Previous Weeks' Homilies
2002 2003
Homily for 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C September
26, 2004
Amos 6:1a, 4-7 1 Timothy 6:11-16 Luke 16:19-31
The locations of most events in the scriptures are simple:
a garden, the seashore, the desert, a mountain or hill,
a stable, a table, a tomb, an upper room...
And there’s a simple location
for the parable Jesus shares with us today: a door -
the door of the rich man’s house
where sat Lazarus in his poverty, his hunger and his disease.
Doors are simple but important pieces of our daily lives.
A door keeps some things outside
and a door keeps some things inside.
And a door is the portal through which
those outside are invited in
and through which those inside can venture out.
A door can be open or closed,
or, more significantly, locked or unlocked.
A door is where we say hello, and where we say goodbye.
A door might have a window in it,
allowing all a glimpse of the other side.
Or it might be a solid door
with no transparency,
or just one of those little magnifying peep holes
allowing those in side to look out
but keeping those on the outside from looking in.
One way of looking at today’s gospel
is to ponder the door of the rich man’s house,
a door which kept the rich man safe in side
and kept Lazarus out,
lest his open sores contaminate the rich man’s household.
Perhaps this parable is not only about helping the poor.
Perhaps it’s as much about doors as it is about charity.
What does the rich man’s doors keep in?
What, who is he keeping out?
What of the doors in my life? in yours?
How about the door of my heart? the door of your heart?
Are these doors
opened or closed?
locked or unlocked?
What does the door of my heart keep in?
What does my heart’s door keep out?
What does my door protect me from?
How does my door keep others from me?
Who has a key to the door of my heart?
Certainly any such keys are copies of which God has the original,
the master key.
When the Lord knocks on my door, do I answer?
When he uses his key to come in, do I welcome him?
Do I open my door and venture out?
Do I cross my own threshold to see where God might lead me?
Do I reverence the door of my heart
as the place where the Lord and others enter my life
and where God invites me to leave myself
and enter his life, and the life of others - especially the poor?
and invite me to enter theirs?
It was long ago, in a simple place, on a wooden cross,
on a hill outside the city of Jerusalem
where Jesus through away the key to the door of his heart,
leaving it open, for ever, and for all.
He invites us to cross the threshold of his life
by sharing at this simple table
the simplest of foods: a morsel of bread, a sip from a cup,
his body and blood:
food which unlocks for us the very doors of heaven.
In our parish life, some old, familiar doors will soon close
and a new door will open.
The psalmist says “the Lord will guard our coming and going....”
May the Lord open the doors of our hearts,
and the door of Holy Family Parish,
to welcome us anew through the door of his heart.
-Rev. Austin Fleming
“For the children of this world are more PRUDENT...
than are the children of light.”
(Now, just to make sure we’re on the same page here:
Jesus is speaking of US as the children of light!)
“More prudent...”
Can you remember the last time you were prudent?
- the last time you made the prudent choice?
- spoke the prudent word?
- kept a prudent silence?
- did the prudent thing?
If you’re like me,
it’s a lot easier to remember the last time you were IM-prudent!
Maybe that’s because im-prudent words and deeds
often have consequences that are embarrassing and regrettable
- but not easily forgettable!
Or maybe it’s just because I’m im-prudent more often than I’m prudent.
The dictionary tells us that to be prudent
is to be “capable of exercising sound judgment in practical matters...”
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Making good choices in practical affairs?
Why do I tend instead, and so often,
to be rash and impulsive rather than prudent?
There might be something in the derivation of the word
to give me a clue here.
The word prudent comes from the Latin PROVIDERE
which means “to see before,” that is, to see ahead of time...
Of course, rash and impulsive actions and decisions
spring from the moment and by definition FAIL
to look ahead, to be circumspect,
to take in the larger picture, the long view.
Well, so far this little word-study could apply well
to business decisions, financial planning, choosing a college,
playing the stock market - even to betting on horse races!
But obviously that’s not the Lord’s agenda here
even though he does encourage us to get a clue
from those who succeed in the business world -
even from this dishonest steward who cooks his master’s books
to feather his own nest when he sees he’s going to be fired.
The dishonest steward
took in the larger picture,
saw what was before him,
and provided for himself what he knew he would need.
Jesus isn’t counseling us here to indulge in creative bookkeeping
but he is at pains to show us how important it is
to see ahead, to plan ahead, and to make decisions
not rashly and impulsively,
but with the wisdom that only the long view can offer.
We might sometimes think that prudence and courage
are antonyms, opposites - but they’re not.
Very often doing the prudent thing demands the most courage,
especially when those on all sides would prefer to act on impulse.
It could be said that the current state of the Archdiocese of Boston
is due in large measure to a lack of prudence in the past:
rash decisions were made for quick solutions to grave problems
in a failure to look ahead for signs
of what wiser, more prudent judgments might have yielded.
To have been more prudent
when first faced with complaints of abuse;
to have been more prudent
when first faced with a failed archdiocesan infrastructure:
that would have demanded great courage indeed.
Now the im-prudence and short-sightedeness of past decisions
has cast its long shadow on the doorstep of our parish.
More than ever, we need, as the people of Our Lady Help of Christians,
to look ahead, to take the long view,
with the wisdom that only prudence can offer us.
The vision of the gospel and its mission has guided this parish
for nearly a century.
Only that vision can and will guide us, prudently,
out of and beyond our loss and pain.
It will take courage to be prudent here,
to make decisions wiser than those which brought us to this point.
The Hebrew scriptures remind us that
“Wisdom has built herself a house
and has set a table for her children.”
Here, she nourishes in us, her children,
the vision prudence offers
and the courage to live by it.
May the food of Wisdom’s feast
strengthen us for the journey ahead
to the table she will set for us in Holy Family Parish.
Rev. Austin Fleming
We have finally received word regarding the name
of the new Catholic parish in Concord
and that name will be HOLY FAMILY PARISH:
the first of the three names we sent to the archbishop;
the name most frequently suggested in our summer survey;
and the name endorsed by our Transition Team.
It wasn’t my first choice, but I like it
and I believe it will serve us well.
It’s too late now, but today’s scriptures suggest a number of
names
I wish we’d thought of earlier.
From today’s first lesson
I see that we might have asked to name our new parish
CHURCH OF THE STIFF-NECKED PEOPLE.
That’s what the Lord calls his chosen people
and we can be just as stiff necked as they were.
But if the image of Stiff-Necked People doesn’t sound attractive,
we might just put a little spin on it
and name the new parish:
HOUSE OF DIVINE MASSAGE -
just what stiff-necked people need – a divine massage!
Now THERE’S a name that might bring people back to church!
And it’s not a bad name.
A parish is precisely a place where God touches and seduces his people
with words of love and endearment, promise and hope.
A parish is a place:
where, in the sacraments, God anoints our bodies
with sacred and scented oils;
Where God wants to relieve the tension in us
and the tensions among us;
where God wants to work out
the knots and kinks in our lives,
relaxing us so that we might be all the more open
to intimacy with him.
HOUSE OF DIVINE MASSAGE!
Or perhaps we could have asked to name our new parish
GOD’S GYM.
Maybe that’s too close to GOLD’S GYM
and there might be some copyright or patent issues,
but again, it’s the scriptures that suggest this name to my imagination,
right there in the second lesson:
“I am grateful to Jesus who has STRENGTHENED me.
I used to be arrogant and ignorant,
a blaspheming persecutor,
but Jesus became my personal trainer and now I am STRONG.
GOD’S GYM…I like it!
A parish is a place:
where we come to get in shape, spiritually;
where we come to exercise in ways
we probably don’t or wouldn’t do on our own at home;
where the whole TEAM of the faith community
works out, works through, and works together.
The parish is truly a place for BODY BUILDING:
for building up the BODY of CHRIST that we are: the church.
And the motto at GOLD’S Gym might well be our own at GOD’s Gym:
No Pain – No Gain!
You can probably guess the parish name
today’s gospel suggests with its parables of the lost sheep and coin:
THE CHURCH OF THE LOST AND FOUND!
I know, it doesn’t sound too Catholic, but it’s very scriptural.
You could even say that the whole bible
is one big “lost and found” story
and a parish is a place where we hear different versions
of the lost and found story every week.
A parish is a place where we learn to let go
what we really need to LOSE
and to FIND the things we truly need.
A parish is where we LOSE ourselves
in service of our neighbor
and at the same time FIND something of ourselves
that we might have otherwise never found.
A parish is a place where….well, I know…
the analogy begins to fall apart here
because we are losing our parish
and we feel lost in the process,
and we’re not altogether sure how we will be found.
or what we will find in the new parish.
My homily, and our parish story, could end right here, except for this:
You see, Our Lady Parish in West Concord
IS a House of Divine Massage where for 97 years
God’s desire has touched us stiff necked folks
and healed and eased our pain,
and massaged us to renewed intimacy in his arms.
Our Lady Parish IS God’s Gym and the challenge ahead will test
how truly strong we have become,
how faithfully we have exercised our muscles for Christian service,
and how well the Lord has built us up
into his Body, the church.
And Our Lady Parish is certainly
a CHURCH OF THE LOST AND FOUND
where, for nearly a century,
people have lost themselves to God’s word and love
and found in their sacrifice a grace and peace beyond any price.
It’s not for nothing
that we gather under the sign of Christ’s life LOST for us
to receive his life FOUND for us in the sacrament of this table.
May this sacrament take the stiffness out of our spirit
and massage the warmth of God’s love into our minds and hearts…
May this sacrament strengthen what is weak within us
and train us well, make us fit, for the work ahead…
May this sacrament help us find who we truly are:
children of God,
brothers and sisters in Christ,
and with Christ, daughters and sons of his Mother,
Mary,
Our Lady,
Help of Christians.
Already then our spiritual relationships
make us members of a holy family
even as we make our way to becoming founding members
of Holy Family Parish.
- Rev. Austin Fleming
Imagine that you are first century middle eastern person
listening to Jesus preach.
You live in a culture which totally family based.
Your whole way of life and means of support
depend on your family connections.
Anyone outside your family is considered suspect.
You live in a culture where the ideal marriage partner is a first cousin:
that’s how closely those around you want to keep it -
“all in the family!”
And here’s Jesus saying that if you want to follow him
you have to HATE your family!
You don’t worry about his saying that you need to hate your own life,
too
because if you hate your family you are, for all intents and purposes,
giving up on your own life.
And the part about renouncing all your possessions?
That comes with hating your family
because your family is the source of all your possessions
and ultimately, everything you have belongs to your family.
To hate your family MEANS giving up all your possessions.
Does Jesus really want us to “hate” our families? No.
What Jesus is getting at is the question of allegiance.
He’s saying that if you want to follow him,
then you must give him first claim on your allegiance,
even ahead of your family, whom you can no longer depend of
for everything they’ve always provided for you
because at this point they will very likely disinherit you!
Such a deal!
Step right up and follow Jesus!
But wait, folks!
There’s more!
If you call before midnight and mention that you heard this homily,
Jesus will throw in - at absolutely no extra cost -
your very own cross to carry!
Call now!
Beat the crowds!
Be the very first one in your neighborhood to be a disciple of Jesus!
He asks a lot.
He asks for everything.
And he knows how hard it is for us to let go...
Few if any of us respond totally to his three demands here
and yet he asks each of us to respond in some way to
giving him our first allegiance;
bearing our cross with love;
and learning to depend on him for our deepest needs.
Whatever we think of the decisions that have led
to the closing of our parish,
that is precisely the situation in which Jesus speaks his word to us today.
We may be more like first century middle easterners than we imagine:
our first allegiance is to our FAMILY, Our Lady Parish;
a family we have depended on for nearly a century
we want to keep it “all in the family,”
(or at least on this side of Route 2);
and we are unsure if we have the faith and strength
to pick up and carry the cross
that reconfiguration has placed on our shoulders.
Jesus asks a lot.
He asks for everything.
And he knows how hard it is for us to let go.
How will we respond?
Will we walk away?
Will we allow our anger to consume us?
Or will we learn to see that giving our first allegiance to the Lord
might yield a family of faith
deeper, larger and greater than the one we have known?
In letting go our sacred possessions,
can we see that our hands and arms might be opened
to receive sacred treasures yet unknown to us?
And most important of all:
do we see that Jesus will never leave us to carry our cross alone
but that he will always be there to lift it and carry it with us?
To nourish our minds and hearts to live by his word,
Jesus offers us the gift of life flowing from the cross he carried
when he gave his first allegiance to God
and let go his own family and all his possessions.
In the bread and cup of his sacrifice
we are fed with his body and blood.
May the eucharist strengthen us
to follow him as his disciples.
- Rev. Austin Fleming
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