Friday after Ash Wednesday 2020 - Fasting with Sincerity

Throughout the Gospels the Lord is consistently criticizing the religious practices of the Pharisees. On Ash Wednesday, the Lord challenged the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of the Pharisees. They love to pray in order get attention and appear to be pious, all the while their hearts are far from God. They take on a gloomy disposition that they may appear to be fasting. They make a big public spectacle about their almsgiving, that they may appear to be generous.

But the Lord criticizes this purely external and self-serving form of religion. Christians on the other hand are seek to please God in our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, by not just completing these activities, but doing so with the right spirit, the right intention and motivations. We aren’t simply to seek the appearance of holiness, for God sees to the heart. We are to engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving out of true love for God and love of neighbor.

In his criticisms of Pharisaical religion, the Lord echoed the prophets, like Isaiah in our reading today. Isaiah denounced the Jews of his day who fasted but whose lack of love for God and neighbor could be evidenced in how they treated people: in their quarreling, fighting, mistreatment of servants, failure to heed the call of the starving.


We are called to fast, but fasting which flows from and increases our practice of justice, righteousness, loving-kindness, and attentiveness to the needs of the poor.

Lent aims to deepen our sense and practice of right worship, stripping away our selfish motives, purifying our hearts of indifference--as our Collect today prays, that our Lenten observances may be accomplished with sincerity.

“The days are coming when my disciples will fast” the Lord says in the Gospel. Yes, and the days are here. But our fasting must be done in the right spirit, or it’s no different from the Pharisees.
Each day during Lenten, we do well to ensure that our fasting, prayers, and almsgiving our being done with the right motivation, to please God, to increase our love and selflessness, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

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

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ Our Lord.

Ash Wednesday 2020 - We implore you to be reconciled to God

“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

St. Paul couldn’t use stronger language to try to convince the people of Corinth to do everything in their to turn back to God.

He uses the word “implore”, I “implore you”, I beg you, I plead with you with tears in my eyes. Paul was deeply concerned that the Christians of Corinth were allowing sin and division to turn them away from God. They were in danger, their souls were in danger, because they were allowing sin to reclaim them. They were allowing the powers of darkness and selfishness to reenslave them. They were acting as if Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was for nothing.

And so he appeals to them “I implore you on behalf of Christ”, he reminds them exactly of what Jesus did for them. Jesus embraced suffering, he embraced death, he died for them, he freed them and liberated them. Remember who you are, O Christians, remember who died for you, remember who you are supposed to be and how you are to act.

“Be reconciled to God”. That word reconciliation, as I’ve mentioned, is a wonderfully descriptive word. It means to turn your face, your eye lashes in fact, back to God. Where you turned your eyelashes away from God by sinning, by coldness, by division, by focusing on earthly matters and selfish pursuits, turn back to God. Everyone of us here, in some way, has taken our eyes off of God.
Maybe we haven’t been praying as we should. Maybe we’ve been to focused on pleasure. Maybe we’ve allowed our earthly business to take precedence over our faith. Maybe you’ve been angry with God or a family member and you need to let go of that anger, you need to forgive. Maybe you’ve been selfish or arrogant and refused to believe the teachings of the Church.

Today is the day where we admit that we have taken our eyes from God, and we receive ashes on our forehead as a sign, that over these next 40 days, we will do everything we can to be reconciled to God. We will fast from food, as a way of showing that we do not live for the pleasures of the flesh alone. We will fast from activities which get in the way of our faith—activities like television, video games, internet browsing, social media. We will pray, we will make extra time every day for prayer, we will go to our inner room and shut the door, as Jesus tells us in the Gospel, and pray, and listen to God. And we will give alms, we will think less about ourselves and more about others, we will consider the ways we can help them. We will turn away from sin, we will go to confession, the sacrament of reconciliation.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God: through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and the confession of sins for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Church will experience the graces of profound renewal during this season of Lent.  We pray to the Lord.

That God will rescue all those who live at a distance from him because of self-absorption or sin.  We pray to the Lord.

That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  We pray to the Lord.

That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  We pray to the Lord.

For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ.  We pray to the Lord.

For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  We pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  We pray to the Lord.

