September 6, 2015

Isaiah 35, 4-7 + Psalm 146 + James 2, 1-5 + Mark 7, 31-25

The place is important or Mark would not have given us the detail. Chapter 7 takes place in Tyre which is Gentile territory. Jesus goes there and his presence is a sign that the Reign of God has arrived there as well. Gentiles will not be left out. To make sure that we get the point, Mark repeats the same detail in the healing story we will hear next week.  Someone brings these outsiders, these afflicted gentile people to Jesus in the person of this afflicted man today. By the time Mark’s Gospel is coming together, there are Gentiles members in the community following the way of Jesus Christ.

The details of this story are tender, personal, and intimate. Just as we saw last week emerging from the controversy over clean hands and clean hearts, it is the touch of Jesus that cleanses and purifies, heals, and saves. With great tenderness, Jesus takes this man aside. He removes him from the gaze of cold curious spectators and those who would just watch and stare. He respects this afflicted gentile, and with this action of going to a private place, the two of them have a moment of intimacy. That man comes to know Jesus in a personal way, and Jesus looks upon that man with compassion and tenderness to the point that the Gospel says he “sighed.” I believe  that this “sigh” is something that wells up in Jesus with great sadness and pain because this man has been so excluded from those who could celebrate and share the Good News of God’s Reign which has begun with the presence of Jesus. In the privacy of that moment and the depth of that relationship, Jesus touches him.

Those who would be followers of Jesus know well that the behavior of Jesus guides our behavior as much as his words. We find a powerful and unmistakable lesson here. The sick, the old, the helpless, the poor, the immigrant, anyone whose condition or affliction in life keeps them from being able to live in and celebrate the Reign of God is received with tenderness and respect. They are not nameless numbers, statistics who have no identity and deserve no respect. Their presence among us should move us deeply to sigh in sadness at their affliction and move us to action as it did Jesus Christ. For they too, says this Gospel, deserve the touch of Jesus Christ and the healing comfort of recognition, respect, and tenderness.

This Gospel speaks to us about Charity, about how it is to be lived and experienced both by the giver and the receiver.“Humbly welcome the word that has taken root in you with its power to save you. Act on this word.” says St James in today’s Epistle. As believers of the word, we must live and act with magnanimity of heart to see and value other people as God sees and values them. Nothing else will do. There is no partiality with God. If there is, we should be afraid. Anyone who claims to be a believer must reject all partiality. In a society where designer labels on a person’s apparel seem to speak more loudly than the character of the ones who wear them, this Gospel speaks clearly, and James insists that this is to “judge with evil designs.”

This story told after hearing the Prophet Isaiah makes it perfectly clear that we are now living in the final days, in the Reign of God. The vision of the Prophet has been realized, and we are not only the recipients of that Good News experiencing the tender mercy of God through our relationship with Jesus Christ, we are also the ministers of that same mercy, and the ones who must reveal this good news both by what we say and by what we do.

August 30, 2015  St Peter the Apostle Church — Naples, FL

Deut 4, 1-2, 6-8 + Psalm 15 + James 1, 17-18, 21b-22, 27 + Mark 7, 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

There is a ten year old and a seven year old living in the home of my older niece and her husband. I have begun to look upon that house as a “House of Formation”: not “formation” in a religious sense, but rather in the sense of “formation” for civilization. In contrast to most religious houses of formation, this one is very noisy. If sounds are not coming from an iPhone or an Xbox, they come from one or the other victim of violence inflicted by the one who is on top at the moment. There are certain antiphons that one can hear in that house quite frequently, much like the antiphons in church. One of the frequently repeated antiphons is: “Did you wash your hands?” I think it might be part of Psalm 26 in which King David says: “I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord” because usually this antiphon is spoken just as they gather at the dinner table.

