Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
July 27, 2008
]”Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And He replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Just days ago an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota carried through with a threat that he’d made. He was requesting that some Catholic obtain for him a consecrated Host. He was going to desecrate the consecrated Host on the Internet in front of everyone so that they could view his profanation of the Sacred Host. Someone delivered a host to him and he did exactly what he’d threatened, live on the Internet. I was told that he took a rusty nail and he used it to destroy the Host and then he threw both away. He committed a sacrilege. This is a terrible thing that has happened to Our Lord.
Last Tuesday was St. Mary Magdalene’s Feast Day. Jesus had expelled seven demons from her. The picture on the front of the bulletin is of Mary Magdalene and she is holding the crucified hand of Jesus and she is very focused on the wound in the hand of His sacred body. This is the dead Christ. The artist did a beautiful job on this. You can see the pinpoint around the collar of the robe of St. Mary Magdalene. There was even great attention paid to the eyelashes. Overall, the beauty of this picture is the attention St. Mary Magdalene is paying to Christ. She, who was so concentrated on the life of Christ during His life and His death, was the first to view the Risen Christ.
Below the picture you see a prayer that would be very good to offer everyday, especially after having received Holy Communion. Let me draw your attention to the second phase of that prayer.
Reparation…repairing damage done to the Body of Christ. Take notice of the ways that the Body of Christ can be damaged, by outrages, sacrileges, and indifference. We only have to go back to last year when there was an outrageous movie, the Da Vinci Code, which told lies about the relationship between St. Mary Magdalene and Christ. And of course, a sequel came out recently and telling more outrageous lies. This is a sacrilege but these things continue down to this very moment and that assistant professor is not even a believer; he is not a Catholic but he had the complicity of a Catholic obviously.O most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost I adore you profoundly. I offer you the most precious, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in Tabernacles throughout the world and in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifference by which He is offended.
If you ever see someone returning to their place and they have not consumed the Sacred Host, you very quickly motion to them or tell them to consume the Host, to put it in their mouth. If they fail to understand then, from wherever you are you begin to say, “FATHER PAUL, FATHER PAUL!” I am serious and this in not a joke. But no one makes that turn to go back to his or her pew with a Consecrated Host unless it is in his or her mouth. From time to time I have seen someone take the Sacred Host and before they consume they make the Sign of the Cross with the Host. ABSOLUTELY NOT! ABSOLUTELY NOT! It is not a sign of disrespect but it is not appropriate. Particles, particles, particles are now everywhere. If you receive Communion in the hand the Host goes immediately into the mouth.
I want to concentrate on that First Reading. The Wisdom of Solomon is legendary; people still speak about that and use that as a term but if you study the rest of the life of King Solomon, his understanding heart “appears” to have stopped understanding. With all the wives and concubines to care for King Solomon began to build altars to each of their different gods. This was terrible and a blasphemy before God. It was idolatry. So when God said to Solomon,
I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now.
You have to recognize that it was up to King Solomon to keep that treasure, that pearl of great price in his possession. These are exactly the images the Lord uses in today’s Gospel. He also uses the phrase, “Kingdom of Heaven.” In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, the Holy Father makes it clear that any time we hear Jesus say, “Kingdom of Heaven”, He is talking about Himself. Wherever Jesus is, there is Heaven. So any time we receive any of the Seven Sacraments the Kingdom of Heaven is there. In the Tabernacle where Jesus is present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity the Kingdom of Heaven is present there. So to be indifferent to that presence, to be outrageous or sacrilegious is not for the wise of heart.
The focus that St. Mary Magdalene has is of the man who finds a treasure buried in a field and then goes and sells everything in order to buy it. The same with the man who found the pearl of great price, upon finding it goes and sells all in order to possess it ands once obtained never takes her eyes off the Pearl of Great Price.
This week we have First FridayandFirst Saturday. Every month we are able to reorient ourselves to the Sacred Heart and the subsequent day, His mother’s Immaculate Heart. These prayers and promises for the two days are all about reparation and Jesus asking us to be part of that repairing of the damage caused by sin, such as sacrileges, outrages and indifference against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Five First Saturdays seem to be all about Mary and yet, we go to Confession and we receive Jesus, we receive Holy Communion and we receive Jesus, we pray the Rosary and we are meditating on the life of Jesus, as well as his death and resurrection. I have also added extra Confession times for this week.
Yesterday was the 40th Anniversary of the pope’s encyclical, Humane Vitae. In it the pope speaks about “self-mastery. He focuses on the importance of self-mastery. Mary Magdalene is a shinning example of self-mastery. How was she able to do it? Once she found the pearl of great price she never took her focus off Him.
Now, Minnesota is far from Texas. Thank you, Lord! That professor there must receive our prayers for conversion; he is far from God. To read that prayer on the front of the bulletin and then read about sacrilege, outrage, and indifference, these sins are closer than we realize. For example, to receive Holy Communion with mortal sins not confessed is to commit a sacrilege. To approach our Lord in Holy Communion, to receive the Kingdom of Heaven into our souls and hearts when we are not ready is to commit a sacrilege. That is not some guy from Minnesota doing it but someone a lot closer, right?
I want to focus on indifference because it is so easy to return to your pew after having received Holy Communion and to begin taking to someone or making plans for after Mass. The kingdom of Heaven has just entered the soul and the heart and we are not even paying attention and that is indifference. It shows that indifference can be very close. I say this to my shame. Many times I have been at prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament and my thoughts are filled with things I needed to repair or things that people ask me to do for them and not on Our Lord. This is not the focus of St. Mary Magdalene but a temptation we each face every day.
How can we call it anything but indifference if we let an entire twenty-four hours go by without turning to the Lord in deep conversation. This is prayer. Looking back over the last couple of months and to find a twenty-four period without prayer is to find a cancer known as indifference. To have the understanding heart, the Wisdom of Solomon presented to us and then to turn our back on this wisdom is to turn our back on Christ. So, daily prayer is not something we leave to the professional monks in monasteries or the nuns in convents or for priests, deacons and bishops. No, this is for each and every one of us. In fact, we should keep our focus so riveted on the Kingdom Of Heaven, that were someone to attempt to steal Him away from us we would be attentive and not allow it to happen. Then we are showing that we understand “all these things”
When we don’t find in us the Wisdom of Solomon or that our attention is on the Kingdom of Heaven it is because of outrage, sacrilege, or indifference. We have to turn to the Lord again and again throughout the day, not letting ourselves be swept away by the circumstances, the movement, the difficulties or the pains, but rather do as St. Mary Magdalene did. Seven demons were driven out of her so she was starting with a great disadvantage but she would never take her focus off the Lord and that is how it must be for us. Do you understand all these things? If the answer is “No” it is not because the kingdom of Heaven has not been offered to us.
”Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And He replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of Heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen