The bishop asked the monsignor, “How was my homily?” The msgr: “You were brief.” The bp: “I try never to be tiresome. The msgr: “You were tiresome too.” The nineteenth century English poet, Alfred Tennyson, wrote: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Was that a cute throwaway line or did Lord Tennyson know something we do not? The answer to our question is to be found in the prayer life of Jesus.
During boyhood, Mary and Joseph annually took the Child to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in the Great Temple. It was a costly journey for this working class family. And don’t forget exhaustion. We speak about a five day walk over ninety miles. The sun would blister them in the day and the nights would deep freeze them. But each year, faithful as the sunrise, they loaded the old donkey and moved south. When He became a Man, Jesus continued to go to Jerusalem for the solemn feast. Furthermore, every Saturday in Nazareth the Master picked up His weekly contribution envelope and took Himself to His synagogue or parish. Like most Jews, He was tithing 10% of His income. Anything less He would consider a tip.
There He worshipped publicly and received instructions. This procedure He followed till He knocked the dust of Nazareth off His sandals for good at about age 30. But the Gospel record shows He continued weekly public worship after leaving His home town. Today Mark explicitly mentions His presence in a synagogue. The next time you want to skip weekend Mass, you might want to dwell on this point. Perhaps a line from Saint Padre Pio might help: “If we understood the Eucharist, we would risk our life to get to Mass. With the above as evidence, one must conclude the Teacher has little patience with many self-deceived men and women. These are the folks who say that, while they do not go to Sunday Liturgy, they do worship God at home in their own way. If such worship was not kosher for the Christ, how can it be acceptable for any of us today?
Some wannabe intellectuals say, “If the homilies were better, I would go.” The only answer for that is the response of the grizzled old pastor, “If it’s laughs you want, catch a TV comic. If worship, I’m your man.” Can you imagine the number of dull sermons Jesus of Nazareth must have been subjected to over thirty-three years? How many times must He have put His knuckle deep into His mouth to stifle laughter at some theological gaffe from a well-meaning rabbi? Yet, He faithfully went each Saturday. “I don’t go to church because there are so many hypocrites there.” Do you really think there were no such deadbeats around the Teacher during His public worship days? Incidentally, we always have room for one more hypocrite. And, as Andrew Greeley puts it, “If you can find a perfect church, join it. But realize that as soon as you do, it ceases to be perfect.”
Deadly homilies and hypocrites notwithstanding, the Nazarene felt obliged to go to public worship. To paraphrase CS Lewis, he wanted to tune into the secret wireless of God. If Christ did all this, so of course should you and I. An even careless reading of the Gospels reveal that the Teacher invested His time in private prayer as well. It was a given that every Jewish family would have a schedule of daily private prayer. This would be particularly true at meals. This custom Jesus continued to the end as the Last Supper indicates. His public ministry had to be very busy.
Yet, He put aside quality time for private prayer. Check it out in Luke. He writes: “Crowds pressed on Him. But He retired to a mountain and prayed.” In Mark: “In the morning, He got up, left the house, and went off to a lonely place, and prayed there.” If the Master had not spent so much time in public and private prayer, He could have cured so many more hundreds, if not thousands, of their physical ailments. One must thereby conclude He considered prayer not a luxury item but a necessity. It is a must-do for us. Matthew and John tell us the servant is not greater than the master and the pupil not greater than the teacher. Given the example of the Nazarene, why then do we assign prayer to the fringes of our lives? Why is it not one of the essentials of our brief existence? “To pray is,” as Ralph Sockman wrote, “to expose the shore of the mind to the incoming tide of God.”
Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
http://frjoeshomilies.net
Power Made Perfect
In Weakness The second reading for today is written by a troubled man. The reading itself is troubling for us. In St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, he writes about a thorn in the flesh that he suffered from. Three times he begged the Lord to remove this from Him. But all he heard was the Lord saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” What was it that was upsetting St. Paul so much? People have speculated over the years, but we have no way of knowing. Whatever it was, it was significant for Paul. It could not have been something as minor as a speech impediment as some have speculated. Nor could it have been his caustic temper. It was something far more personal and even more severe. It probably kept him awake at night. It is troubling for us to think about the great St. Paul have a major personal problem.
Even in our cynical age, we still want to turn our saints into perfect little plastic statues. But people are not perfect, and even the greatest of the saints were people like you and me, continually fitting our own tendencies to sin. The voice of the Lord told Paul that His Power, the Lord’s Power, is made perfect in weakness. It was clear to Paul, that the wonders of the Lord that took place through his ministry only occurred because God was working through him.
He went on to write in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is easy for people to get so bogged down with their own conception of what the minister of the Lord should be like that they miss the Word of God. It is also easy for all of us to get so bogged down with the recognition of our own sinfulness, that we refuse to allow the Lord to use us for others. In the first reading Ezekiel is told that the people would not want to hear the Word of God which the Lord told him to proclaim. But that did not lesson the fact that it was still the Word of God. Perhaps Ezekiel was strange to them. Certainly he seemed to be unconventional. He shocked people with many of his prophetic actions.
They laughed at him. They derided him. But his words came true. Instead of looking at the man speaking, they should have listened to the man speaking. The same thing happened to Jesus as related in today’s Gospel. Jesus was in Nazareth, the place where he grew up. The people were his neighbors. They knew him since he was small. They were so bogged down in their knowledge of Jesus and his humanity, that they refused to listen to the Word of God that He was proclaiming and that He was. Their lack of faith resulted in Jesus not being able to perform any of the mighty deeds of God among them. We often make the same mistake. Some people seem too ordinary to us to be vehicles of God’s truth.
They may be our parents or our children, our neighbors or our companions at work or school. They proclaim a reality that could change our lives, but we don’t want to hear it. Who does he think he is? Who does she think she is? We get so bogged down in the humanity of the proclaimer that we refuse to listen to the proclamation. Perhaps what is even worse is when we are so overwhelmed with our own sinfulness that we refrain from proclaiming the Lord. Some adults’ views of themselves is such a negative way that they refuse to lead their children properly. “Who am I to tell my child not to do this or that, when I know that I often do things far worse.” And the Word of God is not proclaimed.
And children think that they have implicit approval from their parents to do things their parents do not discuss. Paul was told that Christ’s power is made perfect in his weakness. Paul realized that it was God working through him that brought so many people to the faith. Christ’s power also works through us. We really don’t have the right to deny our responsibility to the Lord. We may think that we are not good enough to talk about the Lord, but we are good enough. He makes us good enough. Furthermore, the positive effects of what we say come from the Lord, not from us.
So we come before the Lord today and say with St. Peter, St. Paul and so many of the saints, “I am sinful, I can’t do your work” and Jesus says, “Yes you can. My power will work through you in ways greater than you can ever realize. And you will know that it is me working, not you. My power is made perfect in your weakness.”
Homily from Father Phil Bloom
http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/
Building on Strength Week 1: Scripture as Word of God (July 5, 2015)
Message: Doubt darkens the mind and despair chills the heart. The Bible – God’s word – gives light and warmth to the soul. Last Sunday we completed a four part series titled, Through Him. Through Jesus in the Holy Spirit we come to the Father. The series concluded with this invitation from Jesus: “Do not be afraid. Just have faith.” I know that most of you do have faith in Jesus – and that you want to grow in faith. When we took the Disciple Makers survey, 41% said your relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in your life. An additional 40% said, “I have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and am growing as a disciple.” To grow as disciples, to have greater faith, we need to build on our strengths.
As it turns out, the Disciple Makers survey indicates that our parish has three areas of particular strength – areas where we scored high in relation to the other 91 parishes who took the survey. For today and the following two Sundays I will focus on these three strengths. Now, you might be thinking I am doing some bragging. I have completed six years as your pastor and look forward to six more. It may sound like I am taking credit for our areas of strength – and maybe I am a little – but the strengths have more to do with the culture of our Valley. Let me illustrate: When I cam to Monroe in July of 2009, you gave me some gifts – including a bath and grooming for my dog, Samwise. Sam used to resist baths, but the ladies were so nice, he submitted. Well, when I came to get him, the ladies had gotten him wonderfully clean – and they put a red bandana around his neck. It had little hearts and words like, “I love Jesus.” And “Jesus is number one.”
When I saw that bandana with the words praising Jesus, I knew I wasn’t in Seattle any more! Not that Seattle doesn’t have Christians, but they tend to be embarrassed, even fearful, about expressing their faith. I like being in an area where people are more open about their faith. For sure we have plenty of problems and lots who have fallen into doubt or even despair. Still, many continue to turn to Jesus and to the Bible. That brings me to our first strength. The Disciple Makers survey had this statement: “I personally believe Scripture is the word of God.” 77% said, “I strongly agree.” Strongly agree! And another 20% marked, “I agree.” That’s a great strength to build on. You believe as I do that the Bible is the Word of God. Most of the Mass – not just the Liturgy of the Word, but also the Liturgy of the Eucharist – is a series of citations from the Scriptures. We are a Bible Church! The Scriptures have power. We see that in this weekend’s readings. Ezekiel knows he speaks for God. “Thus says the Lord!” he writes. As a prophet he speaks more than a mere human word. He speaks God’s word. We see this even more in the Gospel. The people ask, Where did he (Jesus) get such wisdom? Jesus comes to bring the wisdom of god. Like the people in Nazareth, you and I can either listen to Jesus or close our ears. Today, people shut Jesus out by filling their lives with distractions – TV, the Internet, Smart phones, even things like politics. This weekend we celebrate the Fourth of July.
We are grateful for our country and we want to be good citizens. That includes voting and other forms of political involvement. The best things we can do become better citizens is to be better Christians. The founders of our nation were Christians and the book they read most was the Bible. Even Thomas Jefferson, who was something of scoffer, considered the Psalms the most sublime poetry.* President Washington considered that our democracy can only survive – and thrive – if people have a moral foundation rooted in the Bible. The Bible has great power.
Earlier I referred to doubt and despair. Doubt darkens the mind and despair chills the heart. The Bible – God’s word – gives light and warmth to the soul. I am proud that almost all of you agree or strongly agree that the Bible is the word of God. In order to build on this strength we do need something along with with Bible – a strength we need in order to preserve the Bible itself. I will save that for next week. It is our second strength. It will help us make that great choice: Not to close our ears to Jesus, but to hear the words of the prophets – and greatest prophet, Jesus himself. Amen.
Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/sunday_homily
Gospel Summary
It is really sad to note the attitude of Jesus’ home town to their suddenly famous neighbor. On the surface, it is the usual story of how familiarity can breed contempt. They know how “ordinary” Jesus has been and they cannot allow him now to represent a world that is so much larger than their own little town. This is a strange mixture of pride and envy, with the latter seeming to take hold at Nazareth. The tragic consequence of their refusal to abandon their provincial narrowness is that Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deeds there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.” Jesus could not work more miracles there because they would not permit it!
They could not open themselves to a world beyond their own safe little village. Of course, this new world that Jesus has entered is not just the world beyond Nazareth; it is the world beyond this world! Authentic faith always expands our horizons and enriches our imagination so that we can see and yearn for that transcendent, divine world that God has planned for us. Real faith enables us to be born into a world of wonder and hope and endless possibilities. It is always tragic when we refuse to let go of our safe, little “Nazareth” and thus lose the real world of God’s kingdom. Life Implications If we ever needed proof that Jesus was a real human being and grew up as an ordinary child it would be provided by today’s gospel passage. In fact, it was his very ordinariness that scandalized his neighbors and prevented them from allowing him to be their Messiah and Savior. However, we are dealing here with something far more dangerous than a small-town mentality.
These people of Nazareth represent all of us when we want to make ourselves the measure of everything. We fear the uncontrollable world where God’s gifts are to be found, and so we tend to reject anything that we cannot understand and control. We forget that all the really important things in life, such as love and happiness and life itself, are ultimately gifts to be received, not problems to be discussed and mastered. Faith gives us the courage to trust the world of God’s promises and to open ourselves to these wonderful and uncontrollable realities. When we are afraid to take such a risk, we have no choice but to defend our tiny territory and to deny everything that lies beyond it. Faith, when it is truly operative in our lives, puts us in touch with God’s love and thus allows us to share the experience of Jesus who left Nazareth in order to embrace the whole world.
It is the experience of God’s love, discovered in the gift of our heavenly Father, that allows us to take the risk that Jesus took … and that leads us with him, through trials and adversities, to the only world that really matters. This “ordinary” world of ours is full of God’s presence and God’s promise. We need only to open our eyes. St. Paul knew this, for he wrote, “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1: 27). God can work wonders through us, just as we are, provided we trust in his love and power. Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Homily from Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, “And on the sabbath [Jesus] began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! And they took offence at him. And he could do no mighty work there… And he marvelled because of their unbelief.” (Mark 6: 2.3.5) Jesus is saddened by the “lack of faith” of his own neighbors and the little faith of his own disciples (Cf. Mark 6:6; Matthew 8:26) (CCC 2610) The miracles and signs withheld from the people because of their lack of faith are a sign only of the more dire effect of the impossibility of salvation without the virtue of faith.
Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. (Cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:36; 6:40 et al.) “Since ‘without faith it is impossible to please [God]’ and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life ‘but he who endures to the end.’ ” (Dei Filius 3:DS 3012; cf. Matthew 10:22; 24:13 and Hebrews 11:6; Council of Trent: DS 1532.) (CCC 161) Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16) (CCC 183) Just as all faith comes through the graces of the Church, so also the Church, through which comes the faith by which we are saved, is necessary for salvation.
The Catechism discusses the oft-quoted and much-misunderstood teaching: “outside the Church there is no salvation.” How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? (Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 73.21: PL 3, 1169; De unit.: PL 4, 509-536.) Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body: Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. (LG 14; cf. Mark 16:16; John 3:5) (CCC 846)
Some mistakenly take this for a blanket condemnation of anyone who is not a “card-carrying” Catholic. Nothing could be further from the truth. No one is condemned for sincerely following his conscience, for this itself is a grace from God. This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience-those too may achieve eternal salvation. (Lumen Gentium 16; cf. DS 3866-3872) (CCC 847)
We would do well to remember the words of St. Thomas More when, implored by his friend the Duke of Norfolk to consent with him to the headship of the Church by, and the divorce and remarriage of, King Henry VIII “for fellowship’s sake” he responded, “When you go to heaven for following your conscience and I go to hell for not following mine, will you come along with me for fellowship’s sake?” I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we “meet Christ in the liturgy”, Father Cusick
REJECTED AT HOME
Today’s Gospel account is quite shocking. Jesus is rejected in his own village by his own people who knew him so well. He arrives in Nazaret accompanied by his disciples, and no one goes out to welcome him, as it had been the case in every other town He had passed through. They didn’t even bring out their sick and lame for him to bless and heal.
His presence, however, causes astonishment, as they listened to him in the synagogue. They just wondered who could have taught him such wisdom. Similarly, they couldn’t understand how such healing power could come out of his hands. The only thing they knew was that Jesus was the carpenter’s son, born in their own village. Everything else they find shocking.
Jesus, naturally, feels rejected by his own people, who refused to accept him as the bearer of God’s message of salvation. They had grown accustomed to see Jesus as a neighbour and equal and can’t even think of him as part of a mystery. Jesus reminds them of a popular saying which was familiar to all: “A prophet is despised only in his own country, at home and by his own people.”
Jesus, naturally, “was surprised at their lack of faith.” This was the first time He experienced such public rejection, not by the religious leaders, but by his own people. He wasn’t expecting this from his own people. In fact, Jesus “could work no miracle there, though he cured a few other people there while laying his hands on them.”
Mark does not write much about this incident simply to satisfy the reader’s curiosity, but to inform the Christian communities that Jesus could be rejected precisely by those who ought to know Him best: by those who hold on to old preconceived ideas and remain shut to any new messages or mysteries that Jesus could teach.
How do we receice Jesus’ messages, those of us called his own? In a world we claim to be independent and adult, isn’t our faith rather childish and mostly impersonal? Aren’t we really indifferent to Jesus’ new and revolutionary message? Are we aware of our lack of faith in His transforming power? Can’t we see that our attitude is really a rejection of Jesus’ Spirit and prophecy?
This is what Paul of Tarsus’ was concerned about: “Never try to suppress the Spirit or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt – hold on to what is good and avoid every form of evil.” ( I Thes. 5, 19-21 ) Don’t we, Christians today, need to heed Paul’s words today?
REJECTED BY HIS OWN
Jesus is not one of the Temple priests, in charge of looking after the religious duties. Nor is he one of the teachers of the Law, appointed to defend the Torah of Moses. The village people of Galilee see in his healing gestures and fiery words one of the old prophets moved by the Spirit.
Jesus knows that he is going to face a difficult life ahead, with all sorts of conflicts. The religious leaders will confront him. That is what happened to every prophet. What Jesus did not expect, however, was that he would be rejected by his own people, those who had known him from childhood.
The way Jesus was rejected by his own in Nazareth would become well known among the early Christians. Three evangelists mention the incident in all its details. Mark says that Jesus arrived in Nazareth accompanied by some of his disciples, surrounded by his fame as a healing prophet. His village neighbours don’t know what to make of it.
When Sabbath arrived, Jesus went, as it was customary, to the village synagogue, “and began to teach”. His neighbours and relatives could hardly believe it. There were all sorts of reactions. They had known Jesus from childhood: He was just another neighbour. Where did he learn such amazing things about the Kingdom of God? How did he get the power to heal the sick?Mark simply says: “that everything seemed to scandalize them.” Why?
Those villagers thought they knew everything about Jesus. They knew him since childhood. Instead of accepting him as he is returning to them, they are prejudiced by what they had seen and known years earlier. Such memories about Jesus impede them from realizing the mystery that is Jesus. They refuse to see the saving power of God that Jesus has come to manifest.
But there is something more. Should they accept him as a prophet, then they would have to be ready to listen to God’s message as delivered by Jesus. And that would create problems for them. They have their own synagogue, their own sacred books and traditions. They had not had any problems with their religion so far. New ophetic messages might disturb the traditional peace of the village.
Christians have always held different images and ideas about Jesus. Not all these images coincide with what those who knew Him personally saw. All of us form
our own ideas about Jesus. Such ideas give rise to different ways of living our faith. If our idea/image of Jesus is poor, distorted or incomplete, our faith will be similarly unreal and distracting.
Why are we so disinterested in knowing the real Jesus? Why are we sometimes scandalized by His human traits and similarities with us? Why do we resist believing that God became incarnate as a Prophet? Are we afraid that such faith would imply profound changes in our Church?
REJECTION
Our gospel today begins with the words, “Jesus departed from there?” Does anyone remember where “there” is? Probably not, because this weekend we are taking up again in Mark’s Gospel where we left off way back on March 2, the final weekend before Lent began. Incidentally, the “there” is Capernaum and his “native place” area means Nazareth.
Our readings from Ezekiel and the Gospel really hit us as “downers.” They remind us one of the most painful and disheartening of human experiences: rejection. Yahweh complains of being rejected by the Jewish people. God describes them as “hard of face and obstinate of heart, a rebellion house.” Mark tells us that the people of Nazareth took offense at Jesus, and that Jesus was troubled by their lack of faith, which seemed to prevent him from performing any mighty deeds in his own hometown.
Being rejected is at any time for anyone a horrible experience. The pain is magnified when we don’t understand what the reason for the rejection is or when it happens unexpectedly. The dwellers of Nazareth, who knew Jesus well from his having spent most of his life among them, marveled at his newly-found wisdom and power, but then suddenly and apparently for no good reason they rejected him. Mark simply describes the reaction of Jesus to this unexpected behavior of theirs as amazement.
Being rejected hurts us terribly, yet few, if any, of us adults or teens here have never experienced it. The more the rejecter has meant or does mean to us, the greater the felt hurt. Every day everywhere, throughout all recorded history and from the literature of every culture past and present, we learn of people slaying other people or taking their own lives because someone they deeply loved has rejected them.
We know from the New Testament account in the Acts of the Apostles that St. Paul himself was so stranger to rejection. And in more than one of his letters he describes the deep pain it caused him. But it never seems to have paralyzed or stopped his ministry or mission. In contemporary jargon, being rejected didn’t “get to him.” We heard him to say, “I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints.” Why and how is he content? Paul says, “for the sake of Christ.” Would that we too, when rejected, whether with good cause or for no cause, might also accept it “for the love of Christ.”
Finally, St. Paul hits us today with another surprising statement, yet one full of much spiritual wisdom. He writes that when he is weak, then he is strong. Jesus himself has told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Our faith is the grace we are given. May our faith shield us from overreaction to our being rejected, and may it keep us from truly rejecting someone else, entirely or without sufficient reason. Such weakness on our part will cause the power of Christ dwell in us, as it did for St. Paul.