November 9, 2008
Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. You may wonder why the Church sets aside the usual Sunday in Ordinary Time to celebrate a church in Rome.
It dates back to the time of the emperor Constantine. On November 9 in the year 324, Pope Sylvester consecrated the first public Christian church in Rome and it was called the Church of the Savior. In the 11th century its name was changed to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and it continues today to be the cathedral for the Bishop of Rome who we know better as the Pope.
But it is much more than an old building with historic and sentimental value. It is the mother of all church buildings. And it stands as a physical sign of the promise of Christ that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, so since Christ is indestructible, so is the Church.
I joked last weekend that you could find anything you wanted to buy in the narthex after Mass. Every time we sell things, the Gospel about money changers in the temple somehow comes to mind. But the point was not about buying and selling but the effect on true worship and cheating.
The scene was Passover and Jews from all over came to the Temple to remember God’s salvation. The Temple was alive with visitors and the money changers were right there waiting to charge the Temple tax on every person over nineteen. And the sellers were there to offer unblemished oxen, sheep and doves for the sacrifices. And the Temple prices were sometimes twice what the same lamb would cost from a local shepherd.
Into this mix comes Jesus. Each of the four Gospels tells about His prophetic outburst driving home the point that God cannot be used and places of worship ought not to exploit the poor and humble. Turning over the money changers’ tables was the beginning of something new. It was a sign that God could not be contained in a stone building built by human beings. The Temple, even though it was built to help people’s relationship with God, was limited. Then there is the quote from Jesus: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He invites them, and us, to stop thinking literally about a temple to hold the presence of God and see that He is the temple of God’s presence and all who are joined to Him hold the presence of God.
The anger of Jesus is worth considering. Some of us have never gotten comfortable with anger while others are much too used to it since it is a constant companion. Anger gets a lot of attention in psychology, theology and sociology. And it should since anger can block the soul from the joy of relationships. Anger that blocks, hides, attacks or takes revenge is always destructive and needs to be tamed by practice and tempered with forgiveness.
But here we see another kind of anger, prophetic anger. It pays attention to human suffering and injustice. It sees when governments or institutions take away freedoms or pay no attention to the poor. It recognizes that often the dominant culture, what is accepted, is wrong and needs change. It is prophetic anger that is at the root of peace movements, that moves for racial equality, lobbies for the poor, defends the rights of the innocent such as those before birth and the handicapped and the sick and elderly near the end of life. Society and the Church need temple purifiers, voices that cry out for those who cannot take care of themselves and people who turn over tables of injustice. They are the ones who are the whistle-blowers in large corporations, in governments, and even in churches when things are not as they should be. And, like Jesus, they announce something new, something different from the status quo and give a voice to those who have none. They announce a better world. And we need to remember that the new world cannot come without the end of the old.
So who are these people who speak for God, sometimes motivated by prophetic anger? Listen, again, to Saint Paul, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We are those who are to speak for those with no voice to speak for themselves. In the power of the Spirit, we are the ones who need to be angry over injustice and oppression. We must be the water that flows from the temple making fresh all it touches. We flow out of here, strengthened by Christ, to purify and make things new according to the will of God. We are those people, the disciples of Christ, His Body.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day)
November 2, 2008
On November 2 of each year, the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, better known as “All Souls’ Day.” On this day we remember our departed loved ones and offer prayers for them.
Anyone who has lost someone very close knows that the grief is a lifelong process. Just when we think we have turned a corner toward healing, something comes our way that seems to bring us right back to the beginning. Learning to live our lives without the physical presence of the ones we love is difficult. We may even find ourselves wondering if it will ever get better or whether we will ever find peace again.
All those of us who are beyond a certain age know what it is to have a broken heart and to long for healing and some reassurance from God that everything will be all right and those we love are OK. In the midst of the pain, it is difficult to discover this comfort and doubt and fear can lead us in the opposite direction. Let the words from the Book of Wisdom echo in our minds, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them…But they are in peace.”
In the First Letter of John we read that God is love. This deep insight has the power to change the way we look at our life and our death. Our ability to love comes from God. It is not something we conjure up ourselves. Think for a moment of all those you remember today, those you pray for, maybe your grandparents, your parents, a brother, a sister, a loved friend or teacher. The love that you have for them is real today. It is not just a memory of the past or of times long gone. It is true and it continues.
Without love we would be shallow and empty. Life would have no purpose and no meaning. Most importantly, love is eternal and has no limits of time or place. Love connects one real person to another. The love you have for those you remember today is real because they are real. They are not just past memories or something we hold in our hearts. The only difference is where they can be found.
The process of grieving is learning how to relate to those we love in a different way. It is not about learning to live without them but learning to live with them in a different way.
The biggest decision we have to make in dealing with death is in regard to faith. Either we believe in God’s promises or we do not. Most of the difficulty we have with death and grieving is due to a war we wage between doubt and faith. Once we embrace faith and stop the battle with doubt we can begin to accept God’s vision of death. Then our loss can be changed into a longing for the day or reunion. And that longing can become a longing for God in whom our souls alone will find rest. Then we know we can go on living and that it is all right to laugh and find joy and that does not decrease our love for those already gone.
Faith allows us to see that God causes our salvation, not our death. We must not fall into the trap of linking tragedies and untimely deaths with God’s will. Those things are better placed with human error, imperfections or sin. God does not take lives to gain “angels” in Heaven or take people from this life for some unknown “heavenly purpose.” Those kinds of ideas do not help to bring us nearer to God.
This day also reminds us that our love should compel us to pray for those who have died. Why pray for them? Because at the moment of death, none of us is fully prepared to receive God’s promises and needs to be purified. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC #1030-1031).
