Good Shepherd Catholic Parish

Paul T. Keil, 7-8 October 2023

27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Season A

Peace be with you and welcome to our celebration of the Mass for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  You know folks, I’ll have to admit, as I sat down and read today’s readings for the first time, I initially thought, “Wow, what a lucky coincidence.  The 1^st Reading from Isaiah, the Responsorial Psalm, and the Gospel from Matthew are all about vineyards, growing grapes and, just in case you don’t know what a wine press is for – making wine.  This is right up my alley.”  Some of you know this but for those who don’t, I was raised in California, lived for a while in the wine country, and even spent two years on the Monterey County Wine Festival Committee.  Well, surprise, surprise.  The more I prayed and contemplated these readings, the more I was pulled away from the ones about vineyards and was ultimately drawn to Paul’s letter to the Philippians for my spiritual message today.

This is the beautiful phrase I prayerfully contemplated and was drawn to as I sat at my desk.  Just five simple words.  And as you sit in Church here and now, with everything going on in our chaotic world today, see if you don’t agree.  “Have no anxiety at all.”  Wow, have no anxiety at all.  What a message, but first, before I focus on those five words, a quick suggestion for homework.  Paul’s letter to the Philippians is short, only 3 full pages in my Bible.  Go home and sometime soon read the whole letter in one sitting.  It’s clear Paul had a special affection for the people he was writing to.  In fact, this was the first city in Europe where his message took root after the Holy Spirit led him across the Aegean Sea and out of Asia.  Here is where European Christianity began.  A true cultural revolution started with Paul’s Christian community in Philippi.  This is also one of Paul’s prison letters and he seems to be bidding the Philippians an affectionate farewell. 

So, today we hear Paul say, “have no anxiety at all.”  This coming from the same man who has also told us this, “Three times I was beaten with rods.  Once I received stoning.  Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea.  In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and without food, cold and naked.”  My friends, there is no way Paul didn’t experience a lot of fear and anxiety in the ordinary human way and on top of it all, he is now writing from prison.  As I contemplated Paul’s message to the Philippians and ultimately to us today, “have no anxiety at all,” I was reminded of another quote from another famous Christian almost 2000 years later, C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  Friends, obviously, St. Paul felt a lot of pain, a lot of fear, and a lot of anxiety and in all of that, he heard God’s message loud and clear and as a gift for us today has passed it on with a solution for anxiety.  He doesn’t simply give us a kind pat on the head and say, “Oh, don’t worry.”  He gives the Philippians and most importantly us a two-part alternative to our modern, present-day anxieties.

First, he says: “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.  In everything, make your requests known to God.”  St. Paul exhorts us to turn to prayer, rather than to remain stuck in our own fearful minds.  Not only in bad times, but in everything.  He urges us not to hold anything back from God in prayer.  Whatever fear, worry, anxiety, and even joy, we must make the decision to pray always and to pray without ceasing.  A Christian must have a life of prayer that goes beyond the superficial.  It is not optional.  Perhaps most difficult with Paul’s exhortation to pray is this however, even when we are suffering, to still pray with thanksgiving.  He tells us, “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  As Jesus transformed the suffering of the Cross, we must trust God will transform our suffering for our good.

The second part of St. Paul’s alternative to living life burdened by worry and anxiety is this: Get out of the cultural swamp created by most of our modern commercial media and the internet.  Focus your life on, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.”  He says, “if there is any excellence and there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Now I ask, if you contemplate that list of true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious for a few seconds, how completely counter cultural is that today?  One of reasons why we are stuck in the swamp of fear and anxiety is, for some reason, we simply like playing in the muck of the swamp.  If we did not, would we ever turn on the evening news or endlessly go down the rabbit holes of the internet.  Our modern secular society seems to be fascinated with evil and violence and all of us are continuously being pulled into the same swamp along with everybody else. 

 Instead of sinking in the swamp, St. Paul urges, think and talk about the good, the true, the beautiful, the pure, the lovely, the gracious.  Think and talk about whatever is worthy of praise.  Focus on the only one who is truly worthy of our praise – God Himself.  Today as you approach to True Presence of the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, whisper a prayer.  Go to God with everything, especially thanksgiving.  Then, as you walk back to your seats leave your anxieties behind.  After all, they are only of this world.  And finally, as you leave Church today and go back into the secular society outside where the swamp is, having been strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ, continue to pray.  Ask for God’s help to focus more intentionally on the true, the good, and the beautiful.  As Paul promised, “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Brothers and sisters, have no anxiety at all.”