Homilies

March 12, 2023

Third Sunday of Lent

The human body is composed of 70% water. There are 2 1/2 quarts of water in blood, 15 quarts of water in the extra plasma, 30 quarts of water in cells allowing all those little cells to grow. It’s amazing one can exist for 30 days without food, but only 1 to 4 days without water. It’s also amazing during the first 9 months of life we live in the water of our mother’s womb. We began life in a bag of living water. We cannot live without water.

The theme of today’s readings centers around water, the use of water and the symbolic meaning of water. In the passage from Exodus the Israelites clamor for water as they battle thirst and dehydration in the desert which actually symbolizes the human longing for God. The woman at the well despite her apprehensions and social struggles goes to Jacob’s well to draw water for her household. The need for water is obvious in our lives because without it we die; no water, no life.

But there’s another spiritual aspect regarding the need of water in our lives. Water is also symbolic of the Spirit and wisdom of God. The breath or Spirit of God hovered over the waters giving life to creation at the beginning of time. The Israelites clamor for water to quench their physical thirst and God through Moses gives them water from the rock. But God also wants to give them living water, the water that leads to eternal life and liberates them from their thirst for sin and idolatry.

The Holy Spirit is also known as the well-spring of life symbolized in the waters of baptism. The cleansing waters of baptism purify our souls of sin, both original and personal, and we are born again. This is the new life Jesus wants to give to the Samaritan woman at the well in today’s gospel. At first she confuses her physical need of water but slowly and surely she realizes her need of this living water and who the well-spring of life is.

A little historical background. The Jewish inhabitants of Samaria were initially members of the northern tribes of Judea until the Babylonians conquered them about 700 BC. During their time in captivity the Jewish people in Samaria intermarried with their pagan conquerors which corrupted and diluted the Jewish religion as well as their ethnic heritage. Because of this Orthodox Jews considered them outcasts and excluded them from traditional Jewish worship. Orthodox Jews even refused to allow these mixed bred Samaritans after they were liberated to help rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and as a result the Samaritan Jews built their own temple known as the Gerizim temple and they developed their own cultic worship. This made the Samaritans apostates in the eyes of Orthodox Jews and thus people to be shunned and avoided. Pious Jews would thereby bypass Samaria all together and travel completely around it in order to arrive at their destination.

In Jesus’ day it was scandalous for a man worse less a rabbi to speak publicly with a woman. Furthermore, the woman, a Samaritan at that, is alleged to be an adulterer having had 5 husbands and currently living in a state on concubinage. This made her a social pariah which explains her visiting the well at a late hour to avoid the scorn of the townsfolk.

Then Jesus bumps it up a notch when he asks her for a drink of water. This type of request could have been interpreted as overtly solicitous. Often men who consorted with women who were not their wives were reprimanded with a passage from Proverbs (5:15), “Drink from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well”. In other words no public flirting or worse!

Jesus may need to have his physical thirst satiated but more importantly he thirsts for souls. This is what he means when he tells the apostles I have food to eat of which you do not know.

Jesus is teaching us there are no barriers to reaching out to others. St. Luke tells us he has not come to call the righteous but sinners so he excludes no one in his ministry. His mission, his thirst, is salvation and it should be the same for all of us. We are to look at everyone as a brother or sister in Christ and as we say in Cursillo make a friend, be a friend and bring that friend new or old to Christ. As intentional disciples Jesus’ mission is our mission.

Now let’s look more closely at how Jesus evangelizes the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman is thirsty and Jesus invites her into a dialogue by using a natural physical need, thirst, to begin the conversation. She’s surprised and intrigued by this request because it comes from not just a man but a young Jewish man. This intrigue prompts her to engage in the dialogue with Jesus by questioning him as to why he asks. She gets more than she bargained for and is intrigued by his desire to give her this “living water”. She initially misunderstands and wants this living water so she’ll never be physically thirsty again and have to come draw water from the well. But Jesus wants to slake the thirst of her arid soul and awaken in her a thirst for the wholeness and integrity she has lost through sin. He wants to give her living water, the wellspring of the Holy Spirit that will slake her spiritual thirst forever. As we’ll see Jesus will have both his physical thirst and his thirst for souls quenched before he leaves Samaria.

Little by little she begins to understands. She progresses from calling him a “Jew,” to calling him “Sir,” to calling him “a prophet” and finally wondering if he might really be “the Messiah” when Jesus reveals to her his true identity. Her spiritual thirst gets quenched, her life is changed, she leaves her old life behind symbolized by abandoning her water jar and becomes a disciple of Jesus. With joy written all over her face she goes into town and the townspeople experience her peace and joy and want it for themselves. They go to the well, meet Jesus, experience God, receive living water, their spiritual thirst is quenched and are transformed.

