11th Week of Ordinary Time 2024 - Tuesday - Sins of parents and leaders and seeking perfection

 Yesterday, from the first book of Kings, we read of the many sins of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in conspiring to have the vineyard owner Naboth killed, so they could steal his land. Today, we read how they even denied Naboth proper burial—truly despicable behavior for a king and queen.

Then we read how God sent Elijah to confront Ahab to pronounce God’s great displeasure and judgment upon him. Now, Elijah was not some stranger to Ahab. By this time Ahab knew Elijah's credentials. Ahab had enough wisdom to recognize that this was very serious, and so he humbles himself and repents. And God judged Ahab’s repentance sincere, and extended his mercy.

No sin is too great that it cannot be forgiven. God’s acknowledgement of Ahab's repentance is one of many signs throughout the Old Testament of God's mercy to a repentant sinner—even a covetous, idolatrous, conspiring, murderous, thieving king like Ahab. 

However, Elijah announces that there will still be earthly consequences for Ahab and Jezebel’s sins. Although Ahab's repentance was genuine, repentance does not erase the temporal consequences of our actions. The sins of parents can have long-lasting consequences on their progeny and the actions of leaders can have long-lasting consequences on their nation. This story serves as a lesson about the importance of righteous parenting, leadership and the enduring impact of sin.

The Word of God emphasizes the need for future generations to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and strive for righteousness. 

In light of the first reading, the Lord’s teaching in the Gospel today carries an interesting lesson. Jesus teaches, “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Oftentimes, children learn terrible habits from their parents. The sins of parents, the fractures in their marriage, their personal vices, their acts of selfishness can have terrible ripple effects in the lives of their children—effecting how their children relate to the world, to others, and to God. 

And so the Lord’s teaching, “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” means that children should strive to break the familial cycles of sin—to unlearn the sinful habits of their parents. Don’t simply imitate your biological Father, strive for the perfection of your Heavenly Father. 

The teachings of Jesus are to supersede, replace, and perfect our family’s ways of doing things, especially those behaviors which contradict the commandments of God. 

Thank God for the good holy example of good parents. But we know that there are some Ahab’s and Jezebel’s out with kids. May we set good Christian example for those children and for those Ahab’s and Jezebel’s because they can repent too. May we all seek the perfection of soul God desires for each of us through Christ, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That during this month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all Christians may witness to the tender love of Christ through our prayer, fasting, and works of charity. 

For our young people on summer vacation, that they may be kept safe from the errors of our culture and kept in close friendship with Jesus through prayer and acts of mercy.

For all married couples, that they may be faithful to the Gospel in every dimension of their married life—and that single and celibate Christians may witness to the sacrificial, all-embracing love of Christ for all.

For the sick, the impoverished, the lonely, those suffering from mental illness, those most in need, and those near death: may God, through the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be close to them in their trials

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, 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

11th Week of Ordinary Time 2024 - Monday - The sins of Ahab and Jezebel

Along with our readings from the Sermon on the Mount, we have been reading lately from the Old Testament book of Kings. Last week we heard how Elijah condemned King Ahab’s promotion of pagan worship through Israel.  King Ahab, influenced by his pagan wife Jezebel, actively promoted the worship of Baal in Israel, building pagan altars and temples in direct violation of the command to have no other gods before the God of Israel.

Today, we read of the twisted morals of this corrupt royal couple. 

First we heard of King Ahab’s covetousness. In violation of the 10th commandment Ahab coveted his neighbor’s property. When Naboth refused to sell or trade his ancestral land to Ahab, the king became sullen and angry. Almost comically, 1st Kings describes Ahab whining from his bed and refusing to eat when he didn't get what he wanted.  His wife, Jezebel, enabled and encouraged his sinful attitude, and then enacted a corrupt plan to obtain the object of Ahab’s covetousness. 

Jezebel orchestrated false accusations of blasphemy against Naboth by recruiting two scoundrels to serve as false witnesses, in violation of the 8th prohibiting bearing false witness.

Then, based on the false charges, Jezebel arranges for Naboth to be stoned to death. This violates the 5th commandment, "You shall not murder".

Then, after Naboth's death, Jezebel tells Ahab to take possession of the vineyard he wanted, stealing his neighbor’s property, breaking the 7th commandment.

All in all, the royal couple used their authority to pervert justice, oppress the innocent, and facilitate sin. 

Ahab and Jezebel’s actions reveal hearts hardened against God and a willingness to use deceit, injustice and violence to gratify selfish desires. Here is a cautionary tale of how sin perverts and destroys.

