Sermons

Three years ago this weekend, we were a people overwhelmed with the sadness of the destruction and deaths of September 11. We continue to be sad as we think of the war in Iraq, the violence in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and most recently the horror of the deaths of so many, especially small children, in the school in Beslan, Russia. Will the fear and terror ever stop?

The Scriptures today offer us and our world the only way out of constant conflict--the offer of forgiveness and reconciliation. God is angry with the Jews for adoring a golden calf. But Moses intercedes, and God forgives. Paul in his letter to Timothy says that God has forgiven him though he was a blasphemer and someone who persecuted the church. In the Gospel, we have three of the greatest of the parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. The shepherd rejoices in finding the lost sheep, as God rejoices when the sinner returns. The woman rejoices when she finds the insignificant coin, just as God rejoices when the sinner farthest away from Him returns.

In the parable of the prodigal son, the forgiving father stands for God. The father always hopes for the return of the son. The father runs to the son when he sees him coming. The father embraces him even before the son can speak his words of repentance, a scene depicted on the cover of the missalette this season. If God can be forgiving, it is necessary for us to be the same. Do we not pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"?

You may ask how this will stop people who do not believe in the Gospel from wreaking violence in our world? I am not sure. However, if Christians do not lead by example, the violence will continue. If we do not begin by forgiving out neighbors and our family members, how can we ever expect peace in our world? How can we expect Israelis and Palestinians to stop their violence if we Christians wreak violence? The Christian theologian Stanley Hauerwaus believes that the tragedy of September 11 was worsened by turning to a war rhetoric, inaugurating a potentially endless, unwinable war on terrorism. Sometimes pacifists' only responses can be silence, tears of sorrow and horror, and prayers of repentance and for forgiveness of all (Commonweal, Sept. 10, 2004, p. 30).

Our world history shows that violence and hatred continues where no forgiveness exists. In the early church, bishops did not accept the military into the church. How different today. How many horrible things could be prevented in history if someone had said no to the violence and hatred in the world.

In July, I went to the theatre to see the play Frozen. It has closed on Broadway now. It was about a serial killer of teenage girls and one of the mothers of a child who was killed. For twenty-two years the mother held hatred and revenge in her heart, and she was unable to have any peace in her life. Finally she makes a visit to the prison and expresses words of forgiveness to the murderer. Only then can she begin a new life.

We Christians know that message already, though often we do not live it. At this banquet table of the Eucharist, we are like the prodigal son for whom a feast is set. Each Sunday, God shows how we are forgiven, and God begs us to bring that message of reconciliation to others.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

MARCH 6, 2005

Presentation of the Confirmation class

Readings:

1 Samuel 16:1b,6-7, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

For those of us who oppose capital punishment in the U.S.A., the Supreme Court decision banning the execution of people who commit capital crimes when they are under the age of eighteen came as a wonderful event. No longer can teenagers be executed for crimes which they may commit in rage, in stupidity, or even in malice. They are too young to understand all the ramifications of their actions.

In speaking to a friend, however, I was reminded by them that older children and teenagers can do awful things. They can be vicious to one another and perform things that are truly horrible. You parents here know what I mean. Some of you children and teenagers must know also what has been done to you or to another young person in the play yard or after school. But as awful as these things may be, they are forgivable.

In the first reading of today's Mass, we hear the story of the choice of David as king of Israel. He is anointed with sacred oil by the prophet, and for most Jewish people, he, along with this son Solomon, are considered the greatest of the kings. Yet after David was anointed king, he did some horrible things. Most especially, we recall the story of David and Bathsheba. David falls in love with a married woman, and when he cannot have her, he sees that her husband is killed in battle.

Yet David is remembered for many wonderful things. He united his kingdom. Though he did not build the Temple, he put into process the building of the greatest worship space that the Jewish people ever had. He encouraged the finest worship. The psalms have their origin in David. One of the students read the shepherd psalm for us today–a psalm of David. Psalm 51 is one of the greatest expressions of sorrow for sin, and it is attributed to David. A musician and a poet was this man who also was a sinner.

In a few weeks, you, the children of our Confirmation class, will be anointed with sacred oil very much as David was anointed. In being fully initiated into the Catholic faith, you will be asked to be responsible Christians who, like David, are concerned about worship, concerned about community, concerned about prayer. But like David, you also will sin. All of us baptized Christians who are here at Mass today recognize that we are sinners, though also anointed as children of God. The wonderful thing is that God doesn't exact capital punishment upon us but continues to give us opportunities to repent, to experience forgiveness, and to live again as beloved members of the family.

