Walk or talk?

 Homily 

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

27 September 2020

AMDG +JMJ +m

Talk is cheap.  Long homilies suck.

Actions speak louder than words.

We've heard it so many times this axiom is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy.  We pass over the words, without letting them cut us to the heart.  

Am I courageous, humble and honest enough to let today's Gospel impact my real life?

Do my action speak louder than my words?  And if I don't know the answer, who should I ask to find out?

I hope this pivotal question bothers me - a lot.  I hope the Gospel bothers you - a lot.  I pray this standard  - actions speak louder than words - always cuts us deeply.

Because if it doesn't, it's a sure sign that I'm stuck in presumption and privilege.

Which means that tax collectors and prostitutes are in the passing lane on the highway to heaven, and entering before me!

There's really nothing worse than a disciple of Jesus who is all talk.  Catholics are faith and works people - the two feed off of each other beautifully!  You can love or leave the Catholic faith, but you can't change it.  We are faith and works people.

And does anything do more damage to our communion, our unity, and our mission, our witness, than hypocrisy?  Than a member of our family or team that doesn't walk the walk?

I don't want to be that guy!  I pray you don't want to be the one to let the whole team down either!

By God's gift we are today His sons and daughters, invited to live in, and labor for the Kingdom of Heaven.  We are chosen to receive the incomparable gifts of life - truth - freedom - salvation - adoption!

But how do I receive these gifts?  Not by sitting on them, not by hoarding them, not by clinging to the status they give me.  Not by presuming that I am automatically saved or better than anyone else!

No - I only receive these incredible gifts insofar as I know how to unwrap them how to cooperate with them, how to multiply them, and then last but not least - how to give them all away.  Every single one of these gifts - life - truth - freedom - salvation - adoption - down to the last ounce and last drop, is meant to be completely given away.

That's right, I will never actually know if I believe in God or if I am saved until and unless I walk the walk - until I give those same gifts away like a real disciple of Jesus.  Unless I empty myself.

St. Paul says I either grasp or I empty.  Jesus forsakes the form of God for the form of a slave - he empties Himself.  Jesus my Lord - who has privilege and status as the beloved Son in the Trinity - now that's real status! - gives away every bit his privilege and empties Himself on the cross.  He does the opposite of what I do - I grasp at identity, status, equality - He gives it away.  He empties Hiimself.

How dare I still pretend to be a disciple of His unless I too want to empty myself . . . and for who?

For my enemy!  Yes, disciples of Jesus - that's the wonderful and terrible standard of being a real Christian!  Jesus died for his enemies. Which means I, as his disciple, am responsible to anyone, especially to my enemy, who might thing I'm grasping or hoarding a status, presuming a privilege, looking down on others, loving only myself, not walking the walk or leading by example.  It's my awesome responsibility and amazing opportunity to prove anyone who perceives me as a hypocrite wrong.  I get to take ownership that the perception of my enemy is my reality, and my final judgment.  I get to embrace this if I want to be a real witness for Jesus.

Wait a second, you might say - that standard is impossible, and it's not fair!  Catholics don't rest in privilege, we stand up for truth and morality, and we stand alone oftentimes against the greatest violence done to the weakest and most vulnerable and oppressed, the unborn!

And it's not fair that the only bigotry truly allowed anymore is anti-Catholic bias.

That all may well be true.  And we do have a right and duty to defend against false accusations and untruths.  Yet a real disciple of Jesus never whines about what is fair!  We don't have to - God is keeping score- his justice is sure - He will sort it all out so I don't have to judge my neighbor.

As a disciple I get to focus on giving my life away.  Jesus consoles me - remember, if they hate you, they hated me first.  Blessed are you, happy are you, when they insult and persecute you, and utter false accusations, for now my real cross is coming to you, now you can give a convincing witness, now you can escape the temptation to be stuck in privilege and presumption.

It's exactly at the cross of Jesus where I get to truly walk the walk, and there alone, having emptied myself for my enemy, allowing my enemy to judge my witness, will I know for sure whether my actions speak louder than my words.

It's at the cross where Jesus emptied Himself, and from there God so exalted Him that every knee must now bend.

It's only at the cross, where I get to empty myself, that I will truly know that what I say is true, and from this holy place, receive the gift of eternal life!

What's the most generous thing you have done lately?

 Homily

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time AII

20 September 2020

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +JMJ +m

Three things you'll never hear Jesus say.

That's mine.  I deserve more. That's not fair.

He says instead - nobody takes my life from me.  I freely give it.

God's ways are not my ways.  God's thoughts are not my thoughts.

What's the most generous thing you have done lately?  Our pivotal question is meant to jolt us out of our politics - what's fair, what's mine, what do I deserve - and to get us in touch with God's generosity.

The parable is crystal clear on one point!  Everything is grace, friends - life is pure gift!  Including our life's work - our vocation - our purpose.  It is too is a gift - not something we can capture or control or politic.