This day gives us the opportunity to connect with those we love, and even with those who might be forgotten. As we celebrate the Eucharist, let us remember that this holy sacrifice opens the door to Heaven for us here on earth and brings us to the eternal, that place where God and all those who have gone before us now live.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
October 26, 2008
You often hear the call to post all sorts of biblical quotes, like the Ten Commandments, in public. Isn’t it strange that the call is never made to display what we find in today’s readings: “You shall love the Lord your God….and your neighbor as yourself” from Matthew or “You shall not molest or oppress an alien…you shall not wrong any widow or orphan…you shall not act like an extortioner…by demanding interest” from Exodus.
In the Gospel for today, Jesus packs all the wisdom of the world into two short commandments. Jesus, the Son of God, is giving us the meaning of life, the way to fulfillment and the secret of happiness. But it is likely that we have heard it so often that we have to make a special effort to squeeze the juice out of it.
The key word, of course, is love. But usually we associate this word with some pleasant feelings, intense and delightful emotions. But the word that Jesus uses means something much deeper. It is the word “agape,” and it refers to the love that means desiring union with what is loved. If we love a person, it means we love spending time with them, getting to know them, sharing experiences of life with them.
But using the word agape isn’t quite enough. Jesus wants to make completely sure we understand. So He explains how love applies to our two key relationships: with God and with other people.
We must love God with all our heart, mind and soul. We must desire what God desires; this is the heart. We must value and understand all things the way God does; this is the mind. And we must actively live according to those desires and that understanding, choosing what God would choose in our place; this is the soul. Then, we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves, treating them as we would want them to treat us regardless of how we feel. This is Christian love: not some passing, self-indulgent emotion, but a way of living that requires the courage to put God first, others second and self third.
Learning to love like this, like Christ, is a life-long project. It is the primary adventure of the Christian life. It starts and continues with God’s grace but also requires our cooperation. And one of the reasons that we have not made more progress has to do with a wrong idea we may have. If we correct this idea, Christian love will have much more room to grow and fill our lives with meaning and lasting joy. What is this wrong idea? We tend to think that loving God and loving our neighbor are two separate things. As if we love God with one spiritual muscle, which gets exercised when we pray and worship, and that we use a different spiritual muscle to love our neighbor. But that is not true.
The Pharisee asked Jesus for the single most important commandment, and Jesus answered with two commandments. He was saying that they are really the same thing. There is only one muscle that we use to love God and neighbor, the heart. That is why it is impossible for us to treat our neighbor that includes family members, friends, classmates, the way we should unless we have a life of prayer. Christian love for our neighbor requires seeing them the way God sees them, but we can only do that if our mind and heart are full of God’s perspective and that happens in prayer. That is why the Catechism can say that “we live as we pray.”
Along with prayer, we need to work. The first thing we need to do is tell God that we sincerely want to follow His commandments. This is how we love God by wanting what He wants. At Mass is the perfect time to renew that commitment. Then, after having decided to love as God does, we need to be sure there is nothing blocking God’s grace because without the help of His grace we can make no progress. So the second step to loving like Christ is a good confession to be sure no sins stand in the way.
Then we are ready for the real work and it starts by treating the people closest to us with sincere respect. We need to start with our family, our coworkers, friends, our classmates. It is easy to put on the appearance of loving like Christ with people we don’t deal with all the time. But we are not interested in keeping up appearances but in true Christian love. And that is the only path to life.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church
October 12, 2008
“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?”
“Do you know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
We are the temple of God, God’s building, God’s Church. And it is the mission of God’s Church, of the members of the Church, to announce God’s love and mercy. In order to announce God’s love and mercy, we have to first realize in the depths of our hearts that God loves us. I need to be able to say deep within myself with conviction, “GOD LOVES ME.” This message of love and mercy is the only thing of value that we have to give to others and to our world.
Consider how desperately that message of being loved is needed, perhaps especially in the midst of the financial crisis engulfing the world. In California an unemployed accountant killed his wife, his three children, his mother-in-law and himself apparently in despair. There are people living entirely without hope for all sorts of reasons. And, we, who have been given the gift of hope, have the mission to spread it.
We spread the hope that comes from faith in God’s love and mercy by first moving to Jesus and then moving from Jesus. We move to Jesus in the Eucharist, in knowing God’s generous mercy in Confession and in our private prayer. Then we move from Jesus out to those who need to know the good news and the hope that the Gospel brings.
Our moving to Jesus, our hearts touching His heart, in the Eucharist, the sacraments and prayer should lead us to “Be not afraid.” It should strengthen in us trust in God. But first we acknowledge what it is that we fear. What causes us to keep our faith to ourselves making it a private and personal matter while we are surrounded by people who so desperately need the message of hope?
I want to suggest that Saint Paul can help us.
On the road to Damascus, Saint Paul had some extraordinary experience which is usually called his conversion. It was the decisive moment in Paul’s life. There a complete turnabout took place, a total change of perspective. After that, everything that he had considered important was now “loss” and “rubbish.”
You probably know some of the details of Paul’s experience such as light from the sky, his fall to the ground, the voice that called, his blindness, the curing of that blindness and his fasting. But all the details point to the heart of the event: The Risen Christ appeared as a splendid light and spoke to Saul transforming his thinking and his very self.
In the early Church, Baptism was called “Illumination” because this sacrament gives light. It allows us to really see. Paul was not transformed by changing his thinking but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen Christ. And this did not happen at end of his own reflection but of an intense event, an encounter with Christ. This is the fundamental point: The Risen Christ spoke with Paul, made him an apostle and gave him a mission to preach the Gospel to the pagans. But at the same time, Paul learned that even though he had met the Risen Christ, he had to enter the community of the Church, be baptized and live in unity with the other apostles. Only in this communion can he be a true apostle. This whole change came, not from within Paul but from outside, from an encounter with the Risen Christ. This enlarged his heart and opened it up. He did not lose anything that was good and true in his life.
