28th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Obedience and Gratitude

 

In ancient Israel, no one was more pitiable than a leper.

The book of Leviticus prescribed that in order to avoid contact with others, the leper had to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” as they passed by and couldn’t come within 50 yards of a healthy person. They were prohibited from entering towns, they were cut off from their family, they were barred from Temple worship. Theirs was a life of total isolation: no friendship or family, no sense of belonging, no affection. And in today’s gospel we meet 10 of them.

10 Lepers stood off at a distance and shouted to Jesus. But instead of shouting “Unclean” they cry out to be cleansed. “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” Their cry echoes so many of the psalms in which the suffering cry out to God for healing, strength, relief, protection, and forgiveness. And Jesus heard them and heeded their plea. 

In Jewish law, in order for a leper to be readmitted to society, a priest had to declare them cured of their disease. So, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. And on their way to the priest, the 10 were miraculously healed. 

Earlier in the Gospel of Luke an individual leper was healed by the Lord, and given the same instruction to show himself to the priest after he was healed. In the case of the 10 lepers, they are instructed to show themselves to the priest before the healing takes place, and they are healed on the way to the priest. It’s as if their obedience to the command of Jesus was the catalyst for their healing miracle. 

And there’s a lesson for us there. All 10 lepers show obedience to the Master, all 10 are healed, for obedience to God is healing. Our first sin—the sin of Adam and Eve was one of disobedience. God told them, do not eat of the tree. And they disobeyed. They ate. 

And every subsequent sin of ours—is one of disobedience. God tells us to guard our tongues and speak no evil—we disobey. God tells us to avoid gluttony and lust and greed and pride—and we disobey. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, forgive those who wrong us, feed the hungry, repent of our sins—and we disobey. 

And whenever we disobey God—that introduces disorder—the world and our lives are not as they should be. Our souls are further wounded and diseased, our minds our clouded, our wills are weakened against further sins. And we require healing and mercy that can only come from God. And thanks be to God he offers us that healing and mercy lavishly. Especially in the Sacrament of Confession.

Disobedience brings disorder. But all 10 lepers in the Gospel story, obey, and all are healed. Obedience heals, as well. It heals our willfulness, our arrogance, it corrects the waywardness that is ours.  Obedience reclaims the trust we are to have in our creator, to realign our hearts to his. Obedience brings the disordered will back under the dominion of God where it belongs. 

Anyone who is serious about obtaining Everlasting Life in Heaven will do all he can to increase in the virtue of obedience to God. God give me perfect obedience to your Divine Laws and Holy Will.  As one grows in the love of God—obedience becomes lighter than liberty, for His Will becomes our delight. For really, there is no joy to be found outside of the Holy Will of God.

So 10 lepers obey and receive healing. But then…next in the Gospel..we read about the one leper progresses beyond obedience, who returns to Jesus in thanksgiving. After recognizing that the miracle for which they had prayed and longed for had been granted, we would have expected that all 10 lepers would have returned rejoicing to Jesus as if he had raised them from the dead. After all, the curing of their disease meant a new life for them—a restoration to their communities and families and temple. But only one of the ten returned to thank the Lord. He falls on his face in gratitude.

When a parent tries to teach their small children to remember to say “thank you” when after receiving a gift, or if someone does an act of kindness, they usually explain, because it is the nice thing to do.

In Saint Thomas Aquinas’ discussion of the virtues, he explained Justice is the virtue of rendering unto someone what is due to that person.  We pay our debts because it is the just thing to do.  We are faithful to a business contract, because it is the just thing to do.  According to Aquinas, to fail to show gratitude by appropriate words, signs or symbols is a sin against justice. Gratitude is not just a kind thing to do, like icing on the cake—nice but unnecessary. Gratitude is demanded by justice. 

What does the priest say, every single time mass is celebrated, as part of the eucharistic prayer, “It is right and just, our duty and our salvation to give God thanks.” Thanksgiving is demanded by justice. And it gratitude to God is modeled by the Lord himself. As part of the consecration what does the priest say, also, every time mass is celebrated, Jesus took bread, and gave thanks. He took the chalice, and again gave thanks.

Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one fulfilled the demand of Justice, returning to the Lord "throwing himself on his face at the feet of Jesus" and giving him thanks. 

This leper becomes a model for us—he is a model for all Christians. Recognizing the healing that God has worked in our life—we must return to God to give thanks. Every day. Look at the healing God worked in your life, and thank Him. Do not allow yourself to become ungrateful before God. How sad. How terrible is ingratitude.

