November 3, 2019 Onboard the MS Koningsdam

 Wisdom 11, 22 – 12,1 + Psalm 145 + 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 – 2,2 + Luke 19, 1-10

Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector provides one of the most well-loved stories in the Bible. It a story with many layers from which we can all explore the will of God. It is an Incarnational story that in figurative language reveals what God intended by sending his Son. He came to stay in our house, here on earth, here in human flesh. It is a story of the salvation Jesus brings as he seeks the lost and the most despised by this world, but yet loved by God. It is a conversion story, the best kind of conversion, it begins with a conversion of heart, a change of life, a change of values, which is always better than an intellectual conversion This is also a story/lesson about wealth, a topic frequently raised in Luke’s Gospel. It affirms that there is nothing wrong or bad about being rich. What matters is how one became that way, and what is done with it.

As we sail today headed toward Spain and then ultimately toward home for some of us, those words of Jesus to Zacchaeus are comforting and challenging. “I have come to stay in your house today.” It is both a reminder of what God is doing through his Son, and a reminder of the conversion to which we are called. Zacchaeus ceased to be a spectator that day, by the grace of God and presence of Jesus Christ. At first, he wanted to see, and he got more than he wanted. He got to see the great, patient mercy of God. As he climbs down from that tree, a new man, he is no longer a spectator, but now a participant in the work of Jesus Christ. He had been a man who took from others. Now he is a man who gives to others. He does way more than what might have been required or expected. He gives half of what he has away, and then repays four times over what he took. There is extravagance here that is only matched by the extravagance of God’s love and mercy.

While the crowd can only murmur and judge seeing this man by his past, it is not so with God who created us all good. That goodness never goes away. It’s always there somewhere and just needs to be rediscovered. The old German writer and statesman, Goethe, left us with a description of what God is doing here and a suggestion of how we might continue the work of God. He said: “The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become”. We have to learn from Jesus how to see people.

October 27, 2019 Prepared for Publication while in Rome, Italy

 Sirach 35, 12-14 & 16-18 + Psalm 34 + 2 Timothy 4, 6-8 & 16-18 + Luke 18, 9-14

 As much as it might be easier to preach about prayer from these verses, that would avoid the real issue. What is important here comes at the very end, and that should be of interest to us. Luke tells us that “The tax collector went home justified.” The word “Justified” is important. It leads us to reflect how or what it means to be “justified.”

These were both probably good men, and their prayers were honest and true. The problem surfaces with the comments of Jesus. This parable is aimed at those who pride themselves on being virtuous while looking down on others. Although he was boastful, the Pharisee was no hypocrite. Everything he said was true and sincere. His problem was that he had no concept of his need of God. Since he didn’t consider himself a sinner, he felt no need of God’s mercy. In fact, he believed he had run up a formidable credit-balance with God. Which meant that he had God in his debt. He’s the kind of person in today’s world that just doesn’t think he’s done anything that should take him to the Sacrament of Penance. He also made the mistake of confessing the sins of others rather than his own. As confessor, I can tell you that confessing the sins of others as a way of minimizing your offences making yourself look better is a serious issue. These are the people quick to tell others that they need to “go to confession.” This man’s sins were not wrongful deeds, they were wrongful attitudes. What goes wrong for him is thinking that he could justify himself by right behavior, and that is just not how it works with God.

The way it works with God is shown with the other man, the one in the back. He knows he needs God. He knows God’s mercy. He never thinks for one minute that his life is perfect and therefore that God owes him anything but mercy. His prayer is the best: “Have mercy on me God. I am a sinner.” In the words of the first reading today, we are reminded that “the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds.” He leaves justified because the just ones are those justified by God, not by their own deeds. He leaves justified because he knows God and he knows himself very well. He knows that he can do nothing on his own, and that most of his mistakes are trying to do so. His words are few, but the attitude of his heart makes him pleasing to God. That is what it means to be “justified.”

October 20, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

 Exodus 17, 8-13 + Psalm 121 + 2 Timothy 3, 14 & 4, 2 + Luke 18, 1-8

The widow reveals the power of weakness as we shall soon see when Jesus gets to Jerusalem with his passion, death, and resurrection. In Luke’s Gospel, widows are often seen and heard which might reveal the powerful role these women played in the earliest church. The Judge here is not one of the Jewish elders, but a paid magistrate appointed by the Romans. They were notoriously corrupt, extorting money from people to secure a favorable ruling. This judge is a scoundrel. He may well have taken a bribe from the woman’s oppressor. He is cast as the most unjust of all, becoming for us the polar opposite of what God is. So, the judge is not the point of the story. The woman is, and she provides a revelation about God. While Jesus in telling the story wanted to reveal something about God, Luke is more interested in the widow as an example for us. We need her example still, because too many give up prayer and lose faith.

This persistent widow lives among us still. She is the poor, the helpless victim of injustice. She still stands waiting for justice today in a court system bogged down with a huge backlog of court cases for the poor who cannot afford expert legal help. She faces justices today who jockey for positions behind the scenes and cultivate the favor of those who elect them or the government that appoints them. Suddenly in our time, Justice seems to be either Red or Blue.

Faith and prayer belong together. They are interconnected. Saint Augustine says that “Faith pours out prayer, and the pouring out of prayer sustains and strengthens faith.” He ought to know, because without a life-time of his mother’s prayer, we wouldn’t know who he was. Prayer is answered not when we get what we want, but when we get a sense of God’s nearness with the assurance that God has not abandoned us. Prayer may not change the world for us, but it can give us the courage to face it. The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” was not answered. But through that prayer Jesus got the strength to face what was to come.

The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. And the fruit of service is peace. Let’s get started. It is always a good time to pray.

October 13, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

 2 Kings 5, 14-17 + Psalm 98 + 2 Timothy 2, 8-14 + Luke 17, 11-19

In the second act of Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” Lord Amiens, a musician sings before the Duke these words: “Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou are not so unkind as man’s ingratitude; Thy tooth is not keen, because thou art not seen, although thy breath be rude. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, that does not bite so nigh as benefit forgot: though thou the waters warp, thy sting is not so sharp as a friend remembered not.” And so today, the Word of God speaks to us about gratitude, healing, faith, and salvation all in one well known story.

It does not take a lot of study and prayer with these verses to notice how suffering can bring together people who are enemies. What else was that hated Samaritan doing with the other nine? They needed one another, and suffering often brings people together who nothing in common. Suffering either brings people close to God or drives them away. There does seem to be a third experience. It is also easy to notice that nine are cured, but only one is saved. We don’t know what happened to the nine, but it allows us to think that they returned home with bitterness in their hearts. That Samaritan was an outsider, and he is the one who sees his gift. The nine are insiders who often take everything for granted. Sometime you have to be outside to see things as they really are.

Jesus was not expecting thanks, and that is not what he responded to. Jesus saw more than gratitude. He saw faith which is what prompted him to announce salvation of the Samaritan. “Has no one come back to give praise to God except this foreigner?” he says. In a sense, that Samaritan had two healing experiences: one concerned his physical condition, the other his spiritual condition. He came to faith, to gratitude, through a conversion, and he represents our best hope as we gather in this place always giving thanks. Think of the last words that will be spoken in this liturgy. Unfortunately, they are sometimes missed by other announcements about a hymn number or picking up after yourselves; I wish it wasn’t so, because you really have the last words after being bid to go in peace. What are they?

Gratitude is something that ought to come naturally to us, but sadly we are often better at demanding it than in giving it. Saint Thomas More said this to confirm that truth: “We write in the sand the benefits we receive, but the injuries we write on marble.” Once there was a traveler who came upon a barn where the devil stored seed which he planned to sow in the hearts of people. There were bags of seeds marked: “Hatred”, “Fear”, “Doubt”, “Despair”, “Pride”, “Unforgiveness”, and so on. The devil appeared and struck up a conversation with the traveler. He gleefully told him how easily the seeds he sowed sprouted in the hearts of men and women. The traveler asked, “Are there any hearts in which these seeds will not sprout?” The devil looked sad, and he said: “These seeds will not sprout in the heart of a grateful and joyful person.”