Now let’s consider our own situation. What does this mean for us? It means that also for us, being Christian is not a new philosophy or a new morality. We are Christians ONLY if we encounter Christ. Of course He does not have to show Himself in the same amazing and irresistible way as He did to Paul. We can encounter Christ in the reading of the Word of God, in prayer and in the sacraments of the Church. We can touch the heart of Christ and feel Him touch ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this encounter, do we really become Christians.
Pray to the Lord that He will enlighten us, that He will grant us the encounter with His presence and give us a lively faith, an open heart and the love that is necessary to share the Gospel.
That is what it means to be the temple, the Church of God and to recognize that the Spirit of God lives in us.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may be otherwise published or copied. It is for personal use only. Much of the material in today’s homily comes from the Catecheses of Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Paul.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time A
October 5, 2008
A PASTORAL LETTER FROM BISHOP MARTINO
Respect Life Sunday
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
The American Catholic bishops initiated Respect Life Sunday in 1972, the year before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States. Since that time, Catholics across the country observe the month of October with devotions and pro-life activities in order to advance the culture of life. This October, our efforts have more significance than ever. Never have we seen such abusive criticism directed toward those who believe that life begins at conception and ends at natural death.
As Catholics, we should not be surprised by these developments. Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI predicted that widespread use of artificial contraceptives would lead to increased marital infidelity, lessened regard for women, and a general lowering of moral standards especially among the young. Forty years later, social scientists, not necessarily Catholics, attest to the accuracy of his predictions. As if following some bizarre script, the sexual revolution has produced widespread marital breakdown, weakened family ties, legalized abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography, same-sex unions, euthanasia, destruction of human embryos for research purposes and a host of other ills.
It is impossible for me to answer all of the objections to the Church’s teaching on life that we hear every day in the media. Nevertheless, let me address a few. To begin, laws that protect abortion constitute injustice of the worst kind. They rest on several false claims including that there is no certainty regarding when life begins, that there is no certainty about when a fetus becomes a person, and that some human beings may be killed to advance the interests or convenience of others. With regard to the first, reason and science have answered the question. The life of a human being begins at conception. The Church has long taught this simple truth, and science confirms it. Biologists can now show you the delicate and beautiful development of the human embryo in its first days of existence. This is simply a fact that reasonable people accept. Regarding the second, the embryo and the fetus have the potential to do all that an adult person does. Finally, the claim that the human fetus may be sacrificed to the interests or convenience of his mother or someone else is grievously wrong. All three claims have the same result: the weakest and most vulnerable are denied, because of their age, the most basic protection that we demand for ourselves. This is discrimination at its worst, and no person of conscience should support it.
Another argument goes like this: “As wrong as abortion is, I don't think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide – the gravest injustice a society can tolerate – in the name of “social justice.”
Even the Church’s just war theory has moral force because it is grounded in the principle that innocent human life must be protected and defended. Now, a person may, in good faith, misapply just war criteria leading him to mistakenly believe that an unjust war is just, but he or she still knows that innocent human life may not be harmed on purpose. A person who supports permissive abortion laws, however, rejects the truth that innocent human life may never be destroyed. This profound moral failure runs deeper and is more corrupting of the individual, and of the society, than any error in applying just war criteria to particular cases.
Furthermore, National Right to Life reports that 48.5 million abortions have been performed since 1973. One would be too many. No war, no natural disaster, no illness or disability has claimed so great a price.
In saying these things in an election year, I am in very good company. My predecessor, Bishop Timlin, writing his pastoral letter on Respect Life Sunday 2000, stated the case eloquently:
Abortion is the issue this year and every year in every campaign. Catholics may not turn away from the moral challenge that abortion poses for those who seek to obey God’s commands. They are wrong when they assert that abortion does not concern them, or that it is only one of a multitude of issues of equal importance. No, the taking of innocent human life is so heinous, so horribly evil, and so absolutely opposite to the law of Almighty God that abortion must take precedence over every other issue. I repeat. It is the single most important issue confronting not only Catholics, but the entire electorate.
My fellow bishops, writing ten years ago, explained why some evils – abortion and euthanasia in particular – take precedence over other forms of violence and abuse.
The failure to protect life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’ – the living house of God – then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation [emphasis in the original]. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right – the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, 23.
While the Church assists the State in the promotion of a just society, its primary concern is to assist men and women in achieving salvation. For this reason, it is incumbent upon bishops to correct Catholics who are in error regarding these matters. Furthermore, public officials who are Catholic and who persist in public support for abortion and other intrinsic evils should not partake in or be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Communion. As I have said before, I will be vigilant on this subject.
It is the Church’s role now to be a prophet in our own country, reminding all citizens of what our founders meant when they said that “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Church’s teaching that all life from conception to natural death should be protected by law is founded on religious belief to be sure, but it is also a profoundly American principle founded on reason. Whenever a society asks its citizens to violate its own foundational principles – as well as their moral consciences – citizens have a right, indeed an obligation, to refuse.
In 1941, Bishop Gustave von Galen gave a homily condemning Nazi officials for murdering mentally ill people in his diocese of Muenster, Germany. The bishop said:
“Thou shalt not kill!” God wrote this commandment in the conscience of man long before any penal code laid down the penalty for murder, long before there was any prosecutor or any court to investigate and avenge a murder. Cain, who killed his brother Abel, was a murderer long before there were any states or any courts or law. And he confessed his deed, driven by his accusing conscience: “My punishment is greater than I can bear. . . and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me the murderer shall slay me” (Genesis 4:13-14)”
Should he have opposed the war and remained silent about the murder of the mentally ill? No person of conscience can fail to understand why Bishop von Galen spoke as he did.
