Past Homilies 2007

Sunday 01/14/07

Second Sunday of Ordinary WHAT’s IN NAME? Rev. Mr. Tom Daw

 

Do you recall hearing someone say "What is in a name?" Maybe you have even said it yourself. Often one says this when they are discounting the very importance of the name being assigned to someone or something.

In many ways as we take on a new name, so too, our life changes. As a child is born, he or she is nobody until they are named by their parents. I know one set of parents who took eight months prior to the birth and then another thirty six hours following the birth before they settled on a name for their son. Names mean a lot.

A child is lost until they are claimed in the name of Christ our savior and given a Christian name through their Baptism.

At a responsible age, the Christian takes on a Confirmation name thus elevating their status in their relationship with God.

When married, it is customary for a bride to take the name of her husband given that the husband loves his bride as Christ loved the church.

Each of these life changing moments are marked with the change in a person’s name.

There are two questions to consider:

1. Did each of these name changes evoke a change in the life of the person as well?

2. Does the name assigned the person define them or do they define the name?

In our Old Testament reading we recall that God rescued Jerusalem from the captivity of it s oppressors. With that mighty deed, the prophet proclaims, that this will be a new city and that it will be called "my Delight" to be known by a new name. With that, the Israelites and the city form a new union like that of a bride and groom. As a result new life emerges.

In the Gospel passage, we realize how being called by God commands a response and the response leads to a change in the person and their name:

With the request made by Mary of Jesus at the wedding, we realize that Mary, in God’s place, calls Jesus forth to begin his public ministry. Until that moment in Jesus’ life, Jesus was merely known as Jesus, son of Joseph, or Jesus the carpenter’s son.

Jesus reply is like that of many of us. "my hour has not yet come" How many of us keep saying sure Lord but not now, not today, not this week, not this year….

Giving in to God’s call and taking up this new life of ministry, Jesus begins his life under a new name. From that time on he is known as Jesus of Nazareth, the Nazorean.

Reflect now on your own life.

In Baptism you became a child of God and so took on the Christian name given you.

In confirmation you restated your promises to live a Catholic life and promised that with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you would profess the teachings of the Church and evangelize about the saving graces of God. So ask yourself, " How are you doing?"

If this Gospel says one thing it is this: There comes a time in all our lives when God fully expects that with all the sacraments and grace invested in you, it is time for you and Ito set aside our agenda and step forth to proclaim who we are and what we believe in. and the time comes for us to live up to the Catholic, Christian identity given to us.

So what’s in a name? Some times it’s Who I am and what I believe, and it states what people can expect of me.

Most all of us sitting right here call our selves Catholic. How many here could tell the person next to you the one thing, the one thing that sets us Catholics apart from all other Christian denominations? Many of you cannot, and I am not going to tell you right now because that’s another homily. But there is some food for thought. Why don’t you know?

My point is this. If your name is daddy then be one, if your name is mother then be one, if your name is son or daughter then be one. At all times in our life we bear a name. And at all time in our life it is our God given call to live up to the name we are given.

Today we have with us 100 pathfinders. Many of you swill someday be confirmed in the church. With that confirmation comes the responsibility to be full, active, participating, members of the parish community.

So where do you go for direction until that time? Where do you go to learn about the faith until that time?

Look at your parents as your role models and if that’s not what you see, I encourage you to challenge them about it.

Someday some of you might consider a vocations as a religious sister, priest, or deacon. It is very likely God will call some of you to those vocations. So think about this in the in the mean time: What will you say? Will you look at God puzzled and say it not yet my time. Or will you willingly leave your family and join God in the ministry of his church?

So what’s in a name? Whether you are a Religious Sister, Priest or Deacon, father, mother, husband, wife brother, sister, sons and daughters … all of us sit here baptized, and many confirmed; We share a catholic identity. And we are all called by God to these roles in our lives. Ask yourself, does the name define you, or are you trying to redefine the name on your terms.

God is calling each one of us by name and as Mary presented to Jesus, we must realize the same, IT IS TIME for all of us to be about our father’s business.

 

 

Sunday 11/19/06

I recently had a wedding to do for a dear friend. The groom, my friend Joe, was to arrive by 12:30 with Mass to begin by 1PM. At 12:40, the groom’s men, came to me and said, "Where’s Joe?

I said, "Why?
One of them said, "Well, I thought he might be backing out since he isn’t here yet."

I said, "Relax, be patient, just continuing doing what you’re supposed to be doing to prepare."

A few minutes later the florist came to me claming she heard there was no groom and the wedding might be cancelled and asked what to do with the flowers.

I said, "just do what you’re supposed to do with them, decorate the sanctuary, hang them on the pews; whatever. Just do what you are supposed to be doing."

Of course only a few minutes later the photographer asked if he should pack up since the groom wasn’t showing up.

I said, "How ridiculous! Just keep doing what you are supposed to be doing."

Well the final straw was when the maid of honor came out and told the brides maids to relax and finish their make up if and when Joe showed up.

I was frustrated by now but I turned and very calmly told them to continue preparing and doing what they were supposed to be doing.

So in doubt and with reluctance, each of them continued with their preparations. Well, sure enough, as I knew would happen, Joe walked into the church, fully dressed and ready to walk down the aisle at precisely 3 minutes to the hour.

At precisely 1PM all were ready and the ceremony began. Think how devastating it would have been; how insulting it would have been to the bride and groom, had everyone not continued their preparation. Imagine how incomplete and chaotic the ceremony may have been?

The first reading from the Book of Daniel talks about the end of time being a time of unsurpassed stress where some who die shall be in everlasting horror and disgrace.

The Gospel reading from Mark presents the end of time as being the day of tribulations, when the earth will shake and even the stars will fall out of the sky. Pretty scary readings aren’t they!

Well, maybe not! Look again at that first reading: Daniel prophesies that many will live forever.

The wise will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever. And in Mark’s Gospel Jesus adds, "The elect will be gathered from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky."

Now all that a real positive ring to it!

The early Christians did not look at the Second Coming and End of Time with terror. Instead they saw it as a time when the Lord would return to his people and correct the injustices of the world.

Let me help you understand what was going on in the world of the early Christians. The conquering Romans, like the Greeks and Persians before them, had no respect for any life other than their own and killed the population of whole cities, men, women and children, viciously and randomly simply because they were not like them! Christians were being put to death for their faith in the most horrible ways. Meanwhile, throughout the world, children were starving to death while rich people ate heartily.

This is not what God created the world to be. The world was suffering from sin. Therefore, the Christians prayed, "Come, Lord Jesus; Come and recreate your world into your image."

And what do we have in our world today?

Our world is still lacking in its respect for life.

Men, women and children are still viciously and randomly harmed or murdered;

People are still killed for whom they are.

Only a few years ago we heard about genocide in Europe, Bosnia, and in Africa in Darfur.

Here, in our country, good people are still persecuted when they refuse to join the latest mores of society. For example,

If you are not in favor of same sex unions or abortion you will be held up to scorn by many in politics and the media.

If you hold firm and draw a line on embryonic stem cell research you are looked upon as not caring about the lives you might save, while those who chastise you set aside the very lives they terminate.

And if you are were to say that war should NOT be the tool of the most civilized, advanced, country of the world, then you must be prepared to be labeled as not being patriotic, or even treasonous.

No, the world has not changed that much.

People who hold on tightly to their convictions about life, religion, politics, and social values tightly to themselves are still persecuted.

And, children are still hungry, and people are out of work or working for less than their ability typically warrants here in our parish, in our cites, our country and around the world.

The world has not changed all that much, and yet, it has. The major change in the world is that with Jesus Christ there is hope. With you and me doing what we are supposed to be doing as stewards as faith-filled Christians,

Today we have a unique opportunity to contribute to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. This campaign does not just hand out money to the needy. This campaign provides funds that will help retrain people for new jobs; it will help people learn to live properly to help them put an end to the spiral of poverty which they are sucked into.

With you and I bringing God’s light into the darkness of lives, there is hope that war will not have the last word. There is hope that starvation will become a bad memory. There is hope that racism and poverty will not in the end share a victory dance together. There is hope that oppression will not have a lasting foothold over the vulnerable. There is hope that those who do evil will not prevail.

Evil is not part of God’s plan. Evil just exists. However, we are part of God’s plan. The people of whom the Book of Daniel and the Gospel of Mark are written rely on you and I to take a role in conquering evil and bringing the kingdom alive in the hearts of those we meet. We are to proclaim the good news of the Gospel by our words and deeds especially to those whose lives are engulfed in darkness. Even when we feel ourselves engulfed by that same darkness, we must proclaim the Gospel, for, as children of God, we believe that light is coming.

Listen to the "then" section of the Gospel. "Then you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory." That’s the Good New, the Gospel. We will see triumph of goodness and be present as the Lord gathers his own to himself.

We do not know when. We do not know where. But we do know the, Lord of Light and Justice is coming again! And so we continue to pray in the prayer he taught us, "Thy Kingdom Come."

And as good stewards what do you do while you are waiting for the coming of the Kingdom?

You just keep doing what you are supposed to be doing.

 

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – July 29, 2007

Deacon Tom Daw

How is your prayer life? Why do you pray? How often do you pray?

Do you ever find yourself bargaining with God like Abraham did? Like just before a test? Or when you’re coming home after curfew and you just pray to God you can sneak in without alerting your parents? Or you, as parents, when you just say "please God, I’ll do anything if you just bring my child home safely?

Today the scriptures assure us there is never a need to bargain with the God. Abraham thought he was bargaining with God over the salvation of Gomorrah. What we hear in the story is really the Lord helping Abraham come to terms with the inevitable. Abraham did not gain the salvation of Gomorrah, rather in his prayer Abraham gained the grace to accept the inevitable.

Prayer is a conversation with God, not a one-sided dissertation on what’s wrong with my life and how I want God to fix it! How fair is that? Who is really in charge here?

How many of you go to the doctor and tell him how bad your back feels and that you want surgery on the fifth vertebrae so the pain in your back and legs will cease?

I suggest most of you will go to the doctor and the conversation is more like this:

"So doc I have this pain in my back and numbness in my leg. I have a lot of faith in what you can do, so fix me up. I’ll do what ever it takes just fix me up. So, Doc, what do you recommend?

Interesting how we let a mere mortal who lives, breathes and puts his clothes on like you and me tell us when and how to have surgery, take meds, eat and sleep. We let the doctor be a doctor.

So why, when we pray, don’t we let God be God.? Why do we often pray with our answer in our head? "Oh Lord, if you could just let me have this promotion, I know I can make it." Or "Oh if we could just get this house…" or "if you could just let uncle Marty live a little longer…" When we pray with the answers already stated, we don’t let God be God. And when the answer to our prayer comes, and it’s not the answer we had in mind, then we blame God, or we say God never listened, and we become angry. Why is God punishing me.

What if, instead, we began to pray for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who provides wisdom, and strength?

Wisdom can move us to understand that God does what God does, and that sometimes God is not going to interfere with the forces of nature. Strength, enables us to begin to accept God’s will.

The Lord’s Prayer given to us in the Gospel today is a prayer that will see us through every day of our journey.

The opening words from our Gospel "Father, hallowed be your name,’ challenge you and I to call God our father God is the author of life and we praise God in his role as our father for all the blessing s he has offered. Every prayer should begin acknowledging God as creator of all that is good in this world, and that he is all powerful and all knowing.

"your kingdom come.’ – This is a huge statement! We ask that God’s heavenly kingdom, come to us. How do we expect that to happen if we keep telling God how to solve our problems?

If you and I are truly praying for the coming of God’s kingdom and not ours, then we have to mean these words; and we have to be open to the Holy Spirit transforming us, transforming our lives and transforming the lives of the people for whom we pray.

If you are truly open to God changing another person, then you must also be open to the idea that God might be trying to change you and not that other person. Let God be God and pray that you can accept that.

"Give us each day our daily bread" - this term can be taken as give me what is due me Lord. Let me put food on the table to feed my family, just enough, no more, but certainly no less. What if this is not just a prayer for the physical necessity but also the spiritual necessity. What if it is a prayer about the Eucharist? We who come to mass, receive communion every week. We can easily forget the tremendous gift we receive in our hands or on our tongues. This is Jesus, really present right here right now, nourishing us, sustaining us. We should not take this gift for granted. We pray for this gift. "Give us our daily bread."

This prayer is also about us being Eucharist to each other. This prayer is about us fulfilling our daily role to be Eucharist to one another. The good things we do in the name of Christ is the daily bread someone else is praying for. While all is going well for us or not so well, we cannot ignore that God may be trying to use us and that what we say and do may be the very "daily bread" that is the answer to someone else’ prayer.

