Thanksgiving 2023 - Natural and Supernatural Gratitude

 

Thanksgiving is not an explicitly Christian holiday, it’s not a feast day of the Christian Church, even in the United States. Yet, it certainly has a religious dimension, the character of what the medieval called “the virtue of religion.” Even people without religion, do something, kind of religious today. 

The word “religion” comes from the latin word religare which means to bind. And so religion deals with the most important bonds in the human experience, our bonds--our relationships--our most important bond, our bond to God, and also the bonds of family, friendship, nation, the goods of the earth, and our neighbor. 

So even the civic holiday of Thanksgiving finds people even without religion, doing something that is part of our religious impulse, our religious hard-wiring. To give thanks. Now, the atheists among us, obviously do not turn their minds and hearts to God in thanksgiving. But even many atheists will acknowledge the importance of being thankful. To look at the good things that fill your life, and to express gratitude, even if it only means taking a day off work, to gather with loved ones.

And right there, in that exercise of religiosity, even the atheist becomes open to something bigger than themselves. 

Counting blessings, acknowledging the good things of your life, including the gift of life itself, makes for a more virtuous people. Gratitude is one of the pathways God uses to make Himself known to souls. Those who are practicing the natural virtues are well-disposed to begin practicing the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity. So, the more people who are grateful today, the better. Thankfulness is the soil in which the soul thrives.

So it is a very good thing, that our nation, amidst all of our political and social divisions, continues to celebrate this civic holiday. It is a day for refreshing society in the living waters of gratitude. 

Now many Catholics, like ourselves, rightly begin the day coming to Holy Mass. Even though today is not a holy day of obligation, we gather at the altar to pray for our nation, and pray for our families. We pray in gratitude for the good things that fill our lives, particularly our salvation in Jesus Christ of course, but asking God to help us participate well, in a dignified way, in an effective way in the civic holiday, asking God to bless the people we’re going to spend the day with, whether they are actively practicing Catholics or not. 

And to pray that, we may be good examples of holy gratitude for them. Because if non-Catholics don’t see gratitude in us today, why would they ever consider our way of life. If your practice of Christianity does not produce gratitude in you, you’re probably doing it wrong. For supernatural gratitude is a fruit of the Holy Spirit which grows in souls united to Jesus Christ.

So may God help us today to be truly thankful for the gifts with which we’ve been blessed, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

 

That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.  

For the safety of travelers, the peaceful resolution of all family divisions and national hostilities, for protection from disease, for the lonely and forgotten, and harmony amongst all those who gather together today.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve the security of our country.  

For the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the aged, the lonely, the grieving, those who are out of work, those who are facing financial difficulties, those with addictions, and the imprisoned: that God will draw close to them, and bless them with grace and peace.

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

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

3rd Sunday of Advent 2020 - Undeniable Joy

 

Joy is the virtue most associated with Christmas.  And liturgically, the Church shows that we can barely hold back our joy that Christmas is so near.  Even in the priest’s vestments and the third candle on the advent wreath, we combine purple, the advent Color, and white, the Christmas color, to give us the rose color that is unique to this Gaudete Sunday. We rejoice, for the Lord is near.

What is joy?  C.S. Lewis, the wonderful Christian author, well-known for his “Chronicles of Narnia”, books like “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” wrote a sort of spiritual autobiography, in which he details his conversion to Christianity from Atheism—a book titled “Surprised by Joy”. In it, Lewis describes how every human being who’s ever existed desires joy—we crave it, we are on an eternal quest for joy—an insight certainly consistent with the likes of Augustine and Aquinas.  Yet, joy, Lewis admits, seems to be the most elusive of the virtues: we are all searching for it, but few seem to find enduring joy.  The authentically and fully joyful person is rare.  

Lewis explains that joy is often so elusive and hard to find, because so many people are looking for joy “out there”— in things—as if joy can be acquired if I just obtain the right object, or the right amount of cash in my bank account, in some earthly thing or activity or set of circumstances. Earthly pleasures are inadequate substitutes for the joy was so long for. 

This is why I think we are sort of relieved when Christmas is over.  We become so focused on the earthly busyness—shopping, decorating, and baking, and the material things like playstations, and televisions and new wardrobe, that when everything is over we are left exhausted.  

