16th Sunday After Pentecost – September 16, 2012

16^th Sunday After Pentecost – September 16, 2012

  Epistle Ephesians 3: 13-21. Gospel Luke 14: 1-11)

St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is not the longest of his letters, but it is from this letter that the Church takes most of the Epistle readings through the long period of Ordinary Time, the time between Pentecost and Advent. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter, but the chains that held him there could not stop him from preaching the Word of God.

            St. Paul talks about the divine life, and holiness is required to fully reach that. If the path to heaven seems too difficult for us, remember that Paul is offering this to all people, Jew and Gentile and pagan alike. If the path to heaven was open to St. Paul, who persecuted and murdered Catholics, then it is open to all of us. The Church knows this, and since the beginning of the Liturgical Year on the First Sunday of Advent, she has provided guidance at Mass and through the many prayers and devotions available to us to put us on the road to Heaven, and to keep us on that road. If this seems too hard then it’s really our own resistance to God, our own timidity and fear of letting go of the things of this life, our fear of picking up our cross and following Christ into eternal joy. If you have resisted this path – and some of us resist for years - do not lose hope, because on December 2^nd, the First Sunday of Advent, the cycle begins again with the new Liturgical Year. Now is a good time to stop admiring people of Faith and Charity from a distance. Begin your resolve now to accept the Church’s grace in the coming year so that you will live a life of Faith and Charity and by doing so be filled with a blessed Hope for Eternity. +

In today’s Gospel reading the Pharisees held their tongues – but they didn’t have to speak because our Lord knew what was in their minds and hearts. Jesus sat down for dinner with them on this Sabbath day to teach them something.  He took the man with dropsy, which is retention of fluid in the body, and he asked the Pharisees if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. They didn’t answer Him, but He healed the man and sent him on his way. Jesus didn’t pay attention to the Pharisees’ false idea of scandal but immediately pointed out their hypocrisy when He asked which of them would not pull their animal out if it fell in a pit on the Sabbath day.  Of course, they all would pull the animal out, and so they didn’t answer Him.  Our Lord then begins a lesson on humility, telling the guests at dinner to seek the last place at table when they are an invited to a wedding, that everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. However, this passage is identified by Luke as a parable. That means it has a mystical meaning.  So when our Lord speaks about being exalted and humbled, He is referring to heaven and hell.

What is it to be humble? The Random House College Dictionary says “not proud or arrogant, modest,” also “humble” and a “feeling of insignificance,” and “meek.” Well, there you have it, meek and humble. “Learn of me,” our Lord said, (Matthew 11: 29) “because I am meek and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.”  And what is “rest to our souls?” It is joy and happiness. There is one sure way to lose joy and happiness and that is through envy. There is nothing more destructive to our souls than this sin of envy. It does no harm to others, but it slowly consumes and destroys the envious person.

            “Envy is the pain that arises from the good fortune of someone else. And because of this the envious man is never without pain, never without grief of mind.” He does not find rest to his soul. Does his neighbor have a better job than he? Is another person wealthier, in better health, better looking, happier than he is? All these things and more cause pain to the envious person. What really upsets him is that he cannot tell anyone about his suffering. With his head bowed and his eyes downcast he suffers torment. If you ask what is wrong, he is ashamed to tell the truth: “I am envious and bitter. The gifts and talents and possessions of my friends are a torment to me. I grieve at my neighbor’s happiness. I cannot endure the sight of another person’s good fortune.” So not willing to tell the truth, he buries his envy in the depths of his soul where this sin smolders within him and consumes him.

            Unwilling to cure envy by living a life of Faith and Charity, his only pleasure and happiness is in the misfortune of others. He commiserates with those who have suffered a misfortune, not out of tenderness but only to try to make them feel worse. He may praise a neighbor’s son who died, but while the son lived he never had a good word to say about him. He praises a strong body, but only when disease has laid it low. He praises a man’s riches, only after they have been lost. What could be more deadly than this disease which is a corruption of life and a hatred of the things God has given us?

            Was not Satan’s pride fueled by envy over the bountiful gifts God gave to man? Now Satan avenges himself on man because he is powerless against God. We can see this in Cain, who saw his brother Able honored by God, and he burned with so much envy that he murdered his brother. Cain could not attack God, so he turned his hatred towards Able.

            King Saul was another envious one. The greatness of the things David did for him was the very reason for Saul’s war against him. David cured Saul of madness with his music. He delivered him from the insults of Goliath. A woman at that victory celebration proclaimed in a song that “Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (1 Kings 18: 7.  KJV: 1 Samuel 18: 7) Because of this one sentence and because of the truth of it, Saul tried to kill David with his own hands, and then attacked him with treachery, all because he envied David. After Saul pursued him with an army, David spared him twice. Even then Saul did not relent because to show kindness to an envious person is only to provoke them to more bitterness and hatred.

            It was envy that caused Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery. They did not want Joseph’s dream to come true, that they would one day bow before their younger brother. However, by selling him into slavery, it came about that they did bow down before Joseph when they came to him for food in Egypt. If a dream is true, what evil craftiness of men can prevent its coming true? And if the dream is false, then why envy the dreamer? He’s just deluded. The best thing to do is nothing, just let it be.

            The envious can be known by their judgment of things, which lacks the ring of truth. For them no work of virtue is worthy of praise. If a famous person stumbles, they are quick to make it known to everyone. They badmouth people of virtue by using the opposing vice. So a courageous person they say is reckless. A temperate or self-restrained person becomes unfeeling. A just man is called harsh. A prudent man becomes cunning. A person of great generosity becomes to the envious a vulgar spendthrift.

There is escape from the sin of envy. First, let us remind ourselves that our highest good does not consist in wealth or glory or even good health --- all this is fleeting. It ends soon. We are called to eternal happiness with God in Heaven. Wealth and glory and health do not in themselves contain happiness. They are tools of virtue to those who use them well. But if someone else’s wealth, glory or health pierces your heart with envy you are misusing the graces given to you, for someone else’s great wealth may be the source of your employment, someone else’s good health may be a role model for you to copy to enjoy good health yourself. And someone else’s glory, for example the glory given to a great preacher, is also your glory, because he preaches for your benefit, for your salvation.  +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 9, 2012

15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 9, 2012

 (Epistle Galatians 5: 25, 26 and 6: 1-10 Gospel Luke 7: 11-16)

               

            Soon after St. Paul preached the Gospel to the Galatians false teachers came. These were Jews who converted to Christ and His Infant Church. They were the spiritual children of St. Peter, who first preached in Galatia [now Turkey], and because of this they taught that those Gentiles who converted had to maintain circumcision and the other ceremonies of the Law of Moses. In this Epistle, St. Paul corrects them and reminds them that four years before this, at the Council of Jerusalem, Gentile converts were exempted from observing the Mosaic Law and that Paul was given the authority to preach that fact to the Gentiles.

            St. Paul also teaches them that “Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice,” (Genesis 15: 6) and reminds them that “they who are of faith, are the children of Abraham.” (Galatians 3: 7) He further tells them, “That the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus: that we may receive the promise of the spirit by faith.” (Galatians 3: 14) Paul then puts the Law of Moses in its proper historical perspective in Verse 19: “Why then was the law? It was set because of transgressions, till the seed should come, to whom he made the promise . . .” That seed was Jesus. He tells them that “you are all the children of God by faith, in Christ Jesus . . . And if you be Christ’s; then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.” (v. 26, 29)

            In Chapter 4 St. Paul reminds the Galatians that they are children of the free-woman “by the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free.” (v. 31) In Chapter 5, which concerns the reading today, Paul exhorts them to stand firm in their Christian liberty, which was purchased for them at great price by Jesus Christ. He reminds them of the fruits of the flesh, which is corruption, and of the fruits of the spirit “which is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, Mildness, faith, modesty, continency” and chastity. And he warns them against vainglory. (v. 22, 23, 26)  In Chapter 6 Paul exhorts the Galatians to practice the virtues of Christ, to accept the burdens of life, even to help others with their burdens, their hard times.

            St. Paul compares those who live by the flesh, with those who live by the spirit.  Those who live by the flesh live only for this life with no thought of eternity.  He compares them to farmers sowing or planting two fields. He warns the Galatians that if they sow in the flesh they will reap corruption, but if they sow in the spirit they will reap life everlasting. Lastly, Paul urges them that while they are alive they should do good to all, especially to those of the same faith. St. John quotes our Lord speaking of this: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” (John 13: 35) +

Yesterday,  September 8^th,  we celebrated the birth of Mary.  Mary’s birth revived hope in a world darkened by sin.  Where Eve said no to the will of God, Mary said yes. No greater praise can be given to her than to say that she was the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. She is presented to us “as a beautiful mirror” in which God Himself “is reflected. She is called the perfect model of all virtues,” by St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars. That is why the Church “looks upon her as her Mother, her protectress, and her powerful helper against her enemies.”

            It is not enough to say we honor Mary, and then do nothing about it. That is like faith without works -- dead. We must also practice her virtues: humility, purity, modesty and her patience, which she showed after Jesus ascended to Heaven, and she waited patiently for the day she would be reunited with her Son.  +

            We read in the Gospels that Jesus raised three people from the dead. The daughter of the ruler of the synagogue was dead but still within her home, not yet brought outside for all to see. The widow’s son in today’s Gospel was out of his house but not yet buried. His friend Lazarus was buried four days before Jesus arrived. There were probably more than three but these three represent three kinds of sinners.

            As to the first kind of sinner, think of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue and consider that there are those who have sin in their hearts but have not yet committed the deed. Jesus said, “Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5: 28) This person’s soul is dead, but not yet carried forth. But if he should hear the Word of God through the teaching authority of the Church, if he should in this sense, hear Christ say to him, “Arise,” he will condemn his consent to sin and his soul will breathe again in grace and charity. This man rises again and this resurrection of a dead soul takes place within the privacy of his conscience, as within the walls of a house.

            As to the second kind of sinner, consider one who, after giving inward consent to sin, proceeds to the act of sinning, so that what was hidden in the secrecy of his soul is brought forth for all to see, in a sense this is like the widow’s son who was brought forth from his home. But are these people beyond redemption? No, because just as Christ said to the young man in today’s Gospel, “I say to thee, arise,” so also those who have committed sin will be restored to life if they are warned and awakened by the Word of Truth, in other words, rising again at the Word of Christ.

            As to the third kind of sinner, these are those who become so involved in their sin that it becomes an evil habit, a habit so deep it prevents the person from seeing that it is in fact a sin. These people are pressed down by their malignant habit as though they are buried. The power of a habit is like a heavy stone laid on top of a tomb, pressing down on the soul and not allowing it to breathe or rise again.

            The Lord comes to this sinner as He came to his friend Lazarus. In restoring Lazarus to life, Jesus reveals the difficulty we will experience in trying to bring habitual sinners to Christ and His Church. He groans in His spirit, making clear to us that we need to cry out with a loud voice in rebuke, to raise those who have grown hard in their evil habits. In this way, just as Christ crying out “with a loud voice,” the bonds of hell that seemed inescapable are burst apart, and the soul that was dead can now live again in the truth and freedom of Christ.  †††

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass Established in Perpetuity  

by Pope St. Pius V in his Bull, Quo Primum Tempore.

Sermon, 14th Sunday after Pentecost, Sept. 2, 2012

14^th Sunday After Pentecost – September 2, 2012

Matthew 6: 24-33

Our Lord is telling us today not to center our lives on the things of this life. As he put it, “Be not solicitous of your life, or food or clothing.” This leads us to consider how we should order our lives.

There is a right order of things in the universe:

• God created us.
• We are thinking beings.
• We have souls that will live on eternally.
• We have been given dominion over the earth.
• We have been given our bodies to rule over.

When we become too interested in our lives, our jobs, entertainment, clothing, and food – all those things that pass away when we die – it means we make these things so important to us that we no longer serve God. In this life, the latest fashion always gives way to the latest fashion. What is “in” this year is definitely “out” next year. Our Lord pokes a little fun at King Solomon by telling us that even Solomon, with all the wealth and fancy clothing that he had, was not as beautiful as a common lily growing in the fields.

Jesus tells us today that in our lives we should first seek the Kingdom of God and His justice. He is not telling us to give up working for a home, food and clothing.  After all, the virtues of justice and prudence demand that we provide these things for our ourselves and our families. But he is telling us that we cannot make these things the center of our lives and at the same time think we are serving God. That is serving two masters, and that Jesus tells us is impossible.

Let’s look at what happens to the right order of things in the universe when we give in to temptation to sin, and how we change from serving one master to serving another. Suppose someone steals something from his employer. He’s happy with what he stole, so his next step then is to rationalize his sin. He tells himself it’s so small his employer won’t even miss it, besides it really should be part of his salary anyway. He continues to steel and eventually the sin of theft disappears and he says “so what, everybody does it anyway.” Then stealing becomes a “normal part of the job,” and we convince ourselves that we have a “right” to take things that don’t belong to us.

At this point the sinner has justified his sin. Now he loves his sin. Now he lives his life in service to sin because he has upset the right order of life that God gave us. Part of the right order of life is “Thou shalt not steal.” Honesty is the right order of things. When the man accepts his sin as justified, he is serving mammon, and he can no longer serve God.

Then if someone condemns his actions, the man finds he must in turn condemn those who condemn him in order to avoid his conscience.  When he does this, what exactly is he doing? The Word of God is the condemnation of the sin of theft. When he rejects the Word of God, the man next finds that he must reject God so he doesn’t have to listen to this constant preaching all the time, condemning his life of sin. In effect, he is calling God a liar. He judges God and places himself above God and tries to make God his servant. At this point the man has become a complete servant of his sin and now his master is Satan.

But this man is living an illusion. To avoid bowing to Satan outwardly he may simply say he believes in a different set of rules. A TV preacher has said it's okay to divorce your spouse who has Alzheimer’s disease and to remarry as long as you make sure the sick spouse is taken care of. Never mind the promise of fidelity “till death do us part.” Never mind taking up your cross every day and following Christ. The man who steals can say he loves God but now he belongs to a different religion with a different set of rules. But God is not and never will be the servant of man. Eventually the man dies and enters eternity where his sin of theft is condemned and where God’s right order is established forever.

If someone asks us do we love God, we will, of course, say yes. How do we prove that? We know how God proved His love for us, humbling Himself to become like one of us, suffering and dying for us, and giving us His Gospel of Love. How do we know that we love God? Jesus told us how:  “…If any one love me, he will keep my word. . . He that loves me not keeps not my words. (John 14: 23,24) God’s words, His commandments, His will – these are one and the same thing. God commands us to believe in Him and be faithful to Him. (1^st Commandment) Further, we should be subject to and respectful of our parents and those placed over us. Superiors should treat those under them with kindness and love. We should feel contempt when we hear the condemnation of others. St. Ambrose, a fellow with a sense of humor, wrote, “If any one despises us, we ought not be troubled, but think, on the contrary, that if they really knew us as we are, they would say much worse [things] about us.” If someone condemns us, forgive them and go out of your way to do a good service for them. Accept with patience any pain, sufferings or disappointments that come our way and make good use of them by offering them to God. This brings us closer to God’s Kingdom and closer to His Justice.

Our bodies encourage us to do evil, while our conscience and God’s grace encourage us to do good. So to love God is to struggle, to courageously resist all temptations. This is how we shall prove our love of God. This is how we will be able, like the martyrs, to sacrifice everything, rather than sin against God, Whom we love. Nothing in this life will make us completely happy because nothing in the world can satisfy our hearts except the love of God. When we die, everything we possess will pass into other hands and everyone we love we will leave behind. “Love God, and prove your love by serving Him faithfully, and ardently strive to possess Him, and the love of God will be your salvation at the hour of death.” (St. John Vianney, Sermon, 14^th Sunday after Pentecost.)

When we go to claim this treasure of our love of God at the end of our lives, we will find ourselves in the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost where, as St. Thomas Aquinas put it, we will enjoy “fullness of content, joy for evermore, gladness without alloy, consummate (perfect) and everlasting happiness.” Through Christ our Lord. Amen. +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass

Sermon, 13th Sunday After Pentecost, Aug. 26, 2012

13^th Sunday after Pentecost, August 26, 2012

(Epistle Galatians 3: 16-22. Gospel Luke 17: 11-19)

Jesus rebukes the ungrateful. To these ten lepers in today’s Gospel, Jesus gave back their health, their families, their position in the community -- He gave them back their very lives – yet nine out of ten of them didn’t even thank Him. But there is more to this event than just the cure of the ten and rebuking the ungrateful. This event, and all events in Christ’s life, is filled with meaning.