I’m a priest who believes in wearing clerical attire when I go out in public. It’s my identity and I noticed very quickly wearing the Roman collar attracts quite a bit of attention. Sometimes it gets me a funny look, sometimes it gets my meal paid for at a restaurant and sometimes it gets me a look of respect and honor which I pass on in praise and thanksgiving to God.

A few years ago I was invited out to dinner and after the meal the chef at the restaurant came out to speak to us. I’m convinced it was because I was wearing clerics. As we talked he briefly explained how he had left the Catholic Church. I listened attentively but well you know me I couldn’t help myself so I told him while reading and studying the Word of God is a good and noble thing to do I can put the Word of God on his tongue. I wasn’t critical but we talked a little more and I invited him to come back to his Catholic faith. I thank God for those opportunities and while they don’t happen very often with God’s grace I was ready.

Now I realize wearing a Roman collar attracts a lot of attention but we all have opportunities to evangelize. These opportunities may present themselves anywhere and at any time. Perhaps one of our Lenten resolutions could be to get over our fear of sharing the gospel, to be aware of the spiritual needs of those around us, to share the love of God and invite people to Church. More people are thirsting in a spiritual desert and searching for the truth than we think. So let’s be ready and have the courage to be intentional disciples and evangelize others, especially for those lost and difficult people and in those unexpected places.

Jesus didn’t leave us orphaned. The Holy Spirit, the Word of God and the sacraments of the Church are the primary sources of the living water of divine grace. Washed in it at Baptism, renewed by its abundance at each reception of the Eucharist, invited to it in every proclamation of the Word and empowered daily by the anointing of the Holy Spirit we’re given the living water of grace to be holy and to evangelize. The world desperately needs this living water.

So do we know anyone who is wandering around in their own spiritual wasteland? Do we know anyone whose soul is parched and whose spiritual life is as dry as a desert? Is that someone you and me? Only God can quench our spiritual thirst. Mother Theresa often said Jesus thirsts for you, he thirsts for our souls and wants so desperately to slake our spiritual thirst.

The human body is composed of 70% water. We cannot live without water. No water, no life. While we need water to survive here on earth we need living water even more so let’s all pray for the grace to like, the Samaritan woman, have our spiritual thirst satiated, our lives transformed and with joy written all over our faces spread the gospel so others can drink from the wellspring of God and get to heaven so that they and all of us will never thirst for anything again.

March 5, 2023

Second Sunday of Lent

Imagine you’re 10 years past customary retirement age. It’s time finally to kick back and relax and enjoy life. You live in a cosmopolitan city like Dallas where everything is at your fingertips – shopping, cultural and sporting events, all your relatives and lifelong friends. Suddenly God appears and tells you to pack up, uproot your life and march into the uncivilized wilderness called Leakesville, MS.

Well this is what happens to Abram. He lives in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. The idea of leaving everything behind and striking out afresh brings with it both risks and possibly great rewards. In today’s first reading we witness just such a movement taking place as Abram departs from his homeland: “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you”.

Abram had every reason in the world to ignore that call. After all he was 75 years old and at this advanced age he and his wife Sara 10 years his junior had never produced a child. Not only that he would have to wait another 25 years for the promised son Isaac to be born so that the promise of future descendants could be fulfilled. That was a long time for him to wait and keep anticipating the promise of a God he doesn’t know. How could all this be true and make him the father of a great nation?

Most of us would think thanks but no thanks and pass. Not Abram. Genesis reports no backtalk just Abram went as the Lord directed him. Now that’s faith. Abram hears a command from a God he can’t see and immediately trusts in his word and begins a journey to he knows not where. St. Paul says “we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7) and that’s why Abraham is honored as our father in faith.

Obviously Abraham’s choice to embark on this long journey entailed great hardship. So what was the motivation driving him to do it? Simple. There was something this unknown God promised him that he desperately wanted. He had a lot of things–wife, property, servants and all the creature comforts afforded by his civilization. Yet he lacked a son and for a Semite like Abram who had no belief in any sort of afterlife, a son was his only ticket to immortality. A son would then go out and beget sons thus keeping his father’s name and memory alive. God promised not only descendants, but a progeny so numerous and great that all the communities of the earth would find blessing in Abram’s name. That’s an offer, although quite speculative, Abram wasn’t going to refuse. So it was this desire for immortality that drove Abram to risk everything and trust this would happen. This desire can also be understood as hope.

About 1900 years later, St. Paul writes these words to Timothy “bear your share of the hardship which the Gospel entails (2 Tim 1:8). To be a Christian during the first 300 years meant risking everything. If the Romans caught you, it could mean torture or death or, if you were lucky and got off easy, only the confiscation of all of your possessions. Why would people take this chance? For the same reason Abram embraced hardship – hope, hope of immortality. They had been given a vision and a promise of eternal glory. They understood that no earthly good could compare with this everlasting promise and so were willing to suffer whatever was necessary in order to secure it. As we hear in the letter to the Hebrews they followed their master who “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame”.

Aware of the trauma of witnessing the horror of the crucifixion Jesus gave his inner circle of apostles a vision of hope to sustain them. In anticipation of his risen glory, the Light of the World allowed the dazzling brilliance of his divinity to be revealed. The Law and the Prophets bore witness to Him through Moses and Elijah. The Father’s voice boomed the affirmation that this was his beloved son. The Holy Spirit was manifested as the Shekinah, the glory cloud, which had led the Israelites on their desert journey. The Transfiguration is a scene prefiguring the glorious life, won by our Savior that lasts forever. It prefigures the glory of immortality that Abram sought but in a way he could never have imagined or dreamed of.

Peter, James and John experienced this glory beforehand and they didn’t want it to end. But it wasn’t given to them so they could erect tents and stay there indefinitely. They had to come back down the mountain and walk with Jesus on the path called the Via Dolorosa that lay before Jesus and before them. The experience of the Transfiguration was to show them the way of the cross was not a road to death but through death to a life that makes even death seem but a trifle. It was a journey that Abram was willing to risk to gain immortality and it’s a journey we all will make which we pray will end in heavenly glory. Imagine you’re 10 years past customary retirement age. It’s time finally to kick back and relax and enjoy life. You live in a cosmopolitan city like Dallas where everything is at your fingertips – shopping, cultural and sporting events, all your relatives and lifelong friends. Suddenly God appears and tells you to pack up, uproot your life and march into the uncivilized wilderness called Leakesville, MS.

February 26, 2023

First Sunday of Lent

A lark flying safely high in the air observed a small object moving slowly along the path in a garden below. Out of curiosity it descended to take a closer look. He discovered it was a small wagon with a cat pulling it and chanting, “Fresh worms for sale! Fresh worms for sale!” Interested, the lark alighted on the path but at a safe distance. He asked what the worms were selling for. “Three nice worms for one feather from your wing” said the cat. The lark thought that was a bargain and pulled a feather from his wing and enjoyed the delicious worms. Then he took off and soared again but the thought of those juicy worms brought him down to the wagon again. This time he bought twice as many and bartered away two more feathers. The same thing happened several more times and the cat was watching closely. Robbed of wing power the lark wasn’t able to get away when the cat sprang at him and thus met his death in the garden where temptation had proved too strong for him. Sound familiar? It’s like the animal kingdom’s version of Adam and Eve. If Sylvester would have used this ploy he would’ve gotten Tweety!

Temptations. Unfortunately they’re a part of everyday life and come to every one of us. A temptation offers us something we think is good but it’s a trick. They lure us into doing or saying or thinking something that displeases God and if that’s the case it’s not good for us.

Today we hear the familiar story of the original sin committed by our first parents. Formed from the clay of the ground and filled with the breath of God’s own Spirit, Adam truly was a son of God created in His image and likeness. Crowned with glory he was made to worship God and with the protection of angels was given dominion over the whole world. Although given everything that was good both Adam and Eve fell to the cunning of the devil whom Jesus called the father of lies. They believed the liar instead of their loving creator Father.

In Scripture to “know” means to experience and they wanted to know what it was like to be like God so they ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whereas before only goodness existed now they had an experience of evil; now they had knowledge of evil and it was horrible. It always is whether we realize it or not. Sin becomes a part of human life.

In falling for the temptation their relationship with God is now strained and it shattered their innocent intimacy. As a consequence of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were cast out of the lush garden and driven into the barren wilderness. Paradise was lost and death came into human existence. Their decision to sin was against God’s will and the good life he had planned to give to them. Instead they chose death and all mankind now suffers the result of their free choice.

Like Adam and Eve in today’s gospel we see Jesus being driven into the wilderness to be tested. As the new Adam he goes into the desert for the sole purpose to defeat temptation, the devil and sin in order to regain the paradise that had been lost.

The word tempt in English usually means to entice someone to do what is wrong or forbidden. The scriptural word used here also means “test” in the sense of proving and assessing someone to see if they’re prepared and ready for a task at hand. We test fighter pilots to see if they’re fit to fly under all conditions including poor visibility, turbulence and storms. In like manner God tests his beloved children to see if they’re ready to follow and serve him without reservation or compromise.

On a number of occasions God tested Abraham to prove his faith and to strengthen his hope in the promises God made to him. The Israelites were tested in Egypt for more than 400 years of hard labor and persecution and in the desert for 40 more years. Jesus was no exception to this pattern of testing and preparation for the mission his Father gave to him.

Whereas God gave Adam and Eve every good thing Jesus is thrust into the desert with nothing. All he had was trust that his Father would provide for him as he experienced real temptations. The devil is very clever and he was suspicious of Jesus being the Messiah. In each of his temptations inflicted upon Jesus he tempted Jesus to misuse his divine power: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread”; “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you,’.

During the third temptation Jesus was tempted to totally abandon his Father’s plan, “All these I shall give you, if you will fall down and worship me”. The devil was trying to tempt Jesus to seek an easy, comfortable course that would avoid pain and hardship, humiliation and rejection. He tempted him to steer him away from his mission to suffer and die for our redemption and instead be that earthly political messiah of power and fame the Jews expected and wanted in order to overthrow Roman occupation. But that was not his Father’s will and Jesus knew it.

St. Matthew tells us Jesus defeated every one of the devil’s temptations. He sacrificed his will to his Father’s will. He succeeded because he wanted to please his Father and he trusted his Father would give him the strength to overcome the obstacles that stood in his way.

How did he do it? His trust in his Father was rewarded as he overcame sin not by his own human effort but by feeding on God’s word and doing his Father’s will and as a result he healed the relationship between us and God which had been broken by the sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus is the New Adam who put right the sin of the first Adam just as Mary is the New Eve who cooperated in God’s plan to save us unlike the first Eve who submitted to a serpentine temptation.

Brothers and sisters be assured and I know you know this Satan will constantly tempt us and will try his best to get us to choose our will over God’s will. When temptations come to us we have a choice to make – either fall as Adam and Eve did or to overcome them like Jesus.

But Father, but Father Jesus was God and we’re not. Well that’s good you know that. But as we pray in the Nicene Creed every week Jesus is true God and who incarnate of the virgin Mary became man. He had a human nature just like us. Our lesson is again Jesus didn’t rely on his own human strength but on the power of the Holy Spirit. St. Ambrose adds “See what weapons Christ uses to defeat the power of the devil. He does not use the almighty power he has as God for what help would that be to us? In his humanity he summons the help common to all”.

Jesus conquered temptations by strengthening himself through prayer, penance and effectively using the Word of God. It’s up to us when tested to truly desire his help and to call on the Holy Spirit that lives within each of us and sincerely ask for the grace in times of testing to defeat our temptations. Jesus wasn’t abandoned and neither shall we.

With that said at the end of today’s gospel Jesus told Satan to leave him and he did! Remember that! In James 4:7 he tells us resist the devil, and he will flee from you. St. Matthew then tells us angels came to minister to Jesus.

Dear children there are angels right here in our church. Angels will surround our altar during the Eucharistic Prayer. There are angels everywhere. The angels are our protectors and spiritual care givers. As disciples of Jesus Christ we are warriors engaged in a spiritual battle; but we don’t fight alone. The angels will minister to us also as we engage in spiritual combat against the power of the devil so ask for their help.

In the Garden of Eden sinful pride caused Adam and Eve to desire total self determination and they committed the original sin. To his peril the lark also in a garden couldn’t control his gluttonous desire for worms. Every one of us is tempted to sin in various ways. We all have that favorite sin we commit. The temptations we face entice us to do things we aren’t supposed to do which can cause us to become persons we weren’t created to be.

Jesus is our role model; he gives us an example to follow to defeat our temptations. So may we employ the Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving; study sacred scripture and the catechism, attend Mass more often and be empowered by the grace of the sacraments of penance and reconciliation and especially the Eucharist. Let us ask the Lord every day to send angels into our lives to protect us from the temptations of the world and the grace to lead us not into temptation, to deliver us from all evil, the evil one, the evil around us as well as the evil within us.

Please pray with me now. Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day [and night] be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.