God Reminds Us to Be Patient

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 2, 2016

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Tucson, AZ

Fr. John Paul Shea 

As we reflect on the readings for this 27th Sunday in Ordinary time we are once again given the opportunity to meditate on the importance of faith.

In today’s first reading we hear from the prophet Habakkuk. The particular concern for Habakkuk in this reading was the rise of Babylon. Babylon had emerged at that time as a great regional power and was threatening Judah, and the prophet doesn’t get why God isn’t doing anything.

Habakkuk cries out to God saying, “How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not intervene… Destruction and violence are before me.”

If we listen to these lines, it sounds similar to what many of us can relate to in our time today. We watch the nightly news and our stomachs become sick. We hear constantly of such things as terrorism, murder, killing in our streets, and financial problems… All these sorts of things can weigh heavily on our souls. And, like Habakkuk, we find ourselves saying, “How long O’ Lord?” How long will these things go on? 

However, we are reminded from today’s reading that God’s plan takes time for its fulfillment and that we therefore need to have faith as we await God’s plan and His will to unfold. 

As the prophet Habakkuk cries out to the Lord in today’s first reading, God reminds him to be patient. God says to Habakkuk that His plan still has its time, and will not disappoint; it will surely come, it will not be late.

My brothers and sisters, today’s readings call us to reflect on the importance of faith. Faith is an act of trusting in God. To have faith means that we are open to what God will do in His time and His way for the greater good of our lives and the world around us. To have faith means that we realize that we are not in control of our lives and what takes place around us and that we therefore need to rely on God.

In today’s Gospel we hear the disciples ask Our Lord to increase their faith. Our Lord responds by reminding the disciples of the

power of faith. He says, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Yet, our Lord does not stop there. Our Lord goes on to teach His disciples and us that we need to have an attitude of humility if we want to live in faith. Our Lord speaks about a servant and his master. Our Lord says, “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’?” 

Our Lord says, “So should it be with [us].” Our Lord says, “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

My brothers and sisters, the real issue in the scene of today’s Gospel is not that the

disciples need more faith. The real issue is that they need to exercise the faith they have by recognizing that faith is a gift from God!

Therefore, if we too, want to grow in our faith then we too must have the attitude of a servant. If we want to grow in our faith than we must humble ourselves before God acknowledging that He alone is our master and that we are nothing without Him! 

When we do things on our own without God then we become faithless, proud, and disobedient. This is how it has been since the fall of mankind, and it is what we see around us today as we wait for our Lord Jesus to come again in glory. 

Our society today follows not the revelation of truths given to us by Our Lord. Our society today instead teaches us the lie that we are the master of our lives and that there are no external truths.

Even many Catholics today are conforming their hearts not to the revelation of our faith but instead toward the ways of the world. Instead of acknowledging that we are Our Lord’s unprofitable servants, and instead of striving to do all we are obliged to do in light of the faith handed down to us, many in our Church today instead act as if we are the masters of our faith and that our faith should conform to our will. 

A few weeks ago, for example, one of the vice presidential candidates for the upcoming election who claims to be a devoted Catholic stated publically that he believes that our Church will change its views on same sex marriage. This sort of thinking does not come from divine faith. The Church can’t change its teachings on marriage and sexuality because marriage and sexuality was given to us by God according to His design for His plan of life.

My brothers and sisters, the bottom line is that our faith does not come from human origin. Faith is not about trying to please the culture or about seeking to get the Church to revolve its teachings around the human person. No, faith is when a person accepts God’s revelation and strives to live according to God’s revealed truths. If we want to be strong in our faith than we must strive to serve God by following His plan of life as His unprofitable servants, recognizing that everything we have and are is a gift from God! For, when we surrender our lives to God and His revealed truths, than no difficulties, hardships, or influences of the world will

break apart the rock of salvation that has been planted in our hearts through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!

As we come to receive our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist this evening, let us set our hearts on the gift of faith. No matter what may be going on in our lives today, no matter the difficulties in our world and society, no matter who becomes president in the upcoming election, God is in control, and His grace will prevail! For, the world with its sin and hardships will pass away, but our faith in our Lord Jesus and His Truth will live forever. Amen!

I Cry Out to You Lord. But You Do Not Answer. Why, Lord, why?

