Catholic Sunday Homilies of Fr. Paul Gawlowski OFM Conv and Fr. Carlos Morales OFM Conv at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Hermosa Beach, CA
Qoheleth in the first reading muses on what good is it to labor hard to amass possessions in this life and only leave them to somebody who did not work for them. Jesus goes further and encourages us to labor for what is valuable in God’s sight and be wealthy in heavenly dollars, or what matters to God.
This is a great passage to pray by putting yourself in the position of Martha and Mary. Can you relate to Martha too busy to feel human, feeling like a slave of all these obligations, resentful that others don’t appreciate what she’s doing or help? We can also be Mary in the passage, talk to God about what we are doing as Martha, and if God is really calling us to do it choose it in freedom, and do it for Jesus.
I want to offer you a job with much power and influence, a job that is really not that hard, a job for an international organization, a job with benefits that are out of this world. This is the job Jesus offers all of us today in the Gospel. The harvest is abundant but laborers are few, Jesus is offering us all a job, he needs you. Will you accept His Job offer?
There are many of us who believe in Jesus or listen to his wisdom, but it never really affects how we live. Today Jesus invites us to be a disciple; that is to follow him on the way. One who follows Jesus changes how they live and puts God first in their life. The best example comes from those who have died, seen the other side, and when they come back live differently. We are all called to a similar radical conversion to put God first in our life and trust him in all things.
The Catholic Church is a Sacramento church, because salvation is Sacramental. A sacrament is a divine reality present in our physical reality. Jesus Christ truly God and truly man is a sacrament. We are saved by his incarnation life death resurrection and by being joined to his body through the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist.
We are part of a mystery that is beyond our comprehension, and that includes God. However God has chosen to reveal Himself in a way we can’t fully understand, yet there is much we can understand; that God is relationship Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we are created in God’s image and likeness so too are we created to live in relationship and in relationships are we most fully alive and most united to God. Let us work therefore with God’s help to build strong relationships; with Jesus, in our families, in our church, and in our world. That is when we are most fully alive and giving God glory.
The acts of the apostles are sometimes referred to as the acts of the Holy Spirit. In the acts of the Holy Spirit we read how the early church grew. It was not as much because of the miracles and the signs but because of the conversion of people to care for the poor, the sick, to include the outcast, and to live in unity amongst diversity. Today the same Holy Spirit allows us to live in the same making the church a powerful witness to God.
Today we celebrate the Ascension. The one Jesus of Nazareth true God and true man all powerful ascends to heaven so that by the Holy Spirit his body now on earth, the church, does the same things Jesus did but only greater because it’s to the ends of the earth and for all time. We are called to do such great things, it could be intimidating, but Jesus gives us a very simple process: receive the Holy Spirit and give witness to him. Doing this, will enable us together as church to do great things in the world!
Jesus promises to send a Holy Spirit after his resurrection and ascension to guide us to all truth. But he also says it’s given to those who follow his commandments. God respects our free will and so we must make the first step to follow Jesus in the context of the church to discern the fulness of what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us.
Jesus changes the Old Testament command from Leviticus as love your neighbor as yourself to the new command to love one another as I have loved you. It’s new in three ways, 1) that commands we love all people, 2) that it commands we love as Jesus loved, and 3) it is new because it is His love in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus’s instructions to us to love one another makes God present in our world and glorifies Him.
