Thoughts for September 2, 2007

Today’s Gospel has some familiar lines. Jesus suggests that, when we are invited to a banquet, we take the lowest seat. It would be better to take a lower seat and be invited higher than to take the higher seat and have to move down.
I’m indebted to John Shea’s commentary on the Sunday readings (The Restless Widow: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Liturgical Press, pp. 245-251) for some of these observations on what might happen.
You could take the lowest seat and your host could come by and whisper in your ear that he/she is happy to see that you know your place! Shea’s comment is that “Nothing awakens self-knowledge so painfully as a failed strategy.”
You could take the lowest seat and get to like the people there and prefer it to a higher seat. You would have a whole set of new friends. When the host invites you to come up higher, you might decline the invitation because you prefer to stay where you are. You’re having too good a time!
Whatever the outcome, the invitation of Jesus in today’s Gospel is to look at ourselves with a long, loving, compassionate look that also has a sense of humor in it. If we look closely at ourselves in different situations, we will notice some tendencies to jockey for social position, for recognition, for honor or to be noticed and approved of. What do we do when these tendencies pop up. I’ll share what I’ve learned to do. I see them and say, “Here you are again! Big Surprise!” Then I smile and say, “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.”
Dag Hammerskold once wrote, “A grace to pray for -- that our self-interest, which is inescapable, may never cripple our sense of humor, that fully conscious self-scrutiny which alone can save us.” Good advice!

Homily for August 26, 2007 21st Sunday of the Year

Gospel
Lk 13:22-30
Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. 
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” 
He answered them,
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough. 
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’
Then he will say to you,
‘I do not know where you are from. 
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. 
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last.”

I want to begin by repeating the question asked of Jesus in the Gospel today and see what your answer is. You know, He doesn't answer the question, really, but somebody says, "Will only a few be saved?" What do you think?

I know I’m setting you up here. So let me just tell you what I think. I believe that God really, really wants us to be saved; and I believe that God is not stingy or begrudging with his gifts.

I also know that the Church has declared many people to be in heaven. It has never declared anybody to be in hell. You pick the worst example you can think of, and the Church would say, "No, you can't say that they're in hell, because you don't know how God's mercy might have operated in their life at the last minute."

So with all of that, I believe personally -- and if you disagree with me, that's fine; it's only my own personal thing -- I believe that you really have to try hard not to be saved, and that practically everybody is saved. That's my view. So how do you put together the Gospel?

Well, I want to ask you to imagine in your mind people whom you think have it all together spiritually and are really spiritually advanced. I won't ask you who they are, but think of somebody. Did you all think of somebody? Good. Now, I want to share with you what the people I thought of have in common, and measure it for yourself.

First of all, the people I know always strive to enter the narrow gate. They're not people who are looking for the easier, softer way. They're not people who look for shortcuts all the time. They are people who try their utmost to use everything they've got to get rid of their character defects, to grow, to do what they believe to be right, and to live as they think they should live. Would you agree with that?

The other thing, though, they have in common is when they first experience success  and we're all that way, you know. When we first feel God's blessings, or experience some success in our spiritual life, we're tempted to say, "Wow! Look at what I did!" And we think it's because of something we did, and we look for ways to do it again and do it better  but the more they progress, the more they say, "I didn't do anything. It's all what God did." So the more advanced people are  and there's that strange combination. I mention it in my letter in the bulletin.
When I was in grade school, the nuns taught me that I should work as if everything depended on me and pray as if everything depended on God. And there's that mixture of working hard and yet knowing that it's all God's grace. I think the people I know who are spiritually advanced also are well aware that it isn't anything magical about what you say or what you do.

Some people think, "Ah, if I can speak in tongues, I'm saved." Some people say, "Ah, if I only say I believe in Jesus, I'm saved." Other people say, "If I go to Mass every Sunday, I'm saved." Other people say  and I think what Jesus seems to be saying, is  it's not who you know, it's not having the right formulas, it's not all of those things that matter.

There are a lot of people who go to Mass every Sunday, and God might say, "I don't know where you're coming from." There are a lot of people who speak in tongues, and God might say, "I don't know where you're coming from." It's not the magic of all those things, but it really is all God's grace.

The other thing that I think they have in common is they  well, Fritz Perls, who is a psychologist  kind of a feisty one  was once asked by somebody, "Are you saved?" And he said, "I'm trying to be spent."

I think the people I know who are spiritually advanced are not preoccupied with themselves, and with their own growth, and with their own development, and with their own salvation. But they are trying to be spent in the service of something bigger than themselves. They're capable of selfcare, but that's not their mission in life. They're capable of setting boundaries and of saying "yes" and "no" when it's appropriate, but they're not preoccupied with themselves.
And I think they also have the awareness that there are many people, as Jesus says, from the east and the west and the north and the south who will recline at table in God's Kingdom. They're not so arrogant as to say, "If you don't believe what I believe, you won't make it. And if you don't agree with what I think, you won't make it." They're aware that there's a wideness and a broadness in God's mercy that's incomprehensible.

So what does it mean to strive to enter by the narrow gate? Well, the other thing I can reflect on is, I know some people who, what I would call, got "zapped." Do you know what I mean? Boom! Zap! The Holy Spirit came upon them, and they're holy and they've got it, and their life unfolds, and they've had this tremendous moment of spiritual awakening.

But I don't believe that that is the pattern. I think more often than not, we try to do the best we can, and we fail. But we keep trying, and the more we try, the more we begin to change. And oftentimes we don't even know that we're changing. Other people see it and begin to notice it and begin to wonder what's happening in our life. And I think that's the way most of us grow.
So, in the readings today, I read several things that we try to hold together. The broadness and the wideness of God's love and mercy, the importance of trying to enter through the narrow gate, and the stripping away of every kind of confidence that if we just say the right words and do the right things, we'll be saved. But ultimately it is all God's grace and God's mercy.

So I think Sister was right when she told me, "Work like everything depends on you, but pray like everything depends on God." And have the confidence that because everything depends on God, and because God is good, it will be given to you.

Thoughts for August 26

Today’s readings at Mass contain several images that are important and yet seem to conflict. I’d like to “throw them out” to you.

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” Scriptures are full of concern for the right way to worship, the right way to live, the right belief. How you worship, how you believe, how you live are all very important and are often described as a narrow path which we must strive to walk.

Scriptures are also full of stories and images and possibilities that warn us that there are many who consider themselves “slam dunk” candidates for salvation who will find themselves on the outside looking in. Didn’t we go to Mass every Sunday? Didn’t we believe the right things? Didn’t we say all the right words? Didn’t we do good works? And still the door is shut.

Scriptures are also filled with promises of the universality of salvation. “People will come from the east ad the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” I believe there will be Christians of all varieties of belief, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and all sorts at the table. God’s call and desire for salvation is universal.

So how do we combine all these things? When I was in grade school, “Sister” said we should work as if everything depended on us and pray as if everything depended on God. St. John Eudes said: “It is not that we should make no use of the things I have mentioned, and bring to our aid everything we can to help us overcome our faults, practice virtue, manage and carry out the work God has put into our hands, and fulfill the duties of our station in life. But we must give up all idea of expecting support from these things, and all the confidence we might have in them, and rely entirely on the goodness of our Lord. For our part, therefore, we should take as much care and work as hard as if we expected nothing from God: and yet we should rely no more upon our own care and work than if we had done nothing at all, but look for everything solely from the mercy of God.

Homily for August 19 20th Sunday of the Year

Gospel
Lk 12:49-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing! 
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! 
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? 
No, I tell you, but rather division. 
From now on a household of five will be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
I hope you'll bear with me this morning as I pull many different things together. Dwight and Audrey are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary today, and so we're going to renew their vows. I let them pick the first two readings because of their anniversary, and if you noticed that the Gospel doesn't fit, you're right. So now I'm going to try to make them fit together, so bear with me.
First, I want to say a word about the first reading from Tobit. The book of Tobit is a beautiful book. In that story there is a woman named Sarah, who's been married seven times. And each time, the bridegroom drops dead the night of the wedding. So the word is out that she is jinxed. The archangel Raphael put the young man, Tobias, up to asking for her hand in marriage.
Tobias says, "No, I've heard about her."
Raphael says, “It’ll be okay.” So he asks her father for her hand in marriage. The father says, "She's yours. Even if I promised her to somebody else, I have to give her to you." And then he says, "Quick, go dig a grave."
The first reading is the prayer that the archangel Raphael tells the young man Tobias to say in their honeymoon chamber, and it works. They wake up in the morning, and they're alive! So the book of Tobit becomes a story of a marriage made in heaven.
Now, to the Gospel reading. I think the connection of that beautiful second reading about love being patient and kind is obvious. In the Gospel, when I read that, I thought, "What question does that Gospel answer?" I want to give just some pragmatic reflections.
The question that came to me was, "How do you keep fire in you when your convictions and your enthusiasms are not always appreciated, and when they bring you into conflict with others?
Do you know what I mean? To have fire and passion in your heart is a mixed blessing. When you have passion about something, it gives you life and energy, and it makes life worth living. But it also brings you heartache, and it brings you conflict with others.
If I do the flip side of that -- how many of you have encountered this situation? -- sometimes people who have passion for different causes are a real pain you know where. Do you know what I mean? But the community needs their witness.
How many of you here have ever felt that you were in a situation where, to keep peace you had to keep your mouth shut, or to keep peace, you had to be unfaithful to your commitment or your passion? Or where to keep peace and avoid conflict, you had to somehow compromise your own integrity? Have you ever felt that?
The good news of the Gospel is that you don't have to do that. That's not what God asks us to do. Jesus said, "Yes, I am on fire! I have conviction! I have commitment. I haven't come just for peace that is merely the absence of tension or conflict. I know my message might cause conflict and division, and so be it." That can be good news, the freedom to maintain our integrity, even if it brings us into conflict. And yet, I think there's another side to that.
This weekend -- I've been with our deacon candidates all weekend on a retreat. And part of the theme of the retreat has been this: To remind them that the diaconate is a gift to the church. But not everybody is going to be eager to receive that gift, and they won't always be appreciated. So what do they do when that happens? One of the things we've been reminding them is, “It's not about you. It's not about what you want, but it's about a bigger picture.”
Have you ever felt like telling somebody that, when they inappropriately stand for convictions, or they make a big deal out of something that isn't really a big deal? And you want to tell them, "Look, this isn't about you. There's something bigger involved."
Well, I think, in a way, that applies to this gift of marriage, as well. Marriage is a beautiful gift to God's church. That's why we celebrate it here. And it's why we can celebrate an anniversary. And yet -- well, today Dwight and Audrey celebrate their 40th anniversary but I can say to them that it isn’t about you. How many times, when you're married, do you have to say that? "It's not about me; it's not about my goals; it's not about my happiness and my fulfillment. It's about something bigger than both of us, and we have to apprentice ourselves to it." If the only reason for getting married is about me, my happiness, my fulfillment, then there is no reason to stay married when I don’t feel happy. But marriage is something bigger. It is a gift to the Church. It is a sign of God’s love. It isn’t just about the two people. It’s about God’s love in the world.
As our life together in the church, it's not about us. It's about something bigger. And so, yes, we're called to keep that fire in our heart, even when it's inconvenient, even when it causes conflict, even when it brings us pain. But at the same time, we're called to realize it's not about us. It's about something bigger and deeper and richer. And our life together, our faith, what we celebrate, is all God's gift to the church.
And so, as we come together today with our many passions, our many histories, let's ask God to keep the fire in our hearts, but help us also realize it's not about us, it's about God and what God seeks to do in our midst.
I wish I could reduce it all to a simple formula. But I can’t. The question of how we preserve fire in our hearts and integrity in our lives in the midst of conflict and divisions is one we all struggle with. We can try to support each other in that struggle. We can build communities in which we talk about it, help each other find the way and support each other.
Let’s pray that this be true of us.

Homily for August 12, 2007 19th Sunday of the Year

Over the past several weeks, our readings have been a lot about the anxiety and the tension of providing for our everyday needs, and arranging the details of our life, and invitations to trust, and to seek what is most important in our life. Today's readings kind of fit at the end of a very long section, where Jesus is teaching us about anxiety and worry and trust. When I first read the readings today, I thought of stewardship, because of that thing at the end where Jesus says, "When much has been given, much will be expected, and when even more has been given, more will be expected." Then I thought, "Well, that sounds like a 'you ought to' sermon, you know, stressing the obligations.'" I want to talk more about a freedom sermon. When I first started praying over these readings, I was reminded of one time when I was a child and money was very tight in our family. And I went to the store with my father. And there was something he really wanted to buy, but he knew we couldn't afford it. And finally he said, "Oh, what the heck. If we're going to the poor house, let's go in style." And so he bought it. Now, I'd like to think that that was a moment of grace. Do you know what I mean? Can you identify moments of grace like that in your own life, when somehow in the midst of worry and anxiety and all of the pressures, you reach a point of freedom and lightness, and you're able to say, "What the heck." And so you act. I guess my question is how would we go about having more moments like that in our life? How would we go about being more open to those moments happening? I remember when we had the Gospel story of Martha and Mary, the example I used was a movie I had seen of a young mother trying to cook dinner, and a child being pouty and impatient, and her husband came and handed her another child because he had more important things to do. And there was this picture of her with all of this tension. And she stopped, and she sang a song to her children and let the dinner boiled over on the stove and left the mess. Well, that was a moment of freedom and of grace. I'm convinced that when God comes into our life, and when God's grace is there, it always feels light, and it feels spacious, and it's a moment of freedom. And yet I realize also that it's hard for those moments of freedom to come in our life. Another little interesting fact that came to me as I was reflecting on these readings: Do you know how giving varies with the amount of money we have? If you had to graph it, what would it look like? Imagine for a minute -- what I was surprised to discover -- imagine I'm drawing a J in the air. Can you see the J? The very poor are very generous and give a lot. And then, as people get more and more money, they become less and less generous, until they become very rich, and then they become generous. I think most of us are caught in the dip of that J. Does that make sense, where the struggle to get ahead and to get more and more, the anxiety about that begins to dominate our life? How many of you have ever said, "If I won the lottery, then I would give?" Or, "When I get more, then I will give." And we spend so much of our time trying to get the better job, the better position, to better our selves, that that dominates our activity. The Gospel today gives a simple remedy for that: Give alms, give something away. Have you ever felt that freedom that we have when you give something to somebody who needs it? What does it feel like? It feels light, and it feels free. Sometimes people's priorities change due to those moments of grace. A lot of times a tragedy, a serious illness, or a near tragedy, or a loss will make people reassess what is important in their life. We all know people like that, don't we, to whom something has happened that made them realize that their priorities were out of kilter, and they got them back in? The Gospel today also gives us another remedy: Be watchful; be alert; pay attention to what is happening in our life. As I look back at my schedule -- not as I look ahead, because my days seldom unfold the way I've scheduled them, something always get in the way -- but as I look back, I realize that I consistently let some things interrupt my plans, and there are other things that I don't let interrupt my plans. Can you relate to that in your life? It's very interesting, the things that we allow to intrude in our life. The cell phone is a biggie, isn't it? I mean it's amazing the things that people will interrupt to answer a cell phone. The most dramatic story I heard recently was, on the west side there was a prayer service for victims of violent crime. And somebody said, "Let's all pause for a moment of silence to remember the people who were killed." And somebody's cell phone rang, and they answered it. The other thing I thought when I was thinking of this, the biggest lie -- one of the most frequently told lies that I encounter -- is a recorded message that says, "Your call is important to us." How many of you have heard that? If you look back on your calendar, if you look at your budget, those are moral documents. They tell us more than anything where our treasure lies and where our heart is. So it's good for us from time to time to say, if somebody followed me around for a month, and at the end of that month wrote a two or three page summary and said, "This is what Father Larry really cares about; this is what's really important to him; this is where his treasure lies and where his heart is," I wonder if I would be happy with what was written. Do you know the question? Think about it for yourself. If someone followed you around, would you be pleased with what they wrote, or would you want to make some changes? And of course, I've been talking about our personal life. It also applies to our culture and our society. There are things that our government is willing to go into debt for and to ask us to make great sacrifices for. There are other things that it is not willing to ask us to sacrifice for. What does that say about us? No judgment, just an observation, a fact, and a question, and are we pleased with that? And then, finally, I think today's readings remind us, we are not in charge. We are not the owners -- we're not the owners of the earth, we're not the owners of our own possessions -- they belong to someone else, and we will be asked someday what use we have made of those things.

Homily for August 5, 2007 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel
 Lk 12:13-21


Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 
He replied to him, “friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 
Then he said to the crowd, “take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” then he told them a parable. 
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. 
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. 
There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, you fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

 I tell this story in my letter in the bulletin. Many years ago I had a friend who wanted to be a stockbroker, and so he was studying to take the Securities exam. And his kids were in a parochial grade school. This was back in the days when nuns taught in the schools. So every day, or every so often, they would go to school and ask Sister to pray for their father who was studying for his Securities exam. Well, one day he was going to Mass on a holy day and he met their teacher, and she said, "Ah, yes, Mr. So-and-so. We've been praying for you. You're studying for your Securities exam. Tell me, how is that going?" And he said, "Well, I took it and I passed it." And she said, "Ah, very good!" Then she stopped and she said, "Tell me. Now that you've passed your Securities exam, in what will you be secure?" Well, it brought him up short, and I think it points to the relevance of the Gospel today and of the readings. In what will we be secure? Well, how many of you -- let's be honest now -- how many of you have fantasized about winning the lottery, and winning the lottery and being secure and independently wealthy and you dream about all the things you would do? And I should have raised my hand, too. Yet, I think studies have been done on people who have won lotteries. Very few of them have found that their lives are better for having done so. Many of us, well, we rightfully plan for our future, don't we, and yet, how many of us have seen people who worked hard their whole life, built up savings, retired, and you know what's coming and everything went bad. And they did not get a chance to enjoy everything that they'd worked for. How precarious is our financial security today, no matter what our job. I talk to people who just hope and of course I talk to more people my age but I talk to people my age who have very good jobs and who hope that they will be able to hold on till retirement, and that some force beyond them their company being bought up or some economic forces will not force them out of their job before they get there. Is that real? Or how many people have worked hard and suddenly find themselves out of a job, because, you know, it used to be you went to work at a place, and if you kept your nose clean and did your job, you could count on being there until you retired. Is that true today? I mean people are forced into unemployment all the time. Or how many people find that everything they've worked for can be wiped out by an illness that isn't covered by insurance? Our security is very precarious. And it's worth heeding the warning in the Gospel today to take care where we place our hope for security and to try to grow rich in the things that really matter with God. And yet, I think the readings, they're relevant but they're really not very helpful to us. Because for most of us we have to navigate our life along a grid where there are a lot of tradeoffs that we have to make. You know, I was reading a commentary on this Gospel that mentioned four dimensions, and I think we could think of many more. But we all want work that is fulfilling, and we want work that compensates us well. We want work that gives us a feeling of contributing to the welfare of society, and we want work that enhances our sense of belonging and our sense of community. Yet I talk to a lot of people who do tradeoffs all the time. They trade fulfillment for the security of compensation, and they hold onto jobs that are less than fulfilling because they need the money. Or they do jobs that leave them feeling that they're not contributing much, or depending on the demands of the social relationships that they have. Do you know what I mean? It is very important, because we do need to work, we do need to plan, and we all struggle over those issues. What I'm struck by, this past May I went to a series of meetings, and I've invited four of our parishioners to join me with another series of those meetings in the fall, about faith, money, and giving. They talked about a lot of things that I found very interesting. One, they pointed out when we talk about money in church it's usually because we're asking for it, and so the minute we talk about money everybody goes [gasping sound], and they tune out. And yet money is very important. They also mentioned that money is taboo today. People don't like to talk about money because our sense of self worth, our sense of importance is wrapped up in that. They pointed out that we clergy are uncomfortable talking about money because most of us are such bad managers of our own money that we just don't feel secure talking about money to other people, and so we are embarrassed about it. But it's important, isn't it, to talk about money? It's important to ask us and to have the conversation with ourselves. And by the way, did you notice in the Gospel today, this man in the parable? Who is party to his conversation? It's all about himself: What will I do? I have no place to store my possessions; I know what I will do; I will say to myself. Nobody else is involved in that conversation with him. The community isn't involved, there is no sense of his family, there's no sense of anyone else being important. Maybe that's why God said, "You fool." But it's important to ask us, what really matters to me? What is really important in my life? Where do I seek my security, and what are the trade-offs that I am making in my life? And what is it costing me? And where would I like to be? I think the answers to those questions will be different for all of us. They will be different for all of us at different times in our lives. They're different if you're young and just starting your career, or if you're my age and nearing the end of your career. They're different depending on the circumstances of your life. But they are important questions. I just urge you, as we worship today, to hold the questions in your heart. Hold them before God as you see the bread and wine brought forward and offered. Imagine that your life is there with them, and pay attention to the questions that might be there in your life. And above all, honor those questions. And maybe I'll end with what I began Mass with, with the quote to my friend. "Now that you've passed your securities exam, in what will you be secure?"