Sermons
If Jesus is radical, can we respond to him with lukewarmness or calculation? Is everyone invited to follow him?
Jesus is radical.
He gives all and he asks all: he gives a love that is total and asks for an undivided heart.…
Jesus asks each of us and all of us as the Church journeying forward: are we a Church that only preaches good commandments or a Church that is a spouse, that launches herself forward in love for her Lord? Do we truly follow him or do we revert to the ways of the world, like that man in the Gospel?
In a word, is Jesus enough for us or do we look for many worldly securities?
Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord:
to leave behind wealth,
leave behind the yearning for status and power,
leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel,
those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world.
Without a leap forward in love, our life and our Church become sick from “complacency and self-indulgence”
Pope Francis, Canonization of the Blesseds
Oct. 14, 2018
Sunday, January 31, 2021
In the second reading St. Paul says a few things that make us feel uncomfortable today, not because of mistaken thoughts of ours, nor because Paul's remarks lack sense and truthfulness. Our discomfort flows from the failure to see the questions that Paul is treating here. As always in life, unfamiliar with the question one cannot understand the answer correctly.
Paul speaks about the unmarried and those in marriage, in his time, not today in our society and with our cultural memory. In his days and in his society, the single person counted as an oddity. There were no models of this sort of life to which one might look up as inspiring examples to imitate. No respectable person lived in this way voluntarily. Now imagine the surprise, when in the Christian community some members choose to refrain from marriage, because Jesus had spoken of those who would abstain from sex for the sake of the kingdom, and he had added, “Whoever is able to grasp it, let him grasp it.” Those who remained single for the sake of the kingdom made many contemporaries raise their eyebrows; they cause astonishment and appear in the congregation as peculiar persons. People wonder what to make of this kind of life. “Living single for the sake of the Lord Jesus” needs explanation.
Now we begin to see the question Paul is discussing. He seeks to justify the option of some members of the community to remain unmarried. The answer is: They do it for the Lord. “The unmarried person is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” Is that not also true of the married person? Of course, it is, generally speaking. Yet in their situation they must inevitably attend also to other concerns, for the partner, for the family, for getting on in society. Therefore, Paul speaks of being divided. The unmarried can allow themselves to neglect a great deal of these demands of ordinary life. They can afford to be much more radical in their endeavor for the Lord. The Corinthian community is baffled by this option; Paul insists, it is an excellent choice to be so completely for the Lord. Paul is aware, not everybody will feel the same way, and therefore he adds at once, “I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you.”
Today we live in very different social circumstances. The worries of the Corinthian community are no longer ours. We are familiar with monks and nuns – we owe them marvelous achievements in our history and recognize their services in our present setting. We are also familiar with persons who live single, man or woman, and we know a broad range of good reasons and motivations that guide them. Hence, we are not troubled by the particular questions which Paul treats in this letter.
Nevertheless, the reminder to be for the Lord, and his word about adherence to the Lord does us good, and is surely not superfluous. All of us, married as well as single, are permanently tempted to become anxious about the things of this world, in a measure that at the end we live unfocussed and cease living for the Lord. Taking that choice would of course be a serious mistake. Amen
Fr. Dietmar Lenfers
As we watched the appalling chaos in the U.S.Capitol on Wednesday evening (Jan 6th 2021), we witnessed an icon of democracy occupied and hostage to mob rule.
The procession of violent images was deeply troubling.
Particularly disheartening is that this event unfolded amid a deadly pandemic,
a terrible plague that any nation should face in solidarity.
The events of Wednesday are a graphic exposure of the deep and advancing polarization
in American society that has festered for years.
This divisiveness disregards faith, justice and the rule of law.
As shocking as it may be to glimpse how disordered this nation has become,
the terrible truth is that no nation is immune from moral and social decay.
I say this in the beginning of the eucharist on the feast of the baptism of our Lord:
If we wish to claim it, we Catholics have a legacy that is crucial to the healing of a nation.
Our faith includes a commitment to mutual respect, dialogue, and the principles on which democracy is based.
We must come together as one humanity under God, who loves and bestows dignity on all.
The person with whom we may vehemently disagree is also a beloved child of God – “This is my beloved child” says God in today’s gospel.
For two millennia, our faith community has tried to live the teachings of Jesus.
We are at our best when we put others first, with the common good as our guiding star.
Let us join with all people of good will in a choice for peace during this arduous time.
We pray for our Savior’s protection and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Let us call God’s presence upon us here in All Saints, upon all the nations of the Earth.
cf. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin on http://www.thechurchofsttheresa.org/