20th Sunday in rodinary time A

A pious woman had a dream one night in which one of the town's best-known scoundrels died and was on his way to heaven. But, because of many misdeeds, the way to heaven wasn't easy for him. He had to climb a ladder so tall that it reached up far above the clouds. As he climbed the ladder, the man was required to make a chalk mark on each rung for each sin he had committed. As the woman's dream ended, she saw the man coming back down the ladder. "What are you doing?" the woman asked. "I'm coming down for more chalk," the man replied.

We sin, all of us. And if we think of our life's goal in terms of a step-by-step process drawing ever closer to God by acknowledging our sinfulness and our need to change, like that man on the ladder, we are likely to run out of chalk from time-to-time.

"I am the Bread of Life," Jesus said again and again. And, in today's Gospel , He says, "Anyone who eats this Bread will live forever" (Jn. 6:58). "Anyone who does eat My flesh and drink My blood has eternal life" (Jn. 6:54).

We tend to think of eternal life in terms of the immortality of the soul: life after death. But, in so doing, we overlook the fact that Jesus speaks of eternal life in terms of its present meaning. Eternal life is to be with God, Jesus says. Not in the sweet "By and By," as the familiar Gospel song puts it, but now. The opposite of being with God is, of course, being estranged from God. And that is the supreme definition of sin.

To experience eternal life now -- to be with God, to be in union with God, to be in love with God now -- is what the meaning and purpose of our life is all about. This we know on the authority of Jesus. Moreover, love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. This too we know on the authority of Jesus. The Apostle John spells this out in clear and unmistakable language:

Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother is a liar since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that He (Jesus Christ) has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother (I Jn. 4:20-21).In other words...

LOVE OF GOD AND LOVE OF NEIGHBOR ARE INSEPARABLE

During the period of the Great Depression, a group of immigrants were put to work building roads. For a time, the men worked well, sang their songs, and were glad to have jobs. But, little by little, they discovered the roads they were building led nowhere, ran out into dreary, desolate places and stopped. As the truth dawned on them that they had been put to work solely to provide employment and an excuse for paying them survival money, the workers grew listless and stopped singing. Commenting on this, one astute observer said, "The roads to nowhere are difficult to make. For a person to work and sing, there must be an end in view."

The end in view for your life, the most important thing in your life -- more important than your health, more important than your marriage, more important than your family, more important than your job, more important than anything that is on your mind today -- is the direct communion with God made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't have this, and you aren't growing in it, you have nothing in terms of your fulfillment as a human person. If you don't have this, you are on the road to nowhere.

This communion with God, this right relationship with God, also is the key to the discovery of right relationships with others. Do you make it possible for others to enter into direct communion with God, where they will find the true meaning of life? That is the key question on which all other questions about our human relationships must be built. Has the love of God that is in you become so real to you that it spills out into your relationships with others? If the answer is "No," then your claim to love God is a lie. If the answer is "no," then you have nothing in terms of your fulfillment as a human person -- for love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. You can't have one without the other!

To love is the most important thing in life. But what do we mean by love? True love is that extraordinary act of self-giving without asking anything in return. You may be very clever, you may be very rich, you may be very powerful, you may be very entertaining, you may be very knowledgeable, but if your end-view of life is focused on self-service, your heart will be empty and you will be miserable. Albert Schweitzer, the medical missionary who spent fifty years of his life serving his fellow human beings in the oppressive heat of the African jungle said this to a group of admiring students:

I don't know what your final destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The only ones among you who will be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

In a book called "The Grand Essentials," the author says...

I believe that when life has whittled us down, when joints have failed and skin has wrinkled, and capillaries have clogged and hardened, what is left of us will be what we were all along -- in our essence, in our inner-spirit.

Exhibit "A" is a distant uncle. All his life he did nothing but find new ways to make himself richer. He spent his twilight years drooling and babbling constantly about the money he had made. When life whittled him down to his essence all that was left was raw greed. This is what he had cultivated in a thousand ways over a lifetime of self-service.

Exhibit "B" is my wife's grandmother. What did she talk about in her twilight years? The best examples I can think of are those occasions when she was in her mid-eighties and we asked her to pray the blessing before dinner. Although she had lost some of her mental powers and was fast declining physically, nevertheless she would reach out and hold the hands of those sitting beside her, a broad smile would spread across her face, her eyes would fill with tears as she looked up to heaven, and her chin would quiver as she poured out her love -- for God and for all of us around the table and all people everywhere. That was Edna in a nutshell. She loved God and she loved people. Even though she was at a point where she couldn't remember our names, she couldn't keep her hands from patting us lovingly whenever we got near her.

