17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 - Purification from Pride

 The Catholic poet, Dante Alighieri, wrote a famous poem, over 700 years ago now, called the Divine Comedy—La Comedia Divina.  In the three books of La Comedia, Dante chronicles a pilgrimage he makes through hell, purgatory, and heaven.   He describes the horrific sights and sounds of the punishment of the wicked in hell for their failure to repent from their self-centeredness. He then makes his way up the mountain of purgatory, where he meets the repentant souls undergoing purification from the effects of their life’s sinfulness. Dante finally visits heaven, il paradiso, where amidst glorious celestial light he meets the blessed saints, who free from all selfishness, now enjoy the beauty of being in God’s presence.

Of the three books of La Comedia, I always enjoy reading the purgatorio. Dante structures the purgatorio according to the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust, in that order. Even in structuring the book this way, Dante is inspiring hope. Because what is he saying? He’s saying that even if you’ve committed these sins—if you repent and do penance, you can begin to make your way to heaven.

As he first arrives at the base of the mountain of purgatory, Dante meets a very large group of souls, the largest he encounters in purgatory—those needing to be purified from sins of pride. And this is the largest group because for Dante, every sin can be traced back to pride. In a sense, all sin involves that prideful turning away from God, claiming to know better than God, pridefully rejecting God’s will.

Pride is a sin condemned by Jesus himself. Explicitly, Jesus condemns the pride of the Pharisees: not only have they pridefully placed themselves in the place of God and misguided God’s people, they pridefully refuse to recognize Jesus. 

The prideful in purgatory are the largest group also because pride, for most of us, takes the longest and most effort to be freed from. How many people here are totally free from pride: not me. And we are the ones that recognize that we have a problem! Consider all the people out there that don’t even recognize the need to pray, to come to church, to keep God’s commandments, and to repent from sin.

As a remedy for their pride--as part of their purification--Dante describes the repentant souls as willingly doing two things: firstly, he describes them as carrying a huge weight on their back which weighs them down to the ground. Why? For, in life the prideful refuse to bow as we should: we pridefully refuse to humbly bow to God as we should, to God’s will, we pridefully refuse to bow in deference to the needs of our neighbor. So the souls willingly carry this heavy spiritual weight, to teach them how to bow. 

Additionally, the souls are depicted engaging in an act of humility taught by the Lord himself in today’s Gospel. Until they are totally freed from their pride, they pray—they pray the prayer taught by Jesus himself, the Our Father, the Lord’s prayer.  Their purification from pride, the healing of their willfulness and self-centeredness, the conversion of their sinful egotism, was to recite over and over, humbly and devoutly, the Lord’s prayer.

Why does Dante see the Our Father as a fitting purification for pride? Sinful Pride claims “MY WILL BE DONE”, you should all bow to me, my way of doing things, my wishes, my desires, my plans, my whims. And the Our Father prays, the opposite, not my will, but God’s will be done. It is a prayer of true humility. 

And, this is the fundamental disposition of the Christian, to acknowledge that this life is not about me. The point of all of this, the meaning of life, if you will is to learn to bow to the Father in all things. Anyone who is serious about obtaining Everlasting Life in Heaven will do all he can to bow to the Father’s Will.  Obedience to God is to be given without limit. For, there is no room in heaven for disobedience, just as there was no room in the Garden of Eden for the disobedience of Adam and Eve. Jesus shows us that the way to the Father is one of obedience. And Jesus doesn’t simply give lip-service to the Father, he doesn’t just tell us to be obedient. He is obedient “even to death, death on a cross” as St. Paul writes. 

The Our Father is one of the first prayers we learn as Catholics: we commit it to memory; we pray it at every celebration of Mass. I remember committing it to memory in first grade PSR. 

Having committed the prayer to memory, the danger of course, is that we just rattle off the words without considering how their meaning is to shape our life. God preserve us from praying this most fundamental prayer mindlessly. 

A good priest once suggested to me that our holiness as a Christian can be measured by our ability to pray the Our Father from the heart. In Dante’s purgatory, the Our Father is prayed over and over as an act of purification from pride, until these souls truly learn to pray it from the heart, with a heart in union with the heart of Jesus. 

To pray the Our Father from the heart means to pray it from your very depths, to mean every phrase of it, to pray it with the heart and the mind of Jesus Christ.  As a spiritual exercise it is helpful from time to time to pray the Our Father, very slowly, reflecting upon every word, what those words really mean for us as Christians.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, by the way, is a wonderful resource for this, the entire final 100 paragraphs of the Catechism deal with each line and each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.

Consider even the very first word of Jesus’ prayer. Where pride focuses on me, me, me.  The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on us, on we.  We are to address God as part of a community.  The first word of the Our Father is Our.  

In teaching us to pray, Jesus teaches us to focus not just on ME, my life, my needs, my desires, rattling off my wish list. For Christianity is not a mere private affair.  The Church Jesus founded is not just a gathering of isolated individuals, but persons who have been brought into a new communion with God and one another.  We go to God together.  

Look at Sunday Mass.  We cannot fulfill our Sunday obligation by sitting in a room, by ourselves, communing with God.  We are meant to come together, at least every week, in united prayer. Anyone who claims that they don’t need the Church to be Christian needs to reexamine the data and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I think that may be another reason why Dante depicts those in purgatory repentant of pride as this large group of people—it’s reminiscent of the Church. We are this large of group of people, who pray the Our Father together, who learning how to be humble, how to serve, how to obey, together. 

