7th Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - SEVENTH SUNDAY OF IN ORDINARY TIME
FEBRUARY 22-23, 2019
4:30 PM (SAT), 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES

He was canonized four months and one week ago. Elected to the See of Peter midstream during the Second Vatican Council, and died 15 years later.

Roughly halfway through his pontificate, Pope Saint Paul VI (the sixth) commented:

We would say that, through some mysterious crack—no, it’s not mysterious; through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God.

Many commentators have attempted to interpret what this means. Yet Paul VI (the sixth) himself goes on to tell us:

There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest, dissatisfaction, confrontation.

And then says:

The Church is no longer trusted.

He said that nearly 47 years ago.

Funny, it sounds pretty “contemporary,” don’t you think? In fact, it sounds like things that have been written in the past week from many secular media outlets, and quite a few Church sources as well.

There’s a word for that … prophetic. That is, when something uttered nearly half a century ago sounds like it was meant for today … it is more than just “here we go again,” … it can with some certainty be taken as prophetic.

Today is the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Our readings deal with conflict and division … and how to act in the midst of conflict and division.

In the first reading, from First Kings chapter 26, David is fleeing from King Saul. But while running away from Saul, David finds himself in the middle of Saul’s camp. 

Yet two chapters before, David is in a similar situation. In this first episode, David is hiding in a cave that Saul uses as a latrine. Indisposed, and perhaps in a hurry, Saul fails to notice that David is hiding in the same cave he’s using for … doing his business.

They are in such close quarters that David cuts off part of Saul’s cloak. 

In today’s reading, David takes Saul’s spear and water jar from his tent. 

What’s going on?

Twice, David’s adversary King Saul is delivered into his power. The first time, Saul is indisposed. The second, he is sleeping. 

The answer, spoken by David at the end of today’s pericope is:

Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp,I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.

I would say that this is sort of a human flip-side of Deuteronomy 32:35

Vengeance is mine [says the Lord.]

David is being tested. How much does he trust God?

In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians he is speaking about the Resurrection. In this discussion, Paul compares the natural with the supernatural – or as we hear in today’s reading natural or earthly … and spiritual or heavenly. 

Indeed, then as now, Christians were struggling with living “in the world, but not of the world.” In Paul’s time, the struggle was to be a Christian in a pagan world; while in our own time, the struggle is to be a Christian in a secular world.

We, too, are being tested. How much do we trust God?

In Luke’s Gospel, we hear the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. This teaching moment of Christ to, not only His disciples, but also to a great multitude, is often reduced to “Don’t judge.” Yet the entirety of Our Lord’s sermon is that we are called to exceed what is considered “normative” in polite company. In living out our Christian call, Christ demands of us that we go above and beyond what is “nice” … and in exceeding the “normative” … we are to become “trans-formative.”

This requires a greater measure of virtue than the overly simplistic admonition to “don’t judge.” 

This requires that we become the change we wish to see in the world.

And so, in the midst of “doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest, dissatisfaction, confrontation”, we must persevere in Faith, Hope, and Love. Going beyond problems, we must become the solution. In the midst of unrest, dissatisfaction and confrontation, we must become peace makers. 

Not of our own making. But rather in union with Christ Jesus – the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us pray for a deeper outpouring of God’s grace that we may aspire to greater things – so that transformed through, with, and in Christ – we can clear the air and dispel the smoke that seeks to steal the inheritance which is ours in Christ. The Church is the people of God. Let us place our hope in God, and our trust in the promises of Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

4th Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - FOURTH SUNDAY OF IN ORDINARY TIME
FEBRUARY 2-3, 2019
4:30 PM, 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



Edgar Guest was born in 1881 in Birmingham, England. At the age of 10, his family relocated to the United States, settling in Detroit, Michigan … where he began working as a copy boy and eventually a reporter for the Detroit Free Press. He published his first poem at the age of 17. He became a naturalized citizen when he was 21. For 40 years his column was read throughout the United States and Canada. He also had weekly radio and television shows for about a decade each.

He wrote over 11,000 poems, and is the sole poet to be named “poet laureate” of the State of Michigan. He died in 1959, and is buried in Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

One of Guest’s better known poems, published in 1927, is entitled Good Enough. And it bears a valuable lesson.

My son, beware of “good enough,”

It isn't made of sterling stuff; 

It's something any man can do, 

It marks the many from the few, 

It has no merit to the eye,

It's something any man can buy, 

It's name is but a sham and bluff, 

For it is never “good enough.” 

It goes on for four more stanzas, ending with the line:

Only the best is “good enough.”

Today is the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time.



In Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, we hear what is often considered A Hymn to Love.

Yet in examining the context, we can realize that Paul was writing to a community experiencing many difficulties. Rather than a Hymn to Love, the purpose of what Paul is writing is an exhortation to go beyond the minimum effort.

In speaking of “love,” Paul is writing in the Greek language which has not one, but three words for love. The first kind of love would be called fraternal love or friendship. The second kind of love would be romantic love … sort of a “Valentine’s Day” kind of love. The third kind of love – that is, what St. Paul is speaking about here – is a sacrificial love or a love born out of a heroic virtue … in other words, a God-like or Divine Love … what we see in the person of Jesus Christ.



The church in Corinth was struggling because individuals were not going beyond the mere appearances of Christianity. And while that may “look good,” Paul points out that it is most certainly not good enough. And so, he exhorts his readers, and us as well, to

[s]trive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.

And to embrace

a still more excellent way.

He indicates that with human efforts we can only partially know … and indistinctly perceive the things of God, and whatever we do under our own efforts

will be brought to nothing.

In order to completely understand and clearly see the things of God, we must separate ourselves from those things which hold us back … some of which he names: jealousy, arrogance, self-interest, anger, revenge, provocation, and wickedness. 



Indeed, this theme is repeated throughout today’s readings. The prophet Jeremiah is told that while many “will fight against [him,] they will not prevail over [him].”

And as was foreshadowed in last week’s Gospel, at the beginning of the story, “all spoke highly of [Jesus],” but by the end of the reading

they were all filled with fury.
… rose up, drove [Jesus] out of the town,
… to hurl him down [a cliff] headlong.

So much for critical acclaim.



The world has no place for the love of God. Rather, the world presents a false kind of love … a cheap imitation … a syrupy, feel-good, counterfeit love … which is more like a drug … and most certainly not a remedy for any spiritual need.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us “strive for the greatest spiritual gifts,” and embrace God’s “still more excellent way.” Let us realize that our own way … or the way of the world … is never good enough and instead allow God’s grace and God’s mercy to penetrate our hardened hearts so that we may see more distinctly and understand more completely … the Way, the Truth, and the Life … embodied in the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ.