Damned if you do

September 18th was the ninth anniversary of my ordination. Since I work with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary I asked if I might assist at mass. Fr. Shawn agreed and suggested that I preach. The post that follows is my homily from that day. It is on the gospel of the day, Luke 7:31-35.

 

 

The phrase “you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t” must have come from this gospel.  Jesus describes to his detractors their own hypocrisy, and to his followers, then and now, the cost of discipleship.

 

To be a Christian, to listen to the will of God, to live the life and walk the walk, to be the prophet proclaiming good news to a world not willing to listen, brings with it a measure of sacrifice.  If we follow Christ we can expect to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered and in some cases killed.

How we react to persecution, regardless of how subtle or how overt, is the true test of our faith. As that first reading tells us, “we must know how to behave in the household of God.” We must know how to behave as HIS children not fighting evil with evil, fire with fire but overcoming evil with good, hatred with love, hard-heartedness with forgiveness; to speak out for Christ, to cry out for justice in an unjust society without regard of the cost.

In 404 AD an Egyptian monk named Telemachus visited Rome and the Coliseum. He was appalled at the savagery and the bloodshed that he witnessed in those Gladiatorial games. As an eyewitness to the injustice of it all he was moved to cry out for it to stop “in the name of Christ.” The crowd became enraged and he was stoned to death right there.

Three days later the Emperor Honorius stopped the gladiatorial games for good.

Speaking out that day as the Lord’s prophet in the Coliseum; being the  voice of one “crying out in the wilderness,” cost Telemachus his life, yet in doing so he defeated evil with good and saved countless other men their lives in that very arena and others arenas throughout the empire.

As we are fed by God’s word and by his precious body and blood let us go forth from this place today courageous as lions but gentle as lambs changing the world by proclaiming to all who will listen the love of God poured out to all humanity in Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord. And let us do so regardless of the cost.

 

 

Homily on Mark 6:34-44

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Let’s set the stage for what’s happened in today’s gospel. Jesus had sent out the apostles into the country side to preach repentance, to heal the sick and to drive out demons.

Meanwhile, back at the palace, Herod had John the Baptist’s head given to Herodias on a platter.

The apostles came back all excited about what they were able to do and found Jesus surrounded by all kinds of people coming and going.

Jesus and the apostles had all been so exhausted and busy from the work that they were doing that they didn’t even have time to eat. They were tired from ministry, grief stricken at John's death, they were hungry and weary so Jesus gave everyone permission to rest. “Let’s go someplace quiet where we can re-group, pray, fill our tanks.” “let’s go for a sail.”

The thing about sailing is you’re not in a hurry. Sailing is a leisurely form of transportation. It all depends on the wind and the current. It’s calming. It’s relaxing. Not a bad way to start a day off, maybe catch a couple fish for dinner.

Now, the people saw Jesus leave and figured out where he was going, so with great haste went there ahead of him. These were the town’s people; the villagers; the farmers; shopkeepers; the common folk. People like us.

I like to imagine what that might have looked like to the people still in the fields tending their flocks or tilling the soil, masses of people hurrying someplace. They must have stopped what they were doing to ask what was going on. Hearing Jesus was coming they went with  others to meet him. Curiosity might have just driven some of them to just follow the crowd, kind of like people who run to see a fire or an accident. They want to know what’s going on. They want to be part of the action. And so the towns, villages and fields along the way emptied out until everyone was on the shore waiting for the arrival of Jesus Christ Superstar.

It seems to me that these people were hungry long before the sun began to set, way before the apostles brought it Jesus’ attention. And it wasn’t bread and fish they were hungry for.

• They were starving for Jesus.

• They were craving the word of God – the Word Made Flesh dwelling among us

• They were thirsty for good news

• They longed to be filled with grace

• They needed to be loved and cherished

• They had no direction or leadership – nothing to live for or look   forward to but a life of oppression.

But, these people had had a taste of Christ and it made them hungry for more. So when they knew where to find Jesus they hurried to get there.

Now Jesus and the poor apostles just wanted a little time to themselves. But what did they find? A field filled with everyone for miles around. The Lord’s heart was filled, we are told, with compassion. It was something he felt in his gut. It was heart wrenching. Compassion is a typical Old Testament quality attributed to God. Compassion is God’s merciful love. It’s different than sympathy; it’s not just feeling bad for someone. Compassion moves us to action. What action did Jesus take? “He taught them, he taught them many things.”

Wouldn’t you love to know what they learned that day, what it was that could hold the attention of that many people for so long; things about the Father, about grace and holiness, our place in the universe, forgiveness of sin, scripture. They found God’s word, coming from the mouth God’s Word.

"When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart." Jer. 15:16

They had found God’s word, they were soaking it in and it filled their hearts with joy and happiness.

 

On the other hand, I don’t think the apostles had the same reaction to the crowd as Jesus, I’m not sure they were filled with compassion. On the contrary, I think they were kind of ticked off that their alone time with Jesus had been taken from then. They may not have been paying attention to what Jesus was teaching because they were so distracted by their own pettiness. So they figured out a nice “compassionate” way to get rid of the crowd. “Send them away, so they can buy something to eat in the villages and farms.” They must have forgotten that it was the villagers and farmers who were sitting in front of them.

Now it’s time for the disciples to learn a lesson.

“You give them something to eat.” “Serve them.” “I’ve been feeding them with my word, now you give them something.”

“Are we supposed to spend 200 days wages on THEM?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“All we have is five loaves and two fishes.”

“Give them that, give them everything you have (that’s what I do) then trust me.”

That’s the lesson for us isn’t it? We Christians must be ready to give everything in service to the gospel, our time, our talent, our treasure; and not just 10% either, but everything, if necessary. Being in service to the gospel of Christ might mean we’ll have to change our plans. It could be costly. We might have to give up more than we want to – maybe everything. It may cost us our lives.

But this miracle, this foreshadowing of the Eucharist, promises us that even when we give every last bit, every ounce, even when we empty ourselves completely at the service of Christ and others, what is left over is even more than what we started with.

We are an apostolic people, an apostolic church. We are a people sent out as the twelve were so many centuries ago to preach the good news, heal, to teach, to be the expression of God’s immense love proven to us by the life, death and resurrection of His only Son, and we are sent to invite the hungry throngs to feast at the table of God’s word and of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

May we accept that call to be apostles tonight. Christ has given us the authority and power to accept this undertaking. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit for the courage we need so that through our efforts people will find the Word made Flesh dwelling among us and that He will become the joy and happiness of their hearts.

Homily for Trinity Sunday

Homily for Trinity Sunday 2010

Deacon Joseph E. MacDonald

May 30, 2010, 9AM Mass St. Ann’s

I could stand here this morning and talk about how three can be one. I can use all the analogies that have been used through the ages, like Saint Patrick’s shamrock or I could make up my own. The thing is, that greater minds than mine have tried to explain the trinity and some have committed heresy in the process. But I have no intention of committing heresy today.

The trinity is something we have to accept on faith because it’s beyond our human experience. We could, and should, prayerfully reflect on this mystery for our entire lifetimes and still there would be room to reflect more because the mystery of God is so vast, so eternal, that our finite minds can never fully comprehend it.

But let me take one line from the First Letter of John. It is one that we’ve all heard many times, perhaps so many times that we’ve become deaf to its meaning: “God is love.”

Love doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There has to be an object of love, someone to whom love is given. God, who existed before all of creation, being the essence of love, must have given that love to someone.

God, who we call Father, loves the Son, who is also God, so completely, that as the Gospel pointed out this morning, He gave everything to the Son. And the Son, loves the Father so completely that he gives everything back again. The love that flows between Father and Son exists in God the Holy Spirit. God is Love and God is three. God is the perfect communion, the perfect union of persons.

Why is that important? Why is it necessary for us to understand what it means more than to understand how it can be? Because we are made in God’s image and likeness and if this unity exists in God, then because we are made in his likeness it’s something that’s natural also to us. It’s something within our reach and it’s something that we instinctively strive for.

If three can be one - then two can be one in the sacrament of Marriage. Christian marriage reflects the unity of the Blessed Trinity. “What God has joined let no one divide.” And just as the eternal love of Father, Son and Spirit spilled over into the marvel of creation, so too marital love has a share in the creative vocation. The love that exists between Mothers and Fathers produces children. This family, mother, father and child form a kind of human trinity. It’s not perfect. But the ideal is there, a love so complete that it empties itself for the sake of the other.

In a few minutes we’ll come forward to receive Holy Communion, the sacrament of unity. We know that when we receive the Eucharist we become one with Christ and Christ with us. What we often forget is that the words of the priest, deacon or other minister of communion is somewhat ambiguous. We don’t say “the body of Jesus” or “This is Jesus,” we say “the body of Christ.” In baptism we are baptized into Christ, we are joined to the body of Christ, the church. So, when we say “Amen” at communion we’re saying yes not only to Jesus but to the whole church and what she teaches. We say Amen to each other. If two can be one and three can be one then so too the hundreds who worship here every weekend are one; millions of Christians throughout the world are one and those who have gone before us in faith or that will come after us are also one. The same unity that exists in the Blessed Trinity exists between all of us through the Eucharist. Young and Old are one. Conservative and liberal are one. English speaking, Spanish speaking and Chinese speaking, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, people of every nation, race and tongue are one in Christ and with each other. Holy Communion is not so much about God and me as about God and we.

Jesus himself, on the night of that first Eucharist lifted his heart and voice to the Father with these words: “I pray… that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”

Jesus wants humanity to recognize that he IS the one sent to redeem the world and that people will come to recognize and believe in him through our unity with each other and with Him. We are the sign of that unity, that Trinitarian unity. We give it flesh. How the world sees that unity lived out in our faith communities is our shared vocation. Does what the world see in us, draw people closer to the Lord or drive them away? Does it draw them toward that perfect union that Jesus prayed for or does our failure to live what we believe so scandalize others that it blinds them to the treasure that God wants them see?

Today’s Gospel tells us that everything of the Father has been given to the Son and that through the Holy Spirit the Son gives everything to us. Nothing is held back – there is no selfishness in the Trinity. God who is Father, Son, and Spirit is not afraid of being left empty handed. God is not concerned that He will have less if he gives everything away or that he will BE less if someone else gets more. What better model of this than the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

This is our example. This is our calling and our mission statement. To live in perfect union with each other and our God; To love completely; to give generously; to become less so others can become more; to live in a way that brings people to faith. When we do this, the word of God we just read in Proverbs will come to pass - God will take delight in the human race.

Meditation

This entry was written April 26, 2010

I got the idea from morning prayer today... "The Lord is risen from the tomb. Alleluia. Alleluia."

As I thought about it I asked the Lord to bring me to that very moment. the moment of the Resurrection so that I might have some glimpse of what it was like; what it meant and so gain some increase in my faith and understanding.

It was dark. the darkest part of the night, just before dawn. I was sitting by myself on a stone a short distance from the entrance to the tomb. Although I was alone I had the sense that there were many others with me. Perhaps all of those who like me, over the centuries, had also asked for a glimpse of this moment.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark night I stared at the tomb. After a while, without any warning a bright light escaped from the tomb. it came through the small spaces that the stone in front of the entrance didn't completely cover. Even though I was anticipating it I was a bit startled but it was a moment also filled with excitement. It could be described as something like the way a child anticipates Christmas but whose eyes pop open with excitement when the see what's under the tree.

I waited for something more to happen but nothing more came of it for what seemed a very long time. All I could see was the light peeking through the cracks of the entrance. I wondered "what is going on in there?"

Just as the sun rose and began to warm my face the stone started to move. It was the sound that first caught my attention, rock grinding against rock, and the crackle of its weight rolling across the ground.

There didn't seem to be anyone moving it but once it was completely rolled away a man, or what appeared to be a man, sat on top of it. I assume it was the angel waiting for the women to arrive.

Then, slowly, an image drew closer to the entrance from inside. It was the Lord. I could see him clearly now, dressed completely in white. He closed his eyes and lifted his face and hands toward the sky and took a deep breath. It was as though it was the first time He had ever tasted fresh air before and it was delicious. I could see all the way through the wounds in his hands as thought I were looking through an open window. I wondered if the wounds still hurt. I wonder if they still hurt even now. Will they hurt for all eternity? But watching him, it was like he was reaching out to all creation and as the morning sun came across his face he smiled. He didn't say anything but the look on his face said: "Ahhhhh my creation. I LOVE IT!"

He lowered his hands and his face, opened his eyes and looked my way. In the quiet of that moment he pointed his finger directly at me. Again he said nothing but I knew what he was telling me..."This is for you."