That’s why even leaving early from mass right after receiving communion doesn’t make a lick of sense. What are you saying, “I’ve got my jesus, I don’t need you people, I’m leaving, I’ve got places to be”. Stay, slow down. We need each other if we are going to fulfill our mission. Pray for each other, be blessed together, and go out together. Care about each other.  The people in this church with you aren’t meant to be strangers. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we’ve got work to do, together, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

33rd Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Wednesday - Visions of Heaven and Purgatory (& St. Gertrude)

 

We continue to read from the book of Revelation until the end of the liturgical year.

The book of revelation is comprised of a series of visions. The word Revelation refers to an unveiling of heaven, of God’s plan—an unveiling, as if the curtains which normally are closed to us mortal beings are drawn back.

Having concluded the messages to seven churches, John is given a vision of the throne room of heaven—the beautiful and majestic creator of the universe, seated on a throne and receiving the worship of his heavenly court.  These verses evoke awe and wonder at the majesty of God. They are also reminiscent of descriptions of God in the Old Testament—especially the vision of Ezekiel. And so these verses also indicate that what will come next in the book will also continue a message, like Ezekiels. And what were the prophets always preaching about? Justice.

God has been watching human history play out. He has seen the suffering of his people, but he has also seen their hardness of hearts. God has witnessed the persecution of the Church, but, as we heard on those messages to the seven churches, God has also witnessed Christians forsaking their baptism, letting their faith die, allowing worldly riches and worldly pleasures replace the love they are to have for Jesus and the fervor they are to have for the Gospel. 

Today the Church honors another of the great visionaries of history, St. Gertrude. From the time she was a little girl Gertrude had visions of Jesus and Mother Mary. Gertrude loved to study, and in what must be the rarest of visions, Jesus appeared to her and told her to stop studying so much: she needed to pray more and attend to her spiritual life.

In her journal, recording the revelations and visions of her life, she describes how she was taken as a mystical bride of Christ, the Lord himself, placing on her finger a wedding ring. She experienced indescribable ecstasies, but also indescribable sufferings, for she received the Holy Stigmata of the Heart—feeling deeply in her heart the suffering of Our Lord for the salvation of sinners.

Gertrude was also given glimpses into purgatory, and she was shown how our prayers, especially the Mass, are so efficacious in assisting the souls in purgatory. She was greatly devoted to the poor souls, and offered daily the following prayer: “Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”

We may not be given glimpses of heaven like John, or glimpses of purgatory like St. Gertrude. But blessed are those who believe who have not seen, as our Lord tells St. Thomas in the Gospels. 

So let us take to heart this visions and their messages: the need to repent, the need to have fervor for the Gospel, the need to pray for the poor souls, and to offer our whole lives as divine worship for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

For blessings upon the Bishops gathered in Baltimore for their annual meeting this week, that their conversations, prayers, and deliberations for the good of the Church may be blessed. 

That our young people may be assisted by their families in growing in faith, hope, and love, and protected from the evil and corruption of the world.

For all those struggling with addiction, mental illness, chronic sickness, unemployment, or ongoing trials of any kind: that they will be fortified and blessed with God’s special favor, healing and peace.  We pray to the Lord.

Through the intercession of St. Gertrude, we pray in a special way for all of the faithful departed during this Month of November, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, and all the souls in purgatory, 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

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - The virtue of Humility and the purification from Pride

 This month, many of my bulletin columns and homilies have been about the virtue of humility. If you remember, we began the month of August with the feast of doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus Liguori. And that great teacher of the faith recommends that each month we intentionally focus on developing and practicing a particular virtue. If we are going to grow in holiness and grow in virtue, we need to be intentional about it. And the virtue for the month of August, St. Alphonsus recommends practicing is the virtue of humility.

One of the most important laws in Christ's Kingdom is the law of humility. This law says that "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted".

In other words, greatness in his Kingdom comes not from trying to prove that you are more important than other people, lording power over others, or garnering or amassing more worldly attention than other people. 

Greatness in God's eyes comes from serving others, elevating others, helping others advance in holiness.

In his great sermon on the Mount, the Lord reiterates the law of humility: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." We are before God like beggars—poor in spirit, recognizing our need of God for life—for everything. To be poor in spirit is the first step in obtaining beatitude—blessedness. There can be no growth in holiness, no progress toward the kingdom without humility; for if our actions are not motivated by humility, we are motivated by its enemy, pride.

The law of humility is stated directly in (in the book of Sirach): "conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved... Humble yourself... and you will find favor with God."

The first sin of Adam and Eve was a sin against humility, refusing to submit to the instruction of God, not trusting that God would provide for them. Because sinful pride is so ingrained in us, the Lord Jesus taught us to practice humility not simply by his words, but by his example, living out humility to the extreme: through his passion and death.

Jesus, the Lord of heaven, was born in a stable. He lived in obscurity—as the son of a manual laborer. Even during his public ministry, He allowed his reputation to be dragged through the mud by the lies and corruption of his enemies. He allowed himself to be stripped of every honor, to be condemned as a criminal, and freely took on the most humiliating form of death - crucifixion. But humbled so thoroughly, he is now glorified so magnificently.

