St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for August 13, 2019

Homily for Tuesday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time

August 13, 2019 

Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 31:1-8 + Psalm 32:3-4ab, 7-9, 12 + Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14

 

The questions people ask often uncover their values, their priorities, and what they think is most important in life. When His disciples asked Jesus the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” it shows their interest in personal status and reputation. In His reply, Jesus both did something and said something. First, He placed the child in front of them and said they needed to become like children just to enter the kingdom of heaven, never mind become the greatest in the kingdom.

 

Jesus’ disciples are to become child-like not childish. There’s an important difference. They will be child-like in the sense of totally trusting in a loving Father, and demanding nothing else, including status and standing. Greatness comes to those who make themselves as dependent on God as children are dependent on adults for their care and well-being. Jesus’ answer to His disciples’ question is like a commentary on the first beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” +

Homily for August 12, 2019

In a sense, today’s Gospel reading is comprised of two acts. The first act tells us that Jesus announced His coming suffering and death. As a result, a great sadness came over His disciples. Sadness is the normal response when we are faced with the departure or the death of someone we love. All of us have experienced that kind of sadness. To some extent, we live with it all the time. Yet, we cannot allow such sadness to overshadow us; we have to keep going using the strength the Lord gives us. Jesus and His disciples kept travelling on, even after His somber prediction of His Passion and death.

 

In the second act we hear about a more up-beat message. When they reached the home of Simon Peter in Capernaum, they discussed the Temple tax. This half-shekel tax towards the upkeep of the temple was due from annually from every adult Jew. Jesus said that, in principle, He and His disciples were exempt from the tax, because He embodied the new temple. Yet, He tells Peter to pay the tax so as not to give offense. In other words, Jesus declares freedom in this regard but chooses not to exercise this freedom, for the sake of charity. This reminds us that while our conscience may feel free in regard to certain things, it can be better to refrain when the good of others is at stake. +

Sunday, August 11, 2019

 

A few years ago, CBS’ 60 Minutes told a story that brings home the lesson that few things are more satisfying than going back to the old neighborhood after you’ve done well, then giving something back to the people there.

For retired Atlanta Hawks center, Dikembe Mutombo, the old neighborhood is Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. What he has given back is a 29 million dollar, 300-bed hospital, the culmination of a dream that began after Mutombo watched too many of his people die. 15 million of those dollars came from his own pocket.

As a high school student, Mutombo dreamed of going to medical school in the United States and returning home to practice medicine. He only learned to play basketball in his senior year. Then Georgetown University heard about the seven-foot basketball star and gave him athletic and academic scholarships. After three years at Georgetown, he abandoned his plans for a medical career, realizing that he could do much more with a paycheck from the NBA — a paycheck that totaled more than 11 million dollars a year.

In Mutombo’s homeland, one out of five children die before their fifth birthday; one in fourteen women do not survive childbirth. Diseases like measles and polio — diseases controlled and eradicated years ago in most countries — still kill and cripple thousands every year. Mutombo says, “Whatever you accomplish in your life, your heart still stays here.”

 In addition to building the hospital, Mutombo has established a foundation that recruits and trains medical staff to work in the African Continent. It works to eradicate polio throughout the continent, to build elementary and technical schools in the Congo, and sponsors exchange programs for medical students and professionals. Mutombo travels around the world raising money and awareness of his people’s plight.

Asked by the 60 Minutes correspondent about his work, Mutombo said simply:

“We have an obligation to give something back to the place where we come from… [My mother] gave me a strong faith to believe that God would help you no matter what you try to do. God will give you strong courage to keep going forth. She told me ‘Do whatever you can do, as much as you can do, and God will give you more.’”

Mutombo continued, “I’m investing in my people so they can have a better life, because I have a better life already.”

Before God, the actual gifts we possess mean nothing; before God, what we do with whatever talents or wealth we possess to build the kingdom of God is the measure of our faithfulness and greatness. Some of us may possess the intellect to unlock the secrets of medical science — and some of us may have a great hook shot. The fact is that God has entrusted each one of us with our own gifts, talents, and blessings not for our own uses and aims but to selflessly and lovingly use them for the benefit of others, without counting the cost or demanding a return.

The faithful disciple will take the time to asses his or her gifts and talents and then discern how to best use them for the glory of God; that God’s reign of peace, justice, compassion, and love, may be brought forth by our use of the gifts that we have received from God. +

 

Homily for August 8, 2019

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus calls Simon Peter by two contradictory names: First, He calls him the “Rock,” saying, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.” However, later on, He calls Simon Peter “Satan,” saying, “Get behind me Satan! You are obstacle to me.” This He says in response to Simon Peter’s failure to think in God’s way.

The fact that Simon Peter could be an obstacle does not mean that he ceased to be the rock that holds the Church’s faith in unity. Just like all people, Peter was a complex person, in whom both the “wheat” and “weeds” were mixed. Despite his failings, Jesus appointed Peter as the rock, the primary means of support for the new community He came to build.

The Lord has faith in us even though we have failed him time and time again. He works powerfully in and through all of us flawed human beings. What He asks of us is that we continue to try to find and follow in God’s ways. +

Homily for August 7, 2019

Human nature often causes us to be quick to assess people purely by our own standard of what is right and good; we sometimes measure their worth by their function or their usefulness in accomplishing our own goals and interests; we sometimes quickly size people up by our own inaccurate and often prejudicial stereotypes.

In honoring the goodness, sincerity and love of the Canaanite woman for her sick child – who as a Canaanite, represented one of Israel’s despised enemies – Jesus illuminates our vision, enabling us to see one another as God sees us: as made in God’s image and as ambassadors of the love of God.

The call to discipleship demands that we look beyond labels and stereotypes to recognize that every person is a child of God, that all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ and that all of us are called to serve one another. If we reject others simply because they are different from us, then we reject Christ who is in everyone and works through everyone.

Let us pray that we may see others with eyes that are illumined by the light of faith, that we may recognize the presence and the voice of God dwelling deep within each person. May we recognize, too, that the person we see in the mirror each day, is also made in God’s image and that we are called upon to be the presence of Christ to others, seeing them with the eyes of love and compassion. +

 

Homily for Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Homily for Monday, August 5, 2019

Different people react in different ways to the same crises. At the sight of a large number of hungry people, Jesus responds quite differently than His disciples. They wanted Him to send the crowd away; He wanted them to feed the people. Even though they protested that there was nowhere near enough food, Jesus insisted, and they brought Him the little food they could find. With that little bit of food, with such few resources, the entire crowd, numbering thousands, was fed. 

Jesus will always encourage us to offer some service to others, even when our resources are few. If we are generous with what we have, the Lord will surprise us and show us just how much He can do with our meager offerings. He can work wonders through the ordinary resources and gifts we’ve got. But we need to do our part, as did the disciples in our Gospel passage, but God takes our offerings and does even more.

God has chosen to make us His instruments in the world. If we are unwilling to do the little we can with what little we have, the Lord’s outreach to others is comes up short. Our strengths and resources, however small they may seem, help to continue God’s good work among us.

Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A story is told about three brothers, who, after years of hard work and leading busy lives, wanted to make their 83-year-old mother happy, especially on Christmas Day. They were concerned about her health and safety as she was beginning to lose her eyesight.

 The mother lived in a small apartment in the city and the first son decided that he would buy his mother a huge house in the country where he thought she would be safe and that she would enjoy the quiet of the countryside.

 The second son, knowing that his mother who, with her eyesight failing, could no longer drive and would need to be able to travel, bought a limousine and hired a chauffeur.

 The youngest son, knowing that his mother was very religious and loved to read the Bible gave her an expensive parrot that could recite the entire Bible. This, he thought, would be very meaningful for her as she was able to read very little because of her failing eyesight.

Several days after Christmas, they each received a thank you note from their mother. To the first one she wrote: "Thank you for the house, but it is so big I can't clean it by myself. I miss all of my friends in the city and I was always able to get around the city by myself, so I’m moving back to my apartment. Please feel free to sell the house."

To the second one, she wrote: "The car is beautiful but, now that I am moving back to the city, I have no use for it or for the chauffeur. Please sell the car and help the chauffeur to find another job."

To the youngest, who gave her the expensive parrot that could recite the Bible, she wrote: "You know me well and you know my needs are simple. You gave me the best gift of all. The chicken was delicious!"

While the youngest son makes a pretty good attempt to give his mother something she may truly need, the other two sons seem to pay too much attention to the size and price tags of their gifts, rather than on what their mother truly needs: a strong and loving relationship with her family.

Our Scripture readings today may seem to be against wealth, but they’re really challenging us to use our wealth wisely and for the good of others. God doesn’t have a problem with our being successful. The psalmist of old often prayed that God would “prosper the work of our hands.” [1]

What God really wants us to do is to use our wealth, the gifts that we have, the prosperous work of our hands, and to do something positive with them for the good of others.    

We live in a society where many people are overflowing with possessions and schedules; where many are overwhelmed both with pursuing more and building new “barns” in their lives to store more in.  To be people of faith, to be real disciples of the Gospel Jesus, begins with emptying ourselves of our stuff to create the place for God to dwell and fill.  All three of today’s readings warn of the futility of the vain pursuit of wealth and celebrity. 

The most tragic kind of poverty is the emptiness of a life filled with things but possessing nothing of God.  Christ calls us to “think of what is above, not of what is on earth”[2] — love, forgiveness, compassion, mercy, gratitude.  God has given us this precious, wonderful life in order to embrace and be embraced by His selfless and affirming love, to discover how to love one another as God loves us.

Let us pray that we may use our earthly wealth and treasures to do things that will help us in our quest to move closer to the real and everlasting treasure of heaven.

[1] Psalm 90:17

[2] Colossians 3:2