7th Week of OT 2020 - Tuesday - Lover of the World or Lover of God

On this final weekday before the great season of Lent we are asked by St. James: do you want to be a lover of the world or a lover of God?

Loving things, loving earthly pleasure, loving the world more than we love Christ harms our relationship with God and threatens our eternal welfare. St. James certainly echoes the teachings of the Lord in the Gospels who says, “No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon”

Our spirits, James says, tend toward jealousy and envy and covetousness. Part of us, our concupiscible appetites, tends toward wanting and desiring too little of what it does need and too much of what it doesn’t. Too little prayer, too much power, pleasure, and wealth. Too little time kneeling in Church, too much time at the sports arena, the fast food shack, or as a couch potato.
James provokes us to repentance, to help us examine our lives to discover any incompatibility with the Divine Will, any inordinate love of the world, and to repent, to do penance to restrain our concupiscible appetites, and to redirect them to love and serve God.

Between delicious Pączki today, we do well consider and to ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify what parts of us need to be reined in during lent, what appetites need to be suppressed and redirected. One way to identify these areas might be to simply ask, at the end of the day, what kept me from the prayer and service to which I know God is calling me? What earthly attachments keep me from the gentleness and generosity of Christ?

And once identified, to ask the Holy Spirit to help us fast from these things during Lent.

We won’t regret our fasting, in fact, St. James promises that our regrets from indulging our appetites will be turned into joy, our pride and self-centeredness will be transformed into exaltation in the living God.

May we generously turn toward the Holy Spirit’s guidance today, and prepare well for the season of penance, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland, that he may be a man of true wisdom and understanding and fidelity to the Gospel

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For the grace to cooperate with the Divine Will today in all things and in the upcoming Lenten season.

For healing for all those suffering disease, for those afflicted with the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

7th Week of OT 2020 - Monday - Jealousy and Selfish Ambition

Last week, my morning homilies focused primarily on our readings from the letter of St. James.

James taught us to undergo our trials joyfully, to persevere amidst every temptation, to be doers of the word, not just hearers of the word, and that faith without works is dead. His instruction is certainly applicable for every Christian, for temptation and trial are inevitable for all of us, we must all be concerned that we don’t allow the Gospel to go in one ear and out the other, but to put the Gospel into practice in concrete works of charity.

Today’s reading may or may not be universally applicable. James seems to be addressing Christians with the unique role of teaching the faith. “Not everyone should become teachers of the faith” he says in the preceding passage, “for teachers will be judged more severely.” James is concerned that those who are teaching the faith aren’t living the faith, they are just giving the Gospel lip-service. They are falling into hypocrisy—saying one thing and doing another. And James is worried about the scandal this sort of hypocrisy causes. For if a teacher, a priest, a bishop can’t live the faith, how can anyone else be expected to do so.

In today’s passage, James seems to be still speaking to teachers and Christians with official roles in the community, and he gives a warning against jealousy and selfish ambition, and he says these motives are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic—and they cause disorder in a community and allow foul practices to occur.

In recent years, we certainly have been scandalized by many teachers, many clergy and religious, who have caused public scandal by failing to live up to the Gospel they have been charged to teach and preach. Jealousy and ambition continue to allow disorder and foul practices to fester in many areas of the Church.

So, James calls forth those with true wisdom and understanding to take up these public roles, but with great caution. They must ensure that their motives remain pure, that their actions are not for their own self-interest, but for the good of souls, that they cultivate not division but peace, but putting into practice, not the corrupt values of the world, but the authentic wisdom of the Gospel.

While James addresses those involved in official public roles in the church, every Christian in a sense is a public figure, and has a responsibility to set good example, to be full of mercy and good works.
May we be faithful to our calling, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland, that he may be a man of true wisdom and understanding and fidelity to the Gospel

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For healing for all those suffering disease, for those afflicted with the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

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

7th Sunday of OT 2020 - Beyond spiritual mediocrity

For several weeks now, we’ve been hearing from the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. On the Mount of Beatitudes the Lord offers instruction to his disciples on how to live a blessed life—who they are and how they are to act in the world. Last week we heard how Christians are called to greatness—moral greatness—by observing and teaching the commandments of God. We are to make a break with sin, and seek to conform our lives to all of the Lord’s teachings and the teachings of his Church.

