November 1, 2024 This homily is for this publication only as I am at St. Gregory Abbey in Oklahoma

Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14 + Psalm 24 + 1 John 3: 1-3 + Matthew 5: 1-12

Growing up in a very “Catholic home,” I was surrounded by saints. There was a statue or two in every bedroom, and easily that many pictures on walls. Their stories were known by all the kids because the Sisters would fill in their lesson plans with those stories when the material ran short. The classrooms had more statues than our home.

The Jesuit, James Martin, published a book called: “My Life with the Saints.” In that book he says that he could easily recognize himself, or at least parts of himself in their stories. I can’t make that claim. The Saints that the Church has recognized for their outstanding holiness never lived my life. They would find it dull and far too routine. I sometimes think that if they had lived my life, they wouldn’t have become saints! The Saints that I really know about had heroic lives, some suffered terrible cruelty, and some were murdered or surrendered their lives for their faith, for the sake of justice, or simply for other people. If I’m really honest with myself, I am not sure today that I could do that.

Yet, when I really think about it, I suspect that those great heroic Saints never set out to be heroes or planned to be saintly. Not long ago, on the evening news, a man who had jumped into a lake to pull a woman and two children out of sinking car was being interviewed on camera. The person holding the microphone commented on the fact that the lake was full of alligators, and she called him a hero. He blinked, shrugged his shoulders and said: “I just did what needed to be done.”

Maybe that’s what it really takes to be saintly, doing what needs to be done. I think that’s what Mother Theresa would have said, or Theresa of Avila, or the Curé of Ars, or John Paul II. They just did what needed to be done. Now and then I run into people who are trying to be saintly. I find them to be a bit odd, sometimes phony, and their pious behavior does not attract nor interest me. I’m not sure we can “try out” for holiness. It seems to me that holiness and sanctity are consequences of humble, sincere, simple lived by someone who just does what needs to be done not for some recognition or reward, but because there is someone else in need. 

October 27, 2024 at Saint Peter and Saint William Catholic Churches in Naples, FL

Jeremiah 31: 7-9 + Psalm 126 + Hebrews 5: 1-6 + Mark 10: 46-52

In the mid 1700s the slave trade was very lucrative business for English sailors and captains. A teenager named, John Newton was out of control with alcohol and he ended up on a slave trader. His behavior on board landed him in chains becoming a slave to the captain of the ship who eventually sold him to another ship where he was put him in charge of the holding pens for slaves. It is said that he was the cruelest man on the ship. He found and read a copy of “The Imitation of Christ.” It frightened him, and he closed the book. Not long after that, a terrible storm nearly tore the ship apart, and for the first time, he prayed in fear. When the storm calmed, he began to read the New Testament and in the story of the Prodigal Son he could see himself. The damaged ship barely made it to shore. He went straight to a church to pray, but his conversion didn’t last long, and he ended up back in the slave trade where in West Africa he contracted malaria and nearly died. This time, the fear made a difference and even though he made three more voyages taking slaves to the Caribbean, he recognized that he had been blinded by power, ambition, and money.  He ended up as an active abolitionist working to put and end of slavery in England. As a Pastor for 23 years, his sermons often reflected on the theme of God’s grace, and he left us the hymn we all know so well. “I was blind, but now I see.” 

We are nearing the end of our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem narrated by Mark. In just four weeks, it’s over. Then we shall pick up the Gospel of Luke for the coming year with Advent. When Jesus turned his face and started toward Jerusalem in chapter eight, a blind man was healed. Now nearly at the gate of the city there is another blind man. You might find it interesting to compare the stories. They are quite different in several ways that say something about what has happened to Jesus as well as his disciples along the way. This is the final miracle story in Mark’s Gospel, and it is the only time when someone cured has a name.

As Mark tells it there are two issues of notice. The disciples still don’t get it. They just don’t “see” what Jesus has been doing and what his ministry is about. They try to keep Bartimaeus quiet and want him out of the way. I find it remarkable that “Jesus stopped.” Determined as he has been to get to Jerusalem, right there near the end, he stops because someone calls. What he is about, what he must do, where he is headed all comes to a halt for a poor man, a nobody, sitting at the side of the road shouting. Then, he asks the question that echoes down through the ages to us today. “What do you want me to do for you?” When that question is first asked, Bartimaeus knows what he needs. He knows he is blind, and that is his first grace.

