Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentacost
Given at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
In the Gospel today Jesus heals the royal official's son taking pity on the man, who believed that Jesus had the power to save his son.
However at the center of this Gospel, it seems, is not the miracle itself, but Jesus' exasperated statement: Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
Our God is so good He called us into being out of nothing simply because He loved us and He gives us all that is for our use and edification. He created the sun which warms the Earth, and gives us light, rising and setting so beautifully. He created the stars of the night, and the moon, the sky, and the clouds which bring us rain. The earth is his handy-work as are all the creatures that walk on it, fly over it, and swim in its oceans. God created all things, creating us last, because all of creation was made for man,
and He infalliablly declared it all good. And yet despite all this, Man reject's God's word unless he sees signs and wonders.
My friends miracles are a means of get out attention, or answering the purest of our prayers. But we must not forget to see and thank God for the greatest miracle of all: our existence! This too is truly a miracle, which no scientist can ever explain away! How often we take it for granted that we exist, and yet logically speaking there is no need for it. That we exist is a marvel, this is why Jesus tells us that we must have hearts like Children to enter God's kingdom, children wonder in awe at the gift of the world, and receive each new experience with such eagerness and joy. Children, at least until we spoil them, are born with an innate spirit of wonder and thanksgiving.
St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians reminds us of the need to approach the world in this way when he says:
Address one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
Jesus did not come into the world to temporarily heal the little boy in today's gospel, or Peter's mother in law, or the blind man on the road to Jereco
He didn't even come to raise Lazarus, his friend, temporarily from the dead!
Jesus came to heal us all, by renewing in us the spirit of Thanksgiving, and with it a loving trust in God's providential plan for mankind. On the cross Jesus shows us that even the greatest evils, the greatest suffering, and the loss of the gift of life can be made to work for good, if we love and trust God!
As Christians we must take Paul's instruction to heart and live our lives openly praising God for the goodness of existence! & Teaching others to do the same
Modern culture today is really not much different than pagan culture at the time of Christ
it is a culture of death, because weary of its own sin, it has rejected the goodness of Life of existence. Thus, our Christian duty to give witness, to be martyrs, to the Gospel begins with this spirit of thanksgiving.
It was this spirit that allowed the early Church to suffer every sort of persecution for the sake of the Gospel doing so not just with courage, but with such joy that the pagans thought we were drunk!
Friends, do not get drunk on wine, instead get drunk on the goodness of God made manifest in the goodness of Creation.
What Recompense can I give to the Lord?
Ordination to the Diaconate
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Incarnation is the Good News!
Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Given at St. Patrick's Parish in Wareham, MA
By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
One afternoon a little boy was playing outdoors. He used his mother's broom as a horse and had a wonderful time until it was getting dark. At dust he left the broom on the back porch and came inside. His mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.
She asked the little boy about the broom and he told her where it was. So she asked him to go get it.
The little boy informed his mom that he was afraid of the dark and didn't want to go out to get the broom.
His mother smiled and said 'The Lord is out there too, don't be afraid'.
So the little boy opened the back door a little and said 'Lord if you're out there, hand me the broom'.
This past week I was visiting an 8th grade class, that was talking about the good news, the gospel. And as I heard one student read that the definition of the word Gospel was good news I began to wonder if these students knew what the good news was! What is at the center of our faith after all?
When I read this weeks readings I wondered if the majority of Catholics could answer the same question. What is at the heart of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ?
You see, many people think that at the core of the Gospel there is a moral ethic—rules—do this, don't do that, love however the heart of the Gospel is not a commandment but a historical fact.
First and foremost we believe that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that we may not perish but have eternal life!
The good news is that in the midst of the darkness of the world our loving and all-powerful God is with us not just spiritually, but physically. He shares in our human experience not as a spectator but as a brother, a team-mate, a real partner. And while he might not do our job for us, He never asks us to do anything that He himself was not willing to do!
The reality of the Incarnation, the reality that God loved us so much that He came down from heaven, becoming truly man, while remaining truly God, so that he could show us what it meant to be man and prove to us that holiness is possible, in spite of sin, is at the heart of our faith.
