26 August 2018
/ 21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
••
Joshua 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b •• Psalm 34
•• Ephesians 5:21-32 •• + John 6:60-69
•• Title: Real
Presence
[__01__] ‘Instantaneous ’ - instantaneous
– means “right now.”
In this homily, I’d like to talk about
what is going on …
·
RIGHT
NOW
in the Gospel.
·
Then,
a “RIGHT NOW” example to
illuminate the Gospel.
·
And,
to speak about what is happening RIGHT NOW in the Catholic Church, in the news, in the news with which you
are perhaps all very familiar.
‘Instantaneous’
or ‘real time’ describes something that is happening right now, the hurricane
in Hawaii or another weather pattern, whether we are in it or not, we know of
its existence.
It’s still happening right now.
Sometimes, we turn off our phones or
computers or TV’s wondering what is happening – right now – that I cannot be
connected to. And, in Catholic
Tradition, we Jesus’ Real Presence – his instantaneous presence - through Holy
Communion.
This my body given up for you. Right
now.
[__02__] Jesus
is real in Holy Communion.
This is not a matter of “giving up”
because I am indifferent, but rather “giving up” or “offering up” because we
care about the well being of another person.
As an example… a RIGHT NOW example.
[__03 __] Right now. My brother and his wife have a
daughter who is about to start college, about to start her first year of
undergraduate-college and is moving into her college residence hall today about 30 minutes from here in New York.
But, they live in California. She is moving in right now. TODAY. How do you
bring a child to college with all of her belongings, all of her necessary
things, 3,000 miles, when it is a
cross-country excursion?
Your order everything online.
In real time, it gets there.
And, over the past 3 months – RIGHT
NOW - my parents’ condominium – also hear near NYC -has come to resemble a
warehouse, packages, boxes, deliveries, from Target, Ikea, Amazon. And the
boxes were not placed in the garage or basement, but right there all over the
living room and dining room.
I told my father the other day, “you
know you could have put these in the garage or the basement.” I think he liked them in the living room to
keep an eye on them, even though he did not know what was in them.
The paternal and parental instinct,
just to keep an eye on things even if you do not know what is going on.
So, amid all of this, of course, there
was a person at the center of all of this, their granddaughter, my brother’s
daughter and my niece, to take care of her properly, to get her started.
[__04__] It is a frequent message of the Gospel that
we should not store up treasures on earth – or from Amazon – but rather
treasure in heaven.
But, I think there a temptation which
is that we might just welcome Jesus as one more box or package and put him in a
box and keep him in a corner.
Jesus is, however, is the child not to leave
behind but rather the child and person to place in front of us.
[__05 __] Jesus gives life when we welcome him amid
our busyness, our problem-solving, our packaging and re-packaging.
The boxes and packages of Target,
Ikea, Amazon make sense in the living room because they are connected to a
person whose boxes they are. “The yoke is easy and the burden light” (Matthew
11:30) when we act out of true love.
[__06__] There is a challenge in the Gospel, because
some disciples do not want to welcome Jesus – RIGHT NOW – into their lives.
They want to postpone or to re-define
his arrival.
Jesus reminds us he is here to stay
and to remain among us, not to just to deliver Holy Communion – and leave – but
to deliver you and me, to take us with him.
Do we want to go there?
Did we have other plans?
[__07 __] The temptation faced by the disciples of
his day and ours is that we will “also leave”.
But, to receive Holy Communion means
that we are in community with others. Your burden is my burden or box – whether
it is delayed, lost or on time – is my burden also, as Saint Paul wrote also in
Ephesians 5 about the shared joy and struggles of wives and husbands in
marriage.
We are all preparing for Jesus’
arrival which is RIGHT NOW. It is not tomorrow, it’s TODAY and at 11:30 am Mass
and was also at 5:30 Saturday, and 7:30 am and 9:30 am.
But, we do not want to postpone it
until next week, because it is happening right now, we are called to welcome
Jesus by our willingness to be converted, changed, RIGHT NOW.
[__08__] RIGHT NOW, in the news media, there are
many articles about the mishandling of criminal abuse cases of children. I was
remembering something that happened around the year 2000.
[__09 __] Around the year 2000, I was applying to
go to the seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange. I was, at that
time, working.
And, one evening, after my regular
daytime job, I went to the seminary for my interview with a priest and
professor there.
And, I was particularly stressed out
due to a difficult project at work.
I was reflecting that the seminary
would be a place for me to pray and to change my pace of life.
And, even now, 18 years later, I am
still on that same journey. I am not perfectly peaceful, but I am seeking that
peace – in God – that you are also seeking.
And, the seminary started that journey
very well.
Now, after the priest heard this from me, he
quoted Psalm 84 to me … was seeking a different way …and I remember the priest
who interviewed me quoted to me Psalm 84 …”one day within your courts is
better than a thousand elsewhere.”
Now … not every day in the seminary was
better than a thousand elsewhere.
However, for the most part, I
experienced a significant change in my life and attitude, very positive. I felt
called to be a priest.
About a year or so after that interview – and
early in my seminary days – there were scandals being discovered of priests and
criminal abuse of children, children who trusted them.
This was in 2002. So, I thought ..why should I even stay in the
seminary?
Is one day within your courts better than a thousand
elsewhere? I this place really any better?
That is the question.
I came to believe it was, it is and that I
was/am called to become a priest.
It is a joy to serve you at Our Lady of
Lourdes.
During these 2002 discovery time of many
scandals of abuse by priests/clergy, I was encouraged by seminary faculty who
wanted to discuss this with us, with the seminarians. We were able to talk with our priests,
mentors, and professors who were very open and honest with us about their own
disappointment in Church leaders.
I do not know what the changes will be as a
result of the most recent discovery and reporting of abuse. I do not have an
announcement of a solution or resolution.
I share your outrage, your disappointment.
And, if any of you wants to talk to me personally whether it is to talk in
detail, just to vent to me, to share your concerns, I am glad to listen at any
time, before or after Mass, on the phone or in person, whether it is to ask a
question or demand an answer. Please call me or stop in and see you.
I have a responsibility to dialogue with you
and listen to you, to what your concerns are.
The seminary remains the center of
formation and information and help to those studying for the priesthood. Pray
for those studying for the priesthood, including own Father Bob Suszko is one
of our priests as he is vice rector of the seminary – please pray for Father
Bob and for the rector and professors.
The seminary was a place of dialogue
and discernment for me and the most important question (in 2 parts) I was asked
was this –
“do you love the people whom you
serve?; and, do you show the people you serve that you love them?”
I do love you, the people I serve.
And, I realize that I do not do this perfectly, all the time.
But, that is the question – some
priests – some men preparing for the priesthood did not know the answer to that
question, did not know what it meant unfortunately.
And, this had heinous consequences.
And, so, above all, we pray for the
victims, the children, the families,
They
need our EYES to watch over them, and EARS to hear them.
We must listen and watch out for them,
to let them know that the Catholic Church cares for them and about them, RIGHT
NOW.
Listen to them.
[__fin__]
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