Sermon, 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 28, 2011

11th Sunday after Pentecost – August 28, 2011

(Mark 7: 31-37)

     Last Sunday we heard of the humility of the publican and the pride of the Pharisee. The Pharisee in his pride departs the temple in humiliation. The publican, in his humility, laments his sin, draws nearer to God and returns home justified. In his Epistle today, St. Paul places that same humility before us to copy as he says, “For I am the least of the apostles, whom am not worthy to be called an apostle.” This humility keeps us from being puffed up one against the other, and allows us to pray in today’s Introit that God makes men abide together in His house as though they were all one soul. As we said last Sunday, the way to Jesus, Who is Truth, is through humility.

            Jesus spoke of humility also when He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19: 13-15) A child’s faith is without a single doubt or reservation, and so they give themselves over to love of parents and love of God with complete humility. Children don’t start with logic and arrive at such a love. To start with logic is to place the logic of our mind above God – in essence to worship ourselves. In Matthew 19 Jesus is urging us to do what children do, “for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”

In today’s Gospel our Lord took aside the man who couldn’t hear or speak, to perform a miracle away from the crowd, thus teaching us that more miracles are wrought through humility and modesty than through the vanity and pride of public performance. He could have cured the man with a simple word alone, but instead, put His fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue to show that our Lord’s Body is united to His Divinity. He looked up to Heaven and groaned like a man in prayer might do, and then with a single word, “Ephpheta,” healed the man.

The Redeemer’s fingers represent the gifts of the Holy Ghost. On another occasion, after casting out a devil, He said, “But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Luke 11: 20) This same event is recorded with a different phrase by Matthew: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.” (Matthew 12: 28) When we compare the two Gospels, we learn that the terms “finger of God” and “Spirit of God” have the same meaning. Therefore, for our Lord to put His fingers into the ears of this man means to open the mind of the deaf person to obedience by means of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God.

We were not unlike this man who was deaf and dumb before we received the gift of faith and the sacraments. These gifts healed our souls just as our Lord’s gift of a miracle healed this man’s ears and tongue. If we are truly thankful for our gifts we should tell others about them, just as the deaf and dumb man told others about the Lord after his cure. We would not have received the gifts of faith and the sacraments unless our Lord thought we were worthy of them. And we would be foolish indeed if we threw these gifts away rather than sharing them with others.

At our Baptism the priest touched our ears and also said, “Ephpheta, be thou opened,” that is, be thou opened to the Word of God. In an earlier time, God spoke similar words to the Prophet Ezechiel: “And he said to me: Son of man, receive in thy heart and hear with thy ears all the words that I speak to thee. . . And go . . . to the children of thy people, and thou shalt speak to them, and shalt say to them; Thus saith the Lord. . .” (Ezechiel 3: 10) In telling us of the miracle of the deaf and dumb man Mark confirms the words of Ezechiel.

            One sentence in today’s reading is: “And the sting of his tongue was loosed; and he spoke right.” (Mark 7: 35) We would hope that we always speak right, but in speaking about our neighbor, do we not often speak wrong?  Do we not often detract our neighbor in criticizing, censuring and denouncing our neighbor’s acts? Of all bad habits, this is the most common and also the most vicious and most harmful. The harm caused by detracting another is so great that the Curé of Ars has said that it is the cause of most of the souls that go to hell.

Detraction consists of making known a defect or fault of another unnecessarily, and in such a way as to cause injury to his good name or otherwise. If we tell something bad about our neighbor that is not true, that he did not do, it is calumny. When we detract someone, do we not invariably add something to the story to make it worse, to make it more interesting? That is calumny, a more serious sin than detraction. St. Francis de Sales warns against calling someone a sinner because he once sinned. When Simon saw Mary Magdalen weeping at our Lord’s feet he thought that if Jesus were indeed a prophet he would know that she is a sinner.  (Luke 7:  37) But Simon was wrong, because Magdalen’s sins  had already been forgiven. In last week’s Gospel the Pharisee in the temple condemned the Publican in the back of church as being a sinner, but at that very moment the Publican through his humility was justified before God. We deceive ourselves when we think badly of our neighbor even if we have good reason for our opinion. St. Francis de Sales, again, said that since God can forgive the worst of sins in a moment of time. How dare we say that the person who yesterday was a sinner is the same sinner today.