No, “Joy does not come from out there,” Lewis says, rather “Joy comes from in here.”  Joy comes into the heart when we are in right relationship with God—joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Only when the heart is firmly planted in Christ and doing the works of Christ, will the fruit of joy truly bloom.

No doubt the saints are the great exemplars of Joy. I think, particularly of St. Clare of Assisi. Saint Clare is a great example of one who knew that joy is not found in things but in falling in love with Christ.  Clare was the modern day equivalent of a princess: living in a castle, betrothed to a prince, she had every material thing should could have wanted—fancy dresses, servants to wait on her.  Yet, she, like St. Francis, gave up all of her earthly possessions in order to possess true joy through a life of prayer—by learning to keep the focus of her heart, not on a million passing things, but on the one thing—the one person that matters most.  

The cloistered nuns over on Rocky River Dr, the Poor Clares follow the example of St. Clare, they live in cloister—separate from the world of things—to dedicate themselves to prayerful adoration of the Lord.  These nuns, the Poor Clares, through the Vows of their Religious Profession, consecrate their entire lives to Adoring Jesus Christ  in the Eucharist, as St. Clare did in simplicity, prayer, penance, and seclusion. 

This group of women, the Poor Clares along with the hundreds of cloistered orders around the world, from an earthly point of view, should be very sad.  They don’t have any money, the sisters individually don’t have bank accounts or a check book. The sisters don’t have any personal possessions—they’ve probably never even held a cell phone or ipad or watched Netflix.  They aren’t free to go out to the movie theater or to a baseball game or to the opera or to take a vacation to the Bahamas or Disney World.  

From an earthly point of view, the Poor Clares should have no joy.  But yet—they’re full of joy—they are always smiling, they are always laughing, they always have an uplifting, encouraging word—you count yourself blessed for having met them.

Sure, the accumulation of things and degrees and awards and notoriety bring us some passing satisfaction.  But the poor Clares and many like them are full of joy not because of what they obtained out there, but cultivating of fiery love for Jesus Christ in here. 

Another important thing to remember about Joy is that it Joy is a virtue, that means it increases and increases the more we practice it and cultivate it.  

I heard of a young priest, newly ordained, who was considering leaving the priesthood, because after less than a year he hadn’t developed perfect joy. Visiting the sick and teaching catechism and celebrating the sacraments didn’t bring him this ecstasy that he thought it was going to. The honeymoon phase was over, as we say. But, the older priests will tell you that, joy doesn’t just happen overnight, it is cultivated, and must be done patiently. 

Real joy is obtained only after persevering through a period of dryness, remaining faithful to God in the midst of the spiritual battle, when we resist the temptation to seek our happiness in those passing satisfactions. 

Joy is possible. Our religion works, if you work it. As they say. 

I saw a recently published study about mental health in our country after a these months and months of COVID. The article examined the mental health and experience of depression amongst different segments of our current society, and it was abundantly clear that the one real group in this country whose mental health is pretty good right now are people who go to church every week and pray every day. 

How is this possible? Because our religion works. Our faith puts us in contact with the source of joy and helps us identify the attitudes and behaviors that diminish joy. Christians take St. paul at his word, when he writes, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks” and we find that it works. 

Fasting from things you don’t need. Persevering daily in prayer. Even in difficult times turning to God with grateful hearts for the blessings which fill our lives. Finding new and creative ways to engage in the works of charity despite our limitations, it works.  It brings a joy that can’t be found in a pill or a playstation. You see less divorce among Catholics who go to Church every Sunday, you see less drug use and alcoholism, you see less addiction, and this new report shows that you see less mental health decline during a time of turmoil. 

Now that doesn’t mean we have less drama, or less tragedy, or less suffering, in fact, maybe just the opposite. And yet, fidelity to the doctrines and practices of our faith brings a resiliency and a joy that even the scientific community finds intriguing. 

Joy is a net which catches souls. It is the undeniable sign of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. So cultivate joy. Pray daily. Persevere through the dry times. Don’t stop praying just because it gets hard. Practice the works of charity. Don’t stop looking for ways to give and to help those in need just because COVID places certain limitations on our activity. God provides plenty of opportunities for us to grow in Joy even during times of captivity and persecution.

