Power of the cross

The recently consecrated bishop parked his car outside the old downtown church, paused for a moment as though reconsidering his next move, and then briskly climbed the four steps onto the simple but sunny verandah.

On a bench near the front door sat a grey haired priest, seemingly in silent meditation. The bishop approached him diffidently, carefully studying his heavily lined features, clasped hands and closed eyes as though establishing his identity.

Then he spoke softly: "Father, may I sit with you a while?" The old man looked up at the unfamiliar features and pectoral cross, his tired but keen eyes puzzled but polite. He smiled and motioned to the bishop to sit beside him.

"Forgive my intrusion," the bishop said. "But I have a story I must tell you." The old man nodded quietly and waited.

The bishop began: Quite some time ago now a small group of rather boisterous young louts, fresh from an afternoon's drinking session, were walking past a little church. One of them drew the attention of his companiopns to a notice on the door, listing times of confession.

Amid raucous laughter, he suggested: "Why don't we have a bit of fun. Let's make a list of the worst sins we can think of and then draw lots as to who should go in and confess them. It'll be a lark seeing how the poor old priest reacts."

"I've got a better plan," jeered a companion. "Seeing it's your bright idea, why don't you put your money where your mouth is. I bet you 20 dollars you don't have the guts to do it."

The young man tensed a bit but rose to the challenge. "Right," he said, "let's get working on the sin sheet."

It wasn't long before the young man emerged from the church beaming, brandishing a slip of paper. "Well Ive won the bet," he said. "Here's proof I've been to confession."

"What's that?" asked his companions. "It's my penance, handed to me by the priest himself." "What did he say?" the others asked. "He didn't say anything, just handed me the slip."

"Well," said one, "have you done your penance?" "Don't be silly. I don't go for that nonsense," he replied. 2Then I don't pay you your 20 dollars" said his challenger. No penance, no confession. He was adamant.

Seeing they were unyielding, the young man went back into the church, reading the priest's note as he went.

"Kneel before the crucifix at the altar and repeat ten tuimes: All this you did for me and I don't give a damn."

"That's no hassle." he thought, making his way to the chancel. He reached the crucifix and knelt down. His eyes took in the nailed hands and feet and the infinite sadness in the eyes. Then they moved to the text below: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do".

He began his penance: "All this you did for me and I don't give a damn. All this you did for me and I don't give a damn. All this you did for me and I don't..."

About half an hour later his friends, impatient, went in to the church to find out what he was up to. They found him at the altar rail sobbing profusely.

"Well, that's the story," said the bishop. "Except for two things. I was that young man and you were the priest."

Christ who welcomes sinners

Gospel
Lk 15:1-32

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them he addressed this parable.

“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?And when he does find it,he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home,he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.

“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house,searching carefully until she finds it?And when she does find it,she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them,‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’In just the same way, I tell you,there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything,a severe famine struck that country,and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,but nobody gave him any.Coming to his senses he thought,‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat,but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son;treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off,his father caught sight of him,and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him,‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;I no longer deserve to be called your son.’But his father ordered his servants,‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast,because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;he was lost, and has been found.’Then the celebration began.

Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house,he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him,‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’He became angry,and when he refused to enter the house,his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply,‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders;yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns,who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’He said to him,‘My son, you are here with me always;everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice,because your brother was dead and has come to life again;he was lost and has been found.’”

St Martin's Sermon

Today is Battle of Britain Sunday. What happened in our skies in 1940 led Winston Churchill to say "Never in the course of human history has so much been owed by so many to so few". But, I believe, there is an act of self sacrifice with even greater significance for all of us. In I Timothy Paul writes: "Christ Jesus came into the world for sinners"; "There is only one mediator between God and humanity, himself a human being, Christ Jesus, who offered himself a ransom for all". "The man who welcomes sinners" and causes such offense to his religious contemporaries is called "Jesus" because the angel instructed Joseph "You must call his name Jesus, for it is He who will save his people from their sins". That is what the name means "God Saves".

Today Jesus is preached predominantly as the icon of the good life we are to copy and follow but our eucharistic worship makes little sense unless it is understood as re-presentation of the Lord's death by which sinful mortals may approach a Holy God through the broken body and the shed blood of a once for all Saviour. We are not only welcomed by Jesus. We are "ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven". "We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you; because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world".

I recall a new parish priest being appointed to Otley in West Yorkshire who got a lot of flack from respectable inhabitants when a large, bold, notice appeared outside his town centre church: "This Church is for sinners only". Obviously, they had not taken to heart our Lord's story of the two men praying in the Temple - a Pharisee who prayed "I thank you Lord that I am not as other men" and a Publican who prayed "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner". Jesus concluded that it was this man and not the Pharisee who went home justified.

Non judgemental welcome and acceptance is what works best for wayward men and women. It usually creates the optimum conditions in which weak and frail humans can expose their faults and failures, desire to change, to make amends and to start again. When we come to Jesus with our sins we are coming to one who is able to redeem us and send us on our way rejoicing. To be able to do this for us makes God, the Father, happy too. "There is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety nine righteous men who have no need of repentance".

Earlier this year Pope Benedict published Volume One of a book called simply "Jesus of Nazareth". It has been widely acclaimed and become a best seller. It is an exposition of his own personal gospel journey from the Jesus of History to the Jesus of Faith. He calls the Parable of the Prodigal Son "The Parable of the two brothers". Jesus began his story with the words "A man had two sons". If only they would let him, the Father wants to love them both equally - the wayward younger boy and the dutiful but resentful elder boy. The story doesn't end with the Father welcoming the younger boy back home. It ends with the Father running from one to the other trying to bring them together, trying to convince each of his love. "Only when I have done this" he seems to be saying "will my joy be complete".

So never mind what kind of a sinner you are. We are all sinners. No one is excepted. Just be glad that Jesus welcomes sinners, loves them and redeems them.

Draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament to your comfort.

Monastry in the Desert, New Mexico

FIRST READING
2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13

Nathan said to David: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan answered David: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”

SECOND READING
Galatians 2:16, 19-21

Brothers and sisters: We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

GOSPEL
Luke 7:36—8:3

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher, ” he said. “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

Abbott's Homily

My sisters and brothers in Christ,
Today we hear strong words about sin and about forgiveness. Always sin and forgiveness are at work in our lives. Perhaps with the grace of God we sin less at times, but our basic tendencies often pull us to make decisions or to do certain actions or to think thoughts that do not unite us with God and others in love, but instead separate us. Perhaps for some of us, doing good does not require much effort. We could be like the rich young man mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels and still not give our lives over completely to God and to doing His will.

The first reading today, from the Second Book of Samuel, is about David, who is often seen as an archetype of the person who has passion for God but who is not yet totally converted. David is full of energy for the Lord, but that energy is not always fully integrated into his life. We should admire the energy. Sometimes we also meet people who have an incredible energy for God but who also seem not entirely integrated people. In the Scriptures, this energy is sometimes given us as an example of how we should be in our own energies. In the Book of Revelation, the final book of the Scriptures, there is a famous passage that says: “So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” This speaks about the energies that we have. Many of us are often lukewarm, instead of hot or cold. Better to push against God or for God than to be indifferent to God. David was hot, not lukewarm. When he served God, he did it with his whole heart and soul, with all his being. Thus he should be a model for us. When he recognizes that he has sinned, he repents immediately.

The Gospel that we have heard today speaks on the same theme. Here we encounter a woman who had sinned but who now simply weeps at the feet of Jesus, after anointing them. She knew that Jesus could forgive her sins and with her whole heart she loved him. What about us? Do we know that Jesus does love us? Do we accept forgiveness of sins? We can want to become people whose full interest is taken up in knowing God and doing what God asks of us. This is so often the goal of truly saintly people. They don’t always achieve it, but, like the woman in the Gospel, they are willing to put all their life into serving the Lord. For some of us, there is the challenge of sin addictions: returning to the same sins over and over and over. Those sins can be anger, hatred, lust, laziness, envy or lots of others. But we seem quite stable in our sins. For others, there is the challenge of bringing energy to seeking God with all one’s being. For others, there is a challenge of accepting that God would even care about us.

The second reading, from the Letter to the Galatians, tells us that salvation is about belief in Jesus Christ, not in achieving anything in particular. Today we can turn once again to the Lord and ask Him directly: Touch my heart, give me divine energy, let me know you and love you. May our hearts be on fire with God’s love.