Homily: Children of Light

March 19, 2023 – Fourth Sunday of Lent

Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 / Ephesians 5:8-14 / John 9:1-41

I will be delivering the following homily at St. Pius X Church in Indianapolis today:

I remember as a young child staying overnight at a friend’s house for the first time – a sleepover birthday party. After the opening of presents, cake and ice cream, and party games, the ten of us were spread out in sleeping bags on the basement floor.

My friend’s mom left one light on in the corner and announced that it was time to settle down and get some sleep. That, of course, didn’t happen. Someone made a funny noise and the rest of us laughed. Then a pillow flew across the basement, leading to a brief pillow war. Over the next hour or so, the mom came down several times and reminded us it was time to go to sleep. Her final trip down the stairs, she said, “OK, boys! Lights out!” She then walked to the corner and turned off the light.

It was suddenly pitch black and silent. I was in the dark in an unfamiliar place. I was scared to death. Thank goodness one of the other boys was even more scared than me. He called out frantically – and loudly – and the mom came down and calmed him. She agreed to leave the light in the corner on if we agreed to stay quiet – and we did.

Heal Us

March 18, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

Come, let us return to the LORD…he will heal us… (Hosea 6:1)

HEAL US: I think there are many disciples, including myself, that consider themselves “no maintenance needed” type of people – “I’m fine; I got this; I can handle it.” We put on a facade of invisibility; nothing fazes us. To allow people to see us hurting or in need of assistance gives the impression we are weak and leaves us vulnerable.

Spoiler alert: We’re not fooling God. He knows we are broken and feels our pain. He knows the burdens that weigh us down and the challenges that cause us anxiety. God knows we need healing and stands ready to provide whatever we need to ease our pain. He will heal us if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, if we will call out to him and avail ourselves to his help.

God forces himself on no one. He wants to help and is eager to embrace us. Nothing delights God more than having us accept the love he offers.

It’s that simple: Put aside the “I’m fine” facade. Turn to God, accept his love, and allow him to heal us.

Love Your Neighbor

March 17, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12:28-34)

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR: If you really dig into the teachings of Jesus Christ, you’ll find that His message is quite simple.

Throughout the Gospels, we read about the disciples being confused, and about listeners to Jesus’ message being “amazed” or “astonished.” However, in reality His message is quite clear and concise: “Love God. Love others.”

They were not confused and amazed because the message was so difficult, but rather, because it was so new and different. It turned everything they had been taught, everything they knew, upside down. Burnt offerings and sacrificed animals were not the way to God? God is not a God of fear? He loves us and wants us to love Him and others? Jesus delivers a new, fresh message.

This simple message of Jesus still needs to be voiced today. We live in a world that accepts, even promotes, selfishness. It’s about me. It’s about what I want and I want it now.

Jesus asks us to think and act outside of ourselves.

Listen to My Voice

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. (Jeremiah 7:23)

LISTEN TO MY VOICE: We have many voices in our head, battling for our attention – the voice of temptation, the voice of desire, the voice of selfishness, the voice of ME-ness. Always struggling to become a priority is the voice of God.

The chances of us completely silencing the other voices are not good. We are, after all, human beings. However, the voices battling in our head are in need of fine-tuning. Our prayer then, especially during the Lenten season, should be to amplify the voice of God.

The voice of God – the message of God – is unchanging, but we need to turn up the volume so it doesn’t get lost in noise of the other voices.

Teaching Others

March 15, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)

TEACHING OTHERS: We are imperfect creatures. God knew when he created us that our humanness could lead us to sin. He wants us to do our best to avoid sin, and to follow his commandments, but he is understanding and forgiving if our humanness gets in the way.

It is one thing to sin ourselves, quite another to lead others to sin. Matthew tells us not to teach others to sin. We would never teach someone else to sin, would we?

Others see us when we get angry, and hear us curse when things don’t go our way. They take note when we stick our heads in the sand to avoid confronting injustice. They witness what we accept and don’t accept, what we allow and don’t allow. They notice how we treat them.

Teaching does not only refer to classroom instruction; people learn from watching us.

What lessons are we teaching?

With Our Whole Heart

March 14, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. (Daniel 3:34-43)

WITH OUR WHOLE HEART: Speaking about temptation and encouraging us to take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I once heard a priest ask, “What is on your heart that shouldn’t be there?”

That question fits in beautifully with the prophet Daniel’s message. If we want to follow God “with our whole heart,” we must rid ourselves of the temptations that reside there, taking up precious space intended for Him.

We need to examine our heart. Take an honest look at what we are holding there. Has God been squeezed out by temptation? By false gods?

We should put aside our fear and shame and seek reconciliation with God. We can turn to Him, confident that He will deal with us in “kindness and great mercy.” Then, God will fill in the newly-created space in our heart.

God is Everywhere

March 13, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or a phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15) and “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” (Luke 4:24)

GOD IS EVERYWHERE: Today’s phrase to reflect upon emerges from the faulty reasoning found in both of our readings.

