A Homily - The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

First Reading – Ezekiel 33:7-9 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

Second Reading – Romans 13:8-10 ©

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alternative Acclamation – 2 Corinthians 5:19

The Gospel According to Matthew 18:15 - 20 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 We are one family, all human beings, and we are meant to love one another, to care for one another, to be watchful and take steps to protect one another. This is what it means to be in community, to live together as a family, and this is what Ezekiel intends to convey.

 Nevertheless, today’s reading makes the mistake of promoting an understanding of God and God’s justice that deviates from the way Jesus followed and taught us to keep. Ezekiel makes the ordinary mistake of circumscribing God’s love, making God a cruel judge and an executioner rather than a friend, a loving parent and a healer.

 Consider the wisdom of the psalmist:

 The whole of creation belongs to God, all that is good and all that frightens us, everything comes from God and will redound to the good…ultimately; this is the promise that we have been asked to hope for and place our faith in.

 It is good that we show our respect for the creator and sing songs in praise of God, but remember, God is our loving parent, not a king, and God has prepared each of us for the same blessing.

 Listen to the apostle when he says that love is the law!

 Let the knowledge of the law fill your heart, so that it governs your interpretation of it: love with justice, justice with mercy, love with respect, respect with caring.

 Focused your heart on the other, knowing that God is present with your neighbor, in the same way that God is present to you; your neighbor is your sister or your brother in the eyes of God.

 Be mindful!

 You cannot lie and serve God at one and the same time.

 The apostle tells us in the simplest of terms that the mission of the Church is to announce the reconciliation, that everyone is reconciled through the of God, which embraces all people. The members of the Church are meant to be ambassadors of this good news, not the keepers of it, or the guardians.

 The Church is not, nor should it ever be a recruiting agency, the purpose of the Church is not to sign, offering reconciliation with the divine as a reward for joining.

 Know this!

 The reconciliation has already occurred, and has been in process through Christ, since the beginning of time.

 The mission of the Church is to effectuate this reality but to proclaim it.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today:

 Always be wary of the scriptures that cast Jesus in the role of a litigator, as a legislator or the author the law code. These are the machinations of later generation, writing into the sacred text a justification for the authority they had usurped from Jesus.

 The authors of the Gospels put words into the mouth of Jesus that he did not speak, making representations for him that he did not intend, turning both Jesus and themselves into liars.

 The is Jesus’ summary of the:

 Love God with all your strength, all your heart and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

 That is the whole of the law.

 That is what Jesus said, and any interpretation of it that deviates from this axion is false.

 The ministry of Jesus was a ministry characterized by mercy.

 He said:

Do not forgive seven times, but seventy-seven times; he instructed us to resolve all of our conflicts before we go to prayer. Teaching us that if we go to prayer while there is a conflict between ourselves and our sister or brother (this means anyone), that we should first go to them and resolve the conflict, exhorting us to not return to prayer until you do.

 Be mindful.

 Every community has a duty to protect itself from dangerous people and predators. Jesus was not suggesting that we keep our doors open to violent, deranged and dangerous people…our hearts yes, but not our doors.

 However, if the recalcitrant member of the community is just a stubborn person, or merely argumentative, not a danger to you, themselves or others, if they are simply someone with a different understanding of the faith and the way than you yourself possesses, or that your community professes, and the only challenge the present is that they will not conform to the norms of the community…in that case treat them as Jesus would have treated a pagan or a tax collector, invite them dinner, sit down and eat with them and do not refuse them anything.

 This is the way.

 Do not believe the Church when it claims to have the authority to free people, or put them in chains, either here in this world or in the world to come.

 The Church does not have that authority, the disciples did not have that authority. The claim to possess that authority is derived from fear. On the part of the apostles it was the fear of losing control over the communities they presided over, and they set this fear against the fear of their members of being excluded from the group.

 It was a lie.

 Every single one of us possesses the power to forgive, with every recitation of the Our Father we are asked to forgive those who have done us harm, so that the harm they have done ceases to have power over us.

 We also have the power to forgive ourselves…more importantly to accept the forgiveness of those we have harmed, so that our guilt does not continue to be a stain on us, and a determinant of our path forward in life.

 We have both the power and the obligation as followers of the way to do so.

 

First Reading – Ezekiel 33:7-9 ©

If You do not Speak to the Wicked Man, I Will Hold You Responsible for His Death

The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: ‘Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them in my name. If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death. If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sin, but you yourself will have saved your life.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 94(95):1-2, 6-9 ©

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;

  hail the rock who saves us.