We know we aren’t to condemn anyone, we aren’t to judge anyone, so what is our best defense against detraction and calumny? It’s to keep our mouths shut. Do not spread tales, whether true or not. And how do we confess this sin? It is not enough to say we have slandered someone. We have to say whether it was in humor, from hatred or revenge, or whether we wanted to injure someone’s good name. We must tell who we spoke against, our superiors, our family, persons consecrated to God, and whether we spoke against one person or many. All of this is required to make a good confession. Remember; when we detract someone there is always injury to that person, whether the injury is slight or serious. If someone detracts another person to you, do not participate in the conversation. Excuse yourself and go pray for him and for the person he detracted. It has been said that “God hates six things; but the seventh he abhors, and that is ‘tale-bearing.’” When we die we will be asking God for mercy. So while we are alive, let us show mercy to our neighbors by not speaking evil of them. +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 9th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2011

9th Sunday after Pentecost – August 14, 2011

(Luke 19: 41-47)

Our Lord’s love of Jerusalem is shown by the tears He shed over it. But He told His Disciples of the coming destruction of Jerusalem during what we now call Holy Week,. This happened in 70 AD, and Josephus, a Jew, an historian and a Roman citizen survived the onslaught and recorded what happened to Jerusalem, and his history is in exact accord with what was foretold by Christ. The city was completely uprooted by the Romans and not a stone was left on top of another stone. It was as if the city never existed. The new City of Jerusalem was built over the place where Christ was crucified.

The destruction of Jerusalem was Divine Justice. With few exceptions the people of Jerusalem abandoned the Law of Moses and had given themselves over to the things of this life with no care for their final  judgment. As many times as the books of Moses were read to them in the synagogue they drew a veil over their eyes to block out God’s rules and His mercy. We learn this from Jesus in today’s Gospel, “If thou also hadst known . . . the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thine eyes.” (Luke 19: 42) Their punishment was the complete destruction of Jerusalem “because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.” Because they loved the things of this life, they could not recognize the Christ and therefore rejected Him. Read Deuteronomy 28 starting at v. 49 where Moses promised the horrors of 70 A.D. to the Hebrews if they did not obey God. Even the tears of the Son of God could not hold back the justice of God.

The high priest prior to the destruction was Ananus, brother-in-law to Caiphas. The Zealots and gangsters who flocked into Jeruusalem revolted and murdered most of the illustrious people in the city. They took control of the temple and changed the order of sacrifice and installed an ignorant peasant as high priest. Pressed by the troops of Ananus, the Zealots called in Idumean herdsmen to help. They came into the city at night and found the watchmen asleep and killed them. Josephus reports that Earth itself moaned at their approach. In the morning 8,500 bodies were found. It included Anannus the high priest. In the days following the Idumeans murdered 12,000 Jewish men.

Meanwhile, John of Gischala, an ally of the Zealots, broke away and allied himself with the Galileans, giving them permission to rob and murder at will. Jerusalem looked to one Simon, son of Gioras who had 60,000 cutthroat troops in his army. They cheered Simon as a savior when he arrived, and then he began murdering his hosts. John of Gischala and Simon then fought, and in their hatred they burned the massive stores of grain that would have fed both sides for some time. These two were greater enemies to their own people than were the Romans. This was the end of 69 A.D.

With the approach of Passover in 70 A.D. only armed men, old women and children were left in Jerusalem. This last Pasch was a noisy brawl. The Galileans took advantage of the party atmosphere. They disguised themselves and made their way into the Temple where they attacked and murdered as many as they could. Famine now set in on Jerusalem. One woman was found to have murdered her son and ate his remains. People were tortured to reveal where they might have hidden food. Bodies were left to rot in the streets.

Simon and John of Gischala held out for two months against Roman incursions. The Romans built a trench around the city, fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus. Many escaped the city but many of these were disemboweled by Syrians and Arabs who followed the Roman army because they heard that Jews swallowed their gold. In the space of a few months over 600,000 died in Jerusalem. In the Roman’s final assault the Temple was set on fire. The dead bodies were so numerous that the soldiers could not walk on the ground, but walked across the bodies. The city fell on September 1, 70 A.D., after the death of approximately 1,000,000 men.

There is a lesson learned by the destruction of Jerusalem which should never be forgotten: “that no blessing, no past holiness, is of itself a guarantee that the place thus favoured will not afterwards draw down on itself desecration and destruction” because of its sins. (The Liturgical Year, Abbot Guéranger, St. Bonaventure Publications, Montana, 2000.) The Israelites had only figures and a foreshadowing of the fullness of God’s grace and revelation. We have been given everything. Can we imagine what will happen to the Catholic Church because of the sins of its modernist heretics?

In their faithless diplomacy the High Priest and the Council tried to exploit Christ. They said, “If we let him alone [doing all these miracles] all men will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away our city and nation. . . From that day therefore they devised to put him to death.” (John 11: 47-53) But God’s divine justice cannot be thwarted by men, and so they were destroyed.

In the face of what happened to Jerusalem and of what might happen to us, let us repeat the prayer from the Introit of today’s Mass: “O God, in thy name save me: and, in thy strength, deliver me.” +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass

8th Sunday after Pentecost, August 7, 2011

8th Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2011

(Epistle Romans 8: 12-17)

(Gospel Luke 16: 1-9)

The main idea in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans is that we are unable to produce perfect justice and absolute good without the grace of God. Nowadays many people have a self-centered and pompous idea that the human mind is independent, but we Christians believe what our Mother Church teaches us, that men can only be fully moral and honest in life by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God, that it makes unholy people into holy people and enriches those souls that search for perfect justice.