Throughout these final weeks of Advent, may the Holy Spirit free us from all that diminishes our joy, may he preserve us throughout times of discouragement, that we may cultivate true, authentic, and undeniable Christian joy as we await the coming of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Thanksgiving Day 2019 - The religious duty to give thanks

Thanksgiving is not an explicitly Christian holiday, it’s not a feast day of the Church, even in the United States. And yet, Thanksgiving Day certainly resonates with our deep religious impulse, what the philosophers call the “virtue of religion”.

 The word “religion” comes from the latin word religare which means to bind. And so religion deals with the most important bonds in the human experience, our most important bond, our bond to God, and also the bonds of family, friendship, nation, the goods of the earth, and our neighbor. To be religious is to fulfill our duty towards these bonds.

And so this civic holiday of Thanksgiving meets this universal religious impulse and religious duty to give thanks for these things. Which is why we fill Thanksgiving with the things we value and are most grateful: friends, family, food, football for some, and hopefully some prayer.

Many Catholics, like ourselves, rightly begin the day by going to Holy Mass, even though it’s not a holy day of obligation. Like the Leper in the Gospel today, having acknowledged that we have received blessing from God, we return to God to give thanks. We turn to God, with great gratitude, for the gift of our salvation, for the good things that fill our lives, and asking God to bless the people we’re going to spend the day with, whether they go to Mass or not.

Around the Thanksgiving table many families still have the very healthy practice of each naming something that they are grateful for. Naming blessings, counting our blessings, adding up the good things of your life, including the gift of life itself, is in a sense a religious duty. To call to mind the blessings and the sources of those blessings and to give thanks for those blessings.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that gratitude is the “mark of a happy disposition to see good rather than evil.” Thankfulness is the soil in which the soul thrives.

Now, it is not that we ignore the divisions, strife, pain, friction, brokenness, or sorrow in the world. In fact, gratefulness should lead us to help alleviate the troubles in the world. But, today we focus not so much on division, but on the real human need to stop and give thanks. Today is not so much a day for political arguments, but for refreshing society, our families, and our souls through gratitude for the time and blessings we’ve been given.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I forget how important it is to be thankful to God, but that makes today, and the celebration of thanksgiving so important, that what we do here today may carry over, into every day of our lives, for Christians are called to be a people who live in perpetual gratitude, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.  We pray to the Lord.

That all people of good will may work together against attacks on religious liberty and the Christian Faith.  We pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve the security of our country.  We pray to the Lord.

For the safety of travelers, the peaceful resolution of all family divisions, and national hostilities, for protection from disease, and harmony amongst all those who gather together today.

For the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the aged, the lonely, the grieving, those who are out of work, those who are facing financial difficulties, those with addictions, and the imprisoned: that God will draw close to them, and bless them with grace and peace.

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

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

Thanksgiving 2017 - Gratitude leads to happiness

Thanksgiving is not an explicitly Christian holiday, it’s not a feast day of the Church, even in the United States. Yet, it certainly has a religious dimension, the character of what the medievals called “the virtue of religion.”

The word “religion” comes from the latin word religare which means to bind. And so religion deals with the most important bonds in the human experience, our most important bond, our bond to God, and also the bonds of family, friendship, nation, the goods of the earth, and our neighbor.

The civic holiday of Thanksgiving acknowledges this religious impulse and religious duty to give thanks for these things. Which is why we fill Thanksgiving with the things we value and are most grateful: friends, family, food and football, and hopefully some prayer.

It is not that we ignore the divisions, strife, pain, friction, brokenness, or sorrow out there. But it is a very important human need to stop and give thanks. It’s not a day for political arguments, but for refreshing society.

Many Catholics, like ourselves, rightly begin the day by going to Holy Mass, even though it’s not a holy day of obligation. We turn to God, with gratitude, for the gift of our salvation, for the good things that fill our lives, and asking God to bless the people we’re going to spend the day with, whether they go to Mass or not.

Counting blessings, adding up the good things of your life, including the gift of life itself, makes for a more virtuous people precisely because it increases the virtue of gratitude in those who are thankful. For as Thomas Aquinas said, gratitude is the “mark of a happy disposition to see good rather than evil.” Thankfulness is the soil in which the soul thrives.

