Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

This week's homily was given to the archdiocesan permanent diaconate aspirants and their families during their weekend of formation.

Marriage and the end of the world… the classic combination. While this thought may create some light-hearted jokes among spouses, our readings today take this connection very seriously. As beautiful as marriage is, it’s more of a “coming attraction” preview of not just the end of this world, but the beginning of life in the new world to come.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that, in heaven, people “neither marry nor are given in marriage.” If marriage is a holy sacrament, why is there no marriage in heaven? Well, there is. Now, I’m not contradicting Jesus here. In heaven there is marriage, but there’s just one marriage. All of us will be “married” to God. As intimate as the connection is between husband and wife on earth, this is only a sign of the intimacy that we will have with God in heaven.

God wants to marry us. That’s the story of the entire Bible in a nutshell. In this world, our love is limited. But in heaven, our love with be perfected. It’s not that we won’t know our earthly spouse(s) in heaven; it’s just that we will be able to know and love everyone who ever lived. This thought was far from the mind of those questioning Jesus in the Gospel and I fear that it is often far from our minds as well.

If we know that we are meant to live forever in marital intimacy with God and all our brothers and sisters, then we ought to ask ourselves how we’re doing right now with these relationships. Maybe your relationship with God needs a second honeymoon right now. Marriage takes effort on our part. Scripture refers to the end of the world as “the consummation of the ages.” If you understand that we are made for marriage with God, then death and the end of this world is indeed “a consummation devoutly to be wished.”

When there is a job to be done, sometimes we ask for volunteers. "We need an usher... can anybody help?" What usually happens is the same people who volunteer for everything volunteer for one more thing. "Well, if the parish needs something... I'll do it." Those kind of people are amazing. However, a better approach to using all our talents is that people who have a special ability in a certain area are actively sought out and recruited. The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to different people. If 10% of the people in the parish are volunteering for 90% of the time, then we're missing out on the real talents of most of the parish.

This weekend at St. Patrick's we are talking about stewardship of our time and talent. In today's homily I talk about my own experiences with trying to discern what to do with God's gifts and even being surprised by what God does. Whatever parish you are at or whatever state in life you are in, you have unique talents that God is calling you to use for the good of your family, the Church, and the world. A parish really is a family. A family thrives when everyone is valued and everyone does their part. What gifts is God calling you to use for his glory?

Today's gospel parable seems like a classic case of the the "good guy" vs. "the bad guy." Jesus definitely seems to set it up with the Pharisee as an example of "what not to do." Yet, there are some things that I think the Pharisee gets right. There are even some ways that perhaps the tax collector also gets some things wrong.

One thing the Pharisee gets right is that he is in fact special. The children of Israel were set apart by God deliberately as his chosen people. The law that God revealed was an incredible gift. The Pharisee would have grown up loving this law and desiring to follow it. All this is good and noble. The problem comes in when the Pharisee begins to see himself in isolation from God's plan for his "people." It's not that the Pharisee himself is so incredible special, but that he has a special mission as a part of God's chosen people. Israel was supposed to be holy and set apart so that they might draw others to God. Instead, this Pharisee has been drawn into himself.

For us as Catholics, we need to make sure that we don't fall into society's trap of thinking that our faith is not special, that it's just "one among many." The Catholic Church, founded by Jesus, is the fulfillment of what God began in Israel. We are chosen. We are special. The Church Jesus founded has everything that God intended his Church to have. Only the Catholic Church has this. To say anything less would be to say that God came in the flesh in Jesus, he died for us, left us the sacraments, and told us that there is no way to the Father except through him... but it really doesn't matter. Believe whatever you want and probably everyone goes to heaven. That's silly. Either the Catholic Church is what she claims to be, or there is no God. It's a big deal.

Now, lest we make the mistake of the Pharisee, let's be clear that each of us individually may not be doing so well as a member of God's holy and special people. This is what the tax collector gets right. He knows he's a sinner and in desperate need of God's mercy. This should be our fundamental stance before God every day. "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." But here's where perhaps the tax collector goes wrong, and perhaps we could too. God doesn't mean for the tax collector to stay stuck in back with his head bowed in shame. God wants to meet him there, but then move him forward. If we think that we can just say "Woe is me, I'm a sinner," and stay where we're at, then we greatly misunderstand God's plan for us.

Most of us are probably somewhere in between these two extreme. We're still on the road. As St. Paul puts it in the second reading, we're still running "the race." It's time then that we accept that this life is a race and that we keep going. There's no partial credit for getting almost to the finish line. Let's resolve today to give in neither to presumption or despair. Let's compete well, run the race to the finish... let's keep the faith.

In the middle of the 17th century, the first Jesuits came to what is today the United States and Canada. This weekend marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of 8 of these missionaries, known as the North American Martyrs or the Canadian Martyrs. Led by St. Isaac Jogues, and St. John de Brebeuf, they died for the faith from 1642-1649 in what is now Ontario and upstate New York. Today's homily considers some of the incredible details of the lives of these early missionaries.

As much as we ought to be impressed by the courage of these martyrs, it is more important that we look at their faith. In today's more secular culture, it can be hard to understand the religious motivation of these men. To a modern society focused on riches and weak in faith, we assume that the primary motivation for travel to America must have been wealth or conquest. It was quite the opposite for the missionaries. Faith was their great treasure and their only conquest was for souls.

The missionaries, and indeed the whole Church, knew and took seriously the need for baptism and belief in the Jesus. The real motivation for travel to the "New World" for so many was the desire to spread the faith. They knew that faith in Jesus was necessary for salvation. They were therefore ready to risk even their own lives so that these newly encountered peoples in America might have eternal life. This is the opposite of selfishness and is in fact a great work of charity.

The question for us today is then "Do we have this kind of faith?" It seems that too often we have deceived ourselves with thought that "Probably everyone goes to heaven." We are content to sit back in comfort and trust that "Somehow God will save everyone unknowingly." Such reasoning was unthinkable to Isaac Jogues and his companions. They knew that spreading the gospel was life and death work, for their own lives surely, but more importantly, for the eternal life of others.

As we honor the North American Martyrs this weekend and all missionaries, let's be grateful. It has become popular in culture today to bash the coming of the Christian faith to America. Resist this erroneous defamation of our missionary ancestors. More importantly, ask yourself if you still believe what they believed or have you let the faith get watered down. As Jesus puts it plainly in the gospel today, "When the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" If he does, it will be thanks to missionaries. Resolve today to go out and be a missionary disciple of Jesus.

If you want God to increase your faith, be ready for him to give you situations that require you to exercise faith.

We shouldn't expect life to be easy, St. Paul reminds St. Timothy and us today that we must be prepared to "Fight the good fight of faith."

In today’s second reading, St. Paul is writing to St. Timothy, who he has left as bishop in charge of one of his new churches. Not unlike our own times, Timothy was faced with a culture that was not living in a very moral way and was not always open to the Christian message. It would have been easy for Timothy to get discouraged. So, Paul writes a letter of encouragement that we today include among the Sacred Scriptures.

Paul begins by reminding Timothy of his dignity: “But you, man of God…” He uses this rather lofty title, “Man of God” to remind him of his identity, that he has been chosen by God and entrusted with this mission not be accident. After some moral reminders, Paul then has one of his most famous lines, “Compete well for the faith.” In the Greek, it’s better rendered, “Fight the good fight of faith.” The “encouragement” Paul offers is not some reassuring platitude that “everything is alright,” but rather the truth that Timothy should not expect peace, but battle. Be ready to fight, to “lay hold” of eternal life.

Paul then shifts his language to remind Timothy of the “noble confession” he had made. Here Paul is most likely reminding Timothy of the promises he solemnly swore at his baptism. We can often think of our baptismal promises as just some words. In truth, they are a solemn oath that we have sworn to God. Rejecting Satan and choosing God is not easy, it requires battle and fighting, but like a good soldier we have sworn to engage in this fight and we must do our duty.

Finally, Paul ends with a doxology, a “word of glory” in praise of God. However, in doing so, he keeps up his rather militant theme by attacking the most powerful man in the world, Caesar. Among other truths, Paul says that Jesus is “the only ruler,” “the King of Kings and Lord of Lords” who is “alone immortal.” These were all things that the Roman emperors claimed as belonging to them. In this doxology, Paul is both praising God and essentially punching Caesar in the nose. As we might say in our contemporary culture, “Them’s fightin’ words!”

Everybody cheats, right? Well, maybe a little? Today's readings give us some insight into what God thinks about cheating.

Our readings today call attention to several issues of false business practices. In short, we’re dealing with a bunch of greedy cheaters. In the first reading, the prophet Amos is criticizing those who are fudging the numbers on the fair value of trades. If you want to sell a bushel of something, well, they’re using a bushel basket that is just a bit bigger than it ought to be. If you’ve trying to weigh something, well, they’re weights are just a bit off. And then there’s the ole thumb on the scale trick. The fix is in. Maybe they seem like small things, but Amos knows that it’s the poor that are being defrauded and God is not happy.

In the gospel, the cheating is more subtle. The steward in question would have been responsible for managing the master’s goods. As a part of this, he might have made some loans. But here’s where the subtle cheating comes in. What he was likely doing was giving a loan of 50 measures of olive oil, but then requiring the person to pay back 100 measures. He’s charging double the price in interest and then taking the profit for himself. This is the same reason that tax collectors were hated. You charge twice the required tax and then keep the extra as a sort of “processing fee.” The prophet Amos assures us that God is not happy about this, especially because it hurts the poor. Just think of predatory “payday loans” in our own time.

But God gives a way out. In all these situations, there is a day of reckoning. The prophet Amos is sent. The unjust steward is called to task by his master. As we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew this weekend, we remember one of the greatest “day of reckoning” encounters ever. Matthew is caught as it were in the very act of tax collecting when Jesus says to him, “follow me.” And he does! How is God calling you today? Where are you cheating others or maybe even cheating God out of the full gift of your time, talent, and treasure? If you need to be more detached from mammon, i.e. worldly things, today is your day of reckoning. This is your call. God just wants you to be free and joyful. So if you say no, you’re really cheating yourself.

Where was God? We often ask this whenever we encounter suffering. But the answer to this question can actually be quite shocking.