This family ritual comes to mind as Jesus and his disciples confront the Pharisees who are all put out because someone forgot to wash their hands. I find it curious that these critics are busy watching who is washing and who is not. Was there nothing else to do in their lives? None the less, as the incident occurs and Jesus speaks, the issue of purity or cleanliness is raised, but it is not so much about the washing as it is about rules in general. It does not take a lot of attention to get the impression that Jesus of Nazareth was not particularly scrupulous about following the rules of his time. To give him the benefit of the doubt, we could say that while he was a rule breaker, he was also a rule maker. He hung out with tax collectors and sinners. He touched sick people and the dead. He walked with Samaritans and women, and he was seen in the house of  Romans. This is not rule keeping. So, when the Pharisees have had enough, they start a confrontation, and they get one. They want to talk about clean hands. Jesus wants to talk about a clean heart. So when it comes to a question of how you get clean, Jesus does not answer the question, but anyone watching him knows the answer. The Pharisees think that one is cleansed by hand washing. What we learn from the Gospel’s description of Jesus is that one is made clean not by what we do for ourselves, washing; but by what Jesus does, touching. The unclean in the Gospel are cleansed by the touch of Jesus. Without that experience, without being in the presence of and without being touched by Jesus one remains unclean no matter how much or how often they may wash their hands.

Now, as always, this Gospel has two levels. When considered at the first level, in the very immediate time of Jesus the story concerns this question of which is better, clean hands or clean hearts as Jesus challenges the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and a religion of rules as they teach it. Keep the rules and all will be well no matter what you are thinking or feeling.

At a second level comes Mark’s purpose of including this story, and what it says to and about the early church. At this level it is something different because the community Mark is writing to is struggling with the integration of Jewish and Gentile customs and cultures. So the incident and conversation with the Pharisees is remembered and retold to get the Jewish followers of Jesus to lighten up on the Gentiles, and to open themselves up to the possibility that things change, and rules change, especially rules that are not God-given. It is like the experience we have had with changing the rules about compulsory abstinence from meat on Friday as just one example. Rules that we make can change, and sometimes for the good of the whole church they should change.

Then there comes the third level of this Gospel after considering what Jesus was doing and saying, then what Mark was doing and saying, we must ask ourselves what’s the point of telling this story again today? I think both levels can answer that question. We can follow all the rules, and we can keep all the commandments, go to Mass at least once a week, fast and abstain, and do everything else we think we must do; but if Jesus Christ has not entered and touched our lives to challenge our thinking and guide our behavior, we are not clean. At the same time, the second level is still important, because we are living at a time when things are changing, and no one is making that more obvious than the Pope himself who is saying  and asking things of us that are very different from the old ways. Our response to all of this must be like the response of the Jewish people to Mark’s formation as they made room for and welcomed those who were different.

I would remind you that in Greek drama, the chorus and the actors were called: hypocrites which was the word Greek word for “mask.” There was a sad mask for tragedies and a smiling mask for comedies. Jesus insists that we take off our masks, and come to stand pure and innocent in his presence, for only in his presence and by his touch will we ever be made clean.

August 23, 2015  St Peter the Apostle Church — Naples, FL

Joshua 24, 1-2, 15-18 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5, 21-32 + John 6, 60-69

Now we come to fifth and final Sunday with John’s Gospel that has been like a mid summer break from the Gospel of Mark. Personally, I regret that I was not here at St Peter to reflect on all these readings with you week by week because this chapter six is such a rich treasure for us as a Eucharistic Church, and the reflection and the discovery of what is revealed is so much more intense when it is shared together in the context of a Eucharistic Liturgy. These are the final verses of John’s great presentation on the Bread of Life leading us to understand that Jesus is not talking about a material food substance made from flour and water. It is “Real” food. It is the “True Bread” that is given to us meaning it is authentic. Because it is real rather than fake or artificial, it is the only thing that will satisfy our deepest hungers. We cannot live on bread alone – there is more we need, and Jesus will satisfy that hunger with His his Body and Blood.

Yet, John insists that what he gives us is not a “thing” or an “object”, but a relationship, the very real person of Christ himself which draws us into that precious and life-giving relationship Jesus shares with his Father. Through, with, and in Christ, we take on and engage the teaching, the words, and the deeds of Jesus Christ. This is what we consume in Eucharist, the whole teaching, life, passion, and death of Jesus. We enter a whole new way of living that transforms our relationship with Christ, with the Father, and with one another. This is a personal experience, as personal and intimate as falling in love.

As John tells it, the words of Jesus and his intention is beginning to sink in for those people who have been chasing him around for more free food after his feeding of the multitude. They want another show, another “sign”, another demonstration. They like the entertainment and the excitement. They want nothing of the message and the meaning of the sign, and so when confronted with the meaning they murmur like the Israelites did in the desert, and then wander away.

Many of us know how it feels to stand there with Jesus and watch them wander away, walking away from a life of faith. We go out to dinner with long time friends whose companionship means much to us, and we find ourselves realizing that most of them do not go to church anymore. We have family gatherings for Christmas, anniversaries, and holidays where the reality and experiences of faith never enter the conversation. This experience of so many around us no longer practicing any form of faith, just as it had to be for those first disciples, is a real test of faith for us. Why do we, why should we continue to go to Mass?

Sisters and Brothers, the reason is that we have found here and have embraced here a real, a true, and a life-giving relationship. We have found faith and the assurance of faith. What makes faith reliable, does not concern what is believed, but rather it concerns the trustworthiness of the one who is believed. To sustain our faith, we must hold on to the person of Jesus Christ. This, I believe, is what happened to those who walked away and still walk away. They do not make a distinction between a what and who. Maybe they have never experienced or met the who. Those who walked away from Christ betray or refuse a relationship.

So it is with our faith based on our encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. It is in this encounter and relationship with God in Jesus Christ that we receive the assurance of faith. “I invite all Christians everywhere” said Pope Francis at the beginning of his ministry, “to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ.” This relationship with Jesus Christ experiencing his teaching as beautiful, life giving, and healing is essential if we are not to become one of the drifting crowd who simply takes up life as if Jesus did not exist.

What he offers us here is eternal life, but not in the sense of the next life or some far-off, distant world, but in the sense of life that is authentic, true, and ultimate. This is a life that has meaning, has purpose, and is truly divine. When we possess this kind of “eternal life”, there will be no more need to talk about the dignity or the value of human life because all human life will be respected and treasured. There will be no more violence, no more abortion, no more execution, no more hunger, no more unwanted life, and no more inhuman poverty. The life encountered in Jesus Christ is nothing less than divine life, which is from all eternity a life of communion in love between the Father and the Son. If you want that, come forward in a few minutes. But if you want that, you can’t just take communion and run. You have to step into the relationship that is Communion.

The Eucharist is our weekly call to intimate encounter with Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist invites us to open ourselves to the person of Jesus Christ who teaches us in Word and offers his life to us in Communion, in sacrament.

The Eucharist becomes a call to faith and the personal renewal of our faith in Jesus Christ, whom “we have to believe/ and are convinced” is “the Holy One of God.”

August 16, 2015

Proverbs 9, 1-6 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5, 15-20 + John 6, 51-58

This is now the fourth of five Sundays spent with the “Bread of Life” discourse brought together for us by St John. We have been coaxed and prodded by John to look beyond the bread – to see more than a substance of wheat and water, to grow deeper into the wonder and mystery of this gift to see that we are called into communion, into a relationship with the Father and with each other through, with, and in Christ. It is a relationship that gives life, hope, and joy. We have been teased by these verses to explore the Word of God, the Word Made Flesh, as food just like the bread; and to realize then that to enter into Communion through the Bread of Life we enter as well into the Word making the word spoken and the deeds done by Jesus Christ our own. Now with these seven verses today comes the invitation to enter into the very life of God, for what Jesus has he offers us: an eternal relationship of love with the living Father. This relationship is what feeding on Jesus is all about. To truly feed on Christ means to dwell deeply with him in a relationship that savors friendship and communion.

As most of you know, I take great pleasure and enjoy any amount of time spent in France, particularly in Paris where I have developed some very dear friendships always celebrated and enjoyed around a table. In a book called: “The Greater Journey” David McCullough describes the lives of many American artists, writers, doctors, inventors and politicians who set off across the Atlantic to live and learn in Paris during the course of the 19th century. In describing the adventures of these outstanding people, McCullough offers a wonderful glimpse into Parisian culture. Early in the book he describes the French love for eating. He reports what I have experienced time and time again. They take nearly every meal in public, even breakfast. and while eating they show no hurry or impatience. Service is slow, but gracious. It is as if they had nothing else to do but sit and chat, talking and savoring what to many Americans seems like very small portions. James Fenimore Cooper once wrote about his experience there saying: “A dinner here in Paris does not oppress one. The wine neither intoxicates nor heats, and the frame of mind and body, in which one is left, is precisely that best suited to intellectual and social pleasures.”

