March 25, 2007
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Homily for the Fifth Sunday In Lent, March 25, 2007
Today’s Gospel describes quite a powerful scene. We can well imagine that the woman involved was bewildered, ashamed, and terrified, fearing for her life. She was not just accused of adultery, her guilt was not in dispute as she was caught in the act. She had no doubt about the penalty she was facing. She could very shortly be enduring an agonizing, horrible death. The group of people who bring her to Jesus, however, do not seem to be primarily concerned with punishment for her sin, and even less with justice. To them, she is just an object, a device to be used to trap Jesus. John tells us that this was done as a test. While this seems to be about the woman and her actions, it is in fact Jesus who is on trial here. The circumstances are intended to put Him in an impossible situation – whatever answer He gives would have negative consequences. If He said that the woman ought to be stoned to death, He would lose His reputation for love and for mercy. And, He would come into conflict with Roman law, because only the Romans had the power to pass or carry out the death sentence on anyone. If He said that the woman should be pardoned, it could immediately be said that He was teaching people to break the Law of Moses.
But, of course, He doesn’t really answer the question directly. He does not confront them. He virtually ignores them, idly writing on the ground with His finger. He only interrupts this action when they press Him, and then only to put the responsibility back on them, saying “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”. The elders, considered the wisest of the people, are the first to leave. The others slowly follow. With Jesus still writing in the sand, not looking at the crowd, they are free to leave without loss of face. When they are gone, and it is just Jesus and the woman left, He concludes with “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
So, where do we fit into this? In one form or another, all of today’s readings speak of forgetting about the past and looking towards the future. The first reading from Isaiah takes place while the Israelites are in exile in Babylon. God tells him to tell the people: “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” In other words, forget the past and focus on the present and the future because God will one day again lead them out of bondage and back to the Promised Land. And they have to be ready when that day comes.
In the second reading, Paul tells the Philippians that “this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul could have spent a great deal of his time regretting his past life: his persecution of the Christians, or his standing by while Stephen was stoned to death. But Paul knew that the past is past. It no longer exists. He knew that Jesus had taken even the darkest of his sins and forgiven them.
We are all sinners. Many of our sins are habitual actions or attitudes that were developed when we were younger, and that we have carried with us throughout our lives. It can be difficult for us to break ingrained patterns. Yet, God calls us to do just that. But God forgives us, even when we repeat our sins. If the woman that Jesus told to “sin no more” actually went and fell into sin again, would He forgive her? Of course He would! Is it what He expected of her? Of course not. He wouldn’t, however, tell her not to ask for forgiveness again until she could assure Him that she wouldn’t ever sin again. He doesn’t tell us that, either. We should not expect ourselves to be perfect as a condition of asking for God’s forgiveness – and our own. Sometimes, our greatest obstacle is our inability to forgive ourselves. When we receive absolution in the sacrament of Reconciliation, our sins are wiped out – God considers them non-existent. We need to do the same. We cannot completely forget about many of the things we have done, but we should not continue to weigh ourselves down with guilt for sins that God has forgiven.
Lent is a time for repentance, and repentance is the beginning of conversion. When we release our attachments to the failings of our past, we can deepen our relationship with Christ. Encountering Jesus and His forgiveness should cause us to desire to become closer to Him, not just in our minds, but in our hearts. In Ezekiel, God says “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”. If we truly open our hearts to God, He will forgive us, He will renew us, and He will abundantly bless us.
One attribute of a heart open to God is compassion. Jesus had compassion for the woman of the Gospel, and for all sinners. How much more then should we have compassion for those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in situations of poverty, famine, oppression, or exploitation? Mark Lalonde will be speaking at the end of Mass on behalf of Development and Peace, and I’m sure we all will respond to his appeal with generosity and compassion.
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March 11, 2007
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Third Sunday of Lent, Year C, March 11. 2007
This Lent, let us continue to repent and bear fruit, and in the words of our Holy Father in his Lenten message, “to come out of ourselves and open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father.”
The last three Sundays of Lent focus on conversion, and in today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us quite emphatically, “unless you repent, you will all perish” like the Galileans slaughtered by Pilate, and those unfortunate people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Yet this same God who invites us to repent has a “mad,” “passionate” love for us, and here in the tabernacle is his Heart, that “burning furnace of charity” on fire with love of us.
These candles around the tabernacle are meant to remind us of the burning bush from the First Reading. We always have at least one vigil light burning beside the tabernacle, as a sign of Christ’s real and abiding Presence among us. Here he is calling out to each one of us, as Yahweh called in the First Reading, “Moses! Moses!” (Exodus 3:4). He is calling out to us to repent and trust in our heavenly Father who, in the words of today’s response to the psalm is “kind and merciful.”
(10:30 Mass)
We have edifying examples of repentance in our midst. Not only those who have confessed their sins and received God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday evening, but our candidates and catechumens who will be joining the Church this Easter (and are celebrating the First Scrutiny at the 10:30 Mass).
I’m not saying that these people in our RCIA are worse sinners than the rest.
But I do believe that by deciding to join the Catholic Church, they are “turning aside” from a former way of life. As Moses said of the burning bush, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight” (Exodus 3:3). When the grace of God is operating invisibly in a person’s soul, drawing him or her to the truth of the Catholic faith, they often say to themselves, “I must turn aside and look more closely at the Catholic Church.” And we are very glad that they have come for instruction these past several months, and it appears that they want to stay!
The Church teaches that Baptism and Holy Communion are necessary but not sufficient for salvation. Listen to Paul’s warning from the Second Reading, “our ancestors . . . were baptized . . . in the cloud and in the sea; all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (a reference to Holy Communion) . . . Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of (them), and they were struck down in the wilderness” (1 Cor 10: ). Therefore, Baptism and Holy Communion are not sufficient in themselves for salvation.
That’s why Jesus tells us in the first half of today’s Gospel: “unless you repent you will all perish.” Then what does he tell us in the second half? . . . “For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”
Would Jesus ever say something similar to us? “Every Lent I come looking for fruit in your soul, and still I find none”?
God wants us (who are baptized and receive Holy Communion each week) to also produce good fruits as evidence of our repentance (Lk 3:8). I will only mention one fruit briefly in passing, because I want to focus on repentance in the root and trunk of the tree, in the depths of our souls, and refer to the Pope’s message for Lent 2007.
One kind of fruit is actually canned fruit. Yes. It was in our bulletin two weeks ago – a list of items need at the Food Bank, and one of them was canned fruit. Certainly this is one of the most significant fruits of repentance – giving life to others. If our Lenten penance includes giving up some food, then with the money we save we can help feed the hungry, whether it is an isolated senior in Embrun whose monthly cheque doesn’t cover all his/her expenses, or a malnourished child in the “Third World.”
In our Holy Father’s Lenten meditation, (dare I ask if anyone has read it from our website or directly from the Vatican website?) he does refer to spreading the love of Jesus around us with every word and deed. But he digs down to the root of repentance in this beautiful reflection on God’s “mad, passionate” love for us, this God who “begs for the love of his creature”!
Now ve know zat ze Holy Fater is German, and ze Germans, like the prim and proper English, are not known for their passion and romance. But the Pope has been living in Italy for so long, that maybe la romanza italiana has rubbed off on him. Perhaps because I’m going on pilgrimage to Italy in about 10 days, I have all these Italian songs and sayings in my head . . . you know that silly Italian pop song that they always play at Italian weddings . . . when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!
In trying to translate the essence of Benedict’s Lenten message into pop culture, it’s amore! Each one of us here, if we read this short, two-page message slowly, we would appreciate what the Pope is saying about God’s love for us, as we gaze on him whom we have pierced (Jn 19:37) (the theme of the reflection); as we gaze on Christ on the Cross, his Heart pierced by our sins, his Heart on fire with love for us in the “burning bush” of the tabernacle.
Our Pope explains that God’s love is both agape and eros (or “amore!”). Agape “indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other.” God’s love for us is agape, self-gift, because all that we have and are is divine gift. Eros “denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved.” This is what is so shocking – God’s love for us is also eros or “amore!”
The Pope writes, “On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us!” The same God who tells us to repent in the Gospel is the one who begs for our love, is thirsty for our love! Ah! How could we possibly be bored by such love? How could we have a cold, hardened, darkened heart and not respond to such love! Lord, I confess “mia colpa, mia colpa, mia grandissima colpa!” my great sin of indifference and ingratitude toward your love.
I’ll say a few words about the root of repentance according to the Holy Father in this document. He describes sin as a “turning in” upon ourselves. I think that’s what the barren fig tree in the Gospel did – instead of opening up its branches as wide as Christ’s arms on the Cross and bearing fruit in love for others, it turned in upon itself. We all do that in little ways each day. In sadness or self-pity, we turn in upon ourselves; in our pleasure seeking, our comfort food, our drinking to avoid thinking, we turn in upon ourselves; in our pride and self-concern, our anxieties and our lack of trust, we turn in upon ourselves.
Now listen to these inspired words of our Pope: “In the Lenten journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father” and to spread the love of Jesus around us “with every word and deed.”
Whenever we make an act of faith, “Father, thy will be done,” “Jesus, I trust in you,” we come out of ourselves. Whenever we decide to stop being in a bad mood, and to speak a kind word to our spouse, children or a friend, we come out of ourselves. Whenever we share our abundance of worldly goods with the poor, we come out of ourselves, and we open ourselves, in trustful abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father. That’s the ultimate goal of the repentance to which our Saviour invites us in today’s Gospel and in this Lenten season.
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March 4, 2007
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Second Sunday of Lent, Year C, March 4, 2007
It is the will of God to transfigure us through the sacraments, to gradually transform us through the regular and worthy reception of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, so that our bodies and souls will shine with dazzling white light in the glory of the Resurrection.
In the Transfiguration, Jesus revealed to his disciples his hidden divinity: “His face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white,” whiter than any bleach on earth could make them (Lk 9: 29, Mk 9:3), a transformation that foreshadows his Resurrection, and our own resurrection, our own future glory. We are destined for either the light of transfiguration and divinization in heaven, or the darkness of disfiguration and demonization in hell.
A long time ago in a parish in a galaxy far far away . . .there was a priest who was frustrated because so few people in his parish went to Reconciliation. So he decided he was going to put the fear of hell into them! Bring back the fire and brimstone preaching! (Have you heard this one before? I’m getting old and I can’t remember if I’ve told this one before or not). So one day he stood up at the pulpit and announced, “Everyone in this parish is going to hell!” And someone in the back pew started laughing. So the priest repeated himself in a more threatening manner, “Everyone in this parish is going to hell!” Again, laughter from the back pew. The priest was confused so he said, “You there in the back pew, didn’t you hear what I said?” A voice replied, “Father, I’m not from this parish.”
Trying to put the fear of hell into people doesn’t work, because for most people today, the darkness of hell is just a joke, and the light of heaven a pious mirage that has nothing to do with our daily life. We need to show people that heaven and hell are real and begin today, and life on earth can be a foretaste of heaven or a living hell, which becomes eternal the moment we die.
Two examples of a living hell are the dead man walking and the unforgiving heart. What I call the dead man walking is the lifelong liar who never admits that he did anything wrong, who never sinned – it’s never his fault. (There’s a little bit of him in each one of us).
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops comment on this self-deception in a recently published reflection on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which they urge pastors to continue to promote and develop this Sacrament in our parishes. They refer to the problem today of a “desensitized conscience” and a “loss of the sense of sin.” I quote, “we lose a sense of sin, for example, when we refuse to take the blame for the wrongs we have done . . . ‘We prefer to think of ourselves as ‘wounded’ – as victims of sin – rather than as sinners” (#20). It is true that we are wounded by the sins of others, but we also wound other people, the Church and the world through our sins!
The dead man walking, the lifelong liar, tries to make a liar out of God by saying, “my sins are not my fault – I am not free! God did not make me free!” But that’s a lie! God did create us free and we are responsible for our sins! Such a person is preparing for hell and cannot enter heaven, because God, who is Truth itself, will not tolerate someone calling him a liar, nor will he tolerate liars in his presence. As the Holy Spirit says in psalm 101 “no man who utters lies shall stand before my eyes” (101:7, Grail Translation).
Furthermore, the dead man walking, the lifelong liar, actually chooses the darkness of hell because he hates the dazzling white light of God’s truth. As John the Evangelist puts it, there are people who prefer darkness to light because their works are evil (Jn 3:19). Such people are like the demons that cry out to the light, “do not torment me.” They prefer their pride to their own souls. They could give up their pride and enter heaven by saying, “I confess that I have sinned. I have done wrong. I am responsible,” and they could be forgiven like the good thief who heard from Jesus, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Lk 23:43). “You will be transfigured! Your body and your soul will shine with beautiful, dazzling white light! But you must repent!”
Another example of a living hell is the unforgiving heart. Jesus himself warns us that when we refuse to forgive others, we are handing ourselves over to torture – we are torturing ourselves! (Mt 18:34). I am continually astonished by how many of our emotional, psychological and spiritual problems – even physical illness! – is caused by our lack of forgiveness! People who refuse to forgive their own parents for their failures and sins, little and great – 30, 40, or 50 years later!, who refuse to forgive their current or former spouse, who refuse to forgive . . . themselves. My brothers and sisters, we must forgive ourselves also. If God has forgiven us – which He always does in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we come before him with a humble and contrite heart, and a firm intention to change our lives – if God has forgiven us, then we must forgive ourselves!
We need Reconciliation! We need to forgive and be forgiven. We need to let go of the darkness within us – the night is far spent, the day draws near (Rom 13:12), so let us open the doors and windows of our hearts to the bright morning sunshine of God’s love and to the light of God’s truth, so that our bodies and souls can be healed and transfigured, to shine with dazzling white light, the beauty of God. (I need reconciliation too, and lately I’ve felt a greater need for God’s forgiveness, so I have been going to Confession more regularly)
I’m sorry I have to do this . . . (You’re wondering “is he going to extend his homily? Yes, but it’s worse than that.) I know we’re not supposed to “air people’s dirty laundry” in public. But I’m afraid it’s necessary to make a point. (Pick up dirty sock). Do you know what this is? It’s a filthy, dirty sock. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I won’t say who’s it is or how I obtained it.
“Honey, what happened to my socks?”
“Nothing, darling, I just decided I would do the laundry whenever you went to Confession!”
“What? Confession? I haven’t been for years! . . . Oh . . . “
What is more important, our socks . . . or our souls? You want your socks to be dazzling white, such as no bleach on earth could whiten them? (white sock up and down)Your socks, and not your soul?
How can a black soul become white again? How can a soul that is darkened, dirtied or stained by sin (dirty sock up and down) be transfigured, recover the innocence of our baptism and shine again with the beauty of God (white sock up and down)? St. John writes that the souls in heaven have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). For Christians here on earth, this happens through Baptism, Reconciliation and the Eucharist.
Sometimes a black soul can become instantly white. But usually, the difference between a filthy dirty soul (hold up dirty sock) and one that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb and bleached white (hold up clean sock) could represent 20 years of gradual change through perhaps 1000 holy Communions and 50 or more sincere Confessions with a firm intention of changing one’s life.
People are no longer driven to Confession out of fear of hell, but perhaps even we modern and so sophisticated Catholics might be inspired to come to Reconciliation to escape a living hell of our own making, and to experience a foretaste of heaven, as our bodies and souls are transfigured and shine with the beauty of God even in this life.
I said at the beginning that God wants to transfigure us through the Sacraments, to gradually transform us through the regular and worthy reception of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, for we do need continual purification from sin through regular Confession, and continual nourishment through the Body and Blood of Christ.
I have focussed on Reconciliation as an invitation to our Penance Service this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. So I have obviously run out of time to speak about the Eucharist, but you still have time to come to Adoration between 11:30 and 8:00 p.m. (Sunday/today), where, in the words of St. Paul, we can gaze with unveiled faces on the glory of the Lord, and be transfigured into the same image, from glory into glory (2 Cor 3:18).
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Homilies