Homily: Wednesday, 23rd Week of Ordinary Time

Given the busyness of my life in recent weeks, I neglected to post this brief weekday homily. Better late than never, I suppose.
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Readings: 1 Cor 7:25-31; Ps 45; Lk 6:20-26

How did Paul put it? “The world as we know it is passing away” [1 Cor7:31].

Kind of a scary thought, isn’t it? Well…not really, since it’s one of those statements that’s always going to be true, for the world and those who live in it are always undergoing change, always, in a sense, passing away. So it’s really not that radical a thought…at least not to our way of thinking today.

But for the ancients, who lived when Paul wrote these words –the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Romans – these words were radical indeed. About the only people of that time who would have accepted this idea were Jews and Christians. You see, the Greeks and virtually all other pagan societies saw the world in cyclical terms. To their way of thinking, all of life, all of history, imitated the seasons, the movements of the heavenly bodies, always returning, constantly repeating, never moving toward any defined end.

If you think about it, this way of thinking was utterly depressing, and led to nothing but despair. It saw humanity as spending eternity on the global equivalent of a gerbil wheel, expending lots of energy but never really getting anywhere. And their pagan religions mirrored this thinking. The pagan concept of the divine came from within man and depicted the gods as man envisioned them.

But Judaism and Christianity were different…very different. You see, their concept of God -- our concept of God – comes from God Himself. It’s not so much a religion as a revelation. The pagans described their gods as they saw them, created in their image. The Jews and later the Christians received God’s revelation of Himself. They described God as He revealed Himself and His relationship with humanity. God creates us in His image.

God reveals Himself to Moses with the words, “I am who am” [Ex 3:14-15] – in other words, I am existence itself -- words no pagan, with the possible exception of Aristotle and perhaps a few other Greek philosophers, would likely have used to describe a divinity.

"I am who I am." ...This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.

At the center of this revelation – this self-disclosure by God – is His plan for the future of humanity. And it has an end – eternal life and the consummation of the world – an end revealed in those closing words of the book of Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus” [Rev 22:20]. Yes, the world will be consumed, and so as Christians we must avoid getting caught up in the things of this world…always considering ourselves as poor in spirit.

For the Kingdom of God belongs only to those who experience this stark poverty. Brothers and sisters, never deny that reality. Never fail to acknowledge the hunger of your heart for God's food. If we don’t experience poverty in its realistic starkness, let us be poor in spirit and accept our own inner poverty. And let us always be oriented practically to the needs of the poor, Gods blessed ones.

And so let us pray today that we may not be conformed to the world but transformed by the Holy Spirit with the spirit of poverty.

“Come, Lord Jesus.”

Wars and Numbers

The current administration and its allies have been talking a lot about a supposed "War on Women," but if one looks at the numbers published by this same administration's agencies, it would seem there are some other wars being waged. Knowing how they can be misused to distort reality, I'm not normally a big fan of statistics. But in some instances the numbers are so extreme they can lead to only one conclusion. Here are a few examples.

The War on Black Babies. African Americans make up only 12.6 % of the population of our country, yet they have 46% of all abortions. And in Mississippi black babies are the victims of 78% of abortions. Does the African American community not realize what is being done to them? And why is our first African American president such a champion of abortion, even supporting the killing of babies who happen to survive an abortion? That's right, as a state senator, Barack Obama opposed the "Born-Alive Infants Protection Act" on three different occasions. The bill recognized babies born after attempted abortions as persons and required doctors to give them medical care. To show how extreme his position is, the federal version of this bill passed the U. S. Senate unanimously. Read more here and here.

The War on Parents. The "Obamacare" mandate issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services has generated much controversy, largely because of its requirement that religious affiliated organizations offer services that directly violate their religious beliefs. But did you know that it also demands that parents' healthcare plans include free coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs for minor children? And here's the interesting statistic: in 26 states there is no requirement for parental notification. In other words, a school nurse can't give a child an aspirin without her parent's consent, but that same 12-year-old can get a "morning-after" abortifacient from any physician who's willing to give it to her. Read more here.

War on Christians in Africa. While it hasn't received much attention in the mainstream media, Islamists in many African nations have been waging a war on Christians. In Egypt, the Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and elsewhere on the continent, Islamic fundamentalists have murdered Christians, destroyed churches, burned Christian homes and businesses, all in an attempt to eliminate the Christian community. Remarkably, despite this ongoing persecution, these communities have persevered, setting a wonderful example of faith for the world's Christians. The most interesting statistic out of Africa, though, relates to the increase in its Christian population, which has now surpassed the continent's Muslim population. Christians now make up 46.5% of Africa's population, while Muslims make-up only 40.5%. It is estimated that within 10 years Africa will be the continent with the largest Christian population. This rising tide of Christianity has reportedly disturbed the continent's Islamic fundamentalists.

Massimo Introvigne, the founder of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) at the University of Morocco, stated:

“This data is still not widely known but they have a profound historical, cultural and political significance. There are now more practicing Christians in Africa than in Europe. In the long run, this will not only change Africa but Christianity as well, as John Paul II had intuited. His attention to Africa was continued by Benedict XVI who has already visited the continent twice.

“Of course, not everyone is happy about this development. Some Islamic ultra-fundamentalists consider it scandalous that there are more Christians than Muslims in Africa and proceed to persecute and kill Christians in countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Somalia and Kenya. The way the ultra-fundamentalists see it, today, the battle which will determine whether the world will be Muslim or Christian is being fought in Africa. And that Islam is losing. This is why they are responding with bombs.”

You can read more here.


Lots of wars taking place in the world today, but too many of them are way under the radar.

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