Homily
for January 14, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
2th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Our Struggle with Sin
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Gospel :
John 2:1-11
"There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was
there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When
the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no
wine.' And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.' His mother said to the servers, 'Do whatever
he tells you.' Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish
ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told
them, 'Fill the jars with water.' So they filled them to the brim. Then
he told them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.' So
they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become
wine, without knowing where it came from - although the servers who had
drawn the water knew - the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to
him, 'Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk
freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.'
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee and so
revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him."
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Every Catholic likes a good wine story. Before one of the masses
yesterday, Deacon Bob mentioned that he used this Gospel extensively in
his former assignment in Idaho Falls. There was a controversy in town
that somehow became a religious controversy. It was concerning the sale
of wine in the supermarkets. There were several churches in town that
were opposed to it on religious grounds. Bob spoke up from the Catholic
perspective on these things and encouraged the people to permit the
sale of wine. They lost the first two elections but they won the third
one and he attributes that to the fact that he convinced the people
that there would be more tax revenues if they sold wine.
I have a wine story that’s funny in a very strange way; maybe it’s not
funny. The day my mother died, I was called to her apartment and spent
several hours taking care of the details of her death. After several
hours, I got in the elevator and there was this little old lady with a
cane. I was in my cleric and she looked at me frankly, with hatred. She
said, “Are you a Catholic priest?” I said “Yes, Ma’am.” She said
shaking her cane, “Jesus Christ did not drink wine. He drank grape
juice.” I wasn’t in the mood. And I said, “That’s nonsense. He drank
wine, fermented grape juice.” And she hit me with the cane. I went out
in the parking lot. It wasn’t even noon. I looked up. I said, “Enough
for today.” I’ll never forget that: 21st of November 1997.
Last week I mentioned that the last time Mary speaks in the Gospel, is
at this wedding feast at Cana where she says, “Do whatever He tells
you.” Of course, she speaks in other ways after that by her presence
but the last time she says anything to anyone in the scriptures is at
this wedding feast. What great advice Our Mother gives us. “ Do
whatever he tells you.” What does Jesus tell us? How are we to know his
will? How are we to hear his voice? Occasionally, there are people who
claim they hear his voice and I have never yet heard his voice. I have
received no messages directly from the Lord. I don’t doubt that some
people do hear his voice but unfortunately I haven’t had that
experience.
The answer to: How do we learn his will? is to rephrase the question:
How do we come to know anything? We have to be taught and we have to be
willing to listen. We have to be willing to learn. Nobody simply knows
math or English or history or farming. Nobody’s born with that
knowledge. They had to be taught and they had to be willing to listen
and to learn. What is true about the way we learn in earthly things is
essentially true of how we learn spiritual things. We have to be taught
and we have to listen and be willing to learn. We cannot sit back and
propose that each one of us knows all when it comes to the spirit.
There’s this kind of idea though, in the matters of the spirit of
religion that everyone is their own guru, or their own expert. That is
certainly not and never has been the Catholic take on that question.
Jesus made his will for us, his teachings easy for us to learn. Of
course he did. It would be cruel of him to want us to do and live in a
certain way without telling us and we’re supposed to figure it out on
our own somehow without him speaking to us. He wouldn’t do that. You
wouldn’t do that to your children. You wouldn’t say to your children,
“You have to learn math.” “Teach me.” “Oh no, you have to figure it
out.” I mean, that’s ridiculous and so he’s made it easy. Jesus teaches
us today in the scripture as he has always taught us in the scripture.
We know the Ten Commandments. But more importantly we know the
Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are more important in my view than the
Commandments. The Commandments are. “Thou shalt not… more or less most
of them are negative things. They’re common sense and most every
religion in the world recognizes those Ten Commandments as valid.
However, in the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us to take on attitudes of
humility and meekness and gentleness and mercy and to be a peacemaker.
If we have those attitudes internalized as he did, then our decisions
will be good ones. We just naturally won’t sin.
He also teaches us how to be a disciple. “If you want to follow me, you
must pick up your cross every day and follow me” without whining about
it. I think that’s one of the problems with suffering. I think you
don’t get credit for suffering if you complain too much. That is part
of being a disciple, to suffer. It comes with the agreement.
