September 19 2025 - St. Januarius - Why Miracles?

St. Januarius was a bishop of the early church in Benevento, Italy, not too far from where my own maternal grandparents families were from.  Januarius was martyred in Roman Empire’s last major persecution of the Church, that of Emperor Diocletian.  

It is said, that Bishop Januarius was arrested while visiting a fellow Christian who had been imprisoned for his faith and was awaiting execution.

Januarius is a saint beloved by the people of Naples who call him San Gennaro. And due to the large number of Napoletani in New York, a large multi-day festival is held each year. This year is the 99th annual San Gennaro festival in New York.  

There is a very unique relic connected to the feast of Januarius, a vial of the saint’s blood, which has dried up.  However, several times a year, including today, his feast day, the relic is brought out for public veneration, and the crusty, dried up blood liquefies.  This miracle has been occurring for over 600 years and it’s one of the most scientifically studied miracles in the world. Scientists have been unable to explain this miracle.  

Why does God perpetuate this miracle? Perhaps because it reminds the world that He is God of awe and wonder and awesome works and strange ways. The miracles of the saints show us that God is at work in human history. 

Miracles also humble us, reminding us that not all things can be explained by science.  Science is not the great savior of the world. There are limits to human reason, things which we must accept by faith. 

This miracle also reminds us that the blood of the martyrs continues to have power. The blood of Januarius, spilled for Christ, encourages us, and reminds us that God sees and treasures our sufferings for the Church. Their blood inspires us and encourages us to work for the Gospel with the same fervor, to seek to love God with the same love that filled their hearts.

Our efforts for God’s glory are precious in His eyes. Every drop of martyr’s blood, every ounce of suffering for the sake of goodness, for the kingdom has value—our fasting, our penance, our mortification, the mockery we endure for the faith—our venturing out of our comfort zones to help people, like St. Januarius visiting the imprisoned—it means something to God—our sufferings will be remembered for eternity and will be rewarded.

May the sufferings of Januarius and the martyrs continue to speak powerfully to our fallen world. May their blood continue to work the great miracle of the transforming our hardened hearts to love God more fully and to serve him more devotedly for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That religious indifference in our country and around the world may be transformed to radical commitment to the Gospel of Christ.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That Christians who are persecuted for their faith may be sustained by God’s love and the encouragement of the Body of Christ.

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

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.

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.

4th Week of Lent 2023 - Wednesday - Miracles and Teachings

 

Throughout Lent we read often from St. John’s Gospel. And unlike the other Gospels that are filled with stories of the many miracles Jesus performed, John records only seven. Now, St. John knew that the Lord performed many more miracles than he recorded. In fact, the very last verse of John’s Gospel attests to this: St. John writes, “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”

So, in John there are seven miracles. Why seven? It’s a pretty good number. A divine number. It’s the number of the days of creation, and isn’t that what Jesus was here to do, to begin something new. In fact, just like the first day of creation involved water, Jesus’ first miracle narrated by St. John is the turning of water into wine. And then John tells us of the miraculous Healing of the Royal Official’s son, which we would have heard on Monday, had it not been for the feast of St. Joseph, then another healing involving water, the healing of the blind man at the pool of Bethesda. The fourth miracle is the feeding of the 5000, then another miracle having to do with water, Jesus walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee. Sixth is the healing of the man born blind, which we heard last Sunday, and lastly, the raising of Lazarus, which we’ll hear this Sunday.

Often following the miracles in John’s Gospel, the Lord gives a length teaching. He gets peoples attention with the miraculous sign, now, then he teaches. He clarifies who he is and the mission he is about: He is the Son of God, he is here to do His Father’s work.  

These teachings, also deepen the antagonism between Jesus and his persecutors.  Especially as we get closer to Holy Week, the more he shows his goodness and divinity, the more the Word preaches the Truth, the more the world conspires to silence Him. 

The lengthy teaching we hear today follows the third miracle, the miracle of the healing at Bethesda. St. John reports this growing antagonism: The Lord says "My Father is at work until now, so I am at work." For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.”  

Christians are invited to take the opposite approach. During Lent, as we read this stories, we are to draw near to him. We are to lay our heads on his breast, like John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple, to remain close to the sound of his voice.  Jesus reveals the Father. Jesus is God and leads us into deeper experience of God, who is full of mercy, compassion, self-sacrifice, and love. 

These lengthy teachings are packed full of truth and spiritual insight. We do well to meditate upon them in the quiet of our rooms. To go to our inner room, to shut the door, and meditate upon them in secret. Slowly, thoughtfully, prayerfully. And who knows, if we stick around to listen to his teachings, we might be around to see him perform another miracle, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. 

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

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

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The priority of the spiritual over the physical

 

Imagine, with you, that you are peter, james, john or Andrew in the Gospel today. Now mind you, this passage is very early on in the Gospel of Mark. You’ve known Jesus for less then a week. You may have heard something about him being called the Lamb of God by out preacher out in the desert, but you aren’t really sure what that means. He’s told you that he’s going to make you a fisher of men, but you don’t really know what THAT means. He’s indicated he needs a place to stay, so you’ve invited him to come to Capernaum, your home town, and just this morning, he did the most amazing thing you ever saw: he walked into the town synagogue, and a demon began hissing and cursing at him, and called him the Holy One of God. He then commanded the demon to be silent, and cast it out, amazing everyone present.

Leaving the synagogue you go to Peter’s house, and Jesus does something else you’ve never seen. He heals Peter’s sick bed-ridden mother-in-law. Then at sunset, his fame having spread throughout the region because of the exorcism, droves of sick people come to him, and he heals them too and drives out even more demons. Who is this person?

I bet it was quite difficult for Peter, James, Andrew, and John to sleep that first night: replaying the scenes of the preceding day, the anguished haunted faces of the demon possessed becoming serene, the deathly ill suddenly regaining health. Questions bouncing around in their head, possibilities for the future. What’s going on here? What does he want from us? Is there a limit to his ability to heal? What’s tomorrow going to bring?

You finally drift up to sleep, and upon waking, He’s gone. Where is he? Where’s the miracle man. Everyone goes out to look for him. He has a lot to answer for, and there will be, no doubt, more people demanding healing. 

And then he says something surprising: he says, let’s get out of here. No more healings today. Because that’s not why I’ve come. I’ve come to preach.

Your first thought might be “come from where?” He’s from Galilee, we’re in Galilee. He speaks with the accent of Galilean. Again, what is he talking about. And what does he mean? Where has he come from? And how is preaching more important than casting out demons and healing the sick? What could be more important than that?

If the first great question in the Gospel of Mark is “who is this person?” The second, is certainly, “how is preaching more important than healing the sick?” How is preaching a greater priority than curing people who are dying? If he has the power to do that, why doesn’t he do that?

Here the Lord intimates the priority of the spiritual over the physical. Preaching the truth of the Gospel is more important, it is the reason he has come. To “preach” in St. Mark’s original Greek is the Greek word “kérussó”—to preach, to proclaim, to herald, to announce, to establish through his Word—the kingdom of heaven. This is the priority: to preach and establish the kingdom of God for the conversion of those held sway by the kingdom of darkness. And in the end, that is everybody. To preach and invite all people of all places and all times to conversion—to faith and new spiritual life though him. 

All those healing miracles, while yes, they show us the love that God has for all the physically sick, they indicate God’s love for the spiritually sick, all of us. Moreover, all those physical healings symbolize on the physical level what Jesus has come to do on the spiritual level. The healing miracles—the healing of the mute, the blind, the deaf, and the leper—are physical analogues of what he’s come to do spiritually. He has come to heal the spiritually mute—those unable to speak the Word of God due to ignorance or fear; he’s come to heal the blind—those who do not see God at work in the world, and those who do not see the dignity of the human person; he has come to heal the spiritually deaf—those who turn a deaf ear to the truth of God and the call of the poor; and he has come to heal the spiritual leper—those who have contracted the deadly spiritual malady of sin that has separated us from God.

Why is there a priority of the spiritual over the physical? Because the spiritually dead will be separated from God for ever. While those who are reborn by grace, those alive in the spirit—they will remain united to God forever, even though they may experience physical death, they will live forever.

Hence the importance of maintaining and nourishing our spiritual lives. Repenting of sin and confessing our sins. Receiving the bread of life, the Eucharist. Engaging in prayer and good works and spreading the Gospel even when there is a physical price to pay for these things. For the spiritual takes priority over the physical.

In less than two weeks, we will begin again the holy and penitential season of Lent, the time of the Church year for identifying those habits, attitudes, behaviors, and attachments that keep us from living for Christ. We identify the physical pleasures and comforts that, however good, we fast from and abstain from, to remember that in this earthly life, I am not meant to live for the physical and the earthly, but to pursue the spiritual and the heavenly. 

