2nd Week of Lent 2025 - Tuesday - Conversion of the Pharisee within

Do I practice my faith out of genuine love for God and neighbor, or am I more concerned about how others perceive me?

Do I judge and burden others harshly, pointing out their faults while neglecting my own need for conversion?

Have I allowed pride or self-righteousness to creep into my heart, distancing me from God and others?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sharply criticizes the Pharisees—not because they lacked religious devotion, but because their hearts were filled with pride, hypocrisy, and the desire to be praised by others. They followed the rules outwardly, yet inwardly their hearts were far from God. Lent is a season to honestly confront the ways these same pharisaic attitudes may exist within us and to courageously root them out.

Jesus highlights three dangerous attitudes among the Pharisees: hypocrisy, pride, and the misuse of authority. The Pharisees loved recognition and respect. Their actions—long tassels, widened phylacteries, and honored seats—were not motivated by love of God but by love of self. Their piety was an outward show, not inward devotion. 

Our Lenten scripture this morning challenges us to root out the Pharisee within by embracing authentic humility—humility, not merely as an ideal, but as a daily discipline.

Humility means honestly acknowledging our weaknesses and turning to God’s mercy. It means setting aside self-importance and serving others joyfully. Lent especially calls us to acts of quiet charity and unseen sacrifices, not for praise, but because we truly seek Christ’s way.

Today, Jesus invites each of us to seek the conversion of the Pharisee within—to abandon pride, to renounce hypocrisy, and to walk in humble service. For, as Jesus promises, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Only by rooting out the attitudes of pride and self-righteousness from our hearts can we truly become disciples who reflect Christ’s humble and merciful love.

May this Lent help us grow in humility and sincerity, as we learn again to walk in the humble footsteps of Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Seeking God’s will in all things, let us humbly present our petitions to our merciful Father.

For the Church throughout the world, that we may faithfully preach the Gospel not only in words but through humble and loving service.

For leaders of nations and those in authority, that they may exercise their responsibilities with integrity, humility, and genuine concern for the good of all, especially the weakest among us.

For our parish community, that during this Lenten season we may sincerely examine our hearts, rooting out attitudes of pride, hypocrisy, and judgmentalism, and grow in humble love and service to others

For the health of Pope Francis, and for all who carry heavy burdens, especially those burdened by guilt, shame, or discouragement or serious illness, that they may encounter compassionate hearts and experience Christ’s mercy and healing

For all the faithful departed, that having humbled themselves before the Lord, they may be exalted in the joy and peace of heaven, especially N.

Father, help us to humble ourselves before you and root out all that separates us from your love. Hear and answer these prayers we offer today with hearts sincerely seeking you, through Christ our Lord.

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024 - The remedy for pharisaical externalizing

 Having completed five weeks of readings from the Eucharistic Discourse of chapter 6 of St.  John’s Gospel, we return this Sunday to the Year B continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark.

The last time we read from Mark’s Gospel was back in July, when we read from chapter 6 of Mark, how the Lord had sent the apostles on a missionary journey of healing and preaching, and afterwards, he invited them to a deserted place to pray and rest. So, St. Mark told us how Jesus and the apostles went off to  deserted place, but all these people from the town followed him, and his heart was moved with pity because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Now in chapter 7, this week, the Lord has left the deserted place and has gone back to work when he encounters a team of Pharisees and Scribes—these men who claimed to be the shepherds of Israel. And these guys were more like wolves-in-sheep’s clothing. 

Unlike John the Baptist who humbly pointed out the Son of God to the people, the scribes and pharisees were basically doing the opposite. They were so blinded by their pride and their greed that they were acting as obstacles to God, rather than helping people prepare the way for Him. 

And so, the Lord is going to has some pretty challenging words for these guys. He calls them hypocrites—sinners who refused to acknowledge their sins and their need for God. And there’s a big difference in the Gospel, isn’t there, between sinners who repent and those who refuse to repent. Sinners who come to Jesus and beg for mercy are shown mercy. But the pharisees and scribes, these guys, were sinners who refused to acknowledge their need for Christ.

Often, we find the Lord berating the Scribes and Pharisees for worrying so much about appearances, about externals, rather than dealing with the glaring issues in their souls. 

Psychologists call this ‘exteriorization’…it’s when things are not well inside, so you spend your energy—inordinate amounts of energy— trying to control the things around you. I sometimes see this in my ministry in people who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Every little thing about the funeral has to be controlled and planned and perfect—every flower petal, every funeral song, every family member has to be standing in the right spot. So many of our addictions (to technology, shopping, substances) come from that same impulse to externalize.

But what’s needed in times of grief, chaos, and confusion, aren’t all these attempts to control external realities, what is needed is the opening of the mind and heart to God—who is the only real source of healing and peace. He’s the only one who can calm the inner storm—the pain and the sadness from wounds of loss. 

When externalization becomes a habit, or a lifestyle, it causes real problems for individuals and families. When those unresolved inner conflicts are allowed to fester, they can turn into real emotional disorders that can sap the joy from life and turn into rage or depression. Wounds from our childhoods, wounds of rejection or jealousy that we don’t bring to Lord for healing, can cause us to rot from the inside out. Some people are not happy unless they are controlling other people, and that is a real soul sickness.

And that is the very soul sickness the Lord has diagnosed in the Pharisees and Scribes, and this is why the pharisees and scribes were failures as religious shepherds—out of pride they refused to acknowledge their moral disorders and their need for God to heal them, and spent all this time and effort worrying about and enforcing human traditions.  Not that human traditions are bad—but it’s foolish to worry about these things when our souls are in danger of hell. 

Today’s Gospel is an important Gospel because in it the Lord is stressing the importance of getting your priorities straight. No matter what you are going through, you need to make sure that your soul is right with God. God is waiting to relieve our guilt. But we have to acknowledge our sins and bring them to God.

This is done primarily in the Sacrament of Confession, the great unutilized Sacrament these days. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, if it has been more than a few months since your last confession, make a good thorough examination of conscience and get in the box. I have guides printed out back by the confessional for this purpose containing a list of sins that should be confessed, just like the list of sins Jesus offered in the Gospel today: “unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance”

Unconfessed serious sins are not only an obstacle for grace, not only do they jeopardize our eternal salvation, but they damage to our minds, bodies, and souls and relationships. They impact our relationship with God, and so they impact every other relationship. 

The Lord takes sin seriously because he loves us so deeply. He died to save us from them, not just sin in general, but the very sins we commit in this life. And so we should welcome any opportunity to overcome sin that we are given. 

Like the bronze serpent in the desert, God has given us the sacrament of Confession to relieve our guilt, and to experience the transforming love of Christ for sinners. Confessions are available here at St. Ignatius from 3:30 to 4:30 every Saturday, and Sunday morning after the 9am mass. Pope Francis said recently that the Sacrament of Confession is a sacrament of joy because through it you are able to encounter the Father’s love, “as children who run to receive the Father's embrace. And the Father lifts us up in every situation”

But even outside of the confessional, we do well to bring our resentments, fears, failings, challenges, stresses to God every day in prayer, so that our hearts may remain open to the help that can only come from him.

