September 2008

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

God gave us free will. We are responsible for our life, our behavior, words, deeds and decisions. And because of that free will, one day each one of us will have stand in front of God and be judged for our good deeds or bad. The good news is that with the help of God’s grace we can change the direction of our lives for the better.

The Liturgy, the Eucharist points out that there must be a connection between what we say and what we do.

Jesus criticized some of the people in leadership of his days because they did not live up to what they promised. Their promises were empty, they said yes to God and did nothing to fulfill that yes; and because of that they were not pleasing God. Jesus tells them that their observance of the law was an outward show and that there has to be more honesty and a greater readiness to accept the call for repentance.

Jesus told us a beautiful story. And this story is for all ages. Each of us has points of inconsistency between what we promised and what we did or do. The lesson the gospel offers us is that we may be saying “yes” to God on Sunday and turning our back on what we profess during the rest of the week. Many of us who say “yes” to the Body of Christ during Holy Mass completely forget what we promise to Jesus during the week. Very often we behave like the second son from today’s Gospel.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

I know who we would like to be in today’s Gospel. Of course we would like be the one who would say NO but actually go and fulfill God’s request.

The choice is ours. We can do even better than the son who eventually did the work. We can say YES and do the work of God. So as God’s children, let put all differences behind us and let’s start to say yes our God every day of our life.

After the homily we are going to profess our faith. I would encourage everybody to think what we profess, and live that profession this week, and all the weeks of our life.

We just heard great teaching of Jesus. The principle lesson of this parable is that God is generous, that the kingdom of heaven is not run like the kingdom of earth, that God’s ways are not people’s way.

Yes, God is generous. The question is: are we generous?

Many times we hear statements: “I grew up with the Church, I went to a Catholic school, I go to Church every Sunday, I pray every day, I go systematically to the sacrament of Reconciliation to reconcile myself with God, I go to communion all the time. So I work in ‘God’s field’ all my life, therefore I have to get better rewards than others.

And who are the others? Some of them are the people who converted and joined the faith later; some of them join our faith on their death bed. And maybe they did not work as hard in God’s field, as hard as we did. Maybe they worked as hard as or even harder than we did, but for short period of time.

Are we generous to recognize their work, without pointing that we did more, or the same — but for a longer period of time? Didn’t we agree to our reward?

If we look closer into our behavior, we really think and behave as that first group from Jesus’ parable.

Yes, as Christians, we who are working in God’s field by spreading the good news throughout our families, our neighborhoods, we can expect a reward, and we should expect a reward. But we cannot expect more than we agreed to.

Through baptism, first communion, confirmation, didn’t we agree to do what God requires from us for our reward. So, we really cannot expect more than we deserve, more than we agreed to. And at the same time we cannot put anybody down.

We have to accept God’s generosity. And that generosity is not only toward those who joined us later. The love of God and His generosity is toward all of us. Without His mercy none of us probably could reach the final reward, which is Heaven.

Why?

Because none of us is perfect. Therefore, let’s work toward perfection in our own lives as hard as we can, so at the end we will receive the the agreed to reward. Amen.

On the second Sunday of September each year we celebrate a special feast day, the Solemnity of Brotherly Love.

This Solemnity was set aside by the Synod of our Church in Chicago in 1914. The General Synod established this day for the faithful of the Church in order to remember the great commandment of God that is to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

During the Holy Sacrifice of Mass on This solemnity, we read the Gospel except from Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable begins when a lawyer stood up and began to test Jesus by asking Him – what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

And the lawyer then wanted to justify himself by asking,” Who is my neighbor?”

And we all know the rest of the story about the Samaritan man who had pity and assisted the man who was robbed and beaten and left by the roadside. The Samaritan was truly the neighbor of the victim who was robbed.

It is not everyday that we have the opportunity to help someone who encountered such a situation as the man who was robbed. But, each and every one of us has numerous opportunities every day to show compassion and love toward others.

My Brothers and d Sisters, what are we to do?

We can help people who are in need by praying for them and also by giving some material help.

Lots of people around us, members of our families, friends, and people who lost everything need our material and spiritual help. We have to remember them. We can not leave them alone.

The Solemnity of Brotherly Love gives as hints and direction what we have to do and what is our Christian responsibility for each other.

We must remember what Jesus said in today’s Gospel – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

On a busy corner in New York City an Irish cop was directing traffic. While doing his duty, he saw a pedestrian starting across on a red light. The policeman went to that offender and discovered that he was a fellow Irishman. Calmly but firmly the cop explains: “Wait a minute, Red is not you color. Green is your color. Wait for the green light and then start across.”

This story may help us apply what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: “If your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”

To correct others is a duty of some people, like the policeman in our story, like parents, a teacher.
A point is how to do it. Jesus gives us some direction in today’s Gospel. Our little story gives us some hints. All those come to one rule – be positive.

The Police officer did not emphasize so much the wrong of crossing on the red light, but the need to cross on the green, He did not shout it for everyone to hear. He told the offender quietly but firmly, and with a little humor. By doing so he told him what to do as well as what not to do.

Offer the correction to your wife or husband, to your children, a co-worker, a long-time friend, just as you would want him or her to offer a correction to you. What does this mean? This means that if one makes a mistake, even if it is against us, in reality it is more against God than us. So in pointing out the mistakes and faults of another be sure to emphasize that the fault is not so much an offense against you, as it is an offense against the love of God.

As Jesus mentions, you may have to call in one or two others to back up your correction. Our Lord even talks about the extreme situation where the offender will listen to no one. Then tell the Church or the group authority. If he or she refuses to listen to a higher authority, tell him or her to leave. Harsh words, however Jesus knew that in the future some will want to make their own rules. And, my brothers and sisters, many times some Christians do not want to listen- they want to make their own rules.

Certain people have the duty of giving correction. It takes humility; it takes honesty to accept a correction. To offer a correction and to accept a correction requires God’s help.

That help is given to each of us during every mass, during every prayer.

Wait for the green light, then go ahead and offer corrections with love; and accept corrections – with love.

May God bless you and Mary always keep you in her prayers.