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.  

___________________________________

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."

______________________________________________

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!"

__________________________________

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

I Do Not Know You: Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 66:18-21

Ps 117

Heb 12:5-7, 11-13

Luke 13:22-30

 

Today's readings are neither comforting nor consoling. They will not soothe fears. They will not erase doubt. It is much more comforting to hear blessed are the poor or I am the good Shepherd.  That will have to wait for another day. 

 

If anything, the readings from Hebrews and Luke’s Gospel will increase frustration; they will  force us to ask questions such as: Why bother?  Where is God?  Disturbing though they may be these readings are important. They reflect a primary reality in the lives of all believers as well as those deemed to be saints: a life following Jesus is neither easy nor smooth. We must cope with doubt and uncertainty.  Each of us must recommit daily and then continue the journey. 

 

A recurring theme in the recent daily gospels has been that of exclusion or perhaps exclusivity. The gospels from Monday through Thursday, include variations on the themes of many are called and few are chosen,  the last shall be first and the first last.   

 

How many will arrive at the gate?  

Who will get through? 

Will I make the cut?  

 

The first reading from Isaiah proclaims that people from other nations who hear of the true God, the God of Abraham and Moses, will come to Jerusalem from all over the world to worship and offer sacrifice.  These particular passages 

come from the end of the last chapter of Isaiah.  The penultimate verse of this chapter is: “And sabbath after sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, 

says the Lord.”  This is key.  Worship, prayer, thanksgiving, and observing the Sabbath; these are what will bring us through the narrow door.  

 

The reading from Hebrews emphasizes that the journey is neither easy nor guaranteed to be pleasant.  It is, in fact, a difficult journey, a journey of trial, a journey in which weakness is revealed.  It is the journey of life as we experience it.  It is a journey punctuated by struggle, doubt, and error . . .  

and of being disciplined for that error.  

 

There is no promise--there has never been a promise and there will never be a promise--that following Jesus brings a life free of challenge,  a life without sorrow, suffering, or darkness, or a life in which one never feels abandoned.   

 

Discipline is painful to receive.  Discipline is painful to administer.  It alienates the one who is disciplined from the one who disciplines and vice-versa.  It may take a long time before we can look the one who disciplined us in the eye without resentment, without feeling a sting or becoming defensive.   Not one of us enjoys being criticized. No one enjoys being disciplined even when it is deserved. However, Hebrews includes a promise of relief:  “At the time it is administered, 

all discipline seems a cause for grief and not for joy.  But later it brings forth the fruit of peace and justice to those who are trained in its school.”   

 

We recall discipline more acutely than we do praise.  We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.  We grow more from adversity than we do in times of plenty and ease.  It is paradoxical that sometimes the farther we feel from God the closer we are to Him, the more distant Jesus seems the more likely He is walking next to us.  

 

In the context of this week’s readings, the gospel is a further warning 

against spiritual elitism, a warning against sectarianism and self-importance. . .  a warning against assuming we are God’s chosen; His favorites, while everyone else is second class. We have all been guilty--and will be guilty—of saying or thinking something along the lines of,  “What is someone like HER doing here?”  

“Who admitted THAT novice?” Or, in a variation on Groucho's famous statement,

“I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that lets HIM in.”  

 

Each one of us is the potential hearer of Jesus’ rejection, “I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Away from me, you evildoers!”  We ARE sinners.  We are sinners loved by God to be sure, but sinners nonetheless.  This is true even of those who are deemed living saints.

 

Think back to when excerpts of Mother Teresa’s letters were published, letters she wanted destroyed after her death.  Some of the commentary was the fruit of reflection.  Some pushed a vicious anti-religious anti-Catholic agenda.  Some critique was absurdly psychoanalytic. or, worse yet, laden with hilarious and  pretentious new age psychobabble.  

 

It seems that despite appearances to the contrary, she was a woman who struggled with doubt for decades, she was a perceived saint whose prayer life was often dry.   It appears that much of Mother Teresa’s life was one of frequent wailing and grinding of teeth; of coping with underlying dissatisfaction.  

