HOMILY for September 25, 2017: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

September 24, 2017

St. Mary Parish, Pylesville 4:00 pm

St. Mark, Fallston 9:00 and 11:00 am

A Lesson in Generosity and Envy

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Two Lessons

One thing we all probably dislike is a lack of fairness.

At least in theory, we want everyone to be treated fairly.  We want fair fair pay, fair games, fair trials, and on it goes.

So, we may agree with the guys in the Gospel story who have worked all day long.  They are upset when the landowner pays those who have worked just one hour or a few hours a full day’s pay.

In truth, however, the landowner is being fair because he pays the full-day workers exactly what they had agreed upon, which was the going rate of pay for the day.  He simply chooses, as his prerogative, to be generous with those who have worked fewer hours.

Now, we have to say that Jesus is not giving a lesson here on good management or compensation practices.  Instead, he is teaching us something first about God and then about ourselves.

Lesson 1: About God

We can summarize Jesus’ lesson about God in the one word: “generous.”

To those who have worked all day long and now are complaining about what he has paid the others, the landowner says simply: “Are you envious because I am generous?” 

Jesus is presenting the landowner as an image of God and of himself. 

The idea is that God is absolutely generous in his love for us.  In another passage of Scripture, St. John says this beautifully: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that God has loved us.”

So, it all begins with the fact that God first loves each of us and loves us personally. God’s love is, pure and simple, a gift.

God takes the initiative and gives his love to each of us.  We don’t merit it or earn it.

And yes, to our ears, this is counter-cultural for our experience tells us that we have to merit or earn everything we have or acquire.

That may be true in many cases, my friends, but it simply isn’t true when it comes to the love of God. 

One of our Catholic writers puts it this way. “We don’t change to earn God’s love; on the contrary, we change because of God’s love.”  So, it is God’s love within us – a pure unearned gift – that stirs us to grow and change. 

And as if that isn’t enough, God is also so generous in his love that he treats us all in the same way – like those in today’s parable. Perhaps that is why we come to God, or in my case come back to God, later in life.

… and yet, late though it may be, God treats us as the landowner treats the late workers. God treats us all equally no matter when we started to follow Jesus.

It may be difficult to wrap our heads around this, but we have to remember that God is “generous” – that’s the key word, “generous.”  God gives his love as a gift and we don’t earn or merit it. Period!

Lesson 2: About Us

The other lesson to be learned here really flows from the first.

It is too is summed up in one word and that word is “envious.”  The landowner says to the all-day workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

Each of us, myself at the top of the list, can be envious.  Envy is the sin of being upset at someone else’s good fortune. Yes, “Been there done that!”

Perhaps a fellow employee gets a promotion and I don’t. a family member gets named in an inheritance and I’m passed over; perhaps a peer gets publicly recognized for some charitable work and I don’t – these are the kinds of things that can make us feel envious – resentful, begrudging, even hateful.

Notice in the Gospel what creates the feelings of envy.  The day-long workers compare themselves with the part time workers and what they are paid. 

It’s the comparing that creates the occasion envy to arise. So Jesus would have us stop comparing ourselves to others in this way.

Instead, he wants us to focus on God’s generous love for us all.  He wants us to be aware of the gifts God has given us, gifts like our school, our job, our family, our friends, our home and so on.

Instead of comparing ourselves to others who seem to have something we don’t have and becoming envious, Jesus wants us to look at ourselves and God’s generous love for us and be thankful.

And that’s the key point he’s making.  Being thankful is quite the opposite of being envious.

Conclusion

So, just two words to take with us today: “generous” and “envious.”

God is amazingly generous to each one of us.  If we remember this and are thankful, if we come from “generous,” we will not become envious.

HOMILY for September 17, 2017: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

St. Mark Church, Fallston

September 17, 2017

The Road to Effective Forgiveness

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Forgive

This morning, the message is about forgiveness.

I suppose that’s pretty obvious after listening to the gospel.  Jesus says that we are to forgive “seventy times seven times.” 

Let’s hope no one would need to be forgiven that often!  Actually, Jesus doesn’t mean 70x7=490. He’s using hyperbole or exaggeration here.

His deeper point is that we are to develop a forgiving spirit within ourselves and then live out of that.  At some time or another, each of us will be in the position of having to decide to forgive or not forgive someone. 

So, this morning I first want to mention three things that forgiving is not.  And then I to identify three steps that are involved in the process – and yes, forgiving is a process – three steps that are involved in the process of forgiving.

Those three steps could help us in being more forgiving.

Forgiving Is Not…

First, forgiving does not mean that we deny our feelings. 

It doesn’t mean that we pretend that we are not hurt.  Admitting that we are hurt or offended is, in fact, a good and healthy thing to do.

Second, forgiving does not mean forgetting.

It’s almost impossible to forget what has happened, even if we want to.  We cannot expect ourselves or others to simply forget the event.

And third, forgiving does not necessarily mean that we resume a relationship.

Sometimes, maybe often reconciliation will be possible and that is great.  But sometimes reconciliation is not possible or wise or for that matter appropriate.

So, forgiving does not mean 1) denying our feelings, 2) forgetting, and 3) necessarily resuming or reconciling a relationship.

Forgiving Is

Now let’s look at three steps or activities that are involved in forgiving.

1.    Review

First, we need to review what happened.

Review in your mind what the other person did or said.  Try to remember it in detail.

As you do this, get in touch with your feelings.  How did you feel as it happened, and right after it happened, and how do you feel about it or about him or her right now?

And, as part of this review, we are to look at ourselves as well.  As the old saying goes, “It takes two to tango” or “There are always two sides to an argument.”

So, did I say or do something to trigger this?  Is there some way, maybe something minor or subtle, but some way that I contributed to the problem or its escalation?

2.    Humanize

So, (1) review what happened, and then, (2) humanize the offender.

Try to separate the hurtful word or action from the person who did it.  And then, try to walk in that person’s shoes for just a bit.

What might she have been experiencing within herself?  What kind of day or week might she have had?

Or, what kind of family or home life did he have when he was a child and a teen?  What woundedness might he be carrying around inside himself?

This can be a very challenging part of the process that we may not want to do, but try to humanize the offender.  Step back from the hurt for a moment (gesture) and allow some empathy to enter the process (gesture.)

3.    Choose

And then the third step or activity is to choose to forgive.

We may still feel resentful, angry or vengeful.  But even with all of that, we still have a choice. Yes, we can choose to let go (gesture) of it. 

Not to let go hurts us as much or even more than it hurts the other person.  The Buddhists have a saying that expresses this well. 

They say that holding on to resentment is like picking up a hot coal in our hand with the intention of throwing it at the person who offended us (gesture.)  So, clearly, choosing to let go is in the end very important for us. It is also good for the other person. 

Eventually, when you are ready and able to do this, you may try to talk with the other person.  This is not always possible, but when it is, it gives life to the forgiveness and makes it very real.

Conclusion

At some time, perhaps today, each of us has to choose to forgive or not forgive someone. It may be a parent, a spouse, a son or daughter, a sibling, a friend, a neighbor, an employer, a priest, and on it goes. 

These three activities — Review, Humanize, Choose — will help us respond more effectively to Jesus’ call to forgive.