Homily: Monday of the 4th Week of Lent - Seven Signs

We now begin the second half of Lent.  Leading up to Holy Week, our Gospel readings for daily Mass are taken from the Gospel of John.

Where St. Luke strives to give a historical, chronological account of the ministry of Jesus Christ, John’s Gospel is arranged, not strictly chronologically, but topically or theologically.  He aims to answer the theological question: Who is Jesus Christ?

Where each of the other evangelists record many miracles, John chooses only seven: the miracle at the wedding of cana, the healing of the nobleman’s son, the healing of the paralytic, the feeding of the five thousand, the walking on water, the healing of the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus.

Through these miracles many come to believe that he is God incarnate.   He is able to give the supernatural life he promises because He is God.  He is able to forgive sins because he has the divine authority to do so.  We heard today Jesus say, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” So John records seven.

John carefully records people’s reactions 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.

During the remaining days of Lent, these Gospel readings can strengthen our faith that Jesus truly has the power to free us from our sins.  Whatever sinful attitudes or behaviors of selfishness we are struggling with, Jesus truly has the power to free us from them.

“A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy,” Jesus says in John chapter 10.  “I came, so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Through our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, allow Jesus to free you from selfishness and give you the gift of abundant life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Sunday of Lent - The key to Joy

I heard a story recently, that I immediately knew I wanted to share on this laetare Sunday. 

A holy man was walking down the road when a robber jumped out, held a knife to his throat and said ‘Give me everything you have.’  Without hesitation, the holy man gave the robber everything, but as the robber was leaving, the holy man stopped him and said, “Wait.  I have a ruby in my sandal.”  He handed it over to the robber saying, “It’s yours now.”  The next day, walking down the same road, the same robber approached the holy man.  The holy man said, “What are you doing?  I gave you everything I had yesterday, I have nothing left.”  The robber said, “I want what you have that made you give me the ruby.”

True wealth, one writer put it, is not determined by how much we have, but by how little we need.  Christians know that we need so little, we are free to give away even precious gems because we have already received the greatest treasure, the most precious gift.

In talking with the school kids about what they were giving up for Lent, I am always a little saddened when I challenge them to give up video games and television, and they say, “no, I couldn’t live without that.”  It’s not like the human race survived and flourished without iphones for thousands of years or anything.

Lent challenges us to examine those things from which we derive inordinate joy and to practice detachment from them.

This week our 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders attended a showing of the new “Son of God” movie about the life of Jesus Christ.  Some of you may have seen Mel Gibson’s somewhat more graphic film, “The Passion of the Christ.”  To watch these films, and to pray the stations of the cross or the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, to meditate on Jesus’ passion, we can’t help but ask, what made him do it?  What did he have that enabled him to give up his life—to freely shed his ruby red blood?  Where did his strength to carry that heavy cross come from; to stand up after falling three times, to allow the guards to drive nails into his hands and feet?

Do you want we he had that enabled him to walk the way of the cross?

Today we are wearing rose-colored vestments, because today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is "Laetare Sunday".  Laetare means rejoice. We rejoice in the salvation Christ has won for us through his Passion and Death.  We rejoice in the forgiveness of our sins, which otherwise would mean eternal death.  For only the Christian, out of all the world’s religions can know the joy of hearing the words, “your sins are forgiven.”

Pope Francis tweeted recently that our deepest joy comes from Christ: remaining with him, walking with him, being his disciples. 

In the last year, Pope Francis has really made headlines.  From his first moment in the spotlight, he seemed to radiate with a joy that is sadly lacking, at least visibly, in many members of the Church.  And we get a sense, don’t we, that his joy comes not from any amount of earthly wealth.  Not even being elected as Vicar of Christ seems to be the cause of his joy.  For we get a sense that he would be just as joyful, taking the bus to work back at the Chancery in Argentina.  No, it seems, the source of Pope Francis’ joy, is his deep, abiding friendship with the Lord  Most likely our lack of authentic Christian joy, is because of our failure to suffer with Christ.  True Joy is not dependent on wealth, on possessions, or power. Rather, true joy is only possible when we are detached from those things.

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.  Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to do just that.

Yet we will never have joy, if we say, “I could never live without video games; I could never live without gossiping; I could never live if I weren’t the one in control.”

On the night before he died, Jesus said, “I have spoken these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”  He wants us to know his joy, and it is up to us to give up those things which keep us from receiving the gifts he came to give us.

Free us, O Lord, from all disordered attachments, and help us to remain and walk with you, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent - I will lead her into the desert

We have many accounts of early Christians going off into the desert.  The first Christian monks were those who went into the desert for a life of solitude and prayer.  Foreboding and desolate, with steep, barren mountains, dusty, rocky soil the color of bones.  Jesus himself was led by the Spirit into the desert.

