25th Sun Year C Homily

In Dante's great work the "Purgatorio" the effects of each of the seven deadly sins are analyzed showing the perspective of the penitent in Purgatory. One of the seven deadly sins is "greed" which we hear reflected throughout the parable of the dishonest steward inside of today's Gospel reading from Luke. Dante shows the penance of those who suffer from greed by placing them face down upon rocky ground as they weep and pray while calling out examples of greed and there corresponding virtues. This posture reminds them of the words of Psalm 119:25 which states "my soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word." In the life of these people they constantly chased after higher things to the point where they were raised in a worldly sense through all their wealth, talent, and possessions. In Dante's vision of Purgatory the lowering of oneself to the ground reminds them of the words of our Gospel: "You cannot serve both God and mammon." In this lowering of self they finally begin to understand that true charity requires the lowering of oneself to others especially to God who gives us life through His creative word.

Living in a society which has a fear of our economic future does not get us off the hook of having to worry about greed. We cannot allow excuses such as the uncertainty of our future to fuel our belief that we cannot be challenged to give of ourselves in anyway. We also look to our culture where we have become very busy with work, school, or sports. No matter how busy that we have become we must still realize that when we only chase after the raising of ourselves we are failing to lower ourselves to the needs of others who surround us not only in society, but also in our own homes. The home should be a place where a family shares time and resources with each other instead of a place where we are segregated to the loneliness of our possessions and needs without human contact or our relationship with God.  To be truly intrenched inside of the vice of greed completely cuts us away from these relationships and in return makes us slaves.

The dishonest steward definitely felt the tension of becoming a slave of two masters. On one hand he was reprimanded for squandering the property of the rich man and on the other hand he was commended for acting prudently. In his actions he was torn between the service of his own needs and the liberation that comes when one gives of their self. This dishonest steward was lifting himself from the lowliness of his greed when he began to give of his own commission. In his slow separation of self he was training his body that he could no longer serve both God and mammon. We have all separated ourselves from this reality at times. We have at times allowed ourselves to become transfixed upon our wealth, time, possessions, and talents. God has given us so much inside of our lives and yet we must remember that we have no rite to take complete ownership of our possessions. We are all travelers on a journey of life that at some unknown moment will come to an end and in return we will be forced into separation with our possessions, wealth, time, and fame. The dishonest steward realized the end that was quickly coming for him and he in return acted prudently.

Our Gospel challenges each of us to act prudently in all matters. From the dishonest steward we see the effects that greed brings into our lives. Greed destroys us because we are always left looking upwards away from the needs of others. No matter how firm a grasp that greed has upon us there is always hope that we can challenge ourselves each day to conquer this vice through the virtue of charity. From charity we take ourself away from the enslavement of the exaltation of self and deliver ourself towards the lowliness that allows us to see our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need. In this lowliness we realize that our faith requires us to be good stewards of everything that we posses. In the giving of our wealth, possessions, talent, or time we are growing in the virtue of charity and doing away with the vice of greed.

If we will ever be able to escape the grasp of greed in our life we must replace it with the growth of charity. Charity begins with our love of God and from this love extends our love that is shown to our neighbors. Growing towards God through prayer and sacrifice we are able to continuously lower ourself and place what we posses into its proper order. With this proper order defined we are then able to continue to lower ourself towards the needs of all those whom we encounter. With true charity established inside of our life we will no longer be enslaved to mammon, but instead we will become totally devoted to God who is the creator of all that is good. With God our heart will finally find the comfort that it was in search for because with God we find fullness and with greed we find a never ending desire to accumulate more and more which always leaves us feeling empty. Charity is the driving force for true happiness and liberation because it allows us to truly love through our wealth, time, possessions, and talents.

Where have we allowed ourselves to become enslaved by mammon in our life and what can we do in return to feel the tension of charity instead?

