September 28, 2009. Homily, September 29, 2009

John 1-47-51:

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater thing than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

The Gospel of the Lord.

This is the Memorial feast day of the Archangels Michael ("Who is like God"), Gabriel ("God's strength") and Raphael ("God's remedy"). Michael is the patron of security forces and of the sick. Gabriel is the patron of telecommunications and the postal service. Raphael is the patron of travelers and the blind.

"Nathaniel" means "God's gift", "God is giving."

The word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’ (Greek, aggelos). In the Old Testament the Hebrew word mal’ak was applied to both human and divine messengers. The more remote God seemed, the greater became the need for intermediaries. Certain mighty figures, later known as archangels, appear in the Book of Daniel, and the process of naming angels began. A confusing variety of functions and names is found, probably because angels were important in popular devotion. All these names have meanings, of course. Michael means ‘one who is like God’, Gabriel means ‘God is strong’, Raphael means ‘God heals’, Daniel means ‘God judges’, Elizabeth means ‘God is fullness’, and so on. The archangel Michael was thought to have a special responsibility as the guardian angel of Israel (Dan 12:1). Early Christianity inherited Jewish beliefs about angels, but the interest is much diminished. The angel of the Annunciation has a permanent place in Christian spirituality, but the New Testament tends if anything to put angels in their place. So in Hebrews 1, angels are inferior to the Son; in 1 Cor 13:1 the eloquence of angels takes second place to love; and in 1 Pet 1:12 the angels are seen as envying the Christian.

September 21, 2009. Homily September 22, 2009

22 September
Lk 8:19-21

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

Mark has this incident in his gospel but inserts the question of Jesus: "Who is my mother, who are my brothers?" and the answer where He gestures to the listening disciples and says, "whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother." While Luke inserts the conclusion of Jesus gently after the parable of the sower and its explanation to top off his discourse on hearing the Word. A point of this exchange is to underscore in a society of tribes and clans that the community of Christ is more to be pursued than the accident of birth. Mark the harsh young man plunges to the point with the abrupt confidence of youth while Luke the good and gentle physician deftly inserts that point with the loving experience of a doctor. Here in Calvary we join together as a family with Luke, "Our mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."

Monday, July 20, 2009

July 20, 2008. Homily, July 21, 2009.

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.

Posted by Daniel Murphy at 3:37 PM 0 comments

September 12, 2009. Homily, Tuesday, September 15, 2009.

Our Lady of Sorrows.

John: 19:25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

The Gospel of the Lord.

John's account of the crucifixion is remarkably short, and focuses more on the bystanders than on Jesus himself. Having described the soldiers and the other enemies of Jesus, he now shows us his friends, focusing on two: Mary and John. But strangely, these are not named; they remain “his mother” and “the disciple whom he loved.” The Mother and the Beloved Disciple are not just two individuals; they are symbolic examples of true discipleship, figures or types of the new community of love. With his dying words Jesus commits them into each other’s care. Love does not live in isolation; it implies community

September 10, 2009. Homily, Saturday, September 12, 2009.

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 fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. A good person out 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 foundations 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 one 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.

This is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary. And in the Gospel we hear the words of Jesus: "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." Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. We have on December 8th the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Church dogma that conception of the Virgin Mary was without any stain ("macula" in Latin is "stain") of sin, solemnly defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854 (Our Church, Our Lady of Perpetual Hope, was built on the 100th anniversary of that declaration by the Pope and declared ex cathedra, under the Pope's doctrine of infallibility in 1950, the only exercise of the infallibility power.

Jesus was a carpenter, a builder, so that we should pay especial attention to the images Jesus uses from construction of edifices. Sirach says that we know a person, judge his character, by what he reveals about himself through his speech, but Jesus says that the better criterion is that we know a person, judge her character, by what she reveals about herself through her acts, her deeds. The lazy way to judge is through one's words, but the thorough way to judge is through a careful examination of one's deeds. If we lay a firm foundation upon rock, our judgment will be proof against the storm surges of life. And our Christian life based on baptism, the teachings of the Church given to us by our parents and then CCD, and then confirmation, and a life of grace.

September 2, 2009. Homily, Saturday, September 5, 2009.

Luke 6: 1-5

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?" Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath."

The Gospel of the Lord.

His disciples were picking the heads of grain [reaping/harvesting], rubbing them in their hands [threshing; removing the chaff from the grain {winnowing}], and eating them [preparing food]. reaping [harvesting], gleaning [to collect the leavings from a field], winnowing [to blow away the chaff], threshing [rubbing the grain in one's hands, to crush the wheat head thus separating the grain from the chaff/husks]

Under the Old Testament, one could go through one's neighbor's fields and take grain by hand but could not use a sickle, but this was the sabbath where no work was permitted.

The Pharisees were spying on Jesus and the disciples and made this charge. Jesus did not deny it; instead he defended it; in the end by saying that He, Son of Man, was Lord of the sabbath. And 1 Samuel 21, David received showbread from the high priest of the Temple, Ahimelech the priest of Nob.

