October 26, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish in Naples, FL

Sirach 35: 12-14, 16-18 + Psalm 34 + 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18 + Luke 18: 9-14

A young monk that I know once said that Jesus spoke in parables to keep us wondering, and this parable leaves us plenty to wonder about being cautious in any judgement about the two men, and about what Luke is telling us. There is something to wonder about when it comes to prayer, but this is not Luke’s instruction on prayer even if it does follow a parable about a woman who would not stop her plea for justice before a judge. There is something here to notice about justification, but that comes at the end.

Neither man is condemned in this parable. The Pharisee does good things. He fasts, he tithes, he prays. The other man is not condemned either in spite of the fact that he has been part of an unjust system that oppresses the poor. So, this parable is not told or repeated to judge a Pharisee or a Tax Collector. This is something to notice about their prayer that is a bit more important. There is a stark difference between the two men that has nothing to do with where they are in the Temple or the words. What is important is what is revealed about what was in their hearts and their attitudes toward God and other people.

We should notice how many times the Pharisee uses the word “I”. His prayer had nothing to do with gratitude to God. He wanted God to know how good he was. It would seem that his life is devoid of relationships. Love of God and Love of Neighbor is the bedrock of what Jesus taught. You wonder how he can love God when he is so full of himself, and how can he love his neighbor when he sees only their sins and faults? For all of his obedience to the rules, he has missed what matters most. There is a quick test to see where you stand between these two examples. Count how many times you use the word “I” in your prayer.

The other man’s focus is God and God’s mercy. He knows what he needs and who can provide it. There is about his posture and his words an authentic humility. He needed God. A wonderful example of great prayer is the Gloria with which we begin our liturgy every weekend. “We” replaces I because we live in relationships, and “You” is repeated over and over again.

That Pharisee stands as a challenge in our culture where admission of human weakness and failure is almost taboo. It is not cool to admit your mistakes or that you need help. This failure of honesty and humility runs from the highest office today to the playgrounds of our schools. With a carful look at both of these men we might see ourselves not as one or the other, but because there something of both of them is within us.

Privileged as we are, we need to come to terms with how look at others, and sometimes with how proud we are with what we have forgetting where it all came from to begin with. On the other hand, when we honestly face our failures and our sins, we need to come to terms with our infinite worth in God’s eyes. We are not hopeless sinners. Salvation is really about the transformation from a nonperson toward real personhood, from worthlessness to dignity, and that is what happens at the end of this story. A sinner is justified not by his prayer, but by grace from a merciful God. Jesus provides us this parable because he understands that his message was to humble those who exalt themselves and exalt those who humble themselves.

When Luke repeats this parable, it is not so much about prayer, Pharisees or Tax Collectors. It is one more reminder of the great reversal Luke repeats again and again in different ways. Some people who seem least likely to find a place in the Kingdom of God will be there before the pious and those who seem to be so good and successful. Once again, Jesus keeps us wondering.

October 19, 2025

Exodus 17: 8-13 + Psalm 121 + 2 Timothy 3: 14-4: 2 + Luke 18: 1-8

When compared to others who were employed like my father, we lived simply. He was frugal, and even though we had the first television on our block, color television was about to begin before it was replaced. We traveled some, but a downtown hotel with room service was out of the question. We stayed in motels where the highway noise kept us awake most of the night. When he died suddenly I was shocked to see what he left behind and how he carefully he had planned for mother to continue living comfortably and safely.

Just before the verses of this Gospel we proclaim today, Jesus has informed his disciples that he is going away. Yet, he wants to provide for them.  Like my family without our father, those disciples will have to negotiate life without his physical presence, being faithful to all they have been taught. How they will survive and remain faithful without him is the big question answered in today’s Gospel. They will pray. With that, Jesus gives us an example of how we are to negotiate life without his immediate physical presence.

It is easy to be distracted by this Judge, but he is not focus. He is not there to tell us something about God. If anything, he is there to tell us about the world in which we live, a world not much changed since the first telling of this story. There are still Judges who care nothing about God or what others will say. There are still women and countless others who cannot find justice, who are abused and trafficked. They cry out and nothing changes, at least not very quickly. What are we to do while we wait for God to act, knowing full well that God acts on God’s time.

Even though, in this story, the woman gets her justice, multitudes today are still going to their graves being denied the satisfaction of seeing their adversaries dealt with. I believe that the answer to this dilemma is not found in what we expect from God but, rather, in how we struggle like this woman for justice in the hopelessness of seeing justice denied in our lifetime. We have to decide if we are going to just wait for God to act and meet our needs or if we might be called to do justice for those crying out among us. Rather than wait for a miracle from God, it might well be that we are called to be the miracle for which others pray.

My friends, we are called to seek justice, not because it is easy or because in the end we will win. We are called regardless of the consequences for the sake of justice. We don’t fight for justice like this widow because we know we are going to win. We fight and work for justice for the sake of justice alone even if we do not see it in our lifetime.

I love this story, unique to Luke’s Gospel so populated with women and widows of all sorts. It would seem that in Luke’s estimation, the church and this world can never have enough of women like her. Every woman in this church, in this city, country, and world should learn from her not just a lesson on prayer, but on perseverance in the face of injustice.

October 12, 2025

This homily will not be delivered. I am in Oklahoma for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Missionaries Monks from France

2 Kings 5: 14-17 + Psalm 98 + 2 Timothy 2: 8-13 + Luke 17: 11-19

A familiar yet complicated story is proclaimed today. It is one that all of us know very well, and we have all heard countless sermons about gratitude springing from it. For me, that is all well and good, but there is so much more to this story yet to be discovered if we sit with it, and carefully look at the action and the language.

One of the details that has often struck me as is the fact that this whole scene comes as an interruption. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and suddenly he has to stop. It reminds me that sometimes, it is the interruptions that matter and provide us with a chance to do something that may be more important than whatever it is we are up to.

Another detail easy to miss is that this is not really a healing story. Instead of healing these ten who come asking for mercy, which may have been a plea for alms, Jesus sends them to the priests. The actual healing take place as they travel away from Jesus, which is the center of the story. As a matter of fact, the one who returns had no reason to go to the priests because he was a Samaritan. He was a double outcast. Bad enough that he was a leper. He was also a despised Samaritan. We should notice that even this one is healed. They were all faithful enough to do what Jesus asked even before there was a healing. We ought to connect this obedience to the healing.

The Samaritan’s status as an outsider allowed him to see his healing differently from the other nine, and this leads us deeper into the story. The healing is not the focus here. All ten had the faith to do what Jesus asked and start off on their way to the priests. Yet, only one had the faith to return, and what he did and said brings a whole different dimension to this story and leads us to why Saint Luke tells it when the other Gospel writers do not.

If there is fault with the other obedient nine it is not that they fail to see God at work in their healing. It is that they fail to see God at work in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan does, and what he does about it is important. Luke not only reveals Jesus as mediator and healer, but he teaches us how to respond to the work of Jesus Christ with praise and thanksgiving. Luke tells us that the Samaritan came back with gratitude and praise. This is an attitude of worship. These are the practices that mark our worship, and Luke is connecting these with the restoration of health.

This Church and our actions here are transformative. They are healing. This is the place where we can cry out for mercy. In fact, we just did so a few minutes ago. This is the place where we gather to offer thanksgiving and praise. In Luke’s original Greek, he says that the Samaritan came to offer “doxa” which is praise or glory, and eucharisto which means thanksgiving and is a unmistakable reference to worship. Martin Luther is said to have defined worship as “the tenth leper turning back.” Ultimately, this story invites us to follow the healed leper into a life of thanksgiving and worship.

Finally, the last movement and command in this story, “Get up and Go” is exactly the way this Mass and every Mass concludes with a commission to get up and go out with the joy and hope that forgiveness and healing brings to people who will obey and follow the commands of Jesus Christ.

October 5, 2025

Habakkuk 1: 2-3, 2: 2-4 + Psalm 95 + 2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14 + Luke 17: 5-10

I wonder as I stand here how many of you might remember something those of us who were born into the Catholic Church learned back in the day. First, we learned the Ten Commandments. There will not be test this morning, but I wonder how many could really pass that test. We could probably get them all, but maybe not in the order in which we first learned them. Then, I’m not certain about you, but right after we learned the Ten Commandments, we learned the Six Commandments of the Church, at least I did. Sometimes, so as not to compete with the Ten, they were called “Precepts.” There were six minimum obligations for Catholics to live according to Church laws.

These included (1) attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, (2) Confessing sins at least once a year, (3) Receiving the Holy Eucharist during the Easter Time, (4) Observing days of fasting and abstinence, (5) Contributing to the support of the Church, (6) and not celebrating marriage during Lent or with close relatives. Now, don’t be impressed. I had to look them up to get it right.

All of that stuff comes from a focus on an institution, and changes in time and practices have influenced how we interpret all of this. For instance, when strict fasting before Communion was expected, many people simply avoided Holy Communion and were therefore encouraged to receive Holy Communion at least once a year. If there was no priest nearby, at least once every year the faithful were encouraged to seek one for Confession and Communion. All well and good and an interesting piece of history.

This all came to mind weeks ago as I was thinking and praying my way into this Sunday’s Gospel. What we have here is the last two parts of a four-part instruction to the disciples. Jesus has interrupted a conversation with the Pharisees to offer instructions on faithful discipleship to his closest followers. That’s us.

The first two of four parts are not included in today’s proclamation, but you might go home and take a look at the first five verses we did not hear today. It seems that Luke has pulled four bits of tradition together to stop a perception that being a follower of Jesus Christ is to enjoy special privileges and status. You get that point in the last of these examples about the relationship between the servant and the master. We don’t get any privilege.

With the cry of the disciples, “Increase our faith” Jesus assures any struggling believer that faith is not a quantitative commodity. It is a matter of sincere trust in the promises of God. It is never about how much. It is simply about remembering who God is and what God has promised. It’s not about what we do. It is about what God does.

What we get here today is what discipleship requires, sort of like the Six precepts that tell what being a Catholic requires, and what we get here comes first. In every community there are expectations and obligation just as in any household or social system. What we can draw from the beginning of Chapter 17 is that disciples must live exemplary lives – in other words, give good example. They must offer unlimited forgiveness to those who repent, and constantly grow deeper in faith more and more trusting in God’s promises. All of this is a tall order for frail, imperfect human beings like us, but God in Christ has shown us what it means to do as God commands. Here, it is not ten or six, only of four: (1) live responsibly, (2) forgive generously, (3) believe trustingly, (4) and follow obediently. When we do so, we shall find the best blessings of this life with God for ourselves and for the community of God’s people.