HOMILY
La Festa Mass – September 1, 2024
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Buona Festa! Welcome to our Cathedral! What a wonderful gathering this is as we join together in this sacred place to celebrate our Italian heritage. I say “our” Italian heritage, regardless of our ethnic backgrounds, because all of us have been shaped by the contributions of the Italian American community to the fabric of life in northeastern Pennsylvania.
After Mass, as you’re walking around courthouse square checking out all of the incredible food vendors, if you’re inquisitive and have the opportunity to chat with some of the chefs to inquire about why they prepare certain foods the way they do, I suspect that they may not give you a response that’s all that precise. So when you ask why they use one special ingredient or another in their sauce or why they cure your soppressata for longer than most people, chances are, you might hear something like this: “My grandfather always did it that way” – or – if they’re really honest, they might say “I have no idea. But it’s what my parents and their parents did – and I’m not about to tamper with success. Capisce?”
It’s fair to say that sometimes we get so accustomed to routine that we forget – or worse – have never even taken the time to ask why we do the things we do in the first place – whether it be regarding traditions in our families – in our churches – or in our communities. We just do them because we always have! … So, on Christmas Eve, why do we make all of those different fish dishes – or more precisely for some of you – seven? Because your grandmother did? That’s as good as any reason. Even Wikipedia doesn’t have one clear explanation for the precise number of fishes! … How about what we do here this morning. Why did you bless yourself with holy water when you walked into the Cathedral today? Because it’s what you always do? Fair enough. But we actually bless ourselves as a reminder of our Baptism when water was poured upon us “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” … Yet so often we fail to understand why we do what we do – even as Christians.
Today’s gospel from Saint Mark is a case in point. It illustrates an area of sharp disagreement between Jesus and the Pharisees about the nature of devotion to God. Jesus criticized the Pharisees’ scrupulous adherence to rules regarding handwashing, cleaning pots and all sorts of other ritual practices and laws because in so doing, the Pharisees had reduced the practice of religion to externals that they didn’t even understand. Religion for them had become a set of meaningless rules and regulations, rituals and customs. And why was Jesus so critical of this approach? Because in focusing on such meaningless things, the Pharisees lost the point of authentic worship and faith. For them, I was easier to fulfill an empty ritual than to embrace and live the spirit of the gospel rooted in the great commandment – to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Jesus’ objection to the actions of the Pharisees was that they put all of their energy into the wrong activities. They were more concerned with creating an outward appearance of holiness while they neglected the real work of God. And from Jesus’ perspective, if all they sought to do was to convince the world around them that they were righteous, pious and holier than the next person, then they had missed the heart of what an authentic relationship with God demanded.
The message of the scriptures today, my friends, is that faith and action go hand in hand. While there are many challenges to our faith in the world today, the gospel response is timeless. It’s message calls us to pattern our lives on the example of Jesus … to grow in our relationship with God in an authentic and intimate manner … and then to feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the broken hearted, and love selflessly and generously as Jesus loved us from the cross.
As I look around the Cathedral today, it is so evident to me that in the midst of joy and celebration, there is a deep sense of gratitude in your hearts, isn’t there? …. Gratitude for the organizers and workers of La Festa who made these days possible. …. And gratitude for those who truly helped to make this moment of prayer and all that we celebrate this day possible – the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents of so, so many of us who came to this land decades ago with a love for their Italian heritage, respect for our country and a lively faith in God.
They stand as examples to us today because in addition to the traditions of their homeland that they passed on to their children and grandchildren, they also devoutly embraced the faith of our Church. But unlike the Pharisees in the gospel today, they understood that at the heart of the practice of their religion was the responsibility to give their faith a life. And so, they built community among themselves. They shared from their bounty and even from their poverty. And they served – especially those most in deed – just like the Lord whom they worshipped.
Every one of us in this Cathedral is here today because somebody loved us and fed us and forgave us and passed on to us their faith in God. We will honor them best – and ultimately the Lord Jesus whom they loved – by embracing the faith passed on to us and giving it life through our love and service of one another.