Homily 33rd Sunday Ordinary Time Year A

Now I'm back on the regular schedule for these homilies. Here is my homily on last weekend's readings on the Talents. Christ the King next.

Our readings today are about… STEWARDSHIP. Now, I know, I’m with you: the word “stewardship” or the phrase “time, talent, and treasure” often falls on deaf ears, they seem so cliché don’t they, and we hear them all the time. Thankfully, here at St. Athanasius, we have been changing the focus away from questions like “what do I have to give?” or “how much time do I have to spend?” to questions like “what gifts has God given me?”; “how does their use reflect my love for Him?”; and “what is God’s will for me?” We have moved away from focusing on certain amounts of time or money donated to prayerful discernment of God’s will. I think this shift has and will bear much fruit in this parish. And it’s not a moment too soon because these questions are not only significant to the life of our parish, but, as our Gospel teaches us today, to our eternal salvation as well.

Our readings provide many examples of the proper way to approach stewardship. In Proverbs the virtues of a “woman who fears the Lord” are extolled. She is one who is reverent, religious, and faithful, and works hard for God, her husband, and her family. I encourage especially all of the women of this parish to look at our first reading closely, pray with it and meditate on it, and hold up this woman of Proverbs as your example. While the text we have been given reads “Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize”, a better translation would be that he, because of this trust, “will have no lack of gain” meaning that her work and her service is always productive and fruitful. Her strength, her skills, and her God-given gifts always serve the common good. She has prayerfully discerned God’s call for her life and has lived it joyfully and abundantly and this makes God, her husband, and her community very proud. Of her our psalm exclaims, “Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!”

Our Gospel, on the other hand, offers us, ultimately, a strong example of what NOT to do in regards to stewardship and it issues us a bold challenge. It forces us to take a good hard look at our lives. Have we failed in the call to authentic, Christian stewardship? Have we, like the third servant, been slothful and wicked? Now our Gospel uses the word “lazy”, not “slothful” but sloth is definitely the sin described here. And as you all know it is one of the seven deadly sins. Our woman in Proverbs was everything but slothful. What then is this deadly sin of sloth?

In general it means being disinclined toward labor or exertion. But it has a much deeper spiritual significance. St. Thomas Aquinas calls it “sadness in the face of some spiritual good which one has to achieve” (II-II:35). One theologian, Fr. Rickaby, describes it as the “don’t-care feeling.”

A man apprehends the practice of virtue to be beset with difficulties and chafes under the restraints imposed by the service of God. The narrow way stretches wearily before him and his soul grows sluggish… at the thought of the painful life journey. The idea of right living inspires not joy but disgust, because of its laboriousness.

“In other words,” he says, “a man is then formally distressed at the prospect of what he must do for God to bring about or keep intact his friendship with God. In this sense sloth is directly opposed to charity.” He violates, therefore, expressly the first and the greatest of the commandments: "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30).

My brothers and sisters, there is no time to be slothful. I tell myself this as well. But I have been greatly encouraged by so many of you who obviously have discerned God’s will and work hard with the gifts he has given you: Like those of you who do so many good little things that no one sees; those of you who spend many hours before the Blessed Sacrament on Wednesdays; those of you who prepare the sacristy, who serve Mass, distribute Holy Communion, and help out with our music; those of you who put so much work into our picnics and other festivals; who are angels to our elderly shut-ins; who perform the daily tasks of our parish offices; who support our widows and widowers; and especially those who cook for the rectory! J All of you serve with such joy and dedication that it gives me much hope for my own ministry.

But, still there remains much more to do be done. Not regarding mere dollar amounts or hours spent, like I said before, but regarding prayerful discernment of God’s will for the gifts he has given us. He is always calling us. The motto of the Benedictines is “Ora et Labora”, prayer and work. We must do both, now, for St. Paul in our second readings reminds us that our Lord will come again suddenly and unexpectedly, “like a thief at night.” “Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober” so that we will be prepared to give an account of our talents.

This word “talent,” interestingly enough, entered the English language directly from the parable in today’s Gospel. Here, a “talent” is a large sum of money roughly equal to 100 pounds of silver or 15 to 20 years’ wages of a laborer. The master entrusted a different number of talents to each of his three servants according to their ability and expected them to make a profit for him. The first and second servants doubled what was given to them and both received the same reward: “great responsibilities” and a share in the master’s joyful banquet. But the third servant out of fear and laziness squandered what was given to him so his talent was given to the first servant and he was thrown out of the master’s presence and separated from him.

Of course, this parable also has a deeply spiritual significance. We are the servants. The talents are the qualities God has bestowed on us, both those we are born with like intellectual capacity and musical ability or those we receive as supernatural graces like personal holiness, spiritual insight, or sacramental graces. The journey of the master, during which the servants where to invest their talents, signifies the duration of our life. His unexpected return signifies our death and his settling of accounts is our judgment. Finally the master’s joy, the banquet, is heaven.

Let us examine our approach to the gifts we have received from God. The Lord wants to see that his gifts have been well administered. Let us make use of the time we have to be ready. F. Suarez, a Mexican theologian explains that, after all,

When God is known well, it is not hard to love him. And when God is truly loved, it is not difficult to serve him… In fact, it even becomes a pleasure to serve him… The third servant knew his master well… and in spite of that it is obvious that he did not love him. And when love is missing, serving becomes very difficult.

You know, the opposite of laziness is diligence. This comes from the Latin word diligere, which means to love, to choose after careful study. “Love motivates a person to give true service. Laziness is a result of a failure to love.” “When a Christian kills time on this earth, he is putting himself in danger of ‘killing Heaven’ for himself.”

All you parents and grandparents out there, who were brought up on the Baltimore Catechism, must remind your children that they were made to know, love, and serve God in this life and to be happy with him forever in the next. It doesn’t matter how many gifts, natural or supernatural, we have received; what matters is our generosity in putting them to good use. Just as natural abilities like playing the piano or speaking a foreign language become more perfect through use or become atrophied through disuse, so also graces that are used lead to an increase of grace, whereas graces that are neglected tend to be lost. We must respond to grace by making a genuine effort through our entire lives. Fr. Francis Fernandez, one of my favorite authors, illustrates this beautifully:

When life comes to an end, perhaps we may think something like a candle has gone out. But we should also see death as the time when something like a tapestry has been completed. We have watched this tapestry being made from the reverse side where the design of the artwork is blurred and the knots and twisted loops of the needlework are prominent. Our Father, God, contemplates the tapestry from the good side. He is pleased to behold a finished work that manifests a life-long effort to make good use of time.

Adding my name to "An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama"

Originally posted at Vox Nova with many signers:

An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama

November 14, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama

As American Catholics, we, the undersigned, would like to reiterate the congratulations given to you by Pope Benedict XVI. We will be praying for you as you undertake the office of President of the United States.

Wishing you much good will, we hope we will be able to work with you, your administration, and our fellow citizens to move beyond the gridlock which has often harmed our great nation in recent years. Too often, partisan politics has hampered our response to disaster and misfortune. As a result of this, many Americans have become resentful, blaming others for what happens instead of realizing our own responsibilities. We face serious problems as a people, and if we hope to overcome the crises we face in today’s world, we should make a serious effort to set aside the bitterness in our hearts, to listen to one another, and to work with one another

One of the praiseworthy elements of your campaign has been the call to end such partisanship. You have stated a desire to engage others in dialogue. With you, we believe that real achievement comes not through the defamation of one’s opponents, nor by amassing power and using it merely as a tool for one’s own individual will. We also believe dialogue is essential. We too wish to appeal to the better nature of the nation. We want to encourage people to work together for the common good. Such action can and will engender trust. It may change the hearts of many, and it might alter the path of our nation, shifting to a road leading to a better America. We hope this theme of your campaign is realized in the years ahead.

One of the critical issues which currently divides our nation is abortion. As you have said, no one is for abortion, and you would agree to limit late-term abortions as long as any bill which comes your way allows for exceptions to those limits, such as when the health of the mother is in jeopardy. You have also said you would like to work on those social issues which cause women to feel as if they have a need for an abortion, so as to reduce the actual number of abortions being performed in the United States.

Indeed, you said in your third presidential debate, “But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, ‘We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby.’”

As men and women who oppose abortion and embrace a pro-life ethic, we want to commend your willingness to engage us in dialogue, and we ask that you live up to your promise, and engage us on this issue.

There is much we can do together. There is much that we can do to help women who find themselves in difficult situations so they will not see abortion as their only option. There is much which we can do to help eliminate those unwanted pregnancies which lead to abortion.

One of your campaign promises is of grave concern to many pro-life citizens. On January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when speaking of the current right of women in America to have abortions, you said, “And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president.”

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) might well undermine your engagement of pro-life Americans on the question of abortion. It might hamper any effort on your part to work with us to limit late-term abortions. We believe FOCA does more than allow for choice. It may force the choice of a woman upon others, and make them morally complicit in such choice. One concern is that it would force doctors and hospitals which would otherwise choose not to perform abortions to do so, even if it went against their sacred beliefs. Such a law would undermine choice, and might begin the process by which abortion is enforced as a preferred option, instead of being one possible choice for a doctor to practice.

It is because of such concern we write. We urge you to engage us, and to dialogue with us, and to do so before you consider signing this legislation. Let us reason together and search out the implications of FOCA. Let us carefully review it and search for contradictions of those positions which we hold in common.

If FOCA can be postponed for the present, and serious dialogue begun with us, as well as with those who disagree with us, you will demonstrate that your administration will indeed be one that rises above partisanship, and will be one of change. This might well be the first step toward resolving an issue which tears at the fabric of our churches, our political process, our families, our very society, and that causes so much hardship and heartache in pregnant women.

Likewise, you have also recently stated you might over-ride some of President G.W. Bush’s executive orders. This is also a concern to us. We believe doing so without having a dialogue with the American people would undermine the political environment you would like to establish. Among those issues which concern us are those which would use taxpayer money to support actions we find to be morally questionable, such as embryonic stem cell research, or to fund international organizations that would counsel women to have an abortion (this would make abortion to be more than a mere choice, but an encouraged activity).

Consider, sir, your general promise to the American people and set aside particular promises to a part of your constituency. This would indicate that you plan to reject politics as usual. This would indeed be a change we need.

To which I add my name with the others:

Sincerely,

Matthew Hardesty

my post-election homily

Continuing my practice of the 3-year cycle (how to give a homily on the same readings three times in a row), here is my third homily on the "Caesar readings" from Sun Oct 19 (here are the first and second). This also serves as a post-election homily. Let me know what you think. (works consulted: Render Unto Caesar by Archbishop Charles Chaput and Randy Alcorn's blog)

In our Gospel today, the plan of the Pharisees and Herodians seemed fool-proof. First, in an act of false humility, they compliment our Lord’s truthfulness and his disregard for opinion or status. Then, they ask him “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” They figured that if he said “Yes,” then they could discredit him among the Jews as one who advocated Roman rule. But, if he said “No,” then they could report him to the Romans for inciting anti-taxation sentiments. He answered not “Yes” or “No”, but this: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This was much more profound than they expected: “When they heard it, they marveled; and they left him and went away.” But what did Jesus mean by this?

Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Denver, CO, this year wrote a very helpful book in understanding this very thing, I highly recommend it to all of you. It is entitled, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life. I wish I had recommended it to you all sooner, but even though the Presidential election has passed it remains very helpful in understanding the role of Catholics in political life, especially as we move forward. In the book, Archbishop Chaput argues that the very health of our American democracy demands that Catholics engage the political realm with the full breadth of their religions convictions and beliefs. Good citizenship is not one that divorces faith from the public square but instead fights for it respectfully but vigorously and without apology. This is consistent with the Christian roots that are foundational to America’s existence. We can’t separate our private convictions from our public actions without diminishing both. Faithful Catholics make good and faithful citizens. In the words of the Archbishop, “How we act works backward on our convictions, making them stronger or smothering them under a snowfall of alibis.”

The pro-life movement, this past Tuesday, I think suffered a crushing blow. Our president-elect has promised institutions like Planned Parenthood that the first thing he will do as president is pass the Freedom of Choice Act which will eliminate all restrictions on abortion, including informed consent, parental notification, required counseling and ultrasounds, and even the use of taxpayer money to fund abortions. This is cause for much dismay… but we Catholics have never relied solely on political figures to accomplish our good works. We must continue to engage the political realm with our beliefs in healthy debate. And we must take a closer look at paying unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

St. Paul wrote in his first letter to St. Timothy:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Let us pray fervently for our President-Elect that he may come to the knowledge of the truth of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. And let us remember that circumstances change: “Do not boast about tomorrow,” Proverbs says, “for you do not know what a day may bring forth (Proverbs 27:1). But, our Savior does not change: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Therefore we must “Trust God; don't worry; be at peace,” St. John’s Gospel tells us.

Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, [and do not] be afraid. (John 14:1-3, 27)

This passage emboldens us to continue to fight for the unborn and to follow the command of God in the Old Testament: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9). Who but us will speak up for them, a whole class of society with no human rights, with no voice, and one that is snuffed out at the rate of 4000 per day?

In Render Unto Caesar, Archbishop Chaput explains that every four years, around election time, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops releases a Faithful Citizenship document, instructing Catholics on how to exercise their faith in political life. But many, he says, have criticized these documents for being too complex, for trying to tackle every angle of every issue all at once, for only serving to confuse the faithful and allow those who would put all social issues on the same moral plane to do so. The fact is, there exists a hierarchy of truths and those that directly affect life must always be on top. Now, this year’s Faithful Citizenship document, I think, is the best one so far. But, we also have a document from our bishops, which celebrates its 10 year anniversary this year, called Living the Gospel of Life. And this document doesn’t get enough attention. It is not too soon to look ahead to the midterm elections only two years away and even the next presidential election as much as we would like to take a well-deserved breather! Therefore, let us take a look at this document, especially paragraph 23. This is a little lengthy, but please pay close attention:

Adopting a consistent ethic of life, the Catholic Church promotes a broad spectrum of issues… Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing and health care. Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak and marginalized in all those areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to address each of these issues as they seek to build consistent policies which promote respect for the human person at all stages. But being “right” in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the “rightness” of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as “the temple of the Holy Spirit” – the living house of God – then these [issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, etc.] fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. [But] all direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights.

These lessons from our bishops must guide the way we vote in the future. Remember, voting is a political act, to be sure, but it is also a moral act with moral implications and therefore involves faithful Catholics in a very real way.

Between elections though, we must continue to render unto Caesar by praying for our President-elect as I explained before. We owe him our respect and our prayers, our respect for the law, obedience to proper authority, and service to the common good. And Archbishop Chaput explains that respect

is not subservience, or silence, or inaction, or excuse making, or acquiescence to grave evil in the public life we all share. In fact, ultimately, everything important about human life belongs not to Caesar but to God: [we render unto God] our intellect, our talents, our free will; the people we love; the beauty and goodness in the world; our soul, our moral integrity, our hope for eternal life. These are the things that matter. These are the things worth struggling to ennoble and defend. And none of them [come] from [Caesar] or anyone who [succeeds] him.

Finally, “Our task,” St. Ignatius of Antioch teaches us, “is not one of producing persuasive propaganda. Christianity shows its greatness when it is hated by the world.” Therefore let us beg God for “the courage and endurance not only to speak but also to will what is right, so that [we] may not only be called Christian, but prove to be one.”

taking my own advice

It's funny how we (I) can intellectually know how we should so something or what we should do, but then not actually do it. Only four short days ago I posted my second "Caesar homily" with advice that should have kept me from feeling all defeated and bitter today. But giving it another think-thru and meditating on today's readings is pulling me up.

Here's what I said:

In the period of silence after this homily, let us examine ourselves and where we stand with these principles... my brothers and sisters, let us be assured that there is hope. This hope lies not in our vote or our candidate but in Jesus Christ. Our Lord, by being born of a family in Nazareth, sanctified family life and showed us the way to holiness through the family, even today! Did not the Gospel of Luke tell us that with Mary and Joseph, Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man?” Did he not teach us: “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his [soul]?” Jesus is the Way when we have become lost in the political hype. He is the Truth when we have bought the lies of the evil one. And He is the Life when we have fallen to his temptations. In Jesus Christ we are secure and can exclaim with our psalm today “For great is the LORD and highly to be praised; awesome is he, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the LORD made the heavens. The LORD is king, he governs the peoples with equity.”

God's Word after the election

God's Word to us, on the day after the election, from today's first reading at Mass:

Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
among whom you shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life

--from Phil 2:12-18

And I was struck by a couple lines in the Gospel:

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.

In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

-- from Lk 14:25-33

Finally, I was encouraged by one of the intercessions at Evening Prayer today:

[God,] Be mindful of those who devote themselves to the service of their brothers,
do not let them be deterred from their goals by discouraging results or lack of support.
-- May your people praise you, Lord.

Caesar 2.0

A couple weeks ago, I posted my homily for the 29th Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year A. The readings included the popular dictum, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Rather than post a homily for this weekend's readings for All Soul's Day, which I was looking forward to, Fr. Terry asked me to prepare for the 3 year cycle phenomenon. Each year - A, B, or C - has a different schedule of Sunday Mass readings. Combined with the 2 year cycle of daily Mass readings, all four gospels are read every year (and after three years most of the whole Bible is read). The first time you preach on a particular reading you may pick the most obvious explanation... but what about the next year when it comes around again? Ideally, you can't just recycle the old homily, you gotta think of a different approach. So here's my second homily on what I'm affectionately calling "The Caesar readings"

In St. Matthew’s Gospel, a little before our Gospel reading today, Jesus stumped the Pharisees when he asked them where John the Baptist’s authority comes from. They answered cowardly, “we don’t know” and our Lord taught them The Parable of the Two Sons. Since then with each parable the Pharisees have been increasing in anger toward Jesus. Now they decide to return the favor. They “went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.”

Their plan seemed fool-proof. First, in an act of false humility, they compliment our Lord’s truthfulness and his disregard for opinion or status. Then, they ask him “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” They figured that if he said “Yes,” then they could discredit him among the Jews as one who advocated Roman rule. But, if he said “No,” then they could report him to the Romans for inciting anti-taxation sentiments. He answered not “Yes” or “No”, but this: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This was much more profound then the Pharisees expected: “When they heard it, they marveled; and they left him and went away.”

What did Jesus mean by this? Because this passage could be easily misunderstood, let’s look at what Jesus is not saying. He is not saying, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” on one hand, and repay “to God what belongs to God” on the other hand. Jesus is not teaching us the separation of church and state here. The simple word “and” between the two phrases tells us that they should be read together as one. Let us be on the look out for those who would use this passage to advocate the divorce of faith from the public square. Faith and Science, Church and State, are distinct, but should never be separate. Therefore we must pray that more Catholics – who are faithful to Church Teaching – will enter into politics. A Catholic’s faith should inform every aspect of his life, from the home, to the bedroom, to the office, to the voting booth, to the floor of the Senate, and the Oval Office. If we only allow faith to impact the comfortable areas of our life – mass on Sunday, conversations with the pastor, religion class, etc – and not the areas of our life that challenge us, then what is the sense in having faith at all? Our Lord does not want lookwarmness, he wants a faith that is complete and alive. Being personally opposed to sin but supporting it for others is not real faith, it’s a cop-out. Pope John Paul I only reigned for 33 days but still had much wisdom in this regard:

In this same society there is a terrible moral and religious void, he wrote, Today all seem frantically directed toward material conquests: make money, invest, surround oneself with new comforts, live the ‘good life’. Few think also of ‘doing good.’ God – who should fill our life – has, on the contrary, become a very distant star, to which people look only at certain moments. People believe they are religious because they go to church; but outside of church they want to lead the same life as many others, marked by small or big deceits, acts of injustice, sins against charity; and thus they totally lack coherence.

We must pray for a society in which faithful citizenship can harmoniously repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

But, remember, the Pharisees in our Gospel only asked Jesus about Caesar, why did he add the bit about God? I think Jesus is also teaching us here about the religious dimension of man. It is true what Aristotle taught us: “Man is by nature a political animal,” – it is natural for him to be social, to form partnerships, to form cities. But his whole being is not exhausted by his dealings with the cities, his politics. No, human beings have an immortal soul and have God’s law imprinted on their hearts. This soul, nurtured by faith, hope, and love, should inform all that a citizen does, thus making him a faithful citizen. This is why Jesus added the words, repay “to God what belongs to God”. Obedience to civic duties is the responsibility of all who follow Christ as long as these do not conflict with our duties to God. If they do then God’s law wins out in the end. But, when they are in harmony, one’s attention to his civic duties can be a path to holiness.

The Second Vatican Council taught us that:
The laity accomplish the Church’s mission in the world principally by [blending conduct and faith] which makes them the light of the world; [by uprightness in dealings which is an incentive for others] to love the true and the good and which is capable of inducing [them] at last to go to Christ and the Church; by that fraternal charity [which prepares all hearts] for the action of saving grace; [and by personal responsibility] in the development of society, which drives them on to perform their family, social, and professional duties with Christian generosity.

We must realize that our faith has much to bring to the world, to science and to politics. Faith is not an obstacle to the fullest realization of these things, but rather must serve as their guide. Science and technology, guided by faith, recognize the rights of all human beings from the moment of conception; recognize the horror of human cloning and embryonic stem cell research; and recognize that the inherent dignity of our elderly brothers and sisters is not found in the integrity of their biological systems or their functionality, but in their simply being human. Only this type of science can be truly progressive and reach its fullest potential. Science unguided by faith falls into mere ideology, a dominating, ravenous, caricature of what it was meant to be.

Politics, guided by faith, recognizes that marriage, by definition, is between one man and one woman, and this, coupled with its unbreakable bond, guarantees the health of society: it is in the state’s best interest to protect the integrity of marriage, of the family, of the upbringing of children, of Christian education, etc. A Catholic with a well-formed conscience can do much for the common good! But, a society with politics unguided by faith is “at the mercy of aggressive elements and prey to a gradual dehumanization.” Thus we have a society in which the death of 4000 human beings to surgical abortion each day is lauded as freedom and equality; and the destruction of human embryos, tiny human beings, for unsuccessful medical treatments is advanced for political gain rather than real cures. In the Presidential election, only a couple days away, remember that a vote is a political act but it is also a moral act with moral implications.

In the period of silence after this homily, let us examine ourselves and where we stand with these principles. What have we done to bring our Catholic faith to bear on the common good? Are we proud of our faith in some areas, with some people, but reject it in others? Have we abused the gifts of science and technology in our own lives or damaged the larger common good through internet addiction, artificial insemination, contraception, or even abortion? Have we elevated our politics over our faith and become consumed with issues not concerning faith and life themselves but our comforts, our investments, our possessions? If we have done these things, my brothers and sisters, let us be assured that there is hope. This hope lies not in our vote or our candidate but in Jesus Christ. Our Lord, by being born of a family in Nazareth, sanctified family life and showed us the way to holiness through the family, even today! Did not the Gospel of Luke tell us that with Mary and Joseph, Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man?” Did he not teach us: “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his [soul]?” Jesus is the Way when we have become lost in the political hype. He is the Truth when we have bought the lies of the evil one. And He is the Life when we have fallen to his temptations. In Jesus Christ we are secure and can exclaim with our psalm today “For great is the LORD and highly to be praised; awesome is he, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the LORD made the heavens. The LORD is king, he governs the peoples with equity.”

Abp. Kurtz on YouTube Defending Marriage

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the USCCB's website today and saw a press release for a YouTube video my Archbishop has made defending the traditional definition of marriage. Archbishop Kurtz is the chairman of the USCCB's Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_81zsW6U8

Homily 30th Sunday Ordinary Time Year A

Here is the homily I gave to the pastor during our meeting today on the readings for this Sunday. His reply: "But what impact do the readings have on you?"...well...uh...yeah...but...

Works consulted: A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Navarre Bible Commentary, and In Conversation with God.

Last weekend, after our Lord showed the Pharisees and the Herodians the true meaning of faithful citizenship, they marveled and went away. Before our Gospel reading today, the Sadducees who denied the Resurrection, tried to stump Jesus but they too “were astonished at his teaching.” Now the Pharisees will try one last time. Infuriated that he was able to silence the Sadducees, the Pharisees gathered around our Lord and, putting forward their most clever scribe, they asked him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” By calling him Teacher they again show false humility as they did when they asked him about paying taxes to Caesar. “Teacher” was a title used with humility and respect, yet they thought they already knew it all.

With this question they again hoped to stump him. In the old Jewish Law there were 613 laws which the scribes and Pharisees rigidly imposed on God’s people. Their yoke was not easy, their burden was not light. These 613 laws were divided into light and grave offenses with the grave ones being punishable by death. And they were further divided into small and great, with our Lord’s questioner interested only in the greatest of them all. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” he asked.

To this Jesus gave a two-part answer, the first part easily recognizable to any faithful Jew. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” This is a direct reference to Deut 6:5, a prayer called the Shema which is Hebrew for the first word of the prayer: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Faithful Jews prayed this prayer three times a day, every day. Therefore, it’s the second part of our Lord’s response that would have been the most surprising to his audience. Jesus continues, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Here, in an unprecedented way He formally joins love of God to love of neighbor by quoting Lev 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Such a combination of texts is nowhere to be found in the writings of the rabbis down through the centuries. The prevailing Jewish attitude toward non-Jews was of bitter contempt.

In this episode, Jesus again answers the question they should have asked. Earlier when they asked him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” he answered with what should be paid to Caesar and to God. Here they ask him which commandment in the law is the greatest and he gives them the greatest and the second-greatest! The reason he does this is because he understands the true spirit of the Old Law and here he does not wish to separate love of God from love of our neighbor. These two commandments summarize the spirit of the entire Old Testament and of all 613 of its laws. They even summarize the 10 commandments we all know and love today.

True love of God leads us to love our neighbor. St. Thomas Aquinas said, “When man is loved, God is loved, for man is the image of God.” This is also echoed elsewhere in Scripture. The first letter of St. John tells us, “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 Jn 4:20-21). But who is our brother/neighbor?

The Jews, before and during the time of Christ, had a strict interpretation of the term “neighbor.” They had a strong national identity and a bond with each other as the chosen Sons of God, his people set-apart to bring the entire world to Him. Therefore, naturally, “neighbor” was a fellow Jew. But, just as Jesus was the first to formally join the two texts of the Old Testament together, love of God in Deuteronomy to love of neighbor in Leviticus, so was he the first to expand the notion of neighbor beyond their national identity. So who then is our neighbor? A scribe in Luke’s Gospel asked our Lord this very question and he answered with the story of the Good Samaritan.

We all know the story, right? There a Jew is robbed, stripped, beaten, and left for dead. When the Jewish priests and Levites, who were trained in the law and thus more responsible for it, passed him by, finally a hated Samaritan stopped to help. But, he doesn’t just bandage him up and run away even though he could have because there was such hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. No, he poured water and wine on his wounds, took him to an inn, cared for him, and paid for everything. In this story the Samaritan teaches us that our neighbor is everyone in need, friend or enemy. Every person is my neighbor, more particularly the one in need.

This story of the Good Samaritan also teaches what love is and how to love. Christ is the Good Samaritan, the wounded man is the human race robbed and beaten by sin and the devil, the oil and wine are the sacraments and the inn is the Church where we are cared for and where our wounds are healed. Love is not a feeling. Love is not a twinkle in the eye or butterflies in the stomach. Love is an act of the will, to will the good of another whether it feels good or not; to put another’s good before our own. Imagine what it felt like to be the Samaritan. He knew the Jews hated his people and he was in their land. He probably was afraid and wanted to journey as quickly as he could. But, knowing the true spirit of the Old Law himself, and loving God first, he was moved to love his wounded neighbor despite the fact that he was a Jew. And this love had no mushy, buddy-buddy feelings to it. It was probably expensive to use his oil and wine on the man’s wounds but he did it anyway. It was probably difficult and dirty and tiring to dress up his wounds on the side of the road. It probably didn’t feel good and probably took a lot of energy to pick up the man and place him on his horse and then slowly ride him back into town despite the jeers of other priests and Levites who passed by. Then the Samaritan cared for the man all through the night and paid two days wages to ensure that he would be taken care of at the inn while he was gone. This is true love, my brothers and sisters, a love centered on love of God and self-sacrifice. If the Samaritan’s love for the wounded Jew hadn’t come from the overflow of love for God then the Jew would have been an obstacle between the Samaritan and God. It wouldn’t have been true love. And if the Samaritan had waited to feel love before he showed it then he may not have showed it at all. Now, to be sure, when great feelings come with love then they are good and can bring much Joy. But, remember: Love is not a feeling, it is an act of the will.

How do you love God? How do you love your spouse? Your family? Your coworkers? Your classmates? Your friends? Your neighbor? Love God first and you will love the rest. But if you love your spouse first or your family first then your love is out of order. When you love Him then you will be able to love others as He does, as Christ does, with patience and sacrifice. Then you will care for what matters most: the salvation of the souls God has placed in your path. Then like Christ, you will be their Good Samaritan. As you journey, go to where your family, your friends, your coworkers are and bring them to the Inn of the Church where they can be saved by the “oil and wine” of our holy sacraments, a salvation paid for not by two days wages, but with the priceless grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, our rock, our fortress, our shield, our strength.

serving friend's wedding

Last Sat, Oct 11, it was my pleasure to serve the wedding of a good friend, Julia Bauereis, now Julia Walsh at the gorgeous All Saints Catholic Church in Walton, KY. I served with another seminarian, from St. Meinrad, who is a good man and will make a good priest.

The five-year-old new Church is one of the most beautiful new constructions I've ever seen. It was designed by Duncan Stroik, head of the architecture department at the University of Notre Dame.

Below are some pics. I took those of the bride. Those of the Church are from Duncan Stroik's website on the project.

I think she kinda looks like the great Joan Crawford

Here some pics of All Saints:

Homily 29th Sunday Ordinary Time Year A

Here is my homily for this Sunday's readings. I can see me losing the congregation during the first half... it's a little heady. This one would probably be best delivered from bullet-points taken from the text. But... the second half would grab their attention. Too controversial?

Over the last few Sundays, our Gospel readings have been from St. Matthew’s Gospel and parable after parable, Jesus has been putting the Pharisees squarely in their place. Earlier in Matthew, the Scribes and Pharisees approached Jesus and asked him where his Authority comes from. But he replied that he would only answer their question if they could answer where John the Baptist’s authority comes from. Jesus answered them this way because he knew the Scribes and Pharisees had witnessed much of John’s ministry. But, his reply stumped them. The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t know how to answer because if they said that John’s authority came from above then Jesus could scold them for not following John’s “way of righteousness”. But if they said that John’s authority came from mere men then the great multitude of John’s disciples would rise up against them because they regarded him accurately as a prophet. So they answered cowardly, “we don’t know.” At this our Lord taught them The Parable of the Two Sons that we heard a couple weeks ago. Since then with each parable the Pharisees have been increasing in anger toward Jesus. He had stumped them, caught them trapped in their wickedness and so now the Pharisees decide to try to return the favor. They “went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.”

But, their cowardice has increased with their anger for St. Matthew tells us that they sent their own “disciples” to Jesus, rather than engage him themselves. What makes this attempt really devious though is their cooperation with the Herodians. Do you remember in the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, the account of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the Great? He was the king placed over the Jews by the Roman emperor. Upon hearing from the wise men of the birth of the true King of the Jews he sought to kill our Lord but St. Joseph heroically led the Holy Family to safety in Egypt. Although at the time of this conflict with the Pharisees, Herod the Great had been dead for almost 30 years, his successors had maintained a Herodian dynasty over the Jews. The Herodians then were those who were supportive of this dynasty and of Roman rule. But the Pharisees, for all their wickedness and rigid adherence so the law, shared the common conviction that only God is their true king and therefore the Jews should be free from Roman rule. The fact that these two groups would work together toward a common goal would have been unthinkable and shows the true evil of their goal.

Their plan to trap Jesus seemed fool-proof. First, in an act of false humility, they compliment our Lord’s truthfulness and his disregard for opinion or status. But they do not realize that He, who they try to trap in speech, is the Eternal Word of God and Truth Itself. They ask him “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” They figured that if he said Yes, that it is lawful, then he would be discredited among the Jews as one who advocated Roman rule. But, if he said No then they could report him to the Romans for inciting treason and anti-taxation sentiments among his followers. He answered neither though and his answer left them dumbfounded. After they showed him a coin with Caesar’s image and inscription he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Since the coin had Caesar’s image and inscription on it, it belonged to him and could rightly be returned to him with no religious conflict. No big deal. But what is this about God? They didn’t ask him about God, only about Caesar. This is the point and the lesson Jesus taught them in his simple answer: Obedience to civic duties is the responsibility of all who follow Christ as long as these do not conflict with our duties to God. And more importantly, our duties to God come first and if these conflict with civic duties then God’s law wins out in the end. Jesus may have also been making a play on words. Caesar required his subjects to offer him the worship that was due to God alone. Therefore the Jews were greatly offended by the coins which bore Caesar’s image. They regarded it as a graven image forbidden by the First Commandment to have no other gods. In the natural order, the coin made in Caesar’s image and likeness should be returned to him. But in the supernatural order, we who are made in the image and likeness of God should return our whole lives to Him. This our Lord stated objectively to include all men, including Caesar. The depth and meaning of this response threw the Pharisees and Herodians off their plan. “When they heard it, they marveled; and they left him and went away.”

This lesson of our Lord disarmed his enemies. The Truth will always prevail. Therefore this lesson is also true for us, today. We must “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” As Isaiah reminds us, we must remember that God is “the Lord and there is no other.” And, in our Responsorial Psalm we must “tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds. For great is the Lord and highly to be praised; awesome is he, beyond all gods. For all the gods of the nations are things of nought, but the Lord made the heavens.” We must “say among the nations: The Lord is king, he governs the peoples with equity.” But what do we do today if, when repaying to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, we fail to “give the Lord the glory due his name”? What if obeying the laws of the land breaks the laws of God?

Today and in our near future, we are faced with many such dilemmas. For example, our Lord, through the Church’s constant and faithful teaching, warns us against the use of contraception, yet some of our laws are forcing faithful, Catholic, pharmacists to fill these prescriptions or be sued. In some parts of Canada it is illegal for a pastor to preach what the Bible says about homosexual activity and we can see this pressure being exerted in America as well. And in this upcoming election we may be forced with the biggest “Caesar vs. God” dilemma of all. One of the gentlemen running for president of the United States, the Democratic candidate, said on July 17, 2007, “The first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.” Besides eliminating all restrictions to abortion at any stage, this Act would force taxpayers to fund abortions throughout the United States. So here it’s not a matter of giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s on one hand, and then giving to God what is God’s on the other. No, here they are tied together. And it’s not just a matter of inappropriately giving Caesar the priority before God. Here, giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s would at the same time undermine and insult God. God alone has ultimate dominion over life, not Caesar, not the government. What then is a faithful Catholic to do? We have to pay taxes don’t we? That’s one of the constants of life. Can we conscientiously object to paying taxes to avoid funding abortions?

My brothers and sisters, if this Act is signed I’m not sure what we should do. There is something we can do now though, while there is still time. In the next two weeks until the election let us focus on what our priorities really are, on the lessons Christ and his Church has taught us. Let us pray and work now for a society in which faithful citizenship can harmoniously repay to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Let us focus more intently on promoting and believing in the sanctity of preborn human life and on what St. Paul referred to in our Second Reading: a “work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ… For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.”

Homily 28th Sunday Ordinary Time Year A

Below is my homily for this Sunday's readings. My critique: I wanted to use my reflection on Psalm 23 so bad that I sort of artificially plugged it in to the middle of the homily :) And there's a rather lengthy quote of Lumen Gentium... it's all in the delivery!

Do you remember in our Gospel reading last weekend, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants? In that parable a landowner built a vineyard and put tenants in charge of it while he was gone. But when the landowner sent two groups of servants to collect the produce the tenants beat and killed them. Finally, out of great patience, the landowner sent his only son but the tenants seized him, threw him out of the city, and killed him also so that they could acquire his inheritance. In return the landowner put those wretched men to a wretched death and put new tenants over his vineyard. From this we learned that the landowner is God, the vineyard was Israel, the tenants where the Jewish leaders, and the servants that they killed were the Old Testament prophets sent to them to warn them of their sins. Most importantly, the son is Jesus Christ who was also rejected, taken outside the walls of Jerusalem, and crucified. The Jewish leaders were punished when Rome marched on Jerusalem in AD 70 and destroyed the city. And the new tenants are the Apostles placed in charge over the people of the New Covenant. After Jesus told the scribes and the Pharisees this parable they became furious because they realized Jesus was describing them as the wicked tenants. They tried to seize Jesus, just as the parable foretold, but His multitude of believers prevented them.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus follows up that parable with another one of similar meaning, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. Despite their anger towards him, Jesus wishes to drive the point home to the scribes and Pharisees even further. Here, the king is God who prepares a wedding banquet for his son, Jesus Christ. His servants are, again, the prophets sent to summon Israel to the feast. But Israel, the invited guests, refused. So, just as in last week’s parable, the king sent a second group to plea with them to come to the feast. At this point in the story our Lord reveals the disposition of their hearts in a way that he didn’t in the parable before.

In both parables a small group takes it upon themselves to seize, beat, and kill the servants sent to them. But, in this one, Jesus tells us about the wider community of Israel. Outside of the violent minority – the Jewish leaders – are many who, as St. Matthew puts it, simply “ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.” This preoccupation with worldly affairs is the fundamental reason why a vast majority of the Jews rejected Jesus. “Because some of the invited guests ignored the prophets and others killed them, God, again, will destroy their city, Jerusalem, and send other servants as apostles to invite Gentiles this time, good and bad, to the celebration.” From this parable then we can discern two lessons, the First, of Ignorance and the Second, of the Universal Call to Holiness.

When we examine our spiritual lives do we find that we too have been like the invited guests who ignored the invitation to the banquet and busied ourselves in worldly affairs? Our Lord is calling us to Himself in a thousand different ways every day in both natural and supernatural ways. Intimacy with God and eternal life with him is the banquet too which we are called and we have so many means available to us that give a foretaste of that feast. St. Paul said in our second reading that “God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” These “glorious riches” are the banquet of graces available to us in the Church. Through the Sacraments especially we can taste of eternal life but so many of us would rather just shrug our shoulders. Many of us today will taste eternal life when we receive Holy Communion in a few short moments. But at the same time, I’m sure we can all call to mind family members or friends who have fallen away from the Church and haven’t honored the invitation as we have. This can be a great source of pain and frustration, especially after having experienced the new life and joy that these graces bring. Perhaps some of you here have fallen away, but for one reason another found your way here today. I welcome you and encourage you to accept our Lord’s invitation to return to him in sacramental confession so that you may soon partake of the royal banquet of His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

The dignity of this feast, symbolized in our parable by its being prepared by a king, with fattened calves and cattle, and with double-invitations, adds great weight to the error of ignoring it. This is a royal banquet, a wedding feast! And, on top of that, it is freely given! How can we possibly ignore it? In last week’s parable, the servants were sent to collect what already belonged to the landowner, the tenants only had temporary oversight of the produce. But today we hear of this great feast being freely offered to all, if only they respond. We have only to follow the Good Shepherd and he will lead us to eternal life and intimacy with the King. But we must forsake worldly interests for eternal realities in order to follow him.

When I was doing some research for this homily I came across a wonderful reflection on our responsorial psalm, the very famous psalm of our Lord, the Good Shepherd. Did you know that the early Church Fathers have interpreted it as a hymn on the Sacraments? This shows us that throughout salvation history, from the Old Testament psalms to the New Testament letters, God has been constantly, without fail, calling us to Himself. The phrase, “Beside restful waters he leads me, he refreshes my soul”, refers to the waters of Baptism, washing away our sins. “He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake” refers to Confirmation, the sacrament in which we are empowered and lead by the Holy Spirit in a new way. “With your rod and your staff that give me courage” refers to Penance with the rod of absolution empowering us to combat future sin and the staff of priestly guidance helping us to avoid sin’s clever ways. “You spread the tables before me” refers to… you guessed it… the Eucharist, the heavenly banquet which will be prepared for us shortly. “Even though I walk in the dark valley” refers to the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick in which we are given the grace to “fear no evil” and to avoid the “dark valley” of despair. “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” refers to the anointing of Holy Orders, of ordination, and of the chalice overflowing with the Precious and saving Blood of our Lord. Finally, in Matrimony where a man and woman become one with each other and with Christ, “Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.” By finding in our psalm all seven sacraments, we see an image of the entire life of the Church, replete with supernatural ways to follow the Good Shepherd to the heavenly banquet.

But, this multitude of “glorious riches” does not mean that ordinary, natural ways to holiness do not exist. And it does not mean that only a “supernatural, super-holy few” are capable of responding. This leads me to the second lesson I have found in our readings: The Universal Call to Holiness. This teaching was a hallmark of the Second Vatican Council and its document on the Church entitled Lumen Gentium, “the Light of the Nations.” We see this universal call in all of our readings today. In our reading from Isaiah, “the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples” and he draws them together as one nation by destroying the veils and the webs that separate them. In our Responsorial psalm, the Good Shepherd, the Kind Host, spreads the tables before us, even in the sight of our foes. In our second reading, despite the ups and downs of life, and weather we share in each others’ distress or not, the Lord is offering his strength and is ready to supply whatever we need. Finally in our gospel, the invited guests refused and so the servants where instructed to invite whomever they could find. The Jews and Gentiles alike were invited. “Thus,” the second Vatican Council teaches us,

all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness… a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society. In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly as they have received it, as a gift from Christ. They must follow in His footsteps and conform themselves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history. The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one-that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity. (LG 40, 41)

Let us pray with St. Augustine, “Help us, Lord, to disown our vain excuses. We want to attend the banquet… Don’t allow our pride or sensuality or attachments or idle curiosity to get in the way of our attendance. Make sure that we show up… We have been invited by the wealthy one who became poor for our sake… We will come as sick people, since we need the divine doctor to cure our ills. We will come as lame people, and we will tell him: “Keep steady my steps according to thy promise’ (Ps 118:133).”

Homily 27th Sunday Ordinary Time Year A

Like I said, I've been preparing homilies during my pastoral year at St. Athanasius in Louisville, KY. Every Friday I have a supervision meeting with the pastor and during that I present a homily for the following Sunday's readings. Below is the homily I prepared for today. Here's the readings. Works consulted: A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, A Commentary on the New Testament, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and In Conversation with God.

Today, our readings continue, in a very explicit way, the theme of bearing spiritual fruit in the vineyard of the Lord. But, there is another theme emerging as well: one of spiritual protection. If you went to daily Mass last week you will remember that on Monday we celebrated the feast of the archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael. St. Michael is my patron saint and is a good, dear friend of mine. Then on Thursday we celebrated the feast of the Guardian Angels, the guardians, and guides that God so generously has given each one of us. Today we heard of spiritual protection in the first and second reading, the responsorial psalm, and the Gospel! And finally on Tuesday of this week we will celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary: Our Lady being the Queen of Angels and the Rosary being our spiritual sword against sin and evil. The Church has sort of encapsulated us with this theme. Therefore it seems clear to me that the Holy Spirit would like us to contemplate more deeply the protection He has given us as we strive to bear much fruit for God. Let us then look deeper at our readings.

In our Gospel we have another very striking parable, this time the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Did you catch how closely it paralleled with our first reading from Isaiah? In both there is a landowner who plants a vineyard, cultivates it, and protects it and hopes for good fruit to come from it. The landowner is God and the vineyard is Jerusalem. The hedge that was put around it is meant to protect from thieves and wild animals that would destroy the vineyard. St. Ambrose teaches us that the hedge represents divine protection from spiritual predators. Similar in function is the tower that was built as an elevated and sheltered outpost in which one could watch over the land. And the wine press was used to collect the grapes to be prepared for wine. Isaiah adds that the landowner built the vineyard on a fertile hillside, spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines. Thus much hard work was put into it and it was well-prepared to bear much good fruit.

But, the tenants that the landowner put in charge of the vineyard while he was gone were wicked and we hear of the awful things that they did. First it’s obvious that no one trustworthy was manning the watchtower! For when the landowner sent three of his servants to collect the grapes, the tenants seized them and “one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned”! Here the tenants represent Israel’s leaders and the servants are the prophets that they beat, stoned, and killed throughout their history. Whenever the prophets would warn them of their sins, they were often met with violent rejection. But, the landowner, like God, had superhuman patience with the tenants of his chosen vineyard and sent still more of his servants to call them to make an account… “but they treated them the same way.”

Nonetheless, God, the landowner, to show his great love for Israel, his vineyard, sent his last messenger to them, his only Son in the hope that surely “They will respect my son.” “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ This son, of course, is our Lord, Jesus Christ. Just as the landowner’s son threatened their possession of the vineyard and its fruit, so to God’s Son threatened that position of the Jewish leaders and their reign over the souls of God’s people. Finally, we heard that the tenants “seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.” This is a stark reference to the coming crucifixion of Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem. In John’s Gospel we read: “Then [Pilot] handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull… near the city” (John 19:17, 20).

This last point of the parable is where he really nails them down. Jesus asked the chief priests and the elders of the people, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” Rather than provide them the answer, Jesus had a way of drawing in his audience to make the final word and thus realize the full implication of their answer. They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Then they knew exactly what Jesus meant, he was referring to them. And we know that those wretched men were put to a wretched death when Roman troops marched on Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and destroyed the city and the temple. After the parable the Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus but the multitude of his believers prevented them.

Earlier in the Gospels, we see God transferring his kingdom from the leaders of the Old Covenant to the shepherds of the New Covenant when Jesus calls his apostles and especially when he sets up Peter as the rock on which his Church is built. And so we have become the new vineyard and we, with the Son, are the heir of the Father’s riches. But, like the wicked tenants before us, our sins too are intimately related to the death of the beloved Son. We are now expected to render a timely account. Will we yield much good fruit or will we allow sin to yield what Isaiah called “wild grapes,” or what the Hebrew literally means, “stinking things”?

God has prepared us well. We are grown on the fertile hillside of grace. We have the choicest vines, the blood of the grape, the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We are spaded and cleared of the stones of sin through the sacraments of Baptism and Reconciliation. The tenants are our priests and bishops and the watchtower is the Magisterium. Despite all of these things, we can still rise up against the Son through our sins. That is why we must rely on the hedge… Ah, the hedge! Remember what St. Ambrose said about it? Rather than protecting from thieves and wild animals, he said that it represents divine protection from spiritual predators. Can the Lord find abundant fruit in our lives? If we are to bear good fruit then we must ask the Lord for an aversion to sin and protection from sin. We must entreat daily the spiritual protection he has given us… in our guardian angel.

These aren’t nice and fluffy angels that I speaking of. No, this is serious theology, serious spirituality and not something we should feel childish about contemplating. Angels aren’t childish. Everyone from the strongest man here to the smallest child needs the help of his guardian angel. Do you ask your guardian angel for assistance? Have you befriended him? Really he is your closest friend. You are a beloved child of God. He stands before the face of God on your behalf. Do not be afraid to pray to your guardian angel throughout the various trials and joys of your day. Before a test, make the sign of the cross and ask him to help you remain calm. In the dark, ask him to be your companion. When your alarm first goes off in the morning, ask him for courage and hope. When you are tempted to sin, ask him to guard your heart. Before you go to Confession, ask him to kneel beside you. On your way to Communion ask him to help you approach reverently.

And when you get a good grade, make the sign of the cross and thank him for helping you study. And when you get up on time thank him for rousing you. When you face rush hour and the other frustrations of the day with serenity and patience thank him for his strength. When you are able to choose good over evil thank him for his direction. When you make a good Confession, thank him for helping you remember those sins you needed to confess. He is your constant companion and God’s instrument and conduit of grace in your life. At the end of the day, thank God, for such a special friend. With the help of our guardian angels we can grow to overcome even the small sins in our lives and be able to offer to God the fresh grapes of “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever us pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,” and whatever is excellent and worthy of praise – rather than the wild grapes, the “stinking things,” of sin and rebellion.

On Tuesday, the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary, pray that she send you her angels and especially that she let you know your guardian angel. With him, through her, you can at last embrace the Son rather than throw him out. For Christ has told us in John’s Gospel, “He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (Jn 15:5-8). Therefore, let us pray: “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side: to light, to guard, to rule, to guide.” Amen.

Papa

Yunno, in the last seven months since my last post, by far the biggest thing (and one of the best days of my life) that happened was being picked to serve the Holy Father's Mass at Yankee Stadium on April 20. Here is an article from The Record on the day.

(I'm on the far right in this pic)

Archdiocesan priests, seminarians assist at Mass

Marnie McAllister
Record Staff Writer

Priests concelebrate at papal liturgy; 2 seminarians are altar servers

NEW YORK — While the faithful from the Archdiocese of Louisville watched the pageantry of the papal Mass from the Yankee Stadium stands, a group of men from the Archdiocese of Louisville assisted in celebrating Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

Among them were 18 priests of the archdiocese and two seminarians in formation to become diocesan priests.

They prepared for the liturgy in the bowels of the legendary baseball park. The locker room was their sacristy. They gathered there for a prayer before the liturgy — just as countless ball players have done before a big game.

The Yankees’ dugout served as their vestibule.

That’s where local seminarians Christopher Rhodes and Matthew Hardesty were standing when the Holy Father’s popemobile arrived. They were within reach of the vehicle, they said.

“He was two feet away. We were calling, ‘Papa! Papa!’ and he looked down and a huge smile came over his face,” said Hardesty. “We were waving and shouting at him. We were overcome by that. I had tears in my eyes. We felt distinctly and individually blessed by God.”

That was just the beginning of an historic day for the young men who were among a select group of seminarians invited to serve at the papal Mass. Two seminarians from each of the five archdioceses being honored were invited to take part in the liturgy.

In addition, more than 18 priests from the Archdiocese of Louisville took part in the Mass — some concelebrated on the papal platform and others dispensed Communion to the crowd of 60,000 worshippers in the stands.

Rhodes, who attends St. Meinrad School of Theology, said during an interview April 21 that he is still in awe of the experience.

“Who would have guessed that a guy from Texas, converted from a charismatic tradition, would end up in Yankee Stadium in equal view of the pope?” he wondered.

Rhodes traveled to New York on one of the nine buses from the Archdiocese of Louisville. His job during the liturgy was to show the concelebrating priests where to go on the platform and around the altar.

They practiced repeatedly prior to the celebration — while the crowd listened to the “Concert of Hope.” They were prepared to serve with all the pomp and circumstance required by the occasion.

But something changed when the pope came into view of the crowd.

“I was in position, leading the priests in, when all of a sudden, you could hear the crowd,” he said. “We didn’t know what was happening. But they were responding to his entrance.

“We were supposed to act dignified and distinguished,” he said. “But we couldn’t help it. The priests and bishops were pulling out cameras and cell phones, taking pictures. They were like little kids. He (Pope Benedict) is Papa to them, and they were like children so happy to see their father come home to the U.S.”

Hardesty, a seminarian at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, noted that the enthusiasm of the crowd and of the participants in the liturgy was one centered on love. While the frenzy of cameras and uproarious cheers at times had the look and sound of a rock concert, the feelings were motivated by love for the Holy Father, he said, noting that’s an important distinction.

“It really made it something special to be a part of,” he said. “It was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

Hardesty was selected to be a torch-bearer — along with five other seminarians — at the Mass. During the Eucharistic Prayer, he was stationed at the front left corner of the altar.

“During the ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ we knelt there with our torches and were no more than six feet from where the Holy Father was consecrating the Eucharist,” he said. “Being so close was amazing. When the ‘Our Father started,’ we rose and genuflected. That was our big part.”

Hardesty and Rhodes both noted that prior to the liturgy the servers were feeling tense and stressed. But those feelings dissipated when the papal master of ceremony, Msgr. Guido Marini, arrived ahead of the pope, said Hardesty.

Msgr. Marini “was so calm and professional in a situation that can really make you frazzled. He very gently corrected us and told us what to do” during practice.

“Then, just before the pope arrived, he gathered us all together in the sacristy, and he prayed with us to prepare us for Mass. We were so impressed,” said Hardesty. “We felt we were at the feet of a mentor or father. He was like a parish priest.”

The monsignor reminded them, “It’s not about getting caught up in how you look; it’s about reverence and worship of Christ in our midst,” said Hardesty. “And he asked us to pray for him. We were really touched by that. You would think in a liturgy of that scope you wouldn’t have time for that.

“It helped us to calm down and focus on the fact that this is for the glorification of God and not because it’s on EWTN or Fox,” he said.

Among the priests from the Archdiocese of Louisville who concelebrated Mass with the pope were Fathers William Hammer and Charles D. Walker, both members of the archdiocesan college of consultors, and Franciscan Father Dismas Veeneman, pastor of St. Paul Church.

Father Walker, associate pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Church, said he saw Pope John Paul II on three occasions. So a papal event was nothing new.

But the experience at Yankee Stadium was the first opportunity he’s had to concelebrate Mass with a pope.

“It was much more special than I thought it would be,” he said, noting that the pope came within about 10 feet of him when he came onto the platform. “At other papal Masses I’ve been to (there have been) 700,000 or a million (people in attendance).

“I had Mass last night at Our Lady of Consolation,” he said during an interview late Sunday night at JFK Airport. “I had the same readings and prayed the same prayers. But they meant more to me today. They had more impact.”

Father Walker and Father Hammer, pastor of the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral and St. Michael Church in Fairfield, Ky., said they could feel the spirit of the Archdiocese of Louisville contingent raining down from the stands as they cheered for the Holy Father.

Father Hammer was on the front row of concelebrants seated to the left of the altar, and the pope came within three feet of him, he said.

“It was an incredible experience,” said Father Hammer. “The spiritual energy you draw from the Holy Father is a once in a lifetime experience. People use that term a lot. But it was a singular experience.

“I had a sense I was part of something much bigger than anything I was participating in,” he added. “I felt very much connected to the people back in Bardstown and Fairfield. I told them I would take their spirit with me.”

Father Veeneman said the experience was “pretty amazing.” It was his first papal Mass, and he was surprised to find himself in a second-row seat, he said.

“It was a special occasion for Louisville, and I felt honored to be a part of that,” he said during a bus ride to John F. Kennedy Airport following the liturgy. “Celebrating the Eucharist with the Holy Father is a whole different experience — (considering) who he is and who he represents.”

Other priests who took part in the celebration included: Fathers Joseph Atcher, Bernard Breen, Michael Casagram, Philip Erickson, James Kent, William Medley, Pius Poff, Joseph Rankin, Nick Rice, Joel Rogers, David Sanchez, John Schork, Jeffrey Shooner, Thomas Smith, J. Mark Spalding, Charles Thompson and Abbot Damien Thompson of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Nelson County, Ky.

comeback

Wow, it's been 7 months since I've posted here... anyone still out there? (cue crickets) My brother just made his comeback from a 2 month absence with a beautiful paper on...beauty, so I'm motivated to do the same. Plus, this guy has kinda inspired me...

I'll mention briefly the major things that have happened in the last 7 months (like serving the Holy Father at Yankee Stadium!) and may post my homilies that I'm preparing during my Pastoral Year. I'm giving them to the pastor on a weekly basis one-on-one and sometimes to the staff. I have a really good parish assignment.

In Jesu, per Mariam,
Matt Hardesty

Five Rules of Engagement

In my Preaching I class we are beginning to practice giving homilies on readings from the Lectionary. This has been a very rewarding experience. Today I gave a practice homily on this Sunday's readings. I may post it here... Anyway, next Sunday is recognized as Laetare Sunday in the old liturgical calendar and so I mentioned in the beginning of my homily what that meant. I said Laetare is a Latin word for "Rejoice!" taken from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon. I mentioned that in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass one could hear this antiphon chanted toward the beginning of the Mass. This got me thinking about the Extraordinary Form and I remembered a wise post by Fr. Z in regards to the run-up to the motu proprio back in June. He called it Five Rules of Engagement or, rather, how to best approach the document. I wholeheartedly agree with these so to make sure I don't lose it I'll post them here:

Fr. Z’s 5 Rules of Engagement for after the Motu Proprio is released:

1) Rejoice because our liturgical life has been enriched, not because "we win". Everyone wins when the Church’s life is enriched. This is not a "zero sum game".

2) Do not strut. Let us be gracious to those who have in the past not been gracious in regard to our "legitimate aspirations".

3) Show genuine Christian joy. If you want to attract people to what gives you so much consolation and happiness, be inviting and be joyful. Avoid the sourness some of the more traditional stamp have sadly worn for so long.

4) Be engaged in the whole life of your parishes, especially in works of mercy organized by the same. If you want the whole Church to benefit from the use of the older liturgy, then you who are shaped by the older form of Mass should be of benefit to the whole Church in concrete terms.

5) If the document doesn’t say everything we might hope for, don’t bitch about it like a whiner. Speak less of our rights and what we deserve, or what it ought to have been, as if we were our own little popes, and more about our gratitude, gratitude, gratitude for what God gives us.

update from the sick bed

Ugh... sniffle...caugh... since I've had the flu since Thursday and its still going strong, I figured now is the best time to update the 'ol blog. Several people asked me about it over Christmas break so I want to reassure you that I am still in formation (!) and am still interested in keeping the blog going.

Because I haven't posted since September '07 I wanna share a few of the more memorable moments of the end of last semester.

First, Loaves & Fishes. This is a community service the seminary offers on a monthly basis. Friday afternoon several guys help assemble hundreds of sandwiches. Then on Saturday afternoon a group of 3 or 4 guys goes out in a van with the sandwiches, large containers of soup, and a huge load of clothing collected over time. We then just simply go where the homeless are in Baltimore and give it all away. I had wanted to to this for a while but just never got around too it. I'm glad I finally did because it was a very valuable experience and opened my eyes to the extent of homelessness in downtown Baltimore. One of the 4T deacons went with us and I'll never forget him giving away the hat and gloves off his own body to the homeless when we ran out of them.

Second, a Lifeteen Mass at St. John's, Westminster here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Now, personally, this isn't the type of Mass that I prefer. But, I wanted to go for a few reasons. One, who knows, I could be assigned when, God-willing, I'm ordained to a parish in Louisville that offers this kind of Mass. Second, I've been a fan of St. John's since I've been in seminary here in Baltimore: they have a saintly monsignor as pastor, a beautiful new construction, and are known for good liturgy. And Third, one of my best friends Dan Hoffman is the head of a team of guys assigned to that parish as part of our pastoral formation program.

I have to give the Lifeteen movement credit. They were reprimanded for being a little too loose with the liturgy and have really worked hard to correct themselves while still maintaining their core, youth-oriented, identity. I was impressed by this Mass. The hymns were contemporary and utilized a band but there was no sense of performance and everything was very tastefully done. The church was filled with high schoolers and young adults who sang loudly but were also very reverent: purposefully genuflecting toward the tabernacle, bowing at the proper time during the Creed, kneeling in prayer after receiving Communion, etc. It was a model lifeteen Mass.

Third, during the first week of my Christmas vacation I went on a Charismatic men's retreat! My younger brother Andrew, praise be to God, over the last few years has really grown alot in his faith. Since becoming the D.R.E. at his parish in Owensboro he has worked very hard with his pastor in developing this retreat. He was very excited about it and really wanted my twin brother and I to go and I wanted very much to support him. Again, I typically don't identify with the charismatic movement but it has been affirmed by the Vatican and is a good movement. It too has undergone reform, here to avoid Pentacostalism. So I thought "hey I'll give it a try".

It was actually a very good retreat, led by the pastor of my brother's parish and several of the young adults involved in the retreat's development. My brother even gave one of the talks and I was very proud of him. The retreat centered around the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge and what they call "the battle over men's hearts." The talks and many excellent scriptural reflections focused on the obstacles men encounter that keep them from becoming authentic men after Jesus Christ.

One memorable activity: There were about 20 guys who participated and we were each given "clay pigeons" on which we wrote obstacles to true Christian masculinity - laziness, anger, lust, etc. We then took them out to a field behind the retreat center where they were loaded in a thrower. The one manning the thrower would yell out the obstacle written on the loaded clay ("Lust!") and pull the trigger. Then two men armed with shotguns would blow them out of the air... very gratifying. It took me about 8 shots before I could hit one of the clays, but then, I must say, I turned into a bit of a crack-shot ;)

By way of prayer there was a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament exposed, much praise and worship music, and a "prayer ministry" in which the guys would lay hands on one who came forward and pray for and with him as he vocalized his intentions before God to overcome obstacles in his life that kept him from being a Christ-like man. I didn't feel comfortable participating in the "prayer ministry" part of the retreat but I admit it was a pretty powerful experience. Oh... and at the end of the retreat we each got for-real swords to symbolize the spiritual warfare in which all Catholic men are engaged... suhhh-weeet.

Next time I'll post a bit on my Christmas break and on planning the seminary's trip to the recent Vigil Mass, Holy Hour, and March for Life in D.C.

ugh...sniffle...caugh...

In Jesu, per Mariam,
Matt1618