Our First Call is to Give Alms

Homily for the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, August 28^th/29^th, 2021

 

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” 

Saint John Chrysostom:

“Do you want to honor Christ’s body? Then do not scorn him in his nakedness, nor honor him here in the church with silken garments while neglecting him outside where he is cold and naked.

Let us learn to honor Christ as he desires. For a person being honored finds greatest pleasure in the honor he desires, not in the honor we think best.  Give him the honor prescribed in his law by giving your riches to the poor. For God does not want golden vessels but golden hearts.

Now, in saying this I am not forbidding you to make such gifts; I am only demanding that along with such gifts and before them you give alms.”

Here I, Fr. Hollowell, want to clarify in case it isn’t clear what St. John is saying.  He is saying it is okay to fix up your churches nicely, as long as you first take care of the poor.  I would like to say that I believe both of our parishes have done things in the proper order.  My first priority as pastor has been, at both parishes, to first take care of the poor.  We got St. Vincent DePaul Societies started at each parish, who I might add, are doing TREMENDOUS UNFATHOMABLY AWESOME ministry in our communities.  We did that first, before ever embarking on any capital campaign or Church restoration.  And, quite frankly, I believe our campaigns have been miraculously successful precisely for one reason: we have put the poor first.

 

Chrysostom ends: “Once again, I am not forbidding you to supply these adornments; but no one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbor a hell awaits with an inextinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not, therefore, adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all.”

I have personally put in my will that whatever is leftover after my funeral will be going to start an endowment to assist the poor of Clay County, as we just used a generous bequest from Gwendoline Long to start a similar endowment for the poor of Putnam County.  I have also made $5,000 a year commitment for both Churches’ restoration projects. 

 

In conclusion, to echo St. James and St. John Chrysostom, take care of the poor first, then God will bless all your other endeavors. 

Time to Choose a Side - Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

In the early 2000’s when I was in the seminary, several seminarians and myself were big sports fans, and any time we learned a sports star or celebrity was Catholic, we would get especially excited.  “look it is one of us performing on a national stage.”  But 15 years later it doesn’t matter to me in the least.  Last week, as we learned that Simone Biles, a Catholic and the best gymnast in the history of the sport, came out in support of abortion, I wish I could say I was disappointed, but in all reality, I had stopped caring about Catholic celebrities 4 or 5 years ago, particularly now when America seems to be circling the drain.

In our first reading we hear Joshua draw a line in the sand.  It has gotten to the breaking point where a decision needs to be made, and there are only 2 options

“If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve… As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

In almost the exact same way, our Gospel today presents a very similar scenario.  There is, at this point, no middle road.  There are only 2 options.  Either believe or not.  Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”… As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

And fast forwarding to our own day, after centuries of being able to straddle the line and be both a member of American culture AND a good Catholic, we face a decisive point where we only have 2 options.

Only 27 VERSES into the Bible we read “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”

Jesus in 2 different Gospels references this exact quote from Genesis.  And Saint Paul mentions it in today’s 2^nd reading.

Today our American culture believes there is no God because “science says so”, persons are NOT made in the image and likeness of God, marriage is simply a contract between 2 persons that can be severed at any point without question, and in some states it is legal to marry your dog or yourself.  Male and female are simply constructs that can be disregarded, marital relations need not be open to life, we have completely trashed our environment and been awful stewards of the resources entrusted to us by God.  And we are on pace for about 1.5 million abortions this year, and at least since 2015, some of those aborted children have had organs harvested and paid for by our government and grafted on to mice for medical research.  Pope Francis in Laudato Si showed how all these issues are related.

Today, Catholics can expect absolutely zero accommodation anymore from American Western Culture.  There is no safe space for Catholics.  Like the Israelites in the First reading, and like those following Jesus in the Gospel, we face a decision point – will we serve the Lord Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church that He established, or will we serve the culture of death?  There is no middle ground today in America.  “As for me and my parishes, we will serve the Lord.”

Where is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Bible?

A lot of non-Catholics ask where the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is in the Bible

Here is the short answer – it is not in the Bible

 

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared in 1950 by an infallible (protected from error) statement of Pope Pius XII 71 years ago.

 

What is papal infallibility?  It is the teaching, particularly laid down at the First Vatican council 150 years ago, that Pope’s have the ability to declare something infallibly (protected from error)

So where is the Pope’s ability to teach infallibly in the Bible – Here is the short answer – it is not in the Bible

 

A papal teaching, even if it is declared without infallibility invoked (As all but the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary have been) still require submission of intellect and will, as Pope John Paul 2 made clear when he had inserted into Canon Law “While the assent of faith is not required, a religious submission of intellect and will is to be given to any doctrine which the Pope declares upon a matter of faith and morals”

Where is that in Scripture, submission of intellect and will  – again I can save you time, it isn’t

 

The only rebuttal to non-Catholics with questions is to point out that the Assumption isn’t in the Bible, Papal infallibility isn’t in the Bible, nor is the teaching on submission of intellect and will, even though they have all been held almost from the very moment Jesus left earth.  The writings of the earliest saints in the generation following the apostles are talking about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, body and soul, the writings speak about papal infallibility, submission of intellect and will to the pope, and a thousand other things that are not in the Bible

 

The real question for those who ask where something Catholic is in the Bible is to point out that for the first 350 years or so there was no Bible, and those people, a lot of them mentioned in our Eucharistic prayer, linus, Cletus Clement Sixtus Cornelius Agatha Lucy Anastasia Lawrence Cosmas and Damian and thousands more Saints from the early Church, most of whom were martyred, they all figured it out.  How?  With the help of capital T tradition.  As Paul tells the Corinthians “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.”  That means oral tradition is a real thing, particularly necessary in the Early Church when there was no Bible

 

So you can rest assured that the Blessed Mother was definitely assumed, Body and soul into Heaven and is at the right hand of her Son Jesus, and 1,000 other things the Catholic Church teaches to be true, even though none of them are in the Bible.

A Eucharistic Revival