By accepting God’s covenant promise, Abraham demonstrated that he had a faith that went deeper than the visible.
Homily for the Fifth Thursday of Lent.
St. Joseph’s Faith
St. Joseph had incredible faith in God. Today, let us ask the patron of the Universal Church to pray for us, that we might have that same faith.
Homily for the Solemnity of St. Joseph, 2020.
Mass for the Solemnity of St. Joseph
Hope and the Coronavirus
We need to take reasonable precautions to protect ourselves, but we also must remember that God will always provide, so we should not let our hearts be troubled.
Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year A.
Salt, Light, and Faith
We are Salt and Light to all the Earth. Our faith allows us to be good salt and power the light of Christ in our hearts.
Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
Trusting in God
The ancient Israelites struggled to trust God and asked for a king. Those who sought healing from Jesus trusted that he could do what he promised.
Daily Homily for the Memorial of St. Anthony, Cycle II, on January 17, 2020.
John’s Journey
Perhaps the journey to hear John the Baptist preach was half the point.
Homily given for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year A.
Habakkuk’s Question
We are often told that God is all-merciful, that he is mercy. I can’t argue with that, because, well it’s true. God is also all-just; he is justice. God is mercy, and God is justice. The two cannot be separated in Him. In fact, God’s justice is his mercy, and God’s mercy is his justice. The prophet Habakkuk struggles with this in today’s first reading. He sees wicked people prospering, and he doesn’t understand why God allows them to continue existing. He thinks God needs to punish them now. If you look at the selection of verses we read, you’ll see that we skip quite a few right in the middle. In the section we skip, God replies to Habakkuk, reminding him that the unjust, the unrepentant, the evil will be repaid, eventually. Habakkuk is not satisfied with this answer. He demands to know why wicked people are allowed to destroy—to swallow up—the good, the faithful, the just. God replies again, but He doesn’t give Habakkuk a time line for the destruction of Israel’s enemies. Instead, he promises that time “will come, but in the meantime the righteous must persevere, believing that the salvation, the promise of which is communicated through prophetic revelation, will eventually be theirs (2:2–5).” 1
Habakkuk could very well be prophesying in our own day. It seems that people who are obstinate in their sin, who commit evil acts every day, are allowed to run rampant. We see political leaders commit crimes and atrocities all over the world. We even see evil committed by those who have solemnly sworn before God to lead his people and shepherd his flock. I can’t blame anyone for crying out to God, “How long must we suffer, O Lord?”
While we echo the prophets cry, we must also be attentive to our Lord’s response, which contains two critical components. First, God will give those people who commit evil and sin exactly what is due to them. Hell is a real place. If we do not all repent and strive to follow the Lord, it is very possible to spend our eternity there. Obviously, I would not desire or wish such a fate upon anyone, but it is for that exact reason I must warn you that it is possible. God will never tire of forgiving us when we turn to him, especially in confession; however, he will not be duped. He will not suffer hypocrites who claim to follow him in their words, but through their actions show that they could not care less. The prophets of the Old Testament warn us of this, and throughout the Gospel, Jesus confirms this teaching.
The second component of God’s response to Habakkuk is that we must persevere. The Gospel reminds us today that we are servants of God, and we must “do the work,” so to speak, that he has asked us to do. Jesus reminds us that we must remain strong in our faith. He does not expect us to be able to do this on our own. He has given us many gifts so that we might grow in our faith. He gave us the sacraments so that we may be sanctified, made holy, and grow closer to him. In Baptism, we are welcomed into God’s kingdom and the wound of original sin is removed from our souls. In Confirmation, the gift of the Holy Spirit is deepened within our hearts. In the Eucharist, we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and enter into Communion with Him, all the Saints, and all of our brothers and sisters in the Church. In Confession, the repentant are forgiven of their sins and given the grace and strength to continue following the narrow path the Lord has asked them to walk. In anointing of the sick, our Lord heals the sickness of our souls and sometimes our bodies. In matrimony, couples assist each other to grow in holiness, and they assist God’s church by bringing to life new members. In holy orders, God ensures that his people have ministers to give his people all of these sacraments.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot despair in troubled times. We must remember the gifts that God has given us to persevere in our faith. Paul reminds us to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. Let us remember to call on those gifts of power, love, and self-control, to be strengthened in our faith.
Today’s Readings:
October 6, 2019
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4; Psalm 95; Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10
Humility and the Heavenly Banquet
In our Gospel today, Jesus gives what could be perceived as a lesson in social etiquette, but it is so much more than that.
Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Liturgical Year C, given at 9AM on September 1, 2019.
Full homily: https://mattsiegman.com/2019/08/humility-and-the-heavenly-banquet/
Humility and the Heavenly Banquet
Some weekends, our Holy Mother, the Church, makes the theme tying the readings together very obvious. This is one of those weekends. So, let’s talk about humility!
In our Gospel today, Jesus gives what could be perceived as a lesson in social etiquette, but it is so much more than that. This wedding banquet of which our Lord speaks is not some abstract thing. We are all invited to this wedding banquet: Heaven. In Heaven, our souls will be united with God in a way completely unfathomable by us while we live in this world. While we remain ourselves, we will mystically be united with God in eternal bliss and happiness at this wedding banquet. The eternal wedding banquet in Heaven is that place where God brings all of us back to himself, so that we can share in our Creator’s joy.
“What does this have to do with humility?” you might ask. Jesus warns us against overestimating our place at this banquet. He wants us to know our place before the host of the wedding banquet. When we look at the bigger picture, Jesus is telling us that it is absolutely critical to know where we stand before God. If we overestimate where we stand in relation to our Lord and God, we run the truly horrifying risk of being asked to move to a different place at the table. When we look at the rest of this story in Luke—we only read about half of Luke’s account of this parable—or consider Matthew’s recounting of this same teaching, we find that there are even worse consequences if we overestimate our standing with God. If we refuse to honor this invitation to the Heavenly banquet or if we come without having attempted to prepare ourselves, we may be thrown out into the streets, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus is telling us that it is much better to underestimate ourselves in relation with God, to not take our relationship with him for granted, to always continue working on that relationship, so that when we do arrive at our eternal judgment and reward, God surprises us by moving us to a higher seat. Humility is not allowing other people to walk all over us. Humility is not saying “yes” to every request made of us. Humility is properly understanding our worth. Our worth comes from two things and only two things: the fact that we are adopted sons and daughters of our God who created us, and our relationship with God. Nothing else matters.
Jesus gives us a fascinating example to help us understand humility today. He tells us that when we hold a banquet, we should invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, because these people cannot repay us. At one level, Jesus is being straightforward and telling us exactly what to do here. Caring for these people is something we all must do, but Jesus never speaks on just one level. As I prayed with this passage, God revealed, perhaps, the most humbling aspect of this Gospel passage. Jesus is asking us to do exactly what God does with us. God has invited all of us to his heavenly banquet, knowing that we cannot ever repay him. We are all the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. We are poor in our faith. We are all crippled by original sin. We are lame, unable to walk without much difficulty on the path God asks us to follow. We are all blind to the spiritual reality all around us every day.
Despite all of this, God invites us to his wedding banquet. To our wedding banquet with Him. Will we accept his invitation? Will we prepare ourselves for the eternal wedding banquet by cleansing ourselves of the grime of sin and putting on the garments of faith and good works? Will we pray to God and ask him to grow our faith and hope in him so that we have the courage to walk the narrow path which leads to this great banquet? Will we take an honest look at ourselves and our relationship with God and allow him to show us those areas where we need to grow closer to him?
May we all ask God for true humility, in hopes that one day we might join him in eternal bliss at the Heavenly banquet.
Today’s Readings:
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
September 1, 2019
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Psalm 68; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14