A pastor bankrupt his parish giving away wood to the poor to
bring warmth to their homes in bitter winter. When he had no money left, he
sold the rectory Chippendale dining room furniture for more wood. He was
ridiculed by his peers for being a bad administrator. He was embraced by Christ
on his death.
We must accept it as a given that not only does Christ believe in life after death but also He believes just as strongly in life before death. Furthermore, He believes not only in bread for the poor but roses too.
Do check today's Gospel. Mark clearly tells us that Jesus
sent the apostles on a two-fold mission. They must preach repentance for
people's sins. But in addition they must cure them of their physical ills and
wants. Mark in verse 13 tells us today that the twelve did precisely that. Such
a job definition is the reverse of the oft-told tale that Jesus is preaching
pie in the sky in the bye and bye. The Teacher is interested not only in souls
but bodies as well. He is anxious both to develop the spiritual life of people
as well as their humanity. To say otherwise would be equal to presenting a
counterfeit and plastic Christ to the world. He is in the business of saving
people - body and soul.
It is quite true that the Master said, "The poor you
will always have with you." But, in the words of Edward McGlynn, He never
said that you and I were to do nothing to help them. Our Leader reminds us
hunger is one disease that is 100% curable.
God, said one cynic, must have loved the poor. He made so
many of them. Arguably He did so to make it easier for you and me to get into
Paradise. We accomplish that by holding out a loaf of bread and cherry jam to
them along with some substantive assistance. Nowadays that substantive aid goes
by the name of empowerment. We must help them to build ovens and grow
cherries. It cannot be said that all
Catholics accept this as a given. Many do not. I know of one American Catholic college
where students bitterly indicted their chaplain in the school paper. They said
that they came to the Liturgy to worship God and be inspired. They were fed up
with hearing from him about the poor. The latter were living by the thousands
in the neighborhood around the college. The priest replied, "I am sorry
about that. I did not write the rulebook." Asked one sophomore sweetly,
"What rulebook?" "The Gospels," he replied.
If you read through the Gospels, one discovers quickly that
the Nazarene spent more hours assisting the great unwashed than He did about
speaking of His Father. What would happen if the reader tears out of the
Gospels the pages that speak of the needy and His assistance of them? Well, we
wind up with a book so abridged that no publisher would publish it.
Many rabbis of Christ's time said religion consists
primarily in sacrifice. Some scribes would correct them and say that religion
is concerned principally with the Law. And the Christ would buy neither
definition. According to Him, it consists in love of God and one's neighbor -
especially the ones who finds themselves with empty bellies.
Furthermore, when the preacher turns us upside down to shake
money out of our pockets for the poor, we should not moan. Rather, we should
learn to say, "This is exactly what the Church should be doing. And, if it
were not, I should be kicking and screaming till it began to do so."
I found these reflective lines in the Canterbury cathedral
of Augustine, Anselm, and Thomas a Becket. "Poverty is carrying your water
four miles. Poverty is being old at 40 and dead at 45. Poverty is having no
crops to scare birds away from. Poverty is having no money to worry
about."
Of the forty two million without health insurance in the
United States, eight million are children. This translates into prolonged
illness, skipping life saving medical exams, and inadequate medical care.
Christ waits impatiently.
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Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
This weekend about 80 of our young people are attending a
Youth Conference hosted by Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. There will be 3 to 4 thousand young people
there. There are actually 19 of these
conferences throughout our country. Over
50,000 Catholic Teens will attend.
Another 2,000 will merge play and spirituality at Cove Crest Camps, and
the other Catholic Camps run by Life Teen.
The most spiritual and intense of all of the experiences was completed a few weeks ago
when 450 Teens, including 15 from our parish, attended the Life Teen Leadership
Conference.
It is quite a sacrifice the young people make, giving up a
week or weekend of their summer to come closer to Christ. Many of them have to change their summer
jobs. Some have to forego family
vacations. Many have to find ways to pay
for their trip. All have to sacrifice the beach, the mall, hanging with friends
and so forth. They make whatever
sacrifice is necessary and with the support of their parents and their
parishes, they arrive willing to grow.
The week or weekend flies by. It concludes much sooner than they
expect. Then the real work begins. The
Teens come home full of enthusiasm. They
want to change their lives, keeping Christ as their Center. This is not easy.
It is one thing to focus on Him when in a secure, spiritual environment. It is another thing to focus on the Lord when
continually confronted with the temptations of those elements of society that
have deified materialism. Many of the
Teens will actually write out new schedules for themselves to put prayer before
everything else in their lives. Some
will begin Journaling. They will form plans to avoid immorality.
