My friends, in my absence last weekend, parishioner Nancy Miller gave us this homily. I am sure you will be inspired as was I.  Thanks Nancy!

I have some thoughts on the readings.  My first thought after I finished the readings was, “Boy, Amos was not a fun guy.”

He was criticizing people for having nice furniture, good food, wine, playing music.  If those thing are bad, then I’m in trouble.  But his concern was not just with the things.  He criticizes those around him who don’t care about the fall of Joseph.  They don’t care about what’s happening in their own country.

And what was happening in their country?  I found this earlier passage from Amos:

Yes, I know how many are your crimes, how grievous your sins.  Oppressing the just, accepting               bribes, repelling the needy at the gate.

Now, I’m getting it.  I watched Law & Order.  I know what happens when a judge accepts a bribe — the guilty go free, and the innocent are punished.  The rich feel that they can do anything they want, break any law, and all they have to do is wave some money at the judge, and they are free to go; while the poor feel that there is no justice for them.

And, not only are they denying the poor justice, but when the poor and needy come to their gate, they say, “There’s nothing for you here.  Go away.”

And that’s why Amos was angry; that’s why he was pointing out the good food, and the nice furniture.  “You have so much, and yet, you’re telling those in need to “Go away.”

Jesus was concerned with much the same thing in his story.  Except where Amos was going into the temple swinging a 2 by 4, and saying, “You’ve done this and that,” Jesus said, “Let me tell you a little story…”  There was a rich man, and how rich was he?  He was so rich he wore a purple robe.  At one point, only royalty were allowed to wear the color purple.  Maybe, it was any expensive dye, and only the very wealthy could afford it.  But this man was not only rich, he was an important member of society.  And, he got up every day, in his nice house with nice furniture, and had a good meal, and he walked out the door every day, and there was Lazarus on his doorstep.  Lazarus was poor, hungry, thirsty, and sick.  What did the rich man do?   I can see him, walking out of his door, and stepping over Lazarus, and going about his business.  Did he ever offer Lazarus one act of kindness? No, apparently not.  Because in the afterlife, he went to the bad place, and Lazarus went to the good place.  So, not even a single act of kindness.

I’m going to take a detour now.  My favorite book is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  These readings reminded me of Ebenezer Scrooge.  When Scrooge was talking to the ghost of Jacob Marley, he could see that Marley was distressed and tormented.  And he offered some words of comfort, “Jacob, you were always a good man of business.”  Marley replied, “Mankind was my business.”

I have another story which I got off the Internet, so who knows if it’s true or not.  There was this person who lived and worked in a big city.  Every day, on his way to work, he saw homeless people near his office building sleeping in the doorways, some sleeping on the sidewalk.  And this person was inspired to write an open letter to his city.  In this letter, he explained about seeing the homeless every day, and he suggested that his city might want to come down and clean up the area.  He wrote, “I’m a productive citizen, and I make a valuable contribution to this city.  And those people do not.  And I shouldn’t have to look at this every day.”

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he said, “Don’t be like that.  You want to be kind, loving, and faithful.”

I don’t want to be like the people Amos was talking to.  I don’t want to be like the rich person Jesus was talking about.  I don’t want to be like Ebenezer Scrooge.  And I know I don’t want to be like the letter-writer.

I have one last story to tell.  Again, I saw this on the Internet.  There was a person who lived, and worked in a big city.  Every day going into work, this person saw homeless people on the sidewalk near his building.  This person happened to be a hair stylist.  He asked himself, “What can I do?  I’m not a politician; I’m a hair stylist!”

One day, inspiration came.  The hair stylist got a mover’s dolly, and loaded up a small, portable sink and a chair onto it.  And he rolled the dolly out to the sidewalk.  He walked over to the homeless people, and said, “Hi.  I’m a hair stylist.  I have a sink and chair right here.  Would you like for me to wash, cut, and style your hair?”

Some people thought he had lost his mind, but some took him up on his offer.  One man had a lot of hair, coming down over his shoulders and a long wild beard.  Think of Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, that’s what the man looked like.  The stylist washed all the man’s hair; gave him a haircut; trimmed his mustache; and trimmed his beard.  After he was all done, the stylist handed the man a mirror, and asked, “Well, what do you think?”

The man looked at his reflection in the mirror, and said, “My God!  I look human again.”

That’s who I want to be like.

Those are my thoughts on today’s readings.

 

 

 

 

My friends, today we are challenged to look at what is really important in our lives—what drives us.  Is it to accumulate more and more, or is there a sense within us that what I have is gift and I am meant to share it with others.  We may reason that we have worked hard for everything that we’ve acquired in life, and that no one gave us a free ride and that we are entitled now to a bit of the good life.

While that may be true on the one hand; we must remember that certain gifts within our persons were given by the nature of who our parents were, that they decided to and were able to have children, were the kind of people who encouraged us to use our gifts—worked to give us an education that enhanced the basic traits that came with our births. Then there is the fact that we were born in this country instead of in the Third World where opportunity is so much less.  And that is another whole homily—why the Third World has so much less.

I know some of you, as I, have had the opportunity to travel in Third World countries and are aware that each day people are forced to choose between feeding their children or educating them.  Such trips are life-changing as one returns with a new sense of gratitude and a resolution to work to see that all of God’s people have more of a chance to enjoy the good gifts of this earth that God intended for all of us, not just some of us.  That is why I just can’t quite get my heart around the fact that some members of our Congress find it so difficult to advocate in every way for good medical health care for their constituents when they themselves enjoy this same privilege, and instead of making it a moral imperative, they turn it into a political game.

I often think about how many people struggle in this world for many things like food on the table, that I basically take for granted will be there every day. In a trip that our family was privileged to take to Guatemala some years back, we were impressed and deeply moved by the inadequacies in this world and one doesn’t even have to leave this country to have that awareness.

Pope Francis, has called us to attention and rightly so, to keep our eyes on the poor—to remember that our brother Jesus came into his world preaching a message for all times and places, that basically said, that none of us can be satisfied to be rich if any of us are poor and live without the basics of life. We do, as Jesus’ followers have a responsibility to work for justice and equality in our world.  As I watch Pope Francis in action and think about his calling all of us to a renewed awareness of the poor in our midst, I am reminded of a pope of some 30 years ago, John Paul I, who I mentioned last week and I repeat, we lost him too soon!

He said, “As long as there is any child in this world that is hungry and starving to death, that is the only problem that we have!” As I have shared before, he was poised, in fact, to sell off the Vatican treasures to eliminate poverty in our world before his untimely death—the author of a book about him guessed that may have played a role in the mysterious death of this otherwise remarkably healthy man.

This year, I have had the privilege to witness the vows of two couples professing to live in love with each other for as long as they both shall live.  Today we are speaking about the physical poverty that many in this world are challenged to live with that causes them to be hungry.  Within the marriage rite, part of the service includes a reaching out within this liturgy of love to pray for the needs of others because the love we give in a special way to one other should expand and enable us to love all others in our world, better and more fully. There is a beautiful petition within the prayers for others that asks the couple and the community gathered to remember “the hungry poor and the hungry rich, the lonely young and the lonely old.” There are many ways that people are poor.

As people of faith, we have always been called to care for the least among us.  The prophet Amos in our first reading today is chastising the rich for becoming that way on the backs of the poor.  Present day prophets like Francis remind us again and again that poverty exists in our world because a small percentage of people are using the lion’s share of the world’s goods.  This is something that we all will be called to answer for one day.  Did we ever raise a finger, speak a word, write a congressperson, or support an initiative to balance the use of our world’s goods?

Very soon we all will be called to our political duty of voting for individuals who can best meet the needs of most of the people.  We really need to consider well and pray fervently that we and our country will choose wisely.

We see the difficulty of the questions that face us in our world when we ponder Jesus’ words to us today. What are we to make of his story? Is he really telling us that the dishonesty of the steward is to be praised in taking care of him, ultimately?  No, exegetes tell us that what Jesus is praising is the steward’s creativity in working out his problem.   What he is suggesting is that we, who are supposedly his followers,would be as equally creative in finding ways to serve not just ourselves, but the needy throughout our world.

Can any one of us do all that needs to be done?  No, of course not—but if each of us would make a point to work on our piece, whatever that may be; to conserve the world’s goods, to use less to start with, grow a garden, raise a plant on our porch, share our excess—basically opening our minds to what causes poverty in our world and make our voices heard through the Legislature to change policy, making life more just for all of  God’s people, not just in our country, but throughout our world.

As a Rochester Franciscan Cojourner, I am part of a Water Group that basically looks at water use, our own consumption of it and how it is used in our country.  Recently, our group was looking at what hurts our water supply like the massive mining of sand for fracking.

Our churches too can do so much more.  Unfortunately, our Roman Catholic church, in its hierarchy tends to get stuck shoring up its walls of power as opposed to doing all that it can to insure that the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of the People of God are being met.

I mentioned last week reading a biography of Raymond Hunthausen, archbishop of Seattle, Washington from 1975-1991.  As I said, he was a Vatican II bishop and believed that it was the Spirit of Jesus that was calling our Church to reform –to open windows and doors, following the inspired man of God, John XXIII.

Raymond Hunthausen’s bottom line was always, what was the most loving thing to do as he struggled with current issues of his day: celibacy for priests, married priests, the ordination of women, just treatment of gays and lesbians within the Church,  and the ironic thing, in the end, was that his stance of openness on these issues and willingness to dialog were not what caused the Vatican to turn their collective backs on him.  His stance on nuclear weaponry butted heads with an American president and a pope.

The whole papacy of John Paul II was devoted to backing away from the vision and inspiration of the Spirit of God as laid out for the People of God in the Second Vatican Council and Archbishop Hunthausen was one of the pope’s scapegoats to keep forward-thinking prelates in line.

Our present pope, Francis, one whom I believe is truly trying to be open to the Spirit of God, is constantly asking the question of what Jesus might have done and he does this best when calling us to care for the poor and disadvantaged of this world.

I believe Paul’s words today are good marching words for each of us as we truly try to be all that Jesus calls us to be for our world.  Paul says, I want people everywhere to lift their hands up reverently in prayer without anger or dissension—“there should be prayers offered for everyone,” he says. The prayers Paul asks for include prayers for those in leadership—that they might “live godly lives”…and “do what is right.”  That is why we always pray within our Masses for the pope and our local bishop, because leadership takes courage, strength and wisdom. Our prayer is that one day we will all be one, doing what God has called each of us to do, without putting up the false barriers of gender, race, lifestyle, but simply living lives that extol love, mercy and justice for all.

Another book that I have been spending time with now over several years as I meet with my Franciscan mentor and friend, Sr. Marcan Freking is, St. Francis and the Foolishness of God, compiled by several Franciscan women and men.  In a chapter entitled, “Francis and Transforming Friendship,” the authors recall the Old Testament Jacob returning to his brother Esau whom he stole the family inheritance from in his youth.  With the years, often comes maturity and spiritual growth.  The repentant Jacob was able to embrace his brother Esau and say, “Coming into your presence is like coming into the presence of God.” The authors seem to be telling us that when we can truly share life with others on more than a surface level, hearing and appreciating their stories and what they struggle with; it is then that we see the face of God.

My friends, please recall our Alleluia verse from today where we remembered that Jesus became poor so that we could become rich—let us pray for each other that we can walk in his footsteps.  Amen? Amen!