15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Denise]

Homily by: Fr. James Lehrberger, O.Cist.
Professor of Philosophy and Theology
University of Dallas

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

From time to time I am asked to go and visit someone in the hospital who is very sick or perhaps, even dying. I will go and visit that person and hear their Confession, anoint them and give them Communion. Then depending on the time I have I will go to the Chaplain’s office in the hospital and ask to talk to a few people, who when they were registered into the hospital listed themselves as Catholic but non-practicing; NP, non-practicing Catholics. Especially those who are very sick and are dying because, lets face it, the fact that they are dying and aren't practicing Catholics means they aren't registered in a parish and when a pastor comes to visit his own sick then he will probably miss them.

So, as many as time permits, I visit. It is amazing to watch the different reactions that come about. I will go to a person, identify myself and tell them that I have come because I noticed they were a non-practicing Catholic and see that they only have a couple of days, or at most a couple of weeks to live and I am there to offer them the Last Sacraments, a chance to confess their sins and receive Viaticum and be anointed. Some accept this with joy indeed. They haven't been to Confession for ten, twenty, thirty years or more and now they are literally in their last hours on the face of this earth. They are getting themselves right with God and preparing to meet their Maker.

Unfortunately that is the rare and almost the exceptional reception. We hear of all these deathbed conversions but, in my own experience they are exceedingly rare. Normally it is the case where I will go to visit someone who knows they have one or two days to live, at most a week or two. I will offer the Last Sacraments to them with a chance to confess and be absolved and the answer is,

“No, I don’t want to be absolved and I don’t feel sorry for my sins. I don’t believe I have any sins.”

So, having been away from the Church and having lived the kinds of lives people so often do who abandon the Church, they go to face their Maker and they have had the chance to receive the Last Sacraments and Rights and have refused. This always amazes and saddens me. Granted, we can’t judge anyone and nobody knows what graces are at work; only God knows ultimately if the person converted so it is not for us to make any final judgment on the person. But, this is certainly not a happy state to be in. God gave them that opportunity and it was refused.

It is in this light that we ought to listen to what Our Lord said about those strange words that He spoke in parables so that they not understand, about hearing, they do not hear and seeing, they do not see. It is in this light that our Lord speaks of the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven and He speaks it in the ambiguous words of parables. Why does He do this?

First of all lets understand what it is about the Kingdom of Heaven that He speaks about and has to hide or speak ambiguously about. He is speaking about the ultimate Mystery of God that namely, the Gentiles will be invited into God’s kingdom. This is the great mystery and one that His prime opponents, the Pharisees, did not want to hear. Understand…the Jews were the chosen people; God had picked them out, had chosen them starting with Abraham. He chose them to be the vessel of his word, the vessel of His revelation and law, but as he said to Abraham,

”In you all the tribes of the earth will be blest. One day indeed you are chosen but it is to be that for which all the tribes of the earth will receive the Word of God.”

At the time of Our Lord the Messiah was expected, there was such Messianic fervor and expectation. The people expected the Messiah, the Pharisees expected the Messiah, everyone expected the Messiah and they were right to expect Him but what was their vision of the Messiah? He would be a new King David.

You remember how David slew Goliath, how David defeated the Philistines, how David conquered all of his enemies with sword and blood and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem? This is what they expected the new Messiah to do; the Messiah would come and He would overthrow the Romans, the hated Romans who ruled them such a Pontius Pilate the Roman Procurator, who had his jackboot on the neck of Israel. They expected the Messiah to come along and be a conquering hero like David was and He would reverse and turn the tables on the Romans. Now it would be their jackboot on the Roman throat and not the reverse. They would be the ones to be on top of the world. Why? Because they were the chosen people, the children of Abraham to whom God made those promises,

”To you and to your descendants forever, I will give this Promised Land.”

So, they expected that there would be a new conquering Messiah.

The Pharisees suspected something about Jesus; they suspected that there was something wrong with Him. He was not the Messiah that they were looking for. This is why He opens His mouth in parables. They are looking for a conquering Messiah and they will put Him to death if they hear what He is really all about, bringing the Gospel and the Mystery of the Kingdom even to the Gentiles. Ultimately they do get him put to death. But…Our Lord has got to preach the Kingdom and so He speaks in these ambiguous parables such that those who cannot hear, (the Pharisees), will not hear them and those who can, those who are open to receive the Word of God will receive them.

What is it that Our Lord does? He has to stay alive for the three years to accomplish His mission and so He tells parables that have a surface moral meaning. You have all heard them; the Parable of the Good Samaritan. He goes down and takes care of the one who has fallen in with robbers and acts charitable. Who was the neighbor to this man? The one who treated him well. A moral parable; Love your Neighbor! The Pharisees suspected, and rightly suspected that there is something more there; that this is a parable about the Kingdom.