A meal in that culture is not a refueling operation to be accomplished as quickly as possible in order to get on with something else. The hunger being fed is not for physical food but for the nourishment of the soul. Meals must reach us at a deeper level of human need, and this is what John is teasing us with in these verses today. Food and drink can become the place of encounter for family, for friends, lovers, and acquaintances. Think of it in terms of a grand meal. Multiple courses and an abundance of wine that is sipped slowly allowing the time and space to savor others in conversation, laughter, tears, and even sometimes sitting in silence. These unhurried dinners provide a chance to share one’s life and listen with respect to the daily events of another’s life.

Thinking along these lines has led me to begin to wonder if this is not how we Catholics arrived at the point of seeing the Eucharist as something more than a liturgical celebration and discovering and savoring the Eucharist in adoration. Somehow when the Liturgy of the Eucharist really draws us into the act of love in which Jesus offers himself to the Father there is a desire to do more than “eat and run”. There is a need and a deep desire to savor, to linger over, cherish and worship this presence in peaceful silence. I feel this so strongly that it leads me to wonder if people who do not share that desire have just been going through the motions of the liturgy simply “taking communion” rather than being drawn into the most intimate of relationships with Christ and the Father. This is what John 6 is revealing to us: the wonder of God with us.

“My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” says Jesus. This adjective, “true” is not to be thought of in contrast to false food or false drink. It is an insistence that this flesh and this blood is authentic and dependable. It suggests that this food and drink is reliable in that it will satisfy hungers and thirsts.

So it is time to set the table again and then to approach Jesus Christ in the Bread of Life ready to consume the whole of Jesus, his teaching, his life, his passion and his death. This is to enter into a whole new way of living no longer with our own little private lives, but living in the life of Christ changing and transforming us into his very self. This is a startling and completely amazing idea, but it is exactly the idea formed in the mind of God at the moment of creation. Now all is restored. Here the first plan for our relationship with God begins again, and paradise is at hand, heaven is it’s best description which Jesus called: The Kingdom of God.

Retreat Homily Sisters of Saint Francis and the Martyr St George Convent in Alton, IL

John 6, 41-51

What we know of the world comes to us primarily through vision. Our eyes, however, are sensitive only to that segment of the spectrum located between red and violet; the remaining 95 percent of all existing light consisting of cosmic, infrared, ultraviolet, gammas, and x-rays we cannot see. In other words, we only perceive 5 percent of the real world. You may find this little bit of science a bit odd when used to introduce these ten verses from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, but to me, it opens up the whole issue and touches the heart of this initial conflict and what Jesus says in response.

John tells us that the crowd is murmuring. They look at Jesus and all they can see is another man, one of their neighbors, the son of that carpenter, Joseph. To them there is nothing special. In fact, I think in their jealousy they do not want to see anything special. You can hear it in the comments. They think they know who he is and where he came from. Jesus challenges their little small and made-up minds, and his challenge touches on something wonderful about the gift of faith. In our secularized world, some think that faith makes people narrow, rigid and small minded. On the contrary, to those who really have faith, it expands vision and allows the faithful to see what others cannot see. Non-believers look at the Eucharist and they all they see is bread and common wine. They think they know what it is and where it came from. In the prayer of the Eucharist they see a long and boring ritual routine that is perhaps curious, but hardly profound. With faith however we see something dramatically different. We see a gift that mediates the presence of Jesus Christ who fills our lives with the deepest meaning and with purpose. What we see in the ritual is an exchange of gifts: the offering of the life of Jesus to the Father, and the offering of the Father’s Son to us. There is nothing here to murmur about. It ought to leave us silent and in awe.

People who eat along, people like me, and perhaps on occasion some of you know that no matter how delightful, rich in taste, and well prepared a meal can be, eating alone is not very pleasant. It might be just now and then, but eating alone usually ends up being a rather quick experience sometimes seasoned with a bit of loneliness. People who have lost a life-long spouse often tell me how difficult meal time is for them.