24th Sunday of OT Year C Homily

Yesterday was a very special time in the life of the Diocese of Knoxville. At our Eucharistic Congress in Sevierville we had the opportunity to celebrate our 25th anniversary as a diocese. Throughout these 25 years this diocese has continued to grow and to form the faithful in the truth of the faith. At this event close to 5,000 people were present to share in the sacrifice of the Mass, to be healed by the sacrament of Confession, and to learn what it truly means to be a Catholic. Today we gathered here for this Mass have the same opportunity to grow in our faith. We have an opportunity extended to us to allow the Eucharist to become the focal point of our lives, to see the necessity to be healed within the Sacrament of Confession, and to further our knowledge of the faith. Today's selection of readings reflect these values because Saint Paul was strengthened from his past as we are with the Eucharist, our Gospel is a representation of the need to turn away from our sins, and Moses desired truth to be found that would save people from falling away from God.

Inside of our Gospel we are told three parables which reflect similar values. They reflect the reality of sin and its grasp inside of our lives. They reflect the never ending hope that a sinner will in time be found and will prevail themselves to the mercy of God. Inside of the first parable we are given the image of Christ, who is the good shepherd. Inside this parable he finds the lost sheep and places it upon his shoulders. I imagine that at first this sheep squirmed around upon his shoulders, but eventually found comfort as it was being led back to the flock. We to continue to squirm around in our sin and attempt to escape that path that leads to holiness. Instead of moving about endlessly we must allow ourselves to find true comfort from our sins within Christ. Christ desires that we will be led back to His mercy through the sacrament of Confession. In Confession we will find true comfort from each disordered passion that has led us astray.

Christ the Good Shepherd has not left alone, but continues to dwell with us inside of the Holy Eucharist. It is here that our unbelief can be healed and we can be strengthened inside of the journey of faith that we find ourselves upon. In this sacrament we receive the Body, Blood, soul, and divinity of Christ our Lord. This is not a representation of bread and wine, but is carrying out the command from scripture "to do this in remembrance of me."  If we have truly repented of our past sins and confessed all of our mortal sins we will be prepared to celebrate the great feast of the Lord that is the Holy Eucharist. It is from this Sacrament that we will be fed and strengthened in our life to turn away from sin and orient ourselves entirely towards God. It is also from this sacrament that we will draw upon the benefit of the sacrifice that is present. At this Mass we join with Christ upon Calvary and leave all of our worries and sins to be offered to God that we may strengthened as Saint Paul was.

As we use the sacraments of the Church to draw ourselves towards Christ the Good Shepherd we must also trust inside the knowledge of faith that will always open wide our love for God. In Exodus the people led out of slavery by Moses had removed themselves from the truth. We to can think of many ways where we have cut the truth of faith away from our own lives following after the many idols of the world that pull us away from God. With knowledge light should be brought into the darkness of night and our faith should become illuminated inside of its truth. In the light of our faith shines true devotion to God and the reality of the impact of our sins upon the world. We must challenge ourselves to not follow after many endless idols, but instead should begin to find time in our lives to draw towards God. We should be willing to enter into the quiet of prayer, have the desire to not be ignorant of Sacred Scripture, and be willing to enter into the fullness of the tradition of the Church by our knowledge of what she professes.

In Confession we will return ourselves towards Christ the Good Shepherd who desires us to return to the ninety-nine. In the Holy Eucharist we enter into both meal and sacrifice where we are brought into deep relationship with Christ the Good Shepherd. Within our knowledge of the faith we do away with the many idols we have built up for ourselves within the world and return to the love of the Good Shepherd. In our faith we will attempt to squirm around and escape from these comforting shoulders, but through confession, the Eucharist, and knowledge we will always be brought back to this relationship and be fortified in Christ Jesus. We will be like the lost son who had his relationship to his father restored when he truly repented of his sins. His repentance was not mere words, but was truly made from his heart and conversion was brought about. In the Sacraments and knowledge of the faith we to can make this perfect conversion of heart. Through this conversion may we grow comfortable upon the shoulders of Christ the Good Shepherd. 

22nd Sun of OT Year C Homily

There is nothing wrong with authentically striving for high places. The problem is we often want to skip all the work that must first be involved and jump straight to the top. Our motives can also become disordered towards the worldly pleasures involved instead of authentic reasons which are always in unison with God the creator of all things. For anyone that has ever had to work alongside an unprepared boss or leader we know how quickly everything can get out of control if they are not fully prepared for what they are getting into. Jesus in this parable given to the Pharisees is pointing out the need to authentically strive after high places so that things will not get out of control for us. A high place cannot be sought out in order for us to be exalted and all of us must work hard each day in the harvest of the Lord to achieve the highest honor of all, Heaven. It seems that many people will agree that Heaven is real, but never want to authentically move towards it. Instead we have developed the attitude that when we die we go straight to Heaven no matter what the life we had lived was like.

This simplistic view erases away the complexity of Heaven. Saint Thomas Aquinas states: "Therefore by the gift of grace men can merit glory in such a degree as to be equal to the angels, in each of the angelic grades; and this implies that men are taken up into the order of the angels." These human beings do not then become angels, but remain human as they partake in the beatific vision of Heaven. What we have explained here is the complexity of Heaven and how we should not strive on this earth with the mere hope to get into Heaven because it is what happens to everyone. We should instead realize that our goal in life is to achieve the highest honor possible. We cannot achieve it if we never set out to do any work and prepare our lives for this great honor. We cannot achieve it if we have already placed ourselves foolishly at the head of the table assuming that Heaven will simply be granted to us so easily.

From Sirach we heard: "Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God." The words that we heard from Saint Thomas challenge us to this. They challenge us to see the complexity of salvation, where through our own humility, we will be able to achieve great rewards. The reality of being brought into the choirs of angels as a human should be a great joy for our hearts. This would be a high honor for us, but of course we cannot place ourselves there now. We instead must persevere in the journey of faith by cutting away all that enslaves us in this world from truly coming into union with God. We are all called to high places, but we must prepare ourselves for them instead of arriving with the pride that everything is already owed to us. Our place within Heaven will be attributed to our ability to draw close to God while here on this earth. May we as the poor, crippled, lame, and blind draw ourselves close to God that we may find true richness, be liberated from all that harms us, and have site given to our eyes. The more that we are willing to authentically hand ourselves over to God the greater we will be when we are called to join inside of the beatific vision of Heaven.

We must also remember Purgatory where in the words of Hebrews: "the spirits of the just are made perfect." Purgatory is a path that leads us to the high honor of Heaven. Due to sin and everything that keeps us enslaved we will need to be made perfect. We can of course work towards this perfection while here on earth, but upon our death will enter into Purgatory that we may be able to totally be made clean. The souls that find themselves inside Purgatory are here that over time they will be able to work their way towards a higher position by doing away with each element in their existence that blocks their ability to truly be able to behold God. While on this earth may we never forget to pray for these souls and may we begin to purge ourselves now from all that separates us from God.

Now is the time for us to work hard in the harvest of the Lord. We cannot wait any longer because we do not know how much time we have left. We must begin to make every effort in this life to draw ourselves towards Heaven instead of falsely believing that nothing is required of us because we have already been granted that high seat at the table of the Lord. Instead of being filled with this pride may we begin to humbly draw ourselves towards Christ. In this humble relationship of lowering ourselves to Christ we can begin to achieve higher places. We can begin to love God in a more complex way to where maybe we can in time be venerated as a saint. We should make every effort on this earth to avoid or to lessen our time inside of Purgatory instead of joking the reality of Purgatory away. We should not have the audacity to place ourselves at such a high honor as Heaven, but instead should work faithfully each day to achieve this honor, so that we will hear from Christ: "My friend, move up to a higher position."