HOMILY– 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Detachment (English & Spanish)

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           Today Jesus is asking us, what possesses our lives?

What controls the precious time we have on this earth?

What are we addicted to or attached to that is unhealthy for us spiritually? 

Jesus is encouraging us to detach from these possessions? Only then will we be able to hear his message better.

           Easier said than done, I know.

This past week, many users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp had to go most of a day without these social media platforms. This was all due to a major technical issue.

Facebook was down for 80-million of its users, many here in the United States.  But its other products Instagram and WhatsApp were also down.

           It marked the longest outage for Facebook since 2008. Facebook has around three billion users worldwide.

           People addicted to social media were forced to detach from their habit for nearly a day.

I’m sure for some this was no easy matter.

           In this experience we can hear the voice of Jesus encouraging us to let go, put our focus on him and imitate what he is doing.

           Jesus loves us and desires to love others through us. But when our focus is elsewhere and not on him, how can this happen?

           We’ve all seen parents more focused on their smart phones than on their own children begging for their attention.

We’ve all seen friends and couples out to dinner more focused on their iPhones than on each other.

We’ve all seen people walking the streets like zombies bumping into people or even light poles because they are so fixated on their phones.

I can only imagine what Jesus would have to say about our unhealthy addiction to our phones.

And for the record, your deacon counts himself among those addicting to this device. So, this message is for your preacher, too.

Today, Jesus is calling us to change our focus, keep our eyes on him and become his eyes and ears in the world with our ministry of presence to others, especially others most in need.

Again, Jesus loves us and desires to love others through us. This requires our cooperation and our sacrifice.

Christ calls us to use the blessings we have received for the good of others. Not be solely focused on ourselves and our needs all the time. This is a non-negotiable in the kingdom of God.

           This half-day break from our Facebook habit is but a glimpse of the kind of detachment we are all being asked to make in our relationship with Jesus Christ so we can do his will for others.

This is the wisdom of Jesus. This is the “prudence given (us).” This is how the spirit of wisdom dons on our human minds. We heard these words in our first reading.

When we turn to the message in the Gospel of Mark, we see the perfect example of how Jesus is calling us to new life, one detached from all that controls us.

One bible commentary makes this key point about Jesus’ encounter with the rich man. Here’s what it said:

“What a demanding person Mark’s Jesus is! Here is an eager, prospective disciple, who has kept all the commandments since his childhood. He wants everlasting life. Jesus looks on him with love, but then challenges him beyond his capacities (“[And] He went away sad …”).

Mark’s Jesus turns to his disciples and makes it clear to them that having many possessions is an almost insurmountable deterrent to possession of the kingdom of God. This overwhelmed Jesus’ disciples and probably overwhelmed Mark’s first readers as thoroughly as it challenges his readers today.”^[1]

By having these attachments, we are unable to focus on the needs of other. Our possessions, our wealth, our status, our entitlement prevent us from being able to do the Lord’s will in this world.

As we heard, the rich man walked away sad.

His sadness was not caused by his many possessions. No, it was caused by his inability to accept Jesus’ challenging invitation to come follow him and his example.

The man clung too tightly to his sources of false security. This prevented him from attaching to the security offered by Jesus and then showing Jesus to others by sacrificing his prized possessions.

So what possessions are we clinging too tightly to?

Our wealth? Our ego? Our pride? Our anger? Our resentments? 

How let go of these things? How do we more fervently follow Jesus?  How do we become more focused on the needs of others, not ourselves?

This is great food for thought for the coming week.  

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^[1] Bergant, D., & Karris, R. J. (1989). The Collegeville Bible commentary: based on the New American Bible with revised New Testament (p. 924). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.

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Hoy Jesús nos está preguntando, ¿Qué posee nuestras vidas? ¿Qué controla el precioso tiempo que tenemos en esta tierra? ¿A qué somos adictos o apegados que no es saludable para nosotros espiritualmente? Jesús nos está animando a separarnos de esas posesiones para escuchar mejor su mensaje.

           Es más fácil decirlo que hacerlo, lo sé.

La semana pasada, muchos usuarios de Facebook, Instagram y WhatsApp tuvieron que pasar la mayor parte del día sin estas plataformas de redes sociales. Todo esto se debió a un problema técnico importante.

Facebook cayó para 80 millones de sus usuarios, muchos aquí en los Estados Unidos.  Pero sus otros productos Instagram y WhatsApp también cayeron.

           Marcó la interrupción más larga para Facebook desde 2008. Facebook tiene alrededor de tres mil millones de usuarios en todo el mundo.

           Las personas adictas a las redes sociales se vieron obligadas a desprenderse de su hábito durante casi un día.

           Estoy seguro de que para algunos esto no fue un asunto fácil.

           En esta experiencia podemos escuchar la voz de Jesús animándonos a soltarnos, a poner nuestro enfoque en él e imitar lo que séestá haciendo.

           Jesús nos ama y desea amar a los demás a través de nosotros. Pero cuando nuestro enfoque está en otra parte y no en él, ¿cómo puede pasar esto?

           Todos hemos visto a los padres más enfocados en sus teléfonos inteligentes que en sus propios hijos que piden su atención.

           Todos hemos visto a amigos y parejas salir a cenar más enfocados en sus iPhones que uno en el otro.

Todos hemos visto a personas caminando por las calles como zombis chocando contra otras personas o incluso con postes de luz porque están muy obsesionados con sus teléfonos.

Solo puedo imaginar lo que Jesús tendría que decir sobre nuestra adicción poco saludable a nuestros teléfonos.

Y para que conste, su diácono se cuenta entre los adictos a este dispositivo. Por lo tanto, este mensaje también es para su predicador.

           Hoy, Jesús nos está llamando a cambiar nuestro enfoque, mantener nuestros ojos en él y convertirnos en sus ojos y oídos en el mundo, con nuestro ministerio de presencia hacia los demás, especialmente hacia los más necesitados.

Una vez más, Jesús nos ama y desea amar a los demás a través de nosotros. Esto requiere nuestra cooperación y nuestro sacrificio.

           Cristo nos llama a usar las bendiciones que hemos recibido para el bien de los demás. No estar solo enfocados en nosotros mismos y en nuestras necesidades todo el tiempo. Esto es algo innegociable en el reino de Dios.

Este descanso de medio día de nuestro hábito de Facebook, no es más que un vistazo al tipo de desapego que a todos se nos pide que tengamos una relación con Jesucristo a través de la cual podamos hacer su voluntad por los demás.

Esta es la sabiduría de Jesús. Esta es la "prudencia dada (a nosotros)". Así es como el espíritu de sabiduría se manifiesta en nuestras mentes humanas. Escuchamos estas palabras en nuestra primera lectura.

Cuando nos dirigimos al mensaje del Evangelio de Marcos, vemos el ejemplo perfecto de cómo Jesús nos está llamando a una nueva vida, una vida separada de todo lo que nos controla.          

Un comentario bíblico hace este punto clave en el encuentro de Jesús con el hombre rico.

Esto es lo que decía:

"¡Qué persona tan exigente es el Jesús de Marcos! Aquí hay un discípulo ansioso y prospectivo, que ha guardado todos los mandamientos desde su infancia. Él quiere la vida eterna. Jesús lo mira con amor, pero luego lo desafía más allá de sus capacidades ("[Y] se fue triste ...").

El Jesús de Marcos se dirige a sus discípulos y les deja claro que tener muchas posesiones es un elemento casi insuperable para la posesión del reino de Dios. Esto abrumó a los discípulos de Jesús y probablemente abrumó a los primeros lectores de Marcos tan a fondo como desafía a sus lectores de hoy". ^[1]

Al tener estos apegos, no podemos centrarnos en las necesidades de los demás. Nuestras posesiones, nuestra riqueza, nuestro estatus, nuestro derecho nos impiden poder hacer la voluntad del Señor en este mundo.

Como escuchamos, el hombre rico se fue triste.

Su tristeza no fue causada por tener muchas posesiones. No, fue causada por su incapacidad para aceptar la desafiante invitación de Jesús a venir a seguirlo a él y a su ejemplo.

El hombre se aferró demasiado fuerte a sus fuentes de falsa seguridad. Esto le impidió apegarse a la seguridad ofrecida por Jesús y luego mostrar a Jesús a los demás, sacrificando sus preciadas posesiones.

Entonces, ¿A qué posesiones nos aferramos demasiado fuerte?

          ¿A nuestra riqueza? ¿A Nuestro ego? ¿  orgullo? ¿A nuestra ira?   ¿A nuestros resentimientos? 

           ¿Cómo dejar ir estas cosas? ¿Cómo seguimos más fervientemente a Jesús?  ¿Cómo nos enfocamos más en las necesidades de los demás, no en nosotros mismos?

Este es un gran alimento para pensar para la próxima semana.   

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^[1] Bergant, D., & Karris, R. J. (1989). The Collegeville Bible commentary: based on the New American Bible with revised New Testament (p. 924). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.

HOMILY– 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Human Politics

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This week Jesus is critiquing our human politics. He’s calling us out for allowing politics to warp his message.

In this week’s Gospel, the apostles are getting all huffed up because others are curing people in the name of Jesus. These feelings of jealousy come from our human desire for power and control.

Jesus is commanding us to let go of these feelings. And follow him and his example.

This week Pope Francis created quite a stir in Catholic circles with comments about EWTN (the Eternal Word Television Network) based in Irondale, Alabama.

EWTN, especially its opinion hosts, and articles in its publication National Catholic Register and Catholic News Agency have been openly critical of the Holy Father.  

 For the most part, Pope Francis has ignored these U.S. critics. But this past week on a trip to Slovakia, in a meeting with fellow Jesuits, he reportedly said, “There is… a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope. I personally deserve the attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve them. (These attacks) are the work of the devil.”

EWTN caters to a traditional Catholic audience, some who view Pope Francis as heretical or at the least confusing in his teachings.

What Jesus did confused his followers, too. One disciple found Christ heretical enough to exchange him for 30 silver coins.

EWTN and its many holdings are supported financially by powerful, wealthy political operatives, people who do not see eye to eye with the Holy Father.

In fact, during the pontificate of Francis, the network has regularly become antagonistic to the message of a pope for the first time in its history. EWTN also articulates a partisan political focus in some of its opinion-based content that is reflective of its benefactors’ sentiments.

These wealthy financial backers of EWTN also exert a lot of influence over U.S. Bishops.

           Our second reading from St. James was an indictment of the rich and entitled. This reading resonates with the message of Pope Francis this week.

These wealthy benefactors of EWTN were first taken aback by Pope Francis when he declared the Catholic Church “a poor Church for the poor” at the beginning of his pontificate.

Their resistance and critiques increased in volume with the release of his encyclical Laudato Si on Care of Creation (or the environment). And his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia following the Synods on the Family in which a controversial footnote opened the door to divorced Catholics receiving communion.

In the Gospel, Jesus chastises the apostles for exhibiting the human tendency for power and control.

The critics of Francis’ are exhibiting the same tendency.

This is dangerous spiritual ground on which to trod.

Jesus reminds us today, “There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

           But with an ever-growing polarization in the Catholic Church, who is for us?  Who is against us?  Who is us?

           The managing editor of the website Where Peter Is shared a painful story about how polarization around the teachings of Pope Francis created a rift with his devout Catholic mother in the months before she died.

           Mike Lewis said his mother regularly watched EWTN and was a big fan of opinion host Raymond Arroyo who pulls no punches on Pope Francis. So was her circle of like-minded friends at Church.

Now to be honest, there are many good things about EWTN. Its daily Mass is watched by millions of Catholics in the U.S. and has been a comfort for many during the pandemic.

I don’t believe for a minute Pope Francis was condemning everything EWTN does as being “the work of the devil.” He was likely targeting shows such as this because they foment so much division in the Church.

Lewis said this about his personal journey with his mother: “I experienced this division in a personal way. The impact of public defiance against the pope is… doing real damage to the body of Christ.”

Lewis says, “Certainly, there are difficult disagreements to resolve, and not every division will be healed on this side of heaven. But we cannot lose sight of who we are as Catholic Christians. By our baptism, we are united as brothers and sisters with Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. Jesus entrusted the care of his sheep to Peter and his successors. The church teaches that Pope Francis is the visible foundation of communion for all the faithful, and the healing of these wound can only begin in unity with him.”

           Pope Francis has said in the past, “There are always those who destroy unity and stifle prophecy.”

As Catholics, we should welcome Pope Francis’ thoughtful insights into our human behavior and critiques of when we Catholics fall short or are not aligned with the mind of Christ.

This is how we grow in our faith.

As many of you may know, I just returned from a two-week vacation, the first real vacation since the pandemic hit. On it, I read Pope Francis’ latest book “Let Us Dream,” a book that will be the topic of an upcoming Deacon Convocation with its co-author.

           In it, the Holy Father said this, “In times of peace and prosperity, there is always a risk that people might dissolve into a mere mass, with no unifying principle to bind them.

           When this happens, the center lives at the expense of the margins, people divide into competing tribes… Indifference, egotism, a culture of complacent well-being, and deep divisions within society, spilling out into violence – all of these are signs that a people has … ceased to believe in itself.”

But Pope Francis says, this pandemic can be a wake-up call and  chance for us to make a new path, one forged by the Holy Spirit, to a place of peace and harmony.

          There is nothing confusing about what Pope Francis says or does. But his prophetic voice sometimes upsets our American sense of entitlement and exceptionalism.

Jesus cautions his disciples today to be aware of their unhealthy thirst for power and control.  Jesus is calling us all to turn away from this same impulse. When we do so we foster unity, not division. We prevent politics and polarization from infecting our lives and our Church. When we turn away from this impulse, we better live out the Gospel of Jesus to the world. 

HOMILY– 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Be Released

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Today, Jesus is performing a miracle.

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus uses the Aramaic word "Ephphatha" when curing a deaf man. We are told the word means, "be opened." Scholars say it also means "be released." 

In less than a week, we commemorate the 20^th Anniversary of one of the most traumatic days in U.S. history: 9/11.

National Geographic has a new documentary about that terrible day (9/11: One Day in America). It takes us back to the pain and trauma we all felt on September 11th, 2001, using eyewitness accounts from the many survivors.

But in the midst of the horror, miracles did happen on 9/11.

Jesus worked through self-sacrificing FDNY, NYPD and Port Authority Police rescuers and others who evacuated thousands of people from the Twin Towers before perishing themselves in the collapse.

But not all were lost.

In our first reading from Isaiah, we hear the words, “Thus says the Lord: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong. Fear not!”

           Many heard the voice of God that day – men and women who rushed in while others were rushing out of the burning buildings.

Port Authority Sergeant John McLoughlin and officer Will Jimeno heard that voice, too. They were just entering the concourse between the two towers when Tower One collapsed trapping them in the rubble of a stairwell.

Miraculously McLoughlin and Jimeno were alive under tons of twisted metal and concrete debris.

Jimeno’s legs were pinned under a heavy piece of concrete and rebar. McLoughlin was crushed under a large piece of the  debris.

As Jimeno lay in the silence for hours, he had only thought: “I’m going to die.”

So, he made a sign with his hands, sign language for “I love you” something he used often with his wife and four-year-old daughter. He knew if he was found this way, his pregnant wife and daughter would know his last thought on earth was to send them a sign of his love. 

Retired Marine David Karnes also heard God’s voice telling him to, “Be strong. Fear not!” that day. Karnes was a senior accountant working at Deloitte Touche in Connecticut on September 11^th, 2001. 

When the second plane hit the World Trade Center, Karnes looked at his boss and said, “We’re at war.” He was not deaf to what was happening. 

David had spent over 20 years in the Marine Corps and felt it was his duty to help out that day.  

David grabbed one of his old uniforms kept hanging neatly pressed in a home closet and gathered all his infantry gear (including ropes and repelling implements) from a storage unit before heading to New York City.

Karnes also stopped by his church and met with his pastor, telling him he felt called by God to go to Ground Zero. They prayed together that he would be led to survivors.

Once he got to New York City he tried to talk others at the command center into venturing to the center of the destruction to search for survivors. Most said it was too late. There was only one taker in the crowd. A fellow Marine.

For hours, former Marine Staff Sergeant David Karnes and former Marine Sergeant Jason Thomas searched through the rubble looking for signs of life, walking through ragged, unstable, and dangerous wreckage of the collapsed 100-story Twin Towers, through fire and smoke and shifting debris. It was so hot their boots were melting into the rebar.

Karnes and Thomas kept screaming, “United States Marines.  If you can hear my voice yell or tap.”  This went on for hours.

Eventually, they heard something.  As they stood quietly, a weak voice emerged from the wreckage, “We’re over here.”

After seeing the men trapped under tons of concrete and steel, 50 feet below from where their rescuers stood, Karnes pulled out his cell phone to call his wife in Connecticut and sister in Pennsylvania to ask them to contact authorities.  Have them send rescue workers immediately to the center of the South Tower wreckage.

Help would finally arrive. First on the scene was a recovering drug addict and former paramedic who heard a voice calling him to Ground Zero that day.

Chuck Sereika was struggling with his recovery. He felt lost and all alone but gathered enough strength to head down to the scene of the carnage to see if he could help.

He was the first to arrive where the two Marines had found the pair of survivors: Sgt. McLoughlin and officer Jimeno.     

Sereika said he was terrified. But found the courage to crawl down the hole where the two men were trapped. As he reflects on the experience now, he says God used the weak to humble the strong, almost the exact point of today's second reading from St. James. 

Hours would pass before both men were pulled safely from the ruble.

The Jaws of Life were even needed to release Jimeno and McLoughlin from their fiery tomb.

“Ephphatha. Be released.”

           Only 18 people were rescued from the debris of the World Trade Center that day. New York Port Authority officer Will Jimeno and Sergeant John McLoughlin were two of the last three people to be extracted from the wreckage.

The miracles of Jesus were made manifest that fateful day because people heard the voice of God and were released from their fear. They were not deaf to the voice of Jesus.

Today, the Twin Towers are replaced with two shining beacons of light at night.

As we see these lights, we think of those 412 first responders who saved lives, then lost their lives in the chaos and catastrophe that day. 

As we see these lights, we think of the 2977 victims of 9/11.

The National September 11^th Memorial and Museum now features two giant pools of water where the towers used to be with the names of all the victims embossed in the granite surrounding the flowing waters.

As Isaiah reminds us, “The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.”