You have heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son, mercy and forgiveness. The Pharisees heard it and couldn’t pin anything on Him but they suspected rightly that there was something more here. They were not getting it all; hearing, they do not hear and seeing, they do not see. What is it then that Our Lord means by telling this parable? He makes it very clear when He says,

”To those who have, more will be given. To those who have not, even what they have will be taken from them.”

These are very strange words! What does He mean? Again, it is a parable, ambiguous and hard to figure out but that is the point. Those who are open to the Word of God will meditate and pray upon it and figure it out; those who are not will be shut out from it. So He tells the Parable of the Sower. The Sower, God, goes out to sew Christ coming with the Word. And what is that Word? We heard it in the Prophet Isaiah today.

”My Word goes forth from Me and it never comes back without accomplishing what it was sent to do.”

The Word is like a seed, the Word is not merely communication, it is something that does something; it comes and makes the crops to grow so the Word of God makes life to grow. It isn’t simply speech. So Our Lord speaks this life giving word, this Tran formative word, and who does He speak it to? Well, He says there are different kinds of people.

The first is, the Word goes into the ground. Notice it doesn’t go on soil, it goes into the footpaths; no soil there at all but it stays on top because it is so hard. So the Word, the seed can not penetrate and the birds come along and take it away. Who does Our Lord have in mind here? Who is He thinking about? The obvious example is Pilate, the Roman Procurator; poor abused Pilate. Here he was civilized Roman, highly educated in culture and he is stuck in this backwater of the Roman Empire, Jerusalem. He is stuck here and can’t be in Rome or Athens the great centers, no, no, no! He is stuck in the backwash with these very strange and hostile people, these Jews and he feels he hasn’t gotten what is coming to him, his due.

So, Pilate wants to get to Rome badly, he wants to gain favor with his bosses in Rome so he can get to a better place. What happens? Those of you who have seen the Passion will recall this beautifully. At our Lord’s trial, Pilate comes face to Face with He Who is Truth and talks to Him. He asks,

“Do you not know that I have the power to put You to death or to free You?”

And Christ says,

”Were it not for My father, you would have no power at all.”

And then Pilate says in the presence of Truth,

“What is truth? There is no truth! There is no reason to search or investigate because there is no truth!”

He stands in the presence of Truth; Truth speaks to him, addresses him, and calls him. What does he say?

“What is truth?”

This is the most cynical question he could ask. We know what happened and out of sheer cowardice he turns Christ over and has him crucified. He never made it to Rome…to the contrary; two years after Our Lord’s crucifixion, at the suggestion of his Roman bosses, Pilate killed himself. Even what he had was taken away.

I think we know this kind of person, the kind of person who is simply not open to hearing the Gospel and living their lives in bitterness and a cynicism.

“What Is truth? There is no truth! We can’t know anything so lets just grab for all the gusto we can get, that’s all there is!”

This is a terribly bitter and cynical attitude that will not allow the Word to penetrate it. Truly the seed falls on the footpath and it gets taken away. That is the first kind of person our Lord says the Word goes to.

There is a second kind; here the seed does fall, not on the earth but truly on soil and it is rocky soil, soil that barely covers the rocks and is too thin for the seed to take root. And what happens? The seed indeed starts to grow but it grows in daylight and the burning summer sun comes and scorches it and it wilts and dies. What is He talking about here? Certainly I have had the occasion as well as you may have of knowing people who converted to Catholicism often after leading empty lives. They went through the bar scene, the meat markets, and so forth and discovered that life was pretty empty and hollow. Then they chanced to meet someone and they heard the good news preached and what happens?

“I want to become a Catholic! This is beautiful and there is finally some meaning to my life and it need not be this endless succession of meaningless relationships that I have been having.”

Good! Beautiful, beautiful! But then it comes; with joy they receive it and what happens? The daily grind comes. Living the Catholic faith, which they received with such joy proves not to be so easy. Joyous? Yes! Easy? No! Our Lord never said the path was easy, to the contrary, the disciple is not greater than the Master and those who would wish to follow him must walk in His bloody footsteps. So, when they see the demands that the Catholic faith puts upon them, the daily demands for a transformed life, the demands for a daily living out of the cross, they abandon the faith and like the dog that goes back to his vomit, say it is just too hard or it is meaningless or whatever. They wilted in the sun after a brief growth.

Who are these people? Who does our Lord have in mind when He speaks of these people? The crowds of Palm Sunday. Recall each of the Palm Sundays you were here at Mass and you held up the palms and sang out,

“Hosanna, Son of David!”

You were like the crowds in Jerusalem, imitating them because they greeted Our Lord, the new Messiah. He is coming and it is payback time; time to overthrow Rome and Pontius Pilate gets his. We get ours…Hosanna to the Son of David. Then they see that is not what Christ is all about. Five days later after shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David”, they are shouting, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” These are the people Our Lord is referring to as the soil on rocky ground. Immediately it goes up in joy saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, but it wilts and withers, “Crucify Him!”

There is a third kind of soil and this one is different than the other two. This soil is truly good soil, really rich and deep; the Word goes and penetrates it and it takes root. This is the soil, which does indeed grow the plant but what happens? Because it is good soil it also gives birth to thorns and thistles and those thorns and thistles can choke the plant before it yields the fruit.

Who does Our Lord have in mind here? I think the best example would be Judas. Judas lived with Our Lord for three years. He heard Him, was touch by Him and Jesus’ Word penetrated him, yet when he saw what our Lord demanded, when he saw that, “Hey, he’s a thief. He is in charge of the purse,” he would have to give up pleasures and put some things away. Judas said, “No thank you.” He goes and sells our Lord for thirty pieces of silver, more money. What happened to Judas? Judas then comes to realize what he has done. He comes finally to self-knowledge seeing what he has done and he is filled with terrible sorrow; not one bit of repentance but tremendous and worldly sorrow.

“I have betrayed and I am guilty of the blood of an innocent man.”

Tremendous sorrow he had, but not one iota of repentance. So he takes the thirty pieces of silver and flings them into the temple treasury and goes out and hangs himself. Even what he had was taken away. Like the crowds who shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David” and “Crucify Him”; what they had was taken from them. Forty years after the Lord’s crucifixion when the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him”, Roman armies would come and level Jerusalem. Not a stone would be left upon a stone and the Jews would be scattered across the face of the earth. They prided themselves on being the chosen people, prided themselves because God chose them, and prided themselves on having the Promised Land, Jerusalem. And that was taken from them and it went to the Gentiles.

This leaves us to think about, who today do we know that fits this third category of one choked by thorns and thistles? I think this is the category that most of us are likely to fall into. We have had a piece of Catholic education and perhaps brought up as cradle Catholics or converts. We didn’t fall away in the first few weeks, months, or even years, but have survived and tried to live the Catholic faith. We notice though that there are constant temptations, we notice that things can nibble away little by little at a strong faith. We can become like Judas who had the faith, had the Word, but it slowly got eaten away because of his love of money.

The best example of that would be certain Catholic politicians. They were cradle Catholics, brought up in Catholic schools, originally came to power looking to implement Catholic Doctrine but, when they saw it was politically convenient and necessary, they went and started supporting abortion and stem cell research and euthanasia, saying they were "personally” opposed but would do everything to stand in the way of stopping these atrocious acts. For the sake of power and for worldly cares they sold out their heritage. The thistles jumped them.

What about the fourth kind? Here, it is the Twelve, the good soil. The Twelve will receive the Word and despite their difficulties, they will go out and preach the Good News; they will go out and be martyred for the sake of the Gospel. The Gospel will go forth and the Word is ever effective in their lives. What about us? Well, maybe we can’t bring forth a hundred fold like the saints but we can certainly bring forth thirty and sixty fold. We cannot put obstacles to the power of God’s all-powerful Word. We can let it grow in us and transform us, we can let it come to us and bear fruit and grow to its full stature and bear fruit thirty, sixty and even one hundred fold in our lives. And here it is, if we can have that one saint, one saint can do so much good for the world. The presence of one saint can undo so much evil.

For the rest of us who aren’t saints but try and live the Catholic faith and to the extent that we fail, there is Fr. Weinberger to hear your Confession. It becomes something with which we do bring forth that fruit thirty or sixty fold, even not if not one hundred. The fruit transforms our lives; it becomes an example and the source of an ever-spreading Kingdom.

So, Pilate lost what he had; even what he had was taken from him. Judas, even what he had was taken from him. The crowd of Jews, even what they had was taken from them but the Gospel continues to grow and grow and brings forth continual fruit.

I come back then to the hospital. What happens when I go to see patients? I offer Sacraments and some will receive them while others will not. People are dying and it reminds us of the Parable of the Sower, hearing, they will not hear and seeing, they will not see, but to you who have received the mysteries of the Kingdom will hear and see. We can never judge anyone; we can never say how God ultimately sees them. Let us ask that we will truly persevere to bring forth that thirty, sixty and a hundred fold fruit so that on that last day we do not hear,

”Depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Instead we want to hear.

“Come blessed of My Father, enter into the joy of the Kingdom prepared for you.”

In this way God is glorified and we are sanctified.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen