Preparing My Easter Confession, Being Drawn to Christ

 

Saturday, 2 March, St. Rose of Lima in Garretson

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Ex 20:1-17

1 Cor 1:22-25

Jn 2:13-25

 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       How’s your Lent going? Here we are at the 3^rd Sunday already! From the Book of Exodus we are called to be mindful of the 10 Commandments. That is about as good a plan for Lent as one could think of: to see how you measure up to the big ten. And so the 1^st Reading for today can form a lesson to carry us through another week of our Lenten retreat. Both in the passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians which makes up our 2^nd Reading, and in the account from John’s Gospel of Jesus cleansing the Temple by chasing out the buyers and sellers with a whip of cords we have a ponderous reflection on the person of Jesus Christ: but we proclaim Christ crucified… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God… Zeal for your house will consume me… and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

       Lent should probably divide the spirits. It should push us personally to take a stance, both morally in terms of living out the 10 Commandments and in having us witness in all we say and do to Jesus for Who He truly is as in faith we profess Him: but we proclaim Christ crucified… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God… Zeal for your house will consume me… and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

       It is certainly true that the Lord Jesus embodies a rule for life. He is the teacher like no other, but His very way of being among us makes Christ so much more than a lawgiver. In the Lord we encounter in a real person the power of God and the wisdom of God… which is to say that we come face to face with the living God. Like the Apostles, facing Jesus should disarm us as surely as it did them.

       Just how much are we; how much are you and I truly believers? Has our Lent given space to Christ in us? The verse from the responsorial [Lord, you have the words of everlasting life] hearkens back to the standoff in John’s Gospel over the Bread of Life discourse. There Jesus tells His listeners, I am the Bread of Life come down from heaven. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have life in Me. A goodly part of the crowd walks away as they find His claims to be altogether too much. Jesus challenges His disciples, are you going to leave me too? They respond, “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of everlasting life”.

        It is sort of funny/sad how embarrassed or ashamed we can be about the Lord Jesus Christ when we encounter Him at full stature, as He truly is. Should it be any wonder that people walk away from the Church, walk away from Jesus and His message? I don’t mean to walk away out of indifference or disgust at the weakness of faith, the laxity or hypocrisy of people who claim to be pillars of the Church. Sadly enough, we see that kind of walking away all too often, especially among our young people, who have never been challenged by the faith of their parents, which is not really faith at all, but rather social conformity out of indifference.

       No, people should leave the Church for a much better reason. They should pull out their hair and run the other way because they are encountering the Lord Who has come into His Temple to sweep clean the threshing floor of chaff, so to speak. We don’t want Catholics to be frightful nags, but rather people who stand in awe of Christ among us. Our encounter, our witness should be to the Good Shepherd Who lays down His life for the flock… but we proclaim Christ crucified… Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God… Zeal for your house will consume me… and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

       How is your Lent going? Is it opening you up in awe to Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God? Has it made you more eager to get down on your knees before Him? Are you in the habit of making a good confession for Easter? Maybe with the 10 Commandments in the docket this would be the week to do that examination of conscience and prepare yourself for that Lenten/Easter confession.

       Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God… His zeal should be the one not to drive me away but to draw me toward Him, to consume me with love for Him.

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Confirmed in Christ

 

Mass of Confirmation

4 February 2024 - St. Joseph Cathedral

Readings from the FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jb 7:1-4, 6-7

1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23

Mk 1:29-39

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       Some weeks back I asked Father Morgan which readings they take for the Confirmation Mass here at the Cathedral and he said that Bishop DeGrood takes the Sunday readings, as for the people who are there on Sunday afternoon, this is their Sunday Mass. I mention that to you to explain my puzzlement over the First Reading from the Book of Job. Confirmation should be a dynamic thing about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, about going out on mission, really about conquering the whole world for Christ and His Gospel. The confirming Bishop should give you a kind of pep talk at Confirmation. But then from Job we read: “Job spoke, saying: ‘Is not man’s life on earth drudgery? ... He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages… Remember that my life is like wind. I shall not see happiness again.”

       Even our Gospel passage from St. Mark has Jesus retreating, moving on from that town after performing miracles of healing and casting out demons, in a sense I guess, to avoid the praise and popularity of those who witnessed them. He told His disciples they needed to move on to preach elsewhere.

       Your Confirmation today completes your Christian initiation begun at Baptism, already strengthened and nourished as you are by the Holy Eucharist, healed and forgiven your sins through the Sacrament of Penance. Now the Holy Spirit comes upon you in Confirmation to strengthen you in grace, to aid you in bringing Christ to our world. Confirmation is a soldier’s sacrament. It is a special grace for athletes. Heroism best describes this Sacrament. Is it even appropriate to talk about drudgery like Job does?

       I pose the question because I think yes, maybe not right now in your life for you young people, but maybe for your parents, for your aunts and uncles, for your grandparents who are here today. Maybe they need a good word. Truth to be told, being a Catholic Christian is not meant to be a joy ride. Confirmation strengthens you to stand alongside Christ in His temptation and His fast, along the path that leads to the Cross. We should not be looking for perks in this life, but rather the Lord is enough for me.

       There is a podcast of Butler’s Lives of the Saints which I really like, and the other day it was the life and martyrdom of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Already an older man, the saintly bishop was condemned to death in the arena in Rome, and drug in chains by 11 ornery soldiers all the way around the Mediterranean by ship from Syria to Italy. Continually abused by these soldiers, he had the opportunity despite his chains, in every port where they stopped and through a number of letters he wrote, to encourage fellow Christians and beg them to pray for strength for him that he might meet his end in Rome and be torn to pieces and devoured by the wild beasts in the arena. Kind of like Jesus preaching in the Gospel, Ignatius encouraged people all along the way and by their prayers and by God’s grace not only did he die well, but he left a lasting memory for Christians everywhere, a true witness to Christ, which confirmed them in the faith.

       Don’t get me wrong! I don’t wish any of you a martyr’s death, but I hope and pray that the grace of Confirmation will keep you from discouragement in life and enable you to pray with St. Ignatius of Antioch for the strength and courage to follow Christ beyond the Cross to Glory!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Turning to the Lord: From the Depths to the Heights

 

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

20 January 2024 – Harrisburg, St. JPII Parish

Jon 3:1-5, 10

1 Cor 7:29-31

Mk 1:14-20

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       The Scriptures for this 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time all contribute to proclaiming the basic message of Jesus Christ as reported today in the Gospel of Mark. Responding to the Lord is what our lives as Catholics is all about. Jesus spoke then and continues to speak to us.

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       As I say, this message goes through all the readings for today. In the first reading, after the account of his attempted flight from God, the prophet Jonah surrenders to God’s will and fulfills his mission from God Almighty to preach to the wicked people of Nineveh, that they should repent from their sins, “Set out for the great city of Nineveh and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” Quite miraculously and against all odds, the people from greatest to least repented at the preaching of Jonah.

I think it is of primary importance to focus on the change of heart which Jonah’s preaching worked in those people, their turning to God for mercy. To know of their repentance and conversion is more important than it is to know the details of the bad deeds, sins, or failings of the Ninevites. We are meant first and foremost to see their turning generally from ignoring God, from their failure to be responsive to God and His Will, to turning to Him in weeping, sack cloth and ashes, turning to Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. When it comes to ignoring the Lord Who made and saved us, I cannot help but think that perhaps in our day and time our situation is worse than that of those people to whom Jonah was sent to preach.

       We see this repeated in the basic message delivered by today’s second reading. There St. Paul calls the Corinthians and us to radical conversion. “For the world in its present form is passing away.”

        Our world and our Church today has a desperate need for repentance, of turning from our own ways to seek the face of God and do His holy will. You’ll get people who are almost hysterical about our living in the end times, they are troubled and confused. Let us just say that maybe it would be better to see the horrible straits in which our world finds itself not knowing really how to respond. Thankfully, they are not few, the people seized by the urgency of turning their lives over to Christ. Jesus’ message seems to be coming through again in our time, changing hearts and lives. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       “Forty more days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”  What is the great destruction looming on the horizon for us? What is it that must change in our lives if we are to be saved? “I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.” Those are St. Paul’s words from almost two millennia ago. People will point to what they call Paul’s alarmism and try to discredit his message, using the argument that obviously the time hasn’t run out so maybe St. Paul was overstating the case. They, however, may just be ignoring the teaching from the Book of Jonah. Maybe they are discounting the possibility that Paul’s preaching saved the world back then, and that humanity has been saved from destruction by the preaching of the Church over the centuries and people’s repentance time and time again in various ages.

       Jonah seemed very much annoyed that God had spared the great city of Nineveh. In a sense, we are not that different as we may wish contrary to the will of God that our enemies would be destroyed, unmindful of what the Prophet Ezekiel (18:24) teaches. It is not God’s will that the sinner die, but rather that he repent and be saved. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?”

       The question is how should we respond to the preaching of Christ as carried on in the Church. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       When Jonah made his attempt to escape by boat across the sea from God’s will for him, he went below deck curled up and went to sleep. He tried to crowd the Lord out of his life and thoughts by not watching and praying with the sailors and the rest of the passengers on that boat. What then is repentance if not our turning to God by embracing a life of prayer? Offering each day to Him when we awake, giving thanks for our food, and examining our conscience at the end of each day. We must cultivate a sense of the presence of God in our lives. We must rouse ourselves from sleep so to speak.

Recently, I was impressed by the witness of two people, one, a woman who was undergoing cancer treatment, who told how a Catholic lady friend came to visit each day of her treatment to pray the rosary with her. Her cancer is in remission. She attribute that as much to the Mother of God as to modern medicine. She will be received into the Catholic Church this Easter. The other is a former Anglican priest and bishop now a Catholic convert, who followed the advice of a Catholic priest friend, an exorcist, who told him that if he wanted to be freed of the torments of Satan, then he should pray the rosary. Is your life anchored in prayer or are you sleeping somewhere below deck attempting to flee from God’s love?

       The two great commandments are love of God and love of neighbor. Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is not a question of affection or sentiment. It is a matter of obedience to His commands, of sorrow and the resolve to make amends and change when we fail. Why do people hide below deck and refuse to seek to achieve a regular practice of the Sacrament of Penance in their hearts? We need to assume responsibility for all the ways we fail God and neighbor.

       “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

"I am the Lord, there is no other"

 

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY

IN ORDINARY TIME

21-22 October – Holy Spirit Parish

Is 45:1, 4-6

1 Thes 1:1-5b

Mt 22:15-21

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus… It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other.”

       Big Cyrus, the pagan conqueror, who lets Israel return to the Promised Land, without them lifting a finger, after 70 years in Babylonian captivity. The prophet Isaiah tells us that this was God’s doing. It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. Cyrus was God’s chosen instrument to restore Israel to its home. Over the course of time it has never proved easy for people, even people of faith, to grasp that our God does indeed rule the universe and guide the course of history. Not an easy truth, but a truth just the same: God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ rules the universe. If we could always and everywhere profess that truth we would not live so anxiously, burdens would be easier to carry, and we just might live more consistently in hope.

       In the Gospel of Matthew today, the Pharisees would seem to give the impression that they are in charge of their people’s fate. “Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?”      Their “us-against-the-world” attitude, so to speak, is a good part of what got the Pharisees to hold to the letter of the law and simply insist on keeping the conquering Romans at arm’s length, as if it were unthinkable to grant the Romans a place in God’s plan for His people Israel, to recognize the oppressor’s place in determining the fate of the people not only for bad but also for good. When asked to declare Himself for one party or the other, to choose between the Romans and the observance of the Law, Jesus confounds the Pharisees in His response to their challenge by speaking to the reality of Israel’s situation of subjection to Rome. “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

       As evident or obvious as Jesus’ response was, it was for the Pharisees and is in similar situations in our world a case of thinking outside the box. Most people are immediate and political in their approach to life. In living just for the present moment not many people actually grapple with the big questions in life, at least not with those dealing with the power and presence of God in our world. Our attitude seems to be one more inspired by the workings of politics or of the debate platform, and hence motivated by the quest for short-term gains. In the light of this Sunday’s readings, I think we should rather focus on the role of divine providence in our lives, about God’s will being done in all things despite the impression we might have that He the Lord is seemingly absent from the bigger picture.

       I don’t think there is a day which goes by in a social setting when someone doesn’t complain to me about either people in civil government or in church government. They let their nerves get frayed over things beyond their control. This situation on the southern border or that comment by some politician has them all up in arms, filled with disgust, and really at their wit’s ends. Very few of them seem to take consolation from the suggestion that it might be better to spend much less time following the news.

       The phrase “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” is not calculating and does not represent a political stance, but it does speak to the reality of things. From little on, we are taught to pray for rain in due season and to pray for a bountiful harvest. It makes sense in that these are things beyond our control. The longer I live in this world of ours, the clearer it becomes to me that praying the Lord to grant wisdom and grace to our leaders is a no less worthwhile prayer intention. The more disinformation we encounter out there in the world the more sense it makes to beg the Lord to place His mighty Hand on all those who wield the scepter of power in our world.

       It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me.

       Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as the psalmist says. May those who love you prosper!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Wiping away every Tear and every Reproach

 

TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

14-15 October 2023 – St. Lambert Parish

Is 25:6-10a

Phil 4:12-14, 19-20

Mt 22:1-14

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast…

Who wouldn’t long for this great day on the Lord’s Mountain about which Isaiah prophesies?

The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth…

And yet from what we hear recounted in today’s Gospel and from the news accounts that come to our attention, not to mention sometimes our own sad experience with relatives and friends, it must be said that being a practicing Catholic is not generally a high priority. Being a good Catholic is not considered the be all and the end all of life in this world. Not a few people seem to run the other way or worse when the king invites them to his son’s wedding.

In our Gospel today from St. Matthew, we hear recounted the parable of the king eager to celebrate his son’s wedding feast with his subjects. When the invited guests refused to come and even mistreated or killed the king’s servants, the king had these ingrates and their cities destroyed. He then filled the banquet hall with all sorts of people whom he had virtually constrained to come in from the highways and byways. Refusing or declining the king’s invitation was not an option. The king and his officers would not take “no” for an answer. Even so, the man who presented himself at the feast without a proper wedding garment was punished, hogtied, and cast into the darkness outside. “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Just by way of an aside, if you are looking for a text from Scripture to explain to unbelieving friends why we baptize babies, this would be a good candidate.

“’Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.”

On the one hand, the parable describes the universal nature of the call to holiness. At the same time as the text highlights individual human freedom, the parable points to the sobering reality of people in this world who either turn their back on God in His Church, even lash out against him and his servants, or sort of participate half-heartedly or under some kind of mental reservation, like the man in the parable not dressing for the occasion of a wedding banquet. The simple truth is that if you would be part of the Lord’s great wedding feast spoken about by Christ in the Gospel, you must not only enter in, but also act and dress the part, that is, really enter in by renouncing sin and all that is contrary to God’s will. To find your place at the king’s big table you must break with Satan, with all his works, and with all his empty promises.

        The Gospel scene may strike us as a bit odd to the extent that we might find the king’s behavior unreasonable, his forcing someone to come to the party and then on top of it insisting that person dress up like a proper guest. “My king! Take me as I am! Like it or lump it!”

       For a lot of years that may have been my reaction to the reading of this parable. Why is the king so uppity? Why doesn’t he take the man as he is? Why the formality of dress? After all, it was not as if he was trying to get into this feast. In a sense, this wedding celebration was forced on him! You can imagine him saying, “There I was minding my own business and then all of a sudden they grabbed me literally and now here I am at the wedding of the king’s son!”

        In the old days and yet still the classic example of refusal of the king’s invitation was noted in Catholic parents who for whatever reason refused to pass on their Catholic faith to their children. It is the old story of people who don’t baptize their children as soon as possible in infancy, saying it would be better for them to choose Baptism on their own. That may be their claim based on some false notion of human freedom, but no! It’s wrong. The point is that we belong at the wedding feast the king prepares for his son. As there is no better alternative, whether by failing to baptize, or by not setting a good example, or by not properly instructing our children in the faith. If we do not heed the king’s call without hesitation, then we reject God and we harm those entrusted to our care. We could also mention the tragedy of those who though brought up Catholic themselves at some time in their lives walk away from the practice of the faith (and they seem to be many these days)!

       The real-life consequences of the faith are those described in today’s Gospel. They involve embracing wholeheartedly the call we have received from our parents, in and through the Church, to come and share in the king’s wedding feast. How could we deprive a child of the great gift of Baptism? It would be like depriving that child of life’s greatest good.

In our day especially, we can note all those who pretend to set their own terms for belonging to the Church. The parable’s example of the man showing up not properly dressed for the party best describes this group of people who claim to remain in the Church on their own terms. It is something which just cannot be, for that too would be a rejection of the king and his invitation. Here too punishment is due. Hogtie him and throw him outdoors into the dark! This snub of our duties as Catholics must have its consequences, this rejection of the king, whether overt and aggressive as it was done by the first group of invitees or somewhat cynical and passive as in the case of the man from the street still refusing to dress the part of an honored guest.

       The invitation to come to the feast cannot be anything other than a call to engagement with the king and ultimately a call to obedience to the king’s will. What do I care about the king’s son getting married? Why should I engage myself by going all the way and getting dressed up for the occasion? What ultimately is in it for me? Talk about the obligations of our Catholic life is an awkward sort of conversation involving lifelong faithfulness in marriage and demanding chastity according to our state in life, excluding all sexual activity outside of marriage. Even within marriage, the marital act itself must be open to the creation of new human life. Let’s try couching the thing in negative terms and saying that to reject the king’s invitation is to throw our lot in with the devil. By siding with God in His Church, we are committing ourselves to rejecting Satan and his lies.

       My suspicion is that you are eager to correspond to the wishes of the king and to join in his feast already now and for eternity. You want to live a good and holy life. Even so, we fail and need the sacrament of Penance as an aid on our path to holiness. We also have a burden to carry for others who fail in this regard. We must teach those in our care about the urgency of a prompt and wholehearted response to the invitation of the king. It can’t hurt to state it negatively both for them and for us. A little dread of being cast down from God’s Mountain into the depths of hell may be a great start on our path to the wedding feast, lest we end up in the darkness outside.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

To Dread the Loss of Heaven and the Pains of Hell

 19^th Sunday after Pentecost

8 October 2023 – Canton

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “For many are called, but few are chosen.” “Give not place to the devil.” If you would be part of the Lord’s great wedding feast spoken about by Christ in the Gospel, you must renounce sin. That is, you must break with Satan, with all his works, and with all his empty promises.

       The great English martyr bishop, St. John Fisher, stated clearly that three things are required of us in that regard: 1) contrition, that is, genuine sorrow for our sins, 2) confession to the priest of all our mortal sins, and 3) satisfaction, making amends in order to scrub away what lingers on our souls of past sins now forgiven. A great nineteenth century French spiritual author commenting on this Sunday’s Gospel explains that dreading the loss of heaven and the pains of hell is a worthy motivation for working to expiate past sins, correct our present faults, and guard against falls from grace in the future.

       In our Gospel today from St. Matthew, we hear recounted the parable of the king eager to celebrate his son’s wedding feast with his subjects. When the invited guests refused to come and even mistreated or killed the king’s servants, the king had these ingrates and their cities destroyed. He then filled the banquet hall with all sorts of people whom he had constrained to come in from the highways and byways. The king and his officers would not take “no” for an answer. Even so, the man who presented himself at the feast without a proper wedding garment was punished, hogtied, and cast into the darkness outside. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” This man who failed to dress properly for the wedding is the soul who fails to make satisfaction, to undergo the third scrubbing taught by St. John Fisher and all the great tradition of the Church.

        The Gospel scene may strike us as a bit odd to the extent that we find the king’s behavior unreasonable, his forcing someone to come to the party and then on top of it insisting that person dress up like a proper guest. “My king! Take me as I am! Like it or lump it!”

       For a lot of years that may have been my reaction to the reading of this parable. Why is the king so uppity? Why doesn’t he take the man as he is? Why the formality of dress? After all, this wedding celebration was forced on him! You can imagine him saying, “There I was minding my own business and then all of a sudden they grabbed me literally and now here I am at the wedding of the king’s son!”

You’ll hear people, especially adolescents, who react in much the same way to their call to live the Christian life by the grace of their Baptism. Like it or not, they are expected to take on the obligations of life in the Church (The famous Sunday morning struggle: “Son, get out of that bed! As long as you are under my roof, you are going to church with your mother and me!”). It has not been uncommon for years now to hear of people who don’t baptize their children as soon as possible in infancy, saying it would be better for them to choose Baptism on their own. You do hear that, but no! It’s wrong. The real life consequences of the faith are those described in today’s Gospel. They are those of embracing wholeheartedly the call we have received from our parents, in and through the Church, to come and share in the king’s wedding feast. How could we deprive a child of the great gift of Baptism? It would be like depriving that child of life’s greatest good.

        Let us leave aside for a moment parents who for whatever reason fail to pass on their Catholic faith to their children, whether by failing to baptize, by not setting a good example, or by not properly instructing them in the faith! Let us also not talk of the tragedy of those who themselves walk away from the practice of the faith (and they seem to be many these days)! Rather let us consider for a moment those who claim to set their own terms for being Catholic! Being Catholic on my own terms, forgiving my own sins, showing up not properly dressed for the party is something which just cannot be. That too would be a rejection of the king and his invitation. Here too punishment is due. Hogtie him and throw him outdoors into the dark! This snub of our duties as Catholics must have its consequences, this rejection of the king, whether overt and aggressive as it was done by the first group of invitees or somewhat cynical and passive as in the case of the man hauled into the wedding from the street still refusing to dress the part of an honored guest. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  (Matt. 12:30)

       The invitation to come to the feast cannot be anything other than a call to engagement with the king and ultimately a call to obedience to the king’s will. People sometimes refer to such demands put upon us as forced fun. What do I care about the king’s son getting married? Why should I engage myself by going all the way and getting dressed up for the occasion? What ultimately is in it for me? It is an awkward sort of conversation and so perhaps we’re better off taking another approach. Let’s try couching the thing in negative terms and saying that to reject the king’s invitation is to throw our lot in with the devil. By siding with God in His Church, we are committing ourselves to rejecting Satan and his lies.

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:2-5)

       My suspicion is that all of you are eager to correspond to the wishes of the king and to live a good and holy life. Even so, we have a burden to carry for others who fail in this regard. We must also hasten to teach those in our care about the urgency of a prompt and wholehearted response to the invitation of the king. And why not state it negatively both for them and for us? A little dread may be a great start on our path to the wedding feast of heaven, lest we end up in the darkness outside.

Praised be Jesus Christ! 

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

The Master's Will for us to bear good Fruit.

 

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY

IN ORDINARY TIME

7-8 October 2023 - St. Lambert Parish

Is 5:1-7

Phil 4:6-9

Mt 21:33-43

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

       This last sentence from today’s Gospel just has to hold our attention; these words should really hold us bound. They are both an exhortation to all to behave rightly and a condemnation of some who have remained stubbornly unfaithful to the Divine Will. “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” Jesus through His Church is admonishing us as Catholics to get with the program, to be faithful to the Gospel.

       This Sunday’s theme could not be stated clearer than it is in the assigned scriptures. Both our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah and Matthew’s Gospel refer to vineyards, to farm production, to the yield of grapes expected in due time given all the effort invested before and over the course of the growing season. Isaiah in the first reading talks about the tragedy of having planted choice vines which sadly yield wild grapes, not good either for eating or for making decent wine.

       I can identify with this grape production/vineyard imagery as last spring I ordered a rhubarb root online to replace some that had rotted out in the South Dakota clay on the south side of my house (rhubarb likes it a bit dryer). Maybe a week after I planted the root which came in the mail, I got an apology from the company and a refund. Somehow, they had made a mistake and sent me Chinese rhubarb, which is an ornamental plant, intended to produce fragrant flowers but no good for rhubarb sauce, pie or crisp. As in the account from the prophet, once the Chinese rhubarb had come up and leafed out, I could see the difference and dug it up and threw it away. Fragrant flowers was not what I had ordered online. No reasonable person with a taste for rhubarb would fault me for throwing the thing away. It is not what I had expected, and the seed company had apologized beforehand for their mistake.

       Isaiah explains the lesson in these words: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry!” The prophet condemned Israel for not bearing the desired fruit, for not behaving as God’s People should, for not producing the desired fruit of justice and peace.

The Gospel has a different focus, not on bad plants but on the tenant farmers who not only refused the owner of the vineyard his due, but laid hands on his servants and even killed his son, the heir to the property, thinking to make the vineyard their own by violence.

“Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

       My guess is that even the thickest headed people today would understand the point of our parable and of our prophecy. Even so given the woke state of affairs which prevails in society, they might refuse to apply it in their own lives. Too often people out there in the world throw fits when they are called to render account for their failure to observe God’s law, to obey His commands.

       It is an odd state of affairs, but not only people who have never been catechized, who do not know their faith, but a lot of those who should know better refuse to submit to Christ. They refuse to live by God’s law. They fail to produce good fruit or like the wicked tenants they commit acts of aggression against the servants of the living God.

       Some of those people are like the wild grapes or the Chinese rhubarb, which should never have been, given their Baptism and upbringing in the Catholic Faith, 12 years of Catholic schooling and maybe even having frequented a so-called Catholic institute of higher learning. No mercy! Root them out! Let them go!

That is not to say that the Lord is without mercy. We can always find consolation in the parable of the fig tree which bears no fruit and which because of the servant's intercession with the master gains one more year of cultivation and fertilizer before it should be cut down. Like good servants we owe our prayers and supplications to all who have been unfaithful to the promises of their Baptism. That the Lord in His love and mercy would call them back to the right path. Parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters especially owe them our sincere acts of penance for their conversion and eternal salvation.

       The same is true for all those who were not properly raised in the faith, who were exposed to grave scandal as children or adolescents even sometimes in our Catholic schools. We owe them our best efforts at winning their recovery. But this does not mean that we should approve their behavior as wild grapes, good for nothing, or as Chinese rhubarb, fit neither for a pie, nor for a crisp, nor even for rhubarb sauce, no matter how much sugar and cinnamon you throw into the pot. Abortion never gets a pass, nor generally does in vitro fertilization or surrogacy. People living in adultery, same-sex unions, or extra-marital relationships should not approach to receive Holy Communion.

       When we are truly sorry and able to make a good confession, we should never delay approaching the Sacrament of Penance. Wild grapes and Chinese rhubarb have no place in the Lord’s Garden. Fear of offending the Lord of Life demands that we bend to His Will and find life in Him for ourselves and for all those dear to us. “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI