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Sunday Bulletins and Homilies

Here we offer the texts of the homilies by Fr. Ken Schmidt, the pastor here at St. Tom's. If a week is missing, it means he was gone that weekend, but he'll be back.

Please scroll down to read each of the weeks listed below.

●November 16, 2008 (Fr. Ken)

●November 9, 2008 (Fr. Ken)

●November 2, 2008 (Fr. Ken)

●October 26, 2008 (Fr. Ken)

●October 19, 2008 (Dcn. Pat Hall & Dcn. joe schmitt)

●October 12, 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

●October 5, 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

● September 28, 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

● September 21, 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

● September 14, 2008 (Deacon Pat Hall)

● September 14, 2008 (Deacon joe)

● September 7, 2008

● August 31, 2008

● August 24, 2008

● August 10, 2008

● August 3, 2008

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 16 November 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

Perhaps our mis-interpretations of this parable ought to cause to us to wail and gnash our teeth!

By the double-meaning of the word "talent," we have often interpreted this as some kind of psychological story about using our talents well; and that if we don't use them, God will take them away. Talents are a unit of measure by weight, and not a description of our personal abilities. It's not a bad message that we should use our talents – it's just not what Jesus was saying when he told this parable.

A second mis-interpretation may occur because of where this parable is placed in Matthew's Gospel, and then reinforced because the parable is used at the end of the Church year. So it's been commonplace to interpret this parable as a story about judgment and the end of the world. It's a parable that has been used to justify unbridled capitalism, a parable that says "making a profit" can justify my behavior; a parable that God applauds those who go out and become richer by intimidating others. Here's the dilemma: if this parable is about how God responds to people and renders final judgment, we have a depiction of God as a greedy master who does not follow Jewish law, a God who criticizes and punishes servants who do follow the law. Does that sound like a message Jesus would preach?

So many of the parables begin with an introduction that say "The reign of God is like . . . ." But this one does not. What if this parable is not a parable about the reign of God or the end of the world? What if the parable is a wake-up call, but not for the poor but for the rich, the landowners, for investors and capitalists?

When we listen to the parable with this presumption, then the parable is a warning to us about greed. The master is greedy, and admits it – he makes money off the hard work of others without working himself. He exploits and manipulates others; he acquires what he hasn't earned. So of course when two of the servants follow the example of their master, he praises them and rewards them – they've learned well, and copied their master's wicked behavior. When one servant fails to go along with the master's example, he sees himself as he is, and he's furious. He doesn't want to hear what the Scriptures teach, so instead of listening and learning and experiencing a change of heart, he throws the lowly servant out of his home.

Might this parable prompt some hard questions in light of our country's and this world's economic system that is crumbling before us? Or are we going to simply make great efforts to restore what we had, and how long will it last? When did the standard shift – a standard that it's good and satisfying to "have enough," to a standard that we must always get "more?" And in our pursuit of always having more, many of us have ended up with less! It might be a very good time as we head into "shopping season" to question whether I have enough and whether I need more? Or maybe there's someone else who does not even have enough? How do I listen to the parable – as one who has enough, as one who does not have enough, or one who wants more?

Can I listen and learn and even experience a change of heart? Briefly, how I listen determines how I understand the first reading too. If I listen only literally to the description of a good wife, it will be distasteful or even irrelevant, unless you're looking for a woman who can still spin her own thread. But if I listen to it as a description of a disciple, I hear what is pleasing to God: to choose good, and not evil; to perform my necessary tasks lovingly; to care for those who do not have enough for their daily needs; and to have reverence for God.
People will remember and praise those good works, and their reward will come from God.

When we misread the Gospel parable, God is a harsh and greedy taskmaster who threatens and intimidates, who gives his treasure to some servants and expects a healthy return on his investment while he's gone; he's a hardhearted man who yells at his servant and kicks him out because he was not greedy enough. Contrast that with the passage from Proverbs, in which God treats true disciples as wonderful treasures; and to them God entrusts his heart. . . . Who do you want to be when your days come to an end?

DEDICATION OF THE BASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN 9 November 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

[When the cardinals go to the conclave in Rome, their purpose is to elect a new bishop of Rome, who therefore assumes also the responsibilities for the role we call the pope. First he is the Bishop of Rome; then he also takes on the responsibilities for unity and leadership of the universal Catholic Church. St. John Lateran is the Cathedral for Rome, and this feast remembers the day it was dedicated back in the fourth century.]

We had the privilege to celebrate the dedication of our church almost five months ago. It is a beautiful ceremony that helps us celebrate an important expression of our faith – through the special art of architecture. What does this place of worship express about our faith?
What does it say in wood and stone, steel and glass, tile and plaster?

The ceremony of dedication very deliberately begins with Christ, then moves to underline our relationship with Christ, and then an expression of that faith in architecture. Bishop Murray said that day, it is notable for its "noble simplicity." Overall, I believe this worship space takes us "back to the basics." So I thought it might be good today to look at our building and how it expresses our faith.

First of all, when you walk in, we see right away what is most important – the altar. Everything is focused on the altar, which is the symbol of Christ. In other words, Christ is central to our faith, and he must be the focus of our attention. It is the place where Christ becomes present in a sacramental way as the Eucharistic food and drink for the People of God.

Second, there is the altar of the Word of God, also called the ambo. It is designed to mirror the design of the altar with its flat top, and not merely serve as a lectern. The proclamation of the Word is also the living presence of God, given to strengthen and encourage us as the People of God.

Third is the baptismal font. We come to the altar through baptism; every time we enter this place, we are reminded who we are, and we re-dedicate ourselves to Christ with the water and the sign of the cross. The waters of baptism come from Christ, symbolized by the Christ-candle, and they flow because they are living waters flowing out to the world. We hope that the design expresses the Scripture "come to the water," that it is beautiful place that attracts people as Christ calls all people to himself.

Fourth, the seating of the Church reminds us that we are all gathered around the Lord. The celebration of the Eucharist is what we do together, actively participating in words and silence, in movement and gesture, in listening and professing, and giving and receiving. The presider and the deacons first of all belong to the People of God as baptized disciples, and during the Eucharist they have particular roles, as do the readers, musicians, coordinators and servers, and ministers of holy communion and hospitality. All of us gathered around the altar is a symbolic expression of heaven. Fifth, the architecture with its height and windows expresses an openness to the world. We aren't protected or insular; we're not closed off, but open both to receive and to go forth.

Finally, I was always taught that you do not judge a church by how it looks when it's empty. The true guide is how well it works when we worship, when they are people there. I love the photo form the day of dedication that is sometimes on the cover of the bulletin, because you are what makes this place beautiful.

As I understand it, and I'm sure I'll corrected, for all his winning ways, Tiger Woods actually took time to stop and re-learn how to swing a golf club. I like to read. I read spiritual books and the writings of the saints and theology. But it is important always to read the most important book of our faith – the Bible. The building reminds me that sometimes I have to make an effort to clear away some of the clutter in my life that distracts me from what is most important.

