13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Die to Sin and Living for God

 

For a few Sundays now, following Corpus Christi Sunday, the priest has been wearing the liturgical color, green. We’ve really had the whole spectrum of liturgical colors these past few months; we’ve had the purple of Lent, rose on Laetare Sunday, the white of Easter, the Red of Pentecost. I wore gold for Corpus Christi, black for funerals. And now we’re back to liturgical green.

I’ve always been partial to green. For one, it was the color of my first car, a hunter green 1992 firebird. Green is also a color of my childhood: I spent a lot of time as a kid in the woods, building forts and climbing trees.. Also, in high school and college, during the summers I would work in the nurseries, taking plant clippings. For two whole summers, for 8 hours a day, I simply watered plants and trees—if I didn’t see the color green, I wasn’t doing my job. Green is the color of new life. And liturgically, too, green is the color not simply of plants and trees, but the new life and growth which is to occur in our souls during Ordinary time (this season after Pentecost.)

In fact, though we Roman Catholics wear red on Pentecost, the Eastern Catholics wear green on Pentecost—to symbolize the new life of the Holy Spirit—the new life the Spirit brings to the Church and to the Christian soul.

Spiritual growth is one of our goals for Ordinary Time. In the spiritual life we are either growing or rotting, there is no in between. We are either growing toward God or falling away. We are either growing in our prayer life or diminishing, growing in self-sacrifice or tending toward selfishness, becoming more patient or less patient, increasing in virtue or becoming hardened in vice.

The Green of Ordinary Time is a reminder that God wants growth for his children, constant growth. He wants us always learning, always developing, always increasing in grace, always producing spiritual fruit, maturing spiritually, improving in the use of the many gifts he gives us.

In our Second Reading this weekend St Paul provides us with two important laws of spiritual growth.

The first law of spiritual growth sounds paradoxical. In order to grow, we must die, to sin, that is. “You too must think of yourselves as dead to sin,” St. Paul says.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ as each of us profess to be means turning away from sin. For sin, is poison to the soul. The Lord died to save us from sin and death. So the Christian is constantly seeking to eradicate sin, from our life-- rooting out the tendrils of selfishness which choke out the life of God in us.

When we making little compromises with the commandments, when we give-in to sinful inclinations and habits, these choices suffocate the life of Christ in us—in our souls, families, and parish. We will never have the peace and joy that God wants for us when we accommodate sin.

Rather, as St. Paul tells us, we are to “die to sin”. Now, dying to sin is hard - because temptation is tempting. Because we are fallen, we have this magnetic attraction, at times, to what is bad for us—for our relationship with God. But, the heart of Jesus burns with ardent desire to purify us from our sins. When we make the effort to resist sin, when we pray for his help in the moment of temptation, God comes to our aid.

There is a story of from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The great saint was being overwhelmed with temptations to break his vow of chastity. He would pray, but the temptations just got worse. He knew something had to be done to wake himself out of this cycle of temptation. So on a particularly cold winter’s day, he stripped down naked and threw himself into a ditch full of snow. It was a shock to his system, and it was a way of showing the devil that he is willing to suffer in order to remain faithful to God.

Popular culture depicts St. Francis as having a special love of God’s creation, and he did. But that creation includes the human soul, the most important part of creation. And so the man was serious about uprooting sin in himself and preaching against sin so that God’s life might flourish.

If there is a particular sin which keeps lingering in your life, like St. Francis and each of the saints, get serious about it. Make frequent use of the sacrament of confession, undertake some fasting, pray daily for God’s help. Effort in overcoming sin will be rewarded by God and will result in Spiritual growth and its fruits.

So St. Paul tells us, firstly, we must die to sin. The second law of Spiritual Growth, he says, is that we must live for God. Paul writes, “you too must think of yourselves… as living for God in Christ Jesus.”

Dying to sin, bridling our self-centered tendencies, is necessary for spiritual growth, but spiritual growth also involves become like God in charity. We are to engage in works of Charity, such as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The saints give us countless examples of what living for God—the life of charity—looks like. July 1 this week is the feast of St. Junipero Serra. Listen to his heroic charity.

