundation of which is the belief that the treasury of graces and spiritual gifts won by Christ together with the saints is like a rich store that the Church has a role in dispensing to the faithful, in particular for the departed and those who have no one to pray for them or to assist them.  For whatever rejection this doctrine might meet, we accept it and find in the brief words today an important foundation of this belief: Seeing their faith, [Jesus] said to the man sick with palsy: Be of good heart, son, your sins are forgiven you.

My brothers and sisters we want to find consolation, joy, and encouragement in such simple words, words it would be easy to pass right over in this passage.  We ourselves have needs.  We know of so many loved ones and friends and still others with whom we interact who need the Lord’s grace and healing.  We naturally want to support in prayer those who have passed before us in death.  And we know we will make that passage someday too and we hope someone will pray for us and assist us.  The working of God’s grace is not like granting a wish.  It is mysterious.  The faith of an individual person must always be involved.  Yet, the faith and merits of others are involved too.  May the generous response of the Lord in today’s passage, motivated at least in significant part by the faith of the sick man’s friends, be an encouraging message for us that we might have confidence in lifting the needs of others to the Lord, interceding for others so that they are carried to the Lord and even placed before him by our faith.

 IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST.  AMEN.

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXV per Annum B
19 September 2021

The section of St. Mark’s Gospel that we are in contains three Passion predictions that Jesus makes.  Last week we heard the first, today the second.  Though each of the three predictions is one chapter apart, the Church chooses to put two predictions back-to-back on successive Sundays.  In each case, the disciples clearly don’t get it.  In fact, more accurately we could say in each case we see the blundering of the disciples and the embarrassment of their attempt to distance Jesus and themselves from the shadow/specter that suffering will cast over how Jesus will be the Christ.  Jesus clearly teaches that the way he will be the Christ (and therefore the way a disciple will be a Christian) is through the via dolorosa, the way of suffering that leads to resurrection.  Jesus does not speak of suffering and crucifixion without, thanks be to God, also referencing the resurrection.  This gives us hope in this valley of tears, as we say in the Salve Regina.  On the flip side, it is likewise true, that Jesus does not speak of a resurrection without the cross.  This gives us a certain sobriety and a reality check about life in our fallen world marked by sin.  In the first Passion prediction, from last week’s Gospel, Peter rebuked Jesus and attempted to correct him, to distance him from suffering.  In today’s prediction the embarrassing blundering of the disciples continues as we see the disciples are not willing to accept for themselves that their lives must be marked by the Cross.  We know this because they are caught arguing about power and who will be the successor when Jesus dies.  They are arguing about who among them is the greatest.  What instruction is offered us by hearing two passion predictions and two examples of disciples not getting it?

First, what can we make of what appears to be secrecy on Jesus’ part?  Last week we heard Jesus warn the disciples not to tell anyone about him.  In today’s selection the Lord doesn’t want anyone to know where he is as he continues teaching about his suffering and resurrection.  Doesn’t this seem to fly in the face of openly proclaiming the Gospel?  Doesn’t this seem to undercut the mission of disciples and the Church to give witness to the Lord?  I mean, we talk all the time, right, that we are supposed to share faith and the Gospel with others?  The secrecy doesn’t seem to make any sense, even though sometimes (maybe often?) we might want to say, “Gosh, it would be easier to just keep my faith to myself rather than to be told that I’m supposed to share my faith as a disciple.  I mean, I could handle just lighting my lamp and putting it under a bushel basket.”  I suggest the odd-seeming secrecy is related to our accepting and “getting” the lesson Jesus emphatically teaches of cross and resurrection.  In these Gospel passages the Lord might be wanting secrecy for the time being because he knows (as we see evidence for in the passages) that the disciples don’t get it.  It’s like we heard last week, Jesus said to Peter: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”  The Lord wants secrecy for the time being not because disciples are supposed to remain silent, but rather, for as long as they are not thinking as God does, then they don’t get to talk about him.  In other words, if you are going to think as human beings do and try to talk about faith and the Lord and morality and salvation and conform them to your own image… you might as well just shut up.  Lord knows, we hear that kind of useless hot air oh so frequently from people who, knowingly or unknowingly, empty the Gospel of its content.  So, no, we are not off the hook to give witness to our faith; but we must give an accurate witness, a witness that accepts the emphatic teaching of the Lord that he will be the Christ both of suffering and resurrection, both of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

With two Sundays of Passion predictions in our ears and two Sundays of examples of blundering disciples who don’t get it, I suggest a lesson for us is to examine whether we accept the Lord’s insistent teaching that he will suffer greatly, be rejected, be handed over, that he will be killed and rise again.  It might be easy for us to sort of scoff at the disciples in the Gospel in their refusal to accept a Christ on the Cross.  How silly the disciples in the Gospel seem to be!  We likely cannot appreciate how unexpected a notion it was in the time of the disciples that the promised Messiah would seem to be defeated by suffering, torture, and death.  However, we might want to be cautious about scoffing at the buffoonery of the disciples.  After centuries of Christian faith we rather take for granted that Jesus and Christianity involve the cross.  So expected is the cross to us that it’s even become decoration and jewelry, and sometimes rather opulent at that.  But do we accept the role of the cross precisely as it is, or more as decoration and symbol?

Asking ourselves whether we accept a suffering Lord and suffering in our own life as disciples seems a worthy response to these Gospel passages (from last Sunday and today).  I say that because I suggest we have our own struggles with accepting suffering.  We might not always refuse suffering, but I bet each of us at times struggles with keeping an outlook of faith when challenge, and suffering, and difficulty come our way.  Sure, we might have good sounding words of faith when someone else is suffering, but do those words become empty when suffering comes to us?  We might have some part of our personality that we wish were different.  We might have a moral failure that causes us grief.  We might have challenges in a marriage.  We might have physical defects.  Or maybe we just feel “off,” we feel like life should be easier, but it just doesn’t seem to be so.  Or maybe there is terminal illness or some suffering that is unimaginable.  We can tend to think God is far from us when we suffer.  We can tend to complain and to ask, “Why is this challenge happening to me?”  We can tend to want to say, “Can THIS really be part of God’s plan?  Can any good come from this?”  In our fallen nature these are not surprising questions.  And, yes, we probably need to be cautious about scoffing at the blundering disciples when we ourselves can at times expect resurrection without a cross.

These past two weekends of Passion predictions place before us the crystal clear message that being a disciple of the Lord must have meaning and content and that it costs us something.  In last week’s Gospel the Lord references taking up a cross to teach us that suffering is part of the way of following him.  In today’s Gospel he takes up a child as a way of illustrating the smallness and humility that also must mark the way.  As we participate in this sacrifice of the Lord for us at the Holy Mass, we must clear out the false notions from our minds and place laser focus on what our presence here must mean: We come to this sacrifice of the Lord because we ourselves must humble and lower ourselves and be ready for sacrifice that will make us more like the Lord, whose path is the only way to salvation.