May the Lord deliver us from our pharisaical tendencies and lead us to the fountain of grace and mercy where he wishes to restore our souls, bring healing to our minds and bodies, and grant us peace and the fullness of joy for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - Conversation with an athiest tailor

 A few years ago I had to pay a visit to our local tailor, as, surprise, after a few years of priesthood, I needed my cassock and a few pairs of paints to be let out a bit. 

After taking care of business, the tailor says to me if she could ask me a personal question. I love personal questions, so I said, “Of course.” She said that she had been raised without any faith, and didn’t  believe in God, and that she came from a land very hostile toward religion. And she would like to know why a young man such as myself (I did say this was a few years ago), why a young man like myself would want to be a priest. Now, I’ve told my vocation story to Catholics, but now speaking to an atheist, I knew my answer had to be a little nuanced. 

After a moment’s reflection, I said, “I think both you and I know how much evil is in the world, yes? Well, I believe much of that evil comes from people not knowing about God’s love—from turning away from God; and I want to help people turn toward God.” She became quite pensive at that, and she then began to explain how the Stalinists, the Atheistic Communists, caused so much destruction and suffering in her country, and of course, outlawed religion. But, she claimed that Stalin has been replaced, and even though religion has been allowed again, many of the people who worked for Stalin were now in religious leadership, and they still seem to be oppressing the people. They exchanged the hammer and sickle for the cross, but they did not change their hearts, and now used the cross to control people. So the tailor sees Christians as largely hypocritical. 

What do you say to that? I told her that God is not fooled by actors. God sees to the heart. And we will be judged by our true intentions and actions in this life. There will be justice.

Throughout the Gospel, the Lord is constantly confronting the scribes, elders, pharisees, and Sadducees for their religious hypocrisy. He uses that word hypocrisy quite a bit. For at that time, the word hypocrite was a technical word, it was a mask-wearing play actor. The actor changes his mask depending on the character he is playing. And so the Lord calls these people hypocrites because they were wearing the mask of the religious leader, but they were in fact leading God’s people away from God. As we heard in the Gospel today, these so-called religious leaders were seeking places of religious authority and power, but using it to oppress and mislead--they were guilty of the grave misuse of power and God was not pleased with their masquerade, their corruption of religion. 

Religion: it can be the best thing around, and it can be the worst thing around. When religion functions well, according to its own deepest purpose, it brings us into friendship with God, it brings out the best in us—it brings relief, and mercy, and peace, and joy. But, when it is dysfunctional, when religion goes bad, it goes really bad, and it can bring out the worst in us—and be a source of misery, rather than mercy.

The ancient Romans would say: “Corruptio optimi pessimo”, the corruption of the best is the worst. When the best thing goes bad, it really goes bad. And that’s certainly true for religion. Dysfunctional religion can be very dangerous. It can create murderous terrorists who commit acts of violence in the name of God; it can lead to the exploitation of good trusting people; it can create terrible scrupulosity where the love of God is replaced by a false image of God as a tyrant; it can lead religious leaders to abuse their power, and lay people to become filled false piety and self-righteousness.

Now notice, how even though Jesus points out the religious failure of the Scribes and Pharisees, he doesn’t discredit religious leadership altogether. Were the Scribes and Pharisees in many ways corrupt? Yes. But does that mean that the whole idea of teaching authority and religious leadership is altogether corrupt? Absolutely not. After all he founded his Church on the religious leadership of the Apostles. Regarding the apostles he says, "those who listen to you, listen to me. those who reject you, reject me"

Contrast the corrupt religious leadership of the Pharisees with the great humility and authentic leadership of the saints, who we celebrated this week on the Holy Day of Obligation, All Saints Day. The saints do not use religion to inflate their own egos, rather, they seek to become empty of ego, to serve others and help others to be as holy as possible. Their humility is truly humbling, their goodness is truly inspiring. The saints never preach what they are unwilling to do themselves. They are the first ones in the confessional when they’ve sinned, and are the first ones with a cup of water, to give drink to the thirsty. They illustrate our religion’s highest ideals; they show us how God transforms those who follow Christ in holy surrender to the Divine Will. 

And remember, the saints weren’t born saints. Many of them lived for decades at odds with God, in league with the Devil, off the path of Christ and his righteousness. But when God broke into their life they responded with faith, hope, and love, thanks be to God. If the corruption of the best is the worst, many of the saints show us how the redemption of the worst, is the best; they show us the marvelous things that can happen when we seek conversion and the growth in holiness God desires for us.

This month, the month of November, the Body of Christ the Church prays in a special way for the souls in purgatory who at the end of life, were found in need of further purification from the effects of sin in their life. Yes, they died in friendship with the Lord, but at the time of death, they still had need of further purgation. So we should seek purification from the effects of sin in this life, now, through penance and works of mercy. For the saints attest to the fact that purification in this life, is preferred, to the purifying sufferings of purgatory.  But our prayers truly help those in purgatory, our prayers are acts of love. 

At first Friday Holy Hour, I recommended the practice of bringing to the Lord the names of your departed loved ones. I recommend taking a note book, and prayerfully writing down the names of the dead who have touched your life. “Uncle Jim, may he rest in peace. Aunt Martha, may she rest in peace.” Anyone who touched your life, pray for them. Anyone who blessed you or hurt you. Anyone who was a model Christian, and those who weren’t, pray for them. When we pray for the poor souls, we also begin to loosen any of the resentments or unforgiveness we might be carrying regarding the dead. And it is vital to let go of those things: they cause us unhappiness on earth, and we will not enter heaven until we are willing to let them go. 

Our religion is so beautiful, because it teaches us to practice love toward the living and the dead, to orient ourselves toward the love of God, the Father of Creation. Through our practice of love, may we witness to unbelievers the redemptive and transformative power of the Gospel of Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - Unless your righteousness surpasses...

 For the past two weeks we’ve been hearing from the Lord’s Great Sermon on the Mount from Matthew’s Gospel. Two weeks ago, we heard the beatitudes, which the catechism says, “express the vocation of every Christian”. Every Christian is called to pursue beatitude, to pursue holiness by putting on the mind and heart of Christ. The beatitudes are the standards by which every action of ours is to be measured. Does my use of money help me to obtain beatitude? Does the use of my time help me to obtain beatitude? Do my choices and habits and the way that I treat family members, strangers, and enemies, help me to obtain beatitude?

Then, last week we heard the Lord tells us that we must be the salt of the earth and light of the world. The influence of Christians in the world is to be detected like salt in food, like a light shining in the darkness. Our faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and God is to be detected by those we encounter—again in our families and in society. 

This week, the Lord gives further explanation of how his disciples are to live. In fact, he sets a very high standard indeed. “Unless our holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” So the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Christian conduct goes beyond merely keeping the natural law or the Ten Commandments. We are challenged us not just to be “good” but genuinely “holy”—transformed by God’s grace inside and outside.  I often meet people who say, “I don’t go to church, but I’m a good person.” Fine, be a good person, try with all your might to be a good person. But Christianity isn’t simply about being a good person. It’s about becoming holy—filled with the life of God. Being good isn’t enough to get into heaven. Good is not good enough. Do you believe that?

Let’s look at what the Lord teaches us about holiness.

First, he says, it’s not good enough simply to avoid murder. Of course, we need to avoid murdering each other. But that’s not enough for heaven. Christians seek conversion even from the sort of thoughts that set us down the path to unjust violence, and seek to love others with Christ like love. And we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves if all we do is not kill them. We avoid all envy, jealousy, and vengeance, rivalry. We turn away from hurting others with our tongues and machinations. If you detect an ounce of anger toward anyone, pray for the Lord to free you. If you can detect that you have failed to forgive anyone, pray that the Lord give you the grace to help you to forgive.

Secondly, the Lord says it’s not good enough for us to avoid adultery. Again, of course adultery must certainly be avoided. We must avoid all lust and any attitude or reasoning or habit that allows lust to take root in us, that views other humans as objects for our own gratification. Rather we seek the beatitude of purity of heart. And purity of heart is obtained through prayer, self-discipline, avoiding occasions of lust as best we can, and repentance for lust in the sacrament of confession.

Thirdly, the Lord gives married couples special instruction here: to not only avoid divorce but any selfish behaviors that could lead to someone wanting to divorce you.  Just because someone married you, does not give you the right to be selfish toward them. Rather married couples have the duty of helping your spouse grow in holiness by your own example of prayer, forgiveness, patience, and fidelity to the commands of God. And that’s true for each of us: whether a priest, married, single, monk or nun we must set good Christian example and help each other obtain heaven.

Lastly, the final standard the Lord mentions in this section of his sermon to his disciples is about truthfulness. It’s not good enough to simply tell the truth when you are under oath, or to be the sort of person that people only believe when you are under oath. 

Jesus, the Lord, who is the truth incarnate, wants his followers to be distinguished as people of truth, integrity, honor, and transparency. 

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven” Christians seek not just to be good,  we seek to be righteous. Not self-righteous. 

The Pharisees got their name because they refused to eat and speak with sinners. We must not self-righteously distance ourselves from those who have different beliefs than us. In fact, we are to be seeking them out, to bring them to Christ. 

We are not to be self-righteous, but actually righteous…where the law and commandments and virtues and life of God transforms us from the inside out, where every obstacle to authentic Christ-like love is transformed into the charity.

This morning I had a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on the rectory door. I did not turn them away. Rather, I invited them in. I sat down with them. And to be honest, they scrutinized me, for almost an hour. They tried to poke holes in Catholic theology, for Jehovah’s Witnesses deny many truths of our faith, including the bodily resurrection of Jesus, that Jesus is true God and true man; they deny the Trinity. I did my best to answer their questions and perhaps reexamine their errors.

But, I shared with them that this parish is both committed to the truth, and also serving those who do not have the truth. We feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and teach the ignorant, no matter what they believe. The Good News isn’t just believed and professed. It is lived. I pray that Christ might convert their hearts, and recognize that each of us must do penance for their conversion. 

Providentially, in just 10 days, we begin the season of Lent. A time for us to do penance for ourselves and for others. In the next 10 days, please, take some real quality time to discern the type and level of prayer, fasting, and works of charity that God wants from you, for the sake of souls and to help you pursue the righteousness God wants for each you. For God didn’t make us to be mediocre and lukewarm, but on fire for pursuing his Holy Will for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Taking Risks for God and Spiritual Growth

 

One year, for my new year’s resolution, I attempted to learn how to play the violin. I grew up playing a little bit of piano and trumpet, and sang in the choir in high school and in seminary; so I was pretty familiar with reading music, and figured, how hard could the violin really be? So I got a hold of a violin, and realized pretty quickly that if I was going to progress in this instrument, I was going to need to take some lessons: I didn’t even know if I was holding the thing correctly.

And I have to admit, those first few violin lessons, were very humbling. I admitted to my violin teacher that I was a bit uncomfortable and embarrassed: a grown adult, a priest, several college degrees, and I could barely get through “Mary Had a Little Lamb” without the violin sounding like I was torturing some poor animal. 

After several months there was some progression and discerned that I had fulfilled my new year’s resolution. But, I really have to admit, those first few weeks, were very humbling, and very uncomfortable. The violin didn’t care about my degrees, about the time I spent visiting the sick, or teaching in the classroom. And to sit with this professional violin player was kind of embarrassing. I felt like a little child. 

But, I’m so glad I risked a little embarrassment, because now I can pick up the violin every now and then—one of my favorite musical instruments—and enjoy playing it a bit.

You may have had a similar experience: learning a new skill always involves that initial moment when you feel a bit like a child. But that’s not a bad thing: children are often much more courageous than adults. They don’t worry about what people think of them, they just engage. They’ll try new things because they look fun. They play without self-regard. They quickly make new friends—they are able to do things that many adults would be humiliated over doing—but that’s the key to their joy isn’t it…not fearing humiliation.

Would we honor Saint Francis of Assisi, if he had allowed his fears of what others thought of him to control his life? If he worried about being considered “overly religious”? Or St. Paul, what if he had allowed his fear of offending the sensibilities of the Gentiles keep him from his missionary journeys. Or Saint Clare? What if she let social pressures keep her from leaving behind her family wealth to pursue radical holiness. So many of the great Saints risk humiliation, they risk failure, they risk mockery, in order to pursue true greatness.

Many of our young people do not consider entering the religious life or going to the seminary. “What will they think of me if I joined the monastery.” But, in the Christian life, each one of us absolutely needs to ask ourselves: do I want to be great in the eyes of the world, or in the eyes of God?

I pray that fear—fear of being considered “overly religious” or—is not keeping anyone here from become more active in the life of holiness and the life of the parish. The parish needs your creativity, the parish needs your efforts and your mistakes, the Church needs your Courage. 

In today’s Gospel of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus praises the child-like humility of the tax collector while denouncing the arrogance of the Pharisee. 

Here are two men, both go to Temple, both go to church, both engage in something they call prayer, but one is pleasing in the eyes of God and one is not. 

There is a parallel here with Cain and Abel. Remember, all the way back in the beginning of Genesis: both Cain and Abel offer sacrifices to God, but only Abel’s sacrifice was found pleasing to God, while Cain’s was not. For Abel’s sacrifice was filled with faith and love, while Cain’s was not.

Similarly with the Pharisee: his prayer in the Gospel today is filled with self-congratulation and ridicule of those he judges as lower than himself, while the tax-collector, becomes childlike and takes the lowest place, recognizing that before God he is but a humble sinner and only God can save Him. 

The Pharisee acts as if the point of prayer is to talk about how great he is, instead of approaching God, humbly like the tax collector to recognize how great God is. 

The tax collector thus teaches us an indispensable lesson for the Christian life: we must start off each day beating our breast, saying, “God, I don’t know what I’m doing here, I’m just a lowly sinner. Teach me. Teach me how to pray. Teach me how to live.” 

Notice, too that, the tax collector beats his breast, as he says “O God, be merciful to me a sinner”. Be merciful to me. Have mercy. We say those words at the beginning of every Mass. Lord, have mercy. We begin Mass with those words, with that gesture, with that posture of humility because that attitude is to animate the whole of our lives. 

Beating our breasts in humble admission of one’s lowliness, of one’s sinfulness, symbolizes our desire to break down the barrier between our heart and God’s heart. Whatever it takes Lord, break the hardness in my heart, break the coldness, break the selfishness, break the attachment to sin, whatever it takes, even if it requires me being humiliated. 

It’s not easy to admit that we are sinners. It requires us to admit our faults, our wrongs: it’s humbling. As hard as it is, as hard as it is to go Sacramental Confession after a particularly embarrassing sin, humbling ourselves before God is often the beginning of something great. Humility allows God’s power to begin to change us, fill us, and bring us true joy. 

The proud Pharisee is impervious to growth because he doesn’t believe he can grow—or needs to grow—he knows everything, he believes he already is better than everybody. The Pharisees throughout the Gospels fail to recognize that Jesus is God because the Pharisee doesn’t really acknowledge a god outside of himself. And like Cain, the Pharisee becomes a murderer of his brother, condemning Jesus to an unjust death.

The Lord concludes the parable by teaching, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” The Christian who recognizes his need for God’s mercy, who becomes like the child before God, like the tax collector shall experience exaltation in eternity; while those who go throughout life convinced of their own self-righteousness, like the Pharisee, shall be humbled when Christ returns as judge. There can be no spiritual growth without humility, there can be no salvation without recognizing one’s need for a savior. 

At holy Mass, today, at every holy Mass, we have a choice: do we come here, entering God’s Temple, in the spirit of the Pharisee or the tax collector. The one who keeps God out, or welcomes God into one’s heart, one’s soul—the one who feigns perfection, or the one who acknowledges sin. May all that is Pharisaical be transformed by God’s love for us and our willingness to practice humility and faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Week of Easter 2022 - Tuesday - Learning how to learn again

 Last week, throughout the Easter Octave, we read from each of the four Gospel writers, their accounts of Jesus' resurrection, and the Lord’s post-resurrection appearances to his disciples.

For the rest of the Easter Season, we will be reading from the Gospel of John—the discussion with Nicodemus this week from chapter 3, and onto chapter 6—the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the great Bread of Life discourse next week.

In his first visit to Jerusalem during his public ministry, Jesus encountered the Pharisee Nicodemus. This encounter is quite different from the later encounters with the Pharisees, especially those of Holy Week. Nicodemus, though he is a “teacher of Israel” as Jesus calls him, takes the position of the student. Nicodemus seeks to understand who Jesus is and why he has come. And this sets him apart from the other Pharisees in the Gospel whose minds and hearts remain closed to Jesus.

There are many in our culture who treat Jesus and the Church with Pharisaical intellectual snobbery. “What could Jesus or the Church possibly have to teach me?” Even many “adult Catholics” refuse to crack open the Bible or the Catechism believing that they know it all or have nothing to gain from coming to deeper understanding of the faith. The Church is “Mater et Magistra”, Mother and Teacher, and too many of us refuse to sit in mother's lap and learn.

The Christian, however, is perpetually a disciple—a student. The Lord doesn’t want lip-service or flattery from us, he wants to teach us how to live.

The renewal that God may want for us this Easter may be to learn how to learn again: how to be open to being taught, how to encounter the timeless wisdom of Jesus in the Scriptures in a new way. 

I encourage you to read John chapter 3 today, to get a sense of this whole conversation. You’ll notice something right off the bat: as the conversation ensues, Nicodemus' remarks get shorter and shorter, while Jesus' answers get longer and longer. Recognizing who Jesus is, Nicodemus quiets down and allows Jesus to teach Him. In our daily meditation, we are to do the same. We are to open up the scriptures, and allow the Divine Word to speak to us, to teach us and challenged us, to guide and form us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, the pope, bishops, and clergy, that they may govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd leading us faithfully in the Gospel mandate.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

That our parish may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

5th Week of Ordinary Time 2022 - Wednesday - Purification from what defiles us

 He fed five thousand people with a handful of bread, he walked on water, he performed countless healings, but the Pharisees and scribes choose to focus on how the Lord and his disciples ate without the ceremonial purifications that weren’t even prescribed by the law.

Sure, the Law of Moses prescribed ceremonial washing for the priests serving at the altar in the Temple, but the Pharisees extended these rules to everyone, and then condemned people for not observing them.

The Pharisees were perverting the Law of Moses and missing its purpose entirely—they were like the mean kids from grammar school that bullied you for breaking rules you didn’t even know about. And now they are all grown up, and have political sway, but they are still on the same toxic power trip.

In response to the Pharisees criticism, our Gospel begins today with the Lord summoning a crowd to address this unjust Pharisaical standard and their misapplication of the Law of Moses—their fake news, so to speak. 

“Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters a person from outside can defile that person,” rather what defiles are the moral evils that fester in the human heart: unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, and so on.

You want to know what defiles a person? Human sin, evil conduct. 

The Lord exposes the Pharisees for being more concerned with outward appearances than true inner moral goodness. They were a bunch of fakers, religious fakers. And the Lord, speaking with authority, sets the true standard for his followers. We must seek authentic conversion from all sin, including inner purification from sinful desires and ruminations. 

For Catholics, we’ve come up with some pretty practical ways of conforming to this teaching. We are to make a daily examination considering if our actions and attitudes over the course of the day have been unclean, and if they were, to repent of them. 

We are to make frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are to reflect upon God Word daily, to help us examine and conform our lives. We are to avoid using dirty language and fixating on dirty images. We are to seek freedom from all unforgiveness, ingratitude, selfishness, greed and gluttony. 

Jesus makes a very powerful promise to the pure of heart. “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” The Pharisees were unable to see that Jesus was God because they may have been ritually pure on the outside, but inside, they were full of corruption and defilement. 

So too in our culture: so many have lost touch with God precisely because they have allowed themselves to be defiled and refuse to repent and seek that purification that can only come from Him.

Lord, cleanse us, make our hearts new, purify us that we may see your face, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the Holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her, and bring cleansing to all the impurity which afflicts her members and leaders.

For the conversion of all those who have fallen into serious sin, for a return of fallen away Catholics to the Sacraments, and that all young people may be protected from the perversions of our culture.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered. 

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Tuesday - Interacting with Pharisees

 
In Mark’s Gospel, the conflict with the Pharisees begins early on in the Gospel-- at the beginning of chapter 2. And throughout chapter 2 and the beginning passage of chapter 3 St. Mark details five controversies—five vignettes in which Jesus encounters opposition in the form of disapproval, suspicion, and contention on the part of the religious authorities and even some of the populace. But in each of these controversies, Jesus reveals something about his identity and mission, inviting his questioners to believe in him. 

When Jesus claims the power to heal the paralytic and forgive sins at the beginning of chapter 2, the pharisees calls him a blasphemer. When Jesus and his disciples eat at in the house of Levi, the scribes question his practice of eating with tax collectors and sinners. Next, the Lord’s piety is called into question because he does not fast like others claiming to be authoritative teachers. In today’s passage, the fourth controversy is much like the second and third, it involves food. 

The Lord and his disciples are passing through a field of grain, and while they passed through, they picked heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees condemn the Lord for doing, what in their estimation, appears to be unlawful—picking grain on the sabbath.

Notice, how the Lord neither affirms nor disputes the Pharisees’ interpretation of whether this is actually unlawful work. Rather, he gets to the heart of the matter, by redirecting the conversation to the Word of God—to the biblical story of King David and to the law that allows priests to do God’s holy work on the sabbath. Here, like in the other controversies, Jesus reveals something about himself--he equates himself with the anointed King and anointed Priest who are dispensed from the sabbath law because they are doing the work of the God of the sabbath. Jesus is the anointed Lord of the Sabbath. 

Because of their hardness of hearts, the Pharisees are going to reject this claim. They refuse to allow the possibility that what Jesus is saying is true. That cannot and will not acknowledge an authority greater than themselves. That’s what we mean when someone is acting Pharisaical. They will not acknowledge truth outside of themselves; they will refuse to listen to logical, biblically derived arguments, the wisdom of the ages, the Word of God.

We who have already acknowledged Jesus as Son of God and Lord of the Sabbath, always need to make sure, of course, that we aren’t allowing the attitude of the Pharisee to creep in—that we don’t hold onto opinions that are contrary to the word of God. But, also in our evangelizing mission, we are likely to come across a Pharisee or two. Like Jesus, we are to patiently and clearly explain the Church’s position. We might have to endure some self-righteous mockery from time to time, so be it. We might even come across those who claim to be Catholic, we have strayed from authentic Church teaching, who ridicule us for holding fast to clear Catholic teaching. Oftentimes these Pharisaical, hard-hearted Catholics are harder to convince than those growing up without faith. 

But again, like the Lord, in the face of religious controversy, ridicule, we patiently make recourse to the Word of God in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and pray for their souls, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may preserve harmony among us.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may grant them relief and move Christians to come to the aid of the suffering.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for all monastics and hermits, and that all Christians may seek the perfection for which they were made.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

September 21 2021 - St. Matthew - I desire mercy, not sacrifice

 

When the Pharisees ask his disciples why the Lord eats with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus tells the Pharisees to go and learn the meaning of the passage, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Let’s dwell on that. 

What’s so special about that line from the prophet Hosea? How does it explain the Lord’s behavior?

Hosea had been sent as God’s prophet to the Northern Kingdom during its final days. Although the North was experiencing economic prosperity and growth, on the inside it had grown corrupt, morally decrepit, and adulterous. The problem wasn’t just leadership, either.  As a people, the Israelites had also broken their covenant with God. Not only had they given themselves over to idolatry, Hosea writes that they had also “plowed wickedness,” “reaped injustice,” “eaten the fruit of lies,” and trusted in their own ways (Hosea 10:13). They had turned to other gods for answers (Hosea 4:12) and other nations for assistance instead of God (Hosea 7:11). 

Yet, they continued to offer sacrifice to God in the Temple. It was like they wanted it both ways. They thought they could maintain right relationship with God through the offering of Temple Sacrifices while also maintaining a corrupt, idolatrous, adulterous lifestyle. 

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice” is a call to interior conversion, and that is being offered to all people. Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners because he is drawing near to all people, announcing that God’s mercy is readily available to them, if they turn away from their sins, and endeavor to love God with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, through Him. 

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice”, I’ve come for those who recognize themselves as sinners in need of mercy, in need of forgiveness, in need of transformation, not those who think themselves perfect, or who can make themselves perfect through simple human efforts.

Man cannot be in right relationship with God just because he offers the right sacrifices on the right days of the year. His life, his attitude toward his neighbor, including his fellow sinners, needs to be animated by true, authentic, love. Most of the pharisees reject the Lord’s teaching here, refusing to understand and heed his words, and they will remain “white-washed tombs” as the Lord calls them.

But Matthew, the tax collector, whose feast we celebrate today, heads the Lord’s call, his invitation to new life, to mercy. May we do the same, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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That the members of the Church may seek every deeper union with the Lord through humble repentance of sin. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those trapped in cycles of sin or addiction, that they may heed the Lord’s invitation to forgiveness and freedom.

For an end to indifference to God and human dignity in our government and educational institutions, businesses, and personal attitudes.

During this month of September, dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, we pray for all those who grieve, and that we may grieve sufficiently for our sins.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - Be obnoxious to the wicked

One of the books of the Old Testament that is perennially useful to meditate upon is the book of wisdom, from which our first reading is taken this weekend. Scripture Scholars tell us that the Book of Wisdom, also know as the Wisdom of Solomon, was written in Alexandria Egypt, making it different from the other books of the old testament, not only for where it was written, but because of the fact it was written in Greek, rather than in Hebrew. 

And the book wasn't in fact written by Solomon, rather it was the very last book of the Old Testament to be written, composed just about 50 years before the birth of Jesus. The book was written primarily to the Jews of the Diaspora. The Greek General Ptolomy after conquering the Holy Land, sent nearly 120,000 Jews into exile, mostly to Egypt. And so, this book, the book of wisdom, was written to them, to the Jews exiled from the Holy Land—to give them the religious guidance, the wisdom, they would need in order to be on guard against the temptations they might experience in the Egyptian culture—with its many forms idolatry. 

Sadly, the book is written, also, in response to a number of Jewish exiles who had apostatized—they had given up their Jewish faith in favor of the pagan practices of the Greeks who dominated Alexandria. So, the faithful Jews would not only have to be on guard against the pressures from the surrounding pagan culture, but they’d have to withstand pressure from their own kind, their own people who forsaken the faith. 

In the passage today, we hear of the wicked conspiring against the faithful—the wicked, being those former Jews who had turned their hearts from the covenant. “Let us beset the just one,” the wicked say, “because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.” 

The wicked apostates are depicted as conspiring against the holy ones, because the holy ones remind them of what they left behind when they abandoned their faith. The righteous ones were making the wicked nervous because by their good deeds they showed that the way of the wicked leads to doom. 

One of the prevailing philosophies of the Greeks, one of the prevailing philosophies of Alexandria at the time was the philosophy of Hedonism. Eat drink and be merry, over-indulgence, avoid any suffering, sexual promiscuity and libertinism. The wicked had traded the beautiful covenant with God for deviant Hedonism.

We live in a very Hedonistic culture don’t we? Instant gratification and instant pleasure are idolized, promiscuity is normalized.  The Church is often attacked because she reminds our hedonistic culture that there is more to life than just seeking pleasure all the time. Christians are seen as obnoxious to the wicked, for we engage in many practices that Hedonists consider foolish: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, chastity, poverty, obedience, self-sacrifice, study, going out into the streets and serving the poor, patiently enduring suffering for the good of souls.

In a way, I think, the Word of God is giving us our marching orders this morning.  Be obnoxious to the wicked.  Be so holy, take your faith so seriously, engage in the works of mercy so devoutly, that you make the wicked a little nervous.  It might just cause him to rethink his life.

the wicked are ignoring us, because they don’t us as a threat to their hedonistic ways, are we really living the faith? If we are blending in with the wicked, valuing the same things they do, then are we really on the path of life?

In the Gospel, the Lord foretells his suffering and death.  Why did the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day plot against him to torture and kill him? He had become obnoxious to them.  He told them that to inherit the kingdom of God, you had to repent, you had to not only be externally observant of God’s laws, you had to transform your heart. 

