Preached for the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Mass readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/073113.cfm

 

                I’ve got a great new investment idea for you.  It comes with a return that beats any other investment available, in fact the return is literally out of this world and you should really consider it.  Now all it requires is that you sell everything else you have and give me the money and then you own the investment!  Sound good?            If this were an infomercial, if you have any sense, you’d have switched channels by now.  Or you’d be looking at me like I’m some kind of swindler or charlatan.

            But that’s the trade that Jesus is offering in this Gospel .  When you discover the Kingdom of Heaven, it’s like a buried treasure and you go, sell everything, just to buy that field. 

            Or it’s like the Texas Hold’em games you can watch on late-night TV – my favorite part is where the player, down to his or her last chips, pushes them “all in.”  Bets it all.  Win or go home. 
            I think that’s what Jesus is calling you and me to in this Gospel. 

            He’s telling us that the Kingdom of Heaven is something that can be possessed, right now, in this life.  It’s not only the reward at the end of a faithful life of service, it’s something we can desire right now.  And that it’s something we must pursue, and give up something in return for.

            He’s also telling us that it’s something urgent – like someone immediately going and selling everything to buy the field, so that nobody else beats you to the punch.  There’s an urgency there, it must be done Now, it’s not something that can wait.

            And He’s also saying that this pursuit of the Kingdom of Heaven is something that brings joy.  He says it’s like someone who, out of joy, sells everything to buy the field with the hidden treasure.

            This is a perfect Gospel for the occasion of today’s saint, Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.  Ignatius admitted to once being a great sinner, someone who very nearly lost his life when injured by a cannonball.  But like Francis and Augustine, Ignatius had a great conversion experience, one in which he literally sold everything to follow the Lord, with urgency and zeal and, he found, this new path was the only thing that gave him joy.

            Perhaps you and I need this reminder today.  Perhaps you and I are lacking some of the zeal, some of the fervor, some of the joy in our faith that we once had.  Perhaps you and I are still holding on to attachments in our lives, bad habits or sinful inclinations, whatever it might be, that is keeping us from fully following the Lord.  By our partaking of His Sacred Body and Blood, may we receive the strength, and the grace, and the joy, of going “all in” for the Lord.

Preached for daily mass - July 18, 2013 at St. Kateri / Christ the King

Mass readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071813.cfm

            “My yoke is easy and my burden light.”      My yoke. 

            A yoke is a wooden beam placed across the neck of beasts of burden, usually oxen.  It provides discipline, and control, so the animal goes where the farmer wants it to go.

            But a yoke is designed to join two animals, as you can see from this picture.  It’s a harness that joins one animal to another, so that both will go together, work together, side by side.  Go in the same direction.  And I assume because one animal can’t do the job alone – it takes two. 

            When Jesus is saying “take my yoke upon you” I think he means that we are to yoke ourselves to Him.  He is the other one, right beside us, yoked with us.   He means that if we harness ourselves to Him, He will always be beside us.  He will help us carry our burdens.  He’s not saying that we won’t have our share of burdens in life.  What He is saying is that harnessed to Him, they will be lighter, easier.

            But despite Our Lord’s promise in this Gospel, life also offers us alternatives - others to harness ourselves to.  We can choose to take on the burden of sin, with its attractions, its illusions of lightness, its promise of happiness and even fun.  But we know from experience that the burden of sin is heavy indeed.  All that we need do to experience the lightness of Jesus’ yoke compared to the heaviness, the burden of sin is think of the confessional –we enter weighed down with guilt and anxiety.  After hearing the words of absolution, realizing that the Lord Himself is giving us His tender mercy and love, we feel the lightness  and joy of a free conscience.

            By receiving His Sacred Body and Blood this morning, may you and I freely accept the yoke that is Faith in Jesus Christ, and by His grace may we always have Our Blessed Lord right by our side as we toil in the fields of life.

Preached Sat/Sun June 22/23 at St. Kateri / Christ the King site

No audio recording posted yet

This is a special time of the year.  A time of change.  Of transition.  Caps and gowns.  Wedding dresses and tuxedos.  Retirement gold watches.  For sale signs, moving vans perhaps.  Lots of changes in peoples’ lives, in loved ones’ lives, this time of year.

            And it’s also a time of recreation.  Of leisure.  Vacation.  A season when we have some free time.  To slow down, not be so hurried with life, bustling from one activity to the next, from one day to the next, until we wonder where the time went.  A time to enjoy a good book at the beach, listening to the ocean’s roar, or watch an eagle soar over a mountain lake, or smell the scent of pine hiking through the deep woods.

            A season in which we have time to sit back and relax and reflect –ponder, perhaps, some of life’s great questions.  What is the meaning of life?  What is the meaning of my life?  Where am I going, how am I doing, in my relationships, my job, my schooling , my faith?

            In light of this season and these questions, todays’s Gospel from Saint Luke comes to us at a perfect time.  For Jesus seems to be doing pretty much the same thing.  He is praying in solitude, Luke tells us, and it appears that Jesus is likewise taking time to take stock of His life. 

            “Who do the crowds say that I am,” He asks the disciples. 

            “John the Baptist,”  “Elijah,” “one of the ancient prophets come back,” they tell Him. 

            Then He asks them the 64 thousand dollar question:  “but who do YOU say that I am?”  And while Peter answers quickly – “the Christ of God.”  I have to wonder exactly how I would answer if the Lord looked me right in the eye and posed that question to me, right here and right now.  “Who do You say that I am?”

            For this is not only a good question, an important question.  My sisters and brothers, this is the question.  For us who claim the name “Christian,” it is the only question that matters.  There is no more important question, and there is no more important answer than the one you and I give to that question.  “Who do You say that I am?”

            Now if we were asked that question it would be easy to recite the catechism lessons we’ve learned, or what we learned in grammar school or RCIA classes.  Lord, You are the Savior.  The Son of God.  The Word made Flesh.  Emmanuel, God with us.  And those are all good answers, correct answers. 

            But, my brothers and sisters, if I may be so bold to suggest that they’re not exactly the answer He’s looking for.   No.  I think the answer He’s looking for from you and from me is a simple one word response.  Who do You say that I am?  Lord you are EVERYTHING to me.  Everything.

            I think what He wants to hear from us is - Lord you’re the reason I wake up in the morning, the reason I live and breathe.  The reason I was conceived and born.  The reason for every single thing I do and think and say.  The reason for my life.  Such an answer is rooted in a deeply personal love relationship with Him. Everything.  That’s the answer He wants to hear, it seems to me.  Everything. 

            One of my favorite Christian rock songs, Avalon’s Everything to Me, says it well: 

<He’s> Everything to me
More than a story
More than words on a page of history
He is the air that I breathe, the water I thirst for
And the ground beneath my feet
Oh He's everything, everything to me

            I love that song.  Lord you’re everything to me.

            But, if you’re like me, that answer is a pretty tall order.  If I’m truthful with myself and with the Lord, I can immediately think of all the many ways He’s NOT everything to me.  All the ways I turn away from Him, focusing on myself.  The ways He’s just one more thing in my life, one hour out of 168 in the week, perhaps.  Yes, Lord, I believe.  Yes, you are my savior, I am your disciple.  But are you everything to me?  Gotta think about that one for awhile, Jesus.

            And I think He understands that.  I think He recognizes that discipleship is not a one-and-done, forever-after thing.  It’s like a seed that must be planted and grow and be nourished and fed and may suffer setbacks but takes time to flourish.  And happily, our Lord gives us the instructions of how to begin.   “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.”  As I was reading this Gospel, the word “Daily” hit me over the head.  Take up our cross and follow.  Daily.  Every day. 

            If we drop it, if we fall, pick it up again and follow.  And what are our crosses?  Our sufferings, our pain, our broken relationships, our sins, our everything.  We take them up, and we offer them up, we give them to Our Lord who walks with us on this road of life.  We bear them for His glory and He lightens them and gives us grace to endure, especially through frequent reception of His most precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

            Taking up our crosses and following Him - that is the way, that is the ONLY way, He tells us, that He can and will become everything to me, to you.  His is the road to Calvary, and as His disciples, it is our road too.  But it is also the only road to Easter morning and resurrection.  And it is the only road to eternal joy in union with Our Lord, Jesus the Christ, and with His Father and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.