Don’t be like Ahab and Jezebel. Don’t rationalize sin. Don’t give yourself license to violate the commandments. Don’t think yourself so high, mighty, or educated that the commandments of God don’t apply to you. Sin is destructive no matter who you are.

Rather, our continued reading of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel, illuminates the way of life God wants for us: a life of radical interiorization of God’s love and mercy—charity that goes beyond social conventions. Instead of returning “evil for evil”, we are to return “good for evil”. We must be zealous, not in seeking selfish pursuits, but in cultivating holiness within ourselves, and helping others to do the same.

During this month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we pray that following the Lord’s teachings, imitating his example, through prayer and reception of the sacraments, our hearts may be filled with truly charity like his, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

That during this month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all Christians may witness to the tender love of Christ through our prayer, fasting, and works of charity. 

For our young people on summer vacation, that they may be kept safe from the errors of our culture and kept in close friendship with Jesus through prayer and acts of mercy.

For all married couples, that they may be faithful to the Gospel in every dimension of their married life—and that single and celibate Christians may witness to the sacrificial, all-embracing love of Christ for all.

For the sick, the impoverished, the lonely, those suffering from mental illness, those most in need, and those near death: may God, through the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be close to them in their trials

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, 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

10th Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Wednesday - The Choice between God and Baal

 

“If the LORD is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.”

In the first reading, Elijah challenges the people of Israel to choose between the Lord and Baal—between the one true God and the pagan idol. The subsequent dramatic demonstration of God's power through the prophet Elijah compared to the impotence of the false god Baal and his prophets is a powerful illustration of the need to make the right choice. Choosing God over the false idols of the world is the most important choice we can make in this life. 

False gods abound in our modern day. They might not have names like Baal, but we know that false gods—like prestige, pleasure, and prosperity—are promoted by internet celebrities and worshipped by the masses. 

Consider how Baal worship became prominent in the northern kingdom of Israel. It was promoted by the King, who should have known better. King Ahab, influenced by his pagan wife Jezebel, actively promoted the worship of Baal in Israel, building pagan altars and temples in direct violation of the command to have no other gods before Yahweh, not to mention his duties as king spelled out in the Scriptures. 

And Israel’s descent into error was quick. They had gone from a united kingdom a hundred fifty years earlier, with David dancing before the ark of God, and Solomon building God a temple, to a divided kingdom and the erection of pagan altars and human sacrifices. And how did this fall into idolatry occur? Rejection of God’s commands, the failure of parents to drill into their children the need to love God with their whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength, rejection of right religion on the national and individual levels. The Lord has strong words in the Gospel today for those who “whoever break the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so.”

This passage certainly serves as a reminder to the Church, of the need to hold fast to the Lord and His Word, to make no allowances for pagan idols in our lives, to guard our children from the errors of the culture, to ensure that we are choosing God over those pagan idols in every decision we make.

And again, in a world with so many false Gods, we do well to pray assiduously for deliverance of those who fall sway to the many forms of modern paganism, that they can come to acknowledge the exhaustion, unhappiness, and futility of worshipping false gods, and the truth, goodness, and life of worshipping the One True God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That during this month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all Christians may witness to the tender love of Christ through our prayer, fasting, and works of charity. 

For our young people beginning summer vacation, that they may be kept safe from the errors of our culture and kept in close friendship with Jesus through prayer and acts of mercy.

For all married couples, that they may be faithful to the Gospel in every dimension of their married life—and that single and celibate Christians may witness to the sacrificial, all-embracing love of Christ for all.

For the sick, the impoverished, the lonely, those suffering from mental illness, those most in need, and those near death: may God, through the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, be close to them in their trials

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, 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

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - Food for the journey

 

The Prophet Elijah is certainly one of the tenacious, courageous heroes of the Old Testament. Immediately preceding today’s first reading, Elijah had been led by God to confront the wicked King Ahab and Jezebel his Queen for forsaking the One True God of Israel and worshiping the Canaanite idol, Baal.

To prove the superiority of the one true God, Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to a sort of test. You know the story. Two altars were constructed: one for Baal, and one for the one true God of Israel. The prophet whose God consumed the sacrifices would be proved to be the true God. 

So the 450 prophets of Baal, begin to wail to the skies, crying out to their idol for hours, but to no avail. They then gashed themselves with swords and spears to invoke their God, but nothing happened, the altar remained. “Why don’t you scream louder” Elijah says, mocking them, “maybe Baal can’t hear you. Maybe he’s away on a trip. Maybe he’s asleep and can’t get up.” Sweating, bloody, and exhausted, the prophets of Baal, gave up, doubting that Elijah could do better.

So then it was Elijah’s turn. God’s prophet began by drenching his altar with water. And then he prayed. God wishing that his glory be made known sent fire from heaven and incinerated the sacrifice. The audience cheered and proclaimed the God of Elijah as the True God. 

Queen Jezebel, however, rather than accepting Israel’s God became furious, and vowed to kill Elijah. So Elijah flees into the desert, where we find him at the beginning of today’s first reading. The desert, symbolic of Elijah’s situation. Success had turned to apparent failure—victory into defeat. Alone in the desert, distraught, hunted, abandoned. Elijah feels so forsaken, as we heard, he even prayed for death. In his despair, he cries out to God, and even though he found himself in the middle of this barren desert: God hears his plea and sends an angel, twice, to feed him.

Notice, Elijah is fed, not so that he can stay in the desert and wallow in his misery. Elijah is fed, so that he can begin a new journey. God had more work for him to do. And this journey was not going to be easy. It’s going to take him 40 days and 40 nights. But God would provide him food to strengthen Elijah for this journey. And Elijah walked 40 days and 40 nights to the mountain of God, Mt. Horeb, also called Sinai, where God gave moses the 10 commandments. And there on Horeb, you know this story too, Elijah looks for God in the wind, but God was not in the wind. Elijah looks for God in the earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. Elijah looks for God in the fire, but God was not in the fire. Finally, Elijah hears a small whispering sound, and it is in that whisper for Elijah finds God.

What a roller coaster of a story. Elijah, is given a task by God in which he is largely successful. But then that task has serious consequences for Elijah and he encounters a real low place in his life. He prays to God, and God hears his prayer, and feeds him for a difficult journey. Finally, Elijah comes to his destination, and encounters God in a way he did not expect.

This story is so powerful because it’s our story. Our lives are filled with successes and failures. Times when we seem to be bringing about great victories for God’s kingdom, times when we are experience real consequences for our faith, and then times when we feel utterly useless. Times when God’s ways are not easy to understand, when he leads us on some mysterious journey,  even climbing uphill, with terrible forces set against us. And times when we are looking for God and he’s not where we expect to find him.

But in the middle of it all, in our Catholic life, is food, food for the journey. Like the angel who feeds Elijah with physical food, to build up his strength, the Lord feeds us with food from heaven, the Eucharist, to help us face all those tasks, all those challenges, all those low moments, all those uphill climbs, with strength that comes from Him.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Christians recognize in the Lord’s self-description as bread, God’s desire to feed us with the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist throughout our lives. 

Whatever we are feeling, whatever we are going through, our first reaction should always be to come to the Eucharist to be fed by God. In our great successes, like Elijah against the prophets of Baal, we come to give thanks and share the food of victory.. When we are chased into the desert by God’s enemies like Elijah and God is no where to be found, we must search him out here, where he has made his presence known under the appearance of bread and wine. And when he calls us on the mysterious journey, to enter into the unknown, to climb a steep mount, we must come here to be fed with the food for the journey.

It is an invaluable practice, when you come to Church, before Mass begins, to kneel down in your pews, facing the tabernacle and to make a little examination of conscience. This is important preparation for Mass. And kneeling there to ask yourself: why am I here?? What am I struggling with, at this very moment in my life? What are the blessings for which I’ve returned to this altar to give thanks? 

Am I at a low point in which God cannot be detected in your life? God help me to see you in the strange, mysterious events of my life? 

Kneeling before mass we do well to identify these things? What am I joyful about? What am I sad about? Angry about? Fearful about? It is important to get to mass early, to express these things to God. And to recognize that in the Eucharist we are about to celebrate is the answer to your prayers. The strength we need, the grace we need to remain faithful to God amidst all the challenges of life is given, in the Eucharist.

Also, praying before mass, we do well to identify those people, those closest to us, who have fallen away from God, who do not know, or have forgotten, that Jesus is here waiting for them. Before Mass call them to mind, bring to God their woundedness, their suffering, their confusion, their addictions. Ask God, through this Eucharist, to help you be the instrument of leading them home, here, to the family table, to Jesus who loves them and wants to feed them with the supersubstantial bread that will enable them to survive this earthly journey with our souls intact. 

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

May the Eucharist we celebrate and share today help us to remain faithful to God throughout all of our challenges, to know God’s presence with us throughout those challenges, and be led through them, to eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.