In today's striking parable, God as the greatest employer of all time is on full display.  He never stops seeking, never stops inviting, never stops hiring - worker after worker after worker - into the greatest enterprise of all time. Building the Kingdom of Heaven!  I have a role - you have a role - everyone has a unique and indispensable role - in defeating the evils of our day, in conquering fear and hate with love, in being faithful to promises that will bearing fruit lasting into eternity, in laying claim to the fullness of life for which we are made!

God hires me not because He has to but because He deeply wants to!  He hires me out of sheer love!  He delights in me figuring out the problem I was created to solve!  If I know my why, I have a gift of meaning and purpose that provides a greater happiness than any salary number ever could! .

And by the way, I am the one hired at 5pm - at the 11th hour!  In case you haven't noticed, God has been hiring into this vineyard - he's been making wine - for quite some time already!  Unless my name is Abraham, who was hired first some 3800 years ago, then I am hired last, not first.  

If I see anything other than this in the parable, I am thinking not as God does but am trapped in my own politics.  What's mine?  What's fair?  What do I deserve?

And if I am trapped in my own politics I am not praying!  I am trapped in worshiping my own thinking!  For prayer is for nothing less than a changing of our minds, turning our worldview and expectations and politics upside down, over and over and over again.  Knowing that I yet have no idea what it means for the first to be last and the last to be first.

I wish I was there.  Instead, this parable bothers the heck out of me.  I am envious that He is generous.  I deserve to get paid.

Today's parable instead begs me to experience my life's work as a great gift.  There's no room left for fretting about what I deserve, what's fair or what's mine.

There's only time left for the law of the gift. So what is the most generous thing you have done lately?

Our pivotal question is actually a trap!  Don't take the bait!   It's a great question to ask myself in private, but Jesus says to keep it there, so that our almsgiving may be in secret, and that our Father who sees in secret will repay us.

It's another of the great consolations in life, to know that someone is keeping score in secret so that I don't have to.  God's generosity is on high display today; but He will in the end give each man what He chooses. His justice like his generosity will not be late.  It will be sure.

So today I can simply ask - what is the most generous thing I have done lately?

Compared to God's generosity in today's parable, the answer is certainly - nothing.

And I only have a chance to change that - to become more like Him, to be truly generous, if I can honestly answer his question first.

Am I envious that He is generous?

What's heaven like?

 Homily

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time 13 September 2020

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +JMJ +m

One of Jesus' favorite lines is - the Kingdom of Heaven is like . . . . 

So what is heaven like?  Do you know?  It's this week's pivotal question.

Today's Gospel suggests than heaven is an intense, incredible experience of mercy.

Jesus' hyperbole is even more over the top than usual.

The debtor who is forgiven owes over 60 million day's wages.

The debtor not forgiven only owes 100 day's wages.

Heaven is being forgiven 60 million day's wages.  Hell is futilely trying forever to pay it back.

Have you ever felt that forgiven?  The opening prayer for today's Mass begs us to try to feel the effects of God's mercy.  I suppose we've all skipped out of confession or been relieved when after being caught, we heard the words I forgive you.

But have I experienced anything close to what Jesus is getting at in the Gospel?  Heaven is ultimate intensity of experienced.  There is nothing lacking, nothing boring, in heaven.  Experiencing the kind of mercy of owing 60 million day's wages and having someone else be crushed to pay it back - that's heaven.

It's something like me flying the plane into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, then watching Fr. Mychal Judge, a Catholic priest, Body Bag 0001, go in and out of love, suffer the consequence of my hatred.

I know you've never done anything that bad, but have you ever wanted to experience that level of mercy.  A mercy that lies at the heart of heaven, in the very heart of God, at the heart of all reality.Have you ever wanted to feel that kind of love, so that your heart could never be the same after?  So that you could never go back to your sin or your unforgiveness?

I want to feel that kind of mercy - it's what heaven is like.  Because I want to love that way too, and the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.

I really have no clue what the divine mercy of heaven really is!  Peter thought he did - we're supposed to forgive the perfect number of times, right Jesus - 7 times!  We are to perfectly forgive, right?

Ha!  Says Jesus - nice try, but not even close.  Heaven goes so far beyond the tolerance that I usually settle for - it's all good, don't worry about it - let's keep our social distance so it doesn't happen again.

Tolerance is not heaven.  Heaven is mercy - someone loving me so much he wants to be crushed by my sins.  Only if I ever get to feel the effects of this mercy, would I ever dare forgive someone not from my lips but from my heart.

Forgiveness from the heart.  It goes far beyond perfect forgiveness.  It is supernatural - it is divine mercy.  It's out of love for my enemy willingly allowing myself to be crushed by his sins.

Only an experience of mercy this intense is worthy of heaven.

And it can only be born of perfect contrition.  Jesus, I am looking at you right now. I can see and feel the effects of my sin crushing you.  Lord, I am sorry for hurting you.  Not of of fear but for love of you, I never want to hurt you again.

Nothing less than this perfect contrition would free me to in turn forgive my enemy not a perfect number of times - not 7, but 77 times, with a supernatural over the top forgiveness that can come from one place only.

You know the place where mercy is all in all.

It's what heaven is like.