Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXVIII per Annum C
9 October 2022

    The first reading and the Gospel selection follow a remarkably similar narrative.  A leper, who is a foreigner, is cleansed and has enough awareness to notice, to make a return, and to thank God in adoration and homage.  Two lepers.  Two non-Jews.  Two who are not part of God’s People.  Only these are aware of the gift they are given; only these make a return; only these thank God.  And because their eyes are open to the gift and because their hearts are filled with gratitude, they receive still more from God: not only physical healing but the salvation of their souls that unites them to God’s People and to the worship and sacrifice offered to the true God!

   Over time the biblical imagery of the physical malady of leprosy has become a figure of spiritual malady.  While we are not concerned about the transmission of leprosy in our community, we can apply a broader spiritual lesson to our lives.  In particular, I want to encourage an application of the lesson to our life as Christian stewards.  The spiritual lessons come from what the Gospel tells us happened as the lepers were leaving Jesus.  Listen again, “As they were going they were cleansed.  And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God…; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.”  Some fundamental but critical spiritual lessons come from this description.  These lessons from the one leper should be part of our lives.  The lessons are threefold: realizing, making a return, and glorifying or thanking God.

   The lesson of realizing is being aware of what God does for us, being aware of what is given us, and how we are blessed.  It is a self-awareness and an awareness about God.  It is not a call to self-absorption, but rather it is a lesson to be more reflective, prayerful, and recollected so that we take notice of what is happening in us and around us, especially as it regards our life with God.  Being aware in the spiritual life takes effort and practice.  We are often so busy about the things of the physical realm, the things our senses can perceive, that we leave largely untrained and undeveloped the skill of taking notice of our soul and the movements of the spiritual realm.  The simple comment of the Gospel highlights, however, just what a difference this lesson makes.  All the lepers were cleansed.  Apparently only one was aware.  Only one noticed.  Only one realized.  The other nine kept going their way.  The awareness of the one, led him back to a deeper encounter with God Himself.  See, then, how important a practice awareness is?!

   The second lesson is making a return.  When we are reflective and train ourselves in spiritual awareness we are less likely to miss what is going on in our life with God.  Being more in tune with God’s movements and His blessings in our lives, we then are in a position to respond by making a return to Him.  Without developing this lesson, we risk, like the other nine lepers, going on our merry way unaware of both how we have already been blessed by God and how we might be still more blessed if we made a return and remained in God’s presence, where He is clearly bestowing His blessings.

   The third lesson is glorifying and thanking God.  God deserves and is owed our praise.  Recall the Alleluia verse?  “In all circumstances, give thanks!”  Our individual prayer, our virtuous living as temples of the Holy Spirit, and our worship at Holy Mass and adoration in the chapel are all important ways we glorify God.  Given that the Greek word for “giving thanks,” used in this Gospel passage when the one leper thanked Jesus, given that the word is eucharisteo, we have a clear connection to the Holy Eucharist.  This takes on a deeper meaning for us as Catholics in that being present at Mass to worship and taking time to be before the Lord in our adoration chapel are clear connections to the giving thanks that is the very heart of the Holy Eucharist.

   What we see in this Gospel passage is that these spiritual practices of realizing what God is doing, making a return, and glorifying and thanking Him in Jesus, are not only appropriate ways by which we celebrate what God generously gives us, but these practices open us to even more blessings from God.  Notice all ten lepers received the blessing of healing, but only the one received still more, for he heard that not only his flesh, but his soul, was healed: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

   Over the past several weeks we have heard from the section of St. Luke’s Gospel that offers several parables about the proper use of wealth.  With those parables in mind together with the lessons today from the leper I’d like to encourage our practice of stewardship as regards our commitment to the needs of our parish and to the needs we can provide by means of other charitable giving.  I think the lessons of realizing our blessings, making a return, and thanking God have a direct application to how we each are called to provide for our communal life here at the parish.  The way of life of stewardship, by which Christian disciples are grateful for gifts received and seek to give back to God such that He is glorified, is a way of life for each of us.  It is a way of life that the parish itself follows.  It can be hard to keep everyone in the loop in a parish setting.  Thus, I shouldn’t assume that everyone can appreciate how the parish practices stewardship.  In fact, the parish itself tithes by making a commitment of using 10% of our income for charitable use.  I hope you will find it inspiring that from each weekend collection we pull 10% off the top and place it in a separate bank account for gifts we make to local, national, and international charities.  That tithe from our Sunday collection income is not available for use for operations or other expenses.  It is a commitment we make to the Lord to be confident that he has and that he will continue to bless us, and so we freely use our tithe to be available to bless others.  Believe me, when you consider the pinch that giving requires of you, I, too, as Pastor, feel it on behalf of the parish.  There are lean times in the parish budget and it can be tempting to think, if we could just use that tithe to get us by this month or to help us make that loan payment!  But, no, we have a firm commitment on the parish level to maintain that tithe as a practice of stewardship and as an example leading the way in asking of you that you similarly tithe to the parish and to other charities.

