He Who Has the Most Toys When He Dies: Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Am 6:1a, 4-7

Ps 146

1 Tm 6:11-16

Lk 16:19-31

 

Amos’ warning is harsh. His description of the people is contemporary. 

“Woe to the complacent of Zion . . . 

Lying upon beds of ivory

they eat lamb taken from the flock

they anoint themselves with the best oils . . . 

 

Perhaps today Amos would write, 

 

“Woe to the self-obsessed 

slouched in front of their big screen TVs.

They eat fast food taken from a bag,

wear too much perfume, and inject Botox.”

 

Amos repeatedly stressed social and political ills in general terms that allows him to be read in the context of our own time.  

 

There are social and political ills in every country that cause and contribute to a variety of personal ills.  Individual sin drives social sin and social sin allows individuals more creative opportunities for individual sin. How much of our current economic situation is driven by greed that is both corporate and individual?

 

It is a pity that the reading from Paul’s Letter to Timothy didn’t begin with verse 10 rather than verse 11.  Verse 10 includes the well-known. “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through their craving that some have wandered 

away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.” Then we hear Paul’s instruction to Timothy in its proper context, “But as for you . . . .pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” 

 

It is fascinating that the line "For the love of money is the root of all evils,"

is generally misquoted as "Money is the root of all evil."  The two statements do not mean the same thing.  Money itself is not the root of all evil.  Money was a necessity in the ancient world.  It remains a necessity in the modern world.  However, an insatiable drive to obtain more and more of it, a life spent loving, adoring, and worshipping money is the root of much of the world’s evil. 

 

The Gospel parable that is unique to Luke, is sometimes referred to as Dives and Lazarus.  The names are important though only one of them appears in the Gospel narrative.  

 

Lazarus comes from the Hebrew El azar. which means God has helped.  “When the poor man died he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.”  God had truly helped. Tradition, rather than the evangelist, gave the rich man his name.  Dives is a Latin adjective for rich.  Thus Dives and Lazarus: The Rich Man and the One God has helped. 

 

The first part of the parable describes a reversal of fortune. Upon his death Lazarus, the beggar, was carried to Abraham’s bosom. Upon his death, Dives, 

the man who had the most toys when he died, was tormented in the netherworld. The second half is a conversation between Dives and Abraham.  Dives is not portrayed as a bad man. He is neither wicked nor malevolent. True, he dressed well, ate a fine diet, and lived comfortably, enjoying the rewards of his hard work. 

He was not evil.  He was  oblivious.  He was oblivious to the suffering around him.  He didn’t notice it. 

 

Lazarus—like the poor in our streets today—was merely a part of the landscape 

that was passed by, stepped over, or avoided by crossing the street.  Dives did not appear to bear him any ill-will. He was not hostile.  He did not shoo him away.

Lazarus was there but invisible to the man and the rest of his household. 

 

Dives is not without merit.  He accepted that Lazarus could not cross the chasm 

to ease his thirst. He didn't protest. He didn't whine. He didn't argue. He didn't plead.  But he wanted to prevent his equally oblivious and blind brothers from suffering the same fate. It couldn't be done. If his brothers wouldn't listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not be persuaded even if someone rose from the dead. 

 

Like Dives and his brothers we have Moses and the Prophets. Unlike this rich man and his brothers we also have Jesus who suffered, died and rose from the dead to save us from sin. 

 

Why do we not listen to Him either? 

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Spent yesterday's community Mass in the loft shooting.  Am fascinated by an organists hands.  The loft is small.  Some verty difficult angles.

 + Fr Jack, SJ, MD

Mammon is NOT a proper name: Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Am 8:4-7

Ps 113

1 Tm 2:1-8

Lk 16:1-13

 

The first verse of the Letter to Timothy is a fortuitous reminder that today is the final day of vigil before the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.  And its reminds us of the burden now being carried by King Charles III.  “Beloved: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” 

 

It is uniquely difficult to bury a parent who has lived into her tenth decade because by then it seems as if she will live forever.  The problem is compounded by suddenly being thrust into the role of monarch.  The burden is not eased by assurances that she lived a full life. A mother’s death is a mother’s death no matter the age of the child.  Grieving that death publicly increases the difficulty, particularly when the vultures are analyzing every movement the King makes in order to criticize him.

 

The parable of the dishonest steward is a challenge to scripture scholars, preachers, and all those  who hear this gospel proclaimed at Mass. It seems to fly in the face of the dishonesty that God will not forget as described in the first reading where we heard, “We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel. . . “  Sounds like the U.S. Federal Reserve. “We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals . . .”  or an iPhone 14 costing over $1000.

 

Thus the confusion.  After being summoned for squandering and mismanaging his master’s resources but before being fired he quickly forgave portions of the debts others owed the master. It was the Ancient Near East equivalent of a bankruptcy sale. By doing so he assured that those who owed the master would be grateful to the soon-to-be-ex-steward when he was unemployed.  A shrewd quid pro quo.  He would be a successful politician today.  

