October 20 2023 - St. Paul of the Cross - The Cross is the School of Love

 The saint we honor today was born the son of a wealthy merchant near Genoa Italy, in 1694.  He received his early education from the Capuchin Franciscans.  As a young boy he was marked with great sanctity.  Not only did he excel in his studies, but he was deeply reverent, and devoted to prayer, especially the Holy Mass.  Shortly before his confirmation, he had a miraculous vision: the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Him wearing an all-black habit.  This became the habit of the religious order he found later in life, called the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, known today as the Passionists.  

When he was 26 years old, Paul had a series of prayer-experiences which made it clear to him that God was inviting him to form a community who would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus. It was his life-long conviction that God is most easily found in the Passion of Christ.

“It is very good and holy,” today’s saint said, “to consider the passion of our Lord and to meditate on it, for by this sacred path we reach union with God. In this most holy school we learn true wisdom…love is a unifying virtue which takes upon itself the torments of its beloved Lord. It is a fire reaching through to the inmost soul.”

The Cross is the school of love—how much God loves us, and how our lives are to be redeemed, transformed, and transfigured by imitating that love and growing in that love. Love requires self-donation, love requires daily sacrifice, love requires forgetting ourselves in order to give ourselves more fully to others—there is no greater love than for one to lay down his life for a friend. 

In our moments of weakness and failure, it is easy to grow discouraged and to lose hope. That’s why in our sinfulness it is so important to meditate on how much we are loved by God. He didn’t die for the perfect, he died for us. He embraced us in our most unlovable state. Meditating on the cross of Christ, then, is to be a key which opens up and transforms our hearts and makes them more like the one who embraced the cross for our salvation. 

The love Christ showed on the cross is, as the first St. Paul—St. Paul of Tarsus—wrote in our first reading this morning, is a love which surpasses all knowledge. God’s love surpasses our human understanding, if you think you understand God’s love—his love is greater still. But also, seeking to grasp and experience God’s love is more valuable than any other knowledge we can gain in this earthly life. “More precious than gold, than fire-refined gold” is the law of God’s love. The psalmist is not just speaking poetically here, but rather, calling us to realign our priorities—to seek to truly value God’s love over everything else. 

May the Passion of Jesus Christ be ever in our hearts. May we meditate often on the cross of the Savior, and encounter “the breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s love for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

For unity in the Church, faithfulness to right teaching, detachment from worldly vices, generosity in the works of charity, and courage in the Church’s evangelizing mission. 

Through the intercession of St. Paul of the Cross, we pray for the spiritual good of the Passionist Orders—and that all members of the Church may be more deeply conformed to the Cross of Christ.

For all victims of war, for peace in the Holy Land, an end to the violence and suffering, and healing for those whose lives have been tragically disrupted. May God come to the assistance of the communities and families devastated by the horrors of terrorism and war; and may world leaders work together for peace. 

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or disease: that they may know God’s consolation, healing, and grace.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the deceased members of our families friends and parishes, for those who fought and died for our freedom, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Graciously grant our petitions, we beseech thee, O Lord; may your grace sustain us always in your service, through Christ Our Lord.

 

 

5th Week of Lent 2022 - Tuesday - Listen to his love

 The Israelites in the desert had taken their eyes off of what God was doing for them, and allowed the poison of ingratitude fill their hearts.  God was freeing them from slavery and leading them to the promised land, but their complaints and hardness of hearts allowed poisonous and deadly ingratitude to direct their thoughts, words, and actions. The deadly poison of the Saraph Serpants was a symbol of the even deadlier poison of sin that reigned in them. The brush with death, like for many people, became a wake up call, they realized they sinned and repented. God provided a remedy for the poisonous snake bites but instructing Moses to place the bronze serpent on the pole. All who looked at it would live.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees allowed the poison of pride to fill their hearts. Failing to recognize that Jesus was truly the Son of God, Jesus told the Pharisees that they would die in their sins unless they looked upon him and believed that he was God.  

In these dark times, many have allowed sinful pride and sinful gratitude to dominate their lives. Man Catholics even have stopped looking to the Crucified for life. Many Catholics do not have crucifixes in their homes, they do not go to Church, and worse, they believe there’s nothing wrong. But, it is the task of faithful Christians to hold him up for the world to see—in our speech, in our behaviors, and in our prayers, that they may see him and believe.

The great lover of the Crucified, St. Paul of the Cross, would often go from parish to parish, preaching parish missions.  When he would preach these missions, he would often hold out to the congregation a crucifix, and simply holding the crucifix out for all to see, he would say, “listen to his love.”

He said, "When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to preach to you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent sermon!"

Look at the hands of Jesus, always open during life, still open, still giving, healing to the last drop of blood. Look at the feet of Jesus, which climbed the mountain of Calvary, now lifted up and nailed to the cross for our salvation. Look at the side of Jesus from which flowed the blood and water, the fountain of the sacramental life of the Church

If you know of any Catholics who have stopped looking to Jesus, bring them to Mass with you on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Help them to listen to his love, to see that he reaches out to them from the cross with tremendous love. We are to help them embrace Him, as he longs to bring them mercy, strength, and peace, as he has for us.  As we near Holy Week, may each of us keep his tremendous outpouring of love ever before our eyes, in our mind, and in our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 20 2017 - Taking off our masks and facing the cross

Jesus often condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.  A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another—claims to be something on the outside, but on the inside is something else. 
On the outside, the Pharisees were claiming to be religious leaders, they were supposed to be leading God’s people to the truth needed for salvation, helping God’s people to grow in authentic holiness and righteousness. In the context of 1st century Judaea, they should have been helping the people to recognize the authenticity of Jesus’ message, helping the people to believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Jesus condemns them for doing the opposite of what they should have been doing. They were leading the people to be more worried about outward appearance than on interior holiness.  Appearing to be holy was almost a social game, a status symbol to the Pharisees.  And Jesus condemns them for playing at a game, being false religious leaders, of being hypocrites.

The Pharisees were so busy playing this game, build-up their false selves, so busy lying, they actually started to believe the lie, like play actors, or Hollywood actors, who put on the mask for the stage, and start to actually believe they are the fictional character.

Jesus teaches very rightly in the Gospel today, that God sees through our hypocrisy, to the heart of the matter. He sees through all human pretenses, all play acting, all ruses: the true intensions of man will be made known, and we will be judged for them.

Many people today get caught up in social games similar to the Pharisees. They seek to appear to be more successful, they signal that they are more virtuous or concerned about the poor, and therefore better than everyone else. But much of it is a ruse.

Rather the saints take off the mask, they humble themselves before God, they repent of their sins, they seek the reformation of their hearts. Today’s Saint, Paul of the Cross, was the founder of the Passionists. Like so many saints, he urges Christians to meditate frequently on the crucifixion.

Meditation on the cross is a remedy for our self-conceit because we cannot deny that the reason Jesus is on the cross is because of MY sins. Facing the cross requires humility because it means facing the truth about ourselves, but also the truth about God. Today’s saint called the cross is “the most holy school” in which we learn what true love, holiness and righteousness looks like.

 With the help of the saints may we be stripped of our own pharisaic attitudes and come humbly and penitentially before the cross of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For spiritual growth for all of God’s people, that we may be lead in the ways of authentic truth, justice, and charity.

For those who have fallen into error, for Catholics who have grown lukewarm in their faith, for those who have left the Church, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of October: That all workers may receive respect and protection of their rights, and that the unemployed may receive the opportunity to contribute to the common good.

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

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

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

Homily: Oct 20 2016 - St. Paul of the Cross - The most holy school of the cross

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing”. These words of Jesus always move us to examine our hearts. Am I burning with love for God? Am I burning with zeal for the spread of the Gospel? Do I have a burning love for service of my neighbor, for those in need?

Today’s Saint certainly burned with great love and great zeal. St. Paul of the Cross is the founder of the Passionist Congregation. The Passionists are known for wearing on their black religious habits the emblem of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which burns with love for God and for man.

Jesus himself was enflamed with love. Love is what motived the incarnation. Love is what drove him to the outskirts of humanity to embrace the leper, the prostitute, the sinner. Love is what impelled him throughout his Passion. His love is an inextinguishable furnace. When our own hearts had grown cold through sin and selfishness, it was his love that rekindled life in us.

How might our hearts become like Christ’s burning with love for God and our fellow man? St. Paul of the Cross, would no doubt say that we must meditate frequently on the Passion—on the Cross—of Christ. “It is very good and holy,” today’s saint said, “to consider the passion of our Lord and to meditate on it, for by this sacred path we reach union with God. In this most holy school we learn true wisdom…love is a unifying virtue which takes upon itself the torments of its beloved Lord. It is a fire reaching through to the inmost soul.”

Consider again the Sacred Heart of Christ, the Cross is plunged into his heart, like a key which opens a door. Meditating on the cross of Christ can be for us a key which opens up and transforms our hearts and will make them more like his, setting them on fire.

In the Cross we recognize what real love looks like. Love requires service, love requires daily sacrifice, love requires forgetting ourselves in order to give ourselves more fully to others.

In our moments of weakness and failure, it is easy to grow discouraged and to lose hope. That’s why in our sinfulness it is so important to meditate on how much we are loved by God. He didn’t die for the perfect, he died for us. He embraced us in our most unlovable state.

The love Christ showed on the cross is, as the first St. Paul—St. Paul of Tarsus—wrote in our first reading this morning, is a love which surpasses all knowledge, but is a love that fills us with the fullness of God.

May the Passion of Jesus Christ be ever in our hearts. May we meditate often on the cross of the Savior, and encounter “the breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s love for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.