No Servant Can Serve Two Masters

Here's my homily for this weekend.  As always, comments, questions, and more are always welcome!

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 5 p.m. Sat., 8:30 & 10:30 a.m. Sun.

Date: Sunday September 22^nd, 2013 (25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C; women’s CRHP retreat)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Amos 8:4-7
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8
2^nd Reading: 1^st Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13 (OR Luke 16:10-13 {short version})

FOCUS: Conversion of mind and hearts leads to honest stewardship of God’s gifts.  

FUNCTION: Examine your life; reprioritize if necessary; grow in the grace of conversion.  

          I’m convinced that life has become far too busy.  One article I read on our working habits here in America mentioned this – “Not only are Americans working longer hours than at any time since statistics have been kept, but now they are also working longer than anyone else in the industrialized world. And while workers in other countries have been seeing their hours cut back by legislation focused on preventing work from infringing on private life, Americans have been going in the other direction.  (…)  Road rage, workplace shootings, the rising number of children placed in day care and the increasing demand on schools to provide after-school activities to occupy children whose parents are too busy have all been pointed to as evidence that Americans are overstressed and overworked.”

          Some of this can’t be helped; but something needs to change if we’re actually going to live healthy, happy, and holy lives.  If we keep rushing around at the break-neck pace we’re going, we’re either going to burn out or die trying to keep up; we end up living to work rather than working to live.  All this constant busy-ness is not good for us spiritually, physically, emotionally, or intellectually.  When we’re overworked and overstressed, we’re deprived of peace and we begin to lose perspective; life begins to feel more like a vicious cycle of things to do rather than an adventure to be embraced; constant work makes us more like robots and less like human beings, when all we really want to do is live life to the full without having to constantly worry about having money to pay the bills.  We need to keep things in proper perspective.   

          Jesus tried to provide us with that much-needed perspective in this weekend’s Gospel – “No servant can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  And yet this is exactly what many of us are trying to do.  We’re constantly trying to serve two masters – on the one hand, here we are in Church, seeking to be in relationship with God; and on the other hand, we serve whatever “idol god” appeals to us most: maybe it’s drinking, or sports, or our social lives, or achievement, or popularity, or entertainment, or….whatever.  We’re all idolaters – we’re all worshipping something else other than God.  We’re all guilty of violating the first of the Ten Commandments – “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before Me.”  And why did God ever give us such a commandment?  Because He created us; because He knows that we creatures can only find our fulfillment in God the Creator. 

          We need conversion – and I say this pointing to myself first of all.  I need conversion.  I need to know and firmly believe that only God will satisfy me, and that I can’t be satisfied by anything or anyone else; the weight of the human desire for happiness is so profound that nothing in this world can satisfy it except for God alone.  In the famous words of St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in You.”  When we begin to believe those words, then we start living as we should; then we regain some of the perspective that we so often lose when we get entangled in worldly pursuits. 

          God wants your heart – are you willing to give it to Him?  God wants to give you true fulfillment and peace – are you willing to receive?  We need the grace of interior, spiritual conversion; only when God is at the center of our lives will we be at peace and know true happiness; only then will we start achieving our true potential for greatness; only then will we become the kind of person that God wants us to be – the kind of person who can make a difference in the world.

          This life we live is a gift; God didn’t have to create us – but He did so out of sheer goodness.  The very first paragraph of the Catechism tells us the meaning of our lives – “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.  For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.  He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.  He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church.  To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior.  In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life,” (CCC, no. 1).

          How’s that for perspective?!  That’s why we exist!  That paragraph from the Catechism tells us the very purpose of our lives.  It’s not about work; it’s not about drinking and pleasure; it’s not about sports, or our social lives, or achievement, or popularity, or entertainment, or anything else.  We exist to know, love, and serve God in this life, so that we might enjoy eternity with Him in the next; that’s the purpose of our lives.  Are we living as good stewards of God’s many blessings?  Are we living with an eye on the prize?  Or have we gotten distracted by the busy-ness of life around us? 

          Every once in a while, we all need to step back and evaluate what we’re doing and how we’re living so that what we’re doing and how we’re living don’t simply become matters of routine but ways for us to live full and healthy lives.  Conversion of mind and heart – which happens when we realize God is our goal – helps us live as good stewards of God’s many blessings.

          This weekend, women from our cluster parishes have gathered together for their Christ Renews His Parish weekend retreat; they’ve realized the importance of stepping back and taking time to focus on their relationship with God so that they can live life to the full; they don’t have the answers, but they know the questions; and those questions will lead them to the only answer any of us need to hear: Jesus.  Knowing Him is the task of our lives; so how are we going to make that happen?  Examine what consumes your thoughts; reprioritize what’s important in your life; and ask God to help keep you focused on Him.  And then peace and fulfillment will be yours, along with the whole kingdom of heaven. 

14th Sunday in OT - How's God Calling You?

Here is this Sunday's homily - sorry I've been so terrible about not adding them (tempus fugit).  I welcome any comments you might want to make or checking any of the ratings boxes immediately below the post.  God's blessings to each of you! 

 

 

Location: Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church (Earlville, IA) – 8 a.m. Sunday

                  Saint Boniface Catholic Church (New Vienna, IA) – 10 a.m. Sunday

Date: Sunday July 7^th, 2013 (14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Isaiah 66:10-14c
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
2^nd Reading: Galatians 6:14-18
Gospel: Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 (OR Luke 10:1-9 {short version})

 FOCUS: Promoting vocations is the work of the whole Church.

FUNCTION: Pray for vocations and support them within your own family and the community. 

          At the beginning of his ministry as a prophet, the Lord said to the Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you,” (Jeremiah 1:5).  This verse is a good reminder that God knows each of us from the first moment of our conception in our mother’s womb, and even before our conception since He is outside of time.  And it also reminds us that God has a plan for our lives.

          But what is God’s plan for our lives?  Does God really have a plan, I mean, for everyone?  Doesn’t it seem a little far-fetched?  We have to remember that He is God – He is not like us; He is perfect: all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good.  And because He’s perfect, God has a wise and loving plan for each of us – a plan that respects our freedom: a plan we can say “yes” to (like the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation) or “no” to (like Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver).  And God gives us that freedom – the freedom to say “yes” to His plan, and the freedom to reject it. 

          God has a plan for each of us; each of us has a “vocation” or a calling in life – a plan that, if we say yes to it, will bring us an immense amount of joy and peace, perhaps in this world, but especially in the next.  And it’s up to us to say “yes” to that vocation in life – no one else can say “yes” for us.  We can’t “pass the buck” – we can’t say to ourselves, “Someone else will do what I feel called to do.”

          Have you ever heard of the idea of “diffused responsibility”?  It usually happens when you have a large group of people: each individual in that group believes that someone else is going to take action – for instance, helping someone in distress – which often results in no one taking any action at all.  So it could happen that someone on the streets of Chicago or New York falls down and has a seizure and no one in the crowd calls 911 or offers the person in distress any aid.  It’s a pretty scary thing when you stop and think about; it reminds me of a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke – “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

          Sometimes the same thing happens in our spiritual life – God inspires us to perform a good work, but we brush it off, thinking that someone else can do it.  But the reality is often the opposite – God didn’t inspire someone else; He inspired YOU.  And in that moment, YOU have to respond.  Think of how much poorer our world would be if no one responded to the inspirations they felt – we wouldn’t have the Statue of Liberty or the Mona Lisa or the Declaration of Independence or the Panama Canal or automobiles or any of the other things – big and small – that we so often take for granted; these things wouldn’t exist if someone didn’t take the initiative and create them.

          My point is there’s important work to be done in the world; and part of that important work is the work of evangelization – the work of proclaiming the Gospel to the next generation and passing on the Catholic and Apostolic faith to the people of tomorrow.  In the Gospel, Jesus said, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  Jesus is saying there’s a need – a need to gather in the harvest (a harvest of souls for the kingdom of God); He also points out that there aren’t that many laborers (priests, catechists, evangelists, etc.) to gather in the harvest, so we need to ask the master of the harvest (God) to send out laborers for His harvest.

          We often talk about vocations when we hear this passage, and rightly so.  The Church (and the whole world) needs priests, because without priests, there is no Mass; and without the Mass, there is no Eucharist; and without the Eucharist, there is no Church; and you cannot have the corporate Body of Christ, the Church, without the sacramental Body of Christ, the Eucharist.  We are the Church of the Eucharist – the Church founded upon faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church nourished and strengthened to live out her mission by the grace of the Eucharist, the Church who daily feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

          We need priests; and we can no longer afford to think, “Someone else will answer the call.”  Unfortunately, the no. 1 obstacle to a person embracing a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, from what I understand, is often the disapproval of parents.  Do parents make a sacrifice if one of their children wants to become a priest or nun?  Yes – it means that they will never have grandchildren from that child, or that their child will have to move far from home, or that they might not get to speak to or see their child as often as they would like.  But it’s still a big deal to have a child say “yes” to a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

          When I was ordained, there was a custom for new priests to give their parents something from their new priestly ministry – I gave my mom the cloth that was used to wipe the oil off my newly-anointed hands and I gave my dad the stole that I used to hear my first confession.  The tradition is that the parents of a priest are then buried with these things after death, and when they go before the Lord and the Lord asks them what they did for Him, they can respond by saying that they gave Him their son as a priest.  Now, we priests are not perfect – far, far from it; my parents can easily attest to that.  But, we live an awesome life – able to be with people at key moments in life: celebrating a baptism or a wedding or sending a soul home to God in a Funeral Mass; and there are other graces, too – being able to proclaim the Gospel and preach and celebrate Mass and absolve sins in the sacrament of reconciliation and lead people closer to heaven.  It’s a great life.

          As we know, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few...” Now’s the time to heed Jesus’ words – “…so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for His harvest.”  Promoting vocations is uniquely a priest’s job; but it’s also the work of the whole Church – we’re all responsible for promoting vocations.  And so let’s promote it – in our families, among our relatives, to our friends, and in our parish community; and one day our community can have the joy of saying, “We gave the Lord one of our own.”