The title of my homily is, “Paul’s Letter to the Romans.”
We began hearing the opening words of Romans yesterday -
but I didn’t say anything about it - because it was the feast of St. Gerard.
Today however, I simply want to give a few opening comments about Paul’s Letter
to Romans in general because we’ll have it more or less for 4 weeks - October
15 till November 11th - as our first reading.
It is not used when we have the feasts of St. Luke and
the apostles Simon and Jude - as well as All Saints Day - but we can use a
segment for All Soul’s Day.
ROMANS' GREAT
THEME
The great theme of Romans is that Jesus Christ saves us.
We don’t do it by keeping the Law - or
by what we do - by our works - even
though they are important - but we are saved by Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the one who knocked Paul on his face on the road
to Damascus.
Jesus is the one who Paul was persecuting - in going
after the Christians.
Jesus is the one who challenges Paul to conversion and to
change.
Human beings try to save themselves by getting
circumcised, keeping the Law and the calendar feasts of Judaism, but Paul found
out in a dramactic way - we can be saved - not by ourselves - but by faith in
Jesus Christ.
By hearing Romans we’ll hear various other nuances of
that theme - but we better hear, understand and accept this theme loud and
clear.
Like this is one big room - and the most important person
in this room - is Jesus Christ.
ROMANS
Different folks date the Letter to the Romans at
different times. I like Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J.’s date of 57-58.
He has just about finished his work in eastern part of
the Mediterranean - and now he’s heading West - for Rome and Spain.
Part of the Appian Way to Rome
He has not been to Rome yet - where he will die.
Fitzmyer didn’t think Peter was there yet - but he too
will die there.
He doesn’t know any of the people in Rome - but we’ll
hear about 30 names in the last chapter of Romans - 16.
Paul is thought to be the author of Romans - with some questions about the last chapter.
COMMENTARIES
AND USED BY
The Letter to the Romans is a must read for Christians.
Joseph Fitzmyer in his comments about Romans in the New
Jerusalem Biblical Commentary says, “Romans has affected later Christian
theology, more than any other New Testament book.” [page 832]
Early Christian writers like Clement, Ignatius of Antioch [whose
feast we celebrate today], Polycarp and Justin all use him. We can keep on
adding names to that list.
Then there are the commentaries by Calvin,
Luther, Barth, Rahner and various others,
CONCLUSION
So don’t just sit back and listen to Romans at Daily Mass
in the next 4 weeks. Pray with key thoughts about life in and with Jesus. Hear
Paul tell about the struggles we all go through - with Jesus there to help and
save us. Amen.
The title of my homily is, “Looking At One’s Way of
Seeing. Looking at One’s Spirituality.”
Today, for us Redemptorists, we celebrate the feast of
St. Gerard Majella.
Dates: April 6, 1726 to October 16, 1755. He died at the
age of 29 - having been a Redemptorist for only 5 years.
Re-reading his life again this morning, he got me in
touch with the question of his way of seeing life.
HOW ONE SEES
LIFE
Sometimes when I stand up here and preach I find myself
getting a bit nervous.
Why?
Well sometimes I see life and spirituality different than
the Saint of the day. To say and to think that, well that’s feels like a no-no
at times.
Next, I know people see life differently than I see life
- and I don’t want coming to church to be like coming to a wrestling
match. Remember the old joke: “I went to
a hockey game and a boxing match broke out.”
It’s then I have to tell myself, “Don’t be so
self-centered, Andrew. Everyone sees life differently.”
The key issue would be that we understand how others see
life and how we see life and we reflect upon the differences.
Comparisons is one of the best ways of learning.
HOW ST. GERARD
SAW LIFE
We are told by biographers of St. Gerard how he saw life.
Before I describe where I differ, I have a question. When
I read Saint Gerard’s life or any person’s life or any saint’s life, am I
seeing the saint’s way of seeing - or the way the writer of that person’s life sees
life.
I hope people hearing me or any priest preaching or any
writer writing, that they say, “Well this is one person’s way of seeing.”
I hope people also get in touch with their way of seeing
- and that from time to time compare it with others.
For example, it’s obvious to me that Luke sees
differently than Matthew. I think Luke would be easier to talk to than to talk
to Matthew. But that’s my opinion. My
way of seeing the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke.
St. Gerard sees God sending bullies and screamers into
his life as God’s will. I disagree with that. But who am I? As a young man Gerard
worked in a tailor shop and the foreman was a bully and Gerard took that as God’s
will. He did that for about 3
years. He went to work for a bishop who
was a bully and a grouch. Nobody lasted
working for this bishop. Gerard lasted because he already knew how to deal with
screamers.
Next example, Gerard was accused by a young lady of abusing a young
girl. Gerard kept quiet and just accepted
the accusations as a penance. He
welcomed hardships and hard times.
In various Redemptorist houses there was a painting of
St. Gerard facing our founder Alphonsus. Gerard doesn’t defend himself when St.
Alphonsus reads him a letter from this young lady with the accusation. He remained silent, because our rule said not
to defend oneself when accused.
When this gal, Neria got sick and was almost dying, she
wrote a letter to Alphonsus. In this letter she said she made it all up. She
admitted her lies.
She said that with Gerard’s help, she had made a decision
to enter a convent. She soon realized she had made a mistake, so she accused
the nuns in the convent of stuff as well as Gerard. She left after 3 weeks there
and blamed the nuns there as well as Gerard of nasty behaviors.
I learned from a similar case that took place in North
Carolina. A former golfer started a day care center for kids called, The Little
Rascals Day Care Center. His name was Bob Kelly.
Well some little kid came home from the day care center
and said to his mother, “Mr. Kelly did something wrong.” But he wouldn’t tell his mother what the
wrong was. The mother took the kid to
a therapist - and then the whole thing
got out of hand. It ended up that 7 people got accused of public sexual acts at
the day care center. He ended up going to trial and was convicted of some 270
counts of sexual acting out and got 12
life sentences.
I heard about it and because I knew about a few of these
kinds of FMS syndrome cases - I began writing to Mr. Kelly in support as well
as to the governor of North Carolina.
The solution is: if you know you’re innocent get a lawyer
fast and sue the accusers.
In time he was exonerated and won the biggest law suit of
this kind in the history of North Carolina.
In St. Gerard’s story we read that he had a different
spirituality that all this is the will of God - to give us suffering from which
we can grow.
I heard that kind of spiritual attitude as I was growing
up and being formed as a Redemptorist. When I had my chance to be someone who
formed others in becoming Redemptorists I took a different point of view. I
felt I was teaching a better
spirituality and humanism.
I thought that I had grown.
CONCLUSION
Those are a few points about an agenda I have.
Don’t we all have agendas. I am saying today to get in
touch with knowing your agenda as well as others - and try to find out what’s
best.
To me the great laugh about St. Gerard is that he was an
uneducated tailor who ended up a great saint. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard
from Redemptorists who went to Italy and attend the Redemptorist shrines, that
their big surprise was that St. Gerard
is much more popular than Saint Alphonsus - author of 101 books, etc. etc. etc.
Saint Alphonsus was a Bishop and doctor of the church and
Gerard the tailor becomes patron saint of Mothers. This non-married male tailor
becomes the Patron Saint of women who want to get pregnant or for women who are
having tough pregnancies.
The title of my reflection for this 29 Sunday in Ordinary
Time [A] is, “Inside Invitation.”
Today’s readings invite us to a mountain and to a wedding
banquet.
We’ve all been invited to weddings. Have you ever been invited to go backpacking
- to go to and climb a mountain?
So a homily on invitation. “You’re invited.”
RSVP - Please respond. Please accept the invitation.
From time to time we hear the words, “Start climbing!”
From time to time we hear the words, “Go Inside.”
But we rarely take
the time to figure out who it is who is saying that to us and what it
means.
“Come to the mountain.” “Start climbing.” “Go Inside!”
It’s an invitation to start climbing - start moving
upwards and inwards towards God.
It’s an invitation - to go inside ourselves - to go
inside God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Two years ago I went to Gibraltar. That was an invitation to both go up and go
down and to go inside. Gibraltar is both a mountain as well as an inside. It
has enormous caves. There are at least two big caves inside. One has lots of chairs and a stage for a symphony orchestra - as well as beautiful stalagmites
within.
OTHER PEOPLE’S
HOMES
Most weekends the Capital - our local newspaper - brings
us inside somebody’s home.
I look at that section of the paper maybe 20 weekends a
year.
Is there inside all of us a sneaky interest about what the inside of another’s
home looks like?
We go by a lot of houses in a lifetime - and sometimes we
get inside that front door. The psychologist and the detective inside us wonders
about the inside of the other person’s home and heart and mind. What’s going on in
there? What’s it like behind those
closed doors?
The first time we’re in someone’s home we try not to be
nosy. Yet sometimes we look at the pictures - the light fixtures - the color
of the fabric on the drapes and the chairs - the interaction between husband
and wife - and kids - aging parents at times. Interesting.
Sometimes we see a painting of someone on the wall and we ask, “Who’s that?”
Who’s who? Who are the people in our lives? Who are the
people in other people’s lives?
TODAY’S
READINGS
Today’s readings are all about invitation.
The first reading from
Isaiah is an invitation to go to a mountain - where everything is just
right. There are all kinds of tables set up - filled with rich food and choice wines, juicy,
rich food and pure, choice wines.
It can be the mountain inside our psyche that we all long
for - a place of peace - security - massiveness - the rock. It’s the place
where everyone is at peace with each other. There are no veils - no cloth walls
people are hiding behind and from each other. It’s the place that has no webs
that trap or ensnare us. Death and violence and name calling and prejudice
against each other have been removed. It’s the mountain Martin Luther King Jr.
talked about when he said, “I’ve been to the mountain.” This is the mountain
where God is.
As Isaiah puts it, “This is the Lord for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us. For the hand of the Lord will
rest on this mountain.”
I remember the two times we drove across the United
States. Our plan was to stop and camp out as soon as we saw the Rocky Mountains. We would rest and then head for them that day. Four of us started out in a light blue car from
the Bronx - went over the George Washington Bridge - and headed west on Route
80. It was to be 32 hours of straight driving. Finally, we
finally saw the mountains in the distance - in the west. It was almost dark. We
pulled off the road and parked for the night. We went through a barbed wire
fence. We set up two tents, talked and
fell asleep pretty fast. We woke up the next morning with the sound of cows all
around us. We were in pasture. We looked to the west. No mountains. What we
thought were mountains the night before were clouds in the distance.
We got moving and finally saw the Rockies. Then we had a
dream two week vacation. We were back packing - 10,000 feet up there.
We came home 10 pounds lighter. Freeze dry food can do
that. We came home in much better shape than we started. All day hiking can do
that. We came home alive and filled with
new life. We went to the mountain.
We experienced today’s first reading in person. That was the mountain image. Next comes the banquet image.
Today’s gospel is an invitation to go inside a palace -
the kingdom of heaven - for a banquet - a wedding feast for the king’s son.
But at times we put that invitation aside. Or we toss it
into the plastic bag garbage - even though we’re told, “Behold I have prepared
my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready;
come to the feast.”
Still we refuse the call, the invitation, and self-destruct
our lives.
We stay stupid. We go through the motions and we end up
outside the kingdom where we wail and whine and grind our teeth.
That’s what today’s readings are telling us.
We don’t listen to Isaiah or Paul or Matthew.
The second reading from Paul is telling us: whether things are fine
or things around us are poor - God still wants to fill us and feed us and bless
us.
ST. TERESA OF
AVILA
The title of my homily is, “Inside Invitation.”
The two words to hear inside our skulls is, “Go Inside.”
We go inside a church to hear those words - to hear that
invitation once again.
Take a look at that statue of St. Teresa of Avila - here
on our old high altar - left center.
It’s up there - because our founder of the Redemptorists - St. Alphonsus Liguori - went inside her stuff
and found some of God like she did.
St. Teresa of Avila 1515-1582.
She’s holding a book? I wonder if there is writing on it
- to tell us what the book is. I know the book outside on the Seelos statue has
the name of the book he’s holding. How about this book? Is it her book El Castillo Interior or Camino
de Perfeccione.
Go inside her books. She said, “I love to open, I need to
open, a new book.”
Go inside. Start turning the pages.
It took her a while but she finally really went inside
God - inside the Trinity.
She said approaching God is like going to the waters.
The first approach is like going to a well.
Then it’s like going to a big water wheel - that moves
water - like the back of those big boats on the Mississippi.
Next it’s like irrigating the whole garden by sluices -
letting water - water everywhere. Then - last - it’s like going outside and standing in the rain. When you get to Rome make sure you go to Bernini's statue of Teresa of Avila - in Ecstasy. It's in the Cornaro Chapel, in Santa Maria Della Vittoria.
In the meanwhile, if you spot a course being given by someone on The Written Works of St. Teresa of Avila, "go inside" her writings.
She said going deeper and deeper into God is like going into a castle - going from room
to room - till we finally get to THE ROOM - the 7th room - the main
room - where God is.
And the whole interior castle is like going into a
diamond - with more and more light - bouncing and glancing off the walls into
us.
Go inside.
CONCLUSION
The theme I’m pushing today is the theme in today’s
readings.
We’re invited.
Come to the mountain.
Come to the banquet.
Come to God - feel our hunger for God and let God fill
us.
