Preached for the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Sat/Sun Sept 26/27 - all six St. Kateri Masses

Mass readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092715.cfm

           

            First of all, a warm welcome to all who are visiting today – especially those who might have seen and heard Pope Francis this week and are here to “check out” what’s this Catholic Church is all about, up close and in person?  We’re glad you’re here.

            Now my name is German, but I’m roughly half Irish by origin, so I’m quite fond of telling this one:

            There was a farmer named Muldoon who lived alone in the countryside with a little dog that he loved very much. After many long years of faithful companionship, the dog finally died, so Muldoon went to his parish priest:

            “Father, my dear old dog is dead. Could you be saying a Mass for him?"
            Father Patrick replied, "Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your dog's death, Muldoon.  But, unfortunately, I can't say Mass for the poor creature..."

            Muldoon said, "I understand, Father, I do. I guess I'll go to this new protestant denomination down the road; no tellin' what they believe... By the way, do you think $500 is enough to donate for the service?"

            To which Father Patrick replied: "Muldoon, why didn't you tell me your wee dog was Catholic?!"

            This little joke came to mind as I was thinking and meditating on the first part of today’s Gospel.  For don’t we often tend to think in terms of “Catholic” or “non-Catholic?”  Christian or non-Christian?  We put up walls around our groups, walls that keep others out and keep ourselves in.  I know I do – guilty as charged.  I can often find myself feeling quite uncomfortable with anyone who doesn’t believe exactly the same things as I believe.  And in my sinful pride, I have the unspoken but implicit belief that exactly what I believe must be right, must be correct.

            Now if there’s one thing that Jesus makes clear in this first part of the Gospel, it’s that no faith, no religion, no group, no person, not even the Holy Father Pope Francis Himself, “owns” God.  None can appropriate God as their own, as their own possession.  None can control, fence in, put a leash on, the power of the Lord God, or the working of His Son Jesus Christ.

            The disciples - the original Church - were Our Lord’s “insiders” so to speak.  After all, they were the ones who had left family and dropped nets and followed Him day in and day out.  And they thought of themselves as such.  We’re in.  They’re out.  Sort of a private club, you could say.  And so they forbade the man from casting out demons in Jesus’ name. 

            Our Lord rejects this way of thinking, for them, and for me, and you.  While the Church is the sacrament of Christ’s salvation in the world, it’s not a private club, closed in on itself, in sole possession of the Lord’s power.  No.  And while not all religions are equal, what I think Our Lord wants us to know is that He is bigger than the Church, and He can do and is doing His will in other faiths and in the works of other people of good will who may not even know Christ.  We should welcome that; we should be joyful about that!

            For some, and I can speak for myself, this might be a real challenge, to take these words of the Lord into our hearts and let go of what really amounts to pride, and look for, and discern, the Lord working for good and against evil wherever and whenever that may be.  In our own and other Christian faiths, and outside of Christianity.

            But while Christ is bigger than the Church, in the second half of the Gospel He challenges us who follow Him, who as “Christians” bear His name, to holiness.  While on the one hand He is saying that we are to be open to His power and working outside of “our group” of His followers, on the other hand if we are to be His followers, there are requirements. 

            And this is no mealy-mouth, “nice” guy Jesus speaking here.  One of our parishioners asks me if my homily is going to be challenging today or if it’s going to be, and this is his word, a lollipop.  Make no mistake, the Lord is not serving up lollipops in this Gospel.  He’s quite direct – if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off!  Gouge out your eye if it causes you to sin.  And if you cause others to sin, better that you be weighed down and thrown overboard to sleep with the fishes.  Strong stuff, huh?

            Now Our Lord is not to be taken literally, or I dare say we’d have an awful lot of maimed, blind Catholics, but He wants to be taken seriously!  He wants us to know He means it!

            Two quick examples come to mind  – the eye, especially, seems to be a problem these days.  We live in a very visual culture – so much of what enters our minds and hearts comes through our eyes.  But do we guard our eyes?  Are we careful about what passes through our eyes from TV, movies, the computer screen?  Our Lord is calling us not to gouge out our eyes, but to have custody of our eyes, to be mindful of what we allow into our eyes, minds and hearts.

            And money – in his condemning the rich, in the second reading today St. James gives us no lollipop, either, huh?  Strong stuff – for compared to most of the world, you and I are pretty rich.  Now to be sure, James isn’t condemning the rich so much as condemning becoming rich through injustice.  But St. Paul in his first letter to Timothy, (6:10) teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil.  Scripture makes clear - if we’re attached to money, to possessions, to material goods, how we can we also be attached to the Lord?

            Sisters and brothers, in this Gospel Our Blessed Lord is calling each of us, as His followers, to change.  To lives of conversion and discipline.  It’s no accident that “discipline” and “disciple” come from the same Latin root.

            And it’s not so much the eye or foot or hand that needs to change as our hearts!  For He tells us in Mark’s 7^th chapter, verses 21 and 22, that “from within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed” and so on.  Our hearts need pruning.  Cutting.  Gouging.

            But Deacon, doesn’t God loves each of us as we are? Yes, but He loves each of us so much that He doesn’t want us to stay the way we are.  We are called to grow in holiness.  And to pray down His help, His grace to do just that.  For true change, true conversion, true pruning of our hearts can only come through the grace Our Lord showers on us.

            We will find as we grow in holiness, we will grow in true joy.  The world will see our difference, the difference faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes in our lives, and the world will want what we have.