Homily - Sunday 2014/09/21 - Workers in the Vineyard

Homily - Sunday

September 21, 2014

Workers in the Vineyard

 

Matthew 20:1-16A

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

 

           Imagine for a moment if I said to pull out your missal from in front of you and open it, and in it, each of you were to find a 20 dollar bill hidden inside, enough twenties so that everyone here got one and only one. Nice?!?! Huh? Everyone would be happy right? … well except for me, I would be out about 10 grand. That is why we are only imagining, so you can stop looking, it is not there, I promise. But going back to my imaginary scenario, imagine you are standing there with your new twenty, and you hear someone on this side scream out, “OOH I got a hundred dollar bill” and then over on that side, “Ooh mine has a hundred too.” Suddenly your twenty isn’t so great, you wish you had that hundred instead, right?

            So now you can imagine what it was like for the workers in the parable we read in today’s Gospel. The first group begins there day, happy to have found work right away, they have the opportunity to provide for their family. They are glad they will be able to eat, maybe get cloths, and pay toward some shelter. Then half way through the morning, the second group, they too are probably thankful for the work, they go to work for “what is just”. Again the landowner went back noon, 3, and again around 5, each time getting more workers, presumably agreeing to pay them a just wage to finish out the day. 

            But when he goes to pay them he starts with those who had worked the least amount of time. Making sure that everyone knows what he is doing. He gave out the same to everyone, regardless of the time they worked. Suddenly those that started, so thankful to have work for that day, are now upset that they feel cheated. But were they cheated? Didn’t they agree to work for a day’s wage? They felt much like I imagine you would feel standing there with your free twenty, they were upset because they didn’t get the best deal, the hundred dollars.

            But God, he is the landowner. It is through his grace, and his grace alone that we have anything at all, the air we breathe, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the jobs we have, the friends, family, and loved ones in our lives, all gifts from God. What we get from God is never earned, it is gifted. God gives, he doesn’t sell. Our salvation, our eternal rest in heaven with God isn’t bought by trading in points for good deeds. Our salvation is gifted from God.

            I heard a story that explains it well. A man gets to heaven and is at the gates talking to Saint Peter, and Saint Peter says to the man, “Let’s go over your life and we will tally up the points and if you get 200 points you will be let in.” So Saint Peter says “Tell me what have you done to get into heaven?” “Well”, says the man, “I have been married for 37 years to my wife, I have always been faithful, I’ve never even raised my voice to her, and always made sure to put her needs ahead of mine.” “Wow” Saint Peter replies “that’s great”, he looks in the book of points, and says “That’s worth 5 points.” The man begins to be very worried, if that was only 5 points, he still has 195 left. The man goes on “I worked for the same employer for 39 years, was never late, always put in a hard day’s work, and never stole, not even a pencil.” Saint Peter says “Yep, I see that here in your records, well done.” He glances at the book of points “3 points”

            At this point the man has 192 points left and he proclaims, “But Saint Peter at this rate I will never get to 200 points, the only way I will get into heaven is by the grace of God, with that Saint Peter says, “Well done, 192 points, welcome home.”, as he opens for the man the gates of heaven. I imagine that God wants us to come to heaven with the most points possible, because by doing so, we show our love for Him, but ultimately the points we earn are meaningless, without the mercy of God, and the sacrifice of Jesus.

            We aren’t going to earn our way in to heaven, we aren’t to earn enough points so that he has to open the gates. The only way we are going to get into heaven is if we are sinless, or in the absence of being sinless, as most of us are, we have to reach out to God for forgiveness. It is Jesus that offers us that forgiveness. By dying on the cross, he gave his life and in doing so allowed us to reconcile with God, making up for our massive shortage of points if you will. 

            So in this parable God is indeed the generous Landowner. That makes us -- the workers. The workers that were found in the marketplace, sitting idly. You may not have noticed, but the landowner he didn’t go out to their homes and lift them up from sitting on the couch in front of the TV while eating chips and dip. Nor did he go up to them and hand them a day’s wage and say “Here, the day is almost done take this money and go home.” They had to work for the landowner, they had to show the landowner that they were willing to do what he wanted. It was the gift of the landowner to make up for the rest of the day that they had missed already.

