Homily: Saturday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: Mic 2:1-5; Ps 10; Mt 12:14-21

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Today we celebrate the optional memorial of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Mt. Carmel, a mountain in Galilee, not far from the Mediterranean coast, is famous in the Old Testament as the site where the prophet Elijah displayed the power of God through an overwhelming victory over the prophets and priests of the false god, Baal. Mt. Carmel is also where the Carmelite order was founded back in the 13th century. Our parish is blessed with a number of Third Order Carmelites and I'm sure many of you, like me, wear the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Given the state of our nation and our world, we certainly need Our Lady's intercession. 

Thinking about this I was struck by today’s responsorial from Psalm 10. It seemed to me so very appropriate.

“Do not forget the poor, O Lord.”

Inflation, interest rates, shortages, crime, division – it affects us all, but it’s always more troubling for working families, especially the working poor. 

Depleted savings; wages that fail to keep up with price increases; children robbed of their innocence, and taught to fear; rents and mortgages and taxes climb, but must be paid; growing children must be fed and clothed; cars must be fueled to drive to work and school. 

Yes, a troubled economy inevitably taxes family budgets and, in truth, can redefine poverty levels. And so, we pray:

“Do not forget the poor, O Lord.”

But is this prayer really aimed at our loving God? For our faith tells us that God forgets no one, especially those in need. 

And yet, the psalmist begins asking God why He hides in times of darkness, why He allows the wicked to afflict the innocent and the poor. But then he describes these wicked ones who “glory in their greed” and completely ignore God.

Of course, this is nothing new. We see it today as well. Although we hear a lot of folks talk about God and their faith, we soon realize it’s all deceit, for they live as if God doesn’t exist. You see, nothing much has changed in 3,000 years.

The psalmist reminds us that God “beholds misery and sorrow” and takes them into His hands. But God’s hands are really a metaphor for those He has called and sent to do His work in the world. This psalm might be less a call to God, than it is a reminder that it’s God Who does the calling, for God does that worldly work of His though others, through you and me.

We hear something similar in our first reading from the prophet Micah. We don’t know much about Micah, an obscure man from an obscure village in Judah. But he was a man who could recognize evil in all its disguises. He let no one escape God’s Word: the wealthy who enslave the poor for their debts; merchants who cheat everyone; corrupt judges who take bribes; even priests and prophets who prey on the faithful.

Perhaps the first words of our reading are the most telling:

“Woe to those who plan iniquity and work out evil on their couches” [Mic 2:1].

Yes, indeed, the true wheelers and dealers, even as they lay in their beds, plan ways to oppress, to help themselves at the expense of others.

What, then, are we to do?

As individuals, you and I can have little impact on the world’s, or the nation’s, economic and social realities. Oh, we can vote intelligently and try to effect change through human means…and that’s certainly good. And we should avoid serving or supporting those who, in their self-focused world, have turned from God’s way. In the same way, we can financially and actively support those who do God’s work in the world.

But I think sometimes we forget about God’s power, about the power of our faith; and that’s what the psalmist was trying to explain to us.

“Do not forget the poor, O Lord.”

We must remember that the world’s powers and principalities don’t control the future. How did Jesus put it to Nicodemus?

“The wind blows where it wills” [Jn 3:8]

Yes, the Holy Spirit cannot be contained, for He does God's work wherever and whenever God chooses. Some foolishly think they know what God can or cannot do. They forget how powerful God is, even as He chooses and uses so many imperfect men and women to do His work. Never forget, the God that created and rules all things told us:

“Behold, I make all things new” [Rev 21:5].

God likes to keep things simple; we’re the ones who complicate it, and then think we can fix the world by ourselves.

In a very real sense, though, we can conquer the world simply through our faith in Jesus Christ. St. John, in his first letter, said it well:

“Who, indeed, is the victor over the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” [1 Jn 5:5]

Brothers and sisters, this victory happens when we act as Jesus acts – when we suffer redemptively, forgive mercifully, and love unconditionally. If we do this, and call others to join us – in other words, if we evangelize – God will let His miraculous power flow into our world and bring the healing, the peace He promises.

Oh, yes, and today, let’s turn also to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, asking her to pray and intercede for us, who in our imperfections struggle to do God's work and fulfill His will in the world.

 

Sessionless Bible Study

For 15 or 16 years I've facilitated our parish Bible Study and must admit, it's been a joyful experience. But because of this pesky, and too often deadly, virus, we've been unable to come together in our weekly sessions. I'm not certain when we last met, but it must have been sometime in February or March of 2020 -- far too long ago.

Our Bible Study program, which began with fewer than a dozen active participants, grew steadily over the years and eventually included approximately 100 people. As you might imagine, because of the numbers, we had to offer more than one weekly session. When our initial Wednesday morning session had grown to about 30, I added a second session, on Wednesday evening, so participants could take their pick. This just attracted more participants and within several years, we added a third session, offering it on Monday afternoons. We were truly blessed with so many parishioners thirsting for God's Word...and then COVID came along and our meetings stopped completely. This was not a difficult decision due to the demographics of our parish. Most of us live in The Villages, a very large retirement community here in central Florida and our ages place us in a category most vulnerable to the virus and its worst effects. 

