St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Friday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

We hear a strange word from Jesus in our Gospel reading: "ephphatha", "that is, be opened." The sense of "ephphatha" is to appreciate the many opportunities we have for bringing God's friendship and forgiveness into our lives and the lives of those we love and encounter in this life. 

"Ephphatha" is to recognize and be thankful for who we are and all that we have received from God. 

"Ephphatha" is to hear the voice of God amid the constant "noise" and distractions that envelope us, to seek out God's presence when we are overwhelmed by anger, jealousy, and disappointment. 

May "Ephphatha" become our prayer: that we may be open to the presence of God in times of joy and sorrow, enabling us to bring the compassion, mercy, and love of God into our lives and the lives of our family, friends, and all those we meet.+[1]

 

[1] Cormier, Jay, Connections, Year B, September 2003, p.1

Homily for Thursday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Women are at the center of our readings today. In Genesis, the first woman takes away the solitude of the first man, measures up to him in a way that no other creature could, and the two are united as equals, “in one flesh.” While the woman brings joy and stability into the life of the first man, elsewhere in Scriptures, pagan women are also held responsible, at least in part, for apostasy in Israel. Then in our Gospel reading, a pagan woman surprises Jesus with her faith and humble persistence.

These texts invite us to reflect on the relationship of the sexes, in family, in friendship, and in community. Our differences as men and women, along with diversity in personality, talents, and interests help us to complement each other and challenge one another to grow. Genesis clearly suggests that woman and man in isolation are each lacking important gifts and qualities. The union by which they complement one another enables the image of God, divine goodness, strength, and fidelity, to be manifest. In this way, marriage sets the pattern for all human friendship and community.

Many of the women in the Scriptures are, in some sense, models for both men and women, just as men provide examples for both women and men. What is scattered and fragmented must be reunited in Jesus, for as Paul says: “among you, it is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28-29). Belonging to Jesus, then, in a radical way, heals all fragmentation arising from gender or race.

Adam exclaimed, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” If a spouse is to leave father and mother and cling to the other, then each has a divine mandate to put nothing before one’s love and loyalty for the other person. Jesus put it still more heroically and totally: There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13). In this context, we understand Jesus’ other words: Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it; whoever loses it will keep it (Luke 17:33). Not only do we refuse to put any other object before our spouse, friends, or community members, but we do not even place ourselves in preference to them.+

Homily for the Memorial of St. Scholastica

Traditionally, the image of the human heart is the symbol of love. In today's Gospel passage, Jesus gives us a different understanding of the human heart; He says it is the source of evil intentions damaging and destructive of others. 

The heart is the person's inner core, and we know that our inner selves have light and darkness; it can be a reservoir for good, and it can be a channel for evil. One of the great images of our faith is the Sacred Heart of Jesus; it was a prominent image in my home growing up and still is today. It was an image that professed that at God's inner core was wholly selfless love, a love that was entirely exposed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This incredible love is intensely creative and life-giving.

Our calling is to have hearts that, to some degree, reflect the Sacred Heart of Jesus; to have an inner core that participates in God's inner core. This great vision of our central calling is well captured in that simple but profound prayer that many of us learned at some point in time, "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faith, and kindle in us the fire of your love." +

Homily for Tuesday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus accused His critics of ignoring God's commandments while insisting on adherence to human regulations. Jesus recognized that the religious traditions of His time did not always correspond to God's will as revealed in the Scriptures, and in a much fuller way now by Jesus Himself.

The Church needs to be always alert to ensure that its traditions conform to God's Word to us, especially as spoken by Jesus. Every so often, our Church has to renew itself, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to purify its traditions so that they correspond more closely to the true spirit of the Gospel. We can understand the Council of Vatican II as a significant attempt to do just that.

In our personal lives, too, we can get into traditional ways of doing things that are not in keeping with the core of God's message to us in and through the Scriptures. Our personal tradition, whether it is our religious tradition or our tradition in the broader sense, is always in need of reform in the light of the Gospel. We need to keep on hearing the Word of the LORD afresh, and to invoke the Holy Spirit to help us to do so.+

Homily for Monday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s Gospel passage highlights the incredible popularity of Jesus among the ordinary people of Galilee. He particularly attracted the sick and broken because God’s healing power was so clearly at work through Him. People begged Him to let them touch even the tassel on His cloak, as the woman had done who was healed of her flow of blood. The Gospel says that people were hurrying to bring their sick to Him. The poor and the needy were especially desperate to get to Him and to make contact with Him.

In our own lives, too, it is often in our brokenness and weakness that we seek out the LORD with the greatest sense of urgency. Something happens to us that brings home to us our vulnerability, weakness, and inability to manage things independently.

It is those experiences, when we come face to face with our frailties, that bring home to us our need for the LORD and our dependence on Him. It is often the darker and more painful experiences of life that open us up to the LORD.

When St. Paul was struggling with his “thorn in the flesh,” he heard the Risen LORD say to him, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Our various experiences of weakness can be like gateways through which we reach out to the LORD, and the LORD comes to us.+

Homily for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

One hot summer afternoon, a woman was weeding her flower beds and pruning the plants in front of her house. The flowers were especially magnificent. 

A passerby said to the woman, "I really like those flowers." 

As she wiped the sweat from her face with a dirty hand, the woman's weary response was, "I do, too, but only when they bloom." 

The passerby thought about how many people have a similar attitude toward Church, family, work, or life in general – "I only like it when it is in full bloom and beautiful."

The passerby also thought of those necessary times of hard work – mulching, weeding, cultivating, pruning, and transplanting – as well as seasonal dormancy, which are all needed to bring about the blooms which precede the bearing of seeds and fruit. 

Our readings today all speak of burdens, of having things to do. Everyone in our readings has some purpose, some task that they are performing. In the Book of Job, the speaker is one who is lamenting his life's labors. St. Paul speaks of the burden of preaching the Gospel that has been "imposed" on him, of the stewardship entrusted to him. 

Finally, in our Gospel, we see Jesus laboring for the health and salvation of others. He performs many healings and preaches the Good News. Even the woman he heals gets up and immediately waits on those present. 

Our readings give a sense of people who are tired. Even Jesus goes off for rest and prayer after preaching and healing all day and, when his disciples tell him, "Everyone is looking for you." Jesus responds wearily, "Let us go… that I may preach. For this purpose have I come." 

Anything worthwhile in life can take a lot of labor and effort. And, at times, it may even seem to be very burdensome. But if we have a sense of why we are doing it and what we will have at the end of our labors, this keeps us going. 

In the case of the Gospel, which we are all called to preach, we labor to spread the Good News of God's kingdom to all people. It is a daunting task, especially when people don't want to hear it. And, without seeing much in the way of results, it can seem burdensome. But it is for this purpose that we have come to where we are today. It is for this purpose that we gather for Mass each Sunday. It is for this purpose that we call ourselves Catholic and Christian. It is for this purpose that we live.+

Homily for the Memorial of St. Paul Miki & His Companions

As we all know, things do not always go the way we had planned. In the morning, we intend to accomplish something before the end of the day, but somehow it does not happen. On a grander scale, we might have had some plan for our lives that has not materialized for whatever reason. Such experiences can cause despair, or we can respond in various ways and move beyond disappointment or frustration.

Jesus' plans for Himself and His followers did not always work out. As we just heard in today's Gospel story, He planned to take them away to a deserted place for a time of quiet prayer and reflection because they had been so busy they barely had time to eat or to pray. However, when they arrived at that deserted place, it had become crowded with people who arrived there before them.

Jesus' response to His plans being hindered was not anger or resentment. Instead, "His heart was moved with pity for them... and He began to teach them many things." His plans needed to be changed because something happened that fit into God's larger plan.

Any time our plans go astray, something better can replace them if we are flexible and open to other possibilities, to something greater than our own will. God's plan is always more crucial than our plans. Whenever we have to put aside our own goals and dreams, we must pray that the LORD's life-giving purpose for our lives will prevail.+

Homily for the Memorial of St.Agatha

The scene that we witness in today’s Gospel passage is one that has inspired artists, authors, and playwrights over the past two millennia. The lavish birthday banquet in Herod’s palace degenerated into a “banquet of death.” Mark follows up this scene with the story about Jesus feeding the multitude in the wilderness. It is as if the writer of this gospel wants to set Herod’s banquet of death against Jesus’ banquet of life.

John the Baptist is described in the gospel as a “good and holy man.” He courageously spoke God’s truth, of God’s way, and that is really why he was beheaded. Of course, Jesus was crucified for the same reason, because He, too, proclaimed the truth and purpose of God’s ways.

We are all called to proclaim the ways of God as revealed to us by Jesus. That will call for courage at times, the courage displayed by John the Baptist and Jesus. One of the traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is courage. Today, more than in the past, it seems, we need a courageous faith; we need the courage of the Holy Spirit to witness to the values and message of the gospel, as did John the Baptist and Jesus.

We need to remember, though, that a courageous faith is not an arrogant faith; it is not a condescending faith; it is not a “Holier-than-Thou” faith. But it is a firm faith, a lasting faith, a faith that holds strong when the storms come because its roots are deep.+

Homily for Thursday of the 4th Week in Ordinary

St. Mark shows how, early into His ministry, Jesus sent out the Twelve that He had chosen to share in His work. He sent them out to do what He had been doing: to preach the gospel and to heal the sick. Jesus understood that He needed the help of others to do the work He had been sent to do. Jesus still needs us today to do His work. We are to be His eyes, His ears, His hands, His feet, His voice, and His presence wherever we are. He wants to work in and through us.

 

St. Paul understood this very clearly. He saw the Church as the Body of Christ in the world. The Body of Christ cannot be fully functioning unless everyone plays the role they are called and equipped to play through their Baptism. Each has a unique contribution to make to the life of the Body and, thereby, to the work of the LORD in the world today. Each is indispensable and necessary. The first reading from the letter to the Hebrews puts it very simply: In the Church, everyone is a “first-born child” and a “citizen of heaven.” There are to be no second-class citizens in the Church. Each of us is a vital member of Christ’s Body, uniquely graced by the LORD for His work and mission in the world.+

Homily for the Memorial of St. Blaise

The people of Nazareth should have recognized how God the Father was working through Jesus in a distinctive way. Instead, they sneered at Him and despised him. He was too familiar for them, too local, too known. They knew His mother and His family. As one of their own, he was too ordinary for them to take Him seriously. It is a classic case of “familiarity breeding contempt.”

We often fail to recognize the presence of God in the ordinary and in the familiar. In reality, we do not have to go long distances or witness miracles to recognize the wisdom and the power of God. It is all around us in the near, the familiar, and the ordinary, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. The Gospel invites us to see the familiar and the ordinary with new eyes. The failure of the people of Nazareth to see in this way inhibited what Jesus could do among them. Our seeing in this way gives the LORD space to work among us in new ways.+