We are to imitate the humility of Christ in all of our relationships and endeavors. The Christian must first of all be humble. No remember, humility does not mean that we think less of ourselves than we should. TO be humble is to live in the truth that we are children of God, and that is something to celebrate. We are children of God, dependent on God, dependent on the Father’s providence for all we truly need. We are also sinners in need of conversion. And called to be servants—to serve God, and God alone, in the master’s vineyard. 

St. Augustine, whose feast is August 28 said, “If you should ask me what are the three most important virtues, I would tell you they are humility, humility, and humility…if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are meaningless.”

Such humility is the foundation for the life of holiness and for all the virtues. St. John Vianney said: “humility is to the various virtues what the chain is to a rosary. Take away the chain and the beads are scattered; remove humility, and all the virtues vanish.”

As I’ve also mentioned in the past, this summer I’m reading Dante’s Divine Comedy as part of my daily spiritual reading. In the second book of the Divine Comedy, Dante begins to climb the mountain of purgatory. There he meets those souls who have repented of their sins, but who still require purification. In life, if are attached to sin, even if we repent, we will still require some purification after death. The saints teach that it is far easier to work on the virtues in this earthly life, than in purgatory. So we do well, as St. Alphonsus says, to be very intentional in growing in the virtues.

But for those requiring purification, the mountain of purgatory, in Dante, is divided into seven terraces, seven levels, in which souls are purified of their attachments to the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. 

Many people think lust or wrath are the worst sins we can commit on earth. But for Dante, it’s pride. Because, again, pride keeps us from obtaining all the other virtues: it keeps us from faith, hope, and love. 

So the very first terrace of purgatory is for the purification of pride. And the souls for their purification from pride are carrying this great weight on their backs and shoulders, the weight of their pride. The greater your pride the more purification you need. And for many of those souls, their going to be carrying that weight around for a while, as in purgatory, the purification at attainment from virtue is a slow process.

Interestingly, at the beginning of each terrace of purgatory, Dante finds these marble sculptures—these marble depictions of the virtue the souls will need to require. Much like how are stained glass windows depict so many of the saints and biblical figures exhibiting faith and charity, those marble sculptures were a visual aid for the poor souls. 

Also interestingly, on each terrace, Dante encounters a marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for she is the model of all virtues, the perfect disciple of Christ, the example for all Christians to contemplate. At the base of that first terrace, Dante sees this marble depiction of the annunciation: in which the Archangel Gabriel announces God’s will to Mary, and she humbly declares herself to be the Ancilla Domini, the handmaiden of the Lord. She then offers the prayer of humble surrender: fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Let it be done to be according to thy word.

That is certainly a prayer we do well to begin each day with: Lord help me to be your servant today. Help me to serve you at every moment, in every encounter and interaction, in all of my words and deeds. Help me to hold back, restrain, and discipline my pride. Help me to keep the image of the Blessed Mother first and foremost in my mind and heart, that I may imitate her humility. Our Lady of Humility, pray for me, that I may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

In addition to starting the day off on the right foot, with some good humble prayer, ensure that at some point in the day you are picking up that Bible. Reading and taking to heart the Word of God is one way God wants to help us grow in holiness. If you say, “I don’t need to read the Bible. I don’t need to take to heart God’s word. I know everything I need to know. I have more important things to do.” Is that Christian humility? 

I’ve said it before as well, but if you are able, try to attend mass throughout the week. For at Mass, we encounter the humility of Jesus Himself, who gives himself to us in the humble appearance of bread and wine. 

In the words of St. Augustine, at Mass we become what we receive—through the humble reception of the Eucharist, we receive the one who was obedient to the Father’s will unto death. At Mass, we humbly recognize that before God we are beggars, we are the blind and the lame, the crippled and poor, mentioned in the Gospel, whom the Lord has welcomed into his banquet, because he desires our company, and desires to nourish us and strengthen us for the humble work of the Gospel. May we seek to practice humility in all of our duties, responsibilities, relationships and endeavors; humble in our earthly life, that we may be exalted in eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

November 16 2021 - St. Gertrude the Great - Visions of Purgatory

 St. Gertrude the Great was a holy mystic of the 14th century, who received many heavenly visions as a Benedictine nun. She actually received a vision as a young child too. The Lord visited her to tell her that she was studying too much and neglecting her prayers! 

Her many visions and conversations with Our Lord and Lady were recorded and are available in the book “The Life & Revelations of Saint Gertrude the Great” a spiritual classic hundreds of years.

Among her numerous visions were short glimpses into purgatory, like this:

“On Wednesday, at the elevation of the Host, she besought our Lord for the souls of the faithful in purgatory, that He would free them from their pains by virtue of His admirable Ascension; and she beheld our Lord descending into purgatory with a golden rod in His Hand, which had as many hooks as there had been prayers for their souls; by these he appeared to draw them into a place of repose. She understood by this that whenever any one prays generally from a motive of charity for the souls in purgatory, the greater part of those who during their lives have exercised themselves in works of charity, are released.”

It is fitting that the feast of St. Gertrude is found smack-dab in the middle of November, the month dedicated to praying for the souls in purgatory, for the saint had a very special devotion to praying for the holy souls, no doubt due to her many visions, but because she was filled with love for all souls.

She would offer daily a particular prayer for the holy souls that goes like this: “Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.” 

We may not be mystics, or have the ability to dedicate to prayer as a contemplative Benedictine nun, but each of us does well to pray daily for those holy souls, we will likely be in their company one day soon. 

May the saintly Virgin Gertrude the Great, assist us in making our hearts fitting dwelling places for Christ in this earthly life, that we may come to joyful fellowship with Him in the life to come, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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For blessings upon the Bishops gathered in Baltimore for their annual meeting this week, that their conversations, prayers, and deliberations for the good of the Church may be blessed. 

That our young people may be assisted by their families in growing in faith, hope, and love, and protected from the evil and corruption of the world.

For all those struggling with addiction, mental illness, chronic sickness, unemployment, or ongoing trials of any kind: that they will be fortified and blessed with God’s special favor, healing and peace.  We pray to the Lord.

Through the intercession of St. Gertrude, we pray in a special way for all of the faithful departed during this Month of November, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, and all the souls in purgatory, 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

All Souls 2021 - Praying for the Dead

 Yesterday, All Saints' Day, we celebrated the great multitude of saints: the ranks of martyrs, apostles, confessors, virgins, and holy souls who upon their earthly death were judged by God to be immediately worthy of entrance into heavenly glory. 

Today Catholics join in praying for the faithful departed, who died in friendship with Christ, but were judged by God to still be in need of some purification prior to their entrance into heaven. Instead of entering heaven immediately, these souls were taken by God to the spiritual hospital called purgatory.

As the old Roman Martyrology puts it: Holy Church, our good Mother, after having exalted with fitting praise all her children who now rejoice in heaven, strives also to help all those who still suffer in purgatory, and to this end intercedes with all her power before Christ, her Lord and Spouse, in order that as speedily as possible they may join the society of the elect in heaven.

Today is a day of sadness as we remember our dear loved ones who have died. And yet, our grief is tempered by hope in heavenly glory for the faithful departed. Our Lord in the Gospel is presented as the Good shepherd who does not want to lose even one of His sheep. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me.  Our loved ones who have died in friendship with Christ are not lost. 

And yet, we also acknowledge that those who die with vestiges of sin and selfishness must be cleansed before entering that place prepared for them in heaven. There is some suffering in purgatory. It is like when we were children and were got full of mud and grime while playing outside. Before entering the house we had to be sprayed down with the hose, maybe even scrubbed with harsh bristles. 

Well our sins of pride and lust and selfishness are a lot more grievous than mud. So the suffering of purgatory is also serious. But, the holy souls in purgatory, and they are holy souls, as they have been saved by Christ, the holy souls want to be in purgatory as long as they need to be. If I were to visit the Pope, I would want to get cleaned up, put on my absolute best clothing, out of respect for his Holiness, how much more would we want to get our souls cleaned up for God in heaven. 

The souls who would refuse purgatory, obstinately, refuse heaven.

Just as our prayers, penances, and sacrifices can aid souls in this life, obtaining for them help from God, so too our prayers, penances, and sacrifices aid the souls in purgatory. Again, just as a mother offers prayers for her son as he commences on a journey, we pray for the souls of the dead, as they make the journey from earthly life to heavenly life. The mother doesn’t stop praying until she receives notice that her son has safely reached his destination, so we do not stop praying for the souls in purgatory until we obtain from God some definitive proof that they have reached heaven, like their canonization. Until a particular soul is canonized, we do not err in praying for them.

And we pray because we love. It is an act of love, an act of mercy to pray for the souls in purgatory. We love them, and we want them to reach their heavenly destination. That which you did for the least of my brethren, you did for me. A prayer for a soul in purgatory helps them take one step closer to heaven, and brings them comfort, relief, and assistance on their journey.

And so, we who are members of the Church Militant here on earth, can help the members of the Church Suffering in purgatory, arrive more quickly to their eternal destination: the Church Triumphant in heaven.

May we be generous in our prayers and acts of charity toward our beloved dead, that with them, we may come to see God face to face in heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

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God, the Almighty Father raised Christ his Son from the dead; with confidence we ask him to save all his people, living and dead.

That Christ, Son of the Living God, who raised up Lazarus from the dead, will raise up to life all the dead who have been redeemed by his precious blood.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ, consoler of all who mourn, who dried the tears of the family of Lazarus, will heal the pain and dispel the darkness and doubt that comes from grief…..  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ, our Savior, will destroy the reign of sin in our earthly bodies, and grant us eternal life.  Let us pray to the Lord.

That Christ, our Redeemer, will look on all those who have no hope because they do not know him, and bring them to faith in the resurrection and in the life of the world to come.  Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died. For our beloved dead who we pray for in a special way today, this All Souls day and during the month of November. For all of the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom; that those we remember in prayer may pass over to a dwelling place of light and peace. Let us pray to the Lord.

God our shelter and our strength, you listen in love to the cry of your people: hear the prayers we offer for all those who have died.  Cleanse them of their sins and grant them the fullness of redemption.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.

November 2020 - First Friday Holy Hour - Eucharistic Adoration and the Holy Souls in Purgatory

In the Gospel for today, the Lord tells a parable about how the so-called dishonest steward works to settle his accounts with his master. In a sense, this parable reminds of how we will all be required to make an accounting at the end of our life of how we used our time—did we squander it, did we use it to glorify God?

The parable challenges us to get our lives in order, to make sure our priorities are straight, that we are putting our time, talent, and treasure in the service to God, rather that pursuing our own selfish endeavors. 

During the month of November, we pray 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 in that great accounting, there was found need of purgation. And during this month, we pray for them, knowing that our prayers truly help them.