Let us come before him, giving thanks,

  with songs let us hail the Lord.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come in; let us bow and bend low;

  let us kneel before the God who made us:

for he is our God and we

  the people who belong to his pasture,

  the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

O that today you would listen to his voice!

  ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

  as on that day at Massah in the desert

when your fathers put me to the test;

  when they tried me, though they saw my work.’

O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

 

Second Reading – Romans 13:8-10 ©

Your Only Debt Should be the Debt of Mutual Love

Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord: consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – 2 Corinthians 5:19

Alleluia, alleluia!

God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 18:15 - 20 ©

If your Brother Listens to you, you Have Won Back your Brother

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.

‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.

  ‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’

 

The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

 

Observation - September 8th, 2023, Friday

A horn blaring

 

A jet passing overhead

            on its way to a landing

 

The whine of turbines

slowing

 

Rolling rubber on new asphalt

 

The quiet of an electric car

Observation - September 7th, 2023, Wednesday

the quiet noise of fans blowing

 

electric motors humming

 

the soft hush of air moving

 

                                    gone

 

windows open

 

to the sounds of intermittent traffic

 

footsteps on the sidewalk

ladies talking

 

there are sparrows in the maple

Observation - September 6th, 2023, Wednesday

The cool air is welcome

through the open windows

 

A large truck rolls down the lane

            noisome, belching diesel

 

Yellow light flashing

 

like a rolling ball

filtered through

the window shade

 

There is a road crew preparing asphalt

A Homily - The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

First Reading – Jeremiah 20:7-9 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 62(63):2-6, 8-9 ©

Second Reading – Romans 12:1-2 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

The Gospel According to Matthew 16:21 - 27 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Do not ask God, the creator of the universe, to adjudicate on your behalf or to administer the justice you desire. God’s justice is loving and kind, divine justice works toward the benefit of all creatures; rather, find it in your heart to administer the justice that God desires.

 Consider the words of the psalmist:

 It is right to thank God, for the good things that come our way; it is right because it is good to be thankful. We do not thank God for those good things out of a belief that God delivered them to us or put them in our path. God does not intervene in our affairs, not even a little bit. By the same token we do not blame God for the hardships we suffer in this life, God did not beset us with them.

 While all of us plan for good things to happen to us, and work toward those ends, and credit should be given where credit is due, especially where credit is due to chance; few of us plan for bad things to happen to us, and yet bad things happen nevertheless, mostly as a result of poor decision making, with the remainder belonging to the vicissitudes of luck and fickle fortune.

 We do not experience the bad, we do not suffer sin and evil as just retribution for anything we have done or wished that we could do. Divine justice does not work this way; God’s justice is patient, it is merciful and it is compassionate, it finds its resolution in eternity.

 The good and the bad come to us irrespective of who we are, regardless of what we do or what we have done, without regard to who we have been or who we might become. There is no plan to it; God is no respecter of persons, and God does not love anyone of God’s children more than God loves any other…more or less than God loves you.

 Praise God and give thanks for the good things, do not dwell on the bad.

 Be mindful!

 There is peace to be had in the exercise of patience, in contemplation, meditation and prayer.

 Make of your life a prayer, a prayer for grace, for the grace which comes from God, for rest in the divine.

 Let the peace of God within you bubble up like a fountain, let it flow over with abundance, let others quench their thirst and be nourished by the wellspring of your soul, for it is the wellspring of theirs, as you are united in God.

 Consider the words of the apostle:

 The essence of faith is trust in God, it is the belief that God loves you, that God knows you and that God has a plan for you beyond this world. Faith is trust in this belief, a thing we cannot see, but that we hope is true, we hope that it is true for you, for ourselves, and true for every one of God’s children.

 Trust God, and allow your hope in those beliefs to transform you now, to transform you here and now, in this world; live as God desires you to live: justly, mercifully and lovingly.

 Remember the life of Jesus, and God whom he called father!

 Is God glorious?

 Yes, it is fair to say so; though if it be rightly told, you will know that God is not concerned with glories.

 God is the creator of the universe and everything in it, but God’s most exalted place is with us, in relationship to us; we are God’s children, and God greatest glory is the glory felt by a loving parent.

 Know this!

 There is hope in the knowledge of God; remember, that the hopes you have for yourself and those you love are meant to be extended to everyone; even those you do not love, extend the scope of your hope to all people, that is the way in which God leads us.

 Be mindful!

 If you should fall into the error of thinking that God has promised riches and glories the saints, remember the words of Jesus: the first will be last and the last will be first, and that true riches are not counted in gold and silver and precious things.

 Consider the gospel reading for today, the most salient point we can take from this reading does not concern the prophecy of Jesus regarding his death in Jerusalem, or the resurrection that followed,

 That prophecy is merely an exercise in propaganda foisted on us by the early church.

 The most salient reading from the gospel for today is not the suggestion that those who follow Jesus must suffer and die for their faith as Jesus did, a calling to endure that kind of suffering is situational and particular, not universal; that is not what all Christians are called to.

 The most salient reading from today is not the notion that there is a divine quid pro quo, that life is restored to those who sacrifice it; the economy of salvation is not a system of barter and trade.

 The most salient reading is not the notion that there is a reward waiting for us at the end of days, a reward meted out according to measurable behaviors that are quantifiable as either good or bad.

 It is important to note that the disciples, with Peter as chief among them, did not understand the mission of Jesus; while he was alive and with them the disciples rejected his mission and actively worked against it, even scolding Jesus for his intention to follow the mission he had accepted, because it placed his life at risk.

 Jesus went so far as to name Peter the enemy, calling him Satan; and shortly thereafter Peter would publicly deny Jesus and deny having any association with him. Peter denied him even in the hour of his greatest need.

 Take this away from the reading for today:

 Peter and the disciples lived with Jesus, they were closer to him than anyone, they ate with him, prayed with him, walked with him, slept next to him, and even they were confused about his mission.

 If you find yourself confused about the way, do not worry, you are in good company

 

First Reading – Jeremiah 20:7-9 ©

The Word of the Lord has Meant Insult for Me

You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.

I am a daily laughing-stock, everybody’s butt.

Each time I speak the word, I have to howl and proclaim: ‘Violence and ruin!’

The word of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision, all day long.

I used to say, ‘I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more.’

Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones.

The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 62(63):2-6, 8-9 ©

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.

O God, you are my God, for you I long;

  for you my soul is thirsting.

My body pines for you

  like a dry, weary land without water.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

  to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life,

  my lips will speak your praise.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.

So I will bless you all my life,

  in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,

  my mouth shall praise you with joy.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.

For you have been my help;

  in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.

My soul clings to you;

  your right hand holds me fast.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord my God.

 

Second Reading – Romans 12:1-2 ©

Offer Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice

Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God. Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Ephesians 1:17, 18

Alleluia, alleluia!

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 16:21 - 27 ©

'Get Behind Me, Satan!'

Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. ‘Heaven preserve you, Lord;’ he said ‘this must not happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? Or what has a man to offer in exchange for his life?

  ‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour.’

 

The Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

A Homily - The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

First Reading – Isaiah 22:19-23 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 137(138):1-3, 6, 8 ©

Second Reading – Romans 11:33-36 ©

Gospel Acclamation – 2 Corinthians 5:19

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 16:18

The Gospel According to Matthew 16:13 - 30 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Be mindful when you are reading from the prophetic books; all too often the authors mistake their own sentiments and dynastic ambitions for those of God. It is a common human failing, to mistake one’s own desires for the will of the divine, and this is not the way.

 Know this:

 God does not intervene in human affairs or anywhere at all in the whole of creation, when you read from the book of Isaiah today, remember that God loves the house of David no more and no less than God loves your own house, or any other house so defined.

 God does not play favorites; God loves everyone.

 Consider the words of the psalmist.

 It is right to praise God, the creator of the universe.

 It is even better to praise mercy wherever you see it, because mercy is what God desires most from us; it is through the exhibition of mercy and compassion that we approximate most fully the will of the divine.

 Trust in God; trust in God who does not desire glory, have faith in God who points to the way that passes through humility.

 Listen to the apostle!

 Everything that exists come from God; know that God is opposed to nothing and that God’s ways are inscrutable.

 The apostle tells us in the simplest terms that the mission of the church is to announce the reconciliation of all things in God. This is the good news and we are meant to shares this hope with everyone, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of all things and beings in the divine.

 Paul instructs us that the church and its members are meant to serve as messengers and ambassadors of this good news, this is the work of Chrisitan mission.

 Know this:

 The church is not, nor should it ever be functioning as a recruiting agency, signing up members while holding out hope for the reward of reconciliation as a benefit that belongs only to those who join.

 Be mindful of Paul’s wisdom.

 He teaches that the reconciliation has already taken place, it occurred in Christ at the beginning of time and carries on through the end.

 The mission of the Church is not to effectuate reconciliation, but to proclaim it!

 Now consider the Gospel reading for today:

 Matthew’s Gospel was written roughly one hundred years after the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

 Saint Paul, the apostle, was the first person to call Jesus the Christ, the anointed one. This was not a term his disciples used of him, nor a term Jesus would have ever used of himself.

 You should keep this in mind anytime you refer to Jesus as the Christ. The appellation is a literary invention of Paul’s, a man who never met Jesus while he lived.

 Note well: Jesus and his disciples did contend with the title “Son of Man,” or attempt to dissuade people from using it.

 Among certain sects of the Jewish people the phrase “Son of Man” is associated with the coming of a messiah, an individual(s) who could represent humanity before the divine, as humanity was meant to be, as the human being in its most exalted state. The messiah was also expected to free the Children of Israel, Jerusalem and Judah (at a minimum) from the grip of foreign rule.

 Some groups believed that there would be two messiahs: one royal, and one priestly. Others believed that there would be a singular messianic figure with both the royal and priestly functions fully harmonized within them.

 The title, “Son of Man,” had been circulating in Jewish literature for about two-hundred years prior to Jesus, it is most closely associated with the books of Daniel and Enoch in the Old Testament. Apart from scripture, the “Son a Man” was a wildly popular archetype in a period of time known as the “inter-testamental era”, this heroic figure the “Son of Man” proliferated among non-canonical and apocryphal writers throughout greater Palestine.

 The authors of Matthew’s Gospel are doing a couple of things, they are connecting the ministry of Jesus, and so by extension their ministry, to this wider body when they refer to Jesus as the “Son of Man,” as well as when they call him the Christ in keeping with the very popular writings of Paul.

 Thy make these claims in order to redirect popular understanding of who the expected “Son of Man” might be, in order to say that the “Son of Man” was not John the Baptist, and neither is Jesus, John the Baptist returned.

 They also wanted to make clear that the “Son of Man” is not Elijah or one of the other prophets, neither is Jesus the second coming of any one of them.

 The Authors of Matthew are clear that the “Son of Man” is Jesus, the Christ, uniquely able to claim the mantle of sonship in relation to the living God…this is their most artful piece of propaganda, speaking in a symbolic language that all of the Jewish people, and their northern cousins, the Samaritans, understood.

 It is important to know these things and to be mindful that the Gospel for today propagandizes the ministry of Jesus, the ministry of the disciples and the faction of the church most closely associated with Saint Peter. There are no cosmic truths being disclosed here, there is only the record of the Church’s struggle lay claim to that symbolic language and through it to establish an identity for itself that both carries on the most popular traditions in and around the apostolic era, while differentiate itself from those traditions at the same time.

 It is instructive.

 

First Reading – Isaiah 22:19-23 ©

I Place the Key of the House of David on My Servant's Shoulder

Thus says the Lord of Hosts to Shebna, the master of the palace:

I dismiss you from your office, I remove you from your post, and the same day I call on my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

I invest him with your robe, gird him with your sash, entrust him with your authority; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.

I place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; should he open, no one shall close, should he close, no one shall open.

I drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 137(138):1-3, 6, 8 ©

Your love, O Lord, is eternal: discard not the work of your hands.

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:

  you have heard the words of my mouth.

In the presence of the angels I will bless you.

  I will adore before your holy temple.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal: discard not the work of your hands.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love,

  which excel all we ever knew of you.

On the day I called, you answered;

  you increased the strength of my soul.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal: discard not the work of your hands.

The Lord is high yet he looks on the lowly

  and the haughty he knows from afar.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal,

  discard not the work of your hands.

Your love, O Lord, is eternal: discard not the work of your hands.

 

Second Reading – Romans 11:33-36 ©

All that Exists Comes from Him; All is by Him and from Him.

How rich are the depths of God – how deep his wisdom and knowledge – and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor? Who could ever give him anything or lend him anything? All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.

 

Gospel Acclamation – 2 Corinthians 5:19

Alleluia, alleluia!

God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 16:18

Alleluia, alleluia!

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.

And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Matthew 16:13 - 30 ©

You Are Peter and On this Rock I Will Build My Church

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’ Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

 

The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)