Chesterton said, “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” We act atheistically when we are ungrateful. Ingratitude is poison, it begets atheists. Atheists are born from ingratitude. So it should not surprise us, as atheism and irreligion have increased in our culture—that Ingratitude is one of, if not the defining characteristics of our culture. A man who is ungrateful to God will soon treat his fellow man with disdain.  

One way we show our gratitude to God is at Holy Mass of course. The word Eucharist—Eucharistia—means thanksgiving. We come to Mass week after week, not to be entertained, but to fulfill our duty to God—to thank Him—to thank Jesus--for the gift of our salvation. 

Additionally, each week, we do well to get to Mass early, in order to call to mind those additional blessings for which we need to thank God: health, family, material security, the strength we needed to get through that really awful day last week, the grace I needed to bite my tongue when I could have really let loose, the wonderful company I’ve shared lately, the new skills I’ve developed. We do well to count our blessings in the presence of God, and to unite our gratitude with the holy sacrifice of the altar.

But gratitude needs to be more than lip service, no? Gratitude for blessings received is to spill over into our activities: in good works, acts of kindness, goodness, and beauty. 

Ingratitude may be one of our defining vices, but gratitude is a virtue that can be developed, practiced, expressed, and shown. And it is the key to happiness. The grateful soul is a joyful soul. Why are the saints so joyful? Because they have made gratitude to God so central to their identity. Their life is a grateful response to their salvation in Christ.

With the help of the saints, may we cultivate joy by cultivating gratitude, good works, and obedience, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

12th Week of OT 2020 - Friday - Jesus' healing touch

Immediately following the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 thru 7 of Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord comes down from the Mount of Beatitudes and performs a miraculous healing. It’s sort of divine stamp of authenticity, in a sense, to the teaching that the Lord just offered. Why should you believe him? Why should you follow his teaching? Why is his interpretation of God’s law different than the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, the fact that he is able to cure lepers with a touch is pretty good reason to take Jesus seriously, isn’t it?

Not only does the fact that he can perform miracles set him apart from the pharisees, but the manner he performs them. Because Jesus is fully God, fully Divine, he could have simply commanded this leper to be clean, he could have spoken a word, and the leper would have been healed. But, the Lord chose to touch him.

To the Pharisee, Jesus’ contact with the leper would have been unthinkable. The Pharisees believe that to be righteous was to separate yourself from anything unclean. So they could not eat with certain people, particularly tax-collectors and prostitutes, who were these sort of public sinners, and of course a Pharisee would have nothing to do with a leper. If you touched a leper you would be ritually unclean.

But Jesus, doesn’t distance himself from the unclean ones, he does not separate himself from the sinner, like the Pharisee. Rather, Jesus enters the world of sinners, to show us that God has not abandoned us, but calls us to life, and restores us to life.

Through this miracle, not only does he display that he is God, but what God is really like: God is so holy, and loves us so much that he enters into this fallen, diseased world, to draw near to us, and heal us, and make us clean.

And not only is following Jesus important by listening to and applying his teaching to our life, we need that contact with Him to be healed and to be reconciled to God to be cleansed of all the forms of our spiritual leprosy which is uncurable by any other means. This is done primarily through the sacraments of the Church, in our prayer lives, and by drawing near to others in the works of mercy.

We are meant to identify with the leper in this story, who has identified his disease, who places his faith in Jesus, and makes the effort to approach the Lord and ask for healing. But also, to remember that there are people in our families, our neighborhoods, who are hurting, physically and emotionally, who feel alienated from God like lepers, and we are to draw near to them, with Christ’s healing touch, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - -
 
That the Holy Spirit may guide the selection of a new bishop for Cleveland, that he may be a man of  wisdom, of deep Christian faith, hope, and love.

That we may overcome our fears of reaching out to the spiritually and physically sick and the most vulnerable, that we may be instruments of mercy to them.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster,  those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, all victims of abuse, especially children, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, for the members of the Legion of Mary, for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

Friday after Epiphany 2020 - The testimony of Baptism's waters

On Wednesday, I spoke about how it is fitting to read from the first letter of St. John during the Christmas season, as St. John takes up the task of explaining the significance of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and how that is to impact our lives as Christians.

God’s love is revealed to us in the incarnation, and so God’s love is to be revealed in our lives: God loved us, so we are to love one another.

Well, today’s readings are perfect for this particularly liturgical day, pointing us toward this Sunday’s upcoming Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. For John today explains how Jesus’s divinity is was revealed through water. At the baptism, the heaven’s opened, the Holy Spirit descended, and the voice of the Father spoke, “this is my beloved Son”.