 

For many of us her letters enhanced rather than detracted from, her reputation for holiness because they demonstrated  that though she struggled with doubt 

she never rejected Jesus.  Many have struggled with doubt, with dryness,

and feeling abandoned by God.  Jesus himself prayed psalm 22 from the cross:

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”  

 

People will come all directions to partake of the banquet of the Lord.   It is not important if we are first, last, or somewhere in the middle. The only important thing is that we partake of the banquet.

________________________________

Tertianship in Australia was an extraordinary experience in all dimensions.  One of the best parts, aside from the long retreat, was spending five weeks in Port Lincoln, way down on the tip of South Australia.  I spent the time working in a parish in which the priest, a nice guy, had gone on vacation to the U.S.  The irony did not escape me.  

St. Mary of the Angels a short walk to Boston Bay (really, Boston Bay)  I could walk there in about seven minutes.  

The town from above.  Very small place.  It was like being back home in Plymouth, PA except  rather than coal mining fishing was the industry.  People were terrific.  I could have easily stayed for a year or so. 

A gazebo overlookingn the bay.  The industrial looking thing on the right is  part of the industry.  One tanker visible in the distance. 

Tuna fishing boats.  They are very large when onen is riding in a small motorboat.

This red sailboat was anchored.  in the bay.  I shot it several times from the shore and from the water.  This is one of the latter.

I frequently walked down before Mass in the AM.  

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

 

 

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16

1 Cor 15:20-27

Lk 1:39-56

 

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; is one of three Marian feasts that are holy days of obligation requiring the faithful to attend Mass, unless, in the inexplicable thought of the U.S. bishops in 1991, it falls on a Saturday or Monday when I guess, it is a holy day of inconvenience,

on the same principle that one should not eat oysters except in months that end with ‘r.’   The other two Marian Feasts on which the faithful are obliged to attend Mass are  The Immaculate Conception on December 8 and The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on New Year’s Day.  Same silly exception.

 

This particular feast raises questions for many of the faithful and even more questions for the less-than-faithful and the terminally sophisticated skeptic. 

The first question asks why we celebrate the Feast of Mary's Assumption.  

Though decreed as dogma by Pius XII only in 1950, the feast has been observed 

in both the Western and Eastern Churches since the 6^th Century.  Despite the early beginning of this observance, there is no scriptural basis--solid or otherwise--for Mary's Assumption, or what the Eastern Church calls The Dormition of Mary.  A few passages of scripture are sometimes cited as indicative of the Assumption.  But the explanations of how they suggest the Assumption involve intricate mental and scriptural gymnastics.  

 

A second question considers the how.  As tantalizing as it might be to explore 

the biology and physics of the Assumption, the question is irrelevant.  The significant question asks what this feast means and what the dogma of the Assumption teaches us.

 

The Feast of the Assumption points the way for all followers of Jesus who imitate Mary’s fidelity and her obedience to God’s will. . . it points the way for all who can repeat Mary’s yes at the Annunciation: 

 

"Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum"

“May it be done unto me according to your word.”  

 

Each of the readings is important to the feast. 

 

The Book of Revelation is filled with fantastical, strange, and bizarre images

some of which will never be fully understood. I recently instructed and baptized 

a professional colleague who converted to Catholicism.  When he finished reading the Book of Revelation he sent a one-line email: “That is quite a book.” 

 

The interpretations and identity of the woman in this passage are subject to heated debate.  They range from those who say that these images indicate 

Israel, the Church, Eve, Mary the Mother of God, all of the above, some of the above, or none of the above. Scripture scholar Adele Collins suggests that it is more important to see the woman’s destiny than it is to identify her.  It is a good point.    

 

Many artists have painted and sculpted the images in Revelation—at times with decidedly mixed results. One can clearly see the influence of this passage, in depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the only other feast on which we hear this reading. 

 

Paul’s words both comfort and instruct us.  We heard at the beginning of the reading “Just as in Adam all die so too in Christ shall all be brought to life.”  And then at the end of the readings, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for he subjected everything under his feet.”

 

Death’s destruction was contingent on Mary and her reply to the angel. Mary’s obedience stands in sharp contrast to Eve’s disobedience.  Eve’s infidelity to God’s will is trumped by Mary’s fidelity. Mary is both the antithesis of Eve and the new Eve, mother of us all. 

 

Magnificat anima meo Dominum

Et exsultavit spiritus meus

in Deo salutaris meo.

 

"My soul proclaims 

the greatness of the Lord, 

my spirit rejoices 

in God my savior." 

 

There are lilies that must never be gilded.  The Magnificat is one of them.  

Mary’s prayer does not need grammatical dissection. or revisions that reflect contemporary mores.

 

The Magnificat calls for quietly holding the words in the depths of our souls, 

particularly at the end of vespers, the hour that prepares us for the silence of the night, that time of darkness that is most fertile for prayer and contemplation. As we pray with Mary, as we magnify the Lord, and rejoice in God our savior, 

we will once again recall that God has remembered—and will always remember—His promise of mercy.  

 

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,

Sicut erat in principio, 

et nunc, et semper, 

et in sæcula sæculorum. 

Amen.

_________________________

The photo is a statue of the BVM anchored in rock overlooking Cohasset Harbor in Cohasset, MA taken at the blue hour in mid-July a few years back.  

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

They’re Pulling in the Driveway: Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis 18:6-9

Ps 33

Heb 11:1-2, 8-19

Lk 12:32-48

 

We heard in the Letter to the Hebrews, "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen."

 

These are important words that remind us what faith is, and, with just a little thought, what faith is not. True faith is not dependent on the sciences. Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration. It will always remain a mystery beyond the reach of historical reconstruction, scientific explanation, or geographic verification.  Faith is not unquestioning, pious, or naive either.

It is not visiting the Mountain of the Transfiguration  to see specifically where Jesus stood or to kiss where he might have been thought to stand at the place of the Ascension. There are some things we can never know.  Faith continues despite lack of proof.  

 

Both the scientifically skeptical and the unquestioningly pious must learn to live with reality.  They must learn to live, not only with things not seen, but with things that will never be seen, knowable, or open to any kind of proof.  Faith is radical trust in God’s goodness and guiding presence, even in the midst of trial and struggle.  Faith is not the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the light in the tunnel.  It is the light that allows us to travel through the tunnel and come out on the other side. Faith is listening for and following the soft voice that may be obscured by the chaos of the present moment.

 

The reading from Hebrews gives a short biography of Abraham, our father in Faith.  Because of faith he left home and all that was familiar even though he did not know where he was to go. In faith he accepted that he would be the father of a nation despite his and his wife Sara’s ages.  In faith he was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac who was the fulfillment of God’s promise of generativity.  It is an astonishing story. Faith always entails a degree of uncertainty. That uncertainty is highlighted in the gospel. The Gospel is disconcerting.  It is less comforting and more of a warning about our responsibilities.  

 

Jesus reminded  His disciples to be aware of their responsibilities at all times when he told them, “But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the servants . . . ,to eat . . . and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and unknown hour.  He will punish the servant severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful.” 

 

Many parents have had the experience of coming home sooner than expected

to find the kids doing what they were told not to do, partying, drinking, or any of a number of other untrustworthy behaviors.  The situation is a staple of many movies. There might have been a shocked silence, rage,tears, or promises after the fact.  The children betrayed the parents’ trust. It could take years for it to be reestablished. 

 

Jesus concluded with, "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." We have been entrusted with much:the Gospel, the sacraments, and the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  We will be held accountable if we do not use and learn from them.  

 

 

We show our trust in God in how we respond to the gifts we have been given,

how we use the time and opportunities in life to grow in the face of adversity, even when we face our own death or the death of one whom we love. It is not a matter of having been perfect.  It is a matter of having held to the faith and used what we have been given.

 

We should not be caught by surprise like the servants in the gospel, or the kid whose parents come home earlier than expected.  We should live each day as if we were preparing to meet the Lord. so that we might sing with the psalmist:

 

"Our soul waits for the LORD,

who is our help and our shield.

May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us who have put our hope in you." 

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One afternoon in Ljubljana I went walking with the camera with the intention of converting everything I shot into black and whtie.  It was a great day.  Loved the jazz quartet I ran into on one of the bridges.  

+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD