August 31, 2025 at Saint Peter and Saint William Catholic Churches in Naples, FL

Sirach 3: 17-18, 20, 28-9 + Psalm 68 + Hebrews 12: 18-19,22-24 + Luke 14: 1, 7-14

I don’t know if any of you have ever had to sit at a “Head Table” at some big important dinner, but I have found it very unpleasant. At most of those occasions, everyone else is seated at round tables, but the
“Head Table” is usually a long one with certain people sitting on one side facing out into the room. If you have to sit at the head table, there is no one to talk to except the two people on either side of you. If you have nothing in common to talk about, you’re stuck, and it makes for a long evening of boring chatter. Having learned from experience, I was back home several months ago, invited to a big event that I had been part of. As soon as I arrived, ahead of most everyone else, I saw that dreaded “Head Table.”  I ran up and took my name card and swapped it with someone else at one of the round tables. That caused a bit of confusion that got even more so when it was time for me to make some remarks. I began my remarks quoting this parable.

The whole scene in this parable takes me back to Junior High School when everyone was jockeying for a seat at the “cool table.” I don’t care how old you may be, I am sure most of you remember that. You were either in or you were out. Those of us in the out group usually remember it well. One of the things about privilege is that it is usually invisible to those who have it, and with privilege usually comes a sense of “entitlement” that usually leaves one thinking that they are protected from criticism or challenge. And so it goes with this parable, because when it comes to these things in life, not much has changed since Jesus watched human behavior at that dinner to which he was invited.

He observed two things, one with regard to the guests and the other regard to the host. What he addresses to all of us and to the guests that evening is far more than behavior at that banquet. He is addressing something that is tears at the very fabric of social and communal life, “competition.” You know, competition is a zero-sum game. It undermines cooperation and solidarity. It marginalizes and excludes the vulnerable. It makes losers when there none in God’s sight. Competition has captured our way of life, and there is no place better to see what it does than the after-school and weekend events that control family life. Parents are running all over the place the moment school is out taking one child to this practice or game, and God forbid there are two children in two different leagues. The consequence is that too many children hardly know how to have fun. They are constantly comparing themselves to someone else. It there are winners, there will then be losers. We are trapped in this competitive system that is about far more than games. It affects our economy and our relationships with the whole world. It breeds resentment, and it’s dangerous.

The second observation that Jesus makes is spoken to the host as much as it is to us. It concerns the ethic of reciprocity. It was the basis of the Greek/Roman patronage system. We would like to think that it was over with the fall of that empire, but the first time we catch ourselves wondering or even daring to say out loud: “What am I going to get out it?” We know this attitude is still alive and well.

What Jesus advocates is a pattern of relationships where respect springs out of the knowledge and recognition that everyone is a child of God, looking at each other with the eyes of a loving parent who has no favorites. At the same time, Jesus puts an end to reciprocity because what we all get is another chance to give. If Jesus was correct in announcing that the Kingdom of God is at hand, then we are already living in that Kingdom where God’s gracious hospitality has made a place for us not because we deserve it or earned it, but because we have come to realize how far we still are from that banquet in heaven.

August 24, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle in Naples, FL

Isaiah 66: 18-21 + Psalm 117 + Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13 + Luke 13: 22-30

There are some folks who are quick to say that they are saved. You may know some of them. They are also heard to say that if you just accept Jesus as your personal savior, you’re saved. Many of them are comfortable saying: “When we all get to heaven” as if salvation is all and only about the afterlife. These words of Jesus spoken to all of us should call that thinking into question. In fact, those who feel really sure and confident that they are saved have skipped Luke 13.

A question begins this pause on the journey to Jerusalem, and Jesus makes fun of it. Those standing around at the time would have laughed at his answer. He makes fun of it because it’s the wrong question. That man should have asked: “How do you get to be saved.” To that question, Jesus responds with three points:

1) it’s not easy.

2) Don’t waste time, seize the moment.

3) No one should be too sure about salvation.

There has been some bad thinking about this in the past and some of it lingers today. The idea that Baptism or religious heritage (like being Catholic) is a sure ticket. The other is the delusion that we can earn salvation by some kind of spiritual exercise alone. One thing is certain from what Jesus has to say today: no one is just going to slide on in.

He makes it clear that the time will come when the door is shut and it will be too late. No excuse will be accepted, and it makes no difference how well you think you know Jesus or how much you know about him. Being familiar with God means nothing. The basis of a relationship with our God as Jesus has revealed him is not how well we claim to know God, but how well God knows us. The more we think, speak, and act like his Son, the more God may recognize us as his own.

Those of us who are here, who are faithful in prayer, and practice our faith must be very careful lest we begin to think of ourselves as insiders. What Jesus makes clear is that when we stand at the door we may be quite surprised to discover who got there first. We need to begin to think about what we are saved from and what we are saved for. When we ask that second part, we begin to realize that salvation is a long and difficult journey filled with opportunities. It is hard work. Salvation is the work of the Kingdom, creating a new reality in which we all become friends.

Binding the spiritual, physical, and emotional wounds of individuals and communities is the role of God’s people. Salvation is not just a spiritual idea or experience. It is a real-life experience that happens in the real world everywhere and every day. There is here a call for inclusivity. There can be no insiders or outsiders in God’s eyes. Think of it this way and reflect upon the meaning and consequence of the language being used these days. When someone is called and “illegal alien” they are describing someone as being without a human core. It’s as though they are not human. We talk of “aliens” from other galaxies who are not human. We imply some detachment from the human race, and so they don’t have to treated like humans. When lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons are denied the right to equal employment or persons with disabilities are not provided access we are building walls of alienation. When poor people, older adults, women and children have no opportunity to live as community residents with dignity we violate the call of Jesus for inclusivity. Those may well be the very people looking at us from the inside as the door gets closed. We need to think about this wondering if they will welcome us in because the salvation Jesus proclaims is going to turn things upside down.

Remember the words from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. The Beatitudes continue to reveal the great reversal that may catch us all by surprise. In the salvation of God, no one has more than they need until all have enough.

August 17, 2025 This homily was not delivered as I have been in Oklahoma

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10 + Psalm 40 + Hebrews 12: 1-4 + Luke 12: 49-53

The words of Jesus in this week’s Gospel sound harsh and are far from welcome to people trying their best to cultivate family life in world that does everything to tear us apart. There is no reason to think that what Jesus describes is what he wants. In fact, it is best to hear this as a lament. He did not come to cause strife or with a plan to cause the pain that comes when parents and children find themselves set against each other. Yet, making sure that families always live together joyfully was not the goal of his life either.

He came with a greater purpose, to create a new family. His concern goes beyond the nuclear family not fix, repair, or leave it as it is. He was not out to destroy the family of Israel, but neither did he want to fix a few broken pieces. His whole life and mission was the creation of a new family. There is a great sense of urgency in his words encouraging us all to look closely and see what is really happening. He would have us see that something new is happening that is not yet finished making this time, our time, crucial.

All around us rising nationalism, individualism, latent and denied racism, fear of others, and just simple human brokenness is a devastating challenge to the creation of the new family he has entrusted to us. There is an invitation not to be missed here. It is a call to move beyond biological descriptions of family to our baptismal family. When we do so, we will provide hope to those without their nuclear family, single people, divorced people, widows and those whose families are filled with internal strife, and anyone who may gather with us around the Word and this Altar alone. If creation of a new family was the work of Jesus Christ, then it is our work as well, and the urgency with which he addressed goal ought to motivate and encourage us.

We face a constant barrage of rhetoric these days that divides us and pushes us away from each other under the pretext of keeping us safe. Some of those use the Sacred Scriptures to justify their agenda twisting the words of Jesus with their own ideas about greatness, and today it is this very political agenda dividing families and turning family members against each other. In this environment, loyalty to the “Party” is more important that loyalty to the human family.

The words of Jesus challenge us to grow beyond our fears and our narrow-mindedness asking for courage, compassion and humility. There is here an invitation to imagine and create a new family where loyalty to Christ comes first no matter the cost. There is here an invitation to risk power, prestige and even acceptance to stand up for the equality, justice, compassion and reconciliation that every one of us deserves for one great reason. We belong to a family of faith as children of God.

August 10, 2025 – Not delivered. I am in Oklahoma at this time

Wisdom 18: 6-9 + Psalm 33 + Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19 + Luke 12: 32-48

Last week, I boarded a plane and flew up to Oklahoma City. As always, before we left the ground, an invisible flight attendant said: “We’d like your attention for a few moments while we show you some of the safety features of this aircraft.” Then, as though we had no idea how to fasten a safety belt, we got a demonstration followed by the number and location of emergency exits. There was the usual demonstration of how to use an oxygen mask and where the life vest was located and how to blow it up. Of course, the whole idea is to help us passengers be prepared for the unexpected. That is exactly what Jesus is doing in these verses from Luke’s Gospel.

Being prepared for the unexpected is the message, and no matter how often we hear it, like the message on the plane, most of ignore it which might well lead to some unwelcome consequences. There are a lot of people, it seems to me, who might be heard to say: “When your number is up, your number is up” suggesting that it doesn’t matter how you live. There are so many days in each life, and there isn’t anything to be done about it. To some extent that might be true, but it does not mean that it is all predetermined. To a frightening extent, it is really in our hands. How we live may very well determine how long we live.

The final verses that sum up the text for today ought to give us some clue about how to live, how to be prepared, and what to expect. “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” In the middle of a hot summer day, the warning of this Gospel may just be more than we want to hear, so like the passengers on that plane, we can easily drift off to more pleasant thoughts about where we are going and who we will see. There is a great risk in that.

We know that the master is coming. Yet, as a people we are not showing much by way of preparation. We have shown ourselves to be like the slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted. The “severe beating” may well come in the form of rising seas, failing crops, surging temperature, droughts, floods an ever-more violent storms. While we eat, drink, and make merry God’s creation is abused and neglected.

As this text ends with that explicit warning there is also an implicit hope. Sacrifices and changes are required from those who have invested so much in systems that do such damage. Then, hope comes from faith’s assurance that God comes to bless those who are faithful, careful, respectful, and have been found waiting. Why would we not want to be counted among them?

August 3, 2025 at Saint William Parish in Naples, FL

Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2:21-23 + Psalm 90 + Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11 + Luke 12: 13-21

One Sunday, years ago when I was having trouble paying the bills at the parish, I finally took the matter to the pulpit. After Mass, a clearly angry man walked up to me and said: “All you ever talk about is money” and then stormed off. I said to myself if that were true, we probably would not be in the shape we’re in. Later, remembering that incident, I did some research to discover something that surprised me. Nearly one third of the parables deal with money one way or another. If there is one thing we humans need and care about, it is money. It is the most frequent cause of human conflict in one way or another, and at the root of most divorces.

On the surface, it might seem that Jesus is telling us that money ought to have no importance for us at all. After all, God takes care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Why worry? Quit work, spend it all now, and stop passing that basket at Mass? God will provide. Right? If we stay on the surface with this matter, we’re all going to be hungry and homeless. God is not suggesting that we should live as though money had no importance. He just reminds us that where your treasure is, there will be your heart.

The parable we hear today puts before us a man who is very successful in the eyes of this world. He is not a criminal. He has good land that he has used wisely making him wealthy. He is not wasteful or careless. He builds good and better barns to save and care for what he has. There is no suggestion that he is unjust, but Jesus says he is a fool, and the reason is that he lives completely in and for himself. Listen to his conversation! He talks to himself all the time. He never seems to talk to God or to anyone else. He congratulates himself. He plans for himself, and all it gets him is loneliness.

I often hear people whose lives are comfortable say how “blessed” they are without a thought about the fact that what they have is not a “blessing,” it is an obligation. With every, so called, blessing, comes a duty. This man failed to realize that making him a fool thinking it was all his. “I earned it” is the way he thinks. “I deserve it.”  That’s a fool talking. We are all in danger of being fools if we fail to realize that there is a duty that comes with every blessing. What we deserve is an opportunity to do something for the glory of God with what we have while we can.

How we use our money and our time is a clue to our identity. One look at a check book or a calendar says a lot. Defining ourselves by a salary, material possessions, or by accomplishments is really sad. I have sat through more eulogies than any of you could ever count listening to survivors stand up and memorialize the deceased by how they played golf or bridge, or traveled, and I would think to myself: “Really? Is that the sum of life?” We don’t build bigger barns anymore, but we do build bigger homes, drive bigger cars, have bigger TV screens. Those of us trying live our lives as a people chosen by God, Baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit must choose a different set of values. Instead of getting, we think of giving. Our privilege is serving. Instead of avenging, we think of forgiving. Grateful for the life and the time we have in this life, we treasure friends with whom we can share always remembering that love is the greatest treasure. The man in this Gospel had no friends.

It is possible to spend less and enjoy more and to live simply so that other might simply live rejecting greed in order to grow right in God. The fool of this Gospel discovered too late that material wealth is not a permanent possession. He was really very poor and had nothing he could really call his own. When we are at the end of this life, all we ought to count on is what we have become.