When Jesus Christ asks that question of us, if we do call out to him, what are we going to ask for? This is an invitation to consider what we really want from Jesus. We will do no better than learn from Bartimaeus. He calls Jesus “teacher.” I think Bartimaeus is the teacher here teaching us what to ask for. We are blind people. We just don’t really see. It’s not a matter of the optic nerve. It’s a matter of really seeing, perceiving, understanding who we are and what our blindness allows. There is a spiritual blindness like an epidemic in this world. With all our laser technology, cornea transplants, and Cataract surgery, too many of us a still blinded by ambition, power, money, and prestige.

We do not see what our life-style does to someone else. We do not see the face of Christ in anyone who questions or threatens our privilege and comfort. We refuse to stop too often when someone calls out. We ask Jesus for things that really will not transform our lives and bring peace and justice. Yet, Jesus still asks offering help, and his hand reaches down to our hands to lift us up and offer a new way of life. Following him on the “way” will not lead to any superiority or sophistication, but into a world in which everything has meaning and is real and belongs. Our teacher wants us to be well and to see again – to see as God sees. When that happens, we can sing that old hymn and really mean it.

October 20, 2024 at Saint William & Saint Peter Catholic Churches in Naples, FL

Isaiah 53: 10-11 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 4: 14-16 + Mark 10: 35-45

When I read these verses from Mark’s Gospel, I always wonder exactly why the other ten were so angry. Was it because they didn’t ask first and James and John beat them too it? Or, was it because it was such an inappropriate question. We’ll never know the answer, but it is worth thinking about if we put ourselves into the moment. What we see is that self-interest and a quest for power have fractured the very community Jesus has been forming. The whole situation sounds too much like us these days. The ideal of a more perfect union has fractured by a lot of self-interest and a quest for power. “It shall not be so among you” says Jesus Christ. My bet is that he shouted that at them in frustration and disappointment. 

What is on display here are the symptoms of communal life disrupted by distrust and division. They don’t want to serve. They want to be served. With that, the entire mission of Jesus is revealed, and its success or future is called into question.

I think it is important here to realize that Jesus does not criticize James and John for asking to sit at his right or his left in glory. He simply suggests that they are not clear about how you get there. We have the benefit of knowing what they did not know. At the time this discussion happens, they have not yet been to Calvary. They do not yet know that the “glory” of Jesus will be revealed from a Cross. Even though we may understand that intellectually, our position of privilege in this world still makes it hard to see what this gospel makes clear. Glory is not about power or winning. It is about something quite the opposite.

Jesus asks a question here, “What do you want me to do for you?”  He will ask the exact same question of a blind man named, Bartimaeus a little later when he gets to Jerusalem. Guess which one sees clearly enough to follow Jesus “on the way.”

This is the question at the heart of this story. What do you want Jesus to do for you? If we have some power or influence and use it for a good purpose then we might want Jesus to keep things as they are or even increase our influence so that we can do even greater things in his name. If we are somehow powerless against neglect or abuse, a victim of prejudice or hate we might ask Jesus to make this world more fair, just and loving. We might ask Jesus how a whole community like us might change things, give up something and give ourselves away on behalf of others and give us enough love and courage to really want to serve rather than be served.

I’m glad that Jesus did not scold or judge James and John but rather continued patiently to teach them his way and the possibilities they could not see at the time. He came as a ransom to set us free. If we can only begin to acknowledge how we have been enslaved by a desire to secure our privileges and to be served grace has begun to set us free, free to ransom others by service and sacrifice. This is not an idea. It is a frame of mind and a way of life called discipleship.

October 13, 2024

This homily was not delivered as I am attending the 100^th anniversary of the Cathedral in Oklahoma City.

Wisdom 7: 7-11 + Psalm 90 + Hebrews 4: 12-13 + Mark 10: 17-30

This man who stops and questions Jesus at the beginning this week’s Gospel introduces two key terms worth our thoughtful reflection: “good” and “inherit.” In the conversation with this man, Jesus is not trying to deny his own goodness, but he is asking the man if he really knows what he is saying and why he is saying it. Not interested in flattery, Jesus pushes the conversation further suggesting that this man is confused about what is good. He can’t seem to distinguish between what is good from goods.

Goodness is an attribute of God. One look at the two words in print might give us some clue. Any thing that is good in this world is good because it comes from God or comes from God’s creation. On the other hand, the word can be used to identify riches or material possessions not because they reflect God’s glory but because they satisfy our desire to possess and consume. What we see is that this man cannot let go of his “goods” because he can’t see what they are and where they come from. Then, there is this matter of inheritance. An inheritance implies a relationship or a kinship with a willingness to wait and receive. The man does not seem to understand this. He wants some “thing.” What he needs is some “one.”

What we hear in this story today is not a critique of this man, but an invitation to look at our own lives and evaluate what we own and how what we own leads us to see and express the glory of God remembering the source of all that is good. There is nothing in the Gospel that demands that we become like Saint Francis and give away all our possessions. However, at the same time, every line of the Gospel warns us about the ways a desire for more goods, more prestige, more luxury or more power diverts us from our greatest potential.

With all his wealth, a man who seems to lack nothing ends up being told by Jesus that he does lack something. All of his abundance has created a lack that can only be filled or satisfied by a relationship with a person rather than with things. He lacks what he needs most, an ability and willingness to follow the way of Jesus Christ. This rich man is really a poor man too content with his riches or his “goods” to see what is really good – a relationship with the one Good – God. All those goods have led him to settle for less because they seem to be the best offer around. The inheritance he could have is a reward that comes when goods become good by being circulated, both given and received not possessed or owned.

In the end, keeping the commandments does not make any of us good. It just makes us keepers of the rules. This man in the Gospel keeps the rules, but yearns for something more. He has a lot of stuff, and he knows and feels that it still is not enough. He needs someone. He comes to the one who can give him what he longs for. But, at that moment, he is too confused about what is good and how to inherit failing to understand that having an inheritance means having a relationship. It seems like a sad story the way it ends, but maybe it is more of a beginning. Maybe he will, having reflected as we do now on the message of this Gospel, he will return ready and open recognizing what is really good and where it all comes from.

October 6, 2024 at Saint William Catholic Church in Naples, FL

Genesis 2: 18-24 + Psalm 128 + Hebrews 2: 9-11 + Mark 10: 2-16

These verses of Mark’s Gospel are not about divorce at all. The troublemakers are there to trap Jesus with a question about divorce. They want to get Jesus to say something that will get him into trouble with Herod whose divorce was a hot topic at the time – a topic that cost John the Baptist his head. Jesus does not fall for their tricks. He talks about marriage.

Reaching deep into the well of our heart’s desires Jesus repeats the words of the Creator, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Going further to reveal God’s will and God’s plan, the Genesis story puts Adam to sleep so that it is clear that this is only the work of God. A rib is taken. Unlike the creation of every other creature, this creature will not be less, separate, or different from man. This is bone from bone, flesh from flesh. There is equality here intended by God, and that is the real revelation and response Jesus gives to those troublemakers. For them, this idea had to be disturbing.

At the time, marriages were arranged. There was no thought about love and commitment in marriage. As a result, divorce was a constant issue that could even upset the economy. When the response of Jesus brings the suggestion of God’s action in this relationship there is something new to think about. This is no longer about economics or providing children to help with work. Marriage, like everything else, has changed with the coming of Christ. The purpose of his Incarnation and the motive for his mission is to restore the perfection of that Garden where everything was perfectly in harmony and peace as God had intended.

No longer just a relationship between two people, Jesus speaks of God’s intention for marriage to be a covenant between two people and God. The binding force in marriage, as Jesus sees it, is not vows or even the love of the two people for each other. The binding force is God’s own presence in that relationship. He makes the point by saying: “What God has joined together……” Recognizing and cultivating God’s presence in a marriage brings joy in good times and hope in sorrow. As God intends and Jesus teaches, marriage is a living sign of God’s presence in our midst. It is the manifestation of the love of God, a love that knows neither condition nor limit in its ability to give and forgive. Jesus appeals to all of us to embrace the Spirit of love that is the basis of God’s love.

Yet, we know only too well that no human relationship is without sin, and sometimes promises are broken. While living with this reality, we must hold fast to the promise that God is always radically faithful, and there is nothing that will divorce us from God’s love. Entering into and maintaining a marriage relationship requires a commitment that must rely on God. What these verses ask of us is a serious consideration of radical faithfulness. First comes faithfulness to God, and with that, we can be faithful to one another in the promises we make.