27th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Monday - Asking the right questions

 Of all the questions he could have asked Jesus, the scholar in the law from the Gospel today asks Jesus a pretty good one, likely the most important of all religious questions: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

It’s one thing to be focused on worldly prosperity. What must I do to live the American dream? But this expert in the law seems to have his priorities straight. The time we spend in this earthly life is a drop in the ocean compared to eternity. It is very wise to be eternity minded, rather than earthly minded. It profits a man nothing to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul. So, this expert in the law seems to have his priorities straight. He’s turning to Jesus for answers to the ultimate question. Would more of our modern day contemporaries get into that habit, the world would be in a different shape! And perhaps, as people of faith, we would progress in the spiritual life more steadily, if we began asking the Lord the right questions. “What must I do to grow in holiness?” “What must I do to grow in patience?” “What must I do to overcome my habitual sin?”

Now, there are a lot of people who ask Jesus a lot of questions and for a lot of different reasons in the Gospel. The Lord’s disciples ask for clarification on his teachings; Pharisees and Scribes ask Jesus questions to try to trap him or discredit him. But we don’t really know the intentions of this scholar of the law, only that he rightly turns to Jesus for answers. Maybe the scholar of the law is trying to prove himself more learned than this itinerant preacher, but whatever his motives, this encounter ends with the Lord confirming that the greatest commandment is to love God with your whole mind, soul, being and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself, and that our neighbor isn’t just the person that looks like us, acts like us, believes the same thing we believe, our neighbor includes the stranger, the man in need on the side of the street, the one who has fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances, the one that every else is ignoring.

You want eternal life? You must expand your heart to love everyone. You must overcome your tunnel-vision of looking past those in need. You must eliminate the earthly-minded excuses that keep you from exercising mercy. Like the good Samaritan who pays out of his own purse for the lodging and recovery of the poor victim, eternal life will cost us something: our time, our talent, our treasure must be put at the service of our fellow man. 

“Do this and you will live” the Lord says. May we know the divine assistance that makes up for our weaknesses in striving for eternal life, in living out the Gospel mandate of mercy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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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.  

That during the month of October dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we may be strengthened in devotion to Our Lady and trust ever-more in her maternal intercession. 

For the priests of the Diocese of Cleveland gathering this week with the Bishop at their bi-annual Convocation, may the Holy Spirit guide their time and inspire them for their continued ministry. 

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, and those whose lives are upturned by the terrible storms in florida, for victims of war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

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

27th Week in OT 2020 - Monday - Unconditional love of Jesus Christ

 The parable of the Good Samaritan is usually interpreted in one of two ways.  The first is to read it literally as Jesus’ answer to what mercy, compassion, and neighborliness looks like.  The scholar of the law asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answers: even the person that you would normally overlook, even the person that the rest of the world considers unclean, that’s your neighbor, and you need to pick him up when he has fallen, you need to see past your preconceived notions and stereotypes and prejudices, and you need to treat him with mercy and compassion and tenderness.

The second way of interpreting the Good Samaritan parable is to see in this allegory a description of what God has done for each one of us in Christ Jesus.  God has raised us up when we fell upon robbers and have been “half dead” because of sin.  We’ve been raised up, tended, cared for, restored to life because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. 

Jesus is the Good Samaritan. And as each one of us has been treated with compassion by God, we must extend that compassion to others. The entire Christian life is essentially a response to what God has done for us through Christ. For us love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable for in Christ love of God and love of neighbor were inseparable.

So the answer to the scholar’s question, who is my neighbor? The answer is “everybody” because everyone is treated as “neighbor” by God—without condition. Jesus gives his life for all, he loves all, and so must we.

No one must be excluded from our charity. There’s not anything anyone has to do in order to become “deserving” of our charity, just as there was nothing that we had to do in order to deserve that Jesus laid down his life for us—he did not die for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. 

Just as the priest and the levite thought they had pretty good reasons for stepping over the man, we often develop reasons for holding back our charity. But this parable of Jesus really calls us to love without condition, to go the extra-mile, not just for those who can pay us back, but especially for those who can’t. 

But when we do, we love in a Christ-like, godly way, and make the goodness of God known, and present, and palpable. This is a love that transforms the world, may we be free from all that keeps us from the unconditional love of Jesus, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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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.

That during this election season, civility may prevail, and that those with differing political views may work together for a good, just, and righteous society. Let us pray to the Lord.

That during the month of October dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we may be strengthened in devotion to Our Lady and trust ever-more in her maternal intercession. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

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

15th Sunday of OT 2019 - Good Samaritan Saints and Sinners

Biblical scholars and preachers usually interpret today’s Gospel passage, the parable of the Good Samaritan in one of two ways.  The first is to read it as Jesus’ answer to what Christian compassion, mercy, and neighborliness looks like.  The scholar of the law asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor”, “who should I care about” and Jesus answers: your neighbor is everyone, even the person that you would normally overlook, even the person that the rest of the world considers unclean, that’s your neighbor, and you need to pick him up when he has fallen, you need to see past your preconceived notions and stereotypes and prejudices, and you need to treat him with mercy and compassion and tenderness. So that’s the first interpretation.

The second way of interpreting the Good Samaritan parable is to see in this parable an allegory for what God has done for each one of us in Christ Jesus.  God has raised us up when we fell upon robbers and have been “half dead” because of sin.  We’ve been raised up, tended, cared for, restored to life because of Jesus’ saving death.  No human power could do what God has done for us—restoring our souls to life through baptism, healing us through grace.

Before I was ordained a priest, a group of seminarians one Sunday afternoon after attending Mass in the morning, decided to visit one of these non-denominational Mega-Churches that had become somewhat popular, you know, to see what all the fuss was about.  In fact, a lot of former Catholics end up at these Mega-Churches for various reasons. 

So that morning, there were about 800 people gathered, we sat in chairs up to a stage filled with drums and guitars.  The service opened with about 20 minutes of Christian Rock music, smoke machines, and laser lights. 

The pastor then took the stage and performed a dramatic retelling of this morning’s Gospel, the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Afterwards, he gave a sermon, basically interpreting the parable in that second way, that we are the man fallen amongst robbers; because of our own free-will given over to sin, we were lying on the road, half-dead, where no human power could help us.  And then, out of His infinite love, God sent his son to die for us and redeem us, to raise us up to new life. 

Then the pastor asked the congregation to close their eyes, and asked, “Have you fallen amongst robbers, have you been struggling in sin, are there choices that you’ve made against God’s commandments, have you pridefully rejected God’s grace, have you been selfish with the time you’ve been given? If so, raise your hand”  And I’m thinking to myself, sure I have, I’ve struggled with sin, I’ve fallen, I’ve been prideful, I’ve been selfish towards my neighbor, and so, I raised my hand, I didn’t think twice.  All of a sudden, he says, “Oh, I see someone with their hand up”.  I open my eyes and look around and thought, “oh no, that’s me!”  My classmates said I looked like a deer in headlights.  So I quickly shoot my hand down, and try to hide in my seat.  But I start to think, how am I the only one in this room of 800 people that is guilty of sin?   

And I’m thinking, you know, this is one of the big differences between the Catholic faith and a lot of these non-denominational groups.  They believe that you only have to raise your hand once in your life. Once you raise your hand, and go up to the altar, and profess that Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior, your saved, you never need to raise your hand again. Catholics, on the other hand, we raise our hands daily. At every Mass or at the end of the day in our examination of conscience, we take sin seriously, we take our hands and we beat our breasts and see even those smallest acts of selfishness, for what they are, acts of free will contrary to the Love of God and Neighbor and we repent, daily.

And when those sins are of a serious nature, they cause a serious disruption in our relationship with God, we brings those sins to the ear of a priest, and to confess them and to be absolved from them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Scripture and the lives of the Saints show that only when we acknowledge ourselves as sinners, do we truly begin to love God and neighbor. The second way of interpreting the parable, is a sort of key, to unlocking the first. The humble acknowledgement of my own need for a savior, my need for conversion opens us to truly love as we are made to love—to love God with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength.

I’ve been told that I sure talk a lot about sin and confession. But that’s only because humble repentance is the most important key to loving God and neighbor authentically.  We see this so evidently in the lives of the Saints. The saints, who become charged and changed by God’s presence living within them, recognize and acknowledge themselves constantly falling short of the love of God, and so they strive to love more perfectly day after day. The Apostle St. Paul calls himself the “chief of sinners” after his initial conversion. He saw himself first and foremost as a sinner, who has unworthily received the new life of Grace. And he lived his life as a response to that grace.

St. Francis of Assisi, most beloved of saints, looked upon himself as a sinner, too.  In fact, he believed himself the greatest of all sinners. Our most beloved of saints, thought himself the greatest of sinners. “He was accustomed to say that if the mercy shown him by God had been given to any other sinner, the latter would have become ten times holier than he, and that to God alone must be attributed whatever was found in him of goodness and beauty.

