What problem must I solve?

Homily

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time A

Anniversary of Chapel Dedication

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

10 September 2023

AMDG

What problem must I solve?

Does anyone else get sick and tired of solving problems?  It can seem like real life is just an endless series of conflicts.  As soon as you solve one problem, here come a slew of others to take its place.  Is it any wonder why privacy and independence are so highly prized?  People are problems.  Relationships are painful, and messy and costly!

Yet Jesus reminds us in today's Gospel it's all worth it.  We are made for relationship, not for isolation.  Jesus asks us his disciples to be the very best the world has ever seen at solving problems.  He Himself came to reconcile all that was lost and broken.  He includes us in this ministry, this mission of reconciliation, so much so that what we agree to on earth will redound to heaven.

Yes, the happiest people in life are not those who hide or escape from problems, but those who embrace conflict and navigate it well.  The happiest people never pray for easier circumstances.  They pray for the Holy Spirit to give them the wisdom, courage and charity to engage life as it really is, instead of quitting on life.  Pope Francis put it this way - it's not God who tired or forgiving, but we who tire of repenting.  There is not quit in God, we pray that there is no quit in us!

What problem must I solve?  That's easy for me.  I have been working for 7+ years now and how to get KU students to Mass.  If we take Jesus Christ at his word, that unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have not life in us, then to go to Mass is our life!  I for the life of me can't solve for students not feeling the difference that a living sacramental encounter with the Lord Jesus and His desire for us to live, would make in their lives.  I've received thousands of suggestions.  We have tried dozens of things.  The problem is complex, as any parent would tell you.  There's not an easy fix, saving making every day Ash Wednesday, when we are packed with KU students letting us throw dirt and them and tell them they're gonna die.

Jesus begs us not to lose heart or grow weary of the ministry of reconciliation.  The process is outlined in the Gospel.  We must start with ourselves, knowing that what most needs to change in the world is always me.  Each one of us must be committed to his own conversion, to embrace a life of penance, and while putting boundaries on unhealthy or abusive relationships, be open to criticism and to removing the plank in our own eye first.  

Then Jesus asks us to encourage one another in intimacy and charity, not settling for good enough but challenging each other to get better everyday, either in 1on1 conversations or in small groups.   The goal is never just to hang out with nice people who affirm the worst in you.  Quite the opposite, you want friendships that elevate your capacity to solve the problems that most vex you.

Finally, there is the communion of the Church, and our unity in faith and morals that is fostered through reconciliation at Mass and in the confessional.  Jesus says that if His Church can realize the unity in faith and morals, it will redound to heaven.  Like any team or group that wants to solve any problem or accomplish anything great, there have to be rules for being reconciled to one another.  Everyone on the team must show up and do their best.  Jesus says rightly that the unity in faith and morals in His body the Church is the sole hope of the world!  Reconciliation is important!  So we have to stay after it.

What problem must I solve?  Jesus shows us the way, and begs us not to lose heart!

+mj

What needs to get out into the open?

Homily

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A

3 September 2023

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

If you were pope, what is the first thing you would do?

That's a great question, but one I will leave for another day.  Let me just say this.  Don't do what Peter did.  In the Gospel of Matthew, in just a matter of moments Peter goes from making the great confession of faith in Jesus, and being named the first Pope, to being called Satan.  Why?  Because his first act as Pope, as royal steward of the kingdom of heaven, is to try to cancel the cross, to cancel suffering.  Jesus correct him, sternly.  

Yet in saying what he's really thinking, Peter mysteriously becomes a hero once again.  Because he is honest Peter gets his fear out in the open.  Even though his answer is dead wrong, because it is visible, in play, and not hidden, the answer is corrected by the light of truth.  Which leads to our pivotal question for this week - what needs to get out in the open?

A key to holiness is vulnerability.  Vulnerability and honesty is what makes Jeremiah such a great prophet.  He wears his emotions on his sleeves.  He relates the tensions and conflicts of his heart, instead of hiding, avoiding, escaping or coping.  In doing so, Jeremiah fulfills his destiny.  He saves his own soul, and perhaps the lives of those around him.  Simply for telling the truth.  I feel used by God, overwhelmed by him and his mysterious ways.  I hate the cross.  Yet there is still something that I need to get off my chest, something burning in my heart, something imprisoned in my bones.  It's the capacity to live the truth of my reality in love.  It's to believe in myself as God does.

The more we get the tensions, paradoxes and conflicts of life out in the open, the more they can be healed and find resolution in their relation to God and to reality.  You know those conflicts well.  I trust God but I doubt.  I want to live courageously and change but I'm afraid and stay stuck.  I want to be free but keep going back to my coping mechanisms.  I want to give my life away but I'm afraid to let go of who I am right now.  I want to embrace my cross but I like comfort.  I want to participate in the redemption of the world but I want my privacy, my choice, my control too.

When those tensions get out in the open, however they do - in prayer, in conversations in shared experiences, they are related in a way that saves our soul, and brings life.  When they are hidden, escaped or avoided, they get the best of us.

What do I need to get more out in the open?  It's the shared human experience, it's the conflicts and tensions of the heart that are the foundations of every great story that ends in life.  They are the emotions expressed by Jeremiah and Peter.

What do I need to get into the open?