{"id":2623,"date":"2018-09-02T12:16:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T16:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2018-09-02T12:16:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T16:16:06","slug":"22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

22nd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nDeuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
\nPsalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5 (1a)
\nJames 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
\nMark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
\nSeptember 2, 2018<\/p>\n

Beginning today and for the next few weeks our second reading comes from the Letter of James.\u00a0 Often scripture talks in terms of faith, faith that is a gift from God, a gift that is a treasure.\u00a0 Today, James talks about \u201creligion,\u201d religion \u201cthat is pure and undefiled before God<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today people talk about \u201creligion\u201d and \u201cspirituality\u201d as two different things.\u00a0 For those who don\u2019t come to church but profess a belief in God, they describe themselves as \u201cspiritual\u201d but not \u201creligious.\u201d\u00a0 For them, this means they believe in God but don\u2019t follow any one particular denomination or attend Mass.\u00a0 They say they pray in their own way.\u00a0 For many of them, \u201creligion\u201d is about the institution instead of faith in God.\u00a0 For them, the institution has too many rules.<\/p>\n

Certainly, there are people whose knowledge of the Catholic Church centers on rules and practices.\u00a0 We have lots of teaching but not to have a volume of teaching.\u00a0 The Catholic Church does not seek to add new commandments.\u00a0 That would go against what Moses said in our first reading, \u201cyou shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 People who focus on the rules of the Catholic Church believe we have added to what Moses taught.\u00a0 That is never our goal.\u00a0 The purpose is help us apply our faith in our world today.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way, these words of Moses not to add to what was commanded came before King David and any of the prophets.\u00a0 The prophets were sent by God not to add to what God had already commanded but to help people live it out.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, people think the Catholic Church has too many \u201crules.\u201d\u00a0 I think some of them look for the least they have to do, almost to the extent of subtracting from God\u2019s commandments.<\/p>\n

Moses told the people that if they follow God\u2019s commandments, it would give evidence<\/em> of their wisdom and intelligence to the nations<\/em>.\u00a0 When we understand them properly and apply them to our lives today, the commandments are good for us.\u00a0 We should ask ourselves if we sometimes get caught up in \u201ctradition<\/em>\u201d and forget the meaning behind the custom and\/or teaching?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we do.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that is not our biggest problem today.\u00a0 When James spoke of \u201creligion<\/em>,\u201d he included, \u201cpure and undefiled before God<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Right now we face turmoil in our Church because of sin and error that leaves the earthly institution of the church \u201cunpure\u201d and \u201cdefiled.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of looking wise and intelligence, we look like hypocrites because of a few clergy who chose to sin in abusing children and those who made a terrible decision to cover it up.\u00a0 What they did was wrong.\u00a0 If you have been the victim of this, I am sorry.\u00a0 There is no excuse.<\/p>\n

Recognizing this, Bishop Matano has called for \u201cA Day of Penance by Priests\u201d on September 14th<\/sup>, which is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross<\/a>.\u00a0 That\u2019s a Friday so we won\u2019t normally have a Mass.\u00a0 However, for that day, we will have Mass at 12:10 pm in the chapel with a Rosary before and confessions afterwards.\u00a0 The details will be in next week\u2019s bulletin.<\/p>\n

Grave sin has been committed.\u00a0 Innocent people suffer from the abuse.\u00a0 First and foremost<\/em>, we must pray for them and see that they get the compassion and help they need.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Only then do we ask, \u201cCan the Church survive this?\u201d\u00a0 To answer this we need to think of \u201cchurch\u201d on two levels.\u00a0 First, is the institutional church as we experience it on earth.\u00a0 It is where we learn about God\u2019s commandments and how He calls us to live.\u00a0 It is where we come together to worship God as a community.\u00a0 On a higher level, \u201cChurch\u201d is not just a human institution.\u00a0 The Church is established by God to be his instrument and Church is the bride of Christ.<\/p>\n

The birth of the Church happened as the blood and water flowed from Jesus\u2019 side on the Cross.\u00a0 The human\/institutional church developed over time, led by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The human church falters when it does not listen to God.<\/p>\n

Can the Church survive?\u00a0 Yes, but not based on human thought but because Jesus chooses to make the Church his bride.\u00a0 The church as we experience it on Earth has faced sin and corruption before.\u00a0 It has always survived.\u00a0 We see over and over in the Old Testament how the people sinned and, when they repented, God our Father restored what has been damaged by sin.<\/p>\n

There is hope because Jesus died on the Cross for our sins.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit is always ready to lead us to what God calls us to be.\u00a0 We just need to listen.\u00a0 God never turns away from us\u00a0 It is we who turn away from him in our sin.<\/p>\n

So, what are we to do?\u00a0 I wish I could fix everything about the clergy abuse scandal but I don\u2019t have the answers.\u00a0 I have been thinking and praying a lot about this scandal in recent weeks.\u00a0 It is hard to believe what has surfaced lately.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have the answers but I know God does.<\/p>\n

That is why the most important thing everyone needs to do is to listen to God.\u00a0 That means prayer.\u00a0 We need to stop worrying about how this makes us \u201clook\u201d, help those who suffer, and focus on being who God calls us to be.\u00a0 Again, it begins with prayer.<\/p>\n

Does prayer really work?\u00a0 It did for St. Monica.\u00a0 Last Monday we celebrated her feast day.\u00a0 She was a Catholic Christian but married a non-believer.\u00a0 Her son Augustine was raised not believing in Jesus.\u00a0 She prayed for thirty years for his conversion.\u00a0 He had dabbled in other religions and lived an immoral life until St. Monica\u2019s prayers were finally answered.\u00a0 We celebrated his feast day on Tuesday.\u00a0 He became Catholic, a bishop, doctor of the church, and a saint.<\/p>\n

So, conversion is possible.\u00a0 It was for St. Augustine and it is for us.<\/p>\n

Please pray.\u00a0 As Bishop Matano wrote this week, pray for \u201cthe innocent victims of clergy sexual abuse, the faith of our people, the purification of the Church and the renewal of the clergy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5 (1a) James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 September 2, 2018 Beginning today and for the next few weeks our second reading comes from the Letter of James.\u00a0 Often scripture talks in terms of faith, faith that is a gift …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,10],"tags":[494,495,496],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Gj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2625,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623\/revisions\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}