Saints are not the opposite of sinners. Rather, saints ARE sinners who acknowledge the truth about themselves and about God, and live in loving and grateful response to mercy through lives of grace and service. Saints allow themselves to be saved by Jesus the Good Samaritan, and go to become Good Samaritans for others.

Francis of Assisi once told his monks that if they were in the midst of the Beatific Vision and a beggar knocked at their door asking for a cup of cold water, turning away from the heavenly vision to help the beggar would be the real heaven, and turning away from the beggar to keep the blissful vision would be turning from God's face.

Daily we do well to ask the Holy Spirit to help us acknowledge and repent rightly of our sins, and to help us identify the times that we turned away from those opportunities to be the Good Samaritan. Daily repentance leads to daily conversion and daily acts of charity for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Columbus Day 2018 - Bringing Christ to the Unknown (School Mass)

Today our nation celebrates Columbus Day, remembering when Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas on October 12, 1492.

For Columbus, his voyage of discovery was a work of evangelization. On board his ships were Catholic missionaries; his first act upon landing in the New World was to plant the cross, claim the new lands for Christ and His Church.
Missionary priests then offered mass. In fact, upon first sighting land, he and his crew prayed together the Hail Holy Queen.

Columbus is celebrated as a national hero and also an example for Christians because he plunged willingly into the unknown in order to spread the saving faith. He willingly endured the violent storms of the Atlantic, as St. Paul and the Apostles did, braving great dangers in fidelity to Christ’s great commission, to spread salvation to the ends of the earth.

Columbus used his Italian genius, his excitement and energy, to bravely venture into the unknown to fulfill the will of God. We challenged to ask ourselves if we are doing the same: not to be lukewarm about our faith, or treat the spread of the Gospel as someone else’s job. God wants to use all of us as his instruments to spread the kingdom of his goodness, love, and truth. All Christians need to be willing to go beyond our comfort zones, go into the unknown to share God’s goodness. Just like in the Gospel today…the good Samaritan reached out to someone he didn’t know, someone who likely had no way of paying him back. When we are very young, our parents tell us not to talk to strangers, but as we grow up, and grow mature in the faith, I think today’s Gospel challenges us to reach out more and more to the stranger, the foreigner, the weirdo, the neglected, to befriend them, to go into the unknown to be instruments of God.

Christopher Columbus is celebrated not simply because of his great navigational accomplishment. He is celebrated for his Catholic faith, an act flowing from what he believed to be the purpose of life, the purpose of all life, to make God known, to make God’s mercy known through Jesus Christ.

On what fantastic voyage of discovery, faith, and evangelization does God wish to lead you? Pray every day, that you may love the Lord enough, to be open to the voice of God enough, to be willing to go where God wishes to send you, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday - 27th Week in OT 2016 - Love of Neighbor

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report some version of this morning’s Gospel.

In Matthew, it is Jesus who explains to the young man that the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor, and then to illustrate this Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Mark leaves out the parable, but has Jesus quoting directly from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Shema, Israel, Adonai Eluhenu…Hear O, Israel the Lord is God, the Lord alone, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… You shall love your neighbor as yourself”

Luke’s Gospel has the young man reciting the greatest commandment, and then to just to be sure he asks, “well, who is my neighbor?”  And Jesus offers the parable of the Good Samaritan to explain that the man in need on the side of the street is your neighbor, the one who has fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances, the one who has fallen victim to the crimes of others.

So loving our neighbor means taking responsibility for others, even strangers—not being apathetic, but being quick to respond to their needs.

Notice, how different the action of the Samaritan was from the Priest and the Levite. He was counter-cultural! The Samaritan could have mimicked the apathy of the priest and the Levite and just walked by.  He could have blended in to the apathetic crowd.  But the Samaritan—and therefore, the Christian, are to be counter-cultural in our love for our neighbor.  We aren’t to treat others as the rest of the world treats them, we are to treat others as Christ would treat them.

Yes, the Samaritan had plenty of excuses not to help: he didn’t know the other guy, he was busy, he had places to go, people to see, he had his “personal responsibilities”, he didn’t know how this fallen victim would react, he had his personal finances to worry about.  There is always a reason not to help someone. We must resist the tendency to develop the tunnel-vision of the priest and Levite in the story—the tendency to look past the needs of others.

The Samaritan reaches-out quickly, he doesn’t hesitate to offer assistance.  Spending our own time, our own effort, our own resources is not easy.  But it’s the way of Christ—who spent himself, who poured out himself, that we might have life, when we became estranged from God through sin.


Do this and you will live, Jesus Christ teaches us.  May we put our time, talent, and treasure always at the service of God and neighbor for the glory of God and salvation of souls.