XXVI Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Nm 11:25-29
Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
Jas 5:1-6
Mk 9:38-43,45,47-48

So lately, I have been getting lots of questions about heaven.  What’s it going to be like?  What will happen in heaven? …. so on and so forth.  Based on today’s Gospel, you would think that heaven is probably going to be filled with a bunch half blind, handless people hopping around on one foot.  Can you picture that: people hopping around running into each other and missing appendages?  Our second reading has just as much bad news: If you are rich – you must weep and wail over your impending miseries – wealth being rotted away, clothes to be moth-eaten.  Basically, all the material riches that you’ve gotten illicitly and through cheating and dishonesty will cause you great pain and suffering.

This is obviously a lot of bad news today.  Jesus is not going to water down the truth about sin.  Some would say this is hyperbole – a rhetorical device of exaggeration not meant to be taken literally.  The thing about Jesus in the Gospels, it’s hard to tell when He is speaking hyperbolically or literally.  In any case, the radical comparison that He makes here is definitely meant to be taken seriously.  Your eyes: what do you do with them?  Do you keep your eyes and your mind on your business or are you concerned about other people? Do you sin or commit adultery?  Do you look with eyes of envy or jealously?  Do they cause you to lust, look at pornography, or fantasize about sinful things?  Jesus is saying get that out of there!  Cut it out!

Your hands:  do you use them to help or to harm? Do you steal from others or give to charity? Do you use them to fight or use them to hug?  Are they used for self gratification or masturbation or are they used to love and selflessness?  Jesus is saying that if your hands are causing you to sin, get rid of it!

What happens when something gets infected?  Bacteria builds up, corrupts, and lays waste, not only to the part that is infected but also to the rest of the body.  Back when medicine was not as advanced, they would have to amputate.  Amputation was not a punishment or meant to be a form of torture, but a matter of self-preservation.  You had to get rid of it in order to live.  It is the same in this day and age with cancer:  things start growing where they shouldn’t, affecting the whole body and causing incredible harm to the body and so we have the gift of medicine to get rid of those things or at least try to mitigate the damages.  The sin in our life needs to be cut out.  Our hearts may have lots of sin and things that offend God, cut them out so that it does not affect and corrupt the rest of your body.  Why would anyone want to live in their own filth and sin?  Why would anyone want to be held back by things that hurt them?  Root out the sin in your life, take a good look at your life and see what there is in your life that is keeping you from God.  If you are not growing closer to God, you are moving away from Him.  After you take a good look at your life, go to Confession – the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I promise you, you will feel a lot better and you will have the grace to live a better life.  If you are not growing closer to God, you are moving away from Him.

To all of you youngins’:  If your boyfriend or girlfriend is keeping you from getting closer to God or in fact leading you away from God, get rid of him or her.  He or she is not worth your salvation and the good relationship that you have with God.  Don’t think that you can change them or convert them during your relationship – ya’ll have enough trouble and struggle just trying to learn and know each other let alone trying to carry on a theological discussion about why we should love God.  Just be regular normal friends and learn about God first and then see if He is calling you to be together.  God must be central in your life, the means by which everything happens in your life.

If you will bear with me, talking about sin is depressing and nobody wants to leave here depressed.  Therefore I’m going to change gears and talk about something boring…. The Mass!  Okay, it might seem boring to you, but I promise you that it is not boring.  You know when the celebrant says: “The Lord be with you”?  And everyone responds, “And with your spirit.”   It’s great now – I know who has been to Mass in the last year because they give the wrong response – cheap thrills of a priest.  Actually, I think it’s really just so cool that there is this back and forth response – it’s the inside joke that we Christians really get.  It’s one of the “secret passwords” of our faith.  We are in the know… “haha I know what to say when the priest or deacon says, ‘The Lord be with you’.”

But what exactly are you saying?  Are you really in the know?  Where does this phrase come from?  Our first reading speaks of Moses and the seventy elders.  Moses really had a difficult time managing the people so what happened?  The Lord bestowed the spirit that was on Moses and bestowed it on the seventy elders.  And then it happened that two men who were not present but were part of the group also received the spirit.  Moses and the seventy elders had a very special spirit that was upon them, sent by God; the Spirit that comes from God and rested on them.  The Lord was always present in the camp of the Israelites as they traveled through the desert, but there was an extra spirit that was only present in Moses and then later to the seventy elders.  This Tradition was carried on through the ages, through Jesus’ time with the Apostles to present day.  In the same way for us, I say, “The Lord be with you.”  To tell you that the Lord is present here and your response is to say, “And with your spirit.” The spirit that is with me or any other priest or deacon, by the power of ordination, is to be in the person of Jesus Christ – His Spirit acting and present in the sacraments.  Therefore every time I offer prayers, I say those words: to recognize that Christ is present in and amongst you all, and you recognize and invoke the spirit that is upon the priest to pray for and on behalf of you, the people of God.  It’s like we get in the car, Dad makes sure that we are all buckled up and ready to go – a spiritual checklist before we take off for heaven.

Today we covered two very important things that I hope you can incorporate into your life: the fact that sin can corrupt the rest of the body and must be rooted out and cut off so that you can walk in God’s good graces to heaven.  If it’s been a few months since your last confession come on in and get your soul washed up – don’t let those sins weigh you down anymore.  Today we also learned the meaning of the words “The Lord be with you” and “With your spirit”.  In the Mass take note the times the priest or deacon says those words – they signify that something important is about to happen.  In your prayers, especially as you are praying with me in the Mass, bear in mind the presence of Christ and thereby you can have full active, actual participation in the Mass.  It is not just something I do, but you do too: The Lord is with you.

XXIV Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Is 50:5-9a
Ps 114:1-2,3-4,5-6, 8-9
Jas 2:14-18
Mk 8:27-35

How many of you have ever heard the phrase, “I am spiritual, but not religious.”  How many of you have said this yourself?  My dear brothers and sisters, I mean this is in most charitable way possible: that phrase is complete shenanigans.  And I will tell you why I think it is.

Let’s look at the first part of the phrase: “I am spiritual”.  Yes you are...  Everybody is a spiritual being.  We were created in the image and likeness of God, OF COURSE WE ARE SPIRITUAL.  So we have a disposition to the supernatural, a “spidey-sense” as it were.  We have souls and we can have supernatural experiences on the natural level.  So this statement that one is “spiritual” is only to acknowledge what everybody with any sense of something greater than themselves can acknowledge that they are indeed “spiritual”.

But to say that one is “not religious” brings so many problems with it because they have to answer: what is truth, what is reality, what is good, what is evil, why this and why that? These are perennial questions that everyone asks.  To subscribe to a religion – a faith or a belief – means that one has to submit themselves to a system of beliefs and/or an institution of some sort – whether it is a single non-denominational community or a loose conglomeration of communities or Holy Mother Church.  We enter the Catholic Church through the Rites of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist – we profess everything we believe every Sunday in the Creed.  We didn’t make it up ourselves, but it was given to us, revealed to us by God – Jesus Christ; and we follow the Traditions (capital T) that have been handed down to us through the generations.  There are some beliefs and tenants of the faith that cannot be compromised: that Jesus Christ is both God and Man, He lived, He died, and rose again on this Earth; that Christ was born of a Virgin, who was Immaculately conceived, and that she remained a virgin perpetually, and was assumed into heaven at the end of her earthly journey; the Eucharist is the real presence of God, so on and so forth - these things are de fidei.  There are also some beliefs and tenants that are not part of the deposit of faith, but bring a greater love and devotion to God: the practice of the rosary, Marian or saint apparitions, the devotions of novenas and different spiritualities following the long traditions (little t) of the Church; again I could go on and on.  Whatever religion that you subscribe to, you must believe the core beliefs that you believe, otherwise you have failed to follow the faith, plain and simple.  Even those pagan faiths have things that you have to follow – it is no different.  If you cease following them, you cease to be pagan.

To say then that you are “not religious” is to give you the excuse to say that “I don’t have to follow any of these faiths” – be it divinely inspired/revealed or not – but that I can commune spiritually on any plane with anything.  I can basically pick and choose what I want to believe and follow –whatever and wherever my “energy” or “spirit” moves me to go, whatever suits my fancy.  This is the New Age belief – trying to better myself, with myself, by myself. Me. Me. Me.  There is no room for anyone else or for the Divine for that matter, just myself.  I ask then… Why bother to do any of that when you are just gonna do whatever you want to do and believe whatever you are going to believe?  Aren’t you just making things up as you go along, even if you might be inspired – what is inspiring you, is it God, is it the Devil, or is it yourself?  To say that you are “spiritual but not religious” makes you sound like you are so hipster, so above all truths out there, that you have a complete comprehension of everything, and that you know what the real truth is.  In reality, you are back to ground zero – you have no idea what you are doing or where you are going.  It would be like trying to go from here to Jerusalem without a compass, without a roadmap, without any means of transportation, without even knowing where Jerusalem is, maybe you have a photograph or a faint inclination that there is a Jerusalem but you don’t even know if that is really Jerusalem or even it really actually exists  – just wandering about aimlessly, listening to whomever interests you, and run away when the going gets tough.  Basically you are on your own.

I am spiritual, yes, I am wired to commune with the divine.  For me the truly divine is Jesus Christ.  He has already revealed the faith to us, given us Sacred Scriptures, given us the Tradition of the Church through the Apostles down through the ages to our very own bishop Kevin Farrell.  Why do I need to go and “discover who I am and what my beliefs are”?  It’s already done; it has already been identified and discovered, I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  Because of effects of all the sin and bad habits that we have and the noise and interference in the world, it is already hard enough to pray with all the tools and resources that we have been given – they have already made it easier.  Why am I going to give up all of these tried and true ways to go off on my own?  G.K. Chesterton wrote in What’s Wrong with the World, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” Shenanigans. I call shenanigans on those that say that are spiritual, but not religious.  But I also pray that they will see the way and truth and the light of God, the yoke of the belief that we hold so dear.

Our scriptures today tell us that we have a difficult path ahead of us, that the going will get tough.  Jesus rebukes Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. Woe to me or to anyone who puts the will of man before the will of God.  If we are going to be truly spiritual and religious people, are we not to follow Jesus? Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  What makes our Catholic faith so awesome is that it has been given to us to follow and can be lived out.  We believe that the Faith is not just a spiritual mind and soul exercise but also a faith in action – it moves and inspires us to work for the Kingdom of God and to spread the Gospel.  We do not just tell someone to pray and believe as a means of comfort, we actually try to feed, shelter, clothe, and heal as well.  Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.  We don’t just talk the talk, we must also walk the walk.  Our religiosity compels and impels us to celebrate the Good News and to rejoice, but also to reach out to the poor and needy, the broken and tired.

Our faith is easy to live out because it is all spelled out for us: pick up your cross and follow Him.  At the same time it is challenge because we will face those persecutions like Christ, we will face those that disdain the faith, our religion – stand strong and set your face like flint, you will not be put to shame, but rather be following the same path that our Lord to Calvary.  When we carry that Cross, when we are both spiritual and religious, we will, as the psalms sing today, walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.   

The shunning or disdain against the “religious” is nothing more than an excuse to do what you want to do.  It is to blame the institution and those that have not lived the faith as they should for one’s own failings and weaknesses of trying to live out the faith.  The institution or the Catholic religion is not the problem when you truly understand what the Church is trying to teach and trying to live out.  We are all sinners, but this does not excuse us from trying to live that faith out.  Jesus came for the sinners and the hurting and He gave us the institution of the Church to help us along the way.  We have the guarantee of revealed faith and the faith that has been passed down generation to generation, this is on our side and to our advantage.  Therefore, to say that you are not religious is to say that you trust yourself and your feelings over two thousand years of people trying to live out their faith.  As for me, I would never want to have those kind of odds against me.  My spirituality and my religion are hand in hand because I can see it no other way.  It does not make me perfect, but it does help me live a more virtuous life and most importantly, grow closer to my Maker.  

