St. Joseph Church Homilies

“Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Him, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Him, will never die.” 

                                                                 DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?                                                       

This week’s readings have a message of hope, resurrection, and -new life.  As I was meditating on these readings, a personal experience, kept coming to mind, which I would like to share with you. Before I start, I would like to make it clear, that this experience is in no way intended to be about me, but on how God, through the Holy Spirit, works through each and every one of us, to help each other.

I was a volunteer chaplain and a palliative care volunteer at the local hospital, assisting the nurses and PSW’s with morning feeding, personal hygiene, and changing of bedding. One Tuesday morning the head nurse in the palliative care unit asked if I would visit a new patient. Let’s call him Michael. She told me the patient wouldn’t get up, wouldn’t get dressed, and wasn’t eating much, all he wanted to do was lie in his bed. She said he was very angry, depressed, and upset that he was still alive.  After finishing my duties with the other patients, I said a prayer to myself asking the Holy Spirit to be with me and entered the patient’s room. I introduced myself and told him I was a volunteer chaplain and studying to be a deacon in the Catholic Church. He was very quick to tell me, that he was of a different faith.  Then he asked me, how old I was. When I told him my age, he asked very gruffly, “why in the world would I want to be a deacon at my age?”  (I really didn’t think I was that old).

He then started to question me about my thoughts, on different parts of the bible. At the end, of my Bible test – he said, “well- at least we agree on something.” Hearing, that he knew the Bible very well, I asked him about his involvement in his church. He told me about the things he had done at his church over the years, and it was obvious, he had been a leader in his church, and a person of great faith. He was actually starting to warm up a bit, so I asked Michael about his family. He told me he had five children and then spoke about three of his sons and daughters who were doing very well and how very proud he was of them.

 I asked him, “What about your other two children?  He told me he was very upset with the choice of life mates his other two children had made. One of his sons’ was living with another man, and one of his daughters’ was married to a black man and they had a son. He felt both of these situations were very wrong and they concerned him greatly. 

Michael then told me about his wife, whom he had been married to, for over sixty years. She was a wonderful woman, terrific wife and a caring mother. Next, he told me he had been diagnosed with leukemia three years ago and was originally told, he would probably have two years to live.  Then he got very angry and hollered, “It’s been three years, so why hasn’t God taken me? I don’t want to live any longer.”  We talked a little more about his grand...

As we listened to todays’ Gospel, we heard about so many things that should not have happened. Certainly, the people at that time would have had many questions that challenged them to open their minds to the actions and words of Jesus. Jesus uses these actions and words to pass on two key teachings.

The Gospel begins after our Lord’s own Baptism, when his disciples had started baptizing a number of people. Because of this, Jesus was concerned about becoming involved in a controversy with the Pharisees, so He felt it was time to move on, and start their journey back to Galilee. This is the first thing that the people would question. Why would Jesus make the decision to go through Samaria to go to Galilee? It was the shortest route, but at that time there had been a centuries old feud between the Jews and the Samaritans, so most Jewish travellers would go around Samaria. Being thirsty and tired Jesus stopped just outside the town of Sychar and sent his disciples into town for food. We have to wonder what is happening to Jesus’s disciples. Going into a Samaritan town to buy food was very dangerous and Samaritans were considered unclean, so again, this was not something a Jewish person would do. Unconsciously, had Jesus already started to change the disciple’s way of thinking? Was this the beginning of the barriers coming down for all peoples living together? 

Jesus didn’t go with the disciples but instead waited at the well by myself. There is quite a bit of Jewish history attached to the well where Jesus rested.  From Genesis, we know that this is the ground that Jacob bequeathed on his deathbed to Joseph. Then on Joseph’s deathbed in Egypt, his body was returned to this site to be buried. While Jesus was waiting, a Samaritan woman came to the well, which was located about a half mile from the town. We have to ask ourselves another question. Why the woman came all this way to draw water, as most towns had water within the town? Possibly, she was considered a moral outcast, as Jesus told us she had five husbands. Therefore, had the local women driven her away from the village well? The discussion Jesus has with this woman is very important as it was the longest discussion Jesus had with anyone in the Bible. 

Jesus spoke to her saying, “give me a drink”. The Samaritan woman must have thought, what in the world is this man asking? Men did not speak to women in public. Jewish people never spoke to Samaritans. Lastly, Jesus had no vessel to put the water in. Certainly he would not have used her vessel, as it would have been considered unclean. Without a doubt, she must have known there was something very different about this man.  

So what have we learned so far about the character of Jesus? First of all, it shows us our Lord’s humanity. It shows us, he got tired and weary and that life for him was an effort, just as it is for us sometimes. He didn’t have people waiting on him, and he walked everywhere just like most people at that time. Secondly, it shows us the warmth of his understanding, his sympathy, his compassion, and his Divinity. Had Jesus been an ordinary religious leader, the woman at the well would have would have done her best to avoid him or fled in embarrassment. But instead, she found it natural to talk to Jesus. She had met someone who was not a critic, one who did not condemn her, but one who understood her.                                    Thirdly, it shows us, Jesus as the breaker down of barriers. The quarrel between the Jews and the Samaritans had gone on for a long, long time and basically they were enemies and despised one another. Yet, here we have, Jesus a Jew,

I’m so happy to see our space here mostly returned to how it was before the first pandemic lockdown, about two years ago. It looks great, thanks to a small team who spent near five hours on Saturday putting all the pews back into place. We all still need to wear masks, and please do so – it does make my life easier. Those who wish are welcome to receive Communion on the tongue again too. But, if you’re receiving in this way, please receive from the priest and come up at the back of the Communion line. These remaining pandemic cautions will eventually disappear too, I have no doubts.

Wouldn’t life be much easier without temptation? I mean, we all want to be saints. But even coming here to worship is a challenge for many for the temptation to stay in the warmth of our homes. I know I spend a great deal of prayer asking God to, “…lead us not into temptation…”. But temptations still arise. Maybe, that’s one reason why the Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Lent is one of my favourites: because it’s easy to relate to.

This Gospel is one of my favourites because, when facing unwanted temptation, it’s easy to believe that I must be doing something wrong. Indeed, while there are certainly many careless ways that someone might ‘inspire’ temptation, perhaps by feeding imagination with images best left unseen or keeping the object of temptation close at hand, temptation isn’t necessarily a sign that someone is doing something wrong. No, in this retelling of the temptations of Our Lord, we learn the simple truth that temptation is just inescapable; even God, it seems, when he takes on a human nature, isn’t free of this burden.

Baptism doesn’t free one from temptation, nor does holiness or devotion. Of course, no one should go looking for temptation, but those who face temptation are in good company and it hopefully brings some consolation to know that in the ‘Our Father’, Jesus prays right along with his people, with more sincerity than the best of us could ever muster, “…lead us not into temptation…”. Of course, I know what temptations I face and I’m sure I encounter temptations I’m not aware of at all. But what could tempt God? Why would Jesus feel the need to pray, “…lead us not into temptation…”?

At one point in the Gospel today, Jesus is taken up a mountain and tempted to become king of all nations throughout the world. Now, God doesn’t really need more power; he’s already omnipotent. But imagine if Jesus were king of all nations: there would be no need for trade disputes or even borders. There would be no concern for inflation or interest rates. There would be no reason for any to flee their homes to live as refugees, elections would be unnecessary and it wouldn’t be nearly so dangerous to bring up politics at the dinner table, even at Christmas.

Considering what’s going on in eastern Europe right now, I could imagine this being an especially big temptation for our Saviour. For, if Jesus were king of all nations, he could easily end all war and injustice. After-all, part of the Good News Jesus proclaims includes the establishment of a kingdom free of these evils.

While a world-wide kingdom free of all hunger, war and injustice may be a praiseworthy goal, that’s not the kind of kingdom Jesus came to establish; something would be missing and it wouldn’t be a kingdom of life. The mission of Jesus includes the forgiveness of sins. Jesus came to rule, not from the mountain of temptation but the mountain of service, the mountain of the cross. Ending war is important, but not as important as building a kingdom that includes reconciliation, a kingdom that overcomes the fault of Adam and Eve and opens the gates of heaven.

This is how temptation often works: it uses some good to distract away from some bigger good; it tempts us to believe that...

Today’s first reading offers many of us a familiar story. Let’s first go back to how David and King Saul first became friends. Saul was being tormented by an evil spirit and the only way he could find comfort was by David playing his harp. As time went on they became very good friends. Later on, it was the same David who defeated Goliath, so the King made him the commander of his armies. David won many battles becoming very popular with the people and eventually, becoming more popular than the King himself. This caused the King’s ego to be bruised and he became very jealous of David. Saul’s son, Jonathan, was also good friends with David so he tried to intervene and talk some sense into his father, but Saul told him everything was fine even though things were not fine. Jonathan also tried to warn David that he was in great danger from his father. As time went on Saul made unsuccessful attempts to murder David. Now we have a situation that is familiar to most of us. Ask yourself about a time when you were once close to someone and then something or someone came in between your relationship. This is always a painful time especially when you do not know what you may have or done or said that caused your relationship to be broken. Quite often, as in this case, this leads to people to wanting to get revenge. As we hear through God’s graces, David doesn’t take revenge on Saul but instead takes his spear and his water jar to show he could have done whatever he wanted to Saul. This may have been a test for David and he passed with flying colours as he said to Saul. “I would not raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed.”  David is also saying, vengeance belongs to the Lord not us. 

Today’s Gospel continues on from last week as Jesus speaks more about, “Blessed are you when people hate you.” He tells us, “Love Your Enemy.” Love-your- enemy?  This is probably one of the most difficult lessons from our Lord for us to understand and comprehend. The love Jesus is talking about is not the love from the heart, we celebrated this past Monday on Valentine’s Day. The love Jesus is talking about comes from the mind, the will to do something or in other words, requires us to act. Jesus had described the common conduct of most people, “Loving those who love you, doing good for those who do good for you”. Jesus is telling us, no that isn’t good enough as even sinners do these things. He tells us, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” We have to stand out, go that extra mile and do the same for all people, including our enemies, which if we follow Christs’ teachings, no one should be our enemy. When we listen to the words in today’s Gospel, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”, for most of us, the first thing that comes to mind is the Golden Rule. 

Behind me, you see the Golden Rule Poster. Some of you may be familiar with this poster as it is quite often seen in schools, hospitals and prisons. It was created by a Catholic, named Paul Mckenna and launched in 2001 at the Scarborough Missions Society in Toronto. Many think the Golden Rule is uniquely Christian. However through the poster the golden rule is expressed from the point of view of 13 different faiths and spiritualties. Listen to some examples from these different faiths and spiritualties.

Buddhism-Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. 

Hinduism-This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.

Islam-Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.

Judaism – This one is interesting. In the first century BC a prospective convert to Judaism asked Rabbi Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while he stoo...