The Benefits of Being Thankful

My homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Questions, comments, etc. are all welcome!

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 8:30 & 10:30 a.m. Sunday Masses
Date: Sunday October 13^th, 2013 (28^th Sunday in OT, Year C; Vocation Awareness Sunday)

READINGS:
1st Reading: 2 Kings 5:14-17
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
2^nd Reading: 2 Timothy 2:18-13
Gospel: Luke 17:11-19
FOCUS: There are many benefits to having an attitude of gratitude for God’s gifts.  
FUNCTION: Make prayer a daily habit; spend at least 5 minutes a day talking to God.  



My trip to Haiti this past February continues to resonate with me.  Having never been to a third world country before, it was truly an eye-opening experience – to see the local people walking to and from the stream just outside of the town to wash what few clothes they have and bathe; to see the humble conditions in which the local townspeople live; and to see them walk several miles just to get to Mass on Sunday – it was all pretty amazing.  And it made me think about a lot of things that I sometimes take for granted – the luxury of having clean and running water, the ability to take a shower in the privacy of my own bathroom, being able to go to the grocery store to buy food, having a car to help me get places, having a regular and reliable source of income, and having a decent place to sleep, just to name a few of the things that I sometimes take for granted. 

 

          Life is much different in Haiti; they don’t have all the luxuries that we have here in the US.  When you really stop and think about it, we’re living the high life; we’re living better than probably 90% of the world; we have much that we should be thankful for.  And yet we still complain; I’m as guilty of this as the rest of us.  Many of us take our modern luxuries for granted.  I did, and I know that I still do.  I still need greater spiritual conversion in my life.  I still need to work on being thankful for what I do have rather than focused on what I don’t.  Going to Haiti helped me realize I need to develop “an attitude of gratitude.”

 

          And I think that’s what the readings are all about this weekend – developing “an attitude of gratitude.”  How often do we ask God for things, and then forget to say “thank you”?  God must think we’re terribly ungrateful once in a while!  It’s a vice we’ve all been guilty of at one point or another.  We ask, we ask, we ask, and then we forget to say thank you.  I suppose it’s part of our fallen, human condition; we know how to be needy, but we don’t always know how to be thankful.

          In both the first and the second reading, people were cleansed of the awful, flesh-eating disease of leprosy. As a side note, one of the best-known people to have worked with lepers is Saint Damien of Molokai.  He was Born in Tremelo, Belgium, on January 3^rd, 1840, and joined the Sacred Hearts Fathers in 1860.  He was born Joseph and received the name Damien in religious life.  In 1864, he was sent to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was ordained.  For the next nine years he worked in missions on the big island, Hawaii.  In 1873, he went to the leper colony on Molokai, after volunteering for the assignment.  Damien cared for lepers of all ages, but was particularly concerned about the children segregated in the colony.  He announced he was a leper in 1885 and continued to build hospitals, clinics, and churches, and some six hundred coffins.  He died on April 15^th, 1889, on Molokai.  He was declared venerable in 1977; Pope John Paul II pronounced him “blessed” on June 4^th, 1995; and Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on October 11^th, 2009.  His feast day is also October 11^th.

 

          To be cured of leprosy was no small feat; anyone identified as a leper was segregated from society, because it was possible to get the disease through close, personal contact.  Lepers were considered ritually unclean, and had to go around announcing themselves as such.  The fact that Jesus cleansed them enabled them to return to social life; it was a gift of matchless value.  He cleansed all ten of the lepers, and only one returned to give Him thanks.  And that one former leper was now doubly blessed – not only had he been cleansed of his leprosy, but by his act of thanksgiving, he was now closer to his eternal salvation because of his faith and his act of thanksgiving.

 

          Maybe we haven’t received a gift from God like being cleansed of leprosy, but we’ve still received much from His generous hands – we have the gift of our family; the gift of being able to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell; the gift of all these luxuries around us; and most importantly, the gift of life.  That doesn’t mean life will always be easy; but even when life’s hard, and we have to face things such as failing health or broken relationships, God is still good even if we realize we’re living in a broken world. 

 

          So we might make a little examination of conscience: have we thanked God today for the good things we have?  Have we recognized the many blessings we’ve received, or have we allowed ourselves to be consumed with jealousy and envy?  Now’s the time to be thankful for what we have; and if we are thankful, we might not think so much about what we don’t have.  I think being thankful helps us realize that there are a lot of things that we don’t actually need; being thankful helps us be satisfied with less; it helps us to live simply and be more mindful of the needs of others; and it puts us in right relationship with God, who cares for us and provides for our needs.

 

          One thing we all have to be thankful for is the gift of our personal vocation; God has placed a unique calling on each of our lives.  And since today is also Vocations Awareness Sunday, it would do us good to stop and think about our vocation in life, especially if we feel like we haven’t yet answered it.  Many of you here today are called to marriage – and many of you have embraced that vocation because you’re already married; but God may be calling others here in a different way – some of you here might be called to the priesthood; others might be called to religious life; still others here may be called to the diaconate; and some of you might be called to life as a chaste, single person.  Whatever your vocation, God has a plan for your life – a plan to bring you a sense of peace and fulfillment; a plan to make you happy in this life and help lead you to “the life of the world to come.”

