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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. 

Saint John of the Cross
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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.  

Saint Teresa of Avila
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Responding to Racially-Charged Times

a commentary by Gregory Houck, O.Carm. – Friday, June 5, 2020

We are living in racially-charged times and race has become a ‘front burner’ issue with protests and even rioting throughout the United States in response to the killing of an African-American, George Floyd, by a policeman in Minneapolis; this on the heels of other recent racially-charged events in New York, Georgia and Kentucky.  What is the Carmelite response?  

First, some history.  Spain of the 1500s, after driving out the Moors (Muslims) and the Jews from the land, put in Purity of Blood laws throughout the Spanish empire.  Not only did a person had to be a natural-born white European to

  • become a priest,
  • become a nun,
  • be a member of the aristocracy,
  • teach in a university, 
  • to hold any government position, 

but that person had to also show that his/her parents and grandparents also had ‘pure blood.’  This prevented anyone of Jewish, Muslim, or native American ancestry from having any kind of employment, any kind of power or even a family anywhere in Spanish lands.  

Saint Teresa of Avila

Yes, those were racially-charged times.  In the middle of that Saint Teresa of Avila founded her first reformed Carmelite convent in 1568.  She told the sisters that they would not follow the Purity of Blood laws when admitting new members to the Order.  Some of those sisters, and much of Spain, were not happy with Teresa. Some accused her of being a lawbreaker or a free-thinker; and some plotted to have her arrested and locked up.  She did not flinch – even when the Spanish Inquisition began looking into her policies.  This is the Carmelite response – to support any oppressed minority and work against oppression but also to empower and include them fully.  

This inclusive policy did not begin with Saint Teresa though.  On Mount Carmel in the 1200s the first Carmelites were formed from a mishmash of nationalities and cultures and, yes, races; pushed together onto Mount Carmel by war.  In those racially-charged times, those first Carmelites worked through all those issues and all those differences forming one Order and made it work.  From its founding and throughout an 800-year history, this is the Carmelite way.  Today, we too can work through this and make it work!  

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us! 

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Belonging to the Holy Spirit

Carmelite homily for Sunday (Easter VI), May 17, 2020 – Lectionary 55 (John 14:15-21)

In today’s Gospel Jesus says that if you love him, you will keep his commandments; the Father will send the Advocate, the Spirit the world cannot accept.  What does all that mean?  I think it means – what is our starting point?  Do we start with ourselves?  Do we start with God?  Saint Therese of Lisieux writes, “My thoughts belong to the Holy Spirit; they’re not mine.  Without the Spirit of Love we cannot call God our Father.”  I think the call is to begin with God; begin with the Holy Spirit.  That’s where it all begins with anyway, so let us start there.  And we’ll find the Advocate is in our lives.  God is with us.  The Spirit helps us to call God our Father.  

Saint Therese of Lisieux
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Go Bear Much Fruit

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.  

Saint Teresa of Avila