So, If you spend any moment of the day thinking about what people owe you, you’ve missed the point. Rather, focus on nurturing the virtue of gratitude today, for the time you’ve been given, for the people who have touched your life and continue to bless you, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.  We pray to the Lord.

That all people of good will may work together against attacks on religious liberty and the Christian Faith.  We pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve the security of our country.  We pray to the Lord.

For the safety of travelers, the peaceful resolution of all family divisions, and national hostilities, for protection from disease, and harmony amongst all those who gather together today. We pray to the Lord.

For the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the aged, the lonely, the grieving, those who are out of work, those who are facing financial difficulties, those with addictions, and the imprisoned: that God will draw close to them, and bless them with grace and peace. We pray to the Lord.

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

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.

31st Sunday in OT 2017 - The corruption of the best is the worst

Last week I told a story about a recent encounter I had with my tailor. She had asked me why I became a priest, and I replied that I believe that with all the evil in the world, the priesthood can be a powerful instrument of God’s grace—his love and mercy and truth—in the world.

She replied that she had a problem with organized religion in general. She said how in her home country, the Atheist Communist Leader Stalin had outlawed religion, but when Stalin was overthrown, many of the Communist party members traded the hammer and sickle, the symbols of atheistic communism, for the cross, the symbol of Christianity. They had taken up the once repressed faith, but instead of using the terror and violence of Communism to control people’s lives, they now used religion to control people and oppress people.

I think many people have this problem with organized religion. The Communist Philosopher Karl Marx called religion “the opiate of the masses.”—seeing religious simply as a way to control people. And to be honest, there has been corruption in the Church, here and there. But, all of us here, I hope, know of the tremendous potential of Christianity, the power of grace to transform sinners into saints.

Religion: it can be the best thing around, and it can be the worst thing around. When religion functions well, according to its own deepest purpose, it brings us into friendship with God, it can bring out the best in man. But, when it is dysfunctional, when religion goes bad, it goes really bad, it can bring out the worst in us. The ancient Romans would say: “Corruptio optimi pessimo”, the corruption of the best, is the worst. When the best thing goes bad, it really goes bad. And that’s certainly true for religion. Dysfunctional religion can be very dangerous. It can create murderous terrorists who commit acts of violence in the name of God, it can create tremendous greed, it can create terrible scrupulosity where the love of God is replaced by a false image of God as a tyrant, it can lead religious leaders to abuse their power, and lay people to become addicted to false piety and self-righteousness.

The authors of the Bible, both Old Testament and New, were fully aware of this problem. The great prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and Malachi, as well as Peter, James, John, and Paul, and of course Our Lord himself, who knew the potential of His Church, all seemed to be keenly aware how religion could be misused.

Jesus engages the Scribes and Pharisees, our Gospel today. Our Lord explains how these supposed religious leaders were preaching, but not practicing.

Notice, how even though Jesus points out the religious failure of the Scribes and Pharisees, he doesn’t discredit religious leadership altogether. Were the Scribes and Pharisees in many ways corrupt? Yes. But does that mean that the whole idea of teaching authority and religious leadership is altogether corrupt? Absolutely not.

Jesus is saying don’t let their corruption keep you from right relationship with the Father. He even says, do whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. In other words, when they teach authentically, listen to them, but don’t let their corruption keep you from the truth, either.

The Pharisees misused their position of authority, and placed themselves on a pedestal; they sought to be honored for their purity and supposed holiness. They made religious leadership a means of their own self-aggrandizement rather being instruments of the truth and goodness of God.

Now contrast the false religious leadership of the Pharisees with the great humility and authentic leadership of the saints., who we celebrated this week on the Holy Day of Obligation, All Saints Day. The saints are the truly holy ones in our midst, yet we don’t see them using their holiness to control others or to demean others, rather, they become conduits of God’s goodness and grace. They do not use religion to inflate their own egos, rather, they do everything they can to help others to be as holy as possible. Their humility is truly humbling, their goodness is truly inspiring. They guide us not through fear, but love. The saints never preach what they are unwilling to do themselves, but we see that they are willing to do quite a bit. They are the first ones in the confessional when they’ve sinned, and are the first ones with a cup of water, to give drink to the thirsty. The show that our faith IS demanding, but do everything they can to help us with those demands through their wisdom and good example.

