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All posts for the month September, 2001

Ordinary 26

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on September 30, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

September 30, 2001 Amos 6:1 7 + 1 Timothy 6:11-16 + Luke 16:19-31

Like you, I have heard this parable countless times. It is so familiar that any of us could finish the story if it were stopped after the most brief of introductions. Over the years, I have come to respect this one in torment, at least to suspect that he was a decent man. After all, when his request is turned down by Abraham, he is at least thoughtful enough to care about his brothers and hope that they might not share his torment. It is important to realize that he is not condemned because he is rich..He finds himself in never ending torment because he never saw Lazarus. It isn’t that he refused or that he did something evil. It is simply that he never saw Lazarus.

One of the saddest aspects of this parable and one of the most sobering is the fact that the rich man raised his eyes and saw Lazarus only when it was too late for him to redeem himself. Insulated like him by our gates, security guards; burdened with out own day to day responsibilities, the desperate needs of others often never figure into our thoughts. We easily justify ourselves by insisting we’ve done nothing wrong, when the truth is we’ve done nothing at all, which is just exactly what put the rich man of the parable in such torment. We sanitize poverty and it’s primary cause: Injustice by hiding in privatized religion. This age in which we live has reduced religion to worship on Sunday and a very small area of morality Be kind, Be chaste, Try to stay married, Don ‘t quarrel in front of the children. Pray Nowhere do we hear the voice of the prophets that cry out: “Be Just!” or “Be Passionate”, or “Do something about the injustice that oppresses most of this world’s inhabitants.

Being tidy, temperate, and chaste is nice, but it is not enough to make one fully a good person or a disciple of Jesus. Every generation raises up another church­ going Christian who makes a personal fortune off underpaid workers who have no health care, no rights, and no hope.

Being unaware of injustice is not compatible with disciples of Jesus. They will be aware of every Lazarus in every generation and nation. They will be aware of what the Prophets have said about justice, and restless agitation and action will mark their behavior For them, religion is love and justice. Religion is love of neighbor as one’s self. Religion is blessing the food at meals and bringing the blessing of food to those without it. Religion is worshiping God. on one’s knees as it were, but on one’s knees washing the feet of the poor.

“The poor you will always have with you.?’ is not an excuse for saying: “That’s just the way it is.” It is a reason for never becoming unaware or ceasing to look  everywhere for them. They will always be there, so we must always find them, be aware of them, and never cease being aware of the sufferings of others.  Never listening to the prophets, the rich man found himself in unending misery Never listening to Jesus, we run the same risk. This story is told to the Pharisees, those good, law-abiding, religious folks who prayed in the synagogue and sacrificed in the Temple. Yet, they were not aware of who was in their midst, and they were deaf to what he asked of them.

The rich man failed to remember one great truth, that he was a steward of God’s gifts, and that everything he had was only on loan from God to whom he would one day give an account. He thought it was all his, and it made him blind, and deaf, and unaware of what and who was right at his doorway

The great abyss of regret and unrealized good intentions threatens us all, and it continues to keep us from one another all too often. Disciples of Jesus hear the master’s words. Aware of His presence and His Gospel, they become aware of injustice as corporate sin, as evil done by government, business, industry, university, and sometimes by church. They recognize its evil and are not unaware of their share in it and responsibility for it. They do not insulate themselves with a puny, private religion. They are always aware of the gifts of God’s love and mercy they are given to dispense.

Ordinary 25

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on September 23, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

September 23, 2001 Amos 8:4-7 + 1 Timothy 2:1-8 + Luke 16:1-13

The use of a shrewd and dishonest servant in the parable today demands some careful attention to words of Jesus who is more concerned with the wisdom of this shrewd servant than his behavior This is what he praises, the wisdom, not the self­ serving behavior The parable is addressed to the disciples – that is the first clue leading us to recognize that there is something here for us. What we have here is a Lukan instruction on the right use of money drawn out of parable by Jesus which suggests that disciples, if they are wise, use everything they have for the sake of their place in the kingdom. It further proposes that wise disciples will know what is of lasting value and what is fleeting. Finally, Jesus proposes that wise disciples will know that they can only serve one master, and everything they have must be used in that service.

Jesus does not commend dishonesty in this story He commends the wisdom of the servant who looks ahead. The dishonesty of this servant should not discolor everything else about him. We are sometimes led into a very anti cerebral bias in the church that leads us to be unwilling or unable to think or conceive of ourselves as being clever about kingdom activity That business of being “childlike” is often mistakenly translated into being naive, when in fact, Matthew’s gospel (10:16) alerts disciples to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” What we hear today is Luke’s version of the same proposal. a clever kind of wisdom is appropriate in the real disciple of Jesus; nothing naive or passive; but rather a kind of far-seeing, focused vision that can be trusted with little matters and big ones.The disciple can be trusted to use all things and all opportunities well for the sake of the future, which is of course the coming reign of God.

The Gospel proposes that for all the dangers in possessions, it is possible to manage goods in ways appropriate to life in the Kingdom of God. To do that takes a kind of Wisdom that is seen in faithful attention to frequent and familiar tasks of each day, however small and insignificant they may seem. The one faithful in today’s nickels and dimes is the one to be trusted with the big account. Yet it is easy to be indifferent toward small obligations while sincerely believing oneself fully trustworthy in major matters, but that isn’t “gospel wisdom.”

What Luke suggests is that life consists of a series of seemingly small opportunities. Most ofus will do nothing in the week to come that will bring reporters running and get media attention. More likely the week will present little more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to another meeting, choir practice, or give a compliment or two. Yet, “Whoever is faithful in little things is faithful in bigger ones” and disciples are wise enough to know that. They will use every little  opportunity to root themselves more securely and more deeply into the Kingdom yet to come. They are looking ahead, looking beyond the present and immediate business of the day, and never forgetting for a moment that an accounting of one’s stewardship is going to be called for That awareness does not prompt fear nor anxiety nearly as much as it inspires wisdom and loyalty, and a trustworthy attitude that is responsible and consistent with a life that is Jerusalem bound and prepared for suffering and glory, death and resurrection. The disciple knows what is coming, and is wise enough to be prepared.

Ordinary 24

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on September 16, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

September 16, 2001 Exodus 32:7-14 + 1 Timothy 1:12-17 + Luke 15:1-32

We must look at all the stories we have from this stop on the journey, for together they give us the twelfth virtue, or quality, that marks a disciple of Jesus. We see it in the man who looks for the lost sheep. It is there in the woman who sweeps the house, and all the more obvious in the father who looks, waits, and watches for his son. The disciple is watchful. Even when it makes no sense by the world’s judgement, by the worlds values, the watch, the expectation, the hope, the wait, is never abandoned.

The man looking for his lost sheep doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Never mind that to leave ninety-nine in danger and look for one opens him up for criticism and ridicule because the one that wanders is the one that always wanders. Never mind that he may have done it before. He goes off looking and watching to find.

The woman looking for her coin is not concerned about anything except finding that coin. She goes about her business with single purpose, finding that coin. She would have swept anyway, but now she sweeps night and day to find that coin, uninterested in the fact that she had nine others just like it.

The father is the focus of the third story, no matter what riches we may gain from reflection on the other characters. He is watchful for that son to return. He has not gone back to “business as usual” He has not said to the rest of the household. “He’s always going to be that way, forget it.” He has not closed the door on the future, changed the locks on the house, nor cut off any hope of change or growth or reconciliation in himself, his first son, or the “lost one” He is simply watchful, and because of it, he doesn’t miss the chance he gets to have the party I’ve wondered sometimes about that fatted calf. Was there always one being readied for a party, or was he living in watchful anticipation that it would be used for just this purpose?

Watchful is the disciple of Jesus Christ. Never cutting off, never giving up hope, never living with that final and self-justifying attitude about another that says: “They’ll just always be that way” “That’s the way they’ve always been, and they’re not going to change.” It’s like pulling down the garage door on hope, and the ultimate conclusion and dismissal of hope. The disciple continues to be watchful and alert to any opportunity for finding anyone that is lost. No matter what others may say, not matter that others may come along to replace what has been lost. The disciple knows the loss and watches for the chance to seize and celebrate the return or reconciliation.

Reflecting on this gospel has done more to develop my attitude about capital punishment than any other of the sayings of Jesus. The realization that killing an offender ends all hope of their repentance, is really something to think about. It takes from them more than life. It takes away any hope or opportunity to repent. Giving up on them with the thought that “they’ll never change”is a sad excuse for our judgements when we know how painful it would be were others to say the same thing about us and take away any chance to grow, change, and repent. It is beginning to seem to me that if we take away another opportunity to repent and change, we take the obligation of doing so upon ourselves.

