LAST MONTH'S HOMILIES
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Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
June 27, 2010
In the Gospel, along the way to Jerusalem, Jesus meets three men who have His call in their hearts. They want to join His group and become His followers. These encounters teach us three tough lessons about what it means to follow Christ.
Today I would like to focus on just one of them. If you want to follow Christ, we have to expect difficulties.
(If you want to know the other two:
1. Following Christ means relocating the source of our security from ourselves to God, “foxes have holes and birds have nests…;”
2. Following Christ means actively taking risks, “letting the dead bury the dead” means leaving behind one’s plans and comfort zones in order to put all our eggs in Christ’s basket.)
It is popular now to focus only on the benefits of being a Christian: the sense of mission and purpose, the blessings God wants to give us, the forgiveness of heart and mind that comes from it, the strength God’s grace gives to live really good lives. These are the real benefits. They are not to be ignored. We should want them and be grateful for them. But they are not the whole story.
We live in a fallen world. When we declare ourselves to citizens of Christ’s Kingdom, in a sense, we lose our citizenship in this world. We become like aliens, refugees waiting to return home to Heaven, or as the Bible often says, pilgrims. This earth is no longer our home and the closer we get to Christ, the more we realize it, the more we notice and feel its imperfections and its sufferings. Christ lonely reached Easter Sunday by passing through Good Friday and Christians can expect nothing less.
This is the lesson Jesus teaches with His comment about setting our hands to the plow. Once we decide to follow Christ, there will be times when we will feel like turning back, because it will be hard work. But if we do turn back, we may lose our place in the Kingdom. He loves us too much to force us to continue. Jesus wants us to be clear about this. He gives no false promises.
The image of setting hands to the plow would have been very clear to those who listened. They lived close to the land and knew about farming. They would have known that plowing fields by hand was not easy.
The farmer hitched the plow to the oxen or cattle, or sometimes even to a donkey. As the animal made its way across the field, the farmer held the handles of the plow and pressed the blade into the ground cutting a furrow that would later be used for planting. To make the best use of the field, the furrows had to be straight. This meant keeping an eye out constantly to direct the stubborn animals. To make sure the seeds would grow, the furrows had to be deep. This meant keeping a firm and steady hand on the plow itself, for long periods of time, in spite of rocky soil that resisted. It was slow and exhausting work.
Many times the farmer would be tempted to take a rest or relax his grip. But the plowing season was short because the planting season was short. If the farmers didn’t keep their hands to the plow, the harvest would be small.
Following Christ is no different. Once we get into it, we discover how difficult it can be. And when difficulties and trials pop up, we are tempted to look back at the apparent ease and comfort of a self-centered life. But is we surrender to that temptation, we lose. Only Christ’s Kingdom lasts forever, only God can fill the deepest longings of our hearts. The hard work and faithfulness to God required pays for itself with eternal rewards.
Some of us may be in the midst of a trial or difficulty right now. To you, Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid. Trust in me and keep going. Keep your hands to the plow; the harvest will come.
All of us will face trials before long. So let’s be prepared. Learn the lesson that Jesus is teaching so that when following Christ gets tough, when the trials do come, we will keep our hands to the plow.
It is a sad fact that many of our brothers and sisters who are facing the hardest difficulties and trials are not here with us this weekend. Many of them have taken their hands off the plow. They have turned to look for their strength and comfort in the wrong places. Let’s not forget about them. Let’s remember them today, as we are given strength in God’s word and in the Eucharist. Surely, Jesus wants to be close to them as well. But they won’t pray; they won’t ask His help. We must pray for them.
And if in God’s care, we meet up with them this week, offer them your hand. Lend them support.
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
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The Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
June 20, 2010
Jesus is the Christ, the Lord, the Savior sent by God to redeem the world, the Son of God become human. That is what Saint Peter says in today’s Gospel and Jesus does not correct him. But that has not stopped people from coming up with ideas of their own such as He is a great philosopher, a good teacher, a misguided nut. The real identity of Jesus has fascinated people for 2000 years. And even for us who are committed Catholics, it is an important question.
But the important thing in today’s Gospel is not only the fact that the question is raised but how the question is presented. Jesus actually asks two questions, “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” It is not enough to have some general discussion, one that has no effect on us.
Sometimes earthly ruler are satisfied with a superficial allegiance, as long as they get our vote, they won’t invade our personal space. This is not like that. To be Christian in name only, a nominal or cultural Catholic is not enough. It is not enough to know what other people say about Jesus. Each of us has to answer for ourselves personally. We need to proclaim that He is Lord not only with our lips but with our lives. We need to say not only that Jesus is Lord but that He is OUR Lord, MY Lord, and that we willing to follow wherever He leads.
It is this personal allegiance to Jesus Christ, taking responsibility for our faith that opens the door to spiritual maturity and bring the wisdom, joy and interior peace that come with it.
One reason that the saints were able to live joyfully and energetically even in the face of terrible struggles, is that they learned this so well. The central principle of their lives is God’s personal, not generic, love for them. Everything else flows from that.
Saint Paul explained the motivation for everything in his life in his Letter to the Galatians, “He (Christ) loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 20:20). This is the source of his courage, confidence, perseverance and happiness. As he says in the Letter to the Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). And in the life of every saint it is the same story. Experiencing the reality of God’s personal, intimate love for them brings their life to a new level, giving them the power to overcome selfishness and become God’s faithful friends.
