Daily HOMILY for November 20, 2016: Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle C

Terranuova Hermitage  

November 20, 2016

Fear or Fear?

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

I Do Not Fear

I want to tell you something about myself today, and it is this.

I do not fear God.  I do not fear the Lord Jesus.

In today’s Gospel, two other men are being crucified alongside Jesus and one of them asks the other, “Have you no fear of God?”  The other man never responds.

My answer to the question would be, “No!  I do not fear God or the Lord Jesus.”  When I was a child, growing up in the 1940s, I must admit I did fear God. 

In my faith formation or CCD, the primary image of God that I received was that of a judge.  I saw God was a stern figure, watching, maybe just waiting for me to do something wrong.

And I definitely got it that God would punish me and could even send me to hell.  So, as I look back, I would have to say, yes, I feared God. 

From Fear to Revere

But, things began to change in my college and young adult years.

What happened is that my faith formation became focused on the Gospel as the Word of God.  I began reading the Gospels and the center or focus of my faith became Jesus. 

Slowly and very surely, my image of God and my feelings about God began to change.  I came to see God – the Father – as a loving parent who only wanted what was best for me. 

I came to realize that God as leading me to a fuller, richer experience of life.  I came to know and love God as being very patient with me, always forgiving and giving me another chance if I fouled up, and foul up I did! 

I realized that in and through Jesus, God was with me – my companion and friend on the journey of life.  And because of all of this, for me it was no longer my doing or not doing things because of the fear of being punished.

Now I simply wanted to live with God and follow the wonderful way of Jesus.  So, it was no longer a negative reality, but a positive one.

And to this day, I do not fear God; I revere God.  Not fear, but revere.

King Means to Revere

    

St. Paul in our second reading helps to convey this sense of revering and definitely not fearing God.

He says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.”  Isn’t that an astonishing fact?

In seeing Jesus, we get to know God – who God is and what God is like.  We get to realize what a caring parent and close friend God is to us.

And then Paul makes the identity of Jesus even clearer.  He says that “in him the fullness [of God] was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things for him…”

So in and through Jesus, God doesn’t distant us from himself, judge us, or condemn us.  Quite the opposite; in and through Jesus, God reconciles us and draws us close to himself and and makes us one with himself. Again, quite amazing! 

Not Fear but Revere

So for me, it automatically follows: I do not fear; I revere.

I positively make the Lord Jesus the center of my life.  And he then becomes the positive force in my living.

And, by the way, I think that the one man who asks the other man being crucified with Jesus, “Have you no fear of God?” really means the same thing.  He does not fear God; he reveres God. 

I say this because he speaks so freely and personally to Jesus and calls him by his name “Jesus.”  The name “Jesus” means “God saves” and this man believes that God or Jesus will save him.

So, he does not fear.  He reveres God or Jesus.

That, my friends, is the kind of faith that the Gospel lifts up for all of us.  It is a mature and confident, a healthy and holy, faith.

So, I invite you to that, and if you are comfortable with it, to join me in saying: “I do not fear; I revere the Lord.”  “I do not fear; I revere the Lord.”

Daily HOMILY for September 18, 2016: 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

25^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C

St. Matthew 5:00pm, St. Mark 7:30am and 9:00am

September 18, 2016

The Weight of a Snowflake

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

The Weight of a Snowflake

Once upon a time, a field mouse asked a wise old owl, “What is the weight of a snowflake?”

The owl answered: “Why nothing! Nothing at all!” The mouse went on to tell the owl about the time he was resting on the branch of a fir tree.

It was snowing and he was counting each snowflake until the number was exactly 3,471,952. Then, with the landing of the very next flake — c-r-r-r-r-r-r-ack!

The branch of the fir tree snapped and the mouse and the snow tumbled to the ground.

The mouse looked up at the owl and said: “Humph! So that’s the weight of nothing?”

Two Points

The anecdote echoes one of the lessons in today’s Gospel.

Jesus says, “If people are faithful in little things, they will also be faithful in greater things. But if people are dishonest in little things, they will also be dishonest in greater ones.”

The point is that everything we do has significance. Sometimes we think that certain of our actions are not that important; that they count for nothing, like a snowflake that seems to weigh nothing.

But the truth is that everything we do has an effect both (1) on our moral character and also (2) on the character of others.

On Our Moral Character

Jesus suggests that we develop moral character by beginning with the little things in our own lives.

From my mother I learned the habit of thinking of others first. My parents were immigrants and or family was a bit underclassed.

Every summer she’d harvest tomatoes from her garden and grade them from the best to the least desirable. She then would give the top 1/3 to neighbors and friends, enjoying their smiles of gratitude. The second 1/3, we ate in salads and sandwiches and the third 1/3 she used for cooking.

From this annual “snowflake” I learned to do the same with my own treasure, time and talents and relish the appreciative smiles of recipients.

Jesus suggests that we need to work at those little “snowflakes” of giving and caring for others.