The commandments of God and the commandments of the world are quite different aren’t they? Where God commands we worship Him alone, the culture tells us to make money, power and pleasure the central pursuits of our life. Where God commands that we keep holy the sabbath, the culture tells us not to let church or religion get in the way of sports programs, family and social events, work and vacation. Where God commands we keep our oaths, strive for purity, and practice selflessness, the culture hates commitments, justifies perversions, and promotes narcissism and self-indulgence.

God calls his people to greatness—to a holiness and perfection which surpasses that of even the old law—a greatness which surpasses the spiritual mediocrity for which we so often settle.

This week, we hear the Lord continuing his Sermon—giving a number of illustrations—examples—what exactly this surpassing holiness looks like.

In the first example, the Lord says if someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. You really have to imagine what this looks like. We’ll have to forego the live demonstration today. If a right-handed person were to slap you, they would typically slap you with the palm of their hand on your left cheek. A slap to your right cheek however, would mean that they would have slapped you with the back of their hand. In Jewish tradition, such a violent assault carried a double penalty. Yet Jesus challenges his disciples to not only forgo financial compensation, but to even endure further insult: offer your other cheek. The Lord teaches us to beyond that violent reaction to violence. To remain calm and focused.

“Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.” Under Roman Law, a Roman soldier could legally force someone to carry his equipment for up to one mile. Don’t just go the one mile Jesus says, show him Christian generosity and endurance. Carry the soldiers equipment for two miles. Well, for Jesus to teach Jewish people under Roman rule to show this generosity and kindness toward their Roman oppressors would have been quite shocking.

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Again, another startling teaching to those who were oppressed by Romans. The Romans occupied Jewish land, taxed the Jews heavily and treated them with violence and injustice, and the Lord says, “love them and pray for them”. That will make you children of the Heavenly Father. We are to look to the deepest identity of even our enemy, as see that God created them, and loves them, just as he loves us.

In each of these examples, the Lord is calling us to act quite differently than what could be considered normal, to rise above our fallen tendencies and moral mediocrity, and even to bear some humiliation in order to do what is good in the eyes of God.

It’s humiliating to be slapped on the right cheek, and hard to hold back an insult. It’s humiliating to be forced to carry an enemy soldiers’ equipment, to kneel down and pray for that coworker that backstabbed you, that politician who stands for everything you are against, that family member that betrayed your trust. Christians are to treat people better than they treat us.

And when we’re faithful to this teaching, a number of things happen. First we begin to enjoy a freedom not understood by the rest of the world. When we refuse to return insult for insult, injury for injury, we become free from the cycle of violence which often dominates human relationships. We become free from poisonous sentiments of hatred and resentment. And this freedom enables us to become instruments of God.

Because imagine you are that roman soldier who witnesses a Christian going that extra mile, carrying his equipment uphill, in the hot sun, twice as far as legally required. You begin to wonder, what is inside this Christian that enables them to treat me this way? With such gentleness and generosity? Where does that come from? Where does that freedom come from, that inner strength? And maybe, just maybe, that Roman Soldier begins to seek the God who gives us this freedom and strength.



The Lord Jesus exemplifies these very lesson particularly during his crucifixion. Remember, with those who called for his crucifixion in his midst, with the Roman soldiers who nailed him to the cross, he says, “do you think that had I wanted, my Father would not send twelve legions of angels to come and avenge me.” The Lord prayed not for angelic warriors to slaughter his enemies, but for his Father to forgive them. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” The Lord teaches us, and gives us an example to forgive whenever anyone insults us, or humiliates us, or hurts us—to endure our sufferings, pray for our enemies, and seek to show them the face of the one true God.
This week, on Ash Wednesday, begins the great season of Lent. Lent aims at helping us go beyond spiritual mediocrity and to grow in authentic Christian holiness. Traditionally, throughout Lent we engage in greater prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as ways of converting us, increasing our capacity to give to God and to others.

So, give up chocolate and desserts and snacking if that will help you love the pleasures of the world less and God more. But really consider, take responsibility for your spiritual life, and ask the Holy Spirit, what will help you become more like Jesus this Lent who is so free that he is forgive his enemies from the cross? An extra Our Father every day? Or how about a Holy Hour every week? How about getting to daily Mass, to hear the Lenten Scriptures and to receive the Lord’s flesh and blood offered on the cross for you and for many? What will help you to grow in freedom from the worldly attitudes and behaviors which have crept into your life?

What will help you be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

6th Week of OT 2020 - Friday - Faith without works is dead

One of the great encyclicals of Pope St. John Paul II is his encyclical on the fundamentals of morality called Veritatis Splendor, The Splendor of Truth. Every Catholic theology student studying moral theology will no doubt spend a lot of time with this powerful document. As one Catholic writer wrote, “there are encyclicals and then there are encyclicals” and the encyclical Veritatis Splendor is certainly one of the most important papal texts of modern history, in which the Holy Father gives a clear and systematic treatment of Catholic Moral Teaching.

Our choices in this life matter, our moral choices matter. And for Christians our moral choices flow from that fundamental choice to believe in Jesus Christ. Yes, that one choice, to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God matters. But for Christians, every choice matters, every action matters. Every free choice either promotes human flourishing or hinders. Every choice builds up the kingdom or dismantles it. Faith must be lived out in our actions.

The Holy Father writes in Veritatis Splendor, “It is urgent to rediscover and to set forth once more the authentic reality of the Christian faith, which is not simply a set of propositions to be accepted with intellectual assent. Rather, faith is a lived knowledge of Christ, a living remembrance of his commandments, and a truth to be lived out. A word, in any event, is not truly received until it passes into action, until it is put into practice. Faith is a decision involving one's whole existence. It is an encounter, a dialogue, a communion of love and of life between the believer and Jesus Christ, the Way, and the Truth, and the Life . It entails an act of trusting abandonment to Christ, which enables us to live as he lived, in profound love of God and of our brothers and sisters.”

The Holy Father certainly helps us to appreciate the teaching of St. James this morning on the nature of faith. Faith without works is dead. Without works, without the works of charity, without concrete acts of goodness, without obedience to the commandments of God and repentance from sin, without actions which flow from that communion with God, without actions reflecting the splendor of his truth, we are just play-acting. Faith must be evident in our choices or it’s not really faith.

It is by this faith that we are justified, we are made just, we are made righteous and holy. May faith lead us to the profound concrete acts of love of God and of our brothers and sisters for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the spread of the Christian faith throughout the world and in our neighborhood, that faith may be evidenced in the holy works of the members of our parish.

That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland.
That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.
For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.
For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

6th Week in OT 2020 - Wednesday - Hearers and Doers of the Word

Summing up the entire spiritual life, St. Francis de Sales said: “Simply Obey. God does not ask anything else of you.”

Obedience is the fundamental disposition of the Christian disciple. The word obedience comes from the latin – oboedire which means to listen to, to give ear to, to heed, to pay attention.

The Old Testament prophets constantly remind the Jewish people to listen to the Word of God. Standing at the steps of the Jerusalem Temple, the Prophet Jeremiah instructed: “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.” Certainly we enter in through the doors of the Church, to hear the word of God, to incline our ear to God’s word. One of Israel’s most beloved Scripture passages, known as the Shema, is a command to listen: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God. Love God with your whole heart.” We find the same command on the lips of Jesus in the Gospels.

St. James is clear in our reading today, that Christians must not allowing God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other. Christian discipleship requires an obedience that hears and heeds, listens and acts.  “Be doers of the word and not hearers only”. What we hear in Church, what we read in the Scriptures must be put into practice.

One of my favorite parts of the Ordination Rites, is when the deacon kneels in front of the Bishop who hands him the Book of the Gospels and says, “receive the word of God whose herald you have become: believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” All of us are to put into practice what we read in the Scriptures.

James explains too that in order for the Word of God to really take root in us, we must put away filth—the filth and the evil excesses of the world. A degenerate lifestyle, a love of sin, blocks our ability to hear the word, it hinders the transforming power of the word.

Rather, we must cultivate our souls to be rich soil, as the Lord teaches, that the word may take deep root in our souls so that it can bear fruit.

May we be not just hearers of the word but doers of the word, acting upon God’s word by striving for virtue and living in fraternal charity for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Word of God may take ever deeper root in our hearts, minds, and souls.

That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland.

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For healing for all those suffering disease, especially diseases without known cures, for the people of China and all people afflicted by the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.

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