August 8, 2021 at Saint Peter, Saint Agnes, and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

1 Kings 19, 4-8 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 4, 30 – 5,2 + John 6, 41-51

At this point in chapter six, the crowd is unable to listen any further to Jesus. Not only are they impatient because he does not give them any more signs, but they are totally confounded by his claim to have come down from heaven when they know his clan and where they live. So, in these verses, the focus is not bread, but Jesus himself. Before he can talk about the bread and what it is, he must reveal who he is if he is the bread.

Moving into this revelation about the identity of Jesus, our own faith and understanding about the bread of life and the eucharist gets tested. The crowd is wrong. They only think they know where Jesus comes from. They look at Jesus and all they see is just another man, one of their neighbors, the son of that carpenter, Joseph. Here, Jesus challenges just what it is they think they know, and John begins to introduce the role and the consequence faith plays in those who listen to the Word of God.

The gift of faith is like the gift of sight. It expands what we know, and most of what we know comes through sight. Scientists tell us that our eyes are only sensitive to that segment of the spectrum located between red and violet which is only 5% of existing light. The remaining 95% made of cosmic, infrared, ultraviolet, gammas, and x-rays, we cannot see. That means we only perceive 5% of the real world. This is the problem for that crowd and many others without faith. It was a problem for the Corinthians to whom Paul writes those powerful words: “We walk by faith and not by sight.” In a just a few minutes, what our eyes see is a piece of bread which is walking by sight. To those who walk by faith they see the Body of Christ. We must be careful here with our expression of what we see by faith. We do not see “Jesus.” That’s what the crowd saw. We see “The Body of Christ.” They are not the same thing.

Throughout these verses, Jesus insists that there is a relationship between him and the Father. Knowing who Jesus is means knowing him as a person of relationship, and to discover his love, faithfulness, and attraction for the God he calls Father. The bread he wants to give is that relationship, and that is why we call it “Communion.” For people of father it is not bread. It is the Body of Christ which is what we become by our faithful acceptance of this gift of himself. To enter into the mystery of Christ is to enter into life – life everlasting. The truth of this, and the realization of what we are doing here ought to leave us stunned to silence as we try to wrap our minds around the enormity and the value of this gift.

The crowd that was so excited and fascinated at the beginning is murmuring now, and soon they will be shouting for him to be crucified. The limitation that they impose on themselves by insisting that they know who Jesus is and what they want from him is a tragedy we must avoid. Giving up or losing faith because God will not be or do what we want is a tragedy we can avoid if we simply walk by faith, enter into the relationship we are offered, and hold to the hope we are given by the resurrection of Christ. It is the hope that no matter what, even if death comes, we shall rise again because we have eternal life.

August 1, 2021 at Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Exodus 16, 2-4 + Psalm 78 + Ephesians 4, 17, 20-24 + Mark 6, 24-35

In this 6^th chapter of John’s Gospel, we pick up the introduction to what we must call, “The Bread of Life” discourse. Much of what happens here is a dialogue between Jesus and the crowd, and at this point, the crowd is open and respectful. They call him, “Rabbi”, “Sir”, and “Master.” That will not last. They will be murmuring and turn against him next week. That crowd were chasing him around for more free food, and for the hope that he would finally rise up to be the Messiah they wanted, political and powerful. Remember, there are no “miracles” in John’s Gospel. There are “signs”. The people have failed to ask what the signs mean. They simply remain on the shallow side of things totally concerned with their immediate needs and wants. It is not bread that he offers like the bread from the bakery. It is himself that he offers to them, but they want to stay on the shallow side of this and talk about their bellies rather than their souls. Instead of promising a free lunch, Jesus invites them to be nourished by his life, to assume his way of being as the path that would bring them everything they ever wanted. Divine love was the “bread” that kept him going and the food that would sustain his disciples for eternal life. 

When we listen to Christ speak to us these same words today, it might be as much a challenge to us as it was to that crowd. All of us are still people who want miracles for ourselves and for others. I’m sure it’s the same for you, I catch myself way too often praying and asking God for something that has to do with this life. Absent is that deeper level that goes beyond any earthly need or want. It seems to me as I listen to myself and to so many others, that we are still like that crowd stuck in this life without the dream and the desire for what we are ultimately promised by Jesus. He promised us everlasting life. He did not promise us contentment, ease, and plenty in this life. When we have those, there is the risk of forgetting that there is something else ahead, and we a rushing toward it day by day.

The miraculous sharing of bread that happened among them was the key to understanding what Jesus had to offer. When that one child gave all he had, they saw that those who share everything will never hunger. If they wanted to do the works of God, if they wanted the food that endures, they needed only to believe in Jesus enough to do what he did.  We have to look beyond the bread we eat, as one of our hymns sings. For the bread we eat is Jesus the Lord. The bread we eat is not to nourish our bodies, but to feed our souls which are so hungry and so starved for a life that matters, for something more than a big home and a fancy car.

The cry of that crowd should be the cry that comes out of every one of our hearts: “Give us this bread always.” Jesus came among us to show us how to live not to impress us with power and miracles.  Those of us who love the stories of Jesus must take responsibility for them by making them come true in our own day.

July 25, 2021 at Saint Peter, Saint William, & Saint Ann Churches in Naples, FL

Kings 4, 42-44 + Psalm 145 + Ephesians 4, 1-6 + John 6, 1-15

For the next five weeks, until mid-August, we set aside the Gospel of Mark and take up the Sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel. I encourage you to read and re-read that chapter often in the next several weeks. It’s only seventy-two verses. Less than ten minutes. It will help you move more deeply into the identity of Christ Jesus and draw you into the mystery of the Holy Eucharist which is John’s goal. The First Testament Readings during this time are accounts of extraordinary feedings that will open our hearts and minds to this Chapter of John’s Gospel in which Jesus gradually reveals his true identity and invites us into a life of union with him through Communion. First, today, he feeds the multitude. Next, he claims that those who believe in him will not hunger, because he is the bread of life. Then he will boldly insist that if we do not feed on his flesh and blood we will not have life. 

This chapter of John’s Gospel is probably the most important revelation we have been given about Jesus Christ and his presence with us in the Holy Eucharist. Because I am so convinced of this, and because so many people do not grasp or understand what we have in the Holy Eucharist, I have to switch roles for a few minutes and teach rather than preach. Since Mark and Matthew record two occasions when Jesus feeds a crowd, with Luke and John having one, important details in each one get mixed up in our minds. That does not help us get to the heart of what the writer, Mark, Matthew, Luke, or John is doing. They are all different.  Of them all, John’s is the most powerful and concise revelation.

In John’s Gospel, there is no eucharistic last meal in an upper room. This chapter is John’s equivalent of the “last supper.”  There are several details here unique to John’s Gospel that are very important. There is something special here:

They are in Galilee, not Jerusalem, and it is near the Passover. Every Jewish male was required to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem on a certain day in the first month with sacrifice of a lamb followed by the Passover meal. When that requirement was laid down by Moses, some complained that it was not possible to make the journey in the first month. So, Moses allowed for a second Passover to be celebrated in the second month outside of Jerusalem. No lamb was required since there was no Temple for the sacrifice. What was required was unleavened bread. Now, connect the dots here with me. Jesus has just crossed the lake. Think of Moses passing through the waters at the exodus. Jesus goes up a mountain and sits down to teach which is the posture of a teacher like Moses, and the mountain reminds those who first heard John’s Gospel of the mountain where Moses received the covenant and God was revealed as the great, “I AM”. Now, hang on to that “I AM” because it’s going to come up later in the chapter. Think too of how, through the intercession of Moses, God fed the people in the desert with that Manna. What we end up with before anything happens in this Gospel is a deliberate attempt on John’s part to cast this scene and what follows in the framework of the Exodus with Passover, Moses, and the Covenant. 

Then comes the feeding. There are important details here too unique to John’s Gospel. This time, and this time alone, it is Jesus who initiates the action. In the other Gospels, it is the Disciples who bring up the need to send the crowd away to get something to eat. Not here, Jesus starts it all as he asks a question of Philip. 

Important to notice also is the matter of five barley loaves. There is bread in the other accounts, but here it is barley. According to Jewish law, the barley could not be used for ordinary eating until it has been offered on the second day within the Passover liturgy. This detail suggests that this feeding is that second Passover allowed for those not able to get to Jerusalem in the first month. In other words, while Matthew, Mark, and Luke have a Last Supper Meal in Jerusalem in the first month, John has this meal in Galilee, and look who’s there. This time, not a select few, but huge crowd of Galileans. Here, Jesus does exactly what he does in the other Gospels in Jerusalem, He blesses, breaks, and shares. Catch one other detail here. In the other Gospels, he tells the disciples to do the sharing. In John’s Gospel Jesus does the feeding.

So, you see, this chapter is loaded. Read it. It is as important to us who come this table as those other last supper accounts, but even more so. In John’s Gospel the identity of Jesus and how he chooses to remain present to us and what happens to those who consume the food he gives cannot be ignored or missed. Next week then begins what we call, “The Bread of Life Discourse”. Listen intelligently and be hungry for what will be proclaimed. 

For today, let’s leave here fed on the Word of God mindful that we do not live on bread alone. Yet, we turn to be fed here with the Bread of Life. Remember that there is more to this Gospel than a simple story about the compassion of Jesus for a crowd. There is also a reminder that when we offer what seems to be too little God can make more than enough with what we have. It’s like jars of water that seem so inadequate at a big wedding feast with no wine. They end up with a lot more than they expected and it was twice as good. It can be that way for us the more deeply we dig into the Word of God, for in discovering the real identity of Jesus, in discovering how and what he has provided for us in the Eucharist, we shall discover who we really are in the sight of God, a people loved, redeemed, and called to holiness and paradise.

July 11, 2021 at Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Amos 7, 12-15 + Psalm 85 + Ephesians 1, 3-14 + Mark 6, 7-13

Choice is a big deal these days, and a lot people seem to be very concerned about protecting their rights to choose. The consequent hysteria that this causes has led to a great deal of conflict. It seems to me that this fuss over choice is at the root of the abortion crises, the challenges over sexual identity, who may receive Communion, and perhaps even over voter’s rights, and countless other hot-button items that are driving us apart, making us unable to tolerate opinions that differ from our own, and turning ordinary decent people into fanatics who would choose to destroy another rather than understand and make a friend.

Choice is the issue that the Word of God puts before us today with a strong and clear reminder that before we make choices, God makes choices. Forgetting that God’s choices come first leads to chaos. Failing to acknowledge choices God has made will set us at odds with God’s Will and God’s plan. 

Amos was a prophet chosen by God. He did not choose to be a prophet. Living at a time of extraordinary prosperity of Israel, and living at a time of great corruption and crushing poverty, he started out by condemning Israel’s neighbors. Everyone cheered. Then when he condemned the crimes and injustice of Israel, it didn’t go over very well. Just like those living at the time, we like to enjoy our success, and we don’t like to face our sinfulness, especially if it produced our success. Amos was attacked by the High Priest and the King. They told him to get out. He told them that he was just a man involved with livestock and fruit trade who spoke because God had chosen him. He was thrown out, but today, we know who Amos was. We know his name, and we’ve just listened to him again. I would bet that there are not five people in this church who know the name of the king against whom he spoke. So much for fame and power. 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul reminds anyone who listens that we ought to be praising God for the blessings we have received. Nowhere among those blessings is economic prosperity listed. The blessings are spiritual, and the first among them is the fact and the truth that we are chosen people. We are chosen to be holy, he says, and without blemish. We have been chosen, says Paul, and we exist for the praise of God. That’s powerful stuff and high expectations to which most of us have not paid enough attention.

Chosen to be “holy” does not mean chosen to be “pious.” What is holy is something set apart or different from this world. When God chose us to be “holy” there was no plan to take us out of the world, but to make us different within the world. A question arises: “Are we different?” “Are we making a difference?” In Jewish sacrifices, to be worthy of being offered to God an animal had to be certified by inspection to be unblemished. People chosen by God have to be certified not just respectable. They are worthy by their perfection. They don’t just meet human standards, but rather the standards of God, and they do this by living in his love.

One of the tragic things about our times is that so many people perceive life as mindless and meaningless. For that reason, so many young people choose drugs, alcohol, and suicide. Nothing in the media, in school, or among most of their peers prepares them to seek life’s meaning. They see nothing worth dying for. If there is nothing to die for, then there is nothing to life for. As a result, too many people look at their future and think of how they are going to make a living rather than think about how they will live their life. It isn’t just young people trapped in that pit. Even those of us in the last half of our lives might reflect carefully on why, how, and for what reason we have been chosen to live this long. 

Jesus choose those disciples and sent them out to provide the world with a meaning to life, with hope to a fragmented world, and to restore God’s creation which has been in such chaos to order and beauty and peace. They went two by two, not alone. They were to go simply to present the meaning to life that Jesus proclaimed: conversion of heart and a radical reorientation. Suddenly life is not just a stumbling walk to death, but rather an intense loving service to others on behalf of God.

Chosen by God, chosen to be holy, chosen to be unblemished, we might all do well to quite fussing about our choices and get on with the purpose for which we were called into life and chosen by the great gift of our faith to make life’s meaning known, protected and treasured. Facing that mission, we can do no better than simply throw up our hands and say: “Come, Holy Spirit” and then get on with it. 

July 4, 2021 at Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Ezekiel 2, 2-5 + Psalm 123+ 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10 + Mark 6, 1-6

Telling the difference between good and evil is serious and difficult challenge to many of us. We have all been conditioned by artists and movies to think and expect evil to look terrible and frightening like monsters ugly and deformed becoming the stuff of nightmares. If that was really the case, we would all be safe since no one in their right mind would have anything to do with evil. But the truth is, evil is anything but frightening and ugly. It is, on the contrary, usually quite nice looking, polished, and attractive.

All of us know evil. It is not specific or individual sins that make a person evil. We all sin, but we are not all evil. It is the refusal to acknowledge sinful behavior that evil people. It is that repeated, consistent pattern with no thought or desire to change that leads to evil. Evil people are to be pitied, not hated. They are always sad, lonely people hiding a great and terrible emptiness known to only a few.

When Jesus got to Nazareth in today’s Gospel, those in that synagogue had to make a choice between good and evil. They made the wrong choice. They rejected goodness. That rejection was not from a personality clash, immaturity, or some political difference. It came from the faith and commitment of Jesus. It was easier for them to do nothing than to do something. It was easier for them to be negative than positive. It was easier to be destructive rather than creative and imagine some new vision of the Kingdom of God and a new concept of a Messiah.

His rejection was also due to the growing opposition from authorities who so inflamed the townspeople that they wanted to kill him. So, he moved his mother and his base of operation to Capernaum for safety. He worked from there rather than Nazareth. So, returning there was risky. Yet, I think, he loved his old friends and home-town neighbors.

They thought he was not worthy of a hearing because he was just a guy who made things with his hands. He was a carpenter. Some of them, just like some people today, think that people who work like that are not capable of anything intellectual or really great.

His rejection was also due to the fact that they were close to him. They knew who he was and they knew his whole clan. By mentioning his family members, they probably intended an insult. Assuming that his family was not held in high regard, they ask a good question: “Where did he get all of this?” They come to the wrong conclusion. The result is resentment, and therein lies a source of evil. Their minds are made up and their hearts are closed. They were offended by goodness itself, and thereby revealed their own self-hatred. They could not believe that from them, from Nazareth, something this good could rise up. 

The truth is that he is just too ordinary for them. He is just a young man who grew up there, worked with his father, became restless and left town to discover himself like so many others had done before him. They just could not believe that out of an ordinary life anything extra ordinary could possibly happen. They could not grasp that God works in ordinary ways day in and day out, and neither can we sometimes. The result is that we often miss the hand of God at work, and sometimes even deny the possibility. 

We cannot afford to make their mistakes. We need to recognize evil and choose good even when evil looks attractive, is easy, and might make us look good. We cannot afford to do nothing, to be negative, and to fail to imagine that God might actually plan to do something with plain old ordinary people like us. We cannot let resentment ever keep us from seeing goodness in all God’s people. 

My friends, if our faith, our religion, our traditions are ever to thrive and have a future, 

• We must do more than just belong. We must participate.
• We must do more than just care. We must help.
• We must do more than believe. We must practice
• We must do more than be fair. We must be kind
• We must do more than forgive. We must love.
• We must do more than live. We must grow.
• We must do more than be friendly. We must be friends.

When we embrace this truth and this way of life, Jesus Christ will be able to work great wonders here in this very place.

