Homily: Tuesday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings: Ex 2:1-15a • Psalm 69 • Mt 11:20-24

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One of the remarkable things about the Old Testament is the willingness of its authors and the Holy Spirit to hide nothing and reveal almost everything about the key characters. This is so very different from all other ancient religious texts, as well as the official records of other ancient societies. In these, the kings and pharaohs and conquerors were all depicted as near perfect, as godlike men who always won, and never failed.

But not so in the Bible. Beginning with Adam and Eve, and progressing through the Patriarchs to Moses, then on through the long list of prophets and Kings, we encounter so many men, and actually quite a few women; and for all of them, nothing is hidden – strengths and weaknesses, sins and virtues, it’s all revealed.  The focus, you see, is not really on these men and women; rather it’s on God, who chooses whomever He desires to fulfill His plan, to carry out His work in the world. 

And often enough He chooses amazingly unlikely people. Today, for example, in our reading from Exodus, we encounter two versions of Moses.

First, a basket-case floating among the bullrushes, a Hebrew infant, “a goodly child”, his mother called him, surrendered by that mother in hope and trust, and retrieved and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter.

We next encounter a grown Moses, fortyish and entitled, but a man who presumably knew his roots. Driven by a slightly skewed sense of justice, he willfully kills an Egyptian who was persecuting a Hebrew slave laborer. When the word gets out, Moses realizes he too must get out, and heads east to the land of Midian. Moses is introduced to us in all his imperfections. And yet on Mt Horeb God will choose him to free His people and lead them to the Promised Land. How blessed we are that our loving, merciful God chooses us as well, despite all our imperfections. 

Then we encounter Jesus in our Gospel passage from Matthew. You know, a lot of folks seem to see Jesus solely as the warm and fuzzy, group hug, kumbaya Jesus. And yet, in the Gospel He often comes across quite differently.

Today, for example, He’s taking on the role of Prophet. Indeed, He sounds a lot like Isaiah when that prophet proclaimed God’s judgment on the King of Babylon.

“Down to Sheol you will be brought to the depths of the pit!” [Is 14:15]

Jesus says much the same, doesn’t He? Hard words to those neighboring towns, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, whose people had witnessed all those miracles, but failed to listen. Because Jesus had been with them, and they had seen and heard it all, their judgment will be harsher.

When I was growing up we had a brief family Bible Study every week. Now, to my knowledge, my mom, who was an RN, had no formal training in Sacred Scripture, but always seemed to share wonderful insights. We’d read a few verses then Mom or Dad would ask what we thought of it.

After reading these comments of Jesus, my brother and I tried to say something like: “The people in those towns are really going to catch it.” But Mom simply said, “You know, Jesus isn’t talking to us about those little towns. He’s talking to us about us.” That took all the wind out of our sails. She went on, explaining it all to us in words similar to these...

“Jesus healed all those people because He loved them, and He wanted others to see and understand that they must listen to Him…But so many didn’t. If we instead turn away from Him, we’re no better than the people of those towns. You see,” Mom told us, “Our Lord has been living with us in our home, speaking to us through our church…and when we receive Holy Communion He actually lives within us. Because of that, we must listen to Him, do as He asks us, and let God’s will rule our lives.”

With that, she ended the lesson. Brothers and sisters, Jesus said the same thing, didn’t He? His Gethsemane prayer, words recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels:

“Not what I will, but what you will.”

…words that actually encapsulate His entire teaching. Moses struggled to accept God’s will in his life, and so too did the Apostles.

I guess that’s the question for you and me: What’s the focus of our lives, our will our His will? After all, every day we pray, “Thy will be done,” but do we really seek it?

St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr. Irenaeus was a remarkable saint, born c. 130, who died a martyr about the year 200 or shortly afterwards. Born in Asia Minor, he was a disciple of St. Polycarp, who happened to be a disciple of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. Irenaeus, then, was only two generations away from those who knew and walked with Our Lord. 

As an early missionary, Irenaeus eventually made his way to Gaul, to the Roman city of Lugdunum, now known as Lyon. This was during the time of great persecution and in 177, when the Bishop of Lyon, Pothinus, was martyred, along with dozens of other Christians, Irenaeus was chosen as his successor. It was a position he would hold until his own martyrdom almost 25 years later.