So with our new church, there's an opportunity to go back to the basics of our faith. How does this church help you to do that? How does it challenge or make you re-adjust? And what does it reveal about you, because you are a temple of God and a dwelling place of the Spirit? What do you bring in goodness and holiness, beauty and light, that makes this church so magnificent?

COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED (All Souls) 2 November 2008

For anyone who’s ensnared in an image or idea of a harsh or judgmental God, listen again to the words of Jesus as reported by John: -- he rejects no one; -- he doesn't want to lose anyone; -- his desire is to raise all people; -- his desire is that all people have eternal life.

When I hear these things, then I think the natural response is a desire to stay close to Jesus. If a group of us are headed into the desert, I don't want to be very far away from the person carrying the water. If I’m walking into a building that I know could burst into flame at any moment, then I want to walk next to the person carrying the fire extinguisher. So when I know that one day I’ll die, and that Jesus is the one who can save me from everlasting death, then that's the person I want to stay close to, the person I want to cling to. I want to be near the One who will gather me into the embrace of eternal life, and not take any chance that I'm off doing something that turns me away from Christ’s love.

We know that our bodies have their limitations and even impulses and attractions to sin. But Christ says that we can let those parts of our lives die, so that we’ll have a better life. We can let the sinful parts die now, so that we have a fuller life with Christ. And sometime later we can even let the body die, so that we can possess a more glorious body and a greater life than anything we’ve experienced so far.

What makes this different from other people who believe in some kind of life after death? The main answer is "we don't have to wait until we die!" When we live with Christ we already have eternal life; when we receive the Spirit in baptism we receive God's life; when we receive Holy Communion we receive the gift of eternal liferight now. We don’t have to wait!

This is different than an earlier Hebrew concept that somehow the dead "dwelled" in a place called Sheol or the underworld. It's different than the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul (though Christians often mix them up). It's different than the later Jewish concept of a general resurrection of the dead sometime in the future. The Christian belief is different because Jesus already rose from the dead, and eternal life is an ongoing experience for the rest of us, happening even as we worship here today.

We don't have to be afraid of the moment we die, wondering whether or not we'll get the prize. Baptism was the event when we first received the gift of eternal life. And we continue to receive the life of God through the Holy Spirit active in our lives. We can tell in our guts; we ought to see it in our actions, and know by God's actions that we already possess eternal life. If we pay attention, we know that we are already experiencing God's life in us.

So our commemoration of the dead is not some desperate prayer, pleading for the safety of those who have dead. It’s letting go of them as they leave this life, in order to have a fuller life than we can experience it in these mortal pots of flesh. We commend those who have died into God's love and forgiveness which purifies them. God's tender mercy cleanses us from whatever hinders us from receiving God's gifts and from embracing what God offers us. Our commendation is a rejoicing for what the dead have received. Our prayer for ourselves is to stay close to God; and to be open to God leading us and guiding us toward that fullness of life -- allowing God to cleanse us from anything that hinders us from receiving and embracing everything that God want to give us. God doesn’t want to lose anyone. God's desire is to raise all people; God's desire is that all people receive eternal life.

THIRTIETH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 26 October 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

How many times have we heard this Gospel passage in our lives? How many times have we heard the commandment to love God, heart, mind, and soul, and recognized how easily we fall short? How many times have we heard the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves?

It's true we need to love ourselves, that we have to have a healthy sense of self-esteem, that we need to see ourselves as God sees us, as basically good, despite the number of times we fall short. But I don't believe that this command from the Jewish law is a command to have a positive sense of self-worth.

Among a people who had been slaves, among a people who had sojourned in a desert for forty years, among a people who were poor and whose lives were fragile, a people who were surrounded by enemies and often at war, I believe the law to "love your neighbor as yourself" was a basic rule of survival, a rule of self-preservation -- take care of your neighbor whose life is as fragile as yours. God's People are reminded to take care of immigrants and refugees, because once they themselves were immigrants. They're commanded to watch out for widows and orphans, because one day their wife may be a widow and their children may have no father.

When you live as a slave your life is at risk each day. When you live in the desert you don't know when water will be available. So take care of preserving your neighbor's life as carefully as you care for your own.
Take care of those who are hungry because one day you may be hungry and you'll need someone to provide food for you and your family.

These past weeks have had their fair share of anxiety. If you listen to the news at all you hear the gloom of loss and decline, with no clear end in sight. You may have received a report of the decline of your IRA or 401(k). Your stock portfolio has less value and your plans for retirement may be shifting. Your job or your home may be at your risk or already lost. And what's harder is that there is a sense of vulnerability and powerlessness that there's nothing we can do about it.

Perhaps we have a little experience of the slave, the immigrant, the widow and the orphan, the poor of the world who feel powerless about their circumstances, whose attention each day is devoted to staying alive – where will they get their next meal? Do they have clean water to drink? Do they have access to necessary shelter from the weather? Will they receive basic vaccinations to save their children's lives? 10,000 children a day die from a lack of food!

God has ensured our eternal life. God, the compassionate one, has asked us to love others as we love ourselves, to protect others as we protect ourselves, to care about the survival of others as much as we care about our own survival. What are we doing for our neighbors who live every day without sufficient food, our brothers and sisters who do not have clean water to drink? What are we doing for our neighbors who are dying from preventable disease and live outside without basic shelter? What are we doing for our brothers and sisters who lack access to essential medicine and to education?

We can't do it all, but we can do something – it's a matter of survival.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 19 October 2008 (Dcn. Pat Hall)

Homilies are aids to encountering the living Word.

First, please read the scripture passages that inform this homily:

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; Psalm 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21

These readings can be found at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/101908.shtml.

You heard in our readings all about the Persian King Cyrus. God anointed that pagan king even though Cyrus did not know the God of Israel. Cyrus was embroiled in the wars of empire. He may have known little about a displaced group of Israelites held captive in the enemy empire of Babylon. Yet he was understood by the Jews as being God’s instrument in restoring his chosen people to their homeland.

Anointing according to the Bible had been reserved for Hebrew prophets and kings. The word “anointed one” means “Messiah” for the Jews and translates to “Christ” for us Christians.

After the 11:30 mass this weekend, we will have an infant baptism. That baby boy will be anointed with the Chrism oil to be priest, prophet and king, a little “Christ”.

A pagan king bent on empire, Hebrew prophets, a baby in Bethlehem and a baby at St. Tom’s: all anointed ones…and of course so are you, the one chosen by God to carry out the divine will to save.

God made humans in his divine image. He revealed himself to shepherd his people. He became one with his people and shared the Spirit so that his people could be one in him. Jesus gave us his sacraments so that we could participate in his very life, so that we too could be little “Christs”. Being a Christ is about being in relationship with Jesus and it is about being Christ to others bringing them into relationship with Jesus.

We are creatures of this earth and we are creatures of the divine. Our modesty causes us to shy away from considering ourselves divine. We have seen the arrogance and tragedy when humans have positioned themselves, of claiming personal divinity and absolute power over others.

The divinity we claim is not because of our own power and deservedness.

The divinity we claim is because we are in family relationship with our God, our father.

We are sisters and brothers to God incarnate.

We were made to be with God for all eternity.

This does not make us powerful or mighty, but it does make us responsible.

If we are children of the divine, doesn’t anyone think we should act like it?

Think about the virtues that define being humane: compassionate, kind, tolerant, forgiving, merciful, tender, clement and benevolent. Don’t those virtues apply to the divine? If you could describe any particular activity as humane, could you not possibly substitute the word divine without altering the sentiment?

This divinity that God offers you has nothing to do with your abilities. God offers this to those who are fleet of foot, strong of arm and brilliant of mind and to those who are blind, deaf, mute and rejected by others.

Yes, you are the anointed ones…Christs.

Just remember it is God who does the anointing and we who do the responding.

But how do we respond humanely…divinely?

Well we have a clue thanks to a God who loved us so much that he embraced weakness to be born in a Bethlehem stable and suffered all the cruel injustices evil could inflict.

As an itinerant preacher, Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead and advocated for the poor. He challenged the established order. He offered divine justice. The authorities of the day could not tolerate such. Stability was based on a complex and tenuous fabric of alliances and arrangements between the military power of Rome, the caretaking authority of the Herodians and the social and religious coalition of Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees. A lot was at stake. This is the setting of today’s Gospel story, when the Pharisees flattered Jesus only to set him up with an unanswerable question.

When they asked about the propriety of a Jew having to pay the head tax to a pagan ruler, they thought they had Jesus check-mated. If he said “yes”, then Jesus would have angered the local Jewish folks who resented and detested their Roman occupiers. If he said “no” then he would have left himself open to sedition charges, a charge that did ultimately lead to Calvary.

Jesus’ response not only out-smarted the conniving Pharisees, but he gave an example of how to be human in this world without compromising our divine relationship: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

This was the example that our patron saint, Thomas More, emulated. More was a person of his times. He rose in power to become the chancellor to King Henry VIII of England.

This was at the time of the protestant reformation. Many people were repulsed by scandals in the Church. Martin Luther’s theology was being embraced by those seeking their conscience and others seeking freedom from the Church’s temporal authority and taxes. King Henry VIII personally chaffed under the Church’s interference in his remarriage plans.

As a devout Catholic, Thomas More stayed faithful to his Church. Thomas More could not entertain the idea that God could be expressing himself to the world in any way outside the Church.

As an Englishman, More was loyal to king and country. In that day people did not see any separation of Church and State. The Church had temporal power in the civil affairs of the day and kings ruled by divine right. People throughout history understood government as having been instituted by God as the means by which the common good was served.

As the fissure grew and King Henry declared himself head of the Church of England, Thomas More tried to give unto Caesar and give unto God. That struggle was made familiar to us in the play and film productions of A Man for All Seasons. In the end he was unjustly maneuvered and framed by those doing the king’s will. At his execution, judged guilty of sedition, St. Thomas More declared, “I am the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

Jesus’ example of giving unto Caesar and giving unto God had a similar conclusion. Jesus was later executed for sedition. The placard over his head was inscribed, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

The image of the cross, the inscription on the placard—is this an echo of Jesus’ asking about whose image and inscription was on the Roman coin?

Our savior… and our saint role modeled for us Christians how to be divine children of God in a political and economic world. We here enjoy the blessings of a democracy and free enterprise system. Yet many of us here have been hammered by those who have wielded their power with selfishness and greed.

We anointed ones are called to be prophets, to be God’s voice to advocate for the poor and powerless; to be priests, to bring healing to those who hurt; and to be kings, to protect and serve those whom God has given to us.

In feudal times, the princes and lords by divine right were responsible for the common good. The serf was resigned to bear life and survive. If the common good was not advanced, it was not the serf’s fault; it was the prince’s fault. The prince would have to answer to God for the failure.

(Read sarcastically) I like democracy because then I have a vote in what I want. Our national and local candidates cater to that desire. We hear all kinds of promises of who will get what and who else will have to pay for it. I like it when I get more at someone else’s expense.

But, if democracy is seen as a divine institution, then the responsibility for the common good resides in the citizen, in me and in you. If you and I don’t participate for the common good, we will have to answer to God for the failure.

This political season gives us that opportunity. You will have the chance to vote for candidates whom you judge to have the character and vision to provide for that common good. The Church avoids partisanship and does not tell you for whom to vote. The Church does advise you to use Jesus’ humane and divine example as a measuring stick for your elected servants.

You will also have the opportunity to vote on state proposals. This is law-making at the grass roots level. Here the Church does presume to advise you. Proposal 2 on the Michigan ballot advocates for embryonic stem cell research. That would allow the destruction of human life at the earliest stages and unregulated scientific experimentation on human embryos. The Church encourages a “No” vote on Proposal 2. This is predicated on what the Church defines as human.

I venture to say how you define “human” would determine how you would vote on Proposal 2. How one defines “human” would determine the positions one might hold regarding abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, exploitation of the poor and waging war. My personal experience of witnessing heated discussions on these issues is that people are arguing from different perspectives on what is human or whose life is more important.

I shared a few weeks ago at the other masses that our world cultures have had different understandings of what is human. In ancient times, tribal warfare was often genocidal as our tribe was human, the other not. In medieval Japan, male offspring were so preferred that female infanticide was condoned. In our own country, Americans bought and sold other Americans. What owner could consider his property human?

The Church teaches that humanity begins at conception. At conception, that human creation, that divine child of God, is sacred.

Some months ago, every registered Catholic family in Michigan was mailed a DVD about the issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research. In touting the cures obtained from adult stem cell research, these proponents tried to ease the tension that some might have if they thought they had to choose between the preservation of human embryos and curing those with debilitating disease. Adult stem cell research and other scientific techniques have shown great promise with real cure results. Embryonic stem cell research has yet to yield cures despite their advocates’ claims of potential. In the end, though, whether or not one scientific technique yielded better results than another, if you truly believe that human embryos are humans, what humans would you sacrifice for the betterment of other humans? I say we see enough of that around the world already.

You are God’s anointed one.

Live in this world God gave you with faith, love and hope.

Treat each other as if both of you were divine.

Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.

Just remember, it is all God’s.

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 19 October 2008 (Dcn. joe schmitt)

Isaiah 45:1, 4 – 6

Cyrus, though unaware of it, is the Lord’s own instrument.

Psalm 96

Give the Lord glory and honor.

1 Thessalonians 1: 1 – 5b

Would we be remembered for our faith, hope and love.

Matthew 22: 15 – 21

Repay Caesar what belongs to him; and God what belongs to God.

God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.

In our reading from Isaiah today we are reminded that God has a plan for each of us, as he did for Cyrus, the great Persian ruler, who in the year 538 controlled a world larger than the Roman Empire of a later era and who freed some 40,000 Israelites to return to their Holy Land from their Babylonian captivity. Isaiah is clearly stating that Cyrus was God’s instrument in doing this, calling him the “anointed one.” This was so that the Israelites would know that their God is the Lord, and there is no other. It is, as St. Ignatius reminds us, all is for the greater honor and glory of God. It also serves as a reminder to us to watch our judgments about others because we do not always know how God is using or working with them in God’s plan.

In the gospel reading from Matthew we come upon that word “Hypocrite” again (the word that Fr. Ken has defined for us in weeks past). The Pharisees and the Herodians were pretending (putting on the mask of) sincerity but were truly acting insincerely and merely trying to catch Jesus in a vicious trap. Their words and their works were inconsistent. They posed a question in such a way that it demanded a “forced answer” “yes” or “no”. They wanted a “yes” or “no” answer, either of which would have put Jesus in a bad light by being seen to choose sides either with his own people or with the Romans. The question they posed was really a two-edged sword hoping to slice Jesus on either or both sides.

Jesus, however, being aware of their hypocrisy, challenges them with a question in return. (Don’t you hate it when someone answers your question with a question?) Often “Yes” or “No” forced choice questions are looking for a simple answer. Often questions have complex answers, which require “yes and no”, and maybe even “maybe”. Jesus inquired: “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” Then his famous response, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” Whoa! I’m willing to bet that was a stopper for sure; but also a catalyst for further and more complex dialogue, which we continue today.

How does the math work for you? I get Caesar 100% and God “everything”. We have responsibilities in the earthly realm, for example to help support the common good with our taxes. And the reason for this is that we are all products of God’s extravagant love and what he wants in return is the active love of God’s chosen children: God’s intentional family. That same extravagant love brought Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into the world, taking on human flesh, and freeing us from death and sin by his ultimate act of selfless love on the cross. We in turn are now called to be that family, for which we were created: to care for each other and bring each other home. The challenge is how do we put this into action with sincerity and not hypocrisy.

I’m reminded of a famous Taoist story of a man in his boat and in the distance sees another boat coming at him through the fog. So he starts to scream and holler at the man in the other boat to steer aside. But the boat continues to come at him. He then curses and swears and rages at the approaching boat. When the boat is close enough that he observes it clearly in the fog, he notices the boat is empty. There is no one in the boat. Immediately his anger calms, and he quickly and easily steers his boat away, avoiding collision. Jesus became the empty boat in order for his listeners and adversaries to take action. In order for us to look at and reevaluate what it is that we hold dear and treasure and to whom it really belongs.

This moves us into St. Paul’s letter to the Christian family in Thessalonica. Are we “mindful of the way we are proving our faith, and laboring in love, and showing constancy in hope in our Lord Jesus Christ”? Proving our faith: that could mean living in such a manner that people know we are Christians who take our faith seriously and are willing to speak and act to bring about justice and mercy in our world. Do we practice “faithful citizenship,” as Michigan Catholic Conference, the U. S. Bishops, and Jesus challenge us to? Laboring in love: this is realized in us when, for example, we go out of our way to act kindly to someone who is in need of an act of kindness; when we visit someone who is ill, or not able to get out and about; when we treat those who have made poor choices with compassion and not judgment; when we help to feed those who are hungry in our community, knowing that there are people, including children and other vulnerable folks, going to bed hungry every night; when we pray for those people who have asked us to pray for them as well as those we would rather not pray for. Showing constancy in hope in Christ: that would be the challenge to live our lives in such a way as to show that our existence would not make sense if God did not exist – we are motivated by eternal and not merely temporal values. We act as though we are God’s family and do not put our treasure in the latest stuff or are not brought to despair by the latest drop in the stock market.

Yesterday I noticed a bulletin board that said, “Store up Treasure in Heaven…for where your treasure is there also your heart will be.” That is what God desires from God’s intentional family, that we offer our hearts to God, by offering them to one another in love.

Jesus felt no necessity to play the Pharisee’s little game and give a “yes” or “no” answer! He spoke to the complexity of living in a “here and now” world while living in a transforming journey to the full acknowledgement and experience of God’s loving presence and desire for us. How am I, how will you answer the question, “Will I give to God, what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s?”

God is good! All the time! All the time! God is good!

TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR 12 October 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

It helps to understand the social and cultural context for this parable.
First, in this society one only hung around with one's peers; it was not honorable for lower class and upper class people to socialize – nothing new there! In this culture, it mattered who showed up, so it was common to ask around and find out who's going and who's not going – you don't want to show up and then find out that the rest of the on-crowd didn't show up. Finally, there also was a strong expectation that if you accepted an invitation, you also repaid that with an invitation: if I eat dinner at your house, then you fully expect to be invited to dinner at my house.

In a more common interpretation of the parable, many people rejected the king's invitation, and preferred to follow their own plans; they wanted to keep doing things their own way and not be associated with the king, that is, they rejected God, or rejected Jesus. So the king makes a more inclusive invitation, doing things a different way than the culture expects, and says that anyone is welcome, even those who couldn't possibly repay the invitation. More people come to the banquet. One person comes but refuses to dress in the wedding garment provided by the king. In other words, he wants to be there, but he refuses to do as the king wants, and he is rejected. In this reading of the parable, it's about doing things my way or God's way; if I want to be a part of God's reign, then I necessarily have to do things God's way, and give up my insistence that God do things my way.

This seems to be a constant struggle ; or maybe it's just mine, and not yours. There's this desire to figure things out, plan, and move where I want to go, or to follow the crowd, rather than go where God wants to lead. I prefer to make my own decisions rather than pausing, stopping, and asking what God prefers?

Refusing to wear the wedding garment was a public refusal to accept the king's generosity, to be identified as the king's guest – what might people think if they find out I went that banquet? We betray our identity when we don't publicly live as disciples of Christ, when we don't live as the people we claim to be. We're refusing to be "clothed with Christ" which is an image of our baptism. If we think of the disappointment we feel when a hero lets us down, then imagine God's disappointment, who offers us the banquet of eternal life, and we say "no, thanks"

Whether it's huge questions – like, the relationship between capitalism, profit-taking, greed, and care for the poor; or closer to home – like, how do I treat my brother or sister? Whether it's politics, and who to vote for in the presidential race, or how do I treat the people I work with? In every case, I'm expected, like the wedding quest, to be a wholehearted Christian disciple. I am expected to be a full committed follower of Jesus, and not to evade it by claiming "it's politics," or "it's just business" or "that's how my family is," or "it's what my friends expect," or "I'm just a teenager." They're all excuses for not being a fully committed follower of Jesus, for not engaging in the struggle of Christian discipleship.

If that's not your struggle, here's another way to look at the parable.
The king's social peers were invited to the wedding banquet for his son, and many of them decided not to go. Perhaps they didn't like the king or like his son or the bride; maybe it was a lousy menu. But remember, the parable is about God, so rather than keeping people out, it's a joyful event of inclusion. Instead of a lousy menu, we can expect it to be a magnificent banquet, as suggested by Isaiah's images of God's banquet. Hear the Good News: This banquet is different! God knows we cannot reciprocate – and we're still invited. So we can accept God's generosity, or choose to stay away. We can do things a different way – God's way – or choose to keep a distance. And if we do, no one has to toss us out, because we chose not to go in the first place. Or we can rejoice that the God we hoped would save us has invited us to the banquet of eternal life!

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A 5 October 2008

Wouldn't it be easier if God would just tell us what to do? "From God's mouth to my ear" might be a way to restate an old saying. What might God's response be to this request "God, just tell me what to do" "I've been telling you for thousands of years! You just don't do what I tell you, even though it's for your own good." This is the predicament Isaiah describes: God has planted a vineyard and done everything possible to care for it. God said, "I made you 'My People,' What more could I have done?" But the vines wanted to do their own thing, and they became wild.

So God's response is, "Fine – if you want to be wild and go your own way, then I'll let you be wild. Go ahead and try to survive on your own. Your vineyard will be overgrown with weeds and thorns; you won't be able to make clouds come or rains fall. Go on without me and your harvest will be wild and you'll fall into decay and ruin."

Our personal temptations and human history show over and over again that we think we can do better than God; that our perspective is better than God's perspective. But as the quoted Psalm reminds us – the stone that was rejected by the builders was actual the crucial stone for the entire structure. In other words, we thought we knew what we needed -- but we were wrong; our perspective was insufficient or mistaken. Whether it's ignoring the needs of the poor, or being rude to a person with mental illness; whether it's thinking that I'm more important than a foreigner or an immigrant; whether it's justifying the destruction of a human embryo, or defending the abuse or neglect of my child, or explaining why I'm violent toward my spouse, or explaining my act of terrorism – my perspective is limited and wrong.

Our crazy human thinking seems to make so much sense 'in the moment.'
We're so great at explaining and justifying our sins! But a little glance from outside the situation, just a little objectivity, shows that it's not as reasonable as we thought. Trying to explain our rationale to a stranger quickly reveals that what seemed right at the time really didn't make that much sense.

The fact is, we humans need laws and regulations; without them we go wild. History shows over and over again we return to selfishness, to greed, to vanity, to laziness, to violence. Human laws and regulations set up some boundaries for us. They remind us of our deeper values when our more immediate concerns and desires bump into them; and we're held accountable for our decisions and our actions. When I'm angry, then the law against murder stands up to my desire to hurt another person. When I want something for myself, laws remind me not take what belongs to another person or threatens or causes harm to someone else. Week after week, we need to come here to be pulled away from our temptation to go wild; we need to hear God's law; we need to be reminded of God's perspective.

How wonderful it is that God's own perspective is shared with us so freely. How Amazing that we can receive God's Word and reflect on it by ourselves and in communities of faith – at church, in bible study and faith-sharing groups. How fantastic that we are given the wisdom of God's Spirit to be able to discern and understand God's perspective. How incredible that we can be formed into the mind and heart of Jesus and be formed by God's perspective. How awesome that we can come to God's table and receive the Eucharist and be transformed into the Body of Christ and then be his presence, his hands and feet, and love and action in the world. We have to trust and live more by God's perspective, and not our own.

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A               28 September 2009 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

St. Paul's letter to the Philippians was written to a colony of new Christians -- a Roman colony with lots of retired military, who earlier in their lives had sworn their allegiance to their political leader. St. Paul reminded these new Christians to be careful where they place their allegiance. The hymn that he quoted, by various references, words, and gestures, effectively pointed to the issue of allegiance. He said, now your allegiance must be to Jesus, not Caesar; and the Christian community felt that tension, a tension between their citizenship and allegiance to Caesar and their allegiance to Christ their savior.

I think in election time, and in politics in general, we also feel that tension. How do we lives out our Christian values and beliefs in a society that does not hold all the same values and beliefs? Political parties, interest groups, advertising, and our personal experiences all contribute to the tension. Christian values and beliefs no longer comprise the fundamental basis for our political decisions. There can be good reasons for that, but people are more likely to quote the Constitution or cite a principle of capitalism than the Scriptures in order to explain their actions or their vote.

This is a time when "the rubber meets the road." What does it mean to be a Christian in our American society? There's no perfect answer. Even bishops don't always agree among themselves about the best way to proceed. But there are some guiding principles to help us as we prepare to vote. Some principles seem more obvious than others; or a principle may be clear, but how to implement it is more complicated.

One principle is to safeguard the rights of those who're defenseless or vulnerable and can't protect themselves. In the Philippians' political environment, St. Paul reminded them of some principles: Don't act out of pride or conceit; don't act out of selfishness; and don't look out for your own interests but the interests of others.

There's a principle that's often utilized around election time, that is, "the ends justifies the means." It's not quoted or said out loud, but it underlies lots of comments and policies. Be careful, because in Christian ethics, the ends do not justify the means. Just because we have a noble or desirable goal doesn't mean we can do whatever we want to attain that goal. Sometimes the means or manner of attaining the goal is immoral or evil, harmful to others or ourselves, but we try to make it seem less so because of what we want to achieve. But folks, the goal does not justify the actions used to attain that goal when those actions are evil or immoral, or when the means cause harm to ourselves or others.

Election decisions are difficult because no candidate lines up perfectly with our Christian values and beliefs. Law, expediency, and personal values all come into play. We might throw up our hands in confusion or frustration, but that doesn't resolve our dilemmas. Ezekiel reminds us that we still have the responsibility and the power to make choices between right and wrong, between good and evil, between wisdom and folly.   The exercise of our civil right, our responsibility, and our privilege to vote – those important decisions require attention – we can't just say "it's hard" and avoid them. Hard decisions demand that we be thoughtful people, and not impulsive; that we read and study, and not just rely on a clever response or a quick sound byte. Important decisions require us to be well-informed and careful. The Catholic Church has prepared some materials that remind us about our principles; and in some cases, where those principles seem to lead to a clear conclusion about a specific proposal. They're being made available in the bulletin and in the narthex, and on various websites.

To summarize: we have an important responsibility as Christians to exercise our right and privilege to vote. We have to be thoughtful and careful to make well-informed decisions, and not rush to a decision to alleviate our frustration or confusion. As we do so, we must take into account our fundamental Christian values and beliefs. We must be careful of false ethical positions which use the ends to justify the means. And most importantly, we have to be careful where we place our allegiance.

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A 21 September 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

I am tempted just to sit down and say nothing; this parable seems to have a special power to get our attention and stir things up. That being said, it also can be so provocative that we just walk away (as people did when they heard Jesus tell his parables) rather than hear the good news.

As the parable comes to a conclusion, expectations increase. This landowner is really generous – looks what he's doing for those who worked just a few hours; imagine what we'll get! Hear the greed kicking in? Let's not kid ourselves -- it's greed, folks, not justice; in justice they were paid the working wage they agreed upon when they were hired. We wouldn't want to break a contract, would we? Imagine the outcry if the landowner had tried to pay them less than they had agreed – they would have demanded the wage he'd promised them when they were hired.

Let's look at contexts for a moment. First, in the cultural context of this parable, the landowner treated those who were hired first like hired hands. Those hired later were treated "as if they were family." The parable is posing a significant question for us – in our relationship with God, do we want to be treated like hired hands, or do we want to be treated like family? Do we want to receive what we earn, and only what we earn? Or do we want to receive the additional gifts that come from a generous and divine patron who treats us like family?

Then let's look at the literary context of the parable. Jesus tells this parable after Peter has asked the question – What will we get after all we've given up? Are you going to make it worth our while? This is a contract question; what will we get for the hard work we've done? And this parable precedes that wonderful episode when James and John want to be promised the special seats in heaven next to Jesus; and Jesus tells them no, they'll get a seat just like everyone else. This parable is about egalitarianism – equality among all people in the reign of God.

One challenge embedded in this parable is a fundamental principle in our Christian ethics, and that's every person's inherent right to life and dignity. It belongs to every human being, because from the moment we're conceived until the moment we pass into eternal life we carry the image and likeness of God. There is no more and no less a right to life and dignity whether we're young or old, working or unemployed, gay or straight, democrat or republican, able-bodied or disabled, healthy or infirm, embryo or senior citizen. We're part of God's family.

Paul admits there are different gifts distributed among us, but just like the parts of the body, just because they are different doesn't mean that they are more important, because all of them contribute to the good working order of the body, and if any part is missing, the whole body suffers. We're all part of the Body of Christ, and every one of us has the right to life and dignity.

In this parable, the day laborers are worse off than slaves. Slaves can count on the room and board provided by their owner-employer, but day laborers only have what they earn that day. If they aren't hired, they and their family go hungry or they beg. They are willing to work, but if they aren't hired, they go without. At the beginning of the day, the able-bodied and the stronger were hired; and of course in their circumstances they'd be thrilled they'd been hired. As it became obvious to the landowner that the harvest was ready and needed to be brought in, more laborers were hired, including the weaker, the infirm, the people with disabilities; and when they were hired, they too would be thrilled that they'd been hired. The dilemma is that the able-bodied think of themselves as better or more deserving than the less fortunate laborers, as if they are more deserving than the others to work, that they're more worthy of earning a livelihood. But they aren't.

There's no such thing as divine compensation for what we have done, as if one person can get "more heaven" than another; and that irritates us self-righteous people who know how hard we work and how much good we've done. We could settle for a relationship with God that's based on bargaining, human justice, a contract with God for payment; but I don't believe the results will be very pleasing or satisfying on the day of judgment. Or we can have a relationship with God who invites us to be part of the life of the Trinity, enjoying all the gifts that come with God's deep love and largesse.

God's goodness and merciful love is freely available to all of us who will accept it; God's goodness and merciful love is not withheld from those we think have not earned it or do not deserve it. They aren't doled out by some divine accountant keeping track of what we've done or what we have think we have earned or what we think we deserve. Divine justice is not a matter of proportional compensation for our good deeds. No, "the last will be first and the first will last" – drat! The good news is that "God's ways are not our ways;" and because of that, we're all better off. The good news is that God's justice is not our justice; and because of that, we will receive infinitely more than we deserve.

September 14, 2008 - The Exultation of the Cross - (Deacon Pat Hall)

Today we are celebrating the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

Today as you came in I hope you noticed the large wood cross in the narthex. This is the same cross we use on Good Friday when we come at noon to pray at the foot of the cross.

You see in front of this ambo our processional cross, the symbol of Jesus' gift, which we pray in front of at every Sabbath Mass. In fact, this cross is a crucifix, because it contains the corpus, the representation of Jesus' battered body. It is artistically represented, but you can see that in the inner diameter of the cross is the image of Jesus' body. I can almost feel the artist's beckoning for us to enter into Jesus' space here on his instrument of death.

Our religious art has a tremendous history of representing Jesus' passion and death. Some are artistically stylized, some are very graphic so that we can appreciate the depth of Jesus' suffering and thus the depth of his gift.

One of the very earliest representations of Jesus' crucifixion was found in the catacombs of Rome. There it showed Jesus not hung on the cross, but Jesus is carrying it on his shoulder. It's not the 10 foot high heavy cross that we're used to seeing. It is a 4 foot representation of the cross that he is just carrying about. You see, in first century Rome, they were just as sports conscious as we are. Jesus is carrying his trophy. They hung Jesus, Jesus won. He is brandishing the symbol of his defeat of death.

That is what Moses did in the desert. The people turned from God. They found death, death from serpents. God had Moses raise that symbol of death for the people to behold and the people lived. This short story holds both the stories of Eden and Calvary.

The cross is the symbol of victory.

St. Andrew of Crete preached: Therefore the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation—very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honorable because it is both the sign of God's suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world. (Oratio 10, Exaltatione sancte crucis)

What in our culture reflects some of that sense of victory, that jubilant feeling? For Detroit Red Wing hockey fans, who can forget that beaming face of Captain Stevie Izerman raising the Stanley Cup after decades of a championship drought. Raising the Stanley Cup is one of the great iconic images of the sports world. Can you remember the news televising the victory parade and the thousands of fans lining Woodward Avenue to cheer their team and to get a glimpse of that cup.

The fans went wild with... dare I say an emotion of exaltation?

A few months ago my family went through that whole process of hope and want for that lofty symbol. My son Adam who played for the Pittsburgh Penguins was within two wins of his team claiming that cup. I was in Pittsburgh for their last loss, the Red Wings' ultimate win. After the game, my wife, Jan, and I were in the bowels of the stadium where it is not so pretty.

There are bare light bulbs, hanging water lines and the hallways narrow and concrete. We were waiting for our son outside the Penguins locker room. You know the scene from the commercial where the dad walks with his kid after the big game loss and offers him some gum? Yeah, that's the kind of scene. Well around the corner, there was the room where they do the after-game interviews. The Red Wing goalie, Chris Osgood, walked right by me, stripped of his shoulder and chest pads, but still wearing his huge leg pads. He passed by me with maybe a 6-inch clearance. And then the cup, the Stanley cup, was being brought to that studio room. It passed by me with about the same amount of clearance. The cup that our family was groaning for. You know what? It's just a piece of engraved chromed metal.

You and I have the real trophy born out of the contest of good versus evil, death versus life. It was won for us by Jesus' free choice and gift. If you can imagine some of that joy that the Red Wings and their fans had for their Stanley Cup, can you summon some of that in your exaltation of Jesus' trophy, his cross? How can we Christians fail to experience that joy when we look upon the trophy of the cosmos' greatest victory—the victory over death?

The cross was Jesus' choice. His choice was to be obedient. Do you remember the Garden of Gethsemane?

“ My soul is sorrowful even to death.” (Mk 14:31)“Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still not my will but yours be done. ”And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.” (Luke 22:42)

Can you feel Jesus' terror? Can you envision his physical agitation? His sweat flowed like blood from an open wound.

Terror wounds the soul!

Where is your Garden of Gethsemane? What is your terror? Can you look at Jesus' object of terror...the cross? Can you mount your serpent of terror to that pole, look at death and have hope for life? Jesus offers you that hope.

Jesus received strength from God's messenger. Jesus was then with his father's grace able to choose, giving himself, “becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Where do you go to be strengthened? Jesus offers his very being to you today when you come to his table in communion.

He then sends you as his sacrament to the world. He sends you to brandish his cross, his trophy of the victory of life.

He sends you to be his healing self to this hurt and suffering world.

In your bulletin today, you will find an insert written by the bishops that frames the Church's teaching on issues of social justice. Nowhere does it tell you who to vote for. There is no political party in the U.S. whose platform conforms completely with Christian Social Justice. It shares Christian principles so that you can decide who should champion the cause of the poor and the defenseless.

There is one issue in Michigan, though, that you will be able to vote directly on yourself. You will have the opportunity to vote on a proposal that would legally allow human embryonic stem cell research. Your position on this would be based on what you call human. The definition of what is human in our world culture has a long history. In ancient times, tribal wars regularly ended in genocide because my tribe was human, the other not. In medieval Japan male offspring were so desirable that female infanticide was culturally acceptable. In our own history, Americans bought and sold other Americans. How could any owner see his slave as human?

We understand “human” as that living being who was created out of the love and matter of a man and woman and as such, from the moment of conception. The Church believes that that living being is the temple of God's divine image. A human embryo is human and divine.

And given that the Church heartily supports adult stem research—research that has already yielded cures for dozens of ailments—I hope that you won't find yourself in that emotional pickle of thinking you have to decide between those human, divine beings who are suffering from disease and those human, divine beings who are our most defenseless.

As you are here today:

-nail your terror to Jesus' cross

-pray for his strengthening grace

-go out to be Jesus' healing sacrament to the world

-and don't forget to be exultant, touch our cross in the narthex before you go and feel it as your trophy.

September 14, 2008 Exaltation of the Holy Cross Cycle A (Deacon joe schmitt)

Numbers 21:4b-9 ( Philippians 2:6-11 ( John 3:13-17 (God so loved the w

God is good! All the time! All the time! God is good!

Today we are taking a step out of ordinary time in order to celebrate a special solemnity in the Church year, September 14^th is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross or the Triumph of the Cross. Since the time of Constantine, the cross has been a glorious, if not unexpected, sign of our salvation. Church history, or maybe urban legend, has it that St. Helen, the mother of Constantine while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326, found a piece of the “true cross” on September 14. The feast became important when it was believed that the “true cross” was returned from Persia to Jerusalem in the 7^th century after its having been stolen.

That is all fascinating but what does it have to do with the truer meaning of what the Cross of Jesus meant as an instrument of triumph: as that pivotal agent/moment between the incarnation and the resurrection which allows us to call the cross “holy”?

I would ask each of us to take a moment now and focus on our processional cross and think about what we see. (pause briefly) I remember the first time I saw it at the South Street House of Discernment and Fr. Fitz just kept asking me, “what else do you see?” In that sense there is a lot there. This is a powerful piece of Church art. I’m sure we all probably see something a bit different than everyone else. Let’s face it, the message of the cross is not that salvation comes from power and wealth, but rather from the humility we glimpse in the cross of Christ. God accomplishes our salvation in weakness and suffering.

This is where the cross is such a powerful symbol for us. Our faith journey begins with the cross being traced on our foreheads by our parents and godparents. During the rite of dedication for our worship space here, the four walls were marked with crosses using sacred chrism. (There are still crosses attached to the walls marking and reminding us of those anointing.) I’m sure you all have something in your homes as well, but I brought this cross from ours to show you how we mark our home as a domestic church. It’s situated in the center of our living space and constantly reminds us of whose we are. I’m sure many of us renewed our own baptism when we entered here this evening (morning) and reached into the baptismal font for the flowing holy water and signed ourselves with, that’s right, the sign of the cross. We began our Eucharistic celebration, and will end it with the sign of the cross. Many of us will carry that over to our meals at home. It’s a simple act of faith, which marks us as Christ’s brothers and sisters, God’s beloved children. We are saved because God so loved the world.

Yet I often prefer instant, quick and easy solutions that are painless, to the unpleasant situations I cause or face. I tend to prefer the extravagant, the latest, the best, when it comes to living my life in this world. Do you think the Israelites might have felt that way too, as they made their 40-year trek through the desert? They expected God and Moses to deliver them from their day-to-day lives by some extraordinary display of power. God, however, used snakes to teach them how God accomplishes God’s saving plan.

We listen in to the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John’s Gospel today. Nicodemus has come by night to try to figure out Jesus. Jesus in turn tries to move Nicodemus into the ways of the Spirit, not the flesh. Nicodemus is seeking facts, logic, and clarity. Jesus, on the other hand, scrambles the picture by moving him toward belief. Jesus knows Nicodemus is familiar with the scriptures recalling Moses’ lifting up the bronze serpent. Using this historical event, Jesus reveals that he, himself, also will be lifted up so that those who look with the eyes of faith will receive eternal life. This being “lifted up” on the pole of the cross becomes the gesture by which God changes everything. The order of creation is restored.

To St. Paul before his conversion, certainly a powerful Messiah would have been so much simpler to accept than a crucified one. Yet for Paul, Christ’s death on the cross became a preaching point. After quoting an ancient Christian hymn that declared Christ, “humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death,” Paul adds, “even death on a cross.” Paul understood that the triumph of Jesus’ death is not that of God over us, but God for us. The cross becomes the throne of victory whereby all will be drawn together as one.

My spiritual director, who keeps recalling me to the knowledge that this is not about me; keeps making the point that the movement in our spiritual lives is from desolation to consolation. I see that lesson here today. To us, a God who would shield us from all the hurts that come from being human and living our human lives would be simple. Probably too simple. For we know that there was no easy escape from suffering for Jesus or for his disciples; it was the one thing they could count on. It won’t be any different for us, the ones marked by the cross of Christ in Baptism. As we face our challenges, our sufferings, and even accept them, we need to have what the Israelites in the desert, Nicodemus and St. Paul all had: faith. If we have faith, then the exaltation of God’s love in the Cross of Christ will be our triumph too. God so loved the world.

