Preached this morning, Thanksgiving day, at St. Kateri parish, St. Margaret Mary site:

(Gospel Luke 17:11-19) -

            One of the few hopeful things that came out of the 9/11 attack eleven years ago was the fact that standing in the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center towers was a cross – a cross of steel girders, all that was left of two I-beams.  That cross was symbolic to millions that we as a nation would recover from that awful         day, a symbol that even in the midst of death and pain and destruction, God was present.  Fast forward eleven years to this past July.  A group calling themselves American Atheists filed a lawsuit to prevent this I-beam cross from being displayed in the 9/11 museum.  Never mind that this cross was found in the Ground Zero wreckage, they say.  No, they believe they are being injured by having a religious tradition not their own imposed upon them.

            And if you follow the news, you probably know that the City of Santa Monica, California decided this week to end a tradition that dates back to 1953 and will no longer allow a Nativity scene to be erected in the City’s Palisades Park there.  It seems that atheist groups applied for a large number of permits to put up their atheist displays in the same park, so the City Council decided not to allow any displays for the “holidays” this year.  Never mind that there is a needle exchange for drug users only one park over – they’ve averted real danger and gotten rid of the Christmas display!

            So Shhh!  Let’s nobody tell them about the real meaning of today’s celebration.  For truth be told, “Thanksgiving” is meaningless unless we acknowledge that there is someone to thank!  I’m not sure how atheists spend Thanksgiving, for I’m not sure to whom they’re thankful.  You see, inherent in the whole concept of giving thanks is that there’s a relationship – the person who is giving thanks and the One to whom thanks are given.  And of course, that person is God Almighty!  Creator of all that is good and giver of all good gifts.  Now this is not news to you – after all each of you has chosen to begin your celebration today in Church.  But I think this is largely lost in our increasingly secular society – that  we are in a relationship with the God who created the universe and each of our very lives!

            But Thanksgiving is more than just any relationship – it has to be a properly ordered relationship.  One in which I recognize how indebted I am to God, how unbalanced the relationship is, if you will.  Recognition that I neither deserve nor can adequately repay God for all that He has given me.  This relationship is different than a contract or a transaction, where I get something in exchange for something I give up.  The other night my wife sent me to Wegmans to buy some fruit and milk.  At the checkout counter I gave the cashier my money, I picked up my groceries and went on my way.  I politely told her “thanks” but really – what for?  It was an even-up exchange – milk and fruit for money.  In our relationship with God, where everything we have and everything we are comes from God, what do we have to offer?  There’s nothing really that we can offer to “compensate” God for what He’s done for us.

            And so the attitude that prevails in the properly ordered relationship with God is an attitude of humility.  Where I humbly recognize that God is God and I am not.  Recognize that God is the creator and I am but a creature.  I realize that God didn’t have to, but freely chose, to create me.  My parents may have wanted a baby, but they didn’t choose me, God did.  From all eternity.  And not only did God create me, but God loves me.  More than I can possibly fathom.  When that really hits us, often like a ton of bricks, how much God really loves us, we feel nothing but humility.  And thankfulness.  True gratitude.   This feeling of indebtedness, of utter gratitude.

            This is so different from the attitude of the secular world – an attitude of “I deserve this” or “I am entitled to that.”  It’s a realization that I didn’t deserve to be created and I don’t deserve to be loved by God (especially when I think of the ways I’ve failed to love Him).  And yet He did create me.  And He does love me!   That so humbles me.  And I feel profoundly thankful.

            In today’s Gospel, it must be that nine out of ten lepers somehow must have thought they deserved to be healed.  I mean, they had gotten a bum deal, an incurable disease, and were separated from society.  I guess I can understand how they might have thought “I didn’t deserve to get this disease and now I deserve to be healed.”  And I can relate to the nine lepers, I suppose.  In our own difficulties, in our own illnesses, in our grief and our losses, it’s easy to be resentful and think we deserve better.  Only one of the lepers recognized the free gift Jesus had given them, the undeserved gift, and came back to give Our Lord thanks and homage.   Only one recognized his profound indebtedness to the Lord and returned. 

            But here’s the funny thing about today’s celebration.  It occurs to me that if we have this proper relationship, and if we have an attitude of humility and gratitude, it’s sort of ludicrous to celebrate Thanksgiving for one day!  It’s almost like – let’s pick one day to give thanks so we can go about our lives the other 364!  No.  If our relationship with God is all about thankfulness, it is or should be, of course, a 365-day, 24/7 kind of thing.  To be thankful for one day only simply doesn’t make any sense.  We will soon pray “it is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father most holy.”

