Homily, October 22, 2022
From the Pastor
Our Parish Mission begins this Sunday with Father Craig Marion.
Join us Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday Evenings at 7:00 pm for
Praise and Worship and Father Craig’s reflections on Hope and Encouragement
in these challenging times.
Join us for fellowship and Refreshments in the Parish Hall.
Come and Bring your Friends.
We are very pleased to have Father Craig Marion share his reflections with us on hope and encouragement in these uncertain times. Father Craig was ordained to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Detroit five years ago. He is currently the pastor of St. Anne Parish in Ortonville, MI. As a parish, we supported Father Craig through his years in the Seminary. His parents still live in the neighborhood and are members of our community. Please join us in giving Father Craig a warm welcome as we look forward to his dynamic preaching. All are welcome. We look forward to having our Religious Formation kids and families with us on Monday evening. Please join us and bring a friend. All are welcome.
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is the first and the greatest of all the Commandments. Do this and you will live. Any person who professes Jesus as the Christ, Savior of the world, now risen from the dead is familiar with this verse from Matthew’s gospel. As a community of believers, are we consciously attentive to this essential identity with God? Is God sincerely the center of our lives through whom we direct the movements of our life?
I quoted from a recent survey that 14.9 million people have left Christianity. Why is that do you suppose? Evidence suggests the answers are many and varied. However, is it possible that in our success driven society people have experienced that Christianity simply does not work? We like what works and we want to see results when we commit ourselves to something. Do Christian communities, like a parish family, show enough evidence that Jesus is active and present among us? Do people feel the presence and the Spirit of the risen Christ among us through our love and concern for one another? It is something to ponder. The reality is the Church grew because the power and love of the Holy Spirit was alive and active in the early believers. Love attracts and draws people in. They want to be part of a group in which they feel loved and valued through a strong sense of belonging.
In the gospel today we are shown two images of how people approach and pray to God. The Pharisee is steeped in religion and its rules. He appears blinded by pride, arrogance, and self-justification. Less than a prayer, he reports to himself the faithfulness of his religious practice. He is not really speaking to God. Further, he understands God or a least religion as a competition which allows him to stand over others in judgement. He thanks God, or himself that he is not like others who lie, cheat, and commit adultery. He feels good about himself and goes home in the same state in which he arrived; self-justified. He was only talking to himself.
The second image is that of a person hesitant to approach the Temple, not daring to raise his eyes to heaven. He feels the burden of his sin, owns it, and speaks honestly to God. He understands and accepts his unworthiness. But he believes. He loves God, or knows he is called to love God, and that he has failed. He trusts God is merciful. How do we know? By the prayer he humbly offers to God. ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ This is an expression of love with a sincere desire to be forgiven. This one goes home justified. He prayed from his heart, his soul, his mind, and with the strength of his faith. He allows grace to touch him.
Christians are a community of sinners who profess the mercy and grace of redemption in the Lord Jesus. We are both saints and sinners. Both tend to be disguised. Socially, we tend to point out the sinners, while the saints quietly go about their good works. Even saints are sinners, and in every sinner there is a saint. The Pharisee doesn’t know what he is missing. He has never had the courage to speak to God from the truth of his person. Keeping the rules of religion gave him what he wanted; to be self-justified and above the judgements of others.
People will be drawn to Christianity and the Church when they feel the life and love of Jesus among those who gather there. When they feel the love, mercy, and forgiveness of God among believers, they will want what we have found. Or, if they are like the Pharisee, they won’t come because they are their own measure of goodness. As mature believers, we are called to actively live in love for all because of our love for God. The most effective way to validate our love for God is to love our neighbor. Discover the saint in you. Admit the sinner and have a heart to heart with the good Lord Jesus. Experience Christianity at its best. Share the love of Jesus you profess.
Father John Esper
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