What do you worship? - Fr. Brian Larkin's Homily on the Feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Fr. Brian Larkin's homily on the Feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 21, 2021. -- -"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom does not belong to this world.'" (John 18:36) -kerygma (Greek) - the basic Gospel message -"If I had a $1,000,000" (1992 song) - Or rather $10,000,000, adjusted for inflation and the cost of living in Denver. -Money has everything to do with your relationship with God. -Fr. Brian -"For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." (Matthew 6:21) -What we do with our money says something about where our heart is. Even small things. A lot of sins in our life, Jesus doesn't tell us to really be watchful. Money is tricky, because none of us thinks that we are a greedy person. But if I'm honest, I'm a greedy person. There's a piece of my heart, I just like nice things. -Fr. Brian -"That which someone cherishes above all else, admires and loves above all, this is that person's God." (Origen) -Our money is not about paying the bills at the church. Your money has everything to do with what you worship. -Fr. Brian -"Come, Lord Jesus, take away scandals from your kingdom, which is my soul, and reign there, you who alone have the right. For avarice comes to claim a throne within me; haughtiness and self-assertion would rule over me; pride would be my king; luxury says, 'I will reign'; ambition, detraction, envy, and anger struggle within me for mastery. I resist as far as I am able; I struggle according as help is given me; I call on my Lord Jesus; for his sake I defend myself, since I acknowledge myself as wholly his possession. He is my God; him I proclaim my Lord; I have no other king than my Lord Jesus Christ!" (St. Bernard) -The first danger is idolatry, is that something is our god other than Jesus. There's something else that's going to make us happy. If I had $10,000,000.... The other danger is fear. It's that, God, there's not enough. Jesus, I don't really trust you, because tomorrow is a little scary. -Fr. Brian -"For Christ, in being beaten and nailed to the cross, revealed the fountains of the new covenant." (Origen) -"The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?' (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'" (John 4:9-10) -"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" (John 4:13-14) -In all the world out there, everyone lives from scarcity. There's not enough. And if I just had that house. Or, Lord, I'm just scared of the future, what if I could just pay my bills? The world lives from scarcity. You and I don't. You and I live from the abundance of the fountain of the new covenant. -Fr. Brian -"Two evils my people have done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." (Jeremiah 2:13)