The Word Burns Like Fire

God’s Word cannot be imprisoned in our hearts: it will burn like fire until it is set free. Even if it means we are objects of laughter and mockery, we allow God to transform us, for he will one day come with his angels in glory.

Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A.

Fathers and the Seed of Faith

Father recently planted a garden at the rectory. It looked like a lot of work! First, he picked a good spot. It had to get lots of sunlight, and be far enough from the tree to discourage birds and squirrels from stopping by for lunch. Next, he prepared the ground. He cleared the grass and weeds. He tilled the soil, making it loose and fresh for new plants. Then came the planting. That part is pretty straightforward — you put the plants in the ground. Now, though, it’s up to the plants to grow. No human can tell a plant to grow, or even explain how a plant “knows” to grow. They just do. Father can help those plants. He can fertilize them, make sure they’re watered, put in trellises for the tomatoes, but he can’t make them to grow. He just watches them grow, like the man in Jesus’s parable today. Slowly but surely, the plants grow. Now, Father could also hurt the plants’ chances of growing by not watering them, by letting weeds overtake them, or by planting too many plants in the space, but he also can’t make them stop growing. Such a plant could overcome the odds against it and survive.

Paul says to the Corinthians today that “we walk by faith.” This faith is a gift from God. Faith is one of those seeds God plants inside us. It will do its best to grow in us whether we want it to or not, but like a plant in a garden we can nurture it or hinder it throughout our lives. Paul tells us that when we die each of us will “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” Christ will ask us for the harvest, for the fruits of the faith that he planted inside of us. Our answer decides whether we go to an eternal reward or punishment. Our actions in this earthly life have such an important effect on our eternal life, the stakes are so very high; so, we must do our best to nurture the gifts God gave us. We must let our seed of faith grow into the big mustard plant Jesus talks about, that Ezekiel’s majestic cedars, or into the big ‘ole tomatoes that I hope show up in Father’s garden! To do this, to nurture the seeds of faith in ourselves and let them grow, we must live virtuously and morally; we must pray; and, we must make use the sacraments God gave us. All these things, especially the sacraments, give us grace. Grace is kind of like Miracle-Gro® for the seed of faith that God has planted inside of us.

Nurturing these seeds of faith is a good thing, but nurture is not the only part of gardening. The ground must be made ready. Jesus left these steps out, but he assumes that we will know these things. This leads to some questions. Who prepares us for receiving the first seed of faith? Who clears out the weeds and junk that’s in the way of God planting these seeds in our soul? Who tills the ground in our souls to prepare us for the gifts God wants to give us? Who nurtures our faith when we are too young to do it ourselves, and then teaches us how to nurture it? God certainly plays a part, but these critical activities are entrusted to a couple of very important people in everyone’s life: our parents.

We humans depend on our parents for a long time. Not only do we depend on them for our physical development, but also for our emotional development, for our mental development, and for the development and training of our souls. 1 Our parents teach us not only what is true, but even how to learn. Our parents teach us how to behave properly, to do good things, and how to live in a community. Both our mother and the father have important, but unique, roles in raising us. Each of them contributes in their own special way so that each of us grows to our full potential. Today, though, we celebrate Father’s Day. Since society’s understanding of fatherhood often ignores our fathers’ impact on our faith, I thought that we should take a look at the special ways that our dads contribute to us growing in faith.

Our fathers are providers and protectors, but those are not their only jobs. In nearly every culture that has existed—especially the Roman culture on which western society is based—the father was paterfamilias, the absolute and unquestionable household leader. After two thousand years of Christianity, we’ve figured out that even though our dad is supposed to be a leader, he is not supposed to be an emperor or a dictator. He is supposed to lead as Jesus taught his apostles to lead: with love and kindness, but also firmness and strength. A father’s goal, ultimately, should always be to give life to others, both physically and spiritually. 2 In the oldest stories of the Old Testament, the father was the one who offered sacrifice to God: he was the religious leader. Modern studies have shown that when dad is faithful about coming to Mass and practicing his faith, the rest of the family is much more likely to do so as well. The example of our fathers is powerful, and our dad’s example is one of the most powerful ways that he leads us. In leading us by example, with love, gentleness, and firmness, our fathers teach us. They teach us how to act when the time comes to act. They teach us that force is not the first way to resolve a problem, but they also teach us to be courageous and stand up for ourselves and others. They teach us how to love others. A father teaches his sons how men should treat women, and a father teaches his daughters how they should demand to be treated by men.

A Christian father’s duty to teach is so foundational that it is mentioned in the rite of baptism. At the end of a baptism, the celebrant gives three blessings: one to the mother, one to the father, and another to everyone gathered. The prayer over the father says: “God is the giver of all life, human and divine. May he bless the father of this child. He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith. May they be also the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do, in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The father teaches his children, together with his wife not only with words, but also their example.

All men are called to some sort of fatherhood, either as a biological father or as a spiritual father. Men, do not be afraid of this work. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said that “Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched” 3 How are our hearts stretched? Fathers are called to sacrifice for those entrusted to their care. Fathers are called to purify their lives from all sin. Today, fathers are called into a fierce battle with the sins against chastity. Fathers are called to be courageous and die to themselves in order to teach, to love, and to bring life to their wives, their children, and to the whole world. Men, we are called to follow the ways of our Lord, our Commander in the battle against evil, and our one true King, Jesus Christ. “[T]he ways of the Lord are not easy, but we were not created for an easy life, but for great things, for goodness.” 4

Sadly, many of us no longer have our father with us—for any number of tragic reasons. If our human fathers are no longer with us, we need not fear. God, our perfect, heavenly Father is always with us. He loves us so much that He became one of us. He showed us what life looks like without sin. He sent his only Son to us to protect us from our enemies and to teach us how we can purify our hearts and our minds. He sent his Holy Spirit to continuously and gently lead us back to him. He sacrificed himself, and willingly died so that we might learn what true, life-giving love is.

Today, let us thank God for planting the seeds of faith within us. Let us thank our earthly fathers for tilling the soil of our souls and nurturing the seed of faith as it grows in us. Finally, let us make a conscious decision to do everything we can to nurture the seed of faith in our hearts and in the hearts of others by living virtuous lives, virtuous lives in which we seek the will of God and do it.

Note: Into the Breach is an excellent apostolic exhortation written by Bishop Olmstead of Phoenix. I read it in preparation for this homily. While I did not directly quote it, it was influential in the development of this homily.

Today’s Readings:
June 17, 2018
11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B (USA: Father’s Day)
Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34

How do we love?

God loves me into existence. He has loved me since before he formed me in my mother’s womb,1 and he will love me long after my bones turn to dust.2 Every moment of my existence is due to God’s love for me.

How do I respond to this love? The only response that could possibly be close to sufficient is to love God with every bit of my existence: with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind.3 God has given me everything, so it makes sense that I should love him back with everything. But what does this look like? There are some obvious answers to what loving God looks like: attending Mass, praying, trying not to sin. But that is not all that is required of me.

God doesn’t just love me into existence. God loves you into existence, too. God loves everyone that you or I will meet today into existence. Every person who has ever existed: Donald Trump, Barack Obama, St. Pope John Paul, St. Mother Teresa, the guy down the street who is always mad about your lawn, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Peter: God loves them all into existence. Immediately after telling us to love God, Jesus tells us that we must love our neighbors as ourselves.4 To truly love God, we must also love those whom he loves. To say we love God and to mistreat our neighbor at the same time is hypocrisy! Jesus tells us that whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to him.5 If we want to love God, we must also love all our brothers and sisters in this world.6

Love is not a thing that we can practice sometimes. We can’t act in hate toward one person and expect it not to have an effect our ability to love another person. This works in our favor, though! When we act out of true love for someone, it grows our ability to love in general. By loving our neighbor, we learn to love. We learn to love God by loving our neighbor, and by loving our neighbor we love God.7

But what does this look like? How do we love our neighbors?

The readings today give us a great starting point. God called the Israelites—and us—in the Exodus to treat the foreigners among us as any other citizen, because ultimately, we are all citizens not of this earth, but of heaven. We should not do wrong to those who are vulnerable, such as widows or orphans. Paul tells and shows us that by living a moral life, we can become models of good behavior, and love our brothers and sisters by showing them the way to happiness. We turn away from our idols of self and let go of the idea that we must protect our time from the encroachment of our neighbors. A wise priest once told me never to make my schedule too tight: we must allow for those “God moments,” where you run into someone who just needs to talk.

But we can do better than this. Love is the only virtue that remains in Heaven, so it is critical to work on it as much as we can! I believe that the best examination of our love was written by St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8

we can use this as an examination of conscience to see how we are doing with love. Have I been patient with myself? Have I been kind to my neighbor? Have I born the burdens that God has allowed me to experience this day?

Love your neighbor as yourself, so that you are able to love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Today’s Readings:
Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51; 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10; Matthew 22:34-40