 

The confusion begins when we ask if Jesus is condoning dishonesty when he says, “And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” He is not condoning dishonesty.  He is making an observation on human nature, a nature that hasn't changed in millennia  and is unlikely to improve over the next several millennia, assuming humans last that long.  But there is something to admire in the cleverness of the dishonest steward’s scheme, a cleverness that did not pass by Jesus unnoticed.

 

Like the despised Ancient Near East tax-collectors stewards would bill more than the individual owed to the master and keep the overbilled amount for themselves, not unlike the dishonesty described in the first reading.  Merchants would overcharge or reduce the amount of product despite maintaining the same price. Things haven’t changed.  I recently stumbled across a cartoon on FB:  “I paid a dollar for a bag of air.  The seller kindly included a few potato chips with it.”  But, the reality isn’t always amusing.  Consider patients with diabetes or those prone to anaphylactic reactions.  The price of insulin has tripled over the past ten years. It is impossible to forget when Heather Bresch, daughter of WV democrat senator Joe Manchin, raised the cost of an epi pen 400% and only sold them in packets of two.

 

When the steward instructed those who owed the master to reduce the amount on the promissory note he was changing the bill to reflect what they actually owed without his take added on.  He wasn’t going to get his take through the usual channels so he was now putting those he had been ripping off into his debt, making himself appear noble in their eyes and worthy of their gratitude when, in fact, he was being even more dishonest.  

 

Truly a skilled politician.

 

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Only in theology school did I learn that mammon is not a proper name,  it is not capitalized, is not a synonym for Satan, and does not necessarily mean money. Mammon derives from ancient Chaldean with its root in the word for confidence or trust. Thus we can ask, “In what do you have confidence?”  “Where do  you place your trust?”  Do you serve and trust God—capital G or god—small g.  The small g god may be money, power, prestige, drugs, alcohol, one’s own self, or any of a number of other idols. 

 

We cannot serve the true God and any of a number of false gods of our own choosing simultaneously.  The choice is black and white.  The stakes are high.  

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Baptismal font in St. Aloysius Church, Sevenhill, South Australia.

The Blessed Mother in the Cathedral of Lyon, France.

Altar prepared for Mass

A small vent window in a confessional at St. Ignatius Church in Boston

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Requiem Aeternam: Homily for September 11, 2022

 Monday, September 10, 2001. Twenty-one years ago yesterday.

 

It was a routine day, perhaps even a humdrum one. As we faced a week of work or school, we might have consoled ourselves with memories of the previous weekend or plans for the coming one. It was the 23^rd Monday of ordinary time. Green vestments. The gospel for the day asked,  “. . . is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  

 

We didn’t know it at the time, but September 10, 2001 was the last full day of life as we had known it up to then.  Around 7:30 that evening the monasteries in Spencer, Wrentham, and throughout the country,chanted the Church’s final prayer of the day. 

 

Salve Regina, Mater misericordia,

Vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve . . 

 

“Hail holy Queen, 

mother of Mercy

Our life, our sweetness, and our hope . . “

 

Silence fell upon those houses of prayer.  

 

Out in the world, we went to bed as usual. It was a school night or work night for most. Some drifted off into a deep sleep while others tossed and turned with worry about family, finances, an upcoming quiz, or the weather forecast. The terrorists knew it would be their last night alive.  None of their thousands of victims were aware that when they went to bed that Monday night they would see their final sunrise upon awakening. They did not know that they would never kiss their children again after leaving for work. Others would receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord in what would be their last holy communion. 

 

When we woke on September 11, 2001 some of us felt refreshed and eager for the day to begin. Others wanted another hour or six of sleep. It was time to brush the teeth, take a shower, and have the first several cups of coffee.  At 8:45 AM EDT on September 11, 2001, we were on the way to work or at school.  Some were on a morning run.  Others walked the dog. Routine daily tasks had to be done.  Perhaps it was the first day on a new job.  The sixty seconds between 8:45 and 8:46 marked the last moments of normal life.

 

Everything changed at 8:46 AM EDT when American Airlines flight 11 struck the North tower of the World Trade Center.

 

United Airlines flight 175 was commandeered and crashed  into the South tower 

twenty-seven minutes later at 9:13 EDT.

 

The killers  flew American Airlines flight 77 into the west side of the Pentagon at 9:37 EDT.

 

Ziad Jarrah trained as a pilot here in the U.S.  His plan to crash United Airlines flight 93 

on a target in D.C. were thwarted after a struggle with heroic pilots, flight staff, and passengers. The plane crashed  in an empty field near Shanksville, PA at 10:03 EDT.

 

The attacks were over.  