Most efficacious is the celebration of Mass for a soul. Once during the celebration of mass, St. Bernard saw an unending stairway leading up to heaven. By means of it angels ascended and descended, carrying from Purgatory to Paradise the souls freed by the Sacrifice of Jesus—the sacrifice which is renewed at the altar during every celebration of Mass.

Eucharistic adoration too, is a powerful form of prayer, in assisting the holy souls. Kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, St. Peter Damien proclaimed: “O HOLY HOST, YOU THAT BREAKS DOWN THE GATES OF PURGATORY AND OPENS THE DOOR OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN TO THE FAITHFUL!"

Kneeling before our Eucharist Lord, this evening, we do well to bring to him the souls of our loved ones, bring them to him by name. For from the Sacred host, streams of alleviating grace flow into Purgatory, bringing unspeakable relief and assistance to the Church suffering due to the effects of sin.

And, when it is time for the great accounting of our lives, when we appear before the judgment seat, we can be sure that speaking on our behalf will be all those souls who we prayed for, who were able to reach their heavenly destination thanks to our prayers and penances. 

Eternal rest, grant unto them, o Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. For the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

31st Sunday in OT - 2019 - God is the lover of souls

“O Lord and lover of souls, your imperishable spirit is in all things!” What a profound statement of faith from our first reading from the Book of Wisdom today.

I’d like to consider 5 points this powerful, profound line of scripture. …“O Lord and lover of souls, your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

First, we’ll consider how it speaks to what we are. Secondly, what we are not. Thirdly, what that means in daily life. Fourthly, what it requires of us. And finally, its ultimate import.
So, firstly, this line speaks of who we are. God’s imperishable spirit is in us. We are endowed by God with what philosophers, theologians, poets, and scripture call “a soul”, an immortal, rational soul. We are made by God with a body and a soul.

Harkening back to the very first book of the bible, we read in Genesis, that in contrast to all the other elements of the created universe: the stars, the rocks, the plants, the animals, God uniquely breathed life into the man and woman. in divine image he created them; male and female he created them. When God looks upon us, he sees a reflection of Himself, we are made in God’s very image and likeness. And therefore, we are capable of understanding the order of the universe. We possess the powers of intellect and free will, and the use of reason capable of recognizing our purpose of pursuing the true, the good, and the beautiful.

“O Lord and lover of souls, your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

Secondly, then, we are reminded of what we are not. Since, we have God’s very spirit within us, we are not irrational animals, we are not some consequence of random cosmic forces, we are not bound to follow every urge, appetite, or impulse we experience. Nor are we merely mortal—we share something of the immortal nature of God. Nor, are we inconsequential to God, we are not accidents. Our existence is part of God’s plan. And there is something about us that loveable even when we have misused our free will in sin.

In the Gospel today, the Son of God, Jesus, sees Zacchaeus in the tree. What does he see when he sees Zacchaeus? Does he see a cheat, a crook, an extortioner, a collaborator with the foreign enemy? Zacchaeus was all these things. But Jesus, lover of souls, saw something deeper than all of Zacchaeus’ physical and moral shortcomings—something that was loveable in Zacchaeus and is loveable in all of us, something worth dying for.

“O Lord and lover of souls, your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

Thirdly, what this means for all of us in day to day life, is that if we believe that we have God’s imperishable spirit within us, and by the way, so does every other human being on this earth, if we believe that, we must treat ourselves and others with dignity and respect, we must foster what Pope Paul VI called a “civilization of love”, what Pope John Paul II called the “culture of life” that cherishes and protects every human person from the moment of conception until death.
The very essence of our moral theology and our call to social action is the dignity of every human person—the responsibility we have for our souls and that of our neighbor. To neglect one is to neglect the other.

“O Lord and lover of souls, your imperishable spirit is in all things!”

Fourthly, what does this require of us? What does this entail? If our soul has value in God’s eyes, we must cultivate and care for it. We are usually pretty good at caring for our bodies. Most of us don’t totally indulge every bodily appetite. Most of us observe some semblance of eating right, exercise, caring for our bodies when they become ill, diseased, or broken down.

But, the care our souls, on the other hand, is certainly not one of the hallmarks of our culture. And yet it is the lack of care for the immortal soul which is at the root of most of our exhaustion, unhappiness and societal evil. We pursue so many idols: wealth, bodily pleasure, and power, and our lives our sorrier for it.

I am reminded of a powerful article written by Bishop Lennon, who passed away this week. Bishop Lennon wrote how Christians, rather than pursuing idols the idols of the world are to place “God at the center of our weekly schedules and activities, meals, chores, conversations, parenting, work, vacations, civic responsibilities, decisions, problems, crises accomplishments, and losses.” By doing so, the bishop said, “our whole lives become charged and changed by God’s presence”. Rather than unhappiness and exhaustion from pursuing idols and neglecting our souls, our life becomes filled with power and patience and resiliency and joy even amidst our many trials.

To assist us in making sure we are taking the time to cultivate our souls and placing God at the center of our lives, the Stewardship committee has put together a wonderful Time Commitment Card. We invite you to take one of these Commitment Cards home with you and pray with it throughout the week. How might God be inviting you to make a greater return of your time to Him that he may strengthen you and speak to you?

After praying with the Commitment Card throughout the week, next weekend we will collect the cards and place them before the altar. So please take a commitment card home with you today, they are located at the ends of the pews. Pray with them, ask God to help you commit to some healthy prayer habits that will nurture your soul, and bring them back to church next weekend. No need to put your name on the card or anything, your commitment is between you and God.

God is a lover of souls and wants to see your soul flourish in virtue and grace. As, St. Paul writes in our second reading, “that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith”

Finally, why does any of this matter?

It is clear that we have the imperishable spirit of God within us. God made us to live forever, to be united with Him forever in eternity.

But scripture is also clear that what we do with our time and our choices and our free will matters—what we do with that imperishable soul matters.

For those who die in God’s grace and friendship, who have become perfectly purified from sin, their destination, immediately after death, is heaven. These are the saints, those who names we know, and those whose names we don’t, whom we celebrated in a special way on All Saints Day.

For those who died in God’s grace and friendship, but have been imperfectly purified of sin, that is, who have not given the whole of their lives and minds and wills and souls to God in this life, that’s most of us, we are destined for heaven, but have some purification after death in Purgatory. We pray in a special way for the souls in purgatory during this month of November.

And those who freely choose to live and persist in grave sin, those who allow the powers of selfishness and sin to consume them in this life, their imperishable soul will suffer what Jesus himself calls “the unquenchable fire”.

By the way, I will be taking up for my second Friday faith formation these topics of heaven, hell, death, soul, and purgatory. So, consider joining us in the school cafeteria for a discussion of these topics on friday at 7pm.

Knowing these truths is Good News. For with God’s help we can preserve our souls from evil and open our souls to the life God wishes to give us. God is the lover of souls and invites each of us, urges us  through His Word, to concern ourselves with what matters most in life, the cultivation of our souls in grace, in virtue, in imitation of the Good Shepherd, the Son of Man who came to seek and to save what was lost for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

17th Sunday in OT 2019 - Purification from earthly pride

The Catholic poet, Dante Alighieri, wrote a famous poem, almost 800 years ago now, called the Divine Comedy—La Comedia Divina.  In the three books of La Comedia, Dante chronicles a pilgrimage he makes through hell, purgatory, and heaven.   He describes the horrific sights and sounds of the punishment of the wicked in hell for their failure to repent from their self-centeredness. He then makes his way up the mountain of purgatory, where he meets those undergoing purification from the effects of their life’s sinfulness. Dante finally visits heaven, il paradiso, where amidst glorious celestial light he meets the blessed saints who free from all selfishness now enjoy the beauty of being in God’s presence.

Dante uses an interesting literary device to depict the suffering of the wicked in hell, a device called Contrapasso. Contrapasso means the punishment fits the sin. For example those who in hell unrepentant of the sin of lust are caught blown about the second circle of hell by this terrible hellish whirlwind. How does the punishment fit the sin? As the lustful allowed themselves to be carried by the winds of their passions on earth, in hell they are subject to these uncontrollable winds for eternity—without rest.

In purgatory, for Dante, the purification also fits the sin. At the base of the mountain of purgatory, the largest group of people Dante meets are those who need to be cleansed of the sin of pride. For Dante, every sin can be traced back to pride. Pride turns away from God, pride claims to know better than God, better than the Church. We commit pride when we act as if we were the center of the universe. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their pride and traced their inability to recognize him as the Son of God back to pride.  Our self-centered pride keeps us from loving God and loving neighbor as we should.

So if for Dante, the purification fits the sin how did he depict the purification of the prideful? Well, what is the opposite of pride? Humility. The purification of the prideful of purgatory involved a very specific act of humility, an act of humility prescribed by the Lord Himself. Their purification, the healing of their willfulness, their self-centeredness, their sinful egotism, was to recite over and over, humbly and devoutly, the prayer we find at the beginning of the Gospel today, the Our Father.

Why does Dante see the Our Father as a fitting purification for pride? Sinful Pride claims “MY WILL BE DONE”, the Our Father prays “Thy Will be Done.” Sinful pride asserts its own self-sufficiency and control; the Our Father approaches God with open hands, seeking the daily bread that can only come from God. Sinful pride refuses to forgive, never forgiving an affront to our almighty egos, the Our Father asks God for the grace to forgive, allowing the wounded ego to heal. Where sinful pride does not acknowledge that it could ever make a mistake, could never sin, the Our Father pleads mercy for our sins, mercy that can only come from God.

A good priest once suggested to me that our holiness as a Christian can be measured by our ability to pray the Our Father from the heart. In Dante’s purgatory, the Our Father is prayed over and over as an act of purification from pride, until these souls truly learn to pray it from the heart, with a heart in union with the heart of Jesus.

The Our Father is one of the first prayers we learn as Catholics: we commit it to memory, we pray it every week at Mass. I remember committing it to memory in first grade PSR. Now, once committed to memory it becomes easy to rattle off the words, barely thinking about what they mean.  So, there is certainly a difference between praying the Our Father from memory and praying it from the heart, isn’t there? 

To pray the Our Father from the heart means to pray it from your very depths, to mean every phrase of it, to pray it with the heart and the mind of Jesus Christ.  As a spiritual exercise it is helpful from time to time to pray the Our Father, very slowly, reflecting upon every word, what those words really mean for us as Christians.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, by the way, is a wonderful resource for this, the entire final 100 paragraphs of the Catechism deal with each line and each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.

Let’s just like at the first word of Jesus’ prayer. Where pride focuses on me, me, me.  The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to focus on us, on we.  We are to address God as part of a community.  The first word of the Our Father is Our. 

In teaching us to pray, Jesus teaches us to focus not just on ME, my life, my needs, my desires, rattling off my wish list. For Christianity is not a mere private affair.  The Church Jesus founded is not just a gathering of isolated individuals, but persons who have been brought into a new communion with God and one another.  We go to God together. 

Look at Sunday Mass.  We cannot fulfill our Sunday obligation by sitting in a room, by ourselves, communing with God.  We are meant to come together, at least every week, in united prayer. Someone who claims that they don’t need the Church to be Christian needs to reexamine the data and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Christian Church is a communion, a community, a family of souls on earth united in faith and prayer to the souls in purgatory who both receive the help of the blessed souls of the saints in heaven. And the Our Father, to be prayed by every Christian every day, opens us, reminds us, recommits us, to being a faithful members of this communion. It humbles our egocentrism, opening us up to new vistas of charity and living in harmony.

Seek and Ye shall Find. And in the Our Father, the Lord teaches us a prayer of perfect and unselfish love offering ourselves entirely to God and asking from Him the best things, not only for ourselves but also for our neighbor.

May this Holy Eucharist help us to truly be purified from all earthly pride, to grow in humble surrender to the holy will of God in all things, to pray with the hearts and minds of Jesus, united with all of the holy souls and the saints, that Our Father may truly be hallowed on earth as He is in heaven, for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls.

3rd Week of Lent 2018 - Tuesday - Purgatory and Lenten Suffering

Though the word ‘Purgatory’ is not found in scripture, the scriptural evidence for purgatory is manifold.

St. Paul writes in Corinthians of a fire which will purify the saved of their empty and selfish works (I Cor 3)

And of course the practice of praying for the dead is evidenced even in the Old Testament book of Maccabees.

The Lord Himself speaks about “forgiveness” which is offered in this age and in the “age to come” (Matthew 12).

And this morning’s Gospel, the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is often cited as evidence of Purgatory. For those servants of the Master, those servants of God, who do not embody the Master’s own mercy perfectly, they will be “sent to the torturers” until their debt is payed.

Even our first reading today hints at the experience of purgation. Azariah praying in the fire for God’s mercy is a purgatorial figure. A figure of faith, a figure at prayer, a figure filled with repentance in the flames of a furnace, yet not being consumed. Notice also his absolute confidence in God. Similarly the souls in purgatory are absolutely assured their salvation, already having received their judgment by the Just Judge upon their bodily death.

Lent is a purgatorial season in which we undergo some suffering while in this earthly life to be purged of our selfishness, our lack of mercy. Suffering with Jesus brings joy, as St. Paul asserts, “Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and, in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” Our voluntary penances bring about sanctification, and can be offered up for others: souls who are far from God, souls who struggle with sin, and the souls in purgatory. And we seek to embody the Lord's mercy in our Lenten almsgiving--our acts of self-sacrificial service.

It is best to willingly undergo penances on earth than to undergo them in the afterlife. For the saints, explain that the pains of purgatory are greater than the pains of earth.

So, this Lent, let us willingly embrace many purgatorial penances, for ourselves and for others, that we may know the joy of grace, an increase in charity, and conviction for the Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

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.

All Souls' Day 2017 - Praying for the Dead

Yesterday, All Saints' Day, we praised God for his masterpieces: the saints, those Christians who reached spiritual maturity in this life, and so entered heaven immediately after death.

Today Catholics join in praying for the eternal repose of our many brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, but who hadn't yet reached spiritual maturity. Instead of entering heaven immediately, these souls were taken by God to the spiritual hospital called purgatory.

Even though there is firm scriptural basis for the practice of praying for the dead, many Catholics are uncomfortable with this doctrine. But from the very beginning the Church has engaged in this practice. The saints urge us to pray for the dead. St. John Vianney said, "We must say many prayers for the souls of the faithful departed, for one must be so pure to enter heaven."

St. John Chrysostom, over 1200 years before John Vianney even recommended to every Christian family that they have a box at some convenient place in their home where they put coins which would be used to have masses said for the Poor Souls.

Common sense, the testimony of the saints, and the Bible all agree: purgatory is real; many if not most of us will need to be purified from the vestiges of sin and selfishness after we die, so that we can fully experience the joys of heaven.

This is not a complicated doctrine. Though, the Church has made no definitive statements about what exactly this purification is like or exactly how long it takes, three things for certain: that a purification after death exists, that it is not entirely pleasant, it involves suffering, but the church on earth can assist those souls in purgatory with our prayers.

Knowing this motivates us to do two things.

First, it certainly motivates us to prepare our souls, while here on earth. Doing penance for our sins during our earthly life is preferable to the pains suffered in purgatory.

Second, we can alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters who have died and are now in purgatory by praying for them, offering Masses for them, obtaining indulgences for them...God has generously connected our lives to theirs.

And so, we who are members of the Church Militant here on earth, can help the members of the Church Suffering in purgatory, arrive more quickly to their eternal destination: the Church Triumphant in heaven.

May we be generous in our prayers and acts of charity toward our beloved dead, that with them, we may come to see God face to face in heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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May all those baptized into Christ’s saving passion, death, and resurrection, and nourished at the Eucharistic table of the Lord, be welcomed into the halls of the heavenly banquet.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace. 