From the first reading: Seeking a cure for his leprosy, Naaman traveled to Israel to see the prophet Elisha. At the prodding of his servants, he followed Elisha’s instructions to wash himself in the Jordan seven times and is indeed cured.

His healing led him to the false assumption: “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” If we were to read on, we would hear Naaman say to Elisha: “…please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth.” So convinced was he that God only existed in Israel, that he literally wanted to take Israel home with him.

In the gospel, we have another example of faulty reasoning. The people in Jesus’ “native place” (hometown) assumed this man they had grown up with and interacted with regularly could not possibly be God. This assumption led them to a lack of belief that hampered Jesus’ ability to perform miracles there. Their assumption became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Two incorrect assumptions: Our first reading says, “God is only in one place” and the gospel says, “God is everywhere but here.”

The message to us is – God is everywhere and available to all.

Homily: What Have You Done for me Lately

March 12, 2023 – Third Sunday of Lent

Readings: Exodus 17:3-7, Romans 5:1-2, 5-8, John 4:5-42

The following homily was originally delivered at St. Pius X Parish BACK IN 2014:

When I am driving in the car, I often listen to sports talk radio. The day after the Colts or Pacers win, the callers are singing the praises of the coaches and players. The players are awesome! Best team we’ve had in years. The coach should be Coach of the Year.

The day after a loss, the coach doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s running the wrong offense. He’s the worst coach we’ve ever had and he should be fired. The day after a loss, the players stink and they all need to be traded.

How quickly these sports fans forget. We live in a world that asks, “What have you done for me lately?”

It appears as though this same sense of entitlement was alive and well as far back as 1500 BC. In the first reading from the Book of Exodus we hear that the Israelites were thirsty. It reads: “The people grumbled against Moses, saying, Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?”

Make them leave Egypt? Really?

Encounter

March 11, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

While the son was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. (Matthew 15:1-32)

ENCOUNTER: The parable of the Prodigal Son is the standard for what it means to forgive and for what unconditional love looks like. However, there is more at work here than forgiveness – there is a personal encounter – the father ran to his son.

If the story were only about forgiveness, the son could have sent a messenger to his father to say, “I realize now I have offended you, please forgive me.”

The messenger could then have returned to the son with a simple response from the father, “You are forgiven.” The shame and guilt would have been gone, but no forward movement would have occurred – that was made possible by the journey home, by the son’s personal encounter with his father.

Luke tells the story of the encounter like this: While the son was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

A face-to-face, personal encounter – the son offering true contrition and the father offering unconditional love. The relationship was restored, brought back into balance. That wouldn’t have happened with words of forgiveness alone. 

It was a reconciliation story.

The words forgiveness and reconciliation are often used interchangeably. Forgiveness frees the offender of guilt and shame. Reconciliation, however, is an added step, and is essential to nurturing a relationship.

Perhaps we can think of it in this way: Think of the offender as a car going in reverse. When forgiveness is offered, the brakes are applied, and the car stops. Forgiveness has neutralized the offense. It’s good that the offender is not going backward anymore, but it’s not going forward either. Reconciliation puts the car in drive and allows it to begin moving forward. Should the car continue to move forward, conversion of heart is possible. Conversion of heart makes it less likely the offense will be repeated.

Forgiveness, reconciliation, conversion.

Appreciation (Gratitude)

March 10, 2023

Each day, I reflect upon a word or phrase inspired by the readings of the day. I encourage you to do the same and perhaps incorporate that word or phrase into your daily prayer.

Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. (Matthew 21:45-46)

APPRECIATION: In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus told the story of a landowner who built a beautiful vineyard on fertile ground and offered tenants a gift – the opportunity to work the land and benefit from its yield. At vintage time, the ungrateful tenants refused to give the landowner what he was due. Even worse, they abused the gift and showed their contempt by mistreating his servants.

The parable ended by saying the landowner will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.

We are told exactly what this parable means. Jesus said, Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

God offers us two incredible gifts. First is the gift of life here on earth; it is freely given and can be opened right away. Second is the gift of eternal life; this gift is earned.

We have three options for responding to these gifts:

Option 1: We can ignore both gifts. We acknowledge the gifts but reject them. We are in control and do not need help from God or anyone else. We roll the dice and move forward on our own. Our vine may produce fruit, but it will likely be wild and unusable. 

Option 2: We can misuse or abuse the gifts. We can take advantage of all the first gift has to offer, but give nothing in return – no gratitude and no thought of paying it forward. Our vine will grow but fail to produce fruit; it will be uprooted and thrown in the fire. The second gift will be taken back and given to someone else more deserving.

Option 3: We can embrace the gifts. We can be grateful and take advantage of the rich soil and careful tending by the landowner. Our vine will grow strong and produce a great yield. We can then use what we need for ourselves, give the landowner what he is due, and share our excess with others in need.  

What option have we chosen? How have we responded to the gift of life – this beautiful vineyard – God has given us? Have we ignored it, misused it, or embraced it? How will we respond moving forward?