I think it is so important for us to be immersed in the history of the apostles and saints and martyrs, because we encounter, in the holy ones, men and women, of every race and age, who have recognized the need to live for God. The apostles imprisonment and  torture to preach the Gospel, and counted it a joy to persecuted for the sake of the name of Jesus. The martyrs of the early Church, like St. Ignatius who when offered the opportunity to save his physical life by offering a tribute to a pagan god refused, as it would violate the first commandment? Would you die for the first commandment. What does it profit a man to preserve his earthly life, or gain the whole world, but lose his soul?

In the martyrs and the saints, the Lord takes very weak and very ordinary people and transforms them into heroes of our faith, again to show us, the importance, the priority of the spiritual over the physical. So much so that Paul, as we heard in the second reading today, counts all things as loss—woe to me, if I do not prioritize the preaching of the Gospel over all else…for if I don’t preach it, I don’t have a share in it. If I don’t preach it, I don’t have a share in it. That line should cause us to do some serious reflection on our priorities, no? If I don’t preach the Gospel, I don’t have share in it. Does my life, do my words, do my actions, does my lifestyle, speak of—does it preach—the Gospel of Christ? Does the way I act in public and private stem from and point to the Gospel?

Paul hints at the radical nature of Christianity. Radical, not meaning not crazy or irrationally zealous, like it’s sometimes used, but radical coming from the word radix which means, root. Christianity requires reorientation to God all the way down to the root of our human nature. Again, this is why Paul, imprisoned, sentenced to die, having spent his remaining days preaching the Gospel, so transformed by grace, is able to say, it is no longer me, but Christ, who lives in me. 

When faith is prioritized over all else, it shapes and changes and transforms all else, into the work of Christ—preaching and establishing the kingdom—just as he did 2000 years ago, he continues this work, through us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

December 3 2019 - St. Francis Xavier - What prophets and kings longed to see

At the time of Isaiah’s writing, the house of David was in shambles. Though God had promised David that his heir would be the king of kings, the Davidic line appeared more like a rotting stump than a flourishing royal tree. But Isaiah prophesied that from this stump shall arise a shoot; the line will continue, the Messiah will come, and usher in an era of unimaginable peace: the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, there shall be no harm or ruin on all God’s holy mountain.

When Jesus turned to his disciples, as we heard in our Gospel today, and said “Blessed are your eyes, because they see what many prophets and kings longed to see” he is speaking of the fulfillment of God’s promises. They were blessed to be able to see God’s promises being fulfilled in their midst. Jesus, the Messiah, was ushering in that promised kingdom of peace.

Our hearts long for this peace, peace that comes through union with God through Christ, Lord and Savior, peace that comes through being heirs of the eternal kingdom.

St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, is one of history’s eminent ambassadors of God’s kingdom of peace. Known for his great zeal and learning, he was sent by the Christian King of Portugal to evangelize India. .  In India he preached, taught the catechism and worked in hospitals.  He also traveled to the many islands around India, and as far as Japan and the Philippines.  We have many Filipino Catholics here in the Diocese of Cleveland, who would be able to trace their faith back to Francis Xavier himself.

In his missionary work in these pagan lands, he brought the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to peoples who had longed to see, longed to hear, longed to know that God was at work to save their souls. Just as Jesus accomplished many miracles beyond human capabilities as evidence of God’s kingdom, so too St. Francis Xavier was given the spiritual gift to perform miracles: he preached in tongues he had never studied, cured terrible afflictions and illnesses, and even raised the dead.

It is fitting that we honor a Saint like Francis Xavier during the Advent season each year.  For He is a reminder and example, that we are called to bring the Gospel to eyes that long to see Christ and ears that long to hear the Good News that Messiah brings salvation.  In this Holy season of preparation for Christ, we prepare our hearts to spread the message of Christ and the peace of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For Pope Francis, Bishop Perez, and all ordained ministers, that their ministry may be effective in leading the Church in spreading Christ’s saving Gospel.

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 will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for the Jesuit Order’s faithfulness to the mission of Christ, and through the intercession of St. Francis Xavier, for the sanctity and safety of all missionaries.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering, disease or sorrow, may they come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased of our parish, family and friends, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.