            The Jews were proud of the Law of Moses, and rightly so, because the Law gave them greater grace and understanding than the Gentiles had. However, they made their whole virtue consist in the possession of the Law of Moses and thus rejected the Messiah, Who was the final purpose of the Law. St. Paul asks in Romans 9: 30-33 how it is possible that Israel, following the Law of justice, did not reach Perfect Justice, the Lord, Jesus Christ, but the Gentiles, not following the Law of justice did reach Him. He answers his own question: Because they did not seek Justice by faith and they tripped on the stumbling-stone that Isaiah prophesied at Isaiah 8: 14 and 28: 16, “Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and a rock of scandal; and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.”

           

It’s the mark of a good teacher to place before his listeners, examples that will help them understand the lesson being taught and to apply it to their own lives. This is what Jesus does today in the Parable of the Unjust Steward, to encourage his disciples, and all of us who follow Him, to the practice of giving alms.

The giving of alms is a reminder that nothing we have in this life is truly ours. Rather, we are entrusted as stewards of the goods of our Lord – either to use these goods with thanks to God according to our needs, or to give them to our fellow servants according to their need. It is sinful to indiscriminately use the goods that have been given to us by extravagant spending.

As St. John Chrysostom put it: “We are not placed in this life as lords of our own houses, but as guests . . .” We are brought into life whether we wanted to come or not and at a time not of our own choosing. He who is rich in this moment of time is a beggar in eternity. “Therefore, whoever you may be, know that you are but an administrator of things” that belong to God and that we have only “the right of their brief and passing use.”

When we do not administer our wealth in accord with the will of our Master, but abuse it for our own pleasure, we are unjust stewards. In the end we all render an account of our stewardship to the Lord.

Riches possessed by a just man are simply a sum of money.   But riches possessed by an unjust person are a sinful burden of avarice – subject to the risk of loss or theft, a constant source of worry, corrupting their owner with enticements to sin. These are riches that are full of poverty.

St. Gaudentius, who was bishop of Brescia, Italy, from about 387 to around 410, gives the opinion that the Unjust Steward in this parable stands for the devil. In Genesis, the devil is well depicted as a snake, who is “more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth.” (Genesis. 3:1) In the Latin it is: serpens prudentissimus erat, where prudence is not spoken of as a virtue but as craftiness and cunning.

In the parable of the Unjust Steward, the steward cheats his Master in order to ingratiate himself with others who might later hire him as a steward when he is let go. The Lord praises him – but not for his goodness. Rather, He praises him for his cunning, his craftiness, because he prepared his fraud with such subtle evil.  By the very phrase “unjust steward” the Lord condemns his wicked prudence.

Christ praises him in order to prepare His followers to be prudent, but not venomous; wise, but not evil,” to use our own cunning and prudence against the Unjust Steward, the devil.

The mammon of iniquity is usually thought of as ill-gotten gains, but there is another interpretation by St. Augustine, that it comprises all the riches of the world however they are obtained.  Consider blessed Job, that undefeated champion of God. Job’s courage was unshakable and he bested every assault of the devil as he came against him with the force of a tidal wave. The more each attempt of Satan appeared irresistible, the higher Job’s patience rose superior to every temptation. When Job finally lost everything and stood naked on the Earth, he was truly rich because his heart was full towards God.  Life and wealth are passing things, but we are called to eternal life with our Creator. Eternal life with God is the kind of wealth that brings lasting security.

At the end of this parable Christ tells us to make “friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting blessings.” So is Christ really telling us to make friends of ill-gotten wealth? Will we be received “into everlasting blessings” if we steal a million dollars and give 10% of it to the Church? Well, Christ is our Judge, and we can’t corrupt Him! So obviously that’s not what He means.

Who can receive us “into everlasting blessings”? Only the Lord.  Understand this parable then that we are to make friends of the poor with our wealth, so that when we die the poor will pray for us and Christ will receive us into everlasting blessings. Why make friends of the poor? Because the Lord is poor. Christ tells us in Matthew 25 that, “You gave me to eat, to drink, you clothed me, you visited me when I was sick and in prison – that as long as you did this to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.” That’s how Christ is poor. And to be just stewards, we must give to the poor, who are our fellow stewards in need.

The parable of the Unjust Steward doesn’t stand alone in the Scriptures as unproven, because in Luke 19, we see an example of it in Christ’s life. When Jesus was walking through Jericho, Zacheus, who was chief of the publicans and a wealthy man, climbed a tree to see the Lord. When Jesus spotted him, he said, “Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house.” Standing before Him then, Zacheus said, “‘Behold, Lord, ‘the half of my goods I give to feed the poor.’”  We see Zacheus making friends of the poor by means of his mammon of iniquity.  And lest he should be held wicked on other grounds Zacheus adds: “’And if I have wronged any man of anything, I restore him fourfold.’” And Jesus said to him, “This day is salvation come to this house.” +++

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass