Shawn The Baptist - Sunday Scriptures

In today's epistle, St. Paul tells the Ephesians, "Be imitators of me." It's a bold statement, yet one that is good advice not only for the Ephesians, but also for us.

In today's homily I consider three ways that we might imitate St. Paul: Paul the Solider, Paul the Sinner, and Paul the Saint.

Here are some of the quotes I mention in the homily which I think help us to understand what motivated St. Paul and can help us to imitate him.

Soldier

Eph 6:11-13

Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.

Sinner

Rom 7:14

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

 2 Cor 12:7-9

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Saint

 Phil 3:4-14

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Today the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, often called All Souls Day. Yesterday we celebrated all the saints in white. We honor those have washed their robes and taken their place in heaven. Today we remember all our loved one's who have died who are still in the process of being "cleaned up" for heaven. There is a tendency today to pretend that everyone goes to heaven, and that they do so immediately after death. The truth is that both heaven and hell are very real. Only people that are perfect enter heaven with the saints, so what about those that fall a little short of "perfect" in this life?

Today's homily uses some lessons from the world of sports to help us understand our vocation better in this life. We understand in the world of sports that there are winners and losers. Part of the reason that winning is so meaningful is because losing is a very real possibility and losing is terrible. If everyone was a winner, or just "declared to be winners" such as Martin Luther might espouse, then there is really no reason to play the game. Winning wouldn't mean anything. In the game of life there are winners in heaven and losers in hell. This ultimately should not scare us, but serve to make our lives meaningful. Our struggles matter. Our sufferings are not for no purpose. Fighting hard means we can win!

The good new is that, unlike the World Series where my beloved Kansas City Royals fell 90 feet short of being winners, God has an option not available to the world of sports. God loves us too much to simply allow us into heaven while we're still losers, but he also loves us too much to send us to hell for being 90 feet short after an otherwise great season. If we truly live our lives loving God and doing the best we can, then God gives us the merciful opportunity to get cleaned up and truly become perfect in Purgatory before entering heaven.

Today we can truly assist our brothers and sisters who have died and can benefit from our prayers. We should also remember that life after death makes this present life all the more exciting. We are called to be winners, so we need to start competing well for the faith. The good news is that, unlike sports where every winner means there is also a loser, in life the only way we wind up losing is if we fail to try.

These past few weeks have been filled with a lot of confusion as faithful Catholics and even the larger world have been trying to make sense of various pieces of information coming from Rome and the Synod on the Family. In the process we've seen bishops of the Church engaging in political shenanigans, outright lying, and leaking a host of misleading statements. I suppose we can take some solace in the fact that this has often been the case throughout the history of the Church; it's just that now we have Twitter to cover the play by play.

In spite of the very human side of the Church exposed for all the world to see, the Holy Spirit has indeed been at work. Today the Church beatifies Pope Paul VI who faced similar pressure from society in his day to change Church teaching regarding contraception. The Holy Spirit protected the Church from error then and will continue to do so. In the mean time, the process may indeed look a little messy. They say that if you like sausage you shouldn't look at how the sausage is made. While that's not an excuse for some of the behavior we've seen over the last weeks, it does give us a reminder to be somewhat patient.

As is often the case, the media is not so good about covering the Church. They try to fit things into categories they can understand. In this case, they have tried to explain the synod by supposing that there are two factions or political parties at work. On the one side there is truth and those rigid conservatives who demand adherence to outdated teaching with cold and unfeeling hearts. On the other side are the pastoral and compassionate progressive bishops who want to show mercy. This might make for a nice news story, but it is simply not that case that there is some battle going on between truth and mercy. The two are not opposites. Both truth and mercy come from the same God and must always be in harmony. Today's homily seeks to explain the role of each and how they relate to marriage and the family.

Catholics love to talk about the Church, and today's Gospel is a great one. Yet, we must learn from the Gospel that the Church is built on personal faith. Specifically, it's founded on the confession of faith given by Peter himself. Each of us must ground our faith in a similar personal encounter with Jesus. When we have a personal relationship with Jesus, then the Church helps this faith to become powerful. The Church gives that personal faith a communal direction. Today's homily focuses on both of these important aspects of life in Christ.

In today's Gospel, Jesus uses an encounter with a Canaanite woman to teach us about prayer. He delays answering her prayer immediately so that her desire might be increased. God does the same with us. He wants us to desire him. Sometimes is takes a long time of asking and even suffering. In the end, the answer to our prayer is not as important as our desire for God. He wants us to end up chanting as they did when St. John Paul II visited Warsaw, "We want God!"

How do you normally expect to encounter God? Each of today's three readings point to three different ways that we might have such an encounter with God.

The following homily was given to scouts gathered for Mass in the Chapel of the Twelve Apostles at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola, Missouri.

Lots of people are talking about the World Cup of soccer. It seems these days we really love our sports. We might therefore be happy to see that apparently St. Paul did too. He frequently uses sports analogies in his writings. In today's second reading he sums up his whole life by saying he had "competed well" and "run the race." We know a lot about sports, but how much do we know about our faith? We put a lot of effort into competing well on the field, but what about competing for the faith? Surely God expects as much effort out of us with regard to our faith as we would put into soccer. Today's homily shows how even the World Cup can teach us something about life.

Pentecost reveals Jesus' commitment to his followers as he prepares them for the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

Explore the significance of Ascension and how it inspires us to seek a relationship with God throughout our lives.

Romantic love is a powerful force. Yet, when Jesus wanted to describe the love he had for his disciples he uses the word "friend."