Jesus also restored to the people the true meaning of the Sabbath. Look at verse 27. “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’” In the clutter of detailed rules derived by the Pharisees, the original purpose and meaning of the Sabbath had been lost. With this one word, Jesus restored to them God’s purpose for the Sabbath (Gen 2:3; Ex 20:8-11). God did not give the Sabbath to burden man. God gave the Sabbath to bless man. The Sabbath is a gift from God, a day of rest to restore his body, mind and spirit after a week of hard work. It was not given to oppress man, but to edify and heal and encourage man. The Sabbath was made for man.

August 29, 2009. Homily, Tuesday, September 1, 2009.

1 September Lk 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a Town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, "What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out." And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region. The Gospel of the Lord. There were three parts to Israel. In the South, Judea with David's city Jerusalem. In the middle Samaria with Jericho. And in the North, Galilee. In the Genesis story God rested on the sabbath, but the sabbath was the day when Jesus really used to get busy. He was frequently accused of breaking the sabbath, and even when he was dead he descended on Holy Saturday into the underworld, the Apostles’ Creed says, and liberated all who had languished there since the time of Adam. I found a passage in St Ambrose (c. 333 – 397) that tries to make sense of all this sabbath activity. He wrote, “[Luke] describes the works of divine healing begun on the sabbath day, to show from the outset that the new creation began where the old creation ceased.” Ambrose also noted that Jesus healed a man (today’s reading) and a woman (tomorrow’s). Just as at the beginning God “created them male and female” (Genesis 1:27; 5:2), Jesus now heals both. “The Lord came to heal both sexes,” he wrote. Jesus spoke with authority, Luke says. ‘Authority’ is one of those words that can have opposite meanings, depending on their use. Speaking or acting ‘with authority’ can simply mean you have the official piece of paper, you are authorised by someone else. In the time of Jesus, rabbis were forever quoting other rabbis, or quoting texts. Yet the word ‘authority’ comes from the Latin ‘auctor’ (source), from which the word ‘author’ is also derived. People speaking with authority in this sense are speaking from themselves; they are the authors of what they are saying. Jesus “spoke with authority,” that is, he spoke from himself, from his Self. His words came from somewhere (they were not quotations). For that very reason they were able to go somewhere: they were able to cast out demons, freeing people from their torments. By acting as he did, Ambrose wrote, “Jesus showed us that the Son of God is not under the law but above the law.” It might have been better if he had said Jesus was one with the law, in the sense that he was one with the mind of the law-giver, God. In him the law was being fulfilled, not set aside (Mt 5:18). A law is not necessarily being fulfilled when it is interpreted into thousands of details; it is being fulfilled when its purpose is being realised. The law was being fulfilled in Jesus, despite his apparent breaches of it, in ways that it was never fulfilled in the Pharisees, despite their apparent devotion to it.

August 26, 2009. Homily, August 29, 2009 [The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist]

Mark 6:17-29

Herod was was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. Herod feared John knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he like to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask of me whatever you wish, and I will grant it to you." He even swore many things to her, "I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom." She went out ands said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" She replied, "The head of John the Baptist." The girl hurried back to the king's presence and made her request, "I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist." The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When the disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

The Gospel of the Lord.

29 August [Beheading of John the Baptist] Mk 6:17-29

John was a child of the desert and of the wild open spaces. To imprison him in the dark dungeons of Machaerus must have been for him the last refinement of torture. But he was a man who preferred death to falsehood. Jesus, who was his cousin, said of him (equivalently) that he was the greatest man who ever lived. It was a sad irony that such a man should meet his death because of the whim of a drunken tyrant, Herod. “Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue,” wrote Edmund Burke. From the mind of the tyrant, yes, but not from the mind of the human race. Here are we today – thousands of years later and thousands of miles away – remembering the greatness of John the Baptist! John the Baptist was Herod’s bad conscience; that’s why he thought John had come back from the dead; bad conscience is always sending us ghosts from the past, incidents that refuse to die. Jesus and John were cousins, and there is a tradition that they looked alike. This would give fodder to Herod’s addled conscience. A bad conscience feeds on everything and grows worse. Herod was a weak man, but all the more cruel for that. Rather than face his own falsity he killed the man who pointed it out to him. Still, inside every bad conscience there is a scrap of good conscience: otherwise we wouldn't suffer from bad conscience. To know a bad conscience as bad is surely good. He died in exile from his kingdom, in the company of Herodias. They had ruined each other’s lives. No one knows if their bad consciences grew still worse, ruining each other to the very end; or if the hidden scraps of good conscience were able to reach the surface. Does anyone care? Yes, we all do, because we know about good and bad conscience ourselves, and their life-long drama. We will all be exiled from our kingdom sooner or later - our power over others, our power to make decisions, even our power over many aspects of our own lives - but the drama of conscience will not end; it will continue to our last breath.

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.

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 thatHerodias had again married an uncle; it was that Herodias had 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.