XXIII Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Is 35:4-7a
Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Jas 2:1-5
Mk 7:31-37

At the very beginning of the Gospel passage today, Jesus has just left Tyre through Sidon to the district of the Decapolis.  Mind you this is not Jewish territory per se, but rather Gentile territory.  The pagans are here and yet they have heard that this Jewish fellow named Jesus has come to see them and bring people who were sick or in need of healing of some sort.  Even though this seems like a “business as usual” for the Messiah - where this healing takes place is important and even more important is how he goes about healing this particular deaf man with a speech impediment.  Whenever you encounter Jesus in the Gospels, he usually heals with a simple statement: “Be healed!” or “Go, your faith has saved you.” Bada-bing-bada-boom healed!  This is God Almighty, the Incarnate Word, after all and well… he can will and do whatever he pleases simply by thinking it.  He doesn’t have really have to do anything, he really doesn’t have to say anything.
 
However this time is a little bit different.  He puts his finger in the man’s ears, spits on his hands and touches  or “anoints” this deaf man’s tongue, and then He groans!!  Scholars like to point out how carnal he gets here – almost like a primordial magical ritual that he is performing.  To us who are not so well versed, it seems kinda funny like there is a bunch of smoke and mirrors like a bad magician.  And to those who have the maturity of an eight year old…. [that’s me sometimes]  Jesus basically gives this guy a wet-willy, spits on his own hands and touches his tongue with it.  I don’t know about you, but this is the kind of thing that makes kids in Sunday school giggle.

But isn’t it interesting, in this passage, what we witness and heard proclaimed is basically God’s unnecessary love becoming necessary for us.  His extra-superfluous-action in our every day mundane life transforming it into something extraordinary: “I don’t have to do this, but I want to because I want to show you how much I love you.”  He does this time and time again.

He didn’t have to die on the Cross, He didn’t have to suffer for you and me, He didn’t have to be humiliated for our offenses, but He did.  Here in this sanctuary are the signs of His extravagant love for us: the crucifix, the altar of sacrifice and fellowship, the Word of God proclaimed in the Scriptures, and in a few moments the Lamb of God, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist in our very presence.  When we see the unnecessary, the extravagant, the almost reckless abandon of God’s love in action in this very place and in our daily life, we come to realize two things: our unworthiness and our response of Thanksgiving.

WE ARE NOT WORTHY. We are so not worthy of this incredible and immense love that comes from God.  Our very existence, our very family, the very world around us – We. Are. Not. Worthy.  We are sinners, we are traitors, we are backstabbers, liars, cheaters, and theirs.  We are adulterers, drunkards, and coveters.  And yet, God loves us so much to come into our lives, show us the way, and bring our lives into communion with Him.

What is left in our unworthiness and guilt is to look up and reach out to the hand of God and pick ourselves up in Thanksgiving.  When you realize that despite your guilt and unworthiness that God desires communion with you, then you start to realize and experience God’s grace in your life.  You move into a complete movement of thanksgiving and gratitude.  He didn’t have to, but because He loves you, He did.

He did not have to do all those things to the deaf man, but He did because Jesus was in Pagan territory, and those extra actions helped the pagans there to understand that Jesus was healing.  In the same way, God’s “extra actions” in our lives speak to us – we just have to listen.  We just have to see how extravagant and beyond necessity His working is in our lives.  This only comes through prayer – paying attention to His good graces in your life.  Pray now that you can understand your unworthiness and guilt and so respond to God’s over abundant generosity with praise and thanksgiving – that unnecessary love that God has for us, becoming so necessary for us.