{"id":2999,"date":"2014-10-19T14:42:21","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T21:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=2999"},"modified":"2016-10-10T16:51:30","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T23:51:30","slug":"redwoods-oceans-and-big-skies-homily-for-the-twenty-ninth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/redwoods-oceans-and-big-skies-homily-for-the-twenty-ninth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","title":{"rendered":"Redwoods, Oceans, and Big Skies: Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Redwood<\/a>

Jedediah Smith State Park<\/p><\/div>\n

If you drive to northern California through central Oregon,
\nyou cross the state line on US 199,
\nalso known as the Redwood Highway.
\nAs you continue into California,
\nyou reach a certain point where it feels like you\u2019ve entered a fairytale.
\nIt feels like your car has shrunk,
\nand now you\u2019re driving a Hot Wheel,
\nbecause there are these massive, massive trees
\nstretching above you, over your head,
\nthese ancient redwoods.
\nAnd if you get out of your car and walk around the groves of redwoods
\nyou feel like you\u2019re in God\u2019s forest,
\nwith these ancient, ancient trees towering above you
\nbigger than any trees you\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

It really does feel like God is there,
\nlike God has somehow imprinted himself on the majesty of these trees.
\nThe trees reveal just how great God is.<\/p>\n

And if you get back in your and keep going on US 199
\nlike Brenda and I did this summer with the girls
\nyou eventually meet up with Highway 101.<\/p>\n

And just a few miles down the road is the small town of Crescent City.<\/p>\n

\"Crescent<\/a>

Crescent City, California<\/p><\/div>\n

And if you get out of the car in Crescent City,
\nthen you\u2019re confronted with crashing of the Pacific Ocean
\nas it batters against the California coast.
\nYou see the water as it stretches west seemingly forever.
\nAnd like the redwoods, the ocean bears the imprint of God:
\nin its majesty, in its power, it is an image of God.<\/p>\n

We also drove to South Dakota this summer
\nto meet with my family at Mount Rushmore
\nand celebrate my parents\u2019 fiftieth wedding anniversary.
\nAnd just as when you drive through the redwood forest
\nand just as when you see the Pacific Ocean in Crescent City,
\nwhen you drive over the Rocky Mountains
\nno matter how many times you do it,
\nyou\u2019re struck by the majesty of the mountains
\nand that beautiful big Montana sky.
\nSome people call Montana \u201cGod\u2019s country\u201d
\nwith its big skies and the Rocky Mountains.
\nYou have this impression that God has imprinted his image
\nin that sky and on those mountains.<\/p>\n

In the gospel today, Jesus talks about an image,
\nan image on a Roman coin,
\nbecause the Pharisees and the Herodians
\nhave come to trap him.<\/p>\n

The Pharisees and the Herodians are rivals,
\nbut they have come together this time
\nbecause they\u2019re united in their desire to see Jesus fail.<\/p>\n

So they ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay the taxes.
\nAnd that\u2019s when Jesus asks to see the coin.<\/p>\n

He says, \u201cLook, who\u2019s face is this? Who\u2019s writing, who\u2019s inscription?\u201d
\nIt\u2019s Caesar\u2019s, so obviously the coin belongs to him,
\nit\u2019s ok to give it back to him, it\u2019s not a big deal.<\/p>\n

What is a big deal is the last phrase:
\n\u201cGive to God what belongs to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just as we can know what belongs to Caesar
\nby the image on the coin,
\nwe can know what belongs God by seeing God\u2019s image imprinted on them.<\/p>\n

And so we can see that the ocean belongs to God
\nbecause God\u2019s power is imprinted on it.
\nWe know that the sky belongs to God because of its size and its depth,
\nand its grandeur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is charged with grandeur of God,\u201d
\nas the Jesuit poet Gerard Manely Hopkins puts it.<\/p>\n

The ocean, the sky are images of God.<\/p>\n

But the author Victor Hugo has this wonderful line
\nin his novel Les Miserables,
\n\u201cThere is one spectacle grander than the sea, and that is the sky.
\nThere is one spectacle grander than the sky,
\nand that is the interior of the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

If we can see the imprint of God on the ocean,
\nif we can see the imprint of God on the big sky of Montana,
\nor on the redwoods of northern California,
\nthen how much more should we recognize the imprint of God
\non our own souls?<\/p>\n

Because our souls have a greater depth than the ocean,
\nthan the redwoods,
\nthan the stars in the sky above us.<\/p>\n

And if, therefore, the image of God is upon our soul,
\nand if you can recognize who something belongs to
\nby the image that\u2019s on it,
\nthen we can say that we belong to God.
\nIf the image of God is on our soul
\nif the Word of God is inscribe on our hearts,
\nthen we belong to God.<\/p>\n

Like that Roman coin that bore the emperor\u2019s image,
\nwe bear the image of the great emperor,
\nthe Almighty Lord.
\n\u201cIn God\u2019s image he created them.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are created in God\u2019s image.<\/p>\n

And because we are created in God\u2019s image,
\nthen we belong to God.<\/p>\n

But we don\u2019t belong to God as a possession,
\nas if God is the owner and we are slaves.<\/p>\n

Rather, this is belonging in the sense of \u201cbeing a part of,\u201d
\n\u201cbeing intimately connected to.\u201d
\nThe way a husband and wife belong to each other.
\nThe way children belong with their parents.
\nThe way we belong to this community of believers,
\nand this community of believers belongs to God.<\/p>\n

And if we belong to God,
\nthen we are to give to God what belongs to God.
\nThis is a reminder to Pharisees, to the Herodians, and to us.<\/p>\n

We are to give ourselves to God.<\/p>\n

If we belong to God, how do we give ourselves?<\/p>\n

And besides, God already has everything.<\/p>\n

How do you give God something, when God already has it all?<\/p>\n

We cannot give him our homes our possessions.
\nGod already is Lord of the universe.
\nWe cannot give him anything that he does not already possess.<\/p>\n

But there is one thing that God does not have
\nunless we give it.
\nThere is one gift that God has given us
\nthat he will never take back from us forcefully.<\/p>\n

And that is our free will to love him.<\/p>\n

God never compels our love.
\nIf God possessed our love, controlled our love, forced our love,
\nthen it wouldn\u2019t be love.<\/p>\n

And so, what we give back to God is our entire being,
\nout of love.<\/p>\n

To love someone means to want their well being,
\nto want them to be fulfilled and complete.<\/p>\n

But God is already fulfilled and complete.
\nWhat more does God want?<\/p>\n

What God wants is deep joy and salvation for everyone.
\nIf we want to give ourselves to God
\nthen we need to become part of this great desire of God\u2019s
\nfor everyone to live a full life.<\/p>\n

It is to recognize the image of God in our brothers and sisters
\nhere and especially in our brothers and sister who are in most need
\nwho are most ignored
\nwho are most overlooked.<\/p>\n

When we begin to see the image of God in our neighbors,
\nin our enemies
\nand in the poor
\nthen we begin to offer back to God
\nwe begin to repay God,
\nwe, who belong to God.<\/p>\n

St. Lawrence the Deacon understood this well.
\nHe knew where the image of God was to be found.
\nYou see, it was during a time of great persecution.
\nIn fact the persecutions were so bad, Pope Sixtus was martyred.
\nThe Romans killed the Pope.<\/p>\n

The prefect in Rome at the time
\nbelieved that the Church had all this money hidden away,
\nso he brought St. Lawrence before him and gave him an ultimatum:
\n\u201cBring me the treasure of the Church or be executed.\u201d
\nHe gave Lawrence three days to collect it,
\nand if he didn\u2019t bring it, St. Lawrence would be tortured and killed.<\/p>\n

And so the three days went by,
\nand on the third day St. Lawrence appeared before the prefect
\nwith all the poor and sick of the city, and he said,
\n\u201cThis is the Church\u2019s treasure!\u201d<\/p>\n

We, who have the image of God imprinted on our souls,
\nwe belong to God.
\njust like the redwood forest, the Pacific Ocean, and the big sky of Montana.<\/p>\n

And not just we who are gathered here,
\nbut especially the poor and the sick.
\nThey belong to God, too.<\/p>\n

We celebrate that today at this altar,
\nand we ask for the will and strength
\nto give all we are back to God.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/stpeter\/SP-2014-10-19-449.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you drive to northern California through central Oregon, you cross the state line on US 199, also known as the Redwood Highway. As you continue into California, you reach a certain point where it feels like you\u2019ve entered a fairytale. It feels like your car has shrunk, and now you\u2019re driving a Hot Wheel, because there are these massive, massive trees stretching above you, over your head, these ancient redwoods. And if you get out of your car and walk around the groves of redwoods you feel...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[349],"tags":[524,526,471,528,523,369,93,525,458,522,527],"class_list":["post-2999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homily","tag-california","tag-crescent-city","tag-gospel-of-matthew","tag-herodians","tag-jedediah-smith-state-park","tag-les-miserables","tag-montana","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-pharisees","tag-redwoods","tag-victor-hugo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_4025.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-Mn","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3009,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions\/3009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}