TwentySecond Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Reading I Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
Reading II Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Gospel Luke 14:1, 7-14

Homily
After Pentecost this year our church liturgy began presenting a Sunday series of readings from the Lukan Gospel. The author organizes his material about “all that Jesus said and did,” placing Jesus “resolutely” on a journey “toward Jerusalem.” Each Sunday, thereafter, we have been listening to Jesus teach about what it means to be his disciple. We are invited to become one of his followers in that little company walking with Jesus on the road. It becomes not a physical passage but, in symbol, our own spiritual journey toward our heavenly home.

Last Sunday, from Luke’s Chapter 13, we heard that “Jesus went through the cities and towns teaching – all the while making his way toward Jerusalem.”

Someone asked, “Lord, are there few in number who are to be saved?”

Jesus answered, “People will come from the East and the West, from the North and the South, to take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” “Some who were last will be first and some who were first will be last.”

Today’s reading from Luke, Chapter 14, places this teaching in the concrete context of a grand banquet, evoking the image of the “feast in the Kingdom of God.” Two instructions for our reflection are given: one for the guests and one for the host. Both stress humility as a requirement for discipleship. While not directly answering the question, “Are there few in number who are to be saved,” Jesus speaks about how each of us can be numbered among those who are saved.

The guests are told to rightly evaluate their importance: “Those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

The one who gives the banquet is told, “Don’t consider yourself a host if you arrange things in such a way (by inviting, for example, only the wealthy) so that the invitation will come back to you."

“Humility” is to correctly ascertain one’s God-given talents and then to share those blessings with others—with the community (one’s family, friends, coworkers, those who care for us). And to do so in such a way that we do not manipulate them so that the good we do comes back to us!

“Are they few in number who are to be saved?” The question could just as easy have been, “Are there few in number who are invited to the banquet?”

Jesus reinterprets the question and answers the question which should have been asked, “How can I (we) be numbered among those invited to the grand banquet?” Jesus does not tell us the number but rather tells us how to be numbered among the “guests” who are invited to take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.

The teaching comes out of our ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, as we hear today in the Wisdom book of Sirach:

Humble yourselves the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God.
What is too sublime or beyond your strength search not.
Conduct your affairs with humility.
You will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

To be a follower of Jesus (on the road to the heavenly Jerusalem) we must be a people who choose to live by Gospel values. Among which values is that of humility (which Jesus teaches in today’s gospel), of correctly assessing our talents and gifts and to let those gifts direct our commitment to the community, the church, the family and the social life we live. Thus even when we assess ourselves as least, we shall be numbered among the first at the table in the grand banquet of the Kingdom of God. For the first shall often be last while the last will be first!

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

TwentySecond Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Reading I Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
Reading II Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Gospel Luke 14:1, 7-14

Homily
After Pentecost this year our church liturgy began presenting a Sunday series of readings from the Lukan Gospel. The author organizes his material about “all that Jesus said and did,” placing Jesus “resolutely” on a journey “toward Jerusalem.” Each Sunday, thereafter, we have been listening to Jesus teach about what it means to be his disciple. We are invited to become one of his followers in that little company walking with Jesus on the road. It becomes not a physical passage but, in symbol, our own spiritual journey toward our heavenly home.

Last Sunday, from Luke’s Chapter 13, we heard that “Jesus went through the cities and towns teaching – all the while making his way toward Jerusalem.”

Someone asked, “Lord, are there few in number who are to be saved?”

Jesus answered, “People will come from the East and the West, from the North and the South, to take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” “Some who were last will be first and some who were first will be last.”

Today’s reading from Luke, Chapter 14, places this teaching in the concrete context of a grand banquet, evoking the image of the “feast in the Kingdom of God.” Two instructions for our reflection are given: one for the guests and one for the host. Both stress humility as a requirement for discipleship. While not directly answering the question, “Are there few in number who are to be saved,” Jesus speaks about how each of us can be numbered among those who are saved.

The guests are told to rightly evaluate their importance: “Those who exalt themselves shall be humbled and those who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

The one who gives the banquet is told, “Don’t consider yourself a host if you arrange things in such a way (by inviting, for example, only the wealthy) so that the invitation will come back to you."

“Humility” is to correctly ascertain one’s God-given talents and then to share those blessings with others—with the community (one’s family, friends, coworkers, those who care for us). And to do so in such a way that we do not manipulate them so that the good we do comes back to us!

“Are they few in number who are to be saved?” The question could just as easy have been, “Are there few in number who are invited to the banquet?”

Jesus reinterprets the question and answers the question which should have been asked, “How can I (we) be numbered among those invited to the grand banquet?” Jesus does not tell us the number but rather tells us how to be numbered among the “guests” who are invited to take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.

The teaching comes out of our ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, as we hear today in the Wisdom book of Sirach:

Humble yourselves the more, the greater you are,
and you will find favor with God.
What is too sublime or beyond your strength search not.
Conduct your affairs with humility.
You will be loved more than a giver of gifts.

To be a follower of Jesus (on the road to the heavenly Jerusalem) we must be a people who choose to live by Gospel values. Among which values is that of humility (which Jesus teaches in today’s gospel), of correctly assessing our talents and gifts and to let those gifts direct our commitment to the community, the church, the family and the social life we live. Thus even when we assess ourselves as least, we shall be numbered among the first at the table in the grand banquet of the Kingdom of God. For the first shall often be last while the last will be first!

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

TwentyFirst Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

Lectionary Readings

Reading I Isaiah 66:18-21
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 117:1-2
Reading II Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
Gospel Luke 13:22-30

Homily
Jesus went through the cities and towns teaching, all the while making his way toward Jerusalem.

Once again we are reminded that Luke is presenting Jesus “on the road” up to Jerusalem where the events of our salvation occur. We (you and I) are to be numbered among those on the journey to the heavenly Jerusalem, to our eternal salvation. It is a continuation of the commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus teaches about the Kingdom come, the Kingdom of God, all those values we hold dear for our own life and for the lives of those most dear to us: family, friends, coworkers – indeed for the world, the Kingdom of God.

As so often happens on the journey in Luke’s presentation, one from the company will ask a question which Jesus reinterprets and answers the question which should have been asked. Remember the lawyer who asked “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus rather answers how we can be neighborly? “Who among the three was neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

The question asked in today’s gospel, “Are there few in number who are to be saved?” is reinterpreted and Jesus rather answers the question which should have been asked, namely “How can I be numbered among those who are saved?” How can I be numbered among those in the Kingdom of God?

Jesus proposes two images to address the question which should have been asked. The first is that all those on the road with Jesus must strive to enter by the narrow door; the second image is of the would-be disciple who stands outside the little company of travelers knocking on the door “once the master has risen to lock the door.”

We are familiar with the first image. In Matthew’s gospel, we will recall the door (the narrow door) is given its Jewish name, “the eye of the needle.” It’s that little door beside the large double doors of the walled, fortified city. Once the big double doors had been closed and bolted for the night, a desert caravan arriving late would have to unload the camels, pass the merchandise through the small door, the “eye of the needle,” then make the camels get down on their knees and push and shove them through. Jesus said, it was as difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.

The point of that image and the point of this image in today’s gospel are the same. The Kingdom comes to those who detach themselves (including parishes) from accumulated money and stuff, and enter by the narrow door, “the eye of the needle.” The spirit of detachment, of complete trust in God’s providence when our world crumbles around us, is a requirement for the Kingdom – how we can be numbered among those who are saved.

There is a bit of oddity in the second image, did you happen to notice? One would have thought that it should have read, “once the master has locked the door and gone to bed,” instead of “once the master has risen to lock the door.” This is post-resurrection language and as such the meaning is clear. If we have not walked the road with Jesus to Jerusalem, to the Kingdom come, living his values – being detached from this world’s stuff – we will not rise with him. And so we will be outside knocking “once the master has risen to lock the door.”

“Are there few in number who are to be saved?” Rather, how can I be numbered among those who are to be saved, among those of the Kingdom? Paul writes today, speaking of God’s holy people as “sons” and “daughters,” those who are disciplined to bring forth peace and justice. All those who detach, who discipline themselves from the “stuff” of this world and who walk the Way of Jesus (the values of the new age) will rise to live in the Kingdom of God, here and forever.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Responsorial Psalm:Ps40:2,3,4,18
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53


Homily

Some time ago (I forget how long) I was reading in the evening with the TV on at the same time and suddenly the program captured my attention.

The program was entitled Griffin and Phoenix and was subtitled A Love Story. The plot was simple enough: two young people, a man and a woman, unknown to each other, are told by each one’s physician that he and she have terminal, inoperative cancer and have a life expectancy of about one year. They accidentally meet, fall in love, discover each other’s secret and live out their short lives together.

While I didn’t agree with all the moral or ethical aspects of the story, there were some amusing and very human scenes of their doing what they always wanted to do but never had the courage or the time--things like climbing up the town water tower and painting “Class of ’91” or driving two of those amusement park toy cars right off the track and through the county fair crowd!

I suppose what really captured my attention was the poetic treatment of their mental attitudes and process after they had been told of their terminal illness. They went from non-belief to rage, to “I can lick this thing,” to self-pity, to acceptance, to the love of each other and of life here and now. Their whole life priority system changed.

We all have inoperable terminal illness. It’s called humanity. It’s only a small difference in the amount of time that differentiates each of us from the other. Why don’t we, you and I, view everything we do, how we live today, in view of that fact? Why don’t we, as St. Paul suggests today, “lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead?…keeping our eyes on Jesus (on the Kingdom).

I like to hear the sayings of Jesus in today’s Gospel as all taking place within me, within my life—that fire, that division, that splitting. The baptism of anguish until it is over which we must all endure, being the wedge that separates what is important (of value, of God’s Kingdom) in my life from what is not of value.

With an eye on the finish line we may very well revise our priorities and that re-evaluation might very well separate us from some disgusting habits, from some “so-called” friends, from some family members, from some recreations and selfish routines. To live the gospel values of God’s Kingdom, we just may become who we really want to be.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from
Bringing About the Kingdom, "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed

Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

First Reading: Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 45:10, 11, 12, 16
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:20-27
Gospel: Lk 1:39-56
Lectionary Readings

Homily
In life as in literature, especially as it is lived or written on the epic scale, there are moments of great discouragement and of great hope, moments of bitter defeat and dramatic victory.

The final section of the novel Lord of the Rings describes such a moment. An immense battle has begun. The forces of evil are relentlessly advancing on those defending their city, their homes, their old ones and their young ones, their life of liberty and justice. A pall of gloom covers the hearts of the valiant since they realize their despeate insufficiency for the massive struggle going on all about them. They had sent out scouts to summon the armies of a neighboring monarch, Theoden, King of Rohan, but those scouts have not been heard from; the armies of Rohan do not come.

The battle reaches the critical point, and the enemy cannot be contained. no help is anywhere to be found. All is lost. And then from far away to the north comes the sound which the defenders of the city had long awaited byt had despaired of ever hearing. From far away on the wings of the wind come the sounds of trumpets, of the marching rhythm of an advancing army. Rohan has come at last.

Then the victory, then the sweetness of liberty defended, of knowing that peace and freedom are sustained. Their sweat and tears and deaths and blood and sacrifices are vindicated.

The feast of the Assumption of Mary must be seen in such a light. The woman is the sign of victory in the sky, the sweet victory of right over evil. Those who choose the narrow, less-traveled road, the Way of Christ, are vindicated.

Then I hear a great shout from the heavens: Victory and power and dominion have forever been won by our God and authority, for the Christ.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed

Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 or 11:1-2, 8-12
Gospel: Luke 12:32-48 or 12:35-40
Lectionary Readings

Homily
After Jesus and his little band of followers had spent an overnight at the home of Mary and Martha and were back on the road again, in answer to one of the crowd, who asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer: “Abba, Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come…”

In his gospel, Luke (and our liturgy, Sunday after Sunday) now presents various comments of Jesus on the elements of this prayer: in essence, what will bring this Kingdom about so that the Father (Abba) is hallowed.

First, we must get an idea of what Jesus is (and what we are) talking about when we say “Kingdom.”

What is “the Kingdom?”

I like to think that it is all those things, those values, we Christians hold so dear. That “way of life” which Jesus teaches by his life and death. It is a place where fair play and honesty prevail, where justice is tempered with mercy, where an honest day’s work receives an honest day’s pay, where our lifestyle is free of anxiety and stress, where there are people whom we fiercely love and who fiercely love us. Such a Kingdom can only exist in our dreams, our aspirations, goals to which we aspire and in that sense we can achieve a taste of it here, but the fullness of that Kingdom is to come. It is like Catherine of Sienna once said: “It’s heaven all the way to heaven.”

“Do not fear, little flock, the Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom,” reminds us Jesus wants us to savor the mystery that the Kingdom is here and yet to come. The disciple (the Christian) is called to be the Kingdom so that the kingdom will come.

Like Abraham of old, we are to set forth to a place we know not, so that the place we are going is where we are. Paul writes today, “Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for.” In other words, a taste of what we hope for is already possible. “Heaven is heaven all the way to heaven.”

It sounds confusing! Yet, is it not true that if we live as Jesus teaches, full of the values we dearly long for, then already the kingdom has come in our lives as we await the fullness of that kingdom in the presence of our God.

People often tell me that even after their loved ones have died for many years, someone whom they fiercely loved and who fiercely loved them, there is often that powerful and undeniable sense of their presence. It is so strong and real that it delights and thrills us.

That is the way it is when we earnestly live the values of the Kingdom. By our dedication to this lifestyle of Jesus, God’s presence is real and the Kingdom is come.

As disciples of the Lord, we are called to live the Kingdom of God’s values in our world so that indeed His Kingdom is in the midst of our lives and is present to all those with whom we live and move and have our being.

With today’s psalmist we pray:

May your Kingdom, O Lord, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed

Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Transfiguration of the Lord

First Reading: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19
Gospel:Luke 9:28b-36
Lectionary Readings

Homily
When we attempt to communicate in language some powerful insight or some otherworldly experience which stirs the very depth of our being, only artists or poets manage to pull it off. They speak of their experiences in symbols and word pictures, paintings and sculptures.

Today’s scripture reading from Daniel is a case in point. The prophet’s powerful revelation, the insight of God’s presence breaking through in human affairs is like a Son of Man coming on the clouds, God’s throne aflame (like Elijah’s flaming chariot) – clothing sun-light bright, hair like snow-white wool. It is apocalyptic imagery—a message of revelation.

Luke’s account of the Transfiguration story is steeped in that apocalyptical language, a language of symbol and sign, of poetry and psalm. The word painting is full of the splendor of God’s presence in this Christ, fellow traveler with the disciples on the dusty road up to Jerusalem. This human Jesus’ appearance is changed like Moses’ at Sinai. His clothes become dazzling white. Moses and Elijah also appear.

The Greek word “appearance,” used twice, is the word for “theophany,” – revelation—divinity breaking through the veil of humanity. The “exodus” – the departure, the passage – is being discussed, the event of freedom about to be accomplished, fulfilled in Jerusalem. A cloud overshadows, connecting the overshadowing at the birth announcement and the overshadowing at the Jordan. Voices (insights, revelations) say, “The holy offspring to be born is Son of God;” and “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

The passage is beyond our “nuts and bolts” understanding. Like any insight, any revelation, it must be absorbed with our hearts, not our heads.

Peter, like all of us, was so overcome by this “insight,” this beholding of the human Jesus, whom he knew, and the venerable Moses and Elijah, whom he had venerated all his life, that he breathlessly blurted out, “Master, it is good for us to be here! Let us make three tents (the word is “little tent,” tabernacle.) But Luke writes years later that Peter didn’t know what he was talking about.

Peter wanted to keep, capture, this presence of God in their midst. Like all humanity, we want desperately to encapsulate God. We’ve succeeded where Peter failed. We’ve got Jesus in our tabernacles.

Last week when we spoke of this in one of our daily mini homilies, Sr. Nancy Jane recited a Hindu poem for me, of which I later got a copy:

O God, forgive three sins,
Sins due to my human weakness:

You are everywhere,
Yet I come to adore you here.

You are shapeless,
Yet I adore your form.

You need no praise;
Yet I offer these prayers.

God does put up with our desire to nail the presence down. We are forgiven as was Peter.

Thinking of this revealing event years later, Peter was able to write of the insight (as our second reading today pointed out), speaking of it as a moment of “majestic splendor” bearing witness as having himself experienced it “while we were in his company on the mountain,” and as he heard God’s voice, “This is my beloved Son on whom my favor rests.”

“Keep your attention closely fixed on that (message),” he writes, “as you would on a lamp shining in a dark place (perhaps our hearts?) until the first streaks of dawn appear and the morning star rises in your hearts.”


--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed

Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time--Liturgical Cycle C

First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21


Lectionary Readings


Homily

Here is a person who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill who must leave his property to another who has not labored over it.

These words announced in today’s scripture must surely be among the saddest words in all the bible. Yet it is a truth which we all must certainly face.

In one way or another we all must leave those things over which we have cared so lovingly to others. And all we can do is just hope against hope that they will give themselves to the task with equal enthusiasm and concern.

It may be old age or sickness, and most surely and finally death itself, that tears us away from all those things and persons over which we so carefully and graciously hovered.

Recently I left a wonderful people as pastor of St. Margaret Mary parish (across from Oxmoor Center in Louisville) and took the pastorate of the churches at Campbellsville and Greensburg in south central Kentucky. Fr. Wafzig and Fr. Bowling could only hope that I would give the same loving care that they had, and I, for my part, could only hope and pray that those taking my place would continue the same care and concern I had for my former parish. Changing pastorates is like a little death and keeps us pastors from ever falling into the temptation of thinking that we are indispensable; that no one can take our place.

And that, it seems to me, is the message of the scriptures today. To think we are indispensable is vanity of vanities. “You fool, this very day your life will be required of you!”

The teaching of Jesus is clear. We must do our best over those things over which we are given stewardship. We must labor with wisdom and knowledge and skill, with all the talents at our command, those talents with which we are blessed, and in the end hand over to others what God has shared with us.

Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, set your heart on what pertains to higher realms where Christ is seated at God’s right hand. Be intent on things above rather than on things of earth.”

--Fr. Pat

Excerpt from "A Catholic's Companion: Liturgical Cycle C" (c)2000 C. Patrick Creed
Published by Watchmaker Press. Maggie Hettinger, editor