29th Sunday - Ordinary Time

Mass Readings:

Reading I
Ex 17:8-13

In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel.
Moses, therefore, said to Joshua,
"Pick out certain men,
and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle.
I will be standing on top of the hill
with the staff of God in my hand."
So Joshua did as Moses told him:
he engaged Amalek in battle
after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur.
As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,
Israel had the better of the fight,
but when he let his hands rest,
Amalek had the better of the fight.
Moses' hands, however, grew tired;
so they put a rock in place for him to sit on.
Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands,
one on one side and one on the other,
so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

R. (cf. 2) Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
May he not suffer your foot to slip;
may he slumber not who guards you:
indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps,
the guardian of Israel.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade;
he is beside you at your right hand.
The sun shall not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The LORD will guard you from all evil;
he will guard your life.
The LORD will guard your coming and your going,
both now and forever.
R. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Reading II
2 Tm 3:14--4:2

Beloved:
Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed,
because you know from whom you learned it,
and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures,
which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,
and for training in righteousness,
so that one who belongs to God may be competent,
equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

Gospel
Lk 18:1-8

Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.
He said, "There was a judge in a certain town
who neither feared God nor respected any human being.
And a widow in that town used to come to him and say,
'Render a just decision for me against my adversary.'
For a long time the judge was unwilling, but eventually he thought,
'While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being,
because this widow keeps bothering me
I shall deliver a just decision for her
lest she finally come and strike me.'"
The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says.
Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

 

HOMILY

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingly power: proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching…”

These words, my friends and parishioners from St. Paul’s letter to St. Timothy literally jumped off the page at me.  They are an examination of conscience about how I have lived the Gospel, or how I have stood nor not stood for the truth.  Perhaps they spoke to me especially this week because I had just read them a few days ago in another book—where I had quoted them in my doctoral dissertation in Canon Law when I dedicated it to the last Bishop Joseph McNicholas.  Bishop McNicholas was a profound influence in my life.  He was absolutely unafraid to preach and to speak in any time and moment…. especially when it came to matters of racial injustice or matters of the sacred character and dignity of human life, especially as a seminarian and a newly ordained priest.  Many of you will remember his very characteristic and animated way of speaking!  [Here imitate his voice…my dear brothers and sisters in Christ…etc…]  He would speak in any sphere about these matters:  religious, secular, and I dare say, political.  He could do this because before all else….he remained faithful to what he learned and believed from the earliest days of his life.  He taught me of what I need to do, and what I have not always done as well as I could:  to view the world in which we live in through the lens of our Catholic Faith…through the filter of Faith…no particular party, no particular agenda was first for him….just Jesus Christ whom he served.  He was that [his disciple] first and foremost of all.

And, that is what I want to reflect on this weekend as we approach another chance to participate in the electoral process. I have not done this in this direct manner before, much less in a homily, perhaps because of the prevailing “orthodoxy” of not mixing religion and politics.      It may make me nervous, uncomfortable, especially in view of the events of this past Spring.  And, when I am nervous, I can turn  RED… but I must, as a priest, live and preach the Gospel of Christ whether I am comfortable or not, because I must…..”Remain faithful to what I have learned and believed…preach the word whether convenient or inconvenient….”   You know, I really have no choice in the matter, because it is right here in the Word of God this weekend…right here [point to theLectionary].

Not to do so because it is to uncomfortable or too difficult would jeopardize my own salvation, and be failing in my obligations to all of you, whom I esteem and love as friends and parishioners…And as I get uncomfortable with these matters, so do many people, probably even here and now.  But with the help of God, let’s try to set aside all of that for just a moment. 

As we approach another election in our country, indeed as we do at anytime, we must be very grateful for this opportunity and privilege to do this.  One does not have to read far in these days to know that this is not the case in parts of our world.  Many of our ancestors came here to this country for just this reason. 

At the same time, as we exercise this right to vote or make our voices known in the debate on public policy or any legislation, we must remember that for any right, there is a corresponding obligation.  And, often I am afraid these days the obligation part is forgotten. 

As people of Faith our obligation is not first a political one, but one of Faith.  We need to, just for a moment, set aside our political filters, and ask what came first in our lives.  Like St. Paul says to remember what we learned and believed from infancy…our faith was first, our baptism, our sacraments, our knowledge of the Lord and what was right and wrong came long before our involvement in any political process or choosing of elected officials or party membership or whatever.  .  And when political involvement becomes part of our lives, as indeed it must, our Faith cannot be set aside as too inconvenient or too difficult.  Faith and life cannot be lived in separate compartments. 

In some moments in history the refusal to set Faith aside for politics was marked by Martyrdom: St. Thomas Becket with King Henry II or St. Thomas More, who said, when he refused to recognize King Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn or making himself   the head of the Church of England, and was facing his own execution “I die theKing’s good servant, but God’s First.”

Ours, at least now,  [although the future may be different] is not that kind of choice, but we have a choice nonetheless.  And---in our culture and our society that makes us very uncomfortable, especially when there is an apparent conflict between Faith and candidates and laws.  When our convictions about how we need to choose our officials does not match with how we should believe.  It might be convenient to leave our Faith aside.  But the inconvenience of this will always be with us, no matter what we do. Because in the end, to whom do we go, as St. Peter said to the Lord.  

The only perfect law is the law of love, which Christ taught.  It might be said that the only perfect candidate is in front of us here in our Church  [point to the Lord on the Cross] each time we enter. 

Living the Faith in these days is not easy, and as we approach this election many issues face us.  Perhaps, even ironically, as we struggle with the reality of war in our world today, we have the reality of war facing us in the Old Testament, and we are even told that God is on the winning side. How difficult for us to imagine in our conception of democracy!

The United States Bishops have published a handy guide called Faithful Citizenship that lists seven priorities that must concern us:  l) Life and dignity of the human person; 2) Call to Family, Community, and Participation; 3) Rights and Responsibilities; 4) Option for the poor and the vulnerable; 5) Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers; 6) Solidarity; and 7) Caring for God’s Creation.  PLEASE NOTE, HOWEVER, that   he sacredness of life,---the life and dignity of the human person is   always first.  And, even within the first two enumerated above, there are priorities, as a number of published voters guides will show.   [Catholic Answers voters’ guides about abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, homosexual marriage]

As we face this all in the days ahead, we cannot ignore our Faith, nor set it aside…It’s right here in today’s readings:”Remain faithful to what you have believed….preach the word whether convenient or convenient…pray always….will the Son of Man find any faith on the  earth?

All issues must be considered as we live our lives, as we exercise the privilege and right of our political processes at any time.  But the obligation remains of an informed conscience, and this means constant study, reflection and prayer, and not just saying “my conscience says thus and so…”    Not all issues carry equal weight.  Capital punishment is no solution to the cultural problems of today.  War is awful…just ask any veteran of any war, or anyone who has war waged in their land [mention here veteransand survivors of the Second World War], but there is always within both the question of capital punishment and what constitutes a just war   the question of legitimate defense for society and the individual.   

However, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research using embryonic cells are always intrinsically wrong.  They are a direct assault on the God given gift of life.  Certainly, to remain faithful to what we have believed, as a community of Faith that lives the law of the love of Christ we must clearly articulate compassion and care  [mentionhere the “Care Center” which originated from Blessed Sacrament parish and hospicecare at our local hospitals] so that these alternatives are not necessary.  But this compassionate care and alternatives to abortion and euthanasia does not take away from the intrinsic wrong and evil of these actions, and the question of our participation and our cooperation in them by our various choices in public and private life.  

To understand the evil of these choices and their effects on the common good more clearly, the U.S. Bishops also published a document some years ago entitled Living the Gospel ofLife, which can serve as key to understanding Faithful Citizenship.  In l998, this document states in part:   “We cannot simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights and progress while eliminating or marginalizing the weakest among us.  Nor can we practice the Gospel of Life only as a private piety.   American Catholics must live it vigorously and publicly, as a matter of national leadership and witness, or we will not live it at all.    AND   American Catholics have long sought to assimilate into U.S. Cultural Life.  But in assimilating, we have too often been digested.  We have been changed by our culture too much, and we have changed it not enough.”

It’s all right here this weekend in these Scriptures, and will simply not go away, as much as I might want it to:   “Remain faithful to what you have believed….preach the Word whether convenient or inconvenient….” 

These words are the Word of God for us this weekend, reminding us of the lens through which we must view our society, and how we must live our obligations of Faith that come with the right and privilege of being part of the electoral process.  And these words of Sacred Scripture call us to reflect on who we are before anything else…who we must be as people of Faith:  before we are citizens of our country, our baptism in Christ makes us “citizens of the Household of God”:   “When the Son of Man comes, will he find any Faith on the earth?”