At first, not realizing how long this "new normal" would be with us, I thought we could just take a hiatus for a few months and then restart everything, perhaps in the fall of 2020. It didn't take long to realize that wouldn't happen. So I considered options. There were too many participants to offer Zoom meetings -- anyhow, just the thought of running a half-dozen or more Zoom meetings each week made me physically ill. I therefore considered other options, ways to keep the participants reading and thinking about Sacred Scripture. I finally decided on a distinctly low-tech approach and simply wrote a weekly reflection, really a kind of homily (a bit longish, perhaps) that I could email to our Bible Study regulars. I usually chose a Bible passage and attempted to apply it our current situation. These reflections seemed to be fairly well-received, so the parish suggested that I make videos of these reflections, which would be made available to all parishioners (and others) by uploading them to YouTube. I've now written 30 reflections and recorded videos of 24. I'll probably record a few more this week.

But as time went on, and I began to have hope that things might return to a state where we can again meet, I thought I'd better refocus my efforts and alter what I send to my Bible Study regulars. For years I have written what I call "Bible Study Guides," which address particular books of Scripture. Each offers only a basic introduction to a book, or portion of a book, and is designed to give participants a little background before we begin our in-depth coverage in our weekly sessions. About three weeks ago, I decided to try to write a new study guide (or revise and enlarge an existing one) and email them to all participants. When we get together once again, we can use these books as a good starting point. 

I decided, for reasons I cannot articulate, to focus on the 12 minor prophets...or at least a few of them. The first three study guides look at Amos, Micah, and Habakkuk. Amos was a rewrite of my Study Guide #7, originally written probably a dozen years ago. Micah (#39) and Habakkuk (#40) are both new.

If you're interested in reading them, here are links to PDF files of each:

Amos -- Micah -- Habakkuk

All other study guides, as well as those COVID reflections are available on the documents page of my Bible Study site: 

Bible Study Documents

I got a wee bit upset with YouTube because of its acquiescence to the rampant cancel culture, so I retaliated by canceling my personal YouTube pages and put my own videos on Rumble.com. You can access them there should you feel a need for penance.  Links to all my stuff are on the home page of my Bible Study website: 

Bible Study Home Page

The parish still maintains its YouTube site since it would be very hard for them to change given the number of folks who access parish videos.

Anyway, I hope those of you who read this blog will take time this Lent to increase your reading of the Bible to deepen your relationship with God and His Word.

 

Homily: Monday, 16th Week of Ordinary Time (Year II)

Readings: Mic 6:1-4, 6-8 • Ps 50 • Mt 12:38-42

“…an evil and unfaithful generation” [Mt 12:39]. Jesus came on pretty strong here, didn’t he? Actually, only moments earlier he’d called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” [Mt 12:34], so I suppose this wasn’t so bad.

Poor Pharisees. They seemed to be in conflict, didn’t they? They saw all the wondrous things Jesus did, and were attracted to Him. But, at the same time, they just couldn’t accept that this humble teacher was anything special. It really bothered them that in essence He’d declared Himself greater than the Temple and the Sabbath, greater than Abraham and Moses, and now, greater than Jonah and Solomon.

And so they asked for a sign. To which Jesus seemed to reply: 

Stop looking at your scrolls and laws; just look at Me, the One standing before you. Everything God has already told you points only to Me. 

And it’s this self-revelation by Jesus that bothered them no end. Indeed, just a few verses later, Jesus said to them:

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” [Mt 13:16-17].

And yet, they still asked for a sign. They heard His words and witnessed His deeds, but it was all encased in His humility. And this they couldn’t understand. How can the Messiah, the Lord of History, God’s anointed One, be a servant?

Imagine Jesus’ frustration. These Pharisees, these teachers of the Law, still didn’t realize that Jesus Himself was the sign for which they searched. They demanded to see what was standing right before them.

Jesus must have been thinking back to those words of Micah from our first reading:

“You have been told…what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” [Mic 6:8].

Here they were, able to walk with their God, the God they wouldn’t recognize because they rejected the humility. They simply wouldn’t listen. Yes, indeed, an “evil and unfaithful” generation. They ignored Jesus Himself, preferring to hear words and words and more words, instead of embracing the Word of God standing in their midst.

"the LORD commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land"

You reject Me, and yet you demand a sign from me?

Oh, yes, you will certainly receive a sign, the Sign of Jonah – Jonah whose preaching about an unseen God led the king of Nineveh to cover himself in sackcloth and sit in ashes. But before his prophetic preaching, before his mission to Nineveh, Jonah spent three days buried away from the world in repentance for his sins. How did Jesus put it?

“Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” [Mt 12:40].

He was made sin...

Jesus was buried not for His sins, but for our sins. As St. Paul reminded the Corinthians:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” [2 Cor 5:21].

Jonah saved the Ninevites by admitting his own sin and repenting. He allowed himself to be thrown into the sea, but not into death, for God saved him.

Jesus, who is sinless, saves the world by taking on the sins of the entire human race. He becomes sin, every sin from the very beginning of time, and weighed down by it all, He throws Himself into death, into real death.

You see, brothers and sisters, it’s all for the Pharisees, it’s all for the sinners, it’s all for us.

Tell this to everyone you know. Shout it in the streets, in the marketplace, tell your children and grandchildren, tell each other. 

God won’t abandon us because of our sinfulness; He won’t abandon us because we turn our backs on Him who loves us.

This is the “Sign of Jonah.” It’s the Sign of the Cross.

It’s this sign that lets Him break through our resistance to His Love.

After He was raised up on the Cross, Jesus Christ lowered Himself – that was His mission. In total humility He descends, lowering Himself into the lowest, darkest places of creation, just as Jonah was lowered into darkness.

But Jesus goes further; He goes into the darkest depths of the human heart, and it’s there He brings the Light of Christ.