31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Michael’s Church, Poplar Springs
October 30, 2011
Humble Service Calls for the Death of the Ego
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
RICHARD RICH
In the opening scene of the movie A Man for All Seasons, Richard Rich, a bright but desperately ambition young man, petitions Thomas More, the king’s humble and saintly chancellor, for a position among the glitterati at the court of Henry VIII.
More tells Rich that he can offer him a position, not as a courtier at court, but as a simple teacher.
The young man is crestfallen, and More tries to cheer him up, “You’d be a fine teacher, Richard; perhaps a great one.” Rich fires back. “And if I was, who would know it?”
The ever patient More responds: “You would, your pupils, your friends, and God. Not a bad public, that.”
Rich wanted glitz and notoriety at court, not the humility of being a classroom teacher.
THE GOSPEL
In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking about folks who’ve made the choice for a career in high places, but have lost the sense of humility that is needed for real service.
He says: “They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders.” “All their works are performed to be seen.” “They love places of honor at banquets.”
His reaction leads us to ask what’s the secret to remaining humble even as you climb the corporate ladder or become the head of the family or the president of an organization.
Humility isn’t something you cultivate like building a muscle (flex biceps): “I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble. I’ll be more humble.” It just doesn’t work that way. We may admire humility. We may espouse humility. We may want to acquire humility, but it’s not something we do by way of will power.
THE DEATH OF THE EGO
True humility is borne of grace and the realization of who I truly am. Let me explain.
The ego – that is, who I think I am – is a concept here in my heard that I’ve shaped over the years.
The EGO OF SOME FOLKS is what they possess. In their “stuff” they find their identities. It’s expressed in the phrase: “I am my…” as in, “I am the one with the Lexus, or the I-Pad, the newest Droid, a wine cellar.”
If you don’t think you are your “stuff,” just recall all that you have in your closets, basement, attic, garage that you find difficult to part with and ask yourself, “How much of your ‘stuff’ you really are?”
Some folks are able to let go of that ego.
The NEXT LEVEL of ego is “I am me…” I am such and such a title, a member of this family, country club, graduate of this university, live in this neighborhood, etc.”
An interesting way of seeing where you are in terms of your ego is how you introduce yourself. “I’m a department head at Care First” or “I’m this Abercrombie & Fitch shirt or Calvin Klein pants.” “I’m my Laura Ashley bag, my Louis Vuitton dress, Prada shoes or Brooks Brothers suit.” I wear my labels proudly so folks know who I am.
And some of us are able to let go of this ego as well.
There is a THIRD LEVEL of who you are. It is the level of self-understanding that is borne of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It comes from a relinquishing of “I am my stuff” and “I am me” to “I am in God.”
What happens at this third level of self-understanding is that “in God” I come to see that, “I am really we.”
It works like this: The closer I come to being in God’s presence through prayer, the more I am humbled by God’s presence: humbled that God would call me into union with him; humbled that I am worthy of that call; humbled that I can live at that level of identity; humbled that I am empowered to live for others as Jesus lived for me!
That is the grace, the capacity I receive from union with God. It isn’t the muscle of humility that I developed.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell it is being disposed to God’s grace and the disposition comes through the dying to finding my identity in stuff, in titles and honors, to finding myself in God.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 23, 2011: The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
30th Sunday of the Year, Cycle A
St. Margaret Church and St. Mark Church
October 23, 2011
The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
EINSTEIN
On one occasion, Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity. The great physicist replied that the simplest explanation of relativity he could think of was this.
When a boy spends an hour with the girls he loves, if feels like a minute. But when that same boy is compelled to sit on a hot stove for a minute, if feels like an hour.
And so, to explain a complicate theory, Einstein went back to something very basic. Now, what Einstein did there helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Some of the religious leaders ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” It isn’t an easy question, because in the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were 613 commandments.
Well, like Albert Einstein, Jesus cuts through to the most basic of all those commandments.
He takes 613 and answers with two commandments: “To love God” and “To love our neighbor.” And Jesus says that these two are the most basic and the most important because they both (1) Summarize every other law of the religion and (2) All the others can be found within these two.
It seems that the laws and teachings of the synagogue of Jesus’ time and of our church today have become as complicated as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
To help us understand the meaning of both these commandments and their connection, I suggest that we simply look at another basic: and that is the shape of a cross.
THE VERTICAL BEAM
The construction of a cross has something interesting to say. I would suggest that the first commandment represents the vertical beam of the cross. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Now, if we are to love God sincerely, we need to realize that (1) God has first loved us and that he has loved us unconditionally.
The scripture says that, (2) “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And in another place, (3) “The love of God consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us.”
God loves us by giving us life, and family, and friends as well as the necessities and comforts of life. And beyond that, God loves us by forgiving us and offering us salvation, even when we sin.
With that gratitude as a base, we in turn love God with humble hearts and prayers.
So, God’s love for us, or our realization of that love, empowers us to love God in return. It constitutes the supportive vertical beam of the cross.
THE HORIZONTAL BEAM
Secondly, I suggest that this love of God for us and we for God is the basis, the foundation, for the horizontal beam of the cross, which is our ability to then love our neighbor.
Let’s look at it this way. We cannot write paragraphs and essays in school until we are first able to write the alphabet and know the rules of grammar. If you are to have any skill at writing, you simply have to learn the basics first.
In the same way, we cannot truly love our neighbor (arms horizontally), until we have learned the basics of love from God (arms vertically.)
That love, God’s love for us and our love for God in return, empowers us to love others even when they do not seem to deserve it – even when they have hurt or wronged us in some profound way.
So the vertical beam of the cross makes the horizontal beam possible; it holds the horizontal beam in place; it sustains it.
CONCLUSION
When the Lord tells us to love our enemies, he gives us, along with the command, the love itself.
You don’t have to be a contractor or even a carpenter to know you can’t construct a cross without first having the vertical support.
What makes you think you can forgive someone who’s wronged you, or someone who has proclaimed themselves your enemy without first knowing the love of Jesus?
Perhaps that’s why forgiving is so difficult, we haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness of Jesus of us.
That’s the place to start, not just in building a cross, but in understanding the cross of Jesus in our lives.
St. Margaret Church and St. Mark Church
October 23, 2011
The Cross As a Vertical and Horizontal Reality
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
EINSTEIN
On one occasion, Albert Einstein was asked to explain his theory of relativity. The great physicist replied that the simplest explanation of relativity he could think of was this.
When a boy spends an hour with the girls he loves, if feels like a minute. But when that same boy is compelled to sit on a hot stove for a minute, if feels like an hour.
And so, to explain a complicate theory, Einstein went back to something very basic. Now, what Einstein did there helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
Some of the religious leaders ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of the Law?” It isn’t an easy question, because in the Judaism of Jesus’ time, there were 613 commandments.
Well, like Albert Einstein, Jesus cuts through to the most basic of all those commandments.
He takes 613 and answers with two commandments: “To love God” and “To love our neighbor.” And Jesus says that these two are the most basic and the most important because they both (1) Summarize every other law of the religion and (2) All the others can be found within these two.
It seems that the laws and teachings of the synagogue of Jesus’ time and of our church today have become as complicated as Einstein’s theory of relativity.
To help us understand the meaning of both these commandments and their connection, I suggest that we simply look at another basic: and that is the shape of a cross.
THE VERTICAL BEAM
The construction of a cross has something interesting to say. I would suggest that the first commandment represents the vertical beam of the cross. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Now, if we are to love God sincerely, we need to realize that (1) God has first loved us and that he has loved us unconditionally.
The scripture says that, (2) “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.” And in another place, (3) “The love of God consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that God has first loved us.”
God loves us by giving us life, and family, and friends as well as the necessities and comforts of life. And beyond that, God loves us by forgiving us and offering us salvation, even when we sin.
With that gratitude as a base, we in turn love God with humble hearts and prayers.
So, God’s love for us, or our realization of that love, empowers us to love God in return. It constitutes the supportive vertical beam of the cross.
THE HORIZONTAL BEAM
Secondly, I suggest that this love of God for us and we for God is the basis, the foundation, for the horizontal beam of the cross, which is our ability to then love our neighbor.
Let’s look at it this way. We cannot write paragraphs and essays in school until we are first able to write the alphabet and know the rules of grammar. If you are to have any skill at writing, you simply have to learn the basics first.
In the same way, we cannot truly love our neighbor (arms horizontally), until we have learned the basics of love from God (arms vertically.)
That love, God’s love for us and our love for God in return, empowers us to love others even when they do not seem to deserve it – even when they have hurt or wronged us in some profound way.
So the vertical beam of the cross makes the horizontal beam possible; it holds the horizontal beam in place; it sustains it.
CONCLUSION
When the Lord tells us to love our enemies, he gives us, along with the command, the love itself.
You don’t have to be a contractor or even a carpenter to know you can’t construct a cross without first having the vertical support.
What makes you think you can forgive someone who’s wronged you, or someone who has proclaimed themselves your enemy without first knowing the love of Jesus?
Perhaps that’s why forgiving is so difficult, we haven’t experienced the love and forgiveness of Jesus of us.
That’s the place to start, not just in building a cross, but in understanding the cross of Jesus in our lives.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 16, 2011: To Change the World
29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
October 16, 2011
To Change the World
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BOOK CLUB
I am part of a small group of priests that meets with a theologian friend of ours from time-to-time to discuss various books on theology. It’s a great way to stay updated.
A recent book we shared was entitled To Change the World by James Hunter.
The author begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models for world changing among Christians today and highlights how each is flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which it aspires.
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT: Characterized by a sense of injury, entitlement, anger, partisanship, identifying the enemy, the language of war and winning. They are theologically conservative. Their solution is to make America holy in the manner that they see it.
THE CHRISTIAN LEFT: Many of the same characteristics as the Right, except the Christian Right has a different agenda. It is much more oriented to the poor and the common good. These folks are theologically progressive. They see the main problem as inequality and the faults of capitalism. Their solution is a redistribution of wealth through legal means.
NEO-ANABAPTISTS: Keep a distance from it all. They see the world as basically evil. They are gospel-based. Neo-Anabaptists see the main problem with society today as violence and coercion. Their response is peace, and living in community even apart from the culture. These would be folks like the Amish and Mennonites.
Hunter argues that often these political theologies actually worsen the very problems they are designed to solve.
THE SOLUTION
In today’s gospel Jesus offers us a different alternative, one not based on political power.
He first distinguishes the two spheres of political and personal activity, saying that we live in both and we should render to each what is its due. He sums that up in the phrase, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
Rather than responding with power or force or living apart from society, Jesus is telling his hearers to put their faith in God and then live that faith concretely in all their choices and actions. In short, they are to live within society a faithful presence of the God they serve.
If Caesar or the government or state over-steps the mark, a Christian is absolved from obedience to the law, for we must obey God rather than man.
FAITHFUL PRESENCE
What precisely does “faithful presence” entail? That is, how can I, as a follower of Jesus, be faithfully present, respecting the distinction between church and state, between what I believe and the laws that govern me?
A theology of faithful presence is a theology of engagement in and with the world around us. While it is simple in concept, it is also challenging in its implications.
FIRST, faithful presence means that we are to be fully present TO EACH OTHER within the community of faith and fully present to those who are not.
We are not only to do no wrong to those outside of our community, but are actively to love the stranger as we love ourselves
NEXT, faithful presence requires that believers be fully present and committed TO THEIR TASKS. When our tasks are done before God, they have their own integrity apart from anything else they might accomplish, for the labor itself brings honor to God.
If we perform our tasks as working for the Lord, we will want to pursue them with all the skill, care, and quality we can bring to them. Working for the Lord, there is a built-in safeguard against work, whatever it is, becoming a source of idolatry.
FINALLY, faithful presence in the world means that believers are fully present and committed IN THEIR SPHERES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, whatever they may be: their families, neighborhoods, parish, voluntary activities, and places of work.
The question we face in this regard is how will we use whatever power we have? Where power is exercised, it must conform to the way of Jesus, that is, it must be rooted in intimacy with the Father, rejecting the privileges of status, oriented by a self-giving compassion for the needs of others, and not only non-coercive toward those outside of the community of faith, but committed indiscriminately for the good of all.
CONCLUSION
There is an alternative way of thinking about the world we live in, and engaging it in a way that is constructive and draws upon the teachings of Jesus.
And it is practicing a faithful presence as a follower of the Lord toward ourselves, toward our tasks, and toward the spheres in which we exercise influence.
In the end, this strategy becomes not first and foremost about changing the world, but living for the flourishing of others.
It can’t get more Christ-centered than that!
Bon Secours Spiritual Center
October 16, 2011
To Change the World
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
BOOK CLUB
I am part of a small group of priests that meets with a theologian friend of ours from time-to-time to discuss various books on theology. It’s a great way to stay updated.
A recent book we shared was entitled To Change the World by James Hunter.
The author begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models for world changing among Christians today and highlights how each is flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which it aspires.
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT: Characterized by a sense of injury, entitlement, anger, partisanship, identifying the enemy, the language of war and winning. They are theologically conservative. Their solution is to make America holy in the manner that they see it.
THE CHRISTIAN LEFT: Many of the same characteristics as the Right, except the Christian Right has a different agenda. It is much more oriented to the poor and the common good. These folks are theologically progressive. They see the main problem as inequality and the faults of capitalism. Their solution is a redistribution of wealth through legal means.
NEO-ANABAPTISTS: Keep a distance from it all. They see the world as basically evil. They are gospel-based. Neo-Anabaptists see the main problem with society today as violence and coercion. Their response is peace, and living in community even apart from the culture. These would be folks like the Amish and Mennonites.
Hunter argues that often these political theologies actually worsen the very problems they are designed to solve.
THE SOLUTION
In today’s gospel Jesus offers us a different alternative, one not based on political power.
He first distinguishes the two spheres of political and personal activity, saying that we live in both and we should render to each what is its due. He sums that up in the phrase, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
Rather than responding with power or force or living apart from society, Jesus is telling his hearers to put their faith in God and then live that faith concretely in all their choices and actions. In short, they are to live within society a faithful presence of the God they serve.
If Caesar or the government or state over-steps the mark, a Christian is absolved from obedience to the law, for we must obey God rather than man.
FAITHFUL PRESENCE
What precisely does “faithful presence” entail? That is, how can I, as a follower of Jesus, be faithfully present, respecting the distinction between church and state, between what I believe and the laws that govern me?
A theology of faithful presence is a theology of engagement in and with the world around us. While it is simple in concept, it is also challenging in its implications.
FIRST, faithful presence means that we are to be fully present TO EACH OTHER within the community of faith and fully present to those who are not.
We are not only to do no wrong to those outside of our community, but are actively to love the stranger as we love ourselves
NEXT, faithful presence requires that believers be fully present and committed TO THEIR TASKS. When our tasks are done before God, they have their own integrity apart from anything else they might accomplish, for the labor itself brings honor to God.
If we perform our tasks as working for the Lord, we will want to pursue them with all the skill, care, and quality we can bring to them. Working for the Lord, there is a built-in safeguard against work, whatever it is, becoming a source of idolatry.
FINALLY, faithful presence in the world means that believers are fully present and committed IN THEIR SPHERES OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE, whatever they may be: their families, neighborhoods, parish, voluntary activities, and places of work.
The question we face in this regard is how will we use whatever power we have? Where power is exercised, it must conform to the way of Jesus, that is, it must be rooted in intimacy with the Father, rejecting the privileges of status, oriented by a self-giving compassion for the needs of others, and not only non-coercive toward those outside of the community of faith, but committed indiscriminately for the good of all.
CONCLUSION
There is an alternative way of thinking about the world we live in, and engaging it in a way that is constructive and draws upon the teachings of Jesus.
And it is practicing a faithful presence as a follower of the Lord toward ourselves, toward our tasks, and toward the spheres in which we exercise influence.
In the end, this strategy becomes not first and foremost about changing the world, but living for the flourishing of others.
It can’t get more Christ-centered than that!
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Weekly HOMILY for October 9, 2011: Have You Seen the Rabbit?
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St. Alphonsus Church, Woodstock
October 9, 2011
Have You Seen the Rabbit?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
GUEST AT THE SON'S WEDDING BANQUET
Everybody wonders why that man in the gospel came to a party improperly dressed
I know why. He actually thought he was correctly attired.
He even looked like everyone else: tux, pleated shirt, shinny shoes. But the host spotted an outsider right away. He told the intruder, “You may look like one of us, but I can tell you have never seen the rabbit.” “Seen the rabbit?”
Many of us look and talk like we belong in God’s inner circle, that we are close enough to God to actually be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection.
We try to belong. Sometimes we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual program in search of God, but most of us get tired quickly.
We lose interest and eventually give up the chase. Do you know why? It’s because we have never seen the rabbit. There’s that phrase again, “Never seen the rabbit.”
CHASING RABBITS AT MRS. VINCI’S
When I was a little boy, we used to visit an aunt on a farm in the country. While there, we loved to go rabbit hunting with my cousins and their hounds.
I always rooted for the rabbit and the rabbit almost always won because it was fast, on its own turf, and knew the hiding places.
When the first dog caught sight of the rabbit it would let out a howl and hurtled off barking. The other dogs got excited by the noise and commotion and joined in the chase.
There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drainpipes.
But most of the dogs would eventually tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why they turned back? It’s because they never actually saw the rabbit.
They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog and then they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and hoped their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot.
Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute for actually seeing.
SAINTS CHASING RABBITS
It’s the same with us in our chase of God. We have to actually see the rabbit, actually see and experience God to stay active in the pursuit.
Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become as faithful as Moses or as poor as St. Francis or as compassionate as St. Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed.
Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor.
But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight will not cure this blindness. We have to see and experience God with our own eyes.
OUR CHASING RABBITS
Now we know that God is always there, but it takes some personal attention to discern, to feel, to experience God’s presence in the tangle of our lives.
Remember those puzzles that contain objects hidden in the jumble of lines? We have to sense their presence before we can actually see them.
People say they will believe when they see it, but we actually see it, when we believe it’s really there.
We try to create and image of God in prayer. So we meditate like St. Ignatius, have conversation like the Little Flower, St. Therese, or we contemplate like St. John of the Cross.
But God remains silent. God remains silent because St. Ignatius and St. Therese and St. John learned their personal language by first seeing and experiencing God.
THE JOY OF THE CHASE
I would like to tell you an easy, secret way to catch God, but there is none.
You and I are programmed to pursue God as surely as a beagle is programmed in our DNA to pursue rabbits. That’s the way it is.
Of course, a dog can laze in the sun instead, and likewise we too can find other pleasant pursuits. It can be a nice life, but it will not be the best life.
A hound is never happier than when chasing a rabbit; a man or woman is never happier than when panting after God.
And God, God is happiest of all when he stays one jump ahead of us. It makes the pursuit all worth while with God remaining God.
St. Alphonsus Church, Woodstock
October 9, 2011
Have You Seen the Rabbit?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
GUEST AT THE SON'S WEDDING BANQUET
Everybody wonders why that man in the gospel came to a party improperly dressed
I know why. He actually thought he was correctly attired.
He even looked like everyone else: tux, pleated shirt, shinny shoes. But the host spotted an outsider right away. He told the intruder, “You may look like one of us, but I can tell you have never seen the rabbit.” “Seen the rabbit?”
Many of us look and talk like we belong in God’s inner circle, that we are close enough to God to actually be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection.
We try to belong. Sometimes we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual program in search of God, but most of us get tired quickly.
We lose interest and eventually give up the chase. Do you know why? It’s because we have never seen the rabbit. There’s that phrase again, “Never seen the rabbit.”
CHASING RABBITS AT MRS. VINCI’S
When I was a little boy, we used to visit an aunt on a farm in the country. While there, we loved to go rabbit hunting with my cousins and their hounds.
I always rooted for the rabbit and the rabbit almost always won because it was fast, on its own turf, and knew the hiding places.
When the first dog caught sight of the rabbit it would let out a howl and hurtled off barking. The other dogs got excited by the noise and commotion and joined in the chase.
There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drainpipes.
But most of the dogs would eventually tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why they turned back? It’s because they never actually saw the rabbit.
They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog and then they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and hoped their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot.
Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute for actually seeing.
SAINTS CHASING RABBITS
It’s the same with us in our chase of God. We have to actually see the rabbit, actually see and experience God to stay active in the pursuit.
Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become as faithful as Moses or as poor as St. Francis or as compassionate as St. Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed.
Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor.
But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight will not cure this blindness. We have to see and experience God with our own eyes.
OUR CHASING RABBITS
Now we know that God is always there, but it takes some personal attention to discern, to feel, to experience God’s presence in the tangle of our lives.
Remember those puzzles that contain objects hidden in the jumble of lines? We have to sense their presence before we can actually see them.
People say they will believe when they see it, but we actually see it, when we believe it’s really there.
We try to create and image of God in prayer. So we meditate like St. Ignatius, have conversation like the Little Flower, St. Therese, or we contemplate like St. John of the Cross.
But God remains silent. God remains silent because St. Ignatius and St. Therese and St. John learned their personal language by first seeing and experiencing God.
THE JOY OF THE CHASE
I would like to tell you an easy, secret way to catch God, but there is none.
You and I are programmed to pursue God as surely as a beagle is programmed in our DNA to pursue rabbits. That’s the way it is.
Of course, a dog can laze in the sun instead, and likewise we too can find other pleasant pursuits. It can be a nice life, but it will not be the best life.
A hound is never happier than when chasing a rabbit; a man or woman is never happier than when panting after God.
And God, God is happiest of all when he stays one jump ahead of us. It makes the pursuit all worth while with God remaining God.
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