From Archbishop Donoghue

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass for Persons with Disabilities

September 28, 2003

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Dear Friends in Christ,

The readings of this Mass contain many words that we might not choose to hear, if the choice were ours. They are very strong language, and some of it not very pretty. St. Paul talks about misery and woe and weeping and howling, and Jesus says some very disturbing things about cutting off your hand or foot, or plucking out your eyes, if they are causing you to sin.

But what our Lord and St. Paul both are talking about, must have meaning for us - they would not have said these things if they did not want to teach us, and make us better Christians.

What these readings today are about, is the desire that God has to remain close to us - to keep between Him and us that wonderful gift that only human beings can know of - that only human beings can have for the One who made them - and that gift is love.

The stage is set by the story we hear from the Old Testament, about Moses, a man whom God loved dearly. Moses' friends think that his ability to talk with God is something so special that no one else can have it - they come to him one day and complain that other people are saying they too can see God and talk to Him. What can they do, they ask, to shut these people up? How dare these people think that they are as good as Moses, and that God would actually talk to them.

But Moses has an answer that pulls the rug right out from under these people.

"I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets," he says. "I wish that the LORD would put his spirit upon them all!"

Moses understood that God wanted to be close to His people - to each and every one of them as individuals - he knew that the wait for the Messiah was going to be a long time, and that in all that time, the only way the people would keep believing in the message, the message that One was coming who would save them, was if they stayed close to their God - if they remained in love with their God.

The sad thing is, that even though Jesus has come, and has saved us, and has showed us that if we love Him, we can live forever - the sad thing is that even though He has given us all these wonderful gifts, so many people do not know Him, do not want to know Him, and won't do anything to open their eyes, and to get rid of the things that keep them from Jesus.

That is what the other two readings this morning are about - and because God wants to love us, and love us through His Son Jesus Christ, we should not be surprised that the Lord and St. Paul both use very strong language, in order to almost shock people into knowing what they need to do to stay close to God. And this includes us - because even the best people - even the saints are not always strong.

Two things can come between us and God, one from outside and one from inside. The first is wealth - and the second is sin.

When St. Paul talks about wealth coming between us and God, we have to understand what he means, and he tells us when he says, "you have laid up treasure for the last days." Anytime that God give us a blessing, and we keep it to ourselves, then we are letting that gift come between us and God. If we are feeling bad, and someone says a word to cheer us up, and we don't pass on that good word to someone else who is feeling bad, then we are hoarding God's gift - we are keeping a blessing to ourselves. If someone gives us something good to eat, some fine candy, or a nice bottle of wine, and we don't share it, then the whole idea of the gift is ruined. And in the same way, but on a higher level, if God has given us the blessing of knowing Him through Jesus, and especially of knowing Him as all good Catholics do, through the Holy Eucharist, and we don't live our lives so that others will feel, through us, the invitation to know Jesus Christ as well - then we are guilty of selfishness, of hiding the love of Jesus Christ, of laying up treasure for ourselves, in the words of St. Paul. And this is very wrong, because it separates us from the love of God. God gives to us, so that we can give to others. Whether it's a smile, or a box of candy, or money, or anything good - God gives it to us so that we can share it, and the most important thing to share is our Faith. Sharing with others brings us closer to God, and that is where God wants us to be.

And next, we must listen to and understand the words Jesus says to us in the Gospel - words that seem very harsh to us:

…if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.

Our Lord is not telling us to cut off our foot, or pluck out our eye. He is telling us not to sin. He is telling us that to sin, and to cut ourselves off from walking through life, on our feet towards God, is worse than not having feet at all; or that to sin and block out our ability to see God in the love that we have for others and that they have for us, is worse than not having eyes. Nothing is worse than to cut ourselves off from God - not poverty, not disease, not disability, not anything - nothing is worse than to turn our backs on our Father in Heaven, who loves us so much, and who came to earth to suffer and die to prove how much He loves us. Nothing is worse than to be separated from God.

Now in this world, many, many people think that having a perfect body is the best thing you can have - many people think that getting as much money as you can get, is the best thing you can do - and many people think that having power, being smarter than everyone else, and being able to tell people what to do, is the most satisfying feeling that we can ever feel.

But they just don't know how good the love of Jesus Christ is. Their eyes have failed them because they see only themselves - their feet have not carried them in the right direction, and they have not used their hands to help others. But we know, that all the hardships we might have to face in life, are worth it, if we let them lead us to Jesus. Sure, our bodies may not be perfect, - sure, we may not have power or riches; but without those useless things - without vanity and wealth cluttering up our souls, we have made room for the thing that really counts - the love of God, and the love He teaches us to have for one another.

Jesus teaches us this lesson Himself - when He came to earth and became man, He also opened Himself to every kind of suffering that we experience - many people thought they were smarter than Jesus, and they turned their backs on Him - many others looked down on Him because He had no wealth, and He never used His power to make slaves out of other people - and before He died, Jesus felt the worst pain and the deepest sorrow that any human being will ever feel, because it was the sum total of our pain and our sorrow that He was feeling. But through it all, He never let anything come between Him and God - He never sinned, and He never despaired. He did this so that when we feel bad because of what we don't have, or because we are not perfect in other people's eyes, then we can remember that God Himself chose to feel what we feel, and that He loves us, for who we are inside.

I think if Moses were to come back today, and look around to find a group of people who were full of the Spirit of the Lord, people who happily speak the word of God, and pass on His love to others, he would find many people like that at our Mass today. I think He would recognize that what might separate us from the love of God, is something we have left behind, and outside the doors. But I think he would also tell us to be careful - to not let the standards of the world get us down, and to remember that the love of God is the greatest treasure anyone can possess here on earth.

Let us be thankful then, dear friends, for the happiness that comes from God, for the blessings He gives us, and for our desire to share them with others. And more than anything, let us be thankful that God shows us His love every day, giving it to us, when we receive the Body and Blood of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For by receiving Jesus, we are able to stay as close as possible to God, and to keep ourselves open to loving others for His sake. And in this world, that is as close to perfection as any of us can ever hope to come.

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