Father Greg

Loves Me More

Carmelite Homily for Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, February 8, 2024 – Lectionary 332 (Mark 7:24-30)

There was a young man; life on the streets; no job. A few parishioners decided to help him. They found him a low-income apartment. They found him a job. And he ruined it all. He didn’t show up for work; and he had people living with him and the landlord threw him out. And he said, “Everyone is right; they said that I would never amount to anything.” I said, “And you’re telling me that everybody is making you into this? What does God have to say? And what do you have to say?” I think that’s what is going on in today’s gospel. The Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus and asks for healing for her daughter and he says, “I do not give food intended for the children to the dogs.” I think that he’s trying to check out what she has bought into. Because everybody called Syrophoenicians ‘dogs.’ They weren’t worth it. And she’s a woman besides, in a male-dominated culture. But he’s treating her like an equal. He’s trying to lift her up. Find out what she’s bought into – what fallacies or what stupidities she’s bought into. He is treating not that way, but like an equal. I think Saint Teresa of Avila says this nicely when she says, “O love, that loves me more than I can love myself, or even understand.” I think that’s what’s going on with this Syrophoenician woman – great love! And that’s what’s going on with Teresa of Avila – great love! And that’s what’s going on with us – great love! So no matter what we think about ourselves, Jesus loves us greatly. Let us respond to that.

Healing Smiles

Carmelite Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 4, 2024 – Lectionary 74 (Mark 1:29-39)

Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Carmelite, oftentimes called the ‘Little Flower’ has an autobiography called “A Story of a Soul.” A very popular book. And in that book she writes about one of the sisters. Here’s what she writes (I love this passage): “There is in my community a sister who has the ability to displease me in everything – in her ways, her words, her character, everything seems very disagreeable to me. And still, she must be a holy religious, very pleasing to God. So not wishing to give in to this natural dislike I was experiencing, I told myself ‘charity must not consist only in feelings but in works’ and I set myself to doing for this sister what I would do for the person I love the most. I was content with giving her my most friendly smile. And with changing the subject of the conversation. For one day at recreation she asked, ‘would you tell me dear Sister Therese of the Child Jesus what attracts you so much towards me? For every time you look at me I see you smile.’ I was smiling because I was happy to see her. I did not add, though, that this was only from a spiritual standpoint. All Sister Therese did was smile at her. And it was enough to re-integrate her into the community; make her feeling belonging, and loved, and respected. It’s that simple. In today’s Gospel we have the healing of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. Well, we can do that too. And it doesn’t have to be a drastic healing like that; it can be as simple as what Saint Therese did – a smile. They say that loneliness is rampant in society today. Twenty-seven percent of adults say they are chronically lonely. Maybe as Valentine’s Day approaches send a card, maybe a smile, maybe just a little word or a phone call. Bring healing. Just ease loneliness with a smile. I think that’s what the call of Jesus in today’s Gospel is – bring healing.

You Already Promised

Carmelite homily for Friday, February 2, 2024 – Lectionary 524 (Luke 2:22-40) – the Presentation of the Lord

In the Liturgy of the Hours (the Divine Office) we pray three Canticles. In the morning, Lauds, we pray the Canticle of Zechariah (the Benedictus). At Vespers, evening prayer, we pray the Canticle of Mary (the Magnificat). And at Night Prayer, Compline, we pray the Canticle of Simeon (the Nunc Dimitis). In today’s Gospel we have the prayer of the Nunc Dimitis. In all three of these Canticles, it’s interesting, that the prayer – Zechariah, Mary, or Simeon – says, “God you promised this; now you need to deliver this.” Like today Simeon has been promised that he would not see death till he saw the Christ, and he prays, “your word has been fulfilled.” I think that’s the teaching of today’s Gospel of the Presentation, and all these Canticles from Luke’s Gospel – when you pray, pray for something God has already promised. That’s what Zechariah does. That’s what Mary does. That’s what Simeon does in today’s Gospel. We pray for what’s already been promised. What’s been promised? Life. Peace. Adoption into Christ. Fullness of Life. Resurrection. Eternal Life. These are the things that have been promised by God, so we can be cheeky in our prayer – like Zechariah, like Mary, like Simeon. If God has promised, then we can say, “okay, God, deliver.”

Journeying Too

Carmelite Homily for Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, February 1, 2024 – Lectionary 326 (Mark 6:7-13)

In today’s Gospel the disciples are being sent out two by two to do the work of Jesus – to teach, and to heal, and to exorcise as part of the Good News. This is the external mission. They are not aware and we’re not often aware that there is an internal component, almost like a parallel agenda. That this work will change them, deepen them, wizen them, mature them, make them more and more (and make us more and more) like Christ. Saint Teresa of Avila I think knows this when she says, “The feeling remains that God is on the journey too.” Everything is God’s agenda; yes, to do the external work; but, yes, to do the internal change. This is the work of Jesus; this is the work of God. “The feeling remains that God is on the journey too.”

Crazy Busy

Carmelite Homily for Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time, January 30, 2024 – Lectionary 324 (Mark 5:21-43)

One time I was talking with a vocation prospect on the phone who wanted to meet with me so I gave him my schedule. He says, “you’re not busy; you’re crazy busy.” We’ve heard that phrase before – crazy busy. In today’s Gospel Jesus is crazy busy. He’s going to preach to the disciples, the official comes, “can heal my daughter who is home sick,” he goes to follow him, but the woman is very sick says, “if I but touch his cloak I’ll be cured,” he wants to know who did that, the official’s servants come, “your daughter has died,” he goes anyway, there’s this cacophony of ailing, he says, “but she is sleeping,” and they all laugh at him – crazy busy. We can be crazy busy. Jesus stays focused. He’s wearing the Tsit-Tsit, that’s a tassel that reminds a Jewish man to pray and that’s what the woman who is trying to touch – his center of prayer. And then he does heal the daughter. He remains people-centered and God-centered. That’s the call of today’s Gospel. Saint Teresa of Avila says, “What a pity it was to have left you, my Lord, under the pretext of serving you.” Ahh, that could be us. What a pity it is when we have left our families, left our loved ones, under the pretext of work. ‘Dear Abby’ says, “I never met anyone on their death bed who said, ‘I should’ve spent more time at the office.’” Let us remember to be centered on loved ones, centered on prayer, centered on God. So we never say, “What a pity it was to have left you, my Lord, under the pretext of serving you.”

Rebind – Rejoin – Reconnect

Carmelite homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 28, 2024 – Lectionary 71 (Mark 1:21-28)

The Greek word for ball is “bollus.” It is where we get our word “ball” from. And if we take a ball and we divide it we have two balls – “di-bollus.” That’s where we get our word “diabolical” from: to divide something; to take a unity and make it two things. This is where we get our word “diabolical” and the shortened form is “devil.” This is the mission of the devil: to separate. And we see this in today’s gospel. Jesus comes into the synagogue. We’re at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel and this is the function of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel: to reconnect. So he goes into the synagogue and there’s a man with an unclean spirit and he drives out that devil. This man is divided; he has two beings in him. And whether we take it literally or metaphorically, this man is divided. And that’s what Jesus’ vision is, is to reconnect, to rejoin. This is the word “religion.” To rebind; that’s what religion means – to reconnect or to rebind. That’s Jesus’ mission throughout the Gospel. Whatever is separated, whether it is by superiority or judgment or sickness or the devil. Anything that separates, Jesus reconnects, recombines.

I think that is the mission of spirituality; that’s the journey of spirituality. In the Spiritual Canticle by Saint John of the Cross we see this culminating unity with God. This complete re-lig-ion with God. In the betrothal verses: “There he gave me his breast. There he taught me a sweet and living knowledge. There I gave myself to him, keeping nothing back. There I promised to be his bride.”

This beautiful marriage rite of two becoming one is how John of the Cross sees our spiritual journey – not only unity with each other, but unity with God. To rebind, re-lig-ion, rejoin. Not to divide, that’s the work of the devil, but to combine, to unify – the work of God.

Receiving the Hundredfold

Carmelite Homily for Thursday of 3rd Week of Ordinary Time, January 26 2024 – Lectionary 321

In today’s Gospel we have these parables that I call “Gradualism.” That grain growing slowly, and no one knows how it happens, and harvest comes, and no one knows. It is all gradual. And these are all parables of the spiritual life. Saint Teresa of Avila says “Never cease to believe that even in this life God grants the hundredfold.” But we want the hundredfold now. But I think it is a gradualism, of maturing, and growing, and being inspired, and being ever more wise, ever more loving, ever more like Jesus. That is the call of today’s Gospel of these parables. Yes, the hundredfold, but it is a hundredfold slowly, not a hundredfold in a snap.

You, You, Why Do You Persecute Me?

Carmelite Homily for the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, January 25, 2024

Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. It begins with these wonderful accounts from the Acts of the Apostles of Paul travelling to Damascus. Suddenly there is a light. Suddenly there is a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He falls to the ground; he’s blinded. This is all happening on the exterior plane but I think it’s more happening on the interior. Paul had bought into a system of domination, of elitism, of superiority, of judgment – very vertical. He is of an elite tribe, he’s well-trained, he is a Pharisee, he’s impeccable in practice of the Law – vertical. He dominates and he is persecuting those who follow Jesus, whose preaching is very horizontal: love of neighbor, bless those who persecute you, be brothers and sisters, Our Father. I think it all of a sudden makes sense to him. Jesus is right. He had to rethink his life – conversion! That’s the conversion of Saint Paul — rethinking his life. That is why Saint Teresa of Avila calls Saint Paul the greatest of the mystics. Because he had this great change of heart.

That’s maybe what is going to happen to us if we buy into any mis-teaching or misguided embrace of thought: domination or superiority, whether in the family or in politics or in the country or in the church or anywhere. Jesus’ message is so horizontal. And it may require a “You, you, why do you persecute me?” Whenever we are vertical Jesus will call us to live horizontally in his love.

Habit of Prayer

Brother Ryan-Joseph talks about the pieces of the Carmelite habit and the prayer associated with each.

hab·it /habət/ n. a long, loose garment worn by a member of a religious order or congregation. From the Latin, habere, “to consist of” or “state of being.”

Prayer while putting on the Tunic

Clothe me, O Lord, with the New Man who is created according to God in justice and holiness of truth.

Prayer while putting on the Belt

Gird me, O Lord, with the girdle of purity and extinguish in my veins the passions of lust that the virtues of continence and chastity remain within me.

Prayer while putting on the Scapular

O Lord, who has said, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light;” grant that I may carry it in such a manner so as to obtain thy grace.

Prayer while putting on the Capuche (hood)

Enclose my head, O Lord, in the helmet of salvation, so that I may overcome the attacks of the devil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.