Sunday, September 15, 2019

Party! Party! Party! - Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C


          I had to video record today's homily for a class that I'm taking.  If you prefer to hear the homily as delivered, click here.

I’ve never been much of a partier.  I know you’re shocked.  Handsome, witty, gregarious – you’d think I’d be the life of the party, but I’m not.  The truth is, I don’t feel comfortable at parties.  Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong; other times I don’t want to be with some of the people who are going.  And occasionally, I want to go but don’t feel welcome.  Parties just aren’t my thing.  Today’s Gospel is challenging for people like me because today’s Gospel can be summed up in three words:  Party!  Party!  Party!  I don’t think I’ve ever said that in my entire life.


If today’s Gospel can be summed up in just those three words, you may be wondering why I chose the long version and made you stand for four and a half minutes.  The simple answer is:  just because I can.  The better answer is because I wanted you to hear the common thread that Jesus weaves into the three parables in the longer passage.  In the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, we hear, “Rejoice with me,” and in the parable of the Lost Son, we hear, “We must celebrate and rejoice.”  Each parable ends with a party.  What are we celebrating?  Finding the lost; the return of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters to the community of faith.  We’re celebrating the fact that Jesus doesn’t take loss lightly; he never gives up trying to find us when we’re lost; and he’s always ready to run to us, embrace us, and carry us home when we return.  Why is that such a big deal?  Because finding the lost “represents an alignment between God and creation. . ..  The simultaneous rejoicing of heaven and earth means that they are in sync. . .. What unites them is joy in the realization that things are the way they were meant to be. Creation is fulfilled.”[1]


In these three parables, Jesus makes clear that the joy of finding the lost is so great that it can’t be contained; one person alone can’t adequately celebrate it; we need a party, [2] and everyone in heaven and on earth, all of us with the angels, and saints are invited.  That’s pretty cool, right?  We can get down with the angels and saints.  Just tell us when and where.  Well, the party starts right now, right here at Mass.  At Mass, we come together with the angels and saints as a community of faith to rejoice and celebrate Jesus’ saving sacrifice that reunites the lost with the Father.  I’ll bet you didn’t realize that “There’s a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the year.”  I’ll bet you also didn’t realize that Jesus is a Kool and the Gang fan.


We all like a good party (well, except for me), so you’d think that Mass would be packed.  We have 2,500 families in our parish, but only half are active.  What’s stopping people from joining the party?  What makes people stand outside though they hear the very harp of David inside?  Our readings point to two attitudes that may be prime culprits: I’m not worthy; and You’re not worthy.  Let’s take each in turn.     


I’m not worthy – Let’s face it, we are a people prone to sin.  Sometimes we make bad choices and go to the wrong party, like the Israelites in our first reading.  They had a party, alright, but it wasn’t the party that God invited them to.  The Israelites threw their own party and left God off the invitation list.  That’s sin in a nutshell, and we do it all the time in a host of different ways.  But we can’t let our sinfulness keep us from the party.  There is no sin that can stop the party in heaven.  If you think you’re bad, take a look at Saint Paul.  By his own admission in our second reading, he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, arrogant, and the foremost of sinners.  Now he’s a Saint.  Saint Paul is proof that “God often uses individuals with serious weaknesses so his power and presence might shine through all the more.”[3]  None of us are worthy of an invitation to God’s party, but he invites us anyway.  Who are we to deny God the opportunity to let his power and presence shine through us?  We need to join the party.


Attitude number 2:  You’re not worthy – We humans have a strange tendency to see ourselves in a much better light than we see others.  The Pharisees and scribes at the beginning of our Gospel were pretty upset that Jesus welcomed tax collectors and sinners.  Like the Pharisees, the scribes, and the older brother in the parable of the Lost Son, we sometimes take the attitude that sinners have no place among us, forgetting that we need God’s mercy, too.  Well, I can assure you that it is poor theology to think that part of the bliss of heaven is to see the people we don’t like in hell.  “It is the tremendous truth that God is kinder than men and women.  [Some] would write off the tax collectors and sinners as beyond the pale and as deserving of nothing but destruction; not so God.”[4]  We have no right to decide who goes to God’s party.  In fact, “the Lukan parables call for us to celebrate with God because God has been merciful not only to us but to others also, even those we would not otherwise have accepted into our fellowship.”[5]  We need to nip this grudging attitude in the bud whenever it threatens to keep us from the party, because we need to join the party, too.


I’d be remiss if I didn’t address a third attitude that can result from the second:  I’m not welcome.  Our words, actions, or wayward glances can make people feel unwelcome.  If, in any way, you feel unwelcome, please come talk to one of our priests or deacons.  You are welcome.  You have a right to be here, and sometimes “You gotta fight . . . for your right . . . to party!”  Jesus loves the Beastie Boys, too.


How do we cure the attitudes that keep us from the party?  With the humble, contrite heart of our Psalmist.  Psalm 51 is a psalm of contrition that beautifully describes how an “initial admission and awareness of sin is transformed into a focus on God and what only God can do: create a clean heart, put a new and right spirit within me.”[6]  A heart emptied of the burdens of arrogance and sin can be filled with God’s loving mercy that exceeds all bounds.  This transformation is made manifest through the sacrament of reconciliation, where we confess our sins, receive absolution, and formally RSVP to God’s invitation to his party.  “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.  To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults.  ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’”[7]  A humble, contrite heart worked for the younger brother in the parable of the Lost Son— and he got a party.  It will work for us, too.  We need to acknowledge and confess our sins and join the party.

Today’s Gospel challenges people like me, but it challenges us as a community of faith, too.  Are we the joy-filled, welcoming parish that Jesus calls us to be, or are we a bunch of party poopers and wallflowers?  Immaculate Conception is an awesome parish with so much to offer, but the numbers suggest that people are going to another party.  We need to make this the best party in town.  With a little creativity, imagination, and determination, I know we can do it.  With a little creativity, we could deck out the church and celebrate every liturgy with the enthusiasm of Christmas and Easter.  With a little imagination, we could throw a big party in the parish hall after our Advent and Lent penance services as proof of our appreciation of God’s great gift of merciful forgiveness.  With a little determination, we could find our lost brothers and sisters, make them feel welcome, carry them home, and celebrate their return.  With a little creativity, imagination, and determination, people will gaze up Saint Mary’s Hill at our beautiful church and think Party! Party! Party!






[1] John Shea, Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: The Relentless Widow, Luke, Year C (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2006), 258.

[2] Fred B. Craddock, Luke: Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 185-186.

[3] Jeffrey Cole, ed., The Didache Bible (San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2014), 1618n.

[4] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 2001), 238.

[5] R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX, ed. Leander E. Keck (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995) 298.

[6] John Endres, Julia D. E. Prinz, “Psalms,” The Paulist Biblical Commentary, ed. José Enrique Aguilar Chiu, Richard J. Clifford, Carol J. Dempsey, Eileen M. Schuller, Thomas D. Stegman, Ronald D. Witherup (New York: Paulist Press, 2018), 484.


[7] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1847.