            But if you’re like me, you know you’re not always thankful, not always mindful of the gifts you have.  If you’re like me, you tend to take things, and people and relationships for granted.  So it does help to have this one day to remind us of all we have to be thankful for, all God has given to us, and of how much God loves us.  G.K. Chesterton wrote “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”  Isn’t that the truth.

            So as we now proceed to celebrate our Sacrament of Thankfulness, the Holy Eucharist, which means Thanksgiving, let us ask God for truly humble and thankful hearts.  That we may be mindful of God’s love for us and mindful of all that God has done for us, on this day, and every day.  Through His Son, Christ Our Lord. Amen.

 

Preached Sunday, November 11 at SKT at Christ the King  (Mark 12:38-44, 1st reading 1 Kings 17:10-16, 2nd reading Heb 9:24-28):

                I will sometimes lie down on the couch, or the floor, to watch TV at night, and often when I do, I will fall asleep.  Well not too long ago I had fallen asleep on the couch and woke up in the middle of the night and the TV was still on, and there was one of these late-night infomercials on.  They weren’t selling some gadget or exercise machine, no, their pitch went something like this – if you’re down on your luck and at the end of your rope financially, all you have to do is make a contribution to our TV ministry so we can spread the word of God.  I watched with interest for awhile, wondering what sort of contribution they were requesting.  And then they gave the number – if you want to gain God’s good favor and finally have some success financially, all you have to do is send us $1000.  If you don’t have that kind of cash, we gladly accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express.  I heard that and my jaw just dropped – I couldn’t believe it.  And I got mad.  I got incensed.  These people, going on television and taking advantage of people in their financial stress, all in the name of God and Jesus Christ.

                It’s that sort of thing, I think, that Jesus is talking about in the first part of this Gospel.  Beware of the scribes who wear long robes and say long prayers and then “devour the houses of widows” Beware of those who are taking advantage of those who are most vulnerable, the most destitute.  And make no mistake, a widow was the most vulnerable and destitute person in society in Jesus’ time.

                To fully understand these readings, we need to explore what it meant to be a widow in Jesus’ time.  It was a time in which women basically had no rights, including inheritance rights, and a time in which women did not, could not, work outside the home.  A woman depended completely on her husband for her sustenance.  And if a woman lost her husband, with no inheritance rights, she’d have to rely completely on the generosity of her family or community.  It’s a picture of complete dependence.  Complete reliance.  Of complete trust.

                So Jesus is teaching that if the scribes, or you or I for that matter, are to take advantage of someone in such a dependent, vulnerable state, a severe judgment will come upon us.  Indeed, we are called to the opposite – we are called to protect and defend the rights of the vulnerable – the poor, the elderly, the unborn, the underprivileged in our society.  We are called, in fact, to give them preferential treatment.  It’s known as the preferential option for the poor.  Pope Benedict has said “love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel.”

                But at the same time as He gives a warning to the scribes, Jesus shines a spotlight on the attitude, the faith, of this poor widow.  See this widow?  This woman who has almost nothing?  She just dropped her last two cents into the collection.  She gave all she had.  She’s gonna have to rely on God, on others’ generosity, for her next meal!  So not only does this woman live a life of complete dependence, of complete reliance, she has an attitude of complete reliance.  And that’s the attitude that Jesus is inviting you and me to take on in this Gospel.   An attitude of complete reliance.  Of complete trust.  Of complete surrender.

                Contrast that, if you will, with the attitudes that I think many of us have, certainly that I often have.  One is sort of an attitude of my rights, of entitlement if you will.  And that can show up in multiple ways.  One way is this:  I worked hard for that money so I’m entitled to do with it as I please.  I’m often guilty of this one.  I work long hours and sometimes have to sacrifice seeing my wife and kids, so whatever success I’ve achieved I’ve earned, I get to keep.

                There’s another attitude of entitlement and it goes like this.  The government has made all these promises to me about benefits I’m gonna get, and darn it, I’m gonna get what I’ve got coming to me!

                BOTH attitudes, it seems to me, if I really ponder Jesus’ words in my heart, are contrary to the message Our Lord has for us today. 

                For by putting the spotlight on this poor widow, Jesus is calling us, I think, to transcend these attitudes and take on an attitude of dependence, complete reliance, on God.  An attitude where we realize that everything we have, everything we are, is a complete gift from God.  Everything is God’s gift.  Including the work ethic and the smarts and the luck that helped me to succeed.  An attitude that says that there is nothing I have, or am, that didn’t come to me from God.

                When we realize that everything is gift, we start to trust God and completely rely on Him, and trust that He will continue to provide.  Provide maybe not necessarily what we want, but trust that God will always provide what we need.   And when we place our trust completely in God’s providence, we can’t help but to be thankful.  A humble, trusting heart simply has to be a grateful, thankful heart.   

                Third, like the woman in today’s Gospel, we become more and more generous.   We realize that we are stewards o f that which we’ve been given, and we freely give away, trusting that God will provide.  The widow in the Gospel had a few small coins.  She could have held one or two back, but she gave them all away.  The widow in our first reading had just a handful of flour and a little oil left, yet she freely gave it away.  You see, a trusting and thankful heart leads us to be completely generous with those gifts God has given us.  God has generously given to us so, trusting in Him, we give away, we give back.

                So as we prepare for our Sacrament of thankfulness, the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Christ’s goodness and generosity, let us pray that God will give us new hearts.  New hearts that are trusting hearts.  Thankful hearts.  Generous hearts.

                In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

* * * * * * *

                As a reminder, as we heard in the announcements, we have an opportunity next week to demonstrate our gratefulness and our generosity.  Our neighbors just 350 miles to the Southeast are suffering greatly in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  Thankful for our relatively mild weather here in Irondequoit, and hearing Christ’s commandment from last week’s Gospel that we love our neighbor, I urge you to be generous when the second collection is taken next week to assist with the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.  Thank you.

 

Homily preached this morning at Christ the King, 7:30 Mass (Deut 6:2-6, Heb 7:23-28, Mark 12:28b-34):

I don’t think there’s ever been a time when I’ve gone through the checkout line at Wegmans and I’ve glanced at the tabloids that I didn’t see in bold print some headline about this or that celebrity whose love is on the rocks or who are filing for divorce.  Indeed, when you hear about Hollywood marriages that last a long time, like Charleston Heston and Lydia Clarke who were married for 65 years, you open your eyes and are quite surprised, even astonished, because it’s so out of the ordinary.  When these Hollywood marriages split, you usually hear explanations like

“We just fell out of love”

“The Romance was gone”

Or

“I just didn’t feel in love anymore”

            I remember growing up thinking of love in terms of feeling.  I felt love for my dad and my mom. And sometimes for my brothers and sister.  I felt a feeling I thought was love at my first crush.  I met my wife and we became good friends, and eventually I “felt” in love with her, and can still remember the car ride in the mountains of North Carolina when I told her that for the first time.

            But I’m not sure I can tell you when I’ve ever felt love for God in the same way.  Or “felt” love for neighbor like that either.  Sure, I’ve always felt a measure of devotion to the Lord, and I’ve always felt a sense of responsibility for my neighbor, but did I feel love?  I’m not so sure.  Certainly not the same way I feel love for my wife and kids.

            This is important because today’s Gospel speaks of the two greatest commandments.  Not suggestions, mind you, but commandments!  Jesus quotes the Hebrew scriptures, indeed He quotes from Deuteronomy, our first reading, saying “Hear O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  He commands us to love God!  That always troubled me a bit, for what if I didn’t feel love for God?  And for most of my life, I can honestly confess I haven’t really felt love for God?

            Well it comes down, I think, to how you define love.  Our culture, our society, and even our upbringing, tend to define love in terms of a feeling.  But I think that misses the mark.  As we know, feelings come and feelings go.  The love we’re speaking of in the Gospel, and in Deuteronomy, is more than a feeling – it’s a decision.  The love Christ commands of us is not a feeling, its’ a decision.  An act of the will.  It’s done as much with the brain as with the heart.   It’s deciding to order our lives such that God comes first.  It means persisting in our daily prayer, even when we might not feel like it.  Even when God may feel far away.  Even when life has caused us pain and we might be angry with God.

            This love calls us to obey His commandments and those of His Church, even when we might not want to, even when it may be difficult, even when nobody else does.   And it means that when we’ve sinned, when we’ve betrayed our love of God, this love Jesus commands of us means that we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and beg the Lord for mercy, and the best place for that Is the confessional!

            There’s another word for this kind of love – and the word is faith.  For the faith that is asked of us is more than words.  It’s more than our making a profession weekly about what we believe.  It’s about how we prioritize our lives, about how we live our lives, about the place of Our Blessed Lord in our lives.