October 6, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

Habakkuk 1, 2-3 & 2,2-4 + Psalm 95 + 2 Timothy 1, 6-8 & 13-14

Luke 17, 5-10

This gospel parable is very important to me personally, and it has helped me greatly in the past few years as I moved into “retirement.” When I was stepping out of parish administration, which is really what I retired from and left behind on purpose, people would wish me well and often say, “Father, enjoy yourself now. You deserve it.” I was always very uncomfortable with those words even though they were meant kindly, because I never felt as if retirement for a priest was a reward. It simply meant I had out-lived my usefulness or my patience. So, there is a word in this parable that jumps out at me, and I think it should for all of us. That word is: Duty. It isn’t a word people use much these days, and it isn’t even an idea some like to consider. This parable will not allow that.

As the word and the idea has slipped away, it has been replaced by ideas of merit and entitlement, and this does not harmonize with the Gospel and the faith in which we live our relationship with God. This parable of a man who worked all day in the field and then, when the master comes home continues to work into the night for the master’s dinner doesn’t feel right in the days of merit. He doesn’t get to eat and rest until the master is comfortable. Never once does this master pat him on the back and say “Good Job” or “Thank you”; and why should he? In the days of duty that’s just what you did. There was nothing extra ordinary about it. The days of duty and the days of merit are now in conflict, and Jesus has something to say about it.

There is a story told that might make this clear. It was late in the afternoon on a raw winter day in Dublin. Everybody was in a hurry to get home. Suddenly a cry arose: “There is a man in the river.” People rushed to the wall and looked down into the muddy, uninviting water. Sure enough, there was a man down there thrashing about in the dark water. His desperate cries for help could be heard above the noise of the traffic. Then, with a screech of brakes, a car swung out of traffic, and came to halt at the curb. A young man jumped out, took off his coat and shoes, climbed on the wall, and dived into the water. He grabbed the drowning man and hauled him to shore. A crowd gathered around the rescued man as they waited for an ambulance. A reporter came thinking there was good story here fishing for information, but the rescuer had vanished. Far from seeking praise or acknowledgement, he just left, and that is the kind of spirit we must bring to the service of God.

In the days of merit people sometimes think that God might “owe” them something revealing a sense of entitlement. After all, they think, I deserve a place in heaven because we have been faithful here on earth. Apart from being misguided, this introduces a mercenary attitude into what is supposed to be a love affair between God and us. At the time of Jesus, the Israelites were stuck in that thinking that God owed them because they kept the rules. The merit system was going strong, and Jesus came to reject that thinking and that behavior. It still needs to be rejected today in these days of entitlement and merit.

God does not owe us anything, and we cannot put God in the position where he is in debt to us. To put it more simply, God does not say, “Thank you.”  We say that. We do great and even simple things faithfully because it is our duty. We do not do them out of hope for a reward. We do them out of love and commitment to God’s service. The most generous and heroic deeds are never done out of hope for recognition or reward. They are done out of pure love.

September 29, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

 Amos 6, 1, 4-7 + Psalm 146 + 1 Timothy 6, 11-16 + Luke 16, 19-31

From this Gospel, there is a question Luke wants us to ask, “What it is that kept that man from getting to Abraham?” Now, there is a risk of getting sidetracked in the telling this parable that could distract us from asking that question. It leads to a commonly shared idea that the poor should just tough it out and wait, because things will get better after they’re dead. That kind of thinking is an insult to God’s Justice and Mercy. This parable is not about Justice or Mercy. It is about what might keep us out of heaven.

Usually, it is the poor who are nameless in life, while the rich with all their inconsequential doings are covered by the media for our admiration. There is even a cable TV channel called, “E” that makes sure we know their names. In this Gospel, it’s the other way around the rich man has no name, but everyone knows Lazarus. Luke is proposing that this is the way it will be in the Kingdom of God.

There is nothing in this parable to suggest that this rich man was evil, that his wealth was gained by theft or in any other immoral or unethical way. In fact, there is a hint that he might have actually been a good man concerned at least about his family as he tries to get word to his brothers and save them from his torment. How ironic that this nameless rich man even after death cannot throw off his sense of privilege as he who couldn’t even spare a scrap for Lazarus at his gate now expects Lazarus to be his errand boy, and bring him a cup of water. I guess the problem is that he never thought of Lazarus as though he was a brother. I find it interesting that he knew Lazarus’ name! He knew Lazarus was there. He would have had to walk around him to go in and out. There is something else even worse, and Jesus points to it directly. No one was paying attention to Moses and the prophets. They were deaf to the Word of God. They did not listen. They did not respond to what was spoken to them in the Scriptures. All that mattered was the good life.

This is what kept that man from getting to heaven and finding the welcome and comfort of Abraham’s company. Abraham, you know, was the great figure of hospitality in the Scriptures. If we are comfortable in a world of the “haves” and “have-nots”, God’s Word says that there will be reversal forever in the days to come. Lazarus had sores, and had no home but that doorway. Those who have live in nice homes. Those who have not live in shelters or their cars.. The “haves” buy a healthcare and medicine for their sores. The “have-nots” stay sick and die young. A reversal is coming says the Word of God. To ignore that Word is to get caught in the reversal that will come.

They lived in separate worlds, those two men, but they were only steps apart from each other. The rich man never stepped into the world of that poor man. He didn’t see Lazarus as a human being much less as a brother who shared a common humanity. He was indifferent, and indifference is the worst thing of all. What kept him out of heaven then, is the question raised by this Gospel today. He was without compassion. He lived only in his own little world gradually losing his soul as he gained his wealth. Sin kept him out of heaven, and most of the time sin is not about doing wrong, it is about the failure to do good. To close one’s heart it to begin to die. To open one’s heart is to begin to live.

September 22, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

 Amos 8, 4-7 + Psalm 113 + 1 Timothy 2, 1-8 + Luke 16, 1-13

There is something going in here with this parable beyond lesson on the wise use of money. To stop there in our reflection is to stay in the shallow water. There is something shocking about Jesus using someone dishonest to talk about. This steward is not only dishonest, but when caught, he refuses to change. There is something more to this story than setting up a situation in which we can simply announce: “You cannot serve two masters.”

What if we switch the spotlight from money and give some thought to this servant who is so clever, so ambitious, and so anxious for his future. This faces some choices as all of us do: Work and life. Often these two become something of a scramble unless you’re retired, like me, and those of you who are retired know what I’m talking about. Suddenly work takes on a whole different perspective. Work tends to claim most of our time and effort. If we take our eyes off of it, we get fired, fall behind, or become obsolete. It can also mean we become workaholics. If we sacrifice our whole life to work, what’s the point? This is exactly the question the servant is facing and asking himself. A question we could all ask ourselves is whether we live to work or work to live?

There seems to be two conflicting demands or responsibilities here, but work and life are both good in themselves. The best we can hope for is to give priority to the most important when it comes to a choice. The gospel talks about loving one and hating the other, but most of the time it’s just not that extreme as hate and love. Even when it comes to God and money, because we have to learn how to use money without making it our god. That was the problem for this servant. Money was his god. So, Jesus uses him to teach us something about how to achieve our priority, if it’s God. That servant was industrious, clever, creative, and committed. Evil people can make sacrifices for what they want. Good people, on the other hand, often sit around doing nothing and seem unwilling to make any sacrifice for their future and for what is good.

Someone very wise once said: “Sow an act, and reap of a habit. Sow a habit, and reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” This parable is less about money and more about character and destiny. It reminds us that evil will triumph when good people do nothing.

Today Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel showing disciples what commitment to the cause of God looks like with the example of this dishonest servant was committed to the cause of self-enrichment. When we do act like this servant, not in his dishonesty, but in his passion for his future, the power of evil in this world will be conquered. I was taught that there are three stages to moral development: doing right out of fear of punishment, doing right out of a feeling of solidarity with others, and doing right because it is right. A little good old zeal for the cause of God and Justice with as much energy and commitment as we have had for the cause of money and our own security might help us to grow into a people who do what is right all the time because God would have it so.

September 15, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint Elizabeth Seton Parishes in Naples, FL

 Exodus 32, 7-11, 13-14 + Psalm 51 + 1 Timothy 1, 12-17 + Luke 15, 1-32

Three parables about parties. I love it! And, who doesn’t love a party except someone who doesn’t like the people invited, and that’s the trouble with this third party. There is someone who will not go in because he doesn’t like someone who was invited. He stands outside pouting and grumbling, complaining about the cost of the party, actually insulting the host who is his father. He never calls him “father.” He just says: “you” with insolence and bitterness. After listening to him, you almost have to be glad he didn’t go. He would have ruined the party anyway.

Then you have to wonder, what is he mad about? Before it all starts, we are told that the father divided his property between them. He already had his share. What is he so mad about anyway? My own guess is that he was just jealous because he didn’t choose the freedom to run around and have a good time. He decided to stay home and look good in the eyes of everyone else. So, now when he sees how it all ends, he’s really mad at himself for staying home and being the nice boy. But, he’s not so nice after all. He’s jealous, he’s angry, he’s rude, and resentful in the face of mercy and love. How can that be, you have to ask when he hears that man say, “My boy. You are always with me. Everything I have is yours”?

Those words come from a man who has left the party and all his guests to come outside once more and gather up a lost one. When I stand back and listen to this parable and the two before it, I suddenly get it when it comes to the Incarnation. It is suddenly clear to me that Jesus has left the Father and the glory of heaven to come down in the flesh and listen to our whining, our resentments, our excuses, and say one more time: “Everything I have is yours.” Everything Jesus has is ours!

The fifteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel is the most simple and clear revelation of who God is, of what God is doing, and what Divine mercy looks like in human flesh. There is a party going on, and it’s a family gathering. Why in the world would any one of us stay outside resentful or bitter over who gets to come and why we are celebrating? The Inheritance that is ours has already been given. It clearly isn’t just the perfect among us who get to party. If you’ve messed up your livfe and waisted your inheritance, all you have to do is repent, change, turn around and head home. It clearly is not a matter of how much you’ve done, how hard you’ve worked, and what you have sacrificed. All that really matters at the end is that we celebrate, that we are joyful, not just because some folks found their way home, but because God never changed the locks while they were gone and even if we’re late because we’ve busy working, someone is waiting for us to get over it, and get inside.

September 8, 2019 at Saint Peter and Saint William Parishes in Naples, FL

 Wisdom 9, 13-18 + Psalm 90 + Philemon 9-10, 12-17 + Luke 14, 25-33

This Gospel begins by telling us that there were great crowds following him. The impression Luke would give us here is that he was a “rock star” at this point. I suspect Jesus knew that most of these folks were following him because they were entertained, excited, and curious about all that he was doing and the challenges he issued to those who often made their lives burdensome. Today he speaks to them, not to the Scribes and Pharisees. Today he speaks to us. He is on his way to Jerusalem. There is going to be trouble there, a lot of it, and if they are going along and survive the experience with him, they are going to have to do something radical, shocking, and maybe even frightening. When he says, “Take up a cross”, they know what that means. They know how people are tortured and killed with that thing. This is real powerful frightening image to them.