            So, as workers, do we go to the marketplace, sure, we are here today, celebrating the Eucharist at Mass, participating in His sacraments, we have shown God that we are willing to be disciples, followers of him, his workers. But what ways are we sitting idly, when we could be working for Him? How much of our time, talent, and treasure do we put forth to God?  Do we spend our time seeking Him in prayer, seeking Him through fasting, thanking God for his graces, his gifts?

In what other ways do we do the work of God, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, bringing those that live life outside the acceptance of others into the fold? Lifting up the fallen, bringing hope to those in despair, compassion to those who ache. Do we humble ourselves to be the servants of the lowly? God wants us to work in his vineyard, he wants us to go out into the fields, not sit idly at the marketplace.

Homily - Saturday Daily Mass 2014/09/2- Spreading the Seed

Homily - Saturday Daily Mass
September 20, 2014
Spreading the Seed
Memorial of  Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions

Luke 8:4-15 View Readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

 

As many of you know, I grew up in upstate NY and spent a lot of time fishing with my dad and the rest of my family on the Saint Lawrence River. The river runs through an area known as Thousand Islands where it winds its way from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean through Islands of hard granite, many with cliff sides of nothing but stone hard rock. What would always amaze me is how in the middle bare rocky cliff would be a lone tree growing out … no soil, just the roots embedded into the rocky cliffside like the fingers of a seasoned mountain climber. I wonder about out of all the saplings that started out on that rocky cliff, some fell down into the water, as the wind blew, some dried out during dry periods. Some, I am sure, succumbed to the harsh winters. The likelihood of surviving such an inhospitable environment must have been insurmountable.

Today’s readings, they talk about spreading the seed of God’s word. Nothing serves as a better example of spreading the word of God’s love than the story of the Saints, some of which are Martyrs, that gave their life for their faith, especially those whose memorial we celebrate today, Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions.  Let me read a bit of their story from Americancatholic.org:

This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred himself during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew the son traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang the other Saint we memorialize today was a lay apostle and married man, aged 45, who lost many family members to Martyrdom, and gave his own life traveling to China in an attempt to bring priests into Korea.

Christianity came slowly to Korea beginning in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for bringing taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883.

When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 he canonized, besides Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men. During their canonization the Pope said "The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by lay people. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians in the Church of silence in the north of this tragically divided land"

We can see from this one example out of many how the spreading of the seed can take hold in what may otherwise seem like unfertile ground. That even when seed lands on the hopelessly rocky Cliffside it can, if it is God’s will take root, and sustain, blossom successfully and bear fruit. That we are not to judge where we spread the seed of the Gospel, but to spread it generously, and let God determine if it succeeds to bear fruit. Go forth and share God’s love, with everyone you meet, be God’s love to everyone you meet, and as today’s Gospel ends: embrace the Word with a good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”

Homily - Sunday Mass 2014/08/17 Being Different

Homily – Sunday Mass

2014/08/17
Scraps for the Dogs - Being different

Matthew 15:21-28 View Readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA

             One of my favorite movies of all time was Forrest Gump. One of the earlier scenes was the young Forrest getting on the school bus for the first time, and after introducing himself to the bus driver so that they were no longer strangers and could now take a ride from her, he proceeded to search for a seat. Seeing Forrest’s braces on his legs, one kid after another, scoots over to make it unwelcoming to Forrest, and some say “Not here” and “Can’t sit here, this seat’s taken.” He makes his way all the way to the back of the bus without being able to find a seat, turns around, and as he begins to make his way forward again, he comes to Jenny’s seat when She says,  “You can sit here if you want. Well you gonna sit down or aren’t you.” It was a beautiful scene of welcoming someone that is different.

             In today’s Gospel, this mother from Cana, she is looked at as different too, kind of like Forrest. As Jesus and his disciples leave Tyre, and Sidon, an area occupied by gentiles or non-Jews, she approaches the group and asks Jesus for help in healing her possessed daughter. And ultimately Jesus ends up healing her daughter. Forrest

            But it wasn’t without some effort on her part. First as a Canaanite, she likely would have been recognized by the disciples and faced discrimination. Going back to Old Testament times, there was tension between the Jews of Israel, and the Canaanite Gentiles. The Canaanites were the corrupt idol worshippers that the Jews hoped to transform, they were looked at as dogs, less than human by the Israelites, who considered themselves the children of God.

            You can tell she was really trying to approach Jesus and his followers in a humble, peaceful non-threatening way, addressing Jesus as “Lord, Son of David.” She certainly knew who Jesus was, and in this small fragment of a sentence, we can see that she has at least some faith in Jesus as the Messiah, as the awaited savior. She must have heard of some of the other instances of Jesus performing miracles of healing.

In her peaceful attempts to call out to Jesus, she was first uncharacteristically ignored by Jesus and then turned away by the disciples. Then Jesus speaks that he was only sent for “the lost sheep of Israel.” He was sent for the chosen race of the Israelites, implying that he was not sent to save the gentiles from Cana, to which the woman replies, Lord help me. Jesus replies again saying that it isn’t right take the food from the children and throw it to the dogs, Jesus said that it is not right for his help to go to the people of Cana: the dogs, instead of the children of God: the Jews. However, seeing that Jesus did not say no, she so wisely replies “Please Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” It is a meaningful response of great faith, and her perseverance is rewarded, by Jesus complying with her request, and offering to heal her daughter if it was the mother’s will.

            Today’s Gospel is not only a great example of Jesus’ miraculous healing, but it is a redefinition of who it is Jesus has come for. As some of you know Jesus didn’t just show up, the Jews were expecting him. Throughout the Old Testament there were prophecies that a savior would come to restore the people of Israel’s relationship with God. So you can imagine, that those Idol worshipping, Pagan people of Cana would not be expected to receive the graces of the Messiah, what Jesus did had great significance in including them.

            And today’s Gospel is also a great story of a woman’s faith, and her perseverance to get her child help. She had a daughter that was sick, and contrary to all that she would have been taught as a child, she recognized Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, as being able to help. She overcame being a Canaanite, she overcame not being a Jew, she overcame the disciples’ rejection, and ultimately with the help of Jesus, she overcame her daughter’s possession by demons. As most parents would do, with her daughters well-being on the line, she gave it her all to get her daughter help.

            And today’s Gospel serves for us to realize that being different does not mean being excluded.  It means that no matter how we view ourselves as unworthy, unfit, incapable, undeserving, or just different. We are worthy of Jesus’ love and healing. That if we walk towards him, when we show our faith in him, he will respond.

But it also means that when we encounter people in our lives that are different than us we shouldn’t cast judgment first. We need to be willing to be welcoming to others that appear different than us. Whether bound to a wheelchair, covered in tumors or scars, or unable to talk, walk, or see. They too are worthy of Jesus’ love, and should be worthy of ours.

            I encourage you, to look at your lives, look for an Uncle or Aunt, brother or sister that has been shunned out of the family, look for a neighbor or old friend that you no longer talk to, look for opportunities to serve a stranger, and exercise mercy like Jesus did, exercise kindness like Jenny did for Forrest. There are many people we turn away from because we are uncomfortable. Exercise kindness and understanding. There are many opportunities to show our perseverance in our faith to show that we believe that Jesus did not come for some, but came for the many who believe in him.

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass 2014/08/16 - Matthew 19:13-15 - Let the Children Come to Me.

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass 

2014/08/16 Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 19:13-15 View Readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA

This last week, as you probably know we lost Robin Williams. The well-known comedian who got his start as Mork from Ork. Among many other movie roles, he played Patch Adams, an adult medical student, who understood the need to heal the emotional as well as the medical, which Patch did through rather unorthodox means. As I recall one scene from the movie, there was Robin Williams as Patch Adams, in a scene set in the children’s cancer ward at a hospital. All the children are lying in their beds, somber and melancholy and then Patch walks in, and begins his visit with one of the girls by cutting a red squeeze ball and attaching it to his nose like a clown. He starts joking with the young patient, and then grabs a couple of swabs and puts them behind his ears like bug antennae and pretends to fly around bouncing off the glass of the window, all the while the children begin to giggle and laugh, and so the healing begins. 