What happened to us six years ago in this city now seems to have been a trial run, a preview, if you will, of what has now happened to our whole nation. It makes no difference who did it. It makes no difference why What matters is what we do about it, and what we become because of it. It should come as no surprise to any living person that human beings are capable of great cruelty and evil, especially when driven by hatred, anger, and helplessness. Yet at the same time, great heroism and self-sacrifice out of love rises up in contrast. We can chose which behavior is more worthy of us as disciples of Jesus Christ. Rather than wondering “why”, perhaps we might wonder about what it is we are to become and therefore what we are to do consistent with our identity.

In the lives of the people of this gospel there is no effort to blame or punish the lamb or the son. There is one virtue that marks them all. Watchfulness. They look for and wait for the opportunity to restore the unity that is broken, and they never give up nor do anything to eliminate that opportunity Always on the look-out, the disciple remains watchful and vigilant for every opportunity to extend the mercy of God and the embrace of God’s reign not only to those who are deserving, but to those some insist will never change, never be worthy, nor ever find their way home. For the celebration to begin, it takes two movements. one, the return, and two the welcome. In neither case can there be a heart hardened by disappointment, anger, or stubbornness. For this grace, we pray.

Ordinary 23

Posted by Father Tom Boyer on September 9, 2001

Posted in: Homily.

September 9, 2001 Wisdom 9:13-18 + Philemon 9-10:12-17 + Luke 14:25-33

A first reading of today’s instruction on the way to Jerusalem may lead us to think that Luke has Jesus talking about commitment and the consequent renouncing of all things, or that he’s inviting the disciple to take up a cross. However that may be, those ideas fail to dig beneath the words and get behind examples. It is the later verses of this text that lead us into virtue as a quality of life rather than simply into behavior Remember, first discipleship is about being something, then, from that comes the doing of something. In fact, the very effort to get that straight in our minds is what it’s all about. The disciple is always asking: “What kind of person shall I be?” rather than. “What shall I do?” The doing will take care of itself once the being is in place.

So, our Gospel text today leads us back to that consideration – and from what Jesus has to say at this pause when turns to the crowd is that those who would be his disciples will be Prudent. Those ofus schooled in any Christian spirituality will immediately recall those “Cardinal Virtues” we may have once learned.Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. They come to us from the Book of Wisdom chapter 8, verse 7 “If one loves justice, the fruits of her works are virtues, for she teaches moderation and prudence, justice and fortitude, and nothing in life is more useful than these. ” Ancient Greeks, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Bernard of Clairveaux all developed thought about these virtues as central to good moral living.

When Jesus puts this ancient wisdom into his formation program for disciples, he suggests that his disciples will be people of action,not cautious, timid, frightened, mediocre, and inactive. These are not the qualities of Prudence.In fact, they are just the opposite.Prudence seeks the best way to do the right thing. The point is the DOING.It is a virtue of action, not of passive caution.

Back in the 20s and 30s, a phenomenon of Christian action spread from Belgium and France to this country taking the form of what we called: “The Christian Family Movement, CFM”The heart of that program was simply the Virtue of Prudence reduced to three principals:SEE, JUDGE, ACTThe passage of time may have left the CFM movement in the past, but not its wisdom.

The obstacles to prudence are what Jesus confronts in his formation of disciples: procrastination, negligence, hesitation, inconsistancy, rashness ( like the people in the examples of the gospel ) and rationalization. All of these are excuses for doing nothing or for doing the wrong thing.

In terms of those Cardinal Virtues, Prudence is the first.Prudence enables one to avoid acting against justice because of greed or favorites. Prudence prevents one from acting against temperance by keeping good desires, like food or sex, from running wild and taking control of our lives, or controlling wrong desires, like revenge.Prudence prevents one from acts against fortitude by finding a way between excessive fear and blind recklessness.

We are called to be Prudent – which always means to be people of action. wise, accountable, reasonable, and responsible. The Prudent have an desire to discern. In Oklahoma very soon, there is a call to action, and this Gospel could not have come at a better time. 695 will be before us very soon.The Prudent will ask questions not quote statistics that can be used any which way they can be twisted. Before the answer “Yes” or “No” is given, there are other questions to ask.The SOONER CATHOLIC, and next Sunday’s Bulletin will publish a statement from the Council of Priests in the Archdiocese which poses four questions.They are questions the prudent will ask.

It’s a serious issue for disciples of Jesus, this matter of Prudence.It guides and motivates the prophet. It always sees the big picture of life rather than just the little stuff.It is a way of living in relationship to others and to things that seeks the Will of God in all things.Prudent disciples know themselves, take time to reflect upon their experience, integrate and relate that experience to the experience of others, to the Word of God, to the good of all, and to all the consequences of action.Prudent disciples ask questions, inquire, probe, wonder, and pray