Category: Homily

What does Jesus mean by the word blessed?

The Gospel of Prosperity is a way that a few false Christian religious leaders like to justify the disparity of wealth in our nation. These false teachers rationalize that God rewards those who are righteous with great wealth and power, and punishes those who are sinful with poverty and destitution. This is a false theology of wealth and power. It is baseless in scripture and for lack of a term, it is a pile of hooey. Yet this misguided and false teaching is widely disseminated among the rich and the powerful. These false teachers would say that the rich and the powerful are “blessed.”

The life and words of Jesus define what is truly blessed. Jesus used the gifts he was given to better the lives of those who were most in need. There was no quid pro quo attached by Jesus for any of the miracles he worked for people, whether it was curing an illness or injury, exorcizing a demon, calming the storm at sea, feeding the 5000 with the multiplication of loaves and fish. Everything that Jesus did for others was derived out of a motive of love, not profit. Jesus asked for nothing in return. This is what it means to be blessed.

What determines a person’s state of blessedness is not the person’s economic status. It is not a temporal state of being. Rather, to be blessed is directly linked to one’s spiritual and emotional state. Who is blessed in the eyes of God?

In the first reading, the prophet Zephaniah writes those who seek humility and justice are blessed by God. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians declares that God has chosen the foolish to shame the wise, the weak of the world to shame the strong, and the lowly and despised of the world, “those who count for nothing,” to reduce to nothing those who are powerful. Those who are blessed, writes St. Paul,  boast of nothing but our Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who are truly blessed are those who come to the humble recognition that all good things come from God. All our gifts, all our talents, all our skills are not ours, but that which God has given to us so that we, in turn, can give to those more in need. Like peeling an onion, this requires us to peel from ourselves all the false things people have attached to us. This require for us to peel away all the false things we have attached to ourselves until there is nothing left but the very core of who we are.

Jesus tells us that once we have peeled away all the falsehoods in which we have been clothed, and clothed ourselves only in God, it is then, and only then, when we will experience the kingdom of God, experience comfort, mercy, and satisfaction. It is only then that we will experience true greatness and be able to see God. It is only then that we are truly blessed.

In short, one becomes blessed when one realizes that all good one has originates in God, and as one uses that good for the benefit of others, returns to God.

We often assign the word “blessed” to people who seem larger than life like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Mahatma Ghandi, and Pope Francis. However, we are all called to be blessed and we know many people who are indeed blessed. If we think for a moment, we will recognize many in our lives who are truly blessed.

Just today, I heard a story about the Greek fishermen from the Island of Lesbos who, in the year 2015,  rescued over 500,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the horrific violence of Syria. These fishermen sacrificed their livelihood of fishing to go and rescue the many women, children and men who were drowning in the sea when their flimsy boats capsized and fell apart in the waters of the sea. Many of the women they saved were pregnant. One fisherman was asked in an interview whether he knew these people he was rescuing were Syrians. He said these people were human beings and it mattered not what country they came from. They were human beings in need of help and that was the most important thing for him, something, I am ashamed to say, that we as Americans have forgotten in recent months. These fishermen are blessed. Jesus reminds us today that if we seek to be blessed, we must possess the humility to realize that all good originates in God and must return to God by using the good we have received from God in service to those most in need.

This is best expressed in the Prayer that is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”

Most of us were infants when we were baptized, and cannot remember our own baptism.  What I know of mine is only that told to me by my mother. When I was baptized, the rite was done in the Latin language. As the water was poured three times over my head, the priest said, “Roberto Carlo, ego te baptizo in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.” “Robert Charles, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” My brother, Bill, who was 2 years old at the time of my baptism, loudly told the priest, “His name is not Roberto Carlo. His name is Bob.”

 

Today, we hear Jesus calling Peter and Andrew, James and John to be his apostles. Just as they were called by name to join Jesus, so, we too, were called by name to be apostles of Jesus at our baptism. At the moment of our baptism Jesus said to us, “You are mine.” This was all the more made clear at our confirmation when, from our own lips, we declared that we belonged to Jesus.

 

We look at these statues of St. Peter and St. Paul and can think that we are not worthy to be apostles of Jesus. St. Peter and St. Paul were holy men. However, if we read the gospels, the apostles were not initially holy. They were a bunch of guys. Some were fishermen. Some were thieves and murderers. Some were armed revolutionaries fighting the Roman Imperial Army. They proved themselves time and time again to be blundering fools and cowards. One was even a traitor. Yet, in spite of their shortcomings, Jesus saw within them the potential to be his apostles, to be leaders of the faith. As with all of those we name saints, they had to grow into holiness, just like you and me.

 

One thing is certain, Jesus is relentless in calling us to be apostles. Jesus doesn’t just call us once, but calls us multiple times, over and over again in our lives. There is a beautiful poem, much too long to be read here, entitled, “The Hound of Heaven,” and written by Francis Thompson over one hundred years ago. It is an autobiographical poem about Francis Thompson, and how he ran away from Jesus most of his life, pursuing everything in life except God. As much as he tried to run from Jesus, Jesus chased at his heels like a bloodhound, never far behind him calling him to be an apostle. Finally, Francis gives in, and says,”Yes,” to Jesus. These are the lines that God speaks to him in the poem when Francis finally relents and says, “Yes.”

‘And is your earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard?
Lo, all things fly you, for you flee from Me!	160
Strange, piteous, futile thing!
Wherefore should any set your love apart?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught’ (He said),
‘And human love needs human meriting:
How have you merited—	165
Of all man’s clotted clay the dingiest clot?
Alack, you know not
How little worthy of any love you are!
Whom will you find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me?	170
All which I took from you I did but take,
Not for your harm,
But just that you might seek it in My arms.
All which your child’s mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for you at home:	175
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!’*

When I was 17 years old, all I wanted to do was play music, compose music and marry my high school girlfriend, Ruth. And happily, I did all of that. But Jesus was calling me to do more. Jesus called me into Church ministry so that I might use those musical skills for the glory of God. But even that wasn’t the end. Jesus called me to pursue my study of the Church and go back to school and get a graduate degree. But that wasn’t the end. Jesus continued to call me to be a deacon. After 40 years of church ministry, 22 years as a deacon, am I finally done? No. Today, Jesus continues to call you and me into a deeper relationship as his apostles. He says to us, “Rise, clasp My hand, and come!” We have a choice. Will we rise and clasp his hand, or not?

 

*Nicholson & Lee, eds.  The Oxford 1 of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

Jesus is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. Jesus is the human expression of who God really is. John the Baptist introduces Jesus to us today. Who do you see? Does Jesus meet your expectations or are you disappointed in whom you meet?

The Jewish people were disappointed. The Messiah they were expecting was that of the warrior king who would crush the head of the Roman emperor and who, with great military might, would destroy the Roman Imperial Army, thus restoring the royal throne of David to preside once more over Palestine.

They tried to make Jesus a king, especially after his miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. But Jesus refused to be dragged in to their notion of the Messiah. They then rejected him and with the Jewish religious authorities plotted his execution. Even one of his own apostles rejected him and set him up to be murdered.

Those looking for the fire and brimstone God who destroyed the world in a great flood, who burned to death all those in Sodom and Gomorrah, who ordered the death of all men, women, and children who stood in opposition to the people of Israel, will be disappointed. The Messiah, the anointed one of God, will not be that kind of Messiah.

Mary, his mother, got it right from the very beginning. Mary described accurately the kind of Messiah she was carrying in her womb to her cousin Elizabeth. He is the ageless mercy of God to all people.  He will cloud the minds and hearts of the arrogant. He will take away the thrones from the mighty and lift up the lowly and the humble. He will feed the hungry and the poor, and the rich he will send away with empty stomachs. His name will be holy.

Who is the Jesus to whom we are introduced by John the Baptist? Jesus is the living and breathing manifestation of God’s love, compassion and mercy.

We have been baptized into Jesus. We are the living and breathing manifestation of Jesus in our world today. If we are going to live up to our baptismal promises to be Christ to our world, we must put on Christ. If we are to be true disciples of Jesus, we must go forth from this Church today and be God’s love, compassion and mercy to our world.

Listen to these words from the Book of Wisdom which we heard in the first reading. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Listen to them again. “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Do you believe them?  Do you believe that God loves you so greatly? Do you believe that God loves you so tremendously much? It matters not if we are not perfect. God doesn’t require us to be perfect in order to love us. God loves us just as we are. These words  essentially say that God does not make junk. God does not create evil, God only creates good. The fact that God created us says that we are good. I find that incredibly comforting and reassuring. What God is asking of us is to fully become that which he created. In other words, we could be even better.

I know we have some educators numbered among us today. As a former educator, it was my intention to pull from each student their greatest potential. I didn’t want my students to slack off and to just get by. I wanted them to excel to the fullest of what they could do. I believe that that is the intention of all educators, to challenge, cajole, and to pull the best they can from their students. This is what God wants from us as well. God wants us to live fully the person he created us to be.

This is what the Gospel story is illustrating for us. Zacchaeus, is a tax collector. Many Jewish people considered him a traitor because he was collecting taxes for the Romans, their enemies. On top of that, Zacchaeus was also over taxing the people and keeping the extra money for himself. He heard that Jesus was passing through town and wanted to catch a glimpse of him. Because he was so short, he decided to climb a tree in order to get a better look at Jesus. So here is Zacchaeus perched in a tree like a bird as Jesus walks below him. Jesus looks up and tells Zacchaeus that he is going to be spending time at his house.

As crooked as Zacchaeus might have been, Jesus did not look upon Zacchaeus as a traitor, or as cheat and a scoundrel as did the others in Zacchaeus’ community. Jesus looked up and saw a child of God who wasn’t living up to his full potential as a child of God. In the words and in the eyes of Jesus, Zacchaeus was stirred to become a better person, to live more fully his human vocation as a child of God. He climbs down from the tree and tells Jesus that he will give half of his fortune to the poor. And, to anyone whom he had cheated, he would repay them four times the amount he cheated them. What Zacchaeus was experiencing was what we call a conversion.

Conversion means to change. We use that word in many different ways. If we go to a foreign country we convert our money into the money of the country we are visiting. We convert inches and feet into centimeters and meters. Spiritually, we are called to change ourselves, to convert our way of living right now into becoming the person God created us to be.

This conversion is not a one time occurrence it is something that happens over and over again in our lives. It is something that we want to experience daily. Some days will be very good, and other days, not so good. The wonderful thing about conversion is that there is always another day in which we can change our lives for the better.

And what is the ultimate upside to conversion? It is what St. Paul expresses in his letter to the Thessalonians. He writes so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us, and we in him.
We always must work on our own personal conversion so that when people see us and visit with us they encounter in us the glory of Jesus Christ. Living a lifetime of conversion, we will lead us to that for which we were ultimately created to become, the living and breathing incarnation of Jesus to our world.

“The Pharisee and the Publican”, fresco from Ottobeuren Basilica.

The comedian, Steve Martin, was a frequent guest of Saturday Night Live in the mid-1970’s.  This was during Steve Martin’s, “wild and crazy guy,” period as a comedian. He would come out with his 5 string banjo, a fake arrow through his head and do or say something outrageous.  One night during his opening monologue, he told the audience that some people, when they have free time, like to go out and get high. He said, “when I have some free time, I don’t want to get high. I like to get small.” Then he described how it was not wise to get small and drive while under the influence of the drug because you can’t see over the steering wheel. One day a cop pulled him over and said, ‘Are you small?’ Martin said, “No-o-o! I’m not!” The cop said, “Well, I’m gonna have to measure you.” They have this little test they give you – they give you a balloon.. and if you can get inside of it, they know you’re small.” Steve Martin ended the routine by saying, once he got so small he crawled inside a vacuum cleaner, at which point the drug wore off and he retained the shape of a vacuum cleaner for the next couple of weeks.

The readings for this weekend tell us that if we want to follow Jesus, we need to, “get small.” Of course, this is not meant to be in the same manner as described by Steve Martin. The readings detail for us a message that runs throughout the entirety of the Bible. Greatness, in the eyes of God, is not defined by power, position, wealth, and possessions. That is the world’s definition of greatness. The Seven Deadly Sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride, are derived by that which the world calls great.

Throughout the Holy Scriptures, God equates greatness with those who are the lowly, the powerless, the vulnerable, and the weak.  In the Song of Hannah from 1 Samuel, we hear Hannah sing that God will raise the needy from the ash heaps and place them in the places of the nobility. The hungry will feast, while the well fed will go hungry.  The swords of the mighty will be broken, while the weak and stumbling God will endow with great strength. Hundreds of years later, Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her great canticle, “The Magnificat,” will echo Hannah’s words.  Mary says to her cousin, Elizabeth, that God will scatter the proud in their conceit. God will cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly. God will fill the hungry with good things, and the rich God will send away empty.

In the first reading from Sirach, we hear that God is not deaf to the cries of the orphan or the widow, the most vulnerable and poor of people of that time in history. Sirach continues, saying, the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds and will not rest until heard by God. The Second Vatican Council  referred to God’s love and care for the lowly of the world as God’s Preferential Option for the Poor.

The meaning of greatness is exemplified best in the life of Jesus. The early Christian hymn found in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians says it all. “Jesus, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are: and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” The greatness of Jesus became even greater by Jesus becoming small.

To become great in the eyes of God, we must become small. This is why Jesus tells everyone in the gospel that it is the lowly tax collector, a sinner and a traitor to the Jewish people, who is greater than the self-righteous Pharisee, who  sneers with disdain at the tax collector. What does the tax collector pray? “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” What does the Pharisee pray? “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.” Jesus concludes that God will hear the prayer of the tax collector, but God’s ears will be shut to the prayer of the Pharisee, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

What does this mean for us today? How do we become small so as to be great in the eyes of God? St Paul tells us in the opening line of our second reading. “Beloved, I am being poured out as a libation.” Following the example of Jesus, Paul becomes less, becomes small, as he pours his life out in loving service to God and those to whom God entrusted to him. In the words of Jesus, to become great requires us to lose ourselves. Unlike the Pharisee in the Gospel who seeks to inflate his own false ego by separating himself from the lowly Tax Collector, we must empty ourselves of our false egos, allowing God to fill our lives instead, so that we may become one with the rest of humanity. To be one with the lowly of our world, as Jesus did, we must become small.

Our starting point begins today in this church. As we look around us, we will see the image and likeness of Jesus imprinted on the faces of everyone here. Baptized into Christ Jesus, our individual identities are actually just a small part of the one greater living organism that is known as THE Body of Christ. Individually and collectively, we ARE the living and breathing Body of Christ in the world. Our hands, our feet, our faces, our bodies, do not belong to us, they belong to the Body of Christ, in whom we are one. Though God has bestowed upon each individual here with different gifts, the gifts we have are shared mutually with the entire Body of Christ. And as the Body of Christ, we go from this place as a living Sacrament to share our gifts with the lowly of our world. In our smallness  we become great.

In the communion hymn, “You Satisfy the Hungry Heart”, we sing,  “The myst’ry of your presence, Lord, no mortal tongue can tell: whom all the world cannot contain comes in our hearts to dwell.”  (Repeat spoken) “Whom all the world cannot contain comes in our hearts to dwell.” Jesus, the Word of God, the Ruler of the Universe, becomes small so that he can become one with us in our lowliness, in Holy Communion, so that he may continue to become one  and minister to the lowly of this world, through us. So, in the words of Steve Martin, “Let’s get small,” that we, as the Body of Christ, may continue to be one as Christ and serve the small of our world.

The Healing Of The Ten Lepers (artist James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum)

Today, we are taught a lesson in gratitude. We hear of Naaman the leper, the commander of the Aramean army, an enemy of Israel, cured of leprosy by God. Naaman, cured of his illness, rejoices and gives praise to God of the Israelites, stating that their God will be the only one he will adore. In the Gospel, we hear about the 10 men, whom Jesus cured of leprosy. Only one, a Samaritan, an outsider, returns in gratitude, thanking Jesus for having been cured.  As a rule, when something positive happens to us we are genuinely grateful.

The second reading presents us with a different scenario in which St. Paul, imprisoned, is giving thanks to God. St. Paul is well aware that the only way he will exit his prison cell is when he is led out to be executed. Yet, St. Paul is grateful, he rejoices in his suffering. He writes: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: such is my gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of chains, like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.”

St. Paul’s words reflects that of the prophet Isaiah who wrote,” The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. Yes, the people is grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever” (Is 40: 7-8).  St. Paul rejoices because while he may be imprisoned, the Word of God, in which all salvation is found, is not imprisoned. And, the eternal life in glory promised to St. Paul at his death will also be promised to all those who are disciples and followers of Jesus.

While there will be times when things go our way, there will come a time in each and every one of our lives, in which things will not go our way. In the midst of our own suffering, will we have the ability, as did St. Paul, to be grateful?

When I was in seminary, one of the assignments I was given to write was a paper on aging. In my research, I came across a beautiful, simple, yet very significant statement written by the esteemed spiritual writer, Fr. Henri Nouwen. Nouwen wrote that as we age we will undergo all sorts of losses in our lives; loss of health, loss of job, loss of our purpose in life, to name just a few. We have two choices to make at the time. We can either age into bitterness, or age into grace. Listen to those words again. We can either age into bitterness, or age into grace.

This past Wednesday, I had my 7^th week post-surgical appointment with my surgeon. I was told that the knee replacement surgery was successful and I was on my way to being healed. I was grateful for the good news. I asked the surgeon whether I would be ever able to get rid of my cane. He shook his head and said no. The MRSA infection I got when I had my first hip replacement in 2011, the consequent 5 ½  months of having no hip at all, while doctors were trying to find a way to kill the infection without killing me, had atrophied the muscles so badly that my left leg would never regain the strength it once had. I would need a cane for the rest of my life.

As I was driving home from my appointment with my surgeon, I remembered  another drive I took on the night of March 7, 2002 in which I was involved in a car crash on Highway 21. I was going to pick my son Luke up from vocational school in Eden Prairie when a car crossed the medium strip and hit me head-on. They had to cut apart the car in order to get me out of it.

I ended up with a high femur break of my left leg, and, as painful as that was, what was more painful for me was the injury done to my right hand. I didn’t know at the time of the accident  that all the ligaments in my right hand were shredded by the impact. I knew my hand and forearm hurt, and all they gave me for that was a brace to wear. By the time the severity of the injury to my hand was discovered, the hand surgeon told me that he could only restore 60% of my hand.

I was a professional pianist. It was the way I made my living. From the time I studied piano at the University of St. Thomas to that March night in 2002, I was a professional pianist. From 1977 to that night in 2002, I taught music in schools, directed choirs, and gave concerts. I was the director of liturgy and music in parishes in our Archdiocese. That all ended the night of the accident.

I was angry. I was angry at the guy that crossed the medium strip and hit me head on. I could have been very angry and bitter at God about this loss. It was a huge loss. Music is what I did, and I was very good and skilled at it. How could God treat someone who had dedicated his life to ministry in the Church in such a harsh way? Instead of being bitter and angry, I found myself grateful to God.  I found myself grateful to God for the many years in which I was able to play at that high performance level. I found myself grateful to God for the musical skills which he gave me and that had served me and the Church so very well for many years. And while I grieve and continue to grieve this great loss in my life, I found myself content. In the words of Nouwen, I decided to age into grace.

As I drove home this past Wednesday, reflecting on all of this, I found myself once more grateful. While I may never again be able to walk without the aid of a cane, I am grateful that I can still walk. I am grateful for all the times I once was able to jump, and hop, ran and walked and play.

This is my story. All of us present have our own stories of loss in our lives, and, if we don’t, we will in the future. When that time comes to confront our losses will we find within ourselves the gratitude that St. Paul expressed today in his second letter to Timothy? St. Paul could have been very bitter about his imprisonment and about his subsequent execution. Yet he chose instead to be grateful. St. Paul knew that the life he was going to experience after death, would be far greater than that he was experiencing as he wrote that epistle.

We are given two choices in life. We can, as Henri Nouwen wrote, choose to age into bitterness or choose to age into grace. As a disciples of Jesus, and knowing that which awaits us after death, let us choose to age into gratefulness and grace.

Having given the homily I posted here on Saturday at the 5 pm Mass, I was dissatisfied with it. So, I revised it before I went to bed on Saturday night, and when I couldn’t sleep, revised it again around 1 am. What is below is the homily I gave on Sunday morning, one with which I was more satisfied.

Homily for the 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2016

When I was very little, like many of us, my mom and dad would read to me. I would sit on either side of mom or dad on the couch and my brother, Bill, or sister, Mary Ruth would sit on the other side, as they would read stories to us. They read us many stories from Golden Books, all richly and elaborately illustrated. And, then there were two books, I called them the red and green book, that was read to us. These two books more than likely were bought by my mom.

The red book was about manners. The proper table manners, asking to be excused from the dinner table, how to address people, especially adults, politely. The green book was about behaviors. There were two characters in the green book, Me First and You First. Me First described his behavior. He budged into line ahead of others, he was rude, he interrupted people, he would hog all the dessert for himself and so on. You First, always placed the needs of others first. Obviously, the point that mom was trying to get across to us kids, was that we should emulate the example of You First, NOT Me First. In the simplistic terms of the green book, the gospel today is asking us to make a choice between being either a Me First or a You First.

From the beginning of creation, God created us in God’s own image. We have the DNA of God’s Divinity within us. This Divine DNA stirs within us the desire for divinity. In the last part of the gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they have got to make a choice as to who to serve. Will they serve God, or will they serve Mammon? This is an important choice, for who they wish to serve will dictate the path they will follow in their lives.

In choosing to serve God, they will follow the path in becoming Godlike. If they choose Mammon, they will follow the path in trying to become a god. Mammon is the name given to the demon of wealth. It is important to note that Jesus is not condemning money. Money is neither good or evil. Money is only a tool. However, money can be used for either good or evil. Jesus is telling his disciples that if they choose to intentionally choose to be his disciple then the path they must follow is that of serving God, the path into becoming Godlike. This is not the first time that people are asked to make a choice between God or something else. From the very beginning of Genesis, people have had to make similar choices.

Let us revisit Adam and Eve. As we recall, in the Garden of Eden, they had all their needs and wants lovingly met by God. However, that was not enough for them. They were greedy. They wanted more than just to be creatures of a loving God. They wanted to become gods. The serpent tells them to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. In doing so, they would become gods. As we all know, they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and in so doing they brought ruin upon themselves and all of their descendants, a ruin that continues to afflict humanity today. They introduce into the DNA of humanity, the evil DNA of Original Sin.

All of us struggle with this desire to become Godlike or to become a god. Wouldn’t we all like to have the world revolve around us? The difficulty in becoming a god, is there can only be one god. You can’t have multiple gods, and in becoming a god, the lives of many people will be ruined. Some seeing the power that money wields in the world, believe that they can buy their way into becoming a god. Money can buy power. Money can buy influence. Money can buy people, and can control them. However, in pursuing the path in becoming a god, a path of self-service, only ruin will occur and the one trying to become a god, will ultimately end up serving Mammon, the demon of wealth.

Jesus tells us that if we truly wish to be his disciples, we must choose the path of becoming Godlike. To become Godlike is not achieved in building up the self with wealth and power, rather it is achieved in diminishing the self. To become Godlike is to follow and emulate the life of Jesus. Jesus did not use his divinity to increase his divinity. Rather he used his divinity in order to increase the goodness of his humanity.  We could say, that he impoverished his divinity so that he could become truly human, the humanity which God intended at the moment of Creation, the humanity at which Adam and Eve so miserably failed. Very rightly so, St. Paul in observing the life of Jesus calls Jesus the “New Adam.”

If we truly wish to be disciples of Jesus, if we truly wish to be Godlike, then we are called to take all the gifts in which God has given us, whatever those gifts may be, and use them in service of those most in need, especially the poor. We may be gifted with wealth. We may have been given the gift of teaching, or the gift of caring. No matter what gifts we may possess, Jesus calls us to use them in service to others.

The one person who excelled at using the gifts that God gave her for others is Mother Teresa, whom the Church canonized a saint last Sunday. Mother Teresa took all that God had given her and used it in serving the poor, the destitute, and the dying of Calcutta. She had a tremendous amount of fame throughout the world, but used that fame not to advance herself, but used it on behalf of the poor she served. In observing her life, we could see the DNA of God grow and grow within her. And, if we were to point that out to her, she would abruptly say that we were mistaken. Nevertheless, it was very evident that the presence of God within her was tremendous.

Over and over throughout all of the gospels, Jesus tells those who wish to follow him to sell all that we have, give it to the poor, take up our cross and follow him. If we wish to become Godlike, we must follow the example of Jesus and use all that which God has given us in service to God and others, especially those most in need.

We have a choice to make today. Do we serve God or do we serve Mammon? Do we wish to become Godlike, or do we wish to become a god? Do we wish to be  “You First”, or do we wish to be a “Me First?” Which will we choose?

“For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all.”

 

When I was very little, I would sit on either side of mom or dad on the couch and my brother, Bill, or sister, Mary Ruth, would sit on the other side, and they would read stories to us. Along with the many stories that Golden Books published for children, I remember specifically two books that my mother would read to us that were different from the others. We knew them as the red book and the green book. The drawings were less elaborate than those found in the Golden Books. The red book, taught the proper manners to be used in social settings, covering everything from excusing oneself from the dinner table to how to address others with respect. The green book was about learning proper behavior.

There were two characters in the green book. One character was called “Me First” and the other, “You first.” One was never to copy the behavior of Me First, who could be best described as selfish and greedy. Me First would budge into line, take all of the dessert, interrupt others who were speaking, steal from others and so on. That green book left quite an impression on me. Quite simplistically todays scripture readings illustrate the same difference between Me First and You First.

In the very last sentence of the gospel, Jesus states that one cannot serve two masters. One cannot serve God and worship mammon. Mammom was the name given to the demon of wealth. Jesus is telling us we need to choose whom we will serve. We need to pick the God whom we will serve. Choosing who to serve will give us two different paths in life. One path will be that of serving God and our neighbor, the other path will be serving our own self. Jesus is not condemning money, for money, in itself, is not evil. Money is a tool. Jesus warns us that in choosing the God to serve, our money and gifts may be used for good, or for evil. This choice as to which God to serve goes all the way back to the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

God created us male and female in God’s own image. Each and everyone of us has God’s DNA inside of us. And because we carry God’s DNA, we yearn to be divine. This yearning drives us to either become Godlike or to become gods. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything going for them. All their needs and all their wants were lovingly met by God. However, Adam and Eve were not satisfied, they were greedy. They wanted more than to be Godlike. They wanted to become gods. The serpent tells them that if they eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, the Tree of Knowledge, they would no longer be mere creatures of God, they would become gods. Their avarice, their greediness brought ruin upon themselves and continues to plague we who are their descendants.

To this very day, all human beings have this inherent desire to become a god. We want everything in the world to revolve around us. In the parlance of the Green Book, we all want to be Me Firsts and will do anything and everything in our power to be Me First. Truth be told, the problem with this desire to be a god, is that the position of god can be held only by one person, not multiple people. This inherent greed to be a god leads to the ruin of many people. The principle tool that many people use to try become a god is money. If we look all around us, we find that money is power. Money can buy us positions of power. Money can buy us influence. With money we can buy, sell, and control people. This leads us to the conclusion that money can also buy us to become a god over all, and the original Sin of Adam and Eve grows within us like a cancer, transforming the goodness of our humanity into evil. Utterly caught up in our own avarice to become a god, we end up serving Mammon, the demon of wealth, and not the God who lovingly created us.

Jesus shows us that the path by which we can become Godlike is not to accumulate and augment our wealth and self, rather we must diminish and impoverish ourselves in service to others, particularly to those most in need. Jesus did not use the immense power he had as God to increase his divinity. He used his divine power to increase the goodness of his humanity. One could say, that he impoverished his Divinity so that he could become the humanity that God meant humanity to be at Creation and at which Adam and Eve so miserably failed. Noting the striking difference between Adam and Eve and Jesus, St. Paul rightly calls Jesus, the New Adam.

Throughout all four gospels, Jesus tells you and I that if we intentionally wish to be his disciples, if we intentionally desire to become Godlike, we must live in service to others. The wealth and the gifts that God has given to us are not meant to increase ourselves but be used and shared with those most in need. The perfect example of this Mother Teresa, canonized a saint last Sunday. The DNA of God within her grew as she gave of herself to God and the poor. While she may have argued she was anything but Godlike, those of us who observed her saw how greatly she grew in God’s likeness. In the Last Judgment scene of Chapter 25 in Matthew’s gospel those who are actively engaged in seeing the Godlike presence in others by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting those in prison, caring for the sick, and welcoming the stranger are the only ones admitted to heaven. Those whose lives were spent in only serving themselves and refusing to serve those in need are sentenced to eternal damnation. Our path to heaven is in the giving of ourselves to others. We cannot buy our way into heaven, we can only buy our way into hell.

Over and over again, Jesus tells those who wish to be his disciples that we must first sell everything we have, give it to the poor, pick up our cross and follow him. To become Godlike, to have the DNA of God grow within us, we must diminish ourselves, impoverish ourselves in the manner of Jesus by the giving of ourselves and our gifts to others. As St. Paul states so very well in the second reading for today, “For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all.”

Jesus gives us a choice at the end of today’s Gospel. We can either serve God or Mammom. We can either be You First or Me First. Whom will we serve?