Very Rev. David M. O’Connell, C.M., university president, delivered the homily at a Mass on Nov. 8 in celebration of the $1 million Opus Prize. Brother Constant Goetschalckx, F.C., founder and director of AHADI International Institute in Tanzania, was awarded the prize at a dinner held at the Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center.

 

 

Mass for the Opus Prize

Homily by Very Rev. David M. O’Connell, C.M., University President

St. Vincent de Paul Chapel

The Catholic University of America

Nov. 8, 2007

 

The Gospel that we have heard today — a passage from St. Luke — gives us an insight into the heart of Jesus. The Gospel begins by placing Jesus in the midst of sinners, sharing the intimacy of a meal. For some reason, apparently known only to him at that moment, he casts his lot with those who have fallen, with those who have wandered, with those who have lost their way. In the eyes of the Pharisees and scribes, you might say, Jesus is being judged by the company he keeps — and judged harshly. The declaration that “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them (Luke 15: 2)” was not meant to be a compliment. It was an indictment and a hostile one at that.

 

Jesus heard their complaint and, yet, attempts to respond in his typical manner: parables. These little stories reveal his heart and his message in subtle but significant ways. Simply stated, Jesus Christ makes it clear that he has come to bring back to God those who are lost. He brings a message of redemption to those in desperate need of it, regardless of the state of their souls or, better, precisely because of it. He says elsewhere in the Gospels, “the healthy do not need a doctor; sick people do. The Son of Man has come to seek out and save those who are lost (Matthew 4:24).” This is Gospel. This is good news! 

 

True enough, in the eyes of the world — certainly those of the Pharisees and scribes in St. Luke’s Gospel — the company he keeps is not worthy of him and they make no bones about saying it. But that is the point he is trying to make. He offers the world, including the Pharisees and the scribes, a new and different vision. Jesus is the Lord of second chances.

 

I used the expression “in the eyes of the world” deliberately. The “eyes of the world” can be quite harsh. While the eyes are meant to see reality and visually connect us to life as it is, “the eyes of the world” often times see “too little” — “looking down on our brothers and sisters,” as St. Paul writes in the first reading and, at other times, they see “too much,” again in the words of St. Paul, putting ourselves in a position to “judge our brothers and sisters.” 

 

The beauty of Christianity, of Jesus’ Gospel message, is that it views things “just right.” The Gospel is an adjustment to reality as we perceive it, a prism through which Jesus invites us to view others. The Gospel helps us see through Jesus’ eyes, the way things really are.

 

That realization turned into Christian conviction gives special meaning to the proclamation of today’s responsorial psalm, “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27: 13).”

 

The “good things of the Lord” that we see, however, are not simply or only the beautiful things of creation or the other things “in the land of the living” that might bring us happiness or satisfaction. God created the whole world and all that is in it. And his creation is, as the Book of Genesis reminds us, “good.”

 

It is that goodness that Jesus saw in the tax collectors and sinners. That is what Jesus saw in the lost sheep that he left the others to find. That is why he welcomed sinners and joined them at table. He saw through their misfortune, their weakness, their inadequacy — the consequences of sin in our world, those aspects of life that are not so beautiful — Jesus saw through all of that to the true goodness within, the goodness that is the mark of God’s creation.

 

Tonight, we see and celebrate such goodness. As believers, people of faith, we do so in many ways. We celebrate the goodness that we see in generous hearts, fashioned after the heart of Jesus, generous hearts that move certain individuals among us to care for others in extraordinary ways because — in faith — they see, they glimpse God’s goodness in those less fortunate than themselves. And like Jesus in the Gospel, they welcome the poor and abandoned, the marginalized and oppressed, those cast on the garbage heap of suffering humanity or branded on our city streets as insignificant and worthless — they welcome them, they ask their name and they call them to the table with them. Like Jesus in the Gospel. Like Jesus in the Gospel! That is the key.

 

Perhaps it is in a far-off land — a place like the Philippines or Tanzania. Perhaps it is as close as the city in which we live. The people served are not the sinners referred to in the Gospel but, rather, the result of the world’s sin and selfishness, the result of God’s good creation turned inside out by those who fail or, worse, refuse to see that goodness.

 

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans tonight gives us a sobering reminder of our Christian responsibility when he writes, “None of us lives for oneself or dies for oneself.  If we live or die, we do so for the Lord … the Christ who himself died and came to life (Romans 14: 8-9).” And the passage concludes “So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.”

 

What shall we say when that time comes? What shall God say in return? What has he already said? “When I was hungry, you gave me food; thirsty, you gave me drink; a stranger, you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me; ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me? … whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me (Matthew 25: 35-40).”

 

Tonight, we see and celebrate those words, come true. Tonight, we do, indeed, receive an insight into the heart of Jesus. Tonight, we are “inspired” … to follow him.