It is said that, “Integrity does not emerge full blown in us. It is built of thousands of little acts and decisions over many years that form our lasting character.”  The accumulation of years of my mother’s dividing of her tomato harvest did just that.

The Character of Others

Besides building who we are, our little snowflake actions will even have a profound effect on others, especially our children, grandchildren, and youth.

I remember years ago the cheating scam at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. A number of cadets were expelled as a result.

One newspaper reporter studied the situation and found out why these young adults might cheat on their exams.

The reporter concluded that it might have been a 6-year old hearing his father tell someone who was interested in buying his old car that it had never been in an accident, when in truth, it had been rear-ended several years before.

Or a 10-year old might have heard his parents talk about not including on their income tax report some money they had made on the side.

Or a teenager at her first job at a supermarket might have been told to hide the over-ripe strawberries by putting them on the bottom of the box.

The newspaper reporter said that experiences like these could lead children and youth to develop an attitude about cheating on an exam. In truth these little actions by adults begin to form the character of young people.

Conclusion

So, eventually one more snowflake, that apparently weighs nothing, cracks the branch of the tree.

Yes, the same thing can happen to us. Eventually, one more little action that disregards moral norms or conscience can have a decisive influence on our character and make us ill prepared for dealing with the bigger moral decisions in business and relationships.

On the other hand, an accumulation of little things that are done from a sound moral basis will positively mold our character and prepare us for life’s bigger issues.

As Jesus says, “If people are faithful in little things, they will also be faithful in greater ones.”

It leaves us with a personal question: “What are the snowflakes that are accumulating on my own branch of life and how do they impact myself and others!”

Daily HOMILY for September 11, 2016: 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle

24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

St. Margaret Church 10:00 and 12:00 am

September 11, 2016

Lost and Found

(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Mother Teresa

Last Sunday, Mother Teresa was canonized – declared a saint by Pope Francis.

We now speak of her as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.  She led her Sisters – the Missionaries of Charity – in caring for the least, the lost, and the last in society.

Mother Teresa and her Sisters did this in Calcutta.  They would house and personally care for those who were destitute and literally dying on the streets. 

In some cities in our own country, including Baltimore, the Missionaries of Charity care for persons with AIDS. 

In Baltimore, they can accommodate about twelve persons at a time who are in the advanced stages of this illness and literally have no one to care for them, no place to go, even no place to die.

One of Mother Teresa’s Sisters put it this way. “We want our guests to know that there is a God and that God loves them.”

Seeking Out the Lost

What the Missionaries of Charity do illustrates the lesson of today’s Gospel.

Some of the religious leaders are upset because Jesus is having dinner with “sinners.”  We are not told what sins these people committed, just that they are labeled as “sinners.”

These religious leaders – who frankly seem pretty full of themselves – believe that associating with these “sinners” makes you unclean. 

In response to them, Jesus tells two stories: the one about a shepherd looking for a single lost sheep and the other about a woman looking for a single lost coin. 

So, right at the start, Jesus is challenging the religious leaders.  I say this because the society of that day looked down on shepherds as low-life people and they looked down on women as second-class persons.

In the stories, then, Jesus first wants us to identify with the shepherd and the woman and is even saying that this shepherd and this woman are images of God.

He’s jolting his listeners to start thinking differently.  What a challenge that is to these people!

And then, in his two stories, he gets to his main point – that we can all be lost in two ways.          

 

Lost Through Our Fault

First, we can be lost as the one sheep. We can wander off and our being lost is our own fault. 

For example, we can choose to stop coming to Mass regularly or stop praying.

The result is that we lose our grounding in God and may well drift into harmful behavior, like divisive and demonizing comments about others, even in the name of God or of what we think is right. We can fall into misuse of the Internet.

When we are lost in these ways, Jesus is saying that God is still there, still loving us and looking for us, just like the shepherd looking for that one lost sheep. 

In fact, when we are like that one lost sheep, our conscience may come into play and we will have some tuggings of guilt feelings.

I suggest that these tugs of conscience and guilt are really God trying to find us and bring us back.  

Finally, notice in Jesus’ image that the shepherd does not scold or punish the lost sheep, but simply carries it back to the flock. What a great example this is for how we, as a Church, are to relate to a lost sheep!

Lost Through No Fault

And then we can be lost like the lost coin. Through this story Jesus is telling us that we may become lost through no fault of our own. 

For example, we can feel lost when we are grieving the death of a husband or wife. Or we can feel lost when we are dealing with depression. 

When we are lost in these ways, even though we may not feel it, God is like the woman looking desperately for the one coin.

God is still there, loving us and wanting to be close to us.  Maybe it will take time for us to feel this.

We may need to push ourselves to pray and come to Eucharist or push ourselves to respond to the companionship of family and friends. 

If we give God a chance in these ways, we can be found and we can find ourselves once again.    

   

Conclusion

So, a powerful lesson today

(1) About God, like a shepherd or a woman, searching for us when we are lost,

(2) About ourselves – about the ways we can be lost and how we might respond when that happens!