What way will I go?

Homily

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

27 October 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village

AMDG

What way will I choose? My way, or THE way?

Jesus tells Bartimaus at the end of his Gospel to go on his way.  Bartimaus instead follows Him on THE way?  What way will I choose?

I can't stand beggars.  In fact, I'm terrified of them.  I bet you are too.  Beggars are incredibly annoying.  I'm rarely ready to encounter them.  I'm not sure how to help, yet haunted by Jesus' saying to give to everyone who asks.  I usually conclude that I will pray for them, while concluding that allowing begging is enabling and dangerous.

I'm really annoyed by people that beg for a living.  Monday night I was asked to celebrate Mass for the Little Sister of the Lamb, a religious community from France that have established a convent and monastery in KCK.  I don't like to go there, but I suppose I chant their liturgy better than some other priests.  They are also concerned for my soul, which is why they keep inviting me.  They are professional beggars.  I can't say no.

These mendicants are annoyingly humble and small.  Around their necks they wear a wooden lamb, engraved with the words 'Wounded, I will never cease to love.' What a crazy way to live.  They live the Gospel precisely as Jesus teaches it.  They compromise on nothing. They don't have real jobs.  Their favorite thing to do is to beg from the violent, and even for prisoners. They intentionally live in dangerous neighborhoods, and prefer to hitchhike, while remaining unharmed and creating peace wherever they live.  

Because of their faith and love and courage, they are more secure than you and me, living in the Prairie Village bubble.

It's annoying as all get out, and terrifying.  I told them as much while I was there.  I asked why they kept inviting me, since they know I hate it so much and am terrified of poverty.  The lead sister said "We know, Father,, and we love you.  You're scared of poverty because you're so deeply attracted to it?"

I was so embarrassed that she read my soul so easily that I wanted to throw a fit and storm out of the room.  I hated that she was right. There's nothing more attractive, free, compelling, disarming or magnanimous that living the Gospel.  It's THE way that Jesus taught.

Bartimaus threw off his old cloak of sitting by the roadside to spring up and go beg Jesus, as annoyingly as He could.  If only I could start Mass with the same fervor, asking Jesus three times as Bartimaus did, to have mercy on me, a sinner.

Instead my prayer is to leave me alone, to let me try to fix everything myself, to let me be the exception to the human experience of vulnerability.  I just want to do things my way, instead of begging Jesus and all of you to forgive me, and to help me.

I'm terrified of begging because I'm so deeply attracted to it.  Still, I'll do almost anything to keep from being one, even though beggars always the heroes of the Gospel, of THE way that leads to new life.  

What way will I go from here?  My way or THE way?

+mj 

Who has paid the price for you?

Homily

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

St. Ann Catholic Church  - Prairie Village, KS

20 October 2024

World Mission Sunday

Who has paid the price for you?

I don't know if your life has ever been saved before, but mine sure has, over and over and over again.  I'm an inattentive driver, and always push the limits, and drive on an empty tank, so I know my guardian angels have had to work a lot of overtime.  I need to tip them well if I get to heaven!  The spend themselves for me, and pay the price for my life.

There are countless others, starting with my parents who sacrificed everything to have a family, and to give me life.  So many people have prayed for me and supported me and believed in me, especially when I haven't been worthy of it.  I'm alive and here today because of all of them, because of all of you.  Left to my own, I would have made different choices, but my life and my soul have been redeemed. So many people have paid the price for me.  

A few years ago, I was invited to play golf, but I turned it down because I had an important therapy appointment that I couldn't afford to miss if I wanted to stay healthy.  The guy who invited me initially poked fun, hinting that going to therapy was soft, and that the only therapy I really needed was an afternoon with the boys.  

The next day though, the guy called me and asked for the number of my therapist.  Not for himself, mind you, but so that he could pay for my therapy for a year.  His comment the day earlier bothered him a lot, for he had always been a friend who had asked what he could do to support me, and when I said what I needed, he had poked fun.  He realized that he now he had a chance to die to himself so that I could live.  He paid not only for that year, but for the next as well, a bill that totaled $10,000.  If you every wonder how much it costs to keep Fr. Mitchel healthy, now you know the number.

Who has paid the price for you?  I've confessed to many of you already that there was a time not that long ago that I was spiritually lost and morally dead, and I didn't care.  Yet the Lord had given me people who wouldn't quit on me, most notably my last two spiritual directors.  I've apologized to both for being so stubborn, so whiny, so hard to work with.  The first responded that if I was a faithful priest for just one more day, it was worth all the time we had spent trying to save my soul.  The second, after giving up his summer vacation to direct me in the spiritual exercises for 30 days, thanked me for having a front row seat to see how Jesus Christ fiercely ransoms a soul from death.

I've been ransomed from death.  How about you?  Who has paid the price for your life?

I wish St. Maximilian Kolbe was running for the next president of the United States.  Kolbe lived precisely as Jesus direct us in the Gospel, that whoever wishes to be first among us will join Jesus in taking the lowest place as a slave, and in giving his life as a ransom for many.  Kolbe like Jesus our high priest was able to sympathize with weakness.  He stepped forward to ransom the life of a young dad at Auschwitz by being executed in his stead.

St. Maximilian Kolbe is not on the ballot this year; still, each of us must vote to advance the common good and a more just society in the coming weeks.  It is a grave responsibility of ours to form our consciences and to make sure we are not voting to advance any fundamental or intrinsic evils, sins against the sanctity of human life or the dignity of human nature, marriage and the family.  In the absence of a great choice, we must be innocent yet cunning, and find a way to do the least harm.  To not vote or to vote wrongly is to give up on our neighbor and to despair of God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Still, the most urgent thing in the coming weeks will not change based on the outcome of a political election.  The most urgent thing is for me to know who has paid the price so that I can live, and to pray for the grace to give my life in turn through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus, as a ransom for many.

+mj  

What's my most treasured possession?

Homily

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

13 October 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

What is my most treasured possession?

I didn't really want to talk about sports this weekend, since I'm so heartbroken still about the Royals losing to the Yankees this week.  Yet something happened Friday that I have to tell you.  I saw a Holy-In-One.

Jon Arkin from our parish cut the corner on the 349 yard par 4 4th hole at Milburn Country Club on Friday afternoon, and did something that has never been done before in the 107 year history of Milburn He made a miraculous shot, and since a priest was there to see it, it may forever be known as the holy-in-one.

It was one of those incredible moments you never think you would see in 100 lifetimes.  It was an impossible shot, a camel through the the eye of a needle  kind of incredible.  A veritable albatross, double eagle, from 349 yards away.  I'm still incredulous.  No no no no way.

Chris Goodger was there, and he said something on the next tee that I'll never forget.  Chris said that this holy-in-one could not have happened to a better bunch of guys. At first. I thought that was such a silly thing to say, and I teased him for it.  It's was Jon's shot, not a group effort.  He's the only one who hit the ball.  But the more I thought about it, Chris said the right thing.  The best thing about this holy-in-one is that it happened within a group of guys who cared about each other, and were doing life and faith together.  Everybody felt so blessed to share the experience, and each of us was happier for Jon than if it had happened for one of us.

In short, the holy-in-one wouldn't have meant nearly as much if Jon didn't have someone there to share it with.  The holy-in-one couldn't have happened to a better group of guys.  Chris was right.  I learned a lesson from Chris - how about that?

What's your most treasured possession?  Jesus is clear in today's Gospel.  It's the people we get to do life and faith with, those we care about and show up for. A lot of us say our most treasured possession is our family, and that's a tremendous answer.  Yet Jesus is offering us 100x more family.  He says our true family is those we get to do faith with, the people who live together within the mystery of his passion.  Anybody that loves anything or anybody more than than the chance to do life together through Him, with Him, and in Him, is not worthy of Him.

Jesus calls us beyond our nuclear families into the family gathered around this altar of sacrifice, and around his passion.  As we suffer and die together, so we live together.  The guys I played golf with all said that going through the Journey retreat here at St. Ann has made the biggest impact on their faith, because it gave them people to do real life with through faith and through the passion of Jesus.  The guys have learned the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach the rich young man in today's Gospel?  What would it profit a man to have the whole world, but not have somebody to share it with.

What's my most treasured possession?  It's actually you, St. Ann, the people that I get to do real life and faith with.  Through you Jesus has given me 100x more than I could ever acquire on my own.  You are my most treasured possession, and Jesus' gift to me.  

What's your most treasured possession?  If we take Jesus at his word, it might be St. Ann.  How wise would we be if we really believed this?

+mj