33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB - celebrant

Lk 21:5-19 Mal 3:19-20a
2 Thess 3:7-12

focus: In difficult times, we are called to put our trust in God and to live as disciples of Jesus.

During a pilgrimage to Israel years ago, I was quite impressed by a model of the ancient city of Jerusalem that was shown to us in a hotel called Holyland. It depicts what Jerusalem looked like at the time of Jesus. The most attractive structure is the temple which Jesus and his contemporaries saw in its impressive beauty.

In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about the destruction of the temple and the whole city. Nothing will be left standing to admire of the temple, so he foretells. In fact, in 70 AD, Titus, the son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, destroyed the city. He did order, however, that one wall of the temple should be left for the Jews to wail at.This wall is still there.

Plus, Jesus adds a whole catalogue of disasters that are going to come. He warns against deceivers, people who pose as saving leaders and claim to know even the greatest of all secrets, namely when the world will end.
Jesus tells his hearers to avoid leaders who manipulate their fear! (2x) This is not so easy!

It’s even more difficult to follow Jesus’ advice not to be frightened by wars and nations fighting each other. At the time of Jesus, battles and wars were limited by the weapons available then. Today we have others at our disposal! Nuclear weapons, used by some irresponsible country or party, could bring about the final end of life on our planet.

Jesus goes on to mention earthquakes, plagues and famines. They still are so much part of human suffering, as we see now again with Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. We know that some of these disasters mean for numerous people the end of their earthly lives, even though they don’t signify yet the end of the world.

Jesus adds that his followers will be persecuted for their beliefs. In this suffering he sees an opportunity for courageous witness.

Finally, Jesus mentions betrayal. When people start taking their Christian faith seriously, they can partly or totally lose the support of their families and friends.

Jesus is trying to make faith face the reality of suffering in the world. He doesn’t avoid the questions arising from living as believers in a world, in which so much seems to contradict the existence of God.

Some good people lose their faith when they see the evil and suffering in our world. They cannot look into the eyes of a child starving in Haiti or Sudan and still praise God. They cannot witness the senseless suffering of so many and still believe in a God who cares.

They cannot see, either, that these questions are completely answered by the argument of “freedom of choice.”

Some bad things just happen, without being caused by anybody’s wrongdoing. There are no ready answers to these questions. They are our questions, too. There are times when all faith can do is endure.

Dear sisters and brothers in the faith, Jesus has no quick answers for our difficult questions, either. He just tells us, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

“Do not be terrified,” Jesus encouraged once his disciples. This is also his message to us. You have nothing to fear … “Not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” When it comes to giving a testimony of your faith, “I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.” One source of strength for me is Holy Scripture. Reading it daily and praying with it can always restore my inner peace. Sometimes it takes a while until a find the word that God has ready for me; but I always find it.

It was clear to the early Christians, that in spite of all tribulations God’s kingdom, God’s definitive reign on earth, has irrevocably begun with Jesus Christ; God is still present and at work in spite of all that is happening. Praying with Holy Scripture helps me see that. I also find it helpful to review my day in the evening asking God to show me what I am grateful for today. This draws my attention to the gifts of God that I receive every single day.

We don’t know what is still ahead of us. But whatever may happen, we may trust that we and our world are in God’s loving hand and that nothing can separate us from Christ, the “Sun of justice” whose rays finally, and already now in the present, can heal us, again and again. AMEN

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB - celebrant

2 Maccabees 7:1–2, 9–14
2 Thessalonians 2:16–3:5
Luke 20:27–38

Do we remember the last line of the creed we say every Sunday? After saying “I believe” and “I confess,” the last statement of the creed is introduced by “I look forward.” “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” The creed does not reach a climax in another “I believe” statement. After expressing our faith in the Creator God, his gift of the Son and the Spirit, and confessing the Church, we now move into where we are at the moment. At the moment I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life to come. All of what I believe shapes my present position; it defines me and my existence. Precisely because I believe in the mystery of God who raised Christ to his right hand and from there sends out his Spirit to make a new community, I can now name what I look forward to: namely resurrection. I have professed my faith in Jesus’ resurrection—now I can say that I look forward to my own.

The Word of Scripture we have heard this morning is the grounding for the last creedal statement. It clarifies clearly what I look forward to: resurrection. It also makes certain that I am in no delusion about what resurrection might look like. The words of the creed aside, we could ask ourselves what do I look forward to, really? Do I look forward to anything? And if I do, does it direct my actions, my life, my hope in the present. The Maccabean brothers are very clear about what they looked forward to, what they expected. If I say that I look forward to the resurrection each Sunday at the Eucharist then it may challenge my expectations, my longings, my desires. I may look forward to many things, but are they in line with the mystery of the resurrection, with God’s powerful love to transform us and gift us with new being? Can I look forward to something that is beyond my control or some thing that is pure gift-life that does not end?

The brothers from the Maccabean times a few hundred years before Christ eloquently give voice to what it is they look forward to. And what they look forward to clearly influences the choices they make in the face of threats against their lives. In the gospel, Jesus’ interaction with the Sadducees should help us to understand what the resurrection looks like.

It is helpful to know who the Sadducees are who are challenging Jesus about resurrection. They were an aristocratic body of Jews confined to Jerusalem for the most part. You could say they were the power behind throne. Originally all priests, by Jesus’ day probably a mixed body. Two things characterized them: politically and socially they curried favor with the Roman occupying forces. The majority of people wanted the Romans out. The Sadducees did not want anyone to disturb the status quo. The Roman presence allowed them to keep their social status. Religiously, they confined their scriptures to what was written in the first five books of the Bible. This meant they did not value the prophets or the wisdom of the elders that had accumulated over the centuries and was written down. This meant that for them they did not believe in angels or the resurrection as these were not to be found in Torah or Pentateuch; they were a later development. They were rather conservative in their thinking and certainly did not think in terms of developing doctrine. Apparently Jesus had spoken in favor of resurrection and they responded with an absurd argument against it. Jesus does not join them in their sarcasm but merely states that they have missed the point about resurrection. They simply do not understand it.

What was the problem? While mocking the idea of resurrection they thought of it in terms of this life: whose wife will the woman be if she married all seven? Jesus makes it clear that resurrection brings about a whole new order: a new order with regard to our bodies and then to our relationships. There is no marriage as there is no need of procreation or passing on the family name since there is no more death. All are alive.

We cannot but think of resurrection in terms of this world and this life. It is true that this life is all we know and it is inevitable that what we look forward to is somehow determined by present bodily experience. But Jesus doesn’t want resurrection to be determined by this life alone. It is far greater than that simply because the creator God has no limits. And yet resurrection is linked to this life; it is our dead bodies that rise but as a new creation. Recognizable but not the same; a new order of existence is working in the resurrection.

Jesus clashed with the Sadducees because he took the future out of their hands, out of our hands and gave it back to God for whom all things are alive. A resurrection, a future, left in our hands would hardly reflect the newness and transformation it demands. We tend to control, to manipulate and administer. Resurrection is not about some spark of life continuing on after we die; it is not about re-incarnation, the same life on earth with a better chance to make it work; it is not about resuscitation of dead bodies. Resurrection is about God breathing new life into what has grown old, tired and worn out. It has to be God’s work for he began it all, the universe, my unique being. He can and will make it all new.

Wherein lies the hope of the future. The hope says Jesus lies in the covenant. God covenanted, entered into a relationship, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the prophets, the people of Israel. He covenanted with his Son, Jesus. Once God enters into a relationship, he does not let go. He is faithful, he is alive and so are those he has drawn into covenant with him. We who are in Jesus are in that living covenant, that relationship. We are alive for God in Christ Jesus, always alive in God.

Let us come back to the last line of the creed: It is challenging and even dangerous. What am I looking forward to? Have I grown comfortable with what is present? So comfortable that I am concerned only with making this life better on my terms? Have I so planned the future that I control everything about it? If so, then it might be a dead end. Do I determine the parameters of my relationships? Do I want he future to look what I think the present should be? Or is there in my expectations room for a surprise, for imagination, for what scripture calls the impossible? For us, the surprise that God offers is called resurrection—life in the heart of death.

Saying that I look forward to the resurrection of the dead is saying that I am allowing God to be the mysterious life force that shapes what I might call a dead end. It is saying that there is more here than I can imagine. If I look forward to resurrection from the dead, then my life here and now must be different. The life I am living is life with the God of the burning bush; it is a fire that burns yet does not destroy as Moses discovered. So, God’s burning love purifies all that it touches now until it is totally transformed in the resurrection to reflect the glory and beauty of the Creator who made it in his own image and likeness. Surely I can spend my days looking forward in hope to that transformation. And in so doing live with courage and strength and boldness. Surely, I can look forward to a life in which my love, our love now is crowned with a joy, intimacy and beauty that is beyond our wildest dreams. For those who love, God prepared the impossible, the unthinkable. That is where our creed ends, but that is where we begin to come alive.

~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB - celebrant

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Last week I visited the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City. In addition to the fruit trees, there is also an area with forest trees that you can climb over rope bridges. A wonderful facility for children. Some grandparents and their grandchildren were there. Adults can climb the trees too. Some treetops have been provided with stairs so that you can climb up and get an overview of the forest. Birds can also be seen from above, or if you're lucky, animals jumping around on the forest floor below.

In the gospel today, we heard about Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree so that he could see Jesus when he came to the city of Jericho. Well, the reason Luke gives was because he was small in stature. But Luke also writes that he was rich.

Today, to imagine who Zacchaeus was, you would have to compare him to a secretary of finance. And then you realize that it seems ridiculous for such a high official to climb a tree.

But the Sycamore tree is an evergreen tree. It does not lose its leaves and thus offers a natural protection against looks. At least from a distance you cannot look into the tree and see who is sitting in the tree. Just like in the "Arbor day farm", where you can watch the forest animals under the cover of the leaves.

Therefore, Zacchaeus went under the protection of the tree, firstly, so that people would not see him and laugh and secondly, so that he would not have to be ashamed before Jesus because he is rich and probably also gained this wealth because of corruption. He knows he's a sinner.

But when Jesus comes by, he can look up into the tree and see him sitting there. Herod's chief tax collector. “What is Zacchaeus doing in the tree?” Jesus must have thought. "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house."

Zacchaeus comes down from the tree and the people notice and complain that Jesus is going to be with a sinner.

Jesus doesn't need to say more as he already said, and Zacchaeus admits immediately his sins in the presence of the Lord and promises to give a portion of his wealth to the poor. And Jesus states: "Today salvation has come to this house". Full stop!

We too sometimes climb a tower or a viewing platform to get a better view of things. Especially on vacation. On the other hand, this also gives us a distance from everyday life. When we look down from above everything looks smaller, the people, but also the problems or worries we have. It can also be a suppression that you don't want to acknowledge your problems and would rather flee than work on them. (But at the latest when we descend again, the problems will be back.)

On the other side when we talk about other people, we generalize as well as the people in the gospel! We don't look at that person as an individual who also has problems and worries. We have prejudices.

When the crowd that greets Jesus in the Gospel sees Zacchaeus, they get angry because they say, "That's a sinner!" They look at Zacchaeus from a distance. They don't look at him as a person, as someone who is "a descendant of Abraham."

Jesus, on the other hand, approaches him and speaks to him personally. Zacchaeus opens up himself to the Lord and in the presence of the Lord he can speak without fear whatever oppresses his heart, can confess his sins to him. And even more: he will give the money he took to the poor! This is repentance!

Isn't it wonderful to see that Zacchaeus no longer needs the protection of the leaves when he is in the presence of the Lord? Sometimes we feel as well that we need protection around us like a second skin to hide our real self.

We once had a conference with young people who didn't know each other. It was cold and the room wasn't heated yet. The young people still wore their jackets. The room was getting warm, but the young people didn't take off their jackets. Only when we got to know each other better after a few hours they did take off their jackets because they no longer needed them to protect themselves from each other. They were no longer afraid of each other.

Likewise, Zacchaeus was able to free himself from his protective skin and climb down from the tree. It is interesting that Adam and Eve covered themselves with leaves from the fig tree when God called them after eating the forbidden fruit. Sycamore tree is a species of fig tree. Zacchaeus also put himself under the protection of the fig tree when God came into town because he knew he had sinned. He can now discard this protection.

In God's presence everyone can be who he is. Before we now celebrate the Holy Eucharist, we too are invited to take off this hard protective skin that we have built up around us, so that we may be open to God, who wants to meet us in the bread and in the wine and who accepts us as we are.

Amen.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB - celebrant

Lk 17:11-19 2 Kg 5:14-17 2 Tm 2:8-13

focus: The complete cure for body and soul was experienced by the man who came back and gave thanks to God.

function: Gratitude can have a healing effect on us, too.

In East Africa, when you arrive after a journey, people will often say to you in Swahili, “Pole kwa safari,” “I am sorry that you had to travel.” This preserves the notion that traveling in the past was often strenuous and dangerous.

Here is a true story from our country, from the 19th century.  Two settlers of the American West lived far away from each other but wanted to meet.  They decided on a certain time and a certain place for getting together.  Both had to ride on horseback for days in order to reach this location, partly through uninhabited territory.  As they finally arrived at the destination and found each other, the one said: “Let me tell you what happened on my trip.

I almost wouldn’t have made it here.  On the way suddenly my horse shied and threw me off. Thanks be to God, I was unharmed.  Then, as I got up, I was seized with terror:  For only a few steps ahead of me there was a deep gorge. I almost would have fallen into it.  Immediately I knelt down and thanked God for rescuing me in such a wonderful way from certain death.”

The other man was silent for a moment.  Then he responded, “Listening to you, I feel that I experienced God’s help at least as miraculously as you did.  My horse didn’t throw me off on the way here.  It carried me calmly and securely without any accident.  I didn’t find myself in any major danger!  If I only consider of what could have happened to me!

Both settlers were profoundly grateful that they had reached their destination safe and sound.

Gratitude is also the topic of today’s gospel and of today’s first reading.  In the gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, the place of his suffering and death.  In a village, ten lepers approach him, or more exactly, people with a disease of their skin.  In ancient Jewish society, such people were regarded as unclean and infectious.  Therefore they were excluded from worship in the temple, and in general, from any human contact. They were social outcasts. It’s surprising that they entered the village. This was forbidden! Their desire to meet Jesus must have been very strong. They show their faith and trust in him also by addressing Him as “Master” and by asking him for help. Jesus sends them off to the priests. There they could, being cured, be accepted back into communion with other people. And, indeed, the men are being freed from their malady on the way.

It’s understandable that they then hasten to the temple in order to have their healing approved. Nevertheless, one man returns first to Jesus, the source of the cure; he praises and thanks God, and throws himself on the ground in veneration of Jesus. Jesus’ comment is: “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”  The man who returned and gave thanks experienced healing and salvation.

A parallel to this story is the healing of the Syrian Naaman by the prophet Elisha.  Naaman returns, expressing his gratitude to Elisha, who in turn gives all the credit to God.

A person can easily imagine that those settlers in our story of the beginning were grateful for having arrived safely at their journey’s destination.  Yes, traveling in those days was much riskier and more incalculable than today.  Perhaps people experienced God’s providence more frequently and more intensely in those days because they were more regularly in touch with the dangers of traveling, with the forces of nature, with illnesses, etc.

At any rate, gratitude is also an important attitude for us.  Our life’s journey has its risks and dangers, too.  We also have reason to be grateful for so much protection and help that we’ve received on the way, and for so many other things in our life that we wouldn’t have been able to give to ourselves.  It’s like the one leper and like Naaman, to give thanks.  It is good, like Elisha, to give credit for what we’ve received to God.

Brothers, sisters! In the gospel, the complete cure for body and soul was experienced by the man who came back and gave thanks to God.  Gratitude heals and saves us, too.

Benedictine Bro. David Steidl-Rast wrote a book titled, Gratefulness--the Heart of Prayer, in which he speaks about the connection between ‘thinking’ and ‘thanking.’  It has become a regular practice for me, in the evening, as part of my review of the day, to ask myself, What am I grateful for today? What am I most grateful for? Usually, a couple of things occur to me. I recall them all and give thanks to God.  Sometimes a nice conversation comes to my mind, or the sunshine, the colorful leaves of fall, an insight that I gained while praying with Holy Scripture, the good taste of a meal … It’s necessary to think back to these gifts in order for me to be able to be thankful for them.  Only in this way they truly become part of my life.

“We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day,” Henry Nouwen once wrote.  Choosing to be grateful daily is choosing to become a joyful person.  Gratefulness has its effect in our prayer and on our lives.  It helps us to receive the healing, the wholeness, and the salvation that Jesus wants to bring also to us.