Today, we hear the Gospel story of the man blind from birth. Jesus gave him new life when he gave him sight. In a few weeks, you shall receive a new anointing and the new life of fully confirmed members of the church. Within that Christian life, you will find times when you are a sinner. Yet you also will not forget that you are redeemed by Christ and called upon by Christ to be responsible for prayer, for worship, and for community. As we celebrate the Eucharist this Sunday, we give thanks that like King David, we are anointed to great responsibilities within the community. We share David's humanity, both its good and bad sides. We also give thanks that we are a redeemed people whom God will never forsake.

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EPIPHANY VESPERS

January 8, 2006

Reading: Isaiah 52:7-10

In describing the journey of the Magi, T. S. Eliot speaks of men who thought they were to witness a birth, but "this birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like death, our death."

Thomas Merton's poem "Carol" described the birth of Christ in a stable using the sweetest of images, as one would find on a bland Nativity greeting card. There are happy shepherds, lovely light, and holy music. But he adds: "While we unnumbered children of the wicked centuries come after with our penances and prayers, and lay them down in the sweet-smelling hay beside the wise men's golden jars."

Clearly the charming nature of the greeting card is shattered when one grasps the reality of a birth of a god/man who will die as a common criminal. And even more so, Merton acknowledges the sinfulness of that god/man's followers throughout the history that follows the birth.

Both the joy and the sadness of this holy season are ours today as we celebrate Epiphany, bringing almost to a close the Christmas cycle.

It is also a new year. We gather on this, its second Sunday, for praise, thanksgiving, and intercessions, singing together the psalms, hearing the scripture, and both singing and listening to music which exalts as well as tells the story of the Magi, and Herod, and a divine child.

But like the Magi of Eliot's poem and the unnumbered children of the wicked centuries of Merton, we come with a pain and exhaustion of people who have traveled journeys that were not easy. It is more than exhaustion of holidays. Our Christian churches continue to be wracked by scandals, and diminishing numbers plague us all. The lack of peace in our world, especially in the biblical lands of Israel and Iraq, lays heavy on us. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast hurricanes, tsunami in Asia, the continuation of starvation in Africa--who can forget the headlines of 2005, even in a new year in which we are supposed to set aside the past?

In the midst of it all, we hear the prophet Isaiah speak words of hope and comfort. The Babylonian exile of the Jewish people is coming to an end. The Lord is restoring the holy city of Jerusalem. There shall be an ingathering of all peoples, as "all the ends of the earthy will behold the salvation of our God." The prophet Isaiah uses the image of heights and mountains as the place from which to proclaim this good news. He says, "Go up unto a high mountain" and "How beautiful upon the mountains . . ."

No thinking person would mistake Morningside Heights for a mountain. But it is a high place in Manhattan, and a place with valleys and hills (aging bones know what it means to climb West 121^st Street from Amsterdam Avenue); we inhabitants of Morningside Heights can see ourselves as people who are called upon to proclaim good news in the midst of difficult times.

From its inception as a residential neighborhood about a hundred years ago, spurred on by the relocation of Columbia University to Morningside Heights and the beginning of the building of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the religious institutions of this neighborhood have given witness that the Lord comforts his people.

Within the first thirty years of the twentieth century, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and non-denominational Protestants all built houses of worship here and amazingly learned to live at peace with one another. Institutions of learning for the training of Protestant and Jewish leaders emerge from that same period of time. All these groups have worked together and continue to work together. In 1909, Corpus Christi Church and Union Theological Seminary joined together to ask for a subway stop at West 122^nd Street. The effort failed, but cooperation existed. The sponsorship of Morningside Gardens was an effort spurred on greatly by the religious coalition. The stories of good relations among Corpus Christi, Riverside Church, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine are legion in our archives.

How beautiful; upon Morningside Heights are the feet of those who announce good news that God is King and God's people can live together in unity and peace. How beautiful upon Morningside Heights are the feet of those who have tried to reverse religious history for the good of this city and community. Is this a revelation? Can we not call this "an epiphany"?

United in prayer and worship this Epiphany, we thank God for the ability to be a city on a hill and a light to this city. The pains and conflict which might upset us may be used by us as resetting the broken bones in the Body of Christ. From a high place, let our lights shine. From Morningside Heights, let our prayers arise like incense and our worship today clearly go forth. Beautiful on Morningside Heights are the people who proclaim that God is King and together we are God's people.

