September 30, 2010, Homily October 5, 2010.

Luke 10: 38-42

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

The Gospel of the Lord.

These past four days my wife Deann and I have been babysitting our four grandchildren in New Jersey. The youngest is our grandson Tucker five years old. Tucker asked Deann, "Grandma Dee, why am I a boy?" Deann just looked at him speechless, and Tucker added, "I know that you are going to tell me that 'I am a boy, because God decided to make me a boy.' But why does God make all the big decisions?"

This Gospel answers that question. Martha asks, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?" And Jesus by His answer show that He does care. First, He addresses her by her name "Martha" and again "Martha". To address a person by their name show that one cares. And then Jesus shows that He has observed Martha: "you are anxious and worried about many things". And to observe a person shows that one cares.

Then Jesus says,

"There is need of only one thing." What is that "one thing". the lead-in to the Gospel says "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." That suggests the answer.

Then Jesus says, "Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her. "[t]the "better part of what"? "[T]he better part of what [whole}." The whole is to hear the word of God and to observe it. When we hear the Word of God we inhale, and when we observe the Word we exhale. We inhale the Word and exhale the works. Benedict's "Laborare es orare". Work is prayer.

September 26, 2010. Tuesday, September 28, 2010.

Luke 9:51-56

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he went messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.

The Gospel of the Lord.

James and John, sons of thunder, Boarges.

However, we read, "But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village" ( Luke 9:55, 56). Let's think about a few things we learn from this incident.

First, God does not desire that anyone be lost. God wants all men to be saved and so he is patient, kind, and longsuffering. God is desirous that men repent and live. James and John's request to bring down fire upon these Samaritans was out of character with God's desires for man's salvation.

Second, attitude plays a key role in preaching the gospel. Jesus said of James and John, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Their attitudes were not right. They should have been seeking to forgive these Samaritans instead of condemn them.

Third, we must realize that Satan is the enemy, not other men.

Job: why is light given to the toilers and life to the bitter in spirit.

Jesus is patient with those who do not accept him.

September 21, 2010, Homily, September 25, 2010.

Luke 9:43b-45.

While they ere all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, "Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men." But they did no understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

The Gospel of the Lord.

How lonely he sounds.

"[I]ts meaning was hidden" but revealed in Friday's gospel: the Son of Man must suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and on the third day be raised from the dead.

At Fort Dix in a chapel reading of the Passion, a 2nd grader calls out, "Where were the marines?"

To lie is to look away from the truth, because I'm afraid of it. Lies are evasions for the sake of comfort. Lies are afraid of nothing so much as the truth, because it has power to destroy them.

September 20, 2010, St. Matthew, September 21, 2010.

Matt, 9:9-13:

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I do not come to call the righteous but sinners."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Jesus invites Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him.The extent of the grace of God's spirit which calls a tax collector who collects taxes on behalf of the Roman occupier from the subservient Jewish inhabitants. Tax collectors were despised and branded sinners for their line of work. Rome did not collect the taxes itself but instead decided how much it wanted form a given district and then leased out the contract to the highest bidder. The collector would then collect the taxes plus his bid plus his profit.

Jesus made clear he came to save all people. Discipleship no longer depends on genealogy but on each person's faith response.

The name 'Matthew" means "gift of the Lord".

Mark and Luke call Matthew by his Jewish name "Levi". Mark also calls Matthew "son of Alphaeus". James was also son of Alphaeus, so that James and Matthew might have been brothers.

When called by Jesus, Matthew stood up at once "leaving everything behind" Lk. 5:28.

The "[eating] at table in his [Matthew's] house" with "many tax collectors and [other] sinners" is called the"feast of friendship".

September 13, 2010. Homily, September 14, 2010.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

We exalt Christ's cross whenever we take it up, filled with the certainty that the ultimate meaning and fulfillment which we crave in life comes to us through this unending event. "With the cross we are freed from the restraint of the enemy and we clutch on to the strength of salvation." (Saint Theodoras, the Estudite). For salvation means escape from our own inability. At the same time, "we cannot produce or give any other fruit," writes Saint Catherine of Siena, "but the fruit we have taken from the tree of life." No wonder that "the sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ" (Saint Leo the Great).

The two verses that are generally regarded as the most successful in summing up the Gospel message (John 3:16-17): "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

caduceus symbol: a serpent on a pole/the wand of Mercury/the symbol of medicine.

light by which we can be judged.

September 7, 2010. Homily, September 11, 2010.

Luke 6:43-49

Jesus said to His disciples: "A good tree does not bear rotten fruit nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person our of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Sirach's straightforward advice to his contemporaries was they couldn't from a valid assessment of others until they had an opportunity to hear them speak. A satirical updated version of the same found on the Internet puts it this way: Light travels faster than sound. That's what many people seem bright until they open their mouths.

For Jesus actions served as far better indicators of character than words because he knew well how actions could belie one's words.

St Augustine: “Let us not be lazy or content with the surface. Let us dig more deeply until we come to rock: ‘The rock is Christ’ (1 Cor 10:4).”

"Every tree is known by its own fruit. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good." How does that goodness come to be stored in a believer's heart? Through "the cup of blessing" that is "a participation in the blood of Christ" and "the bread that we break" which is "a participation in the Body of Christ."

September 6, 2010. Homily, September 7, 2010.

Luke 6: 12-19.

Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve whom he also named Apostles: Simon whom he named Peter and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew [Nathaniel], Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called a Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.

And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be cured of their diseases, and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

The Gospel of the Lord.

"Jesus departed to the mountain to pray." A mountain is good place to pray. We live here in a place named for a mountain, "Calvary", the mountain on which Jesus dies, in order for Him to conquer death and rise again. This "Calvary" is a good place to pray.

An "apostle" is one sent forth on a mission, one sent forth to preach the Gospel.

At the end of Mass, the priest or deacon says, "The mass is ended. Go in peace." Originally, the dismissal was in Latin, "Ite, Missa est." which means "Ite" or "Go", "missa est" means "the message has been completed" or "Go and preach the completed message which you have heard."