   Given today’s Gospel lessons about awareness, making a return, and giving thanks we might ask ourselves: Do I seek to be aware and to count the blessings I have?  Am I grateful to God for what He has done in my life?  Do I thank Him in the prayers and offerings of the Holy Mass?  Do I thank Him by making a commitment to time in adoration in our chapel?  Am I grateful for the people and things, the skills and blessings, God has put into my life?  How do I express that gratitude?  Do I give back to God?  I think awareness, gratitude, and stewardship have a direct connection: When you take time to reflect, and to notice, and to be aware of the gifts you have been given, you quite easily want to give back.  This is the habit I urge you to form.  It will reap benefits in your life.  It will reap benefits in our parish life as we seek to meet the demands of running a parish.  And it will reap benefits in the lives of others we seek to serve.

   I give a finance/stewardship talk about two to three times per year to make us aware of our financial status and to encourage stewardship.  It is important that you have some awareness of our budget and our financial position.  Because the staff and I are rather frugal and careful with our expenses our budget tends to come out positively when viewed over a 12-month period.  However, the reality of cash flow is quite a different story from month-to-month.  When we look at the money we need to pay the bills and to do the things we do week-to-week and month-to-month, we face regular challenges of not having the appropriate cash flow.  The only real place we get income is from you.  So, I ask that each parishioner be involved in helping carry the responsibility we all share together for having a parish and for covering the costs of what we do.  It is clear to me from conversations that many people know they should be making sacrificial gifts and they want to do so, but maybe it never happens, or it happens irregularly.  If that is your situation, my challenge to you is to make a specific plan today.  That plan should be as simple and direct as these three steps: (1) Decide today that I will visit the adoration chapel and make a visit of at least 10 minutes each week.  I will go there to be in the presence of the Lord to give him thanks.  I will go there to ask that he increase my faith and to ask that he guide me as I plan my regular gift to my parish.  Two, (2) I will begin making a regular gift to my parish today, whatever that gift is, whatever the amount.  It belongs to God as a gift I entrust to the Church here in my parish.  I will commit to a weekly amount that I will set aside for my support of the parish and I will make that gift at regular intervals, weekly or monthly.  Three, (3) if I am not currently giving and I don’t know where to start, then I will consider the dollar amount of a sacrifice I can make each week, something I can do without in order to get in the habit of supporting my parish.  Maybe that weekly sacrifice is the amount of one of my favorite coffee drinks that I get many days each week.  Maybe it is the cost of my favorite meal at a restaurant.  Maybe it is the value of one hour of my work week.  Can you sacrifice at least that amount and put it in an envelope or give it electronically each week in gratitude to God and in support of your parish?  I bet it is more possible than you think.  And these steps should be taken with the view of strengthening and increasing this practice of stewardship so that each of us becomes a regular sacrificial giver, a giver who intentionally plans what to give to God, a giver who gives first to God off the top and not only from what is left over, and a giver who is a percentage giver.

   We count on your regular gifts and we make ministry and administrative decisions based on whether we have enough income to do the things we would like to do in order to serve you.  If you are not signed up for Faith Direct electronic giving, there is information in the pews and I ask you to consider that method of giving.  It is a very easy and safe way to make your gifts.  It is managed from your computer or smartphone and can be as easy as giving via a text message to set up an account.  If you cannot manage electronic giving and if you don’t have, or are not getting envelopes, please get help from the office staff to participate as a regular contributor to your parish’s needs.  The staff can help you get set up for the method you prefer for making your gifts.  I can’t tell you – and I wouldn’t presume to tell you – how much you should give.  I can tell you one thing that our practice of stewardship should be and one thing that it should not be – and this holds true for each one of us here.  Our gift should be sacrificial.  And our gift should not be zero.  I can assure you that I and the staff and our Finance Council respect your gifts, we remain frugal, and we will always use our parish resources responsibly.

   Last week we heard the Apostles ask “Increase our faith.”  We can make that our prayer to the Lord too as we seek to take new steps in stewardship and the practice of regular giving to our parish.  In today’s passage faith is what saves the leper.  Awareness/realizing – making a return – thanking God – and increased faith and trust all go hand in hand.  If you will work to be reflective and aware in your spiritual life, you’ll find more blessings.  You’ll be more grateful.  It will be much easier to give back to God.  And you’ll feel more free as a disciple to be sacrificial in your giving to the parish and to the other charities you support.

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXVII per Annum C
2 October 2022

 For many weeks now we have been hearing the Lord’s teaching while on an extended journey to Jerusalem.  This section of St. Luke’s Gospel contains many challenging parables.  The Apostles, and we, have heard parables about the cost of discipleship over these weeks.  We have heard parables about repentance, being lost, and the extravagant mercy of God who searches us out.  We have heard parables about the proper use of wealth and riches, and the call to put our resources at the service of others as good stewards.  Today we are reminded that we are servants who have duties to fulfill and that we ought not fulfill those duties as if expecting some particular praise or reward for doing what we simply should do.  We have done only what we were obliged to do, to use words from the Gospel.  We each face many challenges in life and in living the faith.  We are not promised that we will navigate this life without difficulty.  We are not promised that the final resolution to suffering and challenge will be here in this life.  With this in mind, I bet the prayer of the Apostles could easily be the prayer each of us makes to Jesus: “Increase our faith.”

 Now the Apostles by this point certainly already had faith.  They had encountered Jesus and they had been changed.  They had come to believe in him.  Yet, they must walk with him and journey through life encountering all the things, all the ups and downs, that life brings to any one of us.  That the Apostles ask that their faith be increased is a reminder to us that faith is not static.  It is something that must grow.  We might even consider that hearing the series of challenging parables from the Lord, parables presented to us these past many weeks, we might suggest that the Apostles are also asking that their trust be increased.  The personal trust of the believer is, after all, another meaning of the word “faith”.  In other words, they are not seeking only the faith that believes in things but the faith that leads them to deeper trust to maintain their relationship with the Lord through all that life brings.

  In their prayer for increased faith, increased trust, Jesus uses the simple example of the mulberry tree.  He says, even if you have only a little faith, “you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  The example highlights two unlikely, and even impossible things.  First, a mulberry tree is known to have such a broad, expansive, and deep root system that it is unlikely you are going to uproot it.  Second, a tree is not going to be planted in the sea and survive.  The idea with this image then is that faith has the ability to do things beyond our capabilities.  Faith can do the seemingly impossible.  And it does so, not because of us but, because of God’s power.  It is God who accomplishes things when we let Him act, when we have faith that calls out to Him for things we cannot achieve.

  Each of us faces moments and events of life that test us and that leave us feeling powerless.  The first reading from the Prophet Habakkuk demonstrates this and uses words that might resonate with us in our challenges.  “How long, O Lord?  I cry for help but you do not listen!... Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?”  Again, in this fallen world we are not promised an easy passage.  Suffering comes and it may last for a long time and it may come frequently.  We want answers and solutions and happy resolutions here.  But the word of the Lord through the Prophet Habakkuk calls us to have faith in the vision of the Lord’s promises to come.  That vision, the Lord says, “presses on to fulfillment…. If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come…. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.”  There will be challenge and suffering, yes, but the one who has faith shall endure and shall live.

  And so, we come to the words of Psalm 95, the responsorial psalm of this Holy Mass, a psalm that the Church prays daily at the first prayer time of each day in the Liturgy of the Hours, called the Invitatory.  That psalm begins by referring to the Lord God as the Rock of our salvation.  That image is not just a generic image for strength and solid foundation.  Rather, it is a direct reference to the experience of God’s People in the exodus and desert wanderings.  The rock is the rock that Moses struck to provide the people water in the desert at Meribah and Massah.  There, as the people were being led and provided for in the desert, they were given water to drink yet at the same time they doubted.  They failed to completely trust.  In the very moment of being provided water the people were saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  And so, the section of the psalm we use today references that very event saying, “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.”

 The Church recognizes the challenges that each life brings and recognizes that even in the midst of blessings and God’s workings among us we are tempted to doubt and to lack faith.  The Church recognizes that we need greater trust because we lose perspective and focus in “our deserts”.  Just like the People of Israel did, we, too, have our places of contention and grumbling and testing, we have “our Meribahs” and “our Massahs”.  And so, at the beginning of each day, not knowing what may come our way, the Church places on our lips this very experience from the desert wanderings.  We use these same words today, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  Like the Apostles we call out to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”  We beg that our vision and perspective may be purified in all things – all the moments and events that life brings us – that we may let God work to do the things we cannot see or achieve on our own.