My dear friends, I beg you not to be misled by confusion and lies. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, does not ask us to follow him to Calvary only for us to be afraid of contradicting a few bystanders along the way. He does not ask us to take up his Cross only to have us leave it at the voting booth door. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said that “God is so humble that he uses us to spread his Word.” The gospel of life, which we have the privilege of proclaiming, resonates in the heart of every person – believer and non-believer – because it fulfills the heart’s most profound desire. Let us with one voice continue to speak the language of love and affirm the right of every human being to have the value of his or her life, from conception to natural death, respected to the highest degree.
October is traditionally the month of the Rosary. Let us pray the Rosary for the strength and fortitude to uphold the truths of our faith and the requirements of our law to all who deny them. And, let us ask Our Lady to bless our nation and the weakest among us.
May Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lord of Life, pray for us.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
September 28, 2008
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find Catholics who openly disagree with teachings of the Church. We probably all know people who say they are Catholic but don’t come to Mass on Sunday. And rather than just admit they sin, they claim it is not necessary to be a good Catholic.
In this election year, we are also aware of politicians who claim to be practicing Catholics who publicly support positions and laws that go directly against some of the most important moral teachings of the Church.
And, if we would be honest, we should recognize this tendency in our own lives. We present ourselves as practicing Catholics but we spend little or no time working a life of prayer. We spend hours learning to be good at our jobs but little in learning the faith. We hold on to hidden habits of selfishness and sin while criticizing others for their more visible faults.
If we think about it a little bit, we have to admit that this contradiction between what we believe and how we live is not a good thing.
It is like the second son in the parable. He impressed his father with the right words and a good show of obedience. But underneath it all, he was still living for himself and not for the greater good of his father.
When we settle into the contradiction, we should not expect to grow in our experience of Christ’s love and grace. And it is not wonder that we do not grow in wisdom, inner peace and the deep Christian joy we long for.
Faith, when it’s real, has an impact on every aspect of our lives. When it doesn’t, our spiritual growth is stunted.
Jesus told this parable near the end of His life, the week before the crucifixion. And He tells it for the leaders and scholars in order to break through their blindness. The one who will soon arrange for His death are those who serve in the Temple, study the Scriptures, preach to the crowds and rule God’s people. They claim to be following God’s commandments better than all others. Yet they do not recognize Jesus as God’s Chosen One.
Why are they unable to see the truth? Why do they, like the second son, say there are God’s followers but refuse to obey? This is an important question for us since we are here at Mass, the ones who at least appear to be following the Lord.
We are in danger of falling into the same blindness of thinking we are doing God’s will but actually not doing it. What happened to them can happen to us. And what is the cause? In a word, hypocrisy. The danger of keeping up the appearances of being good Catholics but compromising on the substance.
The surest way to banish any hypocrisy is to adopt as our personal motto the line from the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.” God’s will is dependable and true and when it is our highest priority, we will also be dependable and true.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary
Time A
September 7, 2008
There
is a story of a small rural church that was discussing the proposal that they
buy a chandelier for the church. The debate became heated. Finally, one of the
older members stood up and said: “I’m against it for three reasons. First, we
can’t afford it. Second, there is probably no one here who could play it.
Third, what we really need is more light in here!”
It is
the most natural thing in the world to think that when there is a conflict
between people the person at fault should make the first move by confessing and
asking forgiveness. When we have been offended, we tend to pull back, puff up,
turn silent and wait. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. One reason
it doesn’t always work is that the offending person may not even know that you
have been hurt.
Jesus
places the major responsibility for making peace on the one who has been
offended or sinned against. This is not because the offender not responsible
but because the wronged person is in a better position to act first. Jesus is
also concerned that reconciliation happen without unnecessary public exposure.
When we genuinely look for reconciliation, we must put aside all needs to
punish or embarrass. It is only when all private efforts have failed that
another person might become involved.
In the
Gospel Jesus is not speaking of all situations where there is conflict, though
it gives us a good outline to follow. Jesus is speaking of conflicts with the
Church, with the parish, among us who worship together. And He gives a model
for discipline within the Church: the motive, the spirit and basic procedure.
There
are four steps to be taken for reconciliation. First, ideally reconciliation
should be tried only by those immediately involved. That may be only two
people. The motive is always simply to make peace. Second, if this fails, a
second effort may be made with one or two other people. Third, only if the
first two have not worked, the offender should be called before the “church.”
The same motive rules the church: To make peace and draw the person back. Fourth,
if the offender refuses to listen to the church, then it is not so much that
the person is excluded from the community as they have excluded themselves.
Jesus says to “let such a one be treated as a Gentile or a tax collector.” But
remember that Jesus was always nothing but kind to them.
These
four steps are much superior to some choices people often make. The first is to
ignore the problems and allow them to fester into irreconcilable differences.
The second is to turn to the civil courts to sue a fellow church member without
trying to make peace first.
Conflict
is not wrong. It is inevitable. No healthy human relationship is without
conflict. The good marriage is not one free of conflict but one where conflict
is managed with some success. The same is true of any church or parish.
Finally,
communion, unity in the church is not the absence of conflict but the triumph
of Christ and of Christian love over our differences.
Saint Patrick’s Church
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary
Time A
August 31, 2008
The
perspective of “this age” always gets it wrong: the crowds mock Jeremiah and
Peter has to be brought up short. The way we frame our life, not only our life
of faith, but our everyday life, will affect our view. To take God’s rule
seriously means to question the commonly accepted wisdom and probably makes us
uncomfortable at least sometimes. Are you ready?
In
Stephen King’s novel, Needful Things,
the people of Castle Rock will do just about anything to get valuable objects
in a store called “Needful Things.” When they enter the store, they see things
they immediately think they cannot live without, anything from baseball cards
to magical objects that cure disease. They don’t even have to spend money to
buy them; they only have to perform strange little favors for the owner, Mr.