Mercy is to be extended not only to those who can repay you, but even to those who persecute you, you have to treat as family even those who are of different ethnicities than you, you have to go and touch the leper and wash him clean. Obnoxious behavior for the pious Jewish Pharisee of the 1st century.

Taking a child, and placing it in their midst, and saying, you need to become like, was obnoxious behavior to the great scholars of the law. To the Pharisee, a child is so insignificant, they have nothing to hold over anybody, no power, and Jesus is saying, yes, exactly. How obnoxious. To welcome women into his band of disciples, to eat with tax collectors and prostitutes, to lay hands on lepers, all obnoxious behavior, all to show that God’s love extends to all.

After communion today, we’ll hear from Margaret McIntyre a volunteer with the Franciscan capuchins and the Catholic Volunteer network. The founder of the Franciscans, St. Francis, had a wonderful title, “God’s fool. He was foolish for Christ, he was obnoxious for Christ, he was obnoxious to the worldly and woke them up from their selfishness through a life of preaching, poverty, and penance.

To become a saint, we must be willing to be obnoxious in our faith, obnoxious to the wicked. That would be my dismissal from mass today if we could change the words of the mass: go forth and be obnoxious to the wicked, thanks be to God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

11th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Monday - Above and Beyond

 Early on in his Sermon on the Mount, the Lord teaches that the righteousness of his disciples must surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees. This teaching no doubt surprised his listeners, for the scribes and Pharisees were zealous about conformity to the law of Moses.  The very word Pharisee came from the word meaning “to separate”. The Pharisees sought to separate themselves from everything that was sinful. They would even avoid eating with sinners, hence, their consternation when Jesus would dine with tax collectors and prostitutes.  

How could our holiness possibly "surpass" that of the people of Jesus' day who obeyed every letter of the law?  It sounds as if Jesus has just set the highest standards in history.  

The Lord gives a series of examples of how Christians must practice this surpassing holiness. When someone strikes you, turn the other cheek, when someone asks for a tunic, give him your cloak as well, should someone press you into service for one mile, go with him two.

Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, Christians must certainly be zealous about obeying the moral law: avoiding killing, lying, adultery, stealing, and the like. But Christians are to go above and beyond obedience to the 10 commandments. We must surpass the 10 commandments by practicing something the Pharisees and Sadducees did not: true charity. Christians must be zealous about cultivating zealous charity in our personal interactions.

Our charity should surprise the people that ask for our help. Here’s more than what you asked for, because, I truly care. I want to see you flourish. I want you to know the goodness of God. 

When we recognize how immeasurably loved we are by God, this sort of charity becomes easy. So we cultivate this generous self-giving by prayer, reception of the sacraments, and simply, through practice. Practice generosity, over and over, and it will become second nature, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That the bishops of the Church will act as true prophets through their faithful teaching, their courageous witness, and their self-sacrificing love. We pray to the Lord.

That government leaders around the world may carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for freedom and the dignity of human life.  We pray to the Lord.

For the Church’s missions amongst the poor and unevangelized throughout the world, that the work of Christ may be carried out with truth and love. We pray to the Lord.

For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who share in the sufferings of Christ—the sick, the sorrowful, and those who are afflicted or burdened in any way.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray to the Lord.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

4th Week of Easter 2021 - Monday - The Shepherd's Tender Love

 

On the 4th Sunday of Easter every year, we celebrate good shepherd Sunday. Over the course of the three year cycle, we read different segments of the Lord’s Good Shepherd Discourse from John Chapter 10. Since we are in the second of the three year cycle, yesterday we read verses 11-19. Today we read the opening verses of the discourse in which the Lord begins to introduce imagery of sheep and shepherds and flocks without directly explaining what these images mean. 

Still addressing the Pharisees from the previous chapter, the Lord introduces two opposing parties: thieves and robbers on one hand and the shepherd on the other. The Pharisees are symbolized by the thieves and robbers in the story, who mistreat and scatter the flock of God. By failing to cultivate true holiness among the people of Israel and thereby misusing their religious authority, the Pharisees have set themselves up in opposition to the Good Shepherd—Jesus.

Unlike the Pharisees, the Shepherd is simultaneously a leader and a companion. He is a strong man who is capable of defending his flock against thieves and wolves. He is also gentle with his flock, giving them careful attention, bearing them in his arms, as we hear in the prophet Isaiah: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” His authority over his flock is based on devotion and love.

Yes, we are to be devoted to God and love God with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength. But in the image of the Good Shepherd, we find that God is devoted to caring for us, he loves us. We know our Good Shepherd and he knows us by name, and he has laid down his life to save us from the thieves and robbers which seek to slaughter and destroy the human soul.

The Shepherd has come so that we “might have life and have it more abundantly.”  And that abundant life consists of knowing his love and imitating his love. May we be free from all attitudes which keep us from living this abundant life, vigilant against all the forces which seek to take us away from Jesus, and diligent in spreading the goodness and love of the shepherd to those we meet today, welcoming them into the unity and life of his flock, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For Pope Francis and Bishop Malesic, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd and for an increase in vocations to the ordained priesthood, and that our priests may serve the Church with the love and devotion of the Good Shepherd.

For our parish, that we may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ and his tender love for sinners and for the poor.

For members of Christ’s flock who have wandered far from the Church: for the desire and will to return to the Sacraments; for deliverance from all spiritual evils and an increase in virtue for the faithful. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: that they may know the peace and consolation of the Good Shepherd. Let us pray to the Lord.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

2nd Week of Easter 2021 - Tuesday - Learning from Jesus the Teacher

 Over the course of four days this week, we are presented with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus the Pharisee from chapter 3 of St. John's Gospel.

The Pharisees presented themselves as men who knew everything there was to know about the Law and Sacred Scriptures. They always thought they were the smartest people in the room. And so their pride, over and over again in the Gospels, keep them from recognizing the truth of Jesus Christ.

At the beginning of their conversation, Nicodemus called Jesus “a man coming from God as a teacher”. And yet, the Lord knew it was flattery and lip-service, for he doesn’t acknowledge the fake complement. Rather, the Lord rebukes Nicodemus: “you claim to be a teacher, yet you do not understand.”

Nicodemus, initially gave no sign that he was even interested in being taught. However, and this is what sets Nicodemus apart from the other Pharisees in the Gospel, as the conversation ensues, notice how Nicodemus' remarks get shorter and shorter, while Jesus' answers get longer and longer. Instead of offering lip-service, he begins to truly listen. In fact, in tomorrow’s Gospel and Thursday, Nicodemus will remain silent as Jesus, the Word-made-flesh teaches about the love of God, the nature of his mission, and the importance of believing in his message.

There are many in our culture who treat Jesus and the Church with similar Pharisaical intellectual snobbery. “What could Jesus or the Church possibly have to teach me?” Even many “adult Catholics” refuse to crack open the Bible or the Catechism believing that they know it all or have nothing to gain from coming to deeper understanding of the faith. Bishops and priests are not immune to pharisaic closemindedness.  

The Christian, however, must perpetually adopt the posture of student—of disciple. The Church is “Mater et Magistra”, Mother and Teacher, and we are never too old, or too theologically trained to sit in mother’s lap and learn from her. 

