Corpus Christi Blog

My brothers and sisters in Christ, our readings today, particularly our 1st reading and Gospel, challenge us to take personal spiritual responsibility of our lives. Our 1st reading comes from the end of chapter 18 of the Prophet Ezekiel, but in order to help you understand what I mean by Personal Spiritual Responsibility, we need to recall the beginning of the chapter. The beginning of Ezekiel 18 starts with God asking Ezekiel to recite the ancient proverb: “Parents eat sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge”. What that proverb means is that the children paid for the sins of the parents. I encourage you to read Ezekiel 18 for yourselves to get the full meaning.

On September 14th every year we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross, this year it just happens to fall on a Sunday.  Some might think how can we celebrate something so gruesome, or how can we exalt something that is so negative as a crucifixion.  Through these readings, I would like to remind you about a truth that that we probably have heard a thousand times, it has probably been drilled into most of your minds by your CCD teachers:  Jesus Christ died upon the Cross to take away our sins.  We have heard that many times, but do we really know that in our lives? 

Our Lord and the Church, always wanting us to grow closer to God and to each other, gives us our practical but challenging readings today.  In order to be convicted, let us open our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to inspire us concretely in our lives.  Each of these very practical readings answer a very important question in our interaction with other people, and that question is whether we should, and if so just how to engage in fraternal correction, which is a term meaning to give constructive criticism to others. 

Our powerful Gospel today follows immediately after last week’s Gospel in which Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, and Christ said he would build the Church upon Peter, the rock, and promised the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.  And in this Gospel today, we learn that for the Church to prevail over the enemy, there must be a battle.  Indeed, we have entered into a battle.  There must be a battle because love in the world is always confronted by, to use Saint John Paul II’s phrase, the culture of death.  One of the primary characteristics of the culture of death is selfishness; looking out for the self, doing whatever I want to do, whatever will make me happy.  True love, which is always the opposite of selfishness, is always in opposition against this culture of death we live in, and so we live in a battle, there is a battle in our own hearts.

Before I begin this homily, I'd like you stop, take a breath, and ask for the grace not to think "oh, I know what he is going to say because I've heard this Gospel many times, but instead I invite you right now to ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart to His truth and the truth in your life, for each one of us will be held accountable to the truth of this Gospel.

 Jesus said to the woman, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Some of you might be scratching your heads right now,-perhaps thinking that doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know- the Jesus who taught us to love your neighbor, and even your enemies.  This is one of those Gospels which, to some, just doesn’t make sense, many have wondered why did Jesus treat this woman so harshly?  It kind of sounds like Jesus had a bad day or something, doesn’t it?  Before I explain what I think Jesus was doing treating the woman that way, let us gain insight from our other readings, for they also give us a clue.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, each of our readings today teach us one important spiritual truth about who God is.  This spiritual truth is difficult for us human beings to fully understand but it is essential for us to comprehend if we really want to be happy.  The great spiritual truth that our readings teach us is this:  God is grace, grace- gratia, God is free gift.  God does not need us, nothing we do adds to God.  Even creation itself wasn’t necessary, God did not get anything by creating the universe, in fact, God holds the whole world in his hand.  Nothing adds to God, God is full and complete in Himself.  Living a moral life does not add to God, God doesn’t need anything from us.  Even our praise to God, Scripture says, adds nothing to His greatness, but it profits us for salvation.  We do not earn anything from God, our good moral acts does not compel God to give to us.  Everything God does is because God loves us, it is a free gift.  We do not earn God’s love, God does not owe us anything.  This is a truth we have probably heard before, but it is hard to live, isn’t it?

Wow, each of these readings, including our Psalm, is powerful and deserve our heartfelt reflection.  But don't worry I won't make this homily too long, I promise.  And don't worry about remembering each point because they all kind of focus our attention toward the same goal and all encourage and challenge us to do the same thing: and that is to seek the Greatest Good.  Let us open our hearts and let our Lord and the Church teach us to seek the Greatest Good.

Like last week, in our Gospel Jesus again presents us with parables.  Remember that the purpose of parables are to teach us, in this case to help us understand something about the mystery of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Each of these 3 parables begin with, “the kingdom of heaven is like”.  However, these don’t so much teach what heaven will be like, rather they teach us about the spiritual life on earth, they teach us how to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.  Let us look closely at each of these parables and see what we need to learn.

Many of you might be anticipating what the homily from your new priest will be like.  You might be used to very different styles, you might like it when a priest preaches from in front of the Altar because you might feel more engaged that way.  Or perhaps you don’t care where he preaches from, just as long as it is relatable and beneficial.  Before I begin my reflection on the readings, I wanted to let you know of my preaching style and why.   After praying and trying to discern God’s promptings, I write out my homilies for every Sunday and so I preach from the Ambo- and there are several reasons for that.  One reason is that you might know, or I’m sure will eventually find out, is that I stutter.  I have stuttered since childhood, and although I have learned to control it fairly well over the years; it helps me if I write out my homily.  That way I can say what I really want to say and my brain can just focus on delivering the message fluently.  Also though, it helps me be able to not ramble on and on without any direction or flow to what I’m saying.  So hopefully you will at least appreciate that.  And now for my homily.

Many of you might be anticipating what the homily from your new priest will be like. You might be used to very different styles, you might like it when a priest preaches from in front of the Altar because you might feel more engaged that way. Or perhaps you don’t care where he preaches from, just as long as it is relatable and beneficial. Before I begin my reflection on the readings, I wanted to let you know of my preaching style and why. After praying and trying to discern God’s promptings, I write out my homilies for every Sunday and so I preach from the Ambo - and there are several reasons for that. One reason is that you might know, or I’m sure will eventually find out, is that I stutter. I have stuttered since childhood, and although I have learned to control it fairly well over the years; it helps me if I write out my homily. That way I can say what I really want to say and my brain can just focus on delivering the message fluently. Also though, it helps me be able to not ramble on and on without any direction or flow to what I’m saying. So hopefully you will at least appreciate that. And now for my homily.