 Sermon by Fr. Joseph Mungai
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct. 2, 2016
St. John the Apostle Awasi Catholic Church, Kisumu Archdiocese, Kenya

In 600 BC, the Babylonians were the

Fr. Joe Mungai

dominant power in the Middle East with their capital very near modern day Bagdad. The prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4) who speaks to us in today's first reading, lived during the difficult period that began with the Babylonian army's first assault against the Holy Land in 604 BC, its capture of Jerusalem and its enslavement and exportation of many people to Babylon in 597 BC and the eventual total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple ten years after that. 

Habakkuk asks God for relief. God assures him it will come if the people just put their

trust in God. God even gave detailed instructions to the king through the prophet Jeremiah on how they could avoid disaster, but the king did just the opposite. As a consequence they suffered greatly under the Babylonians.

Don't despair seems to fit today's theme. You can certainly hear despair in today's first reading as Habakkuk prays: "How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen!" He is having quite a struggle with God. He goes on for several more verses telling God about all the things that are happening to the Jewish people. Not only were the Babylonians defeating every nation from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, but God's own people in Judea and Jerusalem had turned from their worship of God to idolatry, child sacrifice and disregard for the poor and disadvantaged. Habakkuk exclaims: "I cry out to you, Violence! But you do not intervene. "Why, Lord, why?"

God's answer always is "Trust, have faith, be patient." God's salvation will come when God thinks its the right time. God will not disappoint. Writing it down especially on tables of stone or clay, would symbolize permanence. Those struggling with faith need this reassurance for "The just one, because of his faith shall live." St Paul quotes this line twice in his letters and it applies to faith in Christ. (Rom 1:17 and Gal 3:11). Despair won't help anyone, only faith.

It took many years until "in the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4), God Himself appeared as the savior not just for the Jewish people but for all people. He began his saving work when he came to live among us, but he has not finished. So we continue to need faith until God's kingdom of eternal peace has been fully established. The apostles did have a sense that what Jesus was asking of them would require a lot of faith. In today's gospel we hear them asking Jesus to increase their faith. (Luke 17:5-10)

The little lesson at the end of the gospel where we are told to do what we are expected to do is a little lesson in humility. It is also a lesson in faith insofar as the only way we can increase our faith is to live it (taking time to pray, read Scripture and as we are doing now, coming to Mass).

If we do not live it, it will be like muscles we don't use and they will atrophy. I see it happen to people so many times. Another thing we can do is what we hear in today's second reading (2 Timothy 1:6-8.13-14): "Take as your practice the sound words that you heard from me."  

Words are so important, especially the things we tell ourselves. A whole area of counseling has developed around this idea of how what we tell ourselves affects our mood. It's called cognitive therapy. What we tell ourselves also affects our faith. If we always tell ourselves negative things such as "God doesn't hear my prayers; God isn't here when I come to Church," we are going to believe those things. 

We should tell ourselves what we hear from the Scriptures: "God does love me; Christ died for me; Christ hears me when I pray, even when he says 'no,' Christ truly comes to me in the Eucharist," etc. Telling ourselves those things, especially when we don't feel it, or when the devil whispers doubts in our ears, helps strengthen our faith. 

Jesus tells us with faith as small as a mustard seed we can do amazing things. Amen.

The Cardinal and the Little Flower: 20th Anniversary of the International Theological Institute

by Susan Fox

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”Jesus called a little child to stand among them. “Truly I tell you, He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18: 1-4)

Trumau, Austria -- In 1961, I was a young girl sitting on the floor in the family room in Placentia, California, 

St. Theresa of Lisieux, the Little Flower of Carmel

engrossed in reading the life of St. Theresa of Lisieux contained in my Catholic children’s Treasure Chest magazine.

Little Therese was playing on her swing at the age of four, and ignored her father’s request for a hug. So he went back into the house. This pierced her heart so deeply she jumped off the swing and ran to greet her beloved father. So began the Little Way of holiness of the future doctor of the Catholic Church, Therese of Lisieux.  

I was about eight years old, and at that age, she became my big sister. I had no other sibling, so she held a very important place in my heart. 

Little did I know that my devotion to big sister Therese would blossom into my attending graduate school now in Trumau, Austria, later in life. Here today, on Oct. 1, 2016,  the Little Flower of Carmel became my mother.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical International Theological Institute (ITI) by Pope Saint John Paul II. 

We celebrated this great event with numerous priests and bishops of both the Roman and Byzantine Rites and Cardinal Christoph

Cardinal Schönborn at ITI today

Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna and Grand Chancellor of the ITI. 

He gave the homily at Mass today celebrating the Great Feast of St. Theresa of Lisieux, and the anniversary of our school.

He said when Pope John Paul II asked for a pontifical institute in Austria, the Congregation for the Catholic Education picked the date the school would be started, and it was Oct. 1. “The Little Flower is the founding date of the ITI,” he said. “We saw it as a sign to be under her protection. She was our first Patron.”

So Theresa’s “Way of the Child” became the way of ITI, Cardinal Schönborn explained, “The Little Way is to be like a child in the arms of the Father.” He also explained it the way St. Theresa herself did. By doing little acts with great love, you enter an elevator (the

Cardinal Schönborn speaking about St. Therese at Mass  on Oct. 1, 2016

Father’s arms) and He brings you up. She developed this method of holiness because she felt she could not — by herself — become a saint. And Therese passionately longed for holiness. 

“St. Theresa wants to be a child, but she also wants to be a mother,” The Cardinal said. “And ITI is full of children. You are in good company.”

He then told the story of St. Theresa’s first child  Henri Pranzini, serial killer whose brutal murder of two women and a little girl shocked the people of France in 1887.

One woman “was found on the floor of her chamber dead, her throat cut and her body terribly mutilated. Lying near the door leading from the chamber to the drawing room was the dead body of Annette, whose throat had also been cut, and in her bed in another apartment was little Marie . . . her head almost severed from her body by the murderer’s knife. It was obvious that Annette had gone to the rescue . . . and had been struck down by the assassin, and that the little girl had been murdered to put out of the way the only other witness of the terrible crime.”

Therese Martin — then 14 years old — read the account in a newspaper. “Everything led to the belief that he would die impenitent. I wanted at all costs to keep him from falling

into hell, and to succeed I employed all means imaginable, feeling that of myself I could do nothing. I offered to God all the infinite merits of Our Lord,” she wrote in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul.

As the time of his execution approached, Pranzini remained unrepentant. Little Therese increased her prayers. He was brought before the guillotine on Aug. 31. He refused

confession, but at the last minute  before he was to put his head in the guillotine, he took hold of the crucifix and kissed the Wounds of Christ three times!

Therese understood this to mean that Pranzini was saved from hell, and she called him her “premier enfant” — my first child. “I want to spread the Blood of Jesus over the whole world, so Divine Love may touch all souls,” the Vienna Cardinal said quoting St. Theresa.

Then he told the students and those gathered to celebrate the ITI anniversary, “So don’t be afraid to be under the protection of the Little Flower. You are in good company with Pranzini.” His remark was met with gentle laughter. Regarding ITI, the cardinal said, “He (Jesus) is really leading it.” 

Since ITI was founded, 269 students from 30 countries have graduated. Our students study primary sources written by great masters of the Western tradition. The library is so full of great books that my husband, Lawrence, wants to spend his vacations reading there. 

The international character of the school allows students to experience the genuine beauty of the Universal Church with both Eastern and Western traditions. 

We have a rich community of priests from both the Latin and Byzantine Rite, seminarians, religious, married families, and lay single.

ITI offers all a solid theological education, ending in a Master of Sacred Theology, Licentiate in Sacred Theology (allows you to teach in seminary), Doctorate in Sacred Theology and Master of Studies in Marriage and Family. We also have a one-year course for people graduating from high school, known as the Studium Generale. This offers me no end of delight because I love these young people and their enthusiasm. 

Cardinal Schönborn, The Grand Chancellor,  and St. Therese, patroness of ITI, with friends 

Susan Fox is working on a master's degree in Marriage and Family at the International Theological Institute in Trumau, Austria. 

Interested in studying at the International Theological Institute? You can apply here.

Each student at ITI is only charged 6,000 Euros a year in tuition, but the actual cost of the education is 20,000 Euros.
Donate here

Or contact: Dipl. Ing. Alexander Pachta-Reyhofen, Director of Development (Europe), International Theological Institute, Email: a.pachtareyhofen@iti.ac.at