Gaunt. Soon these favors have thrown the whole town into turmoil and the people
begin to realize the things they thought were necessary to be happy were
nothing special at all and actually bring heartache and trouble.
It
would be easy to pass this off as only in a work of fiction if we didn’t also
have such desires. On a shopping trip to a used car lot, the young woman says
to her father, “I cannot live without that Mustang.” The man tells his wife
that his life will not be complete unless he has the flat-panel wall sized TV
in time for the Super Bowl. The woman announces to her friends that she would
give her right arm to see Jon Bon Jovi in concert. Over and over we say to one
another, “I’ve got to have this!” “I’ll die without that!” “I’d give my life
for that!”
All of
these things we call necessary for our lives. And once we have them, we refuse
to admit that they added very little, maybe nothing, to the quality of our
lives. We just move on to the next thing we need to have for happiness or to be
fulfilled. On the other hand, Jesus in the Gospel is quite clear about what is
necessary for Him, for His disciples, for us. And what He claims to be
necessary is more than a bit unsettling.
The
Gospel follows last week where Peter identifies Jesus as “The Christ, the Son
of the living God.” He was right but he was also wrong because he didn’t
understand what was necessary for Jesus to be the chosen One of God.
Jesus
knew what was necessary, “he must go to
Peter
cannot accept such a necessity. “Say it isn’t so,” he cries. Jesus can accept
the version of life that Peter wants for Him but He turns away from it and
turns toward the necessary thing, the one thing that brings the rule of God
into the world. This is what Jesus asks us to set our minds on and not on the
human things of desire and glory, possession and ownership and anything else we
think we need but really don’t.
In
turning, Jesus invites us to turn with Him. As He move along toward the cross,
He looks over His shoulder, straight into our eyes, and says, “If any want to
become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me.” This cross-carrying thing becomes the necessary thing for us too.
It is a choice. We can choose it or we can choose all the other things we think
we need. More, we can choose that cross all the time. You won’t die if you
don’t have that pair of shoes, but you will be less if you don’t stop and
listen to your child. Your life will not be less if you miss that game, but it
will be more if you give some of your time or your money to your church.
Finally,
the sacrifice is not God’s final word. What “is necessary” also applies to the
resurrection. “It is necessary for me to be raised on the third day.” And that
is given to us as well, “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Willingly giving up all the small things we think we need, offering up what is
not essential, will bring us the one thing we need most- life –life lived well
here and now and life lived well in the presence of God forever.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Holy
Family A December 30, 2007
The Sunday after Christmas is always dedicated to the
Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Before we get to that though we have to
face two problems:
First, we all have assumptions about families and there
is much national discussion about “family values.” Some of this is sincere and
some is not. So we have to be careful in trying to find in the Scripture what
we want to be true. It is always a serious mistake to read our own ideas into
the Bible and it is often done.
The second problem is we might seriously wonder of a
family made up of a mother who conceived her child as a virgin, a child who is
called “Son of God,” and a father who is not the biological father, can in any
sense be offered to us as a model. Besides, none of
our families has ever had the privilege of making decisions according to direct
instructions of an angel.
But the Gospel does not offer them as a sociological
model of the perfect family but as a model of how to live a life of faith as a
family, and in terms of faith, it hard to find better than these three. Mary
believed what was told her from God; Jesus was totally obedient to the will of
His Father; and Joseph, from whom we do not have one spoken word, journeyed in
silence and in total trust in God.
If one thing needs to be highlighted, it is this: the
family life that Joseph and Mary chose to live with Jesus was filled with many
tensions and much that was unexpected. No parents raising children, the Holy
Family included, are free from struggle and pain. But in all of this, the way
to having a successful family is to maintain trust and faith in God.
Times have changed drastically since the days of Holy
Family, first in
Parents would do well to examine themselves on this. Back
in October at the
We can draw some lessons from the Holy Family.
First, this was a family, as I already said, that trusted
completely in the will of God. They were ready to do whatever God wanted of
them. Their hearts were open and they were unafraid.
Second, the Holy Family was one that lived an ordinary
kind of life. They were not rich. They enjoyed no privileges and had no special
influence. They were just Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the carpenter’s family, in
the small back water town of
The answer might be found in the letter of
It’s all that simple. And it is that difficult because it
is a challenge to live those virtues. No, you cannot force them on your family,
not on your spouse or your children. The only thing that is in your power is to
live them yourself.
Mother Mary, Father Joseph, pray
for our families. Jesus, grant grace to parents and children.
The material in this homily
has already been copyrighted and may not otherwise be published or copied. It
is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F.
Mullally
Saint Patrick’s
Church
CHRISTMAS 2007
The pumpkins were barely off the porches
before we began to see Christmas decorations, first in the stores and then on
homes. Whatever your taste in Christmas decorations, from some simple lights to
theme park size blow ups, we look forward to the twinkle, glisten and flash in
our neighborhoods. Both inspiring and overwhelming, the lights add a touch of
warmth to the long, dark, cold winter. Christmas lights glow differently in
colder climates. With snow on the ground and freezing temperatures, lights
reflecting off the snow, and even the ice, brighten the night.
But no matter where we live, all people
desire light in their lives. We require light outside but don’t we also need it
inside? We know about darkness outside and we certainly know enough about
darkness inside. So it’s light I will talk about, not darkness. What if each of
those strings of lights brightening up a window, a tree or a yard was also able
to light up the inside? Be a light to the soul? What if we spent as much time,
energy and money decorating the inside with beauty and color as we do lighting
up homes, windows and lawns making our Christmas spirit highly visible?
Light is one of the themes of Christmas.
Isaiah says, “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light…”
Christ is referred to as the “Light of the World.” And hear the words at the
beginning of the Gospel of
A man tells a story of a visit to
And then it came. Suddenly as the
rockets ignited and the power systems engaged, complete darkness became
complete daylight. They looked at the sky not believing what was happening. The
whole area glowed as bright as midday. So much energy and force and power was
released that nature itself was transformed from night into day.
Jesus is like that. The
light exploding into the darkness. The light that not
only changed the darkness of the outside world but the darkness within.
The eyes of the blind were opened to dazzling light and that light brought hope
and possibility. When the dark becomes light, everything is changed.
When Christmas is over and gone, we need
to keep the season of light in ourselves and make it last all year long. Jesus
is the source of the light so we could find it and see it and live by it. The
light of a night launch at the space center is nothing compared to the light
that Christ can bring to our lives.
As light brings brightens the dark
winter nights, so the light of Christ brings hope.
Darkness
is a lack of hope, and the lack of what hope brings with it, namely, confidence
in the future, vital drive, creativity, poetry and joy in living. Nothing can be done in the world without hope.
We need hope like we need oxygen to breathe. People marry in hope for the
future. Parents have children because of hope. We plan for the future in hope.
When someone is about to faint we say, "Give them something strong to help
them breathe." Something similar should be done for a person who is about
to let themselves go, to give up on life: "Give them a reason for
hope!" When hope is reborn in a person, everything looks different, even
if nothing in fact has changed. Hope is a force in itself. It literally works
miracles.
Next time you see some Christmas lights,
recognize a challenge and hear it,” Do I light up the world as much as a simple
string of Christmas lights? How bright and beautiful, warm and wonderful do I
make others feel by the light, the glow, the hope I bring to their lives?
No light is exactly the same as another:
some twinkle, some are steady, some flash, all are lights and needed to light
up the world so darkened by fear, jealousy, worry and violence. We need to help
each other engage this Light. This Light can warm us, help us and challenge us.
Jesus is that Light that allows us to see, not necessarily what we want to see
but what we have never seen before.
The Gospel has something essential to
offer our people in this moment of history: Hope with a capital "H,"
the virtue that has God himself as its author and guarantee. Earthly hopes --
home, employment, health, successful children, etc. -- even if they are
realized, will sooner or later delude us if there is not something deeper that
supports them and keeps them going. Consider what goes into the making of a
spider web. The spider web is a work of art. It is perfect in symmetry, elasticity,
functionality. The threads that stretch out horizontally on all sides make it
taut. But it is held upright in its center by a thread that comes down from
above, the thread that the spider had spun to lower itself down. If one of the
threads on the side breaks, then the spider repairs it. But if you break the
thread that comes from above down to the center, everything is destroyed. The
spider knows that there is nothing it can do and goes away. In our lives Hope
is the thread from above, that which sustains the whole plot of our lives.
On Christmas, hope I born like a light
in the darkness. Jesus is the Light. Jesus
brings hope. Light from within is never out of season.
The material in this
homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or
copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald
F. Mullally
Saint
Patrick’s Church
Fourth Sunday of Advent C
December 23, 2007
Not
yet. Even though you might have plenty yet to do, there is the impulse to begin
Christmas. But here the atmosphere is still one of promise and hope. I invite
you, and I hear the invitation myself, to step back for a few minutes for some
pre-Christmas reflection.
Crossroads
in life are difficult, especially if there are no road signs. That’s where we
find Joseph today. We have only seven verses in the Gospel, Those seven verses
cover hours, perhaps a few days, of a terrible agony for Joseph.
We are
familiar with our custom of dating, getting engaged and then marrying. In those
times the customs were different. The Gospel tells us that Mary was betrothed
to Joseph. That means a lot more than being engaged. In a sense, Mary and
Joseph were already married. That is why the Gospel calls Joseph “her husband.”
Marriage
in the Jewish tradition was made up of three steps. The first was before they
were betrothed. The bride price was agreed on and the groom would show that he
could support the bride. Then the bride’s family would agree to the contract.
Next was the betrothal when the couple would give their consent to the marriage
and promise themselves to each other. The groom would give the bride a token of
their promise, usually a ring. The contract was read to those who were present
and the couple was considered husband and wife with rights to property and
inheritance. And if necessary, in order to separate they needed to divorce. The
third step was the home-taking which took place months or even a year after.
This is
the crossroad where Joseph stands. Mary and he have been betrothed. She is his
wife, but they have not yet come to the home-taking. Now Mary is found to be
pregnant. What is he going to do?
Both
the Jewish and the Roman law pointed the way for Joseph. The laws required
couples to divorce if either party committed adultery. If Joseph took this
road, he could reclaim the bride price and even keep the dowry. He would save
his honor. But, if he divorced Mary, there was another law that demanded her
death. There would be public trial followed by a public stoning.
The
alternate path was to back out of the agreement and cancel everything quietly.
It would be the equivalent of abandoning her after being responsible for her
pregnancy. Joseph would be the shamed one.
Here at
the crossroads, Joseph prayed. He remembered the history of his people. There
were many before him who stood at crossroads. There were many times they
doubted that God was with them. When they were slaves in
“Do not
be afraid!” the angel said to Joseph in a dream These words allowed Joseph to
shake off what must have been a nightmare or worry about Mary, the coming
child, about the need to do the right thing as well as keep the law and the
curious away. The words are spoken countless times in Scripture. God told
Abraham to “fear not before making a covenant with him. Gabriel said the same
to Daniel when he was terrified by a vision. The angel said it to Zechariah
when he announced the birth of John the Baptist. Gabriel said it to Mary.
Angels said it to the shepherds. Jesus said it to His disciples when they
thought He was a ghost walking on the water.
Each
time the people had good reason to be afraid. And the same words are spoken to
us, “Fear not.” How does “Be not afraid” speak to the loss of a job? A diagnosis of cancer? A child addicted to drugs or alcohol?
How does it help us deal with the death of someone we love? The
effects of hatred, crime or violence? How about storms, floods, or
fires? The reason for the words is clear and simple: Believers should not live
in fear or allow it to dampen their spirits or drown their hopes because
through it all, within all and despite it all, God is with us.
“Be not
afraid” and Joseph’s agony is over. The darkness is lifted. He chose to believe
his dream when he could have dismissed it. God not only wanted the “Yes” from
Mary but waited for “Yes” from Joseph. Joseph obeyed and took now pregnant Mary
as his wife.
These
people in the Gospel give us tremendous examples for our lives. We stand at
crossroads, small and large. Though we may not have a visit from and angel, we
are invited to trust that God is with us. We may get a gentle nudge or hear a
quiet whisper in our hearts, “go this way”….”choose the right”….”forgive
first”….”stand up for what you believe.” We may even be asked for bigger
things, “Give your life to God.” At that moment we need to believe it is a
message from God and answer “Yes.” We need to obey.
Obedience
to God is the golden thread that is woven throughout the Christmas story. May
God grant that our hearts be open to recognize His message and willing to bow
in obedience to the path we are shown.
The material in this
homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or
copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Third Sunday of Advent C
December 16, 2007
The
Third Sunday of Advent is named after the opening word of the Entrance Antiphon
in Latin, “Gaudete.” It means “Rejoice.” On this Sunday called “Rejoice
Sunday,” I want to talk some about doubt and disillusionment.
John
the Baptist had strong convictions, probably from childhood. He believed that
he was born to fulfill a great mission. His training, the way he dressed, the
way he lived all showed this conviction.
John
takes great risks. He does not hesitate to correct the rich and the powerful in
public. He dares to speak in God’s name and claims to be preparing the way for One Who Is to Come. John insists that accepting his baptism
is necessary to show a change of heart. He is fearless in giving people precise
instructions about the reforms that each must make in order to please God. Even
the king does not escape his criticism and judgment. John is feared and admired
even by his political and religious enemies. He is like the prophets before
him, a pillar of iron with a face like flint.
Yet he
doubts. How does a man like John the Baptist come to a time in his life where
things are no so certain? John had told his own disciples with no hesitation
that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one the world is waiting for. After
alienating and annoying every powerful person with his judgments, John goes to
prison waiting for his death. The idea of dying does not disturb him. But the
possibility of being wrong about the One Who Is to Come, that thought shakes
him to the core.
The
bottom line of John’s life is quite simple. He understands that he is the
witness, the one who goes before, the voice preparing the way. How he ends is
not important but his mission is essential. What if, in the end, he pointed to
the wrong one? To die after doing this one great thing is nothing. But to die
and NOT having done it is unbearable.
So John
sends the message to Jesus directly. How will I know for sure? “Are you the One
Who Is to Come or should we look for another?” Jesus does not scold John for
lacking faith or for being weak. Instead, He sends the most wonderful reply to
the man with the heart of a prophet. Jesus tells John that what Isaiah had
predicted in now. He assures John that trusting in Him will be a blessing.
We
never learn how John responds to the answer. We do know that he is executed
soon after but we do not know what comfort he got from this last message from
Jesus. John knew he must decrease; he disappears from the story entirely. But
the words of Jesus hang in the air for us: “Blessed is the one who takes no
offense at me.”
Does
that mean we must surrender all doubt to follow Jesus? I’m not sure that is
humanly possible. The apostles who walk behind Jesus were always mumbling and
questioning. At different times, they doubt the wisdom of Jesus and the meaning
of His words and actions. They doubt themselves and their role. Still, when the
getting out is good and many in the crowds do go away, Peter makes the best
case for continuing on the way: “Lord, to whom can we go?” Faith in Jesus does
not wipe out all doubt. But it does mean walking in His way EVEN without being
certain.
Part of
John’s problem was disillusionment. Jesus did not speak and act in the way that
John expected. Not only his doubt but his disillusionment is ours too. It is
the story of everyone who looks for a Lord who does not come or who comes in a
way we did not expect. But disillusionment, taken literally, means the loss of
illusion. Loss of the illusions we have about God, about the world or about
ourselves. Although often painful, it is never a bad thing to lose an illusion
that we have mistaken for the truth.
Disillusioned,
we discover that God does not conform to our expectations. We get a glimpse of
our place in the great plan. We review the job description given us by God and
are shocked to discover that God has a different one.
Did God
fail to come when you rubbed the lamp? Did God fail to punish my enemies? Does
God not make everything run smoothly? Over and over again, our disappointments
draw us deeper into the mystery of God. Every time God does not meet my
expectations, an illusion dies and I am invited to see God’s truth.
In the
second reading, James gives us the image of a farmer as the example of faithful
living. The farmer puts seed in the ground: small, insignificant and
unpromising. And while he is doing it, he has visions of waving grain,
beautiful vegetables and abundant fruit. The farmer trusts in the potential of
the seed and the soil. But he also has to trust in things entirely out of his
control, like the early and late rains. He looks at the sky every day, praying,
hoping, believing his work is not in vain. If the
farmer did not have faith, he would pack his bags and move to the city. If we
want to be disciples, we have to learn the patient surrender of the farmer to
God’s care.
The
answer to doubt and disillusionment is patience and trust.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not
otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
First Sunday of Advent A December 2, 2007
The
Advent season serves three purposes: preparing us for the coming season of
Christmas, reminding us of the continual coming of Jesus into our lives and
making us ready for the time of the final return of Jesus in glory. The first
Sunday tends to focus on the last, what is called the “Second Coming of
Christ.”