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"

Oh really? I mean, Oh really! How many really want God to forgive you in the same way you have forgiven others?

The Christian norm for forgiving is the compassion and forgiveness of the Father. The Gospel of Luke instructs us to be compassionate as the Heavenly Father is compassionate. In this Gospel the Forgiving Father welcomes home the Prodigal Son, and the Older Brother is told he must learn to overcome his resistance to forgive or this resistance itself will keep him from enjoying the Heavenly Father’s banquet. We have to stop destroying ourselves with our grudges and our lack of forgiveness.

I have often heard the phrase, "Be careful what you pray for" (pause) If I am not forgiving of those who offend me, then what destiny is formed by my prayer?

So until I am ready to change the words to the Lord’s prayer that I say all the time, I better take a long hard look at truly forgiving the people I offend, those for whom I hold a grudge and those of whom I gossip about. Be careful what you pray for!

Finally the Lord’s Prayer concludes with, ‘Lead us not into temptation." As the world around you seems to be caving in, many will have answers to the problems of life that ignore the Lord. We continually experience this.

The girl is pregnant and some say "Have an abortion." A marriage hits a rough point and some say "Get a divorce." A teenager becomes difficult and some say, "Get out of the house." A grandparent is terminally ill and some say, "Let them go and save the inheritance for us." These and other so called solutions of our world are part of the test, the trial the Lord gives us to see if we really want to be standing with him when the end comes, whether it be the end of the world or the end of our own personal worlds.

 

The Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Luke is the prayer of the Gentile disciple of Jesus, you and I, who recognize that true power is not to be found in our position in society, and that true happiness is not to be found in possessions. The Lord’s Prayer in Luke is ultimately a prayer to the Holy Spirit to empower us to live in the holiness of God’s name, to receive worthily the Eucharist, to forgive those who hurt us and to choose God before any other solution to the problems of life. And upon choosing God, we pray for the grace, wisdom and strength to understand, and accept God’s reply.

Be bold enough to ask God for help. Be humble enough to honor God as most powerful and able to properly respond to your prayer. Be gracious enough to thank God for listening.

8/19/07

There is a story of piano tuner who was given the charge to tune ten grand pianos for a great concert to be given by the simultaneous playing of ten grand master piano players.

Now the story goes that come the day of tuning, the master spent the whole morning tuning the very first piano. He went to lunch and during lunch, he lost his tuning fork.

Having only the rest of the day to finish tuning the other nine pianos, he set off to do so by tuning each one to the one next to it beginning of course with the first piano that was masterfully done.

The night of the concert, each piano appeared to play well as each master did their solo. However, when they began the final set where all played together, the sound was chaotic, and failed miserably to achieve any harmony.

Immediately the craftsman realized the mistake of not having tuned each piano to the perfect pitch of the fork. How wrong it was to tune the pianos by comparing one to another.

How many of us often live our life by comparing what we say and do and what we fail to say or fail to do by measuring ourselves to others?

Often our moral compass is simply the theory of relativity. We may find ourselves justifying our behavior with statements such as these:

"Well if it’s good enough for so and so, it’s good enough for me."

"If he can do it so can I."

"If she can get away with it, then why shouldn’t I?"

 

The second scripture reading today reminds us Christ gave his life that you and I may come to know goodness and that we may come to know the ways of God.

The reading states that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses! How many of us ignore these witnesses, these prophets, the very person sitting on either side of you. Rather, when faced with difficulty, we seek an easier way out, we fail to adhere to the advice of our fellow prophets but rather sometimes choose to side with public opinion. The scripture reminds that the choice to live like Christ is not so difficult. After all, we have not had to shed even a drop of blood.

In the Gospel today, Jesus warns us that he will divide mother against daughter, father against son, brother against sister. Do you truly believe this is the outcome Jesus wants; Division? I don’t think so.

I think it is important for us to understand that the Lord does not intend for this division to occur. Rather, the Lord intends that all of humanity will value life, liberties and the pursuit of happiness in a Godly, moral way; in ways that are life giving and ways that glorify God. But in reality Jesus knows that given the weakness of our humanity, some will choose the easier way, thus creating the division of which he speaks.

I assure you, what Jesus intends is baptism for everyone. And with that baptism, Jesus desires that we come to know his laws, and live his laws. Jesus has come to let his ways be our moral compass. Jesus is the first and last tuning fork humanity would ever require for tuning itself to the music of God’s creation and Christ’s salvation.

It is not Jesus who divides humanity. Division comes as the result of personal choices. When one member of the family stands by God’s laws and uses Christ as his/her moral compass and tunes himself spiritually to the pitch of Jesus Christ, and another member of the family chooses society’s popular opinion as his/her moral compass, there will be division.

The use and abuse of alcohol, drugs, and pornography are just a few of the choices humanity will make that are out of weakness, and a desire for pleasure, showing disregard for the laws of Christ, the music of Christianity.

The use and abuses of birth control, abortion, are mankind’s choices for instant gratification and are in direct opposite to the carefully tuned pitch of God’s creation.

When we are poor stewards of our gifts; when we ignore an opportunity to serve in our parish, help the poor, donate our time to a charity, or help out someone who car is broken down on the highway, we ignore the moral compass provided to us by Jesus Christ. Our lives fail to be tuned to the pitch of Jesus Christ. And the music of Christianity fails to be heard.

It is no surprise that when humanity aligns itself based upon the action or inaction of other person, disharmony and injustice ring loudly and their sound is not music but chaotic noise, much like ten pianos tuned to each other.

It is not Jesus Christ who divide father against son, mother against daughter and brother against sister. It is the choices each of us make, our choices which deafen us to the sound of the tuning fork of morality provided to us by Jesus Christ.

When you find yourself at odds with another person, ask yourself this, "Which of you in your current mind is closer to the music of Jesus Christ?"

The more out of tune your behavior becomes from the tuning fork of Jesus Christ the more likely you will be at odds with other Christians.

The division between father son, mother daughter and brother and sister comes about through choice. It is not Jesus who divides, it is humanity influenced by the norms of society rather than the morality of Jesus Christ.

A person can only serve and be driven by one tuning fork: the whims of society or the music and perfect pitch of Jesus Christ. You must choose. Choose wisely!

September 16, 2007 Twenty-Fourth Sunday Ordinary Deacon Tom Daw

I stand here today so very much unlike the shepherd and the widow in the parables told today in the Gospel.

Reflecting on the shepherd who would leave the 99 to find one; now that’s where I draw the line. Margee and I recently took three of our grandchildren to Disney World and actually lost one of them for a few minutes. Believe me it took all the courage we had to gather ourselves and trust one to stay put with the other two children while the other one wandered off to begin the frantic search. Obviously, because I stand her right now, you can safely assume the loss was short-lived. But during the five minutes that lasted what seemed like an hour, Margee and I were full of fear and anxiously wanted to search, but our fear of losing the other two and the immense area there was to search left us almost no where to begin. It was almost paralyzing.

So in our Gospel passage, in reality, what person would leave their 99 sheep to find the lost one? In reality no one, because in our humanity we are full of fear for the ninety nine and when the stakes are that high you or I would not be crazy enough to go after just one.

But you see, GOD is crazy enough, and God will go after just one because God can and will go to extremes to care for the ninety nine while he chases after the lost one.

The message for us is very clear. You and I have been the lost "one" probably many times in our life. Think about a time in your life when you failed God miserably; So much so that you thought long and hard about coming back to God. Maybe for a long time you were angry at God, maybe over what you did or what you though God did or failed to do. Maybe you are too proud to admit you want God to find you. So angry that it took you a long time to come back to terms with God. Maybe you too were paralyzed in shame, guilt, fear or hatred. Maybe some of you are still paralyzed in your lack of faith and trust.

Our Gospel today assures us that we can only run so far and for so long. In our shadow, God waits, and God follows; (2X) Waiting, hoping, expecting us to turn around and walk right into his warm embrace.

God is crazy enough to wait, to follow, and to hope, knowing that our peace comes from his comforting embrace that welcomes us back. This I know from experience!

But oh how difficult it was and still is for me to admit I am wrong, or that I was angry. It is still difficult for me to walk back in this church, and kneel before God and say, I am sorry. I know how difficult it can be to say to the Lord "Take me Lord, make me into the person I truly can be.

Our lives are so short. I’m fifty-six and sometimes I believe I only started learning last week or yesterday. I so often say to myself, "Why didn’t I figure this or that out years ago." And then I always answer the question the same way, "Duh! I wasn’t listening then!"

The reality of the gospel is that God will chase us until we finally catch him.(2x) And when we do fall into that embrace of God’s infinite forgiveness, it is only then that we are ready to give into allowing God to trans form us into the son or daughter he intended us to be. It is then that we are enabled to be what he asks us to be, Christian!

Now the message doesn’t end there. That chasing of the lost one, that readiness to accept them back, that unconditional and perfect love and forgiveness is all part of God’s plan for you and I in our personal relationships as well.

Is there someone in your life who is waiting for your forgiveness or waiting to feel your love? When are you going to wipe that slate clean? When are you going to offer that person and yourself God’s grace? Imagine the joy that awaits both your hearts when you reconcile. Imagine the joy when both of you are released of the pain of hate, the pain of rejection and the pain of silence

Imagine freeing yourself to allow God to begin working in you and through you again to become the son or daughter he envisioned for you on your baptismal day.

We worship a God who loves us so much. He is crazy in his love and even crazier in his forgiveness of the silly and serious things we have done to offend him. We worship a God who merely wants a chance to make you and me into brothers and sisters in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Our God waits for us. He stands ready with open eyes, searching for us to appear in the distance. He stands with open ears ready to listen for even the weakest, most humble cry for help and forgiveness. And he stands with open arms ready to embrace us before we can even fall to our knees in sorrow, ready to embrace us as his children.

 

10/27/07

Over the decades of my life, it seems I have noticed that we have evolved into a society of entitlement. It’s familiar to hear people say things like: "It’s mine, I worked for it!" or "I did more than you so I should get paid more than you." or "I wasn’t as bad as you so I should not be punished as much as you."

Do any of you think like this at times?

We compare what we do to those around us. Or sometimes we may evaluate the merit of what we do to our assessment of those around us. And then we judge that someone owes me, or that I deserve a better deal than this!

You almost have to ask yourself "How did we get here?" "How did I get this way?"

Try to imagine what it would be like to be a down hill skier/racer; alone on the slope, only you and the mountain. There’s soft and hard snow, icy spots, some big bumps, and some little bumps; there’s a course or path to stay within. Once you leave the gate, there’s no stopping without penalty. There’s nothing but you, the mountain, and speed. The goal, finish in one piece, and in the best time possible.

Now the whole way down the hill, it’s all about you doing your best. There is no one else to look at to see if you are slower or faster. There is only you to inwardly challenge yourself to successfully complete the race having done the best you possibly could.

And at the end, you have only yourself to blame if you do or do not complete the race; no one elsse!

The story about of the tax collector in today’s gospel, who knelt bent over in his prayer of forgiveness, reminds us that we are accountable to ourselves for what we do or fail to do in life. We are not to look at the person to our left or right to justify our actions.

No, instead we are to look inward, into our own heart.

The Pharisee thought he could justify himself by comparing his accomplishments to his perceptions of what was lacking in those around him.

How wrong he was in his righteousness. (2x)

We are not here to be judges of the successes or failures of the people around us. Rather, we are here to be ministers to those who are caught in misery or failure, or the disillusions of their greed or success. Our job is not to judge but to reach out enabling others to align themselves in Christ whether they are the "sin-filled" or "sorrowful".

Only a few weeks ago, a young 14 years old boy was suspended on October 8th.

He was so upset over what he perceived as unjust treatment that he went out to teach the administrators a lesson. So two days later got two guns and went back to school and settled everything by shooting four other humans and ultimately taking his own life.

Now I can’t tell you for sure what was in his mind but I’m sure we could speculate that some of the conversation in his head may have been something like this:

"They can’t do that to me. So and so did something just like me and they only got suspended one day, or no days. I’ll show them!"

As a society, we have not even realized the entire fallout from that shooting We may never realize all of its impact. But if even one person, just one person acts in a relative manner, then more people will be hurt. If one person says I’ll never be as bad as that kid, Then guess what. Here is what could happen next week: Boy enters school, shoots two kids before ending his one life.

Yes in reality, he shot fewer people, so in reality, he was not as bad as the first kid.

You see, as long as we allow ourselves to measure our goodness and our sin by comparing our self to one another, we leave our selves a lot of room for error.

Look inward. Look at the gifts entrusted to you, are you using them?

Look at the blessings given to you. Are you giving the Lord a just return through your works of charity to persons, to organizations and to your church?

Look at the mind God gave you, are you using it to better your life and the lives of those who depend upon you.

Given the chance to extend mercy or forgiveness do you?

Given the opportunity to overlook someone’s shortcoming to enable them to feel more whole Do you?

And are you accountable to God for all of your shortcomings? Especially without exception, or "but…" or excuses of any kind?

You and I are like the down hill racers. I cannot justify my goodness to others, or my love for God by comparing myself to you. I have to look inward and know that God is challenging me to do the best I can all the time.

Today in the Eucharist it would be a good time to ask God to be freed from the illusions that we have fashioned about ourselves and pray for the grace of sharing in Christ’s humility, that same humility expressed by the tax collector.

In that humility we will stand in God’s mercy and we too will finish our race justified.

02/25/08

In life it has always been said that we need to master the three R’s to get by; Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic.

Today I would like to talk about the three R’s of salvation; Recognition, Reconciliation, Revelation.

In the Gospel today, we have a woman at the well drawing water in middle of a hot day. The time of day that the woman is drawing water would already have one questioning. I’ve been to Israel and one thing that is known is that Noon time is sunny and hot. In their culture before running water, women drew the water in the morning before sunrise while it is cool. For this woman to be there at mid day would cause one to speculate about her. The situation might imply that she is not accepted in their culture as a woman of grace and must travel to the well on her own. She is not permitted to mingle with the regulars of the town.

Secondly, she is a Samaritan. Every Jew knows you avoid Samaria and Samaritans. They are Gentiles. They are not Jews. So don’t visit with them, talk to them and most of all do not share food or drink with them, for they are unclean. Jesus tosses all of cautions aside and in the face of his apostles, and the townspeople who might be looking on from the privacy of their homes or shaded area; he sits at the well, strikes up conversation and boldly asks the woman for a drink of water

Water in our first reading we are reminded that it is life giving. As an instrument in the gospel it is the vehicle that provokes Jesus to approach her in public, when no one else would dare.

Jesus uses this opportunity to probe her and have dialogue we learn she has not one but five husbands. (There are surely some women here who would question her wisdom.)

So we realize she is a woman who was outcast for her reputation with men

And here is where the three R’s come in.

Recognition- It is the woman who recognizes the awesome power of this individual that he could see into her life.

She recognizes that this person is special because he is sitting with her, he is talking with her, and he is not asking for anything but a drink of water.

In return he offers her an opportunity to be honest with herself ; to recognize who she is and most of all who he is, some one very special, she eventually recognizes that he is the savior the Christ.

Reconciliation- At his statement of her faults, she does not deny, she does not make excuses, she in fact acknowledges that he is right. No denial, but rather in the eyes of this special person she acknowledges her sinfulness and accepts his challenge for her to leave and never sin again.

That’s reconciliation!

Revelation – Just as Jesus revealed himself to her, and allowed her to reconcile herself she leaves ready to reveal her discovery. She leaves shouting to all who will listen that she has met the messiah, the chosen one, the Christ.

My friends, this Gospel is our faith challenge and especially now, it is our Lenten challenge. We are challenged to Recognize God’s saving power in our own lives and the lives of those we love. Recognize God’s presence in our lives and the lives of those we love.

Reconciliation, Lent is a time when we should be most open to reconciling with God. To acknowledge our sinfulness. We know that God already knows our sins, like the women at the well, we need to privately encounter Jesus and his mercy through the sacrament of reconciliation. We need to admit our faults and our sinfulness to God and let God be God by forgiving our sins and letting us feel refreshed in the spirit. Having reconciled we leave to celebrate revelation

Revelation becomes that opportunity for us to spread the message of our faith experience.

To give God credit and honor and glory for being God and giving us life.

To once again be infectious in our zeal to tell the world just how wonderful God is.

To be willing to approach those in our life whom we have outcast or set aside or for any reason would choose to not associate.

It is them to whom we take a drink of the water of the newness of our life in Christ. If we don’t, who will?

Recognize Christ’s saving power. Reconcile with God. Reveal God’s grace to someone in your life. Those are the three R’s of salvation.