Homily for the Closing of the XIV General Synod

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My dearest Brothers of the Congregation,

Let us thank God for these days that we have spent together. Let us do this with the Eucharist where Jesus himself becomes thanksgiving to the Father by his death that is renewed and offered in another “Last Supper” in the cenacle of this chapel where He again is priest and victim and where we, together with Him, form the mystical body which is the Church.

Solidarity has its maximum expression on the Cross where Jesus dies for us and in the Cenacle where He takes bread, which is His body, and breaks it and shares it among the disciples. He takes the cup, which is His blood, and he gives it to the disciples so that they may all drink from it. Breaking and sharing the same bread and drinking from the same cup are the “sign” of sharing and solidarity and doing this we “remember.” We do this in this Eucharistic sacrifice where: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1Cor.10:17) Personal choices, choices as a Synod and as a Congregation cannot contradict what we are celebrating. It was sharing and breaking the bread that it could be distributed, that enabled the disciples of Emmaus to recognize Jesus.

However, the days of this Synod, two years after the Synod of Cuernavaca, were not easy. We experienced foggy days, feeling lost, feeling afraid and feeling tempted to a “reverse Exodus”—wanting to turn back, like Israel, to slave labor and the precarious life in Egypt. God had a plan for his people; it was not a plan to help the powerful, but to free the oppressed.

Holy Mass: homily for October 30

Phil 1, 18b-26; Lc 14, 1,7-11

"When you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that... you will be honored...”This recommendation by Jesus releases uneasiness. Is this not false, hypocritical modesty? Does this really fit Jesus?

In any case, Jesus thereupon said to the man who invited him: "When you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid; But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just", (v. 13-14).

Here, Jesus is breaking with a rule which is functioning until today in all cultures of the world: that invitation and return invitation must be kept in balance; the rule of reciprocity.

This is a rule, which really does not fit Jesus at all. He checks up the games we are playing with one another, and that usually are steered by our own profit. He puts himself on the side the poor, the cripple and the blind: those who fall out with our party games. The reconciliation he is looking for, is certainly not provided by the blind and the poor. But God is involved! This unbalance makes us think.

Holy Mass: homily for October 28

The Gospel chosen for the feast of the Ss Simon and Jude is the passage from Luke which accounts for us Jesus spending the night in prayer on the mountain, after which he called his disciples, chose twelve of them, and named them apostles. These are the men that Jesus selected personally to walk closely with him, to be formed in the mysteries of the Kingdom, and to be sent to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom to all the world.

We celebrate two of the Twelve today: Simon & Jude – named in the Gospel as disciples who were called to a further commitment to Christ, in mission, as apostles. They were sent to be faithful witnesses in the word (preaching/teaching) and in the blood (service), giving up everything in sacrifice with Jesus Christ. Both, Simon and Jude spent their lives preaching the Gospel to a pagan world, and it is believed that each died a martyr’s death for his faith.

By our baptism and religious profession as Passionists, we, too, are called, chosen and sent to give such radical witness as Passionist apostles, and to make sacrifices for Christ and his mission in our world today. We are no strangers to the mysteries of Christ. Indeed, we share in his passion and in his dying and rising. Through the power of the Holy Spirit our faith overcomes our fear and makes our witness unashamed and bold. We are not temporary residents in the Church. Indeed, we have signed on the dotted line. We are at home in the Body of Christ; our life doesn’t make sense anymore without Christ and his Church. In the words of today’s first reading from Ephesians:

“We are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints and also members of God’s household, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.”

Holy Mass: homily for October 24th

30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel of Luke 18,9-14

The Word of God, which is proclaimed on this Sunday Liturgy for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time, invites us to review our relationship with God—which is our prayer life; and asks how is our relationship with our brothers and sisters. Let us remember that contemplating divine realities and union with God through prayer ought to be the first and primary obligation of all religious (canon 663). This prayer is certainly not be overlooked on this World Sunday for the Propagation of the Faith (DOMUND*), “Our prayer thus takes on a hidden apostolic fruitfulness for the People of God, and echoes our solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and suffering” (Const. 38).

Holy Mass: homily for October 23rd

29th Saturday of Ordinary Time
Gospel of Luke 13,1-9

When some people arrive to tell Jesus of the tragedy and misfortune that befell some Galileans and sort of suggested that they were more sinners than the rest of the Galileans, Jesus takes the opportunity to refute that kind of a mentality; a mentality that is not totally alien to us. It is common for us to think that when everything is going on well; when we have everything we need and have stocked enough for the foreseeable future, it is because of our hard work and better planning.

That the good life is a reward from God for something good we did just as misfortune is a punishment for something bad. We often then keep away from those who seem to move from one disaster to another; some times out of fear that their misfortune can come to us; that they can taint or contaminate us. And while we sometimes feel sorry and pity them, we do not really identify ourselves with them. We suspect that their tragedy, misfortune, pain and sufferings is caused by something wrong they did or failed to do.

Jesus tells his listeners as he tells us today, that misfortune, tragedy and sufferings are no sign of greater sins in those who suffer them. We all share a basic similarity with those who suffer in any way. Everyone, says Jesus, is a sinner and therefore in need of repentance. Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did! Disaster, accidents and sufferings are not inflicted on people by God as a punishment for sins. The God of Jesus Christ, our Father, is intrinsically a God of love, who is merciful and generous to all his people including those we would want to categorize as sinners. His mercy and generosity towards us, is an invitation to us, to in turn be merciful and generous with one another.

No one should look at his gifts, resources and think he deserved better than the other, or look upon anyone who does not have as being punished for something he did or failed to do. Whatever life and prosperity anyone has is to be understood, seen and received as a complete gift, given by God simply because God has chosen to do so, out of his generosity and not because anybody deserved better than the other. God cares for all and he demands that we do the same for one another. Unless you repent you will all perish as they did!