Weekly HOMILY for February 27, 2012: Faith, Hope and Love Amidst the Forces of Evil

1^st Sunday of Lent, Cycle B

February 27, 2012

St. Jane Frances De Chantal, Riviera Beach

Faith, Hope and Love Amidst the Forces of Evil

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

NORMANDY

Last summer I was on a parish trip to France and we visited the beaches of Normandy where D-Day took place.

To physically stand on the five beaches where 6,000 Allied ships dropped soldiers, to hear the accounts of their valiant efforts at breaking through the Nazi Sea Wall, to imagine the thousands of troops who died – all filled us with the very real force of evil in our world. 

But it was the American Cemetery at Normandy and the 9,500 crosses or Stars of David, in long straight lines facing east to America, over the remains of each dead soldier, that moved me the most.

Standing still in silence amidst the thousands of white marble crosses, I was overwhelmed at the cost and energy of extinguishing the evils of Nazism that these soldiers were caught up in. 

I was aware of the great forces of evil that are much bigger than me and are at work in the world outside ourselves.

LENT AND THESE FORCES

Many of us have had this awareness of evil forces greater than ourselves.

There are these powers in the world that just seem to catch us up and swirl around us.  Often we can live oblivious, unaware of all of this, but then comes the Season of Lent.

Lent makes us aware that much of life is a complicated dance between good and evil, between light and darkness.  Much of life is a conflict between charity, justice, and peace, on the one hand and self-absorption, greed, and hostility on the other. 

JESUS AND THESE FORCES

Jesus makes an intentional choice to confront these very forces.

Today’s gospel says: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.”  So Jesus is in the desert wrestling with the same forces of darkness that we wrestle with in everyday life.

He confronts the same choices that we must confront.  And the Lenten lesson is that what we choose will shape our soul.

The choices we make – when forces beyond our control are all around us – these choices, shape who we are as persons. 

• So Jesus chooses Faith in the Father instead of faith in the ways of the world.
• Jesus chooses Trust when darkness seems overwhelming. 
• And he chooses sacrificial acts of Love in the face of insult and anger.

WE AND THESE FORCES 

The Lenten season brings everything home by reminding us that we must make the same choices in the face of the conflicting forces surrounding us.

And in such moments, Jesus calls us to choose Faith. 

No question, life can be difficult, stressful, and trying, but Jesus invites us to believe in a Higher Power that he calls the Father’s love and to be anchored and empowered there.  

He wants us to make contact with God through the Eucharist and to make this a priority over shopping, sports, and even studies. 

Jesus invites us to make time for private prayer and reflection to deepen our intimacy with him.  He calls us to show and give this faith to someone we meet each day.

And Jesus calls us to choose Hope. 

There are so many problems in our world today. There is:

• Great tension between different cultures, religions, and races
• Poverty for 3 of the 7 billion inhabitants of this earth
• Economic problems that are challenging our greatest minds

But with all of this, the power of hope lies not in what is around us, but in what is within us.

The power of Hope lies in God’s presence and God’s assurance of his presence with us and with all people today and always.  Jesus calls us to give this Hope to at least one person today.

And finally Jesus calls us to choose Love. 

There is so much demonization today of those who are different from us or who disagree with us.

And there is so much insensitivity for the life of the unborn or the life of those dying from starvation on the other side of the planet.  But with all of this, the power of Love flows from the presence of the One who is Love itself. 

This power of Love leads us to seek understanding, to build bridges, to find common ground and seek the common good – of our country and of our world.  Jesus calls us to extend this Love to at least one person today.  

CONCLUSION

So, there are indeed forces bigger than us and we have choices to make. We feel them globally and we need to act on them locally – in our home, neighborhood, and place of work.

Lent makes us aware of these choices and reminds us that our choices will shape who we become as persons. 

And those choices will have eternal consequences.

Weekly HOMILY for February 22, 2012: Ash Wednesday -- What's Up With the Ashes?

Ash Wednesday, Cycle B

Attended Saint Mary’s, Pylesville, MD

February 22, 2012

What’s Up With the Ashes?

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

A CONTRADICTION?

Jesus says in today’s gospel: “When you fast, wash your face so that you may not appear to others to be fasting.”

We hear this, and then we proceed to place ashes on our foreheads.  Then we walk out of church to our jobs or schools or stores with these ashes.

So why do we do this?  Is all of this just one big contradiction?

COMMUNITY CONVERSION

I think not and here is why I say that.

So often, we tend to think of Lent as a time of individual conversion.  But, in truth, Lent is also a time for social or community conversion. 

The idea is that we are all being called to conversion and renewal.  We are to do this together, as a community or as God’s People on this earth.

And beyond that, the repentance that we are called to do has a community dimension to it.  We are all called to personal growth and to deeper conversion in our one-on-one relationship with the Lord.

But Lent also calls us to grow in our relationships with others and our sense of responsibility for the well-being of all God’s people on this earth.  So, Lenten repentance is to have both personal and social or community dimensions to it. 

This is why the ashes are placed on our foreheads – much as we were anointed with chrism at baptism and again at confirmation.  Those annointings make us one with Christ and also one with the living body of Christ, God’s people on this earth. 

In the same way, the ashes remind us that we need to repent of things in our relationship with the Lord and in our other relationships also.  This is why having the ashes on our foreheads is not contradicting the gospel. 

WAYS TO GROW DURING LENT

Now, with this understanding, we can better appreciate the three Lenten practices that Jesus mentions today: 1) prayer, 2) fasting, and 3) charitable giving. 

So, for prayer: We might participate in Mass one weekday morning in addition to Sunday, or we might pray the Stations of the Cross or come to the Friday night Lenten Supper. 

We can do this as a way to have a closer personal relationship with God.  And we can also do this to pray for those who are struggling with faith or with the Church, or for a greater respect for human life at all stages.

 

For fasting: We can follow the directives of the Church and abstain from eating meat today and on the Fridays of Lent and we might also adopt some other form of fasting that is more personal to us, like giving up chocolate or beer or our favorite chips or whatever.

We can do this fasting as a way for some personal self-discipline, as a help to lead us to “fast” from behavior that is harmful.  And we can also do this socially as a way to feel moiré sensitivity to those who are really hungry and in need.

For charitable giving: I have spoken so much on this in recent months that I simply say that our giving is an expression of our own personal faith and it also helps God’s people and God’s work on this earth.

CONCLUSION

With this understanding of the ashes and the richness they give to our Lenten practices, we now bless the ashes and have them placed on our foreheads.

Weekly HOMILY for February 17, 2012: The Grace of Loving Presence

7^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Remarried Couples Retreat

Holy Trinity Retreat Center

February 17, 2012

 

The Grace of Loving Presence

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

 

JERRY AND ANNA

It was Jerry who first noticed the difficulties Anna was having. Fifty-three years of marriage gave him that ability.

He detected in her a loss in memory and concentration, or problems coming up with the right word or the correct name. She began misplacing valuable objects.

He wanted her so much to be healed of this distraction.

Months passed and Anna was now having difficulty in planning dinner for guests, paying bills, or managing the household finances.

So Jerry started to pick up the slack by helping her plan the meals and he willingly took over the checkbook and finances.

Soon it became apparent that Anna was having trouble remembering his name and she needed help dressing so she wouldn’t make a mistake by putting her nightgown over day clothes.

Jerry was there doing whatever it took to support her, which now included the details of toileting.

In the final months, Anna lost her ability to smile or sit up. Her muscles had become rigid and all she could do was simply lay in bed.

At her feet Jerry sat, day in and day out, praying for her, telling her stories of past good times together, and asking God to hold her in his arms.

QUALITIES OF LOVING PRESENCE

Today’s gospel account is a similar story of love and devotion for someone who is very sick. In the actions of the friends of the sick man, we see four traits or characteristics of loving presence.

First, the friends want to get the paralyzed man to Jesus in order to be healed.  So they devise a creative plan and use their muscle to make their plan work.

Like Jerry, who wanted Anna to be healed, good friends or good spouses are not self-centered, not stuck in their own self-interest.  Instead, their desire is for the health and well-being of the other.

Second, the friends actually pick up the man’s mat and carry him. 

Jerry, again like the friends of the paralyzed man, was very quick to pick up the checkbook and oversee the finances, since Anna was no longer able to do them herself.

He did not have to be asked to do this and he didn’t make a big deal of it or call attention to himself in doing it.  Out of love he just did what had to be done.

Third, the friends in the gospel readily offer everything they have.  They’ve got the idea of lowering their friend through the roof. They’ve got the know-how to remove part of the roof, and the muscle to get their friend up there and lower him carefully to be near Jesus.

Jerry, like the good friends, gives every ounce he’s got to help Anna and she in turn, accepts his caring for her.

Finally, Jerry places Anna totally in God’s hands in much the same way the friends present the paralyzed man to Jesus. 

There’s nothing more for him to do with his hands but to pray, to whisper to her how much he loves her, to be present.

CONCLUSION

These four unnamed persons do not even say one word in the Gospel, nor do Jerry or Anna. Yet they give us a profound lesson of the power of love to heal and deliver.

Such love of a spouse is: (1) Not self-centered, but goes out of its way to help the other, (2) Picks up and carries a spouse when he/she is down and out, (3) Gives up whatever is needed to help, and (4) Leads a spouse closer to God.

The gospel continues to be lived out today in the example of Jerry and Anna and they empower us to live it out in our own marriages.

Weekly HOMILY for February 12, 2012: “With Malice Toward None; with Charity for All”

6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

St. John’s Frederick All Masses

February 12, 2012

 

“With Malice Toward None; with Charity for All”

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Today is the 203^rd birthday of Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth and perhaps our greatest president.

Lincoln is revered for his steady commitment to the anti-slavery cause.  And, of course, he is revered for bringing together factions during the Civil war.

Lincoln had an extraordinary ability to bridge political chasms.  He appointed to his cabinet three of his opponents for the Republican nomination.

The most notable of these was Edwin Stanton who was a fierce opponent of Lincoln and whom Lincoln appointed as Secretary of War.  Lincoln explained to a reporter that that he needed the strongest and best people in his cabinet and could not deprive the country of their service.

And then, as the Civil War drew to an end, Lincoln outlined a plan for Reconstruction.  His plan was built on reconciliation and restoration. It was not built on retribution and reparation that many people in the North wanted.

Lincoln clearly did not want to destroy or alienate the rebel states any further, and he did want to reunite them to the Union.

He spoke of this reconciliation in the famous words of his second inaugural address and he spoke more like a prophet than a politician.

Those words are very familiar to us today: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace…”

 

 

LINCOLN MAKING CLEAN

Abraham Lincoln continues to live on as a great example for us as Americans and he is also a good example of living out today’s Gospel.

In this passage, a leper comes up to Jesus and says, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”  In Jesus’ time people were called lepers if they had any kind of skin condition, even if it was not contagious.

The hardest part of being labeled a leper was that these people had to live in isolation, apart from the community.  Jesus heals this man of whatever the skin condition is and even more importantly, by telling him to show himself to the priests, he restores him to the community.

This is what it means for the leper to be made clean – to be restored to the community.  Abraham Lincoln did this very same thing.

He made clean, he restored to community his political opponents.  And he made clean, he restored to community those who had been his Confederate enemies, against whom he has waged war.

Lincoln wished to make clean.  He brought healing and reconciliation and in doing so made a great contribution to our country.

OUR MAKING CLEAN

The question for us here and now is: “Who are today’s lepers and do we wish to make them clean?”

On a personal level, is there a family member or a friend whom we have not talked to for months or years?  Has this happened because of some disagreement or hurtful exchange?

Can we reach out and try to make the relationship clean?  Can we do what we can to restore this person to family or friendship?

On a Church level, are there persons or groups who feel distanced or alienated from this parish community or the Catholic Church?  Has this happened because we cannot approve of their moral position or their lifestyle?

Again, can we as a Church make this relationship clean by inviting them back and restoring them to community?  Can’t we remain “right” with our faith, righteous in the gospel sense, and not be self-righteous and in this way allow Jesus to touch them with his love as he does with the leper in the Gospel?

Or on a national level, are there individuals or groups that we treat as lepers?  Perhaps this has come about because of significant policy or political disagreements.

Again, can we will to make this situation clean by refraining from degrading and demonizing words?  Can’t we hold fast to our convictions and at the same time be respectful and in that way produce the best environment for healing and growth in insight?

CONCLUSION

So, “If you wish, you can make me clean.”

And Jesus makes the leper clean by healing him and restoring him to the community.

Where are we being called right now to do the same?