HOMILY for April 28, 2019: 2nd Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

2^nd Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

Terranova Hermitage

April 28, 2019

Struggles of Faith: One and All

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

 

A Couple’s Struggle 

This past week, I received an email from a young man named Sean.

Sean and his wife Sharon are in their late twenties. I have known Sean since he was a little boy and I even gave him his First Communion. 

At any rate, Sean emailed me saying that they are considering having their five-month-old baby baptized and would like me to do it. However, they are not sure about this because of where they are with their faith. 

Sean wrote this: “Dear Father Nicholas, I wanted to reach out to you. In full transparency, my wife and I still identify as agnostics and are still trying to discover our beliefs and path. 

“We plan on raising our daughter understanding Christianity while also being exposed to many other faith traditions. We would like to have her baptized out of respect for our family’s belief and because of our own Catholic upbringing.

“Understanding our current situation, would you be comfortable in baptizing our daughter? We are open to discussing this in further detail.”  

Thomas’ Struggle

Well, Sean and Sharon and I will soon be talking and we will discern what is appropriate to do.

I share this email with you because today’s Gospel is also about a struggle with faith. It’s interesting that in our Catholic liturgy, there is a three-year cycle of readings. 

So, over three years, we hear a wide variety of passages and none of them is repeated. Except, on this Sunday after Easter, the Gospel reading is always the same – the same for all three cycles of readings. 

Why is this so? Why is this story about the appearance of the risen Christ and Thomas struggling with his faith always read on this Sunday?

I think it is because faith in the risen Christ and in our own resurrection is challenging. More than anything else, it takes us to the bottom line. 

It hits the challenging center of Christian faith. It hits us directly with the question: do I really believe?

First Recommendation

I want to make two recommendations that, I think, will help us or someone you know who is struggling with faith.

First,focus on the Gospels. The Gospels, taken as a whole, give us a healthy, full, and accurate image of God.  

Don’t focus so much on the Old Testament which sometimes portrays God as simply a judge who punishes and can even be vindictive. Some of that also seeps into the New Testament.

But the thrust of the New Testament, especially the Gospels is to portray God as loving, in fact as love itself. We see this in the compassion, inclusiveness, and forgiveness of Jesus. 

We see this in his positive approach to humanity. So, again, focus on the Gospels as the heart of our faith. 

Second Recommendation

And second,through the Gospels, work at developing a relationship with Jesus. He shows us who God is, what God is like, how God relates to us, and we are invited to relate to God.

In each passage of the Gospel, imagine that Jesus is speaking to you. Ask: “What is he saying to me in this passage?”

In turn, as you read each passage, respond back to Jesus in your own words. Tell him what you are thinking and how you are feeling and what you are struggling with.

This approach to Jesus and the Gospels allows God to be a person and not just an abstraction or a list of doctrines or beliefs. It allows faith to be a relationship and that will end up satisfying much of our struggling.

Conclusion

The last thing I want to say is to suggest that you see your faith as a decision to trust.

Father Richard Rohr has given us an idea of faith that I find very helpful. Father Rohr is a Franciscan priest, a theologian and an author of many books and articles.

He says this: “I believe that faith may be precisely the ability to trust the Big River of God’s providential love, which is the visible embodiment (the Son), the flow (the Holy Spirit), and the source itself (the Father).”

So, Father Rohr sees faith primarily as trust and he likens God to a big river of love.

It bears repeating: “I believe that faith may be precisely the ability to trust the Big River of God’s providential love, which is the visible embodiment (the Son), the flow (the Holy Spirit), and the source itself (the Father).”

This is an approach that will help us and others when we are questioning, seeking and even struggling with faith. It’s certainly helped me in 

Wedding HOMILY for April 27, 2019: Marriage of Clement and Samantha Beausset

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

Marriage of Clement and Samantha Beausset

B-8, D-5, F-10 (long form)

Our Lady of Grace

April 27, 2019

The Revelation of Rocks, Pebbles and Sand

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

The Mayonnaise Jar

One day a philosophy professor stood in front of his class, holding up a large one-gallon mayonnaise jar.

Without saying a word, he took out a box of rocks, each about two inches in diameter.  He carefully put as many of these rocks into the jar as it would hold. 

He then asked the class if the jar was full.  The class agreed that it was.

Then, without saying a word, the professor brought out a box of pebbles.  He gently poured them into the jar, gave the jar a few easy shakes, filling the open spaces between the rocks.

Again, he asked the class if the jar was full.  And again, the class agreed that it was full.

Then, without saying a word, the professor brought out a bag of sand.  He poured the sand around the rocks and pebbles until he had emptied the entire bag; another gentle shake.

