Homily: Thursday of the 4th Week of Lent 2016 - Five Witnesses

There is a wonderful movie out in the movie theaters right now called “Risen”. The movie centers on a Roman military official who witnessed the execution of Jesus on Good Friday.  When the body of Jesus goes missing on Easter Sunday, the Roman Tribune is ordered by Pontius Pilate to investigate the rumors of Jesus’ resurrection. 

As the military tribune is investigating rumors of Jesus’ resurrection, he also seeks to understand who Jesus was, who is his apostles’ claim him to be: who was this man, whom he saw crucified?

As we grow closer to Holy Week, the scriptures take up the topic of Jesus’ identity: “Who is this man Jesus, whom his followers call, Messiah?”  In the Gospel today, Jesus says, "do you want to know who I am? Here are 5 witnesses who can testify to my real identity."

John the Baptist can testify to my identity, my heavenly father can testify to my identity, my works and deeds can testify to my identity, the scriptures, the old testament, can testify to my identity, and Moses testifies to my identity.

In Jesus’ times, in a court case, to prove something you needed simply two witnesses, well Jesus lists five witnesses all who testify to his identity.  And each of us should be familiar with these five witnesses, so that if anyone ever asked us why we believe Jesus to be the saving son of God, we too could explain our faith, by pointing to these witnesses.

How did John the Baptist testify to Jesus? John the Baptist called Jesus the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” John said, “I must decrease so that Jesus may increase”

How did the father testify to Jesus’ identity? Twice, the voice from heaven said, “this is my beloved Son.” Once at Jesus’ baptism and again on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The works of Jesus testify to his identity: the miraculous healings of blind, lame, leprous, paralyzed, possessed, his changing water into wine, walking on water, calming storms, and of course rising from the dead.  Why do we believe in Jesus? Look at his works!

Fourthly, Jesus says the scriptures testify to his identity.  When Jesus spoke the New Testament had not yet been written, so he is speaking about the Old Testament.  Through the course of their lives, many Catholics watch thousands of hours of television, but have never read the Old Testament.  St. Jerome taught: “To be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ.” Each of us do well to read and study the Hebrew Scriptures, because they point to Jesus and testify to Jesus; Jesus is in every book of the Bible, we just have to look for Him.

Finally, Jesus says, Moses testifies: all of Moses’ life testifies to Jesus, the better we know the life and teachings of Moses the better we will know Christ.  Not only did Moses speak of a great prophet who would come after him, but Moses’ life is in a way, fulfilled by Jesus.  After 40 days and 40 nights, Moses from the mountain gave the Old Law; after 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, Jesus climbed the mountain of beatitudes and gave the new law; Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery through the waters of the Red Sea to the promised land; Jesus leads us out of the slavery of sin through the waters of baptism to the promised land of heaven.

These mighty witnesses help to strengthen our faith this Lent. The better we know these testimonies, the better we will understand Jesus. This Lent Jesus invites us to be purified of our ignorance by the light of truth. May we accept his invitation, to learn of him, that we may more deeply love Him, and lead others to Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday of the 4th Week of Lent 2016 (school mass) - Do you want to be well?

“Do you want to be well?” Jesus addressed that question to the man who had been ill for 38 years, who lay at the pool of Bethesda. What exactly was his illness? Well, St. John doesn’t tell us, but he was certainly counted among the sick, blind, lame, and crippled.  Jesus had known the man had been ill for a long time; it’s quite possible that Jesus had seen him there before he began his public ministry, for we know that Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover.  Yet, often in the Gospels, we see Jesus looking very deeply into peoples’ hearts: Jesus seems to know what they are thinking and feeling before they do.

Jesus asks each of us today, “Do you want to be well?”  Well?  What is your illness? What is your sickness?  For many of us, the illness, the sickness, the blindness, isn’t so much physical, but spiritual.  A mind, a heart diseased with selfishness, afflicted with impatience, blind to the needs of others, deaf to the cries of the poor, a will crippled and unable to do the good we so desire to do.

For some of us, we might not even know how sick we are, but Jesus does.  He knows our illness, the cause of our illness, he knows the open wounds in our hearts which we fail to recognize.  “Do you want to be well of those too?”

Each of us do well today to acknowledge our spiritual ills to Jesus: name them, be honest about them, own up to them.  We also do well to say to Jesus: heal me of the illnesses I don’t even know about, that’s I’m not aware of, that I have a hard time admitting. 

Jesus is the medicus animae—the healer of souls, and he is able to heal us because he is God, and he wants to see us whole and healthy. 

Most of all, he wants to heal us from that part of us that says, “I don’t need him. I can do it on my own.” That part of us that says, I don’t need to pray, I don’t need to go to mass, I don’t need to go to church, I don’t need to study the Catholic faith, I don’t need to practice fasting, I don’t need to keep myself pure, I don’t need to perform works of charity. That’s the sickest part of us that needs to be healed the most. 

“Do you want to be well?” 

Jesus heals that sickest part of us primarily in the sacrament of reconciliation.  Even though many of us have gone to reconciliation already this Lent, we may need to go again if we’ve fallen into serious sin.  In the Eucharist, Jesus strengthens the part of us that is recovering from being seriously ill, the part of our souls traumatized by sinful behavior. 

As Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist today, let us open our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls to his healing, his strengthening, that we may be devoted to the work of Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 4th Week of Lent 2016 - Reacting to Jesus

Leading up to Holy Week, our Gospel readings for daily Mass are taken solely from the Gospel of John.

We know that each of the Gospel writers wrote to different audiences and for different purposes.  Mark wrote to the Romans: this is why his Gospel is succinct, to the point, focusing on the power of Jesus, his victory over evil.  Matthew wrote to his fellow Jews—seeking to show them how Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament—he was the New Moses, the New David, the new prophet Elisha, the culmination of God’s work in salvation history detailed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.  Luke, the well-educated Gentile physician, sought to give a historical, chronological account of Jesus’ ministry, giving every reader an opportunity to understand and believe the good news about Jesus Christ.

St. John’s Gospel is address primarily to those who have already come to believe—it is written by a believer to believers.  It is highly mystical, highly theological, written for those who seek to go deeper, to Jesus’ identity, his heart—John seeks to help us understand the spiritual import of the Gospel.

John also carefully records people’s reaction to Jesus.  After the healing of the nobleman’s son we hear how the whole household began to believe in him.  After his teaching on the Bread of Life in chapter 6, we hear how many people who were initially following him turned away from him, finding the teaching too hard.

It is fitting that we read from John during the latter half of Lent.  For if we consider Lent like a desert retreat—the first few days of a retreat we are still settling, we start to put away our worldly distractions; but the second half is when the real work begins—attention to the interior life—the conversion from sensuality and pride to dedication to Christ.

As we read about how people reacted to Jesus’ words and deeds in John, we do well to reflect on how we are reacting to Jesus’ call to conversion, his call to put aside worldly things in order to cherish heavenly things. How have you reacted to that call? Do you perhaps need to recommit and deepen your Lenten penances? In John’s Gospel some respond to Jesus in faith and some respond to Jesus with hard-hearts? How are you responding?

Having put aside earthly matters in the first half of Lent, we are now to be freer in this second half of Lent to encounter God more profoundly and more deeply in the desert silence—in the innermost sanctuary of our souls.

Continuing to make pilgrimage through the Lenten desert, may the Holy Spirit help us to respond to Jesus’s call to conversion with faith in preparation for the eternal Easter for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Sunday of Lent 2016 - Joy & Dying to self

During my seminary formation, I was able to study in Rome, Italy for about six months.  I attended classes at the wonderful Dominican School, the Angelicum; every day would take us passed the Trevi Fountain and the famous Spanish steps, down the same streets that saints had walked.

In addition to our academic work, my seminary formation involved some charitable apostolic work.  I had the blessing of working alongside the Missionary Sisters of Charity at a homeless shelter, in their care for the homeless men and women of Rome.  So, every Friday morning, a few of us seminarians would walk past the Coliseum to the Sister’s homeless shelter: we would serve breakfast to homeless men, clean up after breakfast, then help the sisters do the laundry.

Now Blessed Mother Theresa didn’t believe in modern conveniences, so the clothing and the soiled sheets and towels were washed by hand on old fashioned scrub boards.  Mother Theresa wanted the sisters to learn how to do small tasks with great love—which included doing laundry with the love of Christ in your heart.  Trying to teach me that same lesson, one of the sisters had me scrub the baseboards of the homeless shelter with a toothbrush.  While we did our work: scrubbing sheets, cleaning rooms, we would often pray the rosary.

On the Friday before holy week, a good joy-filled seminarian, who is now a priest of the diocese of Erie, asked one of the sisters enthusiastically, “sister, are you ready for Easter?”  In a very serious tone, yet without losing the spark of joy in her own eyes, she said, “No, I still have much dying to do.”

Here was a woman who never took vacations.  She owned nothing, not even her religious habit was really hers. She didn’t have a bank account, she certainly didn’t have an iphone—she spent her days washing soiled sheets; after waking up before sunrise, attending Mass and spending an hour in Eucharistic adoration, she would bath the grime of the streets of Rome off of poor homeless men.  Here was a woman, that if you gave her a gift of a chocolate bar, she would give it away to the poor in order to bring a little bit of joy into another person’s life.  Who knows the special penances that she had undertaken for Lent, but you can be sure it was more than not eating potato chips or drinking starbucks coffee! 

 “Sister, are you ready for easter?” “No, I still have much dying to do.”

On this Laetare Sunday we are a bit like both the seminarian and the sister from my story.  We are excited about Easter. We exchange, just for today, the penitential purple vestments for the slightly more joyful rose colored vestments.  The hymns are a bit more joyful, to lift our spirits. We are reminded that all of our Lenten penances—the prayer, the fasting, the almsgiving--are preparing us for Easter joy.

Yet, we also realize, like the dear sister from my story, that we all still have much dying to do. During the season of Lent we are to die to our sinful attachments, we fast, even from good enjoyable things, to die, in a sense, to earthly pleasures, to show that our greatest joy in this life is not from food and entertainment, but in God.

We are just over the half-way point in Lent, and we all have much dying to do.  During Lent, we consider how Jesus fasted and prayed.  He showed us that “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So we fast. We have to die to our belief that our true happiness can be found in earthly bread—in earthly goods.

During Lent, we consider how Jesus humbled himself to do the will of the father.  He embraced the cross, he embraced suffering and pain for the salvation of the world.  We need to die to our selfishness by engaging in self-sacrifice and service.

And during Lent, we consider Jesus praying in the desert, and praying in the garden of gethsemane, and praying on the cross. We need to die to our willfulness, our need to control, our self-reliance, and learn to trust in God through frequent Lenten prayer.

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who was animated by the Spirit of Joy, was once asked by the sisters, “Mother, tell us how to get Joy; how does Joy come into our life.”  Well, she said, “you look at the word itself:  J-O-Y.  And you let each of those letters stand for a word, in that order: J stands for Jesus, O stands for others, and Y for yourself; if those are the priorities in your life, first Jesus, secondly other people, and only last, yourself, you are going to have Joy.” 

If you want real joy, structure every day, every week, based on those priorities: first Jesus, second, others, lastly, yourself.  Having those priorities is absolutely essential for cultivating the Joy you so desire.  "Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls," Mother Theresa said. Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to do just that.

This week, as you may have seen in the news, 4 Missionary Sisters of Charity, the order founded by Mother Theresa, were murdered by Muslim terrorists in Yemen.  These sisters were dedicated to serving the elderly and decrepit, men and women who themselves were not Christian.  These women were killed not just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were murdered intentionally because of their faith. 

The gruesome murder of four of the most beautiful souls on the planet is a cause for sadness. Yet, in a way there is cause for rejoicing. These brave and selfless Missionaries of Charity refused to leave Yemen despite threats on their lives in order to serve those whom the rest of the world has thrown away.  They have done what each of us aspires to, to serve Christ with our whole lives.  If each of us had that sort of courage and love, this world would be a different place. 

There is joy when we see fellow Christians filled with so much courage and love that they serve Christ even when it costs them their lives.  This is the joy of dying for Christ.  And that is the dying each of us are called to.

To die to self is to set aside our selfish motivations in order to focus instead on loving God with everything we’ve got and valuing others as highly as we value ourselves. Jesus came to heal our blindnesses which sees ourselves as more important than others.  Jesus came to heal our hard-heartedness which fails to forgive. He came to heal our lives, that we might live, no longer for ourselves, but for God.

Our small self-denials of Lent are really meant to be a source of healing for our willful selfish souls that they may seek God’s will first, above all else.

May we each persevere in our Lenten penances that we can experience the joy of Christian love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent 2016 - With all your heart

Jesus forgives us

On Ash Wednesday, we heard God’s powerful invitation through the prophet Joel to all of us: “return to me, with all your heart.”  The heart, in biblical language, symbolizes the center of the person, the whole person.  During Lent, we are invited by God to return to Him fully, wholly, entirely.

Return from where? From our sins of course, from our wandering, from our cavorting with empty promises, with false Gods. 

From the prophet Hosea, we hear how Israel, who was called to cling to God with their whole heart, had been unfaithful, like an adulteress.  Israel was to be God’s bride, clinging to God her husband, yet, she had taken up with the false gods of the surrounding Canaanite culture.

So God said, “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.” In order to free Israel from her adulterous relationship, God would bring her into the desert.  Why the desert? In the desert, we are freed from our distractions and sinful attachments.  There are no tv’s, no iphones, no gossiping, no casinos, no bars out in the desert.  In the desert, we are nursed back to spiritual health by encountering God’s mercy.

This is why we speak of the Lenten desert. Lent is to be that time where we strip away those sinful and spiritually unhealthy behaviors, and encounter God’s mercy, so that we can be free to love Him again, with our whole heart.

For again, on Ash Wednesday, he didn’t just say “return to me”, but “return to me, with your whole heart.” In the Gospel, Jesus repeats that language, and takes it even further: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength.”

To love God with everything, to love God with total self-abandonment, to love God utterly, completely, wholeheartedly: this is the point of Lent.  All of our Lenten penances, all of our prayer 

has the aim of freeing us from all that keeps us from the pure love of God.

So God has lead us out into the desert, what do you still have to let go of this Lent? What do you still have to repent of? What do you still have to commit to?

Jesus’ invitation is powerful and life-changing.  He says we shouldn’t be satisfied with Him simply being a part of our life, he wants to be our entire life, he wants to be the all-consuming center—the reason we get out of bed in the morning.

Let him into your mind: let him free you from thoughts of jealousy, envy, lust, unworthiness, pride, vengeance. Allow him to strengthen you to love as he does, to heal the sick, visit the lonely, counsel the doubtful, rebuke the sinner, to pray to God with an undivided heart. Allow him to heal you of your resentments, your past wounds, your grief, your guilt over past sins, your attachments to earthly pleasures for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent 2016 - What is holiness?

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, The Triumph of the Name of Jesus

I remember a number of years ago, when I was still in seminary, I was attending a  friend’s birthday party one summer, sitting outside on a picnic bench with some people with whom I had gone to high school.  They were somewhat intrigued that I was studying to be a priest.  They professed that they didn’t believe in God and so thought the Church to be a pretty big waste of time.  So they asked me why I wanted to be a priest.  I said because God wants his people to be holy, and I want to help.  They looked at me strangely, like they didn’t know what I was talking about (and likely they didn’t).

Being in a somewhat philosophical mood, I asked them, “do you know what I mean by that word? what I mean by ‘holiness’.”  And they had no idea.  They thought the word gibberish.  The word, the concept, the idea of holiness had been banished from their speech.  I asked them what the word “reverence” meant, they responded, “what, is that like respecting trees?”

Our culture is in pretty bad shape; there are even baptized Catholic who have no idea that they are supposed to be seeking to live a holy life.  How did this happen?

Well, it’s not the first time in history.  Look at what Jeremiah said in the first reading today: "Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech." —Jeremiah 7:28

The people of Jeremiah's time were so disobedient and rebellious that they were not only unfaithful but also banished the whole idea of faithfulness and even the word "faithfulness."

Likely, one is able to measure how far a culture is from godliness by its understanding of the words like Faithfulness, holiness, piety, virtue, reverence. If you don’t think these words are important, then you don’t understand them, and you don’t understand the Christian faith.

So, if we know the problem—ignorance of God and his ways, and if we know the cause of the problem—disobedience, rebelliousness, unfaithfulness, then what is the remedy? What can we do to help people return to God? It is for you and for me to become as holy as we can. Doesn’t sound too hard, right?

20^th century Saint Josemaria Escriva said: “To be holy isn’t easy, but it isn’t difficult either.  To be holy is to be a good Christian, to resemble Christ.  The more closely a person resembles Christ, the more he belongs to Christ, the holier he is.” 

This Lent we are called to show the world what holiness is by drawing near to Christ, by stripping away all those behaviors and attitudes that are unbecoming of a Christian and dedicate ourselves to works of mercy and charity.  Everything that is keeping us from becoming as holy as we should, strip away. Let our life in Christ be a witness before men that they may see our good works, our holiness, that they may seek Him, the source of our holiness and joy, Jesus Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent 2016 - Forgive seventy-seven times

The somber days of Lent provide us with an opportunity to do some serious soul-searching: examination of our conscience, reflection on our vices and virtues and habits and attitudes, with the hopes of identifying any obstacles in our hearts which keep us from imitating Our Lord and growing in holiness.

I always encourage folks to give up television, movies, video games, and excessive use of the internet during Lent, these things which often occupy a lot more of our time than we think.  And once they’re gone, we have a little bit more time to think about our lives, our relationships.  We strip away some of those external distractions, and when we do that, our interior lives can begin to grow.

I think many people are resistant to give up these external distractions, because their interior lives are not all that pleasant.  Many of us can carry around some serious interior burdens in the form of resentment and bitterness over past hurts—old wounds which have gone unhealed for many years.

So Lent provides an opportunity to bring those wounds to the healer—to Jesus, the medicus vitae—the doctor of life.

In the Gospel today, Jesus teaches the most important remedy for the healing of our wounded souls and wounded relationships: forgiveness.  Through Jesus’ passion and death, God has forgiven us—our wounded relationship with God is healed.  And we are called to practice that same forgiveness towards others.  Just as there is not a single sin God will not forgive, so too there isn’t a single sin that we are not called to forgive.

Jesus says to forgive not just seven times, but seven times seven.

In the Hebrew tradition the number seven is a sacred number and refers to the limitless holiness of God.  When Jesus commands his disciples to forgive “seventy times seven” times, it is to say that his disciples are to have no limit in their own forgiveness. 

It is difficult to forgive those who betray us—who offend, who harm us with their words and actions.  To forgive them sometimes feels like we are giving them a free pass.  Forgiving once, is sometimes hard enough, when we are hurt, there is that part of us that says, “I don’t want to talk to them, I don’t want to see them, I don’t want to be near them, I don’t even want to think about them.”  A Christian must never say, “I will never forgive you.” 

For Christ came to heal the wounds of sin and division—our division from God, and the division we continue to create between ourselves. 

So we need to be constantly about the work of forgiveness.  If upon self-examination you detect any anger or any hurt, now is the time to let it go.  And if the Holy Spirit is urging you to seek the forgiveness of a family member or neighbor you may have offended, go, do your best to be reconciled, to make peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.