"Screamin' Demons": The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Third draft)

I read this gospel passage
at our staff meeting last week.
During the discussion that followed
someone made a comment:
“Demons? Now, there’s a modern-day concept!”

Actually, I was thinking the same thing.
Demons?
I was already considering the first or second reading
as the focus for this homily.

But, when the staff meeting was over,
I found this poster in my mailbox.
(hold up poster)

It’s advertisement for for a film
called “The Visitation”
and guess what it’s about?

Demons.
(Spooky, isn’t it?)

(Read from the poster:)
From the best-selling Christian author, Frank Peretti:
"The Visitation.”
The subtitle?
Everyone has their demons.

(Maybe the concept of demons
isn’t as outdated as we think.)

The film won’t shed much light
on today’s gospel passage, but this poster might:

Everyone has their demons.

What’s that mean?

It means there are forces at work
in the world around us
and the world within us
that block our way to God.

There are several to approach this matter:

We can think about these forces
and their connection to personal sins.
Sin brings trouble into our life
and that trouble seems to take on a life of its own.
That’s one way to think about the impact of evil
on our life.

Here’s another way to view the topic of evil:
we can think about these forces
as malicious powers beyond our control;

Or, thirdly, we can view the struggle with evil
in a philosophical way and see it as
as the consequence of the Fall of Adam and Eve,
leaving us all to live amid the ruins of a once beautiful garden.

There are a lot of ways to think about evil.

Regardless how you frame it,
there is little doubt that conflict and tension
are common themes in human life
and this is where evil first shows up
in our individual lives.

We don’t use the word “demon” to describe the experience.
We tend to use another word: “torn,” as in “ripped.”

We don’t described ourselves as “possessed,” but we do say
that we’re “torn” or “divided.”

When it comes to trying to living in harmony
with God, other people and even ourselves,
almost everyone lives a divided life.

What do I mean by “a divided life?”

A divided life is what happens
when you have one foot at work, one foot at home
and the demands of both are tearing you apart.

A divided life is what happens
when God has placed a dream in your heart
but everybody else tells you to forget about it
and “just get a job.”

A divided life happens when
communication in your marriage
gets replaced with Internet chat rooms…or worse.

A divided life happens when sickness or depression,
loneliness or addictions
drive a wedge between you
and the healing power of God.

* * *

A divided life is lethal to the life of the soul.
The reason is simple.
When we are inwardly or outwardly divided,
with faith on one side, despair on the other,
we begin to think that God has NOTHING TO DO WITH US.

And that’s the voice of the demon talking!

Did you hear what the demon screams in today’s reading:

“What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

The destructive force
that Christ confronts in today’s gospel
is a demon that tries to convince that man in the synagogue
that the God who-loves-him-beyond-all-imagining
has nothing to do with him.

It seems to be a favorite past-time of demons.
They counteract our instinct to turn to God for help
at those times that we feel divided.

Today, the demon attempts to do this
by throwing a tantrum.

Apparently, whe you move close to God,
the “screamin’ demon” gets all worked up.

It tries its best to shout down
other voices in our soul...
voices that God puts inside us
to help us bridge the tensions and divisions
that develop in the day-by-day pull and tug of life.

A divided life is an unsettled life.
And when life gets unsettled,
it's hard to pay attention to the voice of God.
The demon starts screamin
and distracts our attention from the voice of the Holy Spirit.

For example,
when division in your life
is a result of a sin you’ve committed,
there’s an inner voice called Conscience
that you need to start listening to.

When you feel divided because a decision needs to be made
and you don't know which way to go,
there's an inner voice called Wisdom to listen for.

When the issue involves an injustice,
the voice to attend is called Resistance.

When the issue involves sacrifice,
the inner voice is called Resilience.

In other words, God has something to say
about the forces that act upon us and within us.

And God procides an “inner voice”
to helpl us address those forces;
God provides an "inner voice"
to convey the healing we need
and the insight we long for.

* * *

The demon, of course,
wants us to ignore the fact
that we do, in fact, have an inner voice.

The more we smush our inner voice
the louder the demon shouts and screams:

“See, see! Didn’t I tell you?
Jesus of Nazareth wants nothing…nothing…to do with you!”

Don’t believe the voice of the demon.
And don't ignore what happens in today's gospel
once the demon is expelled.

This is how it reads:

The demon came out of the man
and all were amazed and said to one another,
“A new teaching from one with authority!”

That's the good news we need to hear.
We don’t need a movie poster telling us
that everyone has their demons.

What we need to know is that Christ
can out shout every of our demons
...and send them on their way!

He has that ability.
He has that power.
In short, he has that authority.

So, give him the authority he’s due:
in your public life,
in your home life,
in your private life.

Give him authority over your life…
and the demons will pack their bags and hit the road.

"Fish Story": The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Photo Credit: Luke Wiedel of Fera Alaskan Fisheries (www.feraalaskan.com)

Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
(First draft)

Some people have a way of taking the fun out of life.
Do you know anybody like?

We call those folks “sticks in the mud.”

Well, some people take the fun out of religion too.

We call them “literalists.”

Literalists are those who take every word in the Bible literally.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that the Bible is the Word of God
and the Word of God is true.

Did Jesus cure the sick?
Absolutely!

Did Jesus rise from the dead?
Absolutely!

The Gospels are historically grounded
and the events they report are historically grounded.

But there are some books in the Bible that are, shall we say,
a bit more entertaining?

The Book of the Prophet Jonah is one of them.

I bet if I ask anyone of you to tell me what you know about Jonah
you’d mention the improbably tale that he was swallowed by a fish,
hauled to shore
then burped out on the beach.

And you’d probably say that with a straight face
when, in reality, it’s hilarious detail
set within a very funny book.

The Bible, you see, has many different kinds of books:

There’s history.
There’s prophecy.
There’s legend.
There’s poetry.
There are songs.
Some scholars even suggest that the apocalyptic books
that literalists find so scary
can actually be read as the Bible’s version of science fiction.

The Bible is kind of like a newspaper, you see.
Some stories are the hard facts.
Some columns are someone’s opinions.
Some articles are human-interest features.
And then, of course, there are the comics.

Well, if you ask me, the Book of Jonah belongs with the comics.

That’s not to say there isn’t a serious point to the story… there is.
We’ll get to that in a minute.

But first, sit back and enjoy the story!

Jonah might be called a prophet.
But his wife…if he had a wife…would have told you that he was a grump.

The book opens with a bang:
“Jonah, go and preach against the great city, Ninevah,
because its wickedness has come before.”

Jonah doesn’t say a word.
He just high-tails it out of town
and gets on a boat going in the opposite direction.

He doesn’t like the Ninevites,
they’re wicked and mean
and he has no intention
of paying them a visit.

He buys a ticket for Tarshish instead.

On the way, a great storm comes.
The sailors row hard to get back to land.
Then they get to thinking: “The forecast was good,
so who’s causing this storm?”

Then they remember the frightened little man
hiding out down in the hold of the ship.
And it dawns on them that he’s the reason for the storm.
How do they figure this out?
The Bible states the Jonah told them he was running away from God
when he got on the boat.

Why would he tell them his personal business?
Who knows?

But the sailors pull him out of the hold
and throw him overboard.
And thus Jonah inadvertently causes his first conversions.

As he’s flaying about in the water,
the storm subsides
and the rough and tough sailors
turn into upstanding, church-going citizens:
they thank God, they make promises to God,
they offer sacrifice to God.

Jonah’s all wet, but God’s being praised!

That’s when the fish comes and swallows Jonah
and hauls him off to Ninevah
where he was supposed to go in the first place.


End of Act One.

Act Two:

The Word of God comes to Jonah:
“Go through the streets of Ninevah
telling the people they must reform their lives.”

Now Ninevah was a huge city.
It took a person three days just to walk from
the City Limit on the east
to the City Limit on the west.

Given his initial lack of initiative
a that Jonah has been through up to his point
(the storm, the waves and a gastrointestinal tour
of a big-bellied fish),
I doubt if Jonah had much enthusiasm for this job assignment.

But that’s doesn’t matter.
He no sooner gets started
when the entire city converts…just like that!

After but one day of preaching,
the entire, enormous city repents!

The king, every man, every woman…every dog,
every house cat, every donkey!

Everybody repents and starts praising God!

Everybody, that is, except Jonah.

The end of the story finds Jonah out on some barren hill
on the outskirts of town.

When God asks him what he’s doing,
he complains and belly aches and says,
“I told you they’d convert.
I knew you would forgive them.
But I’m not happy about it!
They were wicked and bad
and they deserve to die.
And I never wanted any part of this from the get-go!”

Well, as I said, the book ends with Jonah in quite a snite.

But the good news is

1) Ninevah was spared

2) God's ego isn’t as big as those of some of the people he calls.

And maybe there’s a third lesson as well:

If God can enjoy a good chuckle
when it comes to putting up with people like Jonah,
maybe we can too.

"God Calling:" The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for the Second Homily in Ordinary Time

(Revised Draft)

Cell phones! You love ‘em or you hate ‘em!
Sometimes you love ‘em and hate ‘em at the same time…
sort of like the way you feel about your kids sometimes!

“Oh, hello Austin. Is Ashley taking her nap?
What’s that?
No, you can’t go to the skating party!
Austin, I’m at work now.
No, your father and I told you that last night.
Austin, I’m work.
Austin…don’t talk to me that way!
Austin? Austin?
Don’t hang up on me, Austin!”

Cell phones. You love ‘em or you hate ‘em.

If you ever had conversation like that,
you’ll agree with some 1,300 adults in a study
who said that cell phones are hard on family life.

The focus of the study was negative spillover from cell phones.

Spillover essentially means
that the line between work and home begins to blur.

Work invades home life
--such as when a parent is taking job-related calls at home—
and household issues start to take up time at work.

(This is especially true for women.
For them, the spillover tends to go both ways.)

The solution is simple: put curbs on the spillover!
Unfortunately, it’s not easy to do.

But here’s another concern:
If cell phones tend to increase tension in family relationships,
what effects do they have on our relationship with God?

Take a look at today’s first reading
and you’ll see that even in biblical times,
a good relationship with God
required good communication.

A young boy named Samuel “gets a call.”
He thinks someone is calling to him.
He has a hunch that someone is calling him.
But he has no idea that it’s God calling him!

Thank God he didn’t have an ipod clamped on his head!

Can you imagine if that call took place today?
“Samuel, Samuel.
Don’t put me on hold, Samuel!”

With all the cell phones and gadgets we got today,
Does a call from God still manage to get through?
Well, yes, God does continue to call people
and people continue to respond to that call.

In fact, there are people among us,
many here in this community,
whose lives attest to that.
Let’s take Sr. Josetta as an example of this.

Today, as you all know, Sr. Josetta is retiring.

So, let me ask you:
Can any of you imagine
Sr. Josetta ever “putting God on hold?”

I can’t.

This doesn’t mean that she is any different from the rest of us.
She’s a busy as the next person:
She has friends and family that demand her time and attention.
And she loves sports.
(She knows more about baseball players
and football teams than I’ll ever know!).

But, you know as well as I,
Sr. Josetta possesses an inner peace
that no cell phone interruption will ever disturb.

(And that’s but one of the many gifts
that Sister has brought to this community.)

Sr. Josetta heard God’s call.
And she answered that call.
And we—along with countless others—are very thankful that she did.

And since we’re talking about God’s call today,
let’s take a quick glance at today’s gospel reading.

In this passage Jesus invites some curious bystanders
to stop by his house for some conversation and fellowship.
They respond and follow him
and have a visit at his house

That invitation is meant for you and me as well!

* * *

So, let’s get back to that cell phone for a minute.
Is any word from God getting through to you these days?

If not, might technology part of the problem?
I think it is!

You got a cell phone in your pocket?
Would your life be any different
if you carried a rosary or crucifix in that pocket instead?

You know it would!

Now, don’t get me wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with technology in and of itself.

But take e-mail, for instance.
E-mail is taking something away from our lives.
In the not too distant future,
letters from one’s beloved
will no longer be stored in boxes
or placed between the pages of a book.
Your daughters and granddaughters
won’t have old letters to fold and unfolded
and treasure in years to come.

Digitize words…digitized pictures
appear and disappear at the touch of a keystroke.

But something else gets deleted as well.

Think back to some of the “memorable” conversations
you’ve had via cell phone:

“Austin! Austin, don’t hang up on me!”

What else does technology delete from our conversations?

Engagement.

The dark side of technology
isn’t its extensive reach into every corner of our life,
Rather, it’s technology’s failure to reach into the
nooks and crannies of the soul.

Are you with me?

It makes communication too easy, too fast
and therefore decreases it’s meaning within the soul.

Love letters are reduced to:

“Hey, Babe, where are you?”

“I’m on I-75 heading for the mall.”

“Yeh? Well, I’m at Krogers.”

“That’s nice.”

“Just thought I’d call. Gotta go!”

“See you.”

Oh, the wonders of technology!

Actually, there’s some good news in all this.
In an odd twist,
electronic communication
actually makes intimate communion
all the more necessary.

It makes it obvious that you and I
need to clear a space in our digitized world
to have the kind of communication
that matters…

We need to create a space
where we can, in a sense,
retrieve a letter from the pages of book,
unfold it and read it
and realize anew that God loves us and misses us…
more than a soldier writing home is a time of war.

How do get there?

Well, I suggest you ask a pro like Sr. Josetta.
(When it comes to staying in touch with God,
you all know she’s a pro!)

Her office has been next to mine
for the last five years.
Like any office,
she has an in-box and an out-box
and piles of memos
and stacks of files.

I don’t think she’ll mind if I tell you
about an item that often rested
on the top of her memos…
or sometimes it was laying by the phone.
Other times I saw it next to her computer keyboard.

It was a small book with a leather cover:
It was the Liturgy of the Hours.
A small book of morning prayers and evening prayers
and other prayers by which she sanctified her day…
prayers that helped her pay attention…to the presence of God
in this community which she has loved so well.

Communion with God is a good thing!
All it requires is clearing some space now and then…
on your desk, on your calendar and in your head.

The Liturgy of the Hours…the Liturgy of the Eucharist…
these are all good ways
to go about clearing some space for God.

But there are other ways as well:
It’s call “keeping the Sabbath”

And this is where things like gardening or hiking
come into play;

relaxing activities such as
cooking, painting, writing or playing an instrument.
Or maybe it’s fishing.

Do you remember the movie,
A River Runs Through It?

It was a story about a Presbyterian minister
who taught his two boys the truths about life
and the truths about faith while fly fishing.

Here’s a quote from the book:

If my father had his way,
no one who did not know how to fish
would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him….
My father was very sure about certain matters
pertaining to the universe.
To him all things
--eternal salvation as well as rainbow trout—
come by way of grace
and grace comes by art
and art does not come easy.

And that’s the point;
that’s the rub!

Cell-phones are easy.
E-mails are easy.

But communion takes times.
Communion requires a practiced and patient attentiveness
to the movement of God and the natural rhythms of life.

* * *

So, here’s your homework this week:

Clear some space.
Learn to fish.
Plant some flowers.
Pray in silence.

There’s someone who wants to visit with you.
His name is Christ.
And today he’s asking us to clear some space
and stop by his house.

What for? Who knows?
It’s Sunday. He might take you fishin’!

"Gold We Bring to Honor the King": The Feast of the Epiphany

(Third Draft)

Henneken Jewelers is located just down the street
in a small plaza on Harrison Avenue.
Regina Bakery is on one side, a butcher shop on the other.

Now, for us folks here on the West Side,
it seems perfectly normal
to discover a fine jewelry store in a small shopping plaza.

It speaks volumes about Westside culture:
the location of this little store
tucked between a bakery and a butcher shop
is telling us that whatever gold and diamonds
life holds for you
are going to be found right alongside ordinary, everyday things
like day-old bread and Cincinnati goetta.

We tend to be practical, down-to-earth people
on this side of town.
Diamond rings and golden necklaces are wonderful and nice…
but, ask any Westsider, he or she will tell you
that their true value is found
in the work and the sacrifice
they represent.

So, on this Feast of the Epiphany,
when you and I listen to a gospel passage
the tells of the wonderful and expensive gifts
placed at the feet of Mary as she hold the Christ Child in her arms,
most of us here are apt to judge the value of those gifts
not by their beauty alone
but by the love they represent.

“Gold we bring to honor the King.”

We know the words to “We Three Kings.”
But what, exactly, does it mean to offer such a gift
to the Son of God, the child of Mary?

To answer that question, we need to ask another:

And that is this:

What sort of gold do you and I bring to this Mass today?

I’m not referring to the offering in your envelope,
I’m referring to the offering of your life.

Is it a gold-quality life that you bring…to honor the King?

That’s what we’re here for, you know.

We are here to make an offering of our life to God.
And, being Westsiders,
we want to offer something
that means something.

“Gold we bring to honor the King.”

But how do we do that?

Jut how do we go about “doing it right?”
choosing the right ring,
the flawless diamond
the perfect gem…
how cab we expect offer a suitable gift
to the God of the Universe here at Mass today?

It’s difficult but we got no choice in the matter.
It’s something we just have to do, you know that.

When you love someone who loves you back…
you just gotta give that person something.

Considering the way God loves us,
you’re gonna want to offer a gift,
you’re gonna want to say thanks
and you’re going to want to do it right.

Let me give you an example:

I stopped in at Hanneken’s Jewelry Store
when I was in Cheviot last week.

I got to talking with a sales clerk named Judy.
She’s only worked at Hanneken’s since August
but she already had lots of stories to tell.

A few months ago, she said,
a young man came into the store
and he asked to see their selection of engagement rings.

Well, he studied the rings;
weighed each one in his hand,
held them to the light.

In fact, he spent over two hours in that store
just looking at the rings.

(I suspect he wasn’t looking at diamonds
as much as he was looking at Light inside the diamonds…
the wonderful Light of love that God had place in his life
in the person of a young woman to whom he would soon
make a sacred vow.)

He didn’t talk about his emotions;
he kept the feelings inside.

But the sales clerk happened to notice that,
at the end of those two hours,
his hand was shaking as he signed the check.

So, you see, there is gold in our life!
And it’s this gold that we bring…
to honor our King!

There is gold in our life.
There diamond-light in our love.

What I’m saying here is this:

Don’t leave the beautiful things in your life
lying on top of the dresser when you come to church!

Bring the gold and diamonds from your life
with you to Mass.

You know what I’m talking about:
I’m talking about that light that glints inside that wedding ring of yours;
I’m talking about the light that shines in the eyes of the children on your street.

I’m talking about the sacrifices you make,
the things you do without to make ends meet;
I’m talking about the extra mile you went for a co-worker last week…

Yes, I’m talking about the lives you and I live here on the Westside…

There’s lot of gold in out lives
and it’s that gold we bring to honor the King.

* * *

That’s what’s going on here.
And like the young man buying an engagement ring,
I hope that when it comes to offering your life
to God here at this Mass today,
well, I hope it makes your palms sweat a little.

Because, as you know,
at the end of the day,
it is Christ and the salvation he brings
that is the “pearl of great price.”

Christ and Christ alone is the true gold in our life.

And when you reach out to receive him in the Eucharist,
shouldn’t your hands be shaking just a bit?

* * *

Today’s the Feast of the Epiphany.
And here on the Westside that means something practical.

It means knowing that somewhere
inside the hectic rush of life
there is Someone who is longing to give you his life.

His name is Christ.

And it’s not a ring that he offers you.

It’s a crown!