God testifies to the identity of Jesus. He is the Son of God. Belief in Jesus’ divinity isn’t simply based on human testimony, John says today, it is based on God’s testimony. John connects water and belief, baptism and faith, the revelation that Jesus is God and the possession of eternal life. A perfect reading to get us ready for the feast of the baptism this weekend.

But also our Gospel reading introduces the theme of cleansing. A leper falls prostrate before Jesus, believing that Jesus has the power to heal him, and he is made clean. Faith in Jesus leads us to the waters of baptism which cleanse us, not of the terrible physical disease of leprosy, but a spiritual disease far worse: the sinfulness which has caused death to our souls.

Today’s reading prepares us to celebrate the Lord’s Baptism this weekend, as the final feast of the Christmas season. The babe born in Bethlehem gives us new birth in the waters of Baptism. Faith in Him leads us to those waters, sanctified by him, by which we are reborn to eternal life.

As we come to the end of the Christmas season, celebrating the birth of our Savior, we consider the importance of baptism, and its implications. At his Baptism, God testified to Jesus’ identity. Our baptism impels us to do the same: to testify that eternal life can be found through faith in the Son of God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
For Pope Francis and all the clergy: that they will draw many to the mystery of baptism and inspire the faithful to live their baptismal promises with great devotion.

For leaders of nations: that they will govern with virtue and integrity, helping to build society in conformity with the teachings of Christ. 

For non-believers and for those preparing for baptism: that they may be open to the grace of conversion and the joy of the followers of Christ. 

For the sick, suffering, persecuted, and underemployed, and all those facing hardships. 

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered. 

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

28th Sunday in OT 2019 - Prayers of Petition and Eucharistic Gratitude

In ancient Israel, no one was more pitiable than a leper.

The book of Leviticus prescribed that in order to avoid contact with others, the leper had to shout “Unclean! Unclean!” as they passed by and couldn’t come within 50 yards of a healthy person. They were prohibited from entering towns, they were cut off from their family, they were barred from Temple worship. Theirs was a life of total isolation: no friendship or family, no sense of belonging, no affection. And in today’s gospel we meet 10 of them.

10 Lepers stood off at a distance and shouted to Jesus. But instead of shouting “Unclean” they cry out to be cleansed. “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” Their cry echoes so many of the psalms in which the suffering cry out to God for healing, strength, relief, and protection. And Jesus heard them and heeded their plea.

In Jewish law, in order for a leper to be readmitted to society, a priest had to declare them cured of their disease. So, Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. And on their way to the priest, the 10 were miraculously healed. The healing of the 10 lepers in the Gospel parallels the miraculous healing of Naaman the Syrian in the first reading.

Naaman seeks out healing from the God of Israel. Following the instruction of Elisha the prophet, Naaman plunges himself into the waters of the Jordan and emerges healed. God answers the plea for mercy, not just of a jew, but a foreigner.

What about you? What is your plea for mercy? What plea for mercy did you bring to Mass today?  Mercy for yourself, for your family, for our nation, for the world? The experience of suffering brings us to our knees. Prayer for mercy is one reason we come to Church, isn’t it? To plea for mercy? Mercy to end an illness, to end an addiction, to end family division, to end faithlessness, to end our modern day versions of leprosy which bring pain and isolation.

One of the reasons it is good to get to Mass a few minutes early, is so that you have the opportunity to recollect why you are here. Before the beginning of Mass, we do well to articulate to God our personal petitions for mercy, to entrust ourselves to the mercy of God, to plea for miracles.

This is going to sound somewhat strange, but the moment I typed that word, ‘miracles’ this morning as I was composing my homily. I received an email from a parishioner. “Father, a miracle just happened. My liver was failing, and I went to the doctors and they told me I was going to die. A week after you prayed over me, I go to the hospital and the ER doctor told me that my liver is fine, I’m not going to die. Weird, I know. Either that was a miracle or the doctors made a mistake. I had many people praying for me.” Thanks be to God, right? A miracle in our midst!

Miracles are real. Just as the miraculous healing in the Gospel signaled that in Jesus, the kingdom of God was breaking in to human history, modern day miracles are granted that we may know that God is still at work in our lives, that we ought to entrust ourselves to God’s providence and mercy.
Yet, in the Gospel today, the miraculous healing was only the first part of the story.