Particularly, I think of St. Charles Borromeo, whose feast day is today, November 4. St. Charles was born into a wealthy Italian noble family. He received the highest education of his day, and his ecclesiastical career into the highest-ranking posts in the Church was almost guaranteed. He lived in  a time of some lavishness and some corruption within the Church. And, Charles Borromeo could have become one of these terribly decadent and corrupt Cardinal Princes always vying for more and more power. Rather, Charles took, “Humilitas”—humility, as his personal motto.

He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself luxuries.  When the plague struck his diocese, he fed thousands of people daily, taking upon himself a huge debt requiring years of repayment.  Whereas the civil authorities fled the city, he stayed and ministered to the sick and the dying. He also developed a Catechism which was used world-wide after the Council of Trent to educate Catholics in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, helping Catholics know their faith, so that they could live their faith more fully.

G.K. Chesterton once said that it is not that Christianity “has been tried and left wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.” In other words, when we see corruption in the Church, in Catholics ordained and not-ordained, the problem isn’t with Catholicism. Our faith is the best thing around. It is the remedy for the ills of the world, it is the instrument God gave us for our salvation and sanctification, but if we want it’s transforming power to be unleashed, we must be faithful to it, not just the parts we like, but all of it.

We can become saints, we can become the people God made us to be through our beautiful faith. We certainly pray for our religious leaders, that they may practice what they preach. But we also take personal responsibility for our own practice of the faith, that we may allow ourselves to be taught, to be led in the authentic practice of our religion, that we may schooled in holiness, and live lives betting of the children of God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Trinity Sunday 2017: Are all religions the same?

It is common in today's world to run into people who believe that all religions are basically the same. In fact, it is even becoming common to run into Catholics who have adopted this viewpoint. It is considered the “tolerant, open-minded” point-of-view.

But in reality, it is just the opposite: to claim that all religions are the same is the most close-minded and intolerant viewpoint someone could have in regards to religion.

Sure, every religion tries to address our basic desire for happiness.  Most religions try to answer the great question about life after death, and address the difference between right and wrong, each makes assertions concerning man’s relationship with and understanding of the spiritual realm.

But study the religions for more than 15 minutes and it’s clear that they deal with those ultimate questions in different ways and even come up with vastly different answers.

Atheistic religions say there is no God at all. Pantheistic religions say that everything in the universe is a part of god or identical to god. Polytheistic religions say that the divine realm is full of numerous, competing gods. Monotheistic religions, like Christianity, believe in one, all-powerful, eternal God.
But the differences don't stop there. Inside each of those groups are different explanations of the nature of God, the nature of salvation and happiness, and how eternal life can be achieved.

It is a sign of close-mindedness or laziness to simply say that all religions are the same: it's a refusal to show respect for what religious people really believe.

When a Christian discusses the nature of God with a Muslim, one of the first issues that arises is the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Muslims, like Jews and Christians, believe there is one God, all-powerful and transcendent. Their concept of God somewhat resembles what is revealed about God in the Old Testament. Mohammed, the founder of Islam lived in the Middle East in the sixth and seventh centuries, grew up among Jews and Christians, and inherited Monotheism from us.

One of the factors in his rejection of the Trinity, that God is Three Person, was that at the time, Christians in the middle east were scandalously seeking to resolve their theological differences in violent ways, and rejecting the authority of Rome. Muhammad was exposed to the Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite heresies from an early age. And these heresies, denials of Jesus’ divinity, play out in the Koran, which portrays Jesus not as God, not as the Second Person of Trinity incarnate, but simply a man.

So this divided Christianity was the environment in which Mohammed adopted and popularized the Muslim, non-Christian idea of God. He rejected what Jesus and the New Testament revealed about the Holy Trinity, that God is three divine persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is true that the Trinity is hard to understand: How can God be both one and three? How can the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be fully God, and yet distinct persons? Our minds cannot grasp this completely.

And yet, that very fact makes the doctrine of the Trinity ring true. It shows that no merely human mind would have been able to come up with it. And it also shows that God, the Creator of the universe, exists in a way that we, mere creatures, cannot fully understand - and that makes perfect sense. God should exceed our ability to understand him; if he didn't, he wouldn't be much of a God.
Saint Augustine, who is one of the most profound Trinitarian Theologians said, “Si comprehendis, non est Deus” which means, “If you understand, it’s not God.”  The minute you say, yes, I got it now, I fully understand it: that’s not God, says Augustine.  The Trinity is greater than human understanding.

But that doesn’t mean he is totally unknowable or unapproachable. God invites us into a living, vibrant relationship with Himself. He has revealed that he is a Trinity. He has revealed that He is a loving Communion and desires to share His life with us.

He invites us to become the people He made us to be by placing faith in what He has revealed, and to grow in union with Him through His Church—through the practices of our faith, the sacraments, the reading of Scripture, and prayer.

The world claims there are many paths to eternity: Our faith claims there is One: through the One who says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Christianity is not simply a religious system among many; it is The Way, it is the relationship that God Himself established that we might become the people he made us to be, for the forgiveness of sins and the granting of eternal life.

No, Catholics don’t believe in some generic idea of God, or the god of the philosophers, some faceless, nameless divine force. No, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are real, and we can know them, and have an intimate relationship with them, and become their instruments in the world.

Just as you get to know someone by spending time with them and doing work with them, so too, we come to know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spending time with them, by working alongside them, by along them to work in us, by reading what the Scriptures reveal about Them, what the great Church Fathers have written about them, and by spending time in their service.

God has revealed to us that He is Trinity because he wants us to know Him and he wants us to share His love.

Today, as we profess our faith in God, One and Three, may we be ever more transformed into His instruments, that we may spread the True Faith, that he may draw souls to Himself through us, for His glory and the salvation of souls.

June 6 2017 - St. Norbert - Rendering unto God what belongs to God

In the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the Flag of the United States of America, citizens of this country proclaim liberty and justice for all to be among our highest values.

Every culture in the world has functioned out of some understanding of justice. Justice preserves order and peace.  Justice ensures that individuals rights are respected, that we govern our affairs honestly, that we refrain from deceit, it protects the rights of the helpless and the lowly, it safeguards us from abuses of power by those in authority, it establishes the social order.  Without justice we would have anarchy, warfare between rival interests, oppression of the weak by the strong, the triumph of evil.  Justice is to be practiced by every citizen, and everyone who seeks to be a citizen of this country must pledge to uphold it.

In the gospel today, Jesus says, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s. He is certainly speaking here about Justice. Justice towards God, rendering unto God what is due to God is called the virtue of religion.  What do we give to God?  What do we owe to God? Our love, our devotion, our obedience, our reverence. In a sense, we are incapable of offering to God the infinite homage to which He is entitled.

But we seek to do our best, by acts of adoration, gratitude, penitence, and prayer. The Saints are those who have made this virtue of religion their life’s work.

For most of us, the spiritual life involves a growing realization of how important this work really is.

St. Norbert exemplifies this journey of faith. As a young cleric he was named personal chaplain to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. Though he was put in charge of dispensing alms to the poor, Norbert began to take on a lot of bad habits of the wealthy elite of the emperor’s court. As he grew in worldliness, his faith began to diminish.

A close brush with death caused Norbert to reexamine his priorities. He decided to give up his position in the imperial court and dedicate his life to the contemplation of Christ.

He was ordained a priest later that year. He renounced all of his worldly possessions and formed a religious order of like-minded men now known as the Norbertines.

Growth in this virtue of rendering God what belongs to God involves striving to enter into the spirit of filial love, obedience, and self-sacrifice Jesus had for the Father. Jesus is the supreme worshiper of the Father, who in His life and death glorified God to an infinite manner. Jesus, and the saints in imitation of Him, show this to be the purpose of our existence: to render unto God what belongs to God, to render Him everything, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty, may every prayer of our heart be directed, for it is His will that all humanity should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

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

For the peoples of all the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them, and deepen in them the virtues of justice and religion.

That the Norbertine Order and all those consecrated religious may inspire us to strive for greater holiness.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, especially for the sick and victims of war and terror and natural disaster.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

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