The renewal that God may want for us this Easter may be to learn how to learn again: how to be enriched more deeply by the teaching of the Church, how to encounter His timeless wisdom in the Scriptures in a new way, how to listen for his voice in our encounters with his little ones and the poor.

By the end of their conversation Nicodemus seems to learn this very important lesson: he learns how to stop talking and how to listen. Jesus doesn't want flattery, he doesn't want lip service; he wants to teach us.

May the Holy Spirit help each of us to take once again the posture of the student—the disciple—and learn from Jesus the Teacher, who yearns to instruct in the ways of righteousness and self-sacrifice for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ. 

For our parish, and for the newly initiated, that we may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

1st Week of Lent 2021 - Friday - The paradox of God's impossible standards

Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of God.

The scribes and Pharisees were renowned for their zeal, concern for purity, and their conformity to the law of Moses.  The very word Pharisee comes from the word meaning “to separate”. The Pharisees sought to separate themselves from everything that was sinful. They would even avoid eating with sinners, hence, their consternation when Jesus would dine with tax collectors and prostitutes.  

How could our holiness possibly "surpass" that of the people of Jesus' day who obeyed every letter of the law?  It sounds as if Jesus has just set humanely impossible standards for entrance into the kingdom of God. Well…he has.

No amount of fasting will gain you entrance to heaven. No amount of almsgiving will gain you entrance into heaven. No amount of feeding the poor and clothing the naked, on their own, will gain us entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

For there is nothing we can do humanly to gain entrance to heaven. If there was, we wouldn’t have needed a savior. Even the first reading contains the same impossible standard: “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” Again, the same impossible standard. Who of us has kept all God’s statutes? Not a one. If we had, we wouldn’t have begun Lent marking ourselves as sinners with ashes on our foreheads.

Since my holiness and acts of charity and penances are not enough, what can I do? If there is nothing we can do, what can we do?

St. Paul understood man’s inability to gain entrance to heaven on his own. Which is why he sought for Jesus Christ to take over his life. So much so, that he goes on to say that, “It IS no longer me who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” How can the holiness of my life surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees—when it’s not my holiness—when it is not my will directing my life—but His.

A week into the season of Lent, and we are probably still doing pretty well with our Lenten penances—maybe even taking some pride that we haven’t slipped and snacked when we shouldn’t or given into gossip when we shouldn’t. Today’s readings are a remedy to human pride that can set in when we become focused on good works.  A reminder that our good works are not a replacement for our need for a savior, rather, they are the means by which we repent for not allowing God to direct our lives, and a solemn plea for Him to do what we cannot do, to purify, to cleans, to guide, and direct our lives, to help us decrease that he may increase in us, and to deepen our gratitude for the surpassing righteousness of Christ, who alone has saved us from our sins, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families. And for the Church in China and all places where the Gospel is silenced.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.

28th Week in OT 2020 - Friday - All that is concealed will be revealed

 As the Lord’s public ministry brings him closer to Jerusalem, large crowds of people begin to follow him and listen to his teaching. This morning’s passage begins a long sermon contrasting genuine discipleship with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

Beware hypocrisy for “there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed”. The Pharisees were hypocrites because on the outside they acted as if they were upright, but inside they were full of evil. They were quick to point out what they perceived as the faults of others but did not see or repent of their own. Behind a mask of righteousness, the concealed an inner coldness, malice, pride, and lust for power. They were pretenders, play acting at holiness. 

And the Lord explains that in the end, no one will get away with hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed. God sees to the heart. Jesus saw through the façade, the deception of the Pharisees. And offered them warnings and invited them to repent.

All Hypocrisy will certainly be exposed on judgment day, we will certainly have to answer for any evil deeds and division we sowed in private. There will be some Christians who will be exposed as shams and false prophets on judgment day.

So in this sermon, the Lord is certainly warning his disciples not to follow such false-teachers. After his return to the Father, the Church will be have to be on guard against false teachers, false apostles, he sew division and heresy.  

But, in this warning against hypocrisy, the Lord also wants to ensure that his followers, his disciples don’t fall into this sin. Genuine Christian discipleship isn’t about play acting at holiness, but cultivating genuine authentic love of God and neighbor. We are truly to repent of our sins so that they may be replaced with virtue and righteousness.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret Mary, that great visionary who made known the powerful devotion to the Lord’s sacred heart. In 1677, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun in France and revealed his Sacred Heart. She said, “I could plainly see His heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold His heart which so loved humanity. Then He seemed to take my very heart from me and place it there in His heart. In return He gave me back part of His flaming heart.”

Here is the remedy for all hypocrisy. Again the Lord doesn’t want play actors, rather he wants to replace our cold, divisive hearts with his own. And that comes through prayer, devotion, right belief, repentance, and works of charity.

May the burning fire of his sacred heart, burn away all hypocrisy in our lives and in our parish, that we may witness to the transforming and saving power of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That all Christians may grow in devotion to the Lord’s sacred heart, that sinner may turn to the infinite ocean of God’s mercy, lukewarm souls may grow fervent, and fervent souls may grow in perfection.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, and turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

 O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 5 2020 (EF) - St. Placid and Companions - The leaven of the Pharisees

Chapter 12 of St. Luke’s Gospel, from which we take our Gospel reading for this feast of the Martyr St. Placid and his companions, begins a long teaching by the Lord on genuine discipleship in contrast to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. 

St. John Henry Newman offers a very strongly worded commentary on this passage. He says, “How seasonable is our Lord’s warning to us…to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy: professing without practicing. He warns us against it as leaven, as a subtle insinuating evil which will silently spread itself throughout the whole character…Let us ever remember that all who follow God with but a half heart, strengthen the hands of his enemies…perplex inquirers after truth, and bring reproach upon their Savior’s name…Woe unto the deceiver and self-deceiver! God give us grace to flee from this woe while we have time! Let us examine ourselves, to se if there be any wicked way in us…And let us pray God to enlighten us, and to guide us, and to give us the will to please him, and the power.”

Pretty strong words for that great saint, but certainly because Our Lord’ own condemnation of hypocrisy is pretty strong. Hypocrisy was the great sin of the Pharisees, who claimed representatives of God. They had the duty to point others to God, but could not identify God when he arrived in their midst in the flesh. Their hypocrisy was that they professed righteousness, but did not practice it. They condemned small infractions, while devoid, themselves, of authentic love of God and neighbor.

Rather, the Lord teaches that his followers must be devoid of pharisaic hypocrisy. We are to be full of genuine love for God and neighbor which transforms the whole of one’s life. And we are to treat others with the same mercy and patience with which we hope to be treated by God.

When a Christian does not practice what he preaches, St. John Henry Newman says we “perplex inquirers after the truth.” In other words, when we fail to live as Christ in the world, we make it difficult for non-believers, those searching for Christ, to come to believe in Him. So we need to take seriously the need to examine our lives, to sweep our houses clean of leaven, that we may give good witness and lead others to Christ.

This Gospel passage is so fitting for the feasts of the martyrs, like St. Placid and his companions, because the martyrs truly have “preached Christ from the roof tops”—they have preached him by following Him all the way to the cross—giving the supreme witness of their very lives. 

Whenever we are tempted to forsake the teachings and commands of the Lord, to give in to temptation, calling to mind the witness of the martyrs, their willingness to suffer, is a powerful remedy to our fear. 

Celebrating and calling to mind the witness of the martyrs, aids us in that “seasonable” daily effort of avoiding hypocrisy, to practice what we preach, to not fear those who harm or kill the body because of our faith. May we follow their example and know their heavenly intercession for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Gospel: At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in chambers shall be preached on the house-tops. And I say to you, My friends, be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear: fear ye Him Who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you, whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. 

 

25th Week in OT 2020 - Psychology of mental change & Evangelization

 Last week, I spoke a bit about the sin of rash judgment, how it is very easy for us to form judgments about people without the necessary facts, and to dismiss them or discredit them due to that rash judgment. The Pharisees, I mentioned, discredited Jesus—he couldn’t possibly be a prophet or teacher—because he ate sinners, his disciples appeared to break the sabbath. There are very few people in the Gospels, for example, who initially dismissed Jesus and then changed their minds about him. The only person who comes to mind is Paul, and he only changes his mind when he is struck down on the road to Damascus and the Resurrected Lord appears to him personally.

Changing our minds after a rash judgment is terribly difficult--admitting we were wrong about something or someone is difficult. For something happens in our brains when we decide something is true. Our brains give us a little psychological reward, when we decide that something is true. Our brain really likes being right about things. And it’s psychologically difficult to reverse a judgment—you literally need to change the structure of your brain—and the brain resists that. In fact, the brain will look for more and more proof to support its original judgment than to reverse it.

Where am I going with this? In the first reading, the book of proverbs differentiates between the wicked man and the righteous man. And remarkably proverbs here says something about the psychology of the wicked,  “All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves hearts.” What proverbs is saying here, is that it is quite possible for a person to believe they are right about everything, and still be wrong about everything. They might think they know the best way to fix a car, and still be wrong. They might think they know the best way to raise children, and still be wrong. They might think they know all about God or the Church and still be wrong. They might think they know the right way to live, and still be wrong.

And it is difficult to convert people like this. People who are convinced they are right about everything, are often wrong about so much. Again, the Pharisees, they thought they were the religious authorities, that their interpretation of Scripture was superior and authentic. And yet, the Lord exposes their blind spots, “you blind guides” he calls them, “you fools”. They thought they were the experts on God, but did not recognize God when he was standing in front of them performing miracles. 

Rather, the Christian, must always be open to correction by the Word of God. To be a disciple is to always be learning from Jesus—learning how we are to not only be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. 

But when we are doers of the word, we are able to reach those souls who have hardened their hearts toward Jesus and the Church. 

We strive be to show them Jesus—like Paul seeing the Lord on the road to Damascus—in our words and our deeds, not just as hearers of the word, but doers of the word, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the members of the Church may seek to be not just hearers of the word but doers of the word Let us pray to the Lord.

For the conversion of those who have hardened their hearts toward Jesus and his bride the Church, and for the conversion of all hearts.

During this month of September, dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, we pray for all those who grieve, and that we may grieve sufficiently for our sins.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

12th Week of OT 2020 - Friday - Jesus' healing touch

Immediately following the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 thru 7 of Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord comes down from the Mount of Beatitudes and performs a miraculous healing. It’s sort of divine stamp of authenticity, in a sense, to the teaching that the Lord just offered. Why should you believe him? Why should you follow his teaching? Why is his interpretation of God’s law different than the scribes and the Pharisees? Well, the fact that he is able to cure lepers with a touch is pretty good reason to take Jesus seriously, isn’t it?

Not only does the fact that he can perform miracles set him apart from the pharisees, but the manner he performs them. Because Jesus is fully God, fully Divine, he could have simply commanded this leper to be clean, he could have spoken a word, and the leper would have been healed. But, the Lord chose to touch him.

To the Pharisee, Jesus’ contact with the leper would have been unthinkable. The Pharisees believe that to be righteous was to separate yourself from anything unclean. So they could not eat with certain people, particularly tax-collectors and prostitutes, who were these sort of public sinners, and of course a Pharisee would have nothing to do with a leper. If you touched a leper you would be ritually unclean.

But Jesus, doesn’t distance himself from the unclean ones, he does not separate himself from the sinner, like the Pharisee. Rather, Jesus enters the world of sinners, to show us that God has not abandoned us, but calls us to life, and restores us to life.

Through this miracle, not only does he display that he is God, but what God is really like: God is so holy, and loves us so much that he enters into this fallen, diseased world, to draw near to us, and heal us, and make us clean.

And not only is following Jesus important by listening to and applying his teaching to our life, we need that contact with Him to be healed and to be reconciled to God to be cleansed of all the forms of our spiritual leprosy which is uncurable by any other means. This is done primarily through the sacraments of the Church, in our prayer lives, and by drawing near to others in the works of mercy.

We are meant to identify with the leper in this story, who has identified his disease, who places his faith in Jesus, and makes the effort to approach the Lord and ask for healing. But also, to remember that there are people in our families, our neighborhoods, who are hurting, physically and emotionally, who feel alienated from God like lepers, and we are to draw near to them, with Christ’s healing touch, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may guide the selection of a new bishop for Cleveland, that he may be a man of  wisdom, of deep Christian faith, hope, and love.

That we may overcome our fears of reaching out to the spiritually and physically sick and the most vulnerable, that we may be instruments of mercy to them.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster,  those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, all victims of abuse, especially children, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, for the members of the Legion of Mary, for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week of Lent 2020 - Tuesday - Learn to do the good

At the beginning of the liturgical year, we read extensively from the prophet Isaiah, to prepare for our celebration of the coming of Christ during the season of Advent. Well now, during the season of Lent, it should be no surprise to hear from the great Advent prophet as well, as we prepare for the paschal festivities of Easter during this season of penance and prayer.

We heard from the beginning of the first chapter of Isaiah today, who gives a series of instruction: “Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds…cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.” During Lent, we do well to take these instructions to heart.

Yet, Why does Isaiah instruct us that we must “learn to do good?” St. Basil comments: Since moral understanding is neither self-evident nor clear to all, we must learn to do good deeds through our study of sound doctrine.” Doing good is not always self-evident, it’s not always easy to discern, and it’s not always easy to put into practice. Generosity, forgiveness, self-control, it’s not always clear how to put these into practice, and certainly in the face of temptation we aren’t always even thinking about the need to put them into practice.

But in order to lead the sort of lives that God wants, we need to learn, we need to be properly schooled, we need to take the position of a student, of a disciple.

In the Gospel, the Lord condemns the Pharisees for setting themselves above the rest. They liked to be called father, teacher, master all the while forgetting the need to learn what is truly good in the eyes of God, becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lent, when we our honest, should humble us and teach us how much we need to learn. Lent does humbly sets us on the path of learning right at its beginning, on Ash Wednesday we recall we are NOT master, we are NOT teacher, “we our dust”. And by our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we put our lessons into practice.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that must not be true for us. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a life-long learner. Learning justice, repentance, courage, balance of priorities, calmness, and generosity. May the Lord find us at his feet, as his humble students today and all days for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

For the Holy Spirit to guide the appointment of our next Bishop—that he may be a man of true faith and courage.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families. And for the Church in China and all places where the Gospel is silenced.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.