The truth is, meals are not simply about food, and people do not live on bread alone. Wonderful food and good drink are really meant to be the occasion for a much deeper, more personal nourishment. Beyond the nourishment of body, meals nourish the soul on conversation, friendship, laugher, shared life and love.

The connection between food and companionship is built into our humanity. There is more to eating than the food, more than nourishment for the body. Eating is also about relationship, nourishment of the soul. Consuming is always about communion: communion with what you eat and with whom you eat.

A meal like that always includes conversation, words spoken and shared. We listen to each other and we respond. We speak and we are spoken to with words of kindness, gratitude, and affection. This is our Eucharist. The Word we share, the Word made flesh, draws us into relationship and communion. To simply eat and drink while ignoring what the others at the table are saying, and there is no communion and no relationship. When there is tension around the table, the food is spoiled.

Important verbs sum it all up from these ten verses: Teach, Listen, Learn. So today we are drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ his son, and we are taught by God, so as to live in communion with God for all eternity. Let us get up and eat Sisters, or the journey will be too long for us.

Exodus 16, 2-4, 12-15 + Psalm 78 + Ephesians 4, 17, 20-24 + John 6, 24-35

St Joseph Old Cathedral, Oklahoma City

Recently I was listening to talk during which the speaker expressed his wonder about how God treated Moses after Moses disobeyed God’s instructions about striking a rock. Just because Moses struck the rock twice instead of once as God instructed, he did not get to cross into the Promised Land. Like the speaker, I have always that this was extraordinarily harsh treatment for a man who had accomplished so much as God’s servant. The speaker went to on propose something I had never thought of. The “Promised Land” was not really a geographical location, a parcel of land; but rather it was a personal relationship with God. What probably happened that day Moses parted company from the Israelites was that Moses waved good bye and then danced jig in the presence of the Lord singing: “Free at Last, Thank God, I’m free at last”. Meanwhile the Israelites who grumbled their way reluctantly forward day after day had never gotten the point of their journey, and they went on to that piece of land still a long way from having experienced a real living relationship with God.

That idea stayed in my mind as I listened once again to these all too familiar words of John’s Gospel about Jesus being the “Bread of Life.” For way too many people, the Holy Eucharist is something, an object that while Holy and most Sacred is still an object. It’s like the Israelites always thinking of the “Promised Land” in terms of a parcel of land.

When Jesus announces that he is the Bread of Life, that his Body and Blood are the gift he gives us, he is not speaking about some THING. He is speaking of himself. He is the gift. He is the bread. He is the blood. He is the gift he gives. What he leaves with us is so much more than an object that once we begin to understand it, what the gift looks like is unimportant. If it’s brown or white, thick or thin, round or square means nothing. In fact, noticing these things is a good sign that we have not gone far enough into the mystery. What we must come to experience in the Eucharist is Communion: first of all Communion through, with, and in the living Christ. Then because of it, and even within it, we come into communion with one another in a new way and in such a way that we see and believe the very life of God in each other.

We do not come here to get something. We come here to become something, friends and disciples of Jesus Christ and brothers and sisters to each other. So to approach the Eucharist as we all shall in a just a few moments is not to simply touch something, even something as precious as the body and blood of Jesus. It is rather to encounter someone. To come face to face with the one who has called us here, revealed to us love and mercy, and instructed us about what to do in his name.

What is being said and revealed in this Gospel is very simple yet very profound. To approach Christ in the Eucharist, is to really be ready to enter into communion, a holy communion of friendship, love, and discipleship with the very person of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re not ready for that and all it will ask of you, think twice about walking this aisle, and perhaps back up a bit to the first encounter with Christ that can prepare you for this great mystery. For the first encounter with Christ’s body and blood is really the Sacred Scripture, God’s teaching. The great saint of the Sacred Scriptures, Saint Jerome probably speaking from his own experience with translating the Scriptures said this: “When we approach the Eucharistic Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God, and God’s Word and Christ’s flesh and blood are being poured into our ears, and we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel?”

