July 27, 2010. Homily, July 31, 2010.

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 of Herodias, 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.

Jesus: "Of all those born of woman, there is none greater than John the Baptist."

How did John the Baptist preach: Confess and repent. Whoever believed his words and repented of their sins, John baptized in the river Jordan, that is, he immersed each one in the water while placing his hands on the head of the baptized. Therefore, John the Forerunner was called the Baptist. In the process, John required of everyone that the repentance be sincere and the correction in oneself be accompanied by good works.

Mk. 1:4-8: John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me and I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I will baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Mt. 4:1-3: In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." THis is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

July 25, 2010, Homily, Tuesday, July 27, 2010

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 the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, 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 will it 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 wiling and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear."

The Gospel of the Lord.

It is about seeds. Seeds are the beginning of things, not the end. Good and evil will be separated out only at the end of time. That means, in practical terms, never! In the ultimate, yes, in eternity; but not in time – at no time! We have heard politicians talk about “stamping out evil.” I heard someone comment, “Jesus didn’t do it, the Buddha didn’t do it, but this politician is going to do it!” Only in the final sifting will it be done, and we don’t know anything about that. Let’s not be too surprised at evil deeds: we are part of the picture ourselves. Besides, many things that we call good today we will call evil tomorrow, and vice versa. We don’t have the full picture. Only God has. To claim to have the full picture is to claim to be God.

This thought doesn’t make evil any less evil, or less painful to its victims. But if we don’t spend all our time wondering why there is so much evil in the world, we may have a little left over for wondering why there is so much good – and even for attempting to help it.

July 19, 2010. Homily Vespers, July 24, 2010.

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed by your name,/ your kingdom come./ Give us each day our daily bread/ and forgive us our sins/ for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,/ and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door had already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give your anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and your will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you, For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

The Gospel of the Lord.

Having taught us to pray, Jesus concludes with two parables that instruct us how we may expect God will respond to our prayers.

New translation of the word translated as "persistence": the man aroused himself not because of his neighbor's persistence but rather to save face for it was the duty of the whole village to welcome strangers.

God hears each petition and answers each in the form that does us the greatest good in terms of our salvation.

From the first reading: the ten is the minyan of daily prayer in the Jewish synagogue.

July 19, 2010. Homily, July 24, 2010.

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 16, 2010. Homily, July 20, 2010.

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."

The Gospel of the Lord.

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.

Posted by Daniel Murphy at 3:37 PM 0 comments

First of all, it is not a put-down of Mary but a raising up of the disciples. This was also its meaning on the lips of Jesus. Holy Christendom honors Mary but holy Christendom gives greater honor to those who hear the word of Jesus and keep it.

July 12, 2010. Homily, July 13, 2010.

Mt. 11:20-24

Jesus began to reproach the towns where 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 than for you. And 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.

Love thy neighbor, even when he plays the trombone.

A mother was telling her six-year-old about the Golden Rule. "Always remember," she said, "that we are here to help others."

The youngster mulled this over for a minute and then asked, "Well, what are the others here for."

The God of surprises left his gifts in unexpected places: the pagan centurion, the Samaritan woman, Nazareth (whatever good came out of Nazareth?), Peter.

He that has eyes to see, let him see.

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

The miracles of Jesus went unnoted.

Matthew's Gospel is for the Jews; it is of fire and brimstone.