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16th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

July 23, 2006

Readings:

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ephesians 2:13-18; Mark 6:30-34

When I hear the reading from Jeremiah about the shepherds who shepherd their flock poorly, I am embarrassed because I automatically think of how it applies to clergy. All of us know that we fail to serve our parishes sufficiently. In recent years, the whole world has become aware of the scandal of clergy who abuse children and who steal from their congregations.

But I take some consolation when I read the rest of the text. God speak of putting a new king on the throne, a king who will do God's will. In the Old Testament, the king often was referred to as a shepherd because David was a shepherd. So the attack on the ones who do not shepherd their flock properly is an attack on all who have authority to care for people and do so poorly, not caring for the people with love, tenderness, and affection.

Every one of us who have been given people to care for know that we can be good shepherds or poor shepherds. We know that there are government officials who are more interested in advancing themselves than in aiding their people. We know parents who mistreat their children. We read about teachers who are lazy and neglect their students, and we know of employers who are not honest toward their employees. All of these are included in the words of Jeremiah today when he castigates bad shepherds.

Jesus must be the model for every person with authority over another. Jesus gives us a sign of humble service when he washes the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. Jesus shows that even the greatest can be humble when he empties himself on the cross. Jesus gives us himself in Holy Communion as a sign that true authority is giving to others, especially others to whom we have an obligation. We are his disciples, yet he treats us as a loving shepherd.

Many people today seem lost and confused and in pain. They are like sheep without shepherds. Every one of us who has authority must look to Christ Jesus and find how to exercise authority as true shepherds, following the example of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

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NOVEMBER 9, 2008

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

in Rome

Readings:

Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11.16-17; John 2:13-22

     When something is large and unwieldy to describe, people often resort to symbols and images to help convey understanding. We Christians do that to describe the church. Some of the images, such as hierarchical and institution are not biblical and give little of the true meaning. When we go to the Bible, our understanding of church is deepened.

     For those of us at Corpus Christi, the image of the Body of Christ holds special meaning. Jesus began that image when, in the great parable of Matthew 25, he says that whatever is done to the least ones is done to him.   On the road to Damascus, he will ask Saul, "Why do you persecute me?" Paul builds on this idea in Romans and First Corinthians. "As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ .... Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it."

     The use of the phrase "people of God" to describe the church is favored by many who see its connection with the Old Testament. The people whom Moses led out of Egypt became God's people through the Red Sea passage and the sprinkling of blood at the covenant of Sinai.   St. Peter in his first epistle reminds us that once we were no people, but now we are God's people.   We were formed through the blood of Christ.

     In St. John's Gospel, Jesus will say, "I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in that person will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Remain in me as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me."

     The image of the church as building or temple begins with Jesus. While the Old Testament refers often to temple, it is a building. Jesus, in St. John's Gospel, refers to the temple of his own body. Then, in First Corinthians, we read, "You are God's building.... Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" In Ephesians, Paul states, "You are fellow citizens with the holy ones, and members of the household of God." This house is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. "Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord. You are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

     The image of a temple, a holy building for worship, being the earthly dwelling place of God, is seen here. Almost all peoples who build structures for worship see the building as having special power. In a unique way, it is the place to communicate with God. It is the place where God dwells on earth in a special way. It is the place where people do their rituals in order to make connections with their God.

     Again, St. Peter in his first epistle, says, "You are living stones built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

     Catholics celebrate this image of the members of the church being a holy temple, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit by honoring the dedication of church buildings. There is s special rite to consecrate a church, a space for God, for worship, foar the gathering of the community.   Each year, churches are encourages to celebrate the anniversary of their dedication. We do so on the last Sunday of October. We also honor, from afar, the dedication of the cathedral church of St. Patrick in our own Archdiocese on October 5. This reminds us of our unity around a bishop as the Church of New York.

     We honor the dedication of the Church of St. Peter in Rome on November 18. That reminds us of our unity as Roman Catholics since that building is the pope's church as head of the universal church. We honor today the dedication of the Basilica commonly known as St. John Lateran, the Lateran basilica. In 324 AD, it was dedicated to Our Saviour as the main church of Rome. In later years, its dedication was extended to include St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. The property on which the building was constructed belonged to the Lateranus family, hence the name Lateran. It is the pope's official cathedral for the city of Rome. We honor it because we are members of the Roman Catholic Church.

     All the images of church that we have mentioned stress the unity of Christians with Jesus Christ and each other. By celebrating the dedication of St. John Lateran, we are urged to understand our unity within the Roman Catholic Church and to work for the unity of all Christians.

     By looking at a church building, we hopefully recall that we are a structure in which God dwells, both individually through Baptism, and as a whole -- all being on in Christ. God's spirit dwells within us. How much should that encourage us to respect one another and care for the body of one another.   People are fond of decorating and preserving church buildings. Hopefully, we would want to care for and adorn the body of our fellow Christian in need more than we would do for a church building.

     Within the church building, we Catholics celebrate the Eucharist, the great sacrament of unity. We come to a common table and share the sacred food and drink that is both a symbol of our unity and the medicine we need to make that unity grow. That unity should exist not just within the building of Corpus Christi and extend to those with whom we immediately share the Eucharist.   In celebrating the dedication of the pope's cathedral in Rome, hopefully that unity overflows to all who celebrate the Eucharist and in fact to all Christians with whom we wish one day to be united.

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26th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

October 3, 2010

Readings:

Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4; 2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14; Luke 17:5-10

Homily preached by Father Rafferty on the occasion of the 10^th Anniversary of the founding of Corpus Christi’s Chapter of the International Thomas Merton Society and the 10^th Anniversary of the death of Merton’s close friend, the poet Robert Lax.

Thomas Merton wrote, “Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us, and see the beauty in ordinary things.”

If one is aware of Merton’s black and white photography, one knows that he usually photographed ordinary things, and their beauty becomes obvious. There is a huge milk can next to a barn. Objects from nature, especially the beautiful area of the nobs around Gethsemani Monastery become objects of beauty.

But to presume that Merton was interested only in inanimate objects and nature as ordinary things betrays the insight of one of his clearest visions when he sees in the noontime crowds on the streets of Louisville all kinds of people, realizing that he loves them. He wishes that he could tell them what he sees -- that they are walking around, shining like the sun.

Ordinary people -- shining like the sun. That also is the splendor that is all around us.

The poetry of Robert Lax betrays the same wisdom. As abstract as one might consider his post 1960’s poetry, it is most concrete in all the images that he presents.

That all

Indeed

Was real

All had

History

And a

Name

(as though

the moment

had been

rapt beyond

itself

and was eternal

while it

moved

in time)

I saw

Each object

Then in

Its relation

(to a

timeless

being)

and my

heart sang

(but kept

its deepest

peace)

A commentator on Lax writes “the elements of his art are the elements of the created world; the sea and the men and the animals and the light.” Like Merton, Lax finds beauty in ordinary things.

What a contrast these two men present to the rich man in the gospel today who had all the visual ability needed. Purple garments were the most expensive as they were made from a special rare dye. Fine linen – these are his undergarments. Banquets – not just one Sabbath or special occasions. He dined sumptuously every day.

Yet he fails to see, fails to have insight and find the beauty in another human being.

The rich man knows Lazarus by name. Note that when he sees Lazarus at the side of Abraham in paradise, the rich man is able to call Lazarus by name “Father Abraham, send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.”

He had sight when alive, and appears to have recognized Lazarus as the one who lay at his door--starving, his sores licked by dogs, hoping, but never receiving, even the scraps left over from the rich man’s table.

The rich man seems to be a believer, but his belief resembles the Sadducees, both because he is rich but also because they did not believe in an after life of accountability. Rather, everyone, good and bad alike, went to sheol, a shadowy underworld. There in sheol is no pain, but no hope. Now that he has learned differently, he wants to tell his brothers this news. Obviously, like them, he lived as if everything depended on the present like, no vision of anything beyond this world.. After this, he had presumed, there is nothing. So eat, drink and be merry.

The rich man failed to see the beauty of a fellow human being, Lazarus, and he did nothing. True Christian insight and Catholic sensibility sees beyond what looks ordinary and sees splendor. True Christian insight and Catholic sensibility looks at bread and wine and sees the body and blood of Christ. True Christian insight and Catholic sensibility, like that of Merton and Lax, looks at another human being and sees a child of God, shining like the sun.

Last Sunday, many of us rejoiced in the beatification of John Henry Newman. In his Idea of a University, Newman espoused a culture of the intellect. “To remove the original dimness of the minds’ eye; to strengthen and perfect its vision, to enable it to look out into the world right forward, steadily and truly; to give the mind clearness, accuracy, precision.”

Wouldn’t Newman be delighted with the men we honor and pray for at tonight’s Mass – Merton and Lax? He would find in them kindred Catholic Christian souls who could pierce the gloom and find the brightness of eternal light.

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Click here for excerpt of sermon on the Solemnity of Christ the King, Nov. 21, 2004,

paying tribute to our recently deceased pastor emeritus, Msgr. Myles M. Bourke.

Click here for sermon on May 7, 2006,

marking the 100th anniversary of the first Mass in the parish.