That God may send his angel of consolation and comfort to all those for whom death draws near, and all those who grieve the death of a loved one might find peace in the promises of Christ.

For all those who despair of eternal life because they do not know God, may they receive faith in the saving resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For all of the holy souls in purgatory, especially those forgotten by time and have no one else to pray for them, that they may know the constant aid of the Church on earth, especially the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, and those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Heavenly Father, grant to our beloved dead your mercy and forgiveness, hear and answer all of our prayers according to your gracious will, through Christ our Lord.

Homily: 31st Sunday in OT 2016 - "To seek out and to save"

A priest I know tells the story of a young man who was dying of cancer—who was just 24 years old.  In the final stages of his illness, the priest went to see the young man, and the young man said: “Father, you once told us something that has made it easier for me to accept my death.  You said: ‘There are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young isn’t one of them.  You said the first tragedy is If you go through life and don’t know that you are loved, and the second is if you go through life and you don’t tell those whom you love that you love them. When the doctors told me that my cancer was terminal, my family has stood by my side, I realized how much I’ve been loved, and I’ve been given this time to tell my family and others how much they mean to me.  People ask me: ‘What’s it like being 24 years old and dying?’  I tell them, ‘It’s not so bad.  It beats being 50 years old and living without values and faith and knowledge that I’m loved by God and my family.”

Faith prepares us for death.  Faith helps us to love and to know we are loved.

I thought of this story for several reasons. For one, it is priesthood Sunday. We thank God for our priests and pray for our priests. Priests who baptize, priests who absolve, priests who celebrate the Eucharist, priests who help hardened sinners return to Christ, priests who help families live the Gospel, priests who help us prepare for the end of our earthly life.  The Catholic Church will need priests until the end of time, to carry out the ordained ministry according to God’s plan.  And each of us has a role to help young men hear God’s call to the priesthood—help them to truly believe that to be a priest is a wonderful vocation and in invaluable one.

This may sound a bit morbid or strange, but as I began to discern my own priestly vocation, one of the aspects of priestly ministry that really spoke to me was the priest’s serenity in the face of death. Priests are called to visit the beds of the dying. The priest is summoned to the beds dying strangers and longtime parishioners, both lukewarm and devout souls; and he is called upon to administer the Church’s final rites, to help the soul prepare to meet God.

Death—which most men fear and spend their lives fleeing from and distracting themselves from, priests, put aside this fear, perhaps even conquer it, to bring peace to others. What a blessed vocation!
Another reason I thought of the story is because today is our annual Bereavement Mass. Joining us today are family members of those who have died in the last year. We grieve for those who have died. Grieve because life is different without them, their absence is felt so deeply. And so it’s important for us to gather together in our grief to pray for each other—to turn to God who is the source of our consolation, and to thank God for the opportunities he gave us to love them.

That love, no doubt continues, even years after their passing as we pray for the departed, remembering them at the altar, lifting their souls to God.

This Wednesday, November 2 is the feast of All Souls—a day set aside in the Church year simply to pray for the repose of our loved ones. Though Tuesday is the feast of All Saints, a Holy Day of Obligation, where all Catholics are obligated to attend Mass, I also urge you to consider attending Mass on Wednesday, to pray for our beloved dead.

One of the most devastating and tragic effects of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, was that Protestants stopped praying for the poor souls.  And they really lost something essential to the Christian life. Praying for the dead is part of being Christian. It’s a practice found in Scripture, taught by Sacred Tradition, encouraged in the words and writings of the Saints.

Why do we pray for the dead? It’s an act of mercy! It’s an act of mercy to help those in need. And the souls in purgatory are in need of our prayers. Those who die with even the smallest amount of earthly selfishness, with attachment to the things and ways of the world, are in need of purification before they can enter heaven.

Understandably, many Catholics do not like to pray for our departed loved ones.  We like to imagine our loved ones who did display so much love and affection throughout their lives to have entered immediately into heaven. It can be painful to think of them still awaiting entrance into the heavenly kingdom.  But to be honest, most souls need such purification. The only members of the faithful departed we know with absolute certainty to be in heaven are those definitively declared by the Church to be canonized Saints.  Until a soul is declared a Saint by the church we do not err in praying for their eternal repose.

Many of the saints, St. Padre Pio, St. Catherine of Genoa, had strong devotion to praying for the poor souls.  It is an act of love to pray for our loved ones. So continue to show your love for them by praying for them constantly, offering rosaries and novenas for them, having Masses celebrated for them. Just as we can offer comfort to our loved ones by hold their hands as they lay dying, so too we can bring them comfort and aid through our prayers.

If you haven’t had a Mass celebrated for loved ones recently, go to the parish office this week and schedule a Mass. For, the Mass is the greatest and most powerful prayer we can offer on behalf of those who have died.

Christ's whole life on earth was dedicated to bringing people back into friendship with God, helping them to be free from sin, as he says in the Gospel today: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."

All of us have been given a share in this mission: to seek and to save what was lost.

By praying for the dead we help souls complete the journey, by sharing our faith with unbelievers we may help souls begin the journey. We thank God this weekend for our priests, and pray that we may always have good faithful priests to assist us on the journey, and pray for and thank God for the gift of our loved ones who have walked with us, laughed with us, cried with us, and embraced us throughout the journey.

May the Lord Jesus, through the Word and Sacrament we celebrate today, make us ever more faithful in the mission for the glory of God and salvation of souls.