Homily
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B
18 January 2015
Christ the King Church Topeka
Readings
Audio
When I was vocation director of the Archdiocese, I was shocked to learn about studies showing that 2/3 of Catholic parents would not support their son or daughter becoming a priest or nun. I had no idea it was that bad. I had encountered a culture averse to listening deeply, a culture more interested in personal license than in obedience, and a culture that did not support sacrificial commitments. Yet I did not think that opposition to becoming a priest or sister would come from within one's own family. My own family was very supportive when I broke the news to them. I couldn't imagine it any other way, until as vocation director I encountered just the opposite.
We see the opposite in today's first reading from Samuel. We find a young boy sleeping in the temple, near the ark of the covenant, a boy destined to be an amazing prophet. Samuel had been dedicated by his mother Hannah to the Lord. Hannah did much more than present Samuel once in the temple . . she left him there. Hannah had begged the Lord with the deepest of prayers for years for a child. The Lord heard her plea, and remarkably, Hannah turned right around and gave the gift she desperately wanted back to the Lord, trusting that the Lord could do better things for her son than she could. She wanted to give her son the best chance to be called by the Lord, and to do His will. She wanted her child to be holy. What a tremendous gift!
The Lord did indeed hear Hannah's prayer again, and called her son to be a great prophet. He did this despite the fact that Eli, the priest in charge of Samuel, was a lukewarm priest at best. His two sons were terrible priests. From the scriptures it seems like Eli was not listening deeply to the Lord, as messages from God at that time were virtually nonexistent. Despite Samuel sleeping in the temple, Eli seems quite slow to believe that the Lord was actually communicating to Samuel. Still, even without the best mentor, God still accomplishes his purposes. He calls Samuel, and he responds. Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
I ask parents today to meet me somewhere in the middle. They don't have to leave their kids in the temple, but they for sure need to tell their children that if the Lord calls their children to the priesthood or religious life, that such a call would make them especially happy and that they would support their kids. Too many parents simply use the default line of wanting whatever makes their children happy. This cliche is a cop-out, and is way too vague to carry much meaning. What will make your kids happy is obedience to the gracious will of the Lord - they deserve to hear that from their parents instead.
We see in the Gospel as well John the Baptist pointing Andrew toward Jesus, and Andrew in turn bringing his brother Peter to Jesus. Not only parents, but pastors and peers, and siblings and friends have a role in helping all of us to be better disciples, and to put us in a position to hear and answer our vocations. If Andrew had not brought his brother to Jesus, would Peter have ever been called to be the rock on which Christ built His Church. We'll never know, and thankfully, we don't have to. Being an evangelizing Church and parish means being unafraid to share our faith, and to bring others closer to our best friend who is intimately for each one of us the way, the truth and the life. Our friends and family deserve to meet and to fall in love with the one whom we love. Evangelization is as simple as that. It's as simple as any human relationship - we want all the people we know and love to meet and fall in love with each other. We've heard over and over again that faith lived privately is faith that gets smaller and smaller, until it becomes worthless. If our faith is real, we will point others to Jesus too!
We should ask ourselves constantly who is a better disciple of Jesus, and who knows him better, because of what I have said and done. Has anyone become Catholic because of me? Better yet, has anyone found their true vocation because of the influence I had on their life? These are important questions for us to be asking, as we listen to the examples of Hannah, John the Baptist and Andrew in today's scriptures.
Finally, in Paul's letter this weekend, he speaks about the incomparable dignity that we all have as children of God, dedicated to the Lord. This dignity is ours from baptism. It is when we forget who we are that immorality becomes possible, for only when we go away from who we are does it become possible for us to go away from what we should do. Paul reminds us that we are members of Christ's body and temples of His spirit. This dignity is the foundation of the virtue of chastity - we are not our own, and our bodies too are for the Lord. Chastity is the virtue of pure and sacrificial loving - an imitation of the Lord offering his own body.
Unchastity is the vice of selfish loving - trying to get instead of to give. Unchastity leads to greater evils . . it hurts other people deeply by ignoring their dignity, and in the worst of circumstances, it is the precursor to the taking of another's life. Unchastity is the foundation of the greatest evil ever inflicted by man upon man - abortion. This year marks 42 years of legalized abortion in this country. Abortion is seen as a necessity because people insist on saying THIS IS MY BODY in a way inimical to the way the Lord says THIS IS MY BODY. Unchastity lowers human dignity, eventually to the point that we do not see another person's dignity and right to life. St. Paul challenges us to belong to the Lord, and to honor each other's bodies by loving each other chastely and sacrificially. May our country one day again have the courage to not settle for abortion, nor to pretend that giving her citizens evil choices is necessary for human freedom. May we fulfill our destiny to be a light for all nations, on how to lift up life to its highest dignity and happiness, not killing it! Someday we all will have to answer for what we did while living in the midst of the greatest holocaust in human history.
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B
18 January 2015
Christ the King Church Topeka
Readings
Audio
When I was vocation director of the Archdiocese, I was shocked to learn about studies showing that 2/3 of Catholic parents would not support their son or daughter becoming a priest or nun. I had no idea it was that bad. I had encountered a culture averse to listening deeply, a culture more interested in personal license than in obedience, and a culture that did not support sacrificial commitments. Yet I did not think that opposition to becoming a priest or sister would come from within one's own family. My own family was very supportive when I broke the news to them. I couldn't imagine it any other way, until as vocation director I encountered just the opposite.
We see the opposite in today's first reading from Samuel. We find a young boy sleeping in the temple, near the ark of the covenant, a boy destined to be an amazing prophet. Samuel had been dedicated by his mother Hannah to the Lord. Hannah did much more than present Samuel once in the temple . . she left him there. Hannah had begged the Lord with the deepest of prayers for years for a child. The Lord heard her plea, and remarkably, Hannah turned right around and gave the gift she desperately wanted back to the Lord, trusting that the Lord could do better things for her son than she could. She wanted to give her son the best chance to be called by the Lord, and to do His will. She wanted her child to be holy. What a tremendous gift!The Lord did indeed hear Hannah's prayer again, and called her son to be a great prophet. He did this despite the fact that Eli, the priest in charge of Samuel, was a lukewarm priest at best. His two sons were terrible priests. From the scriptures it seems like Eli was not listening deeply to the Lord, as messages from God at that time were virtually nonexistent. Despite Samuel sleeping in the temple, Eli seems quite slow to believe that the Lord was actually communicating to Samuel. Still, even without the best mentor, God still accomplishes his purposes. He calls Samuel, and he responds. Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
I ask parents today to meet me somewhere in the middle. They don't have to leave their kids in the temple, but they for sure need to tell their children that if the Lord calls their children to the priesthood or religious life, that such a call would make them especially happy and that they would support their kids. Too many parents simply use the default line of wanting whatever makes their children happy. This cliche is a cop-out, and is way too vague to carry much meaning. What will make your kids happy is obedience to the gracious will of the Lord - they deserve to hear that from their parents instead.
We see in the Gospel as well John the Baptist pointing Andrew toward Jesus, and Andrew in turn bringing his brother Peter to Jesus. Not only parents, but pastors and peers, and siblings and friends have a role in helping all of us to be better disciples, and to put us in a position to hear and answer our vocations. If Andrew had not brought his brother to Jesus, would Peter have ever been called to be the rock on which Christ built His Church. We'll never know, and thankfully, we don't have to. Being an evangelizing Church and parish means being unafraid to share our faith, and to bring others closer to our best friend who is intimately for each one of us the way, the truth and the life. Our friends and family deserve to meet and to fall in love with the one whom we love. Evangelization is as simple as that. It's as simple as any human relationship - we want all the people we know and love to meet and fall in love with each other. We've heard over and over again that faith lived privately is faith that gets smaller and smaller, until it becomes worthless. If our faith is real, we will point others to Jesus too!We should ask ourselves constantly who is a better disciple of Jesus, and who knows him better, because of what I have said and done. Has anyone become Catholic because of me? Better yet, has anyone found their true vocation because of the influence I had on their life? These are important questions for us to be asking, as we listen to the examples of Hannah, John the Baptist and Andrew in today's scriptures.
Finally, in Paul's letter this weekend, he speaks about the incomparable dignity that we all have as children of God, dedicated to the Lord. This dignity is ours from baptism. It is when we forget who we are that immorality becomes possible, for only when we go away from who we are does it become possible for us to go away from what we should do. Paul reminds us that we are members of Christ's body and temples of His spirit. This dignity is the foundation of the virtue of chastity - we are not our own, and our bodies too are for the Lord. Chastity is the virtue of pure and sacrificial loving - an imitation of the Lord offering his own body.
Unchastity is the vice of selfish loving - trying to get instead of to give. Unchastity leads to greater evils . . it hurts other people deeply by ignoring their dignity, and in the worst of circumstances, it is the precursor to the taking of another's life. Unchastity is the foundation of the greatest evil ever inflicted by man upon man - abortion. This year marks 42 years of legalized abortion in this country. Abortion is seen as a necessity because people insist on saying THIS IS MY BODY in a way inimical to the way the Lord says THIS IS MY BODY. Unchastity lowers human dignity, eventually to the point that we do not see another person's dignity and right to life. St. Paul challenges us to belong to the Lord, and to honor each other's bodies by loving each other chastely and sacrificially. May our country one day again have the courage to not settle for abortion, nor to pretend that giving her citizens evil choices is necessary for human freedom. May we fulfill our destiny to be a light for all nations, on how to lift up life to its highest dignity and happiness, not killing it! Someday we all will have to answer for what we did while living in the midst of the greatest holocaust in human history.
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