33rd Sunday in OT 2020 - The gift of holy fear

 For the past few weeks, I’ve been conducting RCIA classes for adults who are seeking full initiation into the Catholic Church. The last two years we didn’t have anyone in RCIA, here at St. Ignatius, which was quite concerning, but this year we’re happy to have three adults preparing for the Sacraments. The first two months of RCIA consist of covering the basics, the elements of the Creed: what it means that Catholics believe in God, that God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, and that Jesus Christ is True God and True Man, and we begin to look at the parts of the Bible.  On Monday, this week,  we will begin our discussion of the Holy Spirit, and we’ll talk a bit about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Like the talents in the Gospel, these gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to each of us, to be utilized in the master’s service. We are to use the gift of wisdom to order our life according to the priorities of God. We are to use the gift of understanding to clearly explain our faith to others—to help them grow in faith. The gift of piety helps us to be mindful of God throughout our day and to set good Christian example for others.   

Our psalm today speaks about that last spiritual gift—last, but not least, and maybe even the most important gift: the fear of the Lord. “Blessed are those who fear the Lord.” Our first reading, too, speaks of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs says, “the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”.  

I say fear of the lord may be the most important of the gifts of the Spirit, because it seems to be a prerequisite for the other six. Elsewhere in the book of Proverbs, we find the well-known verse that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom”. 

What do we mean by fear of the Lord? Fear of the Lord, of course, is completely different from the fear of spiders or fear of suffering. Fear can be good and fear can be bad, it can be healthy and it can be unhealthy. For example, Founding Father and third President, Thomas Jefferson, said "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When governments fear the people, there is liberty.”  

There is a type of fear which is inconsistent with the Christian life. Over and over Jesus says, “do not be afraid”. “Don’t be afraid, to leave behind your old life” he says to peter, james, and john, “for you will be become fishers of men.” “Don’t be afraid” he says If you suffer for righteousness sake, or If they bring you before rulers and kings because of me…don’t be afraid, I am with you, don’t be afraid, for the holy spirit will give you what you are to say”. “Have no fear of those who kill the body…BUT…have fear of those who can destroy the soul and body in hell” In that last one, the Lord speaks of the type of fear that is good and holy. Just like when you are carrying something precious like a crystal vase, or a delicate baby, you should be afraid, to drop them. So, too with our souls. We should be afraid to expose our souls to evil through sin. So we need to care for our soul  to protect it from sin, lest it be destroyed in hell forever. 

The biblical Greek word for fear of the Lord is theosebeia. When that word, theosebeia, is used in scripture , it typically means having a special reverence for God, a consciousness that the eye of God is watching us always, and that there are consequences in our relationship with God if we violate his commands and fail to repent.  

Hence the woman in the book of proverbs: she is to be praised for her fear of the Lord, because she seeks to live rightly in the sight of God. She seeks to bring good to her husband and to her family. She reaches out her hands in generosity to the poor; she seeks to live obediently to the commands of God. She is a model for all of us for living out the gift of holy fear. For, the fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift not just given to a select few of us, but to each of us at baptism. It’s like a seed, that if watered and nurtured through prayer and right conduct, it blossoms. It will also fail to blossom if you neglect it. 

Each of the Saints, in their own way, display this spiritual gift. You can see it in the great care they take to avoid sin which is displeasing to God. St. Francis of Assisi writes “Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter.” In other words, fear of the Lord motivates us to guard our soul against sin. To take special effort to avoid…gossip, if that’s a habitual sin for us. Or To take special effort to avoid impurity, or impatience, or immoderate intoxication.  

Healthy fear of the Lord motivates us to not only avoid sin, but also to seek God’s mercy when we do sin. It motivates us to go to Confession if we commit mortal sin, lest we appear before the judgment seat of God with unrepented mortal sin.

Again, there is healthy fear and there is unhealthy fear. In Scripture, one of the first instances of unhealthy fear is right after original sin in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, having sinfully eaten from the forbidden tree, run and try to hide from God. Their unhealthy fear is kind of silly, if you think about it. Trying to hide from the omniscient God…they knew they were guilty, but their unhealthy fear caused them to have this distorted image of God as some sort of cruel tyrant. The wicked useless servant in the Gospel too, was filled with unhealthy fear, we are told, unhealthy fear of his master which caused him to bury his talent. 

With Adam and Eve, their unhealthy fear then led them to lie to God, as if he couldn’t see through it. Instead of coming clean with the loving God who made them, they start blaming each other for their sin. 

If there is a sin that you are ashamed of that you have not brought to the sacrament of confession, please, stop running away from God. He loves you and he is ready to forgive you. But he will also respect your decision to run away from him forever if you fail to repent. 

Again, holy fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift, like the talents in the Gospel, given to us to be cultivated, grown, multiplied, and utilized in service of the master. And we cultivate the gift of holy fear by praying repeatedly and continuously throughout the day, remembering that we live in the sight of God and are beholden to his commands. 

The lazy wicked servant shows that he values the talent given to him so little, that he does nothing with it, and is consequently cast into the outer darkness. 

But when we do use this talent wisely, our lives become wisely and rightly ordered. We begin to understand the ways of God, and grow in knowledge of the things of God. We become sources of good counsel for troubled souls, and sources of strength and courage for weak souls. We grow in piety, becoming examples of holiness for others, instruments the Lord uses to draw searching souls to himself.  Having used the gift of holy fear in the Lord’s service, may we come to hear those beautiful words at the end of life, “well done, my good and faithful servant”, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

27th Sunday in OT 2020 - Opportunities from God

 You may have heard this story before, but please indulge me: A severe storm was approaching, and local officials sent out an emergency warning that riverbanks would soon overflow and flood nearby homes. 

A man living in the clear path of the storm heard the warning and began to pray that God would save him from the flood.

Not long after the rains began, the man’s neighbor came to his house, and the neighbor pleaded: “Let’s get out of here. Come with my family!  There’s room in our car for you” But the man declined, saying “I have faith that God will save me.”

As the storm grew more severe and began to flood the neighborhood, the man stood on his porch and watched the water rise up the steps of his front porch. Another neighbor, this time in a canoe paddled up to the house and called to the man, “Hurry and get into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!” But the man again said, “No, I have faith that God will save me.”

The floodwaters rose higher pouring water into his living room and the man had to retreat to the second floor. A police motorboat rode up to the house. “We will rescue you!” they shouted. But the man refused, waving them off saying, “Use your time to save someone else! I have faith that God will save me!”

The flood waters rose higher and higher and the man had to climb up to his rooftop.

A helicopter spotted him and dropped a rope ladder. The rescue squad pleaded with the man, "Grab the roap and we will pull you up!" But the man STILL refused, folding his arms tightly to his body. “No thank you! God will save me!”

The ferocious waters destroyed the house and swept the man away and he drowned.

The man appeared before the Holy Trinity, and he said “I put all of my faith in You. Why didn’t You come and save me?”

And God said, “I sent you a warning. I sent you a car. I sent you a canoe. I sent you a motorboat. I sent you a helicopter. You rejected my help at every turn.  What more could you want?”

A good story. God answers prayers, but sometimes we don’t recognize the way he is answering prayers. We might even foolishly reject those answers because they don’t fit into our narrow way of thinking.  And isn’t that what happens in the Gospel?  The vineyard owner sends his servants, and the tenants reject and kill them. The vineyard owner sends another group of servants. The tenants reject and kill them. The vineyard owner sends his son, and the tenants reject and kill him. 

Jesus tells this parable, in Jerusalem, shortly before his own passion, when he is rejected and killed. He tells this parable as a warning, that those who were rejecting Him were rejecting God. They were rejecting God’s answer to their prayers for salvation.  They rejected Jesus because he did not fit in to their narrow view of God. They could not accept that God would come in the form of an itinerant preacher who ate with tax collectors and sinners.

Another reason for their rejection is that, like the tenants in the Gospel, they didn’t want to give up their power, their authority. They were supposed to be the religious leaders, they were supposed to be the religious authorities, not this carpenter from Nazareth. 

In the Gospel parable, there are consequences too for rejecting the vineyard owner. "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death”. The Lord here hints at the eternal consequences for rejecting God. 

There is a modern misconception that there are many roads to salvation, that all we have to do is be good people in order to go to heaven. You don’t have to go to church or ascribe to any particular religion. As long as you’re not Hitler or something, God will go easy on you. But that’s not really the Christian Gospel. Salvation comes by accepting it in the form God has chosen to offer it to humanity, and that is through Jesus Christ. 

So, the parable certainly speaks about the ultimate importance of accepting Jesus Christ, but there is also a lesson for our personal spiritual lives. We come to church, and we pray to be holy, and pray to be joyful, we pray for peace in the world. But the Lord just doesn’t wave a magic wand, he gives us opportunities to practice this stuff, so that we can grow in it. He doesn’t just make us patient, he gives us opportunities to practice patience. He doesn’t just magically make us pure of heart, he gives us opportunities to practice purity. He doesn’t just magically create peace in the world, he gives us opportunities to work for peace. 

And we need to be very careful that when the Lord gives us the opportunities we don’t miss out of them and make excuses…I know I prayed for joy, but I just have to get my three hours of television in every day. I know I prayed for patience, but I just have to get my way, now.

Tomorrow/Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Here is a saint who reached a certain point in life where he stopped making excuses for not serving God. St. Francis is so beloved, even now, 800 years after his death, because he shows us what we could all become if we trusted God as we should, if we gave to God as we could. He shows us what happens when you stop being afraid to give everything away in order to pursue God. 

Francis embraced radical poverty and became one of the holiest, most joyful souls in human history—showing us that material stuff does not lead to ultimate fulfilment. He radically embraced Jesus Christ and became a true instrument of peace. He embraced those opportunities to practice Gospel Charity even when it meant embracing a leper or giving up his family business. 

Most of us do not embrace holiness because we are like that man in the story rejecting opportunity after opportunity for life because holiness doesn’t come in the form we think it should.

For most of us, most of the time, holiness is offered through ordinary means: daily prayer, daily service, the sacraments, faithfulness to the duties of our vocation, turning away from the empty promises of the world, following the commandments and teachings of the Church, repenting of sin, using the talents and gifts God has given us to help others.

As Paul says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, pure, lovely and gracious…do these things. Every day. Stop giving in to so many distractions and making excuses. Look to the saints and follow their example. Say yes to those opportunities to grow in holiness, to serve others, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Sunday of OT 2020 - "Behold the Lamb"

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

That phrase, that title, “Lamb of God” evokes a number of ancient biblical ideas.

Firstly, in the Old Covenant, twice a day, on behalf of the nation of Israel, priests would sacrifice a lamb to God. The sacrifice of the lamb was prescribed by Moses as a way of asking God to forgive the sins of the world. As a way of recognizing that God and God alone has the power to forgive sins.

Secondly, that phrase “lamb of God” recalls the Jewish Passover feast. Once a year, on the feast of Passover, not just the priests, but every family, would sacrifice a lamb to recall their liberation from Egypt in the days of Moses. Remember the story? While enslaved in Egypt, God called for the Hebrew people to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts, that the Angel of Death might Pass-over their homes. Thus the Passover lamb signified God’s powerful and salvific love, his mercy for the oppressed.

Thirdly, the lamb going silently and docilely to be slaughtered is one of the images used to describe the Messiah by the prophets, particularly Isaiah. The Messiah, faithful and docile to God’s Plan of Salvation, would take Israel’s sins upon himself. He would become the expiation through his obedient suffering.

Fourthly, the “lamb of God” evokes an even older story than Isaiah’s prophecy, a story even older than the Exodus. In the story of Abraham, leading his son Isaac up mount Moriah. Abraham had heard God calling him to offer a sacrifice, to show his trust, and love, and fidelity. And As Abraham and Isaac climb Mt. Moriah, Isaac asks Abraham, “father, where is the lamb” and Abraham responds, “God will provide the lamb”. Upon reaching the summit of Moriah, Abraham binds Isaac, his beloved son. And with sacrificial knife raised, God stopped the knife of Abraham. God did not desire the death of Isaac, but rather, would Himself provide the lamb. And so for centuries and centuries Israel awaited God to provide the lamb.

So, imagine, the electricity, the excitement, when John the Baptist on the banks of the river Jordan in front of hundreds if not thousands of people, sees Jesus, and says, there is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. A people who had waited season after season, year after year, century after century, asking, like Isaac, “Father, where is the lamb?”

And for John the utter those words, to this people, who hoped and waited and understood the significance, must have been…an ineffable experience, touching upon Israel’s deepest longings and understanding of God.

And that we have adopted this phrase, and repeat it so often during our liturgy, is quite significant. St. John the Baptist’s inspired exhortation echoes throughout our sacred liturgical rites. Jesus is called the “lamb of God” near the beginning of Mass in the Gloria, that song of the angels proclaiming God breaking in to human history. Before we receive Holy Communion, three times, the congregation sings “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”, expressing our longing for him, for the mercy and peace that only He can bring. And then the priest holds up the consecrated host and consecrated chalice and says, “behold, the lamb of God”, here He is, look at him, behold him, here is the one who takes away our sins under the appearance of bread and wine.

Our use of that phrase recalls all of those Old Testament stories and our belief that Jesus Christ fulfills what the Old Covenant foreshadowed. For when we celebrate Mass, we become present in that moment when God provides the lamb, as foretold in the story of Abraham and Isaac. We become present when the faithful lamb takes the sins of the world upon himself, and suffers death for our salvation, as prophecied by Isaiah. We become present when the blood of the lamb is shed, that the powers of death might Passover God’s people that they might be led out of slavery to the powers of sin and death, as in the Exodus story.

When we celebrate Mass we are mystically present on Calvary, on a Friday, strangely called, “Good Friday”, when the lamb hangs upon the Cross. When we are gathered for Mass at the foot of the altar, we become mystically present at the foot of the cross, as the lamb of God offers himself to God.

Yet, not only do we behold him, not only do we gaze upon him with love and thanksgiving, and praise him and honor the Lamb for his sacrifice. “Blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb”. The lamb sacrificed for the Passover was to be consumed. And so we receive the Lamb of God at Mass, broken and poured out for us, we consume him, so that as St. Augustine says, “we may become what we receive.”

On the shores of Galilee, after his resurrection, the risen Lord tells Peter, “Peter, feed my lambs”. The Lord refers to us as lambs, hungry lambs who need to be fed. We are hungry for God, we are hungry for the spiritual nourishment that only he can bring, the peace that only he can give, not as the world gives, but as he gives. We long to know that he is with us, that we are not abandoned to the uncaring coldness of the world, but we receive from God what we need in order to come to eternal life.

And we are fed at the Eucharistic Table, again, that we may become what we receive, that we may become like the one True Lamb in Spirit and Truth. We worship the Lamb, we receive Him, that we may become like Him. That his heart, obedient to the Father, may beat in our breasts, that his faith, his trust in the father’s will, his willingness to suffer for the good of others, may animate us. We fall prostrate before the Lamb, that we like him may be broken and poured out for others, for the building up of the church, for the spread of the Gospel, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.