Jesus shows us by his life that man can travel the road of perfection, even in the midst of an imperfect world. Jesus shows us that while we may suffer much in this life it is possible to choose to love, trust, and serve God inspite of all life challenges. Jesus shows us that God is truly with us in our sufferings.
Jesus remains with us today, really present in the Sacraments most particularlly the Eucharist. And from heaven, Jesus intercedes with the Father for us. As Paul says:
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
The Miracle of Christmas and of Easter, the miracle of our weekly celebration of the Mass is the central mystery of our faith, The miracle that God who owes us nothing and who doesn't need us in any way shape or form so loves us, that He remains interested in us. Interested to the point that He allowed:
His un-containable being to be contained in the body of a tiny baby.
His all-knowing Word to be taught by human parents and contradicted by his enemies
His unchanging perfection to grow and change, experiencing all the states of life, with all their challenges and difficulties.
His Holy name to be attacked by his detracters.
His all powerful strength to be made weak on the road to Calvary and
His undying person to be killed on the cross.
If God loves us so much, an knows us so well how can we do anything without realizing his presence
and asking for His help? Our faith is a great gift, that changes the world we live in. Don't ignore the awesome goodness of the Gospel.
Given at St. Patrick's Parish in Wareham, MA
By: Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
One afternoon a little boy was playing outdoors. He used his mother's broom as a horse and had a wonderful time until it was getting dark. At dust he left the broom on the back porch and came inside. His mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.
She asked the little boy about the broom and he told her where it was. So she asked him to go get it.
The little boy informed his mom that he was afraid of the dark and didn't want to go out to get the broom.
His mother smiled and said 'The Lord is out there too, don't be afraid'.
So the little boy opened the back door a little and said 'Lord if you're out there, hand me the broom'.
This past week I was visiting an 8th grade class, that was talking about the good news, the gospel. And as I heard one student read that the definition of the word Gospel was good news I began to wonder if these students knew what the good news was! What is at the center of our faith after all?
When I read this weeks readings I wondered if the majority of Catholics could answer the same question. What is at the heart of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ?
You see, many people think that at the core of the Gospel there is a moral ethic—rules—do this, don't do that, love however the heart of the Gospel is not a commandment but a historical fact.
First and foremost we believe that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that we may not perish but have eternal life!
The good news is that in the midst of the darkness of the world our loving and all-powerful God is with us not just spiritually, but physically. He shares in our human experience not as a spectator but as a brother, a team-mate, a real partner. And while he might not do our job for us, He never asks us to do anything that He himself was not willing to do!
The reality of the Incarnation, the reality that God loved us so much that He came down from heaven, becoming truly man, while remaining truly God, so that he could show us what it meant to be man and prove to us that holiness is possible, in spite of sin, is at the heart of our faith.
Jesus shows us by his life that man can travel the road of perfection, even in the midst of an imperfect world. Jesus shows us that while we may suffer much in this life it is possible to choose to love, trust, and serve God inspite of all life challenges. Jesus shows us that God is truly with us in our sufferings.
Jesus remains with us today, really present in the Sacraments most particularlly the Eucharist. And from heaven, Jesus intercedes with the Father for us. As Paul says:
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
The Miracle of Christmas and of Easter, the miracle of our weekly celebration of the Mass is the central mystery of our faith, The miracle that God who owes us nothing and who doesn't need us in any way shape or form so loves us, that He remains interested in us. Interested to the point that He allowed:
His un-containable being to be contained in the body of a tiny baby.
His all-knowing Word to be taught by human parents and contradicted by his enemies
His unchanging perfection to grow and change, experiencing all the states of life, with all their challenges and difficulties.
His Holy name to be attacked by his detracters.
His all powerful strength to be made weak on the road to Calvary and
His undying person to be killed on the cross.
If God loves us so much, an knows us so well how can we do anything without realizing his presence
and asking for His help? Our faith is a great gift, that changes the world we live in. Don't ignore the awesome goodness of the Gospel.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
As it was in the beginning
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily given at St. Patrick's Parish
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
People often give the Church a hard time because we have so many rules about relationships and about the way men and woman live together. But the fact of the matter is that the Church really only has one rule: The rule of marriage—that Jesus points to today. And as Jesus points out, this is God's rule, that follows God's plan—and is given for our happiness!
So what is the rule of marriage? Its what we all want in our heart its the desire to be loved and to love another person totally.
It's the desire to spend our life learning about the mystery of ourself by exploring the mystery of another physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
All of us want to be loved, and we are, by our God, our parents, our siblings and family but at some point we all begin to desire a mutuality and intimacy with someone who is at once our equal and yet so very different from us.
While God gives us so many people in our lives to love and form friendships with, He gives us one person to know inside and out and He gives us only one person to love, because a person is a mystery that takes an eternity to explore. Sex, which really should be called the marital act, is good within the rule of marriage because it is a way of coming to know and to love another person.
The Churches many “rules” about the marital act all point back to the rule of marriage.
Its interesting, our Catholic faith, like natural science, is concerned about truth. And its my belief, like Einstien, that science is always backing up the reasonableness of our faith
A few years ago the Royal British Academy of Medicine released a study that showed that those who engage in the marital act whether married or not—become addicted to their partner. The act of physically intimacy they found releases chemicals in the brain that are as addictive as cocaine, How good God is that he gives us this chemical and physical bonding tool to help us to love and allow ourselves to be loved. But the scientists also found that this bonding effect wears off in 5 to 7 years, after that it seems we are on our own to keep our marriages a live. They also found that when we abuse the marital act using it outside of marriage with more than one partner we weaken its natural power to bind us together.
God made us, and knows better than we do what will make us happy and He gives us the law of marriage because He knows that we want that amazing love that can only come from a lifetime spent loving one other person.
When asked about divorce in the Gospel, Jesus declares, it was not so in the beginning. the beginning that Jesus is referring to is that time, before the fall, when man still followed God's plan, and when the world was at peace. This original state of marital love is the model, that the church has always held up as an example of what intimate relations between men and women are supposed to look like,
In the beginning God saw that it was not good for man to be alone in the world and realizing that the wild beasts could not provide us with the interpersonal relationships we need to grow as persons learning to love, God created a helper for man: woman.
This partnership was meant to be mutual; men and women were created different to help each other learn about the miracle of their differences, which any married couple can tell you are more than just skin deep.
In marriage we choose to love another forever and in choosing to love them we give ourselves to another allowing ourself to be loved in return. The fruits of marital love, then, is unity as we read in the book of Genesis and as Jesus reminds us today: the two become one flesh.
Not one soul, or one person, but one flesh which means that their bodily wellbeing depends now not just on their own body but on another's. And since our soul depend on our body our spiritual health now depends on our beloved.
Marriage is meant to give us a safe trusting relationship in which we can share our most intimate selves with someone else and believe it or not the marital act, which we vulgarly call sex, is just the first and most superficial level of this sharing.
By learning to love another, by risking our happiness on someone outside ourself—we learn to trust and love not just our husband or wife but God and other people more deeply.
Marriage is a school of love, that teaches us how to love like God loves.
Marriage teach us patients and kindness it teaches us self-sacrifice it teaches us to risk our own vulnerability for the sake of love, it teaches us that love is forever, a lifelong exploration of another person who is ultimately a mystery.
Finally, marriage teaches us that love is creative creating from two distinct creatures one flesh, with the potential of creating a family.
Marital love opens up our heart to see the potentials of love it opens us to the miracle of children, and it opens us up to divine providence to trusting our happiness to God's plan for us. All the Churches rules about intimcy come back to this prophetic vision of what will truly make us happy!
Marriage is so important because since the beginning of creation marriage is the natural way that men and woman grow in holiness. The church, like Jesus in the Gospel today, knows that holiness & happiness depends on the correct use of our sexuality. And it's because of this natural importance of marriage that Jesus chose marriage to be one of His seven signs of God's love for us.
Jesus infused marriage with the grace of His life when he connected marriage to the Eucharist at the wedding feast at Cana and when he connected love to the cross on Calvary.
If marriage is meant to teach man and woman to love and the Cross the ultimate sign of Love then the cross becomes the ultimate sign of marital love and marriage the ultimate school of the Cross. When we reject the rule of marriage we reject the possibility of true love by breaking down the bonds of trust and commitment that love requires.
As a culture we have separated the marital act from marriage because we have seen so many failed marriages. And so its not surprising that today its fashionable to think that we can take relationships on and off like a pair of socks that are warms and soft when they are newly out of the dryer but after stepping in a few puddles become dank and smelly.
Thats why people contracept—because they haven't learned to love and to trust their lover enough to want to have their children.
What a horrible thing to say to your beloved—I don't want to have your baby—because I'm not sure I want to spend my life with you but that is exactly what we say when we use contraceptives! And its this same mentality that underlies why a woman would consider killing her own baby—worry that she will be abandoned to care for a baby alone.
Spouses promise love for better or for worse, because, intimate relationships between men and women, marriage, can't be a school of love, when we give our spouse 10, 30, or even 90% of ourselves. If we hedge our bets, and don't give our beloved 100% we break down the bonds of trust that allow us to love, and learn to love more profoundly.
When two married people even consider the possibility of breaking their word to their spouse, they open up the option in their mind, and this option becomes more likely every time they think about it. Because if this option is on the table in your mind, how do you trust your spouse with your deepest secrets how can you risk allowing someone who you are willing to abandon and so who presumably is willing to leave you, to play with the strings of your heart?
Jesus wants us to be happy, and so he wants us to follow God's plan the rule of marriage, so that men and women can find fulfillment in teaching each other to love,
Pray today that young people listen to God's plan for their happiness and give it a chance.
God knows what your heart wants and your heart needs he should, he gave them to you, take a chance on God's plan and help build up a true culture of life.
Homily given at St. Patrick's Parish
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd
People often give the Church a hard time because we have so many rules about relationships and about the way men and woman live together. But the fact of the matter is that the Church really only has one rule: The rule of marriage—that Jesus points to today. And as Jesus points out, this is God's rule, that follows God's plan—and is given for our happiness!
So what is the rule of marriage? Its what we all want in our heart its the desire to be loved and to love another person totally.
It's the desire to spend our life learning about the mystery of ourself by exploring the mystery of another physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
All of us want to be loved, and we are, by our God, our parents, our siblings and family but at some point we all begin to desire a mutuality and intimacy with someone who is at once our equal and yet so very different from us.
While God gives us so many people in our lives to love and form friendships with, He gives us one person to know inside and out and He gives us only one person to love, because a person is a mystery that takes an eternity to explore. Sex, which really should be called the marital act, is good within the rule of marriage because it is a way of coming to know and to love another person.
The Churches many “rules” about the marital act all point back to the rule of marriage.
Its interesting, our Catholic faith, like natural science, is concerned about truth. And its my belief, like Einstien, that science is always backing up the reasonableness of our faith
A few years ago the Royal British Academy of Medicine released a study that showed that those who engage in the marital act whether married or not—become addicted to their partner. The act of physically intimacy they found releases chemicals in the brain that are as addictive as cocaine, How good God is that he gives us this chemical and physical bonding tool to help us to love and allow ourselves to be loved. But the scientists also found that this bonding effect wears off in 5 to 7 years, after that it seems we are on our own to keep our marriages a live. They also found that when we abuse the marital act using it outside of marriage with more than one partner we weaken its natural power to bind us together.
God made us, and knows better than we do what will make us happy and He gives us the law of marriage because He knows that we want that amazing love that can only come from a lifetime spent loving one other person.
When asked about divorce in the Gospel, Jesus declares, it was not so in the beginning. the beginning that Jesus is referring to is that time, before the fall, when man still followed God's plan, and when the world was at peace. This original state of marital love is the model, that the church has always held up as an example of what intimate relations between men and women are supposed to look like,
In the beginning God saw that it was not good for man to be alone in the world and realizing that the wild beasts could not provide us with the interpersonal relationships we need to grow as persons learning to love, God created a helper for man: woman.
This partnership was meant to be mutual; men and women were created different to help each other learn about the miracle of their differences, which any married couple can tell you are more than just skin deep.
In marriage we choose to love another forever and in choosing to love them we give ourselves to another allowing ourself to be loved in return. The fruits of marital love, then, is unity as we read in the book of Genesis and as Jesus reminds us today: the two become one flesh.
Not one soul, or one person, but one flesh which means that their bodily wellbeing depends now not just on their own body but on another's. And since our soul depend on our body our spiritual health now depends on our beloved.
Marriage is meant to give us a safe trusting relationship in which we can share our most intimate selves with someone else and believe it or not the marital act, which we vulgarly call sex, is just the first and most superficial level of this sharing.
By learning to love another, by risking our happiness on someone outside ourself—we learn to trust and love not just our husband or wife but God and other people more deeply.
Marriage is a school of love, that teaches us how to love like God loves.
Marriage teach us patients and kindness it teaches us self-sacrifice it teaches us to risk our own vulnerability for the sake of love, it teaches us that love is forever, a lifelong exploration of another person who is ultimately a mystery.
Finally, marriage teaches us that love is creative creating from two distinct creatures one flesh, with the potential of creating a family.
Marital love opens up our heart to see the potentials of love it opens us to the miracle of children, and it opens us up to divine providence to trusting our happiness to God's plan for us. All the Churches rules about intimcy come back to this prophetic vision of what will truly make us happy!
Marriage is so important because since the beginning of creation marriage is the natural way that men and woman grow in holiness. The church, like Jesus in the Gospel today, knows that holiness & happiness depends on the correct use of our sexuality. And it's because of this natural importance of marriage that Jesus chose marriage to be one of His seven signs of God's love for us.
Jesus infused marriage with the grace of His life when he connected marriage to the Eucharist at the wedding feast at Cana and when he connected love to the cross on Calvary.
If marriage is meant to teach man and woman to love and the Cross the ultimate sign of Love then the cross becomes the ultimate sign of marital love and marriage the ultimate school of the Cross. When we reject the rule of marriage we reject the possibility of true love by breaking down the bonds of trust and commitment that love requires.
As a culture we have separated the marital act from marriage because we have seen so many failed marriages. And so its not surprising that today its fashionable to think that we can take relationships on and off like a pair of socks that are warms and soft when they are newly out of the dryer but after stepping in a few puddles become dank and smelly.
Thats why people contracept—because they haven't learned to love and to trust their lover enough to want to have their children.
What a horrible thing to say to your beloved—I don't want to have your baby—because I'm not sure I want to spend my life with you but that is exactly what we say when we use contraceptives! And its this same mentality that underlies why a woman would consider killing her own baby—worry that she will be abandoned to care for a baby alone.
Spouses promise love for better or for worse, because, intimate relationships between men and women, marriage, can't be a school of love, when we give our spouse 10, 30, or even 90% of ourselves. If we hedge our bets, and don't give our beloved 100% we break down the bonds of trust that allow us to love, and learn to love more profoundly.
When two married people even consider the possibility of breaking their word to their spouse, they open up the option in their mind, and this option becomes more likely every time they think about it. Because if this option is on the table in your mind, how do you trust your spouse with your deepest secrets how can you risk allowing someone who you are willing to abandon and so who presumably is willing to leave you, to play with the strings of your heart?
Jesus wants us to be happy, and so he wants us to follow God's plan the rule of marriage, so that men and women can find fulfillment in teaching each other to love,
Pray today that young people listen to God's plan for their happiness and give it a chance.
God knows what your heart wants and your heart needs he should, he gave them to you, take a chance on God's plan and help build up a true culture of life.
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