St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for November 12, 2019

Excessive self-worth and pride are things that many of us must struggle with from time to time. The parable in today’s gospel passage warns us that even when we do a great job at something, even when we have been dutiful in our work, we still must guard against pride. Jesus said, “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

In another parable that we find in Luke’s Gospel, a Pharisee displays the pride that is sometimes typical of the dutiful person: bragging about how well he lived his life; telling God how he fasts twice per week and how he pays tithes, all while looking down his nose at the humble tax collector. He seems to think that his virtue gives him some claim on God. Yet, no matter how well we live, no matter how dutiful we have been, we never have a special claim on God.

The good news is that we don’t need to score points to be sure of God’s favor. God has blessed us and keeps blessing us by giving us His Son. In response, we try to serve God faithfully, by doing His will (to the extent that we can discern it). Our service of the LORD pales by comparison to the LORD’s faithful service to us. +

Homily for November 11, 2019

It is quite common among people who are overly idealistic to be easily scandalized, offended, or intolerant. It can certainly be argued that, perhaps, they need to be more streetwise, a little more in touch with the realities of life; maybe they need to develop a thicker skin, becoming a bit more resistant to the imperfections of this life. At the same time, though, Jesus warns against giving people, however hardened they may or may not be to life, a reason to be scandalized.

Sadly, idealistic people can find it difficult to forgive the weakness and failings of others. While virtue may be second nature to them, it can be very difficult for them to understand strength of temptation; sometimes their idealism causes them to be blind to the goodness in other people. Indeed, the inability of pious people to forgive may actually be a scandal to unbelievers, causing them to stay away from the family of the Church.

Jesus acknowledges that sin and failure will inevitably occur. He doesn’t call the holy people of the Church to look down on those who sin. He shows that one’s quest for holiness needs to be balanced by faith in God’s activity in the lives of others, even those who sin (which would include pretty much most of us). +

Homily for November 10, 2019

There is a story about a hardened criminal serving a life sentence, who felt such despair that life no longer had any hope for him.  His behavior got so mean that he was sent to solitary confinement for three weeks to what was known as "The Hole."

One day while in "The Hole," a significant thing happened.  He was doing sit-ups on the cold cement floor when he noticed something was wedged behind the sleeping platform.  He wiggled it out and saw that it was a copy of the New Testament, and he began to read it.

As he was reading, he began to wonder what would have happened if he had he used his power and energy for good rather than for evil.  For a long time, he lay there thinking: "Why did God create me?  Why did God create someone who would end up behind bars?  Why did God create someone who would die to goodness and love and be buried in a tomb of evil and hate in a prison cell?"

Then a surprising thought entered his mind: “The greatest event in history began in a tomb — a tomb just as secure and guarded as his prison cell.”  That event, of course, was the Resurrection of Jesus and he realized that Jesus still lives.

Another thought came to him:  What happened to Jesus in the tomb could happen to him too, in "The Hole."  Because of Jesus' new life and glory, he too could be reborn; he too could be re-created; he too could rise from the dead.

At that moment he asked Jesus to come to him and raise him to new life, to re-create him into a new person.  And what happened to Jesus in the tomb happened to the prisoner in his “tomb,” "The Hole."  The resurrection power of God brought him to new life.

That man was named Starr Dailey, who, after being released from prison during the Great Depression, became a voice of faith and one of the pioneers of prison reform in the United States. For the rest of his time on earth, he lived a faithful and productive life.

In so many ways, our life on this earth has many tombs that imprison parts of our souls.  The Good News that we hear in our readings today is that Jesus wants to give us the power to rise from our tombs and out of our holes.  That is the Good News of the Resurrection: that no tomb can hold us anymore — not the tombs of despair, discouragement, or doubt; not even the tomb of death itself 

We are God's holy people; we are called to be one with God in this life and in the life to come.  God promises us that the Resurrection experienced by Jesus will one day be ours.  God calls us to hold on to this promise regardless of what we experience in this life.  May we ask God to make us aware of His presence whenever we feel discouraged, despairing, alone, or without hope.  May our faith in God's love always turn our sorrow into joy. +

Homily for November 9, 2019

The earliest days of the Church saw the beginning of the official persecution of Christians with the words of Emperor Nero, who said, "Let there be no more Christians." After Nero’s death, persecutions continued on and off for the next 240 years until 313 AD, when, about a year after he converted to Christianity, Emperor Constantine granted religious liberty to Christians and all people of good will. To the Pope, Constantine gave the Lateran Palace that had been seized by Nero from an early Christian family named Laterani.

Within a few years, a baptistry dedicated to John the Baptist, and a large basilica dedicated to Christ the Redeemer, were built next to the palace. Pope Sylvester consecrated it on November 9, 324 AD. Our freedom to worship in this church of St. Thomas the Apostle and every parish church began on that November day so long ago.

Since that time, the Roman empire rose and fell. The Coliseum, where Christians died for their faith was abandoned. Throughout the centuries, wars, earthquakes, and fires severely damaged or entirely destroyed the cathedral church and the palace six times. Each time they were restored with even greater magnificence. The empire is gone, but Christians still celebrate the Eucharist in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

The Lateran church reminds us how great it is to have religious freedom. Sometimes, though, that freedom is taken away in some parts of our world. When persecutors say, "Let there be no more Christians," the grace of the early Church is needed again, the grace of martyrdom and courage to publicly embrace the Cross of Christ is needed once again. For we know that the future of Christians is not in palaces like that of the Laterani Family, nor in hidden catacombs where early Christians would worship, but in heavenly places, in the full presence of God, where the Church will truly be free. +

Homily for November 8, 2019

In the parable that we hear in today’s Gospel reading, we find a rich man confronting his steward about misusing the man’s property. He commands him to make a full accounting, telling him that he will no longer be employed by him.

The steward recognizes that he will need the help of his master’s many debtors, and so he calls each of them and lowers the debt that each on carries. While this does bear a little bit of dishonesty, it points to a much greater message 

We see that the master is no longer quite so angry with the steward after he lowers the burden of the debtors. Perhaps, in seeing the mercy with which the steward treated the debtors, he also tempered his response with mercy.

In the LORD’s Prayer, we ask God to be merciful just as we are merciful. May the story of the dishonest steward guide us in our response to people in our lives. +

Homily for November 7, 2019

Again, today, in our Gospel reading, we encounter the tenacious propensity of the Scribes and Pharisees to exclude those whom they see as imperfect and to criticize Jesus for eating with them and spending time with them.

But Jesus, using parables, tells His critics that His focus (and theirs) should be on exactly the people with whom He is eating. Elsewhere, He reminds them that it is not for the righteous that He has come but to save the lost and forsaken. To do this, He must meet them on their level and not wait for them to redeem themselves. This means that Jesus will eat with them, speak with them, spend time with them, and love them.

We, too, are called to seek out the lost and forsaken, to serve those who are in need: the sick, the oppressed, the poor, and, yes, even the sinner.

May our lives be an example of the true teaching of Jesus as we seek to be His voice, His hands, His feet, and His instruments in our world. +

Homily for November 6, 2019

A lot of people have difficulty with today’s Gospel passage, especially about people needing to “hate” members of their family. Not only does this rub us the wrong way on a personal level, it also seems to fly in the face of other things that Jesus has said, that the Scriptures have said, and that even the Ten Commandments have said: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” So, what is Jesus really saying here?

Well, Jesus is not really speaking about “hate” as we usually understand it; He is saying that we must love Him and our heavenly Father even more than we love our own parents, our own family members. He is saying that when we are faced with a choice to follow Him or not, we must always choose Him, even when it involves a choice between Him and family.

It does sound harsh as Jesus said it in our Gospel passage, and sometimes Jesus said things in a harsh way to get the attention of those who were listening to Him. But He wanted to acknowledge that, at times, following Him can be very difficult and, at rarer times, put us at odds with even those we love most, and we must be willing to choose Him over them.

Let us pray that our faith and trust in Jesus may be strong, even when following Him means taking up some very painful crosses and burdens. +

Homily for November 5, 2019

A few years ago, there was a Super Bowl™ ad for the Chevy Silverado™ pickup truck. In just over thirty seconds, the ad shows a man using his truck to save his young accident-prone son, named Tommy, from five different life-threatening situations. 

First, it shows the dad pulling Tommy out of a deep well, using his truck and a winch. Next, it shows someone telling the dad that Tommy is stuck in a cave. Then it shows the dad pulling home a hot air balloon that is a few yards off the ground, presumably with Tommy in the basket. The fourth scenario shows the dad carrying Tommy as he runs down a dock asking Tommy how he got into the belly of a whale. Finally, it shows the dad running from his house toward his truck and calling back to his wife, saying, “I didn’t even know this town had a volcano!” Click here to see the ad.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells a parable about a man who invited people to a dinner, but they are too busy to come. He dispatches his servants to find others, but the home is still far from full. So, the man dispatches his servants again to keep inviting people until the home is full.

That’s the way it is with God. Just like the man in the parable and just like the father in that ad, God continually seeks us out to save us and to invite us to his heavenly home. Sometimes we refuse the invitation because we are too busy or too focused on other things; sometimes it is because we find ourselves in situations that keep us from accepting the love of God. But God is persistent in His attempts to rescue us from sin and danger.

May we cooperate with the grace of God in our lives, that we may reach out in our need and find ourselves, one day, at the eternal banquet of heaven.+

Homily for November 4, 2019

Jesus’ words in our Gospel passage have just as much relevance today as they did nearly two thousand years ago. Human nature, it seems, is human nature, and continues to be a challenge to us in our quest to live the kind of lives God wants us to live.

In today’s passage, Jesus gives some unexpected advice to His dinner host, a Pharisee. He tells him that, instead of inviting his family and friends to the table, he should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; people who could not repay him, for he would be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

We know that Jesus ate with all sorts of people: the poor and the wealthy, the powerful and the powerless, the educated and the uneducated, with saints and sinners. Jesus’ circle was a wide one because He recognized everyone as a child of God and as made in the image of God.

Our human nature may cause us to relate to only those people we consider family or friends, with only those people who share our outlook on life or our religious or political views. But Jesus encourages us to stand apart from the cultural and political tendency to distance ourselves from those who are not just like us and to recognize and experience the reality that all people are children of God, are loved by God, and are instruments of God’s love, presence, and action in our world.+

Homily for November 3, 2019

There is a column in a popular magazine for women that explores case studies of marriages in trouble. It asks the question: “Can this marriage be saved?” In today’s Gospel passage, St. Luke tells us about a man who seems to have been a crook and asks, “Can this man be saved?”

Zacchaeus, the person in question, was a small man who became wealthy and powerful by extorting money from his fellow Israelites and cozying up to the enemy, the Romans, who were occupying the land. Not only was he a tax collector, a despised occupation at the time, but he was very good at it and earned a tremendous amount of money in the process.

And yet, when Jesus came to town, Zacchaeus paid attention. He even climbed a tree to get a better look. There must have been something about Jesus and His message that gave Zacchaeus something all his money and power couldn’t supply. Despite all he had, deep in his heart, Zacchaeus wanted what Jesus was offering. This meant that he could, of course, be saved.

Redemption is a matter of the heart; Zacchaeus’ heart was in the right place. The Pharisees who objected to Jesus spending time with Zacchaeus, never knew what was going on in his heart, let alone in their own hearts. They worried about appearances, how they looked to others and how others weren’t making the grade.

Many religious zealots of our time, many self-righteous people, will make statements about the sinfulness and salvation of others, all while ignoring their own sinfulness. It would seem that the spirit of hypocrisy that existed in the hearts of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, is still alive and thriving in our own time.

I was on a website a few years ago that, for whatever reason, had recordings of phone messages left by a self-appointed prophet for one of his former followers. In the course of the different phone messages, the so-called prophet insulted, criticized, cursed at and threatened to bear false witness against the former follower, all while proclaiming the certainty of his own salvation and the impending damnation of the former follower. Jesus had a phrase for people like that, for people like the Pharisees that Jesus encountered: he called them “Blind guides, blind fools.”

They didn’t have a clue about the salvation of others nor their own salvation. They didn’t know what was in the hearts of others and, because they were so busy pointing the finger and ignoring their own failures, they didn’t even know what was in their own hearts.

Only God knows what is really in the very depths of our hearts. Up to the point that Zacchaeus met Jesus, he lived a life that earned him the scorn of his neighbors but, it seems, his heart was searching for more and he recognized that for which he was searching for in the person of Jesus.

In our first reading today, from the Book of Wisdom, we hear the about God’s love for each one of us, how God does not loathe us despite our sinfulness, and how God encourages us to abandon that sinfulness, that we may accept and be transformed by His love.

Zacchaeus did exactly that. His search for fulfillment brought him down the wrong path; he was filling his life with money, possessions, and power, but his heart was looking for something more. He found it when he met Jesus and he amended his life and opened up space in his heart and soul, a space that can only be filled by God.

Let us pray this week, and always, that we will be constantly searching for the things of God, that we may recognize them, and that we will open space in our lives and our very selves, that God may have room to dwell in us. +