IN SIMPLE PLACES AND ORDINARY TIMES

 

GIVEN AT THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR'S HOME FOR THE AGED

July 24, 2023

Some of the Scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Matthew 12:38-42

Today’s gospel reminds me of something St. Paul said in his first Letter to the Corinthians 1:22. He said, “The Jews demand signs and the Greeks look for wisdom.” Paul is saying there that it was characteristic of the Jews of his day to ask for signs and wonders from those who claimed to be messengers of God. It was as if they said, “If you are so special, so God-sent, prove your claims by doing something extraordinary.”

Jesus refused to give them the “sign” they wanted because they were guilty of one fundamental mistake. They desired to see God in the abnormal; they forgot that we are never nearer God, and God never shows himself to us so much and so continually as he does in the ordinary things of every day.

I am reminded of the great poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning where she says, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”

My friends, the bottom line of this gospel is that God comes to us especially in the very ordinary, rather than the spectacular and dramatic, events of life. The Scribes and Pharisees were always looking for “signs” – dramatic and spectacular happenings and personalities to “prove” that God was active in the world. Truly, God is to be found in the ordinary events, in the ordinary moments and in the ordinary people of this world. That is why so many people missed Jesus when he was here on this earth. He was so ordinary, while they were looking for something spectacular. While they were looking “out there” and “up there,” while they were looking among the famous and the powerful and the well-connected, God’s “sign” was standing right in front of them. They missed him because he was just too ordinary.  Jesus tells them that the only sign they will be given   is his preaching and wisdom – better than the preaching of Jonah to the people of Nineveh and the wisdom of Solomon that the queen of the south sought out in her day.

 

Our traditional Christmas story is told by the evangelist, Luke. Luke wrote for the underdog, the little people, the left-out, the losers of the world. When he tells the story, he emphasizes the dismalness of Christ’ birth: a poor young mother delivering her baby in a barn amid the smell of dung and donkey breath; greasy, crusty, bumbling sheep herders; doves dropping their stuff from the rafters; the restlessness of cows and no one to care. Luke wants his readers to know that God comes, not just for the rich and famous and powerful, the young and healthy, but especially for the lowest of the low, in the most desperate of circumstances. God comes for, and loves, every human being who has ever lived on this planet no matter how insignificant they may be in the eyes of others.

 

Where should we look for God working in our world today? Fatima? Medjugorje? Lourdes?  I am sure God has worked there, but we don’t have to go to those places to see God working. He is working right here, right under our noses, right now in this very place! We just have the eyes to see it! We just need to look at this place, and the people in it, through the lens of faith! Miracles are happening every day, right here and right now! As Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke (10:23-24)

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

 

 

 

 

THE OVERLY-EAGER WEED-PULLERS

 

"...if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat

along with them. Let them grow together until harvest."

Matthew 13:24-30 

Religious fanatics have probably done more damage to religion than all the atheists, agnostics and public sinners put together! As Blaise Paschal said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction!” Cock-sure and blind as bats, they claim to have perfect eye-sight when it comes to good and evil, setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner! 

We are painfully familiar with fanatic Muslims who would fly planes into high rise buildings as a way to rid the world of “degenerate western influences” or our own Puritans who would burn so-called “witches” at the stake to keep their church “pure.” In our own church, fanatics had a heyday in what we know as the “Inquisition.” The “Inquisition” was invented by religious fanatics who wanted to do a good thing: rid the church of heresy, error and sin, but they chose some of the most vicious, cruel, inhuman and unChristian, methods imaginable to accomplish their goals! Many good, holy and even saintly people were brutally killed by those misguided people with their "good" intentions - all in the name of God, of course! As Jesus reminds us in today's gospel: beware of overzealous, fanatic weed-pullers!

Today's parable is one of my favorites. In it, Jesus reminds us that in his kingdom here on earth, the good and the bad exist alongside each other and nobody but God can really tell the difference! To make his point, he again turns to farming for a parable. He tells the story of a farmer who planted good seeds in his field, only to find out that, as they sprouted, weeds also appeared growing right there with them! 

In this parable, God is that farmer and we are his hired hands.  One day, the farmer’s hired hands came in to report the presence of weeds growing among the wheat and to suggest that they could to fire-up their big weed-eaters and go to work on them!  The wise farmer gives them a quick and firm “no, don’t you dare!” “Leave the weeds alone and let them grow together with the wheat till harvest time!” Wisely, the farmer tells his hired hands that if they uprooted the weeds now, they would end up pulling up the wheat along with them because, at this point, no one could tell one from the other! 

This is a wonderful parable because the specific weed Jesus is talking about is an especially noxious weed that looks exactly like wheat when it is young and tender. In fact, people back then had a nickname for the particular kind of weed Jesus was talking about. They called it “bastard wheat!” Not only did it look exactly like wheat when it was young and tender, its roots also entangled themselves around the roots of tender wheat shoots! Not only can they not be distinguished, one from the other, their roots had become so entwined that if you tried to pull the weeds up too early, you would end up destroying the precious wheat crop by pulling up the wheat too early as well! 

When the time finally came for harvest, the weeds and wheat would be cut together and threshed. Threshing was the process of separating the seeds from the chaff. The wheat seeds had a golden color and the weed seeds had a slate gray color which made it easier to separate them. The weed seeds were slightly poisonous, having a bitter taste and causing dizziness and sickness, so they had to be destroyed. The precious wheat could then be stored in the farmer's barn.  

The point of the parable is that, unlike human beings who tend to judge quickly, God is lenient and patient. 

This parable clearly reflects Jesus’ own experience of being condemned by religious people. They thought of themselves as the precious wheat while the social outcasts that Jesus associated with as noxious weeds.  Jesus could see that often it is the other way around! As Scripture says, “People see externals, but God can see into people's hearts.”

My friends, the message to us today is simple! Good and evil exist side by side in the church and in the world, but we need to be very weary of overzealous fanatics who want to "pull weeds" and “clean house” - whether they come from the church or the government! More often than not, those people do more harm than good because they really cannot see what they are doing, or even understand the purity of their own motives, all that well! As Jesus put it, "Be aware of wolves dressed up to look like sheep!" 

What to do with "weeds," has always been, and will always will be, a problem for the church! However, as the parable teaches us today, we also need to know that weed-pullers have sometimes created bigger problems than the "weeds" they so eagerly want to pull! As Jesus said, "...if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest." As Billy Graham so wisely put it, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love!"

 

HERE'S A THOUGHT

 

DESIDERATA ----- LATIN FOR "THINGS DESIRED"

Every once in a while, I am reminded of something from the past that I had almost forgotten until somebody reminds me of it once again. Such is the case of the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann that I remember having in poster form on the walls of one of my college dorm rooms in the 1960s when I was in the seminary. 

This time, it was my youngest brother, Mark, who discovered it and sent it to me. Even though it was written in 1927 and I loved it enough to put it on my dorm room walls, I had not seen it for over fifty years. To my surprise, it still has a lot to say so I am sharing it with you so that you can hear it, read it or print it. 

MARRIED PRIESTS? BETTER THINK TWICE....IF YOU'RE THE WIFE!

Here is a short YouTube video of a younger Maggie Smith in a clever monologue on what it was like being married to an Anglican priest. (A bit older now, Maggie Smith played the outrageously cranky old woman, Violet Crawley the Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the Downton Abbey TV series.)

Her monologue is both sad, funny and insightful. Be sure to expand the screen and turn up the volume so you can catch her English humor! 

 

 

CATHOLIC PREACHING

Some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.

Matthew 13:1-23 

In light of this parable, I thought I would say a few words about the state of Catholic preaching today.

You might not know it, but preaching the gospel is the primary duty of priests! Catholics have been disappointed with Catholic preaching for so long, they are afraid to expect it any more. When Catholics do find a priest who can preach, as many of you already know, they tend to follow him from church to church like hungry puppies. Others learn to live without it. Some give up and join some Protestant denomination.

This problem, I believe, can be traced back to the Reformation, four hundred years ago. In that painful divorce, it was almost like there was a property settlement where Catholics took the altar and Protestants took the pulpit. That’s why most Protestant churches, at least until very recently, tend to have tiny little altar tables and huge pulpits, while most Catholic churches tend to have tiny little pulpits and huge altar tables.

Catholics who leave us for a Protestant pulpit sometimes don’t realize that when they do, they are also going off and leaving the Eucharist. What we Catholics need to do, what we have been working on over the last several years, is to have both: a powerful celebration of the Liturgy of the Word followed by a powerful celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We priests need to know how to use both pulpits and altars.

Preaching is being taken more serious than ever in our seminaries. I am no professional homiletics professor, but I taught homiletics (preaching) at St. Meinrad Seminary for a while. The downfall of most preaching courses, in my estimation, is that they focus way too much on public speaking techniques and not enough on the faith of the preacher. My belief is similar to William Faulkner’s who said, “If a story is in you, it has to come out.”  I always reminded my students that if the love of God burned in their heart, they will find an effective way to communicate it, if not, they will end up just giving another speech about God. A homily is not a speech. The insight of a homily is meant to turn on a light bulb, to help the listener make a connection with God.  “Nemo dat quod non habet.” "If you ain’t got it, you cain’t give it." 

Preachers, and lectors too, must be the first to ‘humbly welcome the Word” and “be doers of the Word" as the Letter of James puts it.  Preaching, especially, is an awesome responsibility and the well, from which it comes, must be constantly fed!  The preacher must know himself, know others and know God, and be able to talk about all three in a convincing way. Lectors don’t just “read to people,” they “proclaim the good news” too.

Some seed fell of the path, some on rocky ground, some among the thorns, but some fell on rich soil and produced abundant fruit.

The Letter of James is famous for its insistence that faith be lived, not just claimed and talked about. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” “What good is it to profess faith without practicing it? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, “Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed,” but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? So it is with faith that does nothing in practice. It is thoroughly lifeless.”

My fellow Catholics, we cannot be ignorant of scripture and at the same time do what God has asked of us. As the Letter to the Romans puts it, “Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe unless they have heard of him? And how can they hear unless there is someone to preach? Faith, then, comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ.” 

It would be wonderful if every one of us took the opportunity to study scripture in a formal way. Scripture classes are offered in almost every parish these days. The diocese has many continuing education classes available on scripture, but one of the simplest ways to study scripture is to take advantage of our Liturgy of the Word each week. To get the most of the Liturgy of the Word each week, if the seed is to fall on the rich soil of our hearts and produce abundant fruit in our lives, three things must happen. (1) Readers must read well. (2) Preachers must preach well. (3) People must listen well.  You have good lectors here, this parish is known for good preaching and I know from experience that you are an attentive congregation, so I am not criticizing anybody, but just challenging all of us in general.

(1) One of the hardest things to get across to lectors is that they are not just “reading to people,” but they are “proclaiming the Word of God.”   That means they must, not just be able to read the words on the page, but to be the medium through which people hear God speaking to the congregation. That means the lector must be familiar enough with the text to convey its meaning. If the lector doesn't know what the words mean, how can he or she read it with meaning? Lectors are not just readers. They proclaim the word of God behind the words of the text. The role of the lector, standing in the pulpit, should be taken as seriously as the priest standing behind the altar. Incompetence, sloppiness or carelessness in the pulpit or at the altar should never be acceptable in our churches. Good liturgy strengthens the faith of the people. Bad liturgy weakens the faith of the people.     

(2) As a priest, my primary role is to preach. I have a long way to go, but of all the things I do, I take preaching most seriously.  I typically spend a minimum of 10-12 hours a week preparing these homilies.  As you know, not all priests do that. When I was the Vocation Director, for instance, I remember reading an evaluation one of our pastors wrote about one of our soon-to-be-ordained seminarians. He criticized the seminarian for “working too much on his homilies.” He went on to say that he “knew of no other priest, except for maybe the Vocation Director, who spent that much time on writing homilies.” I was that Vocation Director! That time the seminarian was right and the pastor was wrong! Preaching is not just one of many things a priest does, it is the single most important thing a priest does!  That is why I plan to be buried clutching a Lectionary!

(3) People must learn to listen well. The word “liturgy” means “the work of the people.” In reality, many Catholics still don’t get it. They come to liturgy and put the whole burden of a meaningful liturgy on the backs of the priest, the musicians and the liturgical ministers. Many Catholics sit with their arms folded, never singing or answering the responses or even mouthing the creed, with an attitude of “OK, now entertain me, impress me and inspire me, and if you fail, I’ll blame you and leave here and tell the world that “I don’t get anything out of Mass because of that boring priest and that lousy music.” The word, “liturgy” means “the work of the people.” We preachers, presiders, lectors and musicians are here to “help you pray,” not to “do your praying for you.” It is your job to pray over the readings before you get here or at least sit up and pay close attention when God’s word is proclaimed.

St. Paul says, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you.” Like the parable of the Sower and the Seed, it is not enough just to have good seed to sow (that's the word of God), not enough for the sowers to sow well (that's the lector and the preacher), but the ground on which the word is sown must be fertile and receptive (that's all of us)!  

To "get something out of this weekend experience," we all have to "put something into it!"