Today’s Gospel reading tells us that “He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.” The Jews and Samaritans did not like each other. Jesus passes through their midst to demonstrate to them, as if to reconcile them, that the Messiah and the new Covenant He establishes now make all factions into one.

Next the Gospel describes the ten lepers. We see from the text that they were standing together because they called out together, “Have mercy on us.” He sends them to the priests to show themselves, and a short time later, the one who returns to thank Him is a Samaritan. This tells us the ten lepers were both Jews and Samaritans, who were driven to live together because of their disease. Again this demonstrates that the New Covenant has made all people into one new man, because the law of the Gospel is that leprosy of the skin is not unclean, rather, it’s the leprosy of our souls that is unclean. The Samaritan returned because he was miraculously cured by Christ – who he now knows to be God. He fell on his face before Him because he was ashamed of all the sins he now remembers that he committed. The Son of God tells him, “Arise, go thy way; for thy faith hath made thee whole.” If faith made whole the one who bowed down to give thanks, then it is lack of faith that destroys those who do not give glory to God for the many favors God gives to them. Christ rebukes the ungrateful when He says, “There is no one found to give glory to God except this stranger?”

In the passage just preceding the cure of the lepers, the Apostles ask our Lord for an increase of faith. (Luke 17: 1-10) Jesus tells them through a short parable that the way to increase faith is through humility and obedience to their Master. Immediately afterward, the Apostles see this in action, when the Samaritan returns and falls on his face to give thanks and glory to God for his cure of leprosy.

Psalm 36 has something to say on ingratitude: “The sinner shall borrow, and not pay again; but the just sheweth mercy, and shall give.” In other words, the sinner receives but he does not return. With his hardened heart he returns blasphemies and contempt to God. What does he not return? An expression of thanks. What can God possibly give us, or allow to happen to us, unless it is for our good? What do we receive that we ought to return and give thanks for? Everything. We can start with our very existence in His universe. Thank him for our mind that sets us apart from the beasts of the earth. If we have hearing, taste, touch, and we can walk and talk, thank Him for that. Thank Him for your Faith and for the Mass and Sacraments and priests. Thank him for your health and also for your illnesses and setbacks, which allow us to come closer to Him when we offer these up to Him as a gift of love. Thank him for our heart, which, as St. Augustine says, remains restless until it rests in Him.

We have known that uneasy feeling inside of us, that feeling that something’s not right. We felt if we could just put our finger on that one thing that is missing in our lives we would be okay. But some of us now know what that one thing is; and that uneasy and unsure feeling goes away, when we commit ourselves to obedience to Christ and to His Church. That is the one thing, and that is really something to be thankful for.

            In today’s Epistle reading,  St Paul talks about the purpose of the Law of Moses and the meaning of the word “seed” as used in the promise God made to Abraham.  The word “seed” can be used to mean one or many. We rely on the authority of the Apostle Paul that the word “seed” here refers to Jesus Christ. The law, which came hundreds of years later, does not make void the promise that God Himself made to Abraham, that mankind was to be blessed only by Christ. That blessing, which is redemption, could not be made by the Law through Moses who was a mediator between God and Man. A mediator is not “of one: but God is one” as St. Paul puts it. And Christ is God. God Himself made the promise of Christ to Abraham. The Law was made through a mediator. So in this sense the Law of Moses is inferior to the promise to Abraham.

            The Prophet Ezechiel shows us Paul’s meaning in Chapter 20: 10, 11, where he says that after bringing the Israelites out of the desert he gave them His statutes, the Ten Commandments “which if a man do, he shall live in them.” But they violated these and became guilty of idolatry. To punish them God imposed on them precepts “which are not good, and which give not life,” as Ezechiel tells us in the same Chapter 20: 24, 25. This was the ceremonial Law of Moses which was established during the 40 years in the desert. This Law was given to punish the Israelites for their sins and to prevent their relapse into sin, and this is the sense of St. Paul’s comments to the Galatians in today’s Epistle reading. Paul ends by telling us that Scriptures has declared all to be under sin, from which they could not be delivered except through faith in Jesus Christ, the promised seed. +++

           

We Celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass