2020 June - Homilies & Reflections

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 4th, 2020



 
“Hear, O Israel!   The Lord our God is Lord alone! 
(Mark 12: 29)
 
When a Scribe asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest, his answer would have been immediately familiar to all present.  These words of Jesus were not original to him.  They preceded his birth by many centuries. 
 
In fact these words are the first verse of the Shema, found in the sixth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy.  The Shema is considered by many the most essential prayer in all of Judaism. 
 
“Yahweh thy God is an only God.”  This fundamental profession of the Jewish people was in its original sense a renunciation of the pagan gods surrounding Israel.  This absolute “yes” in favor of one God implied the renunciation of the three main forms of polytheism: the idolization and worship of gods governing bread, sex and power.  All three are aberrations because they make absolutes out of the goods of creation which are not absolute, making slaves of human beings.  Israel’s profession was a declaration of war on this threefold worship.  It was an event of the greatest importance in the history of mankind’s liberation. 
 
Taken up by Jesus it came to be the first principle of the Creed of his followers.
 
Entry of members into the early Christian community and the acceptance of its belief in One God was a decision with serious consequences.  Whoever assented to this creed renounced at the same time most of the laws of the world to which they belonged.   Worshipers of the one God refused to worship the ruling political power on which the late Roman Empire rested.  They refused to worship pleasure, especially that of sex.  And they refused to follow the cults of fear and superstition that worshipped the gods of seasons and harvests.  Early on the struggle over Christianity flared up into a contest over the common life in the ancient world.
 
It is easy for us to regard the refusal of the martyrs to take any part in pagan practices as some kind of fanaticism appropriate to an earlier period but certainly not to be imitated today. 
 
But we must realize that this sort of refusal changed the world in a way in which it can only be changed by those who are ready to suffer and die for their Faith.  It was, and is, not a matter of playing with ideas.  It remains a very serious business.   
 
“Yes” to God who is Lord alone is a renunciation of the absoluteness of power.  Witness the Church’s almost constant facing of political dictators who would create their own churches and name their own bishops.
 
It renounces fear of the collective and insists on the complete abolition of any exclusivity in humanity as a whole.  Witness the compelling outcry that “black lives matter”.  As children of the one God, we know that all life matters.
 
It also renounces the false worship of sex and eros which delivers millions into merciless slavery.  Witness the freedom of men and women worldwide who follow the Church’s teaching of the truth of conjugal love, a love that stands or falls with belief in the One God. 
 
The pagan gods may have disappeared, but the powers expressed in them have not disappeared.   Like the people of ancient times our tendency is to worship absolutes of our own making.
 
“Hear, O Israel!   The Lord our God is Lord alone!”  May we remember that when we say “no” to the One God, the powers of the false gods still put out their hands to grasp us.
 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 7th, 2020



Today we celebrate the central mystery of Christian revelation: the Holy Trinity - one God in three divine Persons. 
 
Our finite minds are very limited in what we can know about this wondrous mystery.  But while our ability to know about God is limited, the extent to which we are able to know him directly, and therefore to love him, is absolutely limitless. This is because he is infinitely intelligible and infinitely loveable. 
 
He reveals himself through his deeds.  Particularly, he acts to unite with himself those who turn away from sin.  He does this supremely during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where his saving deeds are directly and marvelously unveiled in our very midst.
 
Jesus Christ instructed his followers to: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
 
In our Baptism we were marked with the same seal of the Holy Trinity in whose image we were made.
 
The Mass is the culmination of what was begun in Baptism.  For this reason the prayers of the Mass liturgy, from beginning to end, speak of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
 
They convey how during Mass Jesus, sent by his Father, in the power of the Spirit, gathers, nourishes and sends us forth as a people which, through him, receives its identity as the Body of Christ, the sign and image of the Holy Trinity. 
 
In order to increase our awareness of this, let’s look at two small prayers in the Canon of the Mass.
 
The Canon is the fundamental part of the Mass that comes after the Offertory and before the Communion. 
 
In today’s Canon especially, (Canon two) these two prayers, called epicleses, plainly describe for us how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit cooperate in and among us, gloriously accomplishing our redemption.
 
In both of these prayers the Father is asked to send down his Spirit in order to make his Son, Jesus Christ, present.
 
The first epiclesis prayer, just before the Consecration, is a request that the Father send his Holy Spirit down upon the bread and wine, that they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
The second epiclesis prayer, a bit after the elevation, is an appeal that the Father send his Spirit upon the entire assembly - us - that we may become united as members of the mystical Body of Christ.
 
Immediately before the consecration, then, holding my hands out above the gifts, I’ll pray to the Father in the words of the first epiclesis prayer: 
 
“Make holy therefore, these gifts, we pray,
by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall,
so that they may become for us
the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
Soon after the Consecration come the words of the second epiclesis prayer:
 
“Humbly we pray that,
partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ,
we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.”
 
The two prayers are really two dimensions of a single petition, in the first that the Spirit transform the bread and wine, and in the second that he transform us.  
 
The Holy Spirit transfigures everything he touches into the Body of Christ.  He transforms bread and wine.  He transforms you and me.
 
This feast is a perfect moment for us earnestly to seek, with these prayers, to be united with the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit in loving relationship with the Father.
 
That’s Trinitarian life.  That’s Christian life.
 
Now the pattern according to which the Son is sent by the Father becomes our pattern as well. Within Trinitarian life, we occupy a specific place, the place of the Son sent forth into the world.
 
Nourished by his flesh and fortified by his word, we go forth, as today’s Gospel says, “that the world might be saved through him”, by means of our discipleship, our service, and our Christian love.
 
That’s what it means to be a kingdom of priests.
 
May we be worthy, with his kindly help, of such an exalted task.
 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 13th, 2020

1 Kings 19:19 – 21
Mathew 5: 33 - 37
 


In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”.  His message is new but it does not destroy what was.  Rather Jesus raises the teachings of the ancients to their highest potential.
 
What exactly did Jesus mean by “fulfill the Law”?
 
Jesus clarified this in the set of sketches which illustrate the Law’s true potential. As in today’s Gospel, these depictions share a similar pattern.  First Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients…” then: “but I say to you…” followed by a clarification.
 
The ancients had the old Law.  It judged men by their acts.  Jesus fulfills the law by penetrating beyond men’s actions to reveal the attitudes that motivate them.
 
In the new Law, intent is decisive. 
 
The subject of today’s sketch is the taking of oaths.  But Jesus’ true purpose was to deliver an important instruction on our attitude toward God.  The old Law demanded that when something was said under oath, it be absolutely true.  The purpose of an oath is to guarantee truthfulness by calling on God as witness.
 
But the Lord says we should not swear at all because when we swear such an oath we couple our truth with that of God. In effect Jesus says: “How dare you?” 
 
He goes straight to the heart of the problem.  He refuses to draw the line between a true oath and a false oath.  Instead he steps way back and absolutely disengages divine truth from human truth.  How can we who are full of untruth place ourselves beside God who is truth itself? 
 
Jesus insists that we not swear at all.  Oath-taking presupposes a fixed, hopeless weakness of the human race, namely, the tendency to lie.   Grace, on the other hand, presupposes the majesty of divine truth, placed by God so centrally in our hearts, that our simplest “Yes” or “No”, first to God and to ourselves, is as reliable as any oath. 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 15th, 2020

1 Kings 21: 1 - 6
Matthew 5: 38 – 42


 
“You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.  But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil”.
 
The Old Law used justice as the norm of human behavior. “As others treat you, so shall you treat them, violence may be returned for violence, evil for evil”.  The justice of the day consisted only in not returning more evil than the amount received.
 
But Christ said ”That is not enough”.  As long as we cling to “justice” we, who are sinners, will never avoid injustice.  As long as we let ourselves remain entangled in wrong and revenge, we will be constantly drawn into fresh iniquity, because new injustice results when offense stirs up rage in one’s heart.  
 
Anger is a sinful passion.  And passion, by definition, surpasses measure.  Those who take it upon themselves to avenge trampled justice, in their fallen state, are altogether incapable of restoring justice.  They remain trapped in the relentless cycle of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. 
 
Fundamentally, vengeance is in itself sinful because it lies outside our given role as creature.  It is something absolutely reserved to himself by God, who as omniscient Creator, is aware of all things (Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:19). 
 
For us to presume that position is an act of supreme pride.
 
The Creator himself has shown us the way in his crucified and risen Son.  
Following his example, our task is not to resist the one who is evil. 
 
True justice follows only when we seek more than mere justice. 
We are called to introduce something new, not so-called “justice” but Christian love.  Only in Christ can we be creative and capable of transforming the mire of cruelty and offense.  In him we are able to intercept evil aggression and disarm it.  
 
We cannot destroy satan, but we can, with the grace of God, reduce him to impotence through acts of sacrificial love. 
 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 20th, 2020
Feast of Immaculate Heart of Mary

Lk 2: 41 – 52

Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1944 and Pope Saint Paul VI moved the celebration to the Saturday immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrated just yesterday.  The two feasts were placed together in order to underline their affinity.
 
In Luke’s gospel the Angel Gabriel honors Mary with the greeting “Hail, full of grace” (Luke 1:29).  Then Elizabeth cries “blessed are you among women.”  Next John leaps for joy in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice.  Then, in her response to Elizabeth, Mary replies “all generations will call me blessed” (Lk. 1:48).
 
But it is Elizabeth’s final words to Mary that explain why she is so greatly to be honored, namely, her faith.  “Blessed is she who has believed.”
 
Mary’s great dignity lies in the simple fact that she said yes to God  believing that He would do as He said.
 
Faith involves entrusting oneself to God.  Its vital center is a willingness to submit to his will.  St. Paul describes this as “the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26). 
 
Mary surrendered her plan for her life to God’s plan, not once, but again and again.  From the moment that she said yes to God until her death Mary’s permitted her destiny to be shaped by that of her child.
 
As Simeon prophesied, this would mean that Marys’ Heart would be pierced. “…and you yourself  a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk. 2:35)
 
We see Mary’s Immaculate Heart pierced in today’s gospel when Luke describes the finding of the twelve year old Jesus in the temple. 
 
After a three day agony of seeking, we hear Mary’s perfectly understandable reproach “Son, why have you done this to us?”  The boy replies “How is it that you sought me?  Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”  Hearing such a reply from her son, this may well have been one of the times she was reminded of Simeon’s prophecy.
 
Mary’s faith remained firm throughout Jesus’ ministry all the way to the horror of Calvary, where her faith stood its ground at the foot of the cross.  Not long before His Most Sacred Heart was pierced Jesus gave his Mother to be our Mother, placing us in her wounded Immaculate Heart.
 
In Lumen Gentium, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council describe devotion to Mary as imitation of her virtues, particularly her faith (Lumen Gentium 67).  The more we understand and imitate the faith of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the greater the gain for every other aspect of our Christian lives. 
 
Indeed, “blessed is she who has believed!”
 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 23rd, 2020
Matthew 7:13-14



“The gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction and those who enter through it are many.
How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.  And those who find it are few.”
 
Today’s gospel reading from Matthew is taken from the final section of the Sermon on the Mount.  This section is composed of a series of antitheses, (such as the wide gate and the narrow gate) contrasting two kinds of life within the Christian community, that of those who obey the words of Jesus and that of those who do not.
 
The metaphor of the “two ways” is familiar to us because the Holy Rule is literally brimming with examples of it.  For example in the prologue, right at the beginning of the Rule we read: “Run while ye have the light of life, that the shades of death envelop you not.”
 
“Run while you have the light of life.” 
 
It is good to remember how many times in his rule for monks St. Benedict uses figures of running, striving, urgent effort, straining and serious exertion when he describes the spiritual endeavor.  His is anything but a relaxed, “laid-back” approach.
 
Likewise, in a passage parallel to today’s gospel, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus is found saying  “Strive to enter through the narrow gate”.  The Greek verb translated as “strive” would be better translated “strain every nerve”, take pains, exert yourself.  These words express exactly the intensity of effort St. Benedict calls for.  Both are saying, you must put everything you have into finding, then getting through that narrow gate.  The narrow gate, of course, is the word of Jesus. 
 
The gravity of our efforts is forcefully brought home when Jesus says “Those who find the narrow gate are few. We must never forget that we cannot take salvation for granted.   There is still that “narrow gate” we have to find and through which we have to pass.
 
That image of the narrow gate that few will find is very serious, frightening really, and Jesus intends it to be.  He doesn’t say these things to depress us or to discourage us.  He tells us these things to get our attention because he loves us with an infinite love.
 
 All we need to do is look at the crucifix to know the depth his love.  We celebrate that love today as we celebrate the Eucharist and it is that which gives us hope and strength.  
 

Fr. Gregory Havill O.S.B.
June 26th, 2020
Reading 1 - 2 Kgs 25:1-12
Gospel - Mt 8:1-4



He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it.  Be made clean.”
 
In today’s gospel, as Jesus is returning from the Sermon on the Mount he’s approached by a leper who asks to be made clean.  Jesus does something forbidden by Jewish law.  He touches the leper.  And with his touch the leper is healed.
 
The gospels record twenty-six healings by Jesus.  They all reveal a deep lesson regarding the Cross.  
 
The Cross appears in the New Testament, primarily as a movement from above to below.  It stands not as the work of expiation or sacrifice offered “upward” by guilty mankind to a wrathful god, so typical of primitive religious attitudes. 
 
Rather, the Cross is the expression of God’s infinite love for us, a divine love that, in lowering itself, gives itself away in humility for the sake of our salvation, our healing. 
 
It’s his approach to us, not the other way around.
 
The teachings of Jesus spun religious thinking around onto a whole new axis, a direction difficult for his followers to understand.   As he told them at another time, when he was about to heal a blind man, “It was not that this man sinned… but that the works of God might be revealed in him”. (Jn 9:3)
 
Christian worship is first of all thankful acceptance of the divine gift of salvation, which Jesus foreshadowed by his healing activity.  The essential form of Christian worship is therefore rightly called Eucharistia, thanksgiving. 
 
In the sacrifice of the Eucharist we open ourselves to the gifts of his body and blood, and this food that we receive in faith does not disappear without leaving its trace in us.
 
 Eucharist implies for us something wonderful:  the courage to recognize his touch in every event of daily life, the vigilance to recognize his healing love in all its forms, and the obedience of faith with which we accept his will for us.
 
This is true Christian sacrifice.