16th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Denise]

Rev. James Lehrberger, O. Cist. is a professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. Father James is a member of the Cistercian Order and lives at the Abbey of our Lady of Dallas. With Father James' able help this weekend again it will make it possible for Fr. Paul to hear Confessions during the Sunday Masses.

As you recall, in the Apostolic Letter, Misericordia Dei, which is a short letter of instruction about the Sacrament of Confession, Pope John Paul II writes,

Local Ordinaries, and parish priests and rectors of churches and shrines, should periodically verify that the greatest possible provision is in fact being made for the faithful to confess their sins. It is particularly recommended that in places of worship confessors be visibly present at the advertised times, that these times be adapted to the real circumstances of penitents, and that confessions be especially available before Masses, and even during Mass if there are other priests available, in order to meet the needs of the faithful.(15)

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

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

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

One of the reasons I enjoy coming back here to St. William’s is the fact that you conclude each Mass with the prayer to St. Michael. We will pray at the end of this mass,
“St. Michael the Archangel defend us in the day of battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.”
It is wonderful to invoke the Prince of the Angels against the prince of the demons, and today we hear why and how it is that Satan and his minions, the devils, are truly the enemies of each and every one of us and how we need God to send St. Michael and the good angels to protects us because indeed the assaults of the devil are all too real as we hear in Our Lord’s parables today.

What is Our Lord’s parable? He tells about the weeds and the wheat; the wheat are the children of the kingdom and the weeds are sown by the enemy; literally in Hebrew, Satana, Satan the enemy. The Satana is the one who has done this; he has taken into the field which is the world, the children of the kingdom…that is the Church…and he has sown in it weeds as well as wheat. This will be so He says, until the end of time.
When those people come who are the servants of the Lord and ask,
“Should we root up the weeds?”

He says,

“NO!”

Why is that? First of all, in rooting up the weeds you might also root up some of the wheat. Weeds and wheat until the very end look very much alike, it is hard to tell them apart. Secondly, it gives time for the weeds to have repentance, for indeed repentance is what is called for, conversion of life. Thirdly, we note that this is the Church Our Lord is speaking about, the children of the Kingdom; the Church that is in the world. We are no longer talking about last Sunday’s Parable of the seed that fell by the wayside or the seed that was plucked by birds, no, no! That was the seed that fell on inadequate soil, thin soil, rocky soil and so forth. We are talking here about the Church and until the end of time there will be the good and the evil in the Church. There are those who accept God’s grace and make proper use of the Sacraments and aid God gives and then those who do not. Certainly we have never claimed that the Catholic Church is the Church of the saved because it is not. Rather, it is the saving Church for those who will take advantage and properly use all that Our Lord has given to us.

Thus it is, we have Fr. Paul hearing Confessions right now; a chance to have sins absolved, forgiven and blotted out and taken away. And for those who would refuse the opportunities of grace, if they do not repent, indeed they will be gathered at the close of the ages with the weeds and burnt.

Our Lord tells the parable of the woman who hid leaven or yeast for dough in the flour. What is this? She hid it, because it is hidden. The Church works from within. It transforms as the yeast transforms the dough. So it is that this yeast hidden in the loaf, God’s grace and God’s work within the Church works to transform all of our lives and it works until it transforms the dough that is to be transformed until it fully leavens it and brings it to its full height. By the same token He goes on to explain the mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds and yet the greatest of bushes in which the birds of the air find themselves, that is all people find a branch in which to take root on this mustard plant. So it is that this will go on until the end of time.

Our Lord was not saying that His kingdom would come right now. No, because it takes time in the way leaven in the dough takes time; it takes time for the seed to grow into a full bush. At that time the Pharisees expected an immediate victory. They expected it not to be as yeast leavens the dough but a bloody and triumphant victory. This is not so as our Lord says in the parables and this is why the Pharisees hated Him. His was not that kind of Kingdom. So when He said that it would be a long time until the end of the ages, until the yeast leavens the dough and the mustard seed has grown into full stature, then He explains the parable. At the end of the ages out of the field, then will the angels come and harvest the weeds and the wheat, and then will those be burnt with fire or gathered into the barn.

In other words, this is something that will go on until the close of the ages and each and every one of us, you and I, are called upon and will face the decisions that have to be faced as to whether we are weeds or wheat. Such it has been since the time of Christ and such it will be until the close of the ages. No human being escapes that grace of God nor unfortunately does he escape the temptation of the devil. In the same way, no member of the Church, not one of us despite all the advantages we have as Catholics, with all our Sacraments and all other things that God gave us, will escape the temptations to say no to them and not use them taking full advantage of God’s grace.

Who then is the devil that sows these weeds or is the source of the weeds? We know first of all that the devil is a fallen angel, the highest and greatest of the fallen angels. He was Lucifer, the best and the brightest of God’s entire creation, the sharpest mind and strongest most powerful will being closest to God than any creature that was ever created. Notice he is an angel! That means he never gets tired and has no body to get sick, tired, run down or injured. No, he is pure mind and will without any hindrance from a body that can hamstring, harm or drag down the mind and will. So as the greatest mind, will, and spirit, Lucifer was created to give glory to God but what happened? He became his enemy, reflecting on his own greatness; knowing his own greatness, which was the greatest of all creatures. He refused to accept God’s grace by which he could actually see God. Despite the fact that he was the greatest of creatures he was still a creature and still had to love God as his very source and creator to come into the vision of God. No creature, no matter how great, can see God without God’s grace. So Lucifer refused!

“No! I will do it by myself. I will be the one who rises up to the vision of God by the strength of my own natural powers, by the fact that I am the greatest mind and have the greatest will of anything that has ever been created.”

In his pride he revolted, he wanted to be like God! And because no one can behold the face of God without His free gift of mercy and grace, not even the greatest angel, then Lucifer was filled with hatred of God and hatred of all God’s works. He was cast out of Heaven and into Hell to plot and work against all of God’s works, especially us. Because of his pride, Lucifer refused God’s love and was filled with hatred and in other words, became the enemy of God.

Lucifer becomes Satan, Lucifer becomes Satana, Satan…literally the “enemy of God”. Nothing he could do would ever hurt God of course. The worst blasphemies of Satan cannot hurt God one bit, anymore than our praises can add anything to God. When we praise God we don’t give Him something He needs, we don’t help Him. Actually we help ourselves as we praise Him and this is what is our perfection and fulfillment. So, to keep us from having our fulfillment and perfection, loving God with our whole heart and soul, Satan then turned against the human race. Remember, human beings as we read in Genesis 1, created in the image and likeness of God. If he couldn’t hurt God then he would at least hurt His image and likeness. We read in the Garden, how the devil in the form of a serpent attacked Adam and Eve.

“Did God forbid you to eat of any of the trees?”

“Well, He said we could eat of every tree except the one in the center of the garden. For on that day when we would eat of it we would surely die.”

And what does Satan say to Eve?

“No, you shall not die, rather on that day when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods.”

He tempts Adam and Eve in exactly the same way he had fallen.

“You can do it yourself, you don’t need God’s love and mercy. You go and grab for that fruit and you will be like God.”

A lie! And…he knew it was a lie. It was also an inducement to rise up in rebellion in pride against the loving God Who made them and called them to happiness with Himself. So what happened? Our first parents fell and with them the fall of man. Satan had won his first victory. The whole world was his dominion.

This is why Our Lord became Incarnate, this is why Christ came, to undo this damage. The world was his and Satan, not only the enemy of God, not only the enemy of man but also the enemy of Christ Himself. Right after Our Lord goes into the desert for forty days, Satan tempts Jesus saying,

“Turn the stone into bread. Jump off the top of the pinnacle and Your angels will bear You up.”

Finally, the third temptation, Satan takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of Jerusalem and tell Jesus that the whole world is his, and it is! It is under his dominion. He tells Jesus,

“If you will fall down and worship me, I will give it all to you.”

He puts a great temptation in front of Christ and tells Christ that the whole world is his and under his dominion and if Jesus falls down and worships him, he will allow Jesus to rule in his name. Jesus will rule the world but He will rule it for Satan. Our Lord refused the temptation. Satan knowing that he can’t beat Jesus that way then plots, and ultimately with Judas, Caphias , Pilot and others, plots to bring about Christ’s death and he succeeds. The halls of Hell must have rejoiced on that Good Friday afternoon at 3:00 when the Lord bowed His head, said it was finished and gave up His Spirit. The Messiah had been broken and defeated; another failed prophet, another would-be messiah coming to nothing. But…that rejoicing was short lived.

Our Lord rose on that Easter Sunday, the halls of Hell were broken and the Resurrection ended Satan’s dominion over the world. In other words, God turned the very Crucifixion of Christ, the very Crucifixion of His Son into the means of victory of overthrowing Satan. Since the Resurrection, since Easter Sunday Satan’s dominion, power and control over the world has been broken. It is no long his and he can no longer say that the entire world is his. That is not true, it is now all God’s. He, so to speak has to work on us individually and that is what he does and is what the Parable of the wheat and weeds is all about. He can’t control the world but he can tempt us and with all the graces we have he can be defeated easily. Not one of us need go to Hell or sin mortally, no, with all the graces that are given starting with Baptism, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the different Sacraments and prayers, everything is given more than sufficient armaments; more than sufficient grace is needed, infinitely more is needed than what Satan has and what he can do.

Can Satan defeat us? Can we let him defeat us? Unfortunately the answer is ‘YES”! We can refuse as Adam and Eve as well as Lucifer refused to take advantage and say “thank you” to God in love, gratitude, and humility for the great gift He has offered. We can spurn it, we can with malice or weakness refuse the graces that He offers us. If we harden our hearts in that refusal then we too have become the children of Satan and are to be gathered up and burnt. None of this is necessary, not one iota is necessary. God’s grace is more than sufficient.

Some of you may have seen some of these Hollywood movies such as the Exorcist and others that portray always as sort of an equal battle between God and Satan. There is no equality what so ever! In fact, it is God Who sends another angel, St. Michael to battle Satan. God has no need to battle Satan directly; so much more powerful is He. Rather it is St. Michael, a less angel than Lucifer but no the less can defeat Lucifer by his power. It is that kind of strength and power as you are sitting here, you are listening and hearing and God’s grace is working on you so that Satan may never overcome you and so that God may truly give you the grace which you can come into His presence by that grace. This is what Our Lord is all about. Despite the fact that we know he is going to sow the weeds, not one of us ever need be a weed. We are given more than sufficient strength to overcome Satan and become part of the wheat.
One of the things we may ask is,

“Why did God allow this to happen? Why didn’t He just annihilate Lucifer as soon as he became Satan? Why didn’t God stop him and why does He allow Satan to do the things that take place?”

Indeed Satan is powerful in the world in this sense, over bodily things, physical things. He can cause harm there but cannot touch our mind or will unless we let him. He can cause physical evils, but spiritual evils he cannot do. Why did God let him? Because God never allowed evil that He does not bring good out from. Always, when the evil of our will, minds, and spirit is there, it is so that God can bring a greater good out of it. [Editor's note: Father James is not saying that it is ok to intentionally or with premeditation commit a sin, do evil, in order to bring about something good or holy. He is saying that God can bring good out of bad.] As we prayed on Easter Saturday night, “O happy fault”, that our first parents’ sin brought about the Incarnation and the fact that God became man; a sin brought about a greater grace conquering temptation by refusing the wiles of Satan and we get to become more and more that person that God wanted us to be.

Never despair in times of temptation; never think of it as abandonment. Rather, think of it as an opportunity to grow in God’s love. What is your particular temptation or temptations? Is it pride, despair, sensuality, liquor, ambition or greed? Go through the list; it may be more than one of those and may be all of them. It doesn’t matter, each of those is an opportunity to be able to accept God’s grace and turn that temptation and like a scorpion stinging itself to death, use it as a means of growth in loving God.

“O Lord, let this temptation be taken from me, let it be defeated.”

In praying that prayer you defeat the temptation and walk more and more in God’s way.

We pray that prayer with St. Michael the archangel, we know that he is there to help us, we know that the power of Satan is broken and he has no power over our minds and wills unless we allow it. As we continue the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, let us pray that each of us keep up our prayer and spiritual life so that truly, St. Michael can go and run his sword through the heart of the enemy, the Satana, Satan. In that way we give glory to God and it will lead to our sanctification.

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

Amen