Homily
for September 23, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Dcn. Bob Villarreal Topic:
Adoration
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In
today’s Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus related a parable
about a landlord who dismissed his steward because his steward was
found to be
squandering the fees he assessed his renters.
Once the steward recognized the urgency of the situation, he began to
plot his future, and he displayed much shrewdness in reducing the debts
of
these renters so that they would receive him in their homes in the
future. The steward has great motivation to conduct
his shrewd but dishonest connivance. He
had created what he felt was salvation, but he forgot that earthly
salvation is
only temporary and will eventually run out.
Jesus pointed to the dishonest steward as an example of his crafty and
zealous response to an urgent temporal need and asserted that his
followers
should take notice of such ingenuity and effort in preparing themselves
for the
Kingdom of God rather than looking for temporal gains. Jesus is
pointing out the folly of seeking
material gains in this world at the expense of attaining eternal
life. How many of you have been to Hawaii?
How many of you have been to the big
island? Quite a few. How many of you have ever been down in
the
Waipio Valley? One, two in this whole
parish. It’s not a place that very many
people go to. One of the things that
happened is that I just came back from a trip to the big island.
My daughter-in-law Hillary and I were signed
up for horse ride on the big island of Hawaii. We traveled for about two hours to
a location
on the north side of the island. We arrived
at a ranch shed or barn and we were asked to sign away any and all of
our
rights, and we did, very much like the renters did, or the debtors did
in
today’s Gospel reading. After that there
were about 5 people who stared at us like a scene from Deliverance, but
with
dueling ukuleles instead of banjos. We
went outside and sat down and a dog came out and went to sleep and
growled. After a while, a van arrived
and we got into the well-worn van. There
we a sign that was noticeable that boldly said, “No Smoking and that
means
YOU!” The driver introduced himself as
Clem, and promptly, in a very sly manner, lit up. He held it out
the window and would sneak a
quick but deep puff periodically, and apparently assumed we were
unaware his
was smoking. He then raved and ranted
about everything under the sun for 20 minutes as he drove us to the
edge of
Waipio valley. This is where we got our
first look at geologic grandeur. We
could see waterfalls and black sand beach and the waves coming up
against the
beach. We could see the floor of the
valley, and it was like a primeval jungle down there. He drove off what seemed to be a cliff
and stopped to give
us a three-part safety lecture. He said,
“Look, not just anybody can come down to this valley. This was
the Waipio Valley. It is the Valley of the Kings. This was
a sacred and mystical place. It was where King Kamehameha was
hidden for
many years. He warned us that we were to
travel down about 1100 feet in about 9/10ths of
a mile. He said it was a very narrow and steep road
with many turns and chuckholes. There
had been several armatures that had died on this road. He told us
we ought to unleash our safety
belts because it was safer without our belts if we had to jump off the
van. This gave us a lot of comfort. At the same time, we became very much
like when Jesus was
approached during his time with the devil during his time in the desert.
Look he said.
Look at this whole kingdom.
There is a whole kingdom down there.
Just come with me and I will show you this whole kingdom and everything
about it. He started to talk that way.
The second part of his safety lecture
was that if we heard
his door open, he was no longer in the van and we should jump out and
grab
anything we could. He then said that his
sight wasn’t very good and if I could be the watchdog to see if any
cars were
coming around the curve and to let him know.
This gave me a sense of trust.
This guy was swooping me into this.
He wanted me to be a part of the whole going down the mountain.
He said something that he repeated over and
over. He called me Pops. He didn’t care
what my name was. He kept saying, “Now
this is for real Pops. This is no Disneyland ride. This is
reality.” He repeated this over and over. “This is
reality.” The third part of the safety lecture
was down at the
bottom. He said a prayer, perhaps to
some foreign god, thanking this god for bringing us down safely to the
bottom. Then we continued to the horse
corral and the horses were prepared for the ride. Clem went over
his horse for about 20-30
minutes to make sure everything was perfect on his horse. We just
sat there on our horses looking at
him. Eventually we started out on our
horses, but Clem wanted to go into the jungle for a break several times.
Hillary and I talked about his. She said, “I’m surprised you
don’t know what
he’s doing”. I said, “I just thought he
had pressure and had to go”. She said,
“No. What he was doing was going in
there and smoking pot.” Now we have this
guy who is going to lead us smoking pot.
After a short ride, he said it was time to return, and we did.
Now I’m thinking and getting worried, that I
have to back up that hill, that sharp 9/10ths
of a mile with a
driver high on pot. We eventually got back
and I thought about this later on, that every time he stopped in the
jungle it
was like he was going to the altar of his god, and his god was in this
case,
smoking pot. At the ranch house we got there and as
we were getting
there, Hillary and I had a discussion. I
said, “I don’t want to be any part of this, should we give him a tip or
not?” She said,” I think I am.” I said, “I don’t think I am
because I want no
part of this.” As we arrived there,
there were 9 people getting ready for the next tour. They came up
to us and asked how it was
because they were really looking forward to this. I was in a real
moral dilemma here. What am I going to say? “It was a great
trip, but the driver’s higher
than a kite and he’s going to lead you down a cliff road?”
Eventually I said, “Clem was a character and
it was a memorable trip.” Clem had gone
to great lengths to create in his mind a perfect reality. Like
the dishonest steward in today’s Gospel,
he had all his ducks in a row. He also
constructed a construed connivance that he thought would bring him
salvation,
but from what could he be looking for salvation? Perhaps from
doing work honestly for a
living. Maybe from having to look
honestly into a false reality that he seemed to really believe in.
How many of us have our ducks all in a
row and feel that we
are now safe? How many of us need to lay
our plan for salvation, our reality, next to God’s reality and see how
well
they really match? In today’s old testament reading the
prophet Amos railed against
the plutocratic landlords who would cheat and oppress the poor through
dishonesty or even honesty of their own creation, to their own benefit
at the
expense of the vulnerable. Last week in
the parable of the prodigal son Luke gave an account of the response of
the
father. No reliance on the Mosaic Law,
or manipulation of the law, just an outpouring of love even to those
who didn’t
deserve it.
Later in this chapter Luke relates the
story of Jesus and
the rich official who asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus answered with a partial list of
Commandments and the official responded that he observed all these from
his
youth. Jesus deflated him when he said.
“There is one thing left for you, sell all you have and distribute it
to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven.”
By adding that last statement, Jesus took away the possibility of
having
to make a deal with the official about being guaranteed a spot in
heaven. We learned from today’s Gospel reading that
Jesus wants to lead us away from foolish cleverness to true wisdom.
He wants us to discern what is real, what is
reality and what is not. The Pharisees
wanted to continue a non-scriptural tradition that allows them to love
wealth
in this world and yet be assured of life in the next world.
Essentially they wanted to fulfill the
condition of the old covenant, the old law that you shall be my people
and I
shall be your God even if it meant making a deal with God. Jesus
explained that satisfying the letter of
the law was indeed necessary, but that it was not enough. The
Pharisees picked up rocks to stone him,
for assuming that kind of authority.
This was not to be their means of approaching God. Now we’re going to switch gears and
talk a little bit about
how we approach God. St. Paul instructed
Christians that we approach God by bringing bread and wine to the altar
where
they will become the Body and Blood of Christ.
That it is the risen Lord himself who is present and gives himself to
eat for as Catholics the primary means of approaching is participation
in the
mass, this mass. When we approach the
mass, we must recognize that we will experience certain presuppositions
and
acknowledgements. We acknowledge that
the Eucharist is the entry into the Liturgy in heaven. That is an
awesome thought. We presuppose that the word of God will
permeate our minds. We presuppose that
we will join with the choirs of cherubim and seraphim in heaven in
singing the
Holy, Holy, Holy. Imagine. We have that right. We
presuppose that we will be transformed
into the Body of Christ through the Eucharist.
We presuppose that through the Holy Spirit, Christ is the unity between
God and his faithful as we say in the mass over and over in every mass,
“Through
Him, with Him and in Him in the Unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and
glory
are yours forever and ever.” When we
approach the table, it is not like Clem did, approaching his table in
the
jungle. When we approach the Table, we
approach the Lord himself, and he is present here. The
indivisible one, the incarnate Christ, in
flesh and blood, body and soul, divinity and humanity, the sacred
mystery of
our faith. The goal of the Eucharist is
our own transformation so we become one body and spirit with Christ.
Let no one say that the Eucharist is
only for eating and not
for adoration. Partaking of the
Eucharist is a form of worship and adoration.
Adoration is not opposed to communion, nor is it merely added to it.
The sacredness and mystery of the Eucharist
only reaches it’s true depth when it is supported and surrounded with
adorations. A church without the
Eucharistic presence is not quite whole.
It is somehow a little dead, but a church in which an Eternal Light is
burning next to the Blessed Sacrament is always whole and fully alive
and
calling us to be one in Christ.
Adoration of Christ through the Eucharist is a way we can display our
zeal and devotion for Jesus, for God. We
do not need to make deals with God. What
we are doing is real. It is the reality of God, and expresses the
reality of
Christ in our worship.