“You want to follow me?” he says, “Then nothing can come before me, not parents, children, brothers, or sisters.” When you make pleasing them the most important thing in your life, there is no room for pleasing God. That Semitic expression, “hate” in our terms means, “love less.” The great models of faithful discipleship left their families behind because Jesus was the only way. Remember Francis of Assisi who abandoned his comfortable family life and the future his father had planned for him to follow Jesus? He did not hate is father. He just loved Jesus more. I think of Father Stan Rother, a farm boy in Oklahoma who would have pleased everyone and would one day have inherited the whole farm. It’s what everyone expected, but he left his family to follow Christ in the suffering people of Guatemala. Our tradition is full of stories and examples of holiness and heroism in the lives of people who let nothing and no one take precedence over Jesus Christ.

To be worthy of Jesus, we must follow Jesus rather than follow the expectations of anyone else. Our lives are not about anyone except God. Our lives are lived in relation to God. God’s plan for our lives is what must matter, not our plans, the plans of our parents for us, or anyone else’s. Only the most free can be worthy disciples of Jesus Christ, and that freedom is best described as having nothing to lose, which is why possessions get in the way. It is that kind of freedom for which we must strive, but only if we calculate carefully and knowingly the cost to determine if you have what it takes. What is coming, is the cross. There is no way to say: “I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”

We have to pay attention to who it is we are always trying to please in this life. If it isn’t God, we’re in for a lot of sadness and disappointment. Jesus had one great task in life, to carry out the will and the plan of God. That is what he lived for, and he was willing to pay any price in order to fulfill that task. He expects the same of his disciples. The cost is probably more than we can imagine, but so is the reward.

September 1, 2019 onboard MS Zaandam

 Sirach 3, 17-18, 20, 28-29 + Psalm 68 + Hebrews 12, 18, 19, 22-24 + Luke 14, 1, 7-14

Banquets, dinners, and parties are all frequent themes in Luke’s Gospel, and he uses these themes to give us a glimpse of what will be in the Kingdom of Heaven. In these verses today, we get a clear instruction about the heavenly banquet to which we hope to be invited. What we discover here is that hospitality and humility are essential virtues for those who expect to have a place at the banquet in heaven.

The reality of this vision of the banquet in God’s kingdom is that people are going to be there we might never think of inviting into our homes, because the Divine host is nothing like this guy who invites people from whom he expects to get something in return. There is a direct contradiction to the custom of social reciprocity that is to this day so endemic to our lives in this world. There is in the comments of Jesus a direct confrontation to a social system that always seems to reward the “haves” at the disadvantage of the “have-nots.” There is no virtue at all in any relationship based upon what you are going to get out of it. So, inviting those who have something to offer is self-serving and egotistical, and it uses the guests in a manipulative way that is shameful and ultimately contrary to the openness and graciousness of real hospitality that mirrors the hospitality of the Divine Host.

Knowing that, anyone who comes as a guest will simply be glad to be invited, and where you sit makes no difference because, you are just grateful to be there in the first place. Those guys Jesus observes elbowing their way around looking for the just right place and just the right people to sit with are foolish and silly looking. They are obviously without gratitude, and more interested in who they are with than in the party itself because, they have to “perform” and look good. The humble are always simply grateful.

It is the role of the Divine host to assign the places of honor, not the guests, and what we can learn from this parable is that we are not going to exalt ourselves. The reality is, we had better humble ourselves, or God will do it for us. The humility found in disciples of Jesus is the grace and wisdom to simply know our place. Saint Thomas teaches that “humility is truth”. Something in this world is always proposing to us that we should expect things or that something is owed to us. The humble are just grateful to be invited to the banquet. They have no expectations about seats of honor or privilege. At the end of the day, those who are worried about who they are going sit with never enjoy the dinner. They are just focused on themselves and the company they seek. In the end, it’s not the place that honors the guest. It’s the guest that honors the place. We don’t know in what place Jesus sat in the home of that Pharisee, but where ever it was, that was the place of honor.