What's in the Words?

A Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Given at St. Patrick's Parish

By Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

What's in a word?

In the bulleting today the insert
about the upcoming translation of the Mass
talks about new words that may be unfamiliar to you
that will appear in the Mass this Advent

Words like Chalice, which will replace "cup,"
or Consubstantial, which "will replace one in being"

What is a Chalice? A cup!

What does it mean to be Consubstantial?
It means you are one in being!

So why not continue to use these much more common and understandable words?

All throughout the world in every religion
one of the commonalities about religion is that
people pray with a unique dialect
or even a completely different sacral language.

In Judaism its ancient Hebrew,
a language that has long been dead
and yet today can still be heard in synagogues
throughout the world.
In Islam the language is Arabic.

In Christianity there are a number of different languages
depending on which branch of the Church you are talking about

Arameic, Greek, Syro-Malbar, Coptic, Ge'ez, Old Church Slavonic are just a few of the ancient tongues that are primarily used today for prayer alone.

In our own Latin rite of the Catholic Church
Latin is our Sacral Language

Latin unites us to the Church of Rome,
which evangelized most of Western Europe,
and gives us a common language to use when praying with
Hispanic Catholics, and Asian Catholics, and German Catholics.

In just a few hours I will be leaving for Spain
on pilgrimage to World Youth Day
where although I do not speak Spanish
I will be able to join with Pope Benedict
in Prayer at Mass in Latin.

However, even in our own venacular language, English,
there is a tradition of Sacral Language
that is a dialect or sub-set of English in general.

The purpose of these sacral dialects and languages
is to make the words hard to understand.

You heard me right--
WE WANT PRAYER TO BE HARD
TO UNDERSTAND!

WHY, you ask?

BECAUSE we are talking to GOD
we are talking to a being completely different from ourselves
or anything we have experienced in creation.

We are ultimately talking to someone who is unknowable
and yet peeking from behind the curtain of creation
desires to make Himself known.

And so it is important that our language
gives us pause, and causes us to ponder
about exactly what the relation is between us
the creator and Him the creator.

Why not use cup, instead of Chalice?
Because a cup is something we drink Mountain Dew out of
while a chalice, reminds us of something elegant,
ornate and beautiful.

It makes us think about the fact that what we are receiving
is not the Wine that is brought up in the cup
but the Blood of our savior poured into the Chalice
from His pierced side as He hung upon the cross for us.

Why consubstantial, instead of one in being?
Because we know what one means;
we know what in means;
and we sort of know what being means,

but we have no REAL idea what it means for the Son to be God and the Father to be God and yet for there to be only one God.

Consubstantial reminds us of the great mystery of the Trinity
three persons in one being, three who's in one what,
a mystery that speaks so much about God's nature
and our vocation to love,
but which we often fail to ponder
each time we hastily cross ourselves
or gallop through that phrase in the Creed.

In the Gospel Jesus always uses language VERY carefully,
in order to emphasize His point
and make us think, so that we might interiorize the Gospel.


In today's Gospel He calls a woman a dog, emphazing the division between the Jews and the Canannites
before praise her Great faith.

He does so to make the Jews, AND I MIGHT ADD
US, God's chosen people
really think about the strenght of our own faith.

If a dog, unworthy of a seat at the table,
in the estimation of the chosen people any way,
can have such great faith, how much greater should me faith be
as the son or daughter of God that I am?

Language has great power if we stop and think about it
and DARE I SAY PRAY ABOUT IT!!!!

Dear Lord grant us the graces we need to enter deeper into the prayers of the Mass through the difficulties we find with the new translation. Amen.

Where do we find God?

Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Offered at St. Patrick's in Wareham

By the Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Continuing our meditation on the new translation of the Liturgy
Today we are challenged to ask the question:

Where do we find God?

In the book of Kings Elijah is told by the Lord to go out
To encounter God on the Mountain.

So Elijah goes out to the high place
to encounter the power of nature in wind, and earthquakes, and fire
and yet God was not present in any of these mighty signs.

It’s only in the quiet whispering of the wind did Elijah find God.

The Scriptures we hear today are so important because they speak to us
About the different places we find God.

In the Gospel of Matthew the Apostles are in a boat
in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee.

And in this moment of Crisis,
Jesus appears, walking on the water,

He invites Peter to walk with Him on the Sea
And when He enters the boat He calms the sea.

These two paradigms of encountering God are really important
Because they point out the fact that
while God CAN appear in dramatic ways
most often He does not!


In Scripture we read about God appearing in many and in varied ways
In a booming voice or a burning bushes
In a column of fire, as a giant hand and in the power
that manifests God’s presence in the Arc of the Covenant

These stories of God manifesting Himself at critical times
in very explicit ways can lead us to have
an almost cartoonish understanding of how God reveals himself to us
on an everyday basis.

This can be such a problem for novices in the Faith,
Who come to Mass and hear in the Scriptures
these marvelous theophanies, and then wonder
why they don’t experience God
as a booming voice or a burning bush.

This is why it is so important
to realize that while God can reveal Himself to us in showy ways,
He does this in Scriptures only a handful of the times, at crucial points, during the 7000+ years of History recorded in scriptures,

He usually doesn’t, and when He does, He reveals Himself dramatically
Not to tell us about Himself, but to save us from some danger
That might destroy us.

In the book of King’s Elijah encounters all the wonders of nature
that many of us expect to experience God in,

And of course we do encounter God in nature.
Thunder, lightning, earthquakes, fire, tornadoes, storms, and hail all point to the Power of God who created these things,

As does the beauty and goodness of nature,
but God is not nature.

Just like a painting may tell us about the author but is not the author
Nature can tell us about its creator,
and granted God is present everywhere in creation,
but He is not nature.

What the passage from the book of Kings is reminding us is that
It’s important not to imagine God as Zeus
making Himself know by lightning bolts
or as Oden announcing His presence
with the thunderous blows of His hammer.

Rather, USUALLY God reveals Himself in the whispering of the wind
In the silent depths of our heart—through honest prayer.

The reason why God does not usually reveal Himself
In flashy ways is that no matter how flashy He gets
Any show of Power ultimately falls short of truly revealing God
AND God wants us to TRULY know Him!
and be in relationship with Him!

God is the creator of everything that was created,
Think of the power of the atom bomb and then multiply that power
Times infinity—and still you get nowhere near to
the awesome power of the Big Bang.

If we truly believe that God is the cause of existence
Then the awesome power which created all things that are
is by definition less than the power of God.

In theology this realization is called the via negative,
the negative way of approaching God.

Which is simply the realization that
God may be the creator of all things,
and He may reveal Himself through the things He creates,
BUT…
God is always more different than similar
to anything we experience in creation.

Think about the paradigmatic fairy tale about a prince
Who casts aside His royal robes and dresses like a commoner
To win the true love of His beloved.

All the glory of creation are just decorations,
What young people may call “bling:
that point to the True glory of Who God is.

God reveals himself to us intimately, as the Song of Songs suggests
Like a lover whispering in His lovers ear,
Because that intimacy is more authentic and profound
Than all the flashy gifts you could imagine:
roses, gold, diamonds, boats, cars, houses, you name it…

So, how does this relate to the Mass
and the changes in the translation of the Mass
we will be receiving in December?

Well the Mass, and the Sacred Scriptures
that we hear proclaimed at the Mass,
are the most exalted and intimate prayer.

Its Jesus’ prayer, which becomes ours IF we enter into it.

God may not appear to us in the WEAK signs of
a burning bush or thunder or lightning at the Mass,

Rather He reveals Himself in very REAL and POWERFUL,
though not flashy, ways:
Through the people, the body of Christ the Church,
Through Sacred Scripture and the Traditional Prayers of the Church
Through His ordained priests
And most especially through the Most Blessed Sacrament.

When we come to Mass, we are SUPPOSED to be quiet—

I often tell people about my experience of a Ge’ez Catholic Community
In Washington, DC—this community which doesn’t use the Latin Rite like us but the Ge’ez rite a 3rd century Ethiopian for of the Mass.

One of the remarkable things about this community
Is that after praying their version of the Mass,
which lasts about three hours,
they spent the remainder of the day in feasting and fellowship,

Fellowship, enjoying the gift of other people is really KEY
to living the Sabbath obligation, BUT

as the greatest commandment reminds us before loving our neighbor
we must FIRST love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul.

I love the fact that people want to share fellowship
here at Church on Sundays,

but we are falling short of the Greatest commandment
and our Sunday obligation,
if we don’t make some space to listen to the quiet whispering of God.

AND we are failing in our duty to love our neighbor
if after taking our quiet time for prayer
we interrupt their quiet time for prayer.

Coming to Mass we must pray ACTUALLY
This doesn’t just mean saying the words or doing the actions

It means really being quiet and reflective enough to see
in the persons, actions, and words of the Mass
GOD speaking not to us in general but ME in particular.

The new Translation of the Mass will give us
two new opportunities to meet God here at Mass:

First by translating the original prayers more faithfully
We will receive a portion of the Tradition, of Jesus’ self revelation
That to date has been hidden from us.

For the past 40 years it’s like we have been reading Shakespeare,
in cliff notes, dumb down.

And now for the first time in a long time, we will get to hear Shakespeare
As Shakespeare wrote it, and though the language may be more difficult

If we actually pray the prayers,
thinking about them and what God is telling us through them
we will get so much more out of them.

And secondly, because these prayers are different, new,
and sometimes difficult,
the new translation really challenges us
to enter into that deeper relationship.

The Day of the Lord

Homily for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary time

Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham

By the Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Have you ever taken your kids, or grandkids for ice cream
And being good, not gotten an ice cream yourself?

What happened when you asked your kids for a taste?
Well if your kids are anything like my nephews and nieces
it was like pulling teeth, to get some ice cream.

Despite the fact that most likely some ice cream will be wasted
And some will melt and drip to the ground,
Despite the fact that you paid for it.
Kids can be very attached to their ice cream,

But you know, it’s not just kids, all of us can be the same.
All of us have been given ice cream in the form of our life
Our talents, our treasures, our experiences, families, and friends.

And yet when God asks us to give just a little back
How often to we selfishly guard our ice cream, our life,
From the God who gave it to us in the first place.

And the thing about giving God back a little
of what He gave us in the first place is that
whatever we give to God He multiplies and blesses and gives back to us.

In today’s bulletin you will find an insert about the Day of the Lord
It’s the first in a series of inserts that will be in the bulletin
To help us prepare to pray Mass just a little bit differently,
And perhaps more profoundly, next December.

But before we rush to changes in words,
It is important to think about what the Mass and the Sabbath is!!!

The third commandment of God’s law teaches us to:
keep holy the Sabbath

As Catholics we know that going to the Holy Mass
is a key part of keeping Holy the Sabbath.
What Jesus teaches us to do when he makes that perfect prayer to God
The Father from the Cross is what the Sabbath is all about!

God asks us this, as Jesus taught us,
“not because man was made for the Sabbath
but because the Sabbath was made for man.”

Just like the boy in the gospel today offered Jesus fish and loaves
We are asked to give God, 1 day out of 7 and 1 hour out of 168.

How small and insignificant a gift
considering how much God gives us

BUT God does not ask us to keep Holy the Sabbath
because we were made to give God praise,
He asks us to keep it holy because by doing so,
By giving our simply gift to God
God desire to multiply it and give it back to us ten fold.

Like the boys gift of fish and bread,
which seemed so little in comparison to the hunger of the crowd

Our little sacrifice and gift of a day, and particularly this hour each week
Though, when we really think about, it seem so meagar
Is all that the Lord needs to satisfy not human hunger,
But even more important,
the human desire for right relationship with our creator and God.
Pope Benedict writes of the creation of the world,
That for five days God prepared the world,
Making a space, a home, for us.

And on the sixth day He created us,
He created humanity, the pinnacle of creation
So that on the seventh day we could enjoy the world God created
And through that enjoyment know the love of our God
And return that love in thanksgiving.

Thus Pope Benedict writes that man was made for the 7th day
Man was made to rest and enjoy God’s goodness
and thank Him for that Goodness.

When we lost that, because of disobedience
Because we imagined that we could figure out
what makes the human heart happy, without asking its creator,

we were cast out of paradise, into a world where we had to work
to seek a happy life, that God desired to give us as a gift.

God told us in the beginning that what will satisfy our heart
Is enjoying creation and giving Him thanks,

And yet we decided to look for happiness in all the wrong places
In our work, in our pastimes, in our hobbies, in drugs and alcohol and sex and wealth, and in so many other dead end pursuits.

The third commandment was made to remind man
where true happiness lies,
and what we have to look forward to, and hope for,
for all eternity in Heaven.
So how do we live the day of the Lord?
Like the crowds in the Gospel today
we start by placing ourselves in God’s presence,
which really means simply realizing that He is with us always!

We need to stop and smell the roses.

We start by stopping all the busyness
And pushing anything that could come between us and God
out of our life for just one day, including:
not just work but also chores,
cooking, cleaning, mowing the lawn, and shopping,
and this includes sports and activities that get in the way.

Doing this we are able to listen to Jesus teach us
about the goodness of life
and enter into conversation with God.

We enter into this conversation, this prayer, most intensly
when we come together with Christ in His Church
to offer our prayer of thanksgiving for all that we have received
together with the our whole Catholic family,
with Christ leading us in prayer from the Cross.

At Mass Jesus teaches us that life is so good that
We should love God enough to give Him everything
EVEN our sufferings and sorrows and our death.

Jesus takes our simply weak gifts and uniting them with our prayers
He turns ordinary bread and life, which is a symbol of our very small gift
Into His total self, body blood soul and divinity.

Jesus gives all of Himself to the Father
so that we might learn to do the same.

And He transforms our simple gifts
Into a food that will satisfy the multitudes His Body and Blood.

It’s important to remember however
that Jesus doesn’t just ask for one hour from us!

He wants the WHOLE SABBATH, the whole Sunday,
So that the gifts we receive and give at Mass,
can be celebrated and enjoyed with our whole family during this day.

Maybe for some, who have gotten into the habit of working on Sunday
Giving up a whole day seems too hard,
Its especially difficult for those whose jobs
require them to work on Sunday,

but I once hear a story of a man who with his wife
decided to take a huge risk and really live Sunday,
refusing to work or travel or shop or be a temptation for others to work
on the day of the Lord.

He was really afraid that he would loose his job because of it.
What happened was a every day miracle.
Athough he struggled with his choice to truly live the Sabbath,
So many opportunities opened up for him, and his business truly thrived.

When we trust the Lord with our fish and loaves,
It might seem like we will lose our lunch and go hungry
But God always repays us a hundred fold for all that He gives us.