 

          I think it all starts with prayer: ask the Lord to show you your vocation; and even if you’ve already responded to your vocation in life, spend at least 5 minutes a day talking to God in prayer – ask Him to lead you and guide you, and thank Him for the ways in which He’s blessed you.  And you just might find yourself happier, more content, and closer to the kingdom of God.                

 

How we Treat the Poor is How we Treat Christ

Here's this weekend's homily.  Questions, comments, thoughts, criticisms, corrections, etc. are all welcome!

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 5 p.m. Saturday

                 Saint Joseph Catholic Church (Earlville, IA) – 8 a.m. Sunday Mass

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

Date: Sunday September 29^th, 2013 (26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
2^nd Reading: 1^st Timothy 6:11-16
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31

FOCUS: Especially as Christians, we are called to serve the poor in our midst.  

FUNCTION: Defend the lives of the unborn; get involved in outreach to Haiti.  

          Ever since his election as Pope on March 13^th, 2013, Pope Francis has been shaking things up in the Catholic world.  Many people praise him; some people criticize him; but everyone is captivated by what this Pope is doing and saying.  After his first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, taking the name Francis, many people wondered what inspired him to take the name; they wanted to know which “Francis” inspired him: was it St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary; or was it St. Francis de Sales, the great Doctor of the Church and master of the spiritual life; or was it St. Francis of Assisi, the rich young man who chose poverty as a way to renew the Church?

          In an address given to journalists just three days after his election, the Pope himself offered the journalists an explanation for why he took the name Francis; these are the Pope’s own words: “During the election, I was seated next to the Archbishop Emeritus of São Paolo and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes: a good friend, a good friend!  When things were looking dangerous, he encouraged me.  And when the votes reached two thirds, there was the usual applause, because the Pope had been elected. And he gave me a hug and a kiss, and said: “Don’t forget the poor!”  And those words came to me: the poor, the poor.  Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis of Assisi.  Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being counted, till the end.  Francis is also the man of peace.  That is how the name came into my heart: Francis of Assisi.”

          The Pope took the name Francis (a name never before chosen by a Pope) because of St. Francis of Assisi, who he says was “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation…”  And in his short time as Pope, he has clearly acted on his initial inspiration.  He has spoken often of the need for us to be concerned about the poor, about peace, about welcoming strangers and offering hospitality to those who are marginalized by society.  The Pope speaks about these subjects quite regularly in his “tweets” on Twitter; on Sept. 21^st, Pope Francis tweeted, “True charity requires courage: let us overcome the fear of getting our hands dirty so as to help those in need.”  And on Sept. 24^th he tweeted, “Let us ask the Lord to give us the gentleness to look upon the poor with understanding and love, devoid of human calculation and fear.”  I think we can expect that this concern for the poor – in imitation of St. Francis of Assisi – will be a constant theme of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

          And truly, concern for the poor needs to be a constant concern for all of us as Christians; Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel – addressed to the Pharisees – is a sobering message for all of us: we need to take care of the poor in our midst.  We can’t simply step around them or ignore them – as we might imagine the rich man did in Jesus’ parable; we need to acknowledge them at our door, go outside, and treat them like human beings.  The poor have names, faces, family, hopes, dreams, desires, and needs; the poor are human beings who have been made in the image and likeness of Almighty God. 

          In Matthew 25, Jesus even identifies Himself with the lowliest members of society; He says, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me,” (Matthew 25:35-36).  And the main point of Jesus’ teaching is this: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,” (see Matthew 25:40).           

          And the poor are all around us.  Wherever we see the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill, and those in prison – there we find the poor and the most vulnerable; and there we find Christ.  It all comes down to this: how we treat the poor is how we treat Christ.  Are we generous with helping those in need?  Do we look on the poor and the less fortunate with love and empathy, or do we despise them, treat them harshly, and degrade them?  We need to examine our lives; because how we treat the poor is how we treat Christ.

          I’d like to recommend two ways we can help to serve the poor in our midst.  The first is the annual 40 Days for Life campaign that started this past Wednesday September 25^th and goes through Sunday November 3^rd.  The official mission and vision statement from their website, 40daysforlife.com, says that, “40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion.  The mission of the campaign is to bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity during a focused 40 day campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism, with the purpose of repentance, to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion.”  Preborn babies in the womb are the most poor and vulnerable members of society; we can work to defend the right to life of these children through a witness of love for both mothers and their children by praying in front of the Planned Parenthood building in Dubuque.  Getting involved in this wonderful campaign is a good way to help poor and defenseless babies – and their mothers – choose life and get help.  

          Another way to help the poor is to help St. Francis Xavier’s sister parish, Holy Cross, in Fonds-Verettes, Haiti.  Every year, a team of 10-15 parishioners go down to Haiti to bring clothes, medical supplies, personal hygiene products, and much more to the people living in abject poverty in Haiti.  Reaching out to the people in Haiti helps you realize that each poor person has a face, a name, and a story.  St. Francis Xavier’s Haiti Fund is always in need of donations to help the people of Haiti have the basic necessities of life.  Offering a donation to the fund, volunteering to make the trip down to Haiti, or donating needed supplies is a good, concrete way to help the poor who are so in need of our assistance.

          The poor are all around us; we must not neglect them or turn a blind eye to their needs; because how we treat the poor is how we treat Christ.