Saintly Instructors

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Catholics are not generally known for their knowledge of Scripture.  This is particularly sad because the entire New Testament was written by Catholics, guided by the Holy Spirit.  But still, Catholics do not do well in Bible memorization compared with our Protestant brothers and sisters. 

Still, if there’s one passage from Scripture that every Catholic knows, it is certainly the passage from today’s Gospel: “‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…[and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Not a bad quote to have memorized, as “‘the whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’”

But, we have to admit, the Law of Love, as it has come to be known, is pretty broad.  It lacks a certain amount of details.  What if I think that it’s perfectly fine, even if I’m not sick or homebound, to sit in my back yard all day Sunday, admiring God’s beautiful creation, but never going to Mass?  Is that loving God with my whole heart, soul, and mind?  Some would certainly say so, though probably not those who are here, because they’re probably outside, in their back yards, admiring God’s creation instead of coming to Mass.  But who’s to say?  Or what if I think that it’s quite loving to steal a little bit of money on an irregular basis, because I need the money more, and my large company won’t really miss it; they have enough profit without this little bit of cash?  Is that loving my neighbor as myself? 

Certainly, if this were the only thing Jesus had said, then we could rightfully critique his vagueness.  But, of course, we have the rest of Scripture which helps us to know exactly what is the loving thing.  We hear a little bit about that in the Book of Exodus, as God tells us that loving our neighbor means not oppressing the foreigners, widows, or orphans, because their cries to God are precious and are always heard, and God will repay.  We certainly also have the Church, the Body of Christ, which teaches with Jesus’ authority on earth as to what we should or should not be doing, believing, etc.  It is the Church’s particular mission to guide Her children, that is, us, into a life of truth and holiness.  And in order to do this effectively and without error in matters of faith and morals, Christ gives a special charism, a special gift, to His Church, so that she never errs in faith or morals so that we can have a true compass to help us to know what exactly it means to love God and love our neighbor.

But another guide comes from our second reading.  St. Paul states that the Thessalonians became imitators of him and of the Lord.  St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians also said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  St. Paul puts himself out there as a model to be followed, because he is modeling his life on Jesus.

We have tons of options for role models today.  We have American Idols, athletes, actors and actresses, musicians, family members, and many others.  And while I would certainly encourage us to learn follow the example of our secular role models when they are worth following (when they are living according to the Gospel), as Catholics we have family members, long since dead in many cases, who say to us by their deeds, if not by their words, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

St. Monica & St. Augustine

These role models that we should have, these Catholic ancestors of ours, are the saints.  They are the true role models, the people that we should truly be following.  Many years ago it was “Christian cool” to have a bracelet that said WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?  But, as Catholics, we could have just as easily had bracelets that said WWMD—What Would Mary Do? or WWPD—What Would Peter Do? and those are only two saints.  Each day of the year the Church puts before us a saint: some we celebrate at Mass, others are more local saints and never get big celebrations.  But all of them help us to know what it means to love God and love our neighbor. 

St. Thérèse

      Are you a mother or grandmother whose children have fallen away from the faith and lived not such a holy life?  Look to St. Monica, who won the conversion of her son, St. Augustine, by her tears after Augustine had wondered into just about every main heresy, had a child or two out of wedlock, and was far away from home for a while.  Are you a young man who loves adventure and the outdoors?  Look to Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was secretly very generous to the poor, and who loved to explore God’s beautiful creation (while still attending Mass on Sundays), and whose famous phrase “Verso l’alto” means to climb towards the top, to be the best not only in competition, but especially in love of God and of neighbor.  Are you daddy’s little princess?  Look to St. Thérèse, who was her dad’s princess, and knew that, although she could never do big things in her life, she still wanted to do small things with great love.

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

The Church is full of the example of saints who show us in their own circumstances how to love God and love our neighbor, according to their state in life: whether priest, deacon, wife, husband, king, queen, poor person, wild person, religious, child, you name it.  They are models to us of a life of holiness, sometimes after very sinful parts of their life.  The more we read about the lives of the saints, the more we will understand in any given situation what it means to truly love God and truly love our neighbor as ourselves because we will have learned how saints have loved in similar circumstances.  And then, if we love God and love our neighbor, then maybe others, centuries from now, will look to us for help from heaven, to show them what it means to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  All holy men and women of God, pray for us!!

We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            On a warm, fall day, as today will be, there’s nothing quite like getting a little ice cream to cool down; to walk into a parlor and then choose a flavor that will explode in your mouth at the same time that it cools you down.  But then, there’s the real dilemma: what flavor is best?  What flavor do you want today?  Luckily, many places give you a little spoon with a small helping of the different flavors to figure out which one you want.  They give you a little taste.

            What we are engaged in right now is a small plastic spoon of the good things to come.  No, we’re not providing ice cream for you today after Mass.  But our readings all talk about a great feast that is to come.  Isaiah talks about the mountain of the Lord where there will be “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.”  Our Responsorial Psalm mentions how the Lord will “spread the table before me.”  And in our Gospel passage we hear Jesus talking about how God is preparing a wedding feast and inviting people to that feast.  These images of the feast all refer to heaven, the goal for which hopefully we’re all striving.  If we are faithful disciples and live according to God’s law of love of Him above all else and our neighbor as ourselves, than we can look forward to enjoying heaven, as one enjoys a sumptuous feast or a nice, cold, ice cream cold on a hot day.

            But, getting back to what I said earlier, we don’t have to wait until heaven to start to experience this feast.  We get a foretaste of the feast of heaven in the Mass.  Our Mass is that little taste of ice cream that you get to make sure you know what you want.

            Think about the first reading again.  Isaiah first talks about the mountain of the Lord.  A mountain is a high place that is visible for all in the surrounding area to see.  Our churches are usually built at an elevated level, or with high steeples to stand, like a mountain, in the midst of the world.  And even if the exterior structure is not built up for all around to see, as we enter into the Church space, the nave, our eyes should immediately go to a raised area, the sanctuary, which stands in a particular way as the mountain of the Lord, a reminder of the mount of Calvary, where the one perfect sacrifice took place, that same sacrifice which is re-presented for you today.  It is that sacrifice on that mountain, made present once more for us now, that destroys the veil that veils all people and destroys death forever.  This sanctuary is the mountain of the Lord, where God reveals Himself, just as He did on Mount Sinai, as the people gather at its base to worship Him.

            This is also where the Eucharistic Table, the Altar, is prepared.  This is where the best food, the choicest wine, the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of Jesus Christ is prepared under the appearances of bread and wine.  Christ Himself, through me, His minister, prepares the feast for the People He has won by His Blood and made His own.  He sets the table before us, even though, by our sins, we have made ourselves enemies of God.  Christ receives the bread and wine we offer, simple gifts, really, and changes them so that they are no longer bread and wine, but are substantially changed into His Body and Blood, and not just for this liturgy, but afterwards as well.  This is the feast on the mountain of the Lord.  This is the wedding feast to which we are invited.  In late November, when we start using the spoken words of the new translation, we’ll have the opportunity to see this more clearly.  Because while the priest currently says, “Happy are those who are called to his Supper” as the Body and Blood of Christ are shown to the people, in Advent of this year the priest will say, “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb,” an allusion to Revelation 19:9, referring to the wedding feast that the Bridegroom, our Bridegroom, Jesus, has prepared for us, His Church, His Bride.

            Here, in this feast of faith, this Mass, we come together, those of us in humble circumstances, those of us in abundance; those of us are well fed, and those of us who are hungry; and we unite in our worship of God.  We receive the grace to do all things in Christ, who strengthens us, as God supplies our deepest need for His love and His presence among us.

            But, we need to come properly dressed.  And while I do think we can always examine if we’re giving our best to God in terms of what we wear, I’m not talking about exterior clothing.  In baptism, we all heard, even if we don’t remember it, “you have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ.  See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity.  With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.”  How are we doing at keeping that interior baptismal garment pure white?  Are we helping our family and friends to keep it that way?  Are they helping us to keep it unstained?  That is the proper wedding garment of the elect, those chosen by God.  Just as we wouldn’t show up for a wedding celebration in sweatpants, hair all disheveled, dirt on our face, so we should approach this feast with the interior wedding garment a pure white, a sign of our response to the grace of God and the avoidance of sin.  And if we get a few spots on that garment from sin, we have the great sacrament of reconciliation to wash that garment clean once more in the blood of Christ and to reunite ourselves to His grace.  Between our two sites here, we offer 6 different opportunities for reconciliation, and we priests will gladly set up a different time if none of those times work.

            We have been invited to the mountain of the Lord, to the feast of heaven in this Mass.  May we keep our baptismal garments clean for the wedding feast of the Lamb, so that we might be invited in.  Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb.

You're Sick

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Context helps us to understand the meaning of a situation that could be interpreted in a number of ways.  For example: if I were to say, “You’re sick” to a person who has a runny nose, cough, and looks exhausted, I mean that the person should get some rest because he or she has an illness.  If I were to say those same two words, “You’re sick” to a person who eats rotten cheese, I mean that the person has some disgusting habits.  If I say, “You’re sick” to a football player who just returned a punt for a touchdown, I mean that the person is amazing.  Without the context, “You’re sick” can mean a number of different things. 

            We need some context to understand today’s Gospel passage better.  The parable is not too mysterious.  And yet, as we know the context, we understand it better.  A first bit of context comes from when this parable is told.  Earlier in this same chapter 21, Jesus arrived triumphantly into Jerusalem, receiving the messianic shouts of “‘Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest’”, similar words to those we sing to usher in the Eucharistic prayer.  Earlier in this same chapter, Jesus cleanses the temple by throwing out those who were selling animals and exchanging money and says that those who are engaging in such things are making the house of God a “‘den of thieves’”, quoting both Isaiah and Jeremiah.  The Pharisees have questioned Jesus’ authority to do all of this, and Jesus asks them about John the Baptist’s authority, which silences the chief priests and the elders.  And now we come to this parable. 

            Another important part of the context is actually supplied by our first reading.  Jesus’ parable of the vineyard mirrors the same parable that Isaiah gave to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.  In that parable, God accuses the people of not taking care of the vineyard He has entrusted to their care.  This vineyard is the faith God had given to Judah.  God cleared the vineyard (the land flowing with milk and honey) of the stones (the foreign nations), planted the choicest vines (the good seed of the Word of God), built watchtowers (the judges and prophets) so that he could harvest good grapes (the results of the faith of the people).  But instead he received wild grapes (infidelity, idolatry, injustice), or, as the Hebrew word might more closely be translated, rotten grapes.

            Jesus takes the parable, familiar to the crowd, and twists the message a little.  He still talks about how God has been so good to Israel by giving it a land flowing with milk and honey, clearing out the foreign nations, and giving them the Word of God, especially through the prophets.  But God also sends servants (prophets) like John the Baptist who are to make sure that only the good grapes grow.  These servants are beaten and killed by the tenants of the vineyard.  So the landowner sends his son to them, thinking, “‘They will respect my son’”, but even the son is killed by the tenants.  When Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders (the tenants) what should be done, they advocate putting those “‘wretched men to a wretched death’” and giving the vineyard to new tenants.  While Jesus does not put those chief priests and elders to death, because His mercy is much more expansive than human mercy, he prophesies giving the vineyard into the hands of the Gentiles, who will produce good grapes at the proper time.

            The question for us is whether or not we are good tenants, good stewards of what God has given to us.  Have we produced good grapes which yield good wine, or have we produced wild, rotten grapes which are good for nothing?  The question of our stewardship is an important one. 

            At this point, maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Stewardship.  Great!  Father’s going to ask us to give more money.”  And certainly, I would not refuse your generosity to the parish.  Catholics, on average, give only about 1-2% of their yearly income to the Church.  But stewardship is not just about money.  We usually use three Ts to talk about stewardship: time, talent, and treasure.  Notice that treasure is at the end.

            God gives us so many gifts, more than we deserve.  He gives our faith and salvation through Jesus.  He gives us talents that help us to praise His glory, find employment, and assist others.  He gives many of us good salaries, even in these difficult economic times.  We deserve none of it.  And yet God gives us His good gifts anyway.  If we are grateful for those gifts, then we should thank Him, not only by our words, but also by our actions.  Otherwise we are ungrateful for the gifts, and produce rotten grapes. 

            Stewardship is a way of life.  It is a response to the generosity of God.  If we are generous with our time then we’re not simply punching the clock at Sunday Mass, hoping for a short homily so we don’t have to spend more than 60 minutes in the Church, but try to focus time each day on our relationship with God, the most important relationship we have.  If we are generous with our talents then we take stock of the many ways in which we can build up our community for good by using those skills that God has blessed us with to preach the Good News, to help others in need, to spend time volunteering for the Church.  And yes, if we are generous with our treasures, then we do take stock of how much we’re donating to the Church.  I am overwhelmed by the generosity of some of our members who contribute large percentages of their income for the good of this Catholic community.  For you students, that may mean putting in a dollar or two or five each week.  For others it means giving more.  But the point is good stewardship, not a dollar amount.

            The Diocese of Wichita in Kansas is usually held up as a model for stewardship.  Their local church is invested in using well the time, talents, and treasure that God has given to them.  Because of this, their participation is up in parishes, and Catholic schools are free to any registered Catholic in the diocese.  When we are good stewards, the impossible becomes reality.  Let’s rise to the challenge to produce good grapes and be good stewards of the many gifts God has given to us.  Let’s be the good tenants to whom God can entrust his vineyard.