Having realized that he had been healed through the intervention of Jesus, the one leper, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus to offer his profound gratitude. Again, like Naaman in our first reading, returning to Elisha, confessing the true God of Israel, the Samaritan leper in the Gospel returns to Jesus, and falls on his face before Jesus, recognizing Jesus as God and King.

Here is a second reason we come to Mass every week, to fall prostrate before our God and King who has brought about the healing, not of our bodies, but a more important healing, the healing of our souls from sin. We come to Mass week after week to thank God for the saving grace we received at baptism, the grace won for us through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Thanksgiving is at the heart of the Christian life. You’ve no doubt heard the Greek New Testament word for Thanksgiving: it’s the word “Eucharist”…”Eucharistia”, found in our Gospel today; the leper fell on his face before Jesus and offered Eucharistia. It is not a coincidence that “Eucharist” became the word the early Christians gave to their weekly gathering at the altar. They gathered, as do we, to offer God humble thanksgiving for our salvation in Christ Jesus. In Christ, God has done for us, what we could not do for ourselves. He has healed us of the leprosy of sin, which brought alienation from heaven, and isolation from true communion with each other.

Without coming to Mass every week to offer eucharistic thanks, we begin to take our salvation for granted, we take Jesus’ sacrifice for granted, his pain and his suffering offered for us. Without mass, we begin to take God for granted and begin to act as if we are entitled to heaven. We are not. We are not entitled to that which is lost through sin. Without thanksgiving we are like those other 9 lepers who were healed, but did not return to Jesus to offer thanks.

So we come to Mass every week, thanking God for the gift of our salvation. And we thank God for the blessings we’ve received throughout the week and throughout the life. Another reason to get to mass early, to take the time to count our blessings, to recall how we have been blessed this week, how prayers have been answered in our life and in our family, for the health we do have, the safety we have received, the goodness we have enjoyed. Thank God for those who recovered from surgery, for the time you got to spend with those who bring you happiness, for the sweet memories you shared with your spouse, for the word of encouragement when you really needed it, the ability to experience the beauty of nature or a symphony or a church.

Something happens when we offer God true thanksgiving from the heart. Resentment begins to melt away. Envy over the things we don’t have is replaced with gratitude for the things we do. We experience joy over the presence of God dwelling within us. The praise that filled the heart of Jesus begins to fill our heart.

Count your blessings daily, thank God daily, fall on your face daily before the God of Mercy, petition God daily, for the needs of the world and the needs of the Church, pray for miracles, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Friday after Epiphany 2019 - Jesus desires to make us clean

Situated between the last two great feasts of the Christmas season: the feast of the Epiphany, last Sunday, and the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, our Gospel reading today reveals something about the Lord, while at the same time prepares us for the feast of the baptism this Sunday.  What does the healing of the leper reveal about Jesus?

The healing of the leper reveals that God the Holy One, does not recoil from the sinner, but draws near, “he does wish to make us clean”. Jesus is the Word that brings salvation, that hand God extends even to the most grievous sinner. Lepers were treated as the most cursed of men, and Jesus embracing and healing the leper shows that the heart of God desires to free man from the curse that oppresses him. There is no sin so heinous that the Lord will not gladly forgive us, make us clean, when we come to him with a repentant heart.

People with leprosy were driven out of their community—alienated from their families—because of their contagious, disfiguring disease.  Jesus embraces the leper and enables him to be reconciled and rejoined to His family and community.

Today’s reading prepares us to celebrate the Lord’s Baptism this weekend, as the final feast of the Christmas season. The babe born in Bethlehem gives us new birth in the waters of Baptism. The cure for the leprosy of sin, the remedy for death itself, is found in those waters. In baptism, sinful man, alienated from God, is washed of sin, reconciled to God, and brought into the new communion of the Church.

As we come to the end of the Christmas season, celebrating the birth of our Savior, the Church urges us to consider our baptism, in which we received new life in Christ, that we may be ever more faithful to Him, and live out our baptismal call with renewed fervor and conviction for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - - - 

For Pope Francis and all the clergy: that they will draw many to the mystery of baptism and inspire the faithful to live their baptismal promises with great devotion.

For leaders of nations: that they will govern with virtue and integrity, helping to build society in conformity with the teachings of Christ. 

For non-believers and for those preparing for baptism: that they may be open to the grace of conversion and the joy of the followers of Christ. 

For the sick, suffering, persecuted, and underemployed, and all those facing hardships. 

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered. 