And
on this Sunday, all Christians who gather to worship will hear the call to
conversion from
A
Spanish poet once said that the entire Gospel message comes down to the
instruction, “Wake up!” Today’s Gospel, in which Jesus urges us to stay alert
for His coming, is a good example. The danger is that we might sleepwalk
through our entire life. We need to do all we can to wake up spiritually. And
Advent is a great season to make the effort to start.
Hikers
are familiar with the saying: The journey is the destination. You go on the
hike not simply to reach the top of the hill or the end of trail but to enjoy
the scenery all along the way. If the point of taking a hike or a walk was to
get from point A to point B, there are usually quicker ways to do it.
In
the same way, Advent becomes a trail we travel, not simply to make it to
Christmas, but for its own sake. Anticipation makes us alert and watchful. Just
remember a time when you were waiting for a loved one to come home after a long
absence. How many times did you straighten the rug, plump the pillows, check the food and look at the clock before the
door actually opened? You become alert to every sound on the street, the length
of each minute, the beating of your own heart. Waiting makes your senses sharp
and increases the longing. It also increases the delight at the end.
When
Jesus tells His disciples to stay awake, to be prepared, He is inviting us to
this kind of being alert. He is also welcoming us into a new awareness of life,
of what it means to be alive and what the gift of life is for. In a world of
instant gratification, too often we become dulled by having nothing to wait
for, maybe even nothing to live for. We just pass the time. Advent reminds us
that today is a part of the journey and that we are on the way to what is yet
to come.
This
season of waiting also brings the chance for personal growth. When we look at
life as a journey and not a comfortable couch, we become aware
that there is always somewhere more to go than where we happen to be.
We
can learn from who we are and what parts of ourselves needs attention if we sit
still, just a few moments each day, and listen to what is going on in our head,
our heart and our gut. Maybe we are tired, or in pain, or needy, or lonely, or
anxious, or angry. What’s causing these feelings and how can we deal with them
to become whole, not to mention HOLY.
We
can only throw off the old “works off darkness,” as Saint Paul calls them, when
we first admit them to ourselves: name and claim them and stop making excuses
for them or blaming them on somebody else. Before we “put on the Lord Jesus
Christ,” we need to take off the old clothes.
This
waiting season can bring us delight along the journey and allow for reflection,
repentance and change.
We
can clear some space in ourselves for a fresh perspective. We may find
ourselves climbing Isaiah’s mountain and beating old weapons into new tools.
Isaiah,
along with Saint Paul and the Gospel of Matthew set the tone for the season,
reminding us that this season of waiting requires more than being sentimental.
It’s not enough to hope for justice, we have to do things that bring justice.
It’s not enough to want peace, mutual animosities have to be surrendered
sometimes without the satisfaction of proving we are right. If real peace and
justice are ever to come, the seeds must be planted and tended in our hearts.
Do
you have any swords that need to be surrendered to ‘let there be peace?’ The
choice is ours, the season is now and, as they say, Christ is the reason.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted
and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary
Time C
November 4, 2007
Watergate
has become an unforgettable chapter in our history, remembered almost as well
as the assassination of President Kennedy. One of the controversies related to
Watergate continues to be the presidential pardon, the granting of amnesty by
President Ford to former President Nixon. The issues are complex and sensitive,
and good people can come out on either side.
I only
mention it because today we are dealing with how the Bible understands the
power of pardon and how Jesus exercised this power. Jesus once pardoned a
public official and there is something, maybe a lot, to be learned from His
example.
The
story of Zaccheus is well-known. Children can relate to the story because
Zaccheus was short and could not see in crowds. But Zaccheus had an adult size
problem.
In the
eyes of his own people, Zaccheus was a traitor to his religion and to his
country. He abused his power like a member of the Mafia, and he was dishonest
and untrustworthy. The unanimous verdict on his life was: Guilty!
We are
not told how he felt about his work. There are indications, however, that he
may have been privately disturbed about his dishonest life. He was probably
publicly insulted and ostracized. Why else would he have such an interest in
Jesus that would make him climb a tree to see Him?
Huckleberry
Finn said this conscience was bigger than all the rest of his insides put
together. Guilt can be one of the most destructive human emotions. Unexpressed
guilt is behind all sorts of self-destructive behavior and many diseases of the
mind and the body. The power of guilt also lies in its spiritual nature.
Unresolved guilt can keep us from finding joy in even the simplest human
relationships and certainly keep us from knowing a sense of peace with God.
Jesus
is on a mission to seek out and save what is lost. This makes him a strange
sort of rabbi. Among the religious of every generation and persuasion, there is
a tendency to value and honor those who play the game well. If you obey the
rules, show the proper piety, keep your hands clean and make the right kind of
friends, you will prosper. Religious institutions, at least in that sense,
operate the same way as any other system.
So
Jesus is not observing the proper rituals when He makes it His business to seek
and save what was lost. He is to be found in the company of prostitutes, tax
collectors and other assorted sinners. He touches the unclean and helps
Samaritans and non-Jews. He respects women and values children. In other words,
He is playing the game of religion backwards.
No
religious leader of the time would be trawling for a bottom-feeder like
Zaccheus. He was not simply a tax collector but the chief tax collector. That
meant he has ascended through the system, commanding the other tax collectors
and taking a fat commission from every one of them. He not only extorted funds
but led others into corruption.
Jesus
decides to stay with Zaccheus, which is a good choice because he probably had a
very nice house. No doubt Zaccheus had other powerful people stay there before
but the religious people would not have been among them.
What
does Jesus see in him? The chance to bring a living soul into the
The
people who had been cheated by Zaccheus could hardly believe what they heard. He
says, "Look, half my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I
have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Amazing.
Transformation is exactly what forgivenes