May 31 2021 - Memorial Day Visitation

 Memorial Day coincides this year with the Feast of the Visitation, when Our Lady, upon hearing of the pregnancy of her kinswoman Elizabeth, went in haste to the visit her.

Visitation is certainly at the heart of our Faith. We are to visit the Blessed Sacrament. We are to visit the sick and imprisoned. We are to visit the graves of loved ones. We are to visit the lonely and afflicted to bring them comfort. Though Mary was undergoing her own trials—unwed, pregnant, chosen by God, she left the comfort of her home in Nazareth, in haste. She detected a need, and she acted without fearful hesitation. 

And Elizabeth wasn’t just a drive across town.  She lived in the hill country of Judea—about 60 miles from Nazareth—through bandit infested hill country.  A difficult journey for anyone, especially for a teenage mother traveling by herself.

But anxiety did not hinder the blessed Mother from making the charitable visitation. Mary was concerned that Elizabeth’s pregnancy would be difficult for she was advanced in years.  So, prompted by love and charity, she put Elizabeth’s needs ahead of her own.

There’s always an excuse not to make visitation—to visit the lonely, to visit the blessed sacrament. But Our Lady shows us the generous spirit that should animate us, the self-forgetfulness. 

Memorial Day is certainly a day for Visitation. It is common today to visit the graves of our servicemen and women who died defending our freedom. I know in my hometown, a parade will process from the veteran’s memorial in the town square to the cemetery to honor and pray for our beloved soldiers. My grandfather, a world war II veteran took part in the parade every year, to remember his fallen comrades. In fact, my mother and nieces are keeping the family tradition alive and taking part in the parade this morning.

It is important to visit the memories of our beloved heroes. To remember to pray for their souls. And to remember the values for which they died. 

It was on Memorial Day last year, that we were able to return to the public celebration of Mass after the long period of quarantine. With a spirit of profound gratitude for all who made it possible for us to be here today, we pray for our beloved war dead, and pray that we may, like them, hunger and thirst and work for justice and peace, for the spread of God’s kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

That Our Lady’s example of generous charity may inspire us to engage more fervently in the works of mercy and the preaching of the Gospel. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote authentic and lasting peace in the world, an end to terrorism, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life. Let us pray to the Lord.

On this Memorial Day, we pray that our nation may live with ever-greater gratitude for the sacrifice of those who fought and died for our freedom. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for N… Let us pray to the Lord.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ Our Lord.

Trinity Sunday 2021 - Mysterious Love

 

We have come again to the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.  I don’t know who dreads this Sunday more, the priests who have to attempt to explain this most mysterious of all Catholic Dogmas in a short homily, or the people, who have to listen to it.  

I think many priests on Trinity Sunday, like Saint Patrick depicted in our stained glass window with the three-leaf clover, try to explain the nature of the Trinity with some analogy: the trinity is like three burning candles twisted together to have one flame, or like a three-stranded piece of rope.  Or the Trinity is like an egg, and the three persons are like the egg shell, an egg white and an egg yolk.  Some have said the Trinity is like Water which can come in three modes: ice, liquid, or steam, or a tree that has branches, leaves, and roots.

The problem with each of these analogies is that they are ultimately wrong, yes, even Saint Patrick’s use of the three-leaf clover.  To say that the Trinity is like some created thing will never fully explain the Trinity.  The three divine persons of the One Supreme Godhead –Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are not three modes of God, three parts, three divisions, or three different masks that God wears. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three separate entities, like three separate Gods. In a sense, it’s easier to say what the Trinity is not, than what the Trinity is.

In the end, all analogies fail. God is greater than our human comprehension. And I think that’s one of the reasons we celebrate Trinity Sunday: to acknowledge that God is greater than my human comprehension, and I’m okay with it. 

Saint Augustine, who is one of the most profound reflectors on the Trinity said, “Si comprehendis, non est Deus” which means, “If you understand, it’s not God.”  The minute you say, yes, I got it now: that’s not God, says Augustine.  The Trinity is greater than human understanding. 

And that’s a wonderful thing. God is bigger than us. He’s greater than us. He resists being limited by our human categories and prejudices. 

We all know the famous story of the Israelites, after crossing the red sea, they come to mt. sinai. And they fashion for themselves an idol to worship. A hunk of metal. Though their action was way off the mark, and yet, it’s somewhat relatable. It’s a perennial temptation to fashion for ourselves gods which are less mysterious, less demanding, gods that we can see and touch and obtain. Why do people worship money and the accumulation of material things? Because they are right there! Why do people make idols out of athletes and politicians? Because they are right there. Listen to them talk—they’re so charming; they tell me what I want to hear. Watch them play—they’re so talented! It makes me happy.

But we are made for so much more than the happiness offered by the false idols of our own making. We're made for the eternal blessedness of communion with the One True God.

So on one hand, God is mysterious—beyond the comprehension of any created intellect. On the other hand, we were created in order to love God.  And an old proverb says, "You cannot love what you do not know."  God’s nature might be ultimately unknowable, but God has revealed something about Himself--He loves us. 

Catholics don’t believe in some generic faceless nameless divinity like the unitarians because God is not generic—He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Catholic don’t worship some uncaring divine force—but a communion of love whose goodness overflows for us. The Father has a plan for his creation, His Son is sent to enact that plan: to suffer and die for it, the Holy Spirit enflames our hearts and incorporates us into that plan.

While mysterious, the Holy Trinity desires that we seek to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this life, that we may be happy with Him in the next. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength, the Lord tells us. Okay. How?

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 in prayer, by reading what the Scriptures reveal about Them, what the great Church Fathers have written about them, and by spending time in their service.

Why do a growing number of people in this country claim to have no relationship with God? Because they do none of these things. Instead of prayer, they seek the superficial status of social media. Instead of reading the Scriptures, they turn their minds to the perverse entertainments of our day. Instead of engaging in the holy works of mercy, they seek to build up for themselves treasures on earth.

Many people today blame God for their troubles, instead of recognizing God’s desires to help them in their troubles. They say, there is evil in the world, there is evil in my life, therefore God does not exist. In this case, they’ve fashioned such a small, impotent God. Rather, Catholics know, that God is doing something about the evil in the world, he has done something about the evil in the world. The Father has sent the Son to conquer evil and sin and death. And he is victorious. And we can share in that victory by belief in Him, by handing our lives over to Him, by bearing our crosses in union with Him, with the sure and certain Hope, that discipleship leads to resurrection and eternal life.

The Holy Trinity is mysterious, but as we encounter Him in our liturgical worship in our daily prayer, and in our charitable service, we begin to know with our minds and fix in our hearts that the Lord is God. 

In the celebration of Mass, particularly, the Holy Trinity is acting now in history: Father, Son, and Spirit, breathing new life into the Church, nourishing us with the Eucharist, enkindling our hearts for the work of the Gospel. As we continue this sacred celebration and as you go forth from here into the world, let us open our minds, hearts, and souls to the goodness and providence of the Trinity. Let us trust Him, and seek to know Him ever more intimately, and serve Him always and everywhere for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

8th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Friday - Fig Tree, Faith and Forgiveness

 One of the unfortunate decisions of the liturgical reform after Vatican II was what happened to this week after Pentecost. For hundreds of years, this week was celebrated with great solemnity as the Pentecost Octave. The Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Pentecost Sequence would be sung, calling down the Holy Spirit upon the Church. Pentecost Week was also one of the four sets of ember days, corresponding to the changing of the seasons.

Now, after Vatican II, we just kind of starkly find ourselves in the middle of Ordinary Time with no real reference to Pentecost Sunday. Our scripture readings simply resume from where we left off all the way back in February prior to the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.

So if you remember, all the way back then, we were reading sequentially from the Gospel of Mark and we were pretty deep into the Lord’s public ministry. In fact, we’ll be concluding Mark’s Gospel within the next two weeks.

Today’s Gospel takes place on Monday of Holy Week. The day prior, of course, the Lord had entered triumphantly through the gates of Jerusalem. And that night, he had made the short trip back to Bethany, where he stayed in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

St. Mark then presents us with these three vignettes from Holy Monday.  First, as he was leaving Bethany the Lord curses this fig tree.  Next, he chases the money changers out of the temple.  Finally, returning to Bethany he gives his disciples a beautiful, yet challenging teaching on authentic faith using the example of the now-withered Fig Tree.  What is going on here on Holy Monday?

The Lord uses this cursed-withered Fig Tree as a metaphor for the state of religious life for the people of Israel. The religious leaders and the people had allowed rot and corruption to enter God’s holy Temple. What was meant to be a place of blessing and worship had become a place of corruption and rotten fruit.

The powers of spiritual rot and corruption are always trying to worm their way into the Church and into their lives. So the Lord teaches his disciples that they must be people of forgiveness and prayer. Their hearts must be rooted in his teaching, in his Gospel, in deep and radical faith. 

We can sense spiritual corruption worming around in our lives wherever there is a failure to forgive from our heart, wherever there is coldness toward the importance of prayer, wherever trust in God’s mighty power grows cold. 

This is a wonderful teaching as we begin, once again the season of Ordinary Time. That in the ordinary course of our lives we need to practice authentic forgiveness, vibrant prayer, and radical faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That all members of the Church will discover and offer their gifts wholeheartedly in service of the Gospel. 

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that young people may live in faith-filled homes where the Gospel is cherished, studied, and lived-out.

For the grace to set good Christian example, and to courage to share the faith with non-believers and the lapsed.

For all of the sick and suffering, for the grace to unite their sufferings with Christ and to know His consolation and peace.

For our departed loved ones and all of the souls in purgatory, and for N. for whom this Mass is offered. We pray to the Lord.

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

May 25 2021 - St. Bede the Venerable - Gifts in God's service

 The Church honors three of her Saints today: St. Bede the Venerable, St. Gregory VII, and St. Magdalene de Pazzi.  Two of them, the Venerable Bede, and Pope Saint Gregory were Benedictine Monks.

St. Bede was born in 672 and at the early age of seven began monastic training at the Benedictine monastery in Wearmouth, England.  Talk about someone who gave up mother, father, house, and lands, for the sake of the Gospel!

After completing his schooling complete, he moved to the monastery at Jarrow, England, where he spend the remainder of his life. He spent his whole life in that monastery dedicating himself to the study of Sacred Scripture and the Early Church Fathers.  He was a philosopher, writer, poet and theologian and was considered one of the most learned men of his time.

He was the author of 45 volumes of books on history, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, poetry, grammar, homiletics, philosophy, and Scripture. He is called "the father of English historiography" for authoring the book "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People," and is the creator of the B.C. / A.D. calendar. So it’s no surprise that St. Bede is Patron Saint of scholars and historians and he is the only English Doctor of the Church. 

Though Saint Bede lived in a monastery from the age of 7, his impact on the Church cannot be measured, as his writing, and his thought, and approach to the interpretation of scripture and history is so woven into the life of the church. He is known as Bede the Venerable. Venerable Bede. 

He, too, is a reminder, that a saint is someone who puts their God-given talents and abilities in service to the Gospel. For Bede, his gift was scholarship, writing, and facility with scripture. Yet, each of us have a similar call, to “go out and make disciples” using whatever means we’ve been given. 

For Bede, it was his writing, for the other two saints honored by the Church today, St. Gregory and Magdalene de Pazzi, they poured out the gifts they had been given. Pope St. Gregory, of course, his administrative genius and his labors for the reform of the Clergy, and St. Magdalene de Pazzi, her gift of mystical prayer. But each of us have been given gifts for God’s service. May we imitate the saints great and heroic efforts in putting those gifts in service of the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Through the intercession of St. Bede, there may be a flourishing of intellectual gifts in the Church, and that we may learn the lessons of history, as to not repeat its mistakes.

For an increase in vocations to the religious life, especially among the Benedictine Order, and that consecrate men and women may, through their poverty, chastity, and obedience, draw souls to the love of Christ.

That during this season of Ordinary Time, Christians may imitate the virtues of the saints in the ordinary duties of our lives.

For our young people coming to an end of another school year, that over summer vacation they may be kept safe from the errors of our culture and kept in close friendship with Jesus through prayer and acts of mercy.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. 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

Whit Monday 2021 (EF) - St. Peter in Chains

We celebrate the second day of the Pentecost Octave, called in some places Whit Monday—named after the white garments of the newly baptized. Like the Easter Octave, the Pentecost Octave is aimed at welcoming and praying for the newly baptized, and in earlier days, the newly initiated would wear their new white baptismal garments throughout this Octave as well.

In Rome, the newly baptized would visit a different station church each day of this Octave, and they would receive post-baptismal lessons. The Roman station Church today is the Church of St. Peter in Chains, which I remember visiting a number of years ago. 

Walking into that Church, one almost forgets you are there to pay homage to the chains that held the apostle Peter while he was imprisoned in Jerusalem, because right near the entrance is  Michelangelo’s breathtaking statue of Moses—carved from a single massive block of marble. Moses is the gargantuan figure, with rippling muscles,  grasping the tablet of the law, almost holding back from the righteous reaction of seeing the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf. 

But then the visitor to St. Peter in Chains makes their way, finally, to the reliquary of the chains. St. Peter was imprisoned by those very chains not long after his speech in today’s epistle from the Acts of the Apostles. Imagine, being newly baptized and contemplating those chains. Peter stood in the streets of Jerusalem, and filled with the Holy Spirit, preached the Gospel, for which he was arrested and imprisoned. But those chains—the chains of man—failed at stopping the Gospel from being preached.

The newly baptized were basically being told: this is your destiny too. You now have a share in the mission of the Gospel, you too, now have the holy spirit filling your soul, you too are being charged with preaching the gospel fearlessly, and like Peter, you too may be arrested and imprisoned, but fear not, the chains of man cannot really hold you, the chains of man cannot stop the mission of the Church.

What shall we preach? The newly baptized might think to themselves. Preach the words of today’s Gospel, just like Peter, just like Christians have done for two thousand years: “God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting”

Though we are not newly baptized, we contemplate the feebleness of those earthly chains compared to the power of the Holy Spirit, which impels us into the world, to preach the saving Gospel of God’s love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Monday after Pentecost 2021 - Mary, Mother of the Church

 The title “Mother of the Church” is not new. St. Ambrose, great Bishop of Milan who was instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine called Mary, Mater Ecclesiae, “Mother of the Church.” 

Fifteen centuries later, the title was still in use when Pope Leo XIII wrote a beautiful document on Our Lady, titled Adjiutricem Populi, Helper of the people in which he invokes our Lady under this title.

 “The mightiest helper of the Christian people,” Pope Leo writes, “and the most merciful, is the Virgin Mother of God. How fitting it is to accord her honors ever increasing in splendor, and call upon her aid with a confidence daily growing more ardent. The abundant blessings, infinitely varied and constantly multiplying, which flow from her all over the whole world for the common benefit of mankind, add fresh motives for invoking and honoring her…She is invoked as Mother of the Church and the teacher and Queen of the Apostles".

So too, As the third session of the Second Vatican Council closed on November 21st, 1964, Pope Paul VI declared: "We declare Mary Most Holy Mother of the Church, that is, of all the Christian people"  writing elsewhere, “We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ.”

Just in 2018, Holy Father Pope Francis instituted a new liturgical feast to be celebrated universally the Monday after Pentecost, in honor of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Church. 

The day after we celebrate, the birthday of the Church, so to speak on Pentecost, we celebrate our Mother, who was present, praying for the apostles, as the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

As our Lady was instrumental in the Apostles receiving the new life of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, she is instrumental in all of our lives, praying that we may open our hearts, minds, souls, and lives to the life-giving Spirit of God. She prays that the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and good counsel, and fear of the Lord will flourish in us. She prays that we may bear the Spiritual Fruits of patience, courage, and joy.

Mary, Mother of the Church, Our Mother, prays constantly for us. As the Apostles devoted themselves to praying with Our Lady, their Mother, Our Mother, in the upper room, may we too, be devoted to prayer with her—prayer for openness to the full life of God’s Spirit—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, we recommend ourselves and the entire Body of Christ.

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Mary, Mother of the Church: Guide and assist our Holy Father and our Bishops in their apostolic mission, and aid all who help them in their work.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! You were given to us as a mother by your Divine Son at the moment of his redeeming death.

Mary, Mother of the Church: Remember us your children, support our prayers to God. Preserve our Faith, strengthen our Hope, increase our Charity.

Mary, Mother of the Church and Immaculate Heart: Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, and from every kind of war, deliver us. From sins against human life from its very beginning, deliver us. From every kind of injustice in the life of society, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us. From attempts to stifle the very truth of God, deliver us. From the loss of awareness of good and evil deliver us. From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us.

Mary, Mother of the Church: That those who have died may share in the joy of life-everlasting; for our deceased family members, friends, and fellow parishioners, for all the poor souls in purgatory and for N.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

Pentecost 2021 - Wind and Flame

Today is the great Feast of Pentecost, the feast that ranks with Christmas and Easter as the greatest of the Church Year.  It is the Feast of the Holy Spirit who enlivens and animates the Church.

Listen again to the account of the first Pentecost nearly 2000 years ago from the Acts of the Apostles.

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Wind and fire are two symbols associated with the Holy Spirit, and they tell us a lot about how the Holy Spirit wishes acts in the Church and in our lives.

First, Wind is powerful. I’ve seen wind knock over trucks. Acts describes the Holy Spirit as a strong driving wind. Tornado winds can devastate villages and cities, and uproot trees, yet it can also turn gigantic turbines to produce power, and propel sailing ships across the sea. The Holy Spirit, propels the Church and grants her power and uproots the vices of her members.

Also, there is something unpredictable about the wind.  You don’t know quite where it comes from or when it will blow. Jesus himself in John’s Gospel says, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”

That says something about the Holy Spirit, there is something elusive, unpredictable, and wonderfully so, about Him. He is unpredictable, a good of surprises. He surprises us with holy joyful moments and encounters and moments of prayer.

And yet, this also makes Him a little daunting. It’s daunting to surrender to something you can’t control. God might upset our applecart, and that’s scary. But he leads us sometimes where we do not want to go, in order to bring about his kingdom. Yes, it’s scary to surrender to God.  He might ask me to confront my prejudices, kneel down to the level of a homeless beggar, he might ask me to become a priest or a religious sister, speak hard truths to obstinate sinners. He might blow us out of our comfort zones. No doubt, as we return to Church after the long pandemic, he is blowing us into the lives of family and friends, to invite them back to the Sacraments—to remind the fallen-away of goodness and love of God waiting for them here.

On Pentecost, the Church is invited to unfurl her sails once again, to allow the Holy Spirit to propel her into the world for the mission of the Gospel, to uproot our vices, to blow away the dust that has settled through inactivity. 

Wind, fresh air, is needed continually for life itself.  If your faith life or prayer life feels stifled, strangled, or stagnate, make a novena to the Holy Spirit to breathe new life, new enthusiasm, new joy into your soul. 

The other great symbol of the Holy Spirit is Fire.  Fire, can be devastating and destructive.  Yet, it can also be cleansing.  The Holy Spirit is like a cleansing Fire.  

God wants to burn away the attitudes and behaviors which are inconsistent with the life of grace.  God wants to burn away our selfishness, so that not an ounce remains, God wants to burn away our envy, our resentments, our lusts.  If you are struggling with a particular temptation or sin, pray “Come Holy Spirit” burn this temptation away, burn this addiction away.

Fire brings purity. It also brings light. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Those purified by the fire of the Spirit will have the light they need to see God. They will understand more deeply the things of God.  Do you want to come to a deeper understand of the Scriptures, of the Faith. Ask the Holy Spirit. Do you want to understand how to love your unlovable neighbors?  Ask Him! Do you want to understand God’s Will for your life, your vocation in life?  Ask Him!  

Fire also brings warmth of course. In those moments when we are experiencing the coldness, loneliness, isolation, grief. The Holy Spirit will help us to know the closeness and love of God, and the closeness and love of his angels and saints. We also do well of course, to intercede for others experiencing life’s coldness, and to recall our vocation to bring the warmth of God’s love to them, if we can.

Finally, fire symbolizes the passion and courage God wants us to have for the spreading of the Gospel.  After Jesus’ crucifixion, the Apostles hid in the upper room behind locked doors.  Jesus had sent them outwards, out into the world, but they hid.  They were more like Apostates, than Apostles.  But when the Holy Spirit descended upon them with tongues of flame, they burst through the locked doors, into the busiest part of town and courageously proclaimed Jesus risen from the dead.  3000 people converted on the spot.

We need this sort of courage! In an era where our modern culture wants Christians to privatize their faith, to hide behind locked doors and keep our faith to ourselves—we need Christians on fire. 

That is precisely our prayer for our four dear ones who will be confirmed this weekend—that they may filled with fire and wind—filled with the Spirit. Their Confirmation is a reminder to all of us, to dispose our souls, to open our minds, our wills, our hearts to the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit. 

May the Holy Spirit—wind and flame—sanctify us, comfort us, enflame us, uproot our vices and protect us.  Veni Sancte Spiritus, Come Holy Spirit, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.