Jesus also teaches us through his apostles, that’s why he selected
them; that’s why he trained them; that’s why he empowered and
commissioned them to spread the Gospel then and now. The apostles are
alive and well in the church and there are more than twelve because
they are represented today in the bishops. The bishops have the
responsibility to teach us. That’s the principle job of the bishop is
to teach. The principle job of the priest is to preach. Therefore, the
bishops teach us through their writings. Usually each month Archbishop
Michael has a message for us, generally it’s a teaching, his teaching,
which is of course Catholic teaching. He has that authority, that
responsibility and we have the responsibility to listen attentively to
him. The Holy Father teaches us in encyclicals and other writings. We
learn about even current issues, like stem-cell research, abortion, and
euthanasia. The bishops have the responsibility; the Pope has that
responsibility to teach us; a responsibility given by Jesus Christ
himself that can be proven in the scriptures.
We have a catechism today that is the best catechism the Catholic
Church has ever had. It was a gift of John Paul II and it is superb. I
hope every family here has the catechism at home. If you haven’t read
the catechism please do yourself a favor and buy one and read it. I’ll
tell you something that will surprise you: you’ll enjoy it. It is that
well written and it’s based on scripture. It’s just infused with
scripture and it’s not only the “Thou shalt nots…” it starts with the
Creed and what do we mean by that Creed. Many pages are devoted just to
that subject. So the Catechism is an excellent reference guide that we
all should have. Today, more than ever in the Church’s history, there
are current apologists who have books and films and CD’s. There are
CD’s in the back if the church. I commend them to you. They’re
excellent. We have Scott Hahn and Patrick Madrid, a native New Mexican.
There’s George Wigel who I often talk about. He’s a great apologist and
teaches today. I encourage you to use our library. Anything in the
library or any of those CD’s should be solid Catholic teaching. That
library isn’t a universal, ecumenical library that gives everyone’s
opinion about everything. It’s a Catholic library and so if you find
something in there that you think is objectionable bring it to me and
I’ll look at it.
Jesus teaches us through art and literature. I want to say Michelangelo
wasn’t a painter; he was a theologian who painted. Many of you I’m sure
have seen the Pieta? You didn’t just go, “Well there it is. Isn’t that
nice. What else you got?” You spent time and looked at it. It was a
prayerful moment and you learned about the beauty of Jesus’ sacrifice
and the love of his mother. We have no excuse not to know what Jesus
teaches us. No excuse. We will be judged on two things: how we followed
our conscience; everyone likes that part. We’ll be judged on how we
followed our conscience but we’ll be judged equally on how we formed
it. We form it according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and his holy
church.
Now, here’s the problem: we know what Jesus teaches. We know what’s
right. We know what’s wrong. There’s no excuse not to. But we don’t
always do it, do we? You’re not admitting anything. When we don’t do it
it’s called sin and everyone here is a sinner. No one here can cast
that first stone. Therefore, know what is right and wrong. Sometimes we
sin. Paul said it so well and this is Paul after his conversion. Paul
heard the voice of Christ, knocked him off his horse. Paul said, “The
good I wish to do, I do not do and the evil I wish to avoid, I do.”
He’s talking about sin. He knew what was right and wrong. Paul also
said, “I have a thorn in my flesh.” There was something that kept him,
probably some sin of some sort. We don’t know, no one knows. He said,
“Three times I asked God to take this from me, and three times He said,
“My grace is sufficient for you. In weakness, Paul, when you know
you’re a sinner, when you know you’re weak, when you know you’re not
strong it’s then that you’re right with me. Then you know who you are
and it’s then you know who I am.”
I’d like to conclude with a poem by John Donne, A Hymn to God the Father. I think
every confessor knows this poem because we struggle with sin and
forgiveness and sin and forgiveness and sin and forgiveness. I think
that the best thing we can do is just keep trying, all of us, whatever
our sins are. By the way, over a lifetime of a well-lead life the sins
change because the closer we are to Christ the more we are aware of his
love the greater our sins are in many ways. What would not have been a
sin years ago when we were in darkness becomes a grave sin now when we
know what God expects of us, when we know how he loves us.
If you would bow your heads and make this poem a prayer:
Wilt thou forgive that
sin
where I begun, Which was my sin,
though it were done before? Wilt thou forgive
that sin, through which I run, And do run still,
though still I do deplore? When thou hast
done, thou hast not done, For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive
that sin which I have won Others to sin, and
made my sin their door? Wilt thou forgive
that sin which I did shun A year or two, but
wallow'd in, a score? When thou hast
done, thou hast not done, For I have more.
I have a sin of
fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I
shall perish on the shore; But swear by
thyself, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he
shines now, and heretofore; And, having done
that, thou hast done; I fear no more.
May
almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us all to
everlasting life. Amen.