When life whittled her down to her essence, all there was left was love: love for God; love for people.2

If we should try right now to whittle our lives down to our essence and, in so doing, if all there is left is not love, we need to acknowledge whatever it is in our lives that is causing our estrangement from God and resolve to change all that. We need to get off the road to nowhere and get on the road to somewhere. We need to refocus our end-view of life until we can plainly see that most importantly and above all else, is our need for eternal life now -- our need to be in the direct communion with God made possible by Jesus Christ.

6th Sunday of Easter Homily

6th Sunday of Easter A

A patient visited a psychiatrist. "Something is wrong with me," he said. "I keep thinking I'm a dog." "How long have you felt this way?" The doctor asked. "Since I was a puppy," the patient replied. If we think we're living a dog's life or wish we could change our leaves, it may be that we are not trying very hard to be who we were made to be. We were made to be human reflections of God's image. To be fully human is to be God-like. To live as a full human being is to be in union with the Source of all life. We cannot grow into the kind of person we were created to be if we are unwilling to allow our souls to be nourished by the Grace of God that is offered to us in and through Jesus Christ. "I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."

There is a story of a village Church in which the lighting system was less than adequate. The pastor decided to launch an appeal for a new chandelier. After the first appeal to the parishioners had been made, the old sexton approached the pastor and said: "I'm not giving one cent for that new chandelier for two reasons. First of all, nobody here can play one of those things. Secondly, what this Church needs is some new lights!"

If you are presently lost in a dark moment of anxiety over your place in the real scheme of things, what your life needs is some new light. "I am the Light of the World," Jesus says. "He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn. 8:12). Thus, the Apostle Paul implores us:

Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light (Eph. 5:14).

Follow Christ! Attach yourself securely to the True Vine and you will not wither and die from anxiety over your place in the scheme of things. Rather, you will grow ever stronger and able to bear much fruit.

Christ's followers are a people of the Spirit, the New Testament writers emphatically tell us. And "the fruit of the spirit is love" (Gal. 5:22)...

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things ... so faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:1-7, 13).

If you have not love, you are nothing. If I have not love, I am nothing. We must abide in Christ, for apart from Him, you and I can do nothing. Abide in Christ! That means, abide in Love! Abide in Love, and you will become the person you were created to be according to God's scheme of things. Abide in Love, and your life will become a beautiful reflection of God's own image. Abide in Love and your spirit will never grow old. Abide in Love and rejoice that, by the Grace of God, you are young at heart!

What should be our delight when the Risen Christ, in all His glory, speaks directly to the heart of each one of us, saying, "Come to Me. Attach yourself to Me. Be part of My life forever. I have reserved a splendid place for you. Come! Abide in Me!"

Remain in God’s love and your joy will be complete. 

1st sunday of lent.

The Irresistible Temptation

A long line of men stood at one of Heaven's gates, waiting to be admitted. There was a sign over the gate which read, "For men who were dominated by their wives while on earth." The line extended as far as the eye could see. At another of Heaven's gates, only one man was standing. Over this gate there was a sign that read, "For men who were not dominated by their wives." St. Peter approached the lone man standing there and asked, "What are you doing here?" The man replied, "I don't really know. My wife told me to stand here."

A strong case could be made to prove that the most irresistible temptation to misuse power is the temptation to take control of other people's lives. Wives do it. Husbands do it. Parents do it. Siblings do it. Politicians do it. Teachers do it. Clerics do it. Scientists do it. Friends do it. Employers do it, and on and on. The temptation is real and ongoing for all of us, especially in our relationships with those who are closest to us.

A loving relationship is based on a willingness of each of the parties to call forth the unique, God- given gifts of the other. The desire to manipulate and control is a contradiction of this essential ingredient. God made man in His own image, and the God-given gifts in each person are unique. A person achieves wholeness of life to the degree that he or she is reflecting God's image through these unique gifts. When we give in to the temptation to manipulate and control, when we try to recreate the other in our own image, we stifle this process. Let it be! Let the other person be as God intended him or her to be!

A young high school student took a part-time job in a supermarket as a stock clerk. After his first day on the job, his mother asked him how he liked it. He replied,

It was one of the most revealing experiences of my life. When I was stocking shelves in the canned goods section, a woman came down the aisle pushing her shopping cart. Trudging alongside was her little girl, about three-years-old. "Hold on to the cart!" I heard the mother say. Then, "Pull up your socks! Don't touch! Don't move! Don't touch! Fix your hair! Move over! Stop your day-dreaming!" And on and on, until I had counted seventeen commands. And that was in just one aisle. Then an elderly couple came through. Each time one of them selected an item, the other had some comment: "Get the larger size! Get the smaller size! Take the other brand! I thought you didn't like pineapple!" And on and on. It was as though they hadn't come to shop, but to debate. I couldn't help wondering what their life together at home was like.

The essence of Christian love is giving oneself to the other person so that the other person is fulfilled and affirmed. Trying to play God with your own life or the lives of others diminishes life. You are not the master of your own fate, or anyone else's. Let it be! The desire to be in full control was man's primary problem from the beginning. When Satan told Adam and Eve that if they ate the forbidden fruit they would be

in control -- like gods -- they found the temptation irresistible and they fell from Grace, and here we are.

Whenever you are next tempted to try to recreate another person in your own image, you would do well to be silent and gaze intently at the magnificent sight. And if you look long enough and hard enough and lovingly enough, you may be surprised to hear yourself say, softly and reverently, "O God, You have done well! O God, You have done very well! I can do no other than to let it be!"

To Turn Us Upside Down

Cycle: B Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalms 95:1-2,6-9; I Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

Once upon a time a government surveyor brought his equipment to a farm, called on the farmer, and asked permission to go into one of the fields and take readings. The farmer objected, fearing that the survey was the first step toward construction of a highway through his land. "I will not give you permission to go into my fields," said the farmer. Whereupon, the surveyor produced an official government document which authorized him to do the survey. "I have the authority," he said, "to enter any field in the entire country to take necessary readings." Faced with such authority, the farmer opened the gate and allowed the surveyor to enter the field. The farmer then went to the far end of the field and opened another gate, through which one of his fiercest bulls came charging. Seeing the bull, the surveyor dropped his equipment and began to run for his life. And he could hear the farmer triumphantly shouting after him,"Show him the paper, show him your authority."

In the Greek, the word for "authority" is "exousia." The word for "power" is "dunamis." Authority and power have different meanings, as the unfortunate surveyor discovered at the sight of the raging bull. In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus reminds us that, in terms of our salvation -- where we our going with our lives and what we ought to do about it -- He speaks to us with authority and He empowers us, both.

Mark tells us that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath "as one who had authority," and that His listeners were "astonished at His teaching" (Mk. 1:22). Then, "A man with an unclean spirit cried out, 'What have You to do with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God'" (Mk. 1:23,24).

This incident should not surprise us when we consider that Jesus was speaking with such authority and force that His words would hit home -- really jolt his listeners into realizing that they were being asked to turn their lives upside down.

"What have You to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?" We don't have to be under the influence of some alien spirit in order to respond in this way to Jesus' call to New Life. This is the experience, to some degree, of every one of us when we really listen to the Lord's Message. Hearing this Gospel story, we may be inclined to dismiss this man's cry as the lunatic ravings of an unbalanced fanatic. But the fact is that the man in the Gospel Story got the point. He was jolted by the Word of God. He realized his attitude and approach to life was being called into question. He realized that Jesus was indeed calling for the destruction of his old ways.

A small town newspaper's "Religion Column" included the story of a local minister who had been preaching Sunday after Sunday for two years to an empty Church. Before that, there were three members in the congregation. But two died and the third moved away. Nevertheless, each Sunday for two years, the minister went into the pulpit, looked out at the uninterrupted rows of empty pews and preached the Message of Jesus Christ as he understood it. At one point during this period he decided to turn off the sound system because some of the neighbors were complaining about the noise. When he was asked if he didn't feel a little foolish preaching to empty pews week after week, he replied, "No. I don't ever feel foolish. I'm just taking it one Sunday at a time, waiting for someone to come in and listen to the Word."

That is the problem which all serious preachers face week after week: "Is there anyone out there who realizes that the Word of God being preached is a call to turn his or her life upside down? Or am I preaching, in effect, to empty pews? Is there anyone out there who is so astonished by the Word of God spoken through Jesus that he or she feels compelled to cry out, 'I know You are the Holy One of God ... I know You are my Lord and Savior'?"

The question is, "Are we really listening, or is the Word being proclaimed, in effect, to empty pews?" The man in today's Gospel is tormented by an "unclean spirit." But Jesus possesses the authority and the power to impose silence on the unclean spirit and commands it to go out of the man.

The man in this Gospel story serves as a witness to Christ's Presence in the world. If the Kingdom of God is at hand, then the "unclean" diabolical forces are overthrown, and the world is ruled by a new Wisdom, a new Authority, a new Power.

There is the story of a man who asked the question, "What is the devil?" Before anyone could reply, the man supplied his own answer. "The devil," he said, "is not a huge monster with horns and a harpoon tail and a wicked glitter in his eye. No, the devil is inertia, doing nothing, following the lines of least resistance." The definition might not satisfy many theologians, but it makes the point: When Jesus asks us to turn our lives upside down by following His example of radical love, and we respond by following the lines of least resistance, we're in the devil's corner.

Through His life and through His death, Jesus teaches us that Love is all. Through His Resurrection, Jesus empowers us to live accordingly.

Love is all! Jesus taught this truth with such authority as to jolt us, to astonish us, to turn us upside down. But is anybody listening?