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Homily stories

02 Aug 2009 - Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Mark Twain wrote, “I have known many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” I know about such troubles, too. These are the troubles looming just out in the future that occupy my mind in unguarded moments throughout the day or especially as I try to drift off to sleep. I can worry about world problems a little and work problems even more. But the problems that keep me up the most are family problems. Or at least I portray them as problems in my mind. I have worried when my kids were little and they were riding their bikes down to the other end of our block. I worried when they went off to school the first day. I worried when they turned 16 and took the car out on their own the first time. I have worried about roofs leaking and basements flooding and paint peeling only to find them holding secure. Saint Paul warns the Ephesians, “You must no longer live in the futility of your mind.” He wants them to “put away the old self” and “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” When worries come and you are living in the futility of your mind, turn your worry over to God, who loves you even more than you love your own family. Then get a good night’s sleep.

Authors Tom McGrath

troubles problems worry

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Homily stories

05 Aug 2018 - Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Mark Twain wrote, “I have known many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” I know about such troubles, too. These are the troubles looming just out in the future that occupy my mind in unguarded moments throughout the day or especially as I try to drift off to sleep. I can worry about world problems a little and work problems even more. But the problems that keep me up the most are family problems. Or at least I portray them as problems in my mind. I have worried when my kids were little and they were riding their bikes down to the other end of our block. I worried when they went off to school the first day. I worried when they turned 16 and took the car out on their own the first time. I have worried about roofs leaking and basements flooding and paint peeling only to find them holding secure. Saint Paul warns the Ephesians, “You must no longer live in the futility of your mind.” He wants them to “put away the old self” and “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” When worries come and you are living in the futility of your mind, turn your worry over to God, who loves you even more than you love your own family. Then get a good night’s sleep.

Authors Tom McGrath

worry troubles mark twain

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Exploring the word

26 May 2019 - Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

"Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said in the familiar translation of today’s gospel. This is not the easiest of his teachings to follow, not by a long stretch. Our hearts are routinely troubled for lots of very good reasons. Our elders are sick, our children are wayward, money is tight, employment is insecure, the world is a violent place, and the future is by no means certain. Each of us could make a list of our current troubles, and the paperwork would lengthily roll down the aisle and out the door of the church. We might not even have room for the existential troubles: human limitation, loneliness, the search for meaning, and death. One could argue that anyone who is not troubled is just not thinking hard enough! Theologically, we could say that trouble is just another word for the effect of original sin on our world. As the story goes, God created a world free of trouble, sorrow, and death, but human beings freely chose the morass of evil over the perfection of divine love. Add thousands of years to the mix, and what you get is what we experience in the 21st century: a chaotic and increasingly wasted environment full of unhappy people making distressing choices. How can Jesus ask us not to be troubled by this? Mixing it up in Asia Minor Christianity had its start in dissent and argument. As we say in pious imagery, the church emerged from the wounded side of Christ, and Jesus was clearly no stranger to trouble. His ministry, words and signs together, comprised a confrontation with authority both secular and religious. Jesus is Lord and Savior, but he was also a troublemaker of the highest order. He went to the cross for it, and his church began as a faction within Judaism destined to rupture quite inelegantly. A generation later, Paul and Barnabas ran into resistance everywhere they traveled, as the clash between Jewish practice and Gentile exceptions intensified. Jerusalem became the epicenter of the debate, as the contest between Jewish and Gentile Christians reached critical dimensions. What can we learn from the first church council at Jerusalem? First of all, that there are two sides to every story. We get Luke’s version of the council in Acts, but it’s quite a different meeting than what Paul describes in Galatians. Were Paul and Barnabas summoned by church elders, or did they go up to the city of their own volition? Was this a private consultation or a public debate? What was the result of the council: four rulings about dietary restrictions and marriage, or one mild recommendation to remember the poor? However the matter was resolved, the decision not to press circumcision on Gentile converts was pivotal. It sealed the fate of the church in regard to its precarious position as a subset of Judaism. No doubt this caused great anguish for Jewish Christians who felt acute loyalty to both identities. Though the lifting of compulsory circumcision was a great relief to Gentile converts at the least, many Jewish hearts were greatly troubled by the imminent expulsion from their first spiritual home. Meanwhile in the holy city John’s vision of the celestial Jerusalem is one of calm and radiant perfection. Here, we might imagine, the human heart at last might not know trouble. The splendor of precious stones and the regal order of angels, gates, and directions reveal a complete absence of the chaos and confusion that attends most earthly dealings. Even those primordial divisions of day and night are healed, as this city needs no sun or moon. The Lamb is its lamp, and darkness is permanently banished. John is offered this vision as an assurance of what will be, but also as a reminder of what already is. In God’s reign, which is not consigned to the future but is a reality in every moment, the holy city waits alongside of and in a real sense slumbers within the earthly city. Do we wish to know this kind of absolute peace, which the world obviously cannot give? All we need to do is to invite the holy city, also known as Kingdom Come, to arrive in full into our lives. This idea might cause a tremor. People of faith often confuse Kingdom Come with the end of the world or the hour of death. Kingdom Come is when God’s will is done, mirrored on earth as it is in heaven! That is not a future event or a final one, but the consequences of an act of will. When we align our will with the divine will, John’s vision becomes staggeringly real in us. Applying the word Is Jesus serious? As the hour of his death draws near, Jesus bequeaths his peace to his friends. This peace is not like the fragile mortal truces that come between wars, or the cold silence of people who are not fighting, though they also are not talking. The peace of Jesus is not a line drawn in the sand to keep the punches from landing on their intended targets. His peace is supernatural; it is real, it is final. The enmity that sin created and that has fractured human history is healed and bridged, once and for all, in this holy peace. If we believe this, can our hearts be troubled? Not really, certainly not ultimately. The effect of sin is still vital and tangible to us, and its scars run deep in our experience. Our relationships are fettered by it; our love is wounded at every turn. Yet we hold in faith the vision of the perfect city and its serene glow and know it exists in the present hour as truly as in a time yet to be. We can choose citizenship in this city now, and warm ourselves in its radiance through every holy decision. If we make God’s will our own, trouble will have one less foothold in our midst. Related scripture links Jerusalem Council according to Paul: Gal. 2:1-14 Jesus on peace: Matt. 5:9, 21-26, 38-48, 6:25-34; Luke 6:27-36, 8:22-25, 12:2-9, 22-34 Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done: Matt. 6:9-13 Kingdom now: Mark 1:15; Matt. 4:17; Luke 17:20-21

Authors Alice Camille

troubles original sin Peace

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Homily stories

04 Aug 2024 - Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Mark Twain wrote, “I have known many troubles in my life, most of which never happened.” I know about such troubles, too. These are the troubles looming just out in the future that occupy my mind in unguarded moments throughout the day or especially as I try to drift off to sleep. I can worry about world problems a little and work problems even more. But the problems that keep me up the most are family problems. Or at least I portray them as problems in my mind. I have worried when my kids were little and they were riding their bikes down to the other end of our block. I worried when they went off to school the first day. I worried when they turned 16 and took the car out on their own the first time. I have worried about roofs leaking and basements flooding and paint peeling only to find them holding secure. Saint Paul warns the Ephesians, “You must no longer live in the futility of your mind.” He wants them to “put away the old self” and “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” When worries come and you are living in the futility of your mind, turn your worry over to God, who loves you even more than you love your own family. Then get a good night’s sleep.

Authors Tom McGrath

worry troubles

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