Carmelite homily for Wednesday (Easter V), May 13, 2020 – Lectionary 287 (John 15:1-8)
In today’s Gospel Jesus uses the well-known image of ‘I am the vine; you are the branches; remain on the vine and you will bear great fruit.’ To remain on the vine means to do what the vine does, what Jesus does, which is: forgive seventy times seven, return a blessing for a curse, love your enemies, turn the other cheek, the Golden Rule. This bears a great harvest, a great fruit. Teresa of Avila says, “Let us not cease to believe that even in this life God gives the hundredfold.” I think that’s what Jesus promises in today’s Gospel.
Carmelite homily for Monday, March 30, 2020 – Lectionary 251 (John 8:1-11)
In her work, The Way of Perfection, Teresa of Avila talks about perfection. And she’s condemning how the sisters can be looking at each other and then reporting to the prioress all the faults. Here’s what she has to say about that behavior, “Let us understand, my daughters, that true perfection consists in love of God and love of neighbor. All that is in the Rule and Constitutions serve for nothing else than to be a means towards keeping these commandments with ever greater perfection. So let each one look to herself only. And as to the breaches and faults of the sisters, keep silence. For perfection consists of love of God and love of neighbor; whereas, perfectionism comes from the devil.” And today we have all these people bringing this woman caught in adultery to Jesus. All pointing fingers at her. And Jesus, though he’s writing on the ground, is actually pointing fingers at them, telling them, ‘be silent.’ And when he looks up, they’re gone. It’s silent. Maybe we should’ve started there.
Carmelite homily for Monday, March 23, 2020 – Lectionary 244 (John 4:43-54)
In today’s Gospel we have a royal official coming to Jesus because his son is ill and asking for healing. This would take quite the step down for a royal official to go to Jesus who the Gospels describe as a carpenter, a laborer, kind of blue-collar. It’s quite the step down. Teresa of Avila writes, “One act of humility is worth more than all the knowledge of the world.” I think that’s the example of today’s Gospel and the call to us. How many times we don’t want to do something because we don’t want to give them the satisfaction? Or they’re supposed to apologize first! Or I’m the aggrieved party! No humility there. I think the call of today’s Gospel is humility. “One act of humility is worth far more than all the knowledge of the world.”
Carmelite homily for Thursday, March 19, 2020 – Lectionary 543 (Matthew 1:16-24)
When the Carmelites came to Europe from the Holy Land in the 1200s they brought with them a devotion – to Saint Joseph. Not very common in Europe at the time. And every new foundation, and in a new place or a new way, is dedicated to Saint Joseph. That’s why Saint Teresa of Avila dedicates her first monastery, reformed monastery, to Saint Joseph. And when the Carmelites came to the United States, their first parish is named Saint Joseph. We staff it to this day. On this Solemnity of Saint Joseph, let’s dedicate this day – this first day; every day is a first day – to Saint Joseph. Modeling our lives, our trust, our faith, our love, on his.
Carmelite homily for Wednesday, March 18, 2020 – Lectionary 239 (Matthew 5:17-19
There’s a well-known incident in the life of Saint Teresa of Avila where she’s at dinner, and enjoying dinner, and one of the nuns looks at her unapprovingly because she’s obviously enjoying dinner so much she mustn’t be a holy woman. And Teresa says, “When I pray I pray, and when I partridge I partridge .” That was the menu that day. We can get so caught up in the externals we miss the deeper things. Saint Teresa of Avila says, “Being a friar doesn’t consist in the habit – I mean wearing it – but in enjoying the state of higher perfection, which is what it means to be a true friar.” That’s what she’s calling us to. And what today’s Gospel is calling us to. To being more than just fussing with the letter of the Law but allowing that Law to change our inside, to transform us in love, to be deeper, richer, truer, more mature people. That’s the call of today’s Gospel.
Carmelite homily for Saturday, March 7, 2020 – Lectionary 229 (Matthew 5:43-48)
Because today’s Gospel passage is the same, this homily is repeated from Sunday, February 23rd.
The last line of today’s Gospel says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And sometimes we can hear this and say – oh, I’ve got to be perfect then; I can’t make any mistakes; I can’t make any failures; I cannot sin; I’ve got to be — ‘ahhhh’ – uptight. And that’s not what it means at all. Because if you take it in the whole context, the Father lets the sun shine on the good and the bad alike and the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike, means to treat everyone with love. Here’s what Saint Teresa of Avila has to write about this. This comes from her book, The Way of Perfection (it makes sense), “Zeal for perfection is in itself a good thing. But it could follow that every fault the sisters commit will seem to you a serious breach; and you are careful to observe when they commit them, where they commit them, and then go and inform the prioress. Often, you don’t see your own faults because of your intense zeal for the religious observance of everybody else. What the devil is hereby aiming at is no small thing; namely, the cooling of charity and love the sisters have for one another. So, let each one look to herself only. For perfection consists of love of God and love of neighbor; whereas, perfectionism comes from the devil.” So let’s not confuse ‘perfection’ and ‘perfectionism’ today.
Carmelite homily for Thursday, March 5, 2020 – Lectionary 227 (Matthew 7:7-12)
We all know that Saint Teresa of Avila received great gifts in this life. Despite opposition, the reformation of the Order, foundation of many convents, a great spiritual life which sums up, she says, in Mystical Marriage. And the nuns reported that she would levitate in the chapel. Great gifts! Here’s what she writes, “I say only that prayer is the door to favors as great as the Lord granted me. If this door is closed I don’t see how he will grant them.” In today’s Gospel we have Jesus say, ‘ask, seek, knock and it will be given to you.’ What ties it all together but prayer? This is the invitation of today’s Gospel – to pray. The ask, the seek, the knock will be given to you. And if Teresa of Avila is right, the great favors given to her will be given to you.
Carmelite homily for Tuesday, March 3, 2020 – Lectionary 225 (Matthew 6:7-15)
Because today’s Gospel passage is the same, this homily is repeated from Wednesday, October 9th.
Today the Gospel passage is the “Our Father.” Saint Teresa of Avila notes that there are seven petitions – you know, like “thy kingdom come” or “give us our bread” or “help us to forgive” – seven petitions to the Our Father. And she says, it is better to pray one petition mindfully than to pray the Our Father mindlessly. This comes from The Way of Perfection. So today, pray one petition of the Our Father instead of the whole Our Father.
Carmelite homily for Thursday, February 27, 2020 – Lectionary 220 (Luke 9:22-25)
Because today’s Gospel passage is the same, this homily is repeated from Wednesday, November 15th.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says whoever does not take up his cross and follow him is not worthy to be his disciple. But Jesus doesn’t say why. Why should we take up this cross? But Teresa of Avila answers it. She says, “If you wish to gain freedom of spirit begin by not being afraid of the cross.” Because it is the crosses of our lives that pull us past ego, past fear, past self-appetites, past selfishness – and self. It is the cross that brings us to freedom. So if you wish to gain freedom, begin by not being afraid of the cross.