            But love of God is not the only love Jesus commands of us today.  He quotes the Hebrew scripture Leviticus when he says that we must love our neighbor as ourselves.  And this is the same sort of love – an act of will, a decision.  In fact, it logically follows from our decision to love God that we will want to make decisions to love our neighbor.  When our faith is alive and on fire, when we realize just how much God loves us, we cannot help but to love our neighbor.  Whether or not we feel any love for them, we cannot help but to love them, cannot help but to serve them.

            Theresa is a great example of what I’m talking about here.  This wonderful book, Come Be My Light, reveals over 30 years of Theresa’s private writings and it offers a keen insight into this amazing woman’s mind and soul.  She reveals that for much of her adult life, she experienced feelings of darkness, of dryness, of distance from God.  She would pray, participate in liturgy and receive the Eucharist every day, yet for most of those days she felt nothing at all.  She even wondered if God was dead, she felt so far away.  Yet she persevered.  She got up every day and continued on her mission to serve the poorest of the poor, opening missions in over 100 countries.  Despite feeling nothing at all, she continued to love God and neighbor, and her Missionaries of Charity are now active in 133 countries.

            We can do the same.  Indeed we are called to do the same, commanded to do the same.  Oh maybe not do the heroic works that Mother Theresa did, but to get up every day, pray, participate in Eucharist if we are able, and persevere in an active love of God and neighbor.   Not so that we may receive any reward, not so that we may receive any glory, but only so that by our lives and by our love we may glorify the Father of Jesus Christ who is Our Lord forever and ever.  Amen.

Preached November 1, Feast of All Saints:

“The goal of life is to be a Saint,” I told Christopher.  “Yes, the goal of life is to be a Saint.”

            Christopher and I were meeting last year at our kitchen table, talking about our Catholic Faith.  Chris is the Godson of Pam and me, and he had honored me a few months before by asking me to be his confirmation sponsor.  Here we were talking about our faith and the topic of sainthood, and saintliness, came up.

            “So what do you think it means to be a saint?” I asked him.

            “Um…To be good?” he replied.  “To be holy?”

            “Very good,” I said.  “To be good.  And to be holy.  What do you think it means to be holy,” I asked.

            “I dunno.”  Chris scratched his head.  “Maybe to be perfect.  To not sin?”

            Well when I was 13 years old that’s probably what I would have said too.  A saint is holy, and perfect, and without sin, or so I thought.

            “I don’t think so.  Mary is the only saint we believe was without sin.” I continued.

            “Here’s what I think,” I went on.  “I think holy means this – holy means to be different.”

            Chris looked puzzled.  “Whaddya mean?” he asked.

            “If you read the lives of the saints,” I told him, “one thing that stands out is that virtually every one was a sinner, some great sinners, but that each one repented of their sins to follow Jesus Christ.  Yes, every one, without exception, was very close to Jesus Christ, had great FAITH in Jesus Christ.   But the other thing that stands out is that every one was not afraid to be different.  To go against the crowd.  To not conform to the ways of the world around them.  To be a light in the darkness.”

            And I went on to talk about a couple saints’ lives – St. Peter and Blessed Mother Teresa, I think.  I explained how their faith gave them courage to step out of the lives they were leading and live lives that were radically different from the lives they were living before, and radically different from the world around them.  And how their faith and courage led them to perform heroic good works.

            It was a good discussion, especially for a 13-year-old in Junior High, a young man struggling with issues of conformity, “fitting it” with the crowd, being accepted by his peers.  I hoped to give him the idea that it was OK, in fact that our Faith demands, that we be a little bit different.

            This conversation came to mind as I was thinking about today’s Feast and preparing for today’s homily.  And it was a good reminder to me - I personally needed to be reminded of those words I told Chris – first of all that our life’s goal should be to be a Saint, and nothing else.  It’s so easy to let all the false gods and the enticements of the world lead us to forget that.  “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”  Jesus said.

             And also to be reminded that to be a Saint we must be holy, and ever striving to be more holy, which means we must stay ever so close to Our Lord, always growing in our faith, and by His grace to have the courage to be different.  To stand up and stand apart from the world, from the world’s evil, even when to do so may cause times of great distress, even when to do so means that the world may reject us, as it rejected Him. The difficult life of our patroness, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, is a perfect example of this.

            And finally, to be reminded that with God’s grace we may have the strength to do God’s will, to follow the example of the Saints to perform our own heroic good works.  Not by any merits of our own, and certainly not to bring glory to ourselves, but by the Grace and strength of the Holy Spirit living in us and acting through us, to bring glory and praise to His Father, who is Lord forever and ever.  Amen.