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.
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.
Carmelite homily for Friday (Week 14), July 10, 2020 – Lectionary 387 (Matthew 10:16-23)
Jesus expects a lot out of us. He expects
turn the other cheek,
to forgive, not seven times but seventy times seven times,
to walk the extra mile,
to give your coat as well as your tunic when you’re asked for it,
to never ask for anything back that someone borrows,
etc., etc., etc., etc.
And people will oftentimes ask me, ‘but this can get abusive; when do I say no; when do I say that’s enough? Well, today’s Gospel has the answer. Jesus instructs the Twelve when they’re going out with this great bit of advice, “Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” It’s a great piece of advice. What I think it means is simply; yes, do all these things, but don’t be stupid. Yes, be shrewd as serpents; peaceful as doves, but shrewd as serpents. It means don’t be a doormat, don’t be stupid. But be loving, be dove-like, be peaceful. Be like Jesus.
Carmelite homily for Thursday (Week 14), July 9, 2020 – Lectionary 386 (Matthew 10:7-15)
In today’s Gospel Jesus sends out the Twelve Apostles to begin to preach in his name. He gives them four instructions. He says:
proclaim that the Gospel is at hand,
cure the sick,
raise the dead,
drive out demons.
But then he gives them a ton of instructions – a lot more – on what they’re supposed to take or not take. Don’t take sandals, don’t take a second tunic, don’t take a backpack, don’t take gold, don’t take silver, don’t take any money, don’t take a walking stick. It just seems like a lot more instructions of what not to do than what to do. Why? I think John of the Cross may have the answer here. John of the Cross writes, “The soul must empty itself of all that is not God in order to go to God.” I think that’s what Jesus is trying to get at here. All this stuff – the walking staff and the money and all that – is about insecurity and security and about power and status and everything. Let that go. Let the stuff go. And just proclaim love. That’s the invitation; that’s the gift; that’s the real instruction to the Twelve.
Carmelite homily for Wednesday (Week 14), July 8, 2020 – Lectionary 385 (Matthew 10:1-7)
everyone here is ‘people’ – you know, with politics going on, and turf going on, and judgmental and maybe gossiping going on. It can get sometimes pretty negative and they’re surprised. In today’s Gospel we have Jesus calling the Twelve. And when you look at these Twelve, you have
Peter – Peter, remembered, doubted when Jesus told him to walk on water and he sank; and then he denied him three times when Jesus was arrested.
Andrew – Peter complains about Andrew, ‘when my brother wrongs me how many times do I have to forgive him?’
James and John – who send their mother because they’re ambitious to get the premier spots on Jesus’ left and Jesus’ right.
Thomas – who doubted.
Matthew – who is a Roman collaborator because he is a tax collector.
Simon the Cananite, who is a Zealot and Zealots took a vow to kill Roman sympathizers. How are Matthew and he going to get along?
It’s a hodgepodge of problems. That’s what people are, but that’s where salvation is. I think that’s the gift and the warning and the instruction of today’s Gospel. Yes, we’re all working towards sanctity, but we start off as people.
Carmelite homily for Tuesday (Week 14), July 7, 2020 – Lectionary 384 (Matthew 9:32-38)
In today’s Gospel we have Jesus very busy. He’s going to, it says, all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand. And he sees the crowds. He says that they’re like sheep without a shepherd. Let us pray for shepherds for these people. Saint John of the Cross, in the famous opening of his poem, One Dark Night, writes, “One dark night, fired by love’s urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace – I went out unseen; my house being now all stilled.” Oftentimes we think that is us – me, you – going to search for the Lord, but in today’s Gospel it’s the Lord going out searching to all the towns and villages for us. It works both ways. As we search for God, God searches for us.
Carmelite homily for Monday (Week 14), July 6, 2020 – Lectionary 383 (Matthew 9:18-26)
There’s a quotation from Saint Teresa of Avila that I’ve relied on when the going gets rough. She writes, “When you ask for something difficult you pay God a compliment.” I think that’s what describes what’s going on in today’s Gospel. There’s a lot going on. This man comes to say that his daughter has died, ‘Jesus, can you lay your hands on her and she will live?’ That’s a difficult one. And a woman with twelve years with a hemorrhage asks for healing. That’s a difficult one. Everything in today’s Gospel is difficult. And Jesus does them, showing that with God’s help and God’s grace these things can be done. Now what about the opposite though? I’ll extend Saint Teresa’s thought a little bit. What if God asks you or asks me for something difficult? Do we think ‘this is a burden’ or ‘this is a tragedy’ or ‘this is awful’ or can we say ‘thank you, God, for paying me that compliment’?
Carmelite homily for Friday, July 3, 2020, the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle – Lectionary 593 (John 20:24-29)
On the day that Saint Therese of Lisieux professed her vows in Carmel, she had written a prayer and put it in her pocket. And part of the prayer says, “Jesus, I ask you for nothing but peace, and love, infinite love; love which is no longer ‘I’ but ‘You.” This is my interpretation of this Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Because we have Thomas who returns to the Upper Room after Jesus has left and he says, ‘I will not believe; I need to put my hands in the nail marks; I need to put my hand in his side.’ It’s all I, I, I. So the next time Jesus appears and Thomas does that he says, ‘My Lord and my God.’ What happened to all the I? I think that’s what Jesus does – he pulls us out of the I, the me, the selfishness – to the you, which is neighbor, which is God, which is those in need, the poor. That’s the call, the invitation, of today’s Gospel and this Feast: to not live in the I but in the you.
Carmelite homily for Thursday (Week 13), July 2, 2020 – Lectionary 380 (Matthew 9:1-8)
Saint Mary Magdalene d’Pazzi was an Italian Carmelite, a contemporary of Saint Teresa of Avila, and she writes, “Trials are nothing else but the forge that purifies the soul of all its imperfections.” I think that’s what we see in today’s Gospel, or at least my interpretation of it, when they bring the paralytic on a mat and Jesus says, ‘your sins are forgiven.’ What is forgiveness but cleansing, purifying? That’s the language we use. That whatever has put him on that mat, whatever paralyzed him, or paralyzes us, can be forgiven, cleansed, purged. But it’s those trials that bring us to great depth, bring us to a deeper heart, a purified heart, a rich heart. So let’s turn everything to Jesus and watch what happens.
Carmelite homily for Wednesday (Week 13), July 1, 2020 – Lectionary 379 (Matthew 8:28-34)
In today’s Gospel we have the demoniacs of the Gadarenes, who live amongst the tombs away from people. If anyone comes near, they holler at them and scream at them and try to hurt them. Who are these demoniacs of the Gadarenes? I think it’s you and me! Cause don’t we act that way? If someone gets too close to something vulnerable or is critical of me, or anything like that, don’t I holler? don’t you holler? don’t we scream? don’t we hurt? Jesus brings peace and healing by asking ‘who are they?’ and having them realize who they are. Titus Brandsma – Blessed Titus Brandsma – writes, “Knowledge of ourselves, of our deepest being, though it is difficult, is absolutely necessary.” I think that’s all Jesus did to these demoniacs, and to us, is to tell us who we really are. With that healing, with that peace, we can lead deeper, richer lives.