Saint Faustina Kowalska, the Polish sister who gave us the revelations about Divine Mercy described it wonderfully. One day she went to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel of the hospital where she was staying and the Lord allowed her to feel His love for her in a special way. Here is how she described it in her diary, remember that the heart of Jesus symbolizes His love:
“And all of a sudden, my soul was flooded with the light of the knowledge of God. Oh,
would that I could express even a little of what my soul experiences when resting near
the Heart of the incomprehensible Majesty?
“I cannot put it into words. Only a soul who has experienced such a grace at least once
in his life, will recognize it. When I returned to my room, it seemed to me that I was
coming from real life into death.
“When the doctor came to take my pulse, he was surprised: ‘Sisiter, what happened?
You have never had a pulse like this! I would like to know what has speeded it up so
much.’
“What could I tell him, when I myself did not know that my pulse was so rapid. I only
know that I am dying of yearning for God, but this I did not tell him, for how an
medicine help in this instance?” (Diary, #969-970)
There is no better way to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ m than daily prayer, and I want to say today, especially Christian meditation. This is not therapeutic or transcendental meditation. They are both forms of mental discipline but not real prayer. They focus on the self and not on God. Christian meditation involves mental discipline but it is really prayer with its focus on God.
It is different from vocal prayer which is speaking to God using words we learned. The Our Father and the Hail Mary are vocal prayer. They are like the skeleton of our spiritual life and we should pray them every day.
But mental prayer can go deeper. We can look to know and understand God better and if we speak, we use our own words, often from the quiet of our hearts. It is easy and we can all do it. The easiest way is to take a passage from the Bible and follow the three R’s: read, reflect, respond.
Read the passage slowly, remembering this is God’s word and God always has something to say to us. Then reflect on the passage: what does it tell you about Jesus? What does it mean for you and your hopes, your plans, your struggles?
Then you will naturally find that you want to respond, speaking to God from your heart, thanking Him, praising Him or maybe asking for guidance and strength.
It is that simple: Read, Reflect, Respond. And who knows what God has prepared when you give Him that time?
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
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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C
June 13, 2010
In all of the writings of Saint Paul, few passages are as famous as the one we just heard. Paul is making the distinction between works and faith.
Saint Paul says that salvation comes from “faith in Christ.” That’s what brings us into a right relationship with God. This view of salvation was quite different from what most people held at the time. They thought that salvation came through what Saint Paul calls “the works of law.” They thought that by perfectly following the law, the Ten Commandments and the thousands of specifications and rituals that came from them, you could get into a right relationship with God. That was the mainstream view and Paul was preaching against it.
The Christians in Galatia received Paul’s message but when he moved one some Jewish Christians started to go back to the old ways. When he heard about that, he wrote the letter in which he crushes the old, law-centered view of salvation. He writes, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.”
We need to hear this just as much as the people in Galatia. We are still vulnerable to the old temptation that trapped Adam and Eve; the temptation of trying to achieve fullness of life and happiness through our own efforts. We are easily convinced that arranging our lives with just the right combination of religion, popularity, money and position, we will create our own heaven on earth. But that’s a lie.
As Saint Paul says, “If justification comes through the law,” in other words, if happiness and peace can come through our own efforts, “then Christ died for nothing.” Happiness, peace and life are in Christ alone, in union and friendship with Him.
Once again, I found a simple story to show this.
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor came from the kitchen with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups, porcelain, plastic, crystal, some plain and some expensive looking. He put them all on the table and told everyone to help themselves. When they all had a cup of coffee, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken first, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. Why is that? The cup itself adds nothing to the coffee. What all of you really wanted was the coffee, not the cup, but you went for the best cups…” Then they started looking at each other’s cups. “Do you think this can tell you something about your problems and stress?”
It is a simple story. It may not have even happened. But it demonstrates Saint Paul’s point. With our own efforts in life, all we can do is make cups. Jobs, money, prestige, popularity, appearances, these are all just the cup, just the outside, jus the container of life. But no real cup, no matter how beautiful can satisfy our thirst. The coffee cup is useless without the coffee. Just so, all our efforts and achievements in life are meaningless unless they are filled by a relationship with Christ.
Now, does this mean we should make no effort in life at all? That we should believe in Jesus and stop there? Not in the least.
Saint Paul says, “I died to the law, that I might live for God.” In other words, he has given up trying to achieve perfection and happiness by his own strength and instead he is seeking happiness in a relationship with God. And relationships are a lot of work. A relationship is not like a math problem that you figure out once and then it’s done. It’s a journey, an adventure.
The work of a Christian, then, is the tough job of following Christ. Again, as Saint Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, not longer I, but Christ lives in me.” Daily we are given chance to live that:
We can speak the truth even when it’s unpopular.
We can make time for prayer no matter what.
We can fulfill our responsibilities even when we are exhausted.
We can forgive even when we feel like taking revenge.
We can be faithful in the storm and say no to dishonest shortcuts.
We can befriend the friendless and defend the defenseless.
These are real Christian works, fruitful ones done out of love for Christ.
Let us ask that Christ strengthen us this week so we can know the joy of living in Him.
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
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