God is good! All the time! All the time! God is good!

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A 7 September 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)

Paul reminds the Romans of the fundamental law, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But he probably doesn't mean what we think he means. Of course, he's not referring to warm fuzzy feelings toward one another, nor is he promoting wonderful romantic gestures. To "love your neighbor" is not about "being in love." Those expressions of love are generally directed to an individual; it's hard to fall in love with a large group.

But all three Scripture passages today have a group perspective. Ezekiel is trying to promote the idea that we are responsible for one another, not just for ourselves. The early Christian communities addressed by Matthew and Paul are being reminded that Christians that they must take a broad perspective – what advances all of us? What must be done for the common good? What must be avoided because it harms others even if it doesn't harm me? This is very different from the more common question "what's in it for me?"

Matthew and Paul are focusing on love for another in the church. Their concern is to love each other enough that we make sure not to lose anyone. Therefore, love also calls one another to account; we don't want to lose others because of their sin. Our love for one another helps us to understand that our focus is a desire for repentance, not punishment; in love our desire is for a change of life, not vengeance; taking a broad perspective means that we seek restoration, not excommunication.
When we love others, our desire is not to judge or condemn others, but to help them move away from the ways they are harming themselves and others.

In Matthew's Gospel, his instructions are intended to help people come to their senses, and not persist in their sinfulness. Sometimes recognizing the harm we're causing is not so easy, especially if we're locked into that individual mindset. Simply saying that "I had no idea"
is not enough to release us from our responsibility for the harm we've caused. It's like a driver who sways across the lane divider, who pulls out into traffic, and gets home safely, never realizing the wake of accidents they leave behind as people swerve and hit their breaks to avoid hitting that car. Matthew wants people to recognize their sinfulness, and then move out of their sin and into repentance; then he moves into the broader perspective of forgiveness between individuals and reconciliation with the entire community.

In the Gospel, Matthew uses the word "you" but he uses it in the plural – all of you have the power to bind or lose. This broad perspective of responsibility for one another is foreign to us in many ways. Consider for example, if you were taking a class and the class together earned one grade; that the responsibility of the classmates was to make sure that everyone understood the materials and completed the project (and not just that I earned my own grade based on my project and my test score). It's a very different perspective.

Matthew and Paul are emphasizing the responsibility we have for one another in the Church. Later, of course, the perspective gets even broader as we realize we are responsible for taking care of everyone, not just the "insiders" those who belong to the church. Because love does no harm; love seeks the good of the other person first. Love the takes the broad perspective of seeking the common good, and advancing the entire community. Love seeks the good of the entire group, not myself. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A            31 August 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)
Poor Jeremiah – he wanted to do what God asked of him, but when it didn't turn out like he expected, he 's angry at God. Jeremiah accused God of seducing him, duping him, tricking him into doing what God wanted, which led to Jeremiah's suffering and persecution.

Do you supposed that sometime in his later years, Jesus had the same kind of thoughts? Abba, I have tried to do everything that you asked. Now it looks as though I have to go to Jerusalem; it even appears that I'll be put to death in a shameful manner. Abba, what you've asked means that after I've lived a good and holy life, I'll end up disgraced. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus pleaded several times that what God wanted could be accomplished some other way.

Is our God one who seduces us into the paschal mystery of dying and rising, maybe unaware of what we're getting ourselves into? Is this our God – one who tricks us into suffering? Or might God be revealing something important to us, perhaps another way to look at human suffering?

Jesus began to show his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem where he would suffer, be put to death, and then be raised to life. Peter's reaction seems pretty normal – God forbid! There must be another way! There's no need for you to go through all that!

I'd guess that a fair amount of our lives are devoted to avoiding suffering, and rightly so. There's no need to introduce needless suffering into this world. So we exercise caution; we take safety measures to avoid accidents; we vaccinate and exercise and fluoridate our water to avoid disease; we take medicines, we get our cavities repaired, and we undergo surgery to prevent more suffering.      There's suffering that comes as a consequence of other people's decisions – car accidents caused by speeding or driving while intoxicated or stoned; people who go without because those with adequate resources do not help.      There's other suffering that requires bigger and more difficult and even systemic change – too many people are hungry; too many people do not have access to clean water, medical assistance, housing, and education.    And there's other suffering that's not so much under our control – the results of natural disasters; incurable diseases; and for everyone of us, eventually death. There's grief because of losses and transitions and disappointments.

Perhaps we need to understand that human existence is going to include suffering, and life cannot be constructed to avoid it. That to have suffering in our lives does not mean we did something wrong (Jesus is the perfect example); to have suffering does not mean that God is punishing us; to have suffering does mean that there is no God; to have suffering may simply be a part of human living.

We might prefer that God address this situation of human suffering some other way, which usually means that we want God simply to get rid of all suffering. And because we're human, God may not be surprised that we think that way or want that response. As Jesus said, "We are thinking as humans do, not as God does."

What is God's response to human suffering? If we look at Jesus, God responds by giving human suffering a different context and meaning. Instead of devoting our life and all our resources to avoiding suffering, Jesus' life suggests that we allow suffering to transform us. He doesn't say run away from it. Jesus heads towards the necessary suffering and tells us to do the same: deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow me. Follow Jesus' example of how to suffer.

Jesus' life suggests to us that suffering can't be avoided completely, and that in fact suffering may be one valuable way that helps us to be transformed into all that we humans can be. If Jesus in his total innocence cannot and did not avoid human suffering, then perhaps suffering is an essential part of being human; and Jesus himself was completely human. So I'm suggesting that Jesus' example shows us that unavoidable suffering has meaning because in God's hands it has the power to transform our lives.

We are not being duped or seduced because we still make a fundament decision – am I going to embrace the human suffering that I have no control over, or am I going to run away? Am I going to enter the Paschal Mystery, united with Jesus, knowing that on the other side I come into Resurrection; or am I going to devote myself to ignoring and running away, covering up and pushing away my suffering? Human suffering will unfold in its details uniquely for each of us, but human suffering will remain and cannot be avoided.

We each make our fundamental decisions about how we're going to live – live for ourselves, or for others; put ourselves first, or deny ourselves in order to assist others; insist that my suffering is unfair, hopeless, and meaningless, or to acknowledge human suffering as a part of life, with its own meaning and purpose and power to transform.

St. Paul uses this theme of transformation, too. Let your thinking be transformed so that you are renewed by Christ; let your bodies be transformed so that your life is an acceptable and pleasing offering to God; let your actions be transformed as you strive to do whatever God asks of you. And let your suffering be transformed by God, who through your suffering can bring you fullness of life and redeem the suffering of the world. You can try to save your life, but in the end you'll lose.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A 24 August 2008 (Fr. Ken Schmidt)
What is the purpose of Jesus' questions? It makes a big difference for how we understand this episode. Is Jesus asking the disciples in