2016/09/25 — 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C

When did luxury become a good thing? Originally, the word meant excessive enjoyment of the finest things. Over time, meanings of words change and attitudes change. Nowadays we don’t think of "luxury" as necessarily referring to something sinful in itself, but today's readings invite us to think about it in a wider context. In both the first reading — Amos 6:1a, 4-7 — and the gospel — Luke 16:19-31 — we are presented with people who live in luxury, and their conduct is not something for us to follow.

Last week, Amos denounced those who oppressed the poor and engaged in consumer fraud, and Jesus used the example of a cheater to tell us we should be as anxious to grow in grace as the the worldly are to get rich. This week, we see the behavior of people who have attained the wealth they sought, and it’s not good example. The “complacent in Zion” live in luxury, as does the rich man in the gospel. By itself, though, that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the complacent in Zion don’t care about the approaching fall of the Kingdom of Israel. The rich man doesn’t care about the misery of Lazarus. They don’t care about other people.

Wealth isn’t inherently evil, but it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because it can lead us to focus on getting it to the point of cheating others or ignoring our obligations to God and others; and it can lead us to focus on enjoying it to the point of ignoring the needs of those around us. It seems that the rich man would not have ended up in hell if he had shared some of his food with Lazarus.

This may be a useful reminder for us.

I may not lounge on an ivory bed, improvising music, but I do enjoy attending symphony concerts frequently in Boston. I may not dine sumptuously every day, but I do enjoy nice dinners at the yacht club and at fine restaurants a couple of times a month. How can I avoid going to hell with the rich man? Maybe giving money to the panhandlers in the subway and occasionally preparing meals for soup kitchens and homeless shelters will help. It’s not a matter of a specific amount or type of charitable acts. Good works don't save us; Jesus does. But we throw that salvation away if we don't love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s a matter of having a genuine love for others. When that is there, charitable acts — what we call the corporal and spiritual works of mercy — will be the result. I mustn’t let the good things I enjoy become my reason for living. I mustn’t let them blind me to the needs of others. I mustn't be completely self-centered.

The noble confession that Timothy gave, which Paul spoke about in the second reading — 1 Timothy 6:11-16 — is something we also give at Mass when we profess the creed and when we respond,”Amen” to the priest, deacon, or Communion minister’s words, “The Body of Christ.” But the witness is hollow if we don’t also mean it when we say, “O Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” It’s hollow if we never do anything to help those who are less fortunate than we are. What we can do depends on our own circumstances. Some of us have greater opportunities than others, but we all have some chance to show love in action. We should ask the Holy Spirit to remind us of what we’ve done for others. We should ask the Holy Spirit to show us when we’re responding to people’s needs and when we’re ignoring them.

One more point to bear in mind is that we can be doing good to others when we do our jobs or go about our normal activities. If we think about how they benefit others — a bus driver getting people to work or back home;  an accountant helping a business owner know what resources are available; a merchant making goods available for people’s use; a worker who keeps the water flowing, collects our trash, or maintains the electrical system; a physician who helps people overcome illness — all people doing honest work can do that work as an act of love for others.

We can and should certainly be grateful for all the good things we enjoy, be we have to becoming indifferent to the needs of others, and and ask God to show us how we can put love of neighbor into practice and how we’re already doing it.

2016/07/31&08/07 — 18th & 19th Sundays in Ordinary Time — Year C

Super late once more, but here goes.

July 31 — 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

You can't take it with you. The first reading — Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 — gives us the well known opening verse,"Vanity of vanities … All things are vanity." It continues with the case of one who works hard to amass wealth which will go to another when he dies. All his hard work and anxiety don't bring a proportionate enjoyment.

In the gospel — Luke 12: 13-21 — Jesus offers the parable of the rich landowner who dies the very night after he has decided that his years of working at amassing wealth have paid off so well that now he can retire and enjoy "the good life." This parable is framed by two teachings: avoid greed (which is so much a part of our culture that most of us don't even realize how greedy we are); and what we should really strive for is to be "rich in what matters to God."

The second reading — Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 — gives a teaching from Paul about what matters to God. It is what is above, where Jesus is with the Father. Our true life is life in Jesus. We become rich by leaving sinful conduct behind us and living a life of virtue in a community of the redeemed in which all are equal.


August 7 — 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

In the gospel — Luke 12:32-48 — Jesus begins by harking back to last week's theme of having treasure in heaven, which we attain by avoiding greed: instead, selling what we have and giving alms. Next the lesson is to be prepared for his return. We don't know when that will be, but if we live according to God's will, we are always prepared

In the first reading — Wisdom 18:6-9 — we hear of how the Israelites were prepared for God's intervention to set them free with the Exodus. They had faith in God and offered the Passover sacrifice, just as we have faith in God and offer our Paschal Sacrifice, Jesus on the cross.

The second reading — Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 — gives us the example of Abraham's life of faith, leaving his home, traveling to Canaan, being prepared to offer Isaac, his son, in sacrifice (just as the Father sacrificed his Son, Jesus, on Calvary).


We see that faith is much more than accepting the doctrines found in the Nicene Creed which we recite every Sunday at Mass. It means expecting the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Our prepared ness isn't just to meet the Lord at the end of our lives or at the end of time. The Lord can come unexpectedly at any moment to furnish his guidance, as her did many times for Abraham. It may have to do with a vocation in life; it may have to do with accepting a job offer; it may have to do with marriage; it may have to do with moving to a new home or any other decision however large or seemingly small. Bu we won't hear God's call unless we're listening. So we need to cultivate that attitude of confident expectation, that reliance on God's presence "now and at the hour of our death," as we pray in the Hail Mary.

2015/09/27 — 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for this Sunday remind us that God is free to give his gifts where he wishes, and we should be glad whenever people receive them. They also remind us of the importance of not leading others to sin or letting us be led into it, with a specific warning about riches.


The first reading — Numbers 11:25-29 — tells of an episode when the Israelites were wandering in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land. It was a year and two months since they had left Egypt, and Moses asked the Lord for help in governing the people. The Lord told him to choose seventy people to assist him and bring them to the tent where Moses would meet with the Lord, and that the Lord would give some of Moses' spirit on them so they could help Moses. Today's passage tells what happened next.

Receiving the share of Moses' spirit caused the elders to prophesy, that is to engage in enthusiastic utterances, probably like charismatics speaking in tongues, not delivering normal speech like biblical prophets. What is remarkable, of course, is that the elders had been assembled with Moses at the meeting tent for the event. But Eldad and Medad, who had been chosen but missed the gathering, received the spirit too. Joshua thought that their presence with Moses was some sort of requirement, but God was not limited by the presence of Moses.


Similarly, the gospel reading — Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 — begins with a case of "unauthorized" people using Jesus' name to drive out demons. Joshua-like, the disciples wanted to stop them, and hold for themselves the share of divine power they enjoyed. But God is not limited to the institutions that he has created. God owns the Church, not vice-versa; and if God has given the sacraments to the Church as "guaranteed encounters with God" and the ordinary channels of his grace, he can give his grace in other ways as well. We must be pleased whenever we see God at work in people's lives.

The rest of the passage gives a warning, first against leading others into sin (called giving scandal), which is particularly diabolical, then against giving in to our own temptations. Clearly the advice to amputate a bodily part which causes us to sin is not to be taken literally. After all, as Jesus says elsewhere (e.g., Mark 7:20-23, read on the 22nd Sunday), sin comes from within, from our heart. But it does underscore the necessity of not giving in to temptation. This must also be taken in conjunction with all that scripture says about God's mercy. It is not failure to overcome temptation that leads to Gehenna, but failure to repent of sin. It is becoming content to continue in sin, with the consequence that we do not repent and seek God's mercy, that leads one away from the kingdom of God and, ultimately to the separation from God to which Jesus gives the image of fiery Gehenna.


The second reading — James 5:1-6 — is a powerful, even shocking, condemnation of the rich, whose avarice leads them to injustice and murder. St. Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evils (1 Timothy 6:10). While there are verses which tie the sin of the rich to injustice and murder, I think we shouldn't be too quick to say, "There's nothing wrong with being rich in itself." Even though that is literally true, one has to consider, first, how the riches are acquired. Does one become rich through a position in a business which pays employees less than a living wage — which is de facto withholding the wages of the workers — or through destroying competitors through unfair competition, or through other wrongful ways of getting more than one is entitled to? Secondly, one must ask how one uses even legitimately gained riches. If it's just for one's own enjoyment, that is wrong.

As the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) tells us, the rich are obliged to share with the poor. To keep what one does not need when others are in need is wrong. There is an obligation to share with the poor. Here is a link to a very powerful sermon addressed to the rich by St. Basil the Great. The needy are entitled to our surplus, he says, and if we hold on to it, we are thieves who oppress those we could help, but refuse to. This is a real challenge for all of us. To what extent are we justified in enjoying more than the necessities of life when there are others who lack them and whom we could help? Of course, in the West, programs and institutions exist, so nobody has to starve. Poverty of the sort that existed in Basil's time  (late 4th Century) isn't present in the West. But it does still exist in other parts of the world. What is our obligation to those poor, and what is our obligation to those considered poor in our own country?


Psalm 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14 leads the congregation to meditate on the goodness of God's ordinances and to pray that God will cleanse our hearts from evil inclinations.

2015/09/06 — 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah tells us that healings of the deaf and of the mute are part of the Messianic Age. Jesus performs such a healing and knows that if it becomes widely known, people will realize that he is the Messiah.
In the second reading, we have an instruction from James on proper treatment of the poor among us.


Our first reading — Isaiah 35:4-7a — has been understood by Christians from ancient times to the present to be fulfilled in Jesus. The God who comes to save us is, of course, none other than Jesus himself. For that reason, this passage is also part of the first reading on the Third Sunday of Advent in Year A. The healings prophesied were all performed by Jesus. Matthew 9:27-30 tells of the healing of two blind men, and another two at 20:29-34.  Mark 10:46-52 tells of Jesus giving sight to Bartimaeus. Today's gospel passage — Mark 7:31-37 — is an account of the healing of a deaf man who was also unable to speak. We read of paralytics being healed in Matthew 9:2-7 and John 5:5-9. Jesus himself summarizes his healing work in response to a question from John the Baptist. The question is whether Jesus is the promised Messiah, and Jesus points to the healings as proving that he is. Matthew 11:2-5.

But if the healing of the deaf man shows that Jesus is the Messiah, why does he he tell the witnesses not to tell others about it? This is what is often called "the Messianic Secret." The problem is that the general expectation of the Messiah was that he would be a military-political leader who would restore the independence and glory of Israel: a restoration which would likely involve the military expulsion of the occupying Romans. The revelation of what his Messiahship really is was only possible with his death and resurrection. Meanwhile, some publication of his miracles served to create enough of a following that the authorities were concerned, as at John 11:45-53. Note especially v. 48: "If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation." Jesus needed disciples but not a mass movement.

But there is more to consider than the literal healing of the deaf man. The way Jesus acts — not simply speaking a word, but engaging in symbolic actions — puts us in mind of the sacraments, where something physical has a meaning beyond itself. There is the Bread of Life, which looks like bread, but Jesus says he gives us his flesh for the life of the world. Water, together with the Holy Spirit, gives the rebirth by which we enter the kingdom of heaven. These bodily healings by Jesus point to spiritual healing. In this life, Jesus does not heal every believer's physical illness or suffering. But he can heal spiritual blindness, lack of faith; deafness, failure to understand what he says; lameness, failure to put faith into action; muteness, failure to witness to our faith. He comes to save us above all from the sinfulness which separates us from God.

The literal fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies in verses 5-6a tells us that Jesus is the Messiah. The Messianinc Age has begun. Whether the prophecies in 6b-7 about the abundance of water are figurative or something that will happen literally in the future is not certain. At this point we know that one level of fulfillment is reading water as symbolic of the Holy Spirit giving life to believers, who would be spiritually dead without the gift of grace.

Verses 4-5a are included (along with much more from Isaiah) in Handel's "Messiah." The first 22 seconds of this video give the musical setting.

The responsorial psalm — Ps 146:6-10, with 1b as the responsory — makes reference to the healing of the blind and the coming Messianic Age, but it also turns our attention from what the Lord does for us to what he does for those in need. In that way it prepares us to hear the second reading.


James 2:1-5 is that second reading. It is a straightforward call to show no favoritism toward the rich during church gatherings, i.e., worship. The tendency to show favoritism which the early Christians had to be warned about is still a danger. The first four verses of the readings call for equal treatment of the rich and the poor, but the final verse adds a new element: God has chosen the poor. We are reminded, perhaps, of Jesus' saying that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Mark 10:23(-27) To become rich usually requires conscious effort, which can easily amount to serving mammon, which is incompatible with serving God. Luke 16:13-15 (The last line in the passage from Luke —"what is of human human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God" — is even more more powerful than what we hear from James.) Thus, the poor are said to be the ones God chooses because they are free from the preoccupation with money which would hinder their attention to God.

As Brad S. Gregory pointed out in chapter 5 of The Unintended Revolution, greed — avarice — has become so pervasive in Western culture that we don't even notice it in ourselves and society. We see nothing problematic in trying to get richer. We expect pay raises and cost-of living increases in benefits. The economy must grow. The stock market must increase in value. Why isn't enough to stay where we are? Why is it intolerable even to lose income or net worth as long as we still have enough for our real needs?

We can apply this teaching more widely in our lives. The tendency to judge by appearances seems natural (at least for fallen nature), and it can lead both to undue respect for those who appear respectable and undue disrespect toward those who appear less respectable. We tell ourselves, "You can't tell a book by its cover," but we do it all the time.


The call for us is, first, to recognize Jesus as Messiah. Then we would do well to ask God to show us what spiritual healing we need. Is our faith weak? Do we need to grow in our knowledge and understanding of the faith? (Have we progressed beyond what we could grasp as children?) Do we live in accordance with our faith? Do our lives sometimes fail to witness to it? Do we show partiality the rich and "respectable?" Are we uncomfortable when poor people approach us? Do we show partiality against the poor, the needy, those who aren't elegant. Do we pursue money? And, of course,  we should pray for healing for all who are ill in body, mind, or spirit.