    ~Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB - celebrant

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

In the gospel today, Jesus is talking to his disciples about faith. They were asking him: “increase our faith!”
Several people talked to me in these days, that the situation of life is going worse. And that they are about to lose their faith because of the problem of these days. There is the inflation; everything you need to buy, is more expensive as it was before. There is the war in Ukraine, where the Russians playing around with nuclear weapons and threatens the world with unnecessary demonstration of might and power. There is a change in the climate systems around all parts of the world, in which we can see, that systems of rain and dry season are changing in a way the people didn’t experienced before. These things, and of course other personal problems, bring people to that point of questioning their faith. But ARE these reasons to question our faith?

Back to the apostles: I think, they had similar questions of life, that we have today as well. The apostles were not yet Saints. They were still disciples, that means students, who are still learners. The faith of the apostles had to increase. Even when we remember the situation of Jesus on the cross. The disciples ran away. Only the women remained at the cross. Until the third day when Jesus himself came into the house of the disciples. And then they got the Holy Spirit as a gift to INCREASE their faith. And from that moment on they could be called APOSTLES! What means: To be sent! And you can only send someone in pastoral work who has faith!

The image of the mustard seed which Jesus uses to explain how big he thinks the faith could grow, is an image for to explain how the faith can grow. It doesn’t say something about the faith of the disciples. The disciples left already everything for Jesus and that is a faith which is beyond all the faith the normal people had at this time. So there was already a big faith in the disciples.

But it is interesting to look to that image of a small seed which becomes a big tree. Every gardener had that experience in May when she or he plants small seeds in the soil and big plants come out of it. It’s amazing how fast small seeds are developing during the first month. To get the harvest of fruits during the summer. And even later, may be now in October or November, when you have to clean up the garden and make it ready for winter. Than you recognize how big small seed can become.

It was yesterday, October 1st. We celebrated in the church the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, or as we call her: Therese, the little flower. She was a Saint which we can call a small seed, a small flower, who became a big tree in the Carmelite Order. Her faith was already so big, that no one could stop her to enter religious life. Even the Pope Leo XIII had to admit that something is going on with that child and encouraged her to continue her way with God. The permission to enter the Carmelites Sisters she got from the local Bishop. Because they saw in that little child Therese the seek which could become a big tree in faith.

And when we have a closer look to the biography of St. Therese, then we see: It’s all about love. The love to God was leading her the way she had to go. Love is also for our human life something special. It is in the beginning something very small. After a while when it is growing it can become like a tree that a whole family can live under when people get married. Do you know what is the difference between those Saints like Therese and the disciples? And of course, of those people who have their sorrows of every day? The difference is that the small seed in the hand of the gardener has no problem to be a small seed! It doesn’t matter to the seed, that it is very small in the beginning.

That brings us to the second part of the gospel today. To become a servant and to do what has to be done. And not to ask for any payment, reward or compensation. To do, what has to be done.

In Philippians 2 the apostle Paul writes about Jesus: Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. 7 Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, 8 he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 9 Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

That is the new life! The little flower which became in the form of the cross the tree of life! Jesus was sent by his father, went into the obedience and followed the path he HAD to go. Like the seed he had no problem to be the seed. He was thrown into the reality of life of his days. He grew and became a man. Without fear – because it was his destiny to say the truth – he spoke to the authorities, to the poor and the sick. And he didn’t ask who he was, or what he was. John 18:37 “So Pilate said to him, ‘Then you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.’”

Jesus is talking to the disciples as a group! “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…” It means he likes to increase the faith of the disciples as a group! (It’s the “you to many, not only a “you” to one person.) If we face problems together it would strengthen us. Because we are able to share the problems with other people. Look to the people of the Ukraine. They feel a solidarity among them they haven’t had before the war. There is a political will among the people to oppose the Russian aggressor. The individual person may be afraid in front of this big and powerful enemy. But the people as a group feel strength and solidarity.

And that is the second difference between us and the Saints: We are lost in individual problems and are not connected to our brothers and sisters who could support us. The faith IN the church – not the big church around the world, more the faith in the local church here in Schuyler, or in our community – that would be the support which would increase our faith. That is a faith which pushes back the aggressor Russia out of Ukraine. That is the faith which supports us in our daily questions of our life, in which every one of us would be too small to solve it. But as a group we are able to manage it.

And in this way, I understand to increase our faith. From a small seed to a big tree. We together as a group are called to follow Christ. The disciples as a group, we as Christians in Parish and Community. No one is alone, no one is too small. God has a plan with us in the communion WITHIN other people, so that everyone gets support of others and will arrive in the Kingdom of Heaven. So let us support each other and help each other. Amen.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

 1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19–31

The Word we have just heard is really a continuation of the Word from last Sunday. The theme is wealth and money and what place it has in the Kingdom. We hear again  today from the 8th century prophet Amos and Luke simply continues Jesus’ message about mammon with another striking, clear parable about a rich man and a poor man.

When Luke presents the Gospel of the Lord, he picks up on images that contrast. This leads to the longstanding biblical theme of reversal. That is God’s reversal of human expectations, customs and practices. We hear it in simple phrases like “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” God chooses whom he wills. Our task is to listen carefully and get in line with it.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is based on contrasts that end in reversal. Note from the very beginning that the rich man is not given a name, but the poor man is. How true. We talk about street people or the bag lady. Do we ever hear their names? But you can be sure that the wealthy are known by name. So, the first contrast. Then there is the clothing. The rich man’s clothing is given in detail. It is purple. This is a luxury item. Getting this dye for the purple would involve an import item. His undergarments are made of fine linen bleached white. You can tell that he did not frequent the secondhand clothing store, Dollar General or Walmart. Men’s designer clothes for him, Gucci shoes and a Rolex watch. The only thing about the poor man’s clothing is that he is covered, “covered with sores” that is. He has open wounds but not leprosy.

Another contrast is the food. The rich man dines sumptuously each day. We know that there is plenty to go around because left over scraps are thrown on the floor for whoever, the servants. It is Amos who fills in the meal scene for us with his description of stall-fattened lambs and calves, wine in abundance, music and the cosmetics needed to impress and smell sweet. This sumptuous dining, we are told is every day! A picture of luxury. The poor man, he cannot even get to the table. And as for food, it seems the street dogs are taking him for food by licking his open sores. These are feral dogs roaming the streets, not cute loveable puppies. Dogs were not pets in the Middle East culture. So, food for the poor man remains only a desire, a wish not a reality. It is beyond him as he is outside. It would seem that the rich man does not even know of Lazarus’ existence.

Now comes a transition where the contrasts move to reversal. There is one thing both the unnamed rich man and Lazarus have in common: they both die. But here we must take note: the rich man is simply buried, no further ado. But Lazarus is carried by angels to the bosom of Abraham. Abraham is also someone they both have in common. For Lazarus, Abraham is now his host. The bosom of Abraham is an image for being at table in the Kingdom with the patriarchs. Abraham in the Hebrew tradition was the epitome of hospitality. He would never allow anyone to pass by without inviting them in and sharing food with him. So strong is this image that tradition places Abraham as the host at the heavenly table. It is there that Lazarus can be found….the man of sores sits with the patriarch himself. The hint is that he is reclining not at the end of the table but directly opposite Abraham…the position of honor. Now the rich man is at no table and instead is in torment in flames….

Since the rich man and Lazarus have Abraham in common, a dialogue begins with Father Abraham. The rich man wants a drop of water. Contrast the poor man who would have liked just a scrap on the floor! But notice two things, the rich man now seems to know the name of Lazarus and he wants him to be an errand boy. So the rich man cannot be said to be ignorant of the poor man. He just ignored him, did not bother to go to is gate to welcome. The rich man lived in his own world.

Abraham now makes clear the great reversal. You were blessed before and Lazarus not; now he is being comforted, wined and dined we might say, and you are suffering thirst. Implication: you did not share your blessing before and now you want the poor man to share his blessing!

The rich man does not get it. He wants to make sure his brothers don’t get the same fate. Send Lazarus to warn them, Lazarus is not a messenger boy. The rich man is still not admitting Lazarus. In reality he is thinking of looking after his own; blood matters. He somehow has forgotten that he is not the only son of Abraham. The poor man is also Abraham’s son. The rich man limited who truly belonged to the family of Abraham and hence deserved attention when life was hard for them.

Abraham’s answer is clear. They are not getting any special messenger to wake them up. You don’t need a big show from the dead to tell you what to do. You have Moses and the prophets. There you will hear what your responsibility is to the poor and less fortunate. There you will read how the God of the covenant looks out for the needy and lost, the forgotten…those pushed aside. The psalm we sang makes that clear.

It seems that Amos hits the nail on the head as to what is happening here. Woe to the complacent! That is the underlying issue. Wealth and luxury has made you indifferent to other members of the covenant family, of the children of God, of those created in God’s image. You no longer see those lying at your doors. You care nothing that wealth has blinded you to the collapse of society.

The Prophet, to whom Jesus refers us today, and Jesus’ own vivid, clear parable make us open our eyes to see the implications of our economic system, our consumer society, our putting personal pleasure first. Amos and Jesus both challenge us to our complacency regarding our planet earth, our poor and indigent and the systems that have brought us to where we are today in a fragile world, whether it be war, again, the disparity of wealth throughout the world and the lack of understanding our relationship with nature.  The irony is: the mandate to action doesn’t require something dramatic or even new. The call to open our eyes has been there since long ago in our own Judeo-Christian tradition.

The choice is complacency and indifference or being motivated to act in accord with the Kingdom of God. Our God keeps faith with those who are oppressed and bowed down. In the end, they will be in the bosom of Abraham. Does the life you and I are living lead to complacency or to a hand offering our blessings to all members of both the new and old covenant and beyond?

~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Thomas Leitner, OSB - celebrant

Lk 14:1.7-14    
Sir 3:17-18.20.28-29  
Hebr 12:18-19.22-24

focus: Being a Christian makes it possible for us to be humble, to be realistic and to be humorous.

 The following wisdom story made me chuckle: One day a little bird lay on his back and raised his legs toward heaven. Another bird came, sat down besides himand asked: “What are you doing? Are you dead?” – “No, I am not dead,” was the answer. “Why are you laying here keeping your legs so stiff?” – “Don’t you see what I am doing? I am supporting the sky with my legs! If I pull in my legs  and let go of the sky, it will collapse and fall down!” When the little bird had said this a leave fell from a tree and rustled a little. This frightened him. He turned around and flew away; and the sky didn’t fall down!

The little bird thought that without him the whole world would collapse; but it didn’t. This was a good reality check!

Also today’s gospel is a reality check. Jesus speaks about the places of honor at a wedding feast; and he gives the advice not to choose the place of greatest honor.  A more distinguished guest could arrive late  and then the person who sits at the place of honor may be asked to step down.  Very embarrassing! One should rather choose the lowest place!

What Jesus is saying here is a rule for prudent behavior at social events;  but it is more than that. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled;  but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The attitude of humility,  which Jesus illustrates, isn’t only politeness. Rather it’s a way of viewing ourselves  and others. It also, shows something about our relationship with God.

Our English word humility comes from the Latin word humus, which means earth or ground. Humility means: being on the ground, connected with the earth; being grounded in the earth like a tree which is rooted and, therefore, stands firm. It can’t be overthrown by the wind.  Humility means being down to earth, realistic. It means being aware of our reality, of who we are, also with our limitations   and weaknesses.

The word humility is related with humor, too. A humble person doesn’t take himself/herself too seriously and can smile or even laugh about himself/herself. Stories about Pope Saint John XXIII  can come to mind here: Visiting a hospital, he once asked a boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy said, “Either a policeman or a pope.” – “I would go in for the police if I were you,” the pope said. “Anyone can become a pope, look at me!

Another anecdote: Saint John XXIII had a conversation with a newly appointed bishop who came to him—for the first time—in private audience and complained:  “Holiness, since I received my new office I can’t sleep anymore.” – “Oh,” John answered with a compassionate sound in his voice, “the same happened to me during the first weeks of my pontificate. But then I saw in a daydream my guardian angel; he told me: ‘Giovanni, don’t consider yourself too important.’ Now I sleep again.” Pope John XXIII could sleep calmly in spite of his immense tasks because he was humble and humorous, because he viewed the working of God’s Spirit  to be much more important that anything that he could do out of himself.

We are created by God according to God’s image and likeness. We are given, as Vatican Council II says, “the sublime dignity of the human person.” Humility also means seeing and acknowledging the good things within ourselves,  our greatness — and knowing that every good thing comes from God.  All that we have, our strengths, our abilities and talents, all these are gifts from God. St. Paul writes, “It is no longer I who live. Christ lives within me.”  And, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple, that the Holy Spirit lives within you?” Our true reality is that the Triune God lives within us. Within us there is a place where God dwells in us. There our real worth, our dignity originates which we don’t have to earn and which nobody and nothing can take away from us. Humility means living this freeing message of Holy Scripture.

My sisters and brothers, being a Christian makes it possible for us to be humble, to be realistic regarding our greatness and our shortcomings, and to be humorous. Aren’t we sometimes like the bishop worrying too much about what we, with our own strength, can do or can’t do?  Or like the small bird who tried to bear the whole sky with his little legs?

Of course, it is good to see what’s going on, to do something, to use our energy, and to take over responsibility, where it is appropriate. However, it would be pride to think that everything depends upon us, that we have to do – and can do everything alone. That would be the contrary of humility.

Jesus is calling us to humility today. Let’s open our hearts to this freeing gospel.  If we do that then we don’t have an all too great need to seek the places of honor in life. Then we become similar to Jesus who said about himself:

 “I am meek and humble of heart. My yoke is easy and my burden light.”   AMEN.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB - celebrant

Isaiah 66:18–21
Hebrews 12:5–7, 11–13
Luke 13:22–30

The vision God puts before us today through the prophet Isaiah is expansive. It is truly a picture of a universal community coming together in the Lord. It is catholic, in the root meaning of that word. It is also one we should feel comfortable with and are able to recognize. The key seems to be in the geography. It is helpful to update the place names of Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan. When we do this, we find that it is all the peoples who live in the Mediterranean basin that are coming to the gathering that God has called. Today we would have to say places like Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal and on the south side, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. If the peoples represented were diverse in the 500 years before Christ, they are just as diverse today. Just think of all the nationalities and ethnic groups that border the Mediterranean. Think too of the great variety of religious beliefs today: groups representing various approaches to Islam and the variety of Christian communities of West and East, not to mention those today who profess little or no belief. This is the source of the community God is calling together and it includes those who have never even heard of him.

If the makeup of the peoples is overwhelming, so is what God asks us to see in them. He calls them our brothers and sisters, for he understands them all as in some way, his children. He even envisions that they will be integrated into the worshiping community; they will not be given back row seats let alone left outside. Some, the Lord says, will even be serving at the altar and exercising leadership. And they will not come empty handed. They will themselves become an offering to the Lord. They will come with the treasures of their culture, their language, their recognition that there is an author and father of all life.

I say we should recognize this vision, this gathering that God is bringing about, because we know it as our experience of Church. For us it is not just a list of where the Church can be found today in distant lands. It is a reality for our Church in the USA today. There may not be too many from the Mediterranean basin. But our world is truly global and in its mobility that globalization is experienced in our land. The people are coming from our own sea, the Caribbean, like Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic. These can all be found in our gatherings as Church. So also our neighbors to the south, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and further south. And to the West, beyond the Pacific, we have seen the peoples of Vietnam, Philippines, Korea and China and India especially. In many of our communities the universal church is not over there or far away, it is in our own backyard. Our own back yard—there are the nations of the indigenous peoples, and those who find their roots in Black Africa.

The final vision of the prophet Isaiah is not something in a dream world or for a distant future. It has become our present experience of God building up his family. It is apparently not accidental, this gathering of everybody. It is part of the mystery of our God’s way of working.

So it might seem that the Gospel today comes with a discordant note to this grand vision shared by Isaiah. Jesus does speak of the Kingdom of God as the place where nations gather, east and west, north and south, he says. In other words, the world. But he seems to put a limit on who can sit at the table or enter the Kingdom. He talks of entry through a narrow door. What does he mean by this rather restrictive attitude?

Remember, Jesus is talking to the home community, to those who are to get ready to receive this global membership. What he is doing is checking their expectations. We humans seem to prefer being selective. We take charge and make sure that those come in whom we might judge worthy. We set up some criteria for sitting at the banquet table. Jesus chooses one example. Namely, it is who you know that matters. Or put another way, a place in the Kingdom is open to those with connections. Who did you or I do business with, the stranger or a family friend? Jesus roundly rejects that entry ID, to the consternation of his friends. When they claim to know him and have been in his company, his response is “I don’t know where you come from?” It turns out that it is not who you know that matters it is who you are. It is a matter of where your heart is not social status or connections that are so dear to us. Sitting and eating at table with Jesus does not seem to be the key to getting into the Kingdom. It is not a matter of being seen as belonging to Jesus for a while. It is a matter of what you carry within you. It is a matter of “where do you come from.”

Jesus doesn’t answer the question of how many will make it into the Kingdom. All he does is point us to the narrow door and send us back to our origins in our deepest self, in our heart. The key to entrance into the Kingdom is that narrow gate. And Jesus has made it clear that the narrow gate is what he is walking toward on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The narrow gate is his Passover accomplished on the cross.

You and I know that the cross is more than a violent end to an innocent man. The cross is a work of love. It is a work of giving up oneself for the sake of another. Suffering and death are what the Father is asking of Jesus in Jerusalem. This is the offering he is bringing. This is what Jesus will recognize as what relates him to us and we to him, and you and I to one another. Remember Jesus said that it is the one who does the will of the Father that is brother and sister to Jesus, son and daughter to the Father, brother and sister to fellow human beings. And the Father’s will is clear: I want all to be my children. And I want all my children to be those who love from the heart, love enough to set aside self so that others can live. This self-emptying for others is possible now. It is not restricted by geographical limitations or by social status or by race, by sex, not even by religion. The only restriction is a failure to hear God’s call to turn toward him and to one another with a heart open to the Spirit’s breath of love.

To do this takes discipline of action, of attitude, of values and priorities. But that too is part of the narrow gate. And for those who are strong enough, they know that when they do that, their heart, as St. Benedict and the Psalmist affirms, will expand in inexpressible love. And that is the key to recognizing who will be at the table in the Kingdom of God. Because a heart of faithful love is who our God is.

~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2022

Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB - celebrant

In our St. John's Bible, which we have on display in the entrance area, there is a beautiful illustration of the parable of the sower in the book of Gospels (Mark 4). We all know this parable that Jesus tells us, a sower who sowed his seed. You remember, part fell on rocky ground, part among thorns, and a good part on good ground. (Mt 13:1-9)

Then the gospel continues and the sower took care of his field as a good farmer should (Mt 13:24-30), he worried about who had sowed all the weeds in his field. Then he watched the wheat and fruit grow as it is.

Now we come to the gospel of today and the harvest time is coming and he sees that it will be a good harvest. His work and care are rewarded and he imagines in his heart what it will be like when he has harvested. He could rest and enjoy what he now has in his barn because it will last for a few years.

And in that moment God answers him in the parable that that is not wise, because he could still die that same night and would not have any of the wealth he has accumulated.

Well, what has changed in the sower since he started cultivating his field?

Do you remember the time when you sowed seeds without machines? I think most of the farmers are using nowadays seeders to sow their corn or wheat. These machines are more accurate and you can set exactly how much wheat needs to be planted per acre so that the optimal amount of corn can grow in the field. But my grandfather and my father still sowed the grain by hand in smaller fields where large machines could not be used. When my father taught me that too, he told me that the most important thing when sowing seeds is that the hand must be opened!

And that's true! One cannot sow if the hand remains closed. You can’t make a fist! You have to give the seed away, be willing to let it go. Like the sower in the gospel, when you sow the seeds, you don't have to worry about what will happen to the wheat. You have to let it go, a trust in what God is going to do with the seed. No matter if a part falls under the thorns or on rocky ground. When the farmer sows, he doesn't worry, he has faith that it will grow.

Likewise, when the plants are growing. Even then he will remain relaxed and let the weeds grow with the wheat. He will not be overly cautious in plucking at each little seedling to encourage growth. Furthermore, he cannot decide how often it should rain. Even in this state of field work he will remain calm and trust in God, who has everything in his hand.

And now comes the point where this farmer stops keeping his hand open. It's okay that he's happy about the harvest. But he folds his hands in front of his belly, wants to stop working, wants to build a bigger barn and then have a carefree life for himself. What is interesting is that he concludes inwardly that he no longer wants to take part in the dynamics of life – and that his hand is now closed! His hands were fully open during the harvest, now they are closed!

And this is the part of the gospel parable where God intervenes and says: stop! When we don’t want to stay in the flow of life and only want to live from what we have, are no longer willing to reseed and no longer want to share with others, God intervenes and says stop!

We humans naturally want to stay in the flow of life. If we stay in life and our everyday life is in a good flow, then we experience ourselves as content. This is contentment about work, about processes that are changing, about growth and movement.

We know from our life experience that this is not always the case. There are crises in life, problems that we have to solve. But that is also part of life and challenges us to stay in the flow of life. But even in such situations: If we master such situations together, then in the end we can be satisfied that we made it together. Here, too, it is important to keep one's hand open for people and to seek and find solutions together with others.

If we look at the Rule of Benedict, we will not find any standstill in life.

The cellarer gives what the monks need to live. And even if he has nothing to give, then at least a good word. So that life keeps flowing and the monk doesn't leave sad, i.e. cut off from the flow of life.

When the abbot has something to discuss, he calls the community together and discusses it with them. He doesn't figure it out on his own. Here, too, he opens his hand and wants to solve the problems with the others.

The superior in the monastery has a feeling for the life flow in the monastery and Benedict says that only then he can be happy when "the flock entrusted to him is allowed to grow". So here, too, contentment only when the community is on the way, when there is change, when life is pulsating.

A contentment that is actually self-righteousness is not a condition that gets you anywhere. That would be a condition that excludes and cuts you off from living with others. This can then also be the same as spiritual death.

Death as the end of life is actually addressed by Benedict only when he speaks of the end of life as a learning process: Lifelong learning in the monastery as "a school of the Lord". Benedict says: We remain in the school of the Lord until to the end of our live. This means that we remain in the dynamic of life permanently.

This is exactly what we do as Missionary Benedictines. Sharing with others what we have. To do it like the sower, the hand must open up, the seed should fly properly so that it can spread everywhere. (And if you look later at the illustration of the St. John’s Bible you can see how the seed are flying between the other words.) We try to show that in our hospitality but also in our missionary work in Africa, where we sow the Word of God, build schools and help the sick people in our hospitals to get well again.

We cannot sit back and relax. When the harvest has been brought in, the next year is waiting for us and continues with sowing new seeds and with the circle of life.

Amen.

~ Fr, Anastasius Reiser, OSB

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s Homily - by Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB

Genesis 18:20–32
Colossians 2:12–14
Luke 11:1–13

Luke often presents Jesus as a model of how a disciple is to act. Today Jesus is the model for a person who prays. A disciple sees Jesus praying and asks him to teach them as well. What we hear then is a sort of summary about Jesus thinking on prayer.

The basis of prayer is quite simple. It is a form of communication with someone whom we believe is the source of life and from whom we draw life. Prayer implies a relationship of some familiarity and openness. It is easy for us to say that prayer is communication with God because he is the source of life and so is bound to us who come from him. But consider some other factors that influence how we understand God. How much in charge of life is God? Don’t you and I have a lot of control over our lives today? With our science and technology, we can solve a lot, we can supply a lot. We have a knowledge that says, I know where this comes from or how this works. We have achieved a lot. That is all wonderful. But at the same time, we have reduced the areas in which at one time we took for granted that God is in charge. Only in extreme cases do we find it necessary to turn to God.

Consider another factor of present-day life. Much of what we do is instant. We get instant results in many areas. And we want instant results in many areas. We press a button and we get a person on the other end. We touch a key on the computer and up comes the relevant information. Maybe we have a crisis—someone unexpectedly ill, an economic need, a death by accident, so we pray. Do we carry with us the expectation of instant results in prayer? We ask, so we expect to receive today. And notice our impatience in ordinary things when we call for service and it is not forthcoming very soon. Do we pray and have expectations of how we should be answered? We know what we are looking for, so is that what we should go for? Is that what we need?

In the readings today we get some intriguing images of what prayer is all about. Abraham seems to be haggling with God. Abraham knows very well that God is in charge. God has stated his intentions quite clearly. He is going to see things for himself regarding Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knows what he’ll see and what he’ll do: destroy the whole city and population. But Abraham starts to bargain with God. Abraham comes across as a good Middle Eastern buyer who won’t let up until the price is within range or what it should be. So Abraham bargains for God’s justice and faithfulness to even the few. And he gets it down to ten good people and the whole will be spared. He appeals to God as God. It looks like a merchant and a buyer in a Middle Eastern bazaar. But Abraham knows that he is talking with God, the final authority. But he appeals to the best of what God is—the one who saves for the sake of a handful. The end of the story is that Abraham and God each make out. God does bring justice and Abraham at least knows that mercy is shown even in a situation that is dire and facing doom.

Is prayer about haggling and bargaining? Perhaps, as long as we know that God will be God in the end and I don’t have the last word. Perhaps it is about haggling as long as we are haggling about God being true to himself. Abraham never appealed for his family directly. What he appealed to was God to be faithful to those who are faithful to him, even a few. Prayer to God implies that we have a relationship to the one to whom we are praying. If we call upon that relationship only when we are desperate, then maybe we will get our priorities mixed up. We may ask as Jesus tells us. But ask about what? Prayer as we hear about it today means that we can be as familiar as Abraham is with the Lord. But we can also be as unconditional and leave it in the hands of the Lord at the end.

Jesus offers two images of prayer. The first image is of a sleeping man who is woken at midnight because of a friend pleading for assistance. We might not like to think of God as the person who is asleep when we come calling. But that is the way life is. Crises come when they come. The visitor comes when they come. In an age and time when communication was slow, that could be anytime. But God is the sleepy householder who gets up and helps out his friend. He does it because he has what his friend needs. He does it because what his friend is asking for is much larger than just a personal need. Hospitality was not just a private affair; it was an affair for the whole community. If the man who was in bed refused help, it was the same as saying to the visitor, you are not welcome here! Get out and move on! In Jesus day, that was unthinkable. The arrival of a visitor was a chance for the whole community to demonstrate its capacity to welcome and share. The man’s prayer to his friend drew on what the man could offer; it drew on the best of what was expected of a fellow human being. Does it say something about our prayer to each other in the course of a day? Is what we ask of each other something that we are able to share? Will sharing it show honor and respect to another? And will it not be that by sharing it, we will honor and respect our humanity.

The other image Jesus gives us is that of a father caring for his children. When the father is doing his best, he will not cheat his children of what they ask for. He will not cheat them because what they ask for is food; namely what is essential for life. When he gives it, he will function as a true father. The implication is that a true father will not cheat his children. If he does cheat them, then he is no longer worthy of being called a father. If he cheats, not only are the children cheated but he too is a disgrace to others. Jesus implies that God is like that and more. He will not trick anyone because that is not what asking and receiving is all about. But even more, God is capable of satisfying our prayer with what we truly need. In the end, it is about need and not wants. Jesus says a human father takes care of the needs of his children, gives them food. What God gives is his own Spirit. A share in his own life. What God gives to those who ask is a share in the very fabric of what binds God the Father and Son together and what binds them both to the world and the human family.

What is prayer in the end says Jesus? It is asking God for his Holy Spirit with the assurance that he will give it us. It is the Spirit that carries with it the power to forgive, the grace to share even if what we have is small. It is the spirit that will move us to open ourselves even when not convenient. And lastly it is the Spirit that will let us stand strong when difficulties seem to overwhelm us and cut away at our security. In the end, we pray for the Spirit because that keeps us human and keeps us in communion with God, the source of all life.

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