 

It took time for the true horror to sink in as the count of victims would mount over the ensuing days. Stories of extraordinarily heroic acts were many.  But they were outweighed by those of personal and communal tragedy.That night, the words of the Salve, held a particular poignancy. 

 

Ad te clamamus exsules filii Evae

Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle

 

To you do we cry poor banished children of Eve

To you do we send up our sighs mourning and weeping 

in this vale of tears . . .

 

That night few of us slept. 

Many tears were shed  throughout the night.

 

The vast majority of undergrads on this campus today were not born at the time of the attacks in 2001. But for those of us who lived through those dreadful days days that have come to be called 9/11we still wonder, grieve, and weepas the pain of that time 

flashes back.

 

Today, as we have for the past twenty-one years, we pray for the victims of the terrorists, the victims who died in the planes, the towers, and those on the ground.  We pray for their families and loved ones, the orphaned children, and the parents bereft by the death of a child.

 

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, 

et lux perpetua luceat eis. 

Requiescant in pace. 

 

"Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, 

and let perpetual light shine upon them. 

May they rest in peace."

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Ya' Never Know: Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis 9:13-18b

Ps 90:3-6; 12-17

Phmn 9-10, 12-17

Lk 14:25-33

 

A few years ago I giggled while reading a newspaper story in which the headline trumpeted the scientist Richard Hawking's declaration: "God not necessary to create the universe."  I giggled because  of the corollary that came immediately to mind: "Richard Hawking not necessary to explain God."  It called to mind an old graffiti joke. “God is dead.  Nietzsche”  And written below . . . . “Nietzsche is dead.  God”

 

Humans are fallible unknowing creatures who struggle to make sense out of the world. They struggle to make sense of the world if they are brilliant scientists like Hawking.  They struggle to make sense of the world if they are illiterate.  They ask the same questions though the wording is different. Any answers are always tentative  and always in need of revision unless they are flat-out wrong.

 

The first verse from Wisdom is key to understanding the dilemma of being human. “Who can know God’s counsel or who can conceive what the Lord intends?”  That verse should be inscribed over the entrance to every church, theology school, and seminary in the world.  It should be inscribed on our hearts.

Perhaps recalling that question would temper some of the theological-scriptural-sociological-psychological arrogance of preachers and theologians. It might tamp down the smug certainties of fundamentalists and militant atheists alike. 

 

Who can know God’s counsel? 

Who can know what God intends? 

No one.

 

That doesn’t mean humans don’t pretend to know God’s counsel. It doesn't mean they won't offer a strong opinion on what the Lord intends, sometimes giving the impression that they were God's hired consultants.  

 

 

“Scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty.” That is a concise history of science. It is summary of all medical advances since Hippocrates, and a synopsis of world history from before it was written down. 

 

Men on the moon . . . 

But traffic on 128, I-93, or Storrow Drive remain a nightmare.

 

Heart transplants are routine . . . 

the common cold remains an incurable scourge. 

 

Seedless watermelons that lack flavor as well as seeds

but hunger afflicts much of the world.

 

All of those accomplishments achieved with great difficulty.  

 

Our only choice is to accept our mortality, to admit our fallibility and our status as flawed beings. Our only choice is to recall that we are sinners, but sinners who are loved by God, whose counsel or intent we can never know.  When we recall this we can only marvel at the insight of the psalmist: 

“For a thousand years in your sight 

are as yesterday, . . . 

or a watch in the night. . .”

 

We do not know God’s counsel.  We do not know what the Lord intends.  It can never be otherwise.  Jesus’ parable reflects the first reading and illustrates the difficulty of being human and fallible. Who does construct a tower without calculating the cost?  The same people as those responsible for the Big Dig. 

Who marches into—or withdraws from— battle without calculating the strength of his troops or the cost of his actions?  Only a fool and the occasional president.  

 

But Jesus is not simply addressing the need to plan ahead.  He is warning us of the cost of commitment.

 

The cost of the commitments to someone who chooses to follow Jesus is high.

It is high in ways that are unique to each individual.  The cost of following Jesus 

is high in ways that reflect our individual life stories, our individual vocations, and our unique talents.

 

Jesus reminds us frequently that the cost of following Him is going to be high.  

Perhaps higher than we calculated. It may also be easier than expected. Because we cannot know God’s counsel or what He intends, we can only say yes to following Jesus on the grounds of faith, the kind of faith that the Letter to the Hebrews defines eloquently as: “. . . the realization of what is hoped for 

and evidence of things not seen.”

 

And then we pray with the psalmist: 

 

"Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,

that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.

And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;

prosper the work of our hands for us!

Prosper the work of our hands!"

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Just back from my annual eight-day retreat.  It was a good one enhanced by the fact this is the 25th Anniversary of entering the Society of Jesus back in 1997.  

The photos below were taken several years ago in a European monastery at which I did some work.  

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD