July 24, 2011, Homily, Saturday, July 30, 2011.

Matthew 14:1-12.

Herod the Tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servant, "This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him."

Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account ofHerodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to to have her." Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist." The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him and went and told Jesus.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Ayn Rand: "The hatred of the good for being the good."

The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.

Herod's bloody deed has appalled people throughout the ages. It seems that a truly vile deed can turn the world upside down, such is its power of infection. Describing Herod's evening party, Peter Chrysologus (c. 280-450) wrote: "The house changed into an arena, the table changed to a stand at the amphitheatre, the birthday guests turned into spectators, the feast turned into an uproar, the wine into blood, the birthday into a funeral, sunrise into sunset, the banquet became a bloody murder, and the musical instruments began to play the tragedy of the ages."

Herodias was the grand-daughter of Herod the Great; her first husband Herod Philip was the son of Herod the Great and the uncle of Herodias. Herodias and Herod Philip had a daughter Salome and then divorced. While Herod Philip was still living,Herodias married his full brother Herod the Tetrarch. That was John the Baptist's complaint; it was not that Herodias had again married an uncle; it was that Herodiashad married the full brother of her ex-husband while her ex-husband was still living (like incest). To compound, the problem, Salome danced for her uncle[by her father]/grand-uncle[by her mother] and "delighted Herod so much". It was a scandalous bacchanal; Salome and Herodias knew it was scandalous and sought to stanch the criticism by cutting off the head of John the Baptist.

It is the hatred of the good for being the good: Herodias/Salome hatred of John the Baptist for John the Baptist being good.

July 24, 2011, Homily, Tuesday, July 26, 2011.

Matthew 13: 36-43.

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the seed is the word, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

The Gospel of the Lord.

The Lord's explanation of that parable is not of human origin. It is of divine origin. For only the Lord could speak so intimately (with authority) of the Son of Man, the children of the Kingdom, the end of the age, the enemy is the Devil, the angels of the Son of Man (his angels), and at the end of the age the angels choosing those from the Kingdom who had caused others to sin and who were evildoers to be bound and cast into the fiery furnace while the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of the Father. When one reads the parable being interpreted by Jesus, the parable makes clear that the evildoers are not plucked out at the beginnings of their lives but, instead, are left to live alongside the righteous until the end of the age. Since they are allowed to persist, they are retain the opportunity to repent until the end of the age.

Mt. 13:24-30

He put before them another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

July 19, 2011, Homily, Saturday, July 23, 2011.

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds: "The Kingdom of heaven my be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have all the weeds come from? He answered, 'An enemy has dome this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

The Gospel of the Lord.

The weed in the parable was darnel, a plant that has a resemblance to wheat. Evil takes care to look like good. If everything evil looked evil, our life would have wonderful clarity, but alas! it isn't so.

Our world today pays incredibly detailed attention to image: it’s the age of the image, almost to the point of discarding substance.

The parable summons us to careful discernment. It is while we are asleep spiritually that the devil sows tares among the wheat, said an ancient writer.

However, we can be too clear at times – clearer than truth and love. We can imagine that the distinction between wheat and tares is settled, and of course we think of ourselves as the wheat. So all Catholics are going to hell; or all non-Catholics, depending on which group you belong to. St Augustine wrote his wise words on this subject: “Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat. There is this difference between people and real grain or weeds: what was grain in the field is grain and what were weeds are weeds. But in the Lord’s field, which is the Church, at times what was grain turns into weeds, and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.”

July 13, 2011, Homily, Tuesday, July 19, 2011.

Matthew 12:46-50.

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you." But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Take that.

A parable of Jesus is a container made of words. We pour into it what we know from our life experiences and we pour our of it what we need. So here, we have our own experience of our mother and our brothers and our sisters and of those times when they have disturbed us at our work and our reactions to that. But this is Jesus and the mother of Jesus and the reaction of Jesus to His mother, and we know that the mother of Jesus is the perfect vessel of the will of God, for when God through the archangel Gabriel asked for her obedience she said "Yes". And we know that Jesus loved His mother and that His mother's life was to do the will of God. We saw that at the wedding feast of Cana, when she asked the help of Jesus, and Jesus said, "Woman, my time has not yet come" and Mary said to the servants, "Do whatever he asks." And Jesus asked the servant to fill the water vessels and then performed the miracle of water into wine. And so here, Jesus answers the messenger by elevating the disciples of Jesus, us, to the status of brother of Jesus, sister of Jesus, and even mother of Jesus.

July 9, 2011. Homily, July 12, 2011.

Mt. 11:20-24

Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For, if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you ,it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment thean for you. As for you, Capernaum:

Will you be exalted to heaven?! You will go down to the netherworld.

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Repent and follow the Gospel

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

July 6, 2011. Homily, July 9, 2011.

Matthew 10:24-33.

Jesus said to His Apostle; "No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household.

"Therefore, do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever who denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Three times in this Gospel, near the beginning, at the middle and near the end, Jesus tells His disciples "do not be afraid". When Pope John Paul II was consecrated Pope, he followed John Paul I who was Pope for only thirty days, Paul VI and John XXIII, and John Paul II's first words on assuming the papacy were "Do not be afraid". John Paul II was shot six years into his papacy and he went on to work with Solidarity to free Poland, to see the Berlin Wall fall, and to serve 26 years in the papacy. Pope John Paul II was not afraid. He lived two decades with a bullet in his abdomen and showed us how to live as witness to Jesus and, eventually, how to die in the arms of Jesus. His final words, in Polish, were "Let me go to the house of the Father."

John Paul the Great. The crowd outside the Vatican as he died called out "Santo subito". Make him a saint now.

Today is the feast of Saint Augustine Zhao Rong (+1815), a priest and one of 120 Chinese martyrs canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Of the 120, 29 were priests and 6 were bishops.

Posted by Daniel Murphy at 3:18 PM