Ezekiel 2, 2-5 + Psalm 123+ 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10 + Mark 6, 1-6

Telling the difference between good and evil is serious and difficult challenge to many of us. We have all been conditioned by artists and movies to think and expect evil to look terrible and frightening like monsters ugly and deformed becoming the stuff of nightmares. If that was really the case, we would all be safe since no one in their right mind would have anything to do with evil. But the truth is, evil is anything but frightening and ugly. It is, on the contrary, usually quite nice looking, polished, and attractive.

All of us know evil. It is not specific or individual sins that make a person evil. We all sin, but we are not all evil. It is the refusal to acknowledge sinful behavior that evil people. It is that repeated, consistent pattern with no thought or desire to change that leads to evil. Evil people are to be pitied, not hated. They are always sad, lonely people hiding a great and terrible emptiness known to only a few.

When Jesus got to Nazareth in today’s Gospel, those in that synagogue had to make a choice between good and evil. They made the wrong choice. They rejected goodness. That rejection was not from a personality clash, immaturity, or some political difference. It came from the faith and commitment of Jesus. It was easier for them to do nothing than to do something. It was easier for them to be negative than positive. It was easier to be destructive rather than creative and imagine some new vision of the Kingdom of God and a new concept of a Messiah.

His rejection was also due to the growing opposition from authorities who so inflamed the townspeople that they wanted to kill him. So, he moved his mother and his base of operation to Capernaum for safety. He worked from there rather than Nazareth. So, returning there was risky. Yet, I think, he loved his old friends and home-town neighbors.

They thought he was not worthy of a hearing because he was just a guy who made things with his hands. He was a carpenter. Some of them, just like some people today, think that people who work like that are not capable of anything intellectual or really great.

His rejection was also due to the fact that they were close to him. They knew who he was and they knew his whole clan. By mentioning his family members, they probably intended an insult. Assuming that his family was not held in high regard, they ask a good question: “Where did he get all of this?” They come to the wrong conclusion. The result is resentment, and therein lies a source of evil. Their minds are made up and their hearts are closed. They were offended by goodness itself, and thereby revealed their own self-hatred. They could not believe that from them, from Nazareth, something this good could rise up. 

The truth is that he is just too ordinary for them. He is just a young man who grew up there, worked with his father, became restless and left town to discover himself like so many others had done before him. They just could not believe that out of an ordinary life anything extra ordinary could possibly happen. They could not grasp that God works in ordinary ways day in and day out, and neither can we sometimes. The result is that we often miss the hand of God at work, and sometimes even deny the possibility. 

We cannot afford to make their mistakes. We need to recognize evil and choose good even when evil looks attractive, is easy, and might make us look good. We cannot afford to do nothing, to be negative, and to fail to imagine that God might actually plan to do something with plain old ordinary people like us. We cannot let resentment ever keep us from seeing goodness in all God’s people. 

My friends, if our faith, our religion, our traditions are ever to thrive and have a future, 

• We must do more than just belong. We must participate.
• We must do more than just care. We must help.
• We must do more than believe. We must practice
• We must do more than be fair. We must be kind
• We must do more than forgive. We must love.
• We must do more than live. We must grow.
• We must do more than be friendly. We must be friends.

When we embrace this truth and this way of life, Jesus Christ will be able to work great wonders here in this very place.

June 27, 2021 at Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Wisdom 1, 13-15, 2, 23-24 + Psalm 30 + 2 Corinthians 8, 7, 9, 13-15 + Mark 5, 21-43

Jesus calls that woman who is unclean, “daughter,” and with that she is healed of her affliction. Of course, her affliction is far more than a hemorrhage. It is far more than the fact that her medical bills have used up everything she had. Her real affliction is her isolation, the separation from family and her community brought on by this hemorrhage which was so horrible and defiling at the time. No one there would have touched her for fear of becoming unclean. In fact, they would have run her off had she not been sneaking around. But Jesus calls her, “Daughter”. With that, all is well and a relationship that was broken by this illness is healed and she is restored. 

Around this incident, there is another that reveals the work and the will of God. A man whose name is given because he is so well known comes desperately to Jesus. This is a man of power and influence, but at the moment, he is just a father terrified over the thought of losing his daughter. So, we get two daughters today and a father who cares more about his child than about his dignity as he falls down on the ground at the feet of Jesus.

For us who proclaim this Gospel today, Jairus becomes an image of God the Father who will go to any lengths for his children to be rescued from death even to the point of humbling himself to become one of us. It may help to understand the message of this Gospel to know that the Greek word Mark uses for both of these healings is: σώσει which has two meanings: to cure and to save.

The saving work of Jesus Christ is the work of healing what is broken. It is the work of restoring us to the Father. It is the work of restoring life when there has been death. It is the work of healing the broken family of human kind, that because of sin finds us all bankrupt and helpless as we try remedy after remedy to find what we all most desire: a chance to touch Jesus Christ. This daughter who is bleeding finds hope, healing, and salvation because the one she touches will bleed for her. 

We who dare to approach this altar might come humbly like Jairus full of hope and faith. We pray for ourselves like that woman, and we pray for one another as did this loving father. Some may come secretly like the woman with needs no one sees longing to simply touch and find healing salvation. And touch we shall as we reach out and touch the saving Body of Christ in Communion. We are all ordinary believers in a crowd who cannot claim extraordinary experiences of conscious direct encounter with our Lord in unmistakable and dramatic ways. Yet, we do sometimes touch him with all the modesty the word “touch” carries. Let’s reach out today, for as long as can remain in communion we know like the one he called his “daughter” that we shall be well again.

This homily was not delivered as prepared. I was serving the Maronite Community in Jupiter, Florida on June 20, 2021

Job 38, 1, 8-11 + Psalm 107 + 2 Corinthians 5,14-17 + Mark 4, 35-41

Just in case you like trivia, the surface of the lake they are crossing is 682 feet below sea level. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides that are between 1000 and 2000 feet above the lake. Warm air on the water and cold air on the mountains just a few miles away can get very turbulent very fast. The cool air falls down the sides of the mountains and mixes with the warm wet air at which point you are going to have a storm. It’s not unusual, but not always predictable without the tool of doppler radar that we have today. But these are not amateurs in that boat. They have lived there and made their living off that lake all their lives. For them to be challenged by this storm says something about its violence. They want another hand on the oars or trimming the sails, and that extra pair of hands is asleep. They don’t like it. So, they wake him up to lend a hand.

When Mark tells us that they were awestruck and terrified, I think they were more afraid of what he did than they were of the storm. It was absolutely unnatural for someone to do what he did. I find it interesting to know (another matter of trivia) that the Greek word Mark uses means more than “woke up.” It literally means “getting up” – it implies that Jesus stood up using his full stature, rising to his full height in the stern of the boat which is taking on water as the wave break over it. He confronts the power of the wind and the waves stirring up images from the Old Testament (which those apostles knew very well): images of God’s power over the raging waters which we hear in our Psalm and in the First Reading today. 

Suddenly, those men in the boat are more struck by the power of their companion than they were by the wind and the sea. “Woah!” they had to have thought. Who is this? For Mark, “this” is the one who brings God’s power and providence to human needs.

In this fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, there seems to be no purpose in making that trip to the other side. The point of this episode then is what happened on the way, not the destination. We don’t even know where they going on the other side nor why except for Mark to give us this revelation and leave us as amazed and perhaps as stunned as those men in the boat. Once the storm has calmed down at the command of Jesus, he turns to the storm in the boat to ask why they have allowed cowardice (which is really the word Mark uses in Greek) to overpower their faith. They wanted another hand on the oars. They got something else. They were saved in an unexpected way. 

So, it shall probably be for all of us who sometimes let cowardice take control of our lives. Sometimes when we want God to do something our way, it works out another way. They end up asking: “Who is this?” which is exactly what Mark wants us all to ask. Like those men in that boat, we’re in the boat of life that rocks and rolls through a lot of storms. We sometimes, all of us, think of God with a very limited imagination that does not allow God to work in ways beyond what we can think of. 

God has made us to be capable of more. God has sent his only begotten son to push our imaginations to the limit and to strengthen us when we are afraid. This Gospel invites us into a deeper reflection on the power of God that is always at work through faith in us. Jesus invites us to look at anything that might frighten us with the eyes of faith replacing fear with wonder and awe at what God has done, continues to do in our lives and in this world. 