All this is actually easy when compared to the more
difficult task waiting for the Teens when they return home. The Teens want to
share their experience of Jesus’ Love with others, particularly their families.
And many others, sometimes even within their families, simply do not want to
hear it. The challenge of Christianity
might be too much for them, particularly when it comes from an unexpected
source, one’s own child.But that doesn’t decrease the importance of the message, or the need for the Teens to proclaim it.
This is not just about Teens returning from a spiritual
experience. This is about each of us,
called to make the spiritual real in the world.
All of us are called to allow God into
the Center of our lives. All of us are called share the experience of
the Lord with others. This isn’t just the work of the priests and sisters and
religious brothers. No, it is the work
of all the baptized. It is the work of Amos.
Amos was a normal, everyday working man. We hear about him in the first reading. He lived just south of the border between the
Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, on the Judea
side. Amos crossed the border into the North and proclaimed God’s truth
to those in the City of Bethel. The
people there were soft selling their faith. They were part timing their
devotion to Yahweh. Amos told them to
change their lives and becommitted to the Lord. The priest Amaziah told Amos to stop confronting the people and go back to Judah. Amos responded: “I am not a professional prophet. I am an arborist, a dresser of trees. But I cannot refuse to proclaim the Lord.”
Nor can any of us. We
have to “proclaim the word, in season and out of season” as St. Paul writes in
2 Tim 4:2. We have to proclaim the truth
we experience within us whether it is a time others want to hear it, in season,
or whether it is a time they would rather we just keep quiet, out of season.
While He was still with us on earth, before his passion,
death and resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of
Heaven. These disciples were ordinary,
everyday men entrusted with an extraordinary task. Jesus told them that the mission was urgent. They shouldn’t be bogged down with
impediments of luggage. (By the way the
Latin word for luggage is in fact impedimentum.) But they should wear sandals
because they had a lot of ground to cover.
They needed to proclaim to all.
Some would listen, and others would reject them, but the message had to
be proclaimed to as many people as possible.
It is the same for all of us. We need to bring the message, the experience,
the very presence of Jesus Christ to the world. Some will listen to you who will
not listen to me. Perhaps it is people
your age, be it senior citizen down to child, who will say, “I want to be happy
with life as he or she is happy.”
Perhaps it will be people who look to you for guidance, such as your own
children or grandchildren. Perhaps it
will be people who respect and love you, such as your parents and brothers and
sisters. Many of these people will hear the message clearer when it comes from
you rather than from me or any priest.
So proclaim the message.
And yes, there will be people who will reject the
message. You may indeed have to move on
and proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ
to others. But don’t stop praying for
them. And be patient. Joy, happiness
and the Presence of the Lord are contagious, but sometimes it takes time for
the Cure to Life to overwhelm a person.
50 to 60 thousand young people will grab an eagle this
summer and will soar. All of us have
been called to grab the eagle and soar.
We pray today for the courage to hold on tight and the
wisdom to find ways to hold out our hands for others to join us. For the ride, the journey with Christ, is
wonderful.
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Homily from Father Phil Bloom
http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/
Bottom line: A fresh start, liberation and healing - great
gifts, indeed. To receive such blessings, we must lift our heads and recognize
the Source of all.
The Russian people have a fable about a foolish boar. (By
boar I am not referring to the guy who puts you to sleep -like I sometimes do -
but the animal: a wild pig.) This particular boar was very greedy for acorns.
If he found one, he would keep digging, looking for more. He dug so deep that
he began tearing the roots of the oak tree. Finally the tree spoke, "Look
up, you foolish animal. I am the source of your food. If you destroy my roots,
you will have no more acorns."
Today Jesus asks us to look up and see the Source of all. He
does this in a counter-intuitive way: not by loading the Twelve with gifts of
food and clothes, but by sending them with "nothing for the journey."
No food, no back pack, no credit card, no money in their belts. They did,
however, bring three wonderful gifts: the chance for a new beginning by
repentance, liberation from demons by apostolic authority and healing of sick
by anointing with oil.* A fresh start, release from demons and physical healing
- these gifts Jesus offers, but only if we turn to the Source.
