B - Twenty Fifth Sunday on Ordinary Time

 Perspective – it paints the way we see the world around us.  In the gospel we read how after following Jesus for three years, hearing his preaching, witnessing miraculous healings, and being privy to private instruction, the disciples still did not get it – their perspective was still misaligned.  As Jesus would begin the last chapter of his life, we find them arguing about who is the greatest among them.   They just didn't get it.  These, his chosen, were still playing politics, wedded to their long-held perspective that it was power, authority, respect, and greatness that meant something, that held value. 

We know that our Christian life demands of us something entirely different.  Our second reading lists some of the qualities we are to have and hold.  These are forged in a wisdom shared with us by way of the Holy Spirit.  We are to be peaceable, full of mercy, sincere and bearing good fruit.  We are to be constant and to control our passions. This is not the way of the ungodly as we hear in our first reading.  Their perspective is that life is short and meaningless and so they seek pleasure and power while there is still time.  And they do not need to be reminded, warned, or corrected of their erroneous and self-destructive ways.  And if they are, they will see this as an affront and so may respond with a mighty, heavy and unrestrained hand.  As then, so today. Just try to share the perspective that marriage is only between one man and one woman, or that the unborn have dignity and value and a God given right to life.  The hackles rise as the sleeves are rolled up.  The message of life is not everywhere welcome. 

Power, authority, respect, and greatness - the distractions of this world that many pursue with a passion.  We love our apostles since they were similarly deluded and shackled.  But ultimately, they grew to understand. The apostles show us that despite a rocky path, persistence and courage elicit change – a change in life and ultimately a real change in perspective.   

This week we are invited to shift our perspective – to change our position to more clearly see the truth of it and to 'get' what Jesus is telling us.  But what is the engine of this change and how do we go about finding the new freedom that comes with it? The answer is – prayer time.  I heard a priest share recently that in hearing the same sin confessed multiple times, he typically asks the penitent to describe his or her prayer life.  Most, he notes, reply that they pray 10 minutes a day.  “10 Minutes”, he exclaimed, “that is for 4th graders.”  To him 10 minutes of prayer each day did not cut it.  So how long should we pray each day?  Bishop Fulton Sheen, whose famous TV shows can now be seen on YouTube, encouraged a holy hour every day.  This is echoed by Bishop Robert Baron of modern-day social media fame.  He writes, “when people invest in the presence of God their lives change, period.”  He encourages us to, “Sequester some time every day to focus on the Lord.”   To change from a worldly to an eternal perspective, you and I need to be disciplined in our prayer life, not compulsive but placing ourselves, as we are, in the real and living presence of God.  We bring to prayer that which we are, that which we encounter in life, and that which we read in the Word of God.   We must discipline our prayer life in the same way we discipline other areas of our life – going to work, studying, making the bed, washing the dishes, and so on.  The author Malcolm Gladwell writes of the 10,000-hour theory – the time any beginner must spend to become an expert.  10,000 hours seems so many, but we pray when we rise in the morning.  We pray before each meal, we pray during prayer time, we pray as we lay ourselves down to sleep.  Following the encouragement of Brother Lawrence, a 17th Century Carmelite brother, we practice the presence of God at each moment throughout the day, so each moment becomes a prayer.  We can soon become a 10,000-hour master.   There is a well-known adage in clerical circles that a cleric who does not pray should wear a T-shirt that says, “I don’t pray, stay away”.  Meaning a lack of prayer makes a clerical life hollow and fruitless.  But this is not just for clerics since, by virtue of our baptism, we all carry a priestly responsibility and duty and none of us should lead a hollow and fruitless life. 

We are encouraged by the lives of the apostles, who slowly and painstakingly grew in understanding until the moment the spirit washed over them.  From that moment, their perspective on the world would change for ever.  We are in possession of that same Holy Spirit.  We are to bestir this spirit by means of a disciplined prayer life.  We are to pray as a people determined to meet and know the Lord.  The disciples radically changed their perspective from the worldly to the eternal, despite their stubbornness, by staying close to Jesus.  We can do no less – in fact we must, at any cost, do the same.    

Saint James and Saint John – pray for us.  

Deacon Peter Bujwid, Saint Agnes 
Arlington, MA. 
Sunday 22nd September 2024

B - Corpus Christi

Antonio had been a wealthy man once.  Now he lived as a beggar in the streets of Lisbon.  His appearance was unappealing, his clothes old and many-layered.  He used plastic carrier bags to carry his worldly possessions and often he would be seen going barefoot.  His days were spent hanging out and asking for help from tourists and the locals alike.  At times he would do well and was able to afford something to eat and drink.  Most nights though he would find his old cardboard boxes and make for himself a shelter in one of the shop doorways.  As long as he did not oversleep this appeared to work, as few would bother him once it grew dark.  At times some good Samaritan would offer extra help, for which he was grateful.   

Isabella was a local shopkeeper and would frequently see Antonio and would occasionally and cheerfully buy him breakfast along with a hot drink. Antonio really had no one to speak with and so he would enjoy the exchange of a few friendly words with Isabella.  Late one summer morning Isabella was coming out of her store and was surprised to see Antonio’s makeshift shelter still in place, for he would typically take it down before the shops opened.  Having bought breakfast she went over to deliver it only to find that Antonio was unresponsive and had quietly passed away.  An ambulance came and took him, and the Police cleared his cardboard house and removed his bags from the doorway.    In speaking with one of the Policewomen, Isabella would learn to her great astonishment that Antonio, far from being poor, was astonishingly wealthy, for thrust deeply into one of his pockets was a diamond of such caliber and beauty that, if he had chosen, Antonio could have lived quite a different and comfortable life.  For whatever reason Antonio had left his wealth untouched.

So many of our baptized brothers and sisters live in ignorance of the riches given to them which, like that diamond, remain untouched.  For others it is not ignorance but a personal choice to live in poverty, in shop doorways, alone, shoeless, and cold at night.

As the baptized we are all profoundly rich and are further doubly blessed to be in the catholic family.  God gives us his word so that we can grow in his love and knowledge.  Jesus gives us the sacraments so we can pursue holiness.  The Holy Spirit, poured out upon us, motivates, and guides our hearts, minds, and spirit so we can remain in Christ as Christ remains in us.  We are rich – and our ultra wealthy portfolio rests on a rock.  A diamond of such caliber and beauty that so many do not believe it.  The infinite God has humbled himself and taken on a form by means of which we can consume him and bring him into us.   Many remain poor, struggling to believe this central tenet of catholic teaching.

I suppose all surveys need to be looked at closely but while a 2019 Pew Survey found that only one third of US Catholics believed in Transubstantiation, a more recent Georgetown study has noted that two thirds now do.  This is good news as we prepare for the National Eucharistic Revival to be held this July (2024) in Indianapolis. 80,000 men, woman and children are expected to converge and together pray, praise and worship.  Can you imagine 80,000 voices all together and as one praising God and acknowledging the truth of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ with us in the Holy Eucharist.   Can you imagine the loud and united AMEN!

We are to die to ourselves; we are to die to a life that is selfish or spiritually bankrupt, we are to die, but let us not die poor, cold and hungry for we are given all we need to live full, complete, purposeful, and rich lives.

Our friend Antonio would live and die poor while carrying a diamond deep in his pocket, untouched, unused, far from the light that would make it sparkle with life and that would make him a very rich man.  Let us dust off the diamond of our baptism and polish this gem by way of a faith driven and sacramentally rich life. As we continue with this Mass, and in accordance with His instructions, we prepare ourselves to consume His body and His blood.  By this He makes us rich, gives us life, light, comfort, and peace.   

The answer to true poverty is only Jesus Christ, fully and completely present here in the sacrament of the Mass – body, soul, and divinity, fully present, all loving, and simply and deeply desiring you and me.   AMEN 

Deacon Peter Bujwid, Saint Agnes
Arlington, MA.
Sunday 2nd June 2024

 

 

B - Fifth Sunday of Easter

Video of Homily

St. Peter hears the doorbell and looking out the window sees a man standing there at the pearly gates waiting to come in. St. Peter goes to open the gates but as soon as he arrives the man who was waiting disappears.  St. Peter is surprised but returns to what he was doing, when again the doorbell rings, and so he goes once more to open the gates.  As soon as St. Peter arrives, the man disappears again.  Frustrated St. Peter returns to his activities when a third time the bell rings.  Going out St. Peter shouts, “what is going on here.”  “Sorry,” the man says, “they are trying to resuscitate me.”   

Stories and jokes such as these tend to reinforce the notion that the gates of heaven are found at the end of our lives where the scales of justice will weigh our actions to determine our acceptability and whether we can pass through the gates and into heaven.   It is very true that there will be a particular judgement immediately upon our death, and at that time the assignment to heaven, purgatory or hell.  And at the end of all time there will also be the final judgement when the justice, mercy and glory of God will be seen by all.   Yet the gates of heaven are not to be found at the time of our death.  Rather we pass through those gates when we are baptized. We are in many ways already traveling the pathway beyond the gates of heaven and towards the embrace of God.   It is at our baptism that we are made acceptable to God. We need to really meditate on this truth; we are already acceptable to God because of our baptism, and not by our accomplishments or good acts.  If we hear a voice within telling us, we are unacceptable that is simply a lie. A lie we can sometimes tell ourselves because of a faulty or weak understanding, or a lie told to us when under spiritual attack - the purpose of which is to have us lose hope and ultimately our faith.  

John Lennox, a scientist and Christian apologist makes this point very well when he says that in marrying his wife Sally, he did not wait 30 years into the marriage to accept her, nor she him.  The acceptance came first.  Acceptance does come first and then the growth and flourishing of a loving relationship over time.   We need not fear our own thoughts of unacceptability.   We are already the beloved children of God. And as in marriage, our relationship with God grows, develops, and bears fruit over time if we remain committed to that relationship.   

God is the vine grower, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches.  At our baptism we were grafted onto the vine, made acceptable, given light and a new life. We were sanctified and set apart for holy purposes. Our capacity for faith, hope and charity was supercharged.   And Jesus Christ, the true vine, became our source of nourishment, of life, and fruitfulness. It is true we cannot do anything without him, since all we would do, however good it appears, will be lacking.  But living in the Holy Spirit we can walk in obedience to God’s will and so love as Christ loves – sacrificially.   This is an important teaching for us to grasp and ponder.  Whether we wish to be good parents and bring up children well, whether we wish to find the right words of comfort or peace at work or school, or whether we wish to lead in ministry, it is only by remaining in Christ that life will flow from God and through us and into our thoughts, words and works.   

Jesus tells us that we are already pruned because He, the living Word, has found a home in our hearts.  We are already pruned since choosing to sacramentalize our lives we conform ourselves to our Lord.   

But lest we become complacent, too comfortable, we are warned that the branches that bare no fruit will be cut off and burned.  This means that even though we are joined to the vine if we then fail to remain in him, fail to keep his commandments, and, as his disciples, fail to produce fruit, then we will be separated.  Like any good vine grower, God the Father will take off the branch that is lifeless and unproductive.  These are sobering words and should give us cause for pause.   

In the second reading Saint Paul tells us how we are to know that we are in him and living in the truth.  Simply, because our hearts do not condemn us. And if they do then this is because God lives in us. The Spirit is "greater than our heart" and "knows everything."  When we sin, the Spirit convicts us of the wrong and helps us to desire a change.  

We are already walking in the hinterlands of heaven; not quite home, yet within sight of it.  By means of our baptism we are already accepted by the Father and are grafted onto the vine who is his son.  Fear not God’s pruning for this is for our good.  Our life mission, which we must accept if we are not to be cut off and thrown away, is to love one another as he commanded us to do.  We keep his commandments and so remain in him as he remains in us. By this our ability to do good and bear much fruit is made possible. 

Jesus, help us to share fully in the life you give us. Keep us free from sin and from distracting entanglements. May the fruits of our actions prove us to be your faithful disciples. Amen. 

 

Deacon Peter Bujwid, Saint Agnes Church
Arlington, MA. 
Sunday 28th April 2024