In today’s Gospel, the children were BROUGHT to Jesus, that he might lay his hands on them and pray… they were brought to Jesus, and yet Jesus’ own disciples turned the children away. But Jesus said to "Let them come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

I began to imagine myself there with Jesus, trying to imagine who I was in this reading: Have I brought people to Jesus? Or have I been the one that turned people away that were seeking Jesus? Or have I been a child being led to Jesus?

So… Have I brought people to Jesus… Have I attracted people to come to Jesus, have I personally invited anyone? When I look at the ArchBishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, I see joy, happiness, and a love of the faith. When I see Father Jim, I see an attractive peace, calm, Father Sam, a life dedicated to service, all examples that lift me closer to God. You can see in them how Jesus brings peace and joy into their lives, and it makes us want what they have.

But… when we put ourselves above others, putting ourselves before others, when we look down at others, we push people away, when we come off as unwelcoming, when we lives as hypocrites, we drive people from Jesus, we turn them away.

We should really be like the children, going towards Jesus, even when it seems unwelcoming. Have I sought out Jesus, perhaps at times to heal things in my life. Whether it was when I desired to quit smoking, or when a loved one was sick, there have been times in my life when I have needed Jesus. But have I also continued toward Jesus when others were telling me not to.

When we look at the Patch Adams character, one of the conflicts in the movie was that Patch’s techniques were not the straight laced, proven techniques that were dry and ordinary as prescribed by those responsible for his training as a Doctor. Instead he healed with love, giving spiritual strength to the patients, to heal through laughter, and joy. While some people have some trouble with laughing and carrying-on in a Church, and perhaps rightfully so, as the Church should be a place of reverence, and the Mass a time of deep reflection and prayer, but what stops us from being joyful Catholics the other 23 hours a day we are not at Mass?

Shouldn’t we be a bit more childlike in the way children make friends with anyone? Shouldn’t we take ourselves just a little less seriously and embrace our flaws as gifts? Shouldn’t we be willing to stop and look at the sky, and see what creations God has made in the clouds in the sky?

Shouldn’t we be skipping towards God in our lives, inviting everyone on our path to join us, ignoring those that discourage us so that we can be with Jesus, so that we can experience the Kingdom of Heaven?

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass 2014/08/02 - Matthew 14:1-2 - Peace

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass

2014/08/02 Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 14:1-2 View readings
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA
    

           I remember when I was young, probably about nine or ten, I saw the coolest green huffy bicycle. It was green and had a number plate and a plastic gas tank, fake shocks. It looked just like a racing motorcycle, I could only imagine how fast that bike would be compared to the steel framed rusty yellow bike with its solid rubber tires that was handed down from my older brother. Man I would have done anything to get that bike for my birthday that year. But when we look at today’s Gospel reading, what does Herod’s niece ask for, not a huffy bike, not a doll house, or even a doll, she goes to her mom for advice and comes back to her uncle and says… “I want John the Baptist’s head on a platter.” WHAT!?!?!

            The young girl’s mother, Herrodias, was upset with John the Baptist for calling an attempt at marriage between Herrod and her, his own brother Philip’s wife, unlawful, and she was seeking revenge. It only goes to show the great divide between the people in the government and people of faith at that point in history. Shamefully, two thousand years later, while Malia and Sasha Obama haven’t asked for anyone’s head on a platter, we sure seem to be at a point in American history where those that govern us have turned a deaf ear to the Church on many topics.

            In fact I think it will get worse before it gets better. We have seen the government recently mandate that non-profit ministry organizations fund insurance plans for their employees that include abortive agents like the morning after pill, organizations that clearly are part of the Church, but are not “a church” so they do not fall into the religious exemption, organizations like Catholic Charities, our Catholic schools, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Catholic Hospitals. No longer are the rights outlined in the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America being given priority, but are looked at as secondary to the will of the government by those ruling over us.

            While I don’t want to be an alarmist, we must be realists, and acknowledge that the current administration has done little to acknowledge the concerns brought forth by our Bishops, concerns over so called “gay marriage”, concerns over abortion, and concerns over religious freedom. It seems only a matter of time, if nothing is changed, that our views of marriage, abortion, as well as others will become a reason for persecution of Catholics, and other Christians that hold on to the same beliefs. Worldwide Christians continue to be persecuted, and even martyred, with little reaction from our government. Overall, our world is in a state of turmoil, Russia and Ukraine, Iraq and the ISIS, North Korea and South Korea, Israel and  Palestine, and then there is also the violence in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, just south of Mexico from which we see so many people seeking shelter from and coming towards the United States.

            It is times like this we need to pray for peace. To pray to Jesus, Prince of Peace, for peace throughout the world. To pray that all will come to know Him, and rest their hearts, for nothing is beyond the power of God. But we should start our efforts of peace here, starting with ourselves. We will find inner peace when we find our relationship with Jesus. We will find peace when Christ settles our hearts of those things that cause us anxiety. We will find peace when we accept the limitations in which we have been given to live. We will find peace when we give to others the same love of Christ that he gives us. We will find peace when we live our lives contently, satisfied with the graces God has given us. We will find peace when we humbly accept God as Lord over our lives. We will find peace.

            During the liturgy of the Mass today, and nearly every Mass, we are given an opportunity to share a sign of peace. Let that moment be one of reflecting on Jesus in the upper room just before the turmoil in his life is to hit an all-time high as he faces his Passion and crucifixion, reflect on the moment that Jesus says, “Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives do I give you.” As we offer the Peace of Christ, let us stay peacefully still, offering not a greeting, not a moment of “good morning, good to see you” not a moment of “best wishes to you and the family” but a moment of “May Christ settle all that bothers your heart” a moment of “May you find the peace that only comes from Christ himself” We will find peace in Christ.

Homily - Sunday Mass - 2014/07/20 - Matthew 13:24-43 - Weeds and Grass

Homily – Sunday Mass

2014/07/20

Matthew 13:24-43
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA

This spring I dug trenches in my front yard and installed sprinklers. I removed the dried out dead grass that hadn’t been watered in quite some time, I tilled the soil and mixed in some bags of new soil, spread some seed, set the sprinklers and waited for my hard work to bear the fruit of a beautiful lush green lawn.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Father Jim and I were talking in the Sacristy and I mentioned this to him, and how unfortunately it seemed to be more weed than grass. I mentioned how today’s Gospel about weeds being scattered into the wheat would be the next Gospel that I would be preaching on, and how the time I was spending clearing the weeds was offering me a lot of time to reflect on the homily.

 I began explaining to Father Jim how I had started clearing out the weeds by removing the big weeds first, and as I pulled them it only revealed more smaller weeds under them. It was a never ending weed garden. Removing the weeds was taking me a long time because just like today’s Gospel mentions, the process of removing all these weeds requires care to avoid pulling up the grass. So as I was explaining all this to Father Jim, he jokingly suggested that I just mow down the weeds and keep watering the yard and it will look like green grass.

            It got me looking at today’s Gospel parable in a whole different way… Not as Jesus explains it at the end of the Gospel, which is pretty self-explanatory, with the Jesus being the sower, the good seed that becomes wheat, being the children of the kingdom, and the weeds the children the devil ultimately being burned … but when Father mentioned mowing down the weeds and making them look like grass, it made me think “Do we do that with our sins?” Do we try to make our sins look like virtues? Do we try to make those things that don’t belong in our life look legitimate? Do we reason why its’ OK to do things that we know are contrary to God’s teachings? Do we help the poor only so that we can brag about it later? Do we hold opinions on the faith contrary to the Church’s teachings, and justify our own belief by our own theology? Do we allow ourselves to repeatedly commit a sin, but justify it because we do it less frequently than our friend?  What weeds do we have in our life?

            Let’s face it… you don’t have to have a green thumb to grow weeds, they are easy to grow, too easy to grow, they sprout up all the time, and everywhere. Just like sins, they are everywhere too. Some sins are easy to spot, making them easier to find remove, some are hidden among other sins and don’t become visible until the bigger ones are gone.

Getting rid of bad habits, sins, sometimes takes little effort and we need only to bend over and pluck it from the ground and toss it into the trash. Other times they have deep roots and are hard to remove, requiring persistent tugging and effort, and eventually we persevere as they finally break free. However, sometimes we pull on the weed and it breaks in two, leaving the root still firmly in the ground ready to sprout again. And, sometimes we just walk past them and ignore them leaving them be to grow bigger. Each bad habit we have, each sin we commit, deters from the quality of our spiritual life, and the level of happiness we can achieve, just as each weed with its thorns and stiff stems makes our yard less enjoyable to walk on.

So if we choose  to allow the sins to continue and just mow them down to make them appear like virtues, we are allowing them to continue to exist among the grass, allowing their roots to get deeper and more intertwined with the grass, making it that much more difficult to remove as time goes on.

            So how do we achieve a virtuous life, a life of good habits, a life free od weeds? We start by acknowledging that we have weeds in our garden. Then we have to make the effort to get rid of them. We can get down on our and knees, and slowly one by one address each weed grabbing it and plucking it from our lives. It takes some work, but once we have cleared away the initial weeds, with regular maintenance it becomes much easier to keep up with the new small weeds as they sprout up. It might go without saying that  the weeds sprout up a lot less frequently when we surround ourselves with others that are virtuous, because if we surround ourselves with others who have weeds, the seeds from the weeds will blow into our yard and make it harder to keep up ours weed free.  

            But remember we are not on our own, we have a divine loving master who wants our gardens, and our yards to be free of weeds too. He sent his son to help us kill the weeds in our lives, to give us the strength to persevere when the weeds get thick, to offer us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to clear our garden of all the weeds it contains and start fresh. He gives us the life giving water we need, the good seed to plant, and the Church to surround ourselves with others that are trying to stay weed-free. Don’t mow your weeds to look like grass, instead strive to enjoy the true authentic soft grass of virtue under your feet.

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass - 2014/06/21 Memorial of Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious - Matthew 6:24-34

Homily – Saturday Daily Mass

2014/06/21 Memorial of Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious

Matthew 6:24-34
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA

I have seen many posts on the internet about the Church hoarding its riches. The reality of it is that you are not going to get rich working for the Church. Associate Pastors in San Diego have a set base pay of just under $20,000 a year and get promoted to Pastor and make an extra $50 a month. As a deacon, we receive no compensation from the church, only our day job. Youth ministers, parish secretaries, school secretaries, teachers, employees of the Churches various non-profit ministries, typically make far less than their secular civilian counter-parts.

My point is that most if not all of the church staff, are not in it for the money, they are not milking the church of its vast treasure. They are serving God, not Mammon.  Outside of payroll, and building maintenance, charitable giving takes most of what’s left, with a little being sent to the diocese for supporting the regional needs of the church and missions.

The employees of the church are here to serve God and his people through faith with charity. We only need to look at Jesus overturning the tables at the temple to see how Jesus feels about it when it is the other way around. Jesus gets upset when he sees his Fathers house turned into a marketplace. He realizes that to serve God one cannot be serving the material world.  One of the refreshing habits of Pope Francis is his love for the poor, and his desire to live humbly, driving an old-beater, riding public transportation, and giving up the more luxurious Papal apartment for a more basic residence. He lives a life serving only God, putting aside the desire of the material.

But beside the material world what else keeps us from serving God?

Perhaps Jesus could have said: “

You cannot serve God and an addiction

You cannot serve God and a desire to rule over his people

You cannot devote yourself to your children and your work

You cannot serve God and break his commandments.

But while God may have said those things, perhaps instead, he may also have said:

         Serve God’s people...

Serve with great humility

Serve with patience

Serve with kindness

Serve with truth

Serve with light

Serve with love

Serve unconditionally

Serve as Jesus served

Because you cannot serve both God and Mammon

 

 

           

Homily - 2014/06/15 Solemnity of the Holy Trinity Sunday and Father's Day - John 3:16

Homily - 2014/06/15 Solemnity of the Holy Trinity Sunday and Father's Day

John 3:16

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach/San Diego, CA

           As many of you know, I really enjoy watching videos on Youtube and Facebook, especially inspirational videos. And with today being Father’s Day, it brought to mind a couple of Dads, besides my own, that really stood out to me, and influenced my view on what it means to be a father. The first being the father of Derek Redmond, Jim Redmond. You might remember Derek from the 1992 Olympics when about midway through his race, he suffered a torn hamstring, and determined to finish the race, he continued, hopping along toward the finish line in pain, and that is when his dad came down from the stands onto the track and helped him finish the race. His father was there at a moment of apparent defeat, that turned into a lesson to millions of fatherly love, and perseverance through difficulties.

            The second father is Patrick Henry Hughes’ Dad Patrick John Hughes. The younger Patrick was born blind and has a crippling disability that has him wheelchair bound. The elder Patrick has sacrificed for his son by working graveyards at UPS through night, and spends his days participating in the marching band with his son, guiding his son’s wheelchair in formation while the younger Patrick exercises his God given ability in music. Patrick’s Dad recognized that his son has a special gift for music, and through that gift is able to bring joy into the world, a joy his father gets to share with his son.

            There is another example of fatherly love that we can talk about, the love of God the Father: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. From John 3:16 is probably one of the most recognized verses of the Bible. You may have seen it on a bumper sticker, t-shirt, or on a sign being held up in the crowd at a sports event. John 3:16.

            God didn’t send his son down on a chariot of flames to whoop our butts into shape, to make sure we were doing wanted us to do… Instead he sent his angel Gabriel to a young girl, who was betrothed in marriage, a virgin named Mary, and  the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”  

            It was at that moment, at the annunciation, with Mary’s consent to cooperate with the will of God, that Jesus began to dwell among us, in the flesh as a human.

It was a that moment that God the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to come upon Mary, and at that moment she conceived the Son of God , Jesus. A moment that involved The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, God present to Mary in the fullness of the Trinity, our one God, in three persons.

            Today we celebrate the solemnity of the most Holy Trinity. The expression of how we understand God, as one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a mystery that surpasses our human ability to completely understand. But through God’s revelation to us, that is, the way he has revealed himself to us through history,  we have come to understand the three persons of God. From the Old Testament we have an understanding of God the Father as the all-powerful God, creator of heaven and earth. And it was 2000 years ago at the annunciation that Mary knew Jesus, and nine months later at the nativity of Jesus, when Jesus was born in a manager, that the rest of mankind was introduced to God in the flesh as God the Son. And throughout the scriptures we have references to the Holy Spirit, speaking to the Prophets, coming down from the heavens, and existing in the form of wind over the earth.

            It is in each of the three persons, the trinity, that mankind interacts with God. It is in God the Father that we are children of God under his authority, guidance, and care. It is through God the Son, Jesus that we can learn from his example how to live our lives. And it is through God the Holy Spirit that we are most interactive with God today as he provides guidance in our lives.

            As we celebrate father’s day today, celebrating our Fathers, Step-Fathers, father figures, and those that inspire us in their role as fathers, let us remember the love of God the Father, sending us his only son, so that we may be reconciled with God and live out eternity with him. Let us use Jesus as an example of how to live out a life of giving to God the same love he gives to us. Let us also take a moment today to give thanks to our spiritual Fathers, our priests, who make many sacrifices themselves so that they can shepherd us into a better relationship with God. Let us remember in prayer the many fathers who have gone before us, and the families they have left behind.  

            If we are ever at a point in our lives when we are without a human father, remember that we have God the Father in heaven, who, if the journey ever seems hopeless, will come down from the stands to join with you on the track to stand with you as you make your way toward the finish line. And remember that God the Father has gifted each of us with a special ability, each of us has a God given talent, it would please him no more than to be with you as you put that talent to use. We would expect no less from a God that so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.