All the little spaces between the rocks and pebbles were now full.  The professor then held up the jar. 

Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

He proclaimed: “This is your life.

“The rocks are the important things you experience, things like health and family – whatever means the most to you.  The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job and your house.

“The sand is everything else, the small stuff, if you will. 

Now, consider the fact that, if you put the sand in the jar first until the jar is full, there will be no room for the rocks and pebbles.

“That is, if you focus on the small things in your life, there won’t be any room for the important things.  So pay attention to the things of the heart that really matter and make those your most important and lasting choices.”

Priorities in Marriage

That professor gives us all a valuable lesson today, and a lesson pitched especially to Samantha and Clement for the lesson reflects their life the past few years and that has brought them to this day. 

ROCKS: Into the jar of your marriage, first place the solid rocks of your relationship as spouses – the qualities Sirach speaks of in describing a gracious wife and a loving husband. 

Such a relationship will make time for prayerful listening and heartfelt communication. It will allow for a quiet sacred space to share joy and accomplishments, as well as sadness and disappointments.  

It is such a relationship that has made for you, Samantha, a wedding within a nuptial Mass and for you, Clement, baptism at the Easter Vigil last Saturday, important for you both and the commitment to share your faith with your children.

PEBBLES: Then, into the jar of your marriage, place the pebbles of careers, money, house, car and even country, be it France or America.

Realize that these material goods are very helpful in building and cementing your marriage, yet they remain the pebbles; they remain secondary.

SAND: And then, with these rocks and pebbles in the jar of your marriage, you will be able to see the sand of extra comforts and luxuries for what they are – as sand, as relatively unimportant.   

And with this perspective of sand, you will also see your individual preferences, your petty differences, your disagreements and even hurts for what they are – as rather small in the larger scheme of life and as things that can be let go of.

Conclusion

Clement and Samantha, in our sharing together the past three years, I have come to believe that you already value this sense of priority. Let your vows to each other today confirm that valuing.

In the Gospel you chose Jesus prays not only for you as husband and wife, but that others may come to know him through you. Today you both stand as wonderful examples of faithful followers of Jesus. 

Continue to manifest that faith you now have. Our world, your respective countries, we, your family and friends, long for it.  

May every mayonnaise jar you open in the years ahead be a reminder of the priorities of rocks, pebbles, and sand that are the very ground and foundation of your bond as spouses.

I invite you now to come forward and exchange vows that will join you to each other.

HOMILY for April 20, 2019: The Vigil of Easter, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

The Vigil of Easter, Cycle C

Sisters of St. Joseph Mother House

Genesis 1:1-2:2 / Exodus 14:15-15-1 / Isaiah 54:5-14 / Romans 6:3-11 / Luke 24:1-12

April 20, 2019

God’s Story Is Our Story

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

The Power of Story

Social scientists have found that telling stories is the best way to teach, persuade, and even understand ourselves. 

The power to teach and persuade we know well, but the power of a story to better understand myself, that can be fascinating and transformative!

This is the perfect night for a story, our story as a people: How we came to be; where we’ve been; where we find ourselves; and where we could be headed. 

It’s a Story of Goodness … of Liberation … of Promise … of Deliverance … of First Fruits. 

… of Goodness

The Book of Genesis begins with the story with the words, “In the beginning, when God creates the heavens and the earth.”

And as each part of creation is brought into being, we keep hearing: “God saw how good it was.” “God saw how good it was.” “God saw how good it was.”

The repetition of those words certainly gets your attention, as they are meant to do. They call us to approach all aspects of creation positively, to see the goodness that is here, the goodness God saw in creating. 

Just recall the pride, delight, or thrill you feel over something you’ve created, be it a meal, an event, a child, a garden, a quilt. 

Wherever there is human flourishing, be it in technology, in art, in health care, in food distribution, in the provision of potable water, there is the story of goodness come alive. 

… of Liberation 

The Exodus reading wakes us up to reality, for in the midst of goodness and human flourishing we can see people right in our midst hurting and oppressed. 

Like the oppressed Israelites building the pyramids of pharaoh, we too live amidst glaring examples of systemic evil. So as God once tamed the waters of creation, so here in Exodus God tames the waters of the Red Sea and allows his people to pass through safely. 

But this liberation is not only about the Israelites being freed from their Egyptian masters, it’s about our being liberators of those oppressed by racism, classism, poverty, gender preference, and religious intolerance.

In our active participation in changing perceptions and attitudes, we enter the story of liberation. 

… of Promise

As if goodness and liberation were not enough, God’s story now speaks a promise to our hearts in the 3^rdreading taken from Isaiah the prophet.

In the intimate language between a lover and his beloved, God speaks to us with similar words of tenderness, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you” and again, “Though the mountains fall away and the hills be shaken, my love shall never fall away from you.”

What words of promise to us, as we stand disillusioned in our political system, or in acts of terrorism, or in how our Church has handled the sexual abuse crisis.  

… of Deliverance 

And now the story takes a sudden turn in reminding us of the deliverance by water. Not the water of Genesis; not the water of the Exodus, but the saving waters of Baptism in which we were all reborn.

Paul in his Letter to the Romans declares, “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”

Yes, a likeness to death will reap a likeness in resurrection. All this pain and sorrow of ours and of the world, all this disillusionment, all this hopelessness is going somewhere.

And the story of our baptismal water and of this Easter water we will bless and be sprinkled with becomes the means of deliverance, a deliverance of which we are very much part. 

The delivery seems assured as Paul testifies, “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.”

… of First Fruits 

And the story does not simply end on Paul’s assurance, but on the very raising of Jesus from the dead. 

Luke records, “On the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,but when they went in, they did not find the body.”

Again, just as we saw the connection between water, we now see the connection between “on the first day of the week” and the first day of creation in Genesis. Clearly, there is a new creation taking place at this empty tomb.

Something really new is happening, more dramatic than the day of the creation of the universe. And it isn’t just that women and not men discover the tomb and it isn’t that women and not men who are told by the risen Jesus to go into Galilee and tell the disciples the good news! 

To the contrary, it is for all, the greatest to the least, that are missioned by the risen Lord.

Conclusion

To conclude, the story proclaimed to us as we wait in vigil may sound like God’s story, but it is really our story with God.

And because of the power a story has, it has drawn us deeply into goodness, liberation, promise, deliverance, and a celebration of Jesus victory, which now becomes our story. 

HOMILY for April 19, 2019: Good Friday, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

Good Friday, Cycle C

Sisters of Saint Joseph

Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania 

April 19, 2019

The Prior, the Muslim and the 3 Crosses

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato 

The Third Cross

A few years ago, a Muslim man was visiting a small Trappist monastery in the Northern African country of Algeria.

This Muslim and the prior of the monastery were friends. The prior took his guest on a tour of the building, and eventually they came to the chapel.

The Muslim stopped and gazed wistfully at the crucifix. After what seemed like several minutes of silence, the prior asked his friend what he saw in the cross.

The Muslim man said: “I see three crosses here, certainly two crosses. There is definitely the cross in front and the cross in the back.

“The one in the front is formed by the extended arms of Jesus. This human body was created by God and is the cross of God’s embracing love.

“The second cross is the one behind Jesus.  It was made of wood and made by humanity and is the cross of hatred.

“But it was love and not really nails that attached Jesus to this second cross.  And it is this love which keeps drawing us forward to him.”

The prior could see all of this, but still puzzled he asked his Muslim friend: “What is the third cross that you see?”  The visitor responded: “Ah! The third cross, it seems to me, is between the other two crosses.

“Isn’t it perhaps you Christians struggling to loosen yourselves from the cross of evil and sin behind, so that we can bind ourselves to the cross of love in front? 

Isn’t the struggle of moving from violence to peacemaking, from hatred to love? 

Isn’t that struggle a third cross?”

Good Friday 

The prior thought his Muslim friend quite insightful.

Today, Good Friday, we look to the three crosses on every crucifix. 

Perhaps this is one of the values of having a crucifix – a cross with the figure of Jesus on it. It gives us the opportunity to discern these three crosses for our own living.

So, we are moved by the first cross.  This cross is Jesus himself reaching out to us with the love of God. Not only to 

Ø  Filling us with longing

Ø  Knowing that we are loved

Ø  Offering us forgiveness

But also to 

Ø  Stand in our disfunction

Ø  Absorb our sins

And we are confronted by the second cross.  This cross is the one that we construct out of 

Ø  Our self-centeredness, fears, and insecurity

Ø  Out of our pride and ego

Ø  Out of our narrowness and tribalism

Ø  Out of our stupidity, anger and mistrust

Ø  Out of our institutional injustice

Ø  Out of our betrayal of friends

Ø  Out of our scapegoating

Indeed, this is the cross on which we crucify both Jesus and one another.

Conclusion

Good Friday calls us to take up the third cross. 

The good news in all this is that this is the cross of our effort and collaboration with God’s grace to loosen ourselves from the crosses we have made – the second cross…

And to attach ourselves to the first cross – the self-giving, sacrificial love of God in Jesus.

The Muslim’s 3 crosses is a helpful way for us to look at the crucifix from now on.  

And all 3 are called to mind as we BODY, WOOD, and OURSELVES experiencing in the very moment a change of heart!

-->