The season of Lent is meant to be a desert experience when we strip away the extra baggage and learn again the value of Christian simplicity.

One of the great desert fathers was blessed Macarius who lived to the ripe age of ninety in 4th century. Echoing the words of St. Paul, he said "If you die to the world and to yourself, you will begin to live with Christ."

Early in the book of Hosea, God speaks to Israel who had grown complacent, who was unfaithful in many ways, and God says, “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.”

The desert is a place of testing, of simplicity, but it is also meant to be a time of profound encounter with God, of God speaking to our hearts.  This is why we encourage not just fasting during Lent, but prayer as well.

God does not need a desert to speak to us, but sometimes we do.  For our hearts become so clogged with false desires.  We need desert moments where we have stripped away everything unnecessary, where we approach God in nakedness and silence to hear the voice of Our Father more clearly.

We enter the desert, that we, according to the command of Christ, You may love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. and  love our neighbor as yourself.

Led by the Spirit, Jesus entered the desert.  May we follow him into the desert, that we may encounter him there, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thursday of the 3rd Week of lent - "Sin darkens the intellect"

The people of Jeremiah’s time had become so disobedient, so rebellious, so hardhearted, that God was lamenting that “Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.”

So blind to the truth were some of the people who witnessed Jesus casting out a mute demon, that they claimed the Son of God was casting out demons through the power of Satan.  In other words, they were saying that instead of Jesus being the incarnation of God who is love, he was an agent of evil.

The old catechism states that sin lessens the love of God in our hearts.  It also clouds the mind, darkens the intellect, and blinds us to truth. Sin closes the heart to God’s love and truth.

Sin is so dangerous that it can lead to the rationalization of evil actions.  It can cause Christians to forget about their responsibilities to be faithful to their baptismal promises and the call to holiness, to serve and promote human life and to fulfill our religious obligations.

It can cause someone who attended Catholic school for 12 years to question the ancient truths.  “Does it really matter if I attend Mass?  Does it really matter if I pray daily?”

Any sin, even venial sin, is a spiritual disease that devastates the soul and clouds the intellect and therefore our judgments and attitudes. The longer we let these spiritual diseases live in us, the more damage is done. The good news is that Jesus Christ, our Divine Physician, heals us with his grace.

Our Lenten prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy enlighten our mind and invigorate our spirits because they bring us into contact with he who is Truth and Light and Love.  The light of His truth eradicates darkness and casts out evil.  Our faithfulness to the Lenten disciplines are instrument Jesus uses to bring deep healing and light and love into our minds and souls and hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: March 25: Annunciation Humility

Before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council it was the centuries-old practice at the recitation of the Creed on Sundays and Solemnities to genuflect at the mention of incarnation of Christ.  Since Vatican II, we simply bow reverently, as we recite, “and by the power of the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”

However, that old gesture, that gesture of genuflection at the mention of the Incarnation, which is normally reserved to the Real Presence in the Eucharist, is retained twice during the liturgical year.  First, at our Christmas celebration of the Nativity of Christ, as we celebrate his Holy Birth at Bethlehem.  And second, today, on this Feast of the Conception of Christ, when he was truly made present in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, when the Eternal Word was made flesh. 9 months from today, the length of a pregnancy, we will genuflect on Christmas day.

There is a sort of lost art to genuflection in many of our churches.  Yet, it remains an act of humility and submission— to bend the knee as an act of loyalty towards our true king.

In the recitation of the rosary, the virtue associated with the 1st joyful mystery, the annunciation is humility.  Humility abounds in that scene at the Virgins house in Nazareth.  The humility of the Blessed Virgin as the Archangel appeared to her, and as the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, cannot be fathomed, merely contemplated.  The humility of the archangel as he knelt before this human girl who would become his queen.  And the humility of the Eternal Word himself as he shed the glory of divinity to take on the burden of humanity.  As Paul says to the Phillippians, “he emptied himself, and became a slave.”

Genuflection is appropriate on this Feast, in fact, it’s the least we can do.

Today we reflect on how profoundly history has been changed as a result of Mary’s “yes” to God and we seek to imitate that blessed humility.   She humbly calls herself the handmaiden of the Lord who seeks not her own will, but the Holy Will of God.  May we imitate her in humble service today for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 3rd Sunday of Lent: "Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me..."

As we venture deeper into the desert of Lent this weekend, we hear in our scripture readings a lot about water and thirst: the thirst of the Israelites in the desert—how they called out to God in their thirst.  Jesus himself asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water, and then they begin to talk about her thirst for something deeper.

We all experience different types of thirsts.

Daily our bodies thirst.  We of course desire actual water to quench parched lips and dry throats.  Our bodies need water; it’s part of our nature.  Without water, our bodies die.

One summer I visited the African Country of Madagascar with Catholic Relief Services.  I remember visiting villages where regular access to clean drinking water could be a real problem, let alone the sort of plumbing we take for granted.

Sometimes we are thirsty for other very good things of the earth: a thirst for companionship, a thirst to do something fun and exciting, a thirst for the security of having a stable job, a sturdy roof over one’s head, a thirst for knowledge.  It’s part of our nature to desire these things as well.  They are very good.

Yet, we also have another kind of thirst—a thirst that goes deeper, a thirst that nothing, no earthly relationship or earthly pursuit can quench.  This thirst, this desire is also built into our nature.
Of course I’m talking about the thirst that only God himself can satisfy.  Our deepest thirst is not for some THING, but for some ONE.  God.  God IS the living water, of whom St. Augustine said, “my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God.”

Remember that beautiful Psalm 63: “O God, you are my God, for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water”  And Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

Our thirst for God is not the same desire as the selfish child who wants every toy in the toy store.
The selfish child wants a toy, and he’s not going to share it.  The selfish desire of the child whining for a toy is kind of a sad thing to behold, isn’t it?  When we see it, there is a part of us that knows that humans aren’t supposed to act that way.

Our bodies need H2O and food, our minds need companionship and knowledge, and our souls need God—our souls need intimate, personal contact with Him.

As the Catechism puts it: "Man is made to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45).  God has created the human person to be in Communion with Himself.  We will never find true joy outside of His will.

That’s not to say that we don’t try…

How often have I tried to quench that deep thirst with things that cannot quench.  Is not every sinner who turns to sin for happiness not searching in some way for God?

Some people are even dying of this thirst because they fail to quench it at the source.  They do not pray, they do not come to Mass, they fill their lives with sports and toys and busyness all the while thirsting most desperately for a real drink of living water.

In my seminary formation, I had the blessing of visiting the order of religious sisters founded by Mother Theresa, the Missionary Sisters of Charity.  Here are women who thirst deeply to serve God.  And they do so by going out into the gutter, into the poorest sections, and bringing food and drink and medicine to those who others simply ignore.

In every chapel of the Missionary Sisters of Charity is a crucifix under which is written the words, “I thirst”.  The words spoken by Christ as he hung upon the cross: “I thirst”. The saints thirst to do the will of God because Christ thirsted to do the will of the Father even unto death.  The saints willingly undergo physical thirst and detachment from earthly things to unite themselves to Christ who really thirsted.

Christ took upon himself the greatest of thirsts in order to satisfy our deepest thirst, to live in communion once again with God.

Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” Jesus wants to give us this living water of His very Life with us, but he will not force us to drink.  And he does come to us in his very flesh and blood in the Eucharist today.  Will you allow him to increase your desire for Him today?

Will you let him free you from all those things that keep you from drinking fully of his life giving waters and pouring yourself in Christian service for others?

Our wonderful Lenten practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving deepen our thirst for God.  Fasting helps to purify our desires.  We give up the television, video games, chocolate and dessert in order to be reminded that deepest joy is not found in those things, but in God.  Journeying closer to Holy Week we do well to deepen our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving instead of relaxing them, for they offer us opportunities to drink of living water.

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent - Mary, Mother of Reconciliation

Throughout the year, Saturday is set aside as a day in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Saturdays of Lent offer us an opportunity to meditate on Our Lady’s burning desire for our conversion and reconciliation with God.

The Fathers of the Church in the early centuries, in discussing the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, speak frequently of the virginal womb of the mother of the Lord as the place where "peace" between God and the human race came to be.

In the Middle Ages ecclesiastical writers, deepening their understanding of the maternal role of the Blessed Virgin, gave her titles such as "mother of reconciliation" and “refuge of sinners”.  In the Hail, Holy Queen she is called, “Mother of Mercy.”

In a locution to Saint Brigid of Sweden, Mary herself said: “ I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the door through which sinners are brought to God."
She is able to be called Mother of Mercy because Jesus Christ is Mercy itself.

In a prayer to the Blessed Mother, St. Anselm of Canterbury says, "There is no reconciliation, except the reconciliation that you bore in purity."

She is the channel through which our compassionate God pours out upon us Mercy to help us overcome our miseries and meet our true needs.

In our own day the Blessed Virgin is honored in many places under the title of "reconciler of sinners." Though she was sinless, her heart burns with loving compassion for sinners.  I have known, even some non-Catholics that have come to know our Mother’s love as they struggled with sin.

Discovering her sweet maternal compassion, they turn to her with trust as they ask God’s forgiveness, and seeing her beauty of spirit they seek to turn away from the ugliness of sin; and taking to heart her words and example they learn to keep the Commandments of God.

Despite our unworthiness, she does not distance herself from us, but rather intercedes for us with constancy and love.

So we do well to turn to our mother’s intercession this Lent, that as the prodigal son was reconciled with His Father, we may experience the grace of conversion from all of our sins and selfishness for the glory of God and salvation of souls.