Unfortunately, only a few of the saint's writings have survived, but those that we have are enough to show us the brilliance and the sanctity of this Early Church Father. From these writings we realize that the Church had already developed a fully Catholic theology very early. Much of Irenaeus' writings were directed against the Gnostic heresy which had already infected parts of the Church. Gnosticism was a rather diverse heresy, but one version claimed that the real truths of Christianity were secret knowledge accessible only by a select few. Countering this, Irenaeus wrote his primary work, Against Heresies. It’s a wonderful work and should be more widely read today since echoes of ancient Gnosticism can still be heard from too many politicians, and even from some Christians. 

I don’t intend here to offer a review of St. Irenaeus’ works but would like to share just one brief passage in which this early bishop and theologian describes the presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the Old Testament. Too many Christians seem to think the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, was somehow hidden away in some heavenly cell before the Incarnation. St. John, of course, tells us otherwise with the very first words of his Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” [Jn 1:1-3].

As John reveals, the Son, the Creative Word of God, was present from the beginning. Now read what St. Irenaeus had to say about that presence:

“The Son of God has been sown everywhere throughout the Scripture [of Moses]. Sometimes He speaks with Abraham, sometimes with Noah, giving him the measurements of the ark. He looks for Adam, brings judgment on the Sodomites. There are times when He is actually seen, guiding Jacob on his way, speaking with Moses from the bush.”

We must never forget that Jesus, the Word of God Incarnate, is also the Word of God Revealed. Read Irenaeus. The above link connects to an excellent translation of his major work, with a beautiful introduction by the great twentieth-century theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar.  

Reflection: Divine Mercy Novena - Day 9

Before our wonderful cantors led us in singing the chaplet in day nine of the Divine Mercy Novena, I offered the following brief reflection:

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The other day, after writing a few words about an event in the Old Testament, I was reading a bit from St. Faustina’s Diary and was struck by what Jesus told her.

“You are a witness of My mercy. You shall stand before my throne forever as a living witness to My mercy” [# 417]

and

“You are My delightful resting place; My Spirit rests in you [# 346].

Relating this to the Old Testament, I couldn’t help but apply it to the Patriarchs, Prophets, and others who were recipients of Divine Mercy.

In the Old Testament, we encounter some truly remarkable lives, lives bathed in God’s mercy. Consider the twins, Jacob and Esau: one, along with their mother, conniving and deceitful, and the other, arrogant and foolish. And yet Jacob, with all his blemishes and sins, becomes one of the great patriarchs of our Judeo-Christian tradition.

Perhaps Jacob’s sons offer us one of the best examples of sinfulness in need of mercy and forgiveness, when out of envy they plan the murder of their brother, Joseph, and eventually sell him into slavery [Gen 37].

We encounter this again and again. Consider David, the great king who also happened to be an adulterer and murderer [2 Sam 11] and David’s son, King Solomon, who neglected God's gift of wisdom, became enamored of foreign women (quite a few of them, actually), and turned to idolatry [1 Kgs 11]. Remarkably, these two kings, perhaps along with Hezekiah, Josiah, and a few others, were probably the best of the bunch.

So…What are we to think?

Well, in truth, we should thank God for the gift of the flawed men and women who fill the pages of God's Word. What a gift they are to us! In these broken, oh-so-human lives we come face to face with God's enduring forgiveness. We come face to face with God's mercy.

If you worry about your family being mildly dysfunctional, just take a closer look at Abraham's, or Isaac's, or Jacob's. Despite all their problems, all their sinfulness, God's mercy just overflows into their lives. And how good it is that God wants to shower you and those you love with that same outpouring of mercy.

Brothers and sisters, without God's mercy, we would be - what's the best word? - doomed!

Without God's mercy our sins would overwhelm us.

Without God's mercy, there would be no Incarnation, no redemptive sacrifice on the Cross, no Resurrection to offer us the hope of eternal life.

Without God's mercy there is no salvation; for the Incarnation is the supreme act of mercy, the supreme act of our merciful, loving God.

He becomes one of us, He lives with us, He teaches us, He forgives us, He heals us, He loves us, and He suffers and dies for us. He does all of this for our salvation. He does all of this so we can be healed.

That's right. Without God's mercy there can be no healing. And we are all, every single one of us, in need of healing, aren't we? What about you?

Are you in pain, physical pain, the kind that can scream at you, causing you to question God's love?

Do you suffer from illness, one of those devastating, fear-laden illnesses that makes prayer so very hard?

Have you been attacked by depression, or another spirit-draining affliction that seems to attack your very humanity?

Perhaps you are faced with a combination of many things, some little, some not so little, that overwhelm you and your ability to deal with them?

Or maybe you are simply afraid, afraid of the future, afraid of the unknown, afraid of death, and need the consolation of the gift of faith.

What kind of healing do you seek? What do I seek? But what about the healing we actually need? You see, brothers and sisters, I don't know the fulness of God’s plan for me, and I certainly don’t know God's plan for you...and neither do you. But I do know what He wants of both you and me.

He wants you, He wants me, He wants every single one of us to come to Him, to abandon ourselves to Him, to allow His will to move within our lives.

But it's never easy to set aside our own willfulness and abandon ourselves to God's will. When our wills dominate, we end up broken; and yet it's through that brokenness that God call to us.

And that’s when our need for His mercy, for His healing touch, is greatest.

 

Homily: Day 5 - Octave of Christmas

Readings: 1 Jn 2:3-11; Ps 96; Lk 2:22-35

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When describing the divine and human natures of Jesus, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote:

"He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human will, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin...[and His human will] does not resist or oppose but rather submits to His divine and almighty will" [Gaudium et spes, 22].

Christmas, of course, reminds us of Jesus' humanity, that He chose to enter into the world just as helpless as you and I once were. He didn’t place Himself above us. He entered directly into the human story, sharing our humanity, our flesh and blood, our physical mortality. Although a divine person, He accepted everything that came with His humanity, all the messiness, all the ordinariness, all its limitations. It was by accepting these limitations that He could “advance in wisdom and age and favor before God and man” [Lk 2:52].

Today’s passage from Luke is offered to remind us of both the humanity and divinity of our Lord.

According to Jewish law, a firstborn son belonged to God. Forty days after his birth, the parents would present their son in the Temple, in effect, buying him back with a sacrifice of turtledoves or pigeons. On that day, the new mother would also be ritually purified. Indeed, the feast of the Presentation was originally known as the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Here we see the Holy Family, a Jewish family, living under God’s Law, doing as the Law prescribed.

Jesus’ mission, then, is rooted in God’s revelation, expressed in the Law and the Prophets. It’s there, in the Old Testament, that God’s plan of salvation is first revealed; a plan fulfilled and brought to completion by the Incarnation.

 

As Mary and Joseph entered the Temple to fulfill the law, they were greeted by old Simeon who, filled with the Holy Spirit, welcomed Jesus and revealed Him as the redemption of the entire world:

“…my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” [Lk 2:30-32].

He then gave Mary a taste of the sorrows she would experience, for a sword would pierce her heart, a sword forged by our sinfulness.

The birth of Christ, then, is revealed by three kinds of witnesses each in a different way: the shepherds, led by an angel; the Magi, guided by a star; and Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, all inspired by the Holy Spirit.

God chooses whomever He wishes to do great things, and guided by the Holy Spirit they will reveal Jesus Christ to the world. The Spirit works, providing opportunities to take God’s love to others, an evangelization that begins right in our own families where holiness is first nurtured. In the midst of the chaos in our families there are glimpses of God’s presence, moments of grace when God reaches deep into the clutter of our lives and hands us a present we never expected.

When my mother died, over 40 years ago, our elder daughter, 6-years-old at the time, told Diane, “Don’t cry, Mommy. Grandma is with Jesus now, happy in heaven.”

In moments like this God ignores the barriers and debris we place between ourselves and our redemption, reminding us we are called to holiness.

In those moments, sticky hands are transformed into instruments of grace. Stories of the playground and classroom, or the words of a child to her mother, become words of wisdom.

In those moments, ordinary events take on new meaning and the dinner table becomes like an altar.

These elusive, often sudden, and unexpected moments are rarely captured on film or video. Sometimes, as with Mary and Joseph, they came in the form of words that amaze. Yes, Mary knew her Son was special. What had the angel revealed to her?

"He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High...the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." [Lk 1:32,35]

But to hear this and more in the Temple from Simeon…this too was something Mary would long ponder and cherish.

This visit to the Temple strikes a chord in all new parents who wonder and worry about the future of their child. It’s a story for every mother who has looked into the face of her newborn, the face of innocence, and prayed that God would help her raise that child to holiness. It's a story to remind us that as parents we will experience disappointment, sorrow, sometimes great tragedy…but in the midst of it all we encounter Emmanuel, God with us.

It reminds us of the depth of God’s love, of His arms open wide with forgiveness and mercy – a reminder that God calls us into families, not just to protect us physically, but to nurture us in faith, to prepare us for a journey that leads only to Him.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph – pray for us.

Homily: Saturday, 13th Week in Ordinary Time

I have embedded a video of this homily below. The complete text follows the video.

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Readings: Gen 27:1-5, 15-29; Ps 135; Mt 9:14-17

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Years ago back in the 60s, I took a course on the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Our professor was a Jesuit who had spent years in a Chinese Communist prison.

In one class, as we discussed Isaac and Rebekah, this wonderful priest said, "Poor Rebekah. She was so very unbalanced." It took some time - maybe 10 or 20 years - for me to understand exactly what he meant.

You see, it was Rebekah's sense of love, her human love, that caused her life to lack balance, to be, in a sense, disordered. Rebekah loved her son, Jacob, more than anyone or anything else, even more than she loved her husband, Isaac. She had taken her motherhood and lifted it far above her marriage. And because of this unbalanced, disordered view, she led her son, Jacob, into a confusing web of deceits and outright lies.

That Esau seemed to care little for his birthright really doesn't mitigate the sin. And the result was not good for Jacob. Yes, he received his father's blessing, but his lies brought him much grief in the years that followed. As he later became a victim of the same sins committed by others, he learned of and lived with the often tragic consequences of deceit.

Sin is nothing less than disorder, a lack of balance and order in our souls. And so it always has consequences. Sin also points to disorder in our relationships. I suppose the key question for all of us is: How have we ordered our relationships?

Do we always place our relationship with God first and foremost? That doesn't mean that we ignore others. Not at all. It simply means that God must always come first. And when we do that, when we place God first, it inevitably leads to an improvement in our relationships with others.

I've often told married couples that the primary task of each is to help the other get to heaven. And when couples take that attitude, their marriage and their relationships improve. Rebekah failed to understand that it is through her marriage, this sacred bond with Isaac, that God's will is manifested in their lives. And Jacob, by going along with his mother's plan of deceit, damaged three of the key relationships in his life: that with his father, his mother, and his brother.

I sometimes think we forget that God is omniscient, that He knows everything. He can take our sinfulness and the chaos it brings into our lives, and turn it to good. Yes, God can certainly write straight with the crooked lines we give him.

And so Jacob, who stole his brother's birthright, can become a patriarch, one of the foundation stones of our faith and that of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Indeed, as Jesus once reminded the Sadducees, our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [Mt 22:32].

Of course, God's ability, His willingness, to bring good into our lives, despite our sinfulness, doesn't mean we go around sinning, all the while exclaiming, "Well, God will take care of it." He might well take care of it, but in the meantime there will be serious consequences.

In our Gospel passage today Jesus uses fasting as a way to remind us to order our relationships. He tells the disciples of John the Baptist that the time for fasting is both in the past and future.

John's disciples seemed to see fasting as an end in itself, rather than a means to develop a hunger for God's Word and His Presence. Moses understood this. In Deuteronomy he instructs the people:

"He humbled you and made you hungry; then He fed you on manna that neither you nor your fathers had known before, to teach you that man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" [Dt 8:3].

This is why John the Baptist fasted: to persevere before the Messiah's coming, to watch for His Presence. It is this Presence that Jesus speaks of. Because He is present, it's a time to celebrate His Coming, a time of joy, not a time of fasting. That will come with the Passion, and the fasting of Lent and Good Friday, followed again by the joy of Easter. Indeed, to emphasize this the Eastern Church forbids fasting and kneeling throughout the Easter season. The time of repentance has passed.

Jesus goes on to remind the disciples that His Presence is something supremely new. He tells of the joy of wedding guests in the presence of the bridegroom, the patching of old garments, of new wine poured into wineskins. His Presence demands a new receptivity, a new way of thinking, the kind we hear proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount.

We live in a time of expectation, a time of renewal, a time to strive for holiness, a time to turn from all that prevents us from deepening our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Course Presentation: Biblical Typology Session 3

We had our third session of the course yesterday evening and, as usual, I went 15-20 minutes longer then advertised...but once again everyone stayed until the end.

Between 60 and 70 people attended, and I assume they found it interesting and enjoyable since, again, I escaped without wounds that say otherwise. 

A rewarding moment (at least for me) came just before the start of the evening's session when one of the participants excitedly said that she had recognized the typology in the previous Sunday's readings and homily. It was something she had never before recognized and she believed it had truly enhanced her understanding of the passages chosen by the Church for the Sunday liturgy. How wonderful for her, and how good that our little course has not been without value. 

This week we discussed the typology of Moses and Isaac, and also glanced at some of the prophets. The final piece was a brief study of typology in the Book of Job, all thanks to St. Gregory the Great who wrote extensively on the subject.

You can go directly to my Bible Study page and view the course presentations and other handout material: Bible Study Website. 

Or, if you prefer, here's a direct link to the PowerPoint presentation on authorstream.com:

Biblical Typology: Session 3

Adult Faith Formation: Course on Biblical Typology

Last Wednesday I began teaching a parish adult faith formation course on Biblical Typology. The course will be conducted every Wednesday evening for four weeks and will offer an introductory overview of the subject. We will examine "type" links between the Old and New Testaments, the people and events in the Old that foreshadow greater things in the New Testament. I also hope to examine how we can apply typology to develop a better understanding of Sacred Scripture and its meaning for us today on our journey to salvation.

I expected perhaps 30 or 40 people to attend, but imagine my surprise when 82 people enrolled for the course. They filled the meeting room and even stayed for an extra 15 minutes because, as usual, I made the session longer than I should have.

Any handout material, along with each session's PowerPoint presentation will be placed on my very modest Bible Study website at the conclusion of each session. Here's the link: St. Vincent de Paul Parish Bible Study. You should be able to access the presentations of future sessions by Friday of each week.

But for those who just want to view the PowerPoint, here's a link to the Session 1 presentation: Typology Session 1

Historicity of the Old Testament

All those "scholars" who for years have dismissed the Old Testament's historicity have been getting hammered again and again as archaeological and other evidence confirms the accuracy of the Bible as a historical document.

One must understand that the goal of many of these scholars has never really been scholarship and truth; rather, it has been to undermine belief in the Bible and, consequently, the faith of Christians and Jews. You might think this a rather strident opinion, but the evidence is clear. For example, based on their writings many critical-historical scholars believe that there really was no historical David, certainly not as he is depicted in the Old Testament. And yet just consider the amount of documentation on David's life included in Scripture. For any non-Biblical ancient personality, this amount of documentation would be considered an historical treasure trove, especially when there exist snippets of corroborating references in other ancient documents. But not when it comes to David -- or, for that matter, Abraham or Moses -- because he was a religious figure, a person important to the faith of today's Christians and Jews. These same scholars would not even think to question the existence of some obscure potentate whose name might appear only in one or two vague references.

I bring this up because of something I recently came across -- a reference to a find in 2007 that I expect didn't make headlines in the US mainstream media. A researcher in the British Museum, while going through some of the thousands of cuneiform tablets kept in the Museum discovered the name of a minor Assyrian official who worked under King Nebuchadnezzar II. This same official is also mentioned in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah. This corroboration of the existence of such a minor official who is mentioned in the Bible only lends credence to the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. For more information, read the article describing the find in the Telegraph.

A wonderful book on the subject of the Old Testament and its validity as a historical document was written recently by K. A. Kitchen, one of the world's foremost scholars on ancient Egypt and the Near East: On the Reliability of the Old Testament, Eerdmans (2003).

How good of God to bless us with the knowledge and ability to uncover these little pieces of history that increasingly prove to us the truth that is His Word.