February 28, 2010 at St Mark Church in Norman, OK

Genesis 15: 5-12,17-18 + Psalm 27 + Philippians 3: 17-4:1 + Luke 9: 28-36

It’s about glory, and not just about Jesus. What happens on that mountain provides for those present a glimpse of what they might hope for themselves. If you wanted to sum up the work of Jesus on this earth, it was simply to restore us to glory; to give us the glory of being a chosen race, a holy people who live in the presence of God. That is what happened to Jesus on that mountain top; he came into the presence of God. His mission was to take us there. Yet the truth of the matter is, there is work to do. One look at the human condition, the human family, and it doesn’t look to glorious much of the time, and we know what keeps us from glory: Sin. All of us are engaged to one degree or another in a personal, ongoing battle with sin and vice. We are seeking glory. Yet, sin is in the way. Although anger doesn’t make most of us murderers, our lust doesn’t make most of us rapists, and our greed and envy do not make most of us outright criminals, together with gluttony, arrogance, and sloth, there isn’t much glory and those who have to live with us are miserable. Our failure to live up to the glory that is ours is as tragic as the unhappiness our evil causes.

There is a social dimension to all of this as well for which we are responsible. It works its way through our commerce our entertainment, and our whole culture. Pride, greed, and anger profoundly influence domestic and foreign policy. If we truly had generous and compassionate leaders who were imbued with the value of social stewardship rather than greed and ambition, we would not have tolerated the corporate scandals we have endured in the last ten years. “Every deadly sin fuels harmful social phenomena: lust-pornography; gluttony-substance abuse; envy-terrorism; anger-violence; sloth-indifference to the pain and suffering of others; greed-abuse of public trust; and pride-discrimination.”

These sins are about what it means to be human and humane, not about what it means to be perfect or “holy.” As long as there is any trace of them in our lives, we are less that human and less than what God has made us to be. We are far from glory. This is basic stuff. It concerns the core of what we are, of what we can become, and most importantly, of what we should aspire to be. We should be in glory. In the end, the question of what we want to be has an answer most of us would quickly give: happy. We want to be happy, but happiness is not dependent upon physical or material pleasure. In fact, it is often hampered by it. Our culture teaches that pleasure and possessions are happiness with the result that pleasure is often substituted for happiness and meaning in life. No glory there. When a crisis comes along that pleasure cannot resolve a secular person runs to the psycho-therapist. It is not so for us. We have a treasure of wisdom and tradition, teaching and revelation that leads us to a life of virtue and balance, holiness and joy; that is glory! It is not that pleasure is inappropriate, but that it comes from character and virtue, and a right relationship of one’s self to others and to God. That is where we shall find pleasure, and that pleasure leads to glory.

“If we do not take seriously our capacity for evil, we are unable to take seriously our capacity for good.” There will be no taking credit for the good that we do if we fail to accept the blame for the evil. So, I am inviting you to spend three nights this week reflecting upon “The Seven Deadly Sins”. Unlike our bodies influenced by our genes; our souls, our spirit, and the lives they animate are free to be shaped by our choices. We can choose to be whole. We can choose glory. There is more and better in us than we have chosen to become. Accepting the fact that we sin is a summons to life.

We are always inventing gods. It seems to be a characteristic of our age and perhaps every age. The god most popular this day is a god who does not demand much of us, is certainly not a god that punishes, although we don’t mind a reward now and then. The sentimental god of most sappy religious pop music is a god that just pats us on the head like grandpa and sends us on our way. With a god like that, there is certainly no need to trouble one’s self about the devil but there’s the trouble. The devil’s best trick is to convince us that there is no devil.

We recognize evil in others, but if we ever want to see the face of sin, we must look in the mirror. All we see in others is it’s reflection from ourselves. The honest among us know that what we always criticize first in another is the very thing we dislike in ourselves. Sin is our secret from others. Only we know where and how deeply it has taken root in us. Saint John says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

When we recognize and confess that sin and our inclination toward it is a part of our nature, and that we alone will never wholly eradicate it, there is at least something for us to do in our lives that will not in the end seem just futile and absurd. We can make sense of our lives because the existence of evil presents us with moral choices, and in making those choices, we form our character. We have been given our nature, but we choose our character. When we say someone is a good man or a good woman, we do not suggest that they are people in whom there is no inclination to evil, but rather that they are people who have wrestled and still wrestle with it and never give in because their quality and their goodness comes from the struggle. Those people are truly noble. Glory is theirs.

“Morality is like art, said G.K. Chesterton, “it consists of drawing a line somewhere.” We live in an age in which no lines seem to be drawn at all, or those that have been drawn are being erased. In my 67th year of life and my 41st year as priest I have come to recognize that an unhealed wound, a kind of sinful restlessness, afflicts humanity and robs us of glory.

Almost four years ago someone gave me a copy of the newly translated Don Quixote. I’m reading it, but it’s slow going. I tried many times over my years in College to read it and gave up. This new translation is more to my liking and I may throw a party when I finish it in the next week or two! In this classic piece of literature I recognize the Knight Errant’s vain search for the impossible dream as my own. Millions of people appear to be looking for the ideal marriage partner, the perfect child, the utopian community. Some disappear into a world of alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or violence in an attempt to calm their restlessness, to satisfy a need that they cannot name. I am a Bruce Springsteen fan. “The Boss” wrote a song that describes our age when he sings: “Everybody has a hungry heart.” I think we are hungry for glory, hungry for the life we should have had by God’s will and God’s original plan for us. But we have traded our glory for something else, and sin is the consequence. Our hunger is for God and the glory that comes from being in God’s presence. The glory of Jesus Christ came from his willingness to suffer and in obedience to the will of his Father. Calvary was no short – cut to glory. There isn’t one. We will have no glory from a short-cut either. We cannot fill ourselves with things that do not satisfy, that do not fill us or lift us or hold us up. Yet we fool ourselves into thinking it is possible. As a result, our humanity has lost much of its real glory and beauty. It is less and less a mirror of the creator. That’s what is going on in this Gospel – on that mountain top. Those apostles saw the glory of God, the glory of God in humanity. It is possible, it is desirable. It is God’s will to have God’s glory revealed in human nature; not just his Son’s, but in all of us. I want to propose to you that if we can take our sinning seriously, we might at least find that we can be interesting again, and so can life itself, and then we shall find glory.

I invite you to give three evenings this week for the sake of the truth and glory; three evenings in this church for the sake of life itself, your life. Tonight we shall reflect upon Pride and Envy, tomorrow night Anger and Sloth, Tuesday night Greed, Gluttony, and Lust. I’ve saved the best till last! I hope to see you again for prayer tonight night when we might begin to consider how it is that we satisfy our hungers and our thirst, because “everybody has a hungry heart.”

February 21, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Deuteronomy 26: 4-10 + Psalm 91 + Romans 10: 8-13 + Luke 4: 1-13

Something will happen this afternoon at 32nd and North Western in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Oklahoma City. It is a ritual that profoundly expresses the nature of our church. Adult Candidates for Confirmation seeking full communion with the Catholic Church and Catechumens from all over the western half of this state will present themselves to the Archbishop in his Cathedral Church. There he will welcome them one by one and then proclaim them to be one with us in faith.

It is a rite that marks the strongest and most clear distinction between Roman Catholicism and other Christian communions because we are one church who assemble around one Bishop who is the vicar of Peter’s successor in the city of Rome where Peter exercised his threefold ministry of teaching, sanctifying, and leading the Christians. We are not separate congregations scattered around who vaguely relate to one another by creed or confession when we need to and then act independently when it is more convenient.

Every year on the First Sunday of Lent, this rite takes place unseen to most of you unless you are a sponsor or a convert. Every year on the Tuesday of Holy Week, another Rite takes place with the whole church assembled for the Mass of Chrism when those holy oils are blessed and then divided among all the churches for use during the year with Anointing of the Sick, Baptism, and Confirmation. The presence of those oils there at the Baptistry is a visible reminder that we are part of one Church with one Bishop.

Every year after Easter, the Archbishop comes to this parish church as he does all the others to Confirm in Faith the young people we present to him as examples of faithful lives and service. I do not exercise that rite, the Archbishop does, because we are one church. Every time a couple comes to be married at Saint Mark or any other Catholic Church, the Archbishop is notified formally, and by a special document authorizes a local pastor to witness a Marriage in the name of the Church.

Every year in February we do something that expresses our faith and our commitment to this Church to which St Mark Parish belongs. It is a profession of faith and an acknowledgement that we believe that we belong, and that we are responsible for more than the parish of Saint Mark. It should be a matter of pride and of faith to accept a share in the responsibility for the support of the larger church, and for this reason, I present to you with no regret nor hesitation the envelopes and brochures you find now in the hymnal racks of your pew.

It is February and it is time to either renew your commitments made in the past, or for the first time to recognize what is your responsibility. Every week, you support the ministry of Saint Mark Parish with all its services, programs and administrative costs with insurance and utilities and repairs.

Every year, we do the same for the larger church, and now it is time.
If your circumstances make it impossible to do so this week, use the pledge card to do so later.
If your circumstances make it impossible to do as much as you did last year, do it anyway and see if God will make provide an opportunity to make up the difference. If you did nothing last year, this is the time to re consider why you fail to contribute to your church when God expects it. If you fill out the contribution portion of the brochure today, give it to me after Mass. If you take it home for use later; bring it next week or the week after and add it to your offering.

The brochure lists very clearly the principal ministries you will be supporting. Everyone one of them affects and strengthens those same ministries here at home. Without the support of the Archdiocesan offices, we would be left without great resources, information, and leadership. I trust every one of you to make certain that the larger church continues to provide what is needed for continuing the work of Christ Jesus.

In the desert of today’s Gospel, the temptations in each instance boil down to one thing: “Go it alone.” or “Do your own thing.” or “Take care of number 1” The temptations are subtle suggestions that Jesus should consider being someone other than what he is. He calls himself “Son of Man”. The Devil calls him “Son of God.” In both the first and third temptations, Jesus must decide whether he will save himself from suffering and death because he has the power to do so. The question then arises, does he use his power for himself or not? That is the root meaning of these tests. Luke ends by saying that Satan leaves Jesus for a “time”.

A final test is yet to come in Jerusalem while hanging on a cross when he will be tempted three times again to use his power to save himself. This is the still the test we all must face as followers of Jesus today.
Our culture offers endless possibilities for remaking ourselves with the priority on personal fulfillment and material success; but this not what we were created to be.We are not alone, isolated individuals. When Genesis says: He created them male and female – it means we were created into community and relationship. When one person eats an apple, all are affected by that decision. What we do and what we fail to do has consequences on others. This is how we live as Church and how we work together in a larger community than Saint Mark Parish or Norman, Oklahoma. Think of this please when you consider whether or not to pick up and use that envelope.

February 17, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Joel 2: 12-18 + Psalm 51 + 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 + Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

It is important to notice that Jesus says: “When you fast.”  “When you give alms.” “When you pray.” He does not say: “If you fast” “If you give alms” “If you pray.” Living our faith is not a matter of “if”. It is a matter of “when.”

And so: when you fast, it is from more than food. For a nation that can boast of a diet industry that rivals the  ross national product of more than half the world, this is something to take seriously not just for physical health. A hunger pain is a wake-up call to remind us that we do not live by bread alone. We will not put meat on our plate for the next six Fridays because by our tradition, this food has blood, and so we keep Friday without Blood to remember one Friday of this season when Christ’s blood shed for us all. By fasting, we may savor the sweetness of all God’s gifts. Rather than gorge ourselves we simply sip and savor just a little to remember how good it is. But taste is not the only sense of our bodies that should fast. The eye can fast by looking less and watching less.
The ear can fast when it is closed to gossip and slander. The tongue can fast when it speaks no evil, no anger, no lie, no rumor, no criticism. Silence in this season may be the sound of God’s call. The hand can fast when it leaves things alone, picks up nothing in the store that is not necessary, and touches only to heal, caress, and comfort.

When you pray it is both public and private in praise and in gratitude. It is alone and it is as a family. It is as a church in Eucharist, in devotion, and in adoration. The balance of all prayer is restored in this season when you pray. Public prayer is a witness that calls others to prayer. A blessing in a restaurant reminds others who may have forgotten who has provided what is shared. It is not for show and admiration. It is to acknowledge the source of all good things.

When you give alms, it is an act of charity and an unmistakable reminder that we are stewards of God’s gifts.  Nothing is ours to keep. All has been entrusted to us for the sake of others so that none of God’s children would ever be in want. It is impossible to imagine that our God would leave someone in need! When we think, “Someone should do something.” We have forgotten who we are and failed our calling.

Pray, Fast, Give. This is how we live our faith. It is not a matter of if – but of when, and that time is the present.
In this we shall know the power of the cross with which we mark our heads this day recalling that we are dust and to dust we shall return. When we do return, we shall take nothing with us which is reason enough to begin to give  it up now. When we do return to dust, what we shall take with us is what we have done with what we have had. Giving up is not all there is to Lent. Taking on is more to the point. So, the question today I propose to you is not: “What are you giving up for Lent?” But rather, “What are you taking on?” There can be only one answer: “A Life of Prayer” “A life of Fasting” “A life of Charity.” In this life you will find life – life everlasting.

February 14, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK

Jeremiah 17: 5-8 + Psalm 1 + 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20 + Luke 6: 17, 20-26

As we pick up these verses of Luke’s Gospel today, there are two points to notice.
First, Jesus brings himself on a level with the Twelve.
Then although a large group is there, he speaks just to the twelve.
This message is of utmost importance for his closest followers.
It is important to understand that what we have here is not a code of conduct that produces Christians. This is not a prescription for how we ought to behave or live.
It is a description of what life is like for those who live in the Kingdom of God
which has begun in Jesus Christ.
These are not conditions for inclusion in the realm of God.
They are indications of what life in the Kingdom of God is like even in the present.
We read these verses not to suggest that we have to become poor, hungry, or sad;
but to examine our lives in such a way as to discover whether or not we fit in with the Kingdom.
These are not scare tactics to stimulate a change of behavior.
What we receive through Luke’s Gospel is a proclamation by Jesus
about the way life is inside and outside the Kingdom.
There is no proposal here about how to be happy.
This is not about the future either.
Remember the first word Jesus spoke publically in the Synagoge?
TODAY!

Rather than the word: “Blessed” we might get the point better if the text read: “Congratulations!” Jesus is not suggesting that those at the bottom of the economic system are holy.
He is saying that those who are powerless and trust in God are successful
while those who live with the illusion that they are self-sufficient are failures.

Jesus does not propose that an empty belly makes for sanctity.
He is suggesting that knowing that we do not live by bread alone is really wise;
that experiencing restlessness and spiritual emptiness or hunger is a good thing.
Jesus does not promote tears and sadness. The truly holy are not glum miserable sour human beings. He is suggesting that laughing at people, making fun of others, finding humor in racial slurs and jokes for example is a sure sign that one is outside the Kingdom of God.

Experiences of want: poverty, hunger, suffering create a void in us, and to this void Jesus speaks today. In that void, in that want, hunger, and sadness, we can learn reliance upon God.
Those who experience it look to God to fill up what is lacking,
and they are heirs of the Kingdom of God.

Benedict XVI in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, proposes “that the Beatitudes present a sort of veiled interior biography of Jesus.” He has brought himself to the level of his apostles.
He looks each one in the eye and tells each who he is.
If they wish to be united with him in his ministry, this is what it will be like.

They will be poor. Jesus himself has no place to lay his head. They will be hungry as he is hungry.

They will weep as he weeps over Jerusalem and at the grave of Lazarus.
Their sadness will not be about themselves or their misfortunes.
It will spring from their identification with the oppression or suffering of others.
They will see the suffering of others and weep with compassion.
They will be persecuted as he is persecuted, excluded, insulted, and denounced as evil. What they do and what they say will not be motivated by what others think of them.
If they are mocked, laughed at, ridiculed, or excluded: Congratulations!
This is a road map of discipleship!

Gathered in this place, just days away from Lent,
Luke offers us a chance to examine just how well we fit into the Kingdom of God.
This Gospel comes with an invitation to ask:
What good is it to be poor?
What good is hunger?
What good is sorrow or rejection?
People outside the kingdom of God would avoid these things.
Much more appealing are riches, full bellies, and the approval of others.
Jesus suggests that those who prefer these things have received all they are going to get
for these things are their own rewards.
When the present evolves into eternity, these things are not portable. They will be no more.

Live now the way of the Kingdom and live without worry or concern, anxiety or fear. Do it today and be blessed.
Congratulations, says Jesus.
“This is the way I live.” he says.

“Live like this, and live forever.”