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

Homily: 28th Sunday in OT 2016 - Father Damien and the lepers

You may remember, a few years ago, Pope Benedict canonized Father Damien of Molokai. Father Damien was a priest from Belgium who went to work with the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.  He spent sixteen years caring for the lepers’ physical, spiritual, and emotional needs at the leper colony

Leprosy was considered so dreadful, people were so afraid of lepers, that they were outcast, sent to live estranged from the rest of society. This heroic priest, Father Damien, went to minister to them. He was immersed into their lives, he embraced them, anointed them, baptized them, he sat with them when they were dying, he really became their pastor and shepherd.

Molokai was not a pretty place—the rotting flesh of the lepers gave off a smell like that of an open grave. Father Damien was criticized for his work—they called him careless. Father Damien also had no priestly assistant and no other priest to hear his confession. Once he rowed out to a passing ship which had another priest on board. He asked the priest to come down to hear his confession, and when this request was denied, Father Damien shouted up his confession, where anyone could hear.

Father Damien built churches and houses for the lepers. He sought funds from both Catholics and Protestants, distributed food and clothing to all. He dressed the lepers’ wounds, tried out new treatments, and built orphanages for the boys and girls. When people died, Father Damien not only offered the funeral rites, but often built their coffins himself.

Father was praying his breviary one day, when a leper had brought him a hot pot of tea. The leper tripped, and the scalding water was poured all over Father’s legs and feet, but the priest didn’t flinch. It was then, too, that he realized he had contracted the disease. From that day, when he would preach, he would say, “my fellow lepers”…

And yet, when he himself contracted the disease, he did not flee into misery and shame.  He became a suffering servant, “a leper with lepers”.  And during the last four years of his life he continued to build hospitals and ministered to his fellow lepers.

We heard in the Gospel, one of the many stories of Jesus healing the lepers of his day. St. Damien patterned his life after Jesus, in a way, because Jesus did not hesitate to reach out to those society considered “unclean”.

In a sense, Jesus amidst the lepers shows us something quite powerful about God’s love for us, and helps us to understand the purpose of the incarnation. God in his love for humanity, took on the flesh, dwelt among us, we who had become unclean due to sin.  God the Son, immersed himself in sinful humanity and embraced us—in our waywardness, in our corruption, our tendencies to selfishness and lust, and coldness toward one another.

Think about that. God himself, who created us to be full of life and love, did not abandon us when we contracted the disease of sin, the leprosy which causes parts of our souls to become rotting. He lived among us, forgiving us, teaching us how to be human again. God is not distant, but has placed himself smack-dab in the middle of the messiness of our lives.

We do well to remember that whenever we feel like lepers, estranged, lonely, lost, outcast. God is not only present in the beautiful, warm, tender moments.  God is able to be present when life becomes ugly, diseased, contaminated. We have a God who enters in, embraces us in our leprosy.

Yes, God is present in the joy of a wedding, but He is also present when a spouse is lost after 60 years of marriage, or when a child dies by a tragic accident or a rare disease. In the funeral services I always like to remind the grieving that even though there is so much grief and sadness when a loved one dies, we can still know God’s peace, because he does come into the dark times of life to bring comfort and mercy and an increase in faith.

I think of our poor brothers and sisters in Haiti. Nearly 1000 people have died in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. And yet, in this natural disaster, God draws close to the afflicted through his Church. Catholic Relief Services because of the charitable contributions of Catholics like us, are able to offer emergency shelter, clean water, food, living supplies for the displaced, funds for the rebuilding of destroyed homes. We aren’t having a special collection or anything, but consider donating a few dollars to Catholic Relief Services by visiting their website.

For as Christ comes to the afflicted, we are often called upon to be his hands, his feet, his mouth speaking words of comfort. As Christ reached out to the outcast, we are to reach out to the lonely. Perhaps, there is a widow on your street who could use a visit, or a home cooked meal. As the seasons get colder, perhaps you might consider becoming a Eucharistic minister, to bring Holy Communion to the homebound this winter.

We all suffer from our own afflictions, and are all busier than ever. But like Father Damien, who even after he contracted leprosy continued to minister. Our faith, the example of the Lord Jesus, impels us into the lives of others. We are not meant to live isolated from the needy, more concerned about fall sports than the lonely, poor and afflicted. Nor must we allow our own afflictions to keep us from serving the needs of our neighbor.

Where did Father Damien get the strength for this heroic ministry? From the same God who comes to us in this Mass, under the humble appearance of bread and wine. He comes to us, poor sinners that we are, to perfect us in charity, to urge us to work always for the glory of God and salvation of souls.