During the time when our founding Fathers were fighting for our nation’s independence, the Franciscan Priest Father Junipero Serra was traveling up the coast of present-day California, establishing missions—outposts to evangelize the indigenous peoples.

Junipero Serra wasn’t born a Franciscan of course, he was originally a university professor in Spain and a very learned man. But he detected the Holy Spirit urging him to grow. So he gave up his university career to travel to California to teach the Native Americans about the Lord Jesus. And mind you, this was a time in our history when the civil authorities were not friendly to the humanity and rights of the indigenous people. St. Junipero, the good priest stood up for these people, helped them to improve their spiritual and material well-being, while boldly fighting against their mistreatment.

Those journeys up and down the coast of California must have been grueling for him. For, when his body was exhumed for the purpose of the canonization, it was shown that St. Junipero Serra had cancer of the legs. Yet, he traveled, he labored, out of love for God’s people, fueled by zeal for souls—he lived for God, as St. Paul urges us to do, and was transformed into love.

How is God calling you to live more fully for him—bringing the Gospel to those ignorant of it, providing material assistance to those genuinely in need of it, or emotional support for the lonely?

We might not be called to travel halfway across the globe to engage in missionary work, but each of us are called to help others know Christ, likely at the cost of some suffering on our part, to die to sin and to live, not just for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us. This week, perhaps every day, take time, intentionally each day: ask the Lord what is the growth you want for me at this point me in my life? What is the work you have for me? What are the sins you are calling me to die to today, who am I to share your goodness with today, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

8th Week of Ordinary Time 2026 - Wednesday (Last school mass) - Summer Growth

 

Well, we have come to our last school mass of the school year. Soon you will be able to relax a little bit and enjoy your hard-earned summer vacation.

As you see by my vestments, the Church is back to the season of the year called Ordinary Time. During Ordinary Time the priest wears the color green to symbolize growth. Green is the color of growing things.

The Green of Ordinary Time represents the new, vibrant life and spiritual growth that is to occur within Christian souls during this time of the Church’s Year.

Much of Ordinary Time coincides with the growing summer months in this part of the world. Farmers have planted their seeds, the summer wheat and corn and vegetables will be growing throughout the summer through harvest time. All of you will continue growing through the summer months; many of you will show up to school next fall a several inches taller.

During summer vacation, no doubt, God wants all of you to continue to grow, not just your bodies of course, but your minds and hearts. Now our bodies will grow without much effort, all we have to do is eat right, sleep right, and exercise rightly. But as you it takes much more effort for our minds to grow. And it takes more effort for our hearts to grow.

For our minds to grow, we have to read and study. So, this summer, please, I beg you, and I know I beg you on behalf of your teachers, don’t let your mind go to waste by spending all summer playing video games and scrolling through social media posts. Yes, you’ll have a lot more free time over the summer than you do during the school year, please read books, please limit screen time, spend time outside learning about nature. Summer can even be a time to be able to study a subject you didn’t have time to study during the school year or study and develop a skill, an art. Grow your mind when you have the opportunity.

But, also, this summer, God will want your hearts and souls to grow. And our hearts and souls grow through the choices we make. The choice to be patient, the choice to be kind, the choice to make peace with someone we’ve been arguing with, the choice to forgive, the choice to remain faithful to God when we’re being tempted, the choice to be generous, the choice to turn away from being selfish.

“Love one another intensely from a pure heart”, St. Peter said in our first reading today. And to love is choice. And when that choice is made our hearts and souls grow as God intended.

Dear ones, I pray your summer is restful and rejuvenating, but I also pray that you may continue to grow, that your hearts might become ever more like the heart of Jesus, full of love. Love for your families, love for your country, love for your fellow Christians, love for all people, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For the Church: that during this season of Ordinary Time, all Christians may continue to grow in holiness, charity, wisdom, and faithfulness to the Gospel. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our nation, especially as we celebrate 250 years of the birth of our nation this summer: that leaders may seek the common good, protect the young, serve families, and work for peace and authentic justice.

For all students beginning summer vacation: that they may use their time well, grow in knowledge and virtue, limit distractions, enjoy God’s creation, and choose each day to love one another from a pure heart.

For the students, teachers, staff, and families of our academy: that this summer may be a time of rest, renewal, safety, and growth in mind, body, heart, and soul

For those who are sick, lonely, poor, afraid, or burdened in any way: that they may know the help of God always, and that we may be attentive and responsive to those whom we have an opportunity to help.

That those who mourn may be comforted by the promise of the Resurrection, and for the repose of the souls of our beloved dead.

Heavenly Father, you have planted the seed of faith within us. Help us to grow in wisdom, virtue, and love throughout these summer months. Hear the prayers we offer today, and grant them according to your holy will. Through Christ our Lord.

10th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Tuesday - Holy Saltiness

 

Well, after 40 days of Lent, and Holy Week, and the Paschal Triduum, and 50 days of easter, almost exactly 25% of the liturgical year, we’ve returned once again to Ordinary Time.

The green of Ordinary time reminds us of the growth for which we are to strive, the growth in holiness, and virtue, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Green is also the color associated with the theological virtue of hope. We hope that what we do in the ordinary course of the Christian life will lead to heaven.

Our Gospel readings during Ordinary Time focus mostly on the teachings and works of Jesus throughout the course of his public ministry, from after his baptism in the Jordan before he reaches Jerusalem.

Ordinary Time is like a slow pilgrimage, during which we are pondering each day, with each step, the truths of our Lord, and how to incorporate them into the concrete details of our life.

Today Jesus teaches that his followers are to be the salt of the earth. In the ancient world, salt had a number of uses. So, too, Christians have a number of jobs.

The first job for salt most of us think of is seasoning. Salt makes food tasty. So, too, Christians are to be a sort of seasoning to an otherwise bland world.  There is nothing more interesting, no one more full of life, than a Christian saint filled with the life of Christ—something each of us are to aspire to.

Salt is also a Preservative: In the days before refrigeration, salt made preserving food possible for times of famine. Christians have the job of preserving what is good and holy in creation, and fighting off spiritual decay.

Salt is also a Purifier: most water purification systems use salt as a "purifier." Christians are to be the world’s purifiers: opposing the corrupting powers of malice and perversion and greed, purifying the mind and heart of society by preaching the word and calling to conversion.

Salt is used to melt ice. Christians are called to melt the coldness of the icy hearts of the world, particularly through our charity. There is nothing more heartwarming than when we act in selfless Christian charity.

Finally, salt is used to prevent people from slipping on slippery paths.  Christians are called to help souls from slipping into damnation—again by preaching the Gospel, instructing the ignorant, and correcting the sinner.

During this Ordinary Time, consider how you are called in the concrete details of your life to add some holy saltiness—purification, sanctity, warmth, and stability—to the people and relationships around you for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

As we journey through Ordinary Time, trusting in the Lord’s grace at work in our daily lives, let us offer our prayers for the Church and for the world:

For the holy Church of God: That through her preaching, teaching, and sacramental life, she may bring the seasoning of joy, the warmth of charity, and the light of hope to a world grown cold with indifference.

For all who are called to positions of leadership and influence: That they may uphold what is true and just, and help preserve what is good in society.

For our parish community: That we may grow each day in holiness and virtue, becoming instruments of God’s grace in our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods.

For the sick, the poor, those who struggle with spiritual dryness or despair, and those in need: that God’s grace may bring healing to their wounds and warmth to their hearts.

For the faithful departed: That, having followed Christ in this life, they may now rejoice in the eternal banquet of heaven.

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

10th Week in OT 2020 - Monday - The need for spiritual poverty

Over the next three weeks we will read through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, for our daily Gospel readings, beginning today with Chapter 5 of St. Matthew’s Gospel. 

This is also the first day since February 25th this year that I am wearing liturgical green for Mass. Green, the liturgical color for the season of ordinary time, symbolizes growth, spiritual growth, growth in the virtue, growth in charity, growth in utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is to occur throughout the ordinary seasons of our life. The ordinary day-to-day life of the Christian is meant to bring about growth in us.

And there is no better place to beginning to talk about spiritual growth than with the beatitudes. The beatitudes are read at baptisms, weddings, funerals, and throughout the Church year because they are the attitudes and dispositions we are meant to cultivate throughout all of life whether we are mourning or rejoicing.  By practicing the beatitudes the Christian orients himself to eternity by putting on the mind and heart of Christ.  We are to be meek, as he was meek; we are to be pure, as he was pure; we are to be devoted to doing the will of God as he was devoted. 

The very first beatitude is the key to all the rest and therefore the key to any real spiritual growth we hope to obtain. Blessed are the poor in spirit. First and foremost, we must practice poverty of spirit in everything we do, in every conversation we have, in every attempt to serve the physically, we must take upon ourselves the fundamental attitude of Christ—poverty of spirit.

Poverty of spirit means that we recognize our absolute need for God, that without God we our absolutely impoverished. Without God we have nothing, and without God we cannot hope to become the people we are meant to be. Without God, the builder builds his house in vain. Apart from me, Jesus says, “you can do nothing” at least nothing worth doing.

The sin of Adam and eve, and every sin, is essentially a failure to practice this very first beaitutide. Without it, we begin to believe and live as if we do not need God,  we do not need to trust God or obey his commandments. It is the belief that we can grasp and obtain happiness and life without God. Without the first beatitude we begin to swell with a sinful pride that leads to perdition.

Rather, the Christian is to cultivate the soil of their hearts, minds, and souls with and by humility, and by doing so, we become heirs of the kingdom of heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the preaching and teaching and charitable works of the Church will inspire all people to seek to practice the beatitudes of Christ.

That those in public office may govern with wisdom, put an end to all political corruption, and work for a society of authentic justice and peace with special care for the most vulnerable.

For an end to oppression, racism, hatred, addiction and injustice. For the healing of all the sick.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for a strengthening of marriages, for all single people who strive to follow Christ, and for the grace to utilize our spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church.

That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting; for our deceased family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, for all the poor souls in purgatory for Bishop George Murry, bishop of Youngstown and for Paul Becker, for whom this Mass is offered.

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.

13th Sunday in OT 2017 - To die to sin and live for God

Last weekend was the first Sunday the liturgical color was green since last February. We had the purple of lent, the white of easter, the red of Pentecost. And remember, after Pentecost we had the two great solemnities of Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi Sunday.

I was leading a support group the other night, and as an icebreaker question, each person was asked their favorite color. A few of the people said blue, finding blue to be peaceful and calm. But, I said, green--dark hunter green. For one, it was the color of my first car, a hunter green 1992 firebird. But, green is also the color of my childhood: I grew up running through the forests and fields out in my hometown of Madison, which is much more rural than here in Lyndhurst. Also, in high school and college, during the summers I would work in the nurseries, taking clippings from the different plants, grafting branches. One summer, for 8 hours a day, I simply watered plants and trees. So I associate that color green with new life. And liturgically, too, green is the color of new life, not simply of plants and trees, but the new life and growth which is to occur in our souls during this season after Pentecost.

In fact, though we Roman Catholics wear red on Pentecost, many Eastern Catholics wear green, not the fire of the Holy Spirit, but the new life He brings to the Church and to the Christian soul.

Spiritual growth is one of the foci of Ordinary Time. In spiritual life we are either growing or fading, ascending or descending, flourishing or stagnating. There are no plateaus in the spiritual life: we are either growing in our prayer life or falling away from vital practice, growing in a spirit of self-sacrifice or tending towards selfishness, becoming more patient or less patient, increasing in virtue or leaning toward vice.

God wants His children always growing, always learning, always becoming the people he made us to be. And in our Second Reading, St Paul provides us with two laws of spiritual growth.
The first law of spiritual growth is that we must die to sin: “You too must think of yourselves as dead to sin,” St. Paul says.

The second law is that we must live for God. Paul writes, “you too must think of yourselves… as living for God in Christ Jesus.”

What does "dying to sin" mean?

We are called to put to death our self-centered tendencies, all of them, our transgression of the laws of God, all of them. For not only do our sins hinder the life of God within us, they cause destruction in our lives, our families, and our society.

Flirting with sin, making little compromises with the commandments, or simply giving up and giving in to sinful inclinations and habits, these things suffocate the life of Christ in our souls.

And instead of living with interior peace, joy, meaning, wisdom, and courage, we end up exhausted, depressed, frustrated, with our relationships burdened with these attitudes and behaviors that should not exist.

Dying to sin is hard - because temptation is tempting. But God is on our side, and if we ask for his help, he will give it to us!

There is a story of from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The great saint was being overwhelmed with temptations to break his vow of chastity. He would pray, but the temptations just got worse. He knew something had to be done to wake himself out of this cycle of temptation. So on a particularly cold winter’s day, he stripped down naked and threw himself into a ditch full of snow. It was a shock to his system, and it was a way of showing the devil that he is willing to suffer in order to remain faithful to God.

Sometimes we only think of St. Francis as having this unique relationship with animals. But, the man was hardcore, he was serious about rooting out sin from his life. He knew that sin and the life of God were totally incompatible.

Yes, Our Blessed Lord is merciful to the most hardened sinner who repents, but he also calls us to purity, chastity, moral fortitude, obedience to the commandments. So, if there is a particular sin which keeps lingering, we do well to make frequent use of the sacrament of confession, but also to practice some mortification, some fasting, some act of self-sacrifice to put those temptations in their place.
The second law of spiritual growth is living for God. Dying to sin, resisting our self-centered tendencies, is necessary but not enough, if we wish to become the people God made us to be. We also need to do something positive. Christ calls us to action, he calls us to love. "Love one another," Jesus commanded us at the Last Supper, "as I have loved you".

Jesus isn’t simply talking about love as an emotion. He’s not saying that we need to walk around with dreamy eyes toward each other. Love is an action. It is doing what is best for a person. We are grow in our capacity to love as Christ loved by forgiving others when they offend or hurt us, by reaching out to those in need, and, as we reflected upon last week, by being bold in sharing with others the meaning and purpose that comes from knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ—spreading the Gospel.

I could give countless examples from the lives of the saints of what imitating Christ’s charity looks like. July 1 is the feast of St. Junipero Serra. When Pope Francis visited the United States last year, he canonized Junipero Serra, at the first canonization to be celebrated on U.S. soil.

During the time when our founding Fathers were fighting for our nation’s independence, the Franciscan Priest Father Junipero Serra traveled up the coast of present-day California, establishing missions, laboring for the spread of the Gospel.

Father Junipero was originally a university professor in Spain and a very learned man. But he heard the Holy Spirit urging him, not simply to share the knowledge of academia, but the knowledge of Christ. So he gave up his university career to come to California to teach the Native Americans about the Lord Jesus. He devoted himself to building churches and schools for the poor and the native people, catechizing those in his care and raising up dedicated priests to continue the Lord’s work.

During that time, when the civil authorities were violating the humanity and rights of the indigenous people, Padre Serra was devoted to improving their spiritual and material well-being—boldly fighting against their mistreatment.

For his work in raising up priests from the native population, Junipero Serra is a great patron Saint for vocation promotion.  There is even an international group for the promotion and support of vocations who look to his patronage called Serra International who have a chapter here in Cleveland and meet regularly to pray for vocations.

When his body was exhumed for the purpose of the canonization, it was shown that he had cancer of the legs, making the long hard journeys up the coast of California even more difficult.  Yet, he did so, out of love for God’s people, fueled by fervor for the spread of the Gospel.

Pope Francis called Junipero Serra one of the founding fathers of the United States and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the new World.

We might not be called to travel halfway across the globe to engage in missionary work, but each of us are called to help others know Christ, to die to sin and to live, not just for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.