Sermons
September 25, 2016
Isn’t today’s gospel frightening (Luke 16,19-37)? The description of the afterlife is quite comfortable for Lazarus, but it is horrible for the other one, the rich person. We may not be among the very rich, but nevertheless we may fear that we might endure the same fate as the rich person in the gospel. Fear… - fear never brings freedom. Fear does not really incite us to change our lives. Did Jesus really want to inspire fear by talking about the otherworldly reward or the otherworldly punishment? Was talking about the afterlife his objective? I do not think so: Jesus has the human being in mind, not a theory about the afterlife. The first who comes to our mind is Lazarus. He has a name. The name means “God helps”. His everyday life is ruled by illness and need and misery and hunger. He cannot even reach the “the scraps that fell from the rich man's table”. The rich person has no name. He does not even act in a malicious manner – he just does not notice Lazarus and his needs. The rich man is focused on his comfortable life. He has no eye and no ear to what happens around him. He has no eye and no ear for the human beings in his neighborhood. And this is the point where Jesus starts his story: Lazarus has a name: “God helps”, and God is concerned with Lazarus. God is concerned with Lazarus who lies in front of the door, whose body is covered with sores, and who has less value than a dog. God is concerned with exactly this Lazarus, this “underdog”. And this is the message of today’s gospel for me: Do see Lazarus! Do see him in spite of all our activities and business! Do see him in spite of all our prejudices, in spite of all our limitations! Our limitations show us that we cannot help every person who needs our help. But let us see them and not forget them in spite of our festivities and parties – festivities and parties are OK, they are not bad. Let us see the needs of others in spite of our love of life, our lust for life. Let us become attentive – other persons need our attentiveness; maybe we ourselves need their attentiveness for ourselves, and we need to be attentive to our own needs. As Christians we have the possibility and invitation to be open for changes, we have the possibility to practice a helping community. A helping community believes that our attentiveness gives change a chance. Then we do experience God as the one who sees us with loving attentiveness just like he sees Lazarus.
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ
August 21, 2016
As they slowly settle down in our country some refugees begin to show interest in Christianity. Most of them are coming from cultures and religions where life is regulated in every detail by tribal and religious traditions. To encounter our European way of life where personal freedom is given a large space, (maybe too large a space) is for them both frightening and fascinating. For all of us, locals and strangers, this encounter is a tremendous chance. Human beings grow and develop through encounter with others. If we stay always with the same people, we remain the same, we are not challenged to change. But when a child meets other children in the nursery it begins to change, not necessarily for the better. You come to mass here at All Saints because in our English liturgy you experience something you don’t find in German parishes. We only have to look at European culture to realise how much we owe to the encounter with other cultures. We took our school-system from the Babylonians, religious symbols from the Egyptians, our philosophy from the Greek, the legal system from Romans and the way we think about God and relate to God is heavily influenced by the Jewish scriptures. In comparison, many cultures of Africa remained for a long time relatively steady and stagnant because the interior of the continent remained isolated from the rest of the world. The importance of meeting people from other cultures and religions we also see in the bible. The major breakthrough in their experience of God happened when the people of Israel were in exile in Egypt and in Babylon. Those were traumatic experiences when their familiar world crumbled. But out of that painful experience the prophets developed a deeper and richer vision of God from which we still draw today inspiration. Nothing has changed Germany and the rest of Europe so much as the arrival of a million refugees last year. The event provoked the best and the worst in people. There were those who were frightened by the arrival of so many stranger who were different in many ways: religion, language, dress, food, family traditions... They reacted out of fear turned into hatred because they did not take the trouble to know them. I bet that hardly any PEGIDA protester ever talked to a Muslim. The unknown always scares us. There are also those who recognise the great chance of this forced migration for us as much as for them. Does our culture which has lost interest in religion not need to be challenged by people who take God seriously? Does the way Muslims pray and fast and witness their faith in public not challenge us Christians who often have become lukewarm and fearful? And do they not need to be freed from the heavy load of a life governed by the law to experience the freedom of God’s children that Christ brought? The challenge is not to proselytise each other but to share our riches with one another and so grow into a deeper understanding of God, our faith and ourselves.
Fr. Wolfgang Schonecke MAfr
Eighteeth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 31, 2016
All three of today’s readings warn of the futility of the “vain” pursuit of wealth and celebrity. We just heard in the gospel how Jesus told a parable: "A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. And the man said to himself: “What should I do? I have not room enough to store all the harvest." Jesus does not tell us what the people say in this village, he does not tell the rumors about this rich man. No, Jesus listens to this man. The rich man calculates and decides to build a new barn. Economically, this is the right decision. But then Jesus gives an insight into the man’s innermost feelings, the man says to himself: “Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” This is touching – isn’t this something we all wish – after hard labor, after many deceptions and failures: “Sit down, eat, drink and be merry”… In Jesus’ point of view this insight may have come a bit too late for the rich man: the rich man had calculated for too long, he had lived for his numbers and his business and his planning for too long. That is why Jesus has God say: “You fool! You will die this very night”. “Take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” - I say that this insight, this wish, this vision has come too late for the rich man. Wouldn’t it be a good idea just to do NOW what the rich man says: “Take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” We do live with good and bad experiences, we do suffer from failures and losses, we do encounter difficulties in our lives – this is true. But couldn’t we take the time to enjoy our lives – now, during the holidays this should not be too difficult. And during the year we may take some evenings just to enjoy our lives, to relax, to be with others, to leave the problems of our daily lives behind, take a new breath, make a new beginning. Just take time to be human beings. Thus what is said in the letter to the Philippians may become true for us: Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (New American Bible) or, in a different translation: If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus (New Living Translation).
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