The bread that Jesus speaks of is meant to open us to a living relationship of trust not in the bread itself but in the person giving that bread. At the same time, what is given is not ultimately bread, but the word of his teaching, his preaching of the kingdom way, and his revelation of the Father. When we say that the Word was made flesh, we announce to ourselves and others that we believe that this bread and the giver of bread and the teaching word are not simply interrelated but are one in Jesus who waits to welcome us in an intimate, personal, and life giving relationship of love.

Saint Joseph Old Cathedral Oklahoma City

2 Kings 4, 42-44 + Psalm 145 + Ephesians 4, 1-5 + John 6, 1-15

This multiplication of the loaves is the only miracle of Jesus that is recorded in all four Gospels. That fact alone should signal to us that there is something essential to faith here. Philip and Andrew are introduced by John as players in this drama. The people are tired and hungry. Jesus looks up and sees them. Philip expresses a kind of helplessness – a sense of inadequacy or lack of resources. It is a feeling we have all known too often in the face of the enormous challenges life can throw at us. A sense that there just isn’t enough to go around, that we don’t have what it takes, that what we need to face the challenge is greater than we could ever imagine. The figure that Philip comes up with is like that. It is really big. Then there is Andrew, the one who introduces people to Jesus. Remember, it is Andrew who first began to follow Jesus after hanging around John the Baptist. It is Andrew who went to Peter and said, “Come and meet this one I have found.” Today it is Andrew who introduces that boy to Jesus, and by doing so, shifts all attention to Jesus.

The images John uses here can hardly be ignored. Going up the mountain evokes the memory of Moses, and if the mountain doesn’t bring Moses to mind, John mentions the Passover with deep memories of the manna God provided there. With that instruction to sit down on the grass there should spring to mind the images of the Psalm 23 and the Good Shepherd who prepares a table. So here, in John’s version of this moment, it is Jesus who distributes the abundant bread himself. In the other Gospel versions Jesus tells the disciples to feed the people. Here it is Jesus alone, the shepherd, who feeds his flock. In sharp contrast to a mentality of scarcity suggested by Philip and Andrew, there is Jesus and the abundance of life that faith opens to the human person.

Andrew introduces us today to this Jesus of abundance and fullness of life. This is more than a miracle that raises wonder and amazement. It is, with John’s presentation, a Sign that points to Jesus, the Bread of Life, the one for whom we hunger and thirst. It is a sign written that may lead us to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that through him we may have life in his name.

We tell this story today and proclaim this Gospel because hunger still drives our lives. We tell this story today because a mentality of scarcity still influences our decisions and motivates our hoarding and possessiveness. These deep hungers drive us in too many different directions. If we are not conscious of them, or if we leave them unattended, they can drive us in many harmful and destructive ways. Attempting to fill the infinite longing of the human heart, people over eat, overwork, grasp greedily for more of everything. We consume others and use others in a desperate effort to satisfy those hungers. From that deepest of all longings, the longing to be loved, lovers demand too much of the other becoming bitter when the other is not able to fulfill the need for absolute love giving rise to jealousy, and sometimes violence. Even the great disparity in our world between those who have too much and those who have far too little flows from the unchecked hungers for satisfaction that shape so much of our economics. Advertising spends billions of dollars to fan into flame these hungers with promises to satisfy them all the while deeply invested in their growth and amplification not their satisfaction. The culture of this economy aims for instability, never for satisfaction that allows us to say: “enough.”

Jesus Christ seeks to satisfy the deepest hungers of our lives in contrast and sometimes in conflict with a consumer society that promises to fill us with what is finite and only leave us wanting more and more never finally coming to satisfy our longing for true bread.

So here we are, drawn together again by our hunger having discovered that nothing else will satisfy. The Passover is near. It is as near as the prayer and action at this altar. Introduced here to Jesus, we come to know the God who provides for the deepest hunger and thirst of our hearts. To discover Jesus here is to know the truth about those hungers in our spirits and to come to know the one who alone can satisfy them. In coming to know what is revealed, we come to know ourselves caught up in this sacred action as chosen ones, forgiven, loved, and fed on the very flesh and blood poured out for us once and for all.

Jeremiah 23, 1-6 + Psalm 23 + Ephesians 2, 13-18 + Mark 6, 30-34   +   St Francis of Assisi Parish, Castle Rock, Colorado

The Gospel of Saint Mark is in many ways an instruction manual for disciples of Jesus Christ. Every detail of the Gospel; the stories, parables, exorcisms, healings, and everything Jesus says is preparation for what he will say at the end: “GO!” Last week he sent the twelve out on a practice run, so to speak. After making sure that they took nothing, were focused on their mission, trusting only him he gave them power and authority. I always like to think it was the power of love and the authority of humility. Unlike the kind of power and authority we find abused by too many on this earth, love and authority are effective, and so the apostles come back reporting success with the consequence that people were coming and going in great numbers.

Now it’s back to more instructions because going out to teach, to heal, and to confront evil is not all they must do. In fact, if they do these things well, something more will then be very necessary to remember, and we get that today. There seems to be four parts to what Jesus says to us here: 1) Come away, 2) Deserted Place, 3) By yourself, 4) Rest. These are important for a disciple’s balanced life.

Jesus does not say, “Go away”, he says, “Come away.” The difference is that he will come with him. He is not sending away, but calling them to himself. This is the Jesus who refreshes our souls, the Jesus whose burden light. This relationship is important, and just as parents sometimes need their time together as loving spouses away from the children, so do we all need to make sometime away with Jesus Christ.

It is a deserted place that he suggests, a place where no one else is to be found. In a deserted place there is no WI FI, no texting. There is no email, voice mail, radio, tv, or Facebook. There is nothing to make noise, or fill the space. It is deserted. By yourself means exactly that. It is 1 on 1 time with Christ who has called you to be his own.

Resting for a while is not laziness. It does not take all day. It is temporary. It’s for a while. But, for that while, it is about rest. You do not do something else for a change, you do nothing. I often call it “staring” either at the inside of your eye lids, or just at the sky. When we do not rest, we cannot take care of others because resting is taking care of ourselves. Do that first. Not all the time, just “for a while.” If we do not slowdown in this life, it will be over before we know it, and we will be of no use to anyone, especially God.

Even God has done this reports the writer of Genesis. Later it was called “Sabbath” for in God’s wisdom it became part of the covenant as one of the commandments. Divine wisdom is revealed through the Word, Jesus Christ who is forming not just the twelve, but any of us who have been called to be his presence and continue his work on earth.

The Wedding of Hilary Nixon and Robert Dehn

St John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland, CO

17 July 2015 Sirach 2, 1-11 + Psalm + Colossians 3, 12-17 + Luke 9, 1-6

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Rachel, Ruth and Boaz, Hosea and Gomer, Elizabeth and Zachariah, Mary and Joseph, the list goes on and on. It can include others like Peter and Paul, Andrew and James, Timothy and Mark who teamed up with Paul. People like Sylvia and Bob, Ruth and Ted, Betty and Nick, Bob and Betty, Robert and Debra, Norma and David all the way down to this day when the list will include Hilary and Robert. For you see, when it comes to the lives of people who are rooted in the life and mission of Jesus Christ, people whose lives are touched by the Divine, there is no going it alone.
Sent out two by two there is no “doing your own thing”, nor doing it “my way.” That is what got Adam and Eve in trouble and continues to haunt the human family in every age. Each of these holy men and women teach us much about fidelity and love. Even Adam and Eve as they are imagined for us were the perfect couple until they traded something created for the creator. Abraham and Sarah teach us how to wait without losing faith. Jacob and Rachel teach us about devotion and perseverance as Jacob works and slaves for fourteen years just to have Rachel as his bride. The love story of Ruth reveals not just admirable loyalty that attracts Boaz, but reveals the passion of God for his people. The love story of Hosea is a lesson on the power of forgiveness. to heal what is broken. The stories of these lives go on through every age to reveal something to us of the God whose love draws us to this place today. We are intended by our Creator/God to be together. No one is alone, and to those who face that fear there is even a promise made: “I will not leave you
The Wedding of Hilary Nixon and Robert Dehn St John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Loveland, CO 17 November 2015 Sirach 2, 1-11 + Psalm + Colossians 3, 12-17 + Luke 9, 1-6
orphans. I will be with you until the end of time.” This is the promise fulfilled that we celebrate in this church today with gratitude and joy.
To those who take up a life of faith in Christ simple instructions are given by Jesus to support and sustain the partnership we have as Christ’s own. What we need is one another. All we need is one another. Everything else is going to get in the way. We have only one house and one home, God’s holy church. We need not look anywhere else. To the extent that God’s Holy Church is rooted in our homes, we will always find peace, healing, and forgiveness there.
And so Robert and Hilary, in this place Christ sends you forth today as he has countless others faithful ones. Your mission is clear: live and proclaim by the goodness of your lives and the public practice of your faith the presence of the Kingdom of God. Bind up and heal, hold up and encourage anyone who seems alone, broken, or lost. In as much as you do so, you will arrive back before the Lord as did those apostles full of joy, and full of peace for your names will be written in heaven.

Amos 7, 12-15 + Psalm 85 + Ephesians 1, 3-14 + Mark 6, 7-13

It is on only the sixth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, and the disciples have not been with Jesus for very long, just long enough for them to see what he is doing, and long enough for us to know that they are not too sure of themselves and not too dependable. None the less, before they seem to be ready, he sends them out with power and authority. Given the conditions of the world we live in, those two things spell danger. I don’t know about you, but I am cautious around people with power and authority, and the scandals of the last few years give us all reason to on guard. I suspect that before Jesus invests any more of his energy and time in this group, he wants to see what they can do with power and authority. Judging from the report they bring back, they did rather well. There is no report or indication that they used their power for themselves and abused authority to get more power. On the contrary, they followed the example of their master and used the power they had to relive the suffering of others, and that in turn reinforced the authority of the master.

When Jesus sends them out with power and authority, they take nothing, and that is exactly how they return. In other words, having relied only on the master, they took nothing along and they took nothing from those they served. They did not move around always looking for a better deal, and they did not waste time with people who did not welcome them. There was a sense of urgency that kept them focused without wondering what was in it for them. This power and authority Jesus gave to these apostles was the power of love and the authority of humility. This kind of power never corrupts, and the authority of humility is always credible. Would that our society and culture had leaders with this kind of power and authority.

If you are nodding your head in agreement with me, you are in trouble right now, because I believe that this Gospel suggests that the world does have that kind of people with this kind of power and authority, and you are one of them. The trouble is, none of us feel ready, while we have spent way too long thinking that this about someone else. Too many people act as though this is all a matter of study and learning. Too many people are sitting in the bleachers or the pews and not enough are giving this power and authority a try. Love and Humility are powerful tools in the hands of real disciples of Jesus Christ.

It is important to notice that the major part of learning for these apostles was experience related. It cannot be any different for us. Academic studies are always idealistic and superficial to some extent. Until you do something you don’t really learn anything, you just know about it. Too many people in this world know about Jesus, but they’ve met him! The knowledge just stays in the head. Life puts us in all kinds of situations from which we learn great truths. However, if the truth were known, we would never have learned them at all; because if it were up to us, we would have avoided the learning experience. “It’s too hard.” “I’m not ready.” “I have to get a couple of others things done first.” There are as many excuses as there are people, but it does not change the fact that we are a people of faith called by God as disciples of Jesus to so something as much as be something.

In the end, I suppose the biggest excuse is fear, but fear of what? Being alone? We are not sent out alone. He sent them two by two. Fear of what? Making a mistake? That may also be why they are out in pairs, but what’s wrong with making a mistake with the intention of following God’s will? The only real mistake is doing nothing. Next Sunday we are going to hear about their return and see what shape they are in after exercising the power of love with humility. A remarkable thing happens to them, and it is something we all long for.

This week, today, the call goes out again from Jesus Christ for disciples to take to the streets with love and humility, confident that Jesus Christ will give you all you need to touch someone with kindness, to heal a broken heart, and to confront with courage any evil that you see or hear. Discipleship is not all about prayers, novenas, and holy hours. Those things come later as we see next week. They come after you’re worn out from the mission. Discipleship is also about learning, and the teaching style of Jesus is about action and doing things in his name. Remember. Pay attention. The last thing said at the end of this gathering in his name is: GO.