Sunday Homily
by Fr. Vince Lieser
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Sept. 5, 2010
This coming Tuesday school begins here in Melrose. Students begin a new grade, full of hope. There is also a question that arises: are you willing to pay the price to be a successful student? Study, do your homework, get along, be respectful...requirements that are not always easy.
Parents regularly bring their children to the Church to be baptized. In the baptismal prayers, the parents are told that in asking to have their child baptized, they are accepting the responsibility of raising them in the practice of the faith. Then they are asked, “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?” This question means, Are you willing to pay the price of raising this child to be an active disciple of Christ in the Church? By price here I do not mean the financial cost, though that will be considerable. But are you willing to make a personal investment in the faith life of your child, and in so doing have your own faith stretched and deepened?
We celebrate lots of weddings here. How wonderful it is to see the bride beaming with joy as she walks down the aisle to join the man of her dreams. Behind the joy and celebration of the wedding day there is the hope that this couple will be able to pay the cost of what it will take to build a marriage and family together. The decision to get married is filled with love and hope. The decisions to stay married will cost.
In every worthwhile endeavor in life, there are three questions to consider:
What are my priorities?
What will it cost?
Am I willing to pay the cost?
1. What are my priorities? What is more important? What is less important? Work can become more important than time with spouse and family. TV and video games can replace family conversation. Laziness can inhibit participation in the sacramental life of the Church. Many issues and concerns vie for our personal time and attention. We have to make choices.
Jesus is addressing the question of priorities in the gospel today. Family, work, possession are all good and important. But do they help us be disciples of Christ? Jesus is not really telling us to hate father or mother, wife or children, brothers or sisters. But what if one or some of them stand in the way of our relationship with Jesus Christ, or our prayer life, or our desire to be active in our faith life?
2. That leads to the second question: what is the cost of my endeavor? In all the things I want to be and do, am I willing to count the cost? Am I willing to pay the price? This isn’t about money. This is about commitment, personal energy, choosing to be a disciple of Christ in a world with many conflicting values.
I know a priest who is a faithful pastor, but also a very angry man. He easily flies off the handle, and sometimes mistreats people who do not deserve to be the butt of his anger. He needs help to deal with that deep reservoir of anger that spills out hurtful ways. But is he willing to pay the price, the hard work of changing that in him which has become so hurtful?
On Sunday, September 19, two weeks from today, there will be a special Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud honoring Fr. John Kaiser. Fr. John, originally from the small parish of St. James in Maine of our diocese, was murdered ten years ago in Kenya, East Africa, for standing up for the poor and dispossessed against the corrupt government officials. He was defending two girls who had been raped by a government official. For that he was murdered.
This Mass, at which our Bishop Kinney and Kenyan Bishop Philip Anyolo from Homa Bay will preside, will remind us of the price Fr. John was willing to pay in order to be a voice for the voiceless, and stand up for integrity and justice in his country. Our Church guides us in living Gospel values by teaching seven principles of Social Justice. Some of our politicians mock them. Fr. John lived them. At times the price to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is high. But it is the way to the Kingdom of God, the way to peace and justice, and the way to personal fulfillment.
One cannot do what Fr. John did on one’s own. One needs to be connected to the power of God, to the teachings of the gospel, to prayer. Every night Fr. John prayed this verse from the bible, the Book of Sirach, chapter 2:
My child, if you aspire to serve the Lord,
Prepare yourself for an ordeal.
Be sincere of heart, be steadfast,
And do not be alarmed when disaster comes.
Cling to Him and do not leave Him,
So that you may be honored at the end of your days.
Whatever happens to you, accept it,
And in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
Since gold is tested in the fire
And chosen people in the furnace of humiliation.
3. This leads to the third question: am I willing to pay the cost? To be a good student...to be a good spouse and parent...to be a good priest...to be a strong disciple of Jesus Christ, am I willing to pay the price? Am I willing to do what it takes? That is Jesus challenge to us today.