This Sunday we have a magnificent opportunity to lift our heads and recognize the Source of all. Today we dedicate our new bell and tower. One of the the local pastors sent me a "Meditation on the Blessing of a Bell" by Thomas Merton. Merton had turned from a worldly life to become first a Catholic, then a Trappist monk. He saw the bell as a powerful reminder of God. Here is what he says:
"Bells are meant to remind us that God alone is good,
that we belong to Him, that we are not living for this world. They break in
upon our cares in order to remind us that all things pass away."
I remember once I was feeling very anxious. My worries made
me want to run away. At that moment a church bell rang. I stopped and thought
about God. The bell helped me re-focus.
Merton says that bells "speak to us of our
freedom." Freedom is much more than doing whatever one wants. Freedom
means the ability to realize one's purpose. Each of us has a hidden purpose
that God knows. A bell breaks into our anxieties and invites us to pray.
If you visit a Moslem city you will hear a call to prayer at
certain moments during the day. Similarly our parish bell will ring a couple of
times each day. I hope that it will make us pause and think about the Source.
In the beginning of the homily I told you about the boar who
was so greedy for acorns that he didn't recognize the oak tree. I'd like to ask
you to imagine this: Suppose that entire universe were reduced to the size of
an acorn that you could hold in your hand. Ask yourself: From what Oak Tree did
this acorn fall?
Jesus sent his disciples with nothing for the journey. He
did it for a reason: So that we would look up and recognize the Source of all.
To sum up: Even though the apostles took nothing for the journey,
they did bring some beautiful gifts: a new beginning by repentance, liberation
from demons by apostolic authority and healing from illness by anointing with
oil. A fresh start, release from demons and healing - great gifts, indeed. To
receive such blessings, we must lift our heads and recognize the Source of all.
Amen.
************
*On top of these gifts, Jesus promises a hundred-fold
blessing, but that is a topic for a different homily.
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Homily from Father Andrew M. Greeley
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
"They anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them"
Background:
Much of the traditional interpretation of this wonderful
story emphasizes the generosity of the Good Samaritan and views the story as a
model for the generosity of all Christians.
Certainly the context in Luke suggests such an
interpretation. However, some recent interpreters suggest a somewhat different
reading and put the emphasis on the surprise of the injured man.
The Good Samaritan is God and the injured Jew is the sinner
– all of us sinners. This interpretation fits the paradigm of many other
parables of Jesus: A recklessly generous God overwhelming us with the surprise
of his implacable love.
Story:
(It is legitimate in telling his story to reverse the team
affiliation of the combatants)
Once upon a time a Cub fan and a Sox fan got in an argument
during a game at the Cell.
The argument was of course the fault of the sox fan. He
shouted the first epithet, he knocked the Cubs cap from the other man’s head,
he threw a beer can at Cub fan and hit his wife my mistake. What was the poor
Cub fan to do but push the Sox fan who obviously too much of the drink had
taken. One thing led to another. The ushers and the cops had to separate them
and since cops at the Cell tend to be
Sox fans, they ejected the Cub fan to the taunts of “Yuppy scum go home!”
The Cub fan had to watch the ninth inning at his home.
Needless to say the Cub’s bull pen imploded in the ninth as
it usually does. The next day, however, virtue, truth, and Sammy Sosa triumphed and the Cubs evened the series. On the following day, as the Cub fan drove out of the parking lot, flush with a series victory, the saw his adversary at a corner on State Street with a flat tire and the hood up on the car. He pulled over, and despite his wife’s admonition, helped change the tire and provide a battery charge. The two men shook hands and promised to meet again when the Red Line World Series came around.
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Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/sunday_homily
Jesus summons the Twelve and sends them out two by two. He
gives them power over unclean spirits, and instructs them to take nothing for
their journey but a walking stick. He warns them about rejection: people will
not always welcome them or listen to them. The disciples go out and preach
repentance, drive out many demons, anoint the sick with oil and cure them.
Note that the English word "repentance" does not
adequately convey the meaning of the Greek verb that Mark uses in his gospel
(literally "to change the mind"). In Mark's usage the word implies a
prophetic call to interpret reality in a radically new way, as from blindness
to sight. "Repentance" is at once a gift and the task of turning and
surrendering to God in a way that embraces every aspect of life. A New Testament
example of the reality to which the word points is the conversion experience of
Paul. For Paul, that radical change of direction means to live with the mind
and heart of Christ (1 Co 2:6-16).
Life Implications
If you visualize Mark's dramatization of one of the most
theologically significant events in his entire gospel, its comic character may
strike you. It's a scene right out of Godspel. Here is Jesus sending out these
disciples (not the best and brightest of that society) on a mission to overthrow
the reign of Satan and to proclaim the coming of God's reign. The comic aspect,
if not for the disciples at least for the onlookers, is apparent when the size
of the mission is juxtaposed with the means to accomplish it. The disciples,
whose obtuseness and little faith Mark frequently highlights, now are
instructed to go out with nothing but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no
money in their belts, not even a bible.
Mark, in telling us about the beginning of the church in so
dramatic a fashion, wants to be certain that disciples in his church and in our
church will be mindful of some important implications. We, like the first
disciples, are inadequate for the task; yet Christ's mission for God's kingdom
is given to us. The comic contrast of mission and means may point to something
essential about the church. If we labor under the illusion that we can bring
about God's reign by our own resources, perhaps even replacing the walking
stick with a sword, we will be advancing something other than God's kingdom on
earth.
Paul refers to his experience of preaching the gospel not as
comic, but as foolishness (1 Co 1:18-31). He relishes saying "we are fools
for Christ's sake" because he understands that it is because of his
weakness that the power of Christ can dwell in him (1 Co 4:10 and 2 Co 12:9).
Perhaps we in the United States, who have so many of the world's resources,
might reflect on the reality that in terms of accomplishing Christ's mission,
all our high-tech resources should be regarded as no more than a walking stick.
At the beginning of Mark's gospel we learn that the Spirit
descended upon Jesus, God's beloved Son, at his baptism by John in the Jordan.
In this awareness and by the power of the Spirit, Jesus overcomes the power of
Satan in the wilderness; and after John's arrest he sets out to accomplish his
mission for God's kingdom. He preaches repentance, casts out unclean spirits,
and cures many who are ill. By the time Mark wrote his gospel, the connection
between Jesus' mission and the extension of his mission to the church was quite
clear. Because disciples share the Spirit and are beloved by the Father, they
also share Christ's power to preach repentance, to drive out demons, and to
cure the sick.
This gospel of the Lord's commissioning disciples to carry
forward his mission may remind us of our inadequacy, but paradoxically it also
reminds us of our dignity and importance. God depends not only on Jesus in his
humanity, but on the successors of the Twelve and on each of us to be
co-creators and co-christs in bringing about a kingdom on earth as it is in
heaven.
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB
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Homily from Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting
Christ in the Liturgy
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"What you have received, give as a gift." The
Church is the body of Christ not just in receiving his divine life and love,
but in giving it as well. Christ sent the Twelve out "two by two" and
he also sends us forth. The Church is continually on the mission to evangelize
all nations.
The sacramental liturgy takes its name of the
"Mass" from this reality. The word comes from the Latin
"missa", from the conclusion of the liturgy, when the priest says
"Ite, missa est", meaning "Go, it is sent forth." The
people have heard the Word, prayed and received the Eucharist and are now
prepared to take these gifts out to the world. Our everyday lives should
include a continual reaching out, a going forth to proclaim the truth to the
world, to call all mankind to Christ. The physical healings recorded in the
Gospel are of God's power made manifest through the Apostles sent out to teach
and baptize all nations.
Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up
their cross in their turn. (Cf. Matthew 10:38) By following him they acquire a
new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of
poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and
healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they
cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed
them." (CCC 1506)
Healings of the body are signs only of the necessity of
faith and the healing of the ravages of sin through the mercy of God. It is not
physical blindness that shuts us out of heaven, but spiritual blindness to the
evil of sin. For a world that is obsessed with physical appearances and
habitually neglects the matters of the spirit, it is hard to hear the truth
that God is concerned most with the appearance of the soul. The human soul in a
state of grace is the most beautiful of all creatures and radiates with the
beauty of divine love. Authentic compassion always requires that we care for
and tend the ill and the disabled, but even more that we attend to their
salvation. Knowing of heaven and the way to get there is the only sure source
of comfort to those weighed down by the sorrows and burdens of this world.
We meet Christ in the liturgy so that we may be sent out
healed of the effects of sin, strengthened and made new by God's Word and the
Body of Christ. In this way we are equipped to preach and teach the truth by
which Christ is made known to the world. We love best when we speak and act
with the charity of Christ himself, desiring the salvation of the world.
The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially
when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating
social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian
doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the
Church:
Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them
the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in
particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to
the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the
faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the
bishops in communion with him. They are the Church. (Pius XII, Discourse,
February 20, 1946: AAS 38 (1946) 149; quoted by John Paul II, Christifideles Laici
9.) (CCC 899)