June 13, 2021 at Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Ezekiel 117, 22-24 + Psalm 92 + 2 Corinthians 5, 6-10 + Mark 4, 26-34

My father was born in what we would today call “poverty”. In the middle of seven children, he never went beyond 8^th grade in a tiny village on the Mississippi River. He left home before he was 15, got a job in Saint Louis sweeping a stock room, and 40 years later retired as a top executive of the same company. He firmly believed in the old saying that you had to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He also believed that the more you work, the more God will love and reward you. We sometimes had serious discussions about those ideas which ultimately run contrary to Mark’s Gospel. I once said to him: “Your idea may work if you have boots, but there are a lot of people who have no boots.” On another occasion, I suggested that working for rewards might not be the best reason for working because it might be better to work for the glory of God without expecting something in return. Any one of you who may have had similar conversations with a parent probably know how it ended. He rolled his eyes and muttered something like this: “This is what I get for paying for your education!”

I spent 5 wonderful years as pastor of a small town in central Oklahoma right in the middle of the wheat country. I watched those farmers year after year plant that seed. One year it would come up and then the rain would stop and it died before harvest. They would plant again the next year, and it would come up, the grain would form, and a hail storm would come and beat it into the ground before they get into the fields. Again, they would plant, and no rains came, then it would rain torrents and wash the grain right out of the field. Sometimes it would all work just right. The dry winds would come and dry the wheat leaving that golden field ready for harvest. What I learned from them is that their job was to plant. That’s all, just plant. The rest was up to God.

Mark reminds us today that we don’t make the sun rise or the seed to sprout. The way God works is unique to God. There are limits to what we can do, and St. Paul reminds us that we walk by faith, not by sight. Do not be distracted from this hard truth by the image Jesus uses in this episode. Comparing a tiny seed to some wonderful plant misses some humor that I suspect had Jesus smiling as he used this comparison. Mustard bushes were invasive weeds. No farmer would sow mustard in their field. It would be like giving a two-year-old a roll of toilet paper to pay with. Jesus is describing complete chaos. He’s joking. This is not about mustard plants or mustard seeds.

This Gospel was written for a people who were anxious, disappointed, troubled, and discouraged. Their hope for a Messiah had gone sour as their faithfulness was rewarded by persecution, death, and fear. They wondered to themselves and aloud why God was allowing all of this. And today this Gospel is just as relevant and important for us who, enduring suffering, wonder why so many people do not believe in the gospel of love. We do not understand why people leave our lives, why careers do not turn out the way we expected, why life is so complicated, dangerous, and sometimes painful.

Paul describes the only attitude we must have in the face of all this and more. We walk by faith and not by sight. In a culture hostile to the gospel of life, we base our decisions not on what is popular and convenient, but on what God has revealed through his Church. In a society that devalues the dignity of human life, we work to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and visit prisoners.

We are reminded by Jesus Christ who speaks this Gospel to us that God’s Kingdom is silently growing because that is what God’s Kingdom does. We will not see that Kingdom in full flower until we enter our heavenly reward. But we can be sure that just as the flower is more beautiful than the seed from which is grows, so God’s Kingdom will be far more glorious than anything we can imagine. Until then, no matter how dark and hopeless our world may seem, we live, we work, and we pray with trust that it is all going according to God’s plan. We have to keep planting. That’s what we are here for.

June 6, 2021 at Saint William Church in Naples, FL

Exodus 24, 3-8 + Psalm 116 + Hebrews 9, 11-15 + Mark 14, 12-16, 22-26

When I say: “The Mystery of Faith.” You often respond by saying: “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, until you come again.” We should be clear about this, because for followers of Jesus, those words are meaningless unless they reflect the life of the one who says them. On this holy day, we are reminded to pay attention to what we say and mean it. If you believe that something happens to the bread and wine in my hands when Christ speaks those words again, then you ought to believe that something happens to you when you say Amen and when you eat the bread and drink this cup. 

The Feast of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ which in the past we called,  “Corpus Christi,” is about us as much as it is about Jesus Christ and the Holy Eucharist. In fact, forgetting that runs the risk of turning this into ritual theatrics that are nothing more than elegant performances. This day is about our identity more than any other day of the year. This day defines who we are. In this age, DNA has become a big issue, and people all over are sending in samples to places like Ancestry.com to find out who they are and where they have come from. Precise as all that may be, that information when it comes back really says very little about who we are. Our mother tongue, our cultural context, and for that matter our phone records will tell others more about us than a genetic code. Genes are just the raw material we combine with circumstances and relationships to shape who we are.

On this day, like every other Sunday, we repeat the celebration that forges our identity and strengthens us to be the very body of Christ that we receive. Jesus let his disciples know that joining him in the celebration of the Passover was an event of communion in his self-giving love. Celebrating the body and blood of Christ always calls us to do what he commanded: to share our lives as he did.  If what we do here means anything at all, more is changed than bread into flesh and wine into blood. There is also our flesh and our blood that is, in a sense consecrated by our consuming these precious gifts, this holy sacrament. We can’t possibly believe what happens here if we don’t believe what happens to us. If by mid-week someone who has met us, been with us, or has seen us has not met and experienced the living Jesus Christ, something has gone wrong. And so, we have this day to redirect our focus and our purpose for being here.

What gets placed on this altar is more than a plate of hosts and chalice of wine. What gets placed here is what they mean for they represent you and me. We are the ones placed on this altar. We are the ones who come here to be lifted up in thanksgiving to the Father. We are the ones who must sacrifice and serve, we are the ones who must forgive and heal. We are the ones, filled with the Spirit, that God has sent into this world to give glory and praise, and show those who are lost the way home.

It is Saint Augustine who really speaks of the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ as our feast day. Jesus let his disciples know that joining him in the celebration of the Passover was an event of communion in his self-giving love. Celebrating the Body and Blood of Christ always calls us to do what he commanded: to share our lives as he did. When Augustine gave out Communion, he said this: “Receive what you are and be what you receive.” This is the real mystery of faith. When we dare to say: “Amen,” we proclaim, “Yes, we will receive what we are. We will be what we eat.”

May 30, 2021 at Saint William Church in Naples, FL

Deuteronomy 4, 32-34, 39-40 + Psalm 33 + Romans 8: 14-17 + Matthew 28, 16-20

This day focused on the Trinity brings together all that we have celebrated during the Lenten and Easter season. The creative, saving, and sanctifying world of God not only frees us from the power of sin and death restoring creation to its first and original goodness, binds us together as people of faith and children of God, a church. Think of that when in our tradition we sign ourselves giving witness to our faith and remembering who we are. Let’s do it again with thought this time. We believe in a God who Creates, Saves, and Sanctifies. +.

The God revealed to us is essentially a God of relationships, discovered, experienced, and always adored within the Trinity. The whole saving wonder of Jesus Christ and his ministry was to draw us into the relationship he shares with the Father and the Spirit. It is a relationship that God intended at the beginning, and the only thing we can call it is love. It’s a love that never ceased even when the relationship was broken by self-willed human beings. As the Word of God insists, God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to reveal and Father’s will for us to be holy and blameless. By fulfilling the Father’s will so perfectly, he taught us to let God’s will replace our will. It’s all one unmistakable act of love that finds its perfect fulfillment through their Spirit which they have sent into us. The result is that all of our relationships in love become reflections of that unique and dynamic communion that exists within God. The love of husband and wife, the love of parents for their children: it’s all a reflection of how God loves. 

When near the end of John’s Gospel Jesus speaks and prays about his relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he says that God will take from what is mine and declare it ours, and then, “everything that the Father has is mine” which he gives on to us. You see, there is no yours and mine in God. It is only “ours”. There is no possessiveness.

In the end, my friends, it must be the same with us. This day we hear an invitation to continue moving beyond ourselves. This day we hear an invitation to surrender our will and to embrace a life style that see and knows that we share all good things in Christ. Most human suffering comes from broken relationships. Anger, jealousy, resentment, and feelings of rejection find their source in conflict between people who long for unity, community and a deep sense of belonging. Claiming the Holy Trinity as our home and our destiny, we claim the truth that God gives us what we most desire, grace to forgive each other for not being perfect in love.

It always seems to me that the Trinity is a love story of selfless, outpouring love that holds nothing back, that never says “that’s mine”, but day and day out draws us out of ourselves